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

[writeidea1]

I am married to a Republican (who happily voted for Obama). I am surrounded by Republican associates. They all voted for Obama for ONE reason only: PALIN - they were HORRIFIED to think she could wind up as POTUS, and I DO mean HORRIFIED.

[Belisarius]

I didn't do it, but I know who did etc., etc.

I suppose these folks are legends in their own minds, but from my perspective their entire campaign was irrational, seat of the pants, and often dishonest.

[wotcanisay]

IMHO these are the reasons why McCain lost:

1) He belonged to the Republican Party which was the party in power.

2) The Republicans had messed up everything - "No Industry Left Alone" - was the reality - Energy, Cars, Finance.

3) The War was becoming unwinnable.

4) McCain was unconnected with reality. On one day he was for deregulation when it was recognized that deregulation was at the root of our problems. On the next day, he spoke of regulations on Wall street.

5) Belonging to the incumbent party, McCain could not run on a ticket of change - having voted for more of the same 90% of the time.

If I were truly independent, I would feel sorry for the poor fellow, but I don't think anyone in the Republican Party deserves any sympathy - we just need those bums out of our lives.

[Kevvboy]

While the Great Oracle McInturff is 'splaining, perhaps he can 'splain those last five or six days of the campaign when he was going around telling everyone his polls showed "tightening" and a "very close race."

Was he lying or just wrong?

[Querent]

First rule of politics. Republicans always lie.

[dc2nm]

He was winning for only a couple of weeks....just after he picked Palin. It pulled in conservatives that didn't like the moderate candidate. but then Palin turned of the rest of the the republican party. The financial crisis was looming for a year, so it shouldn't have caught them off guard.

McCain lost because the Republican party is split between moderate fiscal conservatives and neo-cons and an ideology that has been proven wrong over the last 8 years. The erratic McCain/Palin campaign is just a symptom of the core problem. That is why republicans lost down ticket votes as well.

You can blame the financial crisis for the loss, but much of that crisis was created by Republican ideology and their inability to change when change is due.

[teapartydude]

Can't use a Blackberry b/c of his disabilities? Holy cow and he was gonna have his finger on the button?

[postman606]

He can't use a desktop computer, because of his disabilities, which I think are more tribute to being stuck in mental cement than anything else.

[Shake-A-Spear]

Let's face it,: McCain lost because he was outsmarted, outspent, outorganized by a new and rare political talent. Obama had special appeal to vast numbers of young ones who actually voted. And he avoided the mean and nasty tactics of (verb-noun-9/11) Rudy Giuliani, Joe Lieberman, ditzy and sarcastic Sarah Palin and other assorted hacks still being guided by Lee Atwater and his latter day incarnation -- one Karl Rove. Add all this to McCain's erratic behavior and his barly concealed anger and you have the makings of an assured defeat. Think about it Repubs as you slouch back to the drawing board.

[SailFree]

Also, it appears that every 16-20 years, the citizenry just goes a bit wacky and votes in oddball fashion. This may be because sufficient numbers of experienced voters have died...

[Querent]

Keep it up. the more irrational, delusional reasons you manufacture for the Greedy Old Perverts' loss, the less likely you are to ever get it. Just the way we like it.

[SailFree]

On this spot I kilt a bar.
--D. Boone

Actually McCain concealed anger too well. He should have expressed anger over the financial collapse, made clear every campaign stop that Barney Frank and other Democrats had caused the bad loans--ORDERED THE LOAN COMPANIES TO MAKE THEM--and then steadfastly stonewalled any investigation or reformation of Fannie Mae's solvency problems. He should have sided with the people against the loan company bailout. He had a good start by going to Washington but then wimped out and went along.

This is a typical McCain behvior--he all too readily sides with the appeasement wing or the enemy.

[Querent]

So in other words, you think he should have lied even more than he did.

[poppaculture]

I hope my $10 went toward buying Spanish media (I think it's a brilliant strategy to remind voters about Rush Limbaugh).

[BluesDogLefty]

"We had a 70 percent wrong track and we were winning. We were winning."

When???

I Kept track of polls for months.

The only---THE ONLY--period McCain had a significant lead was for about 72 hours after his convention and the introduction of Palin. It soon went back to his pre-convention bounce numbers.

Obama held a 4-6 point lead consistently for months and he won by 6 points.

[chrisincalif]

Newsweek reporters spent a year inside each campaign, allowed great access with the promise to write nothing until after the election. Read their account of the McCain campaign, and you will breathe a sigh of relief that McCain never will be in the Oval Office. It starts here:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167639

Senator McCain is just interested in much, except flying by the seat of his pants on some sort of great adventure. That's great if you're a fighter pilot, but we need a President that is interested in details and consequences. Thank goodness, we finally are about to have one.

[CAMBEL]

That is absolutly untrue. Whenever ANY criticism is leveled at McCain the Standard Oporating procedure of the McCain office is to claim that he can't do this, or that he did do this, because he is disabled in the arms. Well then isn't it funny that DURING the campaign they claimed he was in such good shape he could hike the Grand Canyon?

Look, if Mccain can use a pen and write, then he can use a blackberry. Not being able to raise your arms above your head does not preclude you from doing that. Frank Luntz has known John Mccain for YEARS and he would know that McCain isn't incapable, he is just lazy and used to being waited one by staff.

[SailFree]

"That" what??

[GerryS]

whhhaaaaaaaa-
someone get me a hammer, I want to break something.

I enjoy watching the GOP implode and use the circular firing squad!

[javaman42]

McCain to me seemed to be a very determined man, he really wanted to be president. He was very persistent, and would do anything to be president. He looked good during his speech at the inauguration, he said all the right things, he kept Palin at bay, but what hurt him in the end, worse than the financial crisis, was that McCain lost his sincerity, and did nothing to take charge of the direction of his campaign. Palin ran her mouth, he did nothing to stop her from trashing big town America, trashing Obama and Biden, even Joe the Plumber got say what ever he wanted to say to embarrass the integrity of the ticket.

[frontstreet]

McCain was winning? From what I recall the only time McCain was up was right after he picked Palin, which kicked off the Palin craze in the media and coincided with the GOP Convention bump. As soon as the Palin hit the media and revealed herself to be a halfwit, that bubble burst, and Obama maintained the lead throughout. The GOP is delusional at this point. They courted all the disaffected Southern whites and religious fundamentalists for years, but now they are stuck with them as the core of their party. The hardcore Republicans are rigid and extreme, and they do not embrace Hispanics, blacks, Muslims, or anybody else who doesn't look or think like they do. Let's remember that among the GOP religious base, Bush is still wildly popular and even revered. That's all you need to know to see how far out of the mainstream the GOP base is. Good luck moderating the party!

[SailFree]

The first two sentences were correct. However, Palin was not a halfwit, and is indeed quite bright. She was not, as governor of Alaska, up to speed on total national issues, which was clear.

The economy happened to reveal its fragility at that point, however, and sorting out which was the most important factor is probably not possible and may be irrelevant anyway!

What is clear is that Obama voters, as exemplified by all the man-on-street interviews I have seen, are totally ignorant about Obama's stated plans and about Sarah Palin, John McCain, and Republican policies in general.

The majority of voters for Obama, as exemplified by posters on THIS WEBSITE, are delusional about Sarah Palin and her statements, attributing Tina Fey's jokes to Palin herself for example.

[yngskywlkr]

At this point, the repubs can blame the tooth fairy for all I care.