Schmidt, Plouffe: McCain was a long shot

[kskiska]

NEWARK, Del. – The men who ran the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain appeared together on stage for the first time Thursday at the University of Delaware to complete a pair of tasks: To articulate their (remarkably similar) views of the election, and to hash out the details of continuing coursework so that they can, at last, graduate.

McCain chief strategist Steve Schmidt and Obama campaign manager David Plouffe seemed to agree on a central point: McCain was always the longest of long-shot candidates. (You would not have known this from hearing either of them talk during the campaign.)

Schmidt, the father of hundreds of attacks on Obama, spoke of the president’s political skills with unabashed admiration.

“This was, in my view, the unfinished Bobby Kennedy campaign – the idealism, the passion, the inspiration he gave to people, it was organic and it was real and it wasn’t manufactured at a tactical level in the campaign.”

more…
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21647.html

[babylonsister]

1. Hahaha! Even Schmidt probably voted for President Obama.

;) High praise.

I just watched David Brooks on Charlie Rose. He was overflowing with praise (and the occasional slam). Amazing!

[grantcart]

2. good article - Bush/Cheney made it inevitable

[ErinBerin84]

3. hmmm

Maybe Schmidt was one of the leakers? Haha. He says in the article that most aides knew it was over by the election. I disagree with him that it was entirely inevitable though. It would have been very hard for any Republican, but McCain had a particularly bad campaign. Schmidt also says in here that he decided not to let Palin speak during the concession because it's supposed to be a peaceful transition....maybe he knows with Palin, it wouldn't be peaceful.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

4. The Time article seemed to indicate the only one that didn't know it was over was McCain.

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. Palin is a rabble-rousing demagogue

She only knows one mode of behavior, and that's attack and snark. She's an asshole, basically. To have her yapping to a disappointed and even angry crowd on election night would have been beyond bad taste. It would have been a violation of the basic bond of civil society.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. The general was over as soon as the primary was decided

Everybody knew this. It's also why the primary was such a bloody fight.

No Republican on earth could have won in the climate, and the primary was essentially a you-pick-'em.