Palin blames Bush policies for GOP defeat

[marincounty]

Now I'm not a political genius like Karl Rove, but I do believe had McCain picked Romney(who I thought was the best Republican presidential candidate), he would have done much better in the election, and it would have been close.

 

[Fern]

PJ's assertion that Palin didn't lose the election for McCain is exactly what most professional analyists are saying on TV.

I've never seen anybody produce evidence to the contrary either.

I agree with eskimospy, had McCain picked Romney it might better given the financial crisis. I think even those who don't like him acknowledge his business/financial expertise. I'd still like to hear his views on it and whether he agrees with bail-out program.

Fern

 

[retrospooty]

Originally posted by: Corbett

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: retrospooty

Originally posted by: Evan

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
McCain would have lost the election no matter what.

:laugh:

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

So it looks like McCain still has a good chance, especially if they talk about Ayers and Wright.

- October 2008

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Did Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election?

- October 2008

hee hee hee =)

Well done, you're our own Jon Stewart. Note the classic PJ FUD in the second quote. He didn't say anything, just asked a question.

Quick, someone bring back the Bernie Ward thread!

I hate when I dont get it... ???

 

[RightIsWrong]

Originally posted by: marincounty
Now I'm not a political genius like Karl Rove, but I do believe had McCain picked Romney(who I thought was the best Republican presidential candidate), he would have done much better in the election, and it would have been close.

At least McCain would have had someone competent feeding him information/talking points on economic/financial issues. Instead, he chooses a woman who forced HP go tets up.

Hell, I would have hid McCain in a closet in Duluth until the debates and had Romney giving every interview on the subject.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: Fern
PJ's assertion that Palin didn't lose the election for McCain is exactly what most professional analyists are saying on TV.

I've never seen anybody produce evidence to the contrary either.

I agree with eskimospy, had McCain picked Romney it might better given the financial crisis. I think even those who don't like him acknowledge his business/financial expertise. I'd still like to hear his views on it and whether he agrees with bail-out program.

Unless a poll asks "did you not vote for McCain because Palin was on the ticket" we will only be able to speculate. I wouldn't put much stock in what the tv pundits say, I feel most solid posters here have just as good a grasp as any of them, if not better, as we have no audience we have to cater to. Morning Joe would regularly piss me off by running outlier polls as "big news" and discuss them for an hour or two, when 538 had already ripped those polls apart on shoddy methodology.

I think very few people's vote came down to the one and only issue of Palin. However, the people I know who were on the fence and ultimately went Obama did count both Palin's presence on the ticket, and McCain's judgment in selecting her, as black marks when doing their balancing sheet for the candidates.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: AFMatt
Who the hell cares, really? When was the last time we had a VP worth a shit, and/or one who could go on to be President? Oh, wait, that has only happened once in the past 30 years when George Bush Sr was elected.
Nelson Rockefeller = yeah right. Walter Mondale = Failed. Dan Quayle = Failed. Al Gore = Failed twice. Dick Cheney would never bother running, for obvious reasons. Joe Biden already failed once, and I seriously doubt he will run again. Besides, he is on track to be the next Dan Quayle with some of the stuff that comes out of his mouth anyway.

Does anyone here really believ the VP position actually has that much influence on Presidential policy? Shoot, the only memorable VP involvement I can think of in the past couple presidential terms is the lame duck "Energy" Bill/$$ bonus check for oil cos with Cheney's name on it. What did Al Gore do besides help teach the oldies in government about what all these fancy words like "internet" and "computer" mean and make a whitehouse website?

If elected, McCain would have been the oldest president ever, with a history of cancer and torture that may have shortened his lifespan by who knows how much. He himself said he recognized his age was a factor and that he would take his VP pick very seriously, and promised to pick someone America would be confident could step into his shoes on Day 1 if it became necessary. He failed.

As to VPs becoming president, 9 of 43 assumed office upon the death of the presdient. That's about 1 in 5. Overall, 14 VPs eventually became president, that's about 1 in 3. With McCain's age and medical history, and Palin waiting in the wings, I the hell cared, really.

 

[JD50]

Originally posted by: retrospooty

Originally posted by: Corbett

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: retrospooty

Originally posted by: Evan

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
McCain would have lost the election no matter what.

:laugh:

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

So it looks like McCain still has a good chance, especially if they talk about Ayers and Wright.

- October 2008

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Did Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election?

- October 2008

hee hee hee =)

Well done, you're our own Jon Stewart. Note the classic PJ FUD in the second quote. He didn't say anything, just asked a question.

Quick, someone bring back the Bernie Ward thread!

I hate when I dont get it... ???

If you can dig up the thread about Bernie Ward being a pedophile, you'll see Craig and Moonbeam vehemently defending the man. That's what Corbett was referencing.

 

[Corbett]

Originally posted by: JD50

Originally posted by: retrospooty

Originally posted by: Corbett

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: retrospooty

Originally posted by: Evan

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
McCain would have lost the election no matter what.

:laugh:

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

So it looks like McCain still has a good chance, especially if they talk about Ayers and Wright.

- October 2008

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Did Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election?

- October 2008

hee hee hee =)

Well done, you're our own Jon Stewart. Note the classic PJ FUD in the second quote. He didn't say anything, just asked a question.

Quick, someone bring back the Bernie Ward thread!

I hate when I dont get it... ???

If you can dig up the thread about Bernie Ward being a pedophile, you'll see Craig and Moonbeam vehemently defending the man. That's what Corbett was referencing.

I'll admit, its a bad analogy due to Craig STILL defending Ward even after Ward plead guilty to crimes he was accused of (pedophilia).

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Fern
-snip-

Unless a poll asks "did you not vote for McCain because Palin was on the ticket" we will only be able to speculate. I wouldn't put much stock in what the tv pundits say, I feel most solid posters here have just as good a grasp as any of them, if not better, as we have no audience we have to cater to.
-snip-

I'm not sure about that. I understand they have access to much better, more detailed polling data than we do.

Plus, some of these people, like Rove, are professionals at it and do a good job at interpreting the results.

As far as only guessing, I would think that by looking at detailed numbers (by counties across all states) and comparing McCain votes totals to Bush's in '00 & '04 you might get a pretty good picture of what happened. The pro's know which counties are blue-coller, RR (social conservative), or fiscal-type conservatives etc.

From what Engineer says above, the Repub base didn't show up. Maybe you can say Palin didn't pull enough of them in to the polls; but no matter that's McCain's fault. He's just never been very popular with the base. I highly doubt Palin hurt with the base, I can only imagine that she helped.

I have heard she may have hurt him, but that's theorized only because the MSM focused so much on her and pushed him off TV/media air time. But IMO that assumes he would have been helped by more TV time, I think that's a pretty big & generous assumption. I saw him on TV at rallys a few times, I thought he was mostly abysmal. I crinched at his lame jokes etc. It was like watching a comedian bomb on stage, very unpleasent.

Real reasons for his loss? I think it was a bad climate for Repubs, they didn't seem to have any great candidates and what little chance McCain may have had got wiped out by the economic crisis and his *clumsy* response to it. I also think Repubs ougtta re-think their approach to the primaries. The *winner-take-all* thing resulted in a very short primary campaign and most of us Red states never had a say in McCain's nomination. So, most of us were disenfranchied and had no *ownership* in his candidacy; and the Dems got all the publicity as they fought on. I know Mcain was supposed to have an advantage by getting the nomination quickly, but I didn't see that develop - he just disappeared off the stage.

Fern