11/5/08- Obama easily wins presidential election, 364-174 (http://electoral-vote.com/). Where did the republicans go wrong?
1. George W. Bush- Having the president with jsut about the worst approval rating ever preceding you doesn't help your campaign at all, espiecally when your oppenent can point out you voted with him 90% of the time.
Bush approval rating 9/11/01 = 90+%
Bush approval rating today= ~28%
Source:http://www.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Approval.htm
2. The War in Iraq- The majority of Americans wish we never went into Iraq. This is a fact, here are some polls for the non-beleivers(and develepers of TPM that think the public favors the War):
"On September 10-12 (2007), in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults
conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, 33% approved of George Bush's
handling of the "situation in Iraq", while 65% disapproved of it."
"On August 6-8 (2007), CNN polled 1,029 adults nationwide. 33% said they
favored the war in Iraq, 64% opposed, and 3% was undecided. The margin
of error was plus or minus 3%."
3.Republicans picked a boring canidate: Republicans could have picked someone that people were excited about like Ron Paul (yes, I said it), someone with a large grassroots movement (just like President Obama's), and someone with major fundraising ability (many of those supporters ironically went over to Obama once Paul dropped out, as they wanted change and out of Iraq).
Instead, McCain ends up getting the nomination and you get a canidate thats weak on the economy- "I don't know as much on the economy as I should" (Romney looks better every day). Not to mention Obama raising 2-3 times more money thus outspending McCain 3-1 on TV advertisements.
4. Picking Palin: Palin provided a spark that energized the base, but not much else. She soon was withheld from the press, and turned into the laughing stock of late night TV. Somone with a strong economic background (Romney?) would have been a better choice.
In response to soon coming comments - yes, things can change but it will be all but impossible for McCain to turn things around in Florida, Ohio, Virgina, Nevada, and North Carolina with less then a month to go and only 1 debate left, which he hasn't been fareing well enough in so far.
Yes- Obama has many flaws, as the election goes on I don't even agree with many of his policies anymore but IMO he fits the Americans needs right now as he plans to end the War in Iraq, and is seen as better for the economy than McCain.
For anyone wondering where I got the electoral vote prediction you can check out this site, it's updated daily with new polls. http://electoral-vote.com/