“Personal endorsements usually have little if any effect on an election. And Rush’s opinion is just that.”
I agree with that. Still , I think Rush’s opinion is entitled to a little more weigh, and as a practical matter, it carries more weight than they average Joe. I don’t think Palin’s endorsement of McCain is a black mark at ll on her record for reasons I have stated and for those Rush has stated as well.
I think it is very arguable that Reagan’s selection in the leadup to the 1976 convention of Sen Richard Scweiker as his putative running mate was more of a black mark, given that Schweiker was far more liberal than McCain (ACU rating:5%) and Reagan’s gambit, had it succeeded, would have put a very liberal Republican a heartbeat away from the Presidency, not merely reelected someone to the Senate. Reagan had no moral obligation whatsoever to Schweiker and undertook this gambit to try to pry some delegates from the Northeast to wrest the nomination from Ford. Palin’s endorsement of McCain gets her no such putative advantage and is generated not by political calculus but by a sense of personal duty.
Reagan’s deal with Schweiker did not hurt him one bit in 1980, nor will Palin’s endorsement of McCain hurt her. People understand why she did it.
Btw, you need to get your facts straight. Richard Schweiker was a Pro-Life Republican, champion of the unborn and one of the first supporters of a Pro-Life amendment to the Constitution. Schweiker was a moderate-liberal Republican in the 1960`s and the first half of the 1970`s. Thanks to his association with Reagan, Schweiker eventually became a conservative with an ACU rating of 79 in 1978, 88 in 1979 and 85 in 1980.
According to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Richard Schweiker was instrumental in getting a Pro-Life plank in the Republican Party Platform. THus making the GOP, America's Pro-Life party.
"Ever since Ronald Reagan embraced a prospective pro-life running mate in 1976 in the person of Sen. Richard Schweiker (R-Pa.), the party of Lincoln has positioned itself as a champion of human life in the womb." ~ Tony Perkins LINK