The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : 'What Do We Do Now?'

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'What Do We Do Now?'

By Robert Stacy McCain on 11.5.08 @ 8:07AM

"I'm getting a lot of moan-y, sad-face "What do we do now, Michelle?" e-mails.

The first thing to do, I would say to such people, is to try to deal with the situation objectively. Step back from your own disappointed hopes, get outside the echo chamber -- where people were telling you Tuesday that John McCain was going to win Pennsylvania -- and try to obtain a realistic perspective on the results:

Good candidates win elections, and bad candidates lose. John McCain was a bad candidate and he lost. Those who try to put an ideological spin on this election will miss that basic point.

Nominating a bald 72-year-old for president? What were they thinking?

View all comments (9) | Leave a comment

J David| 11.5.08 @ 8:50AM

Expecting the backstabber Maverick to win was a folly that hopefully has been rudely/harshly put down for good. Some expectations are best disappointed, that the right way may now be chosen.

Eats Wombats| 11.5.08 @ 9:15AM

Fantastic! Let's get a candidate with hair.

Oh wait, Isn't Sarah Palin a candidate with hair?

MC| 11.5.08 @ 9:29AM

When you're right, you're right. We put a backstabber who isn't faintly conservative up against the most liberal candidate ever when we should have been looking for someone like Reagan. It was over before it started.

WendyG| 11.5.08 @ 9:40AM

In hindsight Mitt would have been better.

Kelly| 11.5.08 @ 9:47AM

Has it ever occured to you that the America is tired of liars, backstabbers, and scam artists? The strength of the American people has truly not been deadened by the last 8 years.

m ryan| 11.5.08 @ 9:48AM

Look, he wasn't the greatest candidate and he is 72. But that is not why he lost. McCain was well on his way to making this very competitive and likely winning until the credit fiasco swamped all else. I do admit he made it worse by the terrible, raving stump speeches in the ensuing days. Clearly that unnerved alot of people (me too). But, ultimately, he was undone by something out of his control that was going to benefit (greatly) any Democratic candidate and hurt any Replican one.

R Bales| 11.5.08 @ 10:02AM

The reason the credit fiasco damaged McCain is that he responded by racing in undue haste to DC to give public money to people who had squandered their own.

Had he remained the prudent and trustworthy somewhat liberal alternative to Obama he would've stood a chance. McCain threw that away.

BD57| 11.5.08 @ 11:01AM

The seeds of this defeat were planted years ago; while McCain didn't help, he's mostly the guy who happened to show up for the harvest.

George W. Bush did many things right during his presidency. However, IMO, he did two things spectacularly wrong: #1, managing his administration - from poor appointments to an absolute inability to hold appointees responsible for their performance, Bush brought one disaster after another down on his own head. Rewarding a CIA director who should've been fired September 12th; hiring people like "Brownie"; refusing to discipline bureaucracies in open revolt against administration policy, etc. It was pathetic.

#2, refusal to fight the fight. I cannot recall an administration less willing to argue for its position in public, less willing to take on its critics, less willing to explain what it is doing and why it is doing it. The administration surrendered the floor to its critics - it can hardly be surprised at the President's approval ratings after seven plus years of allowing the propaganda to go unchallenged.

ruth| 11.5.08 @ 4:22PM

BD57: I agree with you. I believe that President Bush is a good man who has had many successes, but I've never seen a president so unwilling to speak up for himself and his beliefs. What about his responsibility to those of us who voted for him and defended him? I believe he has betrayed us and I don't know why he did it. None of this mess should have happened.