I feel like I'm the only Biden supporter who wishes Bernie was more competitive...

[BidenBacker]

50. McCain was already solidly trailing

when he picked Palin for a VP. It was basically a Hail Mary pass borne out of desperation. But she scared the living shit outta many people and thankfully the pass fell harmlessly incomplete.

But she helped to cheapen and degrade genuine discourse and lowered the GOP bar yet another notch...and that only made Trump that much more acceptable to the Republican rank-and-file in the years to come...

John McCain opened Pandora’s box – Sarah Palin came out, but Trump was right behind her

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/26/john-mccain-sarah-palin-donald-trump

Jeff Flake, McCain’s Republican colleague from Arizona, told the Guardian: “He regrets not going with his instinct on that, which would have been Lieberman. I don’t know if it would have made the difference in that election but the Palinisation of politics kind of started there. It hasn’t been the best for the Republican party, I will say, but I don’t think he could have known. She was more a symptom of it than anything else.”

I doubt McCain would've been any more successful had he picked Lieberman like his gut was telling him to but at least he wouldn't have become a laughingstock. Some of the very people like Peggy Noonan and especially Bill Kristol who disgustingly fawned all over Palin but who are now horrified by Trump don't even realize they were some of the ones who helped put the GOP on their slippery slope in the first place.