To Sen. McCain - It Was the Economy Stupid

Unless social conservatives were responsible for Sen. John McCain getting the nomination instead of a Washington outsider like Gov. Mike Huckabee or Gov. Mitt Romney, they were not responsible for the GOP loss of the presidency.

McCain lost because he had the disadvantage of being a Senator and a member of the incumbents party when the economy was going the wrong way. It was natural for voters to think McCain would continue Bush's economic policies.

An outsider might have been able to avoid being held responsible for the economy, particularly running against an incumbent Senator. A Republican governor could have run against both the president and the Congress by blaming both for the economy.

Many political analysts ignore the fact that most voters base their votes on issues other than social issues like abortion. Most voters are more interested in issues such as economic policy, foreign policy or crime.

Of the voters are consider abortion an important issue, most who support abortion would likely vote for Democrats anyway. Many of those who oppose abortion are more inclined to the Democratic positions on economic issues, particularly with a bad economy. Many conservative leaders were complaining before the election that Barack Obama was attempting to convince social conservatives he wouldn't make that many changes.

Without the social conservatives, John McCain would have lost by an even bigger margin. If Republicans want to improve their chances of winning they need to find more appealing positions on economic issues.

A Democratic victory may have been inevitable considering that since the Depression every president has been succeeded by his vice president or someone from another party. And, only one vice president, George H. W. Bush, succeeded through election instead of through the death or resignation of the president. Bush's victory might not be that significant considering that from 1840 through 1980 every president who won an election in a year ending in zero was succeeded by his vice president.

In fact only three presidents who won an election in a year ending in zero were not succeeded by their vice presidents. George W. Bush is the first since James Monroe ( reelected in 1820) who wasn't succeeded by his vice president. Thomas Jefferson was the other president whose vice president didn't succeed him.

What someone really needs to do is find out who was responsible for running up oil prices. I wouldn't be surprised if it was some of Obama's billionaire supporters.

Republicans should have used the global warming scam against Obama - but stupid McCain accepts that lie.

Stupid McCain believed what the beltway press said about voters being repelled by "negative" campaigning.

So an easy target like marxist radical Obama skated through the election masquerading as a legitimate candidate.

I’m sorry but you can not help the rino candidate of the stupid party when the BIG LIE MACHINE gets cranked up and the nominee like sheeple, accept all their premises at face value...

. . . Republicans should have used the global warming scam against Obama - but stupid McCain accepts that lie.

You could fill a book with McCain's tactical and strategic errors. When he turned Sarah Palin loose too little too late, he actually closed the gap and kicked ObaMao's a** in unlikely places like here in SW Pennsylvania.

I lived in Cass County, North Dakota in 1984 when Mondale got blown out by Reagan even though Mondale had the popular appeal of being from the neighboring state. Meanwhile, Mondale edged out Reagan in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

The demographics of both counties have changed very little since 1984, but a quarter century later, Obama edges out McCain in Cass County and McCain blows out Obama in Westmoreland County. Cass County received little attention in either election and merely followed national trends. Westmoreland County got a lot of attention in both elections and bucked national trends. It was all in how the campaigns were waged on the ground.

McCain’s problem is that he’s stupid, and he made it America’s problem by getting nominated. He doesn’t understand a damn thing about economics, atmospheric physics, or energy production, so all he knows how to do is pander, and he’s too stupid to pander competently.

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