Why McCain Should Have Trusted His Instincts

From electoral-vote.com is a very insightful piece about how McCain was convinced to turn to the right during the general election. He still may win, but it looks like this move will cost him every blue state and perhaps more. McCain should have trusted his instincts about how to run as not just another Republican in a cycle where the brand was badly damaged. Most of the base was going to come home to roost with him one way or another. If you were looking at the electoral map on that site prior to the Palin pick, you would have seem that McCain's support was weak in some red states, but he was still leading in nearly all of them. In several blue states he was also leading, tied, or at least very competitive! For this cycle, he really did have a very good chance if he had navigated his message and direction prudently. He still has a chance now, but if he manages to win, it will be by the slimmest of margins and with the most Democratic Congress in decades.

From the site: "A new NY Times/CBS poll shows that 59% of the voters feel that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be Vice President, let alone President. These people question McCain's ability to pick qualified people for his administration. The ironic thing is that the choice of Palin was probably forced on him by Steve Schmidt. McCain barely knew her (he met her once for 15 minutes), whereas he has traveled extensively with his long-time good friend Joe Lieberman. The choice of Lieberman would have enhanced McCain's maverick status, shown that he was willing to buck his own party ("Country first") and given the ticket an experienced politician who most people feel could be President (as demonstrated by polling in 2000). Schmidt undoubtedly told McCain that the base wouldn't accept him due to his pro-choice stance on abortion. The old McCain would have said: "Screw the base" to Schmidt, but McCain V2.0 did what he was told. If McCain loses, the conversation between McCain and Schmidt probably won't be real friendly."