Is Romney the next Kerry?

[Mr Khan]

badgenome said:

Mr Khan said:

McCain's problems were distinct from Kerry's. He shares some of Romney's problems, namely that he had to radicalize himself in pursuit of the Republican nomination, and thus was stuck in some sort of political no-man's-land when election time came about. Kerry's problem was that he was (or at least was perceived as being) kinda wishy-washy, whereas McCain made a real name for himself with successful bipartisan efforts that he could have easily used to make himself highly appealing, but he was backed into a corner by the far right, and then trapped like a deer in the headlights the rest of the cycle, unable to effectively fight back.

That's the threadbare old narrative that's trotted out every time. "X had to move to the far, far, far right, and that's why he lost." But it isn't the case. McCain scarcely moved in the primaries, save adopting a more enforcement-first approach to pursuing immigration reform, and he certainly didn't go hard right. He lost in part because he had no real vision to offer and so couldn't be a credible alternative to Obama, and in part because after eight years of Bush the Republican Party was an absolute shambles and it should have been the Democrats' election to lose anyway, but mostly he lost because Barack Obama was the fucking Kwisatz Haderach.

Not necessarily that he had to move to the right per se, but that he had to act that way. He seemed uncomfortable with what he had to, and who he had to be. Election McCain didn't jive with pre-election McCain, and a lot of people (those who were aware of pre-election McCain, anyway) seemed to notice the difference.