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Did McCain Botch the Sarah Palin Pick?
US News & World Report - Washington Whispers ^ | 2008-12-23 | Paul Bedard

Posted on 12/23/2008 12:23:23 PM PST by rabscuttle385

The Sarah Palin backlash—or comeback—is underway. Misused by the McCain campaign, then dissed by anonymous McCainiacs as a haughty diva, those who think the senator and his staff are to blame are starting to speak out. And we're not talking about those who traveled with the Alaska governor who quickly took a shining to her and chafed when the McCain team botched her coming out on the campaign trail. Now I'm hearing from key Republicans on Capitol Hill and GOP pollsters who believe that the McCain campaign should have put her out to talk about energy and political independence—her two best issues—instead of making her the conservative attack dog.

(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: 2008; mcbama; mccain; mccainepicfail; mccainsbetrayal; mccainsfailure; mccainsstrawberries; mccaintruthfile; mcqueeg; palin; sarahpalin
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To: rabscuttle385
The McCain staffers have made my list of The Most Loathed People of the Decade.


41 posted on 12/23/2008 12:53:49 PM PST by GipperGal
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To: GipperGal

I LOVE Sarah Palin - the perfect candidate - the perfect woman.


42 posted on 12/23/2008 12:54:58 PM PST by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
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To: El Cid
Yeah - OK. I'll grant you that your choice would've been better...

Great minds think alike, or at least similarly!

43 posted on 12/23/2008 12:55:45 PM PST by calex59
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To: rabscuttle385

McCain wants to be liked more than being President. He has no basic (core) beliefs other than to be elected and/or re-elected and be part of the Washington establishment and revered by the media. He could be a Democrat just as easily, but to be elected in Arizona he had to run as a Republican. The sad part was the fact that there were no true core (conservative) belief Republicans to step up and lead the party. In fact, I am not certain that such an individual exists today, with the possible exception, maybe, of Sarah Palin. Most Repulicans are nothing more than Demmocrats, except to take us to disaster on a slower pace. They still remember the Goldwater defeat and have run scared since then. Thus, today’s mess.


44 posted on 12/23/2008 12:56:00 PM PST by mulligan (A)
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To: steelyourfaith

John McNutjob - Colin Powell’s choice - for candidate, but not President.


45 posted on 12/23/2008 12:56:23 PM PST by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Sure. McCain has botched just about everything during his political career. But after he picked Sarah Palin, the ticket actually went ahead in the polls. It was Hank Paulson’s September Surprise that lost the election for the Republican Party. And both McCain and Bush helped dig Paulson’s hole deeper.


46 posted on 12/23/2008 12:56:43 PM PST by Malesherbes (Sauve Qui Peut)
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To: rabscuttle385
...then dissed by anonymous McCainiacs as a haughty diva...

Okay, I've heard this from various liberals too. Palin was "mean" or "preachy". Inevitably, when asked for examples of this behavior no examples can be given. After a few more questions, I realized that they hated Palin because she caused them to be introspective and therefore to feel guilty.

And how do liberals react to people who cause them some moral discomfort? By lashing out at them.

47 posted on 12/23/2008 12:58:09 PM PST by Doohickey (The more cynical you become, the better off you'll be.)
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To: RobRoy

I have to wonder if he didn’t really try to win because he didn’t want to be the one to stand in the way of the “historic nature” of what it would mean if a black man were to win.

At times, it seemed to me that he didn’t have his heart in winning.


48 posted on 12/23/2008 12:58:37 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick ("Lights up on Washington Heights, Up at the break of day...")
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To: rintense
McCain botched everything. It was the most feeble, mismanaged, inept campaign in modern politics.

Yep, I thought no one could match Dole's(and I think Bob Dole is a nice guy, don't get me wrong)lackluster campaign but McCain not only matched it, he sank below it. The only reason the SOB got the votes he did was because of Sarah.

49 posted on 12/23/2008 1:00:01 PM PST by calex59
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To: calex59

Oh, give credit where credit is due!

McCain got a lot of votes because of 0bama as well!


50 posted on 12/23/2008 1:02:31 PM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
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To: rabscuttle385

McCain and his people had a major asset on their hands... virtually lightning-in-the-bottle, with Sarah. Yet they did mismanage and misdirect it at every opportunity. The biased attacks from the media were one thing, but the other problem was that the McCain camp never really spotlighted/broadcast her strengths and virtues, as exemplified by her governorship. Pretty exasperating, looking back at all this in retrospect.

However, it’s a relief that she’s free from all that now, and is poised to be a major, major player (and woe to any Republican establishment bigwigs who beg to differ). The interest and fascination with her seems to be continuing unabated, well after the election.


51 posted on 12/23/2008 1:03:03 PM PST by greene66
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To: El Cid

McCain had a chance to win it all - in a landslide!

All he had to do was announce that he was 100% against the bailouts! He would have picked up more conservative votes and wooed many independants.


52 posted on 12/23/2008 1:04:36 PM PST by proudpapa (Obama - The Worst One Ever!)
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To: NYC GOP Chick

>>At times, it seemed to me that he didn’t have his heart in winning.<<

My perception as well. To be fair, I never liked his politics and NEVER forgot that he was one of the Keeting five (although I think he got caught up more because he is kinda slow as opposed to actually doing anything criminally wrong). I have never considered him very intelligent nor was he a good pilot. But he does seem to be a man of principle and seems to honestly believe what he stands for. That is a good thing.

But it does beg the question: If that is true, what the heck is he doing in politics? ;)


53 posted on 12/23/2008 1:05:37 PM PST by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Nazism was in the 1930's.)
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To: mnehrling

>The problem was, McCain didn’t attack, he played the hippie pansy role instead of the old, foul mouthed soldier.<

McCain was in Obama’s pocket from the beginning.


54 posted on 12/23/2008 1:07:47 PM PST by 353FMG (The sky is not falling, yet.)
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To: RobRoy

That’s pretty much exactly how I saw the whole McCain campaign situation.


55 posted on 12/23/2008 1:09:40 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick ("Lights up on Washington Heights, Up at the break of day...")
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To: rintense

“McCain botched everything. It was the most feeble, mismanaged, inept campaign in modern politics.”

And, he was so bad during the debates (by far his biggest audiences during the campaign), missing so many openings, and failing to make key points time and again, that I had to stop watching part way through the second one, it was so frustrating.


56 posted on 12/23/2008 1:11:13 PM PST by Will88
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To: El Cid
Whereas 'aggressive campaigning' by Democrats will either be ignored, or called 'aggressive campaigning'.

I think that's why most of us on FR liked Sarah so much....we really don't care if we piss off the press and the Dems. As a matter of fact, the more pissed they are - the better we like it.

57 posted on 12/23/2008 1:11:45 PM PST by Retired COB (Still mad about Campaign Finance Reform)
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To: sickoflibs

You got that right. He WAS a fake, and conservatives smelled it. Palin single-handedly kept him in the race.


58 posted on 12/23/2008 1:13:07 PM PST by henkster (Welcome to the Union of Socialist States of America. You are ordered to enjoy your stay.)
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To: 353FMG
McCain was in Obama’s pocket from the beginning.

As penance for my sins, I watched much of Larry King's interview with Joe Biden. After all the insults and lies that Biden hurled at McCain, the rapidity at which they renewed their friendship was disconcerting. The message I got was "Hey, it's just politics! We're good friends, we really didn't mean what we said."

McCain is definitely a Washingtonian of the first order. I pray that he is knocked out in the primary in 2010.

McCain obviously thought it more important to lose with grace than to fight for the job.

It didn't help that his campaign never stuck to a consistent message, which illustrated what a poor candidate McCain was.

His campaign didn't use Palin's strengths: energy, non-lawyer, executive experience, government reformer.

Watch out Murkowski! You've got a big bullseye on your back!

59 posted on 12/23/2008 1:32:53 PM PST by Night Hides Not (Don't blame me...I voted for Palin!)
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To: rabscuttle385

How does a brave man turn a wimp,
Like an orca becoming a shrimp?
It must be hypnosis
Or some rare psychosis
That’s made him Obama’s trained chimp.


60 posted on 12/23/2008 1:34:58 PM PST by Dionysius (Jingoism is no vice.)
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