Despite the early encouraging mood of the Log Cabin Republicans, John McCain\u2019s all-out final push and rousing call to action seems to have come too late. McCain\u2019s voice, however hoarse it may have been after a long and arduous day of campaigning, did not suggest defeat.<\/p>\n
Late on the eve\u00a0of Election Day, Republican presidential nominee Sen.\u00a0John McCain wound up a whirlwind seven-state sweep across what were seen as the election\u2019s key\u00a0battleground states with a stirring speech in his home\u00a0state of Arizona. Before the Arizona senator took to the\u00a0podium to make his final stand on Monday night, he was\u00a0introduced by his wife, Cindy, whose voice quavered as\u00a0she choked up while expressing pride in her husband\u00a0and his accomplishments.<\/p>\n
Some may have\u00a0perceived Mrs. McCain\u2019s show of emotion as a natural\u00a0reaction to the end of an exhausting and rigorous campaign,\u00a0but others wondered if it was a telltale omen of an\u00a0impending defeat. If it was, nothing in John\u00a0McCain\u2019s voice, however hoarse it may have been after\u00a0a long and arduous day of campaigning, suggested as\u00a0much.<\/p>\n
Surrounded by his\u00a0closest friends in the Senate, senators Joe Lieberman\u00a0of Connecticut and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, McCain implored the excited crowd in Prescott, Ariz., to\u00a0stand up and fight with him one last time as polls\u00a0showed him gaining on his Democratic rival Barack Obama\u00a0amongst the constituencies that would decide the 2008 race\u00a0for the White House. However, McCain\u2019s all-out\u00a0final push and rousing call to action seems to have\u00a0come too late.<\/p>\n
Buoyed by what\u00a0appeared to be a close race, Log Cabin Republicans kicked\u00a0off Election Day in Washington, D.C., on a note that was\u00a0simultaneously positive and defiant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re optimistic about the election,\u201d\u00a0Log Cabin Republicans president Patrick Sammon said\u00a0via e-mail early on Tuesday. \u201cThe news media seems to\u00a0have forgotten that voters elect presidents, not political\u00a0pundits. Every vote counts.”<\/p>\n
Scott Tucker, Log\u00a0Cabin Republicans communication director, echoed that\u00a0sentiment, describing the mood in their offices as\u00a0\u201chopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur\u00a0national staff spent the morning waving signs for McCain on\u00a0street corners and at a Metro station in\u00a0Virginia,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n
The sense that\u00a0John McCain might pull off the biggest political upset of\u00a0all time still floated gingerly around Republican\u00a0circles.<\/p>\n
Despite the\u00a0encouraging mood of the Log Cabin Republicans, another\u00a0conservative Washington insider expressed a slightly less\u00a0enthusiastic outlook on the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m being told by some Republican insiders\u00a0that the mood right now is \u2018expect the worst\u00a0and hope for the best,\u2019\u201d said Washington,\u00a0D.C.\u2013based communications consultant and\u00a0conservative political commentator Marc Destito.<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed\u00a0an incredibly long line at my polling station in D.C. this\u00a0morning. Usually in D.C. the general election is an\u00a0afterthought. The heavier turnout takes place during\u00a0the primary since it is a Democratic city and that is\u00a0when the true suspense happens. By Election Day it is a\u00a0foregone conclusion who will win in D.C. But this year it\u00a0almost seemed as if people were lining up, knowing\u00a0Obama would carry the District, but just to be able to\u00a0say that they cast their vote for something\u00a0historic,\u201d Destito continued.<\/p>\n
By late afternoon\u00a0the mood among the GOP faithful seemed to be growing\u00a0more grim despite remaining somewhat cautiously\u00a0optimistic.<\/p>\n
While one\u00a0Republican commentator excitedly bragged that things looked\u00a0good because McCain was projected the winner in Kentucky\u00a0early on in the evening, two others seemed resigned to\u00a0defeat even at that early stage in what would\u00a0ultimately turn into an evening filled with disappointment\u00a0for the GOP.<\/p>\n
When asked how\u00a0she would be spending election night, one Republican\u00a0activist simply said she\u2019d be \u201cdrinking\u00a0heavily.\u201d When asked where the Republican Party\u00a0will go\u00a0from here, another said, \u201cFigure out how\u00a0to lose the moose.\u201d<\/p>\n
As most news\u00a0outlets began to call the crucial states of Pennsylvania and\u00a0Ohio for Barack Obama and it became increasingly apparent\u00a0that McCain\u2019s chances of winning were fading,\u00a0the Log Cabin Republicans weighed in on the\u00a0evening\u2019s developments by announcing,\u00a0\u201cWe\u00a0will be issuing a statement when a winner is\u00a0declared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, it\u00a0wasn\u2019t long thereafter before a winner was indeed\u00a0declared. As soon as the polls closed in California,\u00a0Barack Obama went over the top and Senator McCain\u00a0quickly conceded in a conciliatory address. At that\u00a0point, Log Cabin Republicans president Patrick Sammon issued\u00a0the following statement:<\/p>\n
“Log Cabin\u00a0congratulates Sen. Barack Obama on his historic victory.\u00a0While Log Cabin Republicans proudly supported Sen. JohnMcCain, we recognize this important moment in American\u00a0history.<\/p>\n
“On behalf of Log\u00a0Cabin Republicans members all across the country, we\u00a0thank Senator McCain for his service to our country. He\u00a0should be proud of the campaign he ran, especially his\u00a0efforts to reach out to gay and lesbian Americans. He\u00a0was the most pro-gay GOP presidential nominee in\u00a0American history. We were proud to stand with him in this\u00a0historic election.”<\/p>\n
And so the day\u00a0that began with hope on all sides ended happily for some,\u00a0and not so much for others.<\/p>\n
Originally published at Advocate.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. To read this post and more by Duane Wells at the Advocate, click here<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite the early encouraging mood of the Log Cabin Republicans, John McCain\u2019s all-out final push and rousing call to action seems to have come too late. McCain\u2019s voice, however hoarse it may have been after a long and arduous day of campaigning, did not suggest defeat. Late on the eve\u00a0of Election Day, Republican presidential nominee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88889,"featured_media":744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1146,1591],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-politics","tag-lgbtq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5575,"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/5575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theduanewells.com\/staging3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}