November 04, 2008
A vote here, a vote there ...
And the post mortem begins. Over at National Review's Campaign Spot, Jim Geraghty notes:
With 66 percent of precincts reporting, Obama currently leads Ohio by 60,000 votes, 50 percent to 48 percent.
With 97 precincts reporting, Obama leads Virginia 52 percent to 48 percent.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Obama leads North Carolina by 14,000 votes, 50 percent to 49 percent.
With 91 percent of precincts reporting, McCain leads Missouri, 50 percent to 49 percent.
With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Obama leads Florida, 51 percent to 49 percent.
With 99 percent of precints reporting, Obama leads Indiana, 50 percent to 49 percent.
Two or three percent here, two or three percent there, and the map could look very different...
Too bad McCain couldn't close the deal.
But then, the problem was that McCain never could articulate the rationale for his candidacy, other than the fact that he was John McCain, and dammit, it was his turn.
Ace (of Ace of Spades) says the problem begins -- and ends, I'd say -- with McCain's lack of a core set of political principles, beyond his awesome fabulousness and maverickosity.
There is no "McCainism" as there was a "Bushism" or "Reaganism." Those men offered fairly clear visions (well, Reagan particularly so). Not McCain. Everything with him is just his personal gut, principle-free, just an instinct, an impulse, which often takes him in wildly contradictory places (but he's always haughty about the moral superiority of his decisions).
For example, he's pro-drilling... but not in ANWR. Um, why? He's forever undercutting himself with unexplained hedges and caveats.
He's pro-business... Kinda. Except when he's making his distaste for anyone working in the private sector "for profit not patriotism" so glaringly evident.
He wants to lower taxes. Sorta. Sometimes. Maybe. In election years.
We must regard Obama as suspect because of his association with the terrorist Bill Ayers... but it's racist to mention his membership in Jeremiah Wright's Church of Hate.
This leads to a paralysis among his campaign staff. Everyone knew, pretty much, the Idea of Reagan. They could act independently with confidence that they were advancing Reagan's goals.
No one could do that with McCain.
Exactly! If John McCain has been about anything during the last six years, he's been about slapping, slamming, blasting and giving the bum's rush to conservatives and members of his own party. If there was a goal hidden in there, it seemed to be nothing more than earning plaudits from the press, Democrats and liberal celebrities.
Ace uses a German military concept to explain McCain's often dead-in-the-water campaign, becalmed as a result of that missing core purpose.
Steve mentioned the german military term schwerpunkt, or "critical point." Every military mission needed an easily comprehended schwerpunkt; even the most complicated mission must have, at its heart, a simple idea, a non-complex goal.
If the goal was to capture the bridge, it must be clear that capturing the bridge was the schwerpunkt. Not only was everyone clear on the general goal, then, but when asked to give orders independent of senior command, lower officers would know the main goal that each of their orders must advance, the schwerpunkt. Without that, lower officers could not possibly issue orders that would serve the mission's goal.
How can one advance the mission without knowing precisely what is at its heart?
What was McCain's schwerpunkt? What was his case?
Ultimately he sought to run not on a plan or an idea, but upon his character, his personal wisdom and integrity (something I note, not un-coincidentally, could never benefit Republicans generally, as an *idea* could).
He always had a tough battle, but in the end he had no plan for battle, only the unwavering belief that he alone was equipped to lead the war.
There was no idea of McCain beyond McCain himself.
And ultimately, he lost. No man is greater than an idea.
Even the great McCain.
McCain reminds me of a man so in love with his own myth that he fails to comprehend that there has to be more, when the personality at the core of the myth isn't particularly compelling.
There were so many ideas that remained unexplored by McCain, issues that could have illustrated the differences between the two men, but McCain seemed to loathe the idea of fighting to win, preferring to coast to victory, and if that wasn't possible, than to lose gracefully.
The voters ultimately decided that they'd rather take a chance on Obama -- a decision I think the electorate will soon regret. The next four years will give us plenty of time to live out the old saw, "Marry in haste, repent at leisure."
If things prove as bad as I fear, we can get the marriage anulled in November 2012.
Posted by Mike Lief at November 4, 2008 09:57 PM
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Can we end an illegal war in Iraq and restore America's standing in the free world? Yes we can!
Can we bring justice and equality for all? Yes we can!
Can we convince our children that tomorrow will bring more hope and prosperity? Yes we can!
Can we see fairness rule the marketplace instead of corporate greed and corruption? Yes we can!
Today, the world changed for the better.
Posted by: falco at November 4, 2008 11:03 PM
You can have your better world, Falco. I care about the USA, not the world; and I think the USA took a sharp left turn toward oblivion.
Posted by: The Litttle Coach at November 5, 2008 05:41 AM
McCain wasn't missing schwerpunkt or ideas or personality. He wasn't missing a record or character or even a plan. What McCain did not have--indeed intentionally avoided having--was an empty, manufactured "message," served up to an uninquisitive populace in easy-to-digest soundbites. McCain's failing--if you can call it that--was that he assumed Americans' attention spans had not shrunk as much as their waistlines had grown, that he believed the Presidency and the United States were far more complex than could be distilled into a single "idea," that he could win by being real. That McCain was not elected says far more about this country--none of it flattering--than it does about McCain. And McCain lost not to Barack Obama, whom we still do not know, but instead to that moron in the next cubicle, that cheesedick in the car in front of us, that simpleton down the street, whose politics are driven by asking, "how would that make you feel?" (B. Obama, The Audacity of Hope.) A Navy Cross winner, a Naval Academy graduate, a member of a family of warriors, a tortured prisoner of war who sent his men home first, has been cold-shouldered by his country in favor of a hologram. We deserve it. John McCain does not.
Posted by: LT at November 5, 2008 01:53 PM
I agree that it was McCain's turn. He has served the public, done things for our country that I think no one can comprehend unless they've experienced it themselves. Unless you are Obama; he's served his country in ways and under conditions that many of us will never understand. In the end, I believe strongly that "Yes we can!".
Posted by: Dawn at November 6, 2008 11:18 AM
Here is the response of Thin Ice, Jr. to LT's comment:
That is so well written and right on the money.
When I found out on Wednesday morning (I'm 9 hours ahead), it made me a little afraid for the next four years. It will be a government where hope and heart rule over common sense and rationality.
I was sitting at the computer in my hostel in Amsterdam, a bit grumpy after a 20 hour overnight bus ride, and a girl (presumably American) ran over to check CNN.com. When she saw that Obama won, she let out a loud "YES!!" and "Thank God!", then proceeded to start crying as she was reading the article.
I was actually upset about it and not reacting the way she was. I'm only wondering who the liberals will blame now?
Posted by: Thin Ice, Sr. at November 6, 2008 01:07 PM
McCain lost for several reasons and the Republican Party needs to pay attention or they will become a long term minority:
1.The religious right has far too much sway in the party. John McCain should have been able to pick Tom Ridge as his running mate. Instead he picked someone who thinks seeing Russia from her house is foreign policy expertise, doesn't know Africa is a friggin continent and sounded more like Miss teen South Carolina then a legitimate VP prospect when asked about the financial bailout. This pick energized the religious right but appalled just about every other intelligent human being and made a mockery out of McCain's country first theme.
2. The neocons have screwed up the party and the Bush presidency. The war in Iraq was a major blunder leaving Iran without its worst enemy on the border.It cost us over 4,000 lives plus the billions we spent.
3.Reagan hasn't been President for 30 years so quit the obsession.The Republican debates were just a contest of who could say his name the most times ( No,Joe Biden,every Guiliani sentence wasn't a noun a verb and 911 it was Ronald Reagan and 911)Some voters were not even alive when Reagan was President. Way to get the youth vote
4. There is more to life than low taxes. Trickle down econ failed.Sometimes we have to pay for stuff.You can do two wars and run a massive deficit.
5. Get back to the issues you win with like strong defense,fighting terrorism(the Iraq war wasn't even about that)energy independence, personal responsibility, law and order, and personal freedom.
If you keep letting the religious right run your show you lose.If you don't get it , good riddance.
Posted by: Massiah Man at November 7, 2008 01:52 PM
Massiah Man, you need both an editor and a working spell-check before your ideas will gain much traction.
Posted by: The Litttle Coach at November 9, 2008 08:07 AM