McCain At Midnight: The Last Stand

Cross posted here.

It's 11:59 and no sign of McCain. We're at the Bank United Center at University of Miami. It's Sunday night, thirty-six hours until nationwide polls open, and this is McCain's last appearance in south Florida. McCain is supposed to go on at 12:15, but he's flying in from New Hampshire, the fourth of five campaign stops that started at 6am. Now they're saying close to 1am. At this point, McCain's arrival time doesn't matter, since the auditorium has turned itself into a swinging Latin dance party over the past several hours. There's an enormous band stand, where a pack of horns, full percussion section, and Grammy winner Albita have been lost in a half-hour Samba Odyssey dedicated to their candidate: Don-de es-ta Sen-ior Mah-Cain!

On the floor, costumed dancers work a rhythmic swing while waving pom poms and, dexterously, McCain/Palin signs. Gorgeous women twirl in floor length skirts. Lithe young men do fancy footwork. All for the love of the GOP. The Cubans are the last constituency under the Republican tent with any pizzaz. I ran into a friend who's on McCain's plane and asked him if this anything like other McCain events. He asked if I was joking. This is clearly the most fun you'll ever have at a McCain event. It's as if they collected all the life left in the Republican Party, put it in this room, and lit the fuse for one last party. And it is, in truth, a rocking party.

"It feels like it could collapse into an orgy at any minute," my friend Steve Elliott says.

Don't let the dance floor play tricks on your mind, I say. It's true that if you squint in here, you may be fooled into thinking that the today's GOP isn't the parochial, paranoid, eschatological white rump of a party that it is. But the only reason this warm-blooded Caribbean crowd is rabid for McCain is the ever-fresh psychic wound of Fidel Castro, a half century before. Half the t-shirts in sight read: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR: CUBA GOT 'CHANGE' IN 1959. Others say: MCCUBANS FOR MCCAIN; I LEFT CUBA FOR VENEZUELA, I LEFT VENEZUELA FOR THE USA, WHERE TO NOW? Accessorizing the slogans are Joe the Plumber stickers, mindlessly displayed by every single person in the room. " Come to think of it," Steve says. "I hope I was wrong about that orgy."

The ubiquity of the Joe stickers is telling. This is my first McCain event since the Joe The Plumber Phenomenon took hold, and the concerted effort to create and distribute Joe's paraphernalia is a reminder of just how bizarre is the basket which now holds McCain last eggs. So far, each new lurching indignity by the McCain camp seems to offer a digest of the cynical and the campaign. For a while, it was "Drill, Baby, Drill" -- a non-energy policy, chanted by people who believe they are patriots while driving their SUVs through the exurbs so as to help Sovereign Wealth Funds form the Persian Gulf buy American ports. Then came Joe the Plumber, the sudden new face of the campaign who -- surprise! -- ascended to television as an unvetted know-nothing stirring a stew of scare tactics beyond the official campaign's lies about Obama's "socialism," such as an affirmation "that a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel" and a belief that "there's too many questions with Barack Obama, and his loyalty to our country." Even Fox's Shephard Smith felt compelled to defend Obama against that wild jab. Woops -- looks like someone gave the wrong guy the megaphone! So what does McCain do once he realizes he'd turned a bonafide wingnut into his most visible official surrogate overnight? Expand the Joe brand! The campaign has now deputized all their supporters into an army of surrogate Joes, totally off the reservation, parroting the same baseless collection of slogans. "Don't vote for Socialism," the around us say. "Obama will destroy the country."

Finally, at quarter to one, the man who made it all possible appears. Behind McCain the usual suspects line up: Cindy, Tom Ridge, and Joe Lieberman. The crowd goes nuts as McCain reassures them that he will win Florida. It is possible. After some tightening, we're back to a true toss up down here. That said, McCain hasn't been ahead in any Florida poll in weeks. And according to the calculus of electoral variations, he can't win without Florida. Of course, McCain probably can't win with Florida either, which makes his die hard supporters, the ones that delivered their state to Bush twice, feel unusually helpless.

McCain arrives at his speech, which is not a speech at all but a strung together hit parade of the kneecappers that have bubbled to the surface of his incoherent campaign: Biden's "crisis" comment; drill here, and drill now; Obama will talk to dictators; Redistributionist-in-Chief; "spread the wealth" replete with finger quotes; measuring the drapes; Mac is back; and did I forget to mention our good friend Joe the Plumber! Like his overall campaign, McCain offers no overarching message whatsoever. Whereas Obama speeches apply themes to a constructed argument, McCain strings together a bunch of hopeful zingers, some of which fall flat even among friends. No one gives a fuck about $18 billion in pork barrel spending when the deficit this year will be a trillion dollars.

That may be why McCain keeps it fairly short, jumping ahead to the rousing battle cry that has marked the end of his speeches since his acceptance in Mineappolis. "I'm not afraid of the fight," he says. "I'm ready for it and you're going to fight with me!" As always, he whips the crowd into a final fury. "Stand up," he yells as the roar drowns him out. "Fight! Fight!"

It is a rousing performance: the old soldier, mortally wounded, still rallying his troops. Despite McCain myriad disappointments, I feel a little bad for him. "He was misled by his strategists," said one supporter in the crowd nearby. "Obama was just better." Where he went wrong is of course already the subject of many analyses. I've always thought McCain could have run an honorable campaign and left the political stage an American hero. Instead, he'll be remembered as a tragic footnote, the malevolent foil of the grand political drama called Barack Obama.

"Don't feel bad for the guy," Steve says. "He knew the stakes. He's a dice shooter, and he put his chips on the line when he went Rovian in July." After that, Steve says, the odds collapsed around two outcomes: "President or asshole." And odds are he's not going to be President.

But here, in this room, the glory of the moment obscures that inevitable reality. Now I understand why McCain stepped us his campaign schedule in the last days. It must be exhilarating to be loved in failure. Who wants to hear bad news from your strategists and pollsters when you can be loved for another few minutes by a crowd of thousands. But in a few days, those crowds will be gone, and McCain will have to face himself. As will the party. Until then, the rallies are their mutual escape. "When I'm elected President..." McCain says. I guess Republicans do believe in hope.

Comments

[bayside]

I talked to a lady in the dem office who said she would have voted for MCCain if he was the same MCCain of 2000 but not this MCCain He is a nasty old man..Of course I loved to hear that.. MCCain wanted sarah because he is old school thinking what does she need to know about VP he is going to do all the talking.. Somehow I dont think sarah would have been the quiet demure woman he like his women to be..

[jsgaetano]

"The Cubans are the last constituency under the Republican tent with any pizzaz. I ran into a friend who's on McCain's plane and asked him if this anything like other McCain events. He asked if I was joking. This is clearly the most fun you'll ever have at a McCain event. It's as if they collected all the life left in the Republican Party, put it in this room, and lit the fuse for one last party. And it is, in truth, a rocking party. "

The true irony is that not only are "OMG!!! TEH FOREIGNERS!!!" from Cuba the last people in the country with any excitement about McSame, but that the Republican Party at large hates them.

Do they honestly think the Republicans are going to distinguish whether they are from Cuba, or Mexico, or Argentina, or anywhere else? All the typical Repube is going to see is another scary brown person to hate.

[DeanThoreau]

In approximately 48 hours John MCCain is going to wake up to a very very sad reality. He has unleashed Pandora's box on the United States... Sarah Palin.
Perhaps he can arrange a hunting trip for Cheyney and Palin!

[minerva117]

Crowds of thousands???? More like crowds of dozens!! Berfore the ddisasta from Alaska, McCain had to go find ready made crowds because he couldn't draw one.

[flanardiente]

The tragedy of it is that if McCain had campaigned as the man we all thought he was, if he'd stayed non-negative and reminded everyone of his experience and his maturity, he'd have run a much closer campaign. If he'd picked Kay Hutchinson or Liddy Dole for VP, he'd have had a partner who actually understood what the VP does, who could communicate seamlessly with the press and the public. I don't know if that would have been enough to overcome the Obama juggernaut, but it might have put him close enough to give the GOP a realistic chance to steal the election again. Instead, he went all-out to energize the most radical and most unattractive wing of the GOP base. I don't know; maybe he's a secret Democrat Manchurian candidate. Or maybe his handlers were just stupid, which means that he was too.

[cornagainstsorcery]

Very probable. Also, had he picked Liddy Dole North Carolina would probably not be a toss-up right now and the GOP could have [knock on wood] kept that senate seat via appointment.

[jennbeez]

Elizabeth Dole wouldn't have done McCain a bit of good in NC, and furthermore she is going to join the ranks of the NC unemployed after tonight's election. Good riddance to her, too.

[jollyelle]

All he ever did was attack, he is living a war mentality.......fight, fight, fight, he constantly screams while slamming down his fist.

NO compassion, no inspiration, no intellectual curiousity

Just a wounded victim, whose been able to live in a dreamworld of success,
he hasn't EARNED any amount of PEACE in all his years.
He's an ineffectual leader with absolutely no message.

Go home fight'in John McCain, we don't want to FIGHT
We want to be the UNITED states of America,
A nation that has dignity and seeks to make the world a better place for all.

[SDS0423]

About 2 months ago, I started counting how many times McCain used the word "fight" in his speeches. I usually lost count. At the same time, I started counting how many times Obama used the word "fight" in a typical speech (maybe 2 or 3 times.) Where McCain uses the word "fight" in a speech, Obama uses the word "work." Therein, I think, lies a major difference between the two. The old warrior sees every challenge in terms of a battle--of fighting--where adrenaline and machismo, and yes, bravery, are all you need to get you through (in other words, brawn.) The young worker sees the challenges in terms of tasks that need to be accomplished with thoughtful analysis, planning, cooperation and hard work (in other words, brains.) Putting this country back on track doesn't require another "war," it requires hard work. Vote accordingly.

[Fez]

My thoughts exactly. All McCain talks about is fighting... back then, right now, and forever into the future. As the saying goes, to a hammer all problems look like a nail. Well to a "fighter" every problems looks like a fight. The time for compassion, intelligence, and concentration is here. Fighting everything has given us a two wars, a failed "war on drugs," and a failed economy. The only way out of this hole is to cooperate, a word not used very often by any Republican. Belligerence has its proper place in the WWF, NFL, and sports bars. We don't need a "fighter" as President, we need a leader who understands that you win battles by avoiding fights.

[jaglon]

McCain is Bush on steroids. He would not only continue the debaucle in Iraq for a, yet understood, 'victory', but start new ones with Iran and Russia. And this was while he is going to balance the budget in four years. What a joke! You can't have a war without raising taxes; Bush gave us a war with tax cuts then turned around and borrowed the money from the Chinese. I suppsose McSame would have continued that policy as well as getting us involved in other wars.

[mersault]

Remember in the first debate how McCain very patronizingly explained the difference between strategy and tactics to poor dumb civilian Obama? As it turns out, Obama perfectly executed an overarching strategy, while McCain's desperate flailing around from day to day can scarcely even be called tactics. One more proof that there is a God and He has a great sense of irony.

[DrBillo]

will McCain ever truthfully face himself--he turned into a vicious contender who would do anything and say anything to win an election-he has no integrity and no values as a candidate and as a man in his late years--it is sad to see an American hero become an American zero!!!

[dartagnan]

Like his overall campaign, McCain offers no overarching message whatsoever. Whereas Obama speeches apply themes to a constructed argument, McCain strings together a bunch of hopeful zingers

Well there ya go. There's no there there with McCain. The Republicans keep accusing Obama of having no substance but they really are the ones running a substance-free campaign. And people realize it.

[davyfound]

nicely put bearman. regards from copenhagen... we've already started tailgating

[RexPrimoris]

I assume there will be plenty of Carlsberg there? Enjoy it in good health. I am waiting until the results are in before I toast the president-elect with some good Kentucky bourbon.

[carol]

My son is in Del Ray north of Miami. I was just down there and it's an Obama blow out. These old school Cubans will die out eventually...plus, where they used to represent 60 some percent of the Latin vote in FL, they now represent 30 some percent. These Miami folks, tho, know how to throw a party and it sounds like a great time. If we're lucky, it will be the last big McCain blowout.

[jugganaut]

I don't think the McCain camp went truly malignant until the waning weeks of the campaign, when they realized the fat lady was warming up her vocal cords.

That being said, until the Republican party manages to free itself from the poisonous clutches of the religious right they're never going to be able to run anything other than a Rovian campaign.

Oh, and Joe Lieberman is toast.

[alteregoess]

Jeez. it's bad enough that our national security is so poor that Obama the Terrorist has infiltrated the Senate and is even able to run for President, but now we find out his camp has been able to slip past the guards at the White House and measure for drapes!!! W, I thought you were going to keep us safe from those bastards!

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

Don't bother Bush, he's busy. He's watching a DVD his aides put together, about Hurricane Ike....