Would Lieberman have been better than Palin for McCain's long term success?

[Dave Gray]

I saw Lieberman talking a little bit about McCain today on the news.  They are good friends, and word was that Lieberman was his first choice to run with him, but he took Palin to shore up the base.

I don't think that it would've made a difference in the outcome of the election (Obama was lighting in a bottle), but I think that Palin did have a big hand in greatly reshaping the Republican party.  I also think that she's been a big part of McCain's irrelevancy, and that the left/middle that did respect McCain saw the Palin pick as reckless.  He's not the admirable figure that he once was.  I don't think that either side likes him all that much.

McCain's "maverick" image went out the window with Palin, and he's had to go way right just to stay in office, but it's not really working for him.

I wonder if he'd be better off now, had he chosen Lieberman.  Like I said, I think that they'd still have lost, but I bet he'd be a more influential politician today, if he had.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I don't think he would be more influential..what is Gore and Kerry up to now a days?   

I think a Lieberman would have helped him with moderate voters, but completely alienated his base on election day.  Palin did the opposite. 

Maybe if he had taken Lieberman...both stay in the senate...neither caucus with their party the two of them could be the pair in the middle brokering deals....but I doubt it. 

[Dave Gray]

^ I'll give you Kerry, who seemed to disappear entirely from the face of politics after his presidential run, but I disagree with Gore.

First off, Gore was already a VP, so it's not like he had a political career to go back to, really.  On top of that, I think that Gore became very influential, but just not using politics as a forum.  He went on to win a nobel prize and an academy award pushing his environmental agenda.  He is hardly insignificant.

Meanwhile, McCain still seems to be striving to be an important member of his party, but I don't see that working for him.  Lieberman isn't really liked by the left all that much, but he definitely gets his face out there and is sorta the bridge to the Republicans, along with Olympia Snow, Lisa Murkowski, Scott Brown, etc.  I think that McCain would be more powerful if he were in that list, like he used to be.

[bsfins]

I think this last run for president,McCain was thought of as old....Palin was also supposed to help him seem younger,Wouldn't Lieberman, been another Two old white dudes ticket?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I think this last run for president,McCain was thought of as old....Palin was also supposed to help him seem younger,Wouldn't Lieberman, been another Two old white dudes ticket?

That is true.  More so than youth, she did grab some of the Hillary Clinton base.  (Despite that their isn't a single thing they agree on politically) 

[Dave Gray]

I think this last run for president,McCain was thought of as old....Palin was also supposed to help him seem younger,Wouldn't Lieberman, been another Two old white dudes ticket?

Oh, for sure.  ...and they would've lost.  That's not really the point.  I think McCain could've run with Superman and still lost.  The GOP was too damaged a brand at that point, no matter who it was.  But I think that Palin really hurt McCain's credibility.  I think that Lieberman would've strengthened McCain to the independents, and would've made McCain not look like a GOP lackey, which he eventually did.  McCain had to go way right to avoid defeat when all of the "establishment" candidates were going down, from both sides.  I think that McCain/Lieberman would've looked less establishment, despite having two guys that've been there forever, since they were from different parties.  I think that would've have been the story: people over party.

[Spider-Dan]

Lieberman is a man without a constituency.  He will be evicted from office in his next election.

Under "normal" circumstances, his antics would preclude a defection to the GOP, but with the current RINO-hunting Tea Party scalpers roaming the primaries, he'd be dead the moment he hit the water.  So he really has no vehicle to avoid being ousted.

In hindsight, his best chance would have been to run to the left (like Specter did), but he was busy trying to play kingmaker and triangulate in 2009.  I will be happy to see him gone.

As for McCain's situation today if he had picked Lieberman, I doubt it would have mattered.  What happened to Bob Dole after 1996?  The Republican party brooks no losers (that's not to say that the Democratic party does, either).

[bsmooth]

Palin was a blatant attempt by the GOP to grab the female voters who were pissed Hillary did not get the nomination.

[badger6]

I guess it's my theme. Like the Dolphins this country needs real change. I pick Thigpen and Ron Paul. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.............

[BigDaddyFin]

I do think the country needs a new direction, a sort of get back to the beginning or get back to the basics feel. 

I don't know that Lieberman is a bad choice or that Lieberman is a poor choice and here's why. 

A lot of conservatives like myself feel like the country is better off with Lieberman active in politics.  He is as they say "our kind of Liberal."  That may be an oxymoron but you get my point.  That might win him points with independant voters and the kinds of people you want to capture to win an election.

That said, he surely is not a fit the bill conservative either.  I don't know that the country would vote for something like that, a sort of bipartisan ticket.  It seems like it would repel as many voters from one party or another than it would attract.

just my thoughts.

[Spider-Dan]

A lot of conservatives like myself feel like the country is better off with Lieberman active in politics.  He is as they say "our kind of Liberal."  That may be an oxymoron but you get my point.

I think your position could be alternately worded as, "I don't mind having Lieberman as a member of the opposition."  I can also say that I'd have less of a problem with Lieberman as a Republican, particularly if he took the job of an existing Republican.  In short, Lieberman is the type of guy you want in the other man's party.  But Republicans would be even less likely to vote for him than Democrats would.

To be honest, I just want to see him gone.  I'm tired of his grandstanding, much as I'm sure that conservatives are sick of Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe being treated as the most important Republicans on the planet.

[BigDaddyFin]

^^^^

Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are RINOs at best, much like Arlen Specter was.

[Spider-Dan]

Sure, but you'd rather have them than two Democrats in those seats, right?

So ultimately, it's not much different than Lieberman.  The only real difference is that the Dems already tried to kick him out in 2006, and he created a political party to hold on to his seat (because CT has no sore loser law).

I do look forward to seeing whether the GOP will have the balls to primary out Collins and Snowe, though.  If you wanted to replace them with "real" Republicans, you just missed your best shot.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

While I don't like Lieberman...I think we need more Lieberman, Snowe, Spector, Chafee, Jeffords, Zell Miller types and less of the extremists in both parties. 

[Spider-Dan]

I half-agree with you.

I think we need more of them in the Republican Party.