This was our candidate

I don't want to keep talking about how much I don't like John McCain. He's over, he's done, he's not running for president ever, ever again. And he can't really be in the Senate that much longer, can he?

But ok, one more anti-McCain comment.

This story, about a fake McCain campaign official leaking information from the campaign which was then aired by our gullible media (which is now seeking to blame bloggers and while no one likes pointing and laughing at liberal bloggers who spread these fairy tales more than me, I feel like Fox News, the NY Times, MSNBC, etc. etc. really ought to have, oh I dunno, done a little of the fact checking for which they are paid before running this false story) just kills me. While yes, we blame the media (see parenthesis above), the real culpable person here is John McCain! How did they let a fake staffer speak for the campaign, ever? Where was the guy saying "hmm, I don't think we have a Martin Eisenstadt on staff"?

I've been on a campaign or two in my day. On the bigger campaigns it's true you might not know all the important staff. But there is no one, let me say it again, NO ONE, getting quoted in the media who is not a big dog on the campaign. The smaller people are simply not allowed to talk to the press. And yet no one on the McCain campaign caught this? It was symptomatic of what was wrong with the campaign. They spent all this time on his biography (which, by the way, never ever ever ever ever wins elections) and what a bi-partisan he was, but they couldn't keep control of information coming out of the campaign. I've said it before, we deserved to lose. That doesn't mean Obama deserved to win (the story today about how Hillary would have won by a larger margin does not surprise me at all) but the McCain campaign was a disaster area and no one did anything about it.

For '12 our goal should not only be to pick a true conservative to run against Obama (but that should be the primary goal, with no distraction about getting independents or blah blah crossover Democrats) but also someone who has had executive experience and has managed more than just his, or her, Senate staff. It's important to elect a manager, not a talker. "No Senators" should be the official slogan of '12.