Who is reponsible for McCain's imminent election loss ?

[12th Doctor]

McCain himself, ultimately.

Agreed.  Sure, the economy blew up, his campaign staff  is inept at best, and criminally negligent at worst, and his running mate is one of the worst in history... but McCain could have taken a different turn at every single cross roads, and didn't.

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

All of the above, plus the voters, for nominating McCain.

[??????????]

Why bother voting if this election is already decided? I'm sure President Dewey would have agreed with me on this one.

and his running mate is one of the worst in history..

Please.

[Judäischen Volksfront]

This one is funny regardless of your political position:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xnk9aqih8o&feature=channel

[Stranger in a strange land]

Romney no, but thompson, yes.

I hope you're not meaning that Romney would have less of a chance against Obama than Thompson.  That's just ridiculous.  Or perhaps you're asserting Romney does not oppose amnesty?

Sorry to dash your hopes, but that is exactly what I meant.  And, no, it is not ridiculous!

The reason being that fundies, for some reason which escapes me, have taken a strong dislike to Mormons.

there's a long, long list of reasons why Fundamentalist Protestants don't like Mormons, but the main reasons are:

-Mormons elevate the Book of Mormon and The Pearl of Great Price above the Christian Bible
-The most significant disagreement is on the issue of Biblical inerrancy: most Fundamentalist Protestants and Evangelicals believe that he Bible is the literal word of God, and is therefore incapable of error; Mormons believe that the Bible is an imperfect text.
-The Mormons teach that God was once a man
-The The LDS Church used to allow polygamy, and some sects still do
-The LDS Church teaches that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are separate entities, while Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Churches all teach that they are different aspects of the same God.

[Politico]

McCain is ultimately responsible. It's his campaign - he decides who is on the campaign team and surely made a lot of calls on key strategy. He also made the pick of Palin. I kind of feel bad for her because she does seem like a nice person with a good family, but she really never should have been put in this situation in the first place. When it comes to his record, it was his decision to vote with Bush and fellow hardliner Republicans 92% of the time.

[WillK]

McCain lost this election by himself.  He was a weak campaigner, showed poor judgment and lack of character and failed to successfully articulate his policy vision.   

[Mr. Morden]

The real answer is the Republican failure of the past 8 years. Pretty much any competent democrat would've beaten McCain.

Yes, but the problem for McCain is that, if Bush were reasonably popular, it's unlikely that McCain ever could have won the GOP nomination.  They would have nominated a more conventional Republican.  McCain could only win the nomination with support from the sizable minority in the party who are disillusioned with Bush.  If that group didn't exist, he wouldn't have gotten this far.

[Applezz]

With Bush's 28% approval rating it's a miracle McCain got even 47% of the vote. But in the end McCain could've actually won the election if it wasn't for the economy.

Think about this: before the economic crisis McCain was up by 3% in the rasmussen polls. After, he was down by 7%. Wow that's a 10% difference. Look at all the states that ended up being close (Florida, Missouri, NC, Virginia, Oho, etc.), they definitely would've went to McCain in the end.

[WillK]

With Bush's 28% approval rating it's a miracle McCain got even 47% of the vote. But in the end McCain could've actually won the election if it wasn't for the economy.

Think about this: before the economic crisis McCain was up by 3% in the rasmussen polls. After, he was down by 7%. Wow that's a 10% difference. Look at all the states that ended up being close (Florida, Missouri, NC, Virginia, Oho, etc.), they definitely would've went to McCain in the end.

I disagree.  McCain was temporarily up because of 'post convention bounce' but once the American public started really focusing on the difference between the two candidates  -- remember that the debates started around that  time -- and once the scrutiny of Palin started in earnest, the polls swung against him.   What the economic crisis did was cause him to react in order to get media attention but his reaction was so pathetic that it backfired. 

[Alaska Thunderfvck]

McCain only has himself to blame with his erratic behavior the entire election season.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

McCain actually did a good job concerning the mess which he was in-

53-45-2 could have been 58-40-2 if W was allowed to run again.

[MK13]

McCain allowed fools to run his campaign.
Palin was a drag on the ticket because if the MSM is talking( as in bad press) about your VP pick 24hrs before the election then its not a good sign.
 He showed weakness during a time of cirsis.

[??????????]

McCain allowed fools to run his campaign.
Palin was a drag on the ticket because if the MSM is talking( as in bad press) about your VP pick 24hrs before the election then its not a good sign.
 He showed weakness during a time of cirsis.

Not really, he was pretty much doomed from September 15th onward.

[MK13]

McCain allowed fools to run his campaign.
Palin was a drag on the ticket because if the MSM is talking( as in bad press) about your VP pick 24hrs before the election then its not a good sign.
 He showed weakness during a time of cirsis.

Not really, he was pretty much doomed from September 15th onward.

According to McCain the economy was strong, until the Dow Jones hit -800 2 hrs later and wallstreet proceded to meltdown.

But the #1 rule in picking a VP is DO NO HARM!!

[President Marokai]

It's a little bit of everything, really.

Agreed. McCain seemed (dare I use a talking point phrase?) erratic in the face of a crisis, and kept switching positions on a dime. Do any of us still know a coherent position on the economy other than "CUT TAXES CUT TAXES CUT TAXES!"? One moment we're in crisis mode, the next the fundamentals are strong, the next a bailout is a bad idea, then it's a good idea, then he says on morning joe it's a tragedy but he'll vote for it anyway. He attacks millions of dollars for bear DNA studying on a debate then it turns out he voted for that too. The list can go on and on. McCain himself was the biggest reason he lost, but it wasn't the only one.

McCain was also an arrogant ass to Obama in two of the debates and seemed sarcastic and grumpy on the trail.

Palin was a disaster. In her own right and for McCain. She was a showhorse who knew next to nothing about even basic things, and it undercut McCain's own message of 'experience.' It also hurt his position among women ironically because it was clear she was picked solely based on her gender and her batsh**t beliefs.

Bush, of course, was also a big part of it, because it destroyed any and all Republican credibility. After 8 years of complete disaster McCain comes along sharing 8/10 positions with Bush himself. It was pretty clear that most voters were going to the booths and remembering the face of Bush.

But ultimately, it was McCain himself and McCain's campaign, who couldn't stay on message for more than five seconds, stoked up racism and religious intolerance, inspired hatred and fear over Obama in the hearts and minds of millions, and had to constantly stop and correct itself. The Republican party is becoming a regional party and that's incredibly dangerous, and that campaign seemed incapable of playing to anyone beyond Joe & Mary Jesus-lover from Texas.

[??????????]

McCain allowed fools to run his campaign.
Palin was a drag on the ticket because if the MSM is talking( as in bad press) about your VP pick 24hrs before the election then its not a good sign.
 He showed weakness during a time of cirsis.

Not really, he was pretty much doomed from September 15th onward.

According to McCain the economy was strong, until the Dow Jones hit -800 2 hrs later and wallstreet proceded to meltdown.

But the #1 rule in picking a VP is DO NO HARM!!

The fundamentals of the economy were and are still very strong.

[MK13]

McCain allowed fools to run his campaign.
Palin was a drag on the ticket because if the MSM is talking( as in bad press) about your VP pick 24hrs before the election then its not a good sign.
 He showed weakness during a time of cirsis.

Not really, he was pretty much doomed from September 15th onward.

According to McCain the economy was strong, until the Dow Jones hit -800 2 hrs later and wallstreet proceded to meltdown.

But the #1 rule in picking a VP is DO NO HARM!!

The fundamentals of the economy were and are still very strong.

Your the only republican who still makes that point.

Iam sure McCain feels the same way you do.

[Senator Ben]

Not only was McCain's campaign poorly run, but it suffered from the economic crash, an already anti-GOP enviroment, a perfectly run campaign by his opponent, and hurricane Palin, who in the end hurt Obama more than she helped.

[??????????]

Your the only republican who still makes that point.

Iam sure McCain feels the same way you do.

First off, I'm not a Republican and secondly, when you see massive inflation, bread lines, thousands upon thousands of homeless and a greater then 15% unemployment rate, then you can claim that the fundamentals of the economy are NOT strong. We're doing tons better then a lot of other countries would do faced with this situation.

Not only was McCain's campaign poorly run, but it suffered from the economic crash, an already anti-GOP enviroment, a perfectly run campaign by his opponent, and hurricane Palin, who in the end hurt Obama more than she helped.

The polls have proven that Palin didn't really hurt McCain, she actually helped him gain a few points.

[Jacobtm]

McCain and his campaign responded terribly to the financial crisis, completely undercutting the argument that McCain was ready to lead and Obama wasn't. He focused resources in states like IA and PA which weren't going to go for him, while continuing to ignore turnout operations and valuable voter-contacts in states that actually ended up being close.

He could've won this election, he just handled it all wrong.

[ShadowOfTheWave]

1.Failure to rally conservative base by not bringing up Wright

2.Inconsistent message, one week's it's Ayers, next week it's Joe the Plumber

3.Rather than Bush's 2004 'We're patriots and they're traitors!' theme, McCain's campaign came off as lame and gimmicky.

4.Palin was denied access to the media. We have no idea exactly how dumb she is, and if she really isn't that stupid she should have been made available.

[pbrower2a]

1. GEORGE W. BUSH.

Any Republican candidate had to distance himself as much as possible -- and John McCain seemed most likely to do so. He was no wing-nut right-winger. He promised to be bi-partisan and recognized that the Democrats would probably hold majorities in both Houses of Congress.

Throughout the summer, McCain was doing better than the GOP as a whole. Then things fell apart.

2. BAD CAMPAIGN STRATEGY.

Granted, things wouldn't have been easy for any Republican because of the Blue Firewall (that probably became more solid because of Dubya's practices, but that's under the first category anyway) of states that looked as if they would vote for any Democrat because they hadn't voted for a Republican nominee since at least 1988. McCain had to win practically everything else to win. He should have run a truly national campaign to cut into Obama support nationwide.

Around September 1, such states as Colorado, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia were all split roughly 50-50.  Any one of them would have won the campaign for Obama, and as events showed, 7 of the 8 went for Obama. To cut into the chance of winning all of them McCain would have needed to cut into Obama support nationwide. It's not as if those states formed a political monolith.

Take out two of those states (Indiana because Obama wasn't going to win it without winning Ohio, and North Carolina because Obama wasn't going to win it without winning Virginia as well), and the chance of a McCain victory was about one in 64.

3. THE SHRINKING CONSERVATIVE "BASE"

Demographics indicated clearly that the Religious Right was getting older and smaller. Add to that the number of people who trust Corporate America to serve people other than executives and tycoons... and the GOP loses perhaps 4% of the vote that it got in 2004 with respect to the nation as a whole.

The youngest voters were fleeing the Right. No candidate can win by neglecting the "moderate" vote. 

4. THE GOP NATIONAL CONVENTION

Whatever image one might have had of McCain as a moderate leading a political party that could follow him evaporated. The Hard Right still controlled the GOP and so showed through its hammering on the old right-wing anti-labor, anti-environment, pro-war, religious fundamentalist agenda. If one voted for McCain one wouldn't know what one got. Sure, there was a bump in support of the GOP... only to vanish almost overnight.

5. SARAH PALIN

I don't know how McCain picked her -- or whether she was his first choice. She left no question that she lacked the judgment appropriate for a President in the event of the not-so-unthinkable. She mangled logic as if she were squeezing a flimsy object.  She became a gaffe machine. She made claims to expertise that utterly imploded.  She had to be put on a short leash... and she typically ended up in the role of a warm-up comedian for the big act.  Unlike Obama and Biden, who could be in two places at once, McCain and Palin couldn't. That made campaigning less efficient and effective in itself. Add to that -- her family wasn't particularly wholesome.

Think about it: who was the last successful Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate to have a daughter with a child out of wedlock?  No Third-Party types, please. If she couldn't keep her daughter from getting knocked up while unmarried, then what does that say about her ability to lead?

6. THE HISPANIC VOTE

The Republicans had been making considerable progress in winning Hispanic votes to their side... and the right-wing nativists got their say in the GOP.  That effectively threw away thirty years of electoral progress among a fast-growing minority down the drain.

Note also that Mexican-American voters tend to be young and tend to buy houses at lower incomes than do members of other groups. Upside-down mortgages hit Mexican-Americans  hard... which is an economic effect, to be sure to be discussed below -- but that caused Nevada to blow up in the faces of the GOP.   


7. THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN

McCain tried to make efforts to swing such states as New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire... but such efforts failed.  Most of the swing states were really close... until the financial system imploded. Nevada and Colorado blew up for the Republicans as the real estate meltdown left many young homeowners with upside-down mortgages. Florida, with its elderly population, seemed likely to be a McCain win -- until stock values plummeted and retirement income got shaky and elderly voters started swinging toward Obama. Ohio and Indiana got hit hard by the deterioration of heavy industry.

That was the sockdolager -- the difference between a close loss and a not-so-close loss.
 

[Bo]

Bush, Greenspan, the financial crisis, Sarah Palin, John McCain himself, and Barack Obama.