I come to this site for journalism untainted by the cultural and political beliefs of most media outlets. With respect, this piece does not offer this. I am no fan of Barack Obama or the Democratic party, but the clear conservative bias in this piece does our side no credit. Let’s leave the biased ideologically influenced writing to the New York Times.
John McCain was a flawed candidate in many respects. The claim that he was “nicer” than Obama and that is why he lost wreaks of the excuses we heard from Democrats when their candidates lost against George W. Bush. McCain ran plenty of negative ads, he just declared certain areas off-limits for unknown reasons. He, and his campaign, were also too inarticulate to launch attacks on Obama’s feelings for the USA.
Declaring a presidential candidate unpatriotic is too blunt and instrument and would have backfired amongst the electorate. However, McCain proved time and again that he lacked the ability to mount a nuanced articulate attack during the campaign.
Secondly, McCain would have gladly dropped out of the public financing system had he been able to raise more money than it offered. Obama’s financial edge was not due to McCain’s honesty or because McCain honored his commitment but because many Republicans weren’t sure why they would open their check books to someone that acted a lot like a member of the opposing party. Obama’s mistake was promising to take public funds in the first place. McCain knew he’d take public funds and tried to trap Obama into doing the same. McCain was right to attack Obama’s reversal but we shouldn’t pretend McCain stayed in the public financing system out of honor or that McCain lost the fundraising battle because he played by the rules.
John McCain is an honorable man but was a horrible candidate. His personal politics are not aligned with the beliefs of most Republican voters and he compounded this with poor campaign strategy, worse execution, and a lack of personal discipline. In sum, I feel he let down those voters who entrusted him with the Republican nomination. We should have known what we were getting on immigration and populist grandstanding but he should have honored his nomination and ran a smarter campaign that honored the beliefs of the party he was supposed to be representing.
