How John McCain Lost the 2008 Election
Sarah Palin Pick for VP and Poor Campaigning Haunt McCain
Nov 5, 2008
All McCain can do now is try to figure out where he went wrong, analyze which mistakes cost him the Presidency. Listed below are a few reasons why John McCain lost the 2008 Presidential Election.
Negative Attacks: Negative attacks, if done well, have some benefits, including forcing candidates to be specific about their policies. However, McCain’s made a huge mistake by not focusing on one specific attack against Obama. He instead used the flavor of the week model, which involved picking one of Obama’s flaws and running with it for a short period of time before moving onto a different attack.
From Inexperience to William Ayers to "Spreading the Wealth," McCain couldn’t make up his mind on how to discredit Obama. He should have focused on one attack (inexperience) and used that as his main point of attack. Unfortunately, he was unable to use Obama’s inexperience against him because of his next mistake.
Sarah Palin: The Governor from Alaska was the wrong choice for Vice President; her folksy charm was not enough to compensate for her inexperience, which also cost McCain his key advantage against Obama. When McCain chose Palin in lieu of Joe Lieberman (who would have helped win Florida), Mitt Romney or even Senator Evan Bayh, the decision was a clear sign that he was more eager to pander to the most extreme wing of the Republican Party instead of the essential moderate voters. Palin, for a while, reinvigorated the Republican base, but became a target of mockery and parody in the process, helping Tina Fey’s career more than John McCain.
The Debates: McCain’s idea of a series of town hall meetings was admirable, although using that as an excuse to attack Obama was unfair. But McCain could never grab the momentum during the three primetime debates. These debates, especially the town hall styled second debate, should have acted as a showcase for McCain, given his experience and snarky sense of humor. But McCain lost his temper while Obama remained cool and collected, never making an obvious misstep. McCain didn’t do well enough in the debates to sway new voters to his side, which he desperately needed to do.
Organization: This is not one of McCain’s strengths, as his campaign as a whole was woefully unorganized, unable to raise enough money to compete against the Obama campaign. His problems extended back to the primaries, when he fired 50 of his staffers when he was behind Romney and Giuliani after he began to run low out of money. Obama, on the other hand, ran a smooth campaign. If the two campaigns were watches, Obama's campaign was clearly Swiss while McCain's cost $7 at Wal-Mart. In the end, McCain’s inability to run his own campaign was a reflection, to some voters, of how he might run the country if elected.
Even though McCain lost the election, his election night concession speech, an elegant and heartfelt call for unity after a divisive election, was the most presidential moment of his campaign. It was a moment many undecided voters desperately wanted to see during the campaign. It also served as a reminder of who John McCain was, a gracious man who has served his country for a good portion of his life.
This was McCain circa 2000, before Karl Rove ruined his chances at President. But McCain sold his soul for a chance to be President, channeling his inner Rove to win this election. If he had run his campaign in the same way he ran in 2000, with the Straight Talk Express and avoiding the onslaught of negative attacks that linked Obama to all things unholy, he probably would have won the election. The old McCain would have been a fantastic President; the modern McCain didn’t deserve to win.
