My first attempt at a thread, so be gentle! (bear in mind that I'm a left centrist, not a republican by any means...)
So going back to the 2000 Republican primaries our focal point becomes South Carolina. McCain had just won New Hampshire and was riding high on the campaign trail. The Bush campaign went dirty and started playing rough. Push polling insinuated McCain's adopted Banglideshi daughter was his half-black, half-white love child, or that he was a homosexual. They hinted at his wife being a drug addict, that he was culpable in the Savings and Loan scandal of the '80s, and in the most insulting attacks of all, claimed that he was secretly a "Manchurian Candidate," brainwashed by his Communist captors in Vietnam and that he had been driven insane during his time in the Hanoi Hilton.
McCain was originally blindsided by these dirty tricks and had no way to really defend against them so he was steamrolled as his failed attempts at going negative back fizzled. McCain lost the primary and proceeded to fizzle out, though still winning a handful of states.
Lets have the McCain campaign change tactics and go "old school" with it. After the attacks began the McCain camp calmly assess the situation. Its discovered that some of the push pollsters are paid for by the Bush camp giving them an angle. As the attacks proceed to get worse, McCain fights back against his advisers and refuses to go negative and decides to take a second path.
McCain's campaign had received a financial boost from New Hampshire and instead of using the funds to go negative, goes "Nixon" on them. Two days before the election, McCain buys airtime on all the major affiliates in South Carolina where he states cryptically, "I will reveal all." That night, McCain calmly goes through the allegations laid against him. He tells the story of how they adopted their daughter from an orphanage in Bangladesh out of the charitable vales that he learned in church and from his father the Admiral. He denies vehemently the homosexual allegations calling them "school yard insults not worthy of a Presidential election", going on to point out that some of the pollsters alleging this are paid for by the Bush camp, and "how can we support someone who would resort to immature tactics that we wouldn't accept in our grade schools." He dodges completely the drug allegations and insinuations of infidelity to focus on, "what truly is insulting to not only myself, but my family, my country, and my fellow POW's and veterans. These allegations of my lack of loyalty to this country..." For the next ten minutes McCain rails against the idea of him being disloyal. He explains his injuries suffered in the prison that prevents him from raising his arms over his head (which explains his stiffness), and asks rhetorically (though a clear jab at Bush) if one could recieve injuries like this hiding away from the war in a cushy position that he could have used his father to secure him from. He says that to insinuate that any soldier taken prison could be a lurking enemy is an insult to every soldier everywhere and that they should be just as offended as he is.
The Bush campaign barely has time to respond. Two days is enough to let the power of the McCain speech sink in, but not long enough for the Bush campaign to counter. Universally the speech is hailed as McCains "Checkers Speech." McCain goes on to win the primary 48% to 46% over Bush. In later primaries Bush has troubles winning over on just the facts and strength of arguments. By March 7th, they are panicked and attempt the negative tactic again with some of the same insinuations as before, but the moderates are having none of it, and it is recognized for the mudslinging that it is. McCain handily wins in California by double digit margins in many primary states.
McCain sails into the Republican National Convention the clear front runner based off of his strength of character, which draws moderates and undecideds back into the arms of the Republican party....
More to come...