I’ll admit I have a morbid fascination with the McCain Campaign. I can’t help it. It’s like a natural disaster that no one could have predicted. Right now all fingers are pointing to Sarah Palin, but she isn’t the woman who made McCain run to The Right. Hillary Clinton is.
Let me explain.
Think PUMA was upset when Clinton didn’t get the nomination? Well, their disappointment paled in comparison to the McCain Campaign. Once Obama became the presumptive nominee McCain’s entire strategy crumbled.
Now it’s no secret the Christian Right despised John McCain. They didn’t trust him one little bit. They doubted he shared their “values”. And even though right-wing talk radio harshly criticized their new Republican nominee the McCain Campaign barely spared them a second thought. They didn’t have to worry about Rush or the base because they were going to be running against Hillary. And while the republican base may not happily vote for McCain they could be counted on to perform cartwheels while voting against a Clinton.
And John McCain counted on that Clinton hate. Hell, he bet the farm on it carrying him to victory. With Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee then John McCain could easily bank the votes of Far Right and run as a centrist/moderate/maverick. The core base would be too busy spitting out 527 ads to pay much attention to the candidate they weren’t voting “for” anyway. To them defeating Hillary would become their crusade, and they could be relied upon to stop at nothing in achieving their quest. John McCain gaining the White House was merely an incidental.
But then the Democrats went and nominated Barack Obama. This nomination was the flipping the political chess board. The game was over and McCain was in serious trouble. In that instant the townspeople McCain counted on (and had pretty much ignored) put down their torches and pitchforks and… shrugged.
Now I’m not giving McCain and Co. a pass. And I don’t want to hear any bitching, after all is said and done, about how McCain wasn’t allowed to be McCain. If he chose to play the good, little soldier rather than the Commander In Chief role then that is by far his greatest failing. Any leader worth their salt plans for multiple scenarios. McCain did not. In fact, he wasted valuable time during the spring and summer with his head in the sand. By the time the Democratic Convention rolled around his last hope had been dashed. Obama picked Biden, not Hillary. And with that one move McCain’s loss of the Republican base was complete. Overnight McCain found himself thrust into the role of the neglectful lover. How could he woo back a group he not only ignored, but shamelessly took for granted?
Enter Sarah Palin. In essence McCain replaced one woman with another, and in the process achieved the same result- his own irrelevancy. No one is voting “for” McCain. And what’s worse is that he’s sold his soul to a group that, up until the conventions, he’d only shown barely concealed contempt. The man whose entire strategy was based on his appeal to moderate voters – while letting the 527s run wild – has now found himself plastered with mud. He has rewritten his own history, and it ain’t honorable. Oh, sweet irony!