I have heard so much about whether Governor Palin was good for the 2008 Republican ticket or not – so I decided to do something a bit old fashion. I went back and looked at some facts. I looked at the Fox News Channel poll numbers from the Presidential race of 2008. What I discovered was quite interesting and may rub against what has become the conventional wisdom for some as to why Senator McCain’s poll numbers went down late in the fall.
I looked at 3 sets of polls –
1/ how Senator McCain was doing right JUST BEFORE he selected Governor Palin as a running mate;
2/ how Senator McCain was doing RIGHT AFTER he chose her; and
3/ how Senator McCain was doing AFTER THE FINANCIAL CRISIS HIT ABOUT SEPTEMBER 20.
Polling from 2008/Financial Crisis dates and polling
1 Pre-Palin polling
-If the 2008 presidential election were held today (August 19-20), would you vote for Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain?
McCain 39%
Obama 42%
Other/don’t know 19%
* Senator McCain was losing by 3 points BEFORE he announced Gov Palin his running mate
2. Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate on August 29, 2008
Post-Palin polling
-If the 2008 presidential election were held today (September 8-9,2008), would you vote for:
McCain/Palin 45%
Obama/Biden 42%
Other 2%
Don’t know 10%
* After Governor Palin was selected as the running mate, Senator McCain was up 3 points (thus a 6 point increase after Governor Palin was chosen.)
3. and two Post-financial crisis polling (September 22-23, 2008)
Obama/Biden 45%
McCain/Palin 39%
Other 2%
Don’t know 13%
I looked at another poll regarding the post financial crisis and the numbers were essentially the same.
Post-financial crisis polling (October 8-9, 2008)
Obama/Biden 46%
McCain/Palin 39%
Other 3%
Don’t know 11%
* After the financial crisis, Senator McCain’s number cratered 6 points.
[Source: Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll; - Sample is 900 registered voters; MOE ±3%]
*Note: All polls are FNC polls.
