[Nextrush]

Sarah Palin was the best pick he could have made.

She’s one of us and not a political insider.

Hooray for Sarah and hooray for the future because we have a leader who can overcome the RINO’s and insiders.

She will need our help to put out the Romney insider gang.

[generally]

Hear, hear!

She’s the best thing that’s happened to the Republican party at the national level since Reagan.

[Man50D]

Sarah’s a big girl. She could have said no to socialist McCain.

[llevrok]

Time to purge the Rinos, start with a small party and re-build from there...

[cowdog77]

I wouldn’t even have voted had it not been for Palin.
There wasn’t that much difference between McCain and Obama.

[Mr Rogers]

They blamed social conservatives for the Dole/Kemp loss! You can bet social conservatives & Palin will take a beating again...and I'll leave my bumper sticker on the car as a warning to liberals:

[cyborg]

If it wasn’t for her, McCain would have negative -145

[FredZarguna]

[Posted on another thread, but I don't do vanities]
The Palin Test

I want all you FReepers who've been critical of Palin to set aside your problems with her for a moment and understand something:

• Whatever Palin's capabilities or limitations, she is the reason the base turned out. Like it or not, McCain would NOT have been competitive without her.
• It is the traditional liberal narrative that Republicans are stupid, and Democrats are smart. If Palin was the smartest woman in the world, she would have been parodied as a moron by the Press, and would've had her every error amplified, and her every misstep edited for maximum impact.
• Her Democrat counterpart, who made some of the most outrageously stupid comments in the history of American elections -- and that is really saying something -- was somehow able to maintain his image as The Sage of the Senate. Think about that for a second when you're busy telling the rest of us FReepers how Sarah Palin was a dope.
• You were used, and easily so.
• Whether you believe it or not, this will be done to Jindal, or Cantor, or whomever steps forward in the next election to carry the banner of conservatism, and in light of the success of the Big Lie in this cycle, it will only get worse.
• A significant part of the narrative of this campaign after Palin's speech energized the base of the Republican Party at the Convention was that she was an idiot, and her choice showed McCain's judgment to be flawed. This was the strategy pursued by our enemies in swaying undecided and moderate voters that McCain -- whose campaign counted on those votes -- had disqualified himself.
• That strategy was aided in very large part by a number of conservative pundits, who felt that their personal distaste for Palin and the warm reception of their opinion columns by liberals was more important than the future of America.
• Those columnists, Beltway Insiders, and Republican Bluebloods understood that their opinions, used as a "testimony against interest" would be the most damaging kind of attack, but their hubris would not allow them to keep silent in the interest of protecting the Country.
• Now therefore, it should be resolved by all good conservatives that, regardless of ones opinion of Governor Palin, we will not patronize publications or web sites who have aired the columns of these quislings, that they shall be cast (figuratively) into the Outer Darkness forever with Satan and his angels; reprobate and despised by all decent human beings. Let them be anathema.

Not kidding about this. We know who our friends are now, and we know the people who were only pretending to be. Now, you have to decide where you stand. We lost this election, as we lost the 2006 election, because we took conservatism for granted. Period. Trying to blame Palin for the failures of a Top of the Ticket many of us were less than enthusiastic for is NOT going to cut it. What we need to find out in the next two years is if a conservative message, clearly articulated and put forward with firmness and with no apologies still appeals to America.

[Spera]

I think there are a lot of fiscal conservatives out there who don’t care much about the moral issues. They say they’re “libertarians.” And the 3-4 that I know like this hated Palin and voted 3rd party or not at all because of her.

I love Sarah Palin, but I can see why others think she is a deal-breaker. They don’t care about the social issues as much and see her as being a Bible-thumper. Maybe you guys call these kinds of people RINOs, but they are conservative on the economic issues.

I never gave to a political campaign before this election, but mainly because I hate Obama and I wanted McCain to have every chance to beat him. I don’t think Palin could ever make it to the White House though as President - she doesn’t come across as serious enough. She doesn’t come across as a leader in the Margaret Thatcher style - and I think a female running for Prez wouldhave to have that kind of toughness to have a chance at winning.

Ah well... back to the drawing board on it all!

[unspun]

We had a presidential candidate celebrated for his heroism in America’s defending allies abroad against Communism — yet he failed to recognize our most effective communist enemy to date, when he was staring McCain in the face inside America.

And now that communist enemy is headed to becoming United States President.

[dragnet2]

This has little to do with Palin...

The Bush legacy is now complete.

[rabidralph]

You can fill out a simple form to say Thank You to Gov. Palin. The form prohibits partisan, political comment so I just said thanks and God bless.

[Pharmer]

This is my first post tonight and I will put an essay up on this in the next few days ‘cause I saw this coming. I along with Rush warned all on this page about McCain not 3 days ago. I never thought he could win. McCain was the worst of candidates we have put up there. It was true in 2000 and it has born out tonight. And Sarah if she was smart would have taken McCain's request to be VP and told him to shove it. McCain has been a boil on the Republicans ass for for far to long and like Bob Dole we are rid of him. But we can only hope that Barak’s governance matches hi rhetoric because if it does we might be screwed in the short tern but he will feel our wrath next time. But for now this defeat if anything must not be puty at the hands of Sarah Palin or for that matter on Mr. Bush but squarely on the head of John McCain, who did nothing in the last eight years but second guess, whine, obfuscate and undermine Mr Bush in every endeavor and threw gasoline on all media Bush fires instead of standing by him.

[jporcus]

I will HATE any Repubs who blame Sarah. She’s the only reason I voted Repub. She is one tough courageous woman who had a lot of sh#t thrown at her, treated totally unfairly, and yet kept her head high and didn’t stop fighting. She’s great!

[iacovatx]

Palin was the star of the campaign and had greater positive power than any of the other three main candidates. Because of Palin, the core of conservative Republicans voted for McCain-Palin. The Republicans need to know that during this election, the loyal Republicans were the conservatives and we conservatives were the strength they had. The squishy Republicans were unreliable. They are the fools who during the past three decades kept chasing left-wing ideas to, in their minds, go where the country was going or appeal to the moderates, etc. They were the ones who danced with the illegals because these were supposedly socially conservative people. The squishy Republicans were the ones who voted with the left and called conservative judges too extreme.

Where are the squishy Republicans tonight? They are in the losers’ tent. The conservatives can be proud that they were the clear and strong opposition to the o-bomination threatening our nation. Only we conservatives saw and understood the threat. The squishy Republicans are contemptible losers and have helped lead this country to the state it is in. The hard left of the Dem party has thrown up three of the wackiest leftist extremists in history. They did this three times in a row for a Presidential election. Had sensible conservatives dominated the Republican party, it is unlikely the Dem’s would ever have risked running even one of those nuts.

[Kevmo]

Good thread, thanks for posting it. Palin/Hunter 2012.

I think I’ll change my tagline now.

Old Tagline:
I love that sound and please let that baby keep on crying. ~Sarah Palin

New Tagline:
Palin/Hunter 2012

[Bringbackthedraft]

I was for Fred Thompson in the beginning but who would he have chose for his running mate? I saw McCain as another Bob Dole, and when he was chosen the writing was on the wall. Both Dole and Mc Cain were no IKE. When he picked Palin it was like being pumped with adrenalin, but she came into the picture too late to be appreciated. Over all I feel like the whole election was orchestrated by the MSM and everyone danced to their music. The Dems won the Series, and we have 4 years to train for the next one. We can do it if the RNC finds their balls.

[Sir Gawain]

Palin is why I voted McCain. Screw the RINOs.

[Mr. Silverback]

Roger that!

[dfwgator]

McCain lost because he supported that @*#&@ bailout, and had his little “dog and pony show” during the crisis, suspended his campaign to fly back to DC to do absolutely nothing.