If McCain is going to win Virginia, he has to take the southwestern region of the state by a sizeable margin. At present, that is not going to happen. Given other trends, it's almost certainly much higher now. A visit, particularly by Palin, would make a huge difference in a region like this.
Instead they both went to Virginia Beach see point 2 and then she headed to Richmond - a city he is never going to win. Last month, Roanoke city, which is Democratic, saw more than three times the increase of registered voters as the county, which is heavily Republican.
The Obama campaign has 48 offices and a further 19 sub-offices in Virginia. The McCain campaign has Obama has spent more than twice as much as McCain in television ads in the region. The combined effect of those advantages is that while Obama's message is constantly being relayed on the airwaves and in person while volunteers mobilise the base, the physical and political presence of the McCain campaign is at best patchy.
In a gracious concession speech late on Tuesday, the former Vietnam prisoner of war reflected on his campaign and took responsibility for its failures. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours. Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain speaks during his election night rally in Phoenix, November 4, He never recovered.
McCain asked for the first presidential debate to be postponed, but Obama calmly responded that the candidates could focus on more than one thing at a time -- forcing McCain to climb down. He became a bit player at best, again raising the question of leadership ability and judgment and coming up wanting against his opponent.
John McCain was never assured victory. But nor was defeat guaranteed. Some of his toughest breaks were outside of his control; other wounds were self-inflicted. Maybe -- given personality, politics and circumstance -- he could not have made decisions other than the ones he chose.
But those choices helped seal his loss. Share this on:. Story Highlights Arizona senator had tough fight in a "Democratic year" In career of stunning comebacks, win eludes him this time Missteps and circumstances sullied voters' opinions of him Next Article in Politics ».
John McCain gestures as he delivers his concession speech Tuesday night. E-mail to a friend. Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg del. From the Blogs: Controversy, commentary, and debate. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country. A subsequent, combative Sept. Footage of McCain silently sitting at the table didn't help his image as having a poor grasp on economic issues.
McCain also was under pressure from his fellow congressional Republicans not to make the situation worse for them. House Republicans were also on the ballot in November, and they worried their party's presidential nominee might throw them under the bus by savaging whatever bailout package emerged from the discussions.
Paulsen, Bush's Treasury secretary, later ripped McCain's role in the proceedings, saying the GOP candidate's decision to elbow his way into the bailout discussions without a plan was "impulsive and risky" and "dangerous. McCain later would tell The Republic that it was Bush who had called him in from the campaign trail. According to McCain's later account, made to the newspaper's editorial board in February , Bush asked for his help to avoid a looming worldwide economic disaster.
The first presidential debate in Mississippi went off as planned. And it was there that McCain truly may have lost the election.
It wasn't because of McCain's performance, which was solid if a little stiff and abrasive at times. Except for some discussion of the economic crisis, the debate focused on national security and foreign policy, two issues in McCain's comfort zone. Some observers said McCain may have won the debate on points, some said Obama won outright, while still others said it was probably no worse for McCain than a draw.
The problem for McCain was that a draw was all Obama needed, so that effectively made him the winner. Given the economic anxiety and Obama's lack of seasoning, the McCain campaign's last hope was that Americans might not want to risk the presidency on someone so untested. McCain needed Obama to fumble. Instead, Obama held his own against McCain and delivered a calm and collected performance that put to rest worries about his light experience. He looked relaxed. He smiled at times. He seemed confident.
Meanwhile, Palin's limitations as a national candidate had become apparent. Though she had managed to get through the convention and had won acclaim for her speech, she was not ready to address policy.
Palin was responsible for resuscitating the McCain campaign in the polls — their ticket had surged past Obama and Biden — but after the convention, McCain aides didn't know what to do with her. She was largely sequestered from the media, keeping her away from hard-hitting questions about foreign policy she couldn't answer. To this day, many Americans believe it was Palin that said "I can see Russia from my house" when in fact it came from one of Fey's send-ups of her.
She failed that test and bombed, famously bungling even a softball question about what newspapers and magazines she would read to keep up with world events. In her book, "Going Rogue," Palin wrote that Couric's goal was to capture what Palin characterized as "gotcha" moments and conceded that Couric's strategy worked. In another headache for the McCain-Palin ticket that would foreshadow liabilities for future political campaigns, Palin's email account was hacked and her messages and family photos were made public.
By the time Palin was set to face off against Biden in the Oct. Louis, many McCain insiders were bracing for a disaster. While she was outmatched from the start on policy by the veteran senator from Delaware, and let Biden land far too many blows against McCain, Palin managed to survive the political high-wire act.
It could have been much worse, and McCain campaign officials largely breathed a collective sigh of relief. She even contributed some memorable, if odd, moments, such as when she repeatedly winked at the camera and when she asked Biden, "Hey, can I call you Joe?
Obama was seen as the winner of the second debate. In the third, McCain seemed most comfortable and was at his best. Still, he wasn't able to do much damage to Obama, despite bringing up Obama's ties to William Ayers, a former leader of the violent Weather Underground Organization, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which was under fire at the time in a voter-registration controversy.
The third debate, held Oct. The plumber in question, Joe Wurzelbacher, had questioned Obama on the campaign trail near Toledo, Ohio.
To Obama, he said: "And what you want to do to Joe the Plumber and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business. By the second half of October, though, it seemed as if McCain's fate was sealed.
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