Posted on 11/15/2008 8:44:17 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
As media outlets across the fruited plain float the notion that Sarah Palin hurt John McCain's chances of winning the White House, the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza will break with the herd on Sunday to dispel this nonsense.
Imagine that.
As the last of his "5 Myths About an Election of Mythic Proportions" slated for Sunday's print edition but already available at the paper's website, Cillizza parted with his fellow journalists who believe "McCain made a huge mistake in picking Sarah Palin":
Love her or loathe her, the data appear somewhere close to conclusive that Palin did little to help -- and, in fact, did some to hurt -- McCain's attempts to reach out to independents and Democrats. But just because Palin doesn't appear to have helped McCain move to the middle doesn't mean that picking her was the wrong move.
Remember where McCain found himself this past summer. He had won the Republican nomination, but the GOP base clearly felt little buy-in into his campaign. A slew of national polls reflected that energy gap, with Democrats revved up about the election and their candidate and Republicans somewhere between tepid and glum.
Enter Palin, who was embraced with a bear hug by the party's conservative base. All of a sudden, cultural conservatives were thrilled at the chance to put "one of their own" in the White House. In fact, of the 60 percent of voters who told exit pollsters that McCain's choice of Palin was a "factor" in their final decision, the Arizona senator won 56 percent to 43 percent.
For skittish conservatives looking for more evidence that McCain understood their needs and concerns, Palin did the trick. It's hard to imagine conservatives rallying to McCain -- even to the relatively limited extent that they did -- without Palin on the ticket. And without the base, McCain's loss could have been far worse.
For those interested, Cillizza dispelled some other myths being floated by media including "The Republican Party suffered a death blow" during these elections, and "A wave of black voters and young people was the key to Obama's victory."
Ping!
I agree
Well duh. WaPo is just figuring this out NOW?
That’s a given.
This is not news to us here on FR!
We have so-called "conservatives" on this very site who still have yet to figure this out. ;)
the gop does not = conservatism.
However, McCain so effectively sabotaged the base that even with Palin he could not bring them out with the kind of force that even Bush was able to muster in the 04 elections.
This is not a slam on Palin.
The problem was McCain.
Any conservative worth his or her salt would have come to McCain in an attempt to stop Obama. It may have been half hearted, but the support would have been there. Likely very similar to what he got. She, Sarah excited the base, but they would have been there albeit kicking and screaming.
The left is being driven into a frenzy by the three words that keep echoing in their empty skulls: “Not since Reagan, not since Reagan, not since Reagan, not since Reagan...”
We never sent a dime to McCain until Gov Palin joined the team. Is there a way to see if there was a surge in donations after her entry...
Bingo. ;)
You will NOT see this on the Sunday shows tomorrow!
I would have “stayed home” for the first time in my life were it not for Sarah.
The MSM knows that Sarah Palin is wildly popular. They absolutely fear her. They promote the notion that she cost McCain the election precisely because they KNOW the opposite is true. They will spend four years dumping on her and the more they do it the more obvious it should be to us that she will be able to oust Obama in 2012.
Interesting that McCain on Leno earlier this week said that Palin didn’t hurt his campaign.
But he failed to mention how much she helped it.
He just couldn’t bring himself to aknowledge the fact he would have lost by several million more votes without her.
Career-focused Politicians are a sick breed
Sarah was projecting the same kind of charisma (but real)
and attracting the same kind of crowds that OBAMA WAS!
that’s exactly what happened/ If McCain decided to suddenly drop out, it may have been illegal for her to have taken over for him as the Candidate, but she would have WON! They weren’t interested in winning though, but boy would that have been an interesting thing to see.
Fact is, McCain got about as many votes as Biden would have gotten on his own. The ONLY thing that kept his ticket alive was Sarah Palin, and many millions of votes went to the ticket as a vote for her NOW and in the immediate future.
In ccanvassing and phoning in Northern Virgina I met dozens of “Team Sarah” members, I talked to bunches of young ladies inspired by the Alaskan governor, I worked with many folks who jumped in beyond financial donations to volunteer after the VP announcement.
Does their enthusiasm have legs into the next couple election cycles? That we’ll have to see. But the excitement was real and tangible.
The Washington ComPost writing something favorable about Gov. Palin is easy AFTER they got their man elected. We all knew this anyway so why is it such a ‘Shocker”?
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