Pajamas Media

315 Comments

1. Roy N:

Some of these things might have lost him the election if it ever was his to win. But it never was. Not because of campaign tactics but because of the facts on the ground.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:11 pm 2. GGT:

31. Nominating a RINO in the 1st place.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:14 pm 3. Rand Simberg:

Hey, it was John McCain. Someone else could have gotten John McCain elected, but John McCain couldn’t.

Though you are unfair with #24–he did a pretty good job of self-deprecating humor at the Al Smith dinner.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:24 pm 4. huxley:

31. Failure to focus on the crippling of credit card verification for the hundreds of millions donations to the Obama campaign.
32. An insufficiently tough attack on Obama’s betrayal of his promise on campaign financing.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:26 pm 5. Roy N:

…supporting Obama myself I remember my reaction to Mccains emergence as the Repubican candidate, “Oh, they actually want to win.” Problem is not all of them did. Like CGT.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:27 pm 6. Joseph Marshall:

This is absolutely Looney Toons. There is one serious reason and one serious reason only why McCain lost: He ran only on the fact that he had been a POW 35 years ago. He had no vision of America to sell to voters, and gave them no convincing reasons to put the Presidency in his hands. All of the merely tactical errors stem from this fundamental absence. There was no “there” there.

You and your cohorts are addicted to slash and burn campaigning like it was crack cocaine. It doesn’t matter to you that it didn’t work. It doesn’t matter to you that none of it impaired Obama’s final rise in the polls one jot. It doesn’t matter to you that a clear majority of Americans are telling you that you went to the well too often with the politics of accusation and abuse. And it doesn’t matter to you that all the “wedge” issues are now dead, because you killed them by going to that well once too often.

Like any junkie, all that matters is your fix.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:29 pm 7. JQ:

The campaign wasn’t slimy enough for you? Maybe McCain should have hired Karl Rove! ROTFL!!

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:29 pm 8. Joshua:

I don’t recall whether it was Fox News or MSNBC that reported this, but apparently exit polls have been showing that Sarah Palin was a non-factor for Obama voters. That seems to confirm what I’ve suspected all along, that Palin’s presence didn’t torpedo McCain - the bad economy torpedoed them both.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:31 pm 9. BRDMX:

Well, heads are rolling now. The Republicans have to get serious about growing their bench, getting their message tight, and getting back in the fight. RINO/Me-too’ism isn’t going to cut it. That just got proven. Going further back - hanging Bush 43 out to dry (i.e. not being disciplined) and not pushing hard as a party to get things done hasn’t helped. Well, you can’t back into a victory - and this proves it. We now have someone that Al Quida, Hamas, Iran, Venezuela, and the whole lefty-world thinks is grand as POTUS - and if this doesn’t cause concern, then what the heck will?

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:32 pm 10. Koblog:

Imagine what it would have looked like had McCain not tapped Sarah to be VP candidate?

My wife and I had no interest until Sarah came along.

I’d really like to know how and why the whole economic system melted down at such a convenient time.

I remember Obama saying menacingly when Sarah sparked McCain’s surprise surge, “He has no idea what he is up against….”

Now I know.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:32 pm 11. Julie:

I agree that it was too little, too late, but disagree that giving more access to the MSM that was heavily biased toward Obama would have helped. McCain and Palin should have bought half-hour TV blocks to take their case directly to the American people.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:32 pm 12. Rick E:

It may not have mattered. I am not sure anything could have been done. I thought he made all the right moves in PA, but last count, with lots of votes counted MaC was still down 500,00+ votes.

I really dont know what to think anymore. He spent time and I think between MaC and 527s he did all the right things in PA. Look, even Murtha won again. I dont think any messaging made a difference. We all know McCain is different than Bush, but Obama’s plan to tie him to Bush looks like it was the winning plan. I dont know of any Republican that could have escaped it, except perhaps Huckabee or Romney…and then they would have found reasons not to support it.

I was younger and supported Jimmy Carter because I wanted action and Ford didnt provide it. I got action, but it was all the wrong action. History doesnt repeat, but it frequently rhymes.

A majority of Americans just wanted change. Guess we will get to see how we really like it.

I am currently thinking about a round of bumper stickers…such as:
-Our Choices Have Consequences
-You can keep the change

One different thing is conservatives get to set back and let ‘em have the keys. Now they are totally responsible.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:35 pm 13. Richard:

It all goes back to George Bush. Obama is payback. No republican had a chance. We’re in for an interesting four years. Buckle-up it’s the law.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:38 pm 14. MikeD:

All of the above. Too little, too nice, too late. Too much a pussy. McCain can return to the Senate and on the day it re-convenes he can simply march to the front of the chamber and bend over the rail. That is the position he actually ran to hold. He reached across the aisle and the Democrats will reach back to embrace him.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:41 pm 15. skink:

are you really going to suggest he failed due to media bias and because he wasn’t negative enough?

surely Dole’s loss in NC is proof that none of the negative campaigning had a positive effect.

here’s my list of why he lost:

1. not being the same maverick McCain that ran in 2000, and moving to the right since then

2. saying that the ‘fundamentals in the economy are sound’. All the polls diverged after September 14.

3. Sarah Palin - please will someone here now concede that the woman lost him the election

4. Joe the Plumber - populism at its worst

5. losing all three debates and appearing angry and incoherent in all of them.

6. getting suckered over public campaign funding

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:42 pm 16. gibb martin:

McCain failed to spell out a positive economic plan. Merely bashing bad ideas is not enough.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:43 pm 17. gibb martin:

For the 1st time in my adult life, I am ashamed to be an American!

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:45 pm 18. Hell_Is_Like_Newark:

GGT:

Second that. I wonder who the new conservative/libertarian leaders will be in the Republican party come the next 18 months? Clinton’s victory got us Newt Gingrich in 1994. Carter made Reagan possible.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:45 pm 19. MikeD:

“3. Sarah Palin - please will someone here now concede that the woman lost him the election”.

Sure, in the same way Joe Biden won it for Obama. No one ever lost money betting against the intelligence of the American voting population–or, it would seem, that of skink.

At least from here on out, everything will now be Obama’s fault. It will be a great 4 years.

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:53 pm 20. Jonk:

Hiding Sarah Palin for the first two weeks after she was selected, then putting her in high-profile interviews with puff journalists who aspire to standing. Letting the Democrat narrative on her as a dumb-yet-evil right-wing hardcore wacko take control, and doing a very ineffective job of refuting it. (To me, the last point is the greatest, since all you had to do was let her speak for herself as much as possible)

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:55 pm 21. Donna:

Now that Obama has been elected, I am secure in my faith that the United States will begin to regain its internal economic and moral balance, rebuild its respect around the world, and regain and grow the friendship and support of our allies and others.

Having read this article about McCain campaign mistakes it is so sad to read that you, as a voice of the Republicans just do not get it. Many, if not most, of your rebukes concern McCain’s failure to hone in on some negatives that have arisen from his vast and diverse experiences in educational and career settings. He has a multitude of experiences gained throughout his life serving the public and following his path. Those experiences have all been twisted and turned by Republicans then Obama himself becomes painted as something always sinister, malevolent, and having long lasting evil intent for the country.

Get with it - most of Americans don’t like it, don’t believe it, and finally see it and having no bearing on today’s issues. We want to move forward. We want someone whose speeches don’t largely contain references to a his past, a past that many Americans cannot relate to today if they were even alive to recall his point. We want someone whose present sense of judgment does not lead to a choice of Sarah Palin (need I say more). Obama possesses the highest intelligence, calm demeanor and bearing, and graciousness that America wants and needs from its leaders.

One can only hope that in the coming months you all start to change in the right direction. I started as a Hillary supporter and changed to an Obama supporter after giving him a chance. I suggest you do the same, and do it in earnest for all of America’s good.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:08 pm 22. Rachel Peepers:

Jennifer, you don’t have a clue why McCain lost. And the rest of you numskulls don’t either. It’s gonna take four years of Barry and his broad screwing this country up
eight ways from Sunday for the voting public to realize what a mess BO voters have gotten us into.

McCain’s might have run the archtypical chinese-fire-drill-of-a campaign, but that’s no excuse for voting for a pathological liar who’s friends with some of the most heinous, dispicable bomb throwers and America-haters in this country.

I guess it goes without saying that the mainstream media did its darndest to portray Barack as a savior, but that didn’t mean 40 million plus Americans (or whatever the number turns out to be) had to swallow their garbage
hook, line and sinker.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:12 pm 23. jvon:

As a large contributor to the McCain campaign, I would like to take this time to say: nice going, goofballs. You blew it.

Palin in 2012!

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:15 pm 24. njcommuter:

Quite simply, we lost to a con man.

Now, having recognized it, let’s look for our missed opportunities without rancor or blame. We have a right to be heartsick and fearful, but if we shoot each other, or spend our efforts shooting our rounds into the past, we will not work out the lessons we need to learn.

I especially appreciate the efforts of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Even if they failed, even if they were (as some would say, and I do not) blind, stupid and vapid, they put enormous effort into this thing. We here, speculating on what might have been, what should have been, have no idea of what they went through these past few months. John McCain was not the ideal candidate, even by my lights, but I was proud to vote for him.

Now I’ll add my own woulda-coulda-shoulda: the corrosive corruption that has crept into our voting process and the outrageous claims of those who perpetrate it have to be weeded out, root, stem, branch, bud, and seed. Doing this will require shining lights unceasingly at it and getting the help of the precious few media outlets are still favorable to us, or to honesty. It will be too easy to forget, and too easy for those who benefit by it to make us look like sore losers for doing it. We need evidence, we need to be firm, and we need to avoid being shrill.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:23 pm 25. J. Stone:

He was too old.

Period.

He’s the only candidate on record saying he didn’t understand the economy.

Palin kept him from being a GOP Mondale who lost 49 out 50 states.

Maybe Republicans will finally learn not to run these crotchity dinosaurs.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:23 pm 26. Eric W.:

McCain’s problem, among many, is that he likes to call everybody “my friends”. First, not everybody is your friend; second, in this year of economic turmoil, people are not looking to dial a life line to a friend. Like a herd of sheep in panic, they are looking for a leader. In came this Messiah-like figure who showed them the promised land. Without really checking the fine prints just like what they failed to do when they signed their mortgage documents, people jumped right in.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:24 pm 27. Susan Petrarca:

No, hon, we “get it,” we just didn’t GET it, as in win. And we learned a big fat lesson or 2 in the process, as Ms. Rubin has outlined.
The point is, what will anyone say now about the questionable registration of voters? About the questionable campaign contributions? About the voter fraud? About premature (AKA “early”) voting? About the horrendous education system in this country that renders adults incapable of distinguishing between Socialism and free market capitalism and unable to discern why the latter has been preferred since the Founders put pen to paper 230+ years ago? Why it’s really unimportant to be liked by the rest of the world? About the perils of trying to be too European? And why redistribution of income is the road to capped aspirations and stunted growth?
All of these questions used to be asked by a free, competitive and challenging press. Which, unfortunately, no longer exists in this country.
Another casualty of this historic election.
History can be quite tragic.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:26 pm 28. idov:

McCain and Palin had pulled ahead in September and had momentum. Even Washington state had narrowed to two points.

Three elements did him in.

1. The financial meltdown. It happened during the watch of Bush. The buck stops there. McCain paid for Bush. Perhaps if high finance had been his field of expertise he might have turned it to his advantage. But it was not.

What happened to McCain reminds one of what happened to Netanyahu in 99. He came in because Peres could not cope with a horrible wave of (pre suicide bombing) terrorism in 96. Netanyahu got control of the situation and things were so quiet, terrorism was no longer an issue during the election which he lost to Barak. Same here. Bush did such a good job, taking the fight to the terrorists out there, that it was no longer a domestic issue. That’s the way it goes.

2. The criminal negligence of the mass media. Obama remains an unknown quantity. Everyone not only did not delve into his life in a thorough critical manner, but also they basically acted as a giant pr firm for him. On Sarah Palin the digging never stopped. Even Hillary did not get a fair shake.

3. I read a commentary from someone during the election who listed all the ways McCain was better suited to be president and concluded he would be a great president. But in the end he said I will vote Obama, because of our history. We have to turn the page. All things being equal, and they weren’t, that was the tipping point McCain could do nothing about.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:28 pm 29. Donna V.:

Donna, I’m really sad we share a name.

I will give Obama exactly the same chance Democrats gave Bush - which is to say none at all.

Conservatives will only win again if they stand for conservative principles. We did it in 1994 - let’s do it in ‘10! RINOism doesn’t work - look where “compassionate conservativism” landed Bush. McCain is an honorable man who ran a terrible campaign. Let’s get back on message again and beat the SOB’s in 2010.

Anybody who thinks that spending and raising taxes will fire up the economy is on drugs - and I’m sorry to see that that means a majority of the American public, who don’t remember how bad the Carter years were, or how Bill Clinton floundered until a Republican Congress pulled him to the middle. Unfortunately, we as a people have the attention span of gnats and need to be reminded from time to time how bad things can get. We’re about to be reminded.

Yes, I’m disappointed, but just because 2008 turned out to be “Elect a Fool” year doesn’t mean we’re done as a people just yet.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:28 pm 30. trangbang68:

Donna,
You are a fool!

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:32 pm 31. Sarge:

And another 30 million dollars would not have hurt either !!!!!

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:41 pm 32. The Fat Lady Sang! « The Sassy Tn’T PoLITicallY InCorrect:

[...] Top Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain from Gateway Pundit [...]

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:50 pm 33. skink:

McCain’s concession speech was elegant, balanced, warm and gracious. It reminded me that he used to be truly bipartisan and used to play the ball, not the man.

why didn’t we see more of that during the campaign, instead of the angry, spiteful persona that he cultivated?

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:51 pm 34. LCpl Mosley:

To the fasicst that supports Obama up there near the top, you are a sick loser. Oh yea Obama isn’t my president, the massive *historic* cheat did not win this close election, and oh yea his evil will not be allowed to exist in America, and if it comes to Civil War, then I say bring it.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:54 pm 35. BMoon:

There was only one factor in this campaign that brought the RP and McCain down and it has little or nothing to do with how he ran his campaign. As Slick Willy said it, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Sure we have a lobotomized electorate, moribund from leftist mediocre education and an even more mediocre craven Media. But more crucial in thhis election is the fact that Americans worship money and comfort, and when it came down to it, they cared not about economics, history, political science, philosophy, ethics, or morality. The whole thought of the large squishy middle that ended up voting Obama can be reduced to this thought (to use the term loosely): “The economy is Bad. The Reps had the presidency for eight years. Reps are bad. I vote Obama.”

My wife and I first looked at McCain with skepticism and even cynicism. But we grew to really like, appreciate and admire him. The greatest tragedy here is not that a man so unworthy and ill-prepared got the job, but that a man so worthy and prepared was denied it, and there was nothing he could have done about it.

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:57 pm 36. Charlie (Colorado):

Let’s recall that in a generally bad situation, McCain beat the odds and beat the big-name polls by 8 to 18 points. Before we talk about the mistakes, it might be worth asking how he did as well as he did?

Nov 4, 2008 - 9:59 pm 37. iggy:

Sorry, but I think one major factor that everyone looks over in regard to all of this is the work of conservative talk radio. They pretty much bashed McCain until he picked Palin and then sang his praises afterwords as if nothing they had said previously mattered. They had already done the damage. It was up to McCain to have to clean it up. Because of that, McCain had to sacrifice needed time to win over undecideds in order to win over the base. Hence, McCain lost.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:00 pm 38. XD45ACP:

With the exception of #10 none of it would have mattered because the rest of the messages would never have gotten out.

We don’t need new candidates or new messages — we need a new consertive MSM. Until that happens, the media is the message — and until then the message is leftism, socialism, and communisim.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:02 pm 39. granny3:

We now have a President
1) Whose best friends believe that everyone who’s poor should organize to get something from the system
2) Whose best friends hate this country, hate capitalism, hate the military, hate Christianity and Judism
3) Who’s going to take away money from everyone working, particularly those who have their own businesses and employ MOST of the working people in the country, and give it to everyone not working, many of whom refuse to work
4) Who’s going to reduce military spending by 25% - who’s going to halt the missile defense system which has begun to show a great deal of success
5) Who’s charitable deductions last year were half of what we gave (and we only make 40,000.00 a year!)
6) Who believes government can run a medical system without medical shortages (see Canada, England, France)
7) Who plans European-style socialism without realizing that that system is about to crash because of no-growth population
Who writes about an beloved aunt, but never checks to see how she’s doing and doesn’t even know she’s an illegal alien in the US
9) Who has half brother living in Kenya who is extremely poor
10) Who has never supported the school they named for him in Kenya
11) Who has operatives who broken into court records and government databases to dig up dirt on political opponents and people who dared ask him a question that caused problems
12) Who plans to bring back the Fairness Doctrine so that conservatives have NO PLACE to find out the truth.
13) Who has promised NARAL and NOW that he will pass the abortion act making every abortion any place, any time, for any reason, legal - rolling back 30 years of work to protect the unborn. Hello to partial birth abortions (partially deliver, drill hole in head, suck out brains, deliver dead baby). Hello to babies who survive abortions left to die alone in closets.
14) A civilian force - for what reason? Will they knock on your door one of these days?

There are more - these are just a few. I am so very sad tonight. I fear for my children and grandchildren. I love my country and I mourn.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:13 pm 40. Donna V.:

trangbang68: Oh, there’s a real intelligent comeback.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:14 pm 41. Donna V.:

trangbang68:

Oh, I’m not sure if you mean Donna or Donna V. Plain old Donna is a fool, I agree!

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:16 pm 42. seguin:

“Negative ads” don’t bother most people as long as they have a basis in fact. And McCain’s certainly did. But when you have the majority of the media covering for you, it’s easy to characterize those “negative ads” as smears.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:17 pm 43. the real Wow:

“At least from here on out, everything will now be Obama’s fault. It will be a great 4 years.!

This I can agree with… the rest is a bit of hindsight and speculation!

I would, however, like to add that not ALL members of the party got on the wagon to elect their candidate. There was a sad lack of UNITY.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:19 pm 44. sjs:

Waiting until the final Saturday Night Live before the election to show self-deprecating humor.

He was on SNL a couple months ago, explaining that the most important qualification for President is to be “very, very, very, very old”.

He’s shown plenty of self deprecating humor.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:20 pm 45. Donna V.:

Susan Petrarca: I agree 100%. We keep repeating the same errors time and time again (FDR might have been a great war president, but the New Deal needlessly prolonged the Depression, and Carter’s presidency was pitiful). Unfortunately, we don’t learn history and so we don’t learn from past mistakes!

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:22 pm 46. wy_cowboy:

The biggest thing was limiting himself to public financing. While it seems noble, Obama outspent him big time. I disagree with the Sarah Palin aspect when in fact that energized the base and she brought out record crowds. Second, was the economy and the fact that Obama did a better job of connecting it to Bush rather than McCain connecting it to Democrats like Barney Frank. The Iraq war played a major role in it as well, though we know it’s become a success. McCain also decided to make a fool out of himself by going on “Bucktooth” Letterman and SNL instead of energizing the base and bringing out his message. The last point is the Republican Party itself. Republicans have not been branded tax cut and borrow. Also, the leadership in the Republican Party has been horrendous, starting with the RNC Chair himself. The party needs a through cleaning from the top down and needs a core group of leaders, whether it be McConnell in the Senate, Newt or whomever, but they need to hold press conferences and be more visible than they’ve been. It’s also time to get back to core beliefs…low taxes, slash spending big time and start looking out for Americans first. Yes, that means slashing foreign aid.

The Republicans now have two years to start back at the grassroots level, start the first of the year and get out the message, build the party back up from the local and state level and find potential leaders in the coming years. It might be Palin or Jindal or someone else, but the Republicans have to start looking for new leadership that will carry the message, be up front in the media and start a grassroots level organization.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:24 pm 47. RAP:

McCain was the wrong candidate. I believe his defeat marks the end of the Republican party as we have known it. Since 1950 the Republicans have been the party of National Security. But no amount of frenzied effort on the part of right-wing media can convince the American people that Iran(with or without the bomb), Venezuela, N. Korea, even Al-Queda are the kind of threat that the Soviet Union was. In the future(actually the present)Republicans will have to run on domestic issues. That will mean having a clear economic plan which McCain did not. They must also face up to the truth that Reagan won because of his strong anti-Soviet stance not his neo-liberal economic ideas.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:46 pm 48. Len:

Notwithstanding all the arguably illegal things Obama did, his team and he were more professional than
McCains’.
I used to believe that the best politicians make the best presidents but I forgot it this year — till now.
I hope the theory proves out over the next four years, and I also hope my worst fears are not realized.

Nov 4, 2008 - 10:58 pm 49. Ken Hahn:

McCain did not make the mistakes. McCain was the mistake. When you nominate a RINO, you get a reluctant campaign. This defeat is the work of whole Republican Party. We chose our weakest candidate because he was “electable”. Just like the Democrats did with Kerry. Every conservative in the Republican Party contributed by not finding a conservative candidate. So we got McCain, who has made a career out of thumbing conservatives in the eye. We did it to ourselves.

The Democrats have been successful over the last four years. Let’s copy their game plan. Let’s give Obama every bit of respect that they gave Bush. Let’s register every rock, houseplant and imaginary creature in swing States. Let’s turn off AVS in all our credit card donation systems so we can some of that Chinese cash. Let’s investigate every relative Joe Biden has and if we can’t find any dirt, we can make it up. Let’s find a David Axelrod to astroturf every silly rumor we can invent about Obama and his associates. Let’s all vote 2 or 3 times ( if possible in 2 or 3 States ) . Let’s raise lots of money and elect a few State Secretaries of State to disenfranchise Democrats and invent Republicans. Let’s lie, cheat and steal. All in all, let’s act like Democrats. It worked for them.

Nov 4, 2008 - 11:47 pm 50. nlcatter:

#1 - picking a lying, corrupt, book burning Palin

Nov 4, 2008 - 11:56 pm 51. Ken Hahn:

Oh, hi Nic. You prove my point. Another Democrat, another lie.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:04 am 52. Anon:

McCain lost because Obama bribed “95%” of the population with money, i.e., redistribution or tax cuts.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:15 am 53. Ed:

#31 Not being black.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:23 am 54. sestamibi:

As a soon-to-be-former local GOP party official, I agree with most of the sentiment here. In the end I voted for McCain after supporting another candidate for the nomination and vowing I would never vote for Mac under any circumstances.

McCain won the nomination because he was the last man standing in a process in which all the others blew each other away. He also had the advantage of votes from non-Republicans in states that allow that. An open primary is one thing, but in states with party registration no one who is not a registered Republican ought to be able to participate in the GOP nomination process.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:31 am 55. rosignol:

Maybe Republicans will finally learn not to run these crotchity dinosaurs.

Maybe Republicans will finally learn not to run -senators-.

Fixed!

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:38 am 56. Curator & Collector » McCain: Another Campaign Postmortem:

[...] “Pajamas Media” has an article I found on why McCain lost the election. Mostly, these dealt with various tactical mistakes. [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:46 am 57. Beverly:

Ken: Amen, brother. I’ll sign up my imaginary friends right away. And the Termite (He Who Bores From Within) will NEVER be “my president,” because he stole the primaries through force, fraud, and intimidation of voters, especially in the caucus states.

Anyone who thinks this guy is an ordinary Democrat, google “We Will Not Be Silenced,” directed by (Dem.) Gigi Gaston. They know he’s a thug. Eyewitness reports on all the above, from several states. Chilling.

We’re losing America, folks.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:46 am 58. jon:

He fumbled the debates. Didn’t give anyone a reason to vote for him.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:50 am 59. the real Wow:

50. nlcatter:

#1 - picking a lying, corrupt, book burning Palin
Nov 4, 2008 - 11:56 pm

Wow, that was profound and erudite. Must have taken you a long time to “research” that idiotic comment on the Daily Kos.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:56 am 60. Mack:

I could not have been more frustrated when McCain came out guns blazing in the final days of the campaign. MAC IS BACK! Great. Where the #*&% you been, @$*%$@%?

Reminds me of the friend that hangs back at the bar, pining after the girl, then gets his courage on just as they announce last call and turn on the lights. Great. Now we have to stand around waiting for Mr. Smoothy while the bouncer walks around shouting that it’s time to go home.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:58 am 61. beerstine:

#1 should be the inability to hammer home the Democrats culpability in the flawed policies that led to the mortgage mess in the first debate. That’s when everyone was watching and he showed his lack of depth on economic issues. He lost the election that night. How much did we hear about Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines the last 3 weeks of the campaign? Not nearly enough.

#1a Suspending the campaign without taking the lead on creating a true conservative alternative to a bailout plan that was rapidly losing credibility with the public. The Dems weren’t about to pass something without Republican votes, they were scared to death of the liability. We needed an alternative that would have put Bush and the Dems on the same side. We might have lost the vote, but he could have claimed a vision different from Obama’s and all of official Washington.

#2 Ayers would have made more of a difference in a normal year, but McCain never drove it home just what the Ayers of today represents…the radical politicization of our classrooms. He needed to read what Stanley Kurtz found out about the one thing Barack Obama has actually managed in his life, the Annenberg Challenge, and how badly it failed. I’m not sure he was even aware of it. We can’t count on the MSM to get the message out, nor get our information solely from it.

I give him a pass on the Wright issue. While I find the association reprehensible, there’s no way McCain could have made that an issue without being branded by the Obama-shilling media as racist. The deck was always stacked against him on that one and there was no way to win with it. It’s one area where McCain’s fundamental decency benefited rather than inhibited him.

This year, people voted their pocketbook, and Obama outbid us on the goodies. We’ll pay for that later.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:59 am 62. vigilant:

I’m cancelling my cable and newspaper for a year. If enough conservatives do this, it will show our votes can count. Use the money for charity, support your candidates or spend AGAINST liberal dems like Pelosi and Reid. Save your money; don’t buy anything unnecessary. Help bring the economy flat on it’s back instead of just on its knees.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:01 am 63. Toads:

People, get real.

It is extremely hard for an incumbent party to retain the WH after 8 years. No matter what.

Bill Clinton could not get Al Gore in the WH, and Clinton has a 60% approval rating. THAT is how hard it is. Eisenhower could not do it, nor could LBJ. Only Reagan was strong enough to get Bush I over the finish line in 1988.

How on Earth could any Republican win in such a climate, when the incumbent Republican had a 34% approval rating?

McCain never had a chance. It is to his credit that he got as many votes as he did.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:03 am 64. ricketyclick » Blog Archive » Two Campaigns:

[...] About Number 9: Jennifer Rubin’s “Top Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain” [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:03 am 65. non:

Instead of hashing through reasons McCain lost, let’s hear ideas for preventing enactment of socialized medicine.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:05 am 66. Perfect Sense:

#31 - McCain insulting most Republicans with his “amnesty” plan which rewarded millions of law breakers with citizenship.

#32 - By proposing to surrender to Mexico, McCain was stupid enough to believe Hispanics would vote for him.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:11 am 67. Eelco:

Hahahaha…..

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:16 am 68. Jonesy55:

“the horrendous education system in this country that renders adults incapable of distinguishing between Socialism and free market capitalism and unable to discern why the latter has been preferred since the Founders put pen to paper 230+ years ago? Why it’s really unimportant to be liked by the rest of the world? About the perils of trying to be too European? And why redistribution of income is the road to capped aspirations and stunted growth?”

So instead of depoliticising the education system, you just want to turn it from an liberal indoctrination system to a propaganda machine for the GOP and your own particular views?

What a noble aim.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:16 am 69. Eric:

What sank McCain’s campaign was the media’s successful effort to pin the sub-prime mortgage problems on the Republicans. If there’s a single person most responsible for the entire fiasco it’s Christopher Dodd, Democrat. McCain should have been hammering that point home at every opportunity.

He may not have been successful, but the facts were on his side, and he should have tried.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:21 am 70. Jonesy55:

non: ‘Socialised’ medicine would be a good idea I think, you already partially have it anyway in Medicare and Medicaid. The problem is that these systems only cover 30% or less of the population and yet cost each American taxpayer more than the typical European pays for systems which cover 100% of the population!!

Doesn’t sound like great value to me especially when US companies and individuals have to cough up at least as much again privately having already paid their taxes for the entitlement programmes.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:34 am 71. .:

No matter for what reasons, McCain has lost. We have lost.

It’s not the time for finger-pointing.

We have a damn airhead liar who supports the mozzlem terrorists taking control of our country.

Finger-pointing won’t solve this problem.

We must do something !

We must NOT let the mozzzlem controlling USA !

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:34 am 72. Paul B.:

McCain apparently had no idea how to organize his message, or what the message should really be. When he finally began to fight, by calling attention to some of Obama’s connections, the fire got too hot and he threw water on it. But then realizing that he was headed for another crash, he restarted in earnest, but it was too late, and he never was willing to raise the Wright issue.

Still, he ended up fighting for the nation, giving it all he had. That was the best McCain, by far, that I have ever seen, and the one I will remember him as.

A shame this wasn’t thought out much better and implemented much earlier. The irony is that I wanted BHO to be the Dem candidate, because I thought he would be easier to defeat than would Hillary. And maybe that would have been the case, but for the credit crisis and its mishandling on our side.

God help us. We’ve got an anti-Constitutionalist at the levers of power, with no legislative or fourth estate fetters.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:35 am 73. Jo:

4. huxley:
31. Failure to focus on the crippling of credit card verification for the hundreds of millions donations to the Obama campaign.

Is there a possibility that this could still be an issue? Afterall, it was blatantly illegal and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Or from this day forward are all of our elections going to be stolen by illegal Democratic tactics, because it’s beginning to seem that only Republicans are held accountable.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:40 am 74. Kevin P.:

From Exit poll results

Four in 10 voters overall said Palin was an important factor in deciding whom to vote for, and this group was about as likely to vote for Obama as McCain. But nine in 10 Republicans calling Palin’s selection important were voting for McCain.

So, Palin was a net wash as far as general voters were concerned, but she energized the Republican base. Without her, I suspect that many Republican voters, never thrilled about McCain would have stayed at home and he would not have come as close to Obama as he did.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:50 am 75. Jo:

21. Donna:
Obama possesses the highest intelligence, calm demeanor and bearing, and graciousness that America wants and needs from its leaders.

If Obama is so intelligent why has he refused to release his college transcripts and papers? Why does he stutter so much when he’s off his teleprompter? I guess we will eventually find out just how smart he is or how calm he’ll handle a crisis.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:51 am 76. doustoi:

When will Republicans learn NOT to nominate Senators? We don’t care whether Bob Dole of John McCain think they’ve earned the title shot because they have spent X decades slapping backs in the cloak room … Republicans need to nominate candidates who have executive experience, who have had to balance budgets and make hard choices for all the people in their state, corporation, branch of military.

2012: Palin, Romney, Petraeus, but NO MORE SENATORS OR CONGRESSMEN!

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:14 am 77. Don Meaker:

The facts on Obama were there for anyone who cared. 53 million ignored them.

McCain has long run against conservatives. The Gang of 14 and the Illegal Alien Amnesty Banana were only the last of his bipartisan acts. At least the last one failed.

In 4 years, the Dems will be able to import millions of new voters, and plant them in the former battleground states, to supplement the dead voters in the reliably blue states. It took 40 years to get from FDR to RR, and we still have the Social Security Ponzi scheme waiting for us, to give the leftists a lever to pull us back down into the abyss when ever they feel threatened. Destroying Social Security’s competition, the 401k, is well on its way.

If God wills the war to continue “until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword,” what was said three thousand years ago must still be said, that “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:15 am 78. Roger Godby:

MikeD,

True, but already the false meme is spreading: It will take 4 years (or more) to undo 8 years of Bush.

So when’s BO going to invade Pakistan like he claimed? Considering the carnage in Chi-town, especially the areas where BO community organized, he’ll need to redeploy our troops to Illinois first.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:26 am 79. Dustydog:

1. Not hammering the Supreme Court Justices replacement issue. This failure will be the most bitter.

2. Not apologizing abjectly and resolutely promising to protect the US regarding immigration. Remember Comprehensive Immigration Reform? Remember “Not another penny!” Remember McCain and his posse calling me a stupid bigot for not supporting his policies? McCain intentionally and purposefully alienated his base.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:27 am 80. Dennis:

I attended a McCain forum about a month ago and was not impresed. The man had no charisma and no ideas. All of his answers were campaign slogans. After 1996, you’d think we’d realize that aging war-hero senators make bad presidential candidates. But who would have been better? Romney is probably unelectectable. Huckabee is a buffoon, as he regularly demonstrates on Fox. (No one with a name like that will EVER be elected president.) Thompson’s too old. McCain was the least bad choice. Not a good position to be in.

I do like the tone of this list, however. We need to look at what WE did wrong as a party, not point fingers elsewhere. We have to fix this. No one is going to “give” us anything.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:27 am 81. Brian:

Mistake #1:

Running against the phenom Barack Hussein Obama for president.

Mistake #2:

Nominating Palin.

Mistake #3:

Deciding to take the low road.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:29 am 82. Paul Newcombe:

VOTE ROMNEY!

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:32 am 83. Jeff:

Why did McCain win the nomination in the first place? Where has RINOism worked? What effect did Campaign Finance Reform have on the race? Why didn’t seniors with their free perscription drugs vote republican in droves? Why are the citizens of Hispanic desent pissed at the republican party? Why was there a surge in support and donations when McCain picked Palin?

Here is what I’m going to do. I am going support small government conservative candidates and oppose big government RINOs like Bush and McCain just like I did in 2006. I opposed McCain for years and was going to vote 3rd party until he reached out to me (instead of the democrats for a change) by picking Palin. I will support the Palin faction and oppose the RINO faction. I am not a loyal republican, I am a small government conservative.

BUMMPER STICKER IDEAS
Higher taxes kills jobs

Bigger government raises taxes

It’s my 401K keep your $#@^!ing hands off it, if I wanted bonds at 3% I would have invested in bonds at 3%.

Screw the uppity poor, raise taxes.

Where are the hearings about the mortage industry?

The German Workers Socialist Party could provide free health care why can’t you?

Look what democrats have done for Michigan.

Look what democrats have done for Louisiana.

Did you get your payoff by voting for the political machine? Was your vote bought cheap?

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:35 am 84. br549:

For the time being, I’m just going to try and keep my job, do my best to help keep my company healthy enough to stay in business. It is still America. As such, it takes cash to eat, buy gas, pay bills. That much won’t change for quite some time, eh?

The timing of the economic crash, and more so, who has the blame hung around their necks, doesn’t make a particle of sense.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:46 am 85. Tito:

McCain offered no reason for people to vote for him and would not deign to give reasons not to vote for his opponent. That formula does not lend itself to electoral success.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:48 am 86. Jonesy55:

Maybe the GOP should go for a well recognised, tried and tested figure with experience of working in the executive. How about Colin Powell?

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:52 am 87. Charlie:

NUMBER ONE has to be sticking with McCain-Feingold campaign financing while his opponent tapped any and all sources of funds.

You can’t win getting outspent 8 to 1. Either raise a lot more money or make Obama pay a steep price for his utter lack of ethics.

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:03 am 88. aloysiusmiller:

America is in for a chastening. The Republicans have been chastened. Thank you Republicans for giving us McCain-Feingold. I am sure the Senator is enjoying the irony of this now.

Most of the mistakes on this list can, in part, be traced to McCain’s lack of funding. He didn’t have the money to pursue these themes in his advertising.

My candidate in 2012 is Bobby Jindal. Former Hindu against incipient Muslim. That will be fun.

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:10 am 89. dispatches from TJICistan » Blog Archive » McCain’s errors:

[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/top-thirty-…; [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:19 am 90. beerstine:

Fingers will be pointed in this process, it’s inevitable. We need to identify who failed to see how we can succeed in the future.

We need to cleanse ourselves of the hacks that give us old, timid, inarticulate candidates who refuse to aggressively defend convservative principles. We also need to understand just one type of conservative can win everywhere in the country. We’ve lost all of the northeast, industrial midwest and west coast. If we need economic and national security conservatives and social moderates in those states, so be it. Without a presence in those states, Republicans will be a permanent minority party. If we can’t reclaim advantages in State Houses and Governor’s mansions in 2010 with redistricting looming, we face a decade as a permanent minority party.

We need candidates with the intellectual fortitude to combat liberal ideas and assumptions. We lost because we didn’t stand for economic growth, responsible stewardship over the public’s money, victory over aggressors and terrorists. We also lost because our candidate couldn’t articulate these ideas. We also need need younger faces.

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:32 am 91. KFAT:

1. McCain was a structural longshot from the start, due to the economy, Bush fatigue, etc.
2. Age and the “generational” bias was a factor for many, particularly the new voters, who I am sure Obama won significantly.
3. Obama put together a unique (and I would argue one time) coalition: he captured and enthused the hard left idealogues, which is key both in the primaries and the general; he sealed up the young and minorities voters and worked them; he got the affluent, secular value voters for fundraising; had the media in his pocket to soothe over the elderly and female voters. I would argue one time, because the internal conflicts between these groups is so great, and lies necessary to maintain the coalition will not stand up to a governing record and increasingly failing economy. Look at Axelrod’s other “creations” - not long timers.
4. McCain did not master new media, his only true friend.
4. McCain needed a great ground game in Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, AND a convincing and consistent pitch on the economy, and he had neither. Here, he needed a Romney.
5. The Bailout ultimately did him in, because it: (a) gave the media a platform to misrepresent the overall situation and bash the Republican brand and (b) McCain was unconvincing in his mastery of topic (few, and certainly not Obama, were) and (c) it sundered the heart of the libertarian, conservative,
6. Opposition research was pathetic, they should have gone after (a) massive flip flops and promise 100% of pie to 100 different people (surge, coal, taxes) and (b) bad judgement (ayers education radicalism (not just terrorism), wright, biden, rezko) in a daiy right, left combo from the minute Obama won the nomination until the closing day of the campaign. They should never have felt constrained to only bring it up when the

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:34 am 92. volslover:

i agree one hundred percent. may have won or not won but it would have helped in the lower elections for sure

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:47 am 93. beerstine:

I can attest to the weak ground game in Colorado. I was contacted by the McCain GOTV operation…15 minutes after I came home from voting. I had no contact from them before by phone, mail or any other means and I’ve been registered Republican for over 20 years. He did ask me for money once by mail.

My town has never voted Democrat in my lifetime until this year and has now gone Democrat in all federal races and only narrowly re-elected a hometown State Senator here. The Republicans have lost their bearings in a previously uncontested area. There are thousands more places like this all over the country.

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:51 am 94. Matt, Esq.:

*Now that Obama has been elected, I am secure in my faith that the United States will begin to regain its internal economic and moral balance, rebuild its respect around the world, and regain and grow the friendship and support of our allies and others.*

Are you #@#!ing high?

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:59 am 95. funky chicken:

He and Palin had the lead and the momentum until Henry Paulson went out with Pelosi and Reid and screamed New Great Depression.

If McCain had opposed the Bush/Paulson bailout, perhaps he’d have had a prayer.

Great job, Bushie.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:10 am 96. funky chicken:

With only Sean Hannity willing to put huge amounts of time and effort into researching Obama’s past alliances, and with the entire alphabet networks singing the praises of Hopium to the masses 24/7, and with way too many of the GOP faithful cheerfully lining up to sandbag either/or/and McCain and Palin, he frankly didn’t have a chance.

But in the end, I have to congratulate Chicago Democrat Henry Paulson for delivering the White House to fellow Chicago Democrat Barack Obama.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:16 am 97. John Austin TX fitness:

According to polls many more people considered BHO a taxcutter over McCain. That is crazy and McCain’s fault.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:23 am 98. cat007:

It makes me sad to see all this bitternes, but it is understandable. This is a correction, nothing more, nothing less.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:26 am 99. MissP:

As a former Republican who voted for Obama, I couldn’t disagree more with most of this list. If you want to know how you lost the election, why don’t you try asking people who started out thinking McCain was a decent pick and ended up thinking there is no way they will vote for him? That’s your target audience, the people you lost. If you buy into the fallacy that they are simply sheep who fell under the spell of some mezmerizing messiah, rather than asking them where they diverged from the Republican issues and what it would have taken to persuade them to come back, you will only compound the error and increase the exodus from the Republican party.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:29 am 100. funky chicken:

The “conservative base” spent months savaging McCain after he won the nomination.

Then many elitist snob “conservative pundits” spent months savaging Palin after her VP selection.

The GOP ate its own this time, and in so doing, elected Barack Obama as my husband’s Commander in Chief.

And McCain’s gamble that Palin would appeal to the Reagan Democrats and moderate female Hillary supporters failed. After months of having the “conservative base” bash him, McCain felt he had to make a bold play for the moderate dems, and I still am shocked that PA and OH Hillary supporters threw their support behind a guy who shows them such obvious and blatant disdain.

Romney would have been the better VP pick in hindsight, since the Reagan Democrats were obviously not in play. Sarah and Todd Palin have blue collar roots and worked their asses off trying to appeal to them in OH and PA, but it didn’t work. For God’s sake, Jack Murtha won in a landslide.

You can’t blame that on John McCain.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:30 am 101. Michael B Babbitt:

John McCain was undermined by John McCain. Trying to be popular with the wrong crowd, to look gentlemanly, to be the nice guy — and he finished last. Talk about opposition research: where were they? So much material, so little harvest. Now, doesn’t Mitt Romney look a lot better fit for this year? But they ran a campaign for the Bush years. He really is like Bush, not fighting in the trenches politically.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:37 am 102. mishu:

31. Not calling out democrats failed economic policies and/or not painting Obama as Jimmy Carter II.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:37 am 103. reliapundit:

great list.

also:

the core strategy was wrong:

he ran as a post-partisan aiming to reach out to disaffected hill voters thinking this would gain him PA.

as levin alwys points out:

reegan ran as a conservative and own BIGTIME.

so the gop needs to nominbate a conservtive. a true one.

haven’t had one since reagan.

TO THIS END;

the gop has to end crossover voting in the primaries.

this hurt mitt and helped mccain.

it’s why mccain won NH and a few others.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:38 am 104. aloysiusmiller:

Reagan ran and won as a conservative against the Obama prototype Jimmy Carter. He previously failed in his run against Gerald Ford.

It appears to me that it takes a dip in the Leftist sewer before America is ready for a real conservative. We need to start now to prepare the way for a true conservative.

For me it is Bobby Jindal in 2012.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:44 am 105. GDT:

1. (and the only real one) John McCain

RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) absolutely never win anything at the national level. You just can’t out liberal the real liberals. Absolutely no one who was predisposed to vote democrat decided to vote for McCain. Republicans can’t win by saying “Well… we pretty much agree with all the stuff the democrats want – but we could do all that stuff better”. Republican can’t win by being “lite democrats”.

Republicans can only win by being actual conservative Republicans. It has worked absolutely every time. Last evening not withstanding, this is still a center right country. The people who should have voted for the Republican candidate didn’t end up voting for Obama. The people who should have voted for the Republican candidate stayed home. They had no option available.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:48 am 106. Peter M.:

The GOP is the party that gave us George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and now John McCain. (What a joke!)

The GOP is the party that took us down the road to socialism (e.g., Prescription Drug Bill, federalizing education etc., etc.)

The GOP is the party that gave us BIG Government Conservatism, otherwise known as National Greatness Conservatism.

The GOP is the party that lets David Brooks write speeches for its presidential nominee.

The GOP does not believe in individual rights, limited government, and laissez-faire capitalism.

It’s time for a purge. No, no, no . . . I take that back.

It’s time to leave the GOP.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:51 am 107. Valerie:

How ’bout them Republicans? You know, the ones who left it to Joe Lieberman to defend President Bush? The ones who piled on with the spending? And, the ones who whose only goal was to stop legislation, not work it into a viable form? And the ones who sniped constantly at John McCain? Who bought into the Obama Campaign meme that McCain was McSame, or McShame or McNasty? The ones who loudly declared that McCain would be as bad as Obama because he would dare try work with the Democrats? And who helped slander Sarah Palin?

Spare me.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:52 am 108. Thomas Hazlewood:

America has elected its first Affirmative Action President. Geraldine Ferraro was blasted for ALMOST saying out loud what was obvious, but, too un-PC to declare. An unqualified man has been given the job because of the color of his skin.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:53 am 109. Boris:

Palin Palin Palin. She was a disaster, as I predicted.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:00 am 110. Tom Ross:

Republicans always find a way to shoot themselves in the foot. Now hold on to your hat for the Supreme Court appointments . . . maybe they’ll continue to look at how European law interprets issues.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:01 am 111. Dennis D:

McCain was doomed just as Hillary was. The MSM was in the tank for Obama and failed to investigate him and downplayed his associations. His lack of an actual record of accomplishment was shoved under the carpet. Delusional Ignorant Voters bought the promises from a man who has never delivered CHANGE in his poltical career. Its no secret that Conservative support of McCain has always been light. This may be the best thing that has happened to the GOP since Jimmy Carter.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:03 am 112. Dennis D:

Want to know how ignorant voters were?

Chris Shays who was one of the main Whistle Blowers on the Fanny Mae debacle lost to a Goldman Sachs VP. Thats how ignorant.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:05 am 113. KFAT:

MissP. Perhaps there is an “exodus” from the Republican party, but this has less to do with the values the party champions: limited government, low taxes, strong defense, personal responsibility, economic freedom, etc., which remain overwhelmingly popular with Americans, than the failure to adhere to these values and the ignorance of the alternative — particularly the left liberal radicalism that Obama appears to represent. Obama was elected because his age, appearance and rhetoric promised something new. What that new actually is would be anyone’s guess. While a lot of evidence points to the same old tired, failed policies reheated in insular acadamia and urban machine, Americans have forgotten what that might look like after 28 years of center right prosperity. 33% of Americans thought we were in a “depression” when we were growing at 3% in the second quarter. It will interesting to witness the resilience of Americans when they face real economic hardship.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:06 am 114. John McCain - Page 16 - TeakDoor.com - The Thailand Forum:

[...] Get the rest here [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:07 am 115. The Cat Herder:

Lets face it, the Democrats could have put up BoBo the Clown as their candidate on a platform of balloon art and silly string and still have won a landslide, because he’s not Republican.

McCain didn’t stand a chance from the start, but then again, no Republican did. In the eyes of a lot of people, Republican means Bush. And Bush, rightly or wrongly, has been held up as the poster child of what is wrong with America.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:15 am 116. RJGatorEsq.:

__________

I see several of our liberal “friends” on this thread advising us thet McCain’s real mistake was picking Sarah Palin.

Never, ever take political advice from your opponents. LOL

The real problem was McCain himself. This was a change election, and the Republicans responded by picking an old, tired candidate for no better reason than, “it was his turn.”

The voters want change? They are about to get it. Good. And. Hard.
__________

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:20 am 117. clamflats:

Correlation is not causation however-
(using Commerce Dept data for 2006 per capita income by state)
Top 21 states - voted Obama the higher the income the greater the percentage of win.
except,#18 - Alaska (spreading the oil wealth!)
23-39 mixed
Bottom 13 states (except New Mexico, heavy Hispanic) - voted McCain by large margins.

Truest statement of the campaign - “they cling to their guns and religion”
Rove built the GOP on this base. It is not sustainable. In the end the GOP needs to appeal to educated, higher income people. Return to small “c” conservative principles that make sense.

It will be interesting to see if the GOP leaders cynically use Palin to keep the base going and continue the losing strategy.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:24 am 118. funky chicken:

109 Dennis D unbelievable. And Pennsylvanians elected Murtha in a landslide.

Stop bashing John McCain. The man is a great patriot and a wonderful human being. The voters went nuts and did everything they could to reject the GOP. The blame should be put much more on George W Bush than on John McCain.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:26 am 119. Rich D:

Institutionalized liberal dogma is what lost this election: Schools, colleges, media, unions, government. Liberal talking points are accepted on faith by so many people now, and of course conservative ideas must constantly be defended. It’s going to be a long downhill road…

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:29 am 120. JeanE:

I’m with Valerie. The Republicans in Congress who embraced big spending, corruption and scandal lost this election for McCain before he was even nominated. McCain is the ONLY one who could have gotten anywhere near Obama, and for all the criticism that “true conservatives” have launched at McCain over the years, McCain gave them a future in Palin. She’s a natural politician, she’s a smart, principled conservative and now she’s on the national scene.

McCain is a good man, a good candidate, and frankly he deserves a better party. If the rest of the congressional Republicans would figure out how to apply conservative ideas to solve real problems in a way that serves the country instead of working to serve themselves, we’d all be better off.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:31 am 121. Satchel:

31. Veiled threat to overthrow Roe Vs Wade. Women that were pissed at Obama felt at risk with McCain

32. Bringing a religious creationist as a VP. That scared away secular conservatives

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:32 am 122. Bilwick1:

“Game over, man!”–The ghost of Thomas Jefferson, as played by Bill Paxton.

(The sound in the background is John Locke and Thomas Paine turning in their graves.)

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:34 am 123. cfbleachers:

From my seat in the centerfield bleachers, after 108 comments…it’s none of the above.

Today is a day for graciousness. I would hope that the elation and joy that Senator Obama’s supporters feel would lead to a greater graciousness in victory than they have shown in defeat in the last elections. It’s time for them to put down the venom and pick up the valor.

And, for those who supported Senator McCain, or perhaps simply opposed Senator Obama, it is time to show America and the world what grace looks like when your candidate does not prevail.

Is there some “message” about what “everybody” thought in this voting process? No, I don’t believe there is. Senator Obama received barely above 50% of the votes cast by our citizens.

Senator McCain received over 46%. I don’t believe today is the day to do much more than take a breath and exhale. To act with dignity, integrity, honor and grace. And to be thankful for a country where your vote counts for something. (there will be time in a few days to discuss voting irregularities and other weighty issues)

I read the list that Jennifer and others put together. While some things on that list were of marginal consequence, I don’t believe they had the most impact on the outcome as a couple of others.

President Bush was wildly unpopular. This country was weary of wearing the black eye given in no small part by our own entrenched media (as well as academia, Hollywood and others of the same political thought)and constantly remained sore as they poked their thumbs in it without relenting. This country was tired of not being liked and feeling disrespected.

That same group of folks made every concerted effort to give Senator Obama every advantage that they could.

Senator Obama had a mountain of cash (again today is not the day to discuss campaign financing issues) and was able to outspend Senator McCain by a larger margin than in any other election.

There was a “No, we’re really not” element to the undercurrent accusation that this country is racist at its core, I believe. I think this is a good thing in so many ways, that it cannot be discounted. This historic moment has its place in America that is long overdue. Whether the accusation was fair or used improperly is not a discussion for today. Today is a day to pause and celebrate one brilliant shining diamond in the rough and tumble of this election. ANYONE can be elected President of this country, regardless of race, creed, gender, and with minor limitations, age. That says something wonderful about us as a people.

John McCain didn’t overcome the overwhelming odds that were stacked against him. The imperfections in his campaign, perhaps, if remedied, could have made it a closer race with those in the middle. In the final analysis, we are still a very divided country. It is up to those who have won to extend an olive branch to all of the rest of America. And it is up to those who feel the sting of defeat, to wipe the slate clean and lead by example. If you have complained bitterly about the behavior of the opposition when they lashed out repeatedly and unfairly at your side, showing them how it’s done graciously is your most powerful weapon.

My answer to the Jennifer and the other authors, is none of the above. Senator McCain did not lose this election. It was not his to win.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:34 am 124. Bill Menge:

McCain didn’t lose. Obama won. Obama won because it was time to move on. Our country needs new roads, airports, schools and health care. America needs to get off oil. America needs friends and allies again. The old style guys were dangerously ready for the farm. Obama won because it was time for a change. Spend your time on the margins of life if you want, or get into the game.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:42 am 125. cedarhill:

There is Hope after all. McCain will NOT be the candidate for the Republican Party ever again. My prayers have been answered.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:44 am 126. Jon Card:

Unfortunately, a lot of those failures are part of executive management. You can’t allow leaks; you can’t allow a mixture of messages; you can’t be afraid to fire people who aren’t pulling for the group. The reason I liked Sarah Palin is that, even though she wasn’t experienced enough to be president (but plenty experienced enough to be vice president), she was the most qualified to be president of the four of them. She only looked inexperienced because she was the only one with ANY relevant experience at all. Being the Chief Executive is very different from being in the legislature, and experience in one doesn’t help the other. He’s a wise man and a good advisor, and a bad executive. I don’t know what else to say.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:44 am 127. Colin:

From a Minnesota perspective Barak and the Democrats are a bunch of younger dumber Floyd Olsons (Look him up, as a Farmer Labor Governor he damned capitalism to hell on the MN state capitol steps.)The Republicans are a bunch of younger Harold Stassens (He was the first GOP governor elected after the Farmer Labor Revolution and his platform was ‘if you want socialism hire the GOP to manage and finance it cause we are “competent managers” What a choice.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:45 am 128. Satchel:

It’s the economy stupid.

Those of us who depend on federal budget, scientists like myself, had no choice but to discard McCain with his great idea to hatchet the budget.

I’m sure that all those private businesses that depend or benefit indirectly from the federal budget thougth the same.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:45 am 129. Jonesy55:

Maybe the GOP (and the Democrats) both need to split into 2-3 seperate parties to create a true multi-party democracy, if they were companies dominating a market and creating barriers to entry the anti-trust laws would soon see to it.

The evangelical, libertarian and big spending conservative wings of the GOP don’t seem to have much glueing them together while the same could be said for the left-wing and moderate democrats.

You can’t have a true democracy when the system is controlled by two giant party machines to the exclusion of others, it’s only one party removed from China or the USSR.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:46 am 130. Terry Gain:

I agree with the ranking of the errors listed as 3 and 4.

3. Failing to devise a comprehensive economic message until the final weeks of the campaign.

4. Failure to explain the Democrats’ role in the financial meltdown.

Error number one was McCain’s failure to have an adult conversation with the American public.

Here are the unemployment rates for G7 countries in 2006/2007. I do not have 2008 figures available. Unemployment rates in the United States are of course up but they are up everywhere.
Japan 3.9%; the United States 4.6%; United Kingdom 5.3%. Canada 6%; Italy 6.8%; France 8.3%; Germany 8.4%.

Error number 2 was coming to the first debate totally unprepared to answer Jim Lehrer’s first question. It was an opportunity to explain to the American public the role of the Democrats in the financial crisis. I don’t think that McCain is intellectually capable of explaining to the American public how Carter’s and Clinton’s CRA chickens have come home to roost. It was ridiculous that he didn’t put Obama on the defensive immediately by pointing out how much money he had received from Fannie Mae.

With the media pinning the debacle on the GOP the public needed to hear another narrative. Mitt Romney could have explained to the American public what happened. Unfortunately the GOP, as always, nominated the next guy in line, despite his admitted lack of expertise in economic matters.

In the result an American public concerned about the economy has elected a socialist. Good grief.

Finally, but for Palin wouldn’t have been this close.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:47 am 131. The Morning After | Barrel Strength:

[...] What went wrong?  Here, here and here. [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:48 am 132. Bruno:

By far the first big mistake was to subscribe to these naive and ridiculous smears about R Wright, Ayers, Khalid, etc. aqnd temp to please dumb lower that average intellect people like the author of this column. Obama won the vote of the educated and all reasonable people, and not resorting to exploiting the fears of the uninformed who, in the end, are a small minority that could not have defeated Obama. Incidentally if Mc Cain had gone the way suggested he would have had much more serious problems of his own: Terrorism- He sat on an board that was used to funnel illegal money to the Contras. Problem: the contras were accused by the Catholic Church of having killed women and children. About rev Wright, Mr Mc Cain has had his own pastor problem, something that came up in the 2004 run up. As to Khalid, he was never a PLO member and he said the same thing that Abbas has told Bush or that Arafat has told to Clinton. Not much smearing material there…

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:49 am 133. Dave M.:

The McCain campaign’s ideological disarray was the result of John McCain’s lack of any clear indeology. He’s a compromiser, a Senator, not an executive. His idea of success is “bipartisanship.” Without any clear guiding principles (other than extending his hand across the aisle) how can you get people to follow you. The majority of his “success” during the campaign was due to people’s fear of Obama. McCain was considered the “lessor of two evils”, and most people who voted for him did so while holding their nose.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:54 am 134. Lisa:

I hope Palin runs in 2012. This PUMA will give her $$$, time and a vote.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:55 am 135. Terry Gain:

JQ:

The campaign wasn’t slimy enough for you? Maybe McCain should have hired Karl Rove! ROTFL!!

Nov 4, 2008 - 8:29 pm

—

You obviously know nothing about Rove. In the last six months I’ve seen him dozens of times on Fox. He is easily the most informed, reasonable and erudite political commentator in America.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:55 am 136. funky chicken:

The Republicans in Congress who embraced big spending, corruption and scandal lost this election for McCain before he was even nominated. McCain is the ONLY one who could have gotten anywhere near Obama, and for all the criticism that “true conservatives” have launched at McCain over the years, McCain gave them a future in Palin.

And the thanks he gets? More knives in the back from those same “true conservatives.” Way to show your stripes guys…kicking a war hero and great patriot while he’s down.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:56 am 137. Chris Lake:

Mistake 1 : Not being true to himself - he is a centrist , he fought a very conservative campaign

Mistake 2 : Not being true to himself - he is a centrist , he nominated Palin for VP

Mistake 3 : Admitting he’s weak on the economy and saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong a few days before the meltdown

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:59 am 138. mjk:

Having the media humping Obama’s leg at every turn. I honestly never thought McCain or any Republican stood a chance. The media bought and paid for this President.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:03 am 139. Poole:

Biggest mistake - not using the new media.

Not just the blogs or talk radio or internet interviews. McCain should have had a regular schedule of 5 to 10 minute videos taped every night and placed on YouTube and podcasts that he could have on the Internet as well as subscription radio.

Since the average American voter is basically a functional idiot when it comes to the economy, fiscal policy, tax policy and international relations, McCain could have made his points by carefully explaining the situation and his policies.

He could have had his advisors also make videos and podcasts. The McCain campaign could have also explained that the policies of Obama had been tried many times and failed as many times.

McCAin could have by-passed the MSM by delivering his information directly to the public.

For 2012, Sarah Palin could look to Ronald Reagan for inspiration. Reagan was a spokesperson for GE and a supporter of a favorable business climate. He made many speeches. He started his regular radio address to the nation. He wrote his own speeches. He developed his philosophy by his writing.

Sarah Palin should start with a regular weekly program. A one or two minute program would force her to condense her ideas to the core essence. Podcasts could allow her to flesh out these ideas. Videos could build on the podcasts. Experts could be used to show problems with the Obama’s proposals.

Build a large library for when she starts her campaign for 2012, the press will fall back to their old “she’s an idiot” meme. It will be useful to have her positions stated, explained and defended in such a way that they cannot be twisted by a hostile press.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:05 am 140. misanthropicus:

The N. Carolina Wright ad in May (?), remember that?
I used to be a McCain supporter, yet when he run away from that (fully justified and gainful) vector of attack, I, and so many others felt like Ross Perot’s supporters when they were left in the rain because Perot changed his mind for some trivial reasons.
From the moment of that awful choice, McCain kept running a Re-active campaign, not a Pro-active, anticipative campaign - and even the little advantage provided by re-acting to the other side’s move was constantly wasted.
No matter how hostile the general circumstances were, and the malfeasance of the Obama camp was, the McCain operation was awful, and Jennifer’s points are right.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:06 am 141. Northern Light:

I’ll leave the argument that the Republicans weren’t negative enough alone. It’s too absurd to even comment on.

I will suggest that after 16 years of Hillary Clinton bashing it was hilarious to see McCain and the GOP try to appeal to her supporters.

But of course the REAL reason McCain couldn’t win no matter what he tried was the guy who was hiding in the White House George W. Bush. I know I’m not the only one who was sad to hear that San Francisco’s Proposition R failed to pass.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:11 am 142. Christopher:

Please. For our own sakes. Let us not wish for disaster.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:17 am 143. Lifeofthemind:

The Democrats could have nominated any other candidate and won this year without the criminality, fraud and foriegn terror money. They choose to submit themselves and the nation to this grab from the extreme left.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:18 am 144. Jonesy55:

@ Terry Gain

“Here are the unemployment rates for G7 countries in 2006/2007. I do not have 2008 figures available. Unemployment rates in the United States are of course up but they are up everywhere.
Japan 3.9%; the United States 4.6%; United Kingdom 5.3%. Canada 6%; Italy 6.8%; France 8.3%; Germany 8.4%.”

Current figures are:

Japan 4.2%
United Kingdom 5.7%
United States 6.1%
Canada 6.1%
Italy 6.7%
Germany 7.5%
France 8.0%
(Eurozone average 7.5%)

Of course, figures are not 100% comparable but they are somewhat standardised.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:27 am 145. craig:

McCain played too nice. You can’t do that in modern politics. The opposition is out to destroy you and use every tactic against you. If you are so naive to think that doesn’t sway votes then you are willfully negligent and deserve to lose. Sorry repub’s, but you’re not going to win as often as the dems that fight and campaign using all dirty tricks available.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:29 am 146. Reagan Fan:

McCain had the wrong message for the time. Congress has an approval rating of near single digits and all he could do is say that he was ready to reach across the aisle.

He should have run against Congress. He should have been screaming about the bailout, not joining in.

Mistake #2 is that he should have had both Palins camped out in Ohio, Michigan, and Pa. with a looped message about how drilling means union jobs and cheaper gas.

Also, I would hire Poole (#139) for my campaign adviser. Good advice, dude (or dudette)!

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:53 am 147. Terri:

A campaign not based on vision.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:01 am 148. Fat Man:

Jennifer, Folks: Give up. It was not McCains fault. He ran as well as he could. But, nothing he could do could overcome the magnitude of the storm that hit the financial storm that hit in mid-September.

Bloomberg has a metric:

The Bloomberg Financial Conditions Index … The values of this index are z-scores, which represent the number of standard deviations that current financial conditions lie above or below the average of the 1992-June 2008 period.

Go to the Bloomberg.com home page and enter BFCIUS:IND and click the Quote button. In mid-September the index fell to z = -10 which is about like the odds of getting killed by a direct strike of a meteorite.

McCain lost because of that. Obama did not win because he is pretty, smart, or good. He won because he was not a member of the incumbent party. McCain did not loose because he was old, ugly, or bad. He lost because he was a Republican when the storm hit.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:02 am 149. John McCain 30 Mistakes (Ignoring The Obvious~Moderation Failed…We Pay The Price) « Zipline Conservative:

[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/top-thirty-errors-that-doomed-mccain/ [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:05 am 150. David Drake:

Agree with B. Moon: once the economy melted down, Senator McCain was doomed; people vote their pocketbooks for president. I also agree with his assessment of McCain–a very warm, decent man.

However, that said, the defeat is poetic justice for McCain as sponsor of McCain-Feingold. Campaign finance “reform” led to the preposterous sums raised by Obama. Hard to say if an absence of reform could have done anything about the internet fundraising, but it sure didn’t help.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:09 am 151. MissP:

Let me put it this way: the Republican party has undergone some significant shifts since the days of Reagan. Think classic coke and new coke. You’re saying that we’re rejecting new coke because we just don’t understand how much Pepsi sucks or don’t know enough about new coke. I’m saying we just want coke classic. Think about it.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:28 am 152. wassom:

Bravo susan!
No, hon, we “get it,” we just didn’t GET it, as in win. The point is, what will anyone say now about the questionable registration of voters? About the questionable campaign contributions? About the voter fraud? About premature (AKA “early”) voting? About the horrendous education system in this country that renders adults incapable of distinguishing between Socialism and free market capitalism and unable to discern why the latter has been preferred since the Founders put pen to paper 230+ years ago? Why it’s really unimportant to be liked by the rest of the world? About the perils of trying to be too European? And why redistribution of income is the road to capped aspirations and stunted growth?
All of these questions used to be asked by a free, competitive and challenging press. Which, unfortunately, no longer exists in this country.
Another casualty of this historic election.
History can be quite tragic.

Hopefully we have all learned something. Not to sit back and just believe that the goodness of the American heart will overcome the evil one. It’s just not true. We have to be on the offensive at every turn. To be educated on the facts, and to not get railroaded again.
Conservatism, must and cannot be pulled in different directions. The focus must be the same for us all, or we will surely be a house, and America divided.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:31 am 153. Holdfast:

Focusing on Obama’s dodgy connections in the last few weeks looked like the desparation move that it was. I genuinely believe that ties to Ayers, Dohrn, Kalidi and Rezko should be disqualifying, but I don’t know if John McCain really believed it - to me it looked like he was just trying it on as a line of attack when he wasn’t winning otherwise.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:38 am 154. smg45acp:

I blame Bush.
Conservatism didn’t fail this election, Republicans failed conservatism.
I think the main blame for Obama getting elected goes to George Bush and Republican Congress.
If they had actually governed as conservative Republicans somebody other than Obama would be president-elect right now.

What is Bush’s legacy? He has brought about some of the biggest money wasting programs in history. The Department of Homeland Security. We already have the CIA, the FBI and dozens of other alphabet soup agencies in the government, not to mention every state has it’s own Department of Investigation plus thousands of police departments.
We didn’t need an additional billion dollar bureaucracy. Better co-ordination between all of these agencies, yes, but not another layer of bureaucracy.

We bellowed about Obama wanting to spread the wealth around and how wrong that was. What was Bush’s prescription drug plan? It was taking billions of dollars from some people and spreading it around to others, pure socialism.

The No Child Left Behind, conservatives had argued correctly that the Department of Education educated nobody and was more of a hindrance than a help to educating the nations children. Instead of eliminating this rat hole of tax money, Bush expanded it more than any liberal had even dreamed.

The War in Iraq. Why did we invade Iraq? To enforce UN resolutions! Somebody find in the Constitution were the President of the United States has an obligation to enforce UN resolutions. We invaded a country that had never attacked us, never threatened to attack us to enforce resolutions from a nongovernmental body that hates us.
We deposed a secular dictator so we can set up an Islamic theocracy that will in all likelihood join forces in the coming years with it’s fellow Shiite majority country Iran to oppose us. And as icing on the cake, it took badly needed manpower away from the fighting the country that did attack us, Afghanistan.

The list goes on and on. Now that we have lost both houses of Congress and the Presidency because of this man can me and my fellow Republicans stop pretending that he wasn’t a total screw up?

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:40 am 155. Leigh Thelmadatter:

Im not sure McCain could have run a better campaign. Running against a black man at this point in our history, tied one arm behind his back. He has to bend over backwards to avoid the “racist” label, not that the Obama campaign and the media didnt try to pin it on him anyway. He could have, and probably would have, run a tougher campaign against Hillary as “sexist” doesnt carry the same sting.

Please remember that he did run an honorable campaign.

In the short term, this is bad for the Republicans. In the long term, it could be good. Maybe Obama and the press can keep up the show for a bit under a year, but now being president means that Barack needs to do a lot more than just read pretty words off a teleprompter. As a barrier-breaker, expectations are unrealistically high. Only a truly great man could live up to them. Odds are he is not.

Republicans now need to play the “loyal opposition” game, remember lessons learned from the crap we pulled on Clinton in the 90’s (someone pragmatic enough to work with, while Obama is not) and migitate the damage an Obama presidency will ultimately cause. Obama’s worse enemy is himself - his own inexperience and the lousy company he keeps. America obviously wanted the symbol more than a qualified candidate.

Work towards 2010 and 2012 elections.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:45 am 156. denise:

To add to the list: The sex ed ad on the heels of the RNC was a tone deaf, bone-headed move (especially when people were starting to worry that Palin was a right wing, fundie nutcase).

And to compound the problem, after BO denounced the ad as unfounded, there was no explanation of why it was justified for a couple weeks, and then only The National Review took up the cause. If you’re going to go out with that kind of attack ad, you damn well need to be prepared to back it up.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:48 am 157. huxley:

Obama won the vote of the educated and all reasonable people, and not resorting to exploiting the fears of the uninformed who, in the end, are a small minority that could not have defeated Obama.

Bruno — This election was a loss of confidence in the Republican party and its policies.

Otherwise I heard no reasoned arguments for Obama, only emotional and symbolic ones: “I like Obama, I think he’s really smart, and it would be neat to have a black president.” That’s all that can be said for Obama since he has no experience and no accomplishments beyond running for office.

Among the people I know, those of us who voted for McCain were far more informed.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:01 am 158. Kevin:

Amazing, you forgot number zero.

0. Not disassociating himself from Bush early on. He left himself hostage to Bush’s performance, which proved fatal.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:02 am 159. Hal:

I don’t think anyone serious in our party thanks the above list would have helped us or will help us in the future.

We have gone from the party of small business and individual rights to the party of welfare for big business and arguing against individual rights.

This “RINO” labeling is bogus. I voted for McCain. If Huckabee had been the nominee I would not have voted for him.

Catering to the supposed “base” never did what some people claim.

John McCain is the best thing that has happened to our party since Reagan. The only mistake he made in the entire campaign was Palin.

Rubin’s list is a head in the sand suicide pact that ignores the real root issues and emphasizes as solutions the (spectacular and proven) failures of the past.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:02 am 160. David Govett:

After four years of BO, any Republican will be a breath of fresh air. I suggest Jindal/Palin in 2012. Unbeatable.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:17 am 161. This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » The Blogosphere reacts:

[...] Jennifer Ruben dissects the McCain campaign and counts his major mistakes; The results are in and the recriminations have begun. Sure, it might not have made any difference, but the number of sins of omission and commission by the McCain campaign is breathtaking. Let’s get a head start on the finger-pointing and give you the top thirty mistakes John McCain and his team made: [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:20 am 162. Michael T:

The GOP doesn’t stand a chance in hell until it separates itself from the religious right. They have taken over the Party(of which Palin was a member) and lost touch with a good part of the American public. Sadly they have been flummoxed by a charlatan.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:24 am 163. MDC:

One more, and this one is esoteric: they should have created a logo and proper branding. Obama’s ever-present logo was a pretty powerful branding technique and should have been countered with a “maverick” themed logo. I’m very serious about this.

Watching the two compete was like watching Madison Avenue vs. some mom-and-pop ad agency from a small midwestern town.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:24 am 164. tree_city:

the opposition research didn’t happen, the MSM completely in the tank for Obama - hey, folks, the key to winning in 2010 is to come up with a powerful replacement for the MSM in the new media, really need some serious investigative reporting. Why is it nobody has come up with info on OBama’s college years, shaken loose the Khalidi video, come up with proof of the origin of the illegal donations over the net to Obama? We have no weapons against the big-money, radical left - agenda, and their mesmerized kool-aid drinkers except the Truth! (It’s out there) Anyone here a trained journalist worthy of the name? An investigator of competence? And we need at least one TV outlet - If they do get the fairness doctrine, we certainly need to get the conservative side onto the TV, as it’s nearly 100% liberal - we have to shout so loud they can’t shut us up, and we better get to it quickly

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:26 am 165. nlcatter:

while I was walking precincts I had time to think

and i dont even read daily kos!

a lying, corrupt, book burning Palin is the #1 reason
one can find from reading the interview with GOP who voted for Obama.!

she lied abouta bridge
she tried to get a book on gays put in the back.

FACTS !

besides being corrupt , unethical, and a MORONIC CREATIONIST

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:28 am 166. Kay Williams:

Everyone blames Bush for the economy, etc. and they associate McCain with Bush.
WHY? Tell me WHY? Did McCain not focus on the Democrats being in control for the last two years. They have fought Bush and killed McCain’s chances. The Bible teaches that a Nation that embraces Homosexuality will not stand four generation. We are at the door of the third generation, now. That is a Bible generation! Get ready! America may fall in the next five years! America needs to become a Third World Nation and them the people will acknowledge GOD/JESUS for who they truly are! But! it will be too late for America. Come quickly Lord Jesus!!! I am rejoicing and occupying until you break that Eastern sky!!!

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:38 am 167. parenthetical:

Let the circular firing squad begin!

Schadenfreude is such a nice thing. Now I know what I’ve been missing out on over the past 8 years.

P.S. Seeing as how Bush had approval ratings in the 90% range post-9/11, it would be fair to say that most people DID in fact give him a chance. And he blew it with a spectacular show of incompetence. That could describe the McCain campaign as well.

You Republicans need to step up your game. (Obviously you know that.) Having a meaningful and coherent opposition is crucial to democracy. Now you just have to build one. And you’re not going to build it on the ashes of the 60s. How about giving “conservatism” a try. Remember that? (Some of you might be too young.)

And I think Palin is a pipe dream. You heard it here first: she currently holds the LAST elective office she will ever hold.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:42 am 168. clamflats:

Interesting Voting Trends for 50 states & DC divided into 3 groups of 17:
Per Capita income - top 17 - 15 voted for Obama, middle 17 - 11 Obama, bottom 17 - 4 Obama (US Commerce Dept 2006)

College Grads - Top 17 - 15 Obama, middle 17 - 9 Obama, bottom 17 - 5 Obama (US Census 2000)

Church attendence - Top 17 - 2 Obama, middle 17 - 14 Obama, bottom 17 - 14 Obama (Gallup 2006)

Correlation is not causation BUT the GOP increasingly tries to divide the country into good & godless America. Bad strategy: more affluent, educated, and secular Americans are choosing the liberal agenda.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:47 am 169. Orion:

The loss had nothing to do with McCain. He could have run a completley flawless campaign and it would have made no difference at all.

The problem was the American people. They got caught up in the hype and hope of Obama and turned a deaf ear to the naysayers. No one - not McCain, not Bush, not Ronald Reagan himself could have swayed the voters. The numbers make this clear. Quite simply they wanted what Obama was selling: “change” and a “a new direction”.

I don’t believe they are going to like what they are getting themselves into, myself. I hope I’m wrong. But there’s no choice now but to deal with it.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:55 am 170. I Callahan:

The GOP doesn’t stand a chance in hell until it separates itself from the religious right. They have taken over the Party(of which Palin was a member) and lost touch with a good part of the American public. Sadly they have been flummoxed by a charlatan.

Wrong. The “Religious Right” are a major part of the Republican party, and if they stay home, the Republicans will NEVER win another election. The RR has much in common with the libertarians - small government, low taxes, low spending, individualist philosophy, so they’re a natural fit.

Let them separate themselves, and we might as well be the Soviet Union, cause pubs will never win again.

TV (Harry)

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:08 am 171. onenation:

I totally agree that #13 was a disaster menu for Mac. Palin was not only unfit for the job she was divisive to worsen it all. Someone like Bobby Jindal would have done great for the ticket.
During her phone interview last month with Dobson of the christian Family Radio program Dobson asked whether Palin was discouraged by polls showing the GOP ticket behind.

“To me, it motivates us, makes us work that much harder,” Palin said. “And it also strengthens my faith, because I’m going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God’s hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4. So I’m not discouraged at all.”

My questions to Palin and her sympatizers on 11/5/08:-
is the God Palin referred to different to the God that gave the election to Obama? as in Pro-America and Anti-America.
If the answer to my first question is No, would Palin then say God has done the Wrong thing for America?

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:26 am 172. Andrew Ian Dodge:

John McCain is a great man but a terrible politician. His campaign was run terrible, he was awful in the debates and lacked any drive whatsoever. The Republicans have to stop selecting their candidates on whose turn it is and start finding people who can win.

It was the worst campaign for the White House in my political life.

And there is some justice in the fact he got done over because of his vile McCain-Feingold act. Too bad the rest of us have to suffer for 4 years because of his political idiocy.

I am glad he gave a good concession speech…iits the only worthwhile thing he did in his political life.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:26 am 173. Freeatlast:

You are all such complete LOSERS…you don’t have a clue do you? it was BUSH, BUSH, BUSH.
You finally have been completely marginalized…no more right-wing anything in this country for a long, long time. A new coalition has been developed that will keep you dimwits out of office for many years to come.
Wring your hands, cry your tears…you had your shot and you blew it. Good riddance!

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:27 am 174. Terry Gain:

“The War in Iraq. Why did we invade Iraq? To enforce UN resolutions! Somebody find in the Constitution were the President of the United States has an obligation to enforce UN resolutions. We invaded a country that had never attacked us, never threatened to attack us to enforce resolutions from a nongovernmental body that hates us.
We deposed a secular dictator so we can set up an Islamic theocracy that will in all likelihood join forces in the coming years with it’s fellow Shiite majority country Iran to oppose us. And as icing on the cake, it took badly needed manpower away from the fighting the country that did attack us, Afghanistan.”

I join issue with your assertions.

“The War in Iraq. Why did we invade Iraq?

Saddam Hussein would have turned his attention to developing nuclear weapons the moment sanctions ended. The United States would now be facing two Middle Eastern countries developing nuclear weapons, rather than just one.

“We invaded a country that had never attacked us, never threatened to attack us to enforce resolutions from a nongovernmental body that hates us.”

So, after all these years you still haven’t heard of Abdul Rahman Yasin?

“We deposed a secular dictator so we can set up an Islamic theocracy that will in all likelihood join forces in the coming years with it’s fellow Shiite majority country Iran to oppose us.”

Not quite. We deposed a genocidal Stalinist dictator, who trained terrorists, harbored terrorists and financed terrorists. He’s been replaced by a fledgling democracy, which in the past two years has, by our side, waged war successfully against al Qaeda. The defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq is the great untold story of the Iraq war.

“And as icing on the cake, it took badly needed manpower away from the fighting the country that did attack us, Afghanistan.”

Again, you don’t have it quite right. If Al Qaeda had not been getting its ass kicked in Iraq in the past three years it would’ve been in Afghanistan. Contrary to the assertions of the Democrats and their media lackeys it was Al Qaeda that couldn’t fight a two front war, not the United States.

Of course I don’t quite understand the point of winning a war if you are going to let the contrary narrative go unchallenged.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:29 am 175. jdkchem:

brian, if you turds had any concept of what the “high road” is, if you had anything resembling a spine, if you had any character you would have taken responsibility for your role in freddie mae. You didn’t and you do not have the stones to take any responsibility for your screw-ups over the next four years.

You’re spineless cowards, period.

And do not ever bring up taking the low road after the crap you pathetic scum bags did this election. When the bill comes due he is your coward-in-chief. YOU PAY THE BILL.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:37 am 176. Stefan:

I really can’t see more attacks as the way to go, and I hope that isn’t the strategy for the next election. Personally I would put incorrect focus on top. You don’t win on-the-fence democrats/Hillary-supporters with an “aw shucks”-tart, you win them by either going for a smart and experienced woman or a smart and experienced man. This election proved that a smart, eloquent man can overcome smears and personal attacks and “palling around with terrorists”, and it’s time for the GOP to go back to it’s roots.

And if you’re looking to pick up some extra supporters, I suggest toning down the “Jesus votes GOP”-tone. Most people with higher educations get turned off by hocus-pocus.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:50 am 177. The Day After : Pursuing Holiness:

[...] the RINOs who lost this election with conservatives the first chance we get.  There’s some Monday morning quarterbacking at PJM.  Ed Morrissey hopes Obama will be better than Jimmy Carter.  I hope that too, but I doubt [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:52 am 178. Gekkobear:

Palin obviously.

She was a pariah, merely tens of thousands of people went to see a VP candidate speak, everyone hid from her… oh, that was more than usual? Hmm, maybe not a pariah.

But she’s a bad conservative. She opposes corruption and vetoed a bill simply because it was against the State Constitution. We can’t have that in Government; we need corruption and egotistical windbags convinced their opinions overrule the Constitution (State or Federal).

How dare she work for ending corruption, smaller government, and have humility thinking she should follow the rules set out by the Constitution… obviously a failure.

Fortunately with some of the commenters here guiding us we’ll go with a Big Government candidate with corruption scandals in his past and the idea that his whim trumps the Constitution… if only McCain were more for Big Government we’d have had that this time.

So close; if only he was for more wasteful spending and more corruption. He’s got the dismissal of Constitutional concerns down pat… I guess one out of three wasn’t enough.

But with these goals Palin obviously won’t be our choice next time. Not nearly enough spending, corruption, ego, or hubris. Which are now Conservative values I guess… weird.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:55 am 179. Annette:

We lost because we deserted the conservative message that the Rep. party is suppose to stand for.
Even Gov. Palin with all her chrisma couldn’t pull him out of the deep hole of trying to get along with the dems. In TN we know you don’t cozy up with rattlesnakes and believe me, this bunch from Chicago are rattlesnakes. Hide and watch white child.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:04 am 180. CTModerate:

So let me get this straight, the American people essentially say “we’re sick of the slime and am going to ignore it,” and your solution is to throw more slime????

McCain lost mine and my husband’s vote because he spent more time trying to tear down his opponent then promoting himself. His VP pick also drove us away.

In the future, I’d actually like a choice between two candidates. The GOP in the last the local community college level. They’ve become the know-nothing party, and will disappear unless they go back to being small-government, fiscal conservatives who don’t interfer with people’s personal decisions.

Blending politics with religion may lead to short term electoral gains, but history shows that, in the end, the majority does not want religion governing them.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:11 am 181. Dave:

Please, give me a break.

#1 - Running as a Republican requires standing on principle, instead of throwing sh*t against the wall to see what sticks. McCain did not run on a sound, consistent philosophy.

#2 - Who the hell plays to the middle during the primaries, and to the drooling, moronic “base” during the general? A losing candidate, that’s who.

That’s pretty much it. He still might not have overcome the the most effective political machine we’ve ever seen, but it would have been a hell of a lot closer.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:13 am 182. Edward A.:

Listing these 30 errors certainly convinces us McCain was in no position to lead his campaign, even less capable of leading this nation.

Still, let’s be fair to him…Bush has been the all-time disaster….even he knew it as he has hidden all during the last weeks of the campaign. The American people have rejected Bush and the Republican party is divided.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:14 am 183. Andrew Ian Dodge:

I would add a few more things. There complete lack of grasp of new media. They did not use any of its forms very well. And why didn’t they eviscerate the Obama campaign for saying McCain couldn’t send an email.

In the end McCain was not up to the task. He didn’t have a clue how to behave in a modern contest. Politics is hardball and McCain couldn’t handle it…that was obvious.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:17 am 184. Chris Bolts Sr.:

I agree with all of them, except #30. The more apt comparison was not Herbert Hoover, but Bill Clinton. After all, the “middle-class tax cut” was a play right out of the Clinton playbook and, just like that tax cut, Obama’s tax cut will be the first to go under a his administration.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:22 am 185. bob brogan:

I’d really like to know how and why the whole the U.S. economic system melted down at such a convenient time (Septmber ‘08 just 5 weeks before the National Election).

Again, I’d really like to know how and why the whole economic system melted down at such a convenient time
(Democrat October Suprise?)

Again, I’d really like to know how and why the whole U.S. & Global economic system melted down at such a convenient time (George Soros?)

Yea I know, it was just a coincidence.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:24 am 186. rocketeer:

McCain lost for two reasons.
One: He had an “R” next to his name on the ballot at a time when everyone thinks that the current “R” in the white house is responsible for every calamity that has ever happened.
Two: He repeatedly hacked off his base while attempting to suck up to his opposition. This has been his career long profile, I don’t see why we’re surprised by it now. His base was so unmotivated by him that they were going to be difficult to get to the polls in large numbers anyway.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:28 am 187. Paddy:

You missed a major error, perhaps the most egregious. McCain’s views on climate change locked him into Obama’s agenda.

Consequently, McCain could not raise the oppose the carbon emissions cap and trade system that is conservatively projected to cost $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Moreover, it will cause enormous inflation and irreparably damage our economy.

Obama also stole the tax reduction issue from McCain with slick rhetorical BS. If McCain could have opposed cap and trade or an alternative direct tax on carbon emissions along with Obama’s phony tax reduction baloney, he might have won.

Our only hope is that the Dems, with their usual arrogance, move quickly to implement their socialist agenda so that the destructive results become apparent soon so that Republicans have a real chance to regain control of Congress in two years.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:31 am 188. Soccermom:

I think the vote was essentially a protest vote against:

–the current economic situation
–the war in Iraq
–President Bush

I don’t think any Republican could have won this election this year, at least not after the economy went south.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:32 am 189. tridog:

Most of what you describe can be summed up thusly: McCain’s biggest error was… being McCain.

It is not in his genes to point out the other guys bad points if it will be perceived as ‘going negative’. As soon as the credit crunch hit - he was toast. He WOULD do what was needed to tie it to the Dems — naming names. AND he would NOT let Sarah do it.

http://www.rightofcenterramblings.blogspot.com

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:40 am 190. Dodgeblogium:

[...] good breakdown of what went wrong can be found here. That is to say other than the great mistake in selecting the man in the first [...]

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:44 am 191. Steve P.:

So when Obama turns out to be a great president, are you all going to apologize for your baseless and moronic fear-mongering, or are you just going to conveniently shut up and go away?

Either one would be fine with me! Thanks!

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:49 am 192. ManekiNeko:

All of the above points are reasonable. I would focus on the lack of a coherent, positive message, the vast difference in financial resources, and the economic meltdown, which McCain, for some reason, was unwilling to pin on the Democrats trying to promote well-meaning but misguided social policies.

There is also one other thing that wasn’t mentioned above.
Barry Goldwater recounted that he and JFK, who were friends from the Senate, had agreed that if they ran against each other, they would go around together and debate the issues all over the country. After JFK was killed, it is reported that Goldwater didn’t really want to run against Johnson. His heart wasn’t really in it. And, quite possibly, he didn’t adapt his election strategy accordingly, though it is not clear that he could have won under any circumstance given the situation in the country that year.

I can’t prove this, but my impression is that there was something similar going on with McCain. I think he had planned and expected to run against Hillary, who he was friends with from the Senate. After all, it was a foregone conclusion for a long time that Hillary would be nominated. I think McCain expected to run a civilized campaign that was focused on issues with little or no negative campaigning (Hillary’s negatives were long known). I think that when Obama was nominated, McCain tried run against him as if he was Hillary, and only rather late in the game started to adapt his strategy.

Nov 5, 2008 - 11:10 am 193. Kenneth Sumerford:

Good set of points. A few are weak but most of the 30 are strong points. Sarah Palin was a potential strong factor in the election but the Republican leadership mismanaged the advantages.

GW Bush won 3 elections; the last for Obama!

McCain and Palin failed to present a comprehensive, fair economic package. McCain seemed more concerned with protecting the wealthy from tax cuts than helping the middle and lower classes. He made a big mistake for voting for the financial bailout the first time. The US should have spend around $300 billion in October-Nov. 2008 and had a plan in Jan. 2009 to complete the bailout.
———– Nov. 5, 2008

Nov 5, 2008 - 11:10 am 194. Eddy:

Whatever issues that are concerning us in 2008 will not be in 2012. After reading Russia’s reaction to the election, we might be looking at some dark times for all Americans and people worldwide. I did not for vote for Obama but godforbid if war does breakout in Eastern Europe I hope he listens to his generals. If he does not, Republicans will win in 2012. If this does occur Sarah is also out we would need someone who has experience with dealing with those issues and right now I don’t know who that would be.
FYI, I do love Sarah. I live in the heart of the Bay Area and I have been seeing a lot of McCain signs but I only saw them when Sarah was added to the ticket.

Nov 5, 2008 - 11:56 am 195. Jim Baker:

#193 They failed to present anything comprehensive when they had the chance, because they had no economic plan. McCain lost because McCain could not show how he is any different from a typical leftist. We are shed of this albatross now. We will get them next time.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:01 pm 196. John:

He lost because he chose to “excite the base” via Palin and other right-wing stimulating antics rather than securing the middle. If you go through the numbers he lost Reagan Democrats and he gained nothing for it. Almost none of the tactics you list above wouldn’t have helped him a bit.

He should have chosen Olympia Snow as a running mate and he should have presented himself as a calm, outside-the-box thinker and leader rather than a shoot-from-the-hip Maverick.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:04 pm 197. Thomas Jackson:

vOTING FOR THE LESEER OF TWO EVILS IS STILL VOTING FOR EVIL. mCcAIN SHOULD NVER HAVE BEEN NOMINATED. hE IS oBAMA lITE.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:15 pm 198. myth buster:

#1 reason for Republican loss yesterday: drafting Fred Thompson.
We had five conservatives to choose from, but many conservatives weren’t satisfied and they drafted Fred Thompson. Had Thompson stayed out of the race, I’d have laid odds we’d be celebrating the election of Gov. Huckabee as President today instead of mourning the loss of a RINO. Fact is Huckabee couldn’t be compared to Bush because he’s a Washington outsider. The closest affiliation he has to Bush is that they were both Governors of southern states in the late 90s. You can run as the reform candidate even from the party in power if you distance yourself from the corruption and incompetence, real or perceived, and demonstrate you can bring reform.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:19 pm 199. Charley:

correct !

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:28 pm 200. Kurt:

When it came to the economic meltdown, McCain was at a significant disadvantage to begin with. For years now the press had been complaining about “the Bush economy,” when, in fact, any objective analysis of economic trends, statistics and indicators (unemployment, inflation rate, interest rates, gdp, etc.) indicated that in most respects things were no worse than during the Clinton years. By the time meltdown occurred, therefore, the groundwork had been layed by the press complaints about the economy and by the talk of a recession (which had been going on for about two years, before there was much statistical evidence of any sort of recession). As a result, Obama had a willing audience for a clear, simple, and easy to remember (if technically inaccurate) message: “It’s all Bush’s fault. Vote for me and see change!” By contrast, McCain had a lot to explain about where the meltdown came from, and it was not something he was very willing or very able to explain in a form that was easy for most voters to appreciate.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:55 pm 201. MikeD:

“So when Obama turns out to be a great president, are you all going to apologize for your baseless and moronic fear-mongering….”

No Steve P, I’m pretty sure we’re on safe ground here.

Nov 5, 2008 - 12:58 pm 202. susan:

steve p

“So when Obama turns out to be a great president”

do you mean before of after he handles your colletive asses to iran with the excuse of the healing dialogue?

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:01 pm 203. kat-missouri:

Let me add that the Republican party not owning the wars and letting Bush take it in the pants while trying to distance themselves didn’t work. They just added to the whole “Republican losing war” bag of boulders that was tied to their leg when they jumped into the water.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:18 pm 204. ehunter:

Lets see…where does this put us.
A ruling party of empty suits, petty corrupt hacks, homosexuals, lesbians, failed comedians, Chicago slumlords
vs
Vladimir Putin KGB agent
The Chinese Communist Party
Radical Islam

Standby America

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:18 pm 205. Jeff K:

Sorry, I have to disagree with the author. I think LESS attacks and more of the REAL John McCain, not the “Karl Roved” version would have resonated much more with the general electorate.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:25 pm 206. Steve P.:

Susan, I’m sorry to disappoint, but your sordid erotic fantasies about your ass being handed to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will sadly remain just a fantasy. But keep writing your adult fan fiction, I’m sure you’ll get published some day!

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:28 pm 207. dougf:

If you remember, McCain was seemingly actually in VERY good shape immediately after the Republican Convention. It was an apparently winnable campaign.

Then in short order the bottom fell out, never to be replaced. And the reason :

Sub-Prime Credit Crisis. McCain botched this almost completely in a tactical sense, but in reality he was toast as soon as this disaster unfolded. It occurred(never mind the root causes) under Bush’s watch. And it was therefore Bush’s fault in the public mind. And frankly I too think it was Bush’s fault. He simply presided over a financial debacle. The buck has to stop somewhere.

McCain was a Republican. Bush was a Republican.

That was sufficient to decide the election. McCain might have been able to seize the issue and actually use it, had he been the lone voice out there for years saying that the sky was going to fall if something was not done and if he had forewarned the public that the shoe was about to drop. But he wasn’t and he didn’t. He wasn’t perceived to be the solution;he was seen as part of the problem.

Game over.

No amount of anything after this event mattered at all. It wasn’t that he was not ‘conservative’ enough or that the campaign lacked ‘focus’. It was that the lassez-faire approach to dubious(being VERY generous here) financial ‘vehicles’ proved to be a complete disaster as the self-styled ‘masters of the universe’ on Wall Street, outed themselves as not only purely clueless albeit greedy gamblers, but very BAD gamblers at that. Without ‘conservative’ enabling, these criminal incompetents would never have been allowed to behave so recklessly.

The public just became fed up. They are still fed up. It’s just festering. Wait until the full effects of this debacle start to be felt. McCain will probably be grateful that he lost.

I would be

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:42 pm 208. susan:

which ass, delusional steve P?

i am not american, nor i live in america and my president is not an affirmative action one elected by a bunch of racists, anti-american retards

I personally have nothing to fear, the one bending over backwards for your new muslim masters is the pretty mulatto you just elected, after all, half of his pathetic family is from the religion of pieces, he cannot turn is back to his roots after the whole muslim world has endorsed him

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:45 pm 209. Evil Pundit:

I think the desperate attacks on Palin by the anti-Republicans in this thread show who they fear in 2012.

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:47 pm 210. jane:

Sort of OT but does anyone else find it funny that we’ve got all these threads here at PJM with comments telling us how we should get behind Obama, be proud,and feel unity with the Obama supporters like
Freeatlast: post 173.
You are all such complete LOSERS…you don’t have a clue do you? it was BUSH, BUSH, BUSH.
You finally have been completely marginalized…no more right-wing anything in this country for a long, long time. A new coalition has been developed that will keep you dimwits out of office for many years to come.
Wring your hands, cry your tears…you had your shot and you blew it. Good riddance

Nov 5, 2008 - 1:52 pm 211. StraightTalker:

The palpable hate spewing from the far right shows why the GOP lost this race. You have alienated moderate Americans.

McCain in 2000 was an electable, moderate, fiscally conservative candidate. 8 years of pandering to the so-called “base” of uneducated, intolerant bigots on the far right destroyed his credibility among moderates, and yet you whine that he isn’t ENOUGH of an extremist for you.

8 years of failed NEO-conservative policies have landed this country in the mess that it is in. It’s time for REAL conservatives to retake control of our party, stop spending money we don’t have, and start dismantling the big government police state apparatus Bush and his neo-con cronies assembled under our noses.

The religious right is no longer an asset to the GOP. Pandering to their hatred and bigotry may have won elections in the past, but America has woken up to that tactic and will have no more of it. You’re no longer welcome under the big tent. Take your hate and your childish idiotic ranting somewhere else. The grown-ups have real work to do fixing the mess you’ve made.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:01 pm 212. Cheesehead:

Just what I expected, “wah wah wah wah wah wah….”

Obama was the most vetted candidate in recent history. Between Clinton and the Rove machine they left no stone unturned.

You know why they could get Obama on Ayers, Wright or Khalidi or any other manufactured story? Becuase Clinton has already tried that and was soundly rejected by the voters.

You complain that McCain didn’t do enough earlier, but fail to mention that once he did go negative his numbers tanked, and he never made up much ground.

The neo-con brand is dead, thank heavens.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:12 pm 213. Peter G:

I think Dougf has it exactly right.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:15 pm 214. Kurt:

To dougf: you might want to look into the history behind the community reinvestment act and how it fueled the growth of the subprime mortgage mess. You might also be interested to learn that Bush, McCain, and a few other Republicans tried to get more oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which were the great enablers in the growth of the subprime market), but they were consistently beaten back by Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, and others.

Certainly there is enough blame to go around. This was a bipartisan mess, but it was the Democrats (through the CRA) who first told the banks to make bad loans, and they also did what they could to prevent additional oversight.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:15 pm 215. cedarford:

I won’t list 30 reasons, just a few:

1. John McCain was the wrong candidate. He ran on biography and the glory that is being John McCain. No vision, no coming together of his Party after all his past betrayals. He may be a Patriot, but he was a terrible executive leader. His campaign was a clusterf*ck. He ran it awfully and showed Obama and his team far better and competent in the process. He was awful in the debates appearing incoherent, angry, and physically impaired.

2. John McCain had a 4 month head start on the General Election, after Romney gracefully conceeded to give McCain time to focus on the Dems. Then McCain did nothing, essentially, for 3 months but give boilerplate speeches. No one had a clue of what his plan for the future was, just that, be assured, he was a brave man who said “my friends!” a lot ad who would fight, fight, fight - for who knows what. He never made that clear. Nor who would fight with him. It was all “me, John McCain” who was the hero.

3. Picking Sarah Palin immediately cost McCain his most important weapon against Obama - that he was inexperienced and hadn’t done much.

4. Picking Palin was necessary because McCain was so widely distrusted. It rapidly became a liability because American’s got concerned real fast about Palin’s intellect, knowledge….and given McCain looked like he would keel over on certain says, her fitness to lead us unexpectedly. In a way Palin would not have been such a concern paired with a younger and fitter Nominee. In Exit Polls, 60% of Americans thought she was unfit to be President,
And because of those factors, McCain’s pick went directly back to fears of McCain being impulsive and lacking judgement.

5. Bush soured everything.

6. McCains liabilities as a leader who knew anything about leading on economic matters became painfully obvious when he was running around for two weeks like a chicken with it’s head cut off, saying contradictory things.

7. McCain never distanced himself from perceptions that he was salivating for another major war, and continuing the Neocon direction.

8. Palin excited the extremists of the Party, but failed to add votes of PUMAs, independents, young people, or women outside “the Base”.

9. Mcain and Palins incessant talk about love of Jews and Israel in most of their speeches still had 75% of Jews in America loathing Republicans as usual, and 77% of Jews in Israel supporting Obama. Rather than waste the time and effort, they should have been substituting “hispanics” every time they went with their devotion to loyal Democrat Jews, and talking about “helping Mexico and Latin American Countries” everytime they were talking about helping and never 2nd-guessing Israel.

10. The oppo research McCain managed, his use of negatives about Obama - was just awful. He apparantly only got stuff from talk radio, and waited to use it until he was desperate and the economy was melting down…and no one cared, no one was listening about Ayers! Rezko! etc.

It was the worst campaign for the White House since Dukakis’s.

*******************
Imagine if the Fundies hadn’t blackballed Romney on religious litmus test or Tom Ridge on the Abortion litmus test.
Either or both might have lost, but they would have pounded the living crap out of young Barack as arrogant, full of himself, and unready for the office…Not been like McCain stumbling and lurching around platforms: “My friends, my friends! I’ll fight for you, I’ll fight this good man and dea Senate Friend Mr Obama - I’ve been a hero fighter all my life, and as soon as I figure what I’m fighting for, I’ll let you know.”

Romney could have also gotten away with a Palin pick easier - he would have had people prepping her well before the Convention and not throwing her out cold like McCain did as a last second pick. Or if Palin was as ignorant as some have said she is, not picked her in the 1st place. Romney had a wide range of women and hispanics he was interested in - the 18-year experienced and well-liked Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Hispanic retired General and business leader, as well as solid white guys in the Base like Haley Barbour and Tom Ridge to help win back all the Great Lakes States McCain-Palin ignored having a clear plan on - and lost - despite desperate last-minute “we are all Joe the Plumber types!”

Not saying Romney is or should be the 2012 candidate..his own judgment was flawed in over-pandering to the Fundie Base so hard he lost part of his credibility, only to have Pastor Huckleberry and his acolytes spit in his face as a Mormon “heretic”. But Romney could have run a superb campaign McCain lacked the vision, brains, executive management skills, fundraising skills, and debate skills to pull off.
Pastor Huckleberry, who might have won only in Bible Belt and lower educated white rural areas, might also have been a far better communicator and thinker than McCain was.

Yes McCain served!!! Yes, he suffered!!! 35 years ago. That was not enough. He was Bob Dole II - the old soldier running on Biography!! and a sense of entitlement to be the Party nominee and not much else.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:23 pm 216. Cheesetundra:

Well, honestly the reason McCain lost was becuase the Rep party abandoned it’s conservative foundings. The GOP of the last 16 years has really stood for one thing, keeping power at all costs. And to do so they tried to govern from the extreme fringe right, and demonized anyone who dared to disagree. Did you watch McCains concession speech? The bitterness and venom was abhorent. To boo your own candidate when he merely mentions the winners and the fact he plans to work together to make the country better? That’s why the GOP lost. People are tired of that.

The country needs a strong conservative party (as well as a few third parties IMO)And hopefully the GOP will remake itself in an image more fitting it’s foundings.

The GOP has nowhere to look but within for the reasons they were soundly and completely defeated this election.

The GOP needs a wholesale change of leadership. I don’t believe Palin is going to have much of a role in the future of the GOP. A name you should all learn is Bobby Jindal.

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:24 pm 217. Billc:

I just have two questions. Why were the popular vote tallies so close when Barack and his handlers outspent the Republicans so heavily? Was the Obama campaign better at focusing on getting enough of the most valuable electoral college votes?

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:25 pm 218. Linda:

News flash for Palin haters: the woman is star. Delude yourselves if you’d like, but it is abundantly clear she was the *only* reason McCain was anywhere near striking distance. Even in this anti Republican/Bush climate, the McCain/Palin ticket managed 46% of the vote. Obama had to spend twice as much for the 5-6% difference.

Palin 2012

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:46 pm 219. Cheesetundra:

Billc - It’s really a matter of the 2nd question. Just ask Al Gore. Our founding fathers did not want us to have a true democracy, which they considered mob rule. So the electoral college is the true gauge, and Obama won handily.

The other question you should be asking is Why was Obama so competitive in places like IN and NC?? Why did counties in FL that went heavy for Bush go for McCain??

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:50 pm 220. susan:

“You know why they could get Obama on Ayers, Wright or Khalidi or any other manufactured story? ”

because zerobama followers have no morals?

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:55 pm 221. Mwalimu Daudi:

The demented hate being spewed forth by the Left on this thread towards Palin is eye-opening. They really do fear a strong, intelligent woman!

Nov 5, 2008 - 2:57 pm 222. Javelin:

1) Pandering to the small minds of the base instead of dealing with real problems and forge a broad based coalitons to pick off independents and conservative Democrats.
2) Picking a dimwit like Palin!
3) Wrapping himself up with Bush for too long.
4) All else commentary.

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:08 pm 223. cedarford:

The cry of the Base extremists that Republicans lost because they weren’t conservative enough!!!is reminiscent of Goldwater fanatics saying they lost because Goldwater wasn’t conservative enough and pussied out on issues like flouridation, repealing the income tax, and not advocating immediate military action to bring Freedom!! to “Soviet-occupied” Europe.

Fortunately, Republican leaders realized they had let the conservatives grow too extreme and too exclusionary and came back with a Centrist Nixon then a Center-Right Reagan who always worked for deals and compromises with the Democratic Congress he had, if possible.

When you lose women, hispanics, independents, Jews, Reagan Democrats, the college-educated, the young, and whole regions of America reject you - while every Right-Winger and Fundie and Christian Zionist with a pulse is already voting for you - chances are you are not having a problem with the evangelical version of conservatism(southern fried morality in religious litmus tests, plenty of pork from earmarks, bigger government, endless wars to help Zion to ready it for the Final Days). Chances are you are not conservative enough to the present Southern Base vision of what conservatism is, but betraying traditional conservatism (fiscal responsibility, limited government, a strong military that only sheds American blood in last extremis and is repelled from military adventurism)

Not surprising because the Base is only one generation from being pork-loving LBJ-Big Government Democrats, and two generations from being the intolerant Southern Democrat that hated Catholics, unions, any “socialism” except what they wheedled as pork and ag subsidies, wetbacks, lace curtain Protestants and had a KKK uniform hanging in the closet.

If you lose whole regions of the country and most demographic groups, the chances are not only do you have the wrong kind of conservatism - but that you are also not inclusive enough and a Party with shrinking numbers and shrinking number of offices.

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:36 pm 224. Cheesetundra:

One more thing to add. I live in WI, and I can’t tell you how many times I heard the following statement:

“I liked mcCain in 2000, but this year he just sounds like an angry old man. He’s really turned me off”

All this talk of having to be tougher is misguided, and the logic behind it is outdated. If McCain had listened to himself he would have won.

Nov 5, 2008 - 3:39 pm 225. Loyola:

Wow! You nailed it. Well done!

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:14 pm 226. Jason-Colorado Springs:

McCain lost for the same reason Kerry lost. Their only redeeming quality was that they went to Vietnam. Not that their service records can be compared. But that was about all each party could say for either one.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:15 pm 227. abby:

Best line I heard - America had to go through Jimmy Carter to get to Ronald Reagan.

Well, America got it’s Jimmy Carter II.

The anti-Bush sentiment, the love affair with the notion of a black president (regardless of qualifications) and the economic meltdown (timed as a great October surprise) - made McCain chances of election slim.

Watch for Palin in the next few years build up her base and her experience (I expect lots of trips abroad and to the lower 49) - and she will bring those conservative Democrats to the Republican party.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:20 pm 228. getoverit:

I’m sure this will be well-received here in “we lost because we weren’t mean enough” dreamland but after the pity party subsides, perhaps we might look at this a bit more objectively (yeah right). The only people who were buying all that Wright and Ayers crap were those (like many of the posters here) who were grasping at “Swiftboat” straws. All that phrenetic handwaving about how dangerous and anti-American he was didn’t really win McCain extra votes, it just got the tinfoil hat crowd foaming at the mouth and sounding desperate. If Sarah Palin and Chicken Little are all we’ve got, it is going to be LONG eight years. Man it would be nice to think that in the future our “base” might be built on intelligence and pragmatism instead of religious dogma and fear. I feel like my party is being held hostage by James Dobson and Joe the Plumber. And while I’m at it, this whole “buy into Sarah Palin or you are a traitor” mentality is exactly what I am talking about.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:21 pm 229. sean birnie:

Yawn. Post mortems are so boring, especially when we all witnessed the murder and know who the perp is. Get over it and get on with trying to win in 4 years time.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:33 pm 230. cedarford:

Cedarford said…
If you look at the past, you see that Republicans lost power badly on 3 occasions in the 20th Century and returned, reinvigorated, by asking “what do the vast number of people in the Center really want” and then offering a coherent vision of that.
They came back after the Depression and FDR’s adroit deathgrip on power by a “Peace and prosperity, steady hand” approach after Truman’s time. Nixon, and other brilliant thinkers, achieved a great triumph after the Goldwater debacle by working years to build up organization and offer a viable alternative to the “Silent Majority” - and worked on ruthlessly shedding off Republican deadweight - the Birchers and religious ideologues that scared off voters. (That Nixon, a moderate lest we forget, salvaged them in only 4 years from what social conservative extremists had lost was a remarkable feat.) Then Reagan came in as a counter to McGovernite overreaching and pervasive domestic and international failure.

McCain was never the best candidate - Romney might have still lost, but he & his Team would have had a disciplined, coherent vision for the future that McCain and his cronies lacked the temperment or the brains to communicate to the public. Frankly, Palin doesn’t have the brains, gravitas, or the skills to rebuild a Party. She is this years John Edwards, a silky pony that infatuated fans saw as inevitable in 4 years..
(Stories coming out on Palin hidden from the public by the McCain campaign range from the uncomplimentary (diva tantrums, thinking since she dealt with press in Alaska she didn’t need prep for the Gibson interview) to the downright scary (thinking Africa was a country, not knowing what NAFTA was and who it affects)

Nor are such Party comebacks ever really about the “Great Single Person - The Force” that journalists love to credit or disparage - reducing movements down to being the work of only one person. Not even with FDR Nixon or Reagan..they were just pointmen of larger coalitions and thinkers that hashed out what the problems were, and what the fixes were.

Republicans could be out 4 years, or it could be 20 years. Or go extinct if they fail, or become a small remnant party of diehard extremists (Communist Party, USA, Green Party, Libertarians)

Some obvious points:

1. The insistance that Goldwaterites had that they lost only because they weren’t conservative enough and the parts of the country that rejected them were all f*cked up and it was their fault didn’t fly far. Pragmatic Republicans confronted reality and shed the worst of the “movement ideologues”. The same fate awaits the worst of the “Base”.

2. Republicans never rallied around a single “leader” in past rebuildings. They rallied around ideas and philosophy of governance. Only when primaries started did “frontunners” emerge and get tested, then were designated as “leaders” of the vision worked out by thousands of people hashing matters out..There will be no “Vision of the Alaskan Goddess”, “Mitt alone at the mountaintop” or “Louisiana Bobby” retreating to the tundra, Moab summits, or swamps for 40 days and returning with a Party Recovery Roadmap.

3. Recoveries require purges of the bad actors, the ideas that once worked but no longer do or failed with changing times. Purge of the people whose personal beliefs alienated the Party from working majorities of Americans.
(At a minimum, this means that Republicans can no longer tolerate the corrupt. They cannot get ahead with the hypocrisy argument that Dems do it, too. They must end religious and “non-negotiable social dogma” litmus tests that have marginalized Republicans)

4. A purge of Neocons, and their policy of ruinious, endless wars to protect and liberate and democritize ungrateful 3rd World shitholes - is inevitable.

5. The rebuilding will be tough. The Southern Fundies alienated whole regions of the country, that are now almost Republican-free. That means some sections of the Republican organization will have to be recreated from the ground up. They also alienated hispanics, Mormons, and young women with religious and abortion litmus tests.
They believe they are “indispensible” and purge-proof, but they are not. The rebuildings done by groups headed by Nixon and Reagan did have to purge the worst hardcore, exclusionist true believers. The purged were the ones at war with the American majority and what they called the “RINOs” of their era, who refused to moderate, observe Reagan’s 11th Commandment and were convinced of their correct purity and “invaluableness” all the way out the door.

6. The rebuilding team will have to be brutally honest about hoary dogma and shed old stuff that hasn’t worked or outlived it’s usefullness. That means things like Reaganomics, “trickledown”, favoring the rich, paeons to an America that is no longer 90% white living in small towns, the rejection of science - has to be looked at objectively.

Nov 5, 2008 - 4:44 pm 231. ricpic:

All he had to do was say: “This bailout is theft!”

All he had to do was say: “My highest priority will be deporting illegals and building a wall!”

All he had to do…………

But he didn’t because he wasn’t part of us, the peasantry, he was part of them, the inside the beltway buttercup brigade.

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:17 pm 232. Cheesetundra:

Great point about Nixon. He was moderate in his policies, he gave us the EPA for one, he was just a little to paranoid.

When the GOP is in control they are moderates. A far right GOP has never held power. In fact have we ever had a far right president? Nope…..

McCain should have adopted Nixons line “to begin a decade of government reform such as this nation has not witnessed in half a century.”

Nov 5, 2008 - 5:44 pm 233. Grondo:

Yes! Yes!

PLEASE keep up your march to the far right. PLEASE keep ratcheting up the paranoid rhetoric about fascist-athiest-muslim-terrorist-socialist-commie-pinko-traitors over the next four years, and use as much violent, militaristic, jingoistic language as you like. Spend ALL your time, energy and money producing insane documentaries and “Obama Chronicles” and become the Truthers of the right.

That’ll be SURE to win you LOTS of votes in ‘10 and ‘12! America didn’t reject McCain last night because he’s a conservative - they rejected him because he isn’t conservative ENOUGH. America LOVES conservatism! Never you mind all the Senate and House seats that flipped, and all the red states that turned blue. You can win them all back and more if you just CRANK IT UP!

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:17 pm 234. Jack R.:

31. Not hammering Obama on the infanticide issue and his lame lies trying to cover up his actions.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:33 pm 235. gordo:

obama ran the best campaign possibly in American political history. McCain ran a lousy campaign. And his selection of Palin was a huge mistake - her selection showed a lack of judgement on McCain’s part and she is not ready for the top job - a horrible mistake.

Nov 5, 2008 - 6:52 pm 236. Kevin:

“This is absolutely Looney Toons. There is one serious reason and one serious reason only why McCain lost: He ran only on the fact that he had been a POW 35 years ago. He had no vision of America to sell to voters, and gave them no convincing reasons to put the Presidency in his hands”

Neither did Obama. His campaign was based solely on being a black man who isn’t Bush.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:23 pm 237. Kevin:

“obama ran the best campaign possibly in American political history.”

That’s pretty easy to do when you have 99% of the media running cover for you. I could probably win with the golden boy treatment he received.

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:31 pm 238. nlcatter:

obama showed that you are losers

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:38 pm 239. Javelin:

Kevin,
i doubt it, you would just come off as a mongoloid W clone

Nov 5, 2008 - 7:58 pm 240. Javelin:

Abby, are you serious? Only a total small minded dimwit sees any potential in a fellow traveller like Palin. She only attracted semi-literate neanderthals who would have only voted for McCain anyways. She is a nobody, even Hucakabee has more on the ball than she and his “Bring America back to my Redneck Plastic Jesus” mantra is a virtual bar to the Whitehouse. At best, she’ll get a Fox News Comedy show next to his slot.

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:03 pm 241. Javelin:

Mwalimu Daudi:
“The demented hate being spewed forth by the Left on this thread towards Palin is eye-opening. They really do fear a strong intelligent woment”
Totally brainless arbage and a phony alias to boot. If they feared a strong intelligent women, then why did Hillary almost win? Also, if that was true, which a lie like that is NOT, then they should have no fear of a dimwit like you or Palin. Keep parroting back the party line and don’t think for yourself, but obviously you don’t need to be reminded! I don’t hate Pain nor am I a leftist, I just enjoy reminding stupid, ugly, piggish reactionary fanatics that your opinion and worldview are worthless. Go crawl back to your trailer and finish you case of Pabst!

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:10 pm 242. Horace Wells:

LCpl Mosley:
I thought our armed forces screened out hatemongering fanatics like you. You sound like you are related to Oswald Mosely because of your inbred fascist thought patterns. Got any proof that Obama rigged the vote, or are so so base that any cheap lie will do?

Nov 5, 2008 - 8:16 pm 243. TeamPlayer:

So it’s the media’s doing? The media, roundly criticized for its acquiesence to the Bush Administration? They just changed in the matter of months?

It couldn’t be the VP choice…who DOES NOT KNOW THAT AFRICA IS A CONTINENT. I mean, please people, gain some objectivity and take your own advice. When the Dems lost you said they should look at their behaviour more closely. Well, perhaps some introspection is in order and the GOP needs to drop the religious loonies and get back to small government and civil liberties with less Rovian machinations.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:11 pm 244. TeamPlayer:

Oh, this is from Fox News…also in the tank?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZHTJsR4Bc&e

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:11 pm 245. Obijohn:

The reason McCain lost is simple: the Democrats were much better at execution.

The Dems were more organized. They raised lots more money (yes, illegally, but they know how the game is played, and they’d rather have to give a third of it back in fines later… maybe… because post-election FEC fines don’t change an election). They did a better GOTV job (yes, because they had a paid effort while the GOP used volunteers, and GOP technology sucks). The Dems found every voter they could, and got nearly all those voters to the polls. The GOP didn’t.

The GOP needs to wake up and get into the 21st century. MoveOn.org has a lot of high-tech folks working with/for them, and they know how to use technology as a force multiplier. The GOP had better spend the next year or so devising a better ground game, developing the tools, and documenting the tactics, or 2010 will be yet another year of pain.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:27 pm 246. Obijohn:

Oh… and the Dems were far better at shaping the battlefield. They were able to get their version of events accepted as facts (”the GOP owns the mortgage meltdown crisis” or “Sarah Palin is a dunce and Joe Biden is brilliant”, etc.). They set the narrative, and the GOP was in reactive mode. They got inside the GOP OODA loop.

Obama was the better candidate. McCain would have been the better president, by far.

Oh, well, “at least they won’t have George Bush to kick around anymore.”

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:30 pm 247. Judy, NYC:

i voted for mccain, as an anti-obama vote, anti-hysteria and anti-in the tank-media vote. now that obama is our president, i will support him. i think mccain decided he didn’t really want this presidency, this divisiveness, crazy assertions of racism, a black underclass just roiling and waiting to revolt, and the money it would take to smooth it down, we simply don’t have it. mccain knows we have to keep pumping liquidity into the banks, into the market, into businesses. and, he knew even republican conservatives can’t just let americans go without work or walk around with no place to call home, or fall into abject poverty, and not pay their bills, making matters even worse. we have too many needs not enough money. at the last, he suddenly decided to show us who he really is, and btw, why he has for decades, been able to cross the aisle and get the compromises and support to push through legislation. at the last, he was very adroit, charming, smart, capable and displayed plenty of energy, there was no oldness. i think he wanted to go back to the senate where he can do something, and get something done.

Nov 5, 2008 - 9:32 pm 248. TeamPlayer:

Again, Obijohn, was it media manipulation or simply the truth about Palin? This is from O’Reilly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtxDs3Rk_vE

For god sake, raise the bar.

Nov 5, 2008 - 10:00 pm 249. wy_cowboy:

I can see either the check pants, Rockefeller Republicans are out today in full force or the Liberals have taken over. Yeah, blame Palin for being held back by the McCain campaign, then leak stories about her after and how she cost the election. Granted, it was a gamble but one that paid off otherwise McCain would have lost in a huge landslide. I love some of the comments though…”walk across the aisle and work with Democrats” when they’ll be the first to stick the fork in your back. You don’t compromise on your principles and expect to gain something.

You don’t run on compromise, you run on a clear vision which, especially for the economy. McCain didn’t lay out his economic plan that well. Despite his character flaws, he’s just not one to fire up people the way Obama did. Granted, the way Obama did was very “holy” but McCain just didn’t have the fire under his butt, didn’t talk about American exceptionalism and how American will work hard. There were no Reagan like quotes and certainly no holding the feet to the fire.

As for Huckabee, there’s a reason the Republicans didn’t run anyone against Pryor. Huckabee didn’t do the state a favor being governor by increasing taxes. I like the guy personally, but I’m not that in favor of him either. Romney has his own problems as well, supporting abortion then turning against it. I like him too and he probably should have been the nominee but it would have been made into a “flip flop” campaign all over again.

Nov 6, 2008 - 12:45 am 250. susan:

javelin

If they feared a strong intelligent women, then why did Hillary almost win?

thanks for proving that they actually feared strong intelligent women.

The race card is more spendible than the sex card.

And since africa is not a state but a continent, what about the 57 american states that obummer think he’s covered.

How selective is your memory.

And what about not knowing that russia has veto power at un? with 300 political advisors behind his poor, ignorant a$$?

Nov 6, 2008 - 3:11 am 251. Top Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain:

[...] Top Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain Let’s get a jump on the well-earned finger-pointing. [...]

Nov 6, 2008 - 3:43 am 252. factlady:

The Republicans lost because the MSM is in Obama’s pocket.

Nov 6, 2008 - 6:14 am 253. factlady:

Yes, the economy was the #1 issue for most Americans in selecting our POTUS.

Unfortunately, most people don’t understand the reason that we are in a housing meltdown and subsequent credit crisis.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were established under FDR in the 1930s to facilitate liquidity among lending institutions. Under President Johnson, Fannie became a GSE and bought home loans to preserve liquidity in the mortgage markets and was backed by the US govt.

In 1977, President Carter signed the Community Reinvestment Act to boost mortgage lending in poorer communities regardless of the borrowers’ ability to repay their home loans.

In the 1990s, OBAMA worked closely with ACORN activists to force bankers to make risky loans in poor and minority communites. At first, Fannie resisted purchasing risky mortgages but were instructed by the Clinton administration to substantially increase the percentage of these mortgages in their portfolios.

1992 - Enforcement of CRA was “sporadic,” as the Washington Times notes, until a flawed Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study asserted that there were “substantially higher denial rates for black and Hispanic applicants than for white applicants.”

October 1992 - Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, warned about the impending danger nonregulated GSEs posed. He worried that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were changing “from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the stockholding few.”

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., countered that “the companies served a public purpose. They were in the business of lowering the price of mortgage loans.”

November 1994 - President Clinton addressed the housing issue: “I am committed to a new and unprecedented partnership between industry leaders and community leaders and government to recommit our nation to the idea of homeownership and to create more homeowners than ever before.”

1993 - 1998: Under Clinton’s reign, subprime loans increase 39% while other loans increased 17%. Prior to our subprime lending, housing values stayed mostly in parity with inflation. With more people buying homes, real estate values increased when led to the real estate bubble which recently burst.

June 1995 - Republicans won control of Congress and planned CRA reforms. The Clinton administration, allied with Frank, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., did an end-around by directing HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to inject GSEs into the subprime mortgage market.

1997 - Cuomo said, “GSE presence in the subprime market could be of significant benefit to lower-income families, minorities and families living in underserved areas.”

1998 - By falsifying signatures on Fannie Mae accounting transactions, $200 million in expenses was shifted from 1998 to later periods, thereby triggering $27.1 million in bonuses for top executives.

1998 - Mortgage backed securities were first allowed to be bundled and resold as investments (they had AAA ratings because they were backed by Fannie and Freddie and presumably the US Govt.). These “investment vehicles” were subsequently purchased by banks, brokerages, hedge funds, retirement funds etc around the world.

April 1998 - HUD announced a $2.1 billion settlement with AccuBanc Mortgage Corp. for alleged discrimination against minority loan applicants. The funds would provide poor families with down payments and low-interest mortgages.

Fall 1999 - Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers issued a warning: “Debates about systemic risk should also now include government-sponsored enterprises, which are large and growing rapidly.”

September 1999 - With pressure from the Clinton administration, Fannie Mae eased credit requirements on loans it would purchase from lenders, making it easier for banks to lend to borrowers unqualified for conventional loans.

2000 - The Senate Banking Committee estimated that, as a result of CRA, $9.5 billion had gone to pay for services and salaries of ACORN and other organizers.

Winter 2000 - The City Journal warned that the Clinton administration had turned CRA into “a vast extortion scheme against the nation’s banks,” committing $1 trillion for mortgages and development projects, most of it funneled through the community organizers.

March 2000 - Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., proposed a bill to reform Fannie and Freddie’s oversight in a House subcommittee on capital markets. Rep. Frank dismissed the idea, saying concerns about the two were “overblown” and there was “no federal liability there whatsoever.”

June 2000 - Competitive Enterprise Institute President Fred L. Smith Jr. on the Treasury Department’s $2 billion line of credit to Fannie and Freddie: “As long as the pipeline is there, it is like it is very expandable. . . . It is only $2 billion today. It could be $200 billion tomorrow.” Because of Democrat obfuscation, Smith’s “tomorrow” arrived in 2008, when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson put Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship.

April 2001 - The White House, releasing the 2002 budget, declared that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is “a potential problem” because “financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting federally insured entities and economic activity.”

February 2003 - Fannie and Freddie’s regulator warned that unexpected problems at a GSE could immediately spread into financial sectors beyond the housing market.

June 2003 - Freddie Mac reported it had understated its profit by $6.9 billion.

July 2003 - Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and John Sununu, R-N.H., introduced legislation to address regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill was blocked by Democrats.

September 2003 - Treasury Secretary John Snow testified that Congress should enact “legislation to create a new federal agency to regulate and supervise the financial activities of our housing-related government-sponsored enterprises” and set prudent and appropriate minimum capital adequacy requirements. But Rep. Frank replied: “I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis.”

October 2003 - Fannie Mae disclosed a $1.2 billion accounting error.

November 2003 - Greg Mankiw, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, warned: “The enormous size of the mortgage-backed securities market means that any problems at the GSEs matter for the financial system as a whole. ”

September 2004 - Regulators reported that Fannie Mae and CEO Franklin Raines had manipulated the agency’s accounting to overstate its profit. Fannie Mae ran radio and TV ads ahead of a key Senate committee meeting, depicting a Latino couple who fretted that if the bill passed, mortgage rates would go up. Again, GSE pressure prevailed.

October 2004 - Rep. Baker again warned about the coming crisis: “Although their bonds bear the disclaimer ‘not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government,’ the market does not believe it and looks right past the companies’ risk strategies to the taxpayers’ pockets.”
Rep. Waters said: “Through nearly a dozen hearings . . . we were trying to fix something that wasn’t broke. . . . We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines.”
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.: “And you have about 3% of your portfolio set aside. If a bank gets below 4%, they are in deep trouble. So I just want you to explain to me why I shouldn’t be satisfied with 3%?”
Fannie Mae CEO Raines: “Because . . . there aren’t any banks who only have multifamily and single-family loans. These assets are so riskless that their capital for holding them should be under 2%.”

January 2005-July 2006 - Sen. Hagel, with Sens. Sununu and Dole and later Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reintroduced legislation to address GSE regulation. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan testified that the size of GSE portfolios “poses a risk to the global financial system. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to bail out the lenders (GSEs) . . . should one get into financial trouble.”

January 2006 - Greenspan, in a letter to Sens. Sununu, Hagel and Dole, warned that the GSEs’ practice of buying their own mortgage-based securities “creates substantial systemic risk while yielding negligible additional benefits for homeowners, renters or mortgage originators.”

March 2006 - Sens. Sununu and Hagel introduced an amendment to a Lobbying Reform Bill directing GAO to study GSE lobbying and requiring HUD to audit the GSEs annually.

May 2006 - After years of Democrats blocking legislation, Sens. Hagel, Sununu, Dole and McCain wrote a letter to Majority Leader Bill Frist demanding that GSE regulatory reform be “enacted this year” to avoid “the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole.”
John McCain addressed the Senate: “Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were ‘illusions deliberately and systematically created’ by the company’s senior management.
“Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s examination of the company’s accounting problems. . . . OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.”

April 2007 - Sens. Sununu, Hagel, Dole and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., reintroduced legislation to improve GSE oversight.
The New York Times wrote that the “democratization of credit” is “turning the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare for many borrowers.” The “newfangled mortgage loans” — called affordability loans — “represent 60% of foreclosures.”

September 2007 - President Bush: “These institutions provide liquidity in the mortgage market that benefits millions of homeowners, and it is vital they operate safely and operate soundly. So I’ve called on Congress to pass legislation that strengthens independent regulation of the GSEs. . . . The United States Senate needs to pass this legislation soon.”

2007-08 - The housing bubble began to burst, bad mortgages began to default, and finally the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac portfolios were revealed to be in collapse. And the testimony is evident as to why.
As Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute put it, “Fannie and Freddie were . . . the poster children for corporate welfare.”

September 2008 - Rep. Arthur Davis, D-Ala., now admits Democrats were in error: “Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues, I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie. I defended their efforts to encourage affordable homeownership when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004. Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit when it comes to Fannie and Freddie: We were wrong.”

Today 2008 - The narrative is of another failed socialist experiment, this time a massive federal effort imperiling the whole U.S. banking industry.
Top recipients of contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 1989:
• Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.: $165,400.
• Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.: $126,349.
• Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.: $42,350.

I wish our MSM and the people of the US realized that our current crisis started long before the Bush administration.

Hopefully, we are close to the bottom here. So, will Obama get credit for the recovery when it’s likely that the probable direction of our economy will be to improve.

OR, will Obama make things worse by his promise to “spread the wealth?” I pray that he and his advisors have the wisdom to NOT raise taxes and increase spending at this critical moment in history. I don’t think Obama understands that the key to economic growth would be to stimulate job growth by lowering corporate taxes (we have the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world). People complain about loss of jobs in our country and attribute it to our NAFTA policies, however, businesses are concerned about their bottom line… how much profit they make. Lowering corporate taxes would encourage job growth and increase tax revenue and consumer spending.

If Obama does raise taxes on those making $250k, $200k, $150k (or whatever his current amount is) he will hurt tens of thousands of small businesses. Small businesses represent about 70% of our national GDP.

I just wish the American public weren’t so naive and had been willing to do a little homework rather than buy the bill of goods the MSM media sold ‘em on the tube.

Nov 6, 2008 - 7:05 am 254. Lulu:

The Republicans lost because they have done a miserable job for the last 8 years–9/11 was theirs to prevent, Katrina was theirs to remedy, they pushed a war upon a nation and suspended the true antiterrorism effort. They have worshipped the false god of an unrestrained, unethical, totally unregulated free market. They have suppressed the development of knowledge: scientific and technical. They have ignored and attempted to silence the people’s concerns about the environment. They have elevated torture and denigrated international relations. They have spat upon the founding principles of this country. They have smeared our image and our purpose worldwide.

I don’t need to number these points. And I don’t need to go on, ’cause you won’t get it, anyway.

Nov 6, 2008 - 7:10 am 255. How To Save The USA » McCain didn’t want to win, and I think I understand why:

[...] seen a number of elaborate write ups of McCain’s various failures. Indeed, I was planning on writing one myself. When I sat down [...]

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:02 am 256. ReConUSMC:

In truth there are really 14 other DOOMED McCain ISSUES like Borders , really fighting back at a totally bias media , lack of facts in debates or easy kill shots with Obama the world knew all about . Global Waring , Carbon Credits , No drilling in Alaska and standing up against the bail out and then going alone with extra $150.000.00 spending for Pork Barrel projects to get their votes when he ran against pork barrel spending …. then he wanted the Govt to bye home loans ? ETC.
Not to mention McCain isn’t one of us that had to vote for him .

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:17 am 257. Mark:

McCain’s single biggest mistake was in not realizing how corrupt the media that he has courted for so long had become.He ought to have understood that unlike the past it would do no vetting of Obama itself and would, in fact, suppress news that might harm his campaign.Had he accounted for the media becoming a non-profit ideological support group for Obama and the Democrats he wouldn’t have waited for it to deliver the truth would have exposed Obama’s Chicago skeletons himself,early and often

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:22 am 258. Norm:

Here is the issue Team Player.I have heard all sorts of childish nonsense about Sarah Palin since the end of August. eg. she burns books, she practices witchcraft, she tortures the young offspring of liberal marriages.For all anyone knows the African thing is just so much more BS. I DO know however, that Joe Biden thinks that FDR was President when the market crashed in 1929 and that he had commercial TV available to address the Nation. I know this because I heard and saw him say it. I also heard and saw him say that the US and France of all countries) “kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon when it never happened and he is supposed to reassure everyone that Obama has a “foreign policy ” expert on hand.So as between the two.Ill still go with Palin,.Thanks anyway for your advice

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:35 am 259. Bruce Williams:

We are facing causing the possible collapse of the world economy, the deficit has skyrocketed, we are involved in two wars that seven long, expensive years later whose out come is still very much up for grabs, the government now holds the mortgages on half the homes in America, making us in a very real way a nation of public housing, and all this came from a Republican President and Congress.

I see no discussion here of how this failure to govern well led to an broad based rejection by the voters. All is see are ideologues who only offering is a barely concealed hope that the country goes further to hell with Obama in the White House.

I am old enough to know Ronald Reagan. Conservatives then had an ideology they believed in, but it was based on real patriotism and a desire to make America better before all else.

The next generation, with the current Republicans as all they know, are becoming lost to the party. We need to have an honest look at ourselves and ask how we can make America better and as a start it is not by spewing venom on ourselves and our country because our own particular brand of ideological tactics were not followed.

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:38 am 260. ReConUSMC:

LET’S CUT ALL THE CRAP OUT HERE OK ??? !!!!!!!
OBAMA WITH ALL OF HIS SMOOTH INFO COMMERCIAL SNAKE OIL REV WRIGHT STYLED SELING SAYING A LOT ABOUT NOTHING FACTUALLY WHILE THE CROWDS ROARDED , CHEERED AND CRIED ?
ALL THE MOST EVER CAMPAIGN MONEY ,
24/7 ADS,HOLLYWOOD , RAP STARS, OPERA , BLACKS , LIBERALS , FOREIGNERS AND RACIAL SOCIALIST DIDN’T GET OBAMA ELECTED …..”" THE MEDIA DID “” PLAIN AND SIMPLE .
THE WORLD KNOWING THE MEDIA COULD HAVE RUINED HIM EASILY WITH ALL OF HIS LONG TIME ANTI AMERICAN FRIENDS , SOCIALIST AND MARXIST IN HIS BACKGROUND AND MORONIC COMMENTS .HE WAS A ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN .
THEY COULD HAVE CHALLENGED HIS SPREAD THE WEALTH , SPEECHES ON REDISTRIBUTION AND REPARATIONS BUT THAT WAS UNTOUCHABLE OR CREATING WEALTH FROM THE “”BOTTOM UP “” INSAME COMMENTS ,
THE MEDIA ALSO DESTROYED MC CAIN BECAUSE THEY KNEW THEY COULD ….
99.9 % OF ALL JOURNALIST ARE RACIAL SOCIALIST SO THERE IS YOU WHY THE SUPPORTED OBAMA 100 % .

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:43 am 261. Cham:

Oh yes, that is exactly what the Republicans need, more negativity!

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:47 am 262. Patty K:

That is so babyish of Huxley to decry Obama’s “betrayal” of his promise to forego public financing. He simply changed his mind, that’s all, just as McCain was free to do. They didn’t have a contract. McCain did not rely to his detriment on any promise by Obama. McCain simply wanted Obama limited to the same amount of money that limited him, knowing that he never in the world could have raised more than that on his own. What a crybaby!

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:50 am 263. Voice of Experience:

Cham: If you think that Obama didn’t benefit from negativity you must have spent the past year off planet somewhere.Not only were both of the CLintons,McCain and Sarah Palin covered with slime, but most of it was provided gratis by his creepy crawlers in the MSM. Get real !

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:55 am 264. Robert Hurley:

Factlady:

Gee I think you should become the Secretary of the Treasury. Where did you get your phD?

Nov 6, 2008 - 9:11 am 265. Rick:

I agree with you Patty K. Nothing was betrayed.Obama was all for public financing when it sounded good but threw it under the bus along with his granny, his reverend and anyone and anything else that got in the way of whats best for Obama.Its just Chnage We Can Believe In

Nov 6, 2008 - 9:12 am 266. ReConUSMC:

Too Lulu: or is it Comrade ?
Bush could have prevented 9/11 ? it could have been prevented on Clinton 8 year watch especially after the first Trade Centers BOMBING 7 YEARS EARLIER (CLINTON )CALLED THE FIRST BOMBING A CIVL COURTS MATTER ?? NOW TO MENTION CLINTON WAS OFFERED BIN LADEN THEREE DIFFERENT TIMES AND HE COULD HAVE BEEN SHOT 2 TIMES IN AFGHANISTAN WE NOW KNOW ABOUT BUT ”SANDY BURGER ” SAID NO ?
CLINTON GAL put UP the Fence between INTEL .ICE, DIA , FBI , CIA AND EVEN THE LOCAL AND STATE POLICE YOU MORON OR ARE YOU JUST SPINNING THE SIMPLE TRUTH .
Katrina was Bushes fought ? Your SICK ! they HAD a all Democrat Congress , Governor , Black Mayor and Black city council and total control of the National guard ……. the bridge in lest than a mile long to higher ground adn total safety but the mayor put them in the SUPER DOME with no food or water .THAT IS WHY THEY HAVE A CONSERVATIVE GOVERNOR NOW ..DUH !
So your for totally controlled and regulated Marxism /Socialism Markets rather than Capitalism .
You really should live in broken France , Italy , England , Russia and China .
DO YOU NOT KNOW ANY BETTER OR ARE YOU A PLANT FROM THE DAILY KOS OR THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA ?

Nov 6, 2008 - 9:16 am 267. Andrew Ian Dodge:

9/11 was theirs to prevent

That is so wrong as to be laughable. If you remember correctly 9/11 happened in 2001 just after Bush became President. The one that screwed the pooch on that one was Clinton. After under his watch they almost got Bin Laden. I just love how the left re-write the facts even when they are so clearly wrong.

Nov 6, 2008 - 9:17 am 268. Ferdy Ferlingame:

This one time? At band camp? The whole white house laughed at Bill Clinton for saying they should get Bin Ladin, because he was like a threat or something? And then in August of 2001? Like, Bush got this memo that said “Bin Laden determined to strike within US”, and, like, totally ignored it? So, like, I totally get why you think it’s Clinton’s fault that 9/11 happened.

It’s because of that whole “If Bill Clinton says it, we must do the opposite” thing.

Totally get that.

Nov 6, 2008 - 9:49 am 269. Carrie:

Obama spent $650 MILLION to get 63 Million votes.
McCain spent $87 Million to get 56 Million votes.

Obama outspent, had the media for FREE, and still couldn’t win in a landslide.

For people to believe Obama has a ‘mandate’ is ludicrous. Keep conservative amendments prove that America DOES want to keep values, but Obama has them all Obamatized.

It gives me hope that there still is a conservative faction of the US. McCain did run a lousy campaign and I only came on board when Palin was picked.

I am angry at the post election attacks against her and I am angry that McCain isn’t ballzing up to the table and telling the media and the handlers to shutup and that he is not publically defending her. It is disheartening because I do want to believe he is really honorable.

Republicans need to quit blaming Palin and look at the party. There is a strong need for a conservative BASE that does not wishywash values or core ideology of the party. Those that want it in pretty pastels or to be ‘moderate’ can slide into the Democratic Party and the Republican party can return to its value base.

Nov 6, 2008 - 11:20 am 270. Carrie:

Another point:

someone else pointed out exactly what I have been feeling for a long time.

The economic meltdown was a ‘generated crisis’ that is or is bordering on ECONOMIC TERRORISM. Too many things happened that make no sense and the shortselling was similar to what happened before 9/11.

I believe Obama’s ties to radicals, Saudi’s, etc are key to what happened with the economy and he KNEW it was his ace in the hole. He basically said, “you don’t know what your messing with…” HE KNEW he has powerful friends and allies.

Something stinks to high heavens. Why is the market still crashing? I believe that has a lot to do with the insecurity of what originally happened, the US and world response, and NOW WHAT with an Obama Presidency…..someone started the fall and now Obama will have to ’swoop in’ and ’save the day’….his solutions will only make things worse….

People need to demand answers, demand investigation and not let up until the original people are held accountable.

I have wondered why McCain didn’t make it an issue and WHY BUSH freaked. WHAT don’t we know? what did THEY know? does it stink yet?

Nov 6, 2008 - 11:26 am 271. Bruce Williams:

factlady - This is a ideology-driven myth in the making.

Most of the foreclosures are in California, Arizona and Florida. They are largely not to poor, first time buyers, but to middle and upper class people who got in over their heads considering their houses “investments”. They were buying more house than they could afford, often with “teaser” payments betting they could get new loans when the payments ballooned. They were also often pulling equity out of their houses to live beyond their means, feeling rich from home equity.

Everyone from Wall St. to Main St. leveraged themselves into high investment returns in a Fed driven climate of easy money. This easy money produced a high risk system, vulnerable to the least downturn.

The Republican base has got to stop being addicted to an ideology driven, self serving reality. This is the stuff of politics, not the stuff of effective governance. Our job is to be the people to run the country, not just political campaigns.

If Republicans

Nov 6, 2008 - 12:02 pm 272. The South Plainsman:

In the 50 years I have been in politics, this is one of the worst campaigns I have ever seen. Maybe Dole and Dukakis were as bad.

All of your reasons, and more are accurate.

Nov 6, 2008 - 12:30 pm 273. madduane:

Carrie: Can’t imagine why I’m bothering with this but I want to make a small suggestion. Look up Occam’s razor. Better yet, I’ll explain it to you. All things being equal, given any particular problem, the simplest possible explanation that actually explains a situation is likely to be the truth.

The various conspiracy theories you’re espousing are extremely complicated and require a lot of assumptions that really wouldn’t be necessary to explain the facts. Start from this: Everybody involved is reasonably self-interested, but not evil and devious. For instance — the election was not rigged, the financial crisis is real.

What explains the situation then? This country’s been drunk on fake money for a long time. We have a new president-elect that seems to want to make things a little more reasonable out there in the economy. I think you will find that Obama’s actually going to reduce your taxes, unless you’re making over $200,000 per annum. Instead of just being afraid of what might happen, give your skepticism a rest & see what actually does happen. I think you’re going to find, over the next couple of years, you’re not going to be nearly as badly off as you’re thinking you will be.

Nov 6, 2008 - 12:40 pm 274. Joe:

#1. As a republican and a “maverick” he should have come out against the bailout and come up with a better idea.

#2. Sarah Palin

Nov 6, 2008 - 1:24 pm 275. madduane:

With all due respect, the election ‘WAS’ rigged….14 known states with election fraud and ACORN, a media refusing to air anything negative about Obama, Obama threatening or investigating anyone who disagreed, credit card fraud on Obama site with donations from foreign money, and the list goes on……

the economy—you are joking right? You really believe Obama is going to help me when he wants to raise taxes (on $50,000 at last count), raise taxes on corporations (horrible for the economy) and Wall Street and other businesses and credible sources say 1) Obama horrible for the economy 2) Obamas tax plan horrible 3) Market reacting to Obama presidency…..

conspiracy theory??? how about blatant ignorance on the economics of Obama and how that will effect YOU and ME…..it is no comfort for an OBAMA supporter to tell me I will be ok and it won’t be as bad as I think…..bad is bad enough quite frankly.

By the way, my husband and I are small business owners and YES, Obama will probably bankrupt us with his wonderful plan to help YOU.

Nov 6, 2008 - 2:10 pm 276. Jane:

Wow, what a poorly written and unintelligent article. The comments are no better. No wonder Obama won so easily….you guys are not too bright. Well maybe you’ll get some education before the next election. Let’s hope!

Nov 6, 2008 - 2:17 pm 277. factlady:

Bruce Williams…

Yes, some of what you say IS correct but to assume that most of the foreclosures are from middle and upper class people is ludicrous. Yes, the worst states are CA, FL and AZ.

1. What you have missed is that under Clinton, from 1993 to 1998, SUBPRIME loans went up 39% while other loans increased 17%. With more people buying homes, real estate values skyrocketed and helped create the housing bubble. ACORN played a part in this forcing lending institutions to loan to minorities and the poor. They would swarm the lobbies of banks and block the drive through lanes while protesting and insisting that the US was unfair to the poor.

2. There were MANY WARNINGS of potential problems with Fannie and Freddie but the House and Senate listened to BARNEY FRANK who insisted that they were fine. Btw, he was having an homosexual relationship with an officer of Fannie for around 7 years during these warnings. See any conflict of interest? If he were a judge, he would have had to recuse himself.

3. Another fact about Fannie is that Raines, the ex CEO, cooked the books to make it look like Fannie made more money than they did. He still left with a 90 MILLION DOLLAR GOLDEN PARACHUTE. I hope he ends up in prison and has to return the money.

4. While Clinton was in office, Countrywide Mortgage was allowed to open and sell mortgages WITHOUT HAVING ANY ASSETS TO BACK THOSE LOANS! Banks are required to have $1 on hand for every $10 they lend. Countrywide had NO deposits to offset the mortgages they wrote.

5. While Clinton was in office, mortgage back securities were FIRST allowed to be bundled and sold as investments to banks, brokerage firms, hedge funds, retirement funds etc. both domestically and internationally. Because they had backing of Fannie and Freddie, they were rated AAA. The market doesn’t like unknowns. No one knows how to price the mortgage backed securities and until real estate values stabilize it will be difficult.

Lulu, you are a despicable moron. Just how could Bush have prevented 9/11? His term began Jan 20, 2001 and got off to a rocky start. Everyone was scared Y2000K….. computers would break down, data would be lost etc. The only real problem was that companies purchased new computers and technology in advance to prevent any problems and increased their inventories. When there wasn’t a problem with Y2K, businesses were overstocked and purchasing slowed for a very long time which dramatically slowed the economy. There was also the uncertainty of WHO the president was for approximately 5 weeks.

Nov 6, 2008 - 3:27 pm 278. madduane:

Carrie: First of all, thanks for renaming yourself in my honor. I’m so gratified!

Have you seen this? Obama tax calculator

As far as Acorn goes, I have two bits of info there — one, there is no election fraud there afaik, Mickey Mouse will not / did not show up to vote. The fact is that if a voter registration form is submitted, the organization collecting it has to pass it on through official channels. So whatever contractor / hireling submitted it to acorn defrauded them, but ACORN was just doing what they were legally required to do. Also, if you go to the youtubes & search “John McCain” and “acorn” you will find a lovely speech given by the man himself in praise of acorn just two short years ago.

I agree there’s ignorance out there, but my hope is that you will look to less biased sources for your info — factcheck.org seems like a good place to start — and see what is really going on with Obama’s policies.

yes, I am an Obama supporter. But I am an Obama supporter with my eyes open.

Nov 6, 2008 - 3:28 pm 279. susan:

LOL

madduane

from wikipedia

Factcheck.org, created by the Annenberg school of Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Anneberg?? Ring a bell?

and it’s unbiased?

LOL, thanks for the laugh.

Nov 6, 2008 - 3:55 pm 280. Cheesehead:

One other eason McCain lost? The GOP ignored Ron Paul. It should have been quite evident to the GOP that Paul has tapped into something huge amoung young voters.

He’s the closest thing the GOP has to a real conservative right now.

Nov 6, 2008 - 3:58 pm 281. Carrie:

Dear Madduane:

You have given me the laugh I needed to day! Factcheck.org not biased??? LOL Pretty well OWNED by Annenberg/Ayers/need I say more? I guess I would have to so as to educate the ‘eyes wide shut’ Obama suppporter! LOL

Actually, I have seen very accurate info on Obama’s Tax Plan. I went to MANY sources for my information so as to be an informed voter and not just reactionary and insulated by the liberal media. What I found was very disturbing.

That being said, if you think your taxes will NOT go up under Obama then you drank more of the kook-aid than you think. As a small business owner I made it a point to KNOW what to expect and the market is showing that others did the same thing. There is no confidence in Obama’s/Rahmel’s economic plan for Omerica!

But maybe you are one of those getting a free check and it doesn’t matter to you anyway….hmmm?

Nov 6, 2008 - 4:15 pm 282. N C:

You forgot one…… John McCain’s hubris in that he was the only one who knew how to win the campgain. Poor dolt…he will soon fade into obscurity and not even realize his fate. Cheers.

Nov 6, 2008 - 4:31 pm 283. madduane:

Annenberg was one of Reagan’s biggest supporters, you know. So when you say Annenberg/Ayers, bet it right — Annenberg/Ayers/Reagan. Might as well add Kevin Bacon to that, you know he’s in there somewhere.

Nov 6, 2008 - 4:33 pm 284. Voltairian:

Yet another reason McCain and the GOP got smoked? The US isn’t controlled by old white people anymore.

Until the GOP can form a coalition of young people and minorities it’ll be rough sailing for them.

Yet another? An overwhelming majority of voters said the economy mattered most. The GOP had no economic message besides “business as usual”

Nov 6, 2008 - 4:35 pm 285. Lawrence Kohn:

3, 4, 12, 13-had he an economic message ahead of time he could have had a context for responding to the eco meltdown. Had he highlighted the video of the House republicans and the Bush administration regulator being trashed by Barney Frank and the Black Caucus for criticizing Raines over Fanny Mae even young people would have understood. McCain’s frenetic verbalizing and running hither and yon before the debate showed him to be erratic and unsure of economics. Palin’s roll out emphasized her weaknesses and hid her strengths and threw away McCain’s appeal to independents. All the other 26 items were largely irrelevant. But timing too was important; Had the meltdown come when Putin invaded Georgia and vice versa maybe the election could have swung toward McCain But the margin of victory suggests otherwise.

Nov 6, 2008 - 5:50 pm 286. Carrie:

Madduane, the last time…….

Annenberg himself was supporter of Reagan. The Annenberg project was an organization funded from his legacy.

The Annenberg project just happened to be controlled by Ayers who funded Obama, et all…..The Annenberg project also runs,controls Factcheck.org……who gave Jack the subprime loan so he could build his house..LOL just kidding!

NOTHING to connect to Reagan at all….nice try though……Kevin Bacons kids went to school with Reagan’s grandchildren (JUST KIDDING LOL)…

have a nice night..I’m done..it was fun

Nov 6, 2008 - 8:57 pm 287. PJM:

“We have a new president-elect that seems to want to make things a little more reasonable out there in the economy. I think you will find that Obama’s actually going to reduce your taxes, unless you’re making over $200,000 per annum.”

I think you will find that the koolaid youve been drinking is spiked.

Obama is cutting NO TAXES at all that werent already cut by Bush and Congress in 2003. All Obama is doing is taking credit for extending the current tax rates, while raising taxes on the upper end. Then he throws in his welfare panders, relabels them ‘tax cuts’ but they are really Govt cutting a check to people. Thats WELFARE.

It’s amazing how stupid some voters are. Obama promised to cut taxes for 95% of folks. Well more than 40% of people pay zero in income tax to start with, so we know that promise is impossible. He’s calling the increase of welfare payments to people a ‘tax cut’. he’s pretending that transfer payments are ‘tax cuts’.

BTW, that Barack Obama tax cut website is complete BS. Its numbers dont match reality of the plans.

As for this BS: “We are facing causing the possible collapse of the world economy”
THE MAIN THREAT TO OUR ECONOMY IS THE ELECTION OF OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS!
Since Pelosi was made speaker the stock market lost 2000 points. Since Obama was elected … 800 points.
Obama is one of the causes of our bear market, already.

Nov 6, 2008 - 9:39 pm 288. PJM:

“Get with it - most of Americans don’t like it, don’t believe it, and finally see it and having no bearing on today’s issues.”
Not believing the truth yet believing the fairy tale lies of a dishonest presidential campaign is the march of a shill - you are one of the sheeple.

“We want someone whose present sense of judgment does not lead to a choice of Sarah Palin (need I say more). ”

Obama showed his judgement by calling a crazed, racist radical his “mentor” - that was Rev Jeremiah Wright. Judgment? Obama’s judgment is to see out leftwing extremists and build them up. Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Barack Obama.

“Obama possesses the highest intelligence, calm demeanor and bearing, and graciousness that America wants and needs from its leaders.”

Oh puleeze, was his shady and corrupt real estate deal with Rezko his “intelligence” or just his grifting arrogance talking?
The Obama you talk about is a cult of personality myth, he is vaporware, a campaign concoction.
we never did get to see the grades for this affirmative action pick. Were they as bad as sub-average Joe B, with his Cs and Ds?

Obama’s campaign cheated, voted multiple times, vicously attacked McCain (the email smear, the warmonger BS, 100 years, the list goes on), acted like thugs when criticized, played the race card. And you spew this bogus cr*p about ‘graciousness’. McCain made a gracious concession, but there is none of that in Obama. There is no graciousness, there was and is ambition. His hiring of a thug-of-staff Rahm Emmanuel, and his hiring of leftwing radical Henry Rivera, a longtime radical leftist, lawyer and former FCC commissioner, to shut down talk radio … is all about the fact that he will be a heavy-handed President who WILL be a threat to our freedoms.

Our duty as citizens will have to be to STOP OBAMA’S SOCIALISM in its tracks.

Nov 6, 2008 - 9:52 pm 289. PJM:

“So let me get this straight, the American people essentially say “we’re sick of the slime and am going to ignore it,” and your solution is to throw more slime????”

If the American people are sick of the slime, why are there Democrat trolls around throwing slime at palin even now?

Huh?

they threw slime at Bush for 8 years.
Then they threw slime at McCain. for the past 10 months (starting with that ‘open season’ slime by the New York Times in late
Feb, smearing McCain over phony connection to a female lobbyist).
Then they went after Palin. Remember the dKos trig palin smear. just 24 hours after her announcement and the left has a false story on her. WHY IS THAT HATE SITE STILL IN EXSITENCE? Why is that dKos hate-and-fear-mongering site not a ghost town, 100% discredited and emptied out due to the righteous outrage of people who are sick and tired of the slime and decide to never ever associate themselves with slime-mongers? HUH?!?

… or … maybe the liberal Democrat left are just a bunch of gasbag hypocrites who throw stones from glass houses.

Nov 6, 2008 - 10:04 pm 290. PJM:

“One other eason McCain lost? The GOP ignored Ron Paul. It should have been quite evident to the GOP that Paul has tapped into something huge amoung young voters. He’s the closest thing the GOP has to a real conservative right now.”

The liberty-oriented perspective did win some young voters for Ron Paul and it would be an asset to bring them on board as activists and volunteers to build the grassroots. As far as real conservatives, there are a lot of other great conservatives, and they seem to have more leadership potential and ability to work with others in Congress than Ron Paul. Examples like Eric Cantor and John Shadegg and Jeb Hensarling. Ron Paul has a following, but what has he accomplished in Congess, even when he was in the majority? He seems to be a lone wolf type, rather than one who can actually get legislation passed.

Nov 6, 2008 - 10:09 pm 291. PJM:

“I don’t recall whether it was Fox News or MSNBC that reported this, but apparently exit polls have been showing that Sarah Palin was a non-factor for Obama voters. That seems to confirm what I’ve suspected all along, that Palin’s presence didn’t torpedo McCain - the bad economy torpedoed them both.”

This is correct. all the Palin-venom came from leftists who ALREADY HATE ALL REPUBLICANS and Palin, as a moose-hunting prolife hockey Mom and Governor who wants to drill, just set off all the “hate-rightie” neurons in the left. So she didnt lose votes. Meanwhile the conservative base was relieved that ‘maverick’ actually picked a conservative and not another RINO (or Joe L). But her populism, accent, lack of inside-the-beltway cred ticked off the establishment media and the rest was history once the liberal MSM got their digs in.

Nov 6, 2008 - 10:13 pm 292. PJM:

When you lose women, hispanics, independents, Jews, Reagan Democrats, the college-educated, the young, and whole regions of America reject you - while every Right-Winger and Fundie and Christian Zionist with a pulse is already voting for you -”

Cedarford - Take your meds, you are ranting incoherently and incorrectly.

McCain/Palin won 55 million votes, to Obama’s 62 million. While it is a solid Obama win, it was not more than what Bush got v Kerry,
and infact was build on Obama peeling off some Bush 2004 votes.

The most telling numbers are these:
- fewer voters than 2004. What happened to ‘huge turnout’?
- 20% of conservatives did not vote for McCain

What happened here is that McCain did not give conservatives strong enough reason to vote for him.

We are not talking esoteric stuff, we are talking about stuff that 70% can agree on:
- no to higher taxes
- no to cap-and-trade destruction of the coal industry
- no to amnesty and social security for illegal aliens
- yes to drilling offshore
- no to bailouts and more bailouts
- yes to judges who rule based on law and dont legislate from the bench

McCain could only hit on 3 of those 6 items. This is like fighting a boxing match with one arm tied behind your back.
And meanwhile, Obama has the tax policies of Mondale but ran on ‘tax cuts’ like he is Reagan. It was the biggest bamboozling
in campaigns ever, outdoing even Clinton’s dishonesty in 1992. Many people were lied to in order to get Obama elected,
and the only silver lining is that those voters should punish the Democrats when the Democrat lies become obvious.

Nov 6, 2008 - 10:21 pm 293. PJM:

“She only attracted semi-literate neanderthals who would have only voted for McCain anyways.”

There are many highly educated Republicans who really loved Palin on the ticket. I’m one of them.

Nov 6, 2008 - 10:24 pm 294. PJM:

The Republicans in Congress who embraced big spending, corruption and scandal lost this election for McCain before he was even nominated.”

PELOSI has been running Congress these past 2 years.

It is pathetic how few people knew that the Democrats have been runnig the most powerful branch for a while now.
If they knew they would have/should have done the right CHANGE thing and dumped the Democrats from Congress.
Like Murtha … why is that POS Congressman not FIRED already? Geeez.

Nov 6, 2008 - 10:26 pm 295. Bruce Williams:

factlady

I agree with the factual nature of what you say, just disagree with the way you interpret the facts. What you are saying is becoming Republican Gospel to the harm of the party I am afraid.

There was a SUBPRIME crisis because so many more people BECAME subprime borrowers, not because so many unqualified poor people got loans. Many, many middle and upper class borrowers took out jumbo loans for the overpriced houses out of proportion to their income . “Buying as much house as you can possibly afford” was the common cliche given to them by Real Estate Agents and Bankers. To get a loans many became subprime borrowers because the amount of the loan was high for their income and assets. They did it to leverage themselves as much as possible to get as much “investment” profit out of the deal.

If people have in the past gone too far in debt to buy tulips, how much easier is it to buy something as concrete as a house? Not recognizing that this type of behavior is typical bubble behavior and dismissing it as something caused by Liberal Policy is more self serving fantacy.

I am observing Republican thinking becoming too political and not enough practical. We need to stop addicting ourselves to our own dogma by recasting everything to fit our world view. This unfortunately is part of the “selling” of your positions when you play politics but it is a poor way to govern.

Nov 7, 2008 - 1:18 am 296. Gekkobear:

” Donna:

Now that Obama has been elected, I am secure in my faith that the United States will begin to regain its internal economic and moral balance, rebuild its respect around the world, and regain and grow the friendship and support of our allies and others.”

Well, I guess I’ve never seen a nation try to get out of a recession by raising taxes, hiking energy prices, raising food prices, and increasing transportation prices.

Maybe that is the ticket to cure the economy. But please pardon me if I’m doubtful that this is a viable method to cure an ailing economy.

I guess I don’t have your faith that higher costs will turn into economic growth.

Nov 7, 2008 - 1:20 am 297. Steve P:

It was a simple vote for me. Vote for a Black Man that graduated the top of his class at Harvard in constitutional law or vote for a screw up that graduated third from the bottom of his class at the Naval War Academy. I really think the Republicans did themselves a disservice when they modified their primary structure for winner take all. Look what it gave them. This election was an indictment against smear politics and continuous lying to the American electorate. We are done with that.

Nov 7, 2008 - 3:09 am 298. madduane:

So, Carrie & all y’all — I’m done, too, after this. I came here thinking I could at least advocate for a little wait-and-see from you guys. I know you’re gonna spend a lot of energy looking for chinks in the armor, ways to see the new administration in the most negative light possible, and that makes sense from a certain point of view — that of the partisan-above-all-else. I’ve been that way too, over the last few years. Regarding your point about the Annenberg foundation, Carrie, your point would hold with me better if Bill Ayers had not sat on the board with Walter Annenberg (and Barack Obama). What I take away from all this is that we can all do a better job of de-skewing our views of the world. I came here to advocate for that. My mom is a staunch conservative & McCain voter. I love her so much and respect her views, even though I don’t share them. My feeling is that Obama would like to see an end to partisan bickering. If you’ll notice, he never once criticized anyone for being conservative in their views, even when specifically asked to do so. I think that speaks to a true desire for a change in the kind of attitudes and rhetoric we use in this country around politics. I’m not going to come around here and goad you any more than I already have. I will continue to think about the issues I think are important to the future of the USA (and the world), and I will take as example Barack Obama’s efforts to be inclusive and respectful. I hope you will all consider at least trying to see the other side on some of the important issues we’re facing. Thanks you very much for listening, and I wish you the best.

Nov 7, 2008 - 4:41 am 299. Dennis:

I don’t know how many of US voted for Barry Goldwater, not enough that is for sure. His campaign should come into focus. Barry was a real conservative. The campaign never got off the ground; the Élite Northeast Republicans would not even stand beside him, let alone support him. This seems to me to be a repeat of that election. The only difference is McCain is not a conservative. His staff was not conservative, and when Sara Palin was named by McCain to be his choice for Vice President the back biting began. It is still going on; ‘How could such a good man, a man devoted to working better with democrats than conservatives, go so wrong.
Sara, if you recall was the butt of their wrath from the beginning. Sara was crude, backwoods, stupid. Remember this “She has never been on Meet the Press.” Sara was the cow who had shot moose; field dressed them and took it home for food. “I am woman hear me roar” is not about real women but rather the Coastal élite. She was not qualified, being only the Governor of Alaska a backward state. No the attack is not directed at Sara, it is directed at all conservatives. Let this be a warning, get your own party!
A word of caution; forget finding a Presidential Candidate, focus on the House and Senate. Build a working conservative block that will then be helpful to a conservative President. 20 or so Representatives (enough to swing the control of the house one way or the other) will get some Committee Chairs. Five or six Senators will give the ability to force a filibuster. Keep focused, the country is controlled in the Congress.

Nov 7, 2008 - 5:28 am 300. susan:

steve p, if you vote looking at colors it means you are racist to the core.

And about top grades at harvard. I prefer someone ending at the bottom of his class on his own merit than someone who heavily used affirmative action programs.

But since you are racist and you would have voted even for a black cow, I suppose you do not get it.

Nov 7, 2008 - 6:44 am 301. Diane Davis:

John McCain did not give attention to some issues he should have On other issues, he should have hammered at them to the end.

HOWEVER, the fact remains that Senator McCain took stands over the years that did not sit well with the conservative base. Conservatives never forgot McCain-Feingold, which should have been overturned as an infringement of the First Amendment, and McCain-Kennedy, which was about amnesty and open borders.

John McCain is not a real Reaganite. A true blue Reaganite would have given Senator Barack Obama formidable competition and would have had a realistic chance of defeating him.

Nov 7, 2008 - 7:34 am 302. Random Friday Links & Perspectives « New Wineskins:

[...] Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain (to which one might add a reason #31 that trumps them all: For reasons we may not fully understand, it was not God’s will) [...]

Nov 7, 2008 - 8:35 am 303. Carrie:

Dear Madduane:

I thoroughly respect your opinion. Just so you know, and it doesn’t matter, my stepfather of 27 years is african american and my brothers are biracial. I am the ONLY member of my family that voted McCain and it was NOT about race. It was specifically that I am conservative and some are and some are not. For them, it was about ‘history’, ‘race’, etc and they very clearly told me I am racist because I chose to vote my values.

Now, I will say, if it was an election with Lt. Gov. Michael Steele I would have voted for him in an instant. Values. Obama is opposite of EVERY single issue I stand for and his associations mattered tremendously to me. Who we hang with (or did) says a lot about us and that mattered.

Now, today, Obama chose Rahm (extreme liber, partisan, old guard Clinton admin which is NOT change) AND backpedaled on the lobbyists in his administration issue and it is only 4 days since he was elected!!!! Is that change? Is that truth? Is that a sign? You tell me…..

I said I was done..I lied. Obama and I DO have something in common….

Nov 7, 2008 - 2:47 pm 304. The City Troll:

A message to the RNC, Time to begin the PURGE

The Victory of President-Elect Barack the Obamanation can be blamed and laid squarely at the feet of the RNC and our leaders in Congress,

It has been said from the beginning that McCain should not have been our choice, but the RNC staged the Primaries so that it could be no other. After all it was his turn.

What has it cost us? A man who palls around with terrorists and is a student and a believer in the teachings of Marx is now our President.

A man who has pledged to cut Billions from the military budget in the middle of a war, and who will systemically dismantle the greatest medical system in the world will have free reign, with a congress that believes they can run the banks and the Oil Business at least as well as they have run Medicare and Social Security.

What were we told conservatism is dead! It can’t win only elections run on bipartisan middle of the grounders can, yet where conservative ideas were on the ballot they won. Even in California Gay Marriage was defeated. I am sure that will last until The Obamanation appoints his two supreme court judges.

The Party must pay for this debacle. It is time for the party to split in two or be purged of the Rinos that now are in charge,

No where did they fight on the principles of the Constitution, no where did they point out the tell tale problems that our new President represented as the threat they are to our freedoms and economic system.

We must pledge NO support to the fools that now represent us. They had the power to fight this battle and chose not to.

The only people that spoke out were the ones on the Radio and their voices are now about to be silenced by the fairness doctrine.

There are 57 Million people who voted against the oncoming onslaught, and millions more who would have if they were given a reason or a person to stand behind.

We the base, the believers in the constitution and who understand the difference between right and wrong must now mobilize to prevent the destruction of our nation.
RNC

Nov 7, 2008 - 5:20 pm 305. Jerry:

The “Reverend” Wright is correct. God has damned America into the Soviet Socialist Peoples Republic of America, Comrade Obama presiding. The bad news is the Democrats are in control. The good news is that they are now inexorably responsible as well.

We must do to socialism, nannyism etc. what the Romans did to Carthage. Kill communism, Obomunism and statism and plow the ground with salt. In fact, this should be the our new symbol. You cannot live with a contradiction or a snake. Under no circumstances must we vote for any RINO or have anything to do with one ever again!

Nov 7, 2008 - 7:47 pm 306. Pajamas Media » Sarah Palin: The GOP’s Best Hope in 2012:

[...] McCain’s staff may very well go on record as having run one of the most inconsistent and bumbling presidential campaigns in history. Yet, just as Mac’s staff remained in deep denial of their failing strategies throughout the election, they persist in deep denial, blaming Palin instead of themselves for their numerous errors. [...]

Nov 8, 2008 - 12:27 am 307. House of Eratosthenes:

[...] With the benefit of hindsight, it seems to me if there was one huge letdown among the many, many errors of the McCain campaign, that would have to be the big one right there. Obama talks to you for five minutes, and you hear [...]

Nov 8, 2008 - 7:00 am 308. Jaime Alvarez:

How could a non-conservative articulate the conservative message? McCain and his staff are abunch of confused people. One group that befoer the campaign worked for immigration reform, and during the campaign let the other party define what their immigration stance was. Great incompetence! As Steve Forbers said, McCain should take a vacation and bring with him a copy of Forbes to see whether he starts understanting capitalism.

Nov 8, 2008 - 7:08 am 309. budzilla:

If McCain couldn’t run a competent campaign, he certainly couldn’t lead the country.

Nov 9, 2008 - 6:07 am 310. Accounting Bum » Blog Archive » The Morning After: McCain:

[...] also Top Thirty Errors That Doomed McCain, and The Morning After by Ron [...]

Nov 9, 2008 - 10:16 am 311. Scott D:

I have to disagree to a point.

The “Colossal Failure” of the McCain/Kennedy Immigration Legislation of 2007 was the core source foundation of his Nov 4th, 2008 loss.

This “galvanized public opinion” that McCain was hopelessly out of touch with 75% of the electorate. It also cemented his attachment to George W Bush.

Senators make horrible presidential candidates.

Nov 10, 2008 - 7:39 am 312. ExTex:

We HAVE NO SPOKESMAN!

We need, funny, articulate, brilliant ALPHA males(Rush, Glen Beck,Sean) and brilliant, funny, articulate, sexy and beautiful ALPHA females(Sarah Palin,Laura Ingrahm, Elizabeth Hasselbeck) WHO WILL DEFEND CONSERVATIVE IDEAS AT EVERY TURN!

NO MORE pansy, beta-male apologists who think the GOP is NOT LEFT ENOUGH!

God Bless Rush and Sean Hannity!

Ignore National Review, FoxNews, WSJ, Broder, Will, et al. THEY are to blame for this loss.

Rush- Please take over CBS and turn it RED- Quick before the Obama-Anti-Freedom-of-Speech-Censorship Act of 2008 (oddly known as the Fairness Doctrine??) takes hold and we have NO VOICE AT ALL.

Nov 10, 2008 - 8:32 am 313. deguello:

Only 30? Folks,Mclame was born to lose;that’s why the gop establishment forced him down the bases throats;with Obaman, they’ll have open borderrs, denationalization,and the destruction of the 1st and 2nd amendments A country club , Bush republican dream come true!

Nov 10, 2008 - 10:09 am 314. Más allá de las cifras: el análisis del resultado (I) « Sarah Palin en Español:

[...] Jennifer Rubin, en Pajamas Media, enumera las que ella cree son las 30 razones principales por las que fallaron McCain y su dirección de campaña: [...]

Nov 12, 2008 - 10:49 am 315. Trident420:

LOL. I’m sooo glad I stumbled upon this. I haven’t had a good laugh since November.

Guess what people??? The Republican base voted for McCain. They were always going to vote for McCain. Winning an election is all about winning the Independent vote. There aren’t enough registered Republicans (or Democrats for that matter) to make up a 51% majority, so you have to court the middle. McCain failed to do this, and chose to rally the people who were voting for him anyway.

Try reading something recent from George Will. Perhaps a sensible Republican can convince you how McCain lost the election. It has everything to do with the mass exodus of conservative Independents (and even a few Republicans) from the Republican brand… which has everything to do with the party chasing hard-nosed social conservatism while simultaneously abandoning fiscal conservatism (which was the only thing that kept conservative Independents in line).

It is also difficult to see people spouting the same trash as they were 10 months ago as if it was going to change anyone’s mind. I know it feels like great cannon fodder, but this ammunition doesn’t have enough power to breech your own defenses. McCain didn’t rail on things like Rev. Wright because everyone had already picked their side by June and belaboring the topic wasn’t going to woo Indie votes. Same with all the other “negatives” that make up the majority of the above list. Obama was vetted for an entire year by the entire electorate and Independent voters care about your preference/deference to Rev. Wright as much as they care for your preference/deference to chicken soup. Rev. Wright wasn’t running for office and Independent voters understood this… even if the Republican base did not.

You don’t win General elections by firing up the base!!! That’s how you win PRIMARIES, but not the General. Even Bush II ran as a moderate in 2000. He HAD to do it after absolutely trashing his opposition (including McCain) in the primaries. He had to soften his image to the Independent voter.

So the -mistake- was narrow pandering to the base, and not opening up intellectual channels with the middle ground vote. McCain didn’t offer them a clear, concise plan for this country and they saw little difference between his ideas, and the ones that we see in action today. He didn’t offer the intellectual, rational realism that Independents crave. He offered them a noun, a verb and POW.

Not surprisingly, it wasn’t enough.

Jan 5, 2009 - 1:23 pm

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