The Next President of the United States of America

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Well, you can go ahead and continue to believe(shall we say deluded?)that she was of any great benefit to him and the campaign. That's fine with me.

And you can go ahead and buy the line that she sank the ship if you want. That's all right by me.Leaves more time and energy to talk about how Snoopy would have pawned Obama on Tuesday.

_The Palin And Bush Factors:

There is evidence that Palin's presence on the Republican ticket has hurt McCain with some voters. Fourteen percent of Obama's supporters say they once supported McCain, and the top reason given for their switch was McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/03/opinion/polls/main4566821.shtml

And don't get me wrong.. She wasn't the sole factor by any means... but she sure didn't help.

Originally Posted By: damien Originally Posted By: NtroducingMyselfPalin had a 12% approval rating nation wide.. I think that speaks for itself. Where did you get that information? It was quoted on on the station (believe it was msn/nbc) that was annoucing the night of the presidential election. It stated only about 12% of americans felt Palin had the experience to run as VP.And after re-reading what i said about, saying "approval rating" was probably not the most accurate thing to state, so sorry.

Originally Posted By: damienThat's ridiculous. Her being on the ticket brought back a lot of voters that were ready to bail on McCain. I think that's true, but it missses a point. Palin was very appealing to the conservative and evangelical "base" that had been sceptical about McCain. Undoubtedly she helped him there. But McCain, to have any chance at all, needed to bring in independents and some democrats. And that is where Palin really hurt him. I don't think she was the most important factor by any means, but it certainly was a factor.

Here's the thing, and the points I'm trying to make"

I get that there are many voters who decided not to vote for McCain because they couldn't support the Palin choice. But you have to weigh that against the many voters (including the Hillary supporters - a fact that the majority of Democratic pundits tried to deny) who finally bought into the McCain candidacy because of the Palin choice. So maybe she wasn't the best choice to pick up moderate and independent voters, but she was a great choice to pick up conservatives who might very well have stayed home and disenchanted Hillary supporters. I don't think you can show a net loss because of the Palin choice.

There has been a lot of information coming out over the past 24 hours from reliable sources concerning the tension/rifts/squabbling between Palin and her people & McCain and his folks. It's sickening to me. Not so much the fighting, but the fact that the McCain folks are so eager to go public put the story out there. It reeks of finger-pointing on their part. And then there's the media who would love to discredit her and hopefully ruin any chances of a future career in national politics. But, as much as this sucks, this information didn't come out until after the polls closed, so it couldn't have had any impact on the voting.

Eddie - as far as your statistics. I think they're bogus. They are anecdotal at best. I have searched all day for the history of Palin's approval rating, in both Alaska and the US as a whole. The lowest number I could find was a 42 nationally. Nowhere near your 12 I'm afraid.

Obama ran an almost impeccable campaign. I think he set the standard for the next couple of decades. He's got some mad skillz! I'm just hoping he'll use his powers for good.

_I don't think you can show a net loss because of the Palin choice. _

Nor can you show that there was a gain.

I think that Palin helped with the base that was less likely to vote for McCain but didn't necessarily help all that much with independents and moderates. I forget if this was for a specific state or not, but I remember seeing some poll about 20 or 30 percent of Clinton supporters going to McCain, though I don't know how much that had to do with Palin. I think the polls that I have seen for overall U.S. have placed Palin quite high for Republicans and lower than 50% for independents. Though I don't have any of those polls on me.I checked for Alaska approval ratings and it seems that they have dropped, but they're not really low by any standards.

Originally Posted By: sdp I don't think you can show a net loss because of the Palin choice. Nor can you show that there was a gain. I don't have to because:#1: I never said there was a net gain. You just made that up.#2: You made the original assertion that choosing Paling cost McCain the election. So you're the one who needs to back up your claim.

Quote:the original assertion that choosing Paling cost McCain the electionsaying Palin cost the election is giving her too much credit. She wasn't a help though! What she did do is give material to political comics inside and outside the US... hence the fact that Canadian radio show hosts totally punked her!

I won't go as far as to say Palin herself lost the election for McCain, but she certainly didn't help. I myself after Hillary lost was unsure who I was going to vote for. When McCain picked Palin, I knew nothing about her but I was kind of excited knowing there was a female on the ticket. But after I read her policies, I already knew there was no way I was voting for a McCain-Palin ticket.Likewise, I have two gay republican friends that would have voted for McCain is Palin was not on the ticket.Did some people vote McCain because of Palin, absolutely. But I bet any amount of money McCain LOST more votes than he gained from having Palin on his ticket.

Whatever dude. I still claim that she didn't help him at all. She didn't turn out to be quite the catalyst the party expected with her choice. Matter of fact her weaknesses were exposed.Would another choice have given McCain a win? Maybe not... but as I said originally.. If he had chosen someone better, the race would have been really tight.

I think you and Eddie are perfectly fine in believing the way you do in this matter. And there are plenty of folks who agree with you. There are just as many folks who agree with me. I'm just saying that you don't get to state that as fact unless you have the evidence to back it up. Neither of us have that, so it's back to our opinions. I can live with that.

That's right. Unless one polled every voter to ask why they voted the way they did, we can never really know... But..

How much do you think that would pay?
I would love a career change about right now...

Just wanted to mention that your quote makes me think of a quote of my own. "Screw the environment; I'm cold." It's subtler than you think.

Ha! That's good.