John McCain Had His Chance For Honor
by Big Dog on Nov 13, 2008 at 06:15 Political
During John McCain’s concession speech he made the statement that he was solely responsible for the loss. This was an honorable statement and showed the character expected of a leader. Leaders accept responsibility for failure and the phrase used by McCain gave the appearance of a true leader. This was in direct contrast with Barack Obama who never accepted responsibility for any of the things that took place during his campaign. Every time there was a problem Obama stated that [fill in name here] was not the same person he knew just before throwing that person under the bus.
The problem with McCain’s statement is that he failed to back up his words. After the loss a lot of blame was placed on Sarah Palin. People who were supposedly aligned with the campaign started telling stories of a diva Palin who could not, or refused, to be coached. The stories started fast and furious and they laid the blame for the loss at her feet.
John McCain was interviewed on the Tonight Show and he was asked about the stories. He could have put them to bed but gave a wishy washy answer that did nothing to dispel the stories about Palin. John McCain had the chance to live up to what he said in his concession speech by saying that the blame for the loss was his alone but he did not say that. Instead, he took the easy way out and failed to show true leadership. The straight talk express seems to have have lost the straight and resorted to just talk. And we all know that talk is cheap.
Let’s be clear here. Sarah Palin injected much needed life into the McCain campaign. John McCain is a RINO and he needed a true conservative to bring the base back home. Without Palin McCain would have lost by a much greater margin. I voted for McCain because he was, in my opinion, the better candidate of the two and he has a record on which we could make a judgment as opposed to Obama who has a paper thin resume. McCain was not my first (or second or third) choice but he was a better choice than Obama. Regardless, he is still a RINO who reaches across the aisle to make deals with the devils on the left. John McCain lost because he is not a conservative and even the true conservative Palin could not save him.
Conservatives win when they run but the base recognizes a RINO when it sees one and McCain is a RINO.
Others:
Michelle Malkin
Tags: honor, leno, McCain, palin
I am so glad you wrote this Big Dog. The anonymous accusations against Sarah Palin from inside the McCain campaign had me wondering if an Obama operative had infiltrated it. Under normal circumstances, Republicans don’t speak ill of a fellow party member. Sarah Palin is a giant personality who burst on the scene like gangbusters. She is an amazingly powerful, impressive, fabulous woman. The attempts to diminish her have backfired. The campaign insiders who gossiped to reporters have been branded cowards and traitors. And the head of the campaign, John McCain, has also been splashed and befouled by their misdeeds. We need to put faces and names to the petty liars who betrayed our party and Sarah Palin. Rick Davis, campaign manager, was on Greta Van Susteren’s show last night and declined to name them. He has to know who they are. He’s a coward, too. The defense of Sarah Palin has been tepid. The Republican Party needs to step up and strongly repudiate this crap and reveal the guilty. Our party needs to defend the honor of all Republican women by standing up for Sarah. If they don’t, we are loyal to the wrong party.
Agreed – I was terribly disappointed with McCain’s failure to stand up for her. He was on Jay Leno the other night as well and when asked about it, couldn’t muster up anything more that “Well, these things happen during campaigns…” No, these things do NOT always happen during campaigns, insiders do not always start smearing their own people in order to save face. I would have respected him much more had he stood up for her and said he knows what’s going on, he is going to find out who is responsible, and he’s going to make sure they never have a job working for a Republican’s campaign ever again. If they want to play the backstabbing, name-calling blame game, they should join the opposition.
Folks are only human. There’s lots of ego on the line and lots of stress involved in campaigns and when things go wrong fingers get pointed and the media loves to report it. There wasn’t and implosion that I could really remember from the Kerry campaign in 2004 but we sure saw it this time around in several campaigns. Look at how the Hillary Clinton campaign devolved down the stretch.
The bottom line with Palin is she just wasn’t that popular and you folks should come to terms with that. Exit polls showed 60% thought Palin wasn’t qualified to be president. A recent poll shows a majority believing she should have no political future.
Everyone knows exit polls are a bunch of crap. HUGE margins of error, Democrats are more likely to participate, they don’t take into account early voting, etc etc etc etc etc. Poll a bunch of liberals and of course they don’t think she’s qualified. Poll a bunch of conservatives and they think she has more executive experience than Obama does. And I’m not sure which “majority” believes she should have no political future, but I have to seriously doubt there are many true conservatives who feel that way – and RINO’s don’t count.
Not every exit poll has huge margins of error. For instance this time CNN’s exit polls figure out to about 52.71% to 45.35% Obama over McCain. That’s pretty close to the 53% to 46% actual results.
Unfortunately the science of polling cares very little for the difference between “true conservatives” and “RINO’s”.
I won’t pretend that she’s not popular with segments of the Conservative movement but to act as if she is clear of any blame for the McCain loss I think is flawed. Either way though I agree with those who say she’s far from done with the party.
I won’t pretend that she’s not popular with segments of the Conservative movement but to act as if she is clear of any blame for the McCain loss I think is flawed.
Just because some want to blame Palin doesn’t make it true. For one thing when I heard her speak at least you knew what the H*** she was talking about and what she was saying because she was saying it in language that could not be misconstrued. Unlike that misinformed swing both ways–reach across the aisle McLame. Trying to be both Democrat and Republican DOESN’T WORK. It is stupid when you think about it. And what Obama won on was his mantra “I am going to cut taxes for 95% of the people and “I care about the middle class,” which is Reagan. Oh yea and because he is the new messiah. The spread the wealth part was not Reagan which everyone for Obama ignored or else they want some of that wealth. For all the rich Democrats out there that includes their wealth too and as for cutting taxes that ain’t happening. Obama should of left the Republican platform alone because just like McLame he can’t do it both ways either. He is a big pretender too and now that we have him, he is going to be a tax and spend Democrat and nothing but. Bipartison–HA! Palin was the only one with the core philosophies and values of the Republican party and could articulate them very well and she did it absolutely unapologetically. I think everyone is sick of namby pamby politicians who we can’t tell what they believe or think because they are more interested in keeping their jobs than they are in serving the people of this great country. That is unequivocally the big O. He is one power hungry M*** F***. He changed his tune so many times if people started objecting that I think everyone lost count. There is changing your mind flip floppery and there is sudden convenient flip floppery to serve only yourself OH, and in his case there is “I haven’t got a clue what the H is going on,” flip floppery also. Sarah Palin knows what she believes and she doesn’t change because some people don’t like it.
And Palin didn’t flip flop on anything? Not on the bridge and not on global warming?
The meeting of the GOP Govenors this week certainly indicated they think she is a power in the Party now. What skewed the exit polls as you well know Adam was 90% of Democrats saying she was unqualified. I believe, if I remember my numbers correctly, about 25% of Republicans thought that and an in between number of Independents. That 90% will translate to 60% overall. You can do funny things with numbers. Ask any statistician.
A huge number of people thought Obama was unqualified but they did not answer polls and the media paid little attention to them during the campaign.
The fact is, Palin has more experience than Obama. That is undeniable but no one wants to address that.
We will see it though as he takes office and the next four years.
As for the bridge, check the history first, then talk aboout flips.
This maybe a little off topic but You know there is a God in Heaven after all–this is on Big Lizards today–“Well, it’s official: The incoming Democratic majority of the 111th Congress has announced it intends to “investigate” the Bush administration… for the next four years straight.” Maybe those like me shouldn’t have worried so much.
“As for the bridge, check the history first, then talk about flips.”
Yeah?