McCain's Pa Strategy: Was Its Purpose to Give Some Hope to His Base?

[Bonn1997]

Maybe it was the only way they could think of to convince their base that there was a conceivable path to 270?

[Marsala]

1. Barone had a theory that they just didn't believe the results from around Philly

The Philadelphia suburbs were going Democratic, which they had never done to such a great degree. The McCain campaign thought that Philadelphia turnout might not be as big as the polls suggested. It was.

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Anybody with brains knew it was ridiculous

It was shocking that so many DUers fell for that nonsense.

Those of us who said it was ridiculous? We were right. The others were wrong. There was never any doubt about PA.

[tigereye]

4. how great that most people here in PA didn't buy the Rep argument

old and tired argument! It was a bit worrisome here in PA when you had to see the endless MCCain/Palin forays, but they got little traction.


:thumbsup:

[Junkdrawer]

3. If McCain could have gotten the margin to 3% to 6%, it might have been stolen...

With 15% exit polls, it was beyond reach - Stealing PA wouldn't have gained McCain the election - it would have only galvanized an anti-electronic voting movement to mainstream status and provoked an investigation that would have made Ohio 2004 pale by comparison.

[Bonn1997]

5. That's a good point

[afridemo]

6. The Obama campaign also 'made' them to hope for

victory in PA. If you remember, the Obama campaign said at a stage that it would be easier for them to win FL than PA.
The McCain campaign bought it and believed in it, poured energy and resources into Pa and,they got clobbered there.

I am sure by that time the Obama camp knew already that they had Pa in the bag, they made Mccain camp to take their eye off FL.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. I was on the ground in Eastern PA yesterday

Drove out from NJ and was in - Easton, Allentown, and Harrisburg:

1. I saw no canvassers.
2. They did not have a get out the vote drive. Literally - we were taking people to the polls all day yesterday.
3. For every McCain/Palin sign I saw 5-9 Obama/Biden signs.

All of those speeches and rallies that Team Republicans had? Just speeches and platitudes. They did not even TRY to win in PA.

[bunkerbuster1]

8. It was his best option out of many crappy options.

Sorry to tell ya to go to fivethirtyeight.com but it was covered in some detail over there; basically, McCain couldn't possibly defend all the red states about to collapse so he had to throw a Hail Mary pass, do the high-risk/high-reward thing and hope for the best.

Hey, it could've worked, and he would've looked like a genius, I guess.