Sarah Palin (sugg Jamie McBain) 5

Palin is off the charts polarizing at this point. Her role in the McCain campaign has been what I said it would be all along, to motivate the conservative base. McCain's calculation was three fold essentially: as a woman she would appeal to suburban soccer moms and the Hillary voters, her profile as a "reformer" meshed well with McCain's image, and her socially conservative politics would immediately energize the conservative base.

She has indeed managed to energize the base, but not much else. Unfortunately the base only consists of about 30% of the electorate this time around. Registration numbers for the Republican party is down this year. That's why earlier in this campaign I suggested that McCain should make an outside the box pick like Joe Lieberman, who would have brought with him conservative Democrats and independents that are somewhat wary of Obama. Palin brings the conservatives, but McCain would have gotten those votes regardless of.

McCain needed to make a pick that would have expanded his political base and would have reassured voters that the country would be in good hands if something were to happen to McCain. The prospect of a Palin presidency is not reassuring to most voters; additionally, she does not widely appeal to independents and moderates. Looking at the polls, her disapproval ratings are breaching 50%--that should be troubling to the McCain camp. Palin, who arrived on the scene with significant fanfare, has turned into a liability for McCain, one which might ultimately cost him the election. In fact, this decision has proven to be quite blunderous.