November 05, 2008

Why John McCain Lost in a Landslide


I wrote a long post explaining why John McCain lost so badly, and then Blogger deleted it when I clicked "Preview," even though I had saved the post dozens of times as I wrote it. Of course, it was a brilliant post, but no way am I going to do it over. Suffice it to say that, even in this tough year for Republicans, McCain should have done better, but he made poor choices, from simply demonizing Barack Obama instead of propounding a positive vision, to choosing the wildly unqualified Sarah Palin and appealing only to the narrow Republican base, to acting erratically in the face of a severe economic crisis.

It will be tempting for Republicans to excuse McCain's loss as inevitable in a year when Republican President George Bush is so unpopular and the economy has crashed. But John McCain bears responsibility for his bad choices, and Republicans in Congress, and the Republican Party as a whole, will pay a high price as a result.

I also need to add that this election wasn't about "the black." The MSM are trying to make it all about the black, by interviewing black pundits about how they feel about electing a black President, and focusing on crowd reaction shots of teary-eyed black people from last night. This election wasn't a social experiment. Obama is as white as he is black. I can be just as proud of Obama for being white as blacks can be for his being black. What the media just don't get is that Americans were sick and tired of being screwed by George Bush and Dick Cheney in every way for eight years, they have seen everything go sour, and they felt that Obama had the best plans to solve our problems and the better judgment and temperament to implement those plans. The MSM's relentless focus on carving up the country into convenient demographic groups, and on "the black President" who overcame racism to get elected, is itself a form of racism that will only divide us further at a time when we need to unite.


As for me, at least I don't have to move out of the country, but I think it's time to migrate to WordPress.

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6 Comments:

At 11:49 AM, Blogger Malnurtured Snay said...

WP is great.

 
At 1:06 PM, Blogger Barbara said...

Now that I've been sufficiently educated about what constitutes a landslide, I would like to point out Paul Krugman's recent article about the fate of the Republican party. It says a lot about what went wrong in the election.

 
At 1:53 PM, Blogger Aileen said...

Aw c'mon, MC, consider letting the moment *be* for what it was.

True- Obama was not elected because he is black. But he *is* black. And this is a critical moment in African American history-and needs to be honored as such. It was a bit surprising that it was this aspect of the story that was so focused on during the hours after the election results, but it's completely understandable.

This is a transformational moment in our history for many reasons. Me, I can't wait to see what comes next!

 
At 3:20 PM, Blogger media concepts said...

Aileen, thanks for the comment, but Barack Obama isn't black. He's bi-racial. Biologically, he's just as white as he is black. Culturally, he was raised by his white mom and his white grandparents in a white household. Therefore, one could argue that he's more "white" than "black." I know people are getting weepy about "the black," but I'll keep being the lonely voice saying otherwise until I turn blue. (Actually, a writer at Salon today agreed with me ). I think it's more important to be actually correct than politically correct.

 
At 4:47 AM, Blogger ghetufool said...

MC,
thanks for this. but you really didn't explain why mccain lost. i thought that the americans love the american way of living (i.e. al gore has lost it types) which is supported by the republicans.

can you please share your wodpress id?

 
At 1:03 PM, Blogger media concepts said...

Ghetufool, I did explain all of it in the original post, which is unfortunately lost. I have not migrated to WP yet, other than establish a blog there under the same name "Media Concepts" with nothing on it yet. I'll let you know when I do migrate over.

So what happened in Mumbai? Were you there? Was the Pakistan government, or some elements within, behind the attacks?

 

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