ADDITIONALLY, I don’t think people realize HOW bad the election would have turned out for McCain had Palin not been on his ticket. Palin brought out a bunch of people from the base that might not have otherwise voted at all.
There were some independent voters who didn’t vote based on the Couric-Tina Fey garbage—but those people were already leaning towards Obama anyway, even if they had taken an initial liking to Sarah.
I don’t care what history has shown so far. History changes. The GOP establishment is kidding themseleves if they think the BASE will just vote for anyone who’s not Obama and has an “R” next to their name. That’s not true. Many will either not vote at all or vote 3rd party. The anger conservatives have towards Rinos is equal to (if not more heated) than the anger people have towards Obama.
I can already see the tagline Romney and Cantor will use against her “She resigned as governor.” “She has no experience.” —well Romney’s main accomplishment as governor was a failed socialist healthcare experiment and Cantor hasn’t shown hismelf to be too impressive in challenging the Pelosi-Reid machine either. Palin on the other hand coined “Death Panels” with her facebook note and has done more against the Climate CHange liars with her WaPo Op-Ed than any of them have ever done in their careers.
If Palin is not the candidate, the GOP will lose by a much wider margin than McCain in 2008. If the GOP party hacks are this stupid, then the party needs to disappear.
Taking on a sitting president you need passion in your voters, you need them out there giving money, giving time and effort. Palin brings that passion. All other GOP front runners do not. without that passion the GOP loses a close election. And even if they win the new president will not have any type of mandate.