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A Long, Lackluster Election Day for Republicans

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.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted November 5, 2008
A Long, Lackluster Election Day for Republicans

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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Keywords:  2008 Election  John McCain 
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