Charles Krauthammer says that John McCain’s loss can be traced to a combination of an historically unprecedented financial crisis, over which McCain had no control, and two things over which McCain did have control:
However crushing the external events, McCain did make two significant unforced errors. His suspension of the campaign during the economic meltdown was a long shot that not only failed, it created the McCain-the-erratic meme that deeply undermined his huge advantage over Obama in perception of leadership.
The choice of Sarah Palin was also a mistake. I’m talking here about its political effects, not the sideshow psychodrama of feminist rage and elite loathing that had little to do with politics and everything to do with cultural prejudices, resentments and affectations.
Palin was a mistake (” near suicidal,” I wrote on the day of her selection) because she completely undercut McCain’s principal case against Obama: his inexperience and unreadiness to lead. And her nomination not only intellectually undermined the readiness argument. It also changed the election dynamic by shifting attention, for days on end, to Palin’s preparedness, fitness and experience — and away from Obama’s.
McCain thought he could steal from Obama the “change” issue by running a Two Mavericks campaign. A fool’s errand from the very beginning. It defied logic for the incumbent-party candidate to try to take “change” away from the opposition. Election Day exit polls bore that out with a vengeance. Voters seeking the “change candidate” went 89 to 9 for Obama.
Makes sense to me.
