The Hulshof versus McCain campaigns: Class versus no class

In the days following the Obama victory in the presidential race and Jay Nixon's win in the gubernatorial contest, Missourians have had a chance to see the best ... and worst ... of both worlds when it comes to losing campaigns.

Let's compare and contrast the reactions of the people working on the John McCain for President campaign and the Kenny Hulshof for Governor campaign. We'll start with the Hulshof folks, who have demonstrated a lot of class in defeat. Full disclosure ... I know many of these people - they're friends of mine (I have friends in the Nixon camp, as well, but the focus of this piece is on the campaigns that came in second.)

These folks in the Hulshof campaign would say things to me because they're friends and they trust me. Yet ... I have only heard the best of comments. Their thoughts in the hours and days following Tuesday's voting are positive. They utter comments like ... "Jay ran a great campaign." No doubt about that! As for what went wrong ... they'll tell you that while Jay had been running for years, Kenny didn't get started until Governor Matt Blunt decided, in January, not to seek a second term ... and that put Kenny at a disadvantage - There can be no doubt this is true. They'll also tell you the tough primary battle with Sarah Steelman made it tough for Kenny - There can be no doubt this is true. They'll say Jay had a big dollar advantage - This, too, is true. And, they'll say Kenny was at a disadvantage because he was not known in many parts of the state while Jay had run for statewide office numerous times - Yet another truism.

While you hear people offering reasons ... some might even call them excuses ... what you don't hear is sniping at anybody for being at fault.

Let's go to the McCain people ... where staffers have been slamming Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. These are anonymous sources making these comments ... many of these people undoubtedly running for cover as they try to find the next campaign to ruin ... er ... run. What's disappointing to me, as a member of the media, is that reporters are taking these comments and going with them.

Our policy at the Missourinet is to use anonymous sources if what they are telling us is newsworthy. For example ... the person who tipped me off last week about the Sarah Palin rally at the State Capitol. I trusted the source and ran with the story ... because it was newsworthy. Gossip from the campaign trail in the wake of a huge defeat - especially from people who aren't man (or woman) enough to admit to spreading this gossip - is not something we would air. There is plenty of gossip from the State Capitol in Jefferson City ... but we don't run with it ... because it's unsubstantiated rumor. What we are seeing from the disgruntled McCain staffers is little more than sour grapes from a bunch of losers who are looking for a scapegoat. Scapegoat - thy name is Sarah.

CNN's Campbell Brown has done a piece ... her "Cutting Through the Bull" feature ... in which she takes the anonymous staffers to task for heaping criticism on the very person they put forward as the VP nominee. As Brown points out ... the Alaska Governor didn't change who she was ... and if the staffers who thought she was a great pick had a change of heart somewhere along the way ... it wasn't because of Sarah ... it was because the staffers who picked her didn't do their homework and made the wrong choice.

I wrote a couple of days ago about the McCain campaign ... which I called the worst presidential campaign I have ever covered (and I was working in Washington during the Dole campaign of '96!) To blame Sarah Palin for what went wrong is ridiculous. Chatting with Missourinet New Director Bob Priddy, we both agreed that Sarah's three appearances in Missouri in the final week or so of the campaign might have been the determining factor in giving John McCain his slim margin of victory in the Show-Me State. Clearly, when John McCain draws 3,000 people to a rally in St. Charles and 6,000 to an event in Belton, near Kansas City ... and Sarah draws 20,000 in Springfield, 10,000 in Cape Girardeau, and 17,000 to 20,000 in Jefferson City ... Sarah was NOT the problem.

So much for the blame game. As a member of the media ... I would hope, in the future, members of the national media who have been quick to report gossip from these anonymous sources would ask these sources to have the cojones to come out from behind the curtain and snipe on the record ... to exhibit a bit of class. It's doubtful these anonymous sources will do that, though, because it might impede their efforts to get work on another campaign ... and ruin that campaign the way they ruined this one.

- Steve Walsh