Better McCain Running Mate

Who would have been a better running mate for John McCain in 2008 than Sarah Palin? Some names I came up with: Jim DeMint, John Thune, or former rival Mitt Romney.
 
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Tim pawlenty, though McCain would still lose. He needed a gamechanger but none of the gamechangers turned out to be good. It was a lose either way situation.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
Palin was a killer to Independents, and McCain was routed as a result. Had he picked someone closer to the center or at least just not as weird, unpolished, and vulnerable to Liberal Media attacks, he loses by less.

Palin did invigorate Conservatives who had soured on the McCain campaign, but he could have picked someone a lot better.

Someone like Huckabee, widely seen in 2008 at least as the most centrist Republican (on economics), but socially conservative enough to fire up the base, might have helped.

Condoleeza Rice might have been an option as well. She had very high favorability ratings even as other members of Bush's team were dropping.

The Iraq Surge had worked and had restored public confidence in the War on Terror by that point in time. McCain will not suffer with Independents on that front. But the economy falling apart in 2008 led to him really having no chance. You can argue that what happened was or was not completely the Bush Administration's fault, and you can make the point that there was a Democratic Congress, sure, but ultimately, McCain cannot win in 2008.
 
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LordKalvert

Banned
Probably no one- Sarah Palin did her job and united the Republican Party behind John McCain. She appealed directly to those groups most distrustful of McCain particularly the social conservatives and his poll numbers surged after her nomination

Unfortunately for McCain, the fiscal crises erupted and the continued failure of the Bush administration to win the Iraq war, led the country to no longer consider a Republican for office. McCain also retook the spotlight and quickly reminded America why they hadn't liked him before
 
See https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=9298478&postcount=58 for why I think Palin had relatively little impact on the result of the election. Yet even if she hurt only slightly, that could be significant; after all, if even one close Senate race had gone the other way due to a slightly stronger GOP ticket--say McCain-Pawlenty manages to keep Coleman's Senate seat in MN--there would not have been the 60-40 vote for the ACA. True, after the Democrats lost their Senate supermajority, they were able to pass the final version of the ACA through reconciliation, but that was only possible because there *was* a bill passed by the Senate to reconcile with the House version. And there would not have been any such bill if the Democrats did not, for a few months, have the votes to defeat cloture...
 
See https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=9298478&postcount=58 for why I think Palin had relatively little impact on the result of the election. Yet even if she hurt only slightly, that could be significant; after all, if even one close Senate race had gone the other way due to a slightly stronger GOP ticket--say McCain-Pawlenty manages to keep Coleman's Senate seat in MN--there would not have been the 60-40 vote for the ACA. True, after the Democrats lost their Senate supermajority, they were able to pass the final version of the ACA through reconciliation, but that was only possible because there *was* a bill passed by the Senate to reconcile with the House version. And there would not have been any such bill if the Democrats did not, for a few months, have the votes to defeat cloture...
Couldn't the Democrats have successfully wooed Olympia Snowe and/or Susan Collins to vote for the ACA (with some changes, of course) if the Democrats would have had one less seat in the U.S. Senate in 2009-2010, though?
 
Probably no one- Sarah Palin did her job and united the Republican Party behind John McCain. She appealed directly to those groups most distrustful of McCain particularly the social conservatives and his poll numbers surged after her nomination

Unfortunately for McCain, the fiscal crises erupted and the continued failure of the Bush administration to win the Iraq war, led the country to no longer consider a Republican for office. McCain also retook the spotlight and quickly reminded America why they hadn't liked him before
I largely agree with this, but I want to point out the fact that the Iraq War actually was mostly won by 2008. :) Indeed, Iraq simply ended up losing the peace afterwards. :(
 
Couldn't the Democrats have successfully wooed Olympia Snowe and/or Susan Collins to vote for the ACA (with some changes, of course) if the Democrats would have had one less seat in the U.S. Senate in 2009-2010, though?

I don't think so, if Snowe or Collins had had been able to make up their own minds they would have been very likely to vote for the bill, but McConnell ensured that wouldn't happen by threatening their positions and committee roles. Throughout 2009 any appearance of bipartisanship was simply the Republicans stringing the Democrats along, trying to delay the bill's passing. Perhaps instead more moderate and smaller reform would have to be passed instead.
 
I don't think so, if Snowe or Collins had had been able to make up their own minds they would have been very likely to vote for the bill, but McConnell ensured that wouldn't happen by threatening their positions and committee roles. Throughout 2009 any appearance of bipartisanship was simply the Republicans stringing the Democrats along, trying to delay the bill's passing. Perhaps instead more moderate and smaller reform would have to be passed instead.
Didn't both Snowe and Collins vote for the stimulus package, though? If so, then why exactly did McConnell not punish them for this vote of theirs?
 
Didn't both Snowe and Collins vote for the stimulus package, though? If so, then why exactly did McConnell not punish them for this vote of theirs?

First of all, in early 2009 it was easier to get one or two Republicans to vote for a bill supported by Obama than it was a year later. The "honeymoon" was over and his job approval ratings had slipped. Second, in early 2009, with the economy in free fall, there was strong pressure for *some* sort of stimulus. There was much less pressure for healthcare reform, and anyway to most Republicans it was much more a matter of principle than the stimulus was. (After all, everyone agreed that the federal government should spend *something* on public works, so it was basically a matter of numbers, which can be compromised. This is different from whether there should or shouldn't be a federal requirement that people buy health insurance, which is a much more "binary" decision.)

Moreover, one should remember that some people in the left wing of the Democratic Party were unhappy with the ACA--they would have preferred single-payer, but took the ACA as better than nothing. If the ACA had been watered down to get support from Snowe (and perhaps Collins) they might not have voted for it at all. (Even with the ACA of OTL, at least one House Democrat, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, claimed that he voted against it from the left.)
 
One of the big reasons that scared people away from McCain was his age and the non-negligible prospect of having some sort of health problem up to and including death--and the corresponding prospect of relative neophyte Sarah Palin in the Oval Office. Make that Olympia Snowe instead and that problem vanishes.

Some will say the conservatives will sit this one out, given Snowe's centrist track record. If the GOP had targeted those voters bluntly, reminding them that not voting was tantamount to voting for Obama, they probably would have-grudgingly to some degree-lined up behind McCain/Snowe. Then you have the prospect of a veep who's well versed in Washington, well respected, and fully capable of the big job should the unthinkable happen.

Speaking as a lifelong Republican, I recall my reaction upon hearing the Palin choice as "who the hell is she?" followed by "ye gods...". I will admit she was and is easy on the eyes, to a guy in his late 50s then / early 60s now, but that hardly qualified her to be #2 in the nation--nor did her experience as a few years as governor of one of the least populous states in the Union. One of the most unfortunate running mate choices in a long while.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
My dog Gus, who died five years prior to the election, would have been a far better running mate for John McCain than Sarah Palin.

Seriously, though, there was a lot of chatter down here in Texas about Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison being chosen as the running mate. Lots of people were pretty mad, not to say dumbfounded, when McCain went with Palin.
 
Probably no one- Sarah Palin did her job and united the Republican Party behind John McCain. She appealed directly to those groups most distrustful of McCain particularly the social conservatives and his poll numbers surged after her nomination

Unfortunately for McCain, the fiscal crises erupted and the continued failure of the Bush administration to win the Iraq war, led the country to no longer consider a Republican for office. McCain also retook the spotlight and quickly reminded America why they hadn't liked him before

That is about what I feel. If it was 2004 or 2012 McCain could have won with Palin.
 
By 2012, Palin had been ridiculed and mocked for 4 years. Nobody is going to win with her on the ticket, they'd be laughed out of the building.
Nobody would have mocked her if she hadn't run in 2008. No one outside of Alaska would have heard of her in 2008 if she hadn't been chosen as McCain's running mate.

Quick, without looking it up, how much can you tell me about the current governor of Alaska? Any of you from Alaska can use your least-favorite Dakota instead.

Exactly. She would have been just another generic governor until she threw her hat into the ring.
 
Condoleeza Rice might have been an option as well. She had very high favorability ratings even as other members of Bush's team were dropping.

I don't think she would accept the VP spot. She didn't really seem all that happy with politics and I hear she likes her job at Stanford and as a delegate in the NCAA Playoff committee


To answer the question, Huckabee might be a good choice, but either way he'd have a very tough time winning the election. Anybody would have a tough time trying to defend the Presidency after a recession as bad as the one we had.
 

LordKalvert

Banned
By 2012, Palin had been ridiculed and mocked for 4 years. Nobody is going to win with her on the ticket, they'd be laughed out of the building.

Agreed but if she had stayed as Governor of Alaska and quitely prepared herself, she could easily have been the nominee in 2012
 
Palin built bridges to skeptical social conservatives. McCain needed a running mate who could do that. They also thought that nominating a women could win over disgruntled Hillary supporters. They had their reason for picking her. They just did not vet her very well.
 
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