Deconstructing the Losing McCain Campaign

It's clear to me: John McCain lost because of John McCain.

He had a chance to win, amazingly. Many pundits of pointed out the strong Democrat headwind this year. He should have been 20 points down. Yet Obama had so many weaknesses that McCain was competitive. He could have won, but didn't. Here's why:

1. "Me too"-ism.

I like Ann Coulter's theory that any time you give voters a choice between a Democrate-Lite and a Democrat, the Democrat wins. McCain is often the Democrat-Lite.

It's that Maverick b.s. Let me translate "maverick" for you - it means "I can't stand Republican policies either". As in:

- you hate tax cuts? Hey, me too!
- you want open borders and amnesty for illegals? Hey, me too!
- you hate the Bush administration? Hey, me too!

I had to gag this whole campaign listening to McCain. Constantly sticking his thumb in my eye. It should be a requirement for the nominee of a political party that you actually like the party. NO MORE MAVERICKS!

2. Senatorial "Niceness".

John McCain prizes bipartisanship above everything else. That means great hesitance in criticizing Democrats to the point of appeasing them.

Excuse me, Senator. Running for President is necessarily a partisan activity. Be a partisan.

That means, first of all, lifting up the virtues of your own party. McCain never did that, never made the case for Republican ideals. He only made the case for John McCain.

That means taking on your opponent, early in the race. McCain should have been taking on Obama's radical associations early on, when he secured the nomination back in March. Doing it so late in the race looked desperate.

McCain unilaterally disarmed. Disarmed is defeated.

3. The Economic Bailout exposed McCain as a liar.

McCain's self-proclaimed strength was opposing spending and making big spenders famous. "You will know their names". Yeah, right.

Nice theory, but he failed when his big test came. Let's recap what happened. When Wall St. melted down, and the Adminstration proclaimed the need for a bailout, McCain was faced with his big moment.

What he could have done was this:

1. Oppose the bailout as a socialist intervention in the markets. The public was massively opposed to the Paulson plan, with phone calls to Congress running 200:1 against. There were other ways to solve the crisis - conservative ways. Go to Washington and champion a conservative fix.

2. Oppose the pork. The Paulson plan grew from a 3 page memo to a 450-page pork laden bill that the President signed. Oppose the pork - and make the authors of the pork famous - as promised.

3. Demand accountability.

-Demand Paulson's resignation. If a cabinet officer comes to the President and says that his department has failed so badly that he needs $700,000,000,000 to fix it or the whole U.S. economy will fail - he should be fired.
- Same with the SEC chairman.
- Identify the Congressmen who pushed banks to issue bad sub-prime loans that caused the meltdown. Pledge to "get" the people who caused the mess (as O'Reilly urged him to do).

What did he do instead?

1. Support the bailout by tinkering around the edges and then urging Americans to support it.

2. Overlook the pork.

3. Blame everyone and no one. We all share blame in this - Yada Yada Yada.

His performance in on the bailout both made him look erratic and exposed the lie that he will oppose pork and make spenders famous.

McCain lost because he is the same McCain that I have loathed in public office for years. Period.