Posted on 11/15/2008 8:44:17 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
As media outlets across the fruited plain float the notion that Sarah Palin hurt John McCain's chances of winning the White House, the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza will break with the herd on Sunday to dispel this nonsense.
Imagine that.
As the last of his "5 Myths About an Election of Mythic Proportions" slated for Sunday's print edition but already available at the paper's website, Cillizza parted with his fellow journalists who believe "McCain made a huge mistake in picking Sarah Palin":
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.
Remember where McCain found himself this past summer. He had won the Republican nomination, but the GOP base clearly felt little buy-in into his campaign. A slew of national polls reflected that energy gap, with Democrats revved up about the election and their candidate and Republicans somewhere between tepid and glum.
Enter Palin, who was embraced with a bear hug by the party's conservative base. All of a sudden, cultural conservatives were thrilled at the chance to put "one of their own" in the White House. In fact, of the 60 percent of voters who told exit pollsters that McCain's choice of Palin was a "factor" in their final decision, the Arizona senator won 56 percent to 43 percent.
For skittish conservatives looking for more evidence that McCain understood their needs and concerns, Palin did the trick. It's hard to imagine conservatives rallying to McCain -- even to the relatively limited extent that they did -- without Palin on the ticket. And without the base, McCain's loss could have been far worse.
For those interested, Cillizza dispelled some other myths being floated by media including "The Republican Party suffered a death blow" during these elections, and "A wave of black voters and young people was the key to Obama's victory."
bttt
That’s a “No Sh*t, Sherlock” story, right there!
Within days of her name being introduced, the lefty blogs like Kos were trashing her and her family, claiming that her Downs Syndrome bay was not her’s, but her daughter's. Then she was “corrupt” because she fired the official who would not get rid of her ex brother in law, stepson-tasering, father threatening, drunk cop.
“Dumb” came after Charles Gibson condescendingly, contemptuously interviewed her for hours, carefully editing the tape to ensure that any embarrassing moments were highlighted.
No, this woman is as sharp as a razor, she's a perceived threat, and thus, she must be marginalized, nullified and destroyed. The next step will be an attempt by the left to muzzle her.
without Palin on the ticket. And without the base, McCain’s loss could have been far worse.
***Almost tagline worthy
“Without Palin on the ticket McCain’s loss could have been far worse.” ~Washington Post.
All of this is so stupid. It wouldn’t have mattered who the GOP picked for the ticket, the majority of Americans did not want another Republican term.
Sarah greatly helped the GOP ticket. Otherwise, McCain would have been slammed to smitherines at the polls.
The media did its part the last 3 or 4 years to destroy any chance of a Republican victory in ‘08. Bush and the GOP were blamed for everything, and I mean everything, bad.
In normal times, McCain/Palin would have won.
I disagree if the Republican Party had picked a real conservative this time around, then we would have not only had a shot..but probably won.
The problem was there really wasnt’ a real conservative in the race for GOP this time around, the closest thing would probably have been some of the lower tier candidates such as Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, or Ron Paul (though he doesn’t quite fit fully on foreign policy).
MSM heaping praise on Republicans after the election makes me as ill as the 6 years they have been demonizing Republicans.
Yeah, they get all misty and teary eyed when Republicans give humble and gracious concession speeches.
I just don’t think it would have happened. Leading up to the election I heard comments from people around here (pretty conservative compared to other parts of the country) that Bush had gotten us into all this “mess” and similar comments about the Republican party.
I’m not sure if we have enough conservatives in the country now to outweigh the liberals. The balance may be tipped the other way. I hope I’m wrong.
My dream ticket would have been: Hunter/Palin
My dream ticket would have been: Palin/just about anyone.
CA....
Wasn’t it ten million the first weekend?
Not just the left: Rick Perry, Pawlenty, Crist, etc... they all tried to freeze her out in Florida and Perry and Pawlenty were downright rude.
I had decided early on that I could not vote for McCain- MF, backstabbing, other stuff-- until I got a closer look at Duh!1®'s crazy, quasi-religious supporters...
My wife- the former Democrat, never interested in politics-- stood up halfway through Sarah's first appearance with Mac, and stated:
"I want to vote for that woman!"
And so did I.
Without Sarah, and Joe the plumber, this would have been even worse a debacle.
I really do not give a damn about the "republican" brand- they are the Stupid Party. And yes, the Dems are Evil.
But if, when, and whatever for Sarah runs again- she has two supporters here who will do anything they can, to get her in office.
Sarah, and people like her, are the future. The rest? They are so Last Century...
For a candidate who wanted to win /s it was he who allowed the nasty leaks about her to go on and on and on — before we even voted... this is something that doesn’t sit right with me and I think he grew jealous of her popularity and her spunk.
LOL!...no, they just got around to reporting it.
That's perfect. The MSM, against their own interests, will keep Sarah in the news for the next few years. Those who voted because of Palin will stay pumped up as she is savaged by the MSM; Obama voters who get Obama Buyer's Remorse will have second thoughts about Sarah and "get on board" with her; intellectually honest Dems (if there are any left), moderates, and PUMAs, seeing her continue to be attacked, may get second thoughts about casting their allegiance with the Dems in 2012.
So, you think public tax dollars should be extorted to pay for party activities??? As long as ANY election is funded by taxpayer dollars, then it should be open. If you want a closed party primary, then pay for it yourselves. Or use caucuses. I'm a conservative independent, and be damned to the idea that you can steal my money to finance your party system.
And I simply do NOT believe that the open primary process induces enough "other party" voters to "switch" to actually make any difference in the outcome. There is ZERO actuarial data to show that it has.
Duh.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.