That is it in a nutshell.
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Meh. I am perfectly able to keep my counter factual fun separate from my analysis and discussion.
Rove orchestrated nothing. He was never that clever. Look at him now, selling the same schtick to the same idiots, beltway insiders forever celebrating their own genius.
McCain was an average political coward cosplaying as an outsider maverick, a ‘gunslinger’ who never unholstered his weapon.
The one ‘maverick’ thing he ever did was whisper campaign Dole, and all it was good for was setting up the Bushie camp of morons for the win.
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The real eye opener for me was the whole concept (I forget the Japanese term) of the subordinate acting for the greater good of the superiors.
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I am still not convinced. If, as you suggest, we set aside Rove, Bush still wins the primaries, and thus must be acknowledged as the superior candidate to McCain.
Which, you seem to be saying. If so, Isn’t that the point? The most popular candidate wins?
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Yeah. It is pretty great. I had a series of jobs where it was just out of bike range. Biking to the Bronx is a little too far for me.
Looks like I will be able to commute mostly by bike until the end of 2022. Looking forward to it.
At the risk of getting scolded for thread derailment, what kind of bike do you ride? I use a mountain bike for the durability when curb hopping and so forth. It does have a commensurate reduction in speed, but I make that trade willingly.
Back on topic please.
Primaries and caucuses aren’t about popular. They’re about party structure.
McCain never had the support to win in 2000. All he could do was what he did: kill off the one campaign the Bushie’s couldn’t attack.
A touring bike. I used to have a Japanese Steel frame Miyata. Loved that bike. Put thousands of miles on it, but the frame cracked in a place where it couldn’t get rewelded. So I splurged and got a Surly touring bike a couple of years ago. A little beefier and heavier but still pretty great.
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I’m no fan of Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul, but the ran for positions.
McCain ran against the idea of the career insider, which he was, and the insiders never backed him enough to matter until there was no one else. Then, what did he do? He went with his instincts, which were always bad, and suspended his campaign against Obama at exactly the right moment to stick a knife into him, as the economy was collapsing and the whole country was ready to hear how people like Obama, the Bushes, the Clintons would use the moment to vanish trillions into the international money regime, to the benefit of a tiny few.
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Hmmm. Okay, you may be onto something there
I have a stated bias, here. I worked for Dole. I remember how surprised her people were, here, when McCain’s camp went white hot whisper against her.
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Curiouser and curiouser. Are you asserting that McCain had a chance against Obama?
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This is so true, and on display here all the time. I swear, I could start a thread “Ice Cream is Good!” and hannity conservatives would fall over themselves to explain that ice cream is certainly bad.
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Yes. Absolutely. He had to go for the kill. But, he was never that guy. He wanted the esteem, not the win.
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And, how some democrat (probably Michelle Obama for the sake of this example) also said ice cream is bad, thereby reducing all of us to hypocritical Marxists looking to destroy the country in order to impose fascism.
(Yes, the contradiction was intentional.)
Then would come the CRT enthusiasts explaining that saying ice cream is good, is part of our actual, hidden racist agenda.
Next up: Trump with incoherent ramblings, but technically he did say ice cream.
I imagine the final act to be some shill in the CEC finding a leftist crazy saying that those who think ice cream is bad should be killed, deported, imprisoned, whatever.
Then: down the memory hole!
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Hmm. Maybe. But also maybe, he was playing by an obsolete playbook.
As I remember it (please remember that it has been a while), McCain never really had a chance.
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Look at his whole career. Safe. All performance.
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