If you were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...
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  If you were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...
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Author Topic: If you were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...  (Read 3142 times)
Kaine for Senate '18
benconstine
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« on: October 18, 2009, 10:21:49 AM »

How would you have run his campaign?  What would have been your message, electoral strategy, VP selection, etc.
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xavier110
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« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2009, 12:02:13 PM »

How would you have run his campaign?  What would have been your message, electoral strategy, VP selection, etc.

Message: Experienced, trust-worthy independent
Electoral strategy: Hold down red states Obama should have never won (IN, NC, etc.) while focusing on OH, FL, and the Midwest
VP selection: Petreaus, Lieberman, Snowe
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HappyWarrior
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« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2009, 01:43:29 PM »

How would you have run his campaign?  What would have been your message, electoral strategy, VP selection, etc.

Message: Experienced, trust-worthy independent
Electoral strategy: Hold down red states Obama should have never won (IN, NC, etc.) while focusing on OH, FL, and the Midwest
VP selection: Petreaus, Lieberman, Snowe

Same message and strategy but with Tom Ridge as Vice President.
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tmthforu94
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« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2009, 02:10:20 PM »

Message: Experienced Leadership, Moderate Values
Strategy: Focus on holding all Bush `04 states + Pennsylvania, New Hampshire. Spend less time in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and more time in Indiana, Colorado, Iowa.
Vice-Presdeintial Selection: Tom Ridge
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Reaganfan
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« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2009, 05:28:27 PM »

Message: John McCain: An experienced leader we all know and trust
Strategy: Concede Iowa, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Michigan, camp out in Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Virginia and hold Indiana and North Carolina. (even then, you're only at 269 without Nevada, which was a hard one to get)
Vice-Presidential Selection: Gov. Mike Huckabee
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CPT MikeyMike
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« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2009, 05:55:46 PM »

Message: Experienced, trust-worthy independent

Spot on.

Strategy - focus on the 15 blue colored states for 158 electoral. Note that solid McCain states like Utah, Wyoming, etc are not included.



VP Selection - Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge
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Kaine for Senate '18
benconstine
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« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2009, 06:01:27 PM »

Why KY?
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Alexander Hamilton
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« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2009, 06:01:49 PM »

If I were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...

He would have won.
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Mechaman
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« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2009, 06:05:17 PM »

If I were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...

He would have won.

But how?
And don't give me your usual cliche "I can win any race in this country ever despite being a progressive conservative Republican atheist" reasoning.
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Alexander Hamilton
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« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2009, 06:06:23 PM »

If I were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...

He would have won.

But how?
And don't give me your usual cliche "I can win any race in this country ever despite being a progressive conservative Republican atheist" reasoning.
tahts all i got

im jsut a troll now
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Mechaman
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« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2009, 06:07:29 PM »

If I were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...

He would have won.

But how?
And don't give me your usual cliche "I can win any race in this country ever despite being a progressive conservative Republican atheist" reasoning.
tahts all i got

im jsut a troll now

That's alright, it demands alot less reasoning and therefore work.
Keep on trollin.
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Alexander Hamilton
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« Reply #11 on: October 18, 2009, 06:21:49 PM »

If I were John McCain's campaign manager in 2008...

He would have won.

But how?
And don't give me your usual cliche "I can win any race in this country ever despite being a progressive conservative Republican atheist" reasoning.
tahts all i got

im jsut a troll now

That's alright, it demands alot less reasoning and therefore work.
Keep on trollin.

thank you Cheesy
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Mechaman
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« Reply #12 on: October 18, 2009, 06:22:29 PM »

How would you have run his campaign?  What would have been your message, electoral strategy, VP selection, etc.

Message: Experienced, trust-worthy independent
Electoral strategy: Hold down red states Obama should have never won (IN, NC, etc.) while focusing on OH, FL, and the Midwest
VP selection: Petreaus, Lieberman, Snowe

Probably this.
However, after the financial crisis, I have a feeling McCain would've been screwed no matter what strategy he had.
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CJK
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« Reply #13 on: October 18, 2009, 06:48:13 PM »

Well first I would secretly arrange the assassination of Bush and Cheney sometime in April so that all the anti-government rage later on would be directed at Pelosi & co. Then I would run tons of attack ads illustrating Obama's lack of qualifications and his ties with Wright. At the same time, I would aggressively promote McCain's healthcare reform so that Obama would be hard-pressed to attack it later. The VP pick would be Pawlenty simply because he would do the least damage. A large middle class tax cut will be promoted (this was a no-brainer even back then).

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Mechaman
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« Reply #14 on: October 18, 2009, 06:56:03 PM »

Well first I would secretly arrange the assassination of Bush and Cheney sometime in April so that all the anti-government rage later on would be directed at Pelosi & co. Then I would run tons of attack ads illustrating Obama's lack of qualifications and his ties with Wright. At the same time, I would aggressively promote McCain's healthcare reform so that Obama would be hard-pressed to attack it later. The VP pick would be Pawlenty simply because he would do the least damage. A large middle class tax cut will be promoted (this was a no-brainer even back then).



This is actually a pretty good plan (especially the assasination, nice touch).
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MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!
Kalwejt
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« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2009, 07:36:20 PM »

Vice Presidential selection: Gov. Charlie Crist or Gov. Jon Huntsman

Pro-choices like Ridge: unacceatable for base

Palin and Huckabee: nutjobs
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CPT MikeyMike
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« Reply #16 on: October 18, 2009, 07:38:02 PM »


My bad.

I got it confused with the McConnell race. I though McCain barely won it.
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Badger
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« Reply #17 on: October 19, 2009, 12:20:13 PM »

So the consensus seems to be:

Run on the exact same "Experienced and Independent" message he ran on;

Pick someone (anyone) other than Palin (IMHO, no pro-choice moderate would be acceptable to the base, and Huckabee would scare too many swing voters);

And don't get suckered into shooting for IA, MI, WI, and above all, PA.

# 2 & 3 make sense, but #1 is still the big issue, and something tells me it wouldn't have worked:
http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p6
(See second to last question on page)

Experience was milked for all it could, and change was a losing battle that McCain realistically couldn't have improved much on. How could the numbers for "shares my values" have been improved from an already 2-1 deficit, or the "cares about people like me" been improved from a 3-1 deficit? THAT's the key to McCain having any hope (plus not picking a loser like Palin for VP or getting head faked into seriously contesting PA).
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Psychic Octopus
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« Reply #18 on: October 22, 2009, 06:42:42 PM »

1. Don't do all that sh**t with "Joe the Plumber"

2. Vet Palin more, try your best to brace ourselves for all possible attacks.

3. Focus on McCain's record. Keep going and going and going with Obama is a celebrity and Obama isn't ready.

4. Do not suspend campaign, or say "fundamentals of the the economy are strong."

Instead, say: "The fundamentals of the American economy, the American workers, are a strong and hardworking group."

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