McCain Mistakes in 2000 Primary

[Dan the Roman]

i don't think it was the rumors about the black child and other Bush attacks that did McCain in, it was more his response to them. He made the same mistake that Harald Ford made in 2006, and Kerry made in 2004. Instead of either hitting back or ignoring the attacks he whined about them, got mad and lost his cool. He turned in a disasterious debate performance against Bush in South Carolina, lashed out at the Religious Right, which was not opposed to backing him altogether(Bauer had endorsed him), and alienated his Washington colleagues.

Could he have won? Absolutely. While he did have ideological disadvantages, so did Bush who had a much more moderate record on social issues, especially abortion as Texas Governor than McCain had in the Senate. He made no effort to do so though.

Even then he would not have been completely screwed had he rallied moderates but his erratic behavior post-SC offended them. He had no reason to lose Washington, or even Virginia the week before Super Tuesday and had he won those as well as New York, Maine and California in addition to the four New England states he would have been in good shape. He was close in all of these and they were all within reach.