The American Tory

I have been asking myself this question for nearly a year now. I still do not have a good answer to the question, but I have a few potential answers:

1) The media thought the base loved Bush. The base hates Bush and McCain tried to paint himself as Bush’s VP carrying the flag with the surge and immigration reform. Republicans have turned against the incompetent fool and McCain should just be Dick Cheney at this point.

2) People doubted Rudy Giuliani. I have never doubted Giuliani, but many wrote him off before the 2006 election. I was one of the few people who viewed him as a viable candidate with a good shot of winning.

3) McCain lost his mantle as the moderate. By tying himself to Bush and the surge, McCain pissed off the moderates. Giuliani also has squeezed him by being a moderate in the mold of many suburban Republicans – socially liberal, fiscally conservative. McCain is a populist and would never appeal to those votes unless he shed his opposition for abortion.

4) The media hyped the importance of social conservatives. The fact that Rudy Giuliani is still leading the national polls and most of the polls in the big states indicate how exaggerated the influence of the social conservative wing was by the media.

The big winner of McCain’s fall is Rudy Giuliani. Now he can consolidate the moderate/liberal Republican vote and go for the free market vote also because of his strong fiscal record. On top of this, he will have the tough guy mantle from NYC.