The Idea Blog

It’s too early for a death knell, and I think the actual election results may be closer than many think, but a long piece in the upcoming NY Times Magazine - The Making (and Re-Making) of McCain - is a wonderful inside look at what could have been in the McCain campaign.

Basically, I think my disappointment in McCain’s run is marked by three events or issues:

1. “All in” - McCain’s lame attempt to demonstrate he was above politics and campaigning and “suspend his campaign” during crisis week for the economy. He had nothing to offer that fight, and he looked like a fifth wheel in the photo ops. I’m a believer in the “all in” strategy, but that wasn’t the issue he could credibly go “all in” for.
2. Sarah Palin - I think she’s bright and she likely has a future on the national scene. Tina Brown’s piece in The Daily Beast yesterday is especially good on this topic. But in choosing her he and his team lost the chance to own the “preparedness” high ground. Experience was no longer the issue. And it derailed the campaign’s primary strength.
3. “Straight Talk” - My friend John Huey rode on the “Straight Talk Express” during McCain’s 2000 primary campaign, and he came back smitten by the candidate’s candor and judgment. What the hell happened to the bus this time around? McCain thought of the press as his base in 2000; today he laments and whines that the media are in Obama’s back pocket. I don’t believe the press has changed as much as McCain has, and his disdain for the boys on the bus has unleashed his kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Bonus reason: McCain has allowed his handlers to point him in the direction he’s been taking instead of trusting his own good instincts. Read Robert Draper’s article in the NY Times Magazine, and you’ll see what I mean.