Posted on 10/23/2008 5:47:32 PM PDT by dogbyte12
With despair rising even among many of John McCain’s own advisors, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering—-much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely.
At his Northern Virginia headquarters, some McCain aides are already speaking of the campaign in the past tense. Morale, even among some of the heartiest and most loyal staffers, has plummeted. And many past and current McCain advisors are warring with each other over who led the candidate astray.
One well-connected Republican in the private sector was shocked to get calls and resumes in the past few days from what he said were senior McCain aides – a breach of custom for even the worst-off campaigns.
“It’s not an extraordinarily happy place to be right now,” said one senior McCain aide. “I’m not gonna lie. It’s just unfortunate.”
“If you really want to see what ‘going negative’ is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we’re starting to see,” said Mark McKinnon, the ad man who left the campaign after McCain wrapped up the GOP primary. “And there’s one common theme: Everyone who wasn’t part of the campaign could have done better.”
“The cake is baked,” agreed a former McCain strategist. “We’re entering the finger-pointing and positioning-for-history part of the campaign. It’s every man for himself now.”
A circular firing squad is among the most familiar political rituals of a campaign when things aren’t going well. But it is rare for campaign aides to be so openly participating in it well before Election Day. against second-guessers who say it was a mistake to throw away his experience message in an attempt to match Obama’s “change” mantra.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
It’s just opposition psy-ops.
I’m starting to think that McCain/Palin is now in the lead!
The people leaking to the Politico don’t have access to the internal polls. The politico is a joke.
When McCain wins there will be a lot of riff raff left over that needs weeding out of our party.
Haha another crappy story from the politburo. Keep em coming buttheads. Most of their readers are hardcore liberals.
Okay, I never thought it would come to this but...
I am beginning to believe that even the McCain campaign has no idea of the “Joe the Plumber” grassroots effort out here. They see “something”, but they don’t think it’s as big as it really is. Shocking. They literally don’t know we’re going to drag them across the finish line.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. In 1996, I knew we were toast. In 2006, I knew it was going to get ugly, just not sure by how much. But this year, I don’t get that at all. The low point was after the second debate, but since then McCain gained his footing and is firing back.
A lot depends on PA and I look at it this way. If PA can vote for a guy who insults them as “racist” and “clinging to their guns and religion” then this country gets what they deserve. I still believe that this is a center-right country and McCain will carry PA, OH, FL + one more Bush state, and that will be enough.
They get linked to CBS news site now, and these hacks help set the agenda.
Burying our heads in the sand when obnoxious stories come out don’t help. It’s best to dig in and refute it.
Well, I guess I disagree. I don’t think refuting this stuff does any good.
Look at all the efforts made to highlight the Ayers-Obama relationship, with pretty meager results. And that has been going on non-stop for over half a year.
I don’t see any use to it. I feel the same way about stupid online polls, and polls in general. Granted, I do not watch television or read newspapers, since I long ago found there was no need to do so. The media is extraordinarily predictable, and my time is too valuable.
I feel the same way about DU. I look at what PJ-Comix pulls out of there sometimes just for entertainment purposes, but obsessing over it is a form of mental masturbation.
Again, my disagreement was not towards you in particular, but the posting of that site’s content in general.
Just my opinion.
Thank god no one reads Politico. Higher traffic comes to FR on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, I wish you Politico guys good luck on your post election orgy with Chuck Todd, Zogby, and Ron Fournier hosted by Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. Should be quite a cry!!!
We have this bagged you Byotches!!!!
Yes, see #28.
A circular firing squad is probably pretty appropriate, at least no one will be missed.
This guy Martin appears to be just another Obama shill like Olbermann. Seriously, I haven’t seen anything objective from this group yet. Nothing about the remarkable internals we’ve seen in OH, nothing about the HOUSE SEATS that the Dems are losing. Oh, nonononono. Can’t talk about Democrats actually losing anything!
I was just wondering if there was something obvious I was missing. It wouldn’t be the first time, but I know dog feces when I see it. I don’t need to smell it.
This little bit of info says it all. Stories like this always come out about now about the losing campaign. If you dismiss it outright, you are being naive.
You mean McKinnon who left because he supports Obama? I was so happy when McKinnon left because his ads for Bush were so bad.
Politico is TRASH!
Three hard core Dem Frauds peddling apack of lies !
Rush talked baiut that Harris’s Obama pep talk last week and old JOhnny Martin is infamous for the MECCA phony scandal and Mike Allen whose wife is a Dem party operative was involved in the Scoter Libby scam.
There is no leaked anything.
This website is an OBama front group and I suspected funded by Soros and company !
This is classic Axelrod PR spinning to a Obama front group named Politico!
Rush already outed this website as a Obama PR wing !
You actually believe anything from the Wash Compost writer that pushed MECCA !
Politico, if I’m not mistaken, is one of the primary sources for MSNBC. Obama SUPPORTER Mark Mckinnon and FORMER campaign workers.......if we are gonna play this game.....I heard from a cousin of a friend of a friend who heard that the Obama campaign is imploding and Obama cries himself to sleep every night. PROVE WHAT I SAID IS NOT TRUE.
Johnny Martin of Wash Compost “MECCA “ fame is considered a source for news to anyone but the DNC ?
...a McCain OFFICIAL....WHO? Why no name? Doesn’t pass the smell test.
Pretty stupid, but we already know what side Politico, AP, and every other so-called journalist of rebranded pundit is on. Shame on those drunken Republicans who choose to play into the hands of press party hacks, but this is no time to get frustrated. By the evening of November 4th or lunchtime November 5th, round one will be over with. Whatever the result, we don’t get a breather or some time for soul-searching and navel gazing. If Obama wins, the people who give up are cowards. If McCain wins, the people who think that we’ll return to a state of “normalcy” are fools. The war goes on, and the future battles will be won by the side that learns from the last one and plans ahead for the next one. The two lessons that the Republican party needs to learn from this election is 1) the opposition was better prepared then we were and 2) things can change very quickly if you’re not paying attention.
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