McCain's cock-ups

It's great fun to ruminate on all the ways McCain "cocked up" his campaign. But, of course, he did very well and it is almost impossible to think of any member of the Republican party, save perhaps Colin Powell, who could have done better.

Anyway, let's have a bit of fun.

The first thing that occurs is that the McCain campaign didn't stick to one message.

They didn't stick to two messages.

Final totting-up is still going on but at the current count it is reckoned that the number of messages McCain's campaign, had, over the last six months, was:

9,230,300,998,230,348,234,123,666,238,190,001

In one day alone, 15 messages were counted. McCain went round the houses with umpteen negative stories and then, in the last few hours, finally returned to "fight, fight, fight, and fight again" not being particularly specific about what it was he was fighting for, except for John Sidney McCain III.

And then there was the state strategy. Even when Obama was into a double digit lead in Iowa, a few weeks before election day, McCain insisted on visiting Des Moines, Iowa and, excruciatingly, giving the editorial board of the Des Moines Register "what for". A complete waste of time.

And even in the last few days he insisted on returning to New Hampshire! Obama won it by nine points.

Mind you, I suppose McCain didn't have many options.

McCain's campaign was characterised by impulsive behaviour. The return to Washington to stay silent at a meeting, and the choice of the monumentally, pathetically ill equipped Sarah Palin, were clear indicators that the man was simply not suited, temperamentally, to be President.

I have waxed lyrically about it before and will no doubt dine out on this in future. If only McCain had chosen Kay Bailey Hutchison as his running mate he might not have gone down to such an ignominious electoral college defeat.

Anyway, one fascinating aspect of the campaign is McCain's "balls out" strategy in Pennsylvania. In the last few weeks, he threw everything at the Keystone state.

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire (at which altar many genuflections from moi) teases us with the fascinating thought that Obama's campaign "tricked" McCain's campaign into throwing everything at PA:

A Political Wire reader suggests Sen. Barack Obama's campaign tricked Sen. John McCain into competing in Pennsylvania.
1. Obama's campaign learns McCain has just $37 million entering October.2. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell says he's "nervous" that McCain is gaining ground.3. Obama's team "leaks" an internal poll proving Rendell's anxiety.4. McCain pulls back in other states to "flood" Pennsylvania with resources.In the end, Obama won Pennsylvania by double digits. As First Read notes, "Lost in Obama's impressive 11-point win in Pennsylvania is that McCain's Western PA strategy worked. The problem? There weren't enough votes out there."

And if I might throw in an extraneous personal thought, one thing which McCain's campaign has proven is that the stupid, idiotic theory that negative Rove/Atwater negative campaigning always wins has, at long last, had a stake driven through its heart.

So, what now for the Republican party? Well there are plenty of answers now for the GOP. But, sure as hell, one of them is NOT Sarah Palin. However, I will suspect we will have great fun, because I suspect that many Republicans will be convinced, for a long period, that she is the answer.