Let me take you back to September of 2008, when we were in the midst of the mother of all financial calamities. John McCain suspended his Presidential campaign to head back to Washington DC to get in the mix. This is where TARP (aka the ban bailout came to play), something that most of us thought was a bad idea and wanted Congress to slow down and do it right.

McCain could have opposed the plan which would have been what Sen. McCain would have done, not to mention give the Republican Party a chance to break from George Bush. He could have taken to the floor of the Senate and made famous the cats who were porking it up, as he had been saying he was going to do. Instead, he did nothing, said nothing, and snuck out of town.

So when I read this…

In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.

“Obviously, that didn’t happen,” McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic’s Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. “They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street – I guess it was trickle-down economics – that therefore Main Street would be fine.”…

But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake. “Something had to be done because the world’s financial system was on the verge of collapse,” he said. “Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don’t agree with.”

Don’t get me wrong. Supporting a bither who supported George Bush’s big government, big spending programs in a primary against McCain is a mistake. Not when this will most like be McCain’s last term and we have both Jeff Flake and John Shaddegg waiting in the wings.

But seriously John? Seriously?

When Meghan McCain launched “McCainBlogette.com” with a few of her friends, I thought it was a great idea. It was mainly non-political outside of the fact that her old man was running for President, and focused mainly on the behind the scenes of a Presidential campaign. It was different, and I had originally thought that if the McCain Campaign was going to follow suit (albeit more politically), we might have a shot.

Of course we know how that ended, which was the colossal FAIL that was the seventy or so paid Obama staffers working on the web as opposed to the FOUR working on the McCain campaign. Apparently this frustrated the future ex-Mrs. Brodigan.com as well, and she took to the cyber-pages of The Daily Beast to vent…

I wanted to ask some of the people who have been doing online work for the Republican party if they could somehow explain—or even admit—what has gone so wrong. But when I started calling around asking for people to comment, I discovered most did not want to talk to me. Instead, they told me that not having enough money was a huge factor in our loss—not our misuse of the Internet. Others were just plain angry, blaming the liberal media, and not the party’s shortcomings online. Of course, there is truth in some of this. But denial only amplifies the stereotypes about Republicans being disconnected…

Grassroots organizing and generating a cult-like momentum online isn’t unique to the Democratic party, either. During the primaries I remember thinking that Ron Paul’s organization was mind-blowing, and that his ideas as a candidate had obviously tapped into some movement on the Internet which drew even more people to his campaign. He is most noted for his online fundraising, at one point raising $4.2 million in one day. Anyone who went to any of the early primary debates can remember how many Ron Paul supporters showed up and how aggressive they were about their support for their candidate being heard.

And there was one quote from Republican online strategist Rob Kubasko (who granted, I’ve never heard of) that I found particularly amusing…

“So many Republicans now want to get on Twitter because they know it’s ‘cool, bur few are taking the time to really think about what they should use it for. When that happens, you get far too many ‘I’m sitting on the tarmac waiting for my plane to take off’ tweets. That’s when you just further become part of the joke and not the solution.”

Read the whole article, because it made some interesting points. Republicans being behind the tech curve isn’t particularly “news,” as I’m willing to bet nine out of ten people reading this blog feel the same way.

UPDATE: This isn’t going to end well…

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McCain disagreed with a piece of legislation, and actually had the audacity to publicly express that he disagreed with that piece of legislation.

Apparently it’s too much for some to handle. So sayeth Sam Stein…

Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated with the brash political attacks Sen. John McCain has launched against Barack Obama in the weeks since the new president took office. No one expected the Arizona Republican to be a legislative ally for this administration. But it was widely assumed that Obama’s overtures to McCain in the weeks after the election would dull some of the hard feelings between the two. Now, they are realizing, it has not.

Are you people fucking kidding me?

When President Obama signed an executive order announcing he was going to close Gitmo, who was the first person to release a statement in support of it? John McCain.

When one of the R’s in the senate was holding up Hillary Clinton’s appointment to Secretary of State, who was the Senator who came to her defense? John McCain.

But because President Obama threw a party for John McCain, and he still opposed a massive spending bill – which he has made a career of doing – it’s not because of an ideological difference, it’s because he has hard feeling over the election?  Really?

Because liberals weren’t given everything they wanted exactly how they wanted it, and John McCain only agreed with Dear Leader two out of three times, he’s a big cranky poopy pants?  Really?

Once again, bi-partisanship is nothing more than a word that Obama/HuffPo/NBC News/NY Times and the rest of their ilk use to guilt Republicans into bending over and doing whatever Dear Leader tells them to.

UPDATE: Imagine if this were President McCain…

UPDATE DEUX: Who was the first Senator to issue a statement in support of President Obama increasing troop levels in Afghanistan?  John McCain.

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Yes, while the Senate debates the crap sandwich known as the Great Fiscal Suicide Act of 2009, where we win some and lose some, former Presidential candidate John McCain seems to be stepping up as one of the lead opponents of the bill. J-Mac was the first to speak out against it on the Sunday morning show, his PAC has launched a petition opposing the current bill, and today he took to the floor of the Senate to say how the bill stinks on ice.

So sayeth Sarah Palin’s former running mate…

I regret that I cannot support the so-called “stimulus” bill that has been presented to the Senate by the majority. We have an opportunity to craft a bill that would provide real relief to the American people in a time of great economic uncertainty. Unfortunately, that opportunity has so far been rejected. Once again parochial, partisan, and special interests have taken precedence over the interests of the American people. This bill has become nothing more than a massive spending bill expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.2 TRILLION according to the latest estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.

Could you imaging if he had such conviction during the debate over the first $700 billion crap sandwich while HE WAS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, and I know I’ve blogged aboot this a few times before. But every time McCain sounds off on the reckless spending in this bill, I want to know where he was a few months ago.

September 15th, it became clear that he was going to lose. I don’t mean it became clear to you or me, I mean it was clear to his CAMPAIGN MANAGER. McCain had the choice to go out as Barry Goldwater (standing on principle) or go out as Bob Dole (meandering off into the sunset). He chose the later.

Had he chose the Goldwater option, returned to Washington to oppose the bill and/or take to the Senate floor and make famous those who tried to pork it up (like he had been telling us), he probably still would have lost. In retrospect, the only person who may have had a chance would have been Mitt Romney, and only because he had a few ways to expand the electoral map.

But if McCain stood against the bill, things would have been a lot closer. He would have held on to Ohio, North Carolina, and Indiana, turning Barack Obama’s landslide into a boring old win (and less of a mandate). Furthermore, I submit that any Republican in the House who lost a close race (>3%) probably would have held onto their seat.

Instead, we got what we got and are where we are.

I guess at the very least McCain is on our side now…at least for now.

UPDATE: One of the McCainettes found his niz-uts too!

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All eyes are going to be on John McCain…pretty much anytime he says anything. Besides scanning his words for any hidden messages aboot Sarah Palin, everyone wants to know where he’s going to stand on issues, will he stand with the D’s or the R’s, what he will fight for, etc. Essentially, what Maverick will we get?

According to the man on “Fox News Sunday,” he’s at least standing with us against the 2009 Fiscal Suicide Act. So sayeth Gov. Palin’s former running mate…

“There should be an end point to all of this spending.say two years…The plan was written by the Democratic majority in the House primarily. So yeah, I think there has to be major rewrites, if we want to stimulate the economy,” McCain said. “I am opposed to most of provisions in the bill. As it stands now. I would not support it.”

“We need serious negotiations. We’re losing sight of what the stimulus is all about and that is job creation.”

I don’t expect to agree with Sen. McCain on everything, I never did before he ran for president. I’m also not going to over react to every little thing he says that I disagree with like a lot of other conservative do on the Internet. However, I am going expect his leadership in standing against FSA09.

This isn’t a divisive issue like illegal-immigration, or abortion, or gay marriage, where different parts of the party are split, or that the issue in question isn’t that high up on our priority list. On the other hand, the stimulus plan the way it is written now is one that all of us – ALL OF US – can stand united against. There are intelligent debates to be had, amongst conservatives, aboot what to do with 40 million undocumented workers, or what the states role should be in defining marriage.

But spending over $1 TRILLON in a way that NO ONE outside of the Democrat caucus and the editorial pages of the New York Times thinks is going to have any effect in the economy other than damaging it more? There’s nothing to debate, at least not if you have an (R) or a (C) after your last name.

I just hope Sen. McCain learned his lesson that the media isn’t his friend and was never his friend, and only pretended to like him as long as he was the Republican they could count on to attack other Republican. They’re going to come after us for being divisive (especially since as you and I know we only oppose FSA09 because Rush Limbaugh told us too and not because we have convictions or beliefs or anything) and lay a guilt trip on McCain for not being – say it with me now – bi-partisan.

So to John McCain, I have only one simple message…Remember the Election.

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Instead, there have been interviews in magazines, TV interviews, interviews for a documentary, more infighting between the McCain and Palin camps, the media making a big deal out of nothing, Meghan McCain saying Sarah Palin is the only thing she won’t talk aboot, and so on.

As a matter of fact, had it not been for the Inauguration, I’m sure there would be a big to do over John McCain’s most recent less than ringing endorsement…

McCain, on Fox News on Monday, said that he was “very proud” of Palin, whom he picked to be the GOP vice presidential nominee. Asked by Fox’s Sean Hannity if he spoke with Palin often, McCain said he did. Hannity later asked McCain if he thought she could be president one day. “Sure, sure,” McCain replied. “But I’d also like to point out that it’s very early in this whole season.”

McCain said he wouldn’t run again for president. He added that the party will have a “spirited” competition to decide its next presidential nominee, and that many governors aside from Palin could be in the running. He mentioned Govs. Bobby Jindal (La.), Jon Huntsman (Utah), Tim Pawlenty (Minn.) and Mark Sanford (S.C.) as leaders who will play an enhanced role in deciding the GOP’s direction.

While I think that Palin is and will be a strong and major leader in the party, I think that she’ll be ONE OF a number of strong leaders. That’s not a knock on her in any way, having more than one strong leader is a good thing, and quite frankly the way it should be.

And let me just add that, if she was purposely not invited to Obama’s big dinner for John McCain…I think that’s complete bull shit.

But with our new president and all the problems we are facing, can we please say goodbye to Sarah Palin? Not permanently, but at least for the time being?

As for any left over and/or behind the scenes beef on the part of John McCain, his family, or his campaign, two things…

1. There is no issue he can have with her that won’t make him be the one who looks bad. Even if it’s the worst case scenario and everything unbiased, impartial journalists like Keith Olbermann and the New York Times are 100% true…McCain is still the one who picked her.

2. Saying that McCain lost because of Palin is like saying Obama won because of the media. Each statement implies that McCain ran a good campaign…and he did nothing of the sort (and I say this as one of a few Republicans who actually like the guy).

P.S. Before I get pegged as an anti-Palin conservative, I think I’ve more than proven to be a fan.

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I am curious to see what these next two years mean for John McCain. I was always one of the few Republicans who actually liked the guy, but this past election broke me a little bit. I started to see where all the criticism comes from, and if you ever want to see me wild out give me a drink and ask me aboot McCain not taking a stand against the original bailout.

The question is which issues he stands out on. I agree aboot dialing down the anti-illegal immigration rhetoric. Before da’ net nerds get their panties in a bunch, THIS DOES NOT MEAN I SUPPORT AMMNESTY. But when you look at how much support we lost with Hispanics and consider that 45% of Texas is Hispanic, we have two options: maybe think aboot not screaming “they don’t belong here” on talk radio, or switch to the hard alcohol now and drink all the way to 2012.

McCain the fiscal reformer is who I’m most interested in seeing, and am willing to give him a Mulligan for the bailout. A press conference with Tom Coburn is definitely a start in the right direction. I’ll leave you with a look at some of the waste Coburn tried to eliminate from last years $10 Million omnibus bill:

-A provision that takes about 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of oil out of production in Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The energy resources walled off by this bill would nearly match the annual production levels of our two largest natural gas production states – Alaska and Texas.

- $3 million for a “road to nowhere” through a wildlife refuge in Alaska.

- $1 billion for a water project designed to save 500 salmon in California. At this price, each salmon would be worth far more than its weight in gold.

- $3.5 million to help celebrate the 450th birthday of St. Augustine Florida, in 2015.

- $4 million to protect livestock from wolves that Congress helped reintroduce into the wild.

- $250,000 to help bureaucrats decide how to designate Alexander Hamilton’s boyhood home.

- $5 million on botanical gardens in Hawaii and Florida.

UPDATE: At least we’ll always have Joe the Plumber.

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At least, that’s what they thought in my world.

Either way, here are the top ten most read blog posts of 2008.

1. Small Town Sarah
2. I Blame McCain
3. Obama’s Other Woman
4. Arne Duncan Don’t Need No Education
5. UFC 92 Predictions: Too Close to Call
6. Mitt Romney Announces his Candidacy for President
7. Mika is Much Hotter than 10
8. Newt Gingrich and iTunes
9. Thoughts on Rick Warren
10. What’s Next for Sarah Palin?
]]> http://johnbrodigan.com/2008/12/29/the-best-of-the-best-of-2008/feed/ 0 John Brodigan http://johnbrodigan.com/2008/12/23/i-blame-mccain/ http://johnbrodigan.com/2008/12/23/i-blame-mccain/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:10:01 +0000 Brodigan http://johnbrodigan.com/?p=1517 Continue reading →]]> I get a lot of regurgitation from the nutroots thoughtful dissent questioning how I can be against the $17.4B auto bailout but not against the $700B bank bailout. Why do I hate the middle class? Why do I…place Michael Moore/MSNBC/HuffPo talking point here?

Settle down now, Beavis. Why I may not have been blogging two months ago, I was most definitely against that bailout as well. There were quite a few angry phone calls with my favourite lefty sparring partner, both of us wondering how exactly we’re giving $700B to the people who got us into this mess, trusting the people who ignored the fact we were getting into this mess with oversight and/or to make sure the money wasn’t being wasted, trusting Congress to have a clue when they constantly prove to us that they don’t, and wondering why we’re having a gun pointed to our head with the threat that if we don’t bailout the banks on Monday we’re going to be solely responsible for causing Great Depression v2.0 on Tuesday.

People also seem to forget that, way back in September, it was more R’s who voted against the first bailout than voted for it…and it turns out they were right to do so. The one’s who voted for it…if Senators can get away with admitting they were wrong fro voting for war, they can get away with apologizing for this. As for them voting for it in the first place, I blame John McCain.

When he suspended his campaign to work on the bailout…I got excited. This was going to be the McCain I knew and the McCain I was excited to vote for. He was going to meet with the House GOP, meet with the White House, and then have two words regarding the bailout: “Bite Me!” And while opposing the bailout may have upset the editorial boards and everyone on MSNBC except for “Morning Joe,” McCain opposing the bailout would have a) been true to who he was an who he claimed to be, b) given the ENTIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY a chance to break with George Bush, and c) put the R’s on the side of the American people who opposed to bailout by aboot 4-1.

Instead, he goes to Washington to try and convince Republicans to vote for it. Some listened…most didn’t, and made him look like a punk when they voted it down. Then comes the senate vote…and the bill that, by the time it hit the senate floor, was all porked up. Remember the John McCain who was going to fight pork and name names? Not only did he not do that…he didn’t even give a floor speech. He showed up last, voted, and got out of dodge.

Mind you, while all this was going on, once the market dropped it became clear that he was going to lose to Obama. And when I say “clear” I don’t mean clear to the people reading this blog right now…I mean clear to his campaign manager. If there was ever a time to stand on principle, that was it.

Instead he waits until a month and a half after the election to speak out. Great timing there, Slappy.

UPDATE: Plus, there’s this…

UPDATE DEUX: This will be annoying a few people too…

UPDATE TRES: And now he wants our money…

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Craig Shirley had an interesting take:

Had McCain opposed the bailout, though he may still have lost, he not only would have made the campaign interesting by positioning himself as the principled, populist champion standing up to the corrupt, monied elites, he would have also left a legacy for the GOP, of once again being a Reaganesque party, believing in the many people rather than the few elites. McCain had a chance to save the Republican Party, but he blew it.

Setting aside that best any R could have done this year was lose the popular vote while winning 272 electoral votes, could McCain have won if he voted against the bailout? No.  Could someone like Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani have won?  Maybe.  McCain would have needed to vote against the bailout AND not let his feelings get hurt when the media attacked him for it.

-Romney would have opposed it and out debated Obama on the economy in all three debates.

-Rudy would have opposed it and corrected Chris Matthews and Wolf Blitzer that they were framing the argument the wrong way.

-NEITHER of them would have sent their running mate to do a network interview before they publicly made their position clear.

John McCain? He would nominate Andrew Cuomo to the SEC to show the media how bi-partisan he was.

Goldwater lost in 1964, but because of his principled campaign, conservatives knew they had something to build upon. Reagan lost in 1976 but again, because of his principled challenge of Ford, we felt as if we had something to build upon. McCain’s campaign will go down as Dole 2.0; ineffectual, meaningless.

UPDATE: A new “maverick” in town?

UPDATE DEUX: To quote Allahpundit quoting Adam Sandler, things that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!!!

–>Obama still doesn’t select a Treasury Secretary

–>Story #141978 on a nuclear Iran

–>Bailout Incompetence All Around

–>Great News! McCain wins Missoura. He has no time to rest, either.

–>Now Obama Has to Govern

–>Al Franken is a big, fat, idiot

–>Sen. Steves loses

–>Minnesota begins its recount

–>“The Dean” isn’t crazy aboot Hillary at State

–>Chuck Hagel stabs Republicans in the back campaigns for the DOD

–>John McCain will run again!

–>And what’s that aboot victory in Iraq?

–>What’s with the the sudden concern aboot Obama media bias?

–>BAM meets with J-Mac

–>BAM investigates Bubba

–>Did Newt turn on Sarah?

And instead of your daily comic strip, I give you the “Punisher War Journal” trailer…

–>Let the Obama flip-flopping begin

–>Let the Obama flip-flopping begin – Part Deux

–>Maybe Hillary wasn’t offered the job after all

–>Taxes, Taxes, yum yum yum…

–>Conservative media braces for a cold, cold winter

–>That didn’t take long.

Watching John McCain’s concession speech was a sad end to a sad campaign. Yes, he was running against history. Yes, he was running against George Bush. Yes, the media has been an absolute fucking disgrace. But in the end, it was Sen. McCain who didn’t make the case for why he should be president. And while I agree with Charles Krauthammer, or even Don Imus who thought McCain would have made one of the truly great Presidents in this countries history, the case was never made to the American people.

The hardest part for me, as a fan of Senator McCain, was that I started to see some of the criticism’s people like Rush Limbaugh have been making for the past eight years. As the campaign went on, the “Maverick” seemed to be more a media creation than anything else. Once the media turned on him, as everyone said they were going to do, John McCain didn’t seem to have a coherent message aboot anything.

And even when he had a message, it wasn’t communicated all that well. Point of fact, the exit polls showed a vast majority of American’s believe in offshore drilling and reigning in out of control spending. They then voted for the candidate who is against offshore drilling and isn’t concerned aboot government spending.

So now that the election is over, what’s next? I see John McCain filling one of two roles:

1. As a “Lion of the Senate,” only more specifically, standing against runaway spending like he campaigned on, and naming names like he said he was going to. You know the Democrat Party is going to try and sneak “Card Check” or a payout to ACORN in the next stimulus package. It’s time for McCain to put his money where his mouth is and, and as say in da’ hood, put them on blast.

2. Maybe I’ve been watching “The West Wing” too much, but what if Obama put his money where his mouth is, and in the name of bi-partisanship offered John McCain Secretary of State? Yeah, I know it’s a long shot, but I also feel it would be a fitting way for the Senator to end his career. Plus if nothing else, it keeps John Kerry away from the State Department.

Please don’t get me wrong. As disappointed as I am aboot the campaign, I still have nothing but the utmost affection for John McCain and respect for both the service and sacrifice he’s made for our country. Unlike how most in the liberal media want spin the election, I didn’t vote for John McCain out of “fear.” I voted for him because I honestly believed he was the best man for the job.

But the election is over. The other guy won. Now, I just want to see John McCain finish out his extraordinary career being just that…extraordinary.

If he just goes back to being the Republican the media can always rely on when they need a Republican to criticize other Republicans, that would just be sad.

.