How did Bush beat McCain?

[Killarney]

I didn't pay much attention to the Republican primary in 2000 because I already knew I was voting Democratic.

But, I just don't get it. How could a man like Bush have beaten a man like McCain? McCain is a good man. He has a very likable personality and is funny and intelligent in interviews. He has the war hero record. He's a true fiscal conservative instead of a reckless spender like Bush. Bush's record in Texas was horrific (education, etc.).

Why did Bush win? Can anyone fill me in? I just don't get it.

[OneTwentyoNine]

1. Money and unbelievable trashing of McCain. Did I mention MONEY?

eom

[Ivote]

4. South Carolina

McCain was trashed
Polling places were not opened
Just two reasons I followed it closely and that was what made me leave the republican party.
I was ashamed of what happened and couldnt beleive what was going on.
I think SC is going to be a repeat. I hope not.
People were told McCain spent his time at the "Hanoi Hilton" They actually beleived he was in a hotel and was given preferential treatment, calling him the manchurian candidate.

[styersc]

17. In SC a whisper campaign was started that called McCain mentally ill..

...as a result of his time in the POW prison. Local talk radio stations were used to infer that McCain was insane.

I thought that the GOP could not stoop any lower until I watched the campaign against Max Cleland in Georgia where they called this decorated war veteran (and triple amputee) an anti-patriotic threat to American security.

[OneTwentyoNine]

22. People actually believed McCain was in a Hilton?!?! Gawd......

I really shouldn't be shocked given the number that still think SH was directly responsible for 9/11 but MAN...this is really off the wall.

David

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Ralph Reed, the Christian Right and the rumour.

Ralph Reed called the Southern Christian Right constituents and told them that Bush would be more conservative than McCain. Somewhere in the process, (not sure if it's directly related to Ralph Reed) but a rumour was flying that McCain had a black illegitimate child somewhere.

Can you imagine? That's all it took.

After the win, btw, Ralph Reed wrote to ENRON offering his services for $25,000 to activate his Christian Right group and begin a letter writing campaign directed at congressman in favor of deregulation.

I'm not sure what deregulation has to do with Christianity, but I'm sure that Ralph Reed could come up with psalm and verse if we ask him.

[ClintonTyree]

11. The GOP.............

did a hatchet job on McCain in a telephone "push pole". The question was worded, "would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew he fathered a black child"? Of course we all know how that would sit in South Carolina.
They never mentioned the fact that the child was adopted. John and Cindy, for all their Conservative ways, are still loving parents and would not bring the child into the debate. It was one of the most underhanded dirty tricks of that, or any campaign.
It played well to the Conservative base however, and the rest is History.

[pansypoo53219]

15. the right criminals-GOP

the Party higher ups certainy deemed a danger to their power and had pre-selected their puppet george. there was no way george wasn't gonna be their king. and the sorry thing is, the 'fouth estate' coluded in every way possible and still say the chimperor has new clothes.

[Raster]

23. ralph reed is one baby-faced, black-hearted bastard...

...former disciple of lee atwater and a graduate of the lee atwater school or political dirty tricks.

[cornermouse]

3. His campaign workers started a rumor mill.

The whispers went something like this "He's mentally unstable." "He has a long history of mental illness." Lies which worked very well for Bush. He topped it off with denial of all responsibility for the attacks. Does this sound familiar? I mean the part about Bush denying all responsibility?

[bearfartinthewoods]

5. i think that was the killer. a lot of people never heard about the

child rumor. it was the idea that mccain was volital. i think the kid rumor was floated in an attempt to get mccain to prove the instability meme by freaking out in public.

[Ivote]

6. Speaking about

Ralph Reed it was said yesterday in another thread that he and Frank Luntz were seen at the Clark pancake breakfast. Anyone have any more info on this?

[SoCalDem]

7. Lots of dirty money...lots of stupid people...a compliant media

and a hefty dose of 24/7 right winger hate radio hosts, feeding the swill to the dumb folks..

The Wylie brothers plastered the airwaves with ads claming that McCain voted against Breast cancer research.. and that he voted against clean air legislation.. These ads an in NY too..

Slimy hucksters used push-polling to ask them if they would vote for him if they knew that he had a "black" child.. of that he had an "illegitimate" child??

They called him all kinds of things, and of course the local yokels were too ignorant to do the research.

[slor]

8. And yet McCain...

is following behind the Democratic race locations to support that baboon buffoon bush. In agree, he was savaged by bush in S.C. but his continued support tempers any sympathy I felt for him.

[slor]

10. Also...

someone recently posted a link to an old story from that race written by none other than tucker carlson slamming bush and defending McCain. First good read from that milquetoast I have ever read.

[izzie]

9. All the above plus these also

He got the big Right wing boys to go with him before he said he was going to run.I recall thinking, who would vote for this ex-drunk that cashed in his father's chips. It also helped the news was so nice to him. You knew it was going to be pay back to all the money people for years and with our money.And he would leave the country a mess just as he left Texas. We in this party made an error, thinking every one would see all this.I do wish Gore had just been Gore, when he ran.

[GringoTex]

12. Dean clone

People with thick necks, shoe-horned smiles, and uncontrollable tempers can't win a nomination.

[snippy]

13. Racism and lies.

Bush instructed his campaign to spread the rumor during the 2000 South Carolina republican primary that John McCain had what the Bush supporters called a "nigger daughter." Bush was referring to McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh. I consider this to be the most informative incident in Bush's political life. It defines Bush's values, morals, principles, ethics, honor, integrity, honesty, and Christianity.

Bush also instructed his campaign to spread the rumor during that primary that John McCain had two illegitimate daughters. I actually saw the man in charge of spreading this rumor interviewed on CNN. He freely admitted his responsibility for spreading the rumor and could not have been more proud of himself. He boasted that it was the perfect rumor to spread because it was a "universal negative" and therefore could not be disproved.

These are only two examples of Bush's racism and lies during the 2000 republican primary campaign, but South Carolina was crucial to Bush after losing so badly in New Hampshire. That is why after the New Hampshire primary Bush told his father "It's going to get ugly."

[Frank Rose]

14. Karl Rove

and a bag full of dirty tricks left over from Lee Attwater. Push polling, fake memmos leaked to the media, and a network set up to support it all. McCain is not a liberal, therefore not a good guy, IMO, but a much better man than bush.

[KG]

16. because the chimp was who RWers wanted to run.

no way in hell was mccain ever going to get the nomination.

[SoCalDem]

18. Poppy Bush and his pals spent EIGHT LONG YEARS

in Texas ..stewing about all the stuff they could not get done because Poppy probably had those things planned for his second term..

Jebster was supposed to be the annointed one, but Columba was caught smuggling stuff through customs, right around the time that they would have started the promotion , so the dumb brother was next in line..

There was never any doubt.. They were collecting slush fund money in 1998.. McCain was the fly in the ointment.. I think if they could have found a way to kill him and get away with it, they would have.. He really gave them a run for their money..

Their desperation was borne out by the SCOTUS debacle.. If they were not desperate to occupy the WH, they would have just demanded a full state recount..

* started the "plan" with breakneck speed (cannot count on 8 yrs)There is NOTHING that he has not "reformed,re-adjusted,fixed, updated etc.)..

Reagan had 8 yrs, but they did not take it as far as they wanted..Bush 1 wimped out, and waited..and then did not get the 2nd ter...

[KG]

21. thanks for the long version!

:)

[Eric J in MN]

19. And yet with all the dirty tricks people listed in this thread, McCain is

And yet with all the dirty tricks people listed in this thread, McCain is campaigning for George W. in NH right now

McCain said on "Hardball" Friday that in spite of the lies from the push-polls, he doesn't want to "look back in anger."

My response is, you don't have to be angry, but don't support Bush, either.

[Southsideirish]

24. 'could never understand how McCain could support bush after what

they did to him in SC. I thought less of him for that.

[Norbert]

20. The Day McCain won the Michigan Primary

the whores led by Rush pummelled McCain saying real Republicans didn't vote for McCain. Rove worked his magic and the rest is history.

[mlawson]

25. The power of the party machine.

No other way could he have done it.

[FredScuttle]

26. I also seem to remember the whispers

spread by Bush's foot soldiers that McCain "betrayed" his fellow POWs while in captivity. Urban myth or is there some validity to this, fellow DUers?

In any case, Bush's other smears of McCain in the 2000 primaries stands as one of the most disgraceful moments in politics in our nation's history...and that's saying something.