Worst Campaign Ever?

Obama's camp really ran the campaign. Obama's focus was on the speeches, and conveying his message to the people. Obama's campaign ran well primarily because of the never ending financial backing making staff help and support never ending as well, media bias to the extreme, and the failing economy. I think too much credit is giving to him, and not spreading the other factors out there that worked in his favor. McCain didn't run a great campaign, but I believe that factors that were out of his control hurt his campaign, especially being a Republican when our economy was failing, and media bias, and being compared to Bush. McCain just didn't have the charisma needed. People are drawn to that. I think saying it was the worst campaign is a little extreme. Hillary didn't have a chance either, Obama was a fresh face, and people are often drawn to new things. If Obama had been a familiar face things wouldn't have been in his favor so much.

This is another disgusting liberal slam. The comments "to be fair" were an understatement. The McCain campaign was leading in the polls before the financial meltdown. Honestly, Obama should have crushed McCain with President Bush's unpopularity, the war etc. Obama spent $600.000,000.00 on his campaign and spent 5:1 on media. Obama had damn near free media coverage without any real scrutiny from the media who kept tossing him softballs to hit out of the park. Was McCain perfect, hell no. However, your assertion that Palin was a terrible pick is DEAD Wrong. Before Palin conservatives like me, and I talked to a lot of them, were not energized by McCain, only distressed by Obama's left leaning. Palin brought an energy and enthusiasm to the campaign that McCain did not have. We conservatives like McCain, but loved Sara Palin, because she was a true conservative. As a final note, I will support President Elect Obama and give him the benefit of the doubt. But, the swing left is not a crushing blow like many think and those who would have voted Republican but voted for Obama will give him a short time frame for results (fair or unfair).

Romney/Palin 2012

Obama is not a Muslim ... and by the way I have met nice Muslim people.
Call me insane, but I don't think it's right to judge people on their religion. On their actions, yes. On their religious beliefs, no.

drenn73: I am fully aware of Landon's loss to FDR, which is why posted the following comment YESTERDAY at 8:15:27 pm EST:

Posted By: LuisaInCA @ 11/05/2008 8:15:27 PM
Comment: Is the author of this article serious? He really thinks McCain's campaign was the worst campaign ever? Wow. I guess Julian E. Zelizer forgot about Mondale's loss to Reagan in 1984. Mondale only won his home state (MN) and DC, earning him a total of 13 electoral votes. Reagan carried 525 electoral votes. That was the worst electoral defeat since Alf Landon's loss to FDR in 1936. (Landon secured 8 electoral votes, FDR secured 523.) Since both Republicans and Democrats have experienced worse defeats than McCain's, I'm guessing there were some pretty bad campaigns run those years. Oh, and let's not forget Jimmy Carter's defeat in 1980. Carter carried 49 electoral votes and Reagan carried 489. That was the worst electoral defeat for an incumbent president since Herbert Hoover lost to FDR in 1932.

Let me guess: Julian E. Zelizer is a Democrat. Either that, or he's a revisionist historian. Or both. I really don't see how Carter, Mondale, or Landon could have run better campaigns than McCain and lost their elections by wider margins than did McCain. So I figure McCain's campaign couldn't possibly be the "Worst Campaign Ever."

I love how unbiased the media are.

No, McCain's campaign was not the worst ever! Please! Your guy won...now get over it and stop bad mouthing McCain. He is a great American and he deserves your respect.

McCain's greatest mistakes were being outspent mroe than 2-1 by the Obama campaign and failing to secure the fawning press coverage Barak managed. One has to wonder what the race might have looked like but for those factors.

Typical Newsweek. McCain did seem inept but so did Obama. Only difference was the press downplayed or made excuses for Obama while blowing every misstep by McCain totally out of proportion. The public isn't as dumb as you think, and the press isn't as smart as they believe.

The day of reckoning has come and passed judgement on the Republican Reich and extinguished it. To keep America safe from the American Taliban, err, Republicans. THE WORLD NOW HAS HOPE ! In order to fully restore that hope, american needs to purge and rid itself of Republicans, our own version of the Night of a Broken Glass. I was watching the reactions of the world to this. And only TWICE can I remember the world rejoicing together. The first was new yrs eve 1999-2000 and the new millenium and the end of WWII. In the latter a Reich was extingushed and yesterday the same occurred. The world cannot and should not tolerate Republicans anymore. GOP - means GREED OVER PRINCIPLE.

God is smiling down on us again. He turned his back on us out of shame during the last 8 yrs and now we are back in his good graces.

This article supports typical 'politics as usual' which is to base everything on image- rather than doing what your convictions tell you would work. This campaign has been a very eye opening experience for me. It has done well to expose the fact that many of our so called 'objective' media outlets are self serving, and have lost any sense of objective & balanced perspective. Newsweek is among the worst. This is a shame as I grew up with Newsweek. Why don't you do a story about how the mainstream media failed the american public?

To all of you who beleive this was a landslide, I need to remind all of you again that Obama won the popular vote by ONLY 6%. That means that there were only 6% more of the people that wanted Obama over McCain. THe "landslide" was in the electoral votes. The electoral college is different than the popular vote. Remember the Bush/Gore election? Everyone was upset because Bush won the electoral votes and Gore won the popular votes but Bush got to be president and a lot of people thought that was unfair. As far as the popular vote...which means the people's vote...Obama only won by 6%. Now if Obama had achieved more of the popular vote than a one-point spread, than I would agree with you about the landslide.

Worst ever? Are you kidding? What about Walter "I will raise your taxes" Mondale in 1984? Didn't he only win 1 state? How many votes did he actually get?

McCain's loss would have been more dramatic if Palin was not his running mate. She is the only reason most Republicans voted for the moderate-minded McCain. If not for her, I would have voted McCain ONLY because it wasn't Obama.