In this article, Laura Meckler uses hindsight to begin dissecting Senator John McCain’s strategy to figure out why he was defeated. I found it interesting because in class we said that many Republicans would blame the loss on McCain’s breaks with Republicans, but this article takes the opposite approach. We have also discussed McCain’s unclear message and this explains how his initial image as a ‘maverick’ was blurred in order to try to appeal to the conservative voters that make up the base of the Republican Party. McCain’s message needed to be consistent and credible. I think that there will be criticism from both sides of his party. The conservatives will say that he was too bipartisan, while the moderate Republicans will claim that he ran as too conservative. Basically, Senator McCain did not stick to one side. He took the middle-of-the-road position and got hit by the metaphorical truck.
The article points out that McCain simply did not emphasize his differences from the Republican Party enough. This goes along with the message box from the “Crafting your Campaign’s Message” chapter. McCain had these points about himself but his message did not “zero-in” on them as strengths. His choice of Governor Palin over Senator Joe Lieberman was intended to please conservatives and it turned away many independent voters that the once Democratic Senator may have gained. McCain knew that he needed the Republican base to win and that turning them off would lose the election. This put McCain in a tight position and explains why his message was wavering.
2 comments:
McCain's message had a lot to do with his reason for losing, but as i noted in Scott's post, Bush put him in a huge hole to start off. McCain's message was unclear his whole campaign because it was constantly changing in an attempt to win as many voters as possible. McCain should have focused on appealing to a certain group instead of mixing as many as possible. It was a given that the media would love Obama because not many people in the media liked Bush too much. There was nothing McCain could do to combat Obama's love and money, but McCain could have done a much more solid job by focusing his message instead of changing it constantly.
I agree. McCain’s Republican ties to the Bush presidency definitely gave him a disadvantage right from the start. It was an uphill battle for McCain. He had to get Republicans and still differentiate himself from Bush at the same time. I think that a solid message would have helped to show people where McCain’s views really were.
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