The Back Alley Archives

This is a pretty good breakdown of the McCain campaign. I suspect that we will hear more as time goes on.

His two big mistakes - Palin and his erratic response to the financial crisis. His air quotes about "woment's health" didn't help him either.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/a39d2uwjgtbi

i don't have to read it to know that ANY republican had no shot at winning this.

- the republican candidate had to go up against the first, formidable african-american democratic candidate
- the republican candidate had to have the same party affiliation as the outgoing, not-so-popular 2 term president

in addition to the above, the republican candidate had the event of a global finance crisis occur...obama had to deal with that too but he wasn't associated with the govt that was presiding at the time the crisis occurred.

i don't have to read it to know that ANY republican had no shot at winning this.

You don't really believe that do you?

who could've beat obama?

Probably the guy that had 5 hole-in-ones on par 4s.

Seriously, could the GOP have run anyone that polarized independant voters and moderates anymore?

I didn't vote for Obama, I voted against McCain and more importantly, Palin. Had they run any other combination of candidates, I would have voted Republican.

I agree - the deck was stacked against any Republican. It was almost surreal seeing that Bush didn't do any campaigning.

I like Hillary Clinton. But I think that if she had been the nominee, the right would have been motivated to come out in force against her. She would not have carried Virginia and NC.

I think the things that hurt McCain the most were:

1. The economic crisis; and
2. Sarah Palin.

He really didn't seem to have a good grasp on number 1 and the only thing that could have saved him was if he came out against the bailout.

As for number 2, what can I say? Initially, I thought she was a good choice, but as time wore on, it grew increasingly clear that even though she's a smart and capable woman, she just wasn't ready for the national stage. She didn't have a very good grasp on national issues and her role was relegated to rallying up the base with lots of rhetoric.

I think in time, Sarah Palin would have made a good VP choice but not in 2008.

palin is accomplished in her own right and i acknowledge those accomplishments and experience she does bring.

i too towards the very end thought she'd be very much an 'on the job training' type veep.

palin is accomplished in her own right and i acknowledge those accomplishments and experience she does bring.

I agree. She's definitely got a reputation as a reformer and fiscal conservative, but I'll be damned if anyone even mentioned it after the Republican convention.