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It wasn’t her fault he lost, but the theory that she could attract enough votes to beat Barack 0bama was tested, and it failed. By nearly 10 million votes and 10 points, no less. If she was the only thing making John McCain competitive, she sure didn’t do a good job. They lost in a certified landslide seven-point race which was a lot closer before the banking disaster hit with a Republican sitting in the WH. Perhaps if the race had been close, then Palin supporters could have some credibility to their claims. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t even close to being close. Either Palin can pull in the votes, or she can’t. People had to opportunity to choose her over 0bama, and they passed by the millions.
6 posted on 07/02/2009 9:36:46 PM PDT by counterpunch

My thoughts exactly and I like her. I know plenty of Dems who would never vote for Palin, period. I also know plenty of Rep who still think she’s the problem with the party. If Palin can’t get the Republicans to vote for her then how is she to get the moderate Dems to vote for her so she has a chance of winning in 2012?

She doesn’t have the tools to do this.

Poppycock. McCain was going nowhere until he selected Palin - and even after he nominated her, when he tried to campaign separately from her he couldn't draw flies. With or without McCain, Palin drew crowds. Name a prior example of a VP candidate doing that for a ticket!!
It is no more complicated than this: Republicans can run strongly and even win landslides with conservatives who stake out defensible conservative positions and stand by them. Republicans who aren't conservative retreat from defensible conservative positions to indefensible "moderate" positions - and get cut to pieces. You give the electorate a clear choice, and you may win. You give them an echo of the Democratic position, and you stand next to no chance. Big Journalism was as hard on McCain - who until he had the Republican nomination in hand was the reporters' darling - in the general election as they were on Bush or Reagan. You can't run away from journalism, you have to run at them.

10 million votes is more than what separated Reagan and Carter or Bush and Dukakis. The popular vote percentage of the 2008 election is nearly identical to that of the 1988 election.

Would anyone have suggested running Lloyd Bensten against George H.W. Bush in 1992?
That would have been insanity.

Good points, but she still can’t win. See post 530.