McCain, Palin and the campaign had no clear message. Instead they hopped from one sound bite, one theme to another. But there was neither consistency nor message discipline.
McCain started out his campaign thinking the War in Iraq would be a big issue and his call for a "surge," which was partly responsible for stemming the terrible violence there, would be seen as an example of brilliant leadership. His military background, including five years spent as a POW, seemed perfect credentials for a war time presidency. The "crisis" in Georgia only amplified his credentials, or so he thought. Unfortunately, Iraq became a side issue and McCain became flustered.
McCain also thought his theme might be experience, especially since he was running against a first term senator. But he apparently wasn't paying attention when Hillary used the experience argument and failed. Perhaps he thought he had better experience, or being male he was more believable as a commander in chief. Whatever the reason, he continued with the experience argument for far too long when Obama's change argument was what the people wanted.
So he began various attempts to define himself as a change agent and Obama as too risky, too untested, too radical. First he talked about allowing offshore oil drilling and for a week or so led chants of "drill, baby, drill." When that had limited appeal, he started attacking Obama as a celebrity, with ads featuring Paris Hilton. When that didn't work he chose a female vice presidential running mate, thinking he could win over disgruntled Hillary voters. Just about the time that the people were catching on to the ignorance of his running mate, the economic crisis unfolded and he suspended his campaign and said he wouldn't debate. When that didn't turn out too well, he played the fear card, and began attacking Obama over his limited association with Bill Ayers - calling him a pal of terrorists. When that didn't work he and Palin went back to the "maverick" theme. When that didn't work he found Joe the Plumber and began talking about Obama raising taxes and being a "socialist."
While Obama maintained his theme of change, and presented idea after idea that would be representative of change, McCain lurched from one attack or gimmick to another, with no clear message and no overarching theme. And by the end of the campaign, he and Palin seemed not to even be on the same page. How could they be? No one knew from day to day what hymn they were supposed to be singing. Perhaps they didn't even have the same hymnals.
Some have said that McCain failed to articulate a clear message because he really isn't ideological. He's more of lone wolf, a Senator who votes for practical rather than ideological reasons, and perhaps that is true. He was in a real dilemma, then, as the presidential candidate of a party that has been purely ideological for years, appealing to the most extreme right wing elements of the country, all the while knowing he had to appeal to independents as well.
It was, perhaps, an impossible task. With a base and a president that are extremely ideological, and the majority of the country rejecting that president, it was going to be difficult to win a large enough group of voters to defeat the change candidate. So he tried a little traditional ideology, a little smear and fear, a pander to women with a female candidate, and a little "maverick." But there were no new ideas and no clear message about how to fix the country, and that was a huge problem.
Instead, McCain came off as erratic and unfocused, at times desperate and at times a little unhinged. While many still liked the old McCain, the McCain of 2000, the 2008 version of McCain could not provide the leadership so desperately needed in this time of economic crisis.
