No Palin for McCain

d32123

Banned
Probably nothing changes tbh. I don't think being on a losing ticket would tarnish Romney's image too much. Biggest change would probably be Palin. She wouldn't be a minor media sensation ITTL.
 
i agree with d32123; there probably wouldnt be much change to the election, though maybe it would be a little closer without at least some people being turned off of the republican ticket because of palin. a friend from another board posited that, after bush jr, the majority of americans wanted a democrat in office regardless of who it was
 
I don't think being on a losing ticket would tarnish Romney's image too much.
Really? He was already fairly unpalatable to much of the GOP, because he's boring and not a "true" conservative (see: "ObamneyCare"). I mean, the biggest rationale we heard in favor of Romney during the primaries was that he can beat Obama. If he loses to Obama in '08 in the VP slot, I find it hard to see why they'd give him a chance at the top of the ticket.
 
I don't think that Romney could build bridges to disgruntled social onservatives the way Palin did. I thought Tim Pawlenty was the runner up.
 
Mike Huckabee I think would be a better choice if McCain wanted a Conservative to get the far-right with him. He could probably prevent the losses of Indiana, North Carolina, and maybe Florida, but that's it.
 
No one was going to counter McCain's lack of credibility (his visit to Iraq coming to mind and the idiotic offer to put off the campaign to deal with the economic issues of 2009), his age, and his general lack of charisma versus Obama. That and a voter backlash against Bush and Republicans with McCain serving as proxy as well as a want for a DC outsider.
 
Palin kept a lot of the Religious Right from bolting- but drove off many others.

No Palin would likely mean Alaska Congressman Ethan Berkowitz (def. long-time Republican Don Young.)
 
Palin was picked because she was a rising star in the conservative movement. If not Palin, then McCain will need another conservative rising star.

McCain's problem was that being a "Maverick" he tended to alienate many in his own party. To even have a fighting chance, McCain has to shake up the race and get conservatives on board, not just as voters, but as participants in the campaign. Palin fit that requirement.

Palin was young, had a good overall track record in Alaska, and was generally well thought of nationally. Unfortunately, after a good debut, her candidacy was hit with a quadruple whammy of problems. An ill-timed family crisis, extremely poor media management by the McCain campaign, infighting in the McCain campaign, and one of the worst cases of character assassination in American political history.

A different candidate, someone with more of a national profile would be more immune to the above problems. But they have to be a conservative. Otherwise McCain goes into the fall campaign with a divided base.

Odds are McCain loses no matter what. It was not a Republican year. He also still has other problems, the campaign itself was not well run, for example. He did not appear to have "fire in the belly" nor did his supporters, certainly not when compared to the almost religious devotion of some of Obama's supporters, and he treated Obama with kid gloves. Not to mention the complete mishandling of the banking crisis by "suspending" his campaign and then getting sidelined in Washington.

One candidate to avoid would have been Joe Lieberman, apparently McCains first choice. While he had some advantages, solid on foreign policy, close friend of McCain, and almost immune to criticism** because he had been the Democrats own candidate only 8 years earlier. He had the severe problems of not being a Republican and being fairly liberal on domestic issues, basically making him a non-starter.



* Worse than Quayle or Bork, by far.

** Though watching Democrats attack Lieberman and then go through contortions trying to explain why he wasn't bad 8 years before would have been very amusing.
 
Mike Huckabee I think would be a better choice if McCain wanted a Conservative to get the far-right with him. He could probably prevent the losses of Indiana, North Carolina, and maybe Florida, but that's it.

Huckabee's problem is that he is only a social and foreign policy conservative. On economic and tax policy his record was mixed at best.

He also would not be very good as an "attack dog" which is one of the VP pick's jobs in the campaign.
 
Palin was young, had a good overall track record in Alaska, and was generally well thought of nationally. Unfortunately, after a good debut, her candidacy was hit with a quadruple whammy of problems. An ill-timed family crisis, extremely poor media management by the McCain campaign, infighting in the McCain campaign, and one of the worst cases of character assassination in American political history.

Yes, it was entirely unrelated to Sarah Palin's own abilities, or lack thereof.

I agree Lieberman was a non-starter though. There would have been a revolt at the convention, possibly stripping McCain of the nomination.

Was Pawlenty really third choice or are people speculating? I think Palin was mainly chosen on her "reform" reputation. I suspect the McCain campaign may have had a similar view of Charlie Crist.
 
If not Palin then it will be Pawlenty who by most accounts was the last man standing at crunch time. Romney was eliminated slightly earlier in the "process." I doubt McCain picks Romney because the two hated each other's guts in those days and it showed. McCain being who he is, I just don't see him picking Romney.
 
It would be Pawlenty or Huckabee in all likelihood, I suspect Pawlenty would be the better option.

Pawlenty's better fiscally and his blue-collar/social cred matches Huckabee's. Either man would also reinforce McCain's inexperience argument against Obama rather than totally demolishing it like Palin, who took office in December 2006, did.
 
Crist would never make it because there are so many rumors about his homosexuality, but I believe it was Steve Schmidt who said that Pawlenty was third as Game Change definitely suggests it (and Schmidt advised both the book and movie).
 
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