In what sounded like a post mortem, McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt told reporters Tuesday that McCain had the Republican "albatross" around his neck and did better than any other Republican could have done under the circumstances.
"I think we did our absolute best in this campaign in really difficult circumstances, we had a – we had some tough cards to play all the way through and we hung in there all the way," he said.
"We did the best we can in historically difficult circumstances from a political climate. It is highly doubtful that anyone will ever have to run in a worse political climate than the one John McCain had to run in this year.
"We have a path to victory, you know we’re going to know what it is in a few hours but you know certainly at a personal level, I’m very proud to have had the chance to be associated with John McCain and he’s a hell of a good guy.
"The global economic collapse in the middle of September occurring at a time when we were ahead in the race, dropping the right track number to roughly five, six, seven percent, which are numbers I don’t think will ever be seen again in any of our lifetimes, it was very difficult. It was a bad economic environment throughout the election where people were angry at the incumbent party and at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s another Republican the party could have nominated that could have made this a competitive race the way that John McCain did. But it’s going to, the one thing we know for certain, at a congressional level the Senate Democratic majorities and the House Democratic majorities will expand. The party’s been very unpopular. The president’s approval numbers, you know, were not helpful in the race but the party as a whole is unpopular with the American people and that was a big albatross."
The Republicans do not want to win tonight. They have had 8 disastrous years and the next four years will prove to be very difficult for the US economy. Republicans cannot afford 12 years of disaster so they are handing it over to the democrats. Republicans need to step back and recover and share more of the blame with the democrats, so, de facto, democrats will likely win big tonight.
Why did McCain select Palin? Did he do that on his own without input from the party? He could have chosen a much stronger candidate. Why did he run his campaign so poorly? Why did he not compromise on the tax issue? Why did Dick Cheney just yesterday endorse McCain? The list, of course, could go on. Is he just incompetent or was this a republican strategy?
The next 4 years, no matter who is elected, will be very difficult for our economy and I think republicans are strategically stepping aside and have subtly thrown this election.
When the economy does worsen in the near future, will we remember who was responsible for this mess? I am not blaming only republicans as it was both parties who slept while this catastrophe unfolded. Our elected representative should have sounded the alarms of subprime, excessive leveraging and Wall Street excesses that were not regulated well before they became a crisis.
It may be a happy day today for Democrats but it may not be so happy a year from now. Don't let the republicans ultimately win their strategic game by displacing the inevitable continuing blame onto democrats. Democrats will likely sweep tonight so it will primarily be democrats trying to clean up this economic mess for the next four years. If they fail, republicans are counting on us blaming democrats. Let's not forget the sources of our economic disaster.
Americans must remain vigilant and hold our representatives accountable, now and in the future. We, the American citizens, have failed at supervising the people we have elected and failed at holding them responsible for their actions and inactions. We should not think that once the election is over, we do not need to pay attention any longer or that everything will change. We need to supervise our elected officials and insure that it does change and insure that no one walks away from the economic bomb that has exploded without being held responsible in some way. The next few years will be very difficult for America and it is critical that we remain aware, informed and demand that our representatives actually represent us.
Posted by: Fair Govt For All the People | November 04, 2008 at 08:29 PM
http://www.pearl-jewelry.com.au/category/pearl-jewelry
http://www.pearl-jewelry.com.au/category/cultured-pearls
http://www.pearl-jewelry.com.au/category/pearl-pendant
Pick up a hobby.
Do all these things and you will be a happier, healthier person!
Posted by: bracelet | June 05, 2009 at 10:21 PM