Thoughts on the 2008 election: Can we have a do over?

Maybe, this time around we will have a primary instead of a convention to select the Republican Senate candidate, so that idiot Jim Gilmore doesn’t get nominated.

The Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) went out of their way to piss off Tom Davis by doing a convention — which would mean his NOVA Congressional district would have less representation in a convention compared to a primary — and it helped to cost them a Senate seat.

While Tom Davis might not have won, it wouldn’t have been a crushing 30% defeat. It would also have helped whoever the Republican Presidential candidate would have been (more on that later). The Republicans would have probably have held on to the 11th Congressional District too. Instead, now, we have that complete idiot Gerry Connolly (D) in Congress now. Bravo.

Now, that the certified loser Jim Gilmore has lost yet again, does that mean he will finally retire from politics? Or will he do the Alan Keyes thing and pop up anytime he has a chance to screw something up?

As for the Presidential nominee: Of all the bloody people that could have been picked during the early primaries, conventions, and caucuses; those people chose John Freakin’ McCain.

The guy is hated by many so conservatives and the party identification of the exit polls showed that. The only reasons that some conservatives showed up at all was due to Sarah Palin. But like most Vice Presidential nominees, it usually isn’t enough for them to accomplish whatever his/her reason for being picked was (making the base happy, trying to pick-up his/her home state, etc.)

Those early conventioneers and primary voters could have chosen Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, or Rudy Giuliani. Sure, those candidates had their weakness — Thompson’s age, Romney’s Mormonism, or Giuliani’s less than stellar reputation with the social cons — but they would have done a hell of a lot better than McCain.

Those early voters chose McCain because he was “the most electable candidate”.

Good to see that worked out well.

And Ace of Spades HQ has a great post about McCain’s problems:

There is no “McCainism” as there was a “Bushism” or “Reaganism.” Those men offered fairly clear visions (well, Reagan particularly so). Not McCain. Everything with him is just his personal gut, principle-free, just an instinct, an impulse, which often takes him in wildly contradictory places (but he’s always haughty about the moral superiority of his decisions).

For example, he’s pro-drilling… but not in ANWR. Um, why? He’s forever undercutting himself with unexplained hedges and caveats.

He’s pro-business… Kinda. Except when he’s making his distaste for anyone working in the private sector “for profit not patriotism” so glaringly evident.

He wants to lower taxes. Sorta. Sometimes. Maybe. In election years.

We must regard Obama as suspect because of his association with the terrorist Bill Ayers… but it’s racist to mention his membership in Jeremiah Wright’s Church of Hate.

This leads to a paralysis among his campaign staff. Everyone knew, pretty much, the Idea of Reagan. They could act independently with confidence that they were advancing Reagan’s goals.

No one could do that with McCain.

Read the whole thing, as they say.