Could any GOP candidate have

[Lazie]

won this election? I'm one of those voters that thought Obama ran an almost flawless campaign, but looking back I really have to ask.

George W. Bush may have been Obama's best spokesperson this campaign. What had me even more amused was when he made it public that he voted for John McCain and to top it off Dick publicly endorsing McCain over the weekend. McCain must be wondering if they were punishing him for his maverkiness.

Looking at the state of the economy when Clinton left office and what George did with in the last 8 years, its no wonder some candidates in state races didn't want to identify themselves as a republican.

As much as I thought the Sarah Palin pick was a "wick'd" move by McCain to get the loyalists energized, a Mitt Romney or even a Mike Bloomberg would have given the ticket some credibility when the financial crisis occurred. But then again .... could any GOP candidate have won this election?

[Assasin]

good question. McCain is as far left a GOP candidate you will get but he started playing to the right and when the financial crisis hit he didn't know what to do. But this is a man who said he knew nothing about economics.

[Karl]

won this election? I'm one of those voters that thought Obama ran an almost flawless campaign, but looking back I really have to ask.

George W. Bush may have been Obama's best spokesperson this campaign. What had me even more amused was when he made it public that he voted for John McCain and to top it off Dick publicly endorsing McCain over the weekend. McCain must be wondering if they were ounishing him for his maverkiness.

Looking at the state of the economy when Clinton left office and what George did with in the last 8 years, its no wonder some candidates in state races didn't want to identify themselves as a republican.

As much as I thought the Sarah Palin pick was a "wick'd" move by McCain to get the loyalists energized, a Mitt Romney or even a Mike Bloomberg would have given the ticket some credibility when the financial crisis occurred. But then again .... could any GOP candidate have won this election?

Good post!

...question: Would any other GOP candidate have energize the GOP base and brought McCain back from the dead and to being a viable candidate? Anyone remember McCain was polling around 38% to Barack's 50+% with high uncommitted/undecided voters?

[MdmeX]

None of the GOP would have survived; for one, EIGHT years

of George Bush, especially the last 4 years SANK any hope the Republican party had of sitting in the Oval office on Jan. 20, 2009.

[OJ]

I think McCain was their best bet, however a ticket with bloomberg or even guliani would be tougher...

[Lazie]

I think McCain was their best bet, however a ticket with bloomberg or even guliani would be tougher...

Gulliani? Yuh serious OJ? What was he going to talk about? 9-11?

[MdmeX]

I think McCain was their best bet, however a ticket with bloomberg or even guliani would be tougher...

Bloomy would sure as hell use his money to buy his way; just like his 3rd term campaign quest as Mayor

[OJ]

well I think strategically he would have done better with independents and played better in blue sates than Palin.. I think thats a better ticket but I am not sure he would win.

[MdmeX]

agree with you on the matter of Palin, I too think he would have fared better.

[Assasin]

No not Guilani.

Many conservative wouldn't vote for someone who support Abortion rights.

Romney is a better choice than Guiliani.

[Islandman]

I think so too. But a lot of the evengelicals had a real problem voting for a Mormon so he would have had some of the same problems with the Republican base that McCain did.

Thats one of the main problems that the Republicans have created during the Bush/Rove era. They have become so idealogically driven that anybody who doesn't pass a series of "purity" tests faces a backlash from a large part of their base.

[Assasin]

I heard one of his advisors on NPR saying McCain wanted Liberman, his handlers told him no way so they look for a the names of the youngs stars in the party and women and came up with Palin. Before they decided to vet her McCain had only met her for 15 minutes. He went ahead with a two hour meeting and was please so he choose her.