But this is further evidence of the ineptitude of the McCain campaign. Hell, the fact that he's talking to an Iowa newspaper in the first place shows that no one knows what they doing over in McCainland. I mean, I don't care if Bush won it last time, Iowa is not a swing state fool! Obama has something like a ten point lead last time I checked. McCain's never held a lead there. A possible newspaper endorsement ain't about to change that. There was no upside to this interview. Only the big downside of clips like this popping up on the internets.Old school McCain strategist Mike Murphy writes:
One very smart consultant who knows McCain well sent me a link this morning to the video of McCain at Des Moines Register Editorial board interview. Set aside whatever you think of McCain's interview; this operative's point was purely technical and dead on correct: What the Hell was McCain even doing there in the first place?Gonna give Julio props and assume he didn't read Murphy before commenting. Either way, it's a good point.1.) Obama is going to win Iowa.
2.) Editorial board meetings are usually pure trouble to begin with and result only in newspaper endorsements that persuade very few voters beyond the immediate family members of the editorial board.
3.) Within the rarified category of newspaper editorial boards, the Des Moines Register is one of the most liberal in the country. I'm rather surprised that halfway through the McCain interview they failed to switch over to Esperanto, the peace-loving language of all nations.
So, 35 days left and McCain is in Iowa? Why put McCain in the wrong state, at the wrong place? No surprise the result is the wrong message and the wrong tone.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Mike stays on my jock, fam. He went off on that hot mic on MSNBC right after I got done telling my folks about how the Palin pick undercuts his brand.
But nah, I'm not going to take credit. It's an obvious point. There's no upside to being in Iowa in general and no upside to talking with those folks specifically, especially if that paper leans to the left.
I told you all that McCain is too senile to understand what's going on....
I don't want to be a GOP consultant. Based on the current candidate, I'm more than qualified to be the GOP vice presidential nominee.
And this is why McCain is going to lose, because he is running the worst Republican presidential campaign possibly in living memory.
And this is why McCain is going to lose, because he is running the worst Republican presidential campaign possibly in living memory.
Well I mostly think that McCain is going to lose because (a) the greater conditions in the country mean that the deck is heavily stacked against the Republican candidate, and (b) Obama is running the best Democratic campaign in, at least, recent memory.
That said, McCain is running wild and pretty much destroying any chances he may have had.
Who would have thought that a Republican campaign could do worse than Dole '96 and Bush '92?
Don't think I've seen anyone mention in this context that McCain specifically denigrated ethanol subsidies in the debate last week. Maybe he's trying to make nice for the 2012 primary caucus....
We are all GOP consultants now.
Julio is right-it IS an obvious point. Yesterday morning I read on Politico that McCain would be spending the day in Des Moines and my first thought was...what?WHY?He's not going to win Iowa, it's not close, and there are 35 days before election day. Candidate travel SHOULD be one of the truest reflections of where the campaign thinks they stand in the various battlegrounds...notice, for example, that it is no coincidence that Obama has been to NC twice in the last 10 days as polls show him surging there. So my thoughts on McCain in Iowa were either that these people are more incompetent than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams OR that they are struggling so badly EVERYWHERE that sending McCain to Iowa didn't seem much more absurd than sending him to Wisconsin or Colorado or PA...given the way the state-by-state public polling is looking today, the latter scenario is gaining credence...
What has McBush ever got done in life? He got shot down, caught, and tortured in the process of trying to carpet bomb innocent suvillians in Vietnam. He coldnt even carpet bomb innocent suvillians right. And for this they call him a war hero. If I were that much of a screw up, I would get fired. Hell, maybe I could replace McBush.
There are plenty of suggestions for how McCain could turn this around. But since I desire to see him defeated, there will be no help forthcoming.