Sorry Zin, but I believe that even dogged Republican faculty refused to send a dime to McCain once his choice of running mate was made public. McCain is an honorable man who had done many fine things for this country, but the choice of a “heartbeat away from the presidency” divisive politician who was uninformed, under-educated, dismissive of intellectuals, dismissive of life experience which differed from her own, and unable to read and analyze complex information meant that McCain’s support among college professors was spiraling downward after the convention.
I know die-hard conservatives who sat home that year rather than vote for Sarah Palin as VP- as much as they liked and admired McCain. Law of unintended consequences- but I know a lot of Republicans and they take their philosophical grounding and intellectualism seriously. Nominating someone whose life experience and intellectual depth mirrored a reality show on Bravo was not the way to get that faction of the party interested in writing checks to McCain.