Steve Schmidt Doesn’t Blame Palin
By: emptywheelWell, to his credit, Steve Schmidt isn’t blaming the Wasilla Wonder for McCain’s loss. In fact, he looks to the Palin selection as a victory (though he doesn’t name her specifically), insofar as it reversed what Schmidt describes as Obama "running away" with the race until her selection.And I’m very proud of the fact that when Senator Obama came to opening up the lead and running away with this race, in August, when he returned from his trip to Europe, that we were able to halt his momentum, and to figure out a way to get ahead in the race by the middle of September, which is something that nobody thought was possible for us to do. We needed to, at a strategic level, at our convention, excite the base, appeal to the middle, distance ourselves from the policies of the administration, and to, um, recapture the reform and maverick credential that had been whittled away. And, that strategy was succeeding, and it worked until there was an economic collapse, and I’m proud of the fact that John McCain got up and fought every day, in very trying circumstances.
But even in this statement, he betrays self-delusion. McCain’s Palin spike – and Palin’s favorables – reversed before the financial crisis hit hard; Lehman filed for bankruptcy on September 14 and McCain’s "fundamentals of the economy are strong" comment was on September 15, but McCain peaked closer to September 8 or 9…
While I claimed to be dropping out of the day to day news, I reserve the right to comment on things about the election [forever if necessary]. The Republicans are building a Myth that the reason they lost was the Stock Market crashing. I even found myself saying it, then thought, "Wait a minute!" Count on emptywheel to miss nothing. McCain and Palin were on the way down before the Market tanked. It may have had something to do with the margin, but not the win. Here’s the DOW and the Polls. Bloody Monday was on September 15th…
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