0 Comment(s)
November 7, 2008 at 1:39pm
by thecodepounder WASHINGTON — Heading into the 2008 presidential race, many Republicans thought Sen. John McCain’s image as a deal-making maverick made him the one Republican who might win in an anti-GOP year. His defeat now has observers wondering what might have been had he stuck to his persona.
Instead, the Arizona senator ran a more traditional campaign, appealing to conservative voters who make up the base of his party. His advisers offer a variety of reasons for why he chose this tack, but the decision confounds those who missed the “old McCain.”
Sen. McCain “was a candidate that could have transcended the Republican brand. But the campaign often seemed aimed squarely at the Republican base,” said Todd Harris, a Republican consultant who worked on his 2000 campaign.
A “base”, let’s not forget, that didn’t have the votes to get a “real conservative” nominated (where by “real conservative” I mean whacked-out fundamentalist, and where by “whacked out” I mean Romney with his magic underwear and Huckleberry with his idea of rewriting the Constitution to create a theocracy in America).
This is what I never understood. McCain got the nomination by campaigning as himself — a fairly moderate Republican. But as soon as he locked up the nomination, he started pandering to the extremist sect of the GOP. Go figure!
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment