Insight of presidential election insiders proves riveting - Boston Globe

[sniffa]

CAMBRIDGE - So, with just a few more weeks, could John McCain have pulled out a victory over Barack Obama?

"No - we lost," McCain's chief pollster, Bill McInturff, said without hesitation before a packed auditorium last night at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. "We were happy it was over."

It was the kind of blunt statement that, while unimaginable just weeks ago, has come to mark the ritual of presidential election postmortems: chummy get-togethers where top aides to the candidates sit together cordially, let bygones be bygones, and talk about what was and what could have been.

The event last night, the latest in a series of postelection roundtables that Harvard has hosted for years, featured McInturff and former McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist who will follow the president-elect into the White House as a senior adviser. PBS's Gwen Ifill moderated.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/12/12/insight_of_presidential_election_insiders_proves_riveting/

This was a good piece and I would have loved to have been there (or at least I hope it is available online). It was only a short subway ride away. x(

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Interesting that the people who were actually in the race can let bygones be bygones, and

yet, many of the supporters of the candidates cannot. This appears to be particularly true of the Palin fringe.

[Two Americas]

4. there is a very good reason for that

We pay a price. The politicians and their flunkies will be just fine, no matter the outcome of an election. Also, campaigning is all they ever do, and they would just as soon we don't bother them between elections so they can focus on fund-raising and on delivering on their promises to the wealthy and powerful few without any static from the riff raff. But since we are living the nightmare they create for us every day, we don't have the luxury of that option, as much as we love, admire and worship them, and as subservient and obedient as we are.

Glad they are all chummy and getting along swell. Aren't they lucky?

[sniffa]

2. Whoops! I meant to post this in the Lounge.

Mods, please move.

[sniffa]

3. Heads up Lounge - this will be covered on Countdown tonight.

:bounce:

[political_Dem]

5. If they are chummy,

then they have little to no conscience about what had happened during the campaign.

Were they asleep with all the hate-rallies McCain and Palin participated in all the way up to the election? I will never forget their words or actions. How can they write this ugliness off?

That's the problem with short memories. They tend to forgive atrocities and try to bury them under the carpet.

Personally, I will also never forget Palin saying that she was "simply telling the truth" and "saw nothing negative" when questioned about her racist language during her stump speeches.

And it cannot be forgotten how McCain asked Obama to repudiate Rep. John Lewis for his message about how the Republicans' rallies looked to the public.

And they still haven't apologized. Not one bit. :grr:

So, no, we can't laugh this away. Their behavior (as well as Obama's dignity throughout the entire election season) will be a mark of history now and in the future.