Mich GOP county chair calls McCain move "complete crock of crap"

[Nambe]

Source: Politico

... "If you are going to end visits to the state by McCain/ Palin, do it," urged Jack Waldvogel, Chairman of the Emmet County GOP in a message obtained by Politico. "Just don't formally announce that you are 'pulling out' of Michigan, and then come back two days later asking the base core of support to 'keep working.' What a slap in the face to all the thousands of people who have been energized by the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket. I've been involved in County Party politics and organization for 40 years, and this is the biggest dumbass stunt I have ever seen." ...

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081005/pl_politico/2...

[Demeter]

1. One in a Series of Dumbass Stunts By McCain

It's his trademark.

Or that new phrase...his signature

[breadandwine]

12. Remember “I am suspending my campaign?”

Never even happened.

[Gillian]

2. Nice vocabulary Jack. Go to school with Sarah?

[breadandwine]

13. Remember “I am stopping the convention in honor of Hurrican Gustav”?

Never even happened, they were all partying in Minnesota like the hurricane never was.

[shrike]

32. I don't know, I approved of his choice of language

I'd probably use worse language if I were in his shoes.

[saltpoint]

3. If you piss off the County organizations you lose the ground game.

I hope the McCain team continues to dazzle everyone with their idiot footwork in this campaign.

[dmkinsey]

4. Just FYI

the Obama people treat local County Party like we're hayseed morons. We've run elections here for decades. Obama doesn't care. They want to register voters, we say "Great, we can show you where the unregistered people live" They don't want to be helped by the likes of us.
There are two separate organizations the Obama campaign and the local campaign. Team Obama doesn't share.

[saltpoint]

5. I wish that the national party would work as well and closely as possible with all

county orgs.

I wonder if other DUers have similar or contrasting experiences...

[Name removed]

10. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kelvin Mace]

25. I noticed major problems

getting the simplest of things from the Obama campaign, like yard signs. They wanted to either sell them to us (for a donation) or wanted us to "work for them".

As a result, Obama yard signs are plentiful at HQ, but completely missing from yards.

[breadandwine]

15. If McCain were really getting out of Michigan, do you think he’d not tell the local party about it?

This isn’t a change in the field, it’s just an empty press release, a ploy.

[breadandwine]

19. This is nothing but a feint, a head fake.

As the article shows, even people in the GOP don’t believe it. Probably McCain is just retooling with a new negative ad. As soon as it’s ready they’ll go back into Michigan, if they ever really left.

[saltpoint]

20. We'll see.

[Fire1]

6. If he'll sabotage his own campaign, you KNOW what he'll do for

the people of this country. McCain has ISSUES and these repuke sheep are too blind to see it.

[breadandwine]

16. I don't think this is McCain.

I think it's just a ploy and has Steve Shmidt dirty tricks written all over it. It's a feint.

[Miss Chybil]

7. Vote for Obama, Jack!

He won't leave you hanging!

[stlsaxman]

8. HA -HA!!!

[krispos42]

9. Visual aid

[breadandwine]

17. McCain is not going to vacate Michigan merely because he's down 7% in the polls there.

That's ridiculous. He put all this effort into the oil industry. Oil companies and car companies have interlocking directorates and many auto workers are afraid alternative fuel vehicles will threaten their jobs. The purpose of the "drill baby drill" campaign slogan is partly to get oil industry donations. But also to win in Michigan. McCain would never have made this a big announcement if it wasn't a ploy, a bluff. You announce this if you want your OPPONENT to get out of Michigan. But if you are really conceding the state you DON'T announce it because you are hoping that even though your opponent is going to win Michigan that he should keep wasting money there he doesn’t need to spend.

[intheflow]

11. Oh, you mean he suspended his campaign but really kept his campaign going?

Boy, who could have seen that one coming?

[johnnyrocket]

14. I think the dumb move was being excited by Sarah Palin in the first place.

[breadandwine]

18. Guaranteed: McCain is not quitting Michigan.

He’ll be back soon when it suits his strategy. He’ll have some excuse like "the pleas of the local party and good will of Michiganders everywhere won me over to return to the state” or “Sarah talked me into it.” Then he’ll come zooming back into Michigan, descending in his AEROPLANE like a Roman conqueror with lots of fanfare. His departure from the state is all BS.

[saltpoint]

33. There's increasingly audible chatter that McCain can't afford to

remain in Michigan because he cannot effectively compete in Michigan.

[NYC Liberal]

34. He's pulling out because he has no money

If this was another campaign I'd say you might be on to something. But given McCain's track record (his campaign already went close to bankrupt during the primaries, plus all the other stupid things the campaign has done), this ain't a strategy.

[saltpoint]

21. It would be insightful to hear from Michigander DUers who work

in country Democratic organizations about McCain's abandonment there.

Is it a case of lousy internals or did they just run low on cash to compete, or both?

[yellowcanine]

22. "...this is the biggest dumbass stunt I have ever seen." ... Heh. Heck of a job, Johnny!

Way to go, Johnny, pissing off the very people you need to keep your chances of winning Michigan alive.

[saltpoint]

23. I think your post is timely, Nambe, and appreciate it.

You and Frank Rich, of the New York TIMES, would have a thing or two to talk about together:

- - - - -

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05rich.html?_...

(excerpts):

To understand the meaning of Palin’s “victory,” it must be seen in the context of two ominous developments that directly preceded it. Just hours before the debate began, the McCain campaign pulled out of Michigan. That state is ground zero for the collapsed Main Street economy and for so-called Reagan Democrats, those white working-class voters who keep being told by the right that Barack Obama is a Muslim who hung with bomb-throwing radicals during his childhood in the late 1960s.

McCain surrendered Michigan despite having outspent his opponent on television advertising and despite Obama’s twin local handicaps, an unpopular Democratic governor and a felonious, now former, black Democratic Detroit mayor. If McCain can’t make it there, can he make it anywhere in the Rust Belt?

- - - - -

[jb5150]

24. Dumb ass

table for two......or does Sarah have to sit at the little dictators table?

[NoName Left]

26. Obama/Biden has already said they are going full-steam ahead

in Michigan. If the McRoaches thought they were going to pull a fast one & lull Obama/Biden into relaxing in MI, they were - once again - fantasizing in the absurd.

[rosesaylavee]

27. That's what Maverick's do.

They do a lot of dumbass things. And imagine, he's assembled a whole team of mavericks to do mavericky other things just like this.

[JNelson6563]

28. haha Emmet County?

While it's a red county it's truly in the middle of nowhere. Incredibly low population. Could they have found a less populated county in the lower peninsula? Doubtful. What is significant here is how very rethug that county is.

Julie

[workinclasszero]

29. Its McCain, whadda expect???

Hes a hot headed idiot that shoots from the hip with no thought about the consequences.

[JI7]

30. i think the problem is Palin has energized the base, but turned off the moderate/independents

[izquierdista]

31. Energized by Sarah Palin

Why does the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" come to mind?

[Fovea]

35. Hey Nambe!

Hadn't seen you in a while.

McCain seems to have embraced his inner fail.