Much is being made of the future of the conservative movement and Sarah Palin’s role in the election. To my amusement, many are claiming that her ultra-religious views alienated voters and her lack of preparation (dare I say, experience?) for debates was an embarrassment to the ticket. Palin’s pick was one aspect of the overall campaign strategy. Her selection was designed to do three things: 1) do no harm to the campaign, 2) win over disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters, and 3) placate the religious base. She failed at two of those three things. The thing she succeeded at, she wasn’t needed for.

The first rule of professional politics, like medicine, is to do no harm or, as Machiavelli put it, “above all, avoid being hated.” The whole point of the vetting process is to ensure that the nominee doesn’t have any skeletons in their closet. Sarah Palin brought two major controversies and a dozen minor ones to the campaign. Troopergate and her daughter’s pregnancy (pregnancies?) both created firestorms in the first week of her nomination. Book censorship, dismal interview performances, and religious pronouncements about war being God’s will all piled on to apply drag on the momentum of the campaign. We can quibble over McCain’s vetting process all day long but at the end of the day, the controversies sandbagged her announcement and provided recurring ammunition to her opponents.

Intellectually honest Hillary supporters would never in a million years support an ultra-conservative Republican nominee. Feminists would object to Palin’s abortion and birth control stances. Progressives object to her religious stance. Liberals who support Hillary’s leftist agendas would never support a pro-business, pro-drilling, pro-war candidate. So basically, unless the only reason a woman supported Hillary is because she’s a woman, Palin wasn’t going to steal any votes from Obama.

So, despite all that, Palin still could have been an acceptable pick for the number two slot because of her influence in securing a higher degree of party loyalty. Indeed, after her nomination, McCain raised far more money than he had been able to prior. In this regard, she did what she was intended to do. Unfortunately, she wasn’t really needed for this. Since securing the nomination, McCain had begun to move steadily towards the religious base. McCain’s strategy was to appease religious Republican voters by showing his support for issues they cared about. McCain needed to do one of the two: either nominate a religious vice president and remain in the center or move to the right himself and nominate a center vice presidential candidate.

Only a third of Americans identify themselves as conservative. A quarter of Americans consider themselves liberal. Elections are won or lost on the middle ground. To appease both, a candidate basically has to be all things to all people. Most people, even polished political superstars, have a hard time this off without being called waffling hypocrites – especially given the amount of media attention they receive. That’s part of the magic of a vice presidential candidates. They’re a perfect opportunity to play up two angles at once. When McCain chose to move to the religious right and nominated a religious right vice presidential candidate he effectively doubled up on a constituency that already supported him.

I, personally, don’t like Palin. I like her more than Biden and I like her more than Obama, but I disagree with about two thirds of her political agenda. That said, I think she could have made a perfect running mate if McCain had simply been himself – the maverick – rather than the generic Republican he turned into. Instead, her pick was a blunder of strategy. She’s probably not ready for the national stage but that’s not what tanked the campaign.

She was just the wrong person for the job.