Without Palin his margin of loss would have been substantially greater.
Without Palin on the ticket, McCain probably would have lost not only 3%+ more of the popular vote, but lost Montana and Missouri too.
McCain has absolutely ZERO idea how DEAD things were in the days before he picked Palin...I mean NO volunteers, little money from the grassroots.
So many leaders in the GOP and fools on the coasts that just have NO IDEA how the elections work at the ground level among actual voters.
Utter fools or deliberate globalists, probably a combo of both.