Dick "The Shrimper" Morris REVEALS: "Palin saved GOP from landslide"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

November 12, 2008

Palin saved GOP from landslide: Morris



Dick Morris ran President Clinton's successful 1992 presidential effort and is considered a pretty fair political analyst (although he was convinced that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee, guaranteeing her victory over Obama).

Nevertheless, Morris makes a strong case that without Sarah Palin on the ticket, the Republican rout would have been much worse:

Sarah Palin made a vast difference in McCain’s favor. Compared to 2004, McCain lost 11 points among white men, according to the Fox News exit poll, but only four points among white women. Obama’s underperformance among white women, evident throughout the fall, may be chalked up, in large part, to the influence of Sarah Palin. She provided a rallying point for women who saw their political agenda in terms larger than abortion. She addressed the question of what it is like to be a working mother in today’s economy and society and resonated with tens of millions of white women who have not responded to the more traditional, and liberal, advocates for their gender.

Another argument could be made that despite the fact the overall Republican turnout declined from about 30% of the electorate to 28%, it would have been much lower if Palin were not on the ticket. She didn't convince every Republican to vote for McCain. But there is little doubt more Republicans voted for him than would have otherwise.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/11/palin_saved_gop_from_landslide.html

[LynneSin]

1. Doesn't this asshole have some hooker's toes to suck

:puke:

[camera obscura]

2. In other news, Dick Morris has been dispatched to Alaska on behalf of the GOP ...

to pick up any expensive new shoes she might have worn.

[azmouse]

3. Morris is a tool. It WAS a landslide.

[FSogol]

4. Has anything that comes out of his mouth ever been correct?

The guy's in spin mode 365/24/7.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Ya mean other than someone's toes?

Not likely.

[AlCzervik]

5. Dick Morris has a perfect record.

he is wrong on everything.

[Richardo]

12. I want a battle-royale for ultimate Heavyweight Wrongster of the World between Morris and Kristol

:bounce:

[AlCzervik]

14. And John Zogby can ref.

:hi:

[Richardo]

18. He can step in for whoever is killed first

It's a win-win-win! :hi:

[Seen the light]

McCain/Lieberman would have lost all 50 states

So he's correct in a way. Perhaps Romney would have been better, but Lieberman was his first choice. And they would have lost by 20 points.

[karynnj]

21. I disagree - there were many people in the middle who

still respected Lieberman - and thought his stand on the war was a profile in courage moment - even if in some cases they thought him wrong. Lieberman is hated mostly on the left and the center/left. The media also still likes him. (Especially Tom Brokaw, who made a point of asking Kerry in the closing MTP, he left so quickly when the show ended, without socializing with Lieberman, because after all they were both Democrats.)

[Two Sheds]

31. I agree with that assessment

I know you're thrilled that I do

[Tempest]

6. It WAS a landslide

Morris sure sucks as a prophet.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. Dick, Dick, Dick. She WAS a big reason for the loss.

Wake up.

[hughee99]

9. I agree...

McCain wasn't getting that many undecideds, and Palin helped turn out the Fundie vote much more than it would have for McCain alone. It was an electoral landslide and would have been more of a popular landslide without her.

[Danger Mouse]

10. Dick Morris is a turdburger.

[Occam Bandage]

11. Funny, because issue polls showed that she drove McCain *into* a landslide. nt

[opihimoimoi]

13. Dick "Chose the Wrong Party" Morris does it once more.Foot is stuck up his ASS and unable to Extract

[Bolo Boffin]

36. Dick should reapply. Lieberman needs a toady in the Senate HSGA staff, doesn't he? n/t

[PBS Poll-435]

15. Hillary vs Condi

'nuff said.

[Tribetime]

16. largest victory in 54 years is a landslide

for a non incumbant. Reagan only had 50.75 in 1980

[BeyondGeography]

17. And still looking for ONE battleground state that she helped deliver

Developing...

[Essene]

19. The only thing that kept Obama from breaking 60% was his "spread the wealth" comment

In my opinion, that was his one big error and it cost him a chunk of votes because it stirred up all that "socialism" and big government fear among independents who may have stuck with Obama otherwise.

To suggest PALIN helped the GOP is absurd.

[endarkenment]

25. I don't think you can provide the data that substantiates your opinion,

but please do show that Obama's polling numbers dropped with a correlation to his utterance of the phrase 'spread the wealth'.

[4themind]

34. Even if there were a polling drop

corresponding to a time period it'd be hard to impossible to dissociate it from other potential effects that occured during the same time period (mccains better attempts of dissociation from bush, effects from 3rd debate of airing of various Obama smears for the first time to such a large audience at one time) There are many other factors you'd have to control for but can't (or that I haven't seen a way of doing at least). Hence why I like to couch my words in cases like these.

[endarkenment]

39. Well but the actual problem is that his numbers climbed.

The campaign gained strength as it closed in on election day. The poster is quite likely simply disclosing his or her aversion to 'socialism', even in its hugely mild democratic socialist reformist new deal/new frontier/great society manifestations.

[Two Sheds]

35. I think Obama was held back by...

1) his youth and relative inexperience compared with that of McCain.
2) The race issue. This drawback will become a strength in 2012 as some voters who were leery of voting for a black man to become President will be able to vote for a strong incumbent President whether or not he is black.
3) Obama's liberalism. Your "spread the wealth" issue. This was where "Joe The Plumber" worked until the McCain campaign killed the idea via a combination of overexposure and JTP's personality drawbacks.
4) The vote was undercounted. I believe that strongly. I think the suppressed vote would give Obama a nearly 10% lead, at least one extra Democratic Senator, and Missouri and Georgia.

[karynnj]

20. Even the first line is wrong - he was not part of the Clinton 1992 team

"Morris became an adviser to the Bill Clinton administration after Clinton was elected president in 1992." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Morris

The analysis ignores the people who actually would have voted for McCain, but who were really horrified by Palin. (Many Republicans in my area definitely had that reaction.)

[galaxy21]

22. There where some states McCain was going to win regardless of who his running mate was

Mainly the southern states. They weren't ever going to to Barack.Arizona, Alaska, Utah were almost certainly going to go to McCain as well.


Palin cost him the battleground states. Possibly she solidified him in the south, but, as mentioned, he was going to win there anyway.

[Avalux]

23. I guess the GOP has decided to put all their 2012 eggs in the Palin basket.

I couldn't be happier. :D

[sarge43]

24. The fact that Team Obama ran a damn near perfect campaign

didn't have a thing to do with it.

Spin on Dick.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

26. When is a 373 EV and 6-7% PV NOT considered a "landslide"?

:wtf:

WHAT would Dick Morris consider a "landslide"? Ohio, Florida, INDIANA, NORTH CAROLINA BLUE!!! Hellooooo?

While a case might be made that Palin helped get the fundies to the polls in greater numbers than they may otherwise have shown up she probably actually HURT McCain FAR MORE than she "helped" him b/c she ultimately drove a lot of the moderates and independents over to Obama who apparently didn't feel like she could be President and didn't think McCain would survive 4-8 years.

[endarkenment]

27. EV landslid PV major victory.

Obama needed 55 to claim a popular vote landslide. 53 is damn good though.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

29. Works for me

If Bush et. al can claim a mandate for advancing his agenda in 2004 then I just don't want to hear ANY right-wingers claiming that Obama didn't win a mandate for his agenda/vision. Heck, Bush didn't even win the PV in 2000 yet governed as though he had won some kind of mandate for advancing the right-wing agenda. If there was ever an electoral situation that cried out for the winner to govern as more of a centrist or moderate it was the 2000 election.

[endarkenment]

30. Well no shit.

The lying, rather than settling down after the election, has escalated. We are in the counterattack offensive right now, and it has just begun.

[MichaelHarris]

28. I don't know if the Obamas and Bidens had a celebration

dinner but I do know they both had McCain/Palin for lunch.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[redqueen]

33. Ugh. He and Carville and the rest of the wrong crowd need to STFU for a while

maybe they'll learn a thing or two.

[democrattotheend]

37. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Obama win in a landslide?

Certainly it was a landslide in the electoral college...he won over 2:1. The popular vote may not have been a landslide but it was a pretty solid margin.

[zulchzulu]

38. Please! When referring to Dick Morris, use this photo. MMkay?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

40. Someone tell the toe sucker to stuff it. Who cares what that slob thinks?!

[onenote]

41. morris is incapable of performing basic math

He misstates various "facts" in his article. For example,when he says McCain "lost" 11 points among white men, he is referring to the fact that Bush had a 25 point margin over Kerry (62/37), but McCain had only a 16 point margin over Obama (57/41). Not only is that just a 9 point difference in margin, not 11, but it isn't really accurate to say McCain lost "11" points. He lost 5 points (62 v. 57) and Obama picked up 4 point (37 v. 41). He also screws up his claim about young voters. He claims the percentage of young voters stayed at 11 percent. In fact the percentage of 'young voters' (defined as 18-29) went from 17 percent to 18 percent. What he apparently referring to is the percentage of "first time" voters, which did stay at 11 percent. But crazy dickie acts like the predictions about new voters were wrong. Well, there was a "surge" of new voters in terms of the split between republican and Democratic candidates. Whereas Kerry topped Bush by only 7 points (53/46) among first timers in 2004, Obama crushed McCain 68/31 among first timers this year. Using a sane person's math, that's an improvement of 15 points by Obama over Kerry in attracting new voters (and a decline of 15 points by McCain). Using crazy dickie's math, McCain lost "30 points" among new voters - a pretty telling statistic and one that is probably causing repub strategists with better math skills than dickie to shit bricks.

I could go on, but why bother. Morris is a class A idiot whose work isn't good enough for wrapping fish or lining a bird cage.

[DefenseLawyer]

42. Remember his electoral "map" during the general?

If he can explain why he was so wrong in so many states, then I'll give him a chance to talk again.