by Kirk Shelley

I hope that this message isn’t lost in the Obama enthusiasm, but last night wasn’t as bad as it could have been for the GOP and the reason why McCain’s last minute foxhole conversion to the conservative message.

I don’t know who convinced McCain to talk about union thugs and wealth redistribution in the last couple of weeks but who ever he/she is deserves a medal.

When you look at the polling numbers a couple of things stand out – the big bump when McCain picked Palin and the big switch in momentum in the last two weeks. Every time McCain talked about working with his friend Hillary Clinton or Nancy Policy he tanked, but when conservatism was mentioned he jumped up in the polls.

If McCain had kept up the bi-partisan Maverick rhetoric in the last two weeks the losses in the US Senate would have been much worse, possibly to the magic 60 vote margin. I don’t think State Senator Jim Reynolds or Dana Murphy would have pulled it out either. It would have been tough for a conservative to wait in line for an hour and a half to vote, if you were only there to vote for the lesser of two evils.

When McCain gave hope to conservatives that he might give voice to their concerns, the tide began to turn.

It couldn’t do miracles, but it got enough conservatives to the polls to win some tight races.