And Ronald Reagan won 49 states because he was a centrist? He's the one all conservatives model themselves after, and he was an unapologetic conservative.
This is a conservative country and conservatism wins. Many conservative ballot measures won big in the battleground states even as those states were voting for Obama.
If this were a left-of-center country, Obama wouldn't have tried to hide his liberalism. He wouldn't have been advocating tax cuts at all, since we all know tax cuts are like sunlight to a vampire for a liberal. McCain wouldn't have had to run to the right to even stand a chance. Remember his poll ratings before choosing Palin? He was given no chance to win as he was down 8-10 points. McCain is a centrist to begin with, untrusted by conservatives, yet he knew he had to go right to win.
Obama won for two reasons. He wasn't a Republican and the financial crisis hit at just the right time (for Obama, that is). Otherwise we'd probably be talking about President-Elect McCain.
It's interesting that polling was spot on for Obama's totals, which meant that virtually ever single undecided went to McCain as most polls put Obama at 52%. Unfortunately for McCain, Obama had 52% without any of the undecideds. It was exactly as I said in another thread that undecideds would break for McCain. Who won depended on where Obama was without the undecideds.
Polling results also showed that Palin actually ended up boosting McCain's totals by about 4%. Without her, he would have lost by even more, making Palin a plus on the ticket, not a minus.
