The post mortem on John McCain’s failed attempt to win the presidency has begun and accusations have already begun to fly as to why he didn’t succeed.  Certainly the economy was one factor – perhaps the biggest – but it wasn’t the only thing that cost him votes.  In no particular order, here is my quick hitting list of thoughts on some of the things that affected the outcome:

The nominee himself.  Out of the original batch of Republicans vying for the nomination, John McCain was my # 3 choice.  I have tremendous respect for the man and believe he would have made a good president – he certainly is more qualified than our president elect.  However, the “maverick” streak that McCain is so proud of also damaged the opinion of him in many conservatives’ views.  His stance on a number of issues took him much further toward the center than what many Republicans wanted and their support of him was tepid at best (at least until Sarah Palin came aboard – see below).  Indeed, post election analysis shows that Republican turnout this year was 1.3% below what it was in 2004 – that is significant.
 
The strategy.  Certainly the economy falling apart in the weeks leading up to the election threw the McCain campaign off of the message they would have preferred.  They had no choice but to make it the primary focus when they would much rather been appealing to things that are their strong suit like smaller government, national security and such.  For whatever reason, when economic times are tough, many people are quick to run to the Democrat nanny state and that is what happened.  Even so, there were opportunities to seize on the economy issue and turn it into an advantage but McCain never took it. 

He could have been much more aggressive in bringing to light the significant role the Dems played in the sub-prime mortgage failure – after all, George Bush warned Congress 17 times!  Bill O’Reilly suggested McCain should have named Mitt Romney as Secretary of the Treasury and Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General before the election and seized on that to point out the tremendous economic experience of Romney while saying Giuliani would seek out and prosecute those that failed the country and put the economy into crisis mode.  I don’t know that naming cabinet members early would have been wise because then you give the opposition more avenues for attack but hinting as much and talking tough about the Wall Street fat cats and the Congressional liberals that were in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s pockets may have had traction.  Joe the Plumber and the “redistribution of wealth” attack was great and did help McCain make some gains but it was too little, too late. 

Then of course there are the dozens of questions about Obama’s past associations.  If it weren’t for Sarah Palin, these issues would not have been addressed at all and I think in the right forum and put forth agressively, they could have held great sway.  I still wonder how Barack Obama sat in Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years and never once objected to what was being said.  McCain refused to make it an issue and now we have a president elect with some very questionable associations. 

Money, money, money.  John McCain and Barack Obama both agreed to use the public campaign finance system thus limiting themselves to $85 million in public funding for the general election.  John McCain stood true to his word, Obama backed out.  While I certainly have to question the honesty of Obama after making this move, it was rather shrewd as he went on to raise more than $200 million in the general election thus allowing Obama to buy six times the number of ads McCain could.  There are numerous questions of exactly where a good bit of this money came from as many cases of donors violating campaign finance law have been reported.  Further, it most likely also ushers in a new era of big money in politics that I do not think is a good thing. 

Sarah Palin.  McCain campaign “sources” have already started finger pointing at Sarah Palin as one of the causes however I believe she had the opposite effect.  In the end, statistics show that voters don’t really care who the VP nominee is – they vote for the top of the ticket.  That would certainly indicate that any effect she had was minimal. 

However, prior to McCain announcing Palin as his choice, his campaign was languishing and desperately in need to something to get them out in front of the Obama media-backed celebrity machine.  Palin did just that.  Just as importantly, she energized the conservative base, something which McCain could never do (see above).  Many conservatives were never thrilled with John McCain as the nominee (he was my # 3 choice) and Palin helped provide them someone with views they could identify with.  Without her, the outcome could have been much worse. 

The failure of the McCain campaign to seize on the opportunity provided and excitement generated by Sarah Palin is something that confounds me.  When the campaign did let her talk, they initially threw her to left wing anchors like Katie Couric and Charles Gibson and obviously had told her to just stick to the talking points which did nothing but make her look bad.  The campaign turned away more friendly environments and interviews that could have helped America get to know this extraordinary woman and give her an opportunity to get acclimated to the national campaign environment.  It all made no sense whatsoever.  Before long the media was on a mission to destroy her and yet the campaign still continued to keep a lid on Palin.  It really wasn’t until the final week or two of the campaign they let her speak freely and by then it was too late.  She may not have been up on some issues and most likely would have misspoke a time or two but she is a natural born politician and she has an ability to connect to people the way so few can – her speech at the RNC showed that. 

Reports have been coming out since Election Day about Palin’s level of knowledge, how she conducted herself behind the scenes, and more.  I wouldn’t put any stock in it.  These are coming from campaign staffers looking to salvage a job and their reputations. 

The Fourth Estate – the press.  The so-called “impartial” press was quite possibly one of the biggest factors in the outcome of the election.  Rather than reporting the news, the press became the news.  There is no doubt that most of the media was in the tank for Obama and it has been well documented.  Non-partisan media watchdogs like Pew Research, the Media Research Center and the Project for Excellence in Journalism have all studied the topic and the results are astounding – coverage of McCain was predominately negative while Obama received much more favorable coverage.  Even when something negative was available about Obama, it rarely was mentioned.  If Palin misspoke it was front page news.  If Biden did, it was skipped right over, despite the fact his gaffes were much more significant and much more common. 

With only a few exceptions, print and broadcast media become nothing more than a mouthpiece for Obama’s campaign and as a result were able to influence voters.  Certainly the media has always leaned left but never to the levels that they did during this election cycle.  The bias was palatable in everything we saw.  This is a tragedy unto itself and the media has shamed itself and damaged its credibility severely.  Heck, when even Dan Rather comes out and says as much you know there is a problem!