Worst Campaign Ever?

« Return to Article

Discuss

  • Posted By: chilitex @ 11/06/2008 12:53:25 AM

    You people are 100% right about Palin,, McCain never had a chance after naming her,, even I am a staunch republican, and I'll be damned if I let a could be president of the most powerful nation in the world , staud up on national TV and wink at 50 million Americans as this was some kind of boy scout outing,,,,,, A fatal mistake and the dam republican party just sat there and didn't say a dam word,,, ,, they deserved to lose , but I still think McCain is the right pick if he had a quality campaign management,,and a descent VP !!,they all made a joke out of the republicans,, and we dam sure deserved it,,.they laughed all the way to the poles and all the wy home,,,,,,Let's try and take it a little more serious next time guys and girls,,,,,

    • Posted By: colbertfan @ 11/06/2008 1:30:22 AM

      I'm probably your political polar opposite but I appreciate your comments. Thanks for summing it up. This was a historical election and times are challenging but then again... it was just another election. One campaign was better run and connected with more people. In 4 years Republicans can try again and the American people will again decide who they want to be president. I love democracy! I love America!

  • Posted By: janet5555 @ 11/05/2008 8:43:21 PM

    I don't know if it was the worst campaign EVER but it was a bad campaign run on feer and greed to get to the top not about the issues and what he could do for America. But I don't think his campain was why he lost, in the end he lost because Bush, McCain, and most of the Republican party have not been flexible with the times they are stuck in the past clinging to religion and guns. If you notice the red states, whether they turned blue or not were blue in the large cities of almost all the states. Thats because people in America are learning tollerance and the only ones supporting the Republican party anymore are the elite rich white and the red necks full of hatred and unless the Republican party rewrites their values they will have a very hard time making it in the future years.

    • Posted By: reinadelaz @ 11/06/2008 1:21:46 AM

      I could not agree with you more. The Republican party must return to the founding principles of personal liberty and fiscal conservatism and dump the neocons and radical Christians if they ever want to be viable in national politics again. As for the campaign, they could have done a better job, but I believe President-elect Obama won on his own merits.

  • Posted By: John 1263 @ 11/06/2008 1:20:37 AM

    Carter in 1980? Mondale? - remember he famously pledged durting the debate to raise everyones taxes? reagan ended up doing exactly that, but he would not be so honest to say so during a campaign! How about Dukakis in 1988? Or better yet - Bush in 92? All horrible campaigns. Stevenson in 56? Dewey - several times. Alton Parker in 1904? Come on guys. McCain faced a daunting task and managed to keep it close. That is remarkable. He had to appeal to the crazies who control the republicon party and still get more that the 20% of the elctorate they represent. Not the best campaign ever, but he should have lost everything save maybe Alasak, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Lots of kool aid soaked loonies still there, and lots of what Murtha now refers toas "rednecks" wink wink

  • Posted By: Tarkus00 @ 11/06/2008 1:04:41 AM

    Not even close~~~~ the worst campaign ever, or at least in recent decades, was the Al Gore 2000 campaign. If Mr. Gore had done any of 20 things differently, he could have been President. Mr. McCain could have played his cards perfectly and still lost.

  • Posted By: Draw4Ever @ 11/05/2008 10:59:30 PM

    The "Kill him!" rumor was debunked WEEKS AGO! The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled ???kill him??? when presidential hopeful Barack Obama???s name was mentioned during Tuesday???s Sarah Palin rally were unfounded. You mean NO ONE at Newsweek EVER saw the follow-up story that DEBUNKED the rumor????

    • Posted By: ranndino @ 11/06/2008 12:47:05 AM

      Rumor, eh? Unfortunately for you that scream as well as "Terrorist" and many others were captured on video / audio, so your post is an outright lie. The hate Palin generated for a man that deserves nothing but admiration is mind boggling. She can rot in hell. Nothing better happen to Obama because one of you crazy, brainwashed lunatics gets some ideas in your hate filled head.

      What happened to all the whining about how patriotic Americans should respect the president even if their guy didn't win that we heard from you in 2000 and 2004? I guess it's easy to say that when your guy wins. Who's the sore loser now? Who's unpatriotic? Now imagine your guy lost by a hair and not by a landslide.

      What a bunch of vile, moronic, hillbilly trash you all are. You don't like our big city values? Create your own 3rd world country already. It's ironic that without us, the people you hate you're nothing. We subsidize your existence and you repay us by hating us and everything we stand for.

  • Posted By: greatmidwest @ 11/06/2008 12:46:01 AM


    McCain's campaign was bad from the very start. The "Maverick" surrounded himself with the wrong people, and his choice for VP was just , if not worse. The McCain campaign was poorly planned and this was seen by the lack of preparation during the critical spring and summer months during the long drawn out Democratic primary season. Senators Clinton and Obama remained front and center for the American people while McCain should have been doing his homework , and possibly should have chosen his VP running mate instead of picking a political newomer so late in the game...Unlike Obama, McCain failed to learn from the mistakes of his previous failed presidential bid in 2000, and committed the very same ones the second time around. Bush took the base and socked it to him in 2000, and Obama took his base and the Independents thus knocking him out in 2008......God Bless an Ever Changing United States of America.

  • Posted By: colbertfan @ 11/06/2008 12:11:50 AM

    Look people, your guy lost. Call Obama whatever you want. You will never be convinced that he isn't a socialist, muslim or terrorist. You will never see him as decent human being who despite great odds achieved so much. You'll never see him as a loving father and husband. You will cling to your conspiracy theories, you'll continue to think that Obama wants to take whatever little you probably make and give it to homeless people. Here's an idea...let go of your fear, take hold of reason and shut your mouth until the man actually does something.

  • Posted By: Old Enough @ 11/06/2008 12:08:06 AM

    the reason McCain lost are many and listing them will not change anything.One of the major reason is that the youth of today are far more wiser than the old guard of the gop; They are out of touch with the country and the world. They can not change for they see no reason to change.The gop will never be the party of the people they will forever be grumpy old person and no one wants to be around grumpy old people.The gop has used lies and smears to win in every election down thru the history of our nation and now the people of sick of it and will not let lies stand for truth or smears stand for truth.

  • Posted By: Pocolodi @ 11/05/2008 10:21:05 PM

    Newsweek, you can stop bashing McCain now..... he lost the election.

    • Posted By: colbertfan @ 11/05/2008 11:23:09 PM

      Bashing? There is nothing wrong with dissecting how the campaigns were run. Trust me the GOP will be doing the same thing. Hopefully, they will learn from it and in 4 years run a more positive campaign telling us what the candidates vision is for America and not what a sh--heel his opponant is. It's not Newsweek's or the author's fault that McCain's
      campaign was a disaster.

  • Posted By: jqpublic1 @ 11/05/2008 7:03:18 PM

    To think that John McCain had a snowballs chance in hell to 'win ' this election, is a joke. Unless Obama said "I'm going to raise your taxes", "I believe in socialism", "I'm really a Marxist", "I have NO idea what in the hell I can do to 'help' the economy", No Republican was going to "win" John McCain didn't lose this election.. It was "already decided'

    • Posted By: whiterock @ 11/05/2008 8:12:09 PM

      Another reminder...after all the money that Obama spent and the fact that he was competing with a Republican who was in the footsteps of an encumbent president with only a 25% approval rate that initiated an unpopular war, right after a stock market crash...Obama only had a 6% lead in the popular vote...that means only 6% more people voted for him than McCain. With all the hype about Obama, he should have done much better!

      • Posted By: summer1216 @ 11/05/2008 11:08:11 PM

        No, he shouldn't have. He had a large number of exotic (but perfectly acceptable) things that the American people needed time to get used to. He had to fight off a barrage of smears regarding those same things from people who don't seem to know any other way to campaign. So his resources had to be spent in ways that someone else's might not have had to be. But we are all the better from having our horizons broadened about who can be a viable candidate for the White House.

      • Posted By: Krypton124 @ 11/05/2008 8:30:57 PM

        Get over it!!! Just accept the fact that McCain got a good whupin' in front of the whole civilized world. Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States. Say it with me... Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States. John McCain lost to Barack Hussein Obama. Just keep saying it... It sounds so beautiful don't it?????

  • Posted By: dawen @ 11/05/2008 11:05:53 PM

    Interesting that there have been no posted news stories either before or after the election on how the US Military is voting. Past elections have reported this with most military personnel leaning strongly Repbulican. If this past trend holds true, and I'm pretty sure it does as I'm on active duty....this is another prime example of the media bias, and squelching a fact that could influence voting......Doen't the media think that the opinions of the men and women at arms and in harms way should be a factor when reporting???? The media is so lame it makes me sick!

  • Posted By: Draw4Ever @ 11/05/2008 10:56:24 PM

    The "Kill him!" was debunked. The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled ???kill him??? when presidential hopeful Barack Obama???s name was mentioned during Tuesday???s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded. Why would NEWSWEEK allow this quote to be included in their article??? Didn't ANYONE at Newsweek see the story that debunked this?????

  • Posted By: hardliner @ 11/05/2008 10:52:35 PM

    What a pile of liberal ***. You bolsheviks should know that the first casualty of the totalitarians]
    is press, no matter how compliant and complicit in their ascendance you were. Enjoy the gulag.

  • Posted By: hardliner @ 11/05/2008 10:48:22 PM

    This is nothing but liberal front runner propaganda passed off as insightful journalism. Stop calling yourselves journalists. Party propagandist is the truth... oh, sorry you bolshevik bastards don't care
    for the truth when the lies will do. I hope you enjoy your stay in the gulag.

  • Posted By: AKBlogger @ 11/05/2008 10:34:38 PM

    What a rehash of stuff everyone already knew. As soon as I saw him use the "energize the conservative base" I knew that the author being a professor meant virtually nothing in terms of his understanding of the campaign process.

  • Posted By: Cauthon @ 11/05/2008 10:20:51 PM

    "has the audacity to say he should have read his contract "

    Nobody deserves to be stuck with a tricky adjustable rate mortgage (not all of them are bad; mine kept my interest rate lower than what I could have had in fixed rate, most of the time). But, anybody who doesn't pay attention to what they are signing should, at least, not be surprised if it jumps up and bites them. In the good old days, it used to be standard to hire a lawyer to go to the closing; I???ve heard that lots of people don???t do that anymore. It only cost a couple hundred $, which is not much compared to $20,000 or more for the house (right, that one was a while ago). Buying a house, as everyone knows, is a really big investment, and it???s good to be careful.

    I hope we don't throw out the benefits of the new mortgages with the bad. When Barney Frank and his buddies started telling the bankers whom to loan to, if they had just stopped with requiring them to do 100% loans (no down payment) that would have helped a lot of people who could afford payments no larger than their rent but couldn't save enough money for a down payment. And, maybe a simple mandatory disclosure of a sentence or two could warn people that if they can't afford the higher interest rate now, they shouldn't assume they will be able to do that later. OTOH, plenty of people have gone bankrupt on incomes over $100,000 per year, so why should we expect poor people to be any smarter than rich people? Everybody wants more, so we shouldn???t be surprised that people look for shortcuts to get more.

    BTW, has anyone heard any estimates of how many of the new homeowners are still OK, on track to keep paying the payments and eventually own the house? I suspect that number may be very large indeed. Remember, the politicians were not intentionally being evil (not even the Democrats:-) when they pushed the bankers into making those bad loans; stupid, maybe, and ideological, but not evil. They were trying to help people be able to own homes, and they probably had some success.

  • Posted By: srdelany @ 11/05/2008 10:15:08 PM

    The era of conservatism has come to an end?? Hardly, look at California and the ban of gay marriage. McCain indeed ran a poor campaign. However, had he been a real conservative he would have had the support of his party, which he did not. Why do you think he picked Palin, to appease his conservative base. That was too little too late. Then he muzzled her for weeks. The real problem was McCain, no one liked him but we were forced to vote for him and 20% of his party bolted. Obama is president not because of the stupid economy, but because Republican were stupid to think that McCain would ever warm up to his base!

  • Posted By: jebachman @ 11/05/2008 10:13:23 PM

    I simply can not believe the "mainstream" media won this election for Obama. How dumb do you think the American voter is? They knew exactly what they wanted and it was not fear, but hope. But more importantly, faith in America and what it stands for. The Republicans vastly underestimated Obama. They felt that America would be more concerned with someone's middle name, than what they stood for. Obama took a page right out of Reagan's 1980 playbook and their answer was Sarah Palin.

  • Posted By: jlgab @ 11/05/2008 9:54:10 PM

    Palin who? She does not have what it takes for an Executive position. Her self-righteous speech on SNL's Presidential Bash really turned me away from her. Poor her, SNL makes fun of her, poor baby. Who does she think she is - SNL makes fun of every politician. She might have been able to gain some credibility had she not allowed herself to be pimped out so quick and easily by McCain's camp. It would have been beneficial to McCain had Palin not patted HERSELF on her back every time she talked.

  • Posted By: jlgab @ 11/05/2008 9:52:39 PM

    Not necessarily the worst campaign ever, just the worst President to have to replace and a really dumb VP choice. A gracious concession speech by McCain, the true McCain - too bad the true McCain has been missing for the past several months. Alas, it was not his time, his time was in 2000. McCain sold his soul when he aligned himself with the very people who caused him to lose the GOP nominee in 2000 by using dirty underhanded tactics. McCain's biggest problem-BUSH! Bush worst and dumbest EVER! He was never president over ALL the people of this fine country. If you want to be president of a country, you HAVE to be leader of ALL the people, not just the rich ones, not just the ones that look like you, and not just the ones of your political party. Personal goals were more important to Bush rather than being honest and good and moral. At any cost and using any corrupt means would that thick-skulled idiot use to reach HIS and Cheney's goals.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse