I really don't think the Republicans want to win.

[Franks Wild Years]

Honestly, I don't. For all the talk of certain vote rigging, of some sort of alert happening near election time I just don't think they particularly want to win this time.

I think that is why McCain is their candidate. If the Republicans wanted this election badly, they wouldn't have allowed him to win the primary. Wouldn't have happened. It would have been someone they could sculpt into a flashy, photogenic candidate who would say all the right things and could conceivably syphon votes from all corners of society.

My gut feeling is that McCain is there to lose. There's no great affinity towards him from the party and while he personally will give it his all, they don't expect him to win. They *want* the handsome, youthful Obama to take victory because they know the economy is dire. They want him to have four years in charge where the biggest issue is the economy - they can distance themselves from their own failings and attempt to stick the blame for financial misery and rising prices on the Democrats.

See, everyone needs to be out of power at some point - It's counter-productive to stay in forever, as if you do you'll eventually be so reviled that when you finally are voted out there is no possibility of you being invited back from the cold for a very, very long time. Four years of a Democratic President with at least part of his reign involving a Democratic House & Senate means that there is a clear path for blame to be attributed, and from that position they can stake their claim at the next election and beyond.

I just can't help but wonder if they are banking on Obama failing and having a golden opportunity to tar the name of the Democratic party for many years to come. It'll be up to him and his administration to prove them wrong.

[bowens43]

1. I disagree.

They don't think that anything is wrong with the direction the company is going. They believe that they have been successful. They want to win, desperately and McCain is a much stronger candidate then bush ever was.

[Franks Wild Years]

2. I don't think he is

Bush was the better candidate because he had his ridiculous 'aww shucks' common man, beer appeal. McCain is clearly more intelligent even in his advancing years, but I think Bush was, in many ways, the perfect Republican candidate. We all knew he'd be an abysmal President from the word go but he was a masterstroke of a candidate. Malleable and with more appeal than one of his limited ability should ever have been allowed to have.

[clevbot]

4. really? bush won.-.. McBomb won't, how does that make him a stronger candidate?????

also Bush creamed McCain in '00...

[Labors of Hercules]

10. Did you mean to say company instead of country?

Or was that just a perfectly placed ironical Freudian slip? :thumbsup:

[still_one]

3. I disagree. However, I don't believe they wanted mccain to be their nominee

They were really pushing guliani(sic), but when his campaign misjudged the momentum from the early primary states, and decided not to run, that allowed mccain to get a foothold. By the time guliani was ready to run, the republicans lost interest in him, much to the disappointment of the party leaders.

A lot of people who were republican were also hurt by the bush administration, and didn't even bother to come out and vote.

Just look at the numbers who voted in the Democratic primary compared to those who voted in the republican one.

The republican party for some time now has been taken over by the extreme right, and the damage that has been done by the republicans in the past 20 plus years is just now being realized.

Yes, the republicans want to win, but they have screwed the people so badly it isn't going to happen, as long as the Democrats come out in force to vote.

[Kahuna]

5. The heck they don't. They're petrified about what a Dem Justice Department

will uncover.

[blondeatlast]

6. Spot on and a perfect argument when this issue comes up.

:thumbsup:

[blondeatlast]

7. The Republicans had a very, very weak field, the Democrats had a very, very strong one.

the Republicans desperately want to win; they need the SCOTUS to stay in power.

Tinfoil aside, they couldn't do any better than McSame and the record Dem turnout for the primaries has them shellshocked and they don't know what to do.

It's all good--but be aware that hardcore Rs will come out in droves just to prevent a D from winning.

[CK_John]

8. They are not going to bet the ranch on him, they will bring in someone like Jindal or Roberts

at their convention. A shock and awe candidate to get 24/7 media coverage and the sheep will lineup at the polls as usual.

[Occam Bandage]

9. The Republicans play every hand to win. There were people who thought '04 and '00 would be easy.

They were wrong, as are the people claiming that Obama will easily beat McCain.

[julialnyc]

11. I think they want to win and that is why they chose McCain

I don't think that McCain was many Republicans favorite choice, but they chose him simply because they saw him as having the best chance of winning in a year that isn't too friendly to your typical Republicans.