[joejm65]

No. Obama won because McCain got 6.5 million less votes than Bush did in ‘04. When Republicans show up at the polls, we win. When we don’t, we lose.

[Paradox]

No. Obama won because McCain got 6.5 million less votes than Bush did in ‘04. When Republicans show up at the polls, we win. When we don’t, we lose.

Is it possible that those people DID show up, only to vote for Obama? Anyone have the stats on republican turnout and how they voted?

[tanknetter]

No. Obama won because McCain got 6.5 million less votes than Bush did in ‘04. When Republicans show up at the polls, we win. When we don’t, we lose.

I don't have a lot of confidence in those 6.5 million being "Republican" voters. I think they were indies who were looking for a convienient excuse to abandon McCain. McCain's outreach to Conservatives to rally the base, including his putting Sarah Palin on the ticket, gave them that convienient excuse.

Regardless of the spin that is out there and will be out there, Palin was a big net positive to McCain. The indies who abandoned him would have done so anyways. Palin brought the base back to McCain after he spent the better part of a decade poking sticks in their eyes. Without Palin McCain would probably have lost by 8-10 points, rather than 3-4.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

This is what we have to study:

Why did McCain get fewer votes?

And we have to really look at why, avoiding rhetoric, excuses or feeling like we’ve been ripped off.

And once we can answer those questions, honestly, with solutions and not hand wringing in mind, we have to work our butts off to work the right way.

Of course, it would help a lot if we had candidates that made the job worthwhile...