November 8, 2008
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Blaming Palin
There are some people with in the Republican party that are blaming Sarah Palin for John McCain’s loss. Here is the link: Link
I am trying to think of who John McCain could have picked that would have suddenly made him a winner.
Do you think Sarah Palin is responsible for John McCain’s loss?
Comments (201)
she’s the reason why a majority of people i know didn’t vote for mccain, so i guess
No, I’m sure that she gave him more votes than he could imagine!
haha… she helped more than hurt!
Not entirely. I blame the Republicans who were in power these subsequent 8 years that put a bad rap on the party in general.
Not entirely.
McCain had policies I disagreed with in the first place, so it’s not really her.
(She’s just a minus.)
She might have caused some people to switch over to voting for Obama. Then again some former Hilary Clinton supporters switched over to McCain’s side once he picked Palin as VP…. so…. no.
No. Obama was unbeatable. What politico would’ve made the McCain ticket pull votes from Obama? Maybe Hillary…
The Republican party is self-destrcuting. Come 2012 I bet we’ll have a viable 3rd party out of all this.
For some people, yeah. They were afraid that John McCain wouldn’t make it though his presidency, and Sarah Palin would take over. However, there’s a growing old age population and now 72 years old isn’t considered old anymore.
No, if anything, she helped him get more votes.
She rallied the conservatives but didn’t bring anyone new in. Her effect was to basically preach to the choir. So I would say she didn’t help that much, I don’t know if and how much she hurt him.
She hurt him with me. Does no one else notice the vacant look in her eye? It’s scary. I was hoping he’d pick someone more knowledgeable, and if he was going for a historic election maybe a conservative black man to balance out Barack.
She was part of the reason.
I think she’s part of it, but it was the economy meltdown that ultimately brought McCain down.
She wasn’t around long enough to do that much damage. The collapse happened quite a while ago when all the pseudo-republicans started acting like Democrats.
yes. he was always way ahead in the polls until he announced palin as his running mate.
Maybe.
I wouldn’t go right to “responsible,” but I’d say she was a contributing factor to his loss.
The reason McCain lost is because of Bush, plain and simple.
The country saw Obama on Oprah and that was that.He was in.They were ready for change.
McCain would have loss with or without her.
I think it was a bad pick on his part and I think in New’s Week, he said she wasn’t his first pick, but his people sold her to him.
Don’t quote me on that word for word.
Xo
No…but could he not have picked Huckabee…I would have loved that matchup.
@seedsower - You can’t be serious.
The statistics show that Palin did, in fact, hurt him. She helped initially after she first picked him, but she was the biggest reason why people who were polled didn’t vote for him. But eh, I think he could have picked anyone and probably still lost. With the last 8 years and the economy, it wasn’t a good formula for the Republicans.
I don’t think so. I liked her. One would think that conservatives would like her even more than McCain, considering that she is more conservative than McCain. I’ve heard a lot of complaint that he was too liberal… wouldn’t Palin be the solution to that? Guess not.
no, you cant blame just one person for McCain’s loss
It’s not her fault. The Republican Party chose her–so it’s the party’s fault.
I think that we always want to blame someone.
he lost my vote when he picked her.. as I have blogged about her illegal hunts on Wolves, . and the destruction of what is left as wildlife in Alaska.. long before he chose her..
No, but she was a liability
I think it was a combination of things, as some have stated, but she definitely didn’t help. She was more “green” (as in new to the political game) than Obama was!
Not entirely, the republicans were surrounded by a lot of negativity. She didn’t help this at all, but she wasn’t the sole reason.
I think George Bush is responsable for this electon’s results, so thank you very much mister bush LOL
i think it did because of the way she was portrayed in snl and that she didnt really show a more serious side with more specifics in her speeches. i thinkshe neded to act more authoratative or powerful, since she was going to be in power. but as a moma nd independent voter she really inspired me, and i thinkshes a great role model for my tow girls. i also think itll be interesting to see what she really has to say if she runs for president. almost as out there as nader inthe nonconformist vibe, not flip flopping .
i see
I’ve been keeping up with all this and it’s ridiculous. Shifting the blame from your own aides to Palin.. it’s ridiculous. I’ve lost tremendous respect for McCain’s campaign aides. I don’t know if many of you have seen the Rasmussen poll but 69% of GOP voters approved of Sarah Palin. Obviously she didn’t click well with moderates but attempting to slander her with the Africa, NAFTA, and bath towel rumors is despicable.
No Republican could have won this election.
Truthfully, I was hoping McCain would win, die, and we’d see our first female President. She took a lot of flak for being “inexperienced” but lately I’ve been interpreting that as “not corrupt enough for DC”
The complainers are probably Republicans who want the party to get away from Conservatism. I wish they would leave the party and let true conservatism take over again. For the conservative, Palin was a HUGE help to McCain, for the moderate or liberal Republican, Palin probably hurt. I don’t know that anyone could have helped McCain any better than she did.
Does it even matter?
most definitely
It’s totally her fault for being too pretty.
Statistics don’t show that she hurt McCain. McCain was down in the polls prior to the selection, the polls surged after the RNC, then stabilized and then started the downward spiral again. The majority of the Republican party was not thrilled with McCain as their guy on the ticket. That is the bottom line. He lacked the ability to energize the right. At least for a moment Gov. Palin helped bring some life to the ticket.
I concur with the above commenter. It’s always easier for people to blame SOMEONE ELSE!
But while I do not think she was to blame, I do think that a lot of men would rather die than have a VP who is a female. We know there are male-chauvinistic pigs out there, sadly. Pardon the verbage but that’s what they get terms. That’s why I said earlier we KNOW this election was ANYTHING but about LEADERSHIP abilities and issues. It was simply about a black President or a female VP. I would almost stake my life that if we had have a party with the equivalent in leadership qualities as both candidates yet had a male VP running, there’d been your next President. Sadly, it was basically do we want a black President who has only the bare leadership qualities or a female VP with a pretty face? Who knows? I’ve even read where it was said that some women probably didn’t vote for her because they were jealous because she is so pretty! Perhaps most thought she would be afraid to break a fingernail, rofl! At this point, I wouldn’t doubt anything, Dan,
I’m still trying to get over the shock that we have a black President! I never thought I would live to see such a day come in my lifetime! For the black people, I say “You GO,
!!!
Cheryl
When the Democrats get a bad rap, the country votes Republican. When the Republicans get a bad rap, the country votes Democrat. I don’t think it made a lot of difference. The US decided to go for a Brazilian wax. I imagine Palin understands.
no
Romney would have helped reinforce the image of 4 more years of Bush Economics.
Personally, I think the Republicans will be leaderless till 2010. Then somebody running for the House will stir things up.
I believe she was at fault. She lowered the credibility of the entire campaign.
If they wanted a female VP choice, Condoleeza Rice may have been better.
If I were a republican woman, I would be insulted that they chose Palin as running mate. And as a non-republican woman, I am thankful they did!
She’s definitely a factor, but i doubt she’s the whole thing.
She didn’t help, that’s for certain.
-David
Honestly, the thought of her taking over our nation in the occurrence of McCain’s passing would have scared me out of voting for him.
I would’ve had a hard time voting for Obama had McCain chosen either Romney or Lieberman. In fact, had he chosen Lieberman, I would have definitely voted for him, and I’m guessing would many independents.
-David
No, I don’t.
No. Her detractors were mostly people who were already in the Obama camp.
Not really, she gave him a chance to win because of all the publicity she caused.
i’m sure she was a factor but definitely not the only one. Obama’s win was almost inevitable.
no…..
If she is to blame, McCain is the one who picked her, so ultimately it is his own fault anyway.
yes…imagining her just one step away from presidency… makes me shudder!!
I don’t think she was solely the reason McCain lost, but I do think she was one of the biggest reasons people didn’t vote for him.
Yes I do think so. She’s just an icing on the cake to Mccain’s loss.
She gave him more supporters than anyone could have. Polls on her popularity seem to indicate that. But Obama had too much glitz and gimmicks attached to him. Huckabee was who I initially wanted as McCain’s running mate, but I think Palin helped even better than he could have. Not that many really genuinely liked him, was a large problem.
I think she probably helped him more than she made him lose votes. He’s a fairly liberal Rep. so having a totally conservative running mate like her should have helped him get those conservative Rep. votes he maybe would have lost.
@seedsower - @YossariansWingman - Yes. What seedsower says is true. The “statistics” show what anybody wants them to show. The statistics never predicted an electoral landslide. Any blame that anyone assigns to Palin (the only exciting thing the Republican party has going for it), is nothing more than Republican sour grapes.
They lost it by trying to defend their obviously failed economic policies and by trying to defend their horrible decisions in Iraq – “Osama bin Laden orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. Look he’s hiding out in Afghanistan! Obviously me must send our army to Iraq for 10 years.” Just dumb.
If the Republicans had had the stones to field a candidate that acknowledged the horrible horrible mistakes and laid out common sense plans to address them, they might have shown up better than they did, but they still wouldn’t have won.
John McCain was an excellent candidate for them to field to “save face”. He represented himself well. He’s a hero. He tried to represent what’s best about the GOP but he couldn’t put enough distance between himself and the wretched decisions of the past 8 years.
If the race had been Clinton vs. McCain it would have been closer and the Republicans might have even won. The Dems sealed the deal when they selected Obama.
Darn right the country was ready for a change.
I didnt’t think about it. In eight years we will most likely have have a republican in the white house again.
What effect does the president have on how many millions of people just just living our lives?
This is too complex of an issue to pin solely on Gov. Palin. However… from my perspective, I had the distinct impression that the GOP was trying to solidify their base by selecting Palin. Now, this is not necessarily a bad idea, except that while McCain appeared to be solidifying his base, Obama seemed to reach out to the fringe groups (“fringe groups” in the sense that they were either GOP voter blocs or undecided voter blocs who were leaning-GOP) using a more “can’t we all get along?” message. Regardless of who you supported, I think it’s fair to say that Obama spent more time reaching out of his party while McCain spent more time solidifying his GOP base. Since the economy was the #1 issue on many people’s voting agendas, and since Obama appeared to promise numerous tax cuts for the middle class, it seems as though his message resonated moreso with the no-to-high-taxes, middle-class GOP’s. The result: while McCain hardened his GOP base, he lost a lot of other of the moderate GOP voters to Obama.
Of course, this is merely my opinion on the matter.
my take is that she did play some part in McCain’s loss, but when you look at the bigger picture the Republican party was slated for a loss. A lot of young people voted in this election, and if I remember some info correctly from sociology class, those young people happen to be the children of the Baby Boomers…so…there were a lot more of them
Mcain should have chosen the Gov of Penn – then maybe, it would have been a race, but I am glad for the outcome !!
She was part of the problem, but she is not solely the reason. John McCain had several things going against him. Besides the fact he picked a running mate who was literally unheard of and had no experience in the National Political scene, he was very bitter toward the end of his campaign, he was constantly trying to attack Obama’s character with terrorist claims and his supposed “socialist” ideologies. Of course, when the several large corporations began to fail, he ran around trying to find the best way to solve the solution and he thought suspending the campaign and the upcoming debate might show he cared more about the country than becoming president. I appreciate the effort he tried to make, but when Obama didn’t follow suit, kept a level head, and stated: “This is the perfect time to debate”. It made McCain seem like didn’t know what he was doing. On top of that, Obama never threw a dirty punch back at McCain. McCain endlessly threw attack ads at Obama and Obama responded to them in a rather polite way. Obama’s calm demener during a crisis and when his character was under fire voided McCain’s efforts.
If McCain had carried the same No-Drama, No-Nonsense campaign that Obama did, and had he carried himself in more respectful manner without all the fear-mongering about Obama, and if he had picked someone else other than Sarah Palin for his VP, his chances of winning would have been higher. Sarah Palin would have a decent pick if she had kept her mouth shut. She clearly wasn’t ready for the national political scene, otherwise, she would have carried herself better.
I am not surprised the Republican wolves are after her, but at the same time it is extremely unfair to place the blame soley on her.
No. Suddenly, after McCain announced his vp pick, it was all anyone could ever talk about. For better or worse, he was back in the news. Without someone like Palin, McCain would have been forgotten under Obama’s press.
I know a LOT of people were excited when Palin was put on the ticket, but then switched to Obama supporters once she started opening her mouth. I’m not trying to be mean, but it is the truth. She doesn’t think she lost a lot of votes for McCain, but I beg to differ. I’m sure she gained a lot as well, and she is not the sole reason for his loss… but she definitely contributed, and blame needs to be shared amongst the team.
No. The Republicans essentially lost this year’s election in 2003, when we invaded Iraq on flimsy pretenses.
@jasquared - not those with a history of skin cancer it isn’t.
But… yeah.
Palin hurt McCain’s chances…
but I also knew kids who decided not to vote for him- because if he was the incumbent come 4 years… she couldn’t run for El President.
NO! Sarah gave his campaign LIFE – at least to those of us who were feeling like it was a “no win situation.”
just another nail in the coffin
I’d think if it were truly her fault it would be because she was a women. Obviously america doesn’t want a woman near the white house. However, I doubt it was just her fault that they didn’t win.
No, but I wasn’t that much anti-McCain as I was anti-Palin. So he could have picked someone else and I wouldn’t have minded him being president as much as I would have minded it if he won with Palin. But he still could have made a lot of other choices I would have hated as well, like Romney or something.
Yes and no. While I think he definitely would’ve had a better shot with someone else who had more experience, when he first picked Palin his numbers went up a lot. people loved her because she was “just like us” and she appealed to the religious right, which John McCain was having trouble winning their support. However, as her inexperience showed through interviews and debates, she lost a lot of credibility I think that really hurt the McCain campaign. I think they could’ve found someone to appeal to the Republican base and “Joe Sixpack” who had more experience and didn’t suck so much during interviews.
we cowboy fans blame Jessica Simpson for losing games since our Tony Romo quarterback is dating her. We didn’t lose when he dated Carrie Underwood.
Probably.
Indeed I do. After all, nobody wanted a female vice-president. LOL.
S.C.
She contributed.
McCain lost because of Palin, Bush, and the Economy.
No. I mean…she hurt his cause, but…he was doomed to fail.
Yes and no. I think the votes had a lot to do with the current administration and people’s frustration with it…
a little bit. i wouldn’t have voted for mccain anyway but i’ve met some people who said they weren’t voting for mccain because hes gonna die and palin will take over
she could have been part of the reason. John mccain is too much like pres bush. in my opinion thats the main reason.
No, I think McCain being a republican was the reason for his loss.
I do feel sorry for John McCain. The cards were really stacked against him.
Even with a well-vetted VP selection; the state of the economy, the state of the war, and Barack Obama’s overwhelming advantage in funding, Senator McCain would still have been smashed.
While I think Palin only added to McCain’s hurt, the outcome was pretty inevitable.
@JJ_Ames - Truthfully, I was hoping McCain would win, die, and we’d see our first female President. She took a lot of flak for being “inexperienced” but lately I’ve been interpreting that as “not corrupt enough for DC”
Stupidity– a sheer lack of basic knowledge– was more of a damning point than Governor Palin’s inexperience.
Now that the campaign is over, a lot of bad things has leaked from the McCain camp about Sarah Palin.
@Aslans_daughter - NO! Sarah gave his campaign LIFE – at least to those of us who were feeling like it was a “no win situation.”
With Sarah Palin, the GOP party was amputating an arm to save a leg.
While Governor Palin galvalized the Republican base– Evangelical Christians and value voters– she has helped polarize moderates. A large reason why distinguished republicans like Colin Powell and Chris Buckley had come out and endorse Senator Obama is because of Sarah Palin.
no. the media is what did it. they never gave her a chance. i was there at Dayton when they picked her and i was listening to talk radio when we left- she wasn’t even the VP for 1 hour and they were already sneering at her- and unabashedly so. For one- they kept calling her “mayor” Palin. Hello! She’s a governor! They kept downplaying her experience- she’s got the SAME amount as one of our best presidents ever- Theodore Roosevelt. Instead of focusing on her accomplishments they kept critcizing her over stupid and irrelevant tatters that just goes to show how “in the tank” the mainstream media was for Obama. But if you went to her rallies- people were NUTS over her. Especially families of those with special needs children. But she represents REAL America and that’s why the media doesn’t like her. She represents the “we the people” that the elite so clearly disdain. She’s middle class America- buys her clothes at consignment shops like the rest of us. Hunts for her own meat (which if you think about it- a family can live off of the meat of one caribou or deer for several months whereas buying one’s meat at the store kills more animals. She’s an outsider, she’s not a millionaire, and she’s not afraid to take on the system. I for one think she’d be a marvelous leader of our nation- and her exceedingly high approval ratings from her state- which happens to be the largest in the nation- are just the proof in the pudding.
I doubt this is the last we’ll see of her in national politics… and I think the nation will be better for it. (which is why the media’s still antagonizing her)…
I definitely think he could have picked someone better and gotten more votes, but I highly doubt anyone else would have made him win.
@PreciousOnyx - Sarah Palin was disgustingly absent-minded about civics and about the world at large.
There are reports coming out from the McCain camp, for instance, that Governor Palin wasn’t sure that Africa was a continent and that South Africa wasn’t just Africa’s bordering nation.
Seriously, there is a base-line comptetency for the second-highest office of the land. If there were a test for it, Sarah Palin would have failed heels over head.
@huginn - what exactly are you talking about? check your sources again, pal. she’s denied all such charges. given her record of accountability to her people in Alaska, I’d trust her word over those who are disgruntled over McCain’s loss.
@huginn - far from it. all of those are false rumors and you ought to be ashamed for buying into them. just because she didn’t attend Harvard doesn’t mean she lacks a brain. and as far as her knowledge about the world at large her answers to interviews followed standard NATO policy.
@PreciousOnyx - what exactly are you talking about? check your sources again, pal.
Are you seriously challenging me on this? While Sarah Palin may not be stupid in mental capacity, she seems friggin’ retarded in what she does not know.
Here’s a source for you: Fox news, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZHTJsR4Bc
she’s denied all such charges. given her record of accountability to her people in Alaska, I’d trust her word over those who are disgruntled over McCain’s loss.
Here’s something out of Sarah Palin’s own mouth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z75QSExE0jU
While Sarah may be able to see Russia from her house, she has no idea what the Bush Doctrine is.
I think her party is doing her quite badly nowadays. It is interesting that no one said anything when he picked her as his running mate, but now all of a sudden they have a problem. They should have stepped up with these claims earlier.
i sort of think so
@PreciousOnyx - just because she didn’t attend Harvard doesn’t mean she lacks a brain
Just because Sarah Palin wormed her way through second tier colleges doesn’t mean she has a brain. Sarah Palin’s five years through four schools were markedly undistinguished:
———————————————-
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-palincollege21-2008oct21,0,6369822.story?page=2
…Sen. John McCain is remembered as a passionate contrarian who won the hearts of his classmates at the Naval Academy. Sen. Barack Obama, who attended Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School, is remembered as a daunting scholar and calming influence. Sen. Joe Biden, who had a brush with plagiarism at Syracuse University College of Law, is remembered fondly by professors who found him charming.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, however, is barely remembered at all.
In the five years of her collegiate career, spanning four universities in three states, Palin left behind few traces.
“Looking at this dynamic personality now, it mystifies me that I wouldn’t remember her,” said Jim Fisher, Palin’s journalism instructor at the University of Idaho, where she graduated with a bachelor of science degree in journalism in 1987.
Palin, he said, took his public affairs reporting class, an upper-division course limited to 15 students. “It’s the funniest damn thing,” Fisher said. “No one can recall her.”
“I don’t remember her,” said Roy Atwood, Palin’s academic advisor at the university.
Indeed, interviews with a dozen professors yielded not a single snippet of a memory…
—————————
@huginn-Go look up “Bush Doctrine” on wikipedia. There is more than one. She was right in making Gibson be specific and it was MORE than obvious that he was phrasing his questions in a demeaning manner. He ripped things she said INTENTIONALLY out of context in order to cast her in a negative light and she still held her own. Furthermore, preemptive strike is the right of every nation that has reason to believe it is going to be attacked. It’s really nothing more than self-protection. It’s not Bush’s doctrine- it already existed.
Your first little Fox clip lacked any substance. It was just a talkinghead and no evidence whatsoever to base his claims. Much like the claims about her wardrobe. Baseless. She’s gone on record stating that her campaign wardrobe was never hers to keep- it’s going to charity.
@huginn - so? presidents have had more spurious beginnings and did just fine. this is a ridiculous attempt to force liberal elitism on her. George Washington never went to college. Was he unqualified to lead our nation and armed forces too?
No, she’s not at fault. :
Having an idiot for president since 2001 was the main reason McCain lost. McCain is a good man, but the financial crisis did him in. Add to that the sense of this being a seminal moment in American history, in electing a black man to the presidency, and it’s like a tsunami hit the Republicans. I would have preferred a more tested man, like Colin Powell, but we’ll have to wait and see what Obama actually does in office. His position on abortion is dreadful, but it is the opposition in Congress and the Supreme Court that has the responsibility to reign in his extreme actions, if they are really expressed in extreme measures of change in law.
In eight years, the shoe will probably be on the other foot, and the public will be sick of the Democrats. That’s politics.
no
@PreciousOnyx - Go look up “Bush Doctrine” on wikipedia. There is more than one. She was right in making Gibson be specific and it was MORE than obvious that he was phrasing his questions in a demeaning manner.
This is a fair defense in the inital asking of the question.
When Palin stumbled for an answer, Gibson gave Governor Palin the opportunity to frame and clarify her own understanding of the Bush Doctrine. At this point, Palin resumed to stumble some more.
Demeaning or not, a person aspiriing for the second highest office of the land should have at least something substnative to say about status quo foreign policy.
Your first little Fox clip lacked any substance. It was just a talkinghead and no evidence whatsoever to base his claims.
If you are rebutting my “Africa continent” argument by destorying Fox News’ jouranlistic integrity, sure, I’ll grant that.
@PreciousOnyx - so? presidents have had more spurious beginnings and did just fine. this is a ridiculous attempt to force liberal elitism on her.
My argument of Sarah Palin’s collegiate background and her undistinguished academic record was to support the larger point that she’s empty-headed.
George Washington never went to college.
There weren’t many colonial colleges in George Washington’s time. Two hundred and fifty years since, America has come a long way.
George Washington Bush went to Yale. Where did Sarah Palin go?
@praytherosaryeveryday - In eight years, the shoe will probably be on the other foot, and the public will be sick of the Democrats. That’s politics.
Yeah. The pendulum doesn’t stop swinging.
*Now* is the time for the Republican party to be introspective and to reinvent itself. With the Obama victory, it is clear how much the political landscape and the voting demographics has changed. Personally, I am hoping that the GOP scoots a little more towards the center.
If Palin actually steps up through the party’s leadership void, I will be reaching for my barf bag.
Yes, its part of the reason since she is not competent for the role at all, and it shows McCain’s own poor judgement in choosing her. I heard people saying all the time; they don’t mind McCain being the president, but they do mind Palin being the vice president. Though we need to add Bush into the equation also.
I personally think she didn’t help [especially when she opened her mouth] but I don’t think she is to blame.
Maybe the fact that a republican screwed everything up the last 8 years had something to do with it.
There certainly were colleges in Washington’s day and one not too far from him- I do believe William and Mary was around back then- it’s right there on the Tidewater not 3 hours from his home (I ought to know- I grew up in VA). He could easily have gone up north to Yale Harvard or Princeton- not like he lacked the funds.
Your argument fails. Just because she didn’t achieve any noteriety doesn’t make her an egg head. Lots of people do just fine in college but maintain a ghost’s existence. And it’s quite the trend nowadays to skip around to different colleges. I’ve done it. In any case, it hasn’t stopped her from excelling in leading and doing well at serving in office. I’d like to see you just try and accomplish half of what she’s done. Go ahead- since you know so much more than her. She can brush up on trivia about various obscure capitals of the world. She can polish and hone her talents and create a strong PR image. And I have every reason to believe that she will. I saw on a Yahoo video the other day that already Republicans are following her up to Alaska to groom her for public office on the national scene. You just wait and see…
for those who somehow believe she was a part of the problem, here’s a brand new poll out that dispels such notions: http://newsmax.com/insidecover/palin_rasmussen_poll/2008/11/07/149105.html
read ‘em and weep.
@huginn - sometimes Fox is on and other times it’s not. But they do much better on the whole than CNN, ABC, and NBC and CBS anyday.
That’s all I heard after and around the election. So sure.
@PreciousOnyx - Your argument fails. Just because she didn’t achieve any noteriety doesn’t make her an egg head. Lots of people do just fine in college but maintain a ghost’s existence.
Seriously though. I am the son of first-generation immigrants. I entered the Los Angeles education system not knowing a word of English. I worked myself up to a perennial top-50 university. And I’m a nobody!
Tens of millions of Americans are more informed than Sarah Palin is in questions of foreign policy and geography. While Sarah Palin is a great political puppeteer, she is horridly underprepared for the know-how of national and international politics.
You’ve got to believe that neither McCain, Obama, or Biden would have fallen for the same prank call that Governor Palin fell for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8kSoR22C64
For seven minutes, a couple bozos from Quebec actually fooled Palin into believing that she was speaking with the President of France.
@huginn - You’ve still yet to PROVE that Palin didn’t know her geography. When you can actually supply better evidence than a talking head, I’ll listen to that mumbo-jumbo. And again with the foreign policy- I’ve yet to see where she’s so ignorant. Did you look up the Bush Doctrine on wikipedia like I told you? She answered correctly the questions Gibson fired at her- I would have just slapped that horrid sneer off his face. She showed understanding of NATO policy and the right to preemptive strike. Your allegations as yet are baseless.
Who hasn’t been taken in by a prank call? You expect her to know exactly who’s speaking to her in french over the phone?
How bout calling things for what they are: you just don’t like her for who she is. She’s a conservative and she holds near and dear the values you detest. Just admit it.
No way. People who were already voting Democrat didn’t like her, but she helped McCain. She got the far right back in his corner.
I didn’t like either of them.
@PreciousOnyx - Who hasn’t been taken in by a prank call? You expect her to know exactly who’s speaking to her in french over the phone?
The dead give-away should have been when “Sarkozy” mentioned actor Johnny Holiday as his “American advisor.” There were other subtle hints, like when a famous Canadian singer was mentioned as the Canada’s Prime Minister.
To be fooled for a minute takes gulliblity. To be fooled for seven minutes took a special ignorance of international politics.
Palin was selected precisely because she could balance the ticket and bring in the traditional conservative. Many of the individuals I noted all of a sudden would not vote for McCain because of Palin stated it was because they did not support her policies. In particular her pro-life views. McCain truly is a moderate Republican, while Palin is a conservative Republican.
So while the ticket gained the full conservative Republican base, it lost some of the moderate Republicans and swing vote independents.
In the end, there was very little chance that McCain would have won, with the general anti-Bush sentiment and the current state of the Republican party. In many ways, the Republican party has failed to uphold its original values. I am impressed that the race was so close, despite everything against the chance of McCain winning.
I also feel in general that the campaign was poorly managed. They did not introduce Palin solidly well. In addition, they did not take off the gloves until it was too late.
I think what many people are now asking is not so much did Palin cause the lost of the ticket, but more over, will she run for the ticket as the presidential candidate in 2012. And if so, would she get the endorsement of the party – or will the party go towards a more moderate Republican combination.
The media stacked the deck to get McCain the nomination, since he was the least conservative of the GOP hopefuls. Then, once he was nominated, the media stacked the deck against him. The pick of Palin was one that McCain hoped would energize the conservative base of the GOP, and it did. If it weren’t for Palin, many of my GOP friends wouldn’t have voted for either major party in this election. To blame Palin for the loss is another ploy of the media to taint the GOP pool against the conservative part of the party.
~RvL
She was definitely part of it. But anything she did wrong can be traced back to McCain having picked her in the first place. I think he should have picked a moderate sidekick with a lot of economic experience. Frankly, I’m not convinced McCain ever had much of a chance, and I wasn’t keen on him anyway.
I’d prefer people not to look for a scrape goat. Sarah Palin was not the problem
The majority of Americans do not support Obama’s left wing radical agenda, but they wanted change for the sake of change. They wanted new leadership. Conservative leaders have failed to remain true to core values, and the people punished them.
@randy_and_tricia - Good answer!
yes
They are all idiots (Obama and McCain and the rest of the sidekicks). None of them would have cut taxes,ended this god forsaken war or fixed this economy. But when the day comes and China or some other country becomes the world leader and you ask me how this could have happened, I will politely respond:Don’t Blame me…I voted for Ron Paul
Ha! No.
I think Palin’s inexperience and lack of knowledge in the VP Debates really brought her image down especially her tendency for dodging questions and answering previous ones. I mean all Palin really accomplished is add some female voters behind McCain for the sake of being a woman instead of being an experienced woman. If she worked a bit harder politically than do skits on SNL, she would have gained more votes for McCain.
well, yeah.
Actually, I think many people who were planning not to vote decided to because of her.
And when I say that, I mean they decided to vote McCain because of her.
But I’m sure she hurt his vote a little too. In the end it probably all balanced out so that there wasn’t an overall impact.
no way! mccain’s ratings were the highest right after he announced palin as his running mate! and he chose her, so even if she had negative impact (which i don’t believe she did) that’s his own fault!
I actually blogged how she was one of 5 main reasons recently.
some…….
Nah, she was actually good at first. Her stupidity and general ignorance didn’t help in the long run, but she can’t be blame for the ass-kicking Obama gave McCain during the election.
I mean, after all, she could see Russia from Alaska, so her foreign policy experience was like, AWESOME.
McCain is responsible for picking her if we’re really going to blame anyone. I think whoever’s advising the current top republicans are more to blame. Who are these people and why do they seem so… stupid? McCain seemed like a great candidate before he was the nomine but after that it seemed like the GOP got hold of him and tried to mold him into something he wasn’t.
@Allen_Oz - McCain is responsible for picking her if we’re really going to blame anyone. I think whoever’s advising the current top republicans are more to blame.
Yeah. I wonder what went on behind the scenes in those frantic days before the Republican National convention.
Maybe an insider will someday write a book about it. =D
I think that McCain never stood a chance…. But I know a lot of people who voted for McCain because of Sarah Palin…Still he never stood a chance.
She was only one of the many factors to bring him down. But Obama ending with 349 vs 179 (?)
No way was it all her. Obama crushed McCain
so now the blaming game begins…
It wouldn’t have mattered who he picked, Obama still would have won. I think she actually got some people really excited – and I like a lot of things about her. I think we’ll be seeing more of her. I don’t think she hurt his chances. I think he was already screwed, just being a Republican after eight years of what we’ve just had. He didn’t distance himself enough from the Bush administration, nor did he come up with anything radically different to change the status quo.
Only the loss of a lot of votes. I think ultimately Obama would have won anyway
I don’t think she helped him any, but I don’t think he would have won regardless.
Her and his lack of funding. But mostly her. Adding her to the ticket lost more supporters than it gained.
I’ve read that the aides who are throwing her under the bus are former (and future) Romney aides who want to discredit her for the 2012 run…
I wouldn’t think so, honestly I like her more than Biden.
No. She’s cool. If anything, she made me re-consider McCain.
I voted for Obama but I always thought that Romney would have been a good McCain choice; or even(shudder) Huckabee probably would have helped him a bit better.Still, she did better than I thought she would.
I think she’s partly responsible. He tried to bring someone new and un-Washington into the playing field. Unfortunately for him, he was pulled onto playing Obama’s “change” game. But his hands were kinda tied anyway, seeing as how the GOP didn’t approve of other possible veep candidates.
I think Mitt Romney would have been a very strong choice for VP. He gives off that homey, down to earth, average guy vibe that Palin had, and he definitely had management skills as well as vast economic knowledge.
Palin just came off as very ditzy and inflexible which unfortunately were already negative stereotypes of women.
She certainly isn’t completely responsible, but after hearing about her, he 100% lost my vote and anyone I discussed her with.
No but she didn’t help McCain at all.
@jasquared - That’s exactly what I believe. I heard a lot of people I personally know say, “If he dies, there’s no way in hell I’d trust her running this country.”
well it sure as hell didn’t help
Yes.
I think that it’s the queen of england that is to blame. or belgium
She is the ONLY reason I started to consider voting for McCain! She is a conservative, unlike McCain. There probably are millions like me who either would have voted for Barr or not voted at all had she–or some other equally conservative person–not been part of the ticket.
She was demonized by the media, like it or not. She was hounded like no VP candidate in my memory–which goes back to the 1960′s. Yet she held up under the pressure with a smile. I think she is just too bubbly for people and the “folksy” thing drives some people crazy. Those are reasons she was hated rather than anything substantive. She’sll have another day, mark my words. Unfortunately for John McCain, his days are over, at least in terms of the presidency.
She was a HUGE help, and had he only embraced conservatism sooner, he might have won.
the only reason why i voted for mc cain was because of sarah palin. i believe that mccain is as bad as obama. mc cain-finegold, mc cain-kennedy, 770billion bail out. mc cain will never run for president again or senate. but look at frank lautenbug. he is 82? and he still got voted in by the sheeps of new jersey. so maybe he still has hopes. but yeah. bye mc cain.
when palin was picked everyone said she would help. up until the election night people said look at palin she is so going to help mc cain. what are people saying now? its like getting a girl pregnant. first you love it. until you find out that she is pregnant. then she was the biggest mistake ever. palin did not help so much but mc cain had more of a role in this election than anything else. he didn’t separate himself from obama too much. he didn’t go after obama too much. he wanted to fight clean. he didn’t show us the fighter that he is. so i blame it on mc cain. i believe that palin was not ready for the national spotlight. she was a triving learning governor. he should have picked more experienced person to run as the veep. that is my view.
I hate her …so much !!!
Yeah, she flubbed up….but then he did too…………..with old Joe the Plumber
No way, man! I love Sarah Palin, and a lot of people voted for McCain just because she was on the ticket! I think the fact that McCain is a Republican is what did it for him.
She was not prepped enough. Her own aides in the campaign couldn’t stand her. She thought Africa was a nation instead of a continent, dum, dee, dum, dumb. She didn’t know which nations were part of NAFTA, dum dum, dum, dee, dum dumb. Romny would have been a more intelligent pick, but McCain himself is a loser. Very chaotic, herky jerky campaign. Faxburn
No.
@huginn - If he was looking for a specific answer it was upon him to ask a specific question. Had he been so snide and vague with Obama Gibson would’ve been fired or publicly shamed. and you know it as well as i do.
how can you even suggest that such a beautiful woman could possibly be at fault?
palin was actually an asset rather than a liability for the republican party. mccain was running as the republican candidate but i’m sure the party didn’t like it so much when he’s criticized them and the president for the last 8 years…MAVERICK!
she would probably be a better president than nobama.
She was a liability and a joke. But I don’t think he would have beaten Obama no matter who he chose.
It’s possible since so many people disliked her but I really think it did just the opposite for him.
she’s the only reason we voted for McCain.
Well, it turned George Will and Colin Powell (a couple of elitists?!) against McCain because they chalked his choosing Palin up to poor judgment on his part. So yeah, she ruined it for him. Or, should I say, he ruined it for himself by choosing someone seemingly off-the-cuff and clearly only able to discuss previously-memorized talking points.
Look, when your party starts dogging elitists, that points to George W.
Bush love (who is clearly not an elitist, just a good ol’ Texas boy who was related to the right people who were able to get him into an Ivy League school).
All I hear on conservative talk radio is hate speech against liberal
elitists. So they’re saying that it’s a BAD thing to get a few college
degrees and to be a critical thinker and reader? I don’t understand the logic
there.
When people defend Palin, saying she energized the base of the party, they’re talking about the extreme right-wingers of the party. But clearly they’re a minority in the Republican party because if they weren’t, McCain would have won, wouldn’t he? Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity keep telling their listeners that the majority of Americans are conservatives. I don’t see that. Wouldn’t Obama have lost if that were true?
And here’s something else that bothers me: Ever since Obama won, my husband’s co-workers (all right-wingers except for one) are suddenly telling racist jokes, sending racist emails to him that are supposed to be jokes, and sending racist “joke” text messages to him. When he tells them that these “jokes” are offensive, all they say is, “It’s only a joke.” But you know what? That shows what kind of character these people possess. Their underlying reason for voting for McCain WASN’T because he had the better ideas. Nope. It was because they’d be damned if they were going to vote for a black man (who, honestly, wasn’t even raised in black culture but around white people and multi-cultural people from other lands, and then he went to a private high school in Hawaii composed of mostly whites and Hawaiians). So just because his skin is dark, they want to lump him in with all the negative stereotypes that blacks in this country have been attributed. Well, that’s just swell. Racism is alive and well here in Tennessee. What about your state? It just makes me sick.
No… she’s the reason he was even close in the race to begin with. McCain is not a true conservative, and Palin helped the ticket for the conservative base. I hope she makes a run in 2012.
I think if McCain picked someone who was actually competent, he would’ve had a greater chance of winning.
Even if she did cost hime some votes, it’s not her fault because they picked her. She did not nominate herself and she did it to help McCain.
No, I think they were both goofs.
I don’t blame her…I thank her…She single handedly rendered McCain an unelectable candidate. I would have been, if not content, at least OK with a McCain administration…without her…As soon as she was announced I started donating, volonteering, and making calls. She is so unappetizing to so many voters that she did more to insure Obama’s election than any one person. She aught to get a damn medal…
Obvious reasons…Sarah Palin is a dipshit.
@stillooking2find - I really do hope you conservatives think Palin is the cure to your party’s woes. If she runs in 2012 you can enjoy being out in the wilderness for the next 8 years. When you lose an election badly with a wingnut like McCain, it’s probably not a good idea to get someone even more wingnutty than him to be your next standard-bearer. Americans like moderates, not wingers.
PS: She was not villified by the media. They merely reported the truth. If she doesn’t know that Africa is a continent and not a country the media has a duty to inform the country that she doesn’t know that. It’s not bias to report true statements that she made. She shot herself in the foot with her own statements like how she likes the “pro-American” parts of the country, how rural Virginia is the “real Virginia,” how she can see Russia from parts of Alaska and that gives her foreign policy experience. These are her own words. You can’t blame everything on media bias. It’s called responsibility. Your party chose a completely unqualified ignoramus for its VP candidate. McCain needed to be held accountable for this. Face the facts, my man. You should have gone with someone educated who knows economics like Mitt Romney or an experienced Foreign Policy whiz like Dick Lugar.
why do we always have to blame someone??
I think McCain was doomed anyway. I wrote a blog entry just now explaining it in more detail, but I reckon it was more to do with the fact Rupert Murdoch wanted Obama to win than anything. Although having said that, not knowing Africa’s a continent…
@TH1SL1F3 - Yeah, I’m sure she helped McCain with her 65% unfavorable ratings. ROFL. What a joke. Americans like moderates, not wingers. They also like competent people to run the country, not ignoramuses like Palin who celebrate being a know-nothing and being uneducated.
Nope, besides, it’s his fault for choosing her even if it was her that made him lose.
yes. but she makes me laugh, so it’s okay
Only in the sense that the media’s horrificly biased treatment of her contibuted to his loss.
@ElDuderinoCA - If Americans like moderates, why did the elect the most leftist candidate to ever run for the presidency? No, Americans like candidates who say what they want to hear, no matter the reality.
Well said, jjw247.
To everyone claiming that her being selected somehow cost McCain the election: No.
No, no, no. What cost McCain the election? 2 things: that (R) next to his name and his poorly-run campaign. And yes, the Bush associations fall under that (R) category.
Did you all not see the excitement she sparked across the nation? Did you see her rallies? Americans were clearly happy to have her as McCain’s running mate. Unfortunately, as jjw247 mentioned, the media’s attempt to portray everything she did as a debacle ultimately lead to, as Sean Hannity said, “the death of journalism.” It was ridiculously unfair treatment and she made it out alive. In fact, despite McCain’s campaign aides attempting to smear her even more, many Republicans see her as one of the party’s leaders. There’s no doubt she’ll be doing big things in 2012 (I’m hoping for Bobby Jindal too, but that’s a different story) when people won’t have her “inexperience” (comparable to that of our president-elect) to try and argue upon.
No, I don’t think so. But if she IS the reason why most didn’t vote for him, then it is HIS fault for losing because HE selected her as his running mate.
I believe that John McCain choosing Sarah Palin is 55% of the reason that he lost the election.
~1~
@MsJYang - I concur. He chose her as a means to get more of the female vote, he was using her and he paid for it because she turned out to be a prejudiced fucking idiot.
~1~
People didn’t vote for McCain because he turned out to be a Bush guy. If he had run as a Reagan / Goldwater / Ron Paul limited government peace candidate, he would have beat Obama. That idiot Palin didn’t hurt him anymore than he hurt himself.
I am so sick of the republicans blaming everyone but themselves for McCain’s loss.
YA’LL LOSE!
Instead of bitching, try lobbying for the causes that you’re worried Obama won’t care about. Do something worthwhile instead of sour grapes.
Heck yeah. Everybody realized that if there ever was a possibility that McCain should be unable to perform the duties required of him as president, Palin would take over. The same woman that, supposedly, was prank called by the “President of Canada” and actually did an entire interview with this prankster. The same woman who needs to get her family situation together before she even thinks about being Vice President of America.
However, I don’t think it was all her fault. People are just fed up with the Republicans in general.
@ElDuderinoCA - I’m not sure what you define as a “wingnut” but McCain certainly is a moderate if there ever were one. Obama on the other hand could not seriously be considered moderate in most ways. He’s nearly as liberal as they come in terms of his voting record.
Concerning Palin and her knowledge or lack thereof, “unnamed sources” said that she said those things about Africa, etc., which she has denied. I could act as an unnamed source saying that you are a brain surgeon, but that does not mean it is true. Many of these things that the media “exposed” are hearsay at best. Unless one hears them on an unedited video or in person, one should take them with a grain of salt, realizing that people spin things most of the time in the direction that will allow their ends to be achieved, especially in the political arena.
Dick Lugar has not demonstrated himself to be an outstanding conservative, so I’ll hope that the Republicans can put up someone a bit more so than he for the 2012 elections.
While I doubt that Obama will move us in a direction that is good for the country, I will pray for him often in the hopes that he really does what is best for the country. You are welcome to your opinion and I hope you can allow me mine as well. Blessings to you today.
there were a lot of contributing factors and i don’t seriously think that palin was one of them..
Yes. There were plently of older individuals with strong religious beliefs who don’t think that a woman should lead men. If Sarah became president, she would be leading all men in the US. Therefore, they voted for Obama. It’s true.
No she inspired the party watch the convention. McCain lost because he was from the same old party. I as a Republician thought ” This is what I get?” The Republician party for got about using someonr old and wore out. DUH BOB DOLE, stupid people. If you had to people like Palin the republicain party would have cleaned house. These old people want to save there power.
@lotta_valdez - I’m a Die-HARD CONSERVITIVE, And I say you hit the NAIL RIGHT ON THE HEAD. Way to go. 2 tumbs up
Ummm, he picked her didn’t, he?
http://americanagora.blogspot.com/2008/11/is-sarah-palin-smarter-than-5th-grader.html
@weirdbean - I think had McCain picked Romney, he wouldn’t have gotten the boost in the polls, but he would’ve been smooth sailing from there.
Besides, McCain’s lead shrunk and soon deteriorated as America learned more and more about Palin.
———————–
I honestly just think that Palin scared the living daylight outta most people.
Why are we talking about why McCain lost, as if there must have been some sort of fixable fault in his campaign. What if that fault was just his policies, what if more people simply agreed with Obama.
i don’t believe he would have won anyways. he’s too conservative for the time we’re coming into. and i think people are just tired of a republican president.
She did have some moments when she messed it up for him…but ultimately I think McCain lost because Obama is just awesome and has so much support cause he rocks. He’s going to do great things as president.Oh, and people want democrats in government, not republicans.
But yeah, she did do some stupid stuff, she was racist also..is it true that she thought Africa was a country, not a continent? It sounds too stupid to be true…I did hear it on John Stewart, so I dunno if it’s true or not.
McCains loss was inevitible. The only impact Palin had was the magnitude of his loss. Had a better VP been chosen, I believe McCain still would have lost, but the difference in the votes may have been closer between the two candidates.
Definitely not. It was, in fact, Governor Palin’s candidacy that rallied as much of the disaffected conservative base to McCain as it did. I can’t count how many have said that they intended to vote for Palin… not McCain.
the people who already had decided long before that they were voting for Obama can point to Palin as a reason why why not? they didn’t vote for McCain. Palin’s certainly an easy target because of the scrutiny she fell under while Joe Biden got a pass in comparison.
the only people who can really figure into answering this question are moderate republicans, independents and moderate democrats.
keep in mind, McCain still was able to grab 46% of the popular vote. so only 5-7% of the voters could accurately tell you whether Palin cost John McCain the election. Otherwise, people are suggesting that had McCain picked someone other than Palin, he’d have won with 51% to 53% of the popular vote.
my point is, if you don’t like Palin, that was more a reason for voting for Obama; it’s not as if you’d have voted for John McCain anyway!