With 15 years of hindsight, was Sarah Palin a pro or a con for McCain '08?

[Ragnaroni]

I faintly remember her saying stupid stuff and there was like a nude leak of her (might have been after though). Was she a liability to McCain, was she benefitial to his campaign? Did being a woman win McCain some votes or did Obama take them anyways?

[Mechavada]

Overall: a wash.

Let me be very clear here: whatever chances McCain had of winning were gone after the economy collapsed.  That by and large was the single factor that doomed whatever chances he had.  He honestly didn't have much of a chance before, but that was due to circumstances beyond Sarah Palin.  The thing is people forget this but not only was George W Bush not a popular president and people were fed up with the Iraq War but John McCain himself wasn't liked among the Republican base and the few issues that he truly agreed with Bush on (Iraq, Iran, etc) were issues that were becoming massively unpopular among the general voter.  Nominating Joe Liebermann as his running mate, as much as some folks would like to think that would have been amazing, would have resulted in enough conservative and libertarian Republican voters either sitting out the election or defecting in large numbers to candidates like Bob Barr.  While there were definitely better options than Palin choosing her at the time made sense for McCain because he needed a conservative choice to keep the base motivated.

Where he messed up, however, was not going through the whole vetting process or not even considering how Palin's home life would be a liability during the election.  He also apparently didn't have anyone on his team interview her to see how she would deal with the press.  It was almost like McCain saw a female Republican governor in her forties and thought that would be a good counterweight to Obama being a forty year old black Senator from Illinois.  So yeah Palin probably motivated conservatives and religious right types to show up but she also probably lost McCain a lot of voters who found her embarrassing.

[Mr. Smith]

A con.

[Ragnaroni]

Overall: a wash.

Let me be very clear here: whatever chances McCain had of winning were gone after the economy collapsed.  That by and large was the single factor that doomed whatever chances he had.  He honestly didn't have much of a chance before, but that was due to circumstances beyond Sarah Palin.  The thing is people forget this but not only was George W Bush not a popular president and people were fed up with the Iraq War but John McCain himself wasn't liked among the Republican base and the few issues that he truly agreed with Bush on (Iraq, Iran, etc) were issues that were becoming massively unpopular among the general voter.  Nominating Joe Liebermann as his running mate, as much as some folks would like to think that would have been amazing, would have resulted in enough conservative and libertarian Republican voters either sitting out the election or defecting in large numbers to candidates like Bob Barr.  While there were definitely better options than Palin choosing her at the time made sense for McCain because he needed a conservative choice to keep the base motivated.

Where he messed up, however, was not going through the whole vetting process or not even considering how Palin's home life would be a liability during the election.  He also apparently didn't have anyone on his team interview her to see how she would deal with the press.  It was almost like McCain saw a female Republican governor in her forties and thought that would be a good counterweight to Obama being a forty year old black Senator from Illinois.  So yeah Palin probably motivated conservatives and religious right types to show up but she also probably lost McCain a lot of voters who found her embarrassing.

I don't remember this (I was a kid), what made McCain consider this? That is very unusual

[Sir Mohamed]

Overall: a wash.

Let me be very clear here: whatever chances McCain had of winning were gone after the economy collapsed.  That by and large was the single factor that doomed whatever chances he had.  He honestly didn't have much of a chance before, but that was due to circumstances beyond Sarah Palin.  The thing is people forget this but not only was George W Bush not a popular president and people were fed up with the Iraq War but John McCain himself wasn't liked among the Republican base and the few issues that he truly agreed with Bush on (Iraq, Iran, etc) were issues that were becoming massively unpopular among the general voter.  Nominating Joe Liebermann as his running mate, as much as some folks would like to think that would have been amazing, would have resulted in enough conservative and libertarian Republican voters either sitting out the election or defecting in large numbers to candidates like Bob Barr.  While there were definitely better options than Palin choosing her at the time made sense for McCain because he needed a conservative choice to keep the base motivated.

Where he messed up, however, was not going through the whole vetting process or not even considering how Palin's home life would be a liability during the election.  He also apparently didn't have anyone on his team interview her to see how she would deal with the press.  It was almost like McCain saw a female Republican governor in her forties and thought that would be a good counterweight to Obama being a forty year old black Senator from Illinois.  So yeah Palin probably motivated conservatives and religious right types to show up but she also probably lost McCain a lot of voters who found her embarrassing.

I don't remember this (I was a kid), what made McCain consider this? That is very unusual

Lieberman moved away from Dems over the Bush years and was an independent in the senate in 2007. They had a close personal relationship and both were similar on foreign policy. Lieberman was McCain's choice of heart, Palin was chosen to appease the weirdos.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Overall: a wash.

Let me be very clear here: whatever chances McCain had of winning were gone after the economy collapsed.  That by and large was the single factor that doomed whatever chances he had.  He honestly didn't have much of a chance before, but that was due to circumstances beyond Sarah Palin.  The thing is people forget this but not only was George W Bush not a popular president and people were fed up with the Iraq War but John McCain himself wasn't liked among the Republican base and the few issues that he truly agreed with Bush on (Iraq, Iran, etc) were issues that were becoming massively unpopular among the general voter.  Nominating Joe Liebermann as his running mate, as much as some folks would like to think that would have been amazing, would have resulted in enough conservative and libertarian Republican voters either sitting out the election or defecting in large numbers to candidates like Bob Barr.  While there were definitely better options than Palin choosing her at the time made sense for McCain because he needed a conservative choice to keep the base motivated.

Where he messed up, however, was not going through the whole vetting process or not even considering how Palin's home life would be a liability during the election.  He also apparently didn't have anyone on his team interview her to see how she would deal with the press.  It was almost like McCain saw a female Republican governor in her forties and thought that would be a good counterweight to Obama being a forty year old black Senator from Illinois.  So yeah Palin probably motivated conservatives and religious right types to show up but she also probably lost McCain a lot of voters who found her embarrassing.

I don't remember this (I was a kid), what made McCain consider this? That is very unusual

Lieberman moved away from Dems over the Bush years and was an independent in the senate in 2007. They had a close personal relationship and both were similar on foreign policy. Lieberman was McCain's choice of heart, Palin was chosen to appease the weirdos.

Actually this isn’t true , McCain wanted to more or less wanted to go with a Hail Mary style pick as his running mater which is why he was considering Lieberman at first but then when it was clear the choice would be divisive in his own party , he switched to Palin .  If he wanted to go with a religious right pick , there were many republicans out there he could have gone with but he wanted a Hail Mary style pick and that’s why he picked Palin .

 

[Ragnaroni]

Overall: a wash.

Let me be very clear here: whatever chances McCain had of winning were gone after the economy collapsed.  That by and large was the single factor that doomed whatever chances he had.  He honestly didn't have much of a chance before, but that was due to circumstances beyond Sarah Palin.  The thing is people forget this but not only was George W Bush not a popular president and people were fed up with the Iraq War but John McCain himself wasn't liked among the Republican base and the few issues that he truly agreed with Bush on (Iraq, Iran, etc) were issues that were becoming massively unpopular among the general voter.  Nominating Joe Liebermann as his running mate, as much as some folks would like to think that would have been amazing, would have resulted in enough conservative and libertarian Republican voters either sitting out the election or defecting in large numbers to candidates like Bob Barr.  While there were definitely better options than Palin choosing her at the time made sense for McCain because he needed a conservative choice to keep the base motivated.

Where he messed up, however, was not going through the whole vetting process or not even considering how Palin's home life would be a liability during the election.  He also apparently didn't have anyone on his team interview her to see how she would deal with the press.  It was almost like McCain saw a female Republican governor in her forties and thought that would be a good counterweight to Obama being a forty year old black Senator from Illinois.  So yeah Palin probably motivated conservatives and religious right types to show up but she also probably lost McCain a lot of voters who found her embarrassing.

I don't remember this (I was a kid), what made McCain consider this? That is very unusual

Lieberman moved away from Dems over the Bush years and was an independent in the senate in 2007. They had a close personal relationship and both were similar on foreign policy. Lieberman was McCain's choice of heart, Palin was chosen to appease the weirdos.

That is unusual, kinda sweet but choosing someone from the opposing party usually doesn't help. I wonder how the election would have gone if it were Lieberman as VP.

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Con, but only a very slight one...probably only cost the ticket Indiana.

[Redban]

I believe that Lieberman was pro-choice. And remember that McCain, who ran as pro-life in 2008, had skeptics because McCain had previously been pro-choice. Thus, Lieberman would have been troublesome.

From what I recall, a lot of Republicans became more comfortable with the McCain ticket when he picked Palin, a thorough right-winger. Granted, McCain might have enjoyed this benefit if he had picked someone like Huckabee too, but Palin also helped take some attention away from Obama, who was getting so much approbation from all sides

All told, I think Palin was a wash. He lost with her on the ticket, but he was losing no matter what anyways; no GOP candidate had a chance that year.  I don’t think the map looks much different if he had went with Romney, Pawlenty, or Huckabee

[Atlas Force]

Con

[Progressive Pessimist]

Major con, no question.

[dw93]

Con. She was the worst VP pick since the Eagleton/Shriver debacle of 1972.

[Pericles]

She undermined McCain's strongest message-that voters should pick him for his experience and Obama was just a celebrity. It wasn't the year or the candidate to be like Trump, so comparing her with him is flawed on many levels.

[Pres Mike]

I'm going with pro

[junior chįmp]

Neither because research says VP picks have no effect on election outcomes.

[Skill and Chance]

Probably no effect, but may have helped him avoid getting crushed 1980 or 1932 style by rallying base voters who thought McCain was too moderate.

[dw93]

She on balance was a wash. For every partisan conservative Republican she excited and turned out, she lost McCain a moderate conservative who might've (abet begrudgingly) voted for him due to concern over Obama's lack of experience or policy disagreement. Not to mention the long term damage it did to the country and the big stain it put on McCain's legacy.