McCain Pollster Explains Loss, Calls Frank Luntz A Moron

The chief pollster for John McCain's presidential campaign offered a candid diagnosis of how his candidate was done in, on occasion reserving harsh words for fellow Republicans.

Bill McInturff, speaking at a National Journal breakfast on Thursday, said the political environment for the GOP in 2008 was worse than anything he has seen in his time polling since former Soviet empires were breaking the shackles of communism.

"Reporters would call me up and say, 'have you ever seen this?'" McInturff said of George W. Bush's approval ratings. "And I say, 'yeah, Bulgaria 1992.'"

"We had a very unpopular war and the most unpopular president in American polling history," he explained, by way of summarizing the election. "We had a 70 percent wrong track and we were winning. We were winning. And what happened? We said that's not hard enough for John McCain. We should implode the financial markets. And what happens? We go from 70 percent wrong track to literally 90 percent."

Unrestrained by the formalities of the election, McInturff levied some sharps words at fellow GOPers who -- generally speaking -- never really were bullish on the idea of a McCain presidency. The most biting jabs were saved for communications guru Frank Luntz.

"I saw Frank Luntz," said McInturff, "who is a moron -- I want to make sure this is clearly on the record -- he was talking to Republican governors, making fun of John for not being able to use a BlackBerry. The man can't do it because he is much more disabled than people can imagine... I would like to take a hammer and start breaking bones in Frank's arms."

McInturff later noted that the Obama campaign ran an ad on this very topic, and vice presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized the spot because of its insensitivity.

In addition to going after Luntz, McInturff highlighted several factors that he credited with truly hurting the McCain candidacy. The first, and most obvious, was the crisis in the financial markets and the failure of the House of Representatives to quickly pass a bailout packaged.

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"We had the House not voting for the bailout," he said, "which kept that story going for another seven days and helped implode the campaign."

The second was McCain's age, which was a huge handicap in a change election.

"When you have a 70-year-old nominee versus a new generation candidate," he said, "it is very hard."

The final, and most surprising, was the Hispanic vote, which trended heavily towards Obama. McInturff said that the most effective commercial of the campaign was the Spanish-language spot, put up by the now president-elect, which claimed that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh was a McCain ally on immigration. Mainly, however, Obama had a huge financial advantage that allowed him to make great inroads within this and other minority communities.

"If the other team has 700 million and they are spending five times as much on Spanish language media saying that crap," he said, "it has an effect."

Comments

[ChandraSF]

McCain lost because he got very little right. He could not raise funds, and nearly got knocked out of the race in 2007. He turned his team over several times. His message changed weekly, if not daily. He made terrible staff selections, most notably an incompetent person for the VP slot, that he tried to pass off as "brilliant". He betrayed common sense and common decency by running a huge percentage of negative ads. He alienated MSM. He showed acute irrationality in suspending his campaign (in name only), by threatening to not show up for the first debate, by putting up surly performances in the debates. He turned down appearances on David Letterman and Larry King. He squabbled with the women on The View. He was in denial over his own bad judgments. I think the readers will get the point by now, but can the Republicans muster the courage to lay it all on the line? There is enough blame on the Republican side to tar everyone, but so far no one is fessing up. Their convention was a ghoulish affair - fat lot of good it did them.

[mapleaforever]

AAAND he forgot to replace the toilet paper roll. LOL

The only thing you missed is that he lied to Letterman about leaving for Washington. Pollster still doesn't get that you don't cross Letterman.

[phoogoo]

He forgot to include the fact that almost every day McCain took a position that completely contradicted a position he had taken before, sometimes with a day or within hours of the previous position. The whole spectacle made him look erratic, paranoid, inconsistent.

John Kerry was taken to task for flip flopping on ONE VOTE. McCain did complete 180s on EVERY SINGLE MAJOR ISSUE OF THE CAMPAIGN.

[Wesneeds]

My favorite line of the season was made sometime in July . Someone said, " McCain doesn't speak for the campaign." I remember Keith Olbermann just sitting there looking like the cat who ate the canary. It was a line that left me ROFLMAO for days.

[BlondeLebanese]

Maybe the GOP will not win the presidency until someone can resurrect Ronald Reagan from his grave. What is the story on that, anyway. Going back to one of the first GOP debates held at the Reagan library, it seemed that they were trying to channel the former actor. Maybe that is why they lost, spending too much time trying to 'out-Reagan' each other. GOP - meet the 21st century!

[oldleftcoastdude]

i wish they would bringt Reagan back. Until Bush 43 came along he was the dumbest president of our lifetime. He also left us with the biggest budget deficit ever, till Bush 43. The Republicans are toast until they get away from the Reagan mantra

[mapleaforever]

Oh, come on. Bush 41 was pretty much a dolt also and such.

[Aslanspal]

Frank Luntz the man who invented spin words to screw America!

[katykay]

Someone get Luntz a new toupee- the one he has looks smelly and like a wet bathmat

[Specialed]

I love GOP in fighting.

[soapington]

The very fact that Bill McInturff was playing a significant roll is an indication of how bad things were for McCain's campaign.

[soapington]

I mean role... Or do i?

[letsbepeaceful]

yup

[Indie2008]

Are these people obcessed with violence?

[Elahrairah]

That guy is a bone head.

I waited decades to vote for McCain. When time came, I voted Obama. Not because I wasn't very ready to support a McCain presidency, but because the McCain I saw had stumbled and lost his honor, imprisoning himself to the nutty element of the GOP. I couldn't vote for that McCain. He gained the support of the hardline fundamentalists, and lost mine.

Those fundamentalist Christians really ruined the party.

[Norsky]

Amen to that!

[Nebraska Dem]

I agree to some extent. I never was a big fan of McCain, but the theocons have overtaken a party and to me, it's scary!
The Republican party once had some decent platform planks but has abandoned many of them. Morality, which oughty to be a key aspect of the theocons, is false; pro-war and pro-life don't add up.

Back to the article... In there, the complaint about Obama and the Dems having 700 million bucks...

Think it'll ever dawn on the Republicans that the Dems, all the way down to the grassroot (netroot) level, put their money where their mouth was?
I wasn't strongarmed into donating; I donated because I wanted the Obama campaign to boot the Bush era down the road, once and for all! There are millions and millions of donors to the campaign and we each had one commonality; see Obama win!

[rw97]

Bwah bwah bwah bwah.

The Republicans are very popular in the Ozarks and Appalachians.

[neuron]

as are moonshine and meth...

[Rescisco]

Could just be that the other guy was better. But, as long as we're playing this game, McCain did not do himself any favors when he "impalined" himself.

[midknightryder13]

"impalined" himself?
I LOVE IT!

And, in the spirit of complete disclosure, I will be using it.

[sugarmoes]

hey bill... you lost because YOU SUCK!!!! YOUR CAMPAIGN SUCKED! YOUR CANDIDATED SUCKED! YOUR MESSAGE SUCKED! YOUR PARTY HAS SUCKED THE LIFE OUT OF THE U.S.A. FOR EIGHT LONG YEARS... you see what i'm saying????

YOU SUCK!!!!!

now quit all that blubbering and go be a man somewhere.

[allonfla]

The bailout and the economic crisis was not the cause of McCain's downfall it was his REACTION to it. This was an opportunity for both candidates to show what they were made of. Obama waited to determine what was happening, McCain jumped into the situation w/o assessing the damage - "the fundamentals of our economy are strong?" What? Obama then came out with a plan and then stuck with it. McCain? suspended his campaign, ran back to D.C. uninvited, made the situation worse, came back with no credible plan and then bombed in the debates. This was all about REACTION - and he was an EPIC FAIL!

[gallonjug]

great analysis, Mcinturff!

Let me see if I follow: your candidate only lost because the country didn't like him, his party, or anything he stood for...

aside from those 3 factors, plus the fundraising prowess of his opponent's formidable campaign, your guy would've won-- IF people didn't much prefer the policies and temperment of the other candidate.

Got it. How about if he had a vaguely competent (and mentally stable) pollster? that might've helped a litle, too.

[tchristin]

It couldn't possibly be because Americans simply liked the other guy's ideas better huh? It isn't because McCain's campaign was spreading lies about Obama and maybe we thought that was an indication of how honest he would be with us as President? It isn't because McCain chose a runningmate he met twice and had not asked enough questions of - simply expecting Americans to vote for her because she's someone's mother? I'd say the Republicans lost the election because they deserved to lose, not because they didn't have enough money to run their dirty campaign.

[popartusa]

I cant evn figure how he came in second....

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

THAT IS THE BESTONE LINER YET!

[poizinniv]

ROFL

[oldleftcoastdude]

LMAO........