GOP Plays What-If Game With Lieberman, Romney, Ridge

Picking Palin locked in base, but others might've drawn voters McCain really needs
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 27, 2008 3:15 PM CDT
GOP Plays What-If Game With Lieberman, Romney, Ridge
Sarah Palin "energized our base better than anybody we could have picked, and we needed that," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said to avoid answering if Joe Lieberman might've been a better choice.   (AP Photo)

Given the damage Sarah Palin has done to John McCain’s chances, Steve Kornacki, in the New York Observer, joins Republicans in wondering about the also-rans. Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman, and Mitt Romney were unpalatable, either personally to the candidate or politically to the party. The first two would have drawn “middle-of-the road voters whose support he has steadily lost this fall— thanks in no small part to Palin.”

“It may be true that when Wall Street collapsed in September it made the presidential race fundamentally unwinnable for McCain,” Kornacki concludes. “But it may also be true that his VP decision in late August achieved the same thing.” (More Sarah Palin stories.)

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