Georgia’s Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Republican, won most of the votes in his state’s race for U.S.Senate, but not enough to avoid a runoff with his challenger. (What’s his challenger’s name? Oh, I forgot, I don’t care.)
The most important part of this race, which will be decided with another vote in December, is that Republican’s desperately need to hold on to as many senate seats as they can. (Especially in light of the Minnesota race, which is another sad story).
So, who comes out to campaign for Sen. Chambliss? John McCain.
Didn’t he just lose the presidential race? Is that who we really want showing up at campaign rallies to ‘stir up the crowds’?
Now, before I get any ‘hey you moron’ emails, let me just say that I voted for John McCain. I think, honestly, that he is a true American hero, and that he’s an honorable man. I wanted him to win. Badly. But like a lot of people, I wanted him to win because I really wanted Barack Obama to lose. Badly.
Now let’s face facts. The McCain campaign for president really wasn’t run very well. I won’t get into a rehash ‘what went wrong’ digression, but this is the truth. McCain was all over the map on issues. He weirdly suspended his campaign during the supposed crisis. He wouldn’t take the gloves off allowing the use of radical associations or even the speaking of his opponents middle name, and he hasn’t denounced the post-election trashing of his former running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin. (Which was the one bright spot in his campaign decisions).
I may be on my own here, but I’m ready to get past the whole McCain campaign. I really don’t want to see him give another speech right now. It’s funny, because I don’t mind seeing Gov. Sarah Palin at all. Somehow, I think we all know she came out of the campaign a winner, regardless of the actual result.
She is the future. It may not be politically correct, and I’m not speaking of age here, but McCain is the past.
(If reports are true, Palin will be campaigning for Chambliss as well, which is a good thing.)
Sen. McCain should go back to the senate, now. He can keep catering to independents who voted for Obama anyway, and he can keep patting conservatives on the head like a pet he just tolerates around election time.
The bottom line- if voters were not inspired to turn out and vote for Sen. McCain in Nov., then is McCain really helping Sen. Chambliss now?
Steve Maley
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Yes, McCain helped
Hammer2008 (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 2:33AM EST (link)McCain won Georgia. Had he lost it, then I’d consider your point as valid. The Obama campaign has dispatched 100 out-of-state staffers to help Martin in the Dec. 2nd runoff.
Even Georgia former-governor and former senator Zell Miller (a democrat) showed up for Thursday’s campaign rally. He got the third largest response (following Senators Saxby Chambliss and McCain). Ol’ Zell laid into Martin recalling a story when he was governor and decided to cut taxes $150 million. The first person to raise an objection to it was Martin.
The rally, it was a mob scene. Many came and were very loud when McCain took the stage. Because it was his first “public” appearance since last week, there were 13 different television media outlets there. Highlights from it are being played on local and national television.
As the 2,000+ (fire code allowed only 1,500) filed out, many were grabbing directions to a phonebank awaiting their help. There were many absentee ballot application cards being handed out.
The one person that we could have done without seeing, was SC-Sen. Lindsay Graham. At least McCain got in a lawyer joke on him, “What’s the difference between a catfish and a lawyer? One is a scum sucking, bottom water feeder, the other is a fish.”
Mind all, when Saxby mentioned the probability that Governor Sarah Palin would come to campaign on his behalf, the place erupted. I venture she will bring a record crowd in Georgia if scheduled properly.
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Too much noise! “Noise! You’ll have noise enough before long. The Regulars are coming out.” ~ Paul Revere (April 18th, 1775′s eve…)
The fact is
ToddH (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 9:21AM EST (link)that McCain got more votes in Georgia than Chambliss. There are large numbers of veteran voters in Georgia as well. He helps.
I’ll say this, if Chambliss loses it will become the blueprint on how to lose an election. He squandered a huge early lead and a massive warchest of funds by taking Martin too lightly. I guess Saxby didn’t think the “economic crisis” would affect Georgia voters as much as other areas of the country. It wasn’t until close to the end when Saxby began to take the race seriously.
Another fact is that supporting the bailout hurt Saxby. Martin actually campaigned on that issue by attacking Saxby for supporting it. We haven’t had a liberal senator since Wyche Fowler, and Saxby, through his inept campaign, has very nearly given us one.
“Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.”–General George S. Patton.
He lost me when he went on late night tv.
xJesterx (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 4:53PM EST (link)Thanks for the comments.
The fact that McCain won Georgia 52% to 47% doesn’t change the fact that the presidential election is over, and he lost. He’s a drag on that Senate ticket now.
Many less voters turned out for McCain than did for Bush, especially in two key areas. Nationally 4 million less conservatives turned out for McCain then Bush in 2004, and 2.5 million less veterans turned out.
Honestly, I haven’t looked at the exact numbers in Georgia, and I assume they are not as bad as the national numbers when broken down to percentage, but the point is the same.
People were not enthused to turn out for McCain, and now that the Presidential election is over, he’s not going to help.
2000 people in a campaign rally is a drop in the bucket, and doesn’t turn out the vote.
Respectfully, Chambliss can do better on his own or with Palin. Look, like I said, I like Sen. McCain, I respect his service, but he ran a bad campaign and how many voters are going to be excited just because he shows up?
I know this sounds like I’m cynical, but laughing about the election the next week on Jay Leno doesn’t endear you to conservative voters who did come out to “fight,fight,fight” for you in Georgia.
Or, I could be way off. Looks like I’m not getting a lot of people agreeing with me. Maybe I’m sounding to harsh.:)
I think it's more positive than negative
civil truth (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 5:19PM EST (link)Overall, the more people you have out there supporting you, the more likely you’ll get turn-out, which is what this election is going to turn on. Plus whether the third candidate supporters show up and for whom they vote.
McCain will help mobilize those who voted for him to come out and vote for Chambliss. Conversely, I don’t think McCain’s endorsement is going to stir up as many voters to say “I’m going stay home” or “I’m would have voted for Chambliss but now I’m going to vote for Martin because McCain supports Chambliss”. Thus overall, given his overall showing in GA, McCain will be a positive.
Conversely, how would it go over in terms of the media if McCain visibly refused to support Chabliss.
Palin could probably draw larger crowds. But I that’s okay; there’s no reason they can’t both campaign. Especially since they likely appeal to somewhat different voter blocks.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Only those who voted on Nov 4th can vote in Ga Runoff, right?
GregInFla (Diary) Friday, November 21st at 2:37PM EST (link)If so, why would those who voted for Chambless change their vote? I have not heard of any reason for them to change. And do we really think that those who voted third party will vote for Martin in sufficient numbers to swing Martin to victory? I cannot believe that will happen.
So why the full-court press? I can think of two reasons:
A decent proportion of Dems who were recruited to vote for Obama by ACORN did not cast a vote for the Senate race. They just voted Obama and left the rest of the ballot blank. They are being told to go vote this time, and who to vote for.
Those who were recruited to vote Obama, and that voted for Martin, need encouragement to go vote again.
Any other ideas out there?
– A true evolutionist would let endangered species die off. Think about it.
– The sign outside the courthouse said no signs allowed. So I took it down.
– Atlas Shrugged is now on the non-fiction aisle at Amazon.