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.

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.

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.