In an upcoming piece on McCain, New York Times Magazine reporter Robert Draper gives us this little insight into the whole Palin pick:

Having interviewed several of the Senator’s chief aides, Draper details the process by which McCain ultimately chose his running mate (New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was surprisingly high on the list). And the decision may have been even more impulsive than initially thought. Gov. Sarah Palin, who had never been on the VP shortlist, was advanced at the last minute by Schmidt and Rick Davis, and was picked after a less-than-hour-long chat in with McCain at his ranch in Arizona.

(emphasis added)

The failure of the McCain campaign is going to be talked about for weeks to come, even past the election. The right wing talking heads are trying to spin this in a way to make Palin out to be the saint. They want to simply say “it’s the economy and Bush”, but that isn’t the case so much. Look at this from the latest NBC/WSJ poll:

Now, Palin’s qualifications to be president rank as voters’ top concern about McCain’s candidacy – ahead of continuing President Bush’s policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq.

People are now saying Palin is more of a concern than McCain being tied to Bush’s policies. That’s a pretty damming conviction of lipstick queen.

The Republicans are heading into a very dark time. I have seen people equating it to what happened with the Democrats after 2002, but I don’t agree with that comparison. When the Democrats were fed up after 2002, the change came about because of a strong netroots movement. The netroots on the right are the very ones out there supporting Palin and echoing the talking points. They even want to see her run in 2012.

So what is it going to take to fix the Republican party? Their best chance is from the grassroots. The old Reagan Republicans need to get pissed off enough to stand up and push these Rove Republicans out of power. That means they will need a grassroots movement to get the party to change.

An election is the perfect pulse point for a country. If Obama wins the popular vote by 2-4% then we can say this country is pretty split along ideological lines, but if his margin of victory is greater then it’s a sure sign that this country is rejecting the Republican party. Add to that the potential of big picks ups for the Democrats in the House and Senate and they are really looking at condemnation of their platform.

The people of this country want change. They got some of it in the Democratic party over the past six years. Will the Republicans now heed their warnings and do the same? I don’t know, but it will be interesting to watch. If they fail to do so then they can plan on being the minority for the foreseeable future.