The Palin factor will be debated for many years. No doubt she “energized” the base–but who really cares. Where was the base going–to Nader? to Obama? Please. The VP is the most overrated position ever created. As the media correctly noted last summer there area few weeks when attention is focused on the VP and then for the final strtetch run of the campaign it is all about the person at the top of the ticket.
Having said that (think of Dan Qualye after all–a truly incompetent Hoosier)there is no doubt that Palin’s selection turned off thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands)of independents and who knows how many of them took that as the last straw and said how could a 72 year old pick such an inexperienced (notice i did not say incompetent) individual as VP?
