Sixty-Nine Percent of GOP Voters Say Palin Helped McCain
For all the moderate haters of Sarah Palin and the conservatives in the GOP, Rasmussen speaks:
Republicans are happier with their vice presidential candidate than their presidential nominee, while Democrats feel good about both candidates on their ticket, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of Republicans say John McCain made the right choice by picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate…
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republican voters say Alaska Governor Sarah Palin helped John McCain’s bid for the presidency, even as news reports surface that some McCain staffers think she was a liability.
Only 20% of GOP voters say Palin hurt the party’s ticket, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Six percent (6%) say she had no impact, and five percent (5%) are undecided.
Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin, including 65% who say their view is Very Favorable. Only eight percent (8%) have an unfavorable view of her, including three percent (3%) Very Unfavorable.
When asked to choose among some of the GOP’s top names for their choice for the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, 64% say Palin. The next closest contenders are two former governors and unsuccessful challengers for the presidential nomination this year — Mike Huckabee of Arkansas with 12% support and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 11%.
These findings echo a survey earlier this week which found that Republicans were happier with their vice presidential candidate than with their presidential nominee. Seventy-one percent (71%) said McCain made the right choice by picking Palin as his running mate, while only 65% said the party picked the right nominee for president.
So just in case you were thinking Palin was a drag to the ticket (and this part goes out to the lefty trolls as well), the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s VP actually enhanced his chances of winning. If he had chosen someone different, one could postulate that McCain could have performed far worse on election day.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
There was just a woman on Rush making this point rather forcefully.
I can’t think of anyone who was even in the running who could have energized the base the way Palin did. Romney? Huckabee? Don’t make me laugh.
Palin was a fresh face, and a real conservative to boot. The response to her ought to tell the Pubbies something about who their next nominee needs to be — if not Palin herself, then someone just as energetic and conservative as she is, and as far away from Washington as possible.
November 7th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
As I posted on the blog Killer Buffalo under a similar topic; McCain was leading in the polls with the bump Palin provided in energy after the GOP Convention. As soon as McCain proclaimed that the fundamentals of the economy are strong and the economy tanked, McCain started dropping in the polls.
No candidate for President ever wins the White House based on who the running mate is. What happened was a horrible economy, McCain being linked with the policies of George Bush, and an inconsistent campaign message and poor use of Palin’s strengths as a reformer and a corruption fighter.
In a poor economic climate, the voters want CHANGE. McCain should have coined the phrase: Keep the Change, and he should have focused on all the world issues that he was prepared to deal with that Barack Obama was not. A ressurection of the 3:00 AM ad and Hillary soundbites from debates where she said McCain was ready while Obama was not alongside Biden’s remarks that Obama would be tested could have worked if McCain could have communicated his message clearly.
The fact that voters overwhelmingly believed McCain to be more experienced and better able to deal with foreign policy shows you where McCain should have been focusing with his campaign message. However, he resulted to desperate old news with William Ayers and William Wright and other questionable associations. With the number one issue facing americans a poor economy, and the number two global political stability, this has proven to be the incorrect strategy.
It’s too bad McCain didn’t have campaign advisers smart enough to keep him focused on his strengths. At this point, all those pointing at Palin are just trying to find a scapegoat, or scape-lipstick wearing pitbull as the case may be, and Palin is the easiest target.