But did she also place an upper limit on votes...that is, did she scare away some voters, too? Maybe Sen. John McCain would have gotten only a few votes on his own, but regardless, he lost. If Gov. Palin adds 30% of voters, that might seem good...but it's actually irrelevant if she simultaneously keeps away 60% of voters (I know of a handful of people who didn't vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin.)
I'm not saying that's the case, but it's something we must consider.
This election re-emphasised something that some (me included) forgot: IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!!!!!!
I didn’t think Bush I would have lost to Clinton. He did. I really thought Palin/McCain were going to put it out; they didn’t. McCain would have really only managed a Jimmy Carter like 5-8 states without Gov. Palin. However, I still maintain she’s been Quayled. However, I don’t think it’s from the Romney camp. Until it can be proven I will not accept it is from Romney.
Which brings me back to IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!!!!!! To defeat the Dems, we must do what must be done. If that means going with a Romney as a person with an economic background, so be it.
Neither Ronald Reagan or many of the people who voted for him are on this planet any more. It sucks to admit it, but that is the reality. The Republican Party must change if it is going to be relevant again. Otherwise, it will go the way of the Whigs and Federalists.
I think you’re right. She was a big reason soft republicans bolted. Mac was suppose to play big in the suburbs but they thought she was a yahoo and voted against him. I thought originally her unfavorables were due to massive oversampling of democrats but from exit polling and the most accurate pollsters repeated that story.
Her rollout was not great, and I do think McCain was probably too hasty in his rollout of her.
McCain seemed to make bad decisions all around and had poor management. He had poor employees too. Tucker Bounds was awful. Rick Davis never really impressed. Only schmidt did a good job but mac undermined everything he did with poor message discipline.
But c’est la vie. You elect a RINO, the conservative base stays home and the “moderates” are notoriously unreliable and break on whatever is foremost in their mind. IN this case, it was sadly the economy.
Also Mac had no groundgame to speak of apparently. Pretty sad.
Sarah wasn't a drag on the ticket; far from it.
Dwarfed by the number who didn't vote for McCain because of his failure to address the bailout properly;
or because he was *white*;
or because he was "too old"
or he was going to raise taxes (e.g. on health benefits)
or because of Bush
Compare that to the base who turned out for Palin who would otherwise have sat out this election "to send a message."
McCain promised his strategy was to reach across and gain the moderates.
He did NOT assault either Obama ("he's not a socialst, he'd make a fine President) or Congress more than once (11% approval rating).
And the middle ran to Obama.
Epic .
I know, it's easy to think that your own particular clique is representative.
But the country has people from all *over* the ideological spectrum, left, right, center, and "careless".
Single women broke heavily for Obama in PA, since he was promising them goodies; and after President Bush's hard work, and the Dems' relentless trashing of him without response, "terrorism" once more seems like something made up by Republicans which doesn't happen in the real world.
I think it'll take 2 or three mass-casualty attacks on the US, several years into the Obama administration; or a Russian invasion of Europe; or China moving on Taiwan and South Korea being overrun by North Korea, before people actually admit that there is something wrong with Obama.
That, or the implementation of his economic plans, which will make him the nation's first black Jimmy Carter.
Kyrie Eleison.