You know, I realized there is a hell of a difference in the reactions to a loss - and their philosophical roots, and how that relates to the Palin bashing going on by McCain's staff and the "establishment" effete elites.Notice we real conservatives are all discussing how we can fix the GOP - what's wrong, the mistakes that were made, and how we need to return to our root principles, and looking at the things the other side did right (like fund raising, internet, and campaigning for the mail-in voters not just election day voters). And we are also asking how we can oppose Obama without damaging the nation.
Compare this to the liberals in 2004 - screaming about "Bush Hitler", etc, and blaming everybody but themselves and their poor candidate. Wanting to LOSE a war in order to gain political power - putting the nation and its military at risk in their lust for power.
That's because Conservatives believe that Man is flawed, and we need to expect mistakes, learn from the errors, and correct them. Our basic principles give us *faith* that no matter how bad things get, we have our principles and faith to fall back on. We realize our principles, timeless, tested and proven, will last and will eventually help us correct ourselves so long as *we* step up to the task. It is up to the individual to do so and be accountable for himself, and to himself.
Compare that to the liberals who believe Man is perfectible, and all they need to do is find the right system to impose, and believe all the slogans, and have the power force people to obey it. If there is a failure it is not the fault of the candidate or the system, since they both "work" by theory, the candidate believes in all the right things and therefore its not his fault, and the rules were all made by smart people and therefore are infallible so failure is not their fault.
Therefore it is always someone else fault, someone malevolent who has decided to oppose them and deliberately mess things up -- be it 9/11 or Bushhitler's Halliburton war for Big Oil, or evil handgun owner or pro-lifers. So the liberals need to find the evil opposition instead of admitting and correcting the mistakes they made themselves -- and if they cannot find the evil, they will manufacture it out od thin air and fantasy. Furthermore, since the enemy is by definition evil since they are a threat to the perfection of their smart people's system, that enemy must be punished or destroyed -- and for the good of the many, any and all means of destroying the individual are acceptable.
They believe their brains or social status means they will always be correct and the rest of the population, those outside the country club and elites universities are simpletons and little people, who must shut up and obey their betters.
For them to admit that the individual is fallible and the system possibly mistaken, means their core philosophy is wrong - something they cannot accept. If man is not perfectible or the system is flawed, then they have failed and must accept that no system exists which will bring about their utopia -- the penultimate nightmare for the elitists: they are exposed as being no better and no different than all those "little people" they want to order around. Even worse for them, THEY are responsible for the consequences of their actions. So its far easier to blame someone else, no matter how psychotic they become in the process.
Given that basic philosophical outlook, the actions of the McCain staff are very revealing. They are the actions of liberals, of "system" people who think they are smarter than anyone else and should be obeyed. They fail to admit that McCain made major errors, their campaign was flawed strategically (never made a case for a real reason to vote FOR him) , tactically (did not go after opponents flaws, waited too late and lost all the early voters, took welfare instead of raising own funds and got outspent 7:1) and philosophically (based on "bipartisanship" mush that never stood for much of anything). McCain's campaign is acting like a pack of liberals.
McCain's staffers and the rot they display show them to be quite clearly members of the latter case, the liberal way of behaving. Sarah Palin represents a mortal threat to those types with the hand-me-down high society and snobbery, so they will try to destroy her and anyone like here by any means they have at hand. They have no principles to restrain them, so lying and other things like that are not beyond the pale for them. So McCain's staff joins the George Will snobbery pile-opn, and their accomplices in the liberal press are more than willing to help.
Now for the situation at hand:
I have had enough of defending Bush's stupidity for 8 years (open borders, Harriet Myers for Supreme court, his cronyism at FEMA, Chertoff as DHS, etc). I doubt I could stomach 4 years of defending a jerk like McCain who has liberals all around him - and who is now philosophically fellating Reid and Senate Dems like a spineless toady.
Now that I see McCain's fecklessness for what it is when it comes to stopping this hatchet job, and the complicity of the Manhattan cocktail party elite and the DC establishment, and of McCain's staff providing the hatchet men, well, lets say my eyes are wide open now.
The mendacious and two-faced behavior on the part of the McCain campaign staff and McCain's gutless and disingenuous behavior makes me GLAD McCain lost.
Before you start with a rebuttal, that does not mean I am glad Obama won, that is undeniably bad for the nation as well - but McCain has shown such character flaws recently that he would probably have been nearly as bad.
Yes I said it - I am GLAD McCain lost. The breaking point for me when it comes to McCain, was that when push comes to shove, that when it came time to stand up and stop this crap his staff is doing to Gov Palin... McCain has turned out to be just another pantywaist. He did nothing when it came time to stand up for principled behavior, and for core conservative principles. John McCain is after all just another Beltway politician, and in the end, behaving like a typical liberal politician; McCain is simply another 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. Mr McCain, as a fellow veteran, I respect your service 40 years ago. But whether this inaction of yours is abject cowardice or calculated inaction, you've burned all the respect that you have earned.
Mr McCain, stop before you decay into a senatorial Murtha. Go before you complete the demolition of your rep. Leave before we kick you in the ass to get you out of the way.
So Goodbye John McCain, and good riddance.