For John McCain it was an unmitigated loss. He gave a gracious concession speech and now has to face a tough reelection fight in Arizona in 2010, most likely against the most popular governor in the country, Janet Napolitano. Worse yet, his reputation is forever sullied due to the nasty campaign he ran. All he did for months was attack Obama: he's too young, he's too inexperienced, he's a socialist, he's a tax-and-spend liberal, he's this, he's that. Hardly a word from the McCain campaign about John McCain. He made many mistakes but the worst of all was hiring Steve Schmidt to run the campaign (although without the title of campaign manager). Schmidt is a small-bore tactician from the Atwater-Rove school of politics who believes if you win the news cycle every day you win the election. It was Schmidt who dreamed up the attack-before breakfast, attack-before-lunch, and attack-before dinner strategy. McCain has run for public office many times before and never has he run a campaign like this before. In the past, he basically said: "What you see is what you get." He ran as himself and was comfortable in his own skin. He was visibly uncomfortable this year being managed and having to attack all the time. It's not his nature. Remember, this is a man who crafted actual legislation with two of the most liberal members of the Senate, Russ Feingold (on campaign finance reform) and Ted Kennedy (on immigration).
Probably McCain's biggest single mistake, other than choosing Schmidt, was picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, although it is very likely that Schmidt forced him to do this to placate a restive base. Left to his own devices, McCain would probably have chosen his long-time friend Joe Lieberman or former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, who would have attracted votes in the center and put Pennsylvania in play. Palin was clearly out of her league. While she has about as much experience as Obama and is great at reading somebody else's speeches from the TelePrompTer, she was so woefully prepared for the job that the campaign hid her in plain view for two months. She gave two interviews, both disasters, and held no press conferences. If she were President and Putin, Chavez, Ahmadinejad or somebody else did something crazy, saying: "Oh my gosh, what a nasty man" and pointing her finger just wouldn't cut it. She revved up the base as expected, but Rove's strategy of 50% plus one vote by turning out the base didn't work this time as the country really wanted change. In the end, she was a net liability as independents were repelled by her complete lack of gravitas, far right ideas and the gubernatorial ethics of Spiro Agnew.
I pulled a large quote since Electoral-Vote.com updates daily, and I didn't want these points lost. And they really do spell out a big reason why McCain failed...the John McCain that ran in 2000 would have won my vote over Al Gore, but the John McCain that has emerged since lost a lot of my respect. He gravitated to the Bush camp to set up this campaign, he let the GOP machine run it instead of being himself, and he didn't campaign on McCain...he campaigned on attacking the other guy. Being "not-Bush" didn't work for Kerry in 2004, being "not-Clinton" didn't work for Dole in 1996, and being "not-Obama" didn't work for McCain in 2008. He might have had a chance if he'd have just been McCain...we all already knew his story, but he could have inspired from the center, gave us his plan and vision, and motivated us to get behind it. Instead, he tried too hard to tear down his opponent and offered no clear contrast as to what he would do different. That and the incomprehensibly idiotic choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate killed his campaign. He'd have lost some of the GOP base with Ridge, but may well have been better off overall...the base didn't carry him like it did Bush. Even Joe Lieberman would have been a better choice...hawkish Democrats would have backed him. Palin...failure, big time.
I think John McCain's time has come to retire with what dignity he has left.
Technorati Tags: Politics, McCain-Palin, Failure
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