McCain's Incompetent Campaign

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 07:00:00 AM EST
Tags: John McCain (all tags)

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Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone:

Requiem for a Maverick John McCain ran one of the most incompetent, schizo campaigns in history — and for that we owe him big-time

Lots of good reading here, I liked this:

In short, McCain entered this election season being the worst thing that anyone can be, in the eyes of the Rove-school Republicans: Different. Independent. His own man. He exited the campaign on his knees, all his dignity gone, having handed the White House to the hated liberals after spending the last months of the race with numb-nuts Sarah Palin on his arm and Karl Rove's c*ck in his mouth. Even if you wanted to vote for him, you didn't know who you were voting for. The old McCain? The new McCain? Neither? Both?

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McCain's Incompetent Campaign | 11 comments (11 topical)

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Not up to Taibbi's usual standards (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by andgarden on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 01:11:42 AM EST

He phoned it in.

Boring ... aren't we ready to move on? (5.00 / 2) (#3)
by Swiggs on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 01:38:32 AM EST

Matt Taibbi is too enamored of his potty fingers. He's becoming an embarrassment. Isn't there something more interesting to talk about than McCain? Oh yeah - economy, terrorism, Obama's new cabinet, Christmas!

: Part of McCain's poor campaign (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Fabian on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 04:40:10 AM EST

was due to McCain being a poor candidate. McCain's biggest problem was that he was a establishment Republican running when the times favored a populist Democratic.
McCain could never really distance himself from Bush, partly because he was a Republican but mostly because he was a Senator for the last eight years.
I'm not sure why anyone sees the need to pick on McCain unless they really just want to bash the GOP or President Bush but lack courage to do that directly.
Why are campaigns rarely evaluated objectively? Campaigns often are portrayed as the greatest evah! (which they almost never are) Or losing campaigns are reduced to a few high profile mistakes, while ignoring an entire host of other issues.
Talk about the 2000 presidential election and someone will inevitably bring up "Nader!" and keep bringing him up over and over again. I expect the same thing to happen with Palin,

: Well said! (none / 0) (#8)
by Prithimp on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 10:03:40 AM EST

exactly what is the difference (5.00 / 2) (#7)
by cpinva on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 08:23:46 AM EST

between the old mccain and the new mccain? "st" john has been a flip-flopper his entire career in the senate: whatever works to move him forward.

his campaign was just the normal mccain on steroids.

"Numb nuts Sarah Palin"? (none / 0) (#1)
by oculus on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 01:04:48 AM EST

I wondered about that one, too (none / 0) (#5)
by kempis on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 05:49:33 AM EST

When being foul-mouthed, isn't it important to be anatomically correct?


: You should see (none / 0) (#9)
by rooge04 on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 12:26:49 PM EST

what he wrote about her during the campaign. Some of the filthiest nastiest things that no one deserves to be called. Disgusting. I am disappointed to see him lauded here.

Yeah right (none / 0) (#6)
by lilburro on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 06:13:00 AM EST

"Sarah Palin would have been a brilliant choice as a presidential nominee..."

Didn't they call Gore a schizoid? (none / 0) (#10)
by Salo on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 01:44:37 PM EST

Which Gore will show up etc...Bush authentic/Gore fake?

McCain was basically consistent with his party brand and more-so than Obama with Democratic party policy especially on Foreign Policy. Obama displayed none of his true policy goals and the press buried any real exploration of his Dove status. There's a reason that Clinton was loath to apologize about IWR. She sensed Obama's insincerity on Iraq. I have a horrid feeling that the press prop up the inconsistent pols and bury the candidates that actually have a point to make. This year a Dem that year a GOPer.

wait a minute (none / 0) (#11)
by diogenes on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 10:20:22 PM EST

McCain didn't lose 60-40 like McGovern and he didn't lose almost every state like Mondale even though the economy was in free-fall this year and "it's the economy, stupid". To run 53-46 in this year's climate (and to be tied after the GOP convention) is quite good for him. If the bank meltdown hadn't happened until mid-November and Sarah Palin had stuck to scripted shows instead of going on Katie Couric who knows how close this election might have been.