Independents?

John McCain was supposed to have high standing among a group of people labeled by the Main Stream Media as independents.

John McCain was heartily endorsed by independent and centrist Republicans like David Brooks. He enjoyed a large turnout by the "independents" in the 2008 New Hampshire primary. They seemed to be driving up his polling numbers on RealClearPolitics.com, in fact McCain was the only person who was out polling both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Barack Obama -the Senator with the most liberal record in the US Senate and Illinois state senate- wasn't supposed to be able to win over these 'independents' because his record was too partisan. McCain looked like he was going to win Republicans and the centrists.

But there were skeptics.

Rush Limbaugh refused to endorse McCain at any point in the primaries. In fact, he ended up endorsing Mitt Romney (who McCain had savagely attacked). Rush insisted that we had nominated a candidate who favored the "independent" voters, and that this would cost us the election or it would be the death of our party even if he did win.

Eventually Rush claimed McCain's pick of Sarah Palin was brilliant, but he insisted the election would be a turnout election. In a turnout election, the 'centrists' or 'undecideds' do not determine the outcome. The party with the most voters determines the election.

When McCain won the party's endorsement for president in 2008 everything suddenly changed. The New York Times, which had recommended McCain claimed (the very next day) that McCain was having a scandalous relationship with one of his staffers, a lobbyist. Of course, the New York Times is a big joke, so it didn't hurt McCain too much.

But bit by bit, the newspapers and pundits who had spoke so highly of McCain during the primaries began to turn on him and endorse Barack Obama. Anchors described Barack Obama -a hyperpartisan- as sending shivers up their legs. Andrea Mitchel accused McCain of resorting to unfair tactics -even as McCain refused to put Obama's crazy pastor in his campaign videos.

John McCain had been made by the "independent" and "truly objective" news anchors. Yet he was also destroyed by them at the last moment. Voters decided they'd rather have a president who stands for something (even something villainous like Obama) than a president who would fall for anything (and McCain's erratic stance-changing -an artifact of trying to please diverse groups- proved him to be exactly that).

From what I've been reading, Republican voters are shifting to the right. They have seen the damage that a candidate who tries to be 'all things to all people' can do to the party in John McCain.