Schmidt, Plouffe: McCain was a long shot

Politico ^ | 04/2309 | Ben Smith

[Big_Monkey]

NEWARK, Del. – The men who ran the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain appeared together on stage for the first time Thursday at the University of Delaware to complete a pair of tasks: To articulate their (remarkably similar) views of the election, and to hash out the details of continuing coursework so that they can, at last, graduate.

McCain chief strategist Steve Schmidt and Obama campaign manager David Plouffe seemed to agree on a central point: McCain was always the longest of long-shot candidates. (You would not have known this from hearing either of them talk during the campaign.)

Schmidt, the father of hundreds of attacks on Obama, spoke of the president’s political skills with unabashed admiration.

“This was, in my view, the unfinished Bobby Kennedy campaign – the idealism, the passion, the inspiration he gave to people, it was organic and it was real and it wasn’t manufactured at a tactical level in the campaign.”

[steve-b]

McCain was always the longest of long-shot candidates.

[a fool in paradise]

I think that some of those who voted for Obama did so on “principle” but didn’t really expect such a novice to win.

They wanted the bragging rights of how “good” they were and how they could rip McCain’s administration to shreds because they wanted “the other guy”.

Except he won. And is doing all of the things his critics predicted.

I had a Democrat confess to me in the wake of 9-11 that she was suddenly SO glad that Gore lost (she didn’t believe he would be able to handle such a situation).

I don’t want an “I told you so” moment. I want our country to be safe. I don’t believe our current President has America’s best interests at heart at home or abroad. He smears the previous administration at every turn (alleging they are criminal, even if they are never prosecuted) and shames America for ever getting involved in foreign affairs. We consume too much. We live too well. But he parties every week in the Big House.