Quote: We can discuss for eons and i know we won't agree.

Life would be so boring if you and I agreed on anything political.

 

McCain was my choice, hands-down, even after Palin came on board. When she started letting her crazy side out to play, I became disinterested in McCain. My logic was that if McCain had to resign or passed away based upon his health (melanoma), Palin would be left in charge of this country's nuclear arsenal. I was not willing to see this happen. I can't remember anymore if I voted for Obama, voted for whoever the Libertarian Party ran, or just wrote in William Shatner's name, but McCain fell off my ballot entirely. I recall lots of moderates being turned off by Palin. Obama probably would still have won because he, unlike Gore or Kerry, was able to bring out the youth and minority votes that Democrats count on for victories. Still, though, I think McCain had a good chance up until Palin turned his candidacy from a viable campaign into a sideshow.

 

My impression has always been that Romney was never expected to win the general election. Obama was a juggernaut at that point, and the Republicans knew it. He was thrown out there essentially because the Republicans didn't want to risk damaging the political fortunes of their rising stars (like Bobby Jindal...that didn't work out well) by having them steamrolled by Obama. I can clearly recall how hard the Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and three-letter networks were trying to make it seem like there was actually a race on election night, even though it was clear within the first 90 minutes that Obama was going to destroy Romney. If the sort of pounding that Romney took had happened to Cruz, Rubio, Bush or Rand Paul (not that any of them, aside from maybe Bush, were ready to run in 2012), the nation would have had a hard time taking them seriously in this campaign. Hence, you throw out a guy in his 70's who has no political future to ruin and shield the Bobby Jindals and Jeb Bushes of the world from that butt-kicking.

---