This article from the USA Today discussed McCain’s campaign as a whole and his overall reasons for losing this election. The article stresses McCain’s decision of selecting Governor Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee and his announcement that he was going to suspend his campaign to deal with the economic crisis as the two main factors for his ultimate defeat. I personally think the selection of Sarah Palin, although important, does not weigh that much in McCain’s loss to Barack Obama. At times her qualifications did seem questionable, however, within the article; even Republican strategist Rich Galen even states that, “less than half the electorate considered Palin an important factor.” Regardless of whom he selected as the Vice Presidential nominee, McCain was in a hole that was not possible to dig out of. No Republican seemed destined to win in this election. Also, I think the suspension of his campaign, on paper, looked like a good one. McCain was trying to show to potential voters that he was deeply concerned about the economy, and was working hard to produce a solution. Unfortunately for McCain, this idea did not weigh over well with voters and Democrats deemed him “erratic” for his decision. One aspect of the article that I did agree with was the extremely biased media coverage focused on Obama throughout the election. With news stations constantly centering their attention on Obama’s success, it left McCain with little room to battle back. What I do question regarding John McCain’s campaign is why he never confronted Obama regarding some of the problematic relations he had had in the past. For example, McCain never shed light on Obama’s association with the radical pastor Jeremiah Wright. When I look back at his election, McCain did struggle to promote a convincing slogan and did falter when it came to economic issues; however the George W. Bush factor and Obama’s near flawless campaign ($640 million budget) I feel made it near impossible for McCain to win in 2008.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-11-05-mccain-how-he-lost_N.htm
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3 comments:
I agree with Scott that Sarah Palin was not a main reason for McCain's defeat. I think she is just a scapegoat for the Republican party, proving as a viable excuse for the lost. I believe that no matter what the Republican party did, it was almost impossible for them to win. After all the recent elections being so close, and for this one to end up so lopsided really shows the dislike of the American people towards Bush. McCain was also in a deep hole with the media. Not only did it seem like everyone supported Obama in the media, Obama filled the television with advertisements. Obama's seemingly endless supply of money was a key reason for the victory along with Bush's influence giving the Democractic Party a huge head start in the voting.
After eight years of Bush, who's most recent approval ratings have been down to 30%, people were ready for change. It is this overriding issue that consequently allowed Obama to overwhelmingly defeat John McCain in the 2008 Presidential election. Because of his party, McCain was automatically characterized in the same category as Bush, regardless of their many differences.
Besides this major fact that McCain could not control, there were many factors within his campaign that he could have improved upon that might have tightened the margins between Obama and McCain. For example, McCain pulled campaigning from many states that could have gone Republican had he put more money towards those states. These are just a couple factors that contributed to the ultimate loss of John McCain, along with the ideas that both Scott and Dan discussed from the article.
I agree Kara that McCain's overall campaign was far weaker than Obama's. McCain made fundamental mistakes on his limited allocation of resources in where to campaign, and which states to remain campaigning in. However, I feel that regardless if he ran a flawless campaign, ultimatley the outcome would have remained the same. The country is looking for "change" and has lost faith in the Republican Party. McCain had numerous errors throughout his campaign, but none that were significant enough factors, like the selection of Sarah Palin, that lead to his defeat.
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