What finally scuppered John McCain?

Rowley Birkin QC

The man is a "liberal" Republican, patriarchal, war hero who spent years in a POW camp. He should have romped home.

• Was it Palin?
  
• Bush?
  
• The campaign that I suspect the GOP foistered upon him?
  
• The Economy?
  
• Or was is simply the irresistible force that is Barack Obama?
  
• A combination of all of the above?

amacachi

Bush.

And Obama reached the younger voters better.

smellslikeshoes

A combination of all of the above in my opinion as well as his age but Bush being the single biggest contributer by a long way. McCain is a super likable person and if Bush wasn't such a lame duck it would probably be Obama giving the concession speech.

amacachi

Had McCain been allowed to choose Lieberman as his running mate and had told the party to **** off he may have stood a slight chance.

I honestly don't think any Republican would've stood much of a chance this time around.

Biggins

• Bush
• Palin (small advantage in picking her/bigger dis-advantage in picking her)
• The very negative campaign he made
• The messages of everything but the economy (till later when it was too late)
• Not reaching out to the youth
• His lack of using technology to get his message across
• Bad campaign strategy

leincar

Age - Possibly
Economy - Probably
Bush - Definitely
Palin - Absolutely

amacachi

From exit polls it looks like Palin cost him **** all.

CtrlSource

bigkev49 wrote: »

The man is a "liberal" Republican, patriarchal, war hero who spent years in a POW camp. He should have romped home.

• Was it Palin?
  
• Bush?
  
• The campaign that I suspect the GOP foistered upon him?
  
• The Economy?
  
• Or was is simply the irresistible force that is Barack Obama?
  
• A combination of all of the above?

Good summary. All of the above.

But, the real John McCain always had an uphill struggle as he had to run as a Republican - one who would appeal to both his own party (as well as Independents). They would never, en masse, elect the real McCain in "a Democrat year". Many in the GOP didn't trust his Conservative credentials. Palin helped with that portion of the base, but not the Independents.

The old McCain who ran against Bush in 2000 didn't have a broad enough appeal to secure the GOP nomination. So, he had to reinvent himself. Thus alienating many Independents.

The underlying decency and principle of the man was on show during that incredibly magnanimous concession speech we just witnessed. My respect for him is restored, but not fully. He compromised his principles often in the last, desperate months of his bid to get into The White House.

But now i must watch President Elect Obama :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Manic Moran

Palin turned into a liability, but I don't think that was really anyone's fault in the McCain Campaign. She was a good idea with a lot of potential. Unfortunately, once she flubbed the Couric interview, she became a prime target for Borking, and it went downhill from there.

If there was any one single mistake McCain made, it was in selecting his campaign managers. Once they started letting loose with the Ayers and Wright crap and wildly throwing crap about in the hope something would stick, instead of actually saying what they would do if they won, McCain should have stomped on it. He didn't.

We have seen a return to the real McCain recently: In his concession speech. Had the rest of the campaign been conducted with the same class, it would have been much more of a fight.

NTM

nesf

As was said on CNN, by election day it was a perfect storm for the party who weren't in power. A seriously disliked incumbent, an economic recession beginning and the man at the head of the ticket for the incumbent party not being fully trusted by the base.

It was the Democrat's election to lose rather than McCain's to win.

Red Soup

McCain depended on biography and personality way too much. He kind of centred his campaign on it.

Republicans need to rethink how they brand their candidates, methinks

amacachi

Red Soup wrote: »

McCain depended on biography and personality way too much. He kind of centred his campaign on it.

Republicans need to rethink how they brand their candidates, methinks

Had he focussed more on that and less on "the base" he would've done better.
Obama won laregely because of personality. Hell in his victory speech I warmed to him, which is really sayin somethin :P

Hobbes

bigkev49 wrote: »

The man is a "liberal" Republican, patriarchal, war hero who spent years in a POW camp. He should have romped home.

Even that statement is questionable.

But the order of when things went wrong.

- "fundamentals of our economy are strong"
- Suspending campaign to help with the economy
- Sarah Palin being interviewed.
- Continual attacks on Obama rather the focusing on what he could do for the country (just as many people don't read his policies in the same way they don't check up on rumours, etc).

Everything else was just icing (like calling his supporters racist by accident).

Overheal

Saturday Night Live.

Hobbes

amacachi wrote: »

Obama won laregely because of personality.

I think anyone who believes that has never really to investigate Obamas policies and what he was running on. I mean people didn't go door to door and say vote for Obama because he has a nice personality.

amacachi

Yeah, but a helluva lot of people don't look into policies.

nesf

amacachi wrote: »

Yeah, but a helluva lot of people don't look into policies.

Never mind actually understand them or their implications.

Rented Mule

McCain's biggest obstacles to over come were:

1) The USA Economy - the #1 concern amongst all voters in the United States at the moment (coupled with)

2) Gerorge Bush - he could not distance himself enough from him

3) The Republican Party running his campaign with very little say in what was happening around him.

limklad

Combination of all the above.

But it was mainly economy which it seem, they blame Bush and Republicans for that failure.

yaynay

Personally I believe the main reason he didn't win is due to BUSH. McCain wasn't able to build a big enough barrier between himself and W. And the American people didn't want to take their chances with another 4 years - understandably so.

Sherifu

The Economy and Bush. Palin helped towards the end.

is_that_so

All of the above as they say with Bush and the economy, the big ones.
Bush was the big stick, that could be used to beat any Republican any time.

I think Palin was less so and did what she was supposed to do, appeal to the conservative base. She certainly had potential but turned out to have absolutely no substance to appeal to the middle ground.

In the end he just came up against a far more talented politician with a better message that appealed to more people.

lg123

is there something wrong with john mcains elbows? he never seems to bend them from what i can see. very weird wave

Mick Shrimpton

lg123 wrote: »

is there something wrong with john mcains elbows? he never seems to bend them from what i can see. very weird wave

It is freaky innit.

He had both his arms broken when he was a POW iirc.

amacachi

He can't raise his arms above his head because of the abuse he endured as a POW. What a freak:rolleyes:

lg123

thats what scuppered him so, it was the VC's fault he lost.

Handsome Bob

I'd have to say a combination of his age coupled with his choice of VP in Sarah Palin. There was huge hysteria when McCain revealed her but then it all went downhill whether it be due to the words that came out of her mouth or details on her background that emerged.

Dave!

I would think that the choice of Palin was a bad idea. Fair enough McCain aint popular with the Republican base, but who were they gonna vote for -- Obama??? If he hadn't picked Palin, then I suspect the campaign would have had wider appeal.

I'd also say the negativity of the campaign was off-putting.

Other than that, he might have won.

Who decides on these things btw? I don't imagine McCain went and dug out Palin, so who would have recommended her? Do campaign managers make these kind of recommendations? And they would also have recommended the negative tactics employed.

Anyone know who McCain's campaign manager was?

Scoobydoobydoo

From what I hear:

He intended to keep the war going in Iraq

He didn't have much of an economic policy

His age, plus if anything happened to him, Sarah Palin was an unacceptable (and scary) choice to fill in as Commander in Chief!

irish_bob

the tide turned when leahmann brothers went bust and the financial meltdown became the top news story , seeing as bush and the republicans happend to be the party in office , they owned this problem and so mc cain owned it by association ,sarah palin gave the campaign a boost when she was put on the ticket but it wasnt enough to save his campaign from the wall st meltdown and the subsequent backlash

before september , mc cain was slightly in the lead , he was the one republican canditate who could have won what with his appeal among independants

it was a perfect storm for obama , luck plays a part in all great events and storys and so it was with obama

MisterAnarchy

The main reason would be the state of the US economy where the blame has been squarely placed on George Bush and the GOP.
McCain while being an unconventional Republican could not distance himself enough from that blame.
Sarah Palin was a poor choice as VP.

What cannot be discounted though is the 700m Usd that Obama spent on his campaign,over $10 for every vote he received.
That is obscene money.
Did he buy the election ? Who knows .I certainly think there should be a cap on campaign costs.

The media in the states is predominately left wing and I think the truth was the major casualty of this campaign.
The coverage was biased in the extreme.
I'm shocked as to how biased their media is compared to ours.