5 Myths About an Election of Mythic Proportions

Washington Post ^ | Nov 16,2008 | Chris Cillizza

[SeekAndFind]

The 2008 presidential election ended less than two weeks ago, but the mythmaking machine has already begun to churn. President-elect Barack Obama transformed the face of the electorate! The Republican Party will be a miserable minority in Congress for the next century! Cats and dogs are now living together! Below we explode the five biggest myths that have already sprung up around the election that was.

1. The Republican Party suffered a death blow.

SNIP

2. A wave of black voters and young people was the key to Obama's victory.

SNIP

3. Now that they control the White House and Congress, Democrats will usher in a new progressive era.

Not likely.

SNIP

4. A Republican candidate could have won the presidency this year.

I doubt it. In the hastily penned postmortems of campaign '08, much of the blame for McCain's loss seems to have fallen at the feet of the candidate and his advisers, who (so the narrative goes) made a series of lousy strategic decisions that wound up costing the Arizona senator the White House.

SNIP

5. McCain made a huge mistake in picking Sarah Palin.

No subject is more likely to break up a dinner party early than the Alaska governor McCain chose as his running mate. Everyone not only has an opinion about her qualifications (or lack thereof) but also feels it necessary to share those opinions with anyone within shouting range.

Love her or loathe her, the data appear somewhere close to conclusive that Palin did little to help -- and, in fact, did some to hurt -- McCain's attempts to reach out to independents and Democrats. But just because Palin doesn't appear to have helped McCain move to the middle doesn't mean that picking her was the wrong move.

SNIP

[tsmith130]

Love her or loathe her, the data appear somewhere close to conclusive that Palin did little to help -- and, in fact, did some to hurt -- McCain's attempts to reach out to independents and Democrats. But just because Palin doesn't appear to have helped McCain move to the middle doesn't mean that picking her was the wrong move.

I don't even know where to begin with this crap.

[Mr. Blonde]

I would like you to begin. I think it was a very good move to liven up the base who was lukewarm at best toward McCain before the pick. On the other hand it really didn’t do much to grab the hearts and mind of Democrats and Independents.

[SeekAndFind]

I don't even know where to begin with this crap.

You should expect this from a Democratic cheer-leading paper like the WAPO. To them, electing someone "moderate" means electing someone liberal.

Sarah Palin, by their lights is an extremist.

[umgud]

If Sarah had a better running mate, this thing would have turned out different.

[Smokin' Joe]

This election does mark the first comon use of mass conversational hypnosis techniques by a candidate, so you could say it transformed the face of the electorate--to Obamazombies, mindlessly wandering to the polls mumbling "hope... Change....". When questioned about what they wanted changed, few had an intelligent or specific response other than foaming at the mouth about Bush.

Iirc, Bush was not running this time...

Gov. Palin cost the campaign votes? Maybe a few susceptible urbanites bought the MSM's 'hick from the sticks' image, or the Great Chipmunk's heavily edited interview of her as a live feed, but most of us saw through that. If anyone screwed the pooch, it was the "strategists" who okayed an edited interview, and who held her in check to keep her from upstaging the guy at the top of the ticket. Big mistake, really, she resonated with a lot of America.

Note that toward the end of the campaign, DUH1's people were debating and attacking her, not McCain.

As for her being politically done, Gov. Palin will be a force in the Republican Party, or, failing that, will get the nod from the next viable third party.

She is already calling fo the principled and uncompromising opposition to the Comm, er, Democrats agendae.

[Emperor Palpatine]

"Cats and dogs are now living together."

[Publius6961]

I don't even know where to begin with this crap.

I hate hypotheticals, because anything that might have happened is possible.

But I'll just go with my initial reaction to the choice of Palin, and from my perspective, it was spot on: stroke of genius.

I really hate to speculate how disastrously badly McCain would have been defeated without her on the ticket.

You can't bring "Mr. Nice" to a knife fight. The progressives are not only aware of that, they invented the tactic.

[GVnana]

Agreed.

[LiberConservative]

Palin might have cost us a few thousand elitist votes. But that's about it.

[Faith]

In desperate need of a barf alert.

[SuziQ]

He is right. Sarah wasn’t picked to appeal to Independents and Democrats. They wouldn’t have liked ANY candidate who was a Conservative. Sarah was a ‘Base’ choice, and she was the correct one!

[itsahoot]

If Sarah had a better running mate, this thing would have turned out different.

You Betcha it would.

[concerned about politics]

Had it not been for Sara, Republicans wouldn’t have had anyone to vote for. It would have been an Oboma landslide. His election would have, for real, been historical. It would have been Reaganesk.

[FrankR]

"Sarah wasn’t picked to appeal to Independents and Democrats."

Exactly right!

Usually, if the media is saying it, it's probably a lie. Especially when it comes to Palin and conservatives.

I think the only thing McLame has to think for not being a total Nation embarassment, is Palin.

Of course the left hates her...she's a major, MAJOR threat to them. We all know that already, and why we keep debating whether the "national enquirer" type stories about her are true or not, we should be relying on our own, personal life's experience and common sense to be able to discern the truth.

Watching the left squirm at the thought of Sarah Palin is a joyous thing to see. I mean, if you say "John McCain"...they giggle (no threat there); but you say "Sarah Palin", and their brows go down, eyes slam to a squint, and a snarl crawls across their lips. It's instant "hate". You don't have to be O'Reilly's body language expert to know Sarah Baracuda gets under the skin of liberals...bad.

She is the garlic-coated silver bullet to their werewolf, and the cross-on-a-wooden-stake to their vampire.

Whether she intends to run in 2010 or 2012...or ever...is immaterial - the fact that she represents our voice and beliefs and it scares the hell out of the left IS significate.

[Ciexyz]

Garbage, pronounced gar-BAZH.

[SuziQ]

Whether she intends to run in 2010 or 2012...or ever...is immaterial - the fact that she represents our voice and beliefs and it scares the hell out of the left IS significant.

Absolutely!