New Delhi/London: November 5, 2008 – IR Summary/ BBC - Most of the Americans did not know about his decades of excellent service, his breath-taking heroism as a war hero in Vietnam, his foreign policy expertise and his ability to reach across the Congressional aisle, McCain failed to give proper publicity of his national and international services rendered to his country for lack of funds, while Obama did his best publicity and attracted the people like a Hollywood star. Astrologically, his luck with Palin also clashed among other reasons and that made him to lose the game. But Americans would actually realize this after some time whether they lost a great person like McCain?
Mr McCain’s opponent was largely untested, inexperienced and, initially at least, unknown; his race only added to his challenge. If there is such a thing as a perfect political storm though, John McCain found himself caught in the middle of it. In a leaky boat. With limited fuel.
With Obama’s victory, no market effect is noticed.
Financial squeeze
From the start, his biggest problem was finding the money to compete with Barack Obama’s $650m (£403m) campaign juggernaut. By accepting federal funding (which Mr Obama declined) he capped his general election campaign spending at $85m (£53m).£53m). He also struggled to free himself from association with the Bush years. association with the Bush years.
Of course much more than that was spent by the Republican National Committee and other pro-McCain groups, but Mr McCain could never seriously challenge Mr Obama’s ability to dominate the TV airwaves – even in states that were traditionally Republican.
Worse, Mr Obama had the money to force him to compete in states he should have been able to rely on, which reduced the amount of money Mr McCain had for states he needed to target.
His other big problem was in trying to separate himself from one of the most unpopular presidents in American history and a Congress which had been Republican for six of the past eight years.
As a mostly loyal Republican, his record was one of support for President George W Bush, which Barack Obama never let him forget.
Mr McCain insisted that he would be a very different president, without explicitly rejecting George Bush’s presidency. Instead he tried to position himself as a maverick who had gone his own way in the past.
But conservative Republicans knew all too well that “maverick” also meant going against them on issues such as immigration and campaign finance reform.
The right-wing, evangelical Republicans who had got Mr Bush elected were unhappy about Mr McCain from the start. That forced him into selecting a vice-presidential candidate who would reassure them.
Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska was a huge gamble from the start.
Mr McCain had said that the only thing he would look for in his vice-president was the ability to be president. Given that he would have been the oldest first-term president in history that seemed particularly relevant.
Palin problems
But choosing someone with no national experience and no foreign experience as his running mate raised questions about his judgement and undermined his main argument against Mr Obama.Palin, in fact, made it difficult for John McCain to broaden his appeal. More
