Was McCain's Campaign the Worst Ever? by Julian E. Zelizer

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167561

The GOP presidential campaign of 2008 will certainly be one that historians discuss for years to come. But not in the way that some Republicans had hoped for when they selected an experienced maverick, loved by the media, to face off against an inexperienced African-American who had trouble vanquishing his opponent in the primaries.

But Team McCain ran a campaign that ranks on the bottom of this list. This was an aimless and chaotic operation made worse by poor choices at key moments. Their first mistake was picking Gov. Sarah Palin. Though in the first week following her selection, Palin energized the conservative base of the GOP, she became a serious drag on the ticket. This turned into one of the worst picks since McGovern selected Thomas Eagleton, a Missouri senator who withdrew after revealing that he had gone through electroshock therapy and suffered from "nervous exhaustion." By picking Palin, McCain simultaneously eliminated his own best argument against Senator Obama—the limited experience of his opponent—while compounding his own most negative image, that of someone who was erratic and out of control. The pick also fueled the feeling that grew throughout September and October that the Republican candidate was willing to take any step necessary to win the campaign. The Palin pick made every decision that followed seem purely political.

McCain and Palin rejected this approach, instead putting together a campaign that was almost entirely negative and focused on attacking their opponents. They sounded much more like Goldwater in 1964 than Reagan in 1980, opening themselves up to Obama's charge that they were willing to divide the nation for the purpose of winning the election. They called Obama a socialist, an extremist and even linked him to a terrorist. The campaign got so out of control that a man at one Palin rally yelled "Kill him!". McCain had to restore order at a town meeting when one woman explained how scared she was of having an "Arab" in office. Still, the McCain campaign continued to run advertisements connecting Obama to 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

Now, the McCain-Palin campaign will be added to the list of devastated losers. The odds against the Republican ticket were formidable as any political scientist will tell you. But McCain could have put up a more effective fight. Perhaps the best outcome for Republicans would be if they took the campaign to heart, learned from their mistakes, and figured out for the next time around how to put together a campaign that looks more like 1980 than 1964. At the same time the next GOP candidate needs to look toward the future, realizing that at least when it comes to the economy, the conservative era has finally come to an end.

[steveironcity]

1. 1996

The Gop's 1996 attempt ranks up there among the worst.

[DS1]

3. Oh yes. Bob Dole falling off the stage, and Jack "the Quarterback" Kemp

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. no way. He won 47% of the vote.

he won the south. He won the plains. 160 electoral votes say something, and what it says is that we have a ton of crazy religious bible beating idiots who vote against their self-interests and will continue to support the GOP.

[VeraAgnes]

4. I'll recall his campaign when telling my grandchildren

............McCain was Mean and Cranky, he was desperate, he forced a woman to do his bidding with the zest of Ziggy the Pimp.

[hughee99]

5. If McSame ran such a shitty campaign

while saddled with a screwed up economy, a useless VP pick intended only to sure up his own "base" and the lowest rated president in history, and still got 46% of the votes, then this country is not as progressive as some of us like to believe.

[JustJon]

7. Fair point

But, playing Devil's advocate, John McCain seemed to be one of the Republicans with the best crossover appeal (thanks to his personal story and his reputation dating back to a time before he sold out to land the job he wanted).

I tend to think the margin would have been much bigger if Obama faced off against a more thorough representative of Republican ideals.

[hughee99]

8. I'm not so sure...

I think McCain spent 8 years pissing off his fundie base and as a result, didn't get the financial or logistical support (volunteers) necessary to run a successful ground game in key states (in Ohio and Florida). Given how successful Obama was at exactly this, McCain was a sitting duck in swing states, and was spending a significant amount of his resources defending states that should have been safe. While a repuke with more conservative credentials may not have directly appealed to the crossover voters, he would have appealed to the fundies, who have demonstrated an ability to GOTV. I'm not saying they could have thrown Gingrich out there and won, they do need a conservative with at least a someone likable personality, but IMHO, a conservative candidate could have faired better. In any case, Given the current climate and strengths Obama clearly had (raising money and grassroots campaigning), I'm not sure if there was any candidate they could have put up that would have won.

[JustJon]

6. The sad thing is...

Republicans are sitting in a room somewhere arguing that his campaign still only fell short because he was too clean.

They're probably sitting there, saying:

"Well, they ran as if Bush were their opponent; we should have ran as if Rev. Wright was our opponent. We should have been hammering that one home all summer. And we should have refused to take 'Hussein' off the table. We should have made a point of referring to McCain by his full name, just to make it accepted that middle names are commonplace. If we attacked on Wright, and if we said 'Hussein' much more, things would be different. Oh, and we should have scripted our Town Halls like Bush does. It's ridiculous for our candidate to ever be put in a position where he had to admit Obama is actually a citizen, is actually a decent man, or that an Obama presidency isn't scary. That was a bit of a body blow."

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. Probably, by the customary criteria. But strange to relate, after laughing

at various things that didn't work out well for him, and resenting the way he and his party sought to exploit his imprisonment as a POW in Vietnam. The thing I'll probably remember about it, was his very real courage, right to the end. And his wife, too, for that matter. And in the end, graciousness towards his former adversary.

I'm more inclined now to ascribe some of the callousness of his Bush-like political positions to his class background (patholgical Norman).

I think some of Obama's and Biden's niceness must have rubbed off on me. But not a lot.

[LSdemocrat]

10. In terms of missed opportunities, I'd sadly go with Dukakis