[MBB1984]

I agree that Palin was not much of a factor. Vice Presidential candidates never are. Palin did invigorate conservatives in directly participating in McInsane’s lackluster campaign, but the vast majority of those voters were going to vote against Obama anyway.

The polls did show that most independents were not positive on Palin. That was not surprising due to Fey's characterization of Palin which had a significant negative impact. However, most of those independents were going to vote against McInsane anyway.

It would have been theoretically interesting if McInsane had selected Lieberman on the ticket, but I suspect the results would have been the same except for losing some conservatives and gaining some independents.

The main reasons the GOP lost were 1. McInsane and 2. Bush.

[Huck]

I agree with your assessment completely.