They compounded a millionfold Bush's legacy of incompetence by soiling both possible Republican ideological strategies going forward: They killed off Bush-style neoconservatism as well as the more traditional fiscal conservatism McCain himself was once known for by trying to fuse both approaches into one gorgeously incoherent ticket. Full Story »
Posted by Randy MorrowTo:
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One of the strongest, most readable and compelling opinions I've read of the 2008 election. Be advised: this story is not for everyone. It is loaded with profanity and overstatements that would make many a breakfast table news reader uncomfortable. But Matt Taibbi is relentless, and his attacks are grounded in intense scrutiny of John McCain's campaign.
“I just don’t think America’s ready for a black president,” she explains. “And I don’t mean that in a racial way whatsoever.”
Reading this alone in my office, I laughed out loud, very loud, when I got to this quote.
Which made sense, right up until the moment when they stuck him with Pinochet in heels for a running mate. Sarah Palin would have been a brilliant choice as a presidential nominee — and she will be, in 2012, when she leads the inevitable Republican counter-revolution against Obama’s presidency.
What a powerful and irreverent criticism of John McCain and the Republican Party! Paragraph after paragraph my jaw dropped at how caustic -- but totally on point -- Taibbi was willing to be. Great subtext too -- like no one I've read he shames the political theater of the 2008 election and the uniformity of media coverage that obediently put it in the spotlight. Taibbi's invective is welcome amid the hodgepodge of post-election analysis and opinion that has tried and in many cases failed to explain the Republican defeat. This article says in straightforward terms what all the Bob Herberts and Charles Krauthammers and William Kristols and PJ O'Rourkes of the news world haven't had the gusto to say since that fateful morning after: "The Republicans didn't just break the party — they left it smashed into space dust. They weren't just beaten; the very idea of Republican conservatism was massively rejected in virtually every state where large chunks of the population do not believe in the literal existence of a horned devil, and even in some that do."