Mark my words: the gimmick of Sarah Palin is over. Yesterday Lehman, Merrill Lynch, and AIG all collapsed over on Wall Street, but the biggest thud heard 'round the world was not from the financial district. It was from the core of the GOP who thought Sarah Palin was a poor choice, but were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. They just realized that john McCain's biggest gamble of his campaign (putting Palin ahead of Romney) was a massively bad decision.
John McCain has spent his entire campaign putting together a cohesive argument for his leadership and judgement abilities surrounding the Surge in Iraq. For the majority of Republicans who understood how big of a drag Bush's war would be on the GOP ticket in 2008, this was a smart choice. Of all of the candidates, only John McCain could go head to head with an anti-war left. Mitt Romney had no foreign policy experience. Rudy Giuliani wouldn't stop talking about 9/11. Fred Thompson was a pillar of the Good Old Boys Neocon club that Bush kept in power for the past 8 years. And Mike Huckabee was just a goober from Arkansas who never really had a prayer. But john McCain was a war hero. A Maverick. A Bush critic.
In an election where there would be a referendum against Bush and his war, John McCain was the best hope for the GOP.
Then the economy hit the fan.
In an election where there would be a referendum against Bush and his economy, John McCain was the weakest option out there. Not only does he support Bush's economic doctrine, but he is actually dumb enough to say that the fundamentals of the economy are strong the SAME DAY Merrill, Lehman, and AIG crash. Where was this guy when Bear Sterns failed back in March? Oh yeah, he was playing Scrooge McDuck at his wife's money vault. Heck, maybe he just had bad information given the fact that his top campaign contributors all worked for Merrill Lynch. Or maybe he just doesn't get it.
Monday September 15th 2008 will be the day remembered in GOP politics as the final blow to the McCain campaign. Tuesday September 16th 2008 will be remembered as the day Mitt Romney independents in Michigan, Ohio, and the rest of the rust belt put their collective unease over Barack Obama aside and moved over into the Democrat column.
It really is the perfect storm against the GOP this year: Just when they thought they had a chance at keeping the White House, their guy (and gal) sealed the coffin.
By the way: Anyone notice that now the conventions are over, the John McCain ads on TV have mysteriously disappeared while the Obama ads are everywhere? McCain is now stuck with an $80 million budget, while Obama has $70 million in the bank and can raise as much as he wants. It will get even worse when state GOP parties and the RNC start circling the wagons on their local people and stop spending soft money for McCain.
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