The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

I Had Been Repeating That The Internet Changed Everything

Posted on | November 7, 2012 | 39 Comments

by Smitty

That notion was handed to me. Apparently, it has to get worse before it gets better. At least we won’t hear about how we should get rid of the electoral college for another four years.

A broader point that needs to sink home is that, given a choice between Party A and Party Mostly A, the country seems to be holding with Party A. The fundamental reform of taxation, entitlements, and the Federal Reserve that are truly required seem too radical for GOP candidates. If voters can’t tell the difference between candidates, it looks like they hold what they’ve got.

For my part, I don’t do despair. I served as a election officer, pulling close to an 18 hour day. I just don’t see where shenanigans could have occurred. My little 4.5k chunk of electorate went 2:1 Democrat, up and down the ticket, for the 55% of it we saw in person. Can’t speak for early voters and absentee ballots. Those who love liberty have got to be more involved, not less. Cede not the fray to the foe, or the whole effort is lost.

What I do is what Christians do: pray. Pray for wisdom, peace, guidance. Also, rest. I slept poorly on 05 November, and haven’t done well since dragging home. I’ll be going into semi-retirement from blogging, cutting way back on the amount of time I spend on all of these social network endeavors, and finding therapy in fiction. At least until I get hauled off to Room 101.

Besides: by his third or fourth term, President Obama will probably have a hang of this whole zany economics thing.

Update: generously linked at The Pirates Cove, Daily Pundit, Nathan J. Martin, Daley Gator, Stacy On The Right, The Lonely Conservative, and Hogewash.

Category: Election 2012

Comments

39 Responses to “I Had Been Repeating That The Internet Changed Everything”

  1. Adjoran
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:47 am

    The fundamental reform of taxation, entitlements, and the Federal Reserve that are truly required seem too radical for GOP candidates.

    Romney promised tax reform and Medicare reform, to repeal ObamaCare, and not to reappoint Bernanke. The electorate wasn’t buying.

    Don’t worry, next time you can just flood the net with RON PAUL!!!! posts, and all will be well.

  2. scarymatt
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:52 am

    Zany economics, sure. I’m sure his grasp of reality won’t be any better.

  3. JDP
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:56 am

    what Adjoran said.

    I don’t buy what will be the predictable talk-radio argument that Romney was a milquetoast moderate or the inevitable argument that the only reason the GOP lost was the culture war.

    while i don’t wanna do the mirror image of the post-2004 Democratic “all our ideas are perfect, just our messaging is wrong” a large part of this election, i think, is a softer version of what this blog owner argued when McCain lost, this perception of Romney as a Mr. Burns figure.

  4. JDP
    November 7th, 2012 @ 5:58 am

    I mean if the media wants to argue Romney lost states like Ohio because of #WaronWomen idiotic rhetoric, they can go ahead, maybe I am underestimating the extent to which Democratic voters in the Midwest are now like pedal-to-the-metal Dems here in CA. i somehow doubt it.

  5. Dandapani
    November 7th, 2012 @ 6:13 am

    Romney’s estimate of 47% takers was low. We are more like 52% with a permanent taker majority. Makers will continue to decline over the next four years. Welcome to Greece.

  6. smitty
    November 7th, 2012 @ 6:33 am

    Don’t worry, next time you can just flood the net with RON PAUL!!!! posts, and all will be well.

    And that is how you do a rebuttal. Touche.

  7. Shawn Gillogly
    November 7th, 2012 @ 7:36 am

    Grim night. No doubt about that. My takeaways:

    1) Obama is the luckiest politician who’s ever lived. He’s going down by any statistical measure, until Sandy arrives. Then he swoops in, looks Presidential, sucks the air out of the rest of the race, and gets a RINO Gov to slobknob him so he can look ‘bipartisan.’ I’m not in the “The GOP lost b/c of Sandy camp.” But those images were hard to get away from, especially since they were so close to election day. If we might have had another week of “What the gov’t did wrong w/ Sandy” stories, they might have been countered. But there wasn’t another week.

    2) Sorry to say I was right. But I’ll say it: Romney was a poor messenger. I said it in the Primaries. I’ll say it now. He actually ran, in many ways, a stronger campaign than I thought it would. But he was still flawed. It’s hard to keep Obamacare on the table when you’re the guy who made it possible. While he did well when jobs were at the fore, he needed to attack on more than one front. Choosing ‘not’ to engage on Libya in the final debate befuddled me then, and I’m not buying it helped now. There were ways to do it without going all-in on conspiracy theories. When you have an opponent down, finish him. Instead, Romney reverted to the nature of a cautious investor and played Four Corners offense, counting on stasis to carry him through. See point 1 for what blew away the stasis.

    3) There IS a fundamental problem strategically with the GOP. I’m not into the whole ‘demographic shift’ nonsense. I think a freedom oriented message can win. If it’s tailored properly. But the “Red State” Karl Rove strategy isn’t going to cut it. The GOP cannot write off entire sections of the country. It can’t count on winning NOTHING in the NE, and NOTHING on the Pacific Coast, and winning an election, even w/ a solid South. Besides, IMHO, it’s just poor tactics to let an opponent have such an absolute base to start from.

    4) The War On Women hurt because, quite frankly, several GOP nominees were idiots. A political campaign is NO place for a discussion on Calvinist Sovereignty of God. Yes, that means you Mourdock, and you too Akin. I’m not saying faith can’t be part of your message. But bring the POSITIVES of it to bear, please. This is something I do think Romney and Ryan, personally, did well. If you’re too stupid to realize that the Left is going to use the Problem of Evil to trip up Social Conservatives, you don’t belong in politics. The right answer is, “Two wrongs don’t make a right, and victimizing an innocent doesn’t solve the problem.”

    Oh well. Like Bob Dylan sang: “It’s Not Dark Yet. But it’s Gettin’ There.”

  8. Wombat_socho
    November 7th, 2012 @ 7:37 am

    It was pretty much the same thing down in my precinct. WTF, America.

  9. A Suggested Program of Recovery | hogewash
    November 7th, 2012 @ 7:40 am

    […] Suggested Program of Recovery Posted on 7 November, 2012 by wjjhoge Smitty has a post-election post up that contains these words: Apparently, it has to get worse before it […]

  10. benning
    November 7th, 2012 @ 7:51 am

    Smitty, take a day or tow, then get back to blogging. We expect you to continue! Dammit, we expect it! 🙂

  11. Forward, To What? | The Lonely Conservative
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:11 am

    […] 7, 2012By Lonely ConservativeIt’s a sad day in America. So, now what? I don’t know. As Smitty noted, things aren’t going to get better any time soon.Apparently, it has to get worse before it […]

  12. rosalie
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:12 am

    “I’ll be going into semi-retirement from blogging, cutting way back on the amount of time I spend on all of these social network endeavors, and finding therapy in fiction. At least until I get hauled off to Room 101.”
    Take some time off but, please, not too much time. I know I’m being selfish, but we need your posts.

  13. Quartermaster
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:24 am

    Your last sentence is one of the more idiotic things you’ve said this year. Your boy Mittens got 8 million fewer votes than McNasty did. As Smitty has pointed out, and I pointed out last winter, Mittens isn’t different enough from Obama to matter. He’s been too much of an unprincipled mush in the past, so why should anyone believe him when he says he’ll be differernt. Bush was a Liberal TX Governor, and that’s how he behaved. Why should anyone think Mittens will be any different than the Libtard MassGov he was?
    Mitten’s loss can not be laid at the door of Paul. It is at the feet of you MittTards.

  14. Frantz Korfhage
    November 7th, 2012 @ 8:29 am

    Relax – read this excellent article: http://www.redstate.com/2012/11/07/status-quo-ante/

  15. Mike G.
    November 7th, 2012 @ 9:03 am

    Besides: by his third or fourth term, President Obama will probably have a hang of this whole zany economics thing.

    Yeah, that’s the scary part.

  16. JeffS
    November 7th, 2012 @ 9:29 am

    The electorate wasn’t buying.

    If you mean the electorate wasn’t buying Mitts as the messenger, yes.

    If you mean that America has a surplus of low information voters and/or socialists (and I probably am repeating myself there) who want nothing but bread and circuses, I concur.

    But Smitty (and others) wasn’t wrong to push Romney as the candidate of choice. They don’t deserve your “Ready FIRE aim!” approach. There wasn’t a lot of choice.

    Look to the GOP for that selection. Better yet, focus the ire of Smitty and others in that direction.

    After all, we are all guerrillas now.

  17. CPAguy
    November 7th, 2012 @ 9:30 am

    Fundamentally, I knew this election was lost the second Herman Cain ended his campaign.

    Mitt Romney lost this campaign. Don’t buy into all the demographic talk and the stuff about how Republicans need to be moderate.

    Mitt Romney is as liberal as Obama. The “Great RINO Hope” failed to win.

    Scott Walker was able to win in Wisconsin because he articulated the problems and presented a solution to them.

    If he can win, Conservatism can win across the map.

    We just have to actually have Conservatives spreading the message of Conservatism rather than liberal political opportunist trying to even some of Daddy’s old scores (…i..e Mitt Romney).

  18. CPAguy
    November 7th, 2012 @ 9:31 am

    As if you are surprised.

  19. Next Steps: A word on what we do now – via #SOTR | Stacy on the Right
    November 7th, 2012 @ 9:56 am

    […] I had Been Repeating That The Internet Changed Everything (The Other McCain) […]

  20. Some good thoughts this morning « The Daley Gator
    November 7th, 2012 @ 10:12 am

    […] By “good” I do not mean cheery, or hopeful, I mean “good” as in insightful, useful, because I am not throwing in any towels, I am digging in. My previous post was my rant, and me expressing my fears for the future of America. Now, it is time to do everything I can to fight to save this nation, and turn it back towards the country it can and should be. It looks bleak today, not because we lost the “big game” but because we, as Conservatives, understand the consequences of last night’s results. As Smitty notes, it will get worse before it gets better […]

  21. AngelaTC
    November 7th, 2012 @ 10:34 am

    Good luck with your attempt at withdrawal. But I have found that now that my eyes are open, it’s impossible to close them again. How is does that go, again? What has been seen cannot be unseen?

    I challenge you to NOT see all the USDOT numbers on the sides of small, locally owned service trucks.

  22. rosalie
    November 7th, 2012 @ 10:35 am

    Thanks. I feel a little better. We need some encouraging posts like that now.

  23. AngelaTC
    November 7th, 2012 @ 10:36 am

    RAND Paul 2016 !!!

  24. Deb Zeppelin
    November 7th, 2012 @ 10:45 am

    Thanks for the link to the Red State article. I think I may be ale to get through the rest of this day.

  25. Deb Zeppelin
    November 7th, 2012 @ 10:47 am

    able…..but ale sounds like a good idea rigt now.

  26. richard mcenroe
    November 7th, 2012 @ 11:00 am

    Take some time to decompress, Smitty. But it’s compassionate leave, not a separation from service.

  27. Lessons Learned: What This All Means | Nathan Martin
    November 7th, 2012 @ 12:05 pm

    […] Smitty of The Other McCain […]

  28. David Irelan
    November 7th, 2012 @ 12:10 pm

    Sometimes you gotta laugh ’til it hurts.

    http://kxm.209.mwp.accessdomain.com/2012/11/07/i-had-been-repeating-that-the-internet-changed-everything/

  29. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    November 7th, 2012 @ 12:19 pm

    Smitty: Rest up. Take care of your family. Come back when you are ready. We need you. Thank you for all you do.

    This clip sums up the day rather well…

  30. James Knauer
    November 7th, 2012 @ 12:28 pm

    Well. Good thing Nate Silver is “too effeminate.”

  31. Gloom and Doom | Daily Pundit
    November 7th, 2012 @ 12:30 pm

    […] and Doom Posted on November 7, 2012 9:30 am by Bill Quick I Had Been Repeating That The Internet Changed Everything : The Other McCain I’ll be going into semi-retirement from blogging, cutting way back on the amount of time I […]

  32. robertstacymccain
    November 7th, 2012 @ 12:52 pm

    Grim. Grim indeed. “Gloom, despair and agony on me.”

  33. If All You See… » Pirate's Cove
    November 7th, 2012 @ 1:00 pm

    […] blog of the day is The Other McCain (Smitty), with a post on the Internet changing […]

  34. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:15 pm

    No…this is a whiskey kind of day.

  35. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:16 pm

    THIS.

  36. Bob Belvedere
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:17 pm

    Ahhh…the Hee-Haw Girls have come to ease my worried mind.

  37. Adobe_Walls
    November 7th, 2012 @ 2:39 pm

    WTF indeed.

  38. Real
    November 7th, 2012 @ 11:06 pm

    Fraud, corruption and election-stealing on steroids. How could it be that Romney was pulling 30,000 crowds across the country and the dicktator not more than 2,000 (probably paid) attendees? Not possible. The worst of it is the muslim brotherhood infiltration at top levels of government. The irony: all the gays and women will be the first to be exterminated. Good thing I speak Arabic.

  39. Real
    November 7th, 2012 @ 11:09 pm

    Uh, try the polling places where obozo murals were proudly displayed; election workers wearing obozo hats…and the military votes THAT ARE NEVER COUNTED.
    Can you despair now Mr Holier-than-thou?! Can you “see it” now?!?!?