Your opinion: what was the tipping point for McCain

[npincus]

when the bottom dropped on his support? Conventional wisdom, per MSM yakkers is that it was circumstantial: the credit crisis, massive home forelosures, failure of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac ,and demise of huge banking, insurance and investment institutions.

My personal view is that McCain's ourtrageous response-- "stopping" his campaign, pulling out of the first debate, parachuting into a contrived WH pow-wow where he did more harm than good, then flip-flopping on his decision to nix the debate, was a shocking performance that was truly the beginning of the end.

What do you think caused the S.S. McRat to start taking in water?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. the result of his palinoscopy caused the free fall

before that, twas a different story.

[cynatnite]

2. Ditching David Letterman and going on CBS with Couric...

IMO, that began the sinking of the USS McTurd.

[iamahaingttta]

3. Sarah Palin

I mean, c'mon!
Really?!?!

[ingac70]

4. When Palin started opening her mouth. n/t

[Hamlette]

13. agreed, the Charlie Gibson interview was odd, scary, but Katie buried her

you could think she was nervous with Charlie and one interview can be forgiven and he only really "got" her on the Bush Doctrine question.

Katie destroyed her. There were at least 4 questions that she flubbed so badly there was no way to see her as presidental material.

Did anyone see Kathryn Parker (I think that's her name, the NO writer who trashed McCain over Palin) on Colbert 2 nights ago? She's had it with Palin and hence McCain.

DO NOT let them blame this on the economy as though it had NOTHING to do with McCain or the GOP.

It was Palin.

[Xipe Totec]

5. When he picked Gidget for VP nt

[CatBO]

6. The "campaign suspension" stunt killed him for good...

He was holding on, albeit tenuously beforehand. The "campaign suspension" stunt totally killed his campaign. No one wants a President can't handle a crisis and has to stop everything and hide.

There were lots of things that suppressed his numbers. That stunt however, killed his standing among some of his base and the independents who were on the fence.

[blm]

7. The moment he decided to CAVE IN to Bush and the RW nuts he used to loathe for years.

He fell off his own ground and onto theirs.

[Morning Dew]

8. Palin

The Palin pick caused some momentum for the McLame campaign but ultimately showed his poor, poor, poor judgement.

[patrice]

9. Charlie Gibson & Katie Couric exposed what a bunch of PHONIES they are.

[Dr Fate]

10. Sara Failin stripped him of needed Independent & moderate support. n/t

n/t

[grassfed]

11. calling himself a maverick in debate

BTW everyone should look into McCain and the Russian Mob...

[amitten]

12. Palin's Couric interviews. The dumb was overwhelming. n/t

[4lbs]

14. There's a new show on CBS called "Worst Week". McCain had such a "worst week".

It was the week of Sep 15 to Sep 19. Those 5 days, and McCain's highly erratic statements and behavior suddenly made being a "maverick" not so good, when the nation wanted calm, intelligent talk to soothe it.

[begin_within]

15. There were many, and

[npincus]

17. doggonit.. if you do there's a reward in heaven for ya!

:rofl:

[Eric J in MN]

16. McCain voting for the bailout.

I called the election for Obama after that.

McCain was handed an issue, but then didn't use it.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. When McCain cancelled his appearance on CNN because of the way they talked about Palin

Or actually just after the RNC convention when they stated that Palin would do no press conferences or interviews. I think that started the slide. They tried to keep George Bush away from the RNC convention and they didn't even acknowledge that they were Republicans. The people realized, however, that McCain was more of Bush, with his manipulative and secretive ways, putting politics ahead of country. The CNN incident with Campbell Brown confirmed it. After that, the media didn't play ball with McCain quite the same way they did before.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. When he was a cadet at Annapolis

It was down hill from then.

[justiceischeap]

Started w/ Palin's first interview and then his repeating "The economy is fundementally sound"

Those two things started his spiral into the abyss. The best thing about it all, is that when/if he loses this election, he will be a lame duck Senator for the next two years. The second best thing, we will never hear from Palin again.

[The_Casual_Observer]

20. When the week when the stock market lost 20% & all he said was "the fundamentals are strong"

[electron_blue]

21. I agree. His campaign suspension week was when he jumped the shark.

It was in trouble before that, but he yanked the plug that week.

[Feron]

37. Yep.

I think that McCain fully expected Obama to blink and follow him to Washington. That way McCain would look proactive and Obama would look like he was just playing catchup to the senior lawmaker.

Unfortunately for McCain, Obama didn't fall for it and the media (along with Letterman) pounced on McCain.

Ever since then McCain has been trying to gain some momentum ,but his campaign is the Clusterfuck Express.

[Ediacara]

22. Sarah Palin

Picking her killed his only real argument against Obama (experience), and as soon as she opened her mouth......

[JCMach1]

23. PALIN- I almost rolled on the floor when I heard it was her

[youthere]

24. The tipping point was the minute Palin opened her mouth for an unscripted comment.

[smoogatz]

25. Definitely Palin.

She was a shockingly irresponsible choice for a guy who, until the R convention, was running on his greater experience and allegedly superior judgement. I think it was a key WTF? moment for a lot of undies and indies who might have been leaning his way. Then there was the campaign "suspension" stunt, which was transparently idiotic, and now this petty and irrelevant 11th-hour mudslinging in a time of real national crisis just makes their campaign look clueless and desperate. But Palin was the lynchpin, for sure--a panicky reaction to Obama's convention bounce.

[sofa king]

26. No doubt about it, it was picking Sarah Palin.

That's when everyone knew for sure he was in it to win and had no damned clue how to do it. Picking--or rather, letting blowhard bible-thumping fools pick--an unqualified candidate for such an office without vetting was guaranteed to shave a significant percentage of (discerning) voters who expected a responsible choice. It was also guaranteed to cancel out the racists who are also chauvinists. And it was also guaranteed to push Clinton supporters firmly back into the Obama camp.

Maybe God really did choose McCain's running mate.

[Peachhead22]

27. I hate counting my chickens. but...

When he picked Palin. He may have locked up the true believers but began to lose everyone else. She went against so many of his talking points.

--"Experience counts"...um, except when it doesn't.

--"He says his judgement is superior." Then picks an idiot when so many more credible picks were on the short list.

--"He says he wants a highminded, respectful campaign." Then picks Rush Limbaugh with boobs...well, female boobs I mean. Not manboobs.

--"He says earmarks and corruption are filthy, disgusting and nasty." Then picks the queen of earmarks who's under an ethics investigation...also. :)

[Tarc]

28. The "suspend my campaign" moment

Everyone saw though that in an instant, recognizing it as the lamest of political stunts.

[occe]

29. Suspending his campaign

[Borgnine]

30. The campaign suspension, which overlapped with him canceling on Letterman.

I'm telling you: Canceling on Letterman was his "in the tank" moment, and no amount of groveling on Thursday will make up for it.

[TEXASYANKEE]

31. Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

The moment I saw Tina as Palin, I knew the "bloom was off the rose" of this campaign. It has all been downhill for McSame from that precious moment. Thank you, Tina!

[CADEMOCRAT7]

32. The fundamentals of the economy are strong and the extreme drop of the Dow that day.

Obama was able to really prove how "out of touch" McSame was, and is, when he professed that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong" on the day the Dow dropped severely, and he has never recovered. His erratic behavior from that point on was a desperate attempt to remedy this fatal mistake. He clearly showed that morning that he did not understand what was happening.

[cjsmom44]

33. Gidget goes to Washington

Losing point? When McSame picked the wolf shooting, moose skinning, pro life zealot, intellecually challenged religious nutcase for his running mate. Oh and need I not forget another bad move...to BS about suspending your campaign to go "rescue" the economy? :rofl:

[uponit7771]

34. Palins Couric interview then "suspending" his campaign then stayin in New York

[NashVegas]

35. When Obama Voted On the FISA Bill

[Bullet1987]

36. I think Palin was the beginning...then the economy was the tipping point

People were growing tired of Palin and started to not like her the more they learned of her. Then, when it became obvious how Far-Right she is...McCain likely started losing some Indie and moderate support then. Then you had her horrifying interviews and the McCain campaigns anti-MSM stunt.

The economic collapse is when everything went downhill for them though.

[DangerDave921]

38. Economy first and foremost

First rule of campaigning is that bad economy favors the Dem, especially when the Dem is out of power. Remember Clinton in '92 -- worst economy in 50 years even though the economy wasn't that bad really.

No. 2: The whole bit about suspending his campaign. Totally weird maneuver that signaled to some he was out of the race. Very perplexing.

[Willo]

39. Sarah Palin

she was the fire on the slowly leaking SS McCain.
McCain's responses and actions to the economy was a week (weak?) of self-inflicted wounds.
I think some who had been willing to give him a pass could not get past Palin.
Others who were even willing to give him a pass on Palin could not handle both Palin and the economy.

[Overseas]

40. McLurch Week -- The Fundamentals of the Economy are Sound

and a less than 24-hour turnaround to
there's a huge financial crisis so I'm suspending my campaign !

[npincus]

42. agreed.

[WinkyDink]

41. When Obama won the nomination.

[Motown_Johnny]

43. Picking Palin... that was a long shot that did not pay off. He lost right there

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

44. Obama winning the primary.

Or, possibly, McCain winning the primary.

McCain and 3 months head start on Obama, and he's been behind since the general began.

[crossroads]

45. As Bill said: "It's the economy stupid!" and Failin!