How McCain "could" have landslided this election

deftron

Lifer
Nov 17, 2000
10,868
1
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Joe




Joe Lieberman, not Joe the Plumber.
If John would have picked who he initially wanted as his running mate, this election would have been his. All of his reaching across the isle claims would have been validated. Dems from the Gore election might have turned for them. His experience claims would have worked. He would not have had the embarrasments he has had. McCain, the maverick, should have known not to bow down to party pressure to pick someone to "excite the base", and gone with his gut... his whole campaign seemed to be downhill from the moment he made "his pick".


 

conehead433

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2002
5,565
889
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I don't think so. In the current economic environment he would have lost regardless. Personally I think the choice of Lieberman cost Gore the election.
 

retrospooty

Platinum Member
Apr 3, 2002
2,031
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86
Originally posted by: deftron
Joe




Joe Lieberman, not Joe the Plumber.
If John would have picked who he initially wanted as his running mate, this election would have been his. All of his reaching across the isle claims would have been validated. Dems from the Gore election might have turned for them. His experience claims would have worked. He would not have had the embarrasments he has had. McCain, the maverick, should have known not to bow down to party pressure to pick someone to "excite the base", and gone with his gut... his whole campaign seemed to be downhill from the moment he made "his pick".

Except the "base" of the republican part would not be happy and would not come out to vote... McCain was stuck between a rock and a hard place. There isnt anything he could have done to energise both the middle, and the right. It was either or.
 

frostedflakes

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2005
7,925
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One of a series of poor judgment calls by McCain. Why do people want this guy in the White House again? He can't even run an effective campaign.
 

Balt

Lifer
Mar 12, 2000
12,674
482
126
Originally posted by: deftron
Joe




Joe Lieberman, not Joe the Plumber.
If John would have picked who he initially wanted as his running mate, this election would have been his. All of his reaching across the isle claims would have been validated. Dems from the Gore election might have turned for them. His experience claims would have worked. He would not have had the embarrasments he has had. McCain, the maverick, should have known not to bow down to party pressure to pick someone to "excite the base", and gone with his gut... his whole campaign seemed to be downhill from the moment he made "his pick".

I'm not so sure. He did need to grab some of the middle but he also still needed that Christian Republican base which is nowhere near the middle.

There were definitely better choices than Palin out there, though. The question is how many of them wanted to be on McCain's ticket. Charlie Crist from Florida would have been a good running mate, but I think he would have turned McCain down because Crist himself has presidential aspirations.
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
3
0
Joe Lieberman is someone that has zero credibility with me. And is now totally out of step with America. And as a turncoat, finds no welcome in the democratic or republican camps. Simply a dead man walking.

But come 2012, the garbage man will come to take him away.
 

tweaker2

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
14,477
6,900
136
When McCain became the repub's choice for the presidency is when their vaunted lock-step style of campaigning fell apart at the seams and they became fractious and wholly disorganized, making it practically impossible for McCain to unite the repub party under his banner and be any where near competitive against the Obama steamroller. While McCain was and still is fighting a two front war: against the Dems and against his own party, Obama has the large majority of his party backing him solidly.

McCain selecting Palin just made his chances of winning a whole lot more remote than it already was.

edit - syntax
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,085
5,618
126
Originally posted by: tweaker2
When McCain became the repub's choice for the presidency is when their vaunted lock-step style of campaigning fell apart at the seams and they became fractious and wholly disorganized, making it practically impossible for McCain to unite the repub party under his banner and be any where near competitive against the Obama steamroller. While McCain was and still is fighting a two front war: against the Dems and against his own party, Obama has the large majority of his party backing him solidly.

McCain selecting Palin just made his chances of winning a whole lot more remote than it already was.

edit - syntax

McCain was the only hope in Hell that the Republicans had. Most of them were Loons, but the 1 or 2 others that were ot completely Loony were still Loony enough to be ridiculed to defeat.

McCains biggest problem seems to be his Age. He seems to lose track of what he's saying mid-sentence quite often and is very prone to getting overly emotional with little control. He hasn't become a raving Lunatic, but the Emotions interfere with his ability to think in a clear manner that he needs to communicate effectively.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,097
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I don't know that any Republican could win this election by a landslide. People are highly upset and want "different".
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,816
83
91
the GOP would *not* have nominated Joe Lieberman to be their vice presidential candidate.

a floor battle would have ensued, likely ending up with a McCain/Romney ticket and fatally wounding McCain's campaign.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,852
26,643
136
I find Palin amusing by I detest Joe Lieberman. A Obama/Palin ticket where Obama served a full term would be perfect.
 

rockyct

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2001
6,656
32
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Meh, like others have said, Lieberman would have upset the base, not fire it up. Tom Ridge would have been a better choice if he wanted to select a more moderate type Republican. Bobby Jindal would have been another good choice. The problem was that he wanted a woman to attract Hillary voters and someone to fire up the base.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
18,251
8
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It is always interesting to watch a bunch of people who would never vote for McCain explain how McCain could win.

How many of you guys who think he should have picked Joe would have voted for him if he did?

If he had picked Joe the base would have deserted him and he would be losing by even more than he is today.
Look at all the 'how McCain can win' scenarios and notice that all of them involved McCain winning voters who like or connect with Palin. He would Joe help him win North Carolina, Virginia or Pennsylvania? His only hope in all thee states is that the good ole boy vote out numbers the black vote and inner city vote. Joe would do nothing to help in any of these areas.
 

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
18,251
8
0
Originally posted by: rockyct
Meh, like others have said, Lieberman would have upset the base, not fire it up. Tom Ridge would have been a better choice if he wanted to select a more moderate type Republican. Bobby Jindal would have been another good choice. The problem was that he wanted a woman to attract Hillary voters and someone to fire up the base.
Ironic that he passed on Ridge and now his main chance of winning may rely on winning Ridge's state. Perhaps if he had picked Ridge and was leading in PA it would be a totally different election.
 

Corbett

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2005
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I completely disagree with the OP. Dems hate Joe Lieberman and Republicans only agree with him on ONE issue, Iraq.

McCain would have had a much better shot at winning had he done the following :

1 - Chosen Romney as VP. This would have turned Michigan Red this election and he would actually have a running mate who would actually knows how to fix financial messes.
2 - Thrown Bush under the bus a long long time ago. This would negate Obama's constant harping of "McBush" crap we have heard him fling around for the past 2 years.
3 - Hang the financial crisis around the neck of Obama and the democrats who have been in charge for the last 2 years, as well as promoted the very loans that created the housing crisis in the first place.

But I digress, Republicans are stuck with McCain, and I think a vast majority of us realize he was the wrong choice to make to put up against a young, smooth talking black democrat.

The only reason to vote for him now is to keep the number 1 and number 3 liberals in the senate out of the White House.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,606
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www.slatebrookfarm.com
Originally posted by: Balt
I'm not so sure. He did need to grab some of the middle but he also still needed that Christian Republican base which is nowhere near the middle.

There were definitely better choices than Palin out there, though. The question is how many of them wanted to be on McCain's ticket. Charlie Crist from Florida would have been a good running mate, but I think he would have turned McCain down because Crist himself has presidential aspirations.

I think he would have had the majority of that base anyway. That 27% of people who believe Bush is doing a good job certainly aren't going to vote for Obama. He already had a lock on their votes. Palin is an asset that merely solidified that vote. Unfortunately, Palin is a liability when it's time to get other votes. As plenty of people who were on the fence hear more and more from and about Palin, they're afraid to vote for McCain, just in case...
 

OrByte

Diamond Member
Jul 21, 2000
9,302
144
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Romney would have been better end of story.

But McCain was never really in it. It just wasn't an election for the repubs.
 

Rainsford

Lifer
Apr 25, 2001
17,515
0
0
Originally posted by: Corbett
I completely disagree with the OP. Dems hate Joe Lieberman and Republicans only agree with him on ONE issue, Iraq.

McCain would have had a much better shot at winning had he done the following :

1 - Chosen Romney as VP. This would have turned Michigan Red this election and he would actually have a running mate who would actually knows how to fix financial messes.
2 - Thrown Bush under the bus a long long time ago. This would negate Obama's constant harping of "McBush" crap we have heard him fling around for the past 2 years.
3 - Hang the financial crisis around the neck of Obama and the democrats who have been in charge for the last 2 years, as well as promoted the very loans that created the housing crisis in the first place.

But I digress, Republicans are stuck with McCain, and I think a vast majority of us realize he was the wrong choice to make to put up against a young, smooth talking black democrat. The only reason to vote for him now is to keep the number 1 and number 3 liberals in the senate out of the White House.

I used to like McCain, specifically because he WASN'T a GWB sycophant, even when that was the "in" thing to be in the Republican party. Your point number 2 is well taken, and would have worked great on people like me who would actually like to vote for a moderate, but that strategy would have worked even less well than his current one because he wouldn't even BE the Republican candidate had he done that. As the choice of Sarah Palin showed, Republicans are still far too infatuated with the GWB type Republican to accept an actual moderate like McCain, so McCain had to try to reach out to the far right...and when that didn't work, he chose quite possibly the worst VP candidate ever to try to appeal to the "base".

McCain couldn't have done something right, because he's the wrong candidate for the job. He's an actual moderate who would probably be willing to work with liberals and would have told the religious right to go sodomize themselves. There's a reason he lost against Bush in the 2000 primary, and it's the same reason he had to turn into the new McCain to run in 2008, people like you would have lynched him had he ran as himself.

On the one hand, McCain did this to himself, but in all the finger pointing that will no doubt follow this election, I think Republicans might want to take some time to point the fingers at themselves.
 

winnar111

Banned
Mar 10, 2008
2,847
0
0
Originally posted by: frostedflakes
One of a series of poor judgment calls by McCain. Why do people want this guy in the White House again? He can't even run an effective campaign.

Did you vote for Gore and Kerry? Almost every losing candidate over the past 40 years has run an ineffective campaign.

The Presidency has tended to switch between parties every 8 years, with the exception of Carter's idiocy and Reagan's greatness.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
Lots of things have gone wrong with his campaign. Although VP choice is the biggest, it's not all his fault. This was time for the republicans to lose and that was always going to be a difficult thing to overcome.
 

brencat

Platinum Member
Feb 26, 2007
2,170
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McCain was never the ideal choice for true conservatives. We never forget. I will never forgive him for his open borders vote back in 2007 -- still stew when I think about that and that's just one of many such "centrist" positions he's taken that's pissed off the base.

But he could have controlled the damage with Ridge or Romney. I suppose Ridge was the best but Romney would have been useful in the current economic crisis. But we would have heard all the whiners complain about the Mormon religion, etc, etc.

Oh well. There's always Congress to take back in 2010 if the libs screw it up (and they will...one party rule always does).