Why John McCain Lost the Election
Reader Comments
Why Mccain Lost
David Cook, Palin may have been a + for you but as a career woman, mother and wife, my husband and I question the values of Mr and Mrs Palin, who didn't seem to understand that by putting her ambition before their family they put their own special needs infant and her troubled, pregnant eldest daughter at a disadvantage. We question her American values when my husband and I, true blue Americans but not living in Scranton or some other little town but in Singapore as expats, though we pay US taxes same as all Americans, are less american then some other Americans.
That's doesn't include my disgust as a woman, at her blatant use of her sexuality and attractiveness by blinkin' and winkin' like Noddy, to divert attention from the fact that she knows very little. She can't name any journals or newspapers that she might read, know of any cases besides Roe v Wade, understand that science in the 21st century is highly collaborative across the world and thinks that Russia as a neighbour of Alaska qualifies her to understand anything about the wider world (incidentally, she had barely led a trade mission).
Truthfully, my husband and I would have seriously considered maverick John Mccain for his greater experience and longer track record but we made the decision after the Vice Presidential Debate that Palin was not at all qualified.
At least, with Obama, having read his books, having heard his speeches, having viewed his debates - we knew he was smart enough to think.
Palin sunk a leaking ship
The Reagan Coalition flotilla had become fragmented. It was nearly 30 years old and the old Admiral had been out of sight for almost 22 of them. Republican moderates have been disregarded within the GOP for too long, and independents became tired of the continuous yaw of polarizing rhetoric. It appeared the old salt McCain could get the GOP off the shoals it had become trapped on. McCain offered a reasonable choice to those two elements of the old coalition but the social/religious right would not stay aboard if they could not handle the wheel. Refusing to support the presumptive GOP captain, they threatened mutiny. In an effort to mollify this cadre, the new captain suggested a First Mate that appeared to meet their needs. Unfortunately, the individual was not adequately vetted, had little experience in blue waters, having spent her limited career as a coastal sailor. Her obvious inadequacies were quickly revealed, exacerbating the presidential candidate’s own weak points. Moderates and independents became seasick with the choice and abandoned ship. Hit with the two other simultaneous squalls of a faltering economy and a failed war effort, lacking crew, the SS CampaignMcCain, caught in a perfect storm, became swamped, and the ship went down. All hands lost at sea.
Pro-Obama
Obama's win was a pro-Obama, pro-health care, anti-war, pro-environment, pro-jobs win. If it were merely anti-Bush, then Hillary would have been the candidate. America is ready to end the divisions. The country danced in the streets on election night because of Obama. The celebration would have been there but less enthusiastic with the other Democrats.
Oh and Christopher Morgan is right on.
John McCain and Barak Obama are fine people. We may disagree on some issues, but let it go. The election is over and yess, 'stuff' happened. If the economy hadn't tanked, who knows? But the point is, enough of the constant bashing. Senator Obama is now President Elect Obama and will soon be our President. There are still a few serious issues to deal with and this overwrought anti-McCain stuff won't get the job done. We need to focus and deal with ideas and issues-- not people bashing. Move on..
McCain lost because of his stance on the war and his pick of Palin.
He spent half the campaign crying for some recognition of the effectiveness of his "surge" when anyone with a brain saw that it was the fact that the Sunnis, who were paid by the Americans to go after Al Queda in Iraq and Al Sadr, who ordered his fighters to stand down, were the real reasons the surge accomplished anything, a diminution of the violence although that was never a major goal. McCain looked pathetic after a while.
His selection of Palin needs no exposition as to the damage it did to his supposed Country First mantra.
Mccain lost because of Palin
He lost because of his decision to pick someone beautiful over someone with brains (ie Kay Bailey Hutchinson). Palin was an absolute disaster, and most republicans and true conservatives know that (whether they admit it or not). I work in an office of 15 ladies and about 5 men.. I was the only democrat in the office at the very beginning of this thing. When Barack Obama had only a 5% chance of even lasting past the very first debate. As this thing went on, my co workers started coming to me morning after morning asking questions about him and asking if I watched this or watched that. Next thing I know, I was getting emails of support..(under cover support I might add). After the selection of Palin, it was all downhill. Not everyone in my office voted for Obama, but the one's who would have voted for Mccain chose to stay home, and two voted simply against a black man.. But all and all, Palin was a key factor in his losing. Along with the fact that, he was no war hero. He got shot down, and he wrecked several plans. He was a travesty waiting to happen. It's because of his dad that he got so far.
talk about deluded...
"Obama's win was more of an anti-Bush vote than anything."
"Palin was a + but could not carry the whole ticket."
Just these two quotes, alone, speak volumes about why McCain lost. The republican party is still in disarray. Their leadership still doesn't understand or is still denying the facts.
The Neocons have been wrong about EVERYTHING. None of their policies have workede anywhere. Including, especially, the idea that they could override the political process and commit treason by subverting the Constitution to impose their ideals on the American people. They sought to rule us, instead of govern us.
How about anti-fraudulent "compassionate conservitive" anti-corruption, anti-reckless, pro-competence, pro-rule of law, pro equality, pro-constitution, victory, more than anything.
Why McCain lost
McCain lost because he was a Republican and people were fed up with it: pre-emptive war, mendacity, passing the tax burdens down and the profits up; a nation of whiners?
Nixon was elected in 1968 and it is now 40 years later. In that 40 years' time the Dems have had the White House 12 years (Carter, Clinton), the Repubs 28 (Nixon, Ford, GHWB, and GWB). During the years (in that span) that the Dems had the White House, they had majorities in the Congress how many years? Maybe six: under Carter and two years of Clinton's terms. Why, when Bush and the Repubs had the White House and the Congress (2000 - 2004) did not the United States achieve some golden, glorious state of prosperity, cultural and social pinnacles? Why indeed?
Everything that the Repubs sowed in those forty years we are now reaping and gee, people are fed up. Why wouldn't they be? Real wages & purchasing power? Down. Real unemployment (not the incomplete numbers of people applying for unemployment benefits, but the actual percentage of the adult population out of work): up. The richest 2%, 1%, .5% of the population doing very, very well indeed! One Nation, indivisible? Not a chance! With liberty and justice for all? Haha, a cruel joke. Ship manufacturing abroad, incarcerate the unskilled workers who used to do those jobs, so we now have the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest prison/jail population in the world.
Forty years of greatness, right?
John McCain lost because
He is who he is. He is a great Senator and great deal maker but not a leader that stands on his values and principles. Once people learned that he was willing to waver on the conservatives values, they wondered why they should take a chance on him. The belief was that it would be a better use of their vote to take a chance on Obama and at the same time sending a message to the Republican party, get back to your conservative roots and stop acting like Democrats.
