Palin is an asset to the Repub Party, NOT a liability, but this is ultimately good news for Obama

[Stop Cornyn]

Before his gimmicky VP choice, the "usual suspects" for McCain's running mate were well known: Romney, Lieberman, Huckabee, Giuliani, etc.

No matter which "known quantity" running mate was picked for McCain, the voters knew enough about those candidates that there could be fairly reliable polling to test the match up versus Obama-Biden. All of those McCain-KnownRepub pairings would have predictably lost to Obama-Biden because -- in short -- McCain ran a campaign to win the votes of independents and he was losing that vote to Obama.

Worse that merely losing the independent vote to Obama, McCain was ALSO failing to energize the base, and none of the "usual suspect" running mate candidates would have energized the Repub base.

Based on insider accounts, Palin's selection was clearly not McCain's (there is every indication he would have preferred Lieberman or even Ridge) who had the faded hope of winning the independent votes.

Opposed to McCain's desire, the RNC is less interested in winning independent votes and more interested in exciting their base because the DOUBLE-FAIL result of neither winning the independent votes nor exciting the base is a guarantee for down-ballot disaster of historic proportions across the nation. The RNC's insistence that McCain be saddled with Palin is a surrender of McCain's quest for the independent vote and a full embrace of Karl Rove's "excite the base" strategy.

This is NOT a strategy to win the presidency. This is a strategy to concede the presidency in order to avoid a complete down ballot collapse.

Will Palin ultimately be a (minor) drag on the McCain-Palin national ticket? Probably. Will she save the Repubs from huge losses in places like the Georgia statehouse which would have occurred with a McCain-Lieberman or similar ticket? Possibly.

This is the only explanation of the Palin selection that makes any sense to me.

[drm604]

1. Very interesting theory.

It does seem to explain something that otherwise defies explanation.

[Stop Cornyn]

2. I do think Palin plays well in red states like Georgia, where Obama was making some in roads