If I can believe the Newsweek account, I can retain a wee bit more respect for McCain...

[Bread and Circus]

and it seems as if Palin is more deserving of the derision surrounding some of the uglyness of their campaign:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581/page/2

**Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

**McCain also was reluctant to use Obama's incendiary pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as a campaign issue. The Republican had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military. McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism. Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting that Obama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons). And before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a "celebrity" ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative).

And this point was quite amazing (if they govern like they ran a campaign we will all be rich ;)) :

**The Obama campaign's New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a "flusher"—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.


*********** The full article at the link is a GOOD READ ************

[godai]

1. I feel that McCain was given deniability.

He didn't bring up Ayers...he didn't run the Wright commercials...he didn't talk about killing babies but the Repubs did. They were still running Wright commercials on CNN yesterday. I don't buy that McCain couldn't stop this. It's how he won elections...Mr. Nice Guy with a temper to fear.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. He did bring up Ayers.

Right there in the debate he brought up Ayers.

Can we stop this revisionist lipstick on a pig crap?

[dennis4868]

6. NOT ONLY IN DEBATES...

but in every fucking interview for the past 4-5 weeks.....people here should not get soft on McCain...we should never forget McCain's campaign of hate...we should not act as if it did not happen...NEVER FORGET!

[cyndensco]

14. In fairness to him, though,

he preceded it with, "I don't care about an old, washed-up domestic terrorist. :)

[Lisa0825]

4. And if he couldn't control his own campaign, he has no business

being President and trying to lead a country.

[Bobbie Jo]

3. Bottom line...he picked her.

He can't seem to shed that "judgment" thing. :shrug:

[damntexdem]

5. Well, let's not drown ourselves in McCain's crocodile tears over Palin's actions.

She was his surrogate, doing his dirty work -- and he dirtied his own hands quite enough as it was.

[Doctor_J]

7. I think he got desperate toward the end.

Let's face it, when he embraced and welcomed to his campaign the very people who spread the filthiest of rumors about him in 2000, there was no turning back.

His concession speech was fantastic, and that's probably closer to the real McCain

[shraby]

8. He was in absolute charge of the tenor of his

campaign..I for one won't give him a pass on it.

[GreenPoet64]

9. It's a nice attempt to redeem himself, but I don't buy it. n/t

[political_Dem]

12. Neither do I.

In the end, the 527's still ran with that horrible footage concerning Wright. He gets no passes with me. He allowed for hate to flourish along with Palin with no apologies.

[ErinBerin84]

10. honestly, I think the campaign aides are trying to make McCain look better

while throwing Palin under the bus. Sure, he may not have wanted to do EVERYTHING, but I think this is some revisionist history in there. Here is what I posted in another thread. Plus, comparing the Head of the Arabic studies department of Columbia to a neo-nazi? Saying that ACORN threatens the fabric of democracy? It will take me a long time to think that McCain is a swell guy.

"while I do think McCain got screwed over by Palin in some ways, I also get the sense that some McCain aides want to "redeem him" through making comments like this now...I mean, he supposedly didn't want an ad showing sleeping children, but he thought it was ok to have an ad about how Obama wanted to teach sex ed to 5 year olds? He didn't want to attack Michelle, yet Cindy repeated her dumb little dig even toward the end of the campaign? He didn't want to attack Obama for not having served, but just HAD to include a dig on that in his response to the GI bill? Mark Salter must have leaked the tidbit about Palin showing up in a towel at the door. And if McCain didn't want to do this stuff either, he was in no shape to run the country...I would have the sense that it was being run by Rick Davis."

[SwampG8r]

11. more respect for some less for others

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581/page/2
On the night she officially lost the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a long and friendly phone conversation with McCain. Clinton was actually on better terms with McCain than she was with Obama. Clinton and McCain had downed shots together on Senate junkets; they regarded each other as grizzled veterans of the political wars and shared a certain disdain for Obama as flashy and callow.

[Bread and Circus]

15. I was kind of gobsmacked by that tidbit.

[ipfilter]

13. Did we already forget

"Who is the "real" Obama".

[ErinBerin84]

16. sounds like the type of excuses (from the insiders)

that were coming from Andrea Mitchell, when McCain and his campaign tried to accuse Obama of not caring about the troops if cameras weren't there...she was all "Well, if John McCain DID think that's what happened, then he WOULD have been offended...." Um, so he is just a totally inept puppet? What else would he believe? No thank you. I belive in redemption, but actions speak louder than words.

[tishaLA]

17. They got Davis and Schmidt talking to them and they are trying to

paint McCain in as heroic a light as possible. I don't believe it.

[ErinBerin84]

21. I agree.

[bushisanidiot]

18. McHate is a friggin' LIAR! He didn't stop the Ayers or Wright ads!!!

he encouraged them with a wink and a nod. he continually referred to them in his hate rallies.

what a low life scum!!

he's just trying to save face now that he lost AND I'M NOT BUYIN' ANY OF IT.

[kestrel91316]

19. McCain must bear FULL responsibility for the deplorable campaign he waged.

He doesn't get a pass from me. Not now, not ever.

[mzmolly]

20. The McCain campaign ran the ads. McCain picked Palin.

He got into that gutter with his nutter, and he's "deserving of derision." If he can't lead his campaign, he certainly can't lead a nation.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

sorry, no. doing in the end what you KNOW is wrong anyway isn't better.

[WinkyDink]

22. "I'm John McCain, and I approve this message." Lest we forget.

[eshfemme]

23. I'm liking Newsweek's in depth post mortem of the Presidential campaign

Some of the details coming out about Hillary and Obama humanizes them. It's really cool to kind of see a glimpse into hwo their thought processes might have been.