Because Romney became the George W. Bush candidate:
“Change” has been the great theme of this primary season. And Republican voters want change almost as much as Democrats do.
Mr. McCain won the votes of those Republicans who expressed dissatisfaction with the Bush presidency. They remembered Mr. McCain as a fierce opponent of George W. Bush in 2000, as one of Mr. Bush’s leading adversaries in Congress in 2001 and 2002, and as an unrelenting (and prophetic) critic of the administration’s Iraq strategy.
Mr. Huckabee, too, was an anti-Bush in his populist economics.
Mr. Romney by contrast fell into the role of Mr. Bush’s successor. He won the votes of Republicans who wanted to continue the policies of the Bush administration — and there just were not enough of those.
(…)
Unfortunately for Mr. Romney, Republican voters are also gut players. Something about the sleek, well-spoken CEO reminded them of a past they wanted to leave behind. Mr. Bush’s antithesis in person, he became Mr. Bush’s stand-in on the campaign trail.
An interesting theory, and none too encouraging for a President who thinks that the Republicans should run on his record in the fall.
H/T: Andrew Sullivan
February 8th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
McCain is Bush concentrate, Bush squared. All the Cheney, none of the Laura.
McCain is Bush with gook hate-juice afterburners. He’s Bush with no limits on his credit cards. He’s Bush with anger management issues. He’s Bush with a crack-head wife. He’s Bush with a history of adultery. McCain is not an American Presidential candidate, he’s an Israeli Presidential candidate.
February 8th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Right on AlbertHall! Me thinks Doug has his facts backwards.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
OK. McCain is an Israeli (Jewish?) candidate and a hate-whatever-burner married to a crackhead. This stuff tells me more about who wrote it. Go away. We don’t need you in the GOP. Try Obama.