The Only answer is: THEY WANT to lose!

Could it be, the rethugs have given up and are ready to leave this huge mess to Obama!?
They've made their millions, especially for their oil buddies, and now they are ready to leave the carnage to Obama to clean it up. If things don't go well, they will blame him and then voila-they have a chance again in 2012 with JEB!! If they stay where they are they will face jail-time, unless Pelosi has made some deal with them, which I suspect!!! I'm holding on to this theory mostly because I am at a loss as to what they could possibly be up to with the Palin pick. As crazy as McCain is, I don't think it was his idea to pick her at all, but someone's puppet strings are being pulled.And something is up, and it really isn't pretty at all, or so methinks.

1. Occam's razor comes into play and McCain did something incredibly stupid thinking it was smooth.

2. The far right wants someone else as president and the best way to accomplish that is to encourage McCain to pick someone who they know has is likely to be exposed as a woeful lapse in judgment or has something hidden in the closet that will cause his entire campaign to fall apart quickly so they can replace him with someone more to their likings.

3. Big business sees McCain as a huge danger to the status quo who will tip the scales so far to the right that a huge backlash would occur and thus have foisted this dead weight of a running mate on him to ensure that the status quo stays reasonably the same without a swing in either direction so they continue to skim the wealth of this nation without risking a huge pendulum swing to the left (ala...post Gilded Age crackdowns and worker empowerment).

They've left the firm for other opportunities. There has been a mass exodus of back-room talent from their party. They have nothing but hacks left to run things.

They sent out their absolute worst sacrificial lambs to the slaughter. Take one for the Gipper, they said. You're gonna die soon, so choose the most ridiculous VP you can think of. What the hell, we're losers.

but we have to remember that the train keeps moving along, and todays billions for the megacorporations were built on past accomplishments (ne exploitations). Now that they're locked into their money, the next decade will be spent defending it.

sorry we voted for Bush in 2000. here's your boobty prize. pity nomination.

and the status of the presidency---- I'll buy it.