I hate still seeing these articles that say picking Palin backfired on McCain. It did no such thing. The pick was brilliant and did everything McCain wanted it to do.
It instantly ended any attention/coverage of Obama’s speech and the DNC
It stopped any Obama bounce cold
It gave McCain tons of media attention and coverage, pop culture appeal and a “cool”/historic factor that he clearly lacked against Obama
It gave him a huge bounce among white women, the very demographic he was aiming for when he picked her
It rallied conservatives and the base and evangelicals to his side and generated tons of enthusiasm and excitement in the party
It gave him a lead in the polls(nationally and in key swing states) and put him in great shape heading into the fall campaign, when many thought he had no chance whatsoever only days before.
It was all going great...until Lehman collapsed, the markets crashed, and the economy melted down. That’s what backfired on him and the GOP. Once that happened the election was over. Just as the election will be over this year in Sep if the market drops 3000 pts in a couple weeks and has a few days of 800+ pt drops. No matter how good Obama, Axelrod and Plouffe are.
Palin had nothing to do with any of that. Just as she had nothing to do with McCain’s idiotic decision to suspend his campaign and tie himself once again to W over the bailout just as Palin had helped distance him from Bush and create some breathing room for him. That was all that genius Steve Schmidt.
Just as she had nothing to do with his relatively weak 3 debate performances vs Obama.
In the end, though, the collapse of the economy, the dislike of the Iraq War, Obama outspending McCain by 400+ million dollars, and most importantly the fatc the George W Bush was throughout all of 2008 the most unpopular President in the history of modern polling was just too much to overcome. Again, none of those factors had anything to do with her. No republican was going to win in 2008. It just wasn’t going to happen. It was a Dem year. Just like 2010 was a GOP year. Palin didn’t backfire at all. She did everything she was supposed to do and they wanted her to do and then the economy fell apart and the die was cast.
Quite honestly the fact that McCain still won 22 states and got 46% of the vote and 60,000,000 total votes is astonishing to me. I’m still surprised the GOP ticket got more than 30% period. By all accounts 2008 should have been a replay of 1984, 1980, 1972, 1964. It wasn’t. And it could have been even closer. States like IN and NC were both decided by less than 1%. FL was a 3 pt margin. OH was a 4 pt margin.
I’ll always wonder what would have happened if Lehman didn’t go down and the economy just stayed the same in Sep/Oct as it was in August. I think McCain would have won a very close victor ya la Bush in 2004.
The economy didn’t just fall apart in Sept 08; It was deliberately sabotaged by the Dems that ran Fanny and Freddie, and by Buffet, Gates, and Soros.
George Bush did his part too, by going along with the charade, and by signing TARP (which was nothing but a payback for those that had just sabotaged the economy)
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