Feint Right, Run Left, Fall in Hole For many of us, the candidate with the least offensive odor guided our hands in the voting booth. For conservatives, Sarah Palin was perfume on a polecat, not enough to mask the odor but enough to make it bearable. For many of us, it wasn’t hard to choose between a RINO and a Marxist, but until Sarah Palin came along, it was a matter of duty more than honor. Not that Palin would set the agenda, but the hope was she would have a positive influence on McCain. Palin was the genuine article, and because she was she could articulate, defend and persuade effectively where McCain couldn’t.
I have heard several radio talk show conservatives defend their support for McCain claiming only a moderate could have won and that Palin poisoned the ticket. Losers! McCain poisoned his own ticket with his zigzag record in the Senate and an identity crisis of his own making. Crowds didn’t turn out for McCain, they turned out for Palin. McCain’s pitiful army of volunteers was a platoon and it was Palin’s volunteers that swelled it to a corps. Palin didn’t drive the undecided vote away, McCain did.
McCain’s feint right, run left didn’t attract voters; it drove them into the other camp or out of camp entirely. What few positives McCain had coming into the campaign he surrendered. No doubt he had a tough fight ahead with the media firmly in Obama’s camp, but the one weakness he could never overcome was in his own convictions, which are all over the map. How did McCain manage to take the few positives he had and wipe them off the slate?
I do believe John McCain is an honorable man, but he surrendered that distinction when he said Obama wasn’t dangerous. What? A Marxist, race-baiting, Chicago machine tool backed by radicals is not dangerous? A man with a who’s who of anti-Americans as associates, acquaintances and advisors is not dangerous? A man without portfolio and sealed records of who he is not dangerous? A demagogue that promises gas in your tank as soon as he cuts the military budget is not dangerous? A man with no foreign policy experience and the egotistical belief he can negotiate with dictators and terrorists is not dangerous? A man with Joe Biden as his back-up not dangerous? Strike one!
McCain prides himself as an anti-pork, fiscal conservative, but he surrendered that when he backed the bailout plan that 80% of Americans opposed. Worst yet, he even backed the porked-up version that finally passed liberal muster and bought over the hold-out RINOs. Instead of attacking the cause of the financial problem, Democrats and their idiotic legislation, he acquiesced to the bash Bush crowd. The "I’m not Bush” defense was lame and didn’t persuade anyone of anything except McCain’s desire to avoid a fight and his willingness to throw the President under the bus. The Democrats wrecked the economy and instead of preparing for battle with Barney Frank and defender Obama, McCain retreated from Bush. Strike two!
McCain gave additional ground on his claim to fiscal responsibility when he sprung his offer to buy defaulted mortgages and pay them off. That attempt to move left was shallow compared to what Obama was offering. It was also a slap in the face to every American that has struggled to meet their debt obligations that had not defaulted and who would be asked to pay for those who had. It was a slap in the face to every family that showed fiscal responsibility by not buying what they could not afford. We don’t know how many voters McCain’s gimp left cost him, but it sure didn’t buy any Obama voters. It also finished off any claim he could make for being fiscally responsible. Strike three! If the economy was the deciding issue of primary concern to most Americans, it was McCain who fumbled, not Palin. This was McCain’s election to lose and the media knew they could depend on bi-partisan, moderate RINO, can’t we all just along McCain to cross the aisle one too many times, and he did. There is a gulf that separates devoted leftists from devoted conservatives and it’s filled with the corpses of moderates. John McCain has added to that body count. |
