In his end of year retrospective, John Hawkins lists the seven biggest political blunders of the year. They are as follows:
7.) Pundits blowing the outcome of the democratic primary in New Hampshire.
6.) Eliot Spitzer
5.) Blagojevich
4.) Rev. Wright
3.) The Edwards affair
2.) Hillary’s sniper fire story
1.) McCain bailing out the financial industry.
So, to recap, five of the seven biggest blunders of the year were committed by Democrats, one was committed by the media (who Hawkins considers a de facto member of the Democratic party), and one by John McCain. One can only imagine how well the Democrats would have done in November had they not made so many mistakes, amirite Mr. Hawkins?
What a weird world view movement conservatives have these days.
*** Update ***
For the record, I do think that a Democrat did have the biggest political blunder of the year, but the Democrat in question was Hillary Clinton. Had her team paid only minimal attention to organizing in caucus states and had a long-term strategy beyond Super Tuesday, there is nothing you can say that would convince me that she would not be the President elect right now. The failure of her campaign to do these basic little things is not only the biggest blunder of the year, but tantamount to political malpractice. The people running her campaign, who burned through that mountain of cash with no long-term plan were the campaign equivalent of our Iraq invasion plan and “We will be greeted as liberators.” None of them should ever work in politics again, but then again, Bob Shrum always finds work.
At any rate, what do you all think the top seven blunders of the year were? High on my list would be the McCain campaign’s decision to focus solely on character and superficiality and celebrity, but his inability to say how many house he owns in the middle of a financial disaster merits some consideration.
*** Update #2 ***
After some thought, I would say that the second biggest political blunder of the year was the flawed assumption by the McCain campaign that the PUMA movement actually existed beyond a few cranks, some GOP ratfuckers, and crypto-racists, and thus, the key to victory for McCain was having anyone with lady parts on the ticket.
This was stupid on so many levels, and led to not only the Palin pick, but to all sorts of subsidiary idiocy, including the OMG THEY CALLED SARAH PALIN A PIG nonsense and all sorts of wasted outreach on people who would never vote for a Republican ever.
JL
What no Sarah? tsk, tsk, tsk
Brian J
Leaving aside possibilities for charitable interpretations of "blunder," how is the sniper fire story bigger than anything involving Spitzer, Blagojevich, or Edwards? Perhaps I’m wrong–in the case of Edwards and Spitzer, I’d like to be–but Clinton is going to be Sec. of State, while those guys are finished in professional politics. Did the sniper fire story really sink her in the primaries? If memory serves me correctly, didn’t it happen when she was already hanging on for dear life?
As for McCain, I don’t see how "bailing out" the financial industry really killed him. I think it was his incoherent response to what was happening that damaged him and his childish, senseless actions that followed that killed him. He looked little better than my dog when I turn on a vacuum cleaner. Even if you accept the idea that conservatives hated him for it, which I am not sure would have really hurt him that badly, it still doesn’t make that much sense.
SatanicPanic
Nominating John McCain?
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
What a weird world view movement conservatives have these days.
Yeah, they were way more sensible when they were claiming pollution came from trees.
cintibud
Nothing about Phil Gram’s "Nation of whiners" or McCain’s "Fundamentals of the economy are strong"?
cintibud
Or "I was for the bridge to nowhere before I was against it"? (not exact quote)
cintibud
Or how about Rudy’s "all we need to do is win Flordia" strategy. Reminds me of the cartoon of the kids selling lemonade at a stand for 1000 bucks a glass – "but we only need to sell one at this price!"
(sorry, don’t usually comment much, but this is a lot of fun)
Punchy
Biggest political blunder, eh? So, is Jerry still a Rev.? Check. Does he still have his church? Check. Was Obama elected president in a fuckin landslide? Check.
Alternative reality.
At least these jackasses aren’t racists…..wait…hold on…..nevermind. I take that back….
dmsilev
The choice of Sarah Palin would have to be on any list of biggest political blunders. Unless, of course, your name is Tina Fey or you’re on the writing staff of The Daily Show. In retrospect, McCain should have sucked it up and picked Mitt Romney. He probably still would have lost, but in less of a blowout.
Beyond that, "The fundamentals are strong", the Clinton political flameout referenced above, "I am suspending my campaign", and every pundit that predicted that McCain would pull an upset in PA.
-dms
Luddite
Win.
Lee Hartmann
I agree with you that Hillary’s campaign was the biggest blunder and that she would be president with a competent bunch running the show. That said, I think we are better off.
no. 2 would be Sarah, of course. McCain’s "bailout" move could have paid off except that Obama was too smart for him.
BC
You’d have to include Fred Thompson on the biggest blunder list – not him, but the conservatives who built him up as the second coming of St. Ronnie because he and Reagan were both actors and being president is an acting job, etc. I can remember there was concern among liberals that Fred Thompson would be the folksy guy in the plaid shirt and old beat up pick-em-up truck who would take the nomination and then the election.
Laura W
Smaller but beautiful blunders:
Bill Clinton’s Jesse Jackson quip in SC ("Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ‘ 84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.")
"That One". Thanks for that, McCain. One of my all-time debate highlights.
The Moar You Know
No one is going to talk about Fred Thompson, the former savior of the Republican party? The man who was the second coming of Reagan, the resemblance extending all the way to the power naps in public? The guy who sent a thrill down Tweety’s leg?
I miss ol’ Fred and his bangable wife, who is younger than me.
I gotta say, though, even half-dead Fred wouldn’t have nominated Sarah Palin as his veep. Biggest blunder ever.
Nazgul35
I agree…the selection of, and subsequent campaigning of Sarah Palin has to be in the top three…
Jay C
Does it count if John has already mentioned something? My list for "biggest political blunders of 2008" would look like:
7) Elliot Spitzer: "Hookergate"
6) Hillary Clinton: "sniper" story
5) Rod Blagojevich: corruption implosion
4) Media/Republicans: Obsession on Obama Derangement nonsense (Ayers, Wright, "eligibility") in campaign.
3) McCain: flip-flop, "suspension" of campaign in Sept. financial crisis.
2) Hillary Clinton: poor Party planning (as per John Cole)
1) McCain: picking Sarah Palin as VP choice.
Nazgul35
and don’t forget…Rudolph Giuliani’s Florida strategy…
The Moar You Know
@BC: aww, ya beat me to it.
swellsman
Here’s a minor one I haven’t seen yet: McCain’s ‘air quotes’ around the phrase "health of the mother" during the last debate.
SGEW
I miss Sinbad.
Bob In Pacifica
7. Since there was never an actual full recount, and the partial recount showed huge disparities between the Diebold-counted "official" vote and the hand counts that were done, I don’t see this as a fail for the pundits’ predictions. Maybe a fail for the State of New Hampshire, a fail for the news reporters and a fail for the pundits not following through, though.
6. Eliot Spitzer’s WaPo op-ed in conjunction with the FBI’s use of its investigative powers to knock Spitzer out of office should have been the focus. It was a political prosecution done to preserve the economic house of cards until the Bushites could loot the last bits. Wow. Politician dips his wick in the wrong inkwell. Big deal. (See #3)
5. Blago. Corruption? Illinois Governor? It’s practically an annual event.
4. Rev. Wright? Yeah, every political candidate should read every sermon by the minister in his church going back decades to make sure the reverend didn’t say something embarrassing, or something that isn’t taken out of context. Wright was solely a media-created event. Thank you, Hillary’s op research squad. ConsortiumNews reported that this was ready to go from Clinton’s campaign going back to December 2007. How is a planned smear a political blunder?
3. By the time this story surfaced Edwards was long gone. Not particularly heroic of him, but lots of guys have found themselves in strange places when their trousers start talking. I got the feeling that the Edwards story was op research left over from the campaign. Someone in the Clinton campaign made a finder’s fee from the National Enquirer. By the way, did you know that the NE was created by an "ex" CIA propagandist?
2. Yeah, it was stupid, but I don’t recall any great numbers shifting with the story, just like when Hillary stood onstage with a bunch of generals lined up behind her like the Rockettes and claimed she was coherent in the wee hours of the morning and Obama wasn’t.
1. It wasn’t McCain bailing out the financial industry. It was McCain continuing the Republican lie that everything was ducky with the banks as the temple was crumbling. Nobody looked good with the bailout, but clearly what happened was the best that was going to happen while Bush was still occupying the White House.
In short, a pisspoor list. Better a list of wrestling world champions last year. It would have more authenticity.
forked tongue
Who the hell is John Hawkins? Well, now I know why I don’t know.
Edwards and Wright certainly deserve their places on this list, given their tumultuous impact on the electoral results.
MikeJ
Hillary Clinton refusing to say invading Iraq was a mistake. If she had shown the slightest remorse Obama would not have gotten any traction.
And Geraldine Ferraro. I was going to pick something she said, but perhaps just having her on the team was the blunder.
I’m really not picking on the Dems. I just didn’t pay much attention to the Washington Generals of US politics, the 2008 GOP.
Pennypacker
Who even remembers the sniper story? And would that really have prevented her from being elected? Totally insignificant next to Palin.
SGEW
Sinbad remembers the sniper story!
J.D. Rhoades
John McCain’s decision that he and Caribou Barbie would run as some sort of two-headed avatar of Karl Rove, substituting divisive attacks and smears for actual discourse. As my son pointed out one evening "I’ve been watching McCain ads and Obama ads all night , and they have one thing in common…they’re all talking about Obama."
John PM
My top seven:
7) Republicans denigrating "community organizers" at the RNC.
6) John McCain saying that he would not have needed to go negative if only Obama had agreed to do 10 town hall meetings.
5) McCain staffing his campaign with Weekly Standard hacks and Republican bloggers.
4) Hillary Clinton saying that Obama is not a Muslim, "as far as I know." I think this statement is most representative of the problems with her campaign.
3) Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric. The nomination also was pretty bad, but it was the interview that really put on the map to the general public how bad the nomination actually was.
2) The preacher who asked his flock to pray for rain on the night of Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC, only to have the first night of the RNC cancelled due to Hurricane _______ (I can’t remember the name right now). As the old commercial says, "It’s not nice to fool mother nature."
1) Dick Cheney openly endorsing John McCain right before the election. I think that was the final shotgun blast to the face of the McCain campaign.
I thought about mentioning Obama’s "bitter" comment and Biden’s "Obama will be tested" statement, but since they won, I would not consider these blunders. Winning wipes away all blunders. Additionally, I do not think the Blago indictment ranks anywhere at all because everyone (except him apparently) knew that he was under investigation and that he would eventually be indicted; governor of Illinois was as far as he was going to go.
Ruth
I would nominate Alan Greenspan’s deciding that the ratings of mortgage bundles as AAA quality was not going to spread through our economy, that our financial houses would self-correct, as the absolute worst of the century.
next No. 1: McCain nomination, and after that Sarah Palin nomination has to rank biggest political blunder (a) and (b).
Persia
Wow, someone was really, really not paying attention during the campaign.
Patrick
7. Suspending campaign
6. Considering Palin for anything
5. Considering Palin for VP
4. Interviewing Palin for VP (although this probably never happened)
3. Selecting Palin for VP
2. Not replacing Palin for VP
1. Being in the same party as Palin and Bush
Paul in KY
Not ‘Top 10 Material’ but I always snicker when I remember Lady Lynn De Fauntlbottom Rothschild the IV opining that Obama was an elitist & not in touch with the masses. Heh, heh.
Stooleo
Biggest political blunder. The Republican party for not publicly kicking Bush to the curb. Of course that was never going to happen with the party that values loyalty over competency.
Dean
You could make a better (or just funnier) list just from the GOP Presidential race.
7) Mittens – My sons serve our country by trying get me elected.
6) John McCain – How many houses do I have?
5) Rudy! – 9/11, 9/11, 9/11
4) Phil Graham – A Nation of Whiners
3) Sarah Palin – I can see Russia from my house.
2) John McCain – I’m suspending my campaign to rescue the economy.
1) Fred Thompson – Zzzzzzzzzzzz….
The Other Steve
FREE SARAH PALIN!
StringonaStick
I don’t think we’re gotten all the mileage still left in Gramm’s "Nation of whiners" remark, simply because the economy hasn’t bottomed yet. I want that one hung on the Republicans like a HUGE albatross.
CT
I’d take the sniper fire story (embarassing, but short lived), Edwards (non-entity at that point), and Wright (big story, but not really a blunder) off the list.
You could probably fill the whole list with McCain campaign blunders, but the fact that McCain actively chose to throw away his strengths as an experienced, serious, bipartisan candidate by picking Palin, the Britney/Paris ads, topped off with the Obama’s a Socialist/Joe the Plumber two-step have got to be right up there. None of those are gaffes or misspeaks, that’s an active embrace of FAIL. For some reason the defining image of the McCain campaign for me will be McCain, camped out in PA, whittling a 15 point deficit down to 12, invoking JTP’s name as some sort of magic talisman ("It was Joe the Plumber who turned it around!"). Culminating in JTP no-showing at a rally when McCain was wanting to give him another shout out. Add the gaffes about the number of houses and the fundamentals of the economy, "that one" and a few more and you could fill out the rest of the list.
However, since I think McCain would have lost anyway, I’d have to go with Hillary’s "What’s a caucus?" strategy, since it likely cost her the Presidency.
Tom
I think the combination of McCain saying the fundamentals of the economy are sound, then a week later, overreacting and "suspending" his campaign to "lead" the effort to save the economy.
It made him look out-of-touch and erratic. Obama, meanwhile, had been saying the economy was in trouble for a while and kept a steady, cool presence in the face of the crisis. That juxtaposition, more than anything i think, is why Obama is president today.
MattF
Blunders #1 -> infinity, for just about everybody except for you-know-who: underestimating Barack Hussein Obama.
Rosali
Making Joe the Plumber the McCain spokesman.
Trying to make fun of Obama with tire gauges.
HateFest 2008 = the RNC convention
Grumpy Code Monkey
I can only think of two really big blunders.
2. The assumption by Clinton and her supporters that her nomination was a fait accompli as of December 2007, and not putting any real effort into the campaign until it was too late. To top it off, that "effort" consists of the tired Republican-lite crap that worked when times were good and people could afford to pay attention to the petty shit, but fails pretty spectacularly when people are facing real hard times.
1. McCain picking Palin as his running mate. So much failure in one perky package. First, she negates the whole "experience" argument. Second, her own family serves as poster children for failures of pet Republican causes (abstinence-only sex education, for starters). Third, she actively drives away moderates and independents by being simultaneously vapid and belligerent. I’m not saying McCain would have won had he picked someone else, but the loss wouldn’t have been self-inflicted.
Tim in SF
We need five more so we can sing the twelve days of Christmas. Or something.
JL
Sarah Palin.. Real Americans, real Virginians, real anything.
John McCain’s economic policy was Bush’s on steroids. We all know how Bush’s policies turned out.
TheHatOnMyCat
Palin selection has to be number one. Hillary’s entire campaign was a series of screwups. McCain’s campaign suspension right after the "strong fundamentals" gaffe are worthy examples. Phil Gramm is himself just one collossal mistake just by getting out of bed in the morning. Joe The Plumber was a trainwreck. Obama the Socialist was another one. Palling around with terrorists was epic fail.
Last but not least, any post made by myiq2xu, probably a good example of stupidity on steroids.
Dusty
Nominating McCain doesn’t seem like an especially big blunder to me, just because I’m not sure any of the other options would have done better, given the environment for the GOP. McCain had at least an angle to play that might have worked, that a lot of voters viewed him as being somewhat moderate, an advantage he squandered pandering to the base.
McCain’s overall campaign was a blunder, if so many individual decisions and tactics can really be a "blunder." There was a parade of specific blunders, Palin, "suspending" his campaign to pretend to take ownership of a bailout nobody was going to be happy with anyway, branding himself a "maverick" rather than a moderate.
binzinerator
@ Brian J
I am so stealing that line.
John Cole
Check the second update. It was the underlying assumption that led to the Palin pick which was the actual blunder.
TheHatOnMyCat
Oh, I forgot. The biggest single mistake of 2008 is the mystifying moderation filter on the new and improved BJ webpage. No rational pattern for its behavior can be found, it apparently just operates at random in order to bedevil posters.
With that in mind, see my post at 43 and fix it please.
Rosali
Having Bush agree to an Iraq withdrawal timetable when you spent a whole year arguing that to do so would embolden the terrorists.
binzinerator
@Punchy:
Followed your link and …. holy shit:
No of course not. Not with lyrics like this:
Innocently done and nothing racist about it. Yeah, anyone can see that.
Oh, and I’d have to say the biggest political fuckup in the past year would be 1) Johnny Drama’s choice of Bible Spice as running mate and 2) same moron’s insistence that the economy was sound even as it was crashing down around everyone’s ears.
TheHatOnMyCat
Yes, the whole Palin thing was so full of fuckups that you could fill the entire list. Everything about it was insane.
We declared it the clincher for Obama on the day the pick was announced, IIRC. If not that day, certainly by the next day.
Tom
Actually, come to think of it, I have a new #1:
The "lipstick on the pig" ad McCain put out.
I remember vividly that when this ad came out, McCain had enjoyed a couple of weeks in which he gained on Obama. I believe he was up about 4 points when this ad came out.
And Republicans were giddy over this ad. They had a number of negative ads in the previous weeks that helped McCain to the lead, and this was the latest.
But it was with this ad that they finally overreached. It was so blatantly dishonest, that it caused people to think less of McCain rather than think less of Obama. And from there on out, the negative ads against Obama didn’t work. McCain started getting blowback for them. And almost immediately, Obama starting to gain in the polls.
That was the tipping point in the election and , I think, was the biggest political blunder of 2008.
binzinerator
@Rosali:
Rosali, Bush’s fuckups are too numerous to decide which one is worse, and even enumerating them is difficult. That alone would make a ‘Number One Fuckup’ had to pin down, but what makes it impossible is the damage from them is so far-reaching and goes so deep it cannot be quantified with any certainty right now, other than the inescapable conclusion of We Are So Fucked.
Zifnab
Wait, Blagojevich and Spitzer make the list but Stevens and Vitter skate? Seriously?
Blago was caught preparing to take a bribe. Stevens was caught actually taking a bribe.
Spitzer was busted for prostitution (not actually busted, mind you, but it cost him his Governorship) and the seat fell to another reliable Democrat. Vitter was caught in diapers being spanked by a discount model. And then there’s Larry freak’n Craig.
Admittedly, some of these blunders technically occurred in 2007, but I think the biggest blunder was committed on the US Senate floor, when Stevens and Vitter were welcomed back with thunderous applause while Craig got shoved in a corner dark enough that people might forget about him.
The US Senate has been a train-wreck of stupid for years and it seems to have hit a crescendo in 2008 for a variety of reasons. So they’ll get my number one slot.
Punchy
I wonder if the Puma shoe company saw any odd upticks in sales during this campaign season due to all the unintentional brand-name name dropping….
jetan
The bIggest, to my mind, was Clinton’s decision to enter the Iowa caucuses where she had nothing to win and everything to lose. Had she just held her fire and stopped the Obama train in NH, Obama would have been just the usual lefty primary challenger. Second biggest was Giulliani’s Jedi mind-trick "strategy".
Reverend Dennis
Clinton’s "Commander-in-Chief Threshold" remark. By asserting that she and John McCain had passed this mystical test whereas Obama had not Clinton made it seem that if she wasn’t the Democratic nominee then John McCain should be elected.
Rainy
How the hell is Rev. Wright a political blunder? Just because the press made him out to be some sort of drag on Obama? Please? He wasn’t really a big deal to most people. Like he said, he’s been saying what he said for years.
August J. Pollak
Hawkins’ criteria for this list is nonsensical. How are half of these "blunders of 2008?" Was it a "blunder" that Edwards and Spitzer got caught this year, given the actual acts they were caught doing occurred years prior? Was Obama attending a church for decades with Wright really a "blunder" of 2008? Hawkins appears to define "blunder" as "highly-reported media story making someone look bad in a way I prefer."
This is all a useless exercise, because it’s another one of those right-wing "list" tricks to make a big buildup around one central argument. A few years back, they made a list of "the 20 most dangerous books" or whatever, and the list was pointless. The whole purpose of the list was to make "The Communist Manifesto" #1 and "Mein Kampf" #2, in order to make the actual argument they wanted to make, which was the communism was worse than Hitler.
This is the same kind of deal. This is all about saying that McCain fucked up his election by not doing something right-wingers liked, in order to gloss over the reality that every single poll, survey, analysis, and actual fucking poll results would have told you: that McCain’s picking of Sarah Palin utterly crushed whatever slim chance of winning the election he previously had.
For the sake of argument, I’m not going to rank these or anything, because basically after Palin, the "next dumbest move" is sort of like saying "Hitler is the meanest guy I know, followed by that guy at the 7-11." McCain selecting Palin breaks warp core limits into the outer reaches of bad fucking moves.
But I digress. If you define "blunder" the way you actually should- as a calculated, deliberate move that results in a disastrous outcome- then honest, provable, unbiased blunders of 2008 include:
McCain picking Palin
A hefty portion of state legislatures refusing to play fair with their primary schedules, most prominently Michigan and Florida
Rudy Giuliani bailing out of the first five primaries assuming he’d suddenly win Florida
The ‘nets trying to game New Hampshire (this is the one out of the seven Hawkins got completely right)
Obama’s refusal to simply say he wasn’t picking Hillary as his running mate, leading to a three-week American Idol special that diminished Biden and likely helped solidify the Palin pick
Any network or pundit who treated any of the following terms with a shred of credibility: "PUMAs," "Hockey Moms," "Bradley Effect," "real Americans"
John McCain threatening to cancel the first presidential debate to dramatically fly into Washington to "solve the financial crisis"
Fred Thompson giving up an eight-figure deal on one of the most popular shows on TV to do so badly in the primaries that no one even cared when he forgot to officially drop out
Every right-wing pundit on the planet thinking the above had a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming president because he filmed a video where he was mean to Michael Moore
Wesley Clark (correctly but insensitively) questioning McCain’s POW status as criteria for being president, effectively killing his chances of being a running mate or cabinet member in the course of a 15-minute interview
John McCain claiming "the fundamentals of our economy are strong"
"Live via hologram"
R-Jud
I think the GOP convention– from the handling of protesters to the speakers chosen to their speeches to the lily-white audience– kind of encapsulates the #1 biggest blunder of the year: the Republicans playing to their base, and only to their base. They campaigned like it was still 2002.
Surabaya Stew
The idea of all the PUMA voters deflecting en mass to McCain wasn’t so much a mistake as a miscalculation. When it became obvious that Obama had beaten Hillary in all but name, there in fact was much gnashing of teeth and cries of outrage from her biggest supporters. (If a there isn’t a bigger camp of potential PUMA’s to be found than at a New York City teacher’s conference being held in May 2008, I don’t know!) Judging from the reaction at the time, you would think McCain would have picked up half of these 50-ish, bleeding heart, women. At the time, I was quite worried myself about Obama’s chances.
As things turned out, within a month, I knew of only 1 PUMA from this conference (who managed to be physically disabled, feminist, lesbian, atheist, Afghan-American, and marxist all at the same time. Goodness, could this lady hold a grudge!) And even she ended up voting for Obama because she was insulted by Palin’s stupidity.
Frankly, the under-reported story of the year should be the "Rednecks for Obama". Now there’s a bunch of voters who really changed their minds!
ppcli
Among the jaw-dropping features of this list is that the only McCain entry is about the only thing he did that *wasn’t* a blunder. Really his campaign seemed like a blunder a day: "Nation of Whiners", the stupid tire gauges (I’m still peeved that they dropped that stunt before I got one of those gauges for myself), McCain denouncing golden parachutes without preparing some response for the obvious Carly Fiorina comeback, deciding to lard up Palin’s speech with easily – checkable lies ("Congress: thanks but no thanks", etc.),…
.
[You could make a longer list of more embarrassing mistakes than those seven by just sticking to Palin-related material.]
.
Maybe my personal number one favorite bungle was blowing off Letterman for the "campaign suspension – immediately flying back to Washington" stunt while still: a) doing an interview with Katie Couric that Letterman could poach the feed from b) giving a speech to a completely dispensible Bill Clinton powwow. c) meeting for lunch with Puma-in-chief Lynn Rothschild Warbucks McDuck IV. d) etc.
.
Not only did the one-day delay make it obvious that the whole thing was a stunt, but blowing off Letterman meant that it would be advertised as a dumb stunt every night for weeks.
Rick Taylor
I would pick as a big blunder the McCain campaign’s decision to take an adversarial roll with the press. Perhaps this was necessitated by the choice of Palin as VP. But the press were McCain’s biggest asset; they really liked him when the campaign started. He should have continued to give them access, playing the straight talker, at the expense of a few gaffes. I was scared when the Republican’s nominated McCain, and amazed when he threw away his greatest strength.
Phoenix Woman
John McCain a blunder? John McCain was their only frickin’ CHANCE.
Here’s the deal: Their own favorite pollster, Rasmussen, showed that McCain was their only hope way back in late 2007. In head-to-head general election matchups, McCain was the only Republican to be competitive with Edwards, to come close to tieing Obama, as well as beat Hillary Clinton. Every other Republican lost to Edwards and Obama, usually by double-digit margins. (As for Hillary: McCain beat her by double digits, and the other top-tier Republicans bested her by one- to three-point margins; she even had trouble against most second- and middle-tier candidates. Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo were the only Republicans that she could easily beat. That’s why the Republicans were praying for her to get the nomination.)
Now, having a decent showing in national polls is not enough: One also needs some sort of machine. (That’s why Edwards couldn’t survive the primaries: He couldn’t survive as a guy whose base existed only online. And I say this as someone who backed Edwards right up to the point where he suspended his campaign.) Obama had good polling, a way to generate money, and the most frighteningly adept ground game I have ever seen. It’s not that his team didn’t make mistakes — they did — it’s that they didn’t let the mistakes throw them off-balance.
abbey
@John PM:
Those are all great. I totally forgot about Cheney’s endorsement.
A few more, in no real order.
1. First debate and McCain not looking at Obama.
2. Palin being so nasty and mean in her RNC speech. She was great news… for Barack Obama’s fund raising numbers.
3. McCain’s earmark obsession
4. Anyone (Hillary and McCain both did it) using sarcasm and mocking Obama, who always seemed above it all.
5. Carly Fiorina calling Tiny Fey sexist
6. "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation." ~ Sarah Palin
7. McCain and the media ignoring Hispanics and their role in the election
Reverend Dennis
"[Insert Name Here] doesn’t speak for the McCain campaign."
At times, it seemed that McCain himself didn’t speak for the McCain campaign.
Phoenix Woman
Arrrgh — I can’t edit my last comment, but wanted to correct one thing: Rasmussen had McCain as the only Republican capable of beating Obama. That’s the OTHER reason why McCain won the nomination: The RNC knew, even if the base didn’t, that McCain was their only hope. He could beat both Hillary and Obama — Hillary by double digits, Obama by three points. (Edwards was already marginalized by December 2007, so they didn’t have to worry about him, good poll numbers or not.)
bayville
The biggest political blunder of the year – next to Hillary surrounding herself with the biggest bunch of corporate losers imaginable – was McCain’s campaign spending months and millions of dollars campaigning in Pennsylvania at the expense of other states – Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Michigan and New Mexico – where he had a legitimate chance of winning.
Anyone who spent 10 minutes at an Eagles tailgate party or fishing on the Monongahela River or shopping at the Reading and Lancaster outlets would’ve realized the Democrats – particularly with the Palin add-on – could have nominated Lyndon LaRouche and they still would have carried the Keystone State.
SGEW
O/T/, re: Wes Clark.
Johathan Zasloff posted a rather interesting tidbit about Gen. Clark, and his subsequent disappearance from Democratic circles:
Why Has Wes Clark Disappeared?
If true, it makes a lot of sense.
Jay C
@Bob In Pacifica:
When it backfires on the campaign using it: mainly (as with the Obama/Wright/Ayers crapola) through the voting public neither believing the smear, giving a flying about it, or getting angry at the smearer(s) for dwelling on crapola vs. serious issues.
Mind you, that’s the voting public smears can backfire with, not the media: they still wallow in the feces every chance they get.
@August J. Pollak
Suggestion: don’t lead off your lists with dashes: apparently the New And Improved BJ Comment Widget will read them, and your first hyphen, as "strikeout".
UPDATE: Fixed, I see: sorry, August!
Josh Hueco
@TheHatOnMyCat:
Conversely, the second-biggest WIN (behind Obama’s victory) of 2008 was the new and improved Balloon Juice site.
Honorable Mention for Biggest Blunder: Andrew Sullivan going into Trig Truther mode, which (no pun intended) sullied his otherwise admirable work in tracking Sarah Palin’s mendacity and unfitness for elected office.
Jasper
Gosh, you all are letting Gramm off easy.
"You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,"
"We may have a recession; we haven’t had one yet."
"Misery sells newspapers," Mr. Gramm said. "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."
He said this in July 2008. Recession began December 2007. Seven months into what will turn out to be the worst recession since the 1930s, the chief economic adviser to McCain is telling the voters who KNOW it’s terrible, because they’re not in the top fraction of 1%, that it’s all in their damn minds. Get over it.
If that series of quotes doesn’t top the list, it’s a bogus list.
kay
My personal blunder was considering Palin a threat, and I did.
I should have known better. Sarah Palin was designed and marketed to appeal to the women I know and live among and work with, many of whom (even the conservatives) I like and admire.
I should have stuck with my gut, which told me that most American women, of any economic and social class, agree on a couple of things, and pushing the value of education for their kids is one of them.
Palin thinks a high school diploma is elitist. That isn’t a majority position.
Rosali
The tire gauges stunt opened the door for one of Obama’s greatest lines: "It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant".
The other great line was "Sen. McCain, what economy are you talking about ?!" when McC said the fundamentals were strong.
demimondian
@Tim in SF: That’d be the twelve days of the War on Christmas, dude.
Mike B.
Lawbreaking is not a "blunder." Having an affair is not a "blunder." A blunder is something done in full view of the public that is meant to be innocuous or praiseworthy, but ends up being anything but.
Blago, Spitzer, and Edwards do not belong on that list. They’re respectively a crook, a hypocrite, and a scoundrel, but to call them "blunderers" is just inaccurate. And how was Wright a blunder? Everyone agrees that Obama handled that situation impeccably.
The top entry is absolutely right. I’d add Hillary’s poor debate response to the question on driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants; unlike the silly sniper-fire story, it actually damaged her then-healthy campaign. She was desperate and floundering by the time she cited the incident in Bosnia.
David
Actually, I think Wright was one of the top political blunders of the….oh, he’s talking about the pastor himself, not McCain and Palin thinking they could win the election by putting him on TV. Never mind.
TheHatOnMyCat
Heh. I’ll have to take that one under advisement.
I would suggest the Rachel Maddow show as an alternative selection.
sparky
at the end of the day what i find interesting is that both Clinton and McCain basically picked incompetents to run their campaigns. all of the blunders listed above really flow from those decisions, just as many of the idiocies of the Bush administration flow from the choices made to run programs and agencies. notice that in this context neither Clinton nor McCain had ever run any significant organization before.
moral: it really does matter who you pick to work for you, and if you have bad people choosing skills everything else will likely be screwed, too.
ps: still reserving judgment on Obama.
pps: shouldn’t the spellchecker have Obama’s name in it by now?
spot check billy
It seemed like cheating to read the other comments first, so apologies if this is highly redundant.
7 – The Edwards love child. About the only way the GOP could have retained the Presidency this year is if Edwards had managed to remain a viable candidate (or God forbid the front runner) until this came out. Number 7 because actual events resulted in no impact.
6 – Anyone who thought Fred Thompson had a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected President
5 – The Obama "bitter" comments. Although no harm no foul applies, it did probably extend the primary campaign by a few weeks.
4 – Guiliani’s "wait ’til Florida" strategy
3 – McCain "suspends" campaign
2 – Palin nominated for VP
1 – HRC campaign strategy predicated on a Super Tuesday knockout without bothering to learn either caucus or delegate apportionment rules.
sparky
incidentally, there’s a nice little recap of some of the scenery-chewing from the gopers at the Voice (via the NYT)
Atanarjuat
Ah, more gratuitous anti-Palin hatred.
It’ll never end, will it, lefties?
This whole "she’s just so stupid!" angle is a flimsy facade to disguise your obvious fear that Sarah Palin is likely to triumph in the 2012 Presidential election. The ongoing misogyny is just the icing on the cake, naturally.
Keep on keepin’ on, liberals. The holiday season seems to have done nothing to improve your ever-souring mood.
NR
I disagree with one thing. I think, if Hillary had somehow managed to get the Democratic nomination, there’s a good chance that McCain would be the President-elect right now. With Hillary as the nominee, McCain never would have picked Palin as his running mate, and everyone with at least a few functioning brain cells (i.e., everyone except the rabid right-wingers and the PUMAs) knows that she cost him a tremendous number of votes. So McCain would have avoided a huge drag on his ticket.
Add to this the fact that had she been the nominee, Hillary’s campaign organization could never have matched what we saw from the Obama campaign. Also, enthusiasm among black and young voters wouldn’t have been anywhere near as high, which means she would have had fewer volunteers, requiring her to staff more paid campaign workers. And since she couldn’t raise as much money as Obama, that would have been a huge problem.
Hillary never would have been able to put states like Indiana, Virginia, and North Carolina in play. It would have all come down to Ohio and Florida, again. It’s possible that she could still have won, but it would have been another nailbiter where we wouldn’t have known the outcome of the election until the next morning. And there’s a good chance that McCain could have pulled it out.
Joshua Norton
How is Wright a "blunder"? Obama never tried to game him for any political traction that ended up backfiring on him.
A real blunder was McCain thinking he could get any mileage out of someone like Jo(k)e the Plumber – who turned out to be just another garden variety big mouth.
Richard
My top 3 are on Clinton’s campaign because I was sure whoever won the Democratic primary was almost certain to win the election (barring almost as stupid blunders as they committed during the primary). I’m excluding anything bush did (too easy):
1. Hillary Clinton’s lack of caucus planning. She was convinced that nothing past Super Tuesday was worth any effort at all. (Is this the president you want?)
2. Hillary Clinton’s failure to clearly define who was in charge of campaign strategy (was it Penn, Ickes or someone else?). Sigh. Someone that can’t manage a team now our SoS.
3. Bill Clinton’s comment that Jesse Jackson also won the primaries in SC and attempt to marginalize him as a black candidate. And then following it up as if the Obama campaign was playing the race card on him.
4. McCain’s failure to vet Palin and subsequent VP choice. I remember remember worrying that people wouldn’t see through her. They did. Honestly: an ongoing state investigation in (get this) abuse of power?! A pregnant teenage daughter? A know-nothing? Wow.
5. Guiliani’s 911 and Florida obsession (but was this a blunder? Was it the only outside chance he had? Not sure.)
6. Palin not bothering to practice before Couric’s interview. Except for die-hards, this made Palin a running joke. The best SNL skit ever just repeated her words. What was the McCain campaing thinking?
7. The fundamentals of the economy are strong. I’ll merge this with gramm’s comment that we’re just whiner’s.
8. Joe the plumber. Tito the whatever.
9. McCain’s constant theme switching. Remember focusing on the celebrity? Nevermind. Remember McCain’s vs Obama’s experience? Thrown away with the Palin pick. Lipstick on a pig is a campaign strategy?
10. Romney’s equivalency between his kids working on his campaign and in Iraq. Holy moly.
Xecky Gilchrist
@NR: I think, if Hillary had somehow managed to get the Democratic nomination, there’s a good chance that McCain would be the President-elect right now.
I agree, and I give thanks often that we never had to find out how that would have gone.
Cyrus
@TheHatOnMyCat:
I don’t know what your comment looked like before the "fix" you asked for, but I’ll bet I know why your comment got caught by the moderation filter: you called Obama a word beginning with S. That word beginning with S includes the name of an erectile dysfunction drug. Ergo, the filter thinks it’s spam. I agree, it’s stupid.
And @August J. Pollak:
How is this a blunder? If delaying the non-Hillary VP announcement encouraged the Palin pick, and if Palin was an albatross around McCain’s neck like everyone says, then the delay was smart. And as for diminishing Biden, that was (a) inevitable to at least an extent; anyone would be diminished compared to the runner-up for the nomination, and (b) arguably not bad at all, since it wouldn’t have been good for the more senior Senator to overshadow Obama.
kay
@Atanarjuat:
It was revealing, to me, and hopefully to a lot of conservative "hockey moms".
Why does William Kristol think middle class women don’t respect or aspire to education? Particularly for their children?
We’re no different than William Kristol’s mom, really.
Palin’s schtick where she trashed education as "elitist" lost her the middle class striver vote. They vote, too, strivers, unlike those who have given up, and accepted a slot somewhere below William Kristol.
Why are conservatives celebrating mediocrity,and "accpeting your station"? Worse, SELLING it as virtue?
srv
The Edwards story is really the one with the biggest outcome. It changed the VP pick. And no, it wasn’t John, it was someone else with the same name.
And now you know the rest of the story.
Cris
It’s tacit acknowledgment that the Democrats dominated the year’s political coverage.
srv
Not left over. See above. Used to take out a much younger VP candidate that would make a 2012 slot or 2016 run impossible.
Nazgul35
If we are doing strategies (which McCain couldn’t evidently figure out from tactics, might explain the campaign’s success), like Tom suggests, the "Lipstick on a Pig" commercial was poor and an over-stretch…
I think the killer was the "Obama wants to teach your kindergartner sex" ad. It was so blatantly over the top- and patently dishonest, the public reacted with revulsion…
Follow that up with the crazy old "he’s an Arab" woman after a week of news coverage of the underbelly of Republican supporters showing up at Hillbilly Spice’s rallies…
A perfect storm of suck…
postsecret
The funniest self inflicted pie in the face had to be the House Republicans saying that they torpedoed the bailout, sank the stock market, and put the economy in jeopardy because Nancy Pelosi didn’t play nice and said mean things about them
Echoes without Bunnies or Men (now in espanol!)
Well, SnowBunny went to 5 schools in 6 years, or was it 6 schools in five years?
Her own kids? #1 son had to join the military to avoid going to jail for vandalism, the next eldest dropped out to have a baby with another dropout. Good old small town Wasilla values, I tells ya.
demimondian
@srv: Very unlikely. Edwards is older than you probably realize, and doesn’t have the foreign policy chops Biden has.
over_educated
@Atanarjuat: That’s some mighty fine spoofing there Mr. A!
Common Sense
SRV;
If you are referring to Chet Edwards, he had absolutely zero shot at a VP nod. He was an unknown name who would be perceived as a lightweight, and he is from Texas. Bad news this cycle.
Obama was going heavyweight with his VP nod. It seems pretty clear judging from his cabinet posts that he is looking for big name effective administrators that know their way around Washington. I don’t see that in Edwards.
RodeoBob
Wow. First of all, a "blunder" would be an action or decision that turned out to be a poor choice given the alternatives. Which, in turn, implies that a "blunder" must be committed by a person or persons. With that in mind, let’s really look at the list:
Pundits getting the outcome of a political event wrong? Well I never! Odd, though, that there’s no mention of the great sound and fury that surrounded the non-events 9/11 Rudy or Fred Thompson.
If the argument is that it was a political blunder to hire a prostitute, frankly, I disagree, only because lots of politicians sleep with prostitutes. The error was in giving ammunition to the Bush justice department while acting against the Bush interests.
Oh, and a better ‘blunder’ would be Spitzer having his wife appear by his side at the press conference where he confessed everything. Not only did the nation learn he was an adulterer, but an insensitive jerk as well…
A no-brainer, really. A Chicago politican trying to sell a Senate seat isn’t all that shocking by itself. Of course, when the entire "theme" of the successful presidential candidate was "change", and the country has grown increasingly sick of governmental corruption over the past 8 years, then it takes a special brazenness to do what Blago did. Of course, that Blago was pissed off at Obama for not playing along and buying him off seems to be a point that gets missed over at PJs media.
OK, now we’re into "you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means" territory. What Rev. Wright said was scandalous, but scandal != blunder. Should Obama have stopped going to that church? Well, as progressive bloggers quickly discovered, McCain and others had ministers that said equally scandalous remarks, and no one seemed to care. What’s more, the "God Damn America" tape predated Obama’s run for office, so it still would have been made into a story, changing nothing.
Should Obama have ‘repudiated’ his minister for past sermons? Obama said he had his own, separate views, which again passed the smell test when it came to McCain and others. And when the minister tried to speak as something other than just a minister, Obama did repudiate him.
What, exactly, was the ‘blunder’ here, and who committed it? Judging by election results & poling, the blunder was by the right wing in thinking that this somehow disqualified Obama from the presidency. Maybe the blunder was aggressively trying to promote the story of a Christian minister’s sermons in a Christian church, while simultaneously trying to promote the story that Barrak HUSSEIN Obama was a Muslim.
OK, having an affair while you’re running for president is a blunder. Cheating on your wife when she’s been diagnosed with cancer is a major blunder. And if Edwards had ever been a serious contender for the office once primary season was underway, I could see this making the list. But Edwards was out of the race almost immediately, and his candidacy a non-issue except for the actual issues that he ran on: economic inequity, health care reform, the overall health of the economy. The result of his run for presidency was to force the other candidates to talk about those issues, and develop their positions. The result of his affair was that in addition to never even getting close to being President or Vice President, he probably won’t get named to any major positions in the new administration.
Blunder? OK. Political blunder? Sure. But in the category of "stories told to the press that didn’t turn out as well as the candidate hoped", how is this a bigger mis-step than Mitt Romney’s "hosing down the dog strapped to the roof of the car" story? Hillary may have looked stupid for lying, but Mitt looked cruel, and he was being honest.
Reading the details on this one made my head hurt.
Was the blunder "suspending his campaign" to go to D.C. and add nothing with his presence, but appear to be trying to take political advantage out of a real crisis? No.
Was the blunder appearing insensitive to working Americans by having his advisor call Americans "whiners", and not even knowing how many houses he owns? No.
Was the blunder visibly engaging himself in a situation where his history with the Keating Five would naturally come up? No.
No, the ‘blunder’ apparently was in refusing to stand back and let the crisis worsen. The blunder was taking part in a collective action during a crisis that was negotiated by both parties.
Yeah, no mention of the ‘inexperienced’ strategy followed by the Palin pick, no mention of Palin at all, no mention of Clinton’s post-Super Tuesday collapse, or of the PUMA myth or Guiliani’s Florida strategy, of "that one" or of the proposed "gas tax holiday". Definitely a different reality for some folks.
Cris
How could I forget! The biggest political blunder, by far, was Michelle Obama saying "whitey" when the tape was rolling.
Chuck Butcher
1) Being a Republican Presidential candidate this year
Tom
How could I forget! The biggest political blunder, by far, was Michelle Obama saying "whitey" when the tape was rolling.
I for one am glad API was responsible enough to withhold the release of the tape so there would not be riots throughout America:
As much as API wants to release the now “Golden Tape”, we do not wish to be connected with any riots, if any, after we tell the truth to the world and the Americans in Particular.
Why did I make myself dumber by going to that site?
MNPundit
So true. My mother is a racist latina who only voted for Obama (as opposed to staying home) because she was even more insulted as a woman due to the Palin pick.
Comrade Baron Elmo
I’d vote for John McCain’s pick of Steve Schmidt as his campaign Big Boy as the supreme political blunder.
First, he was a bad fit from the start — McCain was clearly uncomfortable with Schmidt’s ur-Rove style, and it showed — but Steve had a reputation as a guy who could win elections, so John held his nose and went along with the Schmidt plan for victory… which involved blowing years of careful image grooming to publicly reveal himself as the mammoth prick he really is.
Schmidt was the guy who advised McCain to take an adversarial position with the press, using the media as a whipping boy to churn up sympathy votes from the base. This, of course, was the start of the "whatever happened to the old John McCain?" mewlings from the pundits. When tools like Joe Klein and Richard Cohen started singing that tune, I knew Saint John was screwed but good.
It is said that Schmidt was the bright boy who engineered the McCain "campaign suspension" debacle, a baldfaced attempt to make Obama out to be either a) too selfish to put his precious campaign on hold for the American people, or b) an inexperienced novice, following the better man’s lead. Of course, the Big O simply said "I can do two things at once, y’know…" and McCain’s gambit ends up looking more like naked desperation, even to most Repubs.
Finally, Schmidt was the first to suggest Bible Spice for the VP nod. Enough said. Sarah Palin is a disaster in heels who will be paying high dividends for the Democrats for years to come. Atanarjuat’s confidence in her abilities is certainly proof of that.
Brian J
I think you make a good point in mentioning the Clinton campaign’s lack of attention to details of particular state races. It’s a big part of Obama’s win. I am not sure of how to compute the numbers in any way as to make an educated guess about this, but I don’t think it’s out of the question to imagine that if Clinton had merely halved the margins in these states, she would have at the very least come a lot closer to winning.
I’m not sure if was because she’s incompetent along with her former staffers, or because she was simply blindsided by someone who brought a new form of political organizing into the mainstream, just as any skilled politician who relies on the older methods of campaigning would be. My guess is the latter, but then, I’ve always liked Hillary Clinton.
I also think that anyone who mentions anything done by Rudy! Giuliani is on to something. He’s a fool, and it was more obvious than ever this year.
Nicole
@Tim in SF:
Here you go. Pulled entirely from this comments section. Some lines scan better than others. ;)
The Twelve Mistakes of McCain’s Campaign
McCain’s first mistake campaigning most certainly must be Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s second mistake campaigning most certainly must be calling Obama “That one” and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s third mistake campaigning most certainly must be bailing on Letterman… and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s fourth mistake campaigning most certainly must be using Joe the Plumber… and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s fifth mistake campaigning most certainly must be Cheney’s endorsement. Using Joe the Plumber… and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP
McCain’s sixth mistake campaigning most certainly must be whining about the press… and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s seventh mistake campaigning most certainly must be not knowing all his houses… and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s eighth mistake campaigning most certainly must be eight years of Dubya… and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s ninth mistake campaigning most certainly must be “suspending” his campaign … and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s tenth mistake campaigning most certainly must be anything Phil Gramm said … and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s eleventh mistake campaigning most certainly must be air quoting “health of the mother” … and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
McCain’s twelfth mistake campaigning most certainly must be campaigning only to his base … and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
dj spellchecka
in no particular order…
hiring Steve Schmidt
hiring Mark Penn
picking Sarah Palin
Rudy’s "strategy"…..a ton of money got him ONE delegate…that’s tuff to top, in a way…
Dan
I really don’t think people in this thread — or, I guess, elsewhere — are giving enough credit to McCain’s "suspension" of his campaign, which I would say would have to be number 1 or number 2 (behind the "believing in PUMAs" mistake). I spent the fall watching polls pretty obsessively, and the "suspension" of the McCain campaign had what I recall was a huge effect in public opinion.
Tom
I agree — this was my first #1 pick. But when this happened, McCain was down in the polls. It was seen as one of his "hail marys" — he really had not much to lose at this point. I think, looking back, it’s what all but sealed the deal for Obama.
But I still gives the "lipstick on the pig" ad #1. It happened before the "suspension." McCain was up at that point. The kindergarden ad had come out the previous week and most certainly was a worse ad than the lipstick ad, but for whatever reason, McCain wasn’t really getting nailed on it. He still gained in the polls after it, and other negative attacks. It wasn’t until the lipstick ad that people really starting hitting McCain about negative campaigning and his poll numbers started dropping again. They went one negative ad too far.
I kind of look at it as the "mint."
dsc
Tom:
Even here in Chattanooga (Bob Corker territory), the local news outlets (all three) took pains to explain that Obama DID NOT say what Honest Johnny claimed he said. They showed the commercial first, then allowed Obama his comment in context. I was waitin’ on the weather when they did this, so I flipped around to the other stations and they all did a careful explanation of "lipstick on a pig." I was dumbfounded.
Obama still lost by a landslide here in TN–Palin was enormously popular. But McCain’s team was exposed as liars, and that’s a hard association to break.
Johnny Pez
@Cris: Have to agree. The Whitey Video just blew Obama out of the running. He’ll be lucky to hold on to his senate seat in 2010.
Boy, Larry Johnson sure did call that one right. I’m not surprised he got a weekly column at Time out of it.
Apprentice to Darth Holden
I think that the "suspension of the campaign" just exacerbated things that were already out there…but the crowning achievement was his outright and totally unnecessary lie to Letterman about "returning to Washington" that Letterman so effortlessly exposed.
Then of course Letterman pounded him every night for weeks about it.
However, in the larger sense, I’d have to agree with our gracious host that the Palin selection was part of a chain of events all related to the mistaken idea that there actually was a massive PUMA movement out there to tap into. About as dumbass as Hillary’s own "All over by SuperTuesday" fantasy.
Wolfdaughter
Nicole:
I really like your "Twelve Mistakes". But, as a singer and an arranger of choral music, I had an immediate itch to work on the scansion. As you noted, it’s better some places than others.
First, I replace all the "mistake campaigning" with "campaign mistake". Try it. You’ll see that the term now aligns with the musical stresses. I also changed "and Sarah Palin as his pick for VP" to "and Palin as his pick for VP". Again, the latter goes better with the musical stresses. I made a few other small changes in wording for the same reason. So here’s my version:
With no intent to insult, because you have a great ditty there.
Nicole
@Wolfdaughter: As a writer myself, I have great love for editors, who know how to fix what ain’t working. Thanks for the improvements! :)
bergshadow
Inspired by worthies, my two cents worth of ear adjustments (I’m most attached to putting the whine in the five spot)
The Twelve Mistakes of McCain’s Campaign
John’s first mistake campaigning / most certainly must be / Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
John’s second mistake campaigning / most certainly must be / calling Obama “That one” / Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
John’s third mistake campaigning / most certainly must be / bailing out on Letterman /… / Sarah Palin as his pick for VP.
using Joe the Plumber
whiiiiiiiining at the press
Cheney’s endorsement
not knowing all his houses
eight years of Dubya
“suspending” his campaigning
any Phil Gramm comment
air quoting “health of the mother”
campaigning to the nutbase
bergshadow
twelfth err: – pandering to the nutbase
Nicole
Heh. Good stuff. This is fun. :)
bartkid
What?
No love for McCain’s indeterminate number of houses?