McCain is blowing his election chances.

Forums: Politics, Mccain, Elections, Republicans, Republican Idiot
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You will not find to many people more loyal to McCain than I.

As I watch this election, I wonder to myself how McCain has managed to basically suck so badly in his campaign.

McCain has a long history in politics. He has a reputation as a "maverick" that can work both sides of the aisle. His voting record is one of a centrist with conservative values. A genuinely good person and one of the few actual trustworthy politicians...

Yet, his campaign is in the crapper. It makes me wonder why he is surrounding himself with people that can't 1: keep their mouths shut and not come off as extreme right elitists and 2: keep his campaign about his qualifications and accomplishments.

Seems that every week we hear about some stupid comment from him or his campaign. Yet you don't hear that from the Obama camp. Instead of touting his own accomplishments, they seem to instead try to show Obama in a bad light. Instead of explaining what they will do for their term in office, they discuss what Obama will and won't do... ARGH!!!!!!

McCain has the capacity to turn this around yet. Polling shows that this is still a close race (I still don't like or trust polling). I hate to watch what is rapidly becoming a freakshow. McCain has had many opportunities to show his leadership and is instead digging into the mud and that will NOT help his chances in Nov.

Hell, even I am becoming an Obama fan and that's just not right dammit. McCain needs to take stock of what he is doing right and what he doing wrong and address the situation. Fire the idiots that can't keep their mouths shut, vet his staff for people that will bring failure in the press and get his message out to the people. His message has to be positive about what he CAN do and what he WILL do.

Going after Obama is a no-win solution. People don't care about that. We want a President that can hold his own against the world and get our economy back on top, safe from terrorists and happy. So far McCain promises safety and Obama promises happiness. Neither seem to be able to handle the economy.

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yup.... it sucks for we members of john q public not to have a good candidate.

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This is exactly how I felt about John Kerry.

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Interesting post, thanks for writing it.

I really agree with you re: McCain's staff. There has been this reluctance on his part to really manage -- to kick someone out, to promote someone else, to set clear boundaries. He seems really passive, motivated more by not wanting to confront an old friend than by decisively acting in his campaign's best interest.

And so the message is muddled, and the campaign and the candidate don't really match.

I read something recently comparing McCain's campaign to Dean's -- that they were both these crazy, fun, insurgent campaigns that just couldn't really grow up and become serious, couldn't do the transition well.

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That was a good post, McG. I haven't really been following the campaigns recently but I do think that McCain was most definitely the best possible candidate the Republicans could have fielded this year for all the reasons you mention. Yet it does look like he has management issues.

I was thinking the other day that I could live with McCain if Obama doesn't win, and I still feel that way. Either would be a step in the right direction. Yet I definitely see what you're saying about McCain shooting himself in the foot with the way he runs his campaign. I had thought that I was in the minority of people who look at the way a candidate runs his/her campaign as an indicator of how they will run the government, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

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Re: McCain is blowing his election chances.

McGentrix wrote:

You will not find to many people more loyal to McCain than I.

As I watch this election, I wonder to myself how McCain has managed to basically suck so badly in his campaign.

McCain has a long history in politics. He has a reputation as a "maverick" that can work both sides of the aisle. His voting record is one of a centrist with conservative values. A genuinely good person and one of the few actual trustworthy politicians...

Yet, his campaign is in the crapper. It makes me wonder why he is surrounding himself with people that can't 1: keep their mouths shut and not come off as extreme right elitists and 2: keep his campaign about his qualifications and accomplishments.

Seems that every week we hear about some stupid comment from him or his campaign. Yet you don't hear that from the Obama camp. Instead of touting his own accomplishments, they seem to instead try to show Obama in a bad light. Instead of explaining what they will do for their term in office, they discuss what Obama will and won't do... ARGH!!!!!!

McCain has the capacity to turn this around yet. Polling shows that this is still a close race (I still don't like or trust polling). I hate to watch what is rapidly becoming a freakshow. McCain has had many opportunities to show his leadership and is instead digging into the mud and that will NOT help his chances in Nov.

Hell, even I am becoming an Obama fan and that's just not right dammit. McCain needs to take stock of what he is doing right and what he doing wrong and address the situation. Fire the idiots that can't keep their mouths shut, vet his staff for people that will bring failure in the press and get his message out to the people. His message has to be positive about what he CAN do and what he WILL do.

Going after Obama is a no-win solution. People don't care about that. We want a President that can hold his own against the world and get our economy back on top, safe from terrorists and happy. So far McCain promises safety and Obama promises happiness. Neither seem to be able to handle the economy.

I would agree that McCain and his campaign has been "uneven" to date.

Yet, I find it amazing he is as close as he is.

To me that says more about Obama inability to gather support except from the hard core democrat.

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I completely agree. We get things like the campaign not being able to agree on a message, and McCain giving different answers to questions then his campaign does: is he for Cap-and-trade, or not? Is raising taxes on the table, or not? Is McCain for gay adoption, or not?

His campaign has given different answers to these at different times, b/c they have very poor message control.

Cycloptichorn

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... and that's partly because of his reputation for speaking his mind, no? Maybe it is an inherent flaw of the maverick position. Not hating, just thinking out loud.

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Cycloptichorn wrote:

I completely agree. We get things like the campaign not being able to agree on a message, and McCain giving different answers to questions then his campaign does: is he for Cap-and-trade, or not? Is raising taxes on the table, or not? Is McCain for gay adoption, or not?

His campaign has given different answers to these at different times, b/c they have very poor message control.

Cycloptichorn

Agreed, so why isnt Obama leading by 60 or more points?
If McCain is that bad, then bama should be so far ahead in the polls that McCain could never catch him, but that isnt happening either.

Why not?

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Holy arbitrarily high bar for margin of victory, Batman!

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McCain is too sick, too confused, too unreliable, and too mean. Why are our presidential candidates such inferior human beings, I wonder?

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mysteryman wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:
I completely agree. We get things like the campaign not being able to agree on a message, and McCain giving different answers to questions then his campaign does: is he for Cap-and-trade, or not? Is raising taxes on the table, or not? Is McCain for gay adoption, or not?

His campaign has given different answers to these at different times, b/c they have very poor message control.

Cycloptichorn

Agreed, so why isnt Obama leading by 60 or more points?
If McCain is that bad, then bama should be so far ahead in the polls that McCain could never catch him, but that isnt happening either.

Why not?

By 60 or more points? That's a larger lead then any presidential candidate has had in forever over their opponent.

This is a straw-man argument. Obama is solidly in the lead; McCain is far behind where Bush was in 2004 at this time, in terms of not only national polling but state polling. Let me ask you a question, why didn't the Chicago Bulls - with Michael Jordan playing - beat every team by 40 points every game? They were obviously the best team out there, how come they didn't demolish the competition every time?

Because in the real world, things don't work that way. McCain is running a lame campaign, but 35% of Americans will pull the Republican lever every time, 35% will pull the Dem level no matter what, and it is difficult for a black man with a arab-sounding name to capture the ENTIRE middle...

Cycloptichorn

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I agree with you, McG. As an Obama-leaning fence sitter I find McCain's campaigning pushing me more towards Obama rather than pulling me back towards himself. There simply doesn't seem to be any meat there and the negative campaign approach does nothing to show me that I should vote for him.

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Quote:

and it is difficult for a black man with a arab-sounding name to capture the ENTIRE middle...

So its back to his race now?

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Oh jeez. Obama's lead size has zilch to do with the topic. Can we get back to McCain?

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mysteryman wrote:

Quote:
and it is difficult for a black man with a arab-sounding name to capture the ENTIRE middle...

So its back to his race now?

It's part of it. Do you deny that his race is a factor at all?

Let me offer you a counter-question: why isn't McCain doing better? Why is Obama even close in places that are typical Republican strongholds?

Cycloptichorn

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I think it's still close due mostly to McCains reoutation, not his campaign. It's that strength he needs to base his campaign on. Trying to tear down Obama will not win it for him.

I agree with the whole mixed message thing. McCain needs one of those really sharp personal assistants that can keep McCain briefed on where he is and what his message is for that particular speaking engagement. He needs coaching on how to campaign, not be a politician, he knows that, but how to campaign. this is not a slam on his age by any means, but he has a lot on his plate and having that person would be invaluable to him.

His mouth pieces also need to be on the same message. It's really hard to win when the candidate is saying one thing and someone else on his staff is saying the opposite. You don't see that from Obama.

It's time for McCain to get his ship in order. Weed out the staff that are holding him back and bring in the big guns that can finish this thing strong!

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McCain is dead in the water. Thank bush as much as anything. After 8 years of bush.... the republicans would have to put up someone history making in their outstanding-ness (a word?) and McCain ain't it.

This race is Obama's to lose. It would have been any democrat's race to lose IMO.

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Yeah, the whole "McSame" thing isn't helping. I'd like to see a little distance between Bush and McCain.

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McGentrix wrote:

I think it's still close due mostly to McCains reoutation, not his campaign. It's that strength he needs to base his campaign on. Trying to tear down Obama will not win it for him.

I agree with the whole mixed message thing. McCain needs one of those really sharp personal assistants that can keep McCain briefed on where he is and what his message is for that particular speaking engagement. He needs coaching on how to campaign, not be a politician, he knows that, but how to campaign. this is not a slam on his age by any means, but he has a lot on his plate and having that person would be invaluable to him.

His mouth pieces also need to be on the same message. It's really hard to win when the candidate is saying one thing and someone else on his staff is saying the opposite. You don't see that from Obama.

It's time for McCain to get his ship in order. Weed out the staff that are holding him back and bring in the big guns that can finish this thing strong!

He's already been through two managers of his campaign and goodness knows how many co-chairs...

His crew certainly does not have the tight discipline that Bush 2004 had, or Obama has this year; leaks have been many and frequent.

Cycloptichorn

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McCain is blowing his election chances.

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