Post-Mortem on the Election (Part II)

In spite of all the hype about this being an historic election with an enormous turnout, Brendan Miniter via Protein Wisdom tips us off to some seldom-reported facts about the election. Here are the vote totals for the state of Ohio for both 2004 and 2008:

2004:

Bush 2,859,764
Kerry 2,741,165

2008:

0bama 2,708,685
McCain 2,501,855

While winning Ohio, 0bama got about 33,000 fewer votes in 2008 than Kerry did in 2004. McCain got about 240,000 fewer votes in 2008 than Bush did in 2004.

What can be concluded from this:

(1) Many Republican voters stayed home or voted for a third party. McCain turned off many people when he opposed Bush's tax cuts, when he sponsored 'campaign finance reform' legislation that had the effect of stifling free speech, and when he supported the foolish attempt to give amnesty to illegal aliens in 2007.

(2) In spite of all his difficulties, McCain was actually leading 0bama in the national polls up until the Wall Street meltdown and the ridiculous bailout that he supported. From the Real Clear Politics averages:

0bama led in the polls all summer
McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate on August 29
September 6: 0bama led McCain by 2.4%
September 7: McCain led by 1%
September 8: McCain led by 2.9%
September 15: Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, the next day Henry Paulson asked for a federal bailout for the remaining securities firms
McCain lost his lead on September 17, when the polls were tied
0bama led by 1.8% on September 18, and maintained his lead thereafter until the election

Many Republican voters were disgusted by the bailout and stayed home.

(3) In spite of all the leftwing attacks and nonsense about Sarah Palin, she was a net plus for the ticket. This can be easily seen from the large bump in the polls that McCain received after the Republican convention. She may have been the only one who prevented 0bama from winning by a landslide.