The Fat Lady Sung And I Was Wrong

November 6, 2008 / 10:29 am • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Well, I received a good deal of derision both personally and professionally for keeping the McCain-Palin faith until the end. It was philosophical, really. Giving up when it’s not yet over is anathema to me. Still, we lost.

What went wrong?

McCain himself. Ace says it best.

Obama pulled new youth voters.

The troubled economy favors Dems.

An unpopular president makes the challenger more desirable.

Rushing to DC for the bailout and then doing nothing of note, besides voting for HUGE government slaughtered McCain.

Obama himself. He ran a great campaign.

One thing that didn’t go wrong:

It wasn’t Palin. Ace also says it best. For all the scumbags inside the McCain camp selling out Palin. You’re now a leper. You are, in biblical terms, marked, or if you’re evangelical “disfellowshipped”, Amish “shunned”, you get the idea. Just a note: it occurs to me that McCain, himself, is partly responsible for this. Run a tighter ship, man. Independent thinking is highly valued. Cut-throats must be dealt with. Harshly. You hang with a pit of vipers, you’ll get bit. And McCain ultimately looks like a disorganized, bad judge of character by employing these jerks.

And just a word on Gay Marriage since the moderates believe that this was one of Palin’s failin’s. A friend of mine (fiscal conservative, social liberal), said that their best friends (also acquaintances of mine), a gay couple, said that “if Sarah Palin hates me, I’m not voting for her.” Why’d you vote for Obama then? He’s the guy who said that he’s against gay marriage and that marriage is between one man and one woman. Is Obama a homophobe? Hmmmm? It is possible to love gay people and be against gay marriage. It is possible to hold to traditional definitions that are culturally proven and be open to new institutions to address a new reality. Nuance. Additionally, in California, a relatively liberal state, Prop 8 passed handily. Are the citizens of CA bigoted, bible-beating right-wing nut jobs? Be careful demonizing the whole country, Dems. Your joy might be short-lived.

Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com

Posted in Political Animals
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  • Glynn W.

    Doctor,

    As a Californian, I am appalled and embarrassed that Prop 8 passed. It’s outrageous, and bloodies our Presidential victory by proving how far we have yet to go. But Rome was not built in a day. Let’s note that it passed the 50 percent mark by a little over ONE percentage point. I would hardily call that “handily”. This is tremendous progress on a issue that continues to bedevil progressives.

    And let’s also note that Barack Obama went on record against the measure. He said he was against enshrining discrimination into a State Constitution (just like he is against enshrining it into our national constitution).

    As far as Palin – I remain shocked that you are still riding that horse. Yesterday, on Fox news, we discover she didn’t know that Africa was a continent not a country(!) and the empty-headed governor couldn’t name the three countries in NAFTA?

    The anti-intellectual wing of the GOP has simply gone too fucking far. It was an outrageous nomination in the first place – and exit polls bore out the collective judgment that this woman acted as an albatross on the McCain campaign. It was a dangerous, cynical, and ridiculous move that made mockery of any message of “Country First”.

    For the sake of liberals everywhere, I very much hope that Sarah Palin wins the Republican nomination for President in four years, and four years after that.

  • Bob

    I think it’s funny that everyone seems to be blaming this action, or that person, or saying he shoulda done X,Y,orZ….but no-one really wants to admit that it might just have been the ideas, and principals of the republican party.

    When you look at the republican party, and the conservative part, especially the religious conservative part of the party, you realize that they are very judgmental people. And why wouldn’t they be, a good portion of christianity is based on going to heaven, and avoiding hell. If you worship like me, believe what I believe, you will go to heaven, otherwise, as sad as it may make me, you will burn in hell because you have not accepted jesus in the same way that I have.

    I personally don’t like people judging me. I don’t like the attitude that being at a McCain rally makes you a real american, an insinuation in the good and evil, right and wrong world of republicans that says I’m either supporting McCain, or I’m not an American.

    I think that the ideas of the party, the conformist attitude that it currently espouses simply turns people off. McCain has been a republican forever, but because he wasn’t in lock step with the churchy folks in the party, because he wasn’t conservative enough, he wasn’t deemed worthy of the candidacy back in the early days of the primaries. He’s a good republican and has pushed the republican brand for decades, but that wasn’t enough for you.

    If christianity had held on to the notion of purgatory, I feel that the world would be a more tolerant, better place, and that the republican party would be a more tolerant, likable group of folks. It wasn’t your tactics that lost the election, it was your ideas, and your ethos. Time to roll out the big tent again, tell hannity and rush to shut up, and start making people feel like the republican party is actually a secular organization, and not an extention of a bible study group.

  • http://melissaclouthier.com Dr. Melissa Clouthier

    The Democratic party is tolerant?

    Try being a woman and be anti-abortion.

    Try being a gay and pro-strong-defense.

    Try being any sort of minority and not hold to liberal orthodoxy. As you can see in my comment section, it’s vicious.

    The sexist, racist comments inevitably come from Lefties. The Left is tolerant? Please. You’ll find those who worship in the hall of Secular Humanism and bow down at the god of self to be the least tolerant people you’ll ever meet. Gaia help you if you deviate from the orthodoxy.

    I’ve met more than my fair share of judgmental Christians, but they don’t hold a candle to self-righteous Liberals.

  • Bob

    Wow,
    What happened to you? You used to be a very sweet lady, very tolerant, taught me about emotional IQ, and stuff like that. I’m so surprised to have stumbled across this blog, it’s sad.

    I don’t know what the world did to you to cause this shift, but I hope you heal.

    “Beating Liberalism to Death With a Shovel and a Smile”
    Not the Melissa I knew at all.

  • http://melissaclouthier.com Dr. Melissa Clouthier

    Bob,

    First of all, I’m the same woman. I believe rational communication and discourse to be vital to our democracy. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I have friends of all stripes and backgrounds.

    Second, I’m sick of Christians being vilified as the cause of all that’s wrong with this country. It is ridiculous and as small-minded to condemn all Christians and highly hypocritical, I might add–considering the judgment of Christians is htat they’re too judgmental. If judging is the problem, what gives anyone the right to judge? Whose standards should we hold?

    Anyone who has a strong point of view about anything, it should be noted, has used judgment and discriminated between ideas and chosen one. There is a difference between holding an ideal and tolerating those who believe differently and holding an ideal and condemning those who hold a different view.

  • Paul Gordon

    Doc, I’m trying to remember the name of a science-fiction novel about intolerance of anyone not accepting the “official” line (No, I don’t mean “1984″).

    A recurring chant in it was “Beware, thou, of the mutant”.

    You seemed to been transformed into that status by some of these loons.

    Welcome to the club; it’s actually a rather nice one, filled with good people.

    (Yeah, I COULD google for that name, but shouldn’t it be an exercise for the student? :-)

  • Bob

    Last point and I’m done…

    You said: I believe rational communication and discourse to be vital to our democracy.

    Your banner says: Beating Liberalism to Death With a Shovel and a Smile

    Which should I believe?

  • http://melissaclouthier.com Dr. Melissa Clouthier

    Bob,

    I didn’t not create that advertisement, my co-blogger John Hawkins of RightWingNews did. Plus, it doesn’t say beating liberals to death. Good grief–beating an ideology to death is hyperbole for effect not some indication of latent hostility.

  • http://www.biggervoices.com Matt

    Just one note on prop 8. The “No on Prop 8″ had a 17 points lead at one point. Like Hillary, they just ran a badly managed campaign and lost the huge lead. Sometimes it’s the messenger, not the message.

  • joh

    I’m for pretty much beating neo-liberalism (i.e. socialism) to death, so we agree on that point.

    But I honestly never felt that McCain wanted to win this election if it meant more than running on his reputation. As McCain stated he’d rather lose an election than lose a war, I believe he also chose to lose this election instead of using the tactics required to win.

    Plus, the election was about the economy, not about Iraq, and McCain never ran on that issue. I’m in Virginia and Obama flooded the airwaves with TV and radio ads attacking McCain’s health care and tax plans, but not once did I see an ad from McCain pointing out any of the problems with Obama’s economic or health care nonsense.

    Sigh, we saw this all before with Bush vs Clinton.

  • http://realchoice.blogspot.com Christina

    Yeah, Bob, it’s really intolerant and hateful of all those Republicans to think that a baby with Down syndrome deserves better than to be wrapped in a towel and stuck in a closet to die, like the far more tolerant, loving Democrats do with them.

    Thanks for clarifying that loving special-needs kids makes you a hatemonger.

  • Mr. Chuckles

    Christina,

    I went to your blog and viewed your positon on abortion. Unfortunately in terms of statistics, abortion actually increased after a 24 year decline a year after Bush took office. Analysis of the data suggests that rising job losses during the Bush presidency have contributed to the lack of planning options for many women as well as an inability for would be parents to care for a child. There is a wealth of data to support the seeming irony of abortion increasing under a pro-life president. Again, as I have always said, when the economy is strong, most of the other problems go away on their own. Sorry, but it’s not a dem vs. rep. issue, it’s just economics.

    I don’t think Bob suggested wrapping kids up in blankets and throwing them away. I think his take on McCain was simply pointing out how the GOP has marginalized the more moderate factions in the party. Frankly, reactionary folks like yourself are the reason that the GOP can’t get any traction.

  • http://daniel.summershome.org Daniel

    Mr Chuckles:
    contributed to the lack of planning options for many women

    Wow – I didn’t know it was that expensive to NOT HAVE SEX.

    (And we’re the stupid ones, right?)

  • Mr. Chuckles

    Daniel,

    You’re right. I mean, it’s totally realistic to think that people aren’t going to have sex if you tell them not to. Just give the kids the “don’t have sex” talk, send them to an $8.00/hr. job and hope for the best, right? Bury your head in the sand and say three wishes for it to all just go away.

    The point of my comment (since you missed it) was that there is a correlation between education, the economy and conservative viewpoints regarding the increase in abortions. It simply just exists. In nice simple terms for you:

    1. Good economy (for all)= less abortions (we would all like this, see?)

    2. Bad economy = more abortions (this is less desireable than example #1, ok?).

    I hope this clears things up for you.