The weird silence of John McCain

[wombat_socho]

You would think that a man so quick to squash negative ads and sorta-kinda-could-maybe-be considered derogatory remarks about his opponent would have opened his trap sometime in the last two days to tell his bitter, opportunistic staffers to lay off the VP candidate he himself chose. Sadly, no...the silence from our presidential nominee has been deafening.

Which is why a lot of us conservatives are identifying with this Michael Ramirez cartoon these days. Especially since, you know, it seems that McCain and some of his staffers are copping this attitude.

Comments

[fsf-rapier.livejournal.com]

No surprise, but I disagree here:

"she's definitely playing to the social-conservative base of the Republican party -- although that's as much a liability as it is an asset, given that that base has been running out of steam since the early 2000s and is getting smaller all the time."
Actually, that's not true. Most of the candidates that ran as social conservatives won. John McCain is a great and honorable man, but by no stretch of the imagination can he be called a "social Conservative". His nomination by the Republican centrists was pretty much the death knell for this campaign cycle, and Sarah Palin was able to extend the life of the campaign.

"Palin is not, at the moment, a viable President; she lacks experience with and knowledge of foreign policy, knowledge of federal-level issues beyond the talking points, and the flexibility to deal with an often-hostile Congress"
She is at least as qualified as Barak Obama. The time in office that each has is seperated by less than 200 days, and considering most of the time Obama was a Senator he was campaigning, he certainly doesn't have the Executive experience that Palin has from being a Governor every day. Managing a campaign, no matter how large (and really all the candidate does is shape the ideas and give the speeches) is very different than running a state with an 11 billionn dollar budget.

There is a big difference between being "qualified" and being "recognised". The media was pissed because McCain did an end-run around them and didn't pick one of their "expected" candidates. If they had listened to Newt Gingrich and Bill Kristol back in June they would have known that Sarah Palin was high on the list. It's their own fault for ignoring her and not doing their due dilligence.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

There is a big difference between being "qualified" and being "recognized". The media was pissed because McCain did an end-run around them and didn't pick one of their "expected" candidates. If they had listened to Newt Gingrich and Bill Kristol back in June they would have known that Sarah Palin was high on the list. It's their own fault for ignoring her and not doing their due diligence.

This.
The Maverick made his bones with the media originally by sticking his thumb in the eye of the conservative base at nearly every opportunity, and in the end it's no surprise that (despite Palin's best efforts) he got seven million votes less than W got in 2004.

One also has to give Obama credit for running an excellent campaign, though tbqh 53% is no great accomplishment when you're running against an inept McCain campaign and the worst-rated President since Nixon hung up his spikes and went home.