but surely this was palin's fault.
I have been using that and Rasmussen for years now with my friends who argue Palin was why we lost. The polls unanimously show it was the McCain suspended campaign blunder that lost the election.
McCain was down an average of 8.9% in the polls before he picked Palin, then spent the rest of the campaign tied or slightly ahead or slightly behind (always margin of error either way).
Then he pulled the gimmicky “I am going to suspend my campaign and go to Washington to help save the economy!” stunt, and never recovered. He and his retarded campaign staff believed it would be seen as yet “another example of Senator McCain putting his country before his own interests.” Instead, it was seen by everyone as the gimmick it was. It was a last-second gamble that cost him everything; and the Steve Schmidts and Nichole Wallaces of the campaign immediately began leaking negative stuff about Sarah Palin in an effort to blame and destroy her so that they could set-up as heir the guy they had supported all along until he dropped out: Mitt Romney.
Don't even get me started on the McCain staff (most of which were Romney staff previously). These are the brilliant minds who were floating the idea of Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge as the best V.P. choices for John. Then they handcuff Palin, come up with this ridiculous suspended campaign idea (which played right into the DNC/Obama talking points that McCain was “erratic”), leak bad rumors just before the election, and sell their garbage to HBO so that we can have a Palin-bashing movie showing on cable during election 2012 season.
Now these same guys have the brilliant ideas of picking Pawlenty, McConnell, Jeb Bush, and Ayotte as V.P. choices. Oh yeah, that’ll really shore up the Tea Party and Conservative base, guys! We're all just dying to have Jindal, Rubio, and the rest passed up for one of those squishes! These guys have so little sense of the Conservative grassroots and are so inexcusably retarded when it comes to their vulnerabilities that it is sickening.
Romney could use a Palin himself, frankly. But I suppose we'll watch Team Romney “safe play” himself into an Obama re-election. Steve Schmidt and Nichole Wallace are the Shrummies of the GOP - the fact they they still have jobs or influence is absurd on its face.
Don’t confuse the GOP-e cultists on freerepublic with facts. They might “sprain” their brains.