Yes, they can. And they did. We Republicans lost big in this presidential election, and now we should respectfully hand over the bragging rights to Democrats, with hopes of snagging them back again in four years. Despite the significant loss McCain and the Republican Party experienced Tuesday, we can argue that under the circumstances it could've been a lot worse. And for that reason, we can't be completely devastated.
From the beginning of this race, the media favored Democratic candidates. Actually, from what seems as the beginning of time, the media has favored Democratic candidates. During the primary season, there were 500 more stories printed in the mainstream press about the three leading Democratic candidates than there were for their Republican counterparts.
As the race wore on, it's hard to prove that the media's treatment of John McCain and Barack Obama was close to equivalent. The same idea applied to their vice presidential picks. Stories about Obama and Joe Biden were not only more positive than those on McCain and Sarah Palin, they were also greater in number, giving them more free press.
Studies have already found that when the general campaign season began after the conventions, negative stories about McCain were three times more frequent than those about Obama. The Project for Excellence in Journalism studied 48 news outlets and found that 57 percent of broadcast and print stories about McCain were negative and 14 percent were positive.
On the other hand, only 29 percent of stories about Obama were negative.
Those figures probably don't shock anyone because bias in the media is nothing new. What was new was the enormous amount of money the Democratic Party candidate amassed and spent throughout the campaign. Obama abandoned his promise to take public funds and raised $641 million, almost twice as much as McCain and almost as much as George W. Bush and John Kerry combined in 2004.
This money, and the fact that he shared none of it with his fellow Democratic senators running for office, gave him an edge in swing states. These funds allowed him to hire large numbers of people, travel more and advertise as if the money had no end. He was also able to seal blue states quickly and challenge McCain in traditionally red states.
It's also worth noting that the traditional ebb and flow of presidential picks was not on McCain's side. More often than not, after eight years of the same president, America chooses a successor from the opposite political party.
This reflects a truly amazing system of government, and a country of moderates that allow for constant fluctuation in power by holding our representatives accountable and embracing change. Moreover, with this back-and-forth trend in mind, no one could've expected the term following the Bush administration to be an exception to the rule.
On top of everything, the economy took a dive during the worst possible time for McCain. Late September and October brought economic disaster on Wall Street, and Obama benefited immensely from it. As the situation became grimmer, McCain's chances of being elected followed suit, and the margin of positive press about Obama became greater than 5-to-1. At this point, undecided voters began flocking to Obama.
All of these issues aren't justifications for McCain's loss. They're simply illustrations to show that when faced with an uphill battle, McCain and his supporters held their own.
Forty-six percent of the popular vote and 163 predicted electoral votes don't make a winner, or even a particularly close race. But it was by no means the landslide that could've occurred. And the votes McCain did get speak volumes about the possibilities for the future.
Most notably, however, I see McCain's final numbers as a reflection of someone who had a significant amount of support against all odds, and of someone who ran a campaign with dignity and the utmost respect for the democratic process until the very end.
With all of that said, I have to remind myself that campaigns are competitions. And who people choose to vote for and who's elected is determined by many factors. Obama maximized his resources, impassioned the electorate and campaigned better overall. Hands down. He deserves this win.
But there's only so much optimism I can muster, because at the end of the day, Republicans lost. With that in mind, they shouldn't waste a minute. They should move forward, changing a few things, holding strong to certain values, and working toward a different result in 2010 and 2012.
For now, those who voted for Obama want the change he has promised. So now he's charged with the responsibility of delivering.
He's inheriting many obstacles to overcome and certainly many new ones in the future. And everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike, can agree we hope the next four years will prove 46 percent of us wrong.