Election Post Mortem: Did McCain Hurt The Republican Brand?
Although this segment of The Rachel Maddow Show aired before the election, it does bring up an important point about one aspect of the McCain campaign tactics we haven't discussed yet: as polls showed McCain dropping further and further out of contention, McCain--effectively, the head of the Republican Party--did nothing to help down ticket races, some of which were very, very tight (at the time of writing the Coleman/Franken race in Minnesota was heading to a recount).
Did McCain's refusal to campaign in any of these locations help or hurt the Republican brand? Tim Pawlenty tries to deflect the question by saying that Obama didn't come to Minnesota to stump for Franken, but I don't know that the comparison is apt. While Obama never did any appearances with Franken, the Obama campaign's ground forces did do an amazing job of canvassing and registering more Democratic voters, which would only help Franken.
the BUSH administration and mccain's voting record were hard to run from.mccain/BUSH not exactly a positive in regions of the country that aren't RED.
he says, what's his biggest mistake, I think it was in pandering to the based that was already going to vote for him. it showcased the republican base which was as ugly as bush.
I would say it was the Republican Brand...Rove, Hannity and Limbaugh which hurt McCain.
Thom Hartmann: Must see! The TRUE story of the Boston Tea Party
I would also include selecting Sarah Palin hurt him very badly.
What we witnessed yesterday was exactly what the Republicans had in 2000. All "factions" of the Republican party back then were completely united and in lockstep. What we saw yesterday was the Democratic version of that. No matter what the McCain campaign did, it probably wouldn't have helped much in my opinion. The Republican base is so splintered and each faction (I.E. Social Conservatives, Foreign policy hawks) so single minded in purpose that they expect their favored politician to enbody every bit of their ideology while excluding the others.
At least one commentator (Mark Shields) said that Bush has twice cost McCain the presidency -- in 2000 and in 2008.
And of course, picking Sarah as his VP only helped with the extreme right-wing base.
boosh did more for Obama than he did for mcC*nt. true fact.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Not any worse than what damage they had already done to themselves. They just don't get it.
I think mostly McCain hurt McCain. His choice of Palin was not good.
I don't think McCain did much more damage to the party than had already been done the past eight years.
I don't know what kind of video player is supposed to be with the post, all I get is a big area of white with nothing there. Funny, it only happens with some video post and not with others.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Palin was the darling for the social conservatives. She knew nothing about economics or foreign policy and they couldn't have cared less. McCain on the other hand was the darling for the foreign policy hawks and once again, they couldn't have cared less about economic or social issues. The fiscal Conservatives absolutely dispised both and had no representation as they saw it. McCain and Palin tried to bind all three together but it just wasn't going to happen. They did not possess enough of the qualities the other factions of the base were looking for. McCain's campaign was pretty much falling apart from the very start in my view.
If it weren't for the right wing media, the repugs wouldn't have gotten even close to the votes that they got.
The media was the main driving force behind the McCain campaign. If it wasn't for them, McCain's supporters would have been bickering well before then.
Damage was done before he entered the race.
the REPUBLICANs(base) weren't feeling it until the"hockey mom" came along. remember they did NOT
want mccain in 2000. mccain considered joining the democrat party. certain republican demographics
were holding their nose(s) when they pulled the lever to VOTE mccain.
Sorry to be a nit picker but it's Democratic Party, not "democrat party".
The latter makes you sound like an ignoramus.
I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.....
I am in awe of this women. She has so much class.
She will be honing her skills and contacts over the next few years on MSNBC and I hope she will be rewarded.
She is of the caliber to host, say, Meet The Press, and just needs time to build up her network in Washington. MTP will probably go to David Gregory who has fallen short the last year or so - he may still redeem himself. That's another story.
Or maybe, if she ever leaves NBC, she can replace Katie Couric, who is just a tad better than worthless.
I love you Rachel!
a shill, and a bad one at that.
Some stuff you can't make up!
How can dirty politics hurt a party that specializes in dirt? In our district pollwatchers were shut out - see http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/
--from Samson & Delilah The Grateful Dead.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
I'm pretty sure McCain hurt Sarah's plans and for sure little Piper has to bummed out today. No one to wave to when she enters a room now.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I thought you branded fillies?
sarah's still finds it hard to sit down.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
the NEOCON philosophy certainly didn't help. the BUSH administration totally ignored the legislative
branch. the BUSH administration(authoritarian) RULES not govern. thankfully some people realize this type of government is NOT what this country wants. mccain was NOT clear that he would be different than BUSH.
McCain is a dog who went Nazi when he was told it was to his advantage.
He was right in 2000 - the party had been kidnapped by insane, Jesus crazies and hateful know-nothings.
Anyone who turns on their own better judgment deserves to be remembered as a spineless dog.
for real. But I think that Palin was McC*nt's revenge on the party that screwed him in 2000 and then left him with no chance of winning.
Some stuff you can't make up!
..that yours is the only theory which really makes any sense.
Perhaps McCain will come clean about this in his memoirs.
No, it was the Republican brand that hurt McCain.
If the Obama Administration does well these next four years and Palin continues to be groomed for a run in 2012 she is going to have her work cut out for her. She had better be well adapt at foreign policy issues and economics. Her social conservative ideology will attract a lot of the Christian right but it definately will not be enough if she hopes to even have a chance.
to improve her foreign policy experience.
:<[)
Some stuff you can't make up!
will have a breakthrough and she can get a brain implant!!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Hate speeches!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL9YSzHwmFc
Note:
This mix was made by DJ Not-I. Here are the ingredients to that video.
- Jill Scott: Hate On Me (acapella)
- Rage Against The Machine: Maggie's Farm (instrumental)
- Talib Kweli: More or Less (acapella)
- Barack Obama: Speech in Denver
- CNN & two haters who will remain unnamed.
And if you like it really a lot the audio can be downloaded here:
http://www.not-i.com/remixes.htm
The Hate speeches didn't go over well in my town. Hardly anyone here liked seeing and hearing all those negative ads.
CNN is calling Indiana for Obama. N.C. is sure to follow. It's a landslide.
Much as they may, however constantly they try; the rantings and propaganda tactics (that the McCain campaign or Fox news, the christian right or GOP pundits or surrogates)fell on deaf ears. They not only no longer resonate; these charges of who is more American, who has the better values, or charges of godlessness, socialism, ... the charges came across as vacuous lies. The response of the Barrack voters (unlike the toe the line GOP voters) was one of how hateful, how deceitful and indeed how racially insensitive the GOP was presenting itself.
This is not McCain's failure alone; though his legacy and the goodwill he once had with American Democrats is gone. The McCain we witnessed was not the McCain we thought we knew; this new McCain is one none of us will ever forget; let alone ever believe again.
The GOP christian right/neocon conceived selection of the vice presidentially challenged Sarah Palin was the nail in the coffin; that is where the blame should be leveled.
There is a question that the GOP should ask themselves; though they won't and further, Democrats don't care if they do; because the Democrats do not see the conservative christian base as a threat any more. The question is whether the GOP can sustain itself with the neocon/christian conservative as it's so called base. This election has proven one thing, America is familiar with the base, it's tactics and America has refuted its tenants.
The GOP struggle to rid itself of its neurotic religiosity base is not one that will end soon; it's a cancer that it brought on to themselves and its consuming them. With each election cycle their draconian message of the ends justifies the means will further their consolidation, these people will never give up.
Their future is one of a small minimally effective theocratic party, most probably eventually giving way to a third party of non religiously based moderate GOP members that will willingly leave their former party self.
There was nothing McCain could have done to hurt or help the GOP.
The American people made that decision. It was a decision that was palpable at the voting lines; enough of the GOP.
YOU'LL WAKE THE MEDIA!
CoIntelPro.PronktasticlyAgainst.SCLM.E-Voting.Incumbents
Some stuff you can't make up!
I certainly hope so!! #;}
I think Miss Sarah will go home and lick her wounds for a while, and then ramp up to create a "new spin-off" Repug Party for 2012 and then nominate herself as its candidate for President.
Maybe could be called the "Polar Bear Party" or "Foxes with Guns"
or....
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Or Homer's favorite magazine Juggs & Ammo.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I know, even better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-QbZCPrvl0
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Ammo is good.
Don't know how I ever missed that video.....?EWww
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
From an interview today with Dana Bash:
On whether she ought to take some of the blame: "I don't think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit, that I would trump an economic time in this nation that occurred about two months ago, that my presence on the ticket would trump the economic crisis that America found itself in a couple of months ago and attribute John McCain's loss to me." (Palin did, though, say she was "sorry" if she cost McCain votes)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081105/pl_...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
But it was already nearly mortally wounded....he just drove the knife in further...piercing the spleen...
FOR EVERYTHING!
bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!
:<[)
Sour grapes makes a terrible whine!
bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!
Some stuff you can't make up!
He pandered shamelessly to the hard right wing and gave up the last shred of dignity he possessed in the offing.What's left of the Republican Party will congeal into a putrid mass of fringe fed poisonous hate.A great example is Malkin's idiot infested blog.They are just now gorging themselves on the insipid sickly cynical notion that:now that an "African American" is President elect,they can no longer "whine" about "racist Whitey" etc.
Of course these Mutts are too damned dumb to register the sad fact that amongst THEM,racism is alive and well.Perhaps if THEY had voted for Obama,they could claim otherwise.
McCain is in part responsible for this further swing to the hard right among these sub normal pin heads.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
he got payback, IMHO!!!
CoIntelPro.PronktasticlyAgainst.SCLM.E-Voting.Incumbents
Some stuff you can't make up!
What we saw yesterday wasn't just an election. What we saw was a juggernaut. This election wasn't just about throwing off the Bush Administration's past failed policies for better ones. This was seen by many as the climax to very long struggles. For some, it was a continuation of Dr. King's "I have a dream". For others, it was their chance to throw off the ways as they saw it. For other such as those in the homosexual community, it was a chance to gain their rights. The list of struggles are long but Obama was right. It wasn't his victory. It was our victory and all of the hatred spewed from the far right couldn't stop it. In fact, it just made the juggernaut that much stronger.
I agree totally.
and pound on our elected reps, until their ears hurt and they have reason to fear the people.
CoIntelPro.PronktasticlyAgainst.SCLM.E-Voting.Incumbents
Some stuff you can't make up!
Another thought
Wed, 11/05/2008 - 13:00 — Joe O.
What we saw yesterday wasn't just an election. What we saw was a juggernaut.
Like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwNEnh9uaM
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
election!
:<[)
CoIntelPro.PronktasticlyAgainst.SCLM.E-Voting.Incumbents
Some stuff you can't make up!
I dunno, thought she looked like a juggernaut
(Juggernaughty?)
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
funny none the less as usual ys. lol
I don't think McCain hurt the brand, the brand hurt McCain. McCain NEEDED the likes of Palin on the ticket to ensure the base would actually go out and vote. Remember, before the VP selection there was a lot of talk about the republican base staying home and not voting. McCain brought Palin in to make sure the base actually went out and voted; however, McCain did a crappy job of selecting a VP. The anthropologist mantra of "do no harm" also applies to VP's and clearly, Palin did much harm to the McCain brand.
I think in the end the general consensus will be the republicans were/are on a slide right now and McCain could only improve the republican image --- he couldn't hurt it. Dirty politics was/is second nature to the republicans; we all know this. McCain didn't bring the good name of the republican party down any more than the party had already done. Gingrich/Rove, now they besmirched the republican party's name. Nixon started the slide. Regan continued it --- historians will point this out a generation from now I'm sure. Then you have Bush 41 who wasn't a horrible president but he got caught up in the "no new taxes" flip flop along with a recession and towering deficit spending which was a Regan hallmark.
Bush 42/43 and that ilk were simply a continuation of the downward slide except the slide was happening behind the scenes and in congress during the Clinton years. Bush was the one who has brought the republican brand to its current nadir. McCain/Palin simply flatlined the brand-name fall IMO.
WAS ALSO A SCUMBAG WHO STARTED A WAR and dumped it on Clinton.
fuck him too.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Bush didn't start that war. Regan started it when he overtly pandered to Saddam and covertly fed Iran weapons to fight against Saddam.
The WHOLE world was against the Kuwait invasion by Saddam --- Arab countries included. Bush 41 was smart enough to contain the bad man yet let Saddam stay in power unlike Bush 42.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_war
Please learn a little history before posting silly stuff like this. The Gulf war was a result of 1980's dealings. Saudi Arabi called in the loans Iraq was given to fight against Iran. Iraq decided to invade Kuwait under the notion that Kuwait was stealing Iraqi oil. Iraq invaded Kuwait.Saudi Arabia REQUESTED Us troops and assistance on 8/7/1990. Dessert Storm began on 1/17/1991 after talks broke down.
Bush 41 didn't start the war. Please educate yourself before making outlandish comments like this.
no matter what raygun did. It was obvious to all.
then he stations a few hundred thousand soldiers on muslim holy land, precipitating 9/11. boosh I does not get a pass. and you need to get a fucking clue yourself
Some stuff you can't make up!
Nice use of facts to back your claim. I find myself completely educated. Pish-posh the dates and actual time lines and be damned the real course of events. Lets instead fit reality into some notion we create about the evils done by others. 9/11 was Bush 41's fault alone... 34 nations didn't take part in the first Gulf War. The UN hadn't authorized it. Saudi Arabia never asked for US Assistance. We never tried to get Saddam out with negotiations. It's all Bush 41's fault 9/11 occurred.
Heck, from what I understand Bush 41 flew all of the planes that day. Yeah, he cloned himself and took over those planes. It had nothing to do with a crazy man and his desire to form the world into his owe view of how it should be... Heck no, it was Bush 41 end of story.
No facts required. No thought needed. Just blind faith without critical analysis...
Heck, Bush 41 was director of the CIA in 1977 --- the year the Alfred A. Murrah building was being built. I guess Bush 41 bombed that building as well. It wasn't an extremist who did it. It was Bush 41!!!
Guilt by association is a hell of a thing.
Finally, When did King Osama-Bin Laden request that the US leave HIS sovereign land of Saudi Arabia? I mean if you're going to blame Bush 41 then I guess you have some information about Osama Bin Ladens claim to rule the House of Saud and the country of Saudi Arabia. I guess you know when Osama ascended to the throne and legally/rightfully demanded that we infidels leave Arabia with due haste.
Then little can be done to hurt the "brand"
Louisville Lawyer
Sarah Palin's ascension to the national forum is probably one of the best things to happen to the Democratic Party in years. If she persists in her quest to become the neorepublican sweetheart she will marginalize what's left of the republican party in the eyes of the moderate public. I personally know several people who are only now becoming aware of how extreme the xian death cultists are. These people are mainly Catholics and Lutherans who seem to think that all Christians practice a theology similar to their own. Sarah Palin has made them take notice in ways that Dobson, Robertson, Hagee, et.al. never did.
I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.....
I say more Sarah,not less. She can only help the Dems. As POP says'every time she opens her mouth we all feel smarter'.
GOP Civil War Begins, Quietly
"The morning after the election has brought an opening salvo in what could become a contentious battle of recriminations for the GOP, as various factions lay blame and beg for immunity in what has been, since 2004, a slow disintegration of their power in Washington."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/gops...
John McCain didn't care about his Party or the VP he was only looking out for himself. He saw his Father and GrandFather reach the high level of respect he couldn't. John was a and is a user and liar. John McCain wanted the White House only to prove to himself he was better then his Father/GrandFather. It didn't matter how he got the job, but it had nothing to do with helping the American people. Sarah came in looking out for herself and wanted to get out of the trouble that she is in Alaska. John/Sarah put the people last and themselves first and that's why they lost. Yes I know Bush/Cheney did the same thing but remember they had to cheat and steal to get the White Housse both times.
I don't think McCain hurt the Republican Party nearly as much as the 8 years of Bush. And the Republican majority in Congress from 1994-2006 didn't help. And the Rovian tactics of dividing the electorate and smearing opponents didn't help. And the Southern strategy which is racist at its core didn't help. It was Bush Bush Bush as was stated on MSNBC. But now that Obama has won, the shredders at the White House will be working full time, and you should be able to see white smoke from the burning of all the paper.
During his campaign, McCain repeated over and over that he knew the problems and he knew how to fix them. He must have said "I" three dozen times at least during his rally speeches. Obama on the other hand said "we". McCain's speeches were about what he knew, while Obama's speeches were about what we all have to do.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
McCain always sounded like a guy interviewing for a job when he knew his resume didn't meet the basic qualifications. Like he never finished his degree so he keeps saying that he has years of on-the-job training and street smarts.
I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.....
McCain surrendered to the lunatic fringe of the GOP and is now a POW.
Palin, on the other hand, is the next generation of that fringe.
Now that it's over, I sympathize with McCain as a sort of tragic figure. Surrender to the fringe was his only chance to become president, but I don't think he was ever convincing on the fringe.
The real McCain showed himself at the Al Smith banquet, the comments he made after he seized the mike from that crazy supporter, and his concession speech last night. He's a decent guy.
The McCain campaign did not weaken the Republican brand as much as exposed the paradoxical division that always existed within it. The right-wing social conservatives and moderate fiscal conservatives have little in common. John McCain and Sarah Palin are like night and day, and in the process of energizing the social conservative base, McCain alienated the moderate base.
Picking Sarah Palin will go down as one of the biggest political blunders in history. If McCain had been true to himself and not let his campaign advisers spin things out of control, the election could have potentially been a lot closer, and McCain could have possibly won.
Comments welcome: http://whenelephantsfly.blogspot.com
John McCain, and the people who were working to get him elected, have nicely ruined the work of forty years of getting Americans to believe that Republicans stood for temperance, honesty, and patriotism. Encasing a turd in plastic, adding some crosses, and covering it with red, white, and blue glitter doesn't work any more.
More than anything else, the Internet and the instantaneous feedback prevented the people getting fooled again.
When any person can speak to power and call "bullshit!," the game is over.
Comments are closed on this entry