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Sarah Palin saved GOP from landslide defeat
The Hill ^ | November 11, 2008 | Dick Morris

Posted on 11/12/2008 6:31:58 AM PST by reaganaut1

As Richard Nixon wrote, “history is written by liberals,” but the story of the 2008 campaign is too important to cede to them the analysis of what happened. A close analysis of the returns indicates several key realities:

a) Sarah Palin made a vast difference in McCain’s favor. Compared to 2004, McCain lost 11 points among white men, according to the Fox News exit poll, but only four points among white women. Obama’s underperformance among white women, evident throughout the fall, may be chalked up, in large part, to the influence of Sarah Palin. She provided a rallying point for women who saw their political agenda in terms larger than abortion. She addressed the question of what it is like to be a working mother in today’s economy and society and resonated with tens of millions of white women who have not responded to the more traditional, and liberal, advocates for their gender.

b) Turnout did not increase substantially. Despite predictions (by me and others) of a vastly greater voter turnout, it didn’t happen. About 127 million people voted in 2008, compared to 122 million in 2004. By contrast, turnout rose by almost 20 million between 2000 and 2004. The emphasis on early voting and the heavy participation in primaries indicated the likelihood of a huge increase in turnout, but, on Election Day, the turnout was modest.

c) The black vote made a huge difference; but young people did not. Obama, as expected, generated a big increase in African-American voter turnout. Fox News’s exit polls estimate that blacks constituted 13 percent of the turnout in 2008, compared with 11 percent in 2004 and 10 percent in 2000. But voters under 30 years of age were still the same 11 percent of the vote that they were in 2004.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; bho2008; dickmorris; landslide; mccain; sarahpalin
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I have noticed that Freepers often judge an article by who wrote it or where it appeared. The problem is that Dick Morris, famous toe-sucker and Clinton adviser, makes sense in this article.
1 posted on 11/12/2008 6:31:58 AM PST by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

yes.


2 posted on 11/12/2008 6:33:30 AM PST by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: reaganaut1

Many are unwilling to give credit where its due. Morris is right this time.


3 posted on 11/12/2008 6:33:46 AM PST by rintense (I don't wanna gain the whole world and lose my soul~ TobyMac (are you listening Obamabots?))
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To: reaganaut1

Even a blind sucker finds a toe once in a while!?!?! (:


4 posted on 11/12/2008 6:34:44 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: reaganaut1

When he’s right, he’s right. And lately he’s been right a good deal of the time.


5 posted on 11/12/2008 6:35:51 AM PST by andy58-in-nh (Liberty has few friends, many enemies, and no adequate substitute.)
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To: reaganaut1

Palin repeatedly pulled McCain’s bacon out of the fire, yet nary a word of that from anyone. And, I’m not sure that Dick Morris counts as anyone.


6 posted on 11/12/2008 6:36:03 AM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: reaganaut1
Yes she did...and the liebrals and the RINOs recognize this, hate her for it, and are doing all in their power to keep her from moving forward with the conservative base of the party towards 2012.

But it's not going to work.

As to Obama, well, we have to keep soldiering on and fighting.

IMHO, we simply must write our GOP senators and urge them to stand.

While standing up in any way we can ourselves over these next four years until we can turn this OBAMANATION out.


Many more designs here.

7 posted on 11/12/2008 6:36:07 AM PST by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: reaganaut1

He is correct. If it weren’t for Sarah, this election would have been 70-30 or worse..............


8 posted on 11/12/2008 6:37:09 AM PST by Red Badger (Hey! Look on the bright side! At least Joe Biden is out of the Senate!..........)
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To: reaganaut1

This may have been the one time in 232 years where the Vice-Presidential candidate was more important than the top of the ticket.

Governor Palin probably saved the Republican Party from a defeat of catastrophic proportions.

Who was more important on the ticket? Look at who was attacked more on the campaign. The fear on the left was against Governor Palin not John McCain.


9 posted on 11/12/2008 6:37:33 AM PST by Moconservative
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To: reaganaut1
McCain lost 11 points among white men...

WTF? over. So if Maverick had done as we;ll as she, he would be POTUS? Dick Morris, famous toe-sucker and Clinton adviser... And Odinga campaign strategist in Kenya, right along side you-know-who. Together they barnstormed for Odinga all over Kenya, raised over a $ Million bucks for the church-burner here in the USA, and if anyone gives a rat's patoot, violated the Logan Act..

10 posted on 11/12/2008 6:38:56 AM PST by Kenny Bunk (Marxist Muslim Cousin Odinga burned Christians in their churches. Obama bought him the gas.)
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To: reaganaut1

Dick is a brilliant guy, but a mixed bag in the long run, like most of us-——he has a permanent virtually daily conduit to FOX and has his every thought heard and his every column referred to and publicized. Considering how much he has to say, and does say, his batting average is pretty high. But when he’s wrong, he’s really wrong, and proves he’s not so smart as to be a prophet> Remember a lame idea that actually got turned into a book titled “Condi vs. Hillary”? How’d that one work out?


11 posted on 11/12/2008 6:39:53 AM PST by supremedoctrine
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To: reaganaut1

I just wonder about vote fraud, and by that I don’t mean just inflated numbers on the Dem side. I wonder about Republican votes being “lost,” or otherwise not counted. The intensity of the Republican voters I know was higher than 2004, or even 2000. It doesn’t add up, for me at least.


12 posted on 11/12/2008 6:40:15 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: reaganaut1

He often makes sense. Just like when you read or listen to anyone, you have to use your own judgment about what is said. He’s worth listening to. I could care less about toe fetishes.


13 posted on 11/12/2008 6:40:31 AM PST by twigs
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To: reaganaut1

Damn skippy Sarah saved him from a landslide defeat.

I would have voted Bab Barr if McCain had picked Crist as running mate.


14 posted on 11/12/2008 6:41:54 AM PST by CPT Clay (Drill ANWR, Personal Accounts NOW ,)
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To: reaganaut1

She is the reason I voted for and financially supported McCain.


15 posted on 11/12/2008 6:42:41 AM PST by MassachusettsConservative
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To: reaganaut1

I am more scared by the complete wussification of America if Obama garnered that much support from white men. That’s disgusting.


16 posted on 11/12/2008 6:42:43 AM PST by cdga5for4
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To: reaganaut1

Trapped as I am here in the Blue State Hell of Massachusetts, I have really been surprised at the number of people who have told me that they were leaning McCain, or at least “could have lived with him,” but were so turned off by Sarah Palin that they voted for Obama.

Even my own 85-year-old mother in Florida told me that.


17 posted on 11/12/2008 6:43:20 AM PST by Maceman (If you're not getting a tax cut, you're getting a pay cut.)
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To: reaganaut1

bump


18 posted on 11/12/2008 6:43:23 AM PST by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: reaganaut1
It is difficult to predict because we don't know who McCain would have picked if he didn't pick Palin. Palin clearly energized a large part of the conservative base, but other conservative candidates could have done the same. If McCain would have gone with Lieberman, his apparent ideal choice, I would think that McCain would have done significantly worse.
19 posted on 11/12/2008 6:43:28 AM PST by MBB1984
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To: reaganaut1

“The black vote made a huge difference”

Reverse racism.


20 posted on 11/12/2008 6:43:31 AM PST by MayflowerMadam ("...a hyphenated American is not an American at all." T. Roosevelt)
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To: anniegetyourgun
Hopefully she hasn't been Quayled or has a permanent mark against her for being on McCant’s ticket.

Sarah definitely stopped this from being a Carter-esque 5 to 6 state election for McCant, no question.

21 posted on 11/12/2008 6:44:15 AM PST by GOPsterinMA (The countdown to 01/20/2013 has started......will it matter?)
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To: supremedoctrine; reaganaut1
My take on Morris is that he's very good at telling WHY something HAPPENED, but he's terrible (as are most of us) at projecting what's going to happen in the future.

Owl_Eagle

“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden

22 posted on 11/12/2008 6:45:20 AM PST by Owl_Eagle (In Memory of my Dear Friend Henry Lee II)
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To: reaganaut1

And it is unusual because he usually says republicans can only win by appealing to moderates and Palin actually gave conservatives something to vote FOR. something McCain was lackling/


23 posted on 11/12/2008 6:46:56 AM PST by sickoflibs ( Those who don't learn from (real big) mistakes are losers forever)
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To: reaganaut1
Before Palin was selected, I was looking for who would get my protest vote. (Normally it would be the Libertarians, but the Libertarians are too pacifist against a hostile, aggressive and worldwide enemy.) I saw McCain heading towards a Mondalian loss and I at least wanted to make a statement for a candidate closer to my beliefs. Palin changed that. She fired up the base and gave a chance to split the PUMAs from Obama. The press and the inside-the-beltway Republicans saw that and turned on her.
24 posted on 11/12/2008 6:47:22 AM PST by KarlInOhio (11/4: The revolutionary socialists beat the Fabian ones. Where can we find a capitalist party?)
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To: reaganaut1

“Sarah Palin saved GOP from landslide defeat”

She kept McCain from getting a number in the 30’s.


25 posted on 11/12/2008 6:48:00 AM PST by HereInTheHeartland (I can't wait for January 20, 2013")
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To: Maceman

“but were so turned off by Sarah Palin that they voted for Obama.”

I’ll bet you anything that these people watch MSM only and were completely manipulated by the biased reporting on Palin. Of course they’d be turned off by her; they never heard the truth.

We’ve got to do something about the MSM’s position as propaganda arm for the dem party. And we don’t have much time. 2010 is looming already. How, though?


26 posted on 11/12/2008 6:48:03 AM PST by MayflowerMadam ("...a hyphenated American is not an American at all." T. Roosevelt)
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To: GOPsterinMA

I fear she has been finished off. The media bias against her is two-fold - they hate conservatives AND they are sexist. It’s too much to overcome - particularly in light of the tactics Obama has used, and will refine over the next several years.


27 posted on 11/12/2008 6:48:38 AM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: reaganaut1

Merciful heavens, I agree with Dick Morris. Must sit down.


28 posted on 11/12/2008 6:48:57 AM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: Moconservative

Morris deserves credit. Heaven knows we may never hear what we know is true again about Sarah’s impact.

My RINO friend who btw told me after the election that he did not vote for his man McCain (he was for him in the primaries) but instead for Obama because of Palin. I realized my buddy is a flat out sexist when he said that Palin should be a schoolteacher and she is an idiot, blah blah blah.

I told him he might want to not say that in front of his new wife (remarried a year and a half back). She happens to be a second grade teacher.

He then begged me not to say anything in front of her. I said no problem. I’m warning you is all.

Irony.

So we may not “hear” about this again but you can be sure the real Obamatrons already know this. I told my buddy before the election that Sarah was the only thing keeping it close.

Folks already know that here.


29 posted on 11/12/2008 6:51:23 AM PST by romanesq
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To: reaganaut1

IMO, you have to read Morris and at least ponder what he says for a minute without reaction. Yes, he is an attention whore whose best days are behind him, and he has the habit of being outrageous just to pump his dwindling franchise, and he’s not even right all that often. But, I find that in almost every one of his articles, there is that one single piece of clear thinking that he usually says first.


30 posted on 11/12/2008 6:51:50 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Tired from wondering whether we wake up in the newest socialist country tomorrow.)
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To: reaganaut1
Will conservatives take matters into their own hands and build the kind of organization and Internet base that the liberals have over the past 15 years?


31 posted on 11/12/2008 6:52:52 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: reaganaut1
The chemicals in his girlfriends' toenail polish must be fogging Morris' puny little brain.

Earth to Morris: The GOP did suffer a landslide defeat!

32 posted on 11/12/2008 6:53:25 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: reaganaut1

And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 1 Samuel 8:7 NIV


33 posted on 11/12/2008 6:57:19 AM PST by SwinneySwitch (Prayer - beyond your expectations.)
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To: reaganaut1

Correct.
We have been saying the same thing at FR for days.
Dick Morris is wrong a lot of the time, yes.
But he is right on this one.


34 posted on 11/12/2008 6:59:07 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: reaganaut1
Compared to 2004, McCain lost 11 points among white men, according to the Fox News exit poll, but only four points among white women.

The fact that the GOP slid relative to its performance in 2004 (i.e. matters kept sliding downhill) reflects the failure of Palin to attract the "women's vote". One hopes that this failure will encourage the GOP to leave this sort of identity-politics crap to the liberals in future.

The difference in dropoff is simply the result of the GOP already (as of 2004) attracting few women voters -- it simply didn't have as far to fall in the "women's vote" as it did in the "men's vote".

35 posted on 11/12/2008 6:59:21 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: MayflowerMadam
I’ll bet you anything that these people watch MSM only and were completely manipulated by the biased reporting on Palin. Of course they’d be turned off by her; they never heard the truth.

You'd win that bet, for sure.

36 posted on 11/12/2008 7:01:52 AM PST by Maceman (If you're not getting a tax cut, you're getting a pay cut.)
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To: sam_paine

Look at the spike on Daily Kos right after Sarah was nominated! She scared the crap out of them.


37 posted on 11/12/2008 7:01:56 AM PST by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: KarlInOhio
She fired up the base and gave a chance to split the PUMAs from Obama.

Obviously not, since she did four percent worse than Dick Cheney at attracting the "women's vote".

38 posted on 11/12/2008 7:02:08 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Maceman
Trapped as I am here in the Blue State Hell of Massachusetts, I have really been surprised at the number of people who have told me that they were leaning McCain, or at least “could have lived with him,” but were so turned off by Sarah Palin that they voted for Obama”

This is the difference: Republicans don't win presidential elections in Massachusetts. Massachusetts doesn't represent the rest of the country.

39 posted on 11/12/2008 7:02:19 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: reaganaut1

If you want to feel your ears flap, as I did..read this article:

http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/11/11/palin-everything-that-is-wrong-with-america/

As Sarah says (and I paraphrase) all of the blows she took only made her stronger...so, we need to keep on getting stronger in taking the GOP back from those who have infiltrated it and shifted it left...and for our next standard bearer...Sarah Palin 2012.


40 posted on 11/12/2008 7:04:09 AM PST by imfrmdixie
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To: Maceman

I’ve been asking some of my liberal friends about that, why Palin got such incredible visceral personal hatred from the left this election. All they do is whine “well, she called us anti-American” and “Barack got insulted too, they called him Hussein!”. Oh really? People all over the blogosphere were calling Sarah Palin a c-—...funny, I never saw Obama referred to with ANY sexual or racist slur, not once. I can’t make them see that Palin caught more sheer hell this campaign than any other candidate I can remember since 1984, and can’t understand how Palin would cause people who otherwise liked McCain to vote against him.

}:-)4


41 posted on 11/12/2008 7:04:53 AM PST by Moose4 (Hey RNC. Don't move toward the middle. MOVE THE MIDDLE TOWARD YOU.)
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To: SmokingJoe
Massachusetts doesn't represent the rest of the country.

Apparently, it does now. May God help us all.

42 posted on 11/12/2008 7:08:33 AM PST by Maceman (If you're not getting a tax cut, you're getting a pay cut.)
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To: reaganaut1

“Compared to 2004, McCain lost 11 points among white men,”

Remember that when we’re accused of being racist.


43 posted on 11/12/2008 7:09:51 AM PST by popdonnelly (Don't lose sight of your conservative principles.)
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To: steve-b
Obviously not, since she did four percent worse than Dick Cheney at attracting the “women's vote”. “

How do you come by that one?
McCain was already losing the “woman's vote” by a big margin BEFORE Gov Paling was even nominated.
McCain shot ahead by 4% at RCP after Gov Paalin energized the base with her rousing RNC speech. McCain's speech was a snoozefest.
McCain sank after his notorious vote for that $700 billion bailout vote, and his speech blaming the Republican appointed Chairman of the SEC instead of blaming the Dims and Barney Frank the real culprits). He never recovered. No one can save a guy that is determined to lose like McCain was.

44 posted on 11/12/2008 7:09:53 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: RegulatorCountry

“I just wonder about vote fraud, and by that I don’t mean just inflated numbers on the Dem side. I wonder about Republican votes being “lost,” or otherwise not counted. The intensity of the Republican voters I know was higher than 2004, or even 2000. It doesn’t add up, for me at least.”

I think Republican votes were counted. I also believe many Republicans voted third party or none of the above, voted for Obama to teach the RNC a lesson, and many stayed home. Trouble is we all will suffer greatly for those voting decisions which helped Obama win the White House.


45 posted on 11/12/2008 7:10:00 AM PST by seekthetruth
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To: Maceman

“Apparently, it does now”

If it did, Utah and Oklahoma would have voted for Hussein. They didn’t. They voted overwhelmingly for McCain.


46 posted on 11/12/2008 7:11:51 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: reaganaut1

Had it not been for Palin on the ticket, McCain would have had a humiliating defeat. He was running behind when he nominated her.

Many, including me, thought he would maverick for Lieberman — and that would have resulted in absolute defeat. But some of his handlers were knowledgeable enough to know that that choice would be certain defeat.

The main problem in having Palin on the ticket was that she turned out to be a bigger draw and more popular than the top of the ticket was That grated on McCain’s ego. She drew tens-of-thousands; he drew a few hundred. Instead of unleashing her, the handlers (by instruction from the top?) kept her from many TV and media interviews.

==

Well, his O-ness has been president-elect for a week and the DOW has dropped again today. So far, it is down about 1,000 points since the election.

DOW 8514 at -174 and fluctuating.


47 posted on 11/12/2008 7:14:30 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: SmokingJoe
How do you come by that one?

It's right in the article -- the 2008 share of the "women's vote" dropped off 4% from the 2004 share of the "women's vote".

48 posted on 11/12/2008 7:14:38 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Moose4

My sample is pretty small, but I noticed a pattern among my female friends: Fat women conservatives voted against Sarah. Perhaps she was just too attractive for them to feel anything but jealousy. Either that or those fat women spent too much time watching MSM TV and believed the anti-Sarah propaganda. Its a shame if that is the case. What can one do about envious women?


49 posted on 11/12/2008 7:15:48 AM PST by helpfulresearcher (Bipartisanship is just a PC word for Collaborating With the Enemy.)
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To: steve-b
Earth to Morris: The GOP did suffer a landslide defeat!”

Exactly how do you define that?
You might want to read this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2130715/posts

50 posted on 11/12/2008 7:17:29 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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