Nov 16 2008
DeMint: McCain betrayed Republican principles
DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain’s record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.
“McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver’s seat,” DeMint said. “His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn’t fit the label, but he was our package.”
Bush and Stevens, he said, had corrupted the party brand by expanding the size of government and engaging in wasteful government spending. Had Republicans not strayed from their core beliefs in recent years, DeMint argued, the election results might have been different.
“Americans do prefer a traditional conservative government,” he said. “They just did not believe Republicans were going to give it to them.”
And this has been rehashed many times since the election by people in Republican circles, but I agree with what DeMint was saying. McCain was not able to raise a competitive war chest against Obama because Republican donors just didn’t trust him. Look at the tens of thousands that would show up to hear Obama speak and then see how lackluster support was for McCain. McCain’s time was in 2000. He should have been the Republican nominee then and I think he would have won and I think American would be on a much better track today than it is under George Bush, but that’s then and this is now.
But look, the damage was done to the GOP long before McCain’s quest for the White House. The Bush neocons put the party on life support and I don’t think there was much McCain could have done to change the results of this election. The will exists within the grassroots of the GOP to fix the mess. I have no doubt they’ll pick themselves up and get back in the race.
