Longtime Michigan journalist Jack Lessenberry today offered his thoughts on John McCain's decision to pull out of the Wolverine State:
For John McCain, pulling most of his campaign operations out of Michigan makes a certain kind of sense. On paper, anyway. But then, the Vietnam War made a certain amount of sense on paper.
Just not in reality. My guess is that the McCain camp's decision will turn out to have been an appalling blunder for reasons that stretch far beyond Michigan. First of all, let's look at what happened. [...]
My guess is that the stigma of having publicly conceded a major state a month before the election will far outweigh the advantage of having an extra staffer or two in Florida or being able to show a few ads in Maine or Ohio.
Closer to home, this will have a devastating effect on Republican morale. Democrats will now have a far greater chance of knocking off the two vulnerable GOP Congressmen, Joe Knollenberg in Oakland County and Tim Walberg in south central Michigan.
It probably means the GOP now has no chance to win the state house of representatives, and will see most or all of their nominees for boards of education swept away. The only likely survivor: Mitt Romney’s brother Scott, who sits on the MSU board.
Even before the selection of Sarah Palin, some Michigan Republicans had worried about John McCain’s tendency to sometimes shoot from the hip. You don’t have to try hard to imagine what they must be thinking now.
Read the whole thing here.
markg8 on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 11:40
Be my guess the publicity about Republicants trying to disenfranchise voters who lost their homes backfired big time. Blaming the victim doesn't work so well when the whole country feels like the rug is being pulled out from underneath us. What's next? I suggest they go all the way and claim we should go back to allowing only white male property owners the vote.
Josh Kalven on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 12:29
Did you see Rove's comments about Michigan on FNS this morning?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/05/rove-criticizes-mccains-h_n_131...
Pretty interesting.
markg8 on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 14:43
While I'm offering bad advice maybe McCain should fire his campaign mgrs Davis and Schmidt and hire Rove.
serena1313 (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 03:19
First of all no one should take McCain at his word. Overpowered by raw ambition McCain's abandonment of principled decency and honour with unabashed recklessness betrayed himself
and the country while in pursuit of victory. Based on observation, McCain's inability to strategize
a winning course of action is underscored by his electoral college strategy.
Having dropped Michigan McCain says he will focus on 6 states: Colorado, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Minnesota, and New Mexico -- most of which favour Obama.
Although the most recent Michigan polling shows Obama 10 points ahead he is either tied or maintains
a 4-point lead in Colorado; Obama is 5 points ahead in Wisconsin and enjoys a 10 point lead in Pennsylvania with an 8 point advantage in New Mexico and 4-points in Nevada. With North Carolina
and Virginia almost out of reach now McCain's time and money might be better spent focusing on Nebraska, Florida, Indiana and Missouri where trends are moving in Obama's direction.
Perhaps contesting Obama in the aforementioned states will stem the tide, but if that is the case that means, instead of developing a winning electoral strategy, McCain is gambling that dirty tricks, attack
ads and voter disenfranchisement will lead him to victory.
McCain's reckless behaviour ought to send shivers down a person's spine because that is the same type of recklessness he would run the country with. If [god forbid] elected it will not be because McCain ran an honourable campaign, but because he cheated.
Therein taking McCain at his word would be a mistake.
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