McCain campaign fought the last war
by Frank James
The autopsies of Sen. John McCain’s failed presidential bid continue to roll in.
This morning, National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” aired an interview with John Weaver, a former McCain strategist who left the campaign last year when the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign first imploded during the primaries.
Among the McCain campaign’s mistakes, according to Weaver, was its failure to realize this year’s contest wasn’t a ‘base election” like 2004 when President Bush won by energizing core Republican voters and increasing their turnout.
The Rovians in the Bush campaign basically were fighting the last war.
Another mistake, Weaver said, was that the McCain campaign waited too long to define President-elect Obama. By the time they got around to it, it was too late. Obama had already defined himself.
