She's got the personality, the charisma and the clothes. She's Sarah Palin, and let's not forget about that cute little wink she does. Who wouldn't want her to be vice president?
Actually more than half of the country didn't.
The stylish and chic Palin is now the scapegoat for the GOP's big loss Tuesday night, and rightfully so - but that's not the whole story.
When John McCain selected Palin as his vice president, most didn't see it coming - not because she's a woman, but because she was a nobody.
That's where the GOP made its first mistake - assuming that women would vote for a woman solely because she's a woman. Palin was picked, at least in part, because she's a woman - after all, what else could combat the mass minority vote Obama had in his pocket from the get-go?
Women vs. minorities; for about three hours, the battle was on. Then people found out a bit about Palin, and realized she was going to be just more of the same, even more so than McCain.
Picking an unknown woman from Alaska wasn't the McProblem. It came down, in the end, to what she stood for.
McCain doesn't believe in abortion rights. He doesn't believe in gay marriage. Stem cell research and climate change are not his forte.
Bringing in a more moderate candidate could have made a world of difference. Barack Obama is a liberal man; more liberal than those middle-of-the-road people would normally have voted for, had the alternative not been so conservative.
Hey Republicans, why don't you try bringing in someone who doesn't believe that women shouldn't have abortions, even if they've been raped? Or maybe, just maybe, consider someone who might be willing to hear those homosexual people out.
Even if you don't agree with what people are saying, listening goes a long way, especially when it comes to political constituents.
Stick to the core values when it comes to small government and such, but sway with society to accommodate a new generation.
Apparently, there wasn't a whole lot of listening going on at the McCain camp headquarters when Sarah Palin's name was on the table.
And let's face it, the super-conservative constituency would still have cast a vote for McCain on Tuesday, because who else would they vote for?
John McCain lost because his ticket catered to the same-old constituency - the one that will always be there for the red. You know, the people who think we elected a Muslim? Yeah, they voted for McCain.
But a lot of people voted for McCain because of legitimate reasons. They don't agree with the liberal agenda, and they thought McCain would make a great president. He would have been.
The GOP needs to start transforming to cater to a new demographic - the people who are on the fence because they don't like either side. They're not left enough for the left, or right enough for the right. They don't like people thinking that they're voting for a conservative out of racism or fiscally related greed.
John McCain is a good man, who was turned into a mouthpiece for the GOP's old-school agenda long before November.
And "yes we can" won out.
Well, sorry to break it to every liberal in the world, but "yes you can" what exactly? Elect a president? People have been electing Republican and Democratic politicians for a long time now. Elect a black man? Maybe, but wouldn't it have been just as impressive to elect a woman?
Conservatives have a choice. Bend towards the center just a little bit. The Grand Old Party is just that - grand, but old. In light of a new generation with new values and a whole new idea about what politics means, it's simply a matter of when, not if, change must come to the right.
Whether that change comes in 2012, 2016 or many decades down the line is what will determine future elections.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
