How bad could it have been if John McCain and Sarah Palin had been elected??

[kentuck]

Would we have gone into an austerity program? Would there have been no stimulus program? What would have been the unemployment rate? Would there have been another great depression?

It's easy to criticize the President and perhaps deservingly so in some cases. However, we have to consider where we might have been?

Would we have had no debt under President McCain and VP Palin? In a worldwide depression, what would our unemployment rate have been? Would they have prevented millions of people from receiving food stamps or unemployment compensation? I wonder sometimes where we might be if the other side had won?

[LeftInTX]

1. This is where we would be:

We all know, we would be in much worse shape financially.
In addition, we would probably be at war with Syria or Iran.

[Trascoli]

2. I bet unemployment would be

Around 8%. That is 3% higher than Bush. Gas would be over $3/g. But I'm thinking gold/silver would be very high right now if they were elected.

[JI7]

3. i think mccain would have supported any govt spending as long as we supported his wars

in iraq, iran and anywhere else in the world.

[msongs]

4. perhaps mccain might not have lived too long after the inauguration...hmmm nt

[BlueStater]

5. Here's what I think would have happened.

McCain doesn't run for reelection due to his age. Palin, as we all know what would have happened had they won, proves to be an incompetent, embarrassing VP (think Dan Quayle but far worse). She barely becomes the nominee in 2012 after heavy opposition in the Republican primary and proceeds to lose in a landslide to whoever the Democratic nominee is.

[Permanut]

6. I'm thinkin' that right here in the heart of the American country..

we would have a second in command who would be able to see Russia, and who could talk turkey with them ayatollyas and stuff. And there wouldn't be none of this takin' the right to bear arms in the city or the country from the good American citizens.

[MrSlayer]

7. It could have been horrible or it could have been better. Probably horrible.

Well, for starters, we would almost certainly be at war in Iran at this time. We would never have pulled out of Iraq or drawn down in Afghanistan with intention to leave eventually. How would Egypt have been handled? Originally, old Hosni was our guy, right? If I remember correctly, Washington's initial reaction was to tentatively support him, wasn't it? Being a knee jerk kind of guy, McCain probably would have given his approval for a quick putdown of the protests by whatever means. Probably the same in Libya. On the other hand, one could question whether the so-called Arab Spring would have happened at all if John McCain had won the election. I think it's fair to say that no matter what side he came down on, American blood would spill in these conflicts if they occurred. Our foreign policy would be a lot worse than it is now.

Domestically, there is a chance it could be better. For the sake of argument we'll consider that while McCain won the Presidency, the Democrats still have a small majority in the House and the Republicans have 51-49 in the Senate. If we're in the fantasy land of McCain winning, we have to assume the Republicans didn't get blown out in the congressional races too.

Let's face it, the key to solving our problem has been to spend more money. And there is nothing Republicans like to do more than spend like crazy when they're in charge. It galls me to say so but I had my very best years under Bush. That was because he and the hypocritical GOP spent a ton of federal money on construction projects. President Obama has not been allowed to spend much at all and my industry is crippled because of it, we're still not even close to being normal again. I think the economy may have gotten the stimulus that we needed or something close to it if Gramps had won. They were only against it because Obama proposed it, they know what works and what doesn't. They simply wanted to stop him from looking good by slowing the recovery at all costs. Sadly, it worked and is still working. Consider too, that if McCain wins, there is no teabagger wave in 2010. The neo-cons are not really into destroying the social programs the way the Birchers are. They couldn't privatize SS under Bush and they probably wouldn't do it under McCain either. It's also possible that he could have gotten an immigration law since that was always a pet issue of his.

With (best case scenario) that though, the rich keep getting richer as all the Bush cuts are made permanent, there isn't even a pantomime of doing anything about Wall Street, no health care law, DADT still in effect, no equal pay law, two more Supreme Court justices in the mold of Scalia, the XL pipeline is a lock, the gulf spill would have been worse, the environment gets even further ignored and worst of all.......Vice President Sarah Palin.

I think many of the short term domestic fixes would have been easier to get if McCain had won but the long vision would be bleak, especially overseas.

[Hulk]

8. Well said.

I pretty much agree with all you wrote. I think one additional caveat would be that there would have been, and probably would be even today, a much greater number of people laid off from work because of austerity programs they tried, such as England and Greece. Yes, we really would be more like Greece - but for different reasons. And the civil unrest in this country would be even uglier - making the "Occupy Wall Street" seem like it's being totally run by anarchists - which it probably would be. All speculation at this point; but not as secure as our future looks today.
Main positive difference is the republicans in Congress would be working WITH the administration to address the problem, instead of fighting the executive branch at EVERY step.

[Festivito]

9. PR think-tanks would tell us recovery is coming.

To say it's not recovering is considered treasonous.

The wars would ramp up.

Unemployment skyrockets. TV pundits ask why don't people just join the military and help our country and themselves.

Explanations on why a 20-trillion dollar debt is bad but necessary come out of those PR think-tanks.

Cities and even States go bankrupt forcing military intervention on US soil. Posse Comitatus is eliminated out of necessity.

The large debt become unpayable, therefore it must be divided into sections. SS will not be paid.

SS goes broke since it "does not bring in more than it spends." It is allowed to continue collecting taxes as it phases out with reduced benefits.

The post office is deeply in debt and cannot pay its bills. It moves deliveries to three or two times a week in some areas. "Everyone knows" it will close someday.

CIA headquarters is hit by five small planes with bombs. Iran is blamed and an international coalition is formed for retaliation headed by Tuvalu. (NSA chuckles and hires two more PR firms.)

"Using nukes on nukes" becomes the catch phrase of the day on AM radio and is dutifully reported on regular TV. Plans are made to use our nuclear stockpile for hitting Iran's nuclear program. (As a good side: North Korea is finally worried.)

Sarah Palin gains international status by shopping in Paris and London. (Sad, but that's how it's reported.)

McCain and Palin now look forward to elections 2012. The main question is should we nuke Iran rather than having those hundreds of soldiers killed each week. 12-million dead in Iran, but the number reported never gets to one-million on the TV.

We are building bases in countries surrounding Iran.

Americans are told to go shopping.