Post-election Thoughts

Dad and I have been vacationing in Haines, Alaska this week. We are having a blast taking pictures of bald eagles. We are here for the Eagle Festival. It has been a good way to keep my mind off the election, since John McCain did not win. I was able to get internet access today and decided to write down a few thoughts.

I found an article about voter turnout. Surprisingly, the turnout was no more than 1% higher compared to 2004. A little over 60% of eligible voters participated in this election. This was lower than the conventional wisdom.

I'm sure there will be a lot of post-election analysis about why McCain lost. I think there are several obvious reasons:

• It is rare that the party of a 2-term president wins in the next presidential election.
• George Bush is extremely unpopular. This put a huge drag on the Republican party.
• McCain was viewed as being closely tied with the Bush administration.
• McCain supports the Iraq war, which is very unpopular.
• McCain's strong point is not economics. There is a huge economic downturn in the U.S.
• McCain was running against a very charismatic opponent who also happened to be the first black man to get the nomination from a major U.S. political party.
• Obama was strongly supported by the main stream media
• Conservatives were not energized to support McCain who is centrist

Given all of the above, I think it's amazing that McCain was ever able to make the election close.

One final note. The conventional wisdom is that Sarah Palin was a poor choice for vice-president. I strongly disagree with this and notice that Kenny has fallen into this trap. Sarah Palin energized the right wing of the Republican party. Palin is loved by the conservatives. If she was not on the ticket, McCain would have lost a lot of the conservative base. She was definitely an asset, not a liablity. If it wasn't for her energy, the McCain campaign would have lost even by a larger margin than 53%-46%.