It’s not unexpected, but remarkable all the same. Many in the GOP camp are looking for a scapegoat and Sarah Palin appears to have hooves. I was always taught to put blame where it truly lies. So here is the truth about why McCain lost.
McCain ran a disjointed campaign. I believe he had an antiquated, but romantic notion of a Rocky Balboa style come back; or he was trying to pace himself like a distance runner. In either event, McCain did not look like he was there to win for the first couple of months. It wasn’t until the last few days of the campaign that he actually started “campaigning.” By then, the election was over.
One of the faults also lies with the McCain person who said, “If we talk about the economy, we’ll lose.” That was probably one of the biggest political gaffs in the last 20 years. It’s akin to Achilles saying, “If you attack my heel, I’ll die” or that famous biblical giant, Samson saying, “If you cut my hair, I’ll be powerless.” Now, to be certain, I do not believe discussing the economy was a certain loss for McCain. It could have actually spelled victory, but more on that in a moment. What this comment did was send a message to the mainstream media (MSM) and voters that McCain could not win if they discussed the economy. Therefore, the MSM–already in the tank for Obama–did everything they could to keep voters’ minds on the economy. As some news commentators aptly said, this was the first time in history the election/campaign news did not dominate the media. Instead, the top news every day was the economy (the topic designed to cut McCain’s hair and stab his heel). It is no surprise exit polls showed most people’s #1 concern at the polls was the economy.
Talking about the economy could have been a certain win for McCain if he approached it as a conservative instead of a democrat. Had he not gone to Washington for the bailout and then opposed it when it came up, he could have used his nay vote and Obama’s yea vote as indicative of Obama’s “socialism” that came up in the last few days. Moreover, considering the majority of Americans opposed the bailout, he would have garnered their support. He also should have campaigned on the idea of–not greater regulation–but of guaranteeing the public those who abused the system, whether a CEO or senator, would be punished. Instead, McCain voted like Obama and talked like Obama. In the eyes of John and Jane Q. Public, there was no difference between the two on the issue. If there was no difference and McCain’s people said he would lose talking about the economy, it stands to reason he must be the wrong man for the job.
McCain could have and should have campaigned like a conservative. Those who wrote his speaches and prepped him for the debates did a poor job in my estimation. While I thought he did well in all three debates, he wasn’t anything other than mediocre until the last one. Even in that debate, however, he failed to capitalize on the ads he ran. While McCain ran ads on the questionable associations–and ergot judgement–of Obama, he did not reiterate those questions. He brought them up in a weak-kneed manner and allowed them to fall like paper tigers in a spring breeze, instead of hammering them home. Rather than press the issues, he accepted Obama’s ridiculous explanations as fact, thereby sending a psychological message to viewers that these issues truly did not matter. How could he then expect anyone to take his ads seriously?
While some are jumping on the bash-Palin bandwagon, the truth is McCain would have seen a defeat like Mondale in 1984 if Palin were not on the ticket. Sarah Palin was, for all intents and purposes, the power behind the ticket. It was no foible on the part of the media that they spent more time attacking her than John McCain. They realized she was the wind in the sail.
So, let us put blame for this failure where it belongs. This loss should be chalked up to liberal bias in the media, McCain’s unwillingness to capitalize on the gaffs of his opponents, poor handling by the McCain staff, and McCain’s inability to distinguish himself from his opponent. I like John McCain. I think he would have made a fine president, even if he isn’t very conservative. Ultimately, though, I believe as the head of the ticket, all blame rests at his feet.