Some Thoughts on Mr. McCain's Campaign...
Sen. McCain finished his campaign as the McCain he should've been all along. He turned his campaign back into "I have the experience" and "You've known me a long time, you can still trust me like you always have".
It is generally acknowledged that this was not a base year, especially for Republicans who saw there national registration numbers fall while the Democrats rose quite significantly. Despite this, Mr. McCain ran a campaign with rhetoric and message aimed at the base of the Republican party.
Could he have won without them? Highly unlikely. Was picking Governor Sarah Palin and switching to supporting off-shore oil drilling enough to bring them home? Yes, yes, and yes. Add to that how conservatives didn't take long to think of Sen. Obama as an "extreme" liberal (socialist) and you have your base.
You'd swear, especially from the difference in crowd sizes that the conservative base of the Repulican party think they are voting for Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain isn't even on the ticket. It is how they have talked about her and how they have defended her.
Now, what Mr. McCain is that short, strong, and sweet sound bite saying what he wants to do. He attacks, attacks, and attacks some more. Moderates and independents want to hear what he'll do. They pay attention to both candidates and decide on who is best. They don't need one guy telling them what they think about the other guys proposals. Let the VP do all the attacking.
The top of the ticket has to explain what his/her plan is. Everything should be spent, as far as the free media sound bites, on getting your tax plan or energy plan or health care plan out there. Every time you turn on a TV and Mr. Obama is talking you're hearing about his "95%" tax cuts or his $15 Bill on energy or McCain is Bush. Mr. McCain, although finally campaigning on Mr. Obama's plans, even if they're attacks rather than laying out his plan, still doesn't have that consistent soundbite and he never had it. Not this entire election. Country first died within two weeks.
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2 comments:
i couldnt fundamentally disagree more. Im not going to overly criticize Sen McCain but i do have 2 pointed comments of what he didnt do that cost him the Presidency. Where was the opposition research in the spring? Why wasnt the McCain campaign in the late spring, early summer roming through the files of the Annenberg Challenge and using those 7 years from 95-02 as a central theme that Obama on issues of education and crime was a strong leader of the radical fringes of the far left.. his pastor Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Louis Farrakhan, ACORN, Jacob Carruthers, Madeline Tallbort, Asa Hillard..the inner circle at the Annenberg challenge under Obama's leadership. Its simply stunning to me that neither the Clinton campaign or the McCain campaign, 2 of the biggest brand name politicians in America did any real hammering of Obama's record in Chicago in the 90s, early 2000s until very late in the game. Hillary in early March, McCain in late September. and even then it was sporadic. Ive said it for the last 2 months, Obama's tenure at CAC and the Woods Fund and that inner circle of hard, hard far leftists Ayers/Wright/ACORN/Tallbort/Carruthers/Farrakhan/Hillard and his support of radical redistributive change should have been the central arguement against Obama in this general election and in the 3 debates but again were only sporadically used. no consistent hammering of the issue.
And then there is the bailout, i said at the time when he temporarily suspended his campaign and was going to return to Washington..i made the point it was a brilliant move cuz i had believed McCain after meeting for hours with House Republicans would lead the effort against the insane 700 bil Bush/Pelosi/Obama nationalization of our banks. But by signing onto the bailout bill he blew his best chance to 100% seperate from Pres Bush and hang the bailout around Obama's neck. If he had the charge against the bailout and along with Holouse Republicans and those equally upset nearly 100 House Democrats and crafted a rational piece of legislation that defended core free market principles, and fundamentally targeted what was wrong..shoring up the housing market and suspending the captiol gains tax. both of which would in my view done far more to let loose credit loans from banks again.Having an all powerful Teasury Secretary, bailing out AIG, not bailing out Lehman and essentially nationalizing banks in America has done absolutely squat to fix the meltdown on Wall Street.
In closing..as a Republican im very glad my party has such gifted new leaders in Govs Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal. Right now Sarah Palin is rightly the frontrunner for my party's 2012 presidential nomination and is the face and voice of the GOP. i also feel too that Bobby Jindal would also be a fanatastic Pres as well.
"and in the 3 debates but again were only sporadically used. no consistent hammering of the issue."
He didn't do that on any of the issues. He didn't do it on healthcare, energy, taxes, or foreign policy. He got caught up in gimmicks and tactics. He never had a single strategy. I still don't know what his message or "sales pitch" was -yet I know his policies.
He handled the bailout situation horribly. He was all over the place. You could tell he didn't have a clue. It re-inforced the fact he has always said he doesn't know ecnomics very well. He didn't have an economic team around him like Mr. Obama did the entire campaign and he had nothing to offer. Then he came out with $300 Billion to buy the mortgages while trying to call Mr. Obama the socialist. He just had dueling messages the entire time.
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