What Hurt McCain???

[Snowman]

for all you Obama Supporters. the election's over now my question to you is what hurt Johns chances???

(numerous things)

do you believe it was his age?, that he didnt say what americans wanted to hear, and or approach the situation of america's problems? the fact that people didnt want to see another republican in the whitehouse for 4 or 8 years. thinking he was gonna become another Bush.

his choice of Palin as his V.P.??? his and Palin's appearances on Saturday Night Live???

or something else that i didnt mention.




i know Obama slaughtered him on the electoral votes tonight. but in the overall popular vote Obama was ahead by not much. McCain won a lot of the southern states and midwest states. and was close in ohio and virginia with Obama.


i have to say a little bit of both. the age with john being in his 70's, and people were scared that they didnt want another Bush for 4 more years. even though John wouldnt run things like George W.

 

[S O F I]

Well, the way it works is if you win the popular vote in the state, you win all the electoral votes. There's like two states with an exception. What you mean to say is he didn't win by big margins? Well, some were close, some weren't. Or, are you talking about the electoral college?

I turned the TV off after Obama's speech but I expect most pundits speculated about where McCain went wrong.

I'll just briefly focus on the last 3 months or so.


1. Choice of Palin for VP - It might have worked strategically in swaying the more conservative voters but it did not help sway Hillary's female supporters.

2. The post-september 15th state of the economy - He seemed out of touch and Obama seemed sharp.

3. In the last 3-4 weeks, instead of focusing on attacking Obama's policies, he tried to make Obama into a radical, a terrorist, and a socialist. I don't think McCain wanted to - I think he was pressured to by his advisers and the GOP.

Then, more generally, the Bush association and the spectacular campaign that Obama ran.

 

[Snowman]

yeah your right he didnt win by big margins. he won the popular vote and got the electoral. my bad :embarresd:

 

[raywaters11]

i didnt vote for mccain pretty much because i saw him as a sequel to george bush, they agreed way too much for my liking.

overseas voters also wanted obama, which will help our broken image we received thanks to W

obama will do more to help struggling families

obama wouldnt be as trigger happy as mccain to bomb tons of countries.

i didnt see a reason to vote for mccain... what did he ever do to qualify as a leader? get shot down, get captured, get tortured, sell out to the enemy and make a propaganda film for them? where is the loyalty to his country there? he is supposed to die for the country but he slept with the enemy to ensure his well being.


anyways, these are my opinions, i sure will miss palin tho. i admit, i had a little crush.

 

[Glockmatic]

1) VP choice. Sarah Palin is quite extremely to the right which turns away undecided voters. It also swayed many moderate conservatives. McCain's main strategy of "he has no experience" was destroyed with picking Palin.

2) His party. 8 years of a republican party that may go down as the worst administration in US history does not help the next in line. Democracy does not award the party that has failed its people.

3) His message. It went everywhere. It's like buckshot from far away hoping that it will hit. Obama's was like a aimed shot from start to finish - bring change.

 

[Sebastian]

No one would have had a chance in the race against Obama so its not a matter of "where did McCain messed up".

Even me, living in a different country and barely seeing Obama speak on TV or something, can see that this guy is different to all those politicians that ive experienced so far.

And no, its not just his skin colour.

 

[_carmi]

well for sure Palin didn't help. I mean seriously she is was an idiot and Americans knew that. to think that McCain is 73 years old and that if something happens to him she's the next in line in very scary.

i do think though that it's not about what McCain did wrong, but what Obama did right that decided the outcome of this election.

 

[Shadows]

well for sure Palin didn't help. I mean seriously she is was an idiot and Americans knew that. to think that McCain is 73 years old and that if something happens to him she's the next in line in very scary.

i do think though that it's not about what McCain did wrong, but what Obama did right that decided the outcome of this election.

nice post. rep

 

[Duke]

In this order:

1.) Obama

2.) 8 years of Bush' Republicans

3.) Palin

 

[ill-matic]

1) He was a man of no substance. He was just too desperate in this campaign and had no clear message; constantly bouncing around character defamation (one day a terrorist, next day a socialist etc) instead of focussing on the issues people wanted to hear.
2) Links with the above. Key word is desperation. He wreaked of it. People actually began to see through all his bullshit, and saw his tireless efforts at defaming Obama as the actions of a school kid who is losing an argument so resorts to petty insults and baseless claims.
3) His lack of judgement. He chose Palin for cosmetic reasons rather than credible reasons. Truth is, he realised his campaign was lagging, and he needed somebody to reenergise the party. He wanted to inject the party with renewed confidence by appeasing the conservative religious voters. Ultimately, the strategy failed because after the short honeymoon period, people truly saw how incompetent and dangerous the woman was, illustrating McCains ineptitude in choosing an adequate VP.
4) None of his policies were elaborated or clearly defined; especially in terms of how they differentiate from the Bush Administration. His poor performance in the debates demonstrates this. It was all rhetoric, shit like "my friends" and "i know how to fix this or that"...he didn't sound convincing in showing HOW he will do things, and in what way they will be different to the last 8 years.
5) Links with the above. He didnt make enough effort to distinguish himself from the Bush Administration. He should have ran more with the "i'm not president bush, if you wanted to run against bush you should have ran 4 years ago" kind of theme. IF that was a central component to his campaign then people may have begun to think that he actually is different from Bush. In the end, instead of people thinking McCain and Bush as different people (therefore being fundamentally different), they merely just thought they were the same person because both come from the Republican party.

there's more but i cant be bothered.

 

[Bobby Sands]

The torture he received as a POW hurt him i believe.