The Glade 4.0

McCain was never gonna recover from being McCain. The Republicans lost the election the minute they nominated McCain, and nothing was gonna change that. No VP pick, no speech, no statement was gonna save the GOP from losing. The election was over at the convention.

You know, I'd love to see someone find numbers that charted the progress of the campaigns along a timeline. I may be incorrect, but I remember McCain about even in the polls until the Palin pick, when he then got a small bump until Palin began doing her campaigning, at which point his numbers plummeted.

Can someone with some better Google-fu than I at this current time produce those kinds of numbers? This is the only thing I've seen, and while it seems to back me up (Palin was announced on August 29, 2008) it doesn't give any context. It may not have been anything to do with Palin, and may have coincided with other issues, like the bailouts or whatnot.

Probably close to right, FarSky. I see it this way:

McCain, with the Palin pick, was trying to get the Republican segment that he was in trouble with. It was a miscalculation, because it did not matter who he picked. That segment was lost to him, period. So he did not gain support where he wanted to and lost support among the moderate/liberal segments. The only chance he had was to abandon the conservatives and pick a VP that would appeal to the moderates/liberals, and I doubt even then that he could have pulled it off.

There are many conservatives who like Palin. I did during the campaign. But there was no way I liked her enough to vote for McCain. And I think there are plenty of people out here who felt the same as I did.

I found this but yeah no idea what you can make of it:

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/presi ... .html#US_7

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

You're correct.

However, the economy really began to truly tank at around that time as well, and Obama's team did a better job of not only smearing the incumbent (in regards to the economy) but grouping his opposition with the incumbent.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

He wasn't his normal intelligent, articulate self either. I am not the biggest McCain fan but he seemed like he had no opinion on any matter of import at all. It was like watching a dog and pony show.

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