Lean Left

McCain: Playing to Lose?

by KTK

October 15th, 2008

Does anybody else get a sense that the GOP has essentially thrown in the towel, and is now simply positioning itself for the best possible outcome in the Obama/Democrat landslide ahead?

Already, we’re hearing the excuse-making narratives. The GOP is going to spend the next 8 years whining about how they were robbed (any election they can’t steal is unfair by definition), and how they would have had the thing except for various kinds of bad luck that all turn out to mean they’re not really unpopular losers. For instance:

1. ACORN/Voter fraud: Notwithstanding that there has never been any evidence whatsoever of systematic voter fraud in recent presidential elections, and that there is no evidence of systematic misconduct by ACORN, they are positioning themselves to claim that Obama won on illegal votes in swing states.
2. Rev. Wright: We keep hearing complaints from McCain aides that he won’t attack Obama over comments by his church pastor. Supposedly this is because McCain is such a good guy and refuses to take the low road, or at least that doing so is bumping up their poll negatives. But it’s obvious that McCain has been deterred by Obama’s carefully-calibrated hit-back strategy - releasing one sharp attack on McCain in response to each negative attack by McCain on him, then pulling back. If McCain goes back to the Wright issue, Obama can not only target McCain’s Keating history but, even more apropos, Palin’s equally long connection to a total whackaloon end-times Pentecostal church whose pastor conducts literal witchhunts. Palin has not merely attended that church regularly, but has spoken at it, from the pulpit, in explicit praise of the nutcase pastor. McCain simply can’t open that can of worms again (as he did earlier, prior to adding Palin to the ticket), but they’re spinning that as some sort of principled stand.
3. “Liberal media”: One weird story after another keeps popping up that is supposed to reflect badly on Obama or turn people against him somehow: Obama smoked dope; his half-brother lives in poverty; his father was some sort of rascal; he’s not really a US citizen and his birth certificate is a forgery; he’s secretly Muslim; he’s secretly Arab and Muslim; he “pals around” with William Ayers; a friend of his family’s turned out to be a child molester; etc. None of these has gotten any traction, which pisses conservatives right out of what’s left of their tiny little minds. It isn’t the fact that most of these stories are false, or that the rest are egregiously stupid, or that the public has evaluated them and just doesn’t care. (Ayers’s misdeeds were 40 years ago; Obama’s closest connection to him is that they sit on an agency board that probably meets less than once a month; it doesn’t mean anything. As for the child molester thing, nobody can even figure out what the story is supposed to be, but it got dozens of conservative blog posts yesterday.) The right wing is convinced that if the public only knew about these various stories, then they’d be just as shocked and outraged and beside themselves and raving nutty as the wingers are at the prospect of an Obama presidency, and McCain would be saved. Since the stories aren’t having any effect, there can be only one explanation: . . . (wait for it) . . . l . i . b . e . r . a . l . . . m . e . d . i . a . . . b . i . a . s . . . the standard explanation for anything that causes normal people not to think like conservatives. And because that ol’ liberal media kept the public from hearing about Bill Ayers more than about a hundred times a day for the last month, it’s obvious that Obama’s inevitable election victory is illegitimate. The voters were uninformed! They didn’t really want Obama! They just thought they did and voted that way!
4. Bad Luck: McCain just got caught up in a perfect storm of circumstances that worked against the Republican candidate: an unpopular president (that he supports like a parasitic twin); a bad economy (resulting from laissez faire policies that he supported all his life); an unpopular war (that he cheerled into being, never questioned, and is still trying to prolong). It wasn’t his fault - could have happened to anybody. Here’s former Bush speechwriter Michael “Axis of Evil” Gerson, spinning like a Dervish:
   

   [S]ometimes a candidate who is down in the polls is not an incompetent but a bystander. While America remains a center-right country, this may well be a Marxist election in which economic realities are determining the political superstructure.

   . . . The world suddenly went into an economic slide. Americans blamed the party with executive power, which is also the party most closely tied in the public mind to bankers and Wall Street. None of this was fair to McCain . . .

   Previous to this economic free fall — and after his transformative vice-presidential choice — McCain was about tied in a race he should have been losing by a large margin. . . .

   McCain was left with flawed options. He reasonably chose to work for a responsible bailout while hoping the markets would stabilize quickly. Instead, the bailout proved politically unpopular . . . .Then McCain raised Obama’s past association with William Ayers . . . . But this accusation naturally looks small compared to the nation’s outsized economic fears.

   Obama’s task has been easier. He needs only to ride a historical current instead of fighting it. . . . 

   Obama’s current success is not enjoyable for conservatives. But this does not make McCain an incompetent. Maybe he is a great man running at the most difficult of times.

5. They Know Not What They Do: Or maybe it’s just that voters are too dumb and too crazy to make good choices. They vote for Obama for no reason at all, and against their own inclinations. (”I know because I found two crazy racists in a focus group who said so!”)

However you slice it, the GOP has got a great set of excuses cooked up. They are really convinced that there is just no way people are allowed to vote for non-Republicans, and the fact that they do, by itself, is evidence that something is wrong with the whole system - and besides, it doesn’t really matter anyway.

It’s heartening to see them polishing up these excuses so early. It’s important to note them, though - the self-delusion, the self-congratulation (even while losing), the arrogance, and the childishness. It’s important to remember that, for once, the country stood up and repudiated the rot that has been dragging it down and hurting so many of us - and that it was not accident, bad luck, or conspiracy, but democracy, that made it possible.

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