Despite the early
encouraging mood of the Log Cabin Republicans, John
McCain’s all-out final push and rousing call to
action seems to have come too late. McCain’s
voice, however hoarse it may have been after a long
and arduous day of campaigning, did not suggest
defeat.
Late on the eve
of Election Day, Republican presidential nominee Sen.
John McCain wound up a whirlwind seven-state sweep across
what were seen as the election’s key
battleground states with a stirring speech in his home
state of Arizona. Before the Arizona senator took to the
podium to make his final stand on Monday night, he was
introduced by his wife, Cindy, whose voice quavered as
she choked up while expressing pride in her husband
and his accomplishments.
Some may have
perceived Mrs. McCain’s show of emotion as a natural
reaction to the end of an exhausting and rigorous campaign,
but others wondered if it was a telltale omen of an
impending defeat. If it was, nothing in John
McCain’s voice, however hoarse it may have been after
a long and arduous day of campaigning, suggested as
much.
Surrounded by his
closest friends in the Senate, senators Joe Lieberman
of Connecticut and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, McCain
implored the excited crowd in Prescott, Ariz., to
stand up and fight with him one last time as polls
showed him gaining on his Democratic rival Barack Obama
amongst the constituencies that would decide the 2008 race
for the White House. However, McCain’s all-out
final push and rousing call to action seems to have
come too late.
Buoyed by what
appeared to be a close race, Log Cabin Republicans kicked
off Election Day in Washington, D.C., on a note that was
simultaneously positive and defiant.
“We’re optimistic about the election,”
Log Cabin Republicans president Patrick Sammon said
via e-mail early on Tuesday. “The news media seems to
have forgotten that voters elect presidents, not political
pundits. Every vote counts."
Scott Tucker, Log
Cabin Republicans communication director, echoed that
sentiment, describing the mood in their offices as
“hopeful.”
“Our
national staff spent the morning waving signs for McCain on
street corners and at a Metro station in
Virginia,” Tucker said.
The sense that
John McCain might pull off the biggest political upset of
all time still floated gingerly around Republican
circles.
Despite the
encouraging mood of the Log Cabin Republicans, another
conservative Washington insider expressed a slightly less
enthusiastic outlook on the day.
“I’m being told by some Republican insiders
that the mood right now is ‘expect the worst
and hope for the best,’” said Washington,
D.C.–based communications consultant and
conservative political commentator Marc Destito.
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