‘Palin mania’ (16)
Posted on 06 September 2008 by Jack
Sarah Palin mania transformed John McCain’s presidential campaign as the Republican duo made their first appearances after claiming their party’s White House nominations.
In a sweep through the swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin, Mr McCain was met by the kind of near-hysterical crowds previously seen only at campaign events for his Democratic rival, Barack Obama.
More than 6,000 exultant supporters turned out on Friday night in Sterling Heights, a town in Michigan’s Macomb County, home of the Reagan-Democrats, the small town blue collar voters who propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in the 1980s and hold the key to victory this year.
Where he once played to a few hundred people, Mr McCain was greeted by an electrified crowd chanting “Sa-rah, Sa-rah!”, “John Mc-Cain, John Mc-Cain!” and “U-S-A!”
Mrs Palin immediately spelt out how the McCain campaign will take on Obama Barack in the final 60 days before November’s election, targeting patriotic voters unconvinced by the Democratic candidate’s national security and economic credentials.
“We went right from the convention to small town USA,” she said. “It’s true that they grow good people, people who are working hard for America.
You love your country in good times and bad and you’re always proud to be Americans.”
The self-described “hockey mom” wooed her peers, holding up a Detroit Red Wings hockey shirt and describing how her son Track, now a soldier soon to deploy to Iraq, once played for a local team. “Michigan, you took care of my boy and now that boy is serving in the US Army and he’s going to take care of you.” Casting the double act as political outsiders, Mr McCain urged voters to “send a team of mavericks who aren’t afraid to go to Washington and break a little china”.
As he discussed the need to launch domestic oil drilling, the crowd launched into a deafening and prolonged chant of “Drill, Baby, Drill!”
Related: US election neck and neck after the ‘Sarah Palin bounce’
Related: Mansur: McCain throws Obama for loop
Related: Democrats in Trouble
Related: Jonas: The referendum on Sarah Palin
Related: Heffer: John McCain offered Republicans vision
Update: McCain, Obama tied in TV audiences
Update: To counter Palin, Obama to dispatch female surrogates
Update: Republican Recycling
Update: Warren: Is this Alaskan lady a Margaret Thatcher in training?
Update: Please Kevin, can you eat a moose?
Update: The Smell Of Fear
Update: Crowds turn out for Palin, McCain
Update: Liberators and Defenders
Note: I’ve changed from using astericks to using numbers in brackets to indicate updates to the original entry. I was going blind looking at them. The new method is far better.
Updated Note: It’s now 7:15 pm and I’ve had my rant for today.
Thanks for visiting and goodnight everyone.
Popularity: 21% [?]
September 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
All I can say, actually yell at the top of my lungs is….WAAHHHHOOOOOO!
September 6th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Oprah’s made a statement that’s revealed the Left are entertaining doubts about Obama’s ability to deliver after the election. She said to the effect that Governor Palin would make a “fantastic interview” but only after the campaign. She’s discredited her great record to date as a principled broadcast interviewer. Oprah needs to interview Palin SOON.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Excellent insight offered by Salim Mansur. McCain’s surge worked (as it could in Afghanistan right now with the Americans arriving back), while Mansur highlights Biden’s record on recommending the tri-partage divisioning of Iraq. Right now Iraq’s reportedly sitting on an approx. $80 billion surplus. They can now own their own democratic history taking it anywhere they want to go. The second estabished democracy in the region after Iraq.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:28 am
McCain has enough to win the election in Sarah Palin. The real fun is going to be in watching what he does once he wins. He will have been carried to victory by the republican core and a “coalition of the 50’s” - gun lovers, fundamentalist Christians, neo-segregations, anti-abortion activists and anti-gay activists. Obviously they’re going to want the country reshaped in their worldview.
Legislatively speaking, it’s going to be very difficult to nuke abortion in all cases (as Palin wishes).
Worst of all, McCain has to govern the ENTIRE nation, not just the Andy Griffith Show portion of the population stubbornly clinging to yesterday’s values. Is it really a good idea to be stoking sharp internal divisions while the nation is in a major ideological war? People seem to forget that Islamist website have also discussed turning American vs American as a strategy. Palin and her supporters will do the job for them.
Also, with America’s soaring debt, the only way to lessen the economic impact is to make it a smaller % of national GDP. This means getting people back to work, which is going to be hard to do if they’re fighting each other to revoke or reinstate freedoms.
In Palin, McCain bought himself a short term life line and long-term migraine.
(ok, let’s hear the cussing…)
September 6th, 2008 at 11:40 am
No, you’re right Cynapse. The domestic issue of creating jobs is front burner stuff. Inflation on the rise, must be restoring the taxpurse by increments. That’s Bernanke’s durisdiction.
Harper has already borrowed from Obama’s intention to retool the auto sector, (hybrids coming on line). However, it’s not enough here in Canada. Re-introducing manufacturing is critical. Same with agriculture. Ontario has to go there and soon.
McCain’s going to borrow and implement Obama’s plans. Obama simply doesn’t get the rising levels of the international threats. He still believes diplomacy can work. It won’t and it can’t.
Oprah, Michael Moore on Larry King last night are having their doubts. Oprah wasn’t on King’s show, but she gave the briefest statement, but both were nervous as all get out. No one wants to admit they’re wrong on this election call.
The problems with the economy are serious. Both camps have to have some answers and FROM BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY after inauguration.
There’s no question about the need of securing AFghanistan now like Iraq. Oil is king (has to be). It provides jobs for one. Secondly, Russia and China are vultures over the business right now. And they’re are moving aggressivly and will continue to do so, either by common, planned design or it’s the real showdown. I don’t know which.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
It’s interesting that what was once an insulting description of a group, “Godless, abortion loving, queer supporters” has now become a badge of honour on the left.
If that is true, then Palin must appear like the proverbial red flag to the Socialist Bull. But, and this is a big BUT, she inspires that very group that comprise the majority of working people in the US, the ones that are capable of putting the US economy back on track.
It will be an interesting race. Marxist Vs. Capitalist.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Pat, there are no serious Marxist candidates in the USA and the movement has not had any momentum since the 1960’s.
Moreover, the majority of the nation does not think that homosexuality can be cured through prayer, like Palin’s church does. The majority of the nation does not think abortion should be outlawed even in cases of rape/incest, like Palin does.
If any of those descriptions became a badge of honor on what you call the left, it was because the people on the opposite side were extreme and unjust in implementing their values. The list of atrocities under the banner of Western Christianity is long, so the victims of it become “godless” or “queer supporting”.
Think “radical Islam” and how its extremity turns off people who may even agree with some of its central tenets. These fundamentalist Christians are an equal threat to the freedom America uses to define itself.
EDIT: Should also add that I’ve been speaking to Obama supporters and many of them are business owners. They have no problem with the capitalist system. It’s the good ol boy network they fear.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
“The majority of the nation does not think abortion should be outlawed even in cases of rape/incest, like Palin does.”
So says the MSM and Moveon.org.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Cynapse: I think the majority of American Christians (Evangelists and other denominations) prove their values and act on them as viewed in all the disasters (9/11/Katrina, et.al.) Sure, there are 50s rednecks who don’t walk the talk (Christian values). Sure, there’s a percentage of discrimination as exemplified by the ‘trailing behind racists.’ But, I don’t think they’ll put a dent in the vote outcome.
The vote depends on the hard hunt for a viable economy — rectifying the home foreclosures and massive job losses. Same here in Canada. John Deere dumping 800 employees when farm equipment implements will be in demand AFTER the droughts everywhere.
Over-the-top subsidizations of the oil industry and others can be reworked. As with ridiculous profit margins vulterizing the employee ranks. For instance, engineering firms’ salary schedules are cancelled out in terms of their bottom line. The engineers at fairly decent wage rates are on stagnated wages.
Viable wages, tax cuts, never a hedge against inflation, can only represent treading water for the wage earners. YOu know this stuff better than I do, but I’ve got the basic grasp and so do citizens. No tickey, no laundry.
The vote goes to leadership onto the travails of the economy. The mainframe migraine for right and left.
Now we look at Conrad Black’s calculations. Canadians and Americans have respectively approx. six weeks to two months to decide on an economic plan that works for viable jobs/paycheques/tax cuts.
Danny Williams is pumping the theory of zero tax take. That’s idiotic. People expect to pay taxes, just not at the levels (here in Canada) that the Liberals have relegated for decades.
Ignore my statements as you see fit. I’m not posting for a popularity ranking. Trust me.
Now, let’s decide to “talk turkey” all of us and focus on economic fixes for the immediate time ahead and discard the pretenses that it isn’t about the economy, but about “mean personality disorders” from any stripes, both north and south of the 49th parallel.
Otherwise, we’re looking at third world conditions (happening now) in N. America.
Oh, and another thing, just because I pray, or anybody else either, doesn’t mean we can’t COUNT. The two can and do co-exist. There are “no atheists in foxholes.”
Need my ‘love fix’ of granddaughters’ smiles and laughter which light up the whole universe, not just Gramma’s heart.
If kids’ company goes south of border after an Obama win, my life’s over. They’ve only been in Canada 25 years. The Global economy IS the migraine.
You, an economist, must see some approaches/solutions/fixes.
Problem solving skills kick in here BIG TIME, no?
Oh yes, ‘good ol boy network’ applies to both capitalist AND communist economic models. We all know that.
First problem to be solved, ‘good ol boys networks.’ The shadow sector
TTYL.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
“So says the MSM and Moveon.org.”
========
And a whole lot of polls -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States#Additional_polls
* A June 2000 Los Angeles Times survey found that, although 57% of polltakers considered abortion to be “murder”, half of that 57% believed in allowing women access to abortion. The survey also found that, overall, 65% of respondents did not believe abortion should be legal after the first trimester, including 72% of women and 58% of men. Further, the survey found that 85% of Americans polled supported abortion in cases of risk to a woman’s physical health, 54% if the woman’s mental health was at risk, and 66% if a congenital abnormality was detected in the fetus. [14]
* A July 2002 Public Agenda poll found that 44% of men and 42% of women thought that “abortion should be generally available to those who want it”, 34% of men and 35% of women thought that “abortion should be available, but under stricter than limits it is now”, and 21% of men and 22% of women thought that “abortion should not be permitted”. [15]
* A January 2003 ABC News/Washington Post poll also examined attitudes towards abortion by gender. In answer to the question, “On the subject of abortion, do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases or illegal in all cases?”, 25% of women responded that it should be legal in “all cases”, 33% that it should be legal in “most cases”, 23% that it should be illegal in “most cases”, and 17% that it should be illegal in “all cases”. 20% of men thought it should be legal in “all cases”, 34% legal in “most cases”, 27% illegal in “most cases”, and 17% illegal in “all cases”. [15]
* Most Americans favor both parental notification as well as parental consent, when a minor seeks an abortion. A Fox News poll in 2005 found that 78% of people favor a notification requirement, and 72% favor a consent requirement.[16]
* An April 2006 Harris poll on Roe v. Wade, asked, “In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that states’ laws which made it illegal for a woman to have an abortion up to three months of pregnancy were unconstitutional, and that the decision on whether a woman should have an abortion up to three months of pregnancy should be left to the woman and her doctor to decide. In general, do you favor or oppose this part of the U.S. Supreme Court decision making abortions up to three months of pregnancy legal?”, to which 49% of respondents indicated favor while 47% indicated opposition. The Harris organization has concluded from this poll that “49 percent now support Roe vs. Wade.”[17]
* Two polls were released in May of 2007 asking Americans “With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?” May 4th through 6th, a CNN poll found 45% said pro-choice and 50% said pro-life.[18] Within the following week, a Gallup poll found 49% responding pro-choice and 45% pro-life. [19]
========
Americans aren’t so black and white as absolutist So-Cons would like…
September 6th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
If there are no prospects for feeding/nurturing newborns, or they are unwanted, or they endanger the life of the mother raising others, then I assent to abortion in the first trimester. Just look at the starving children worldwide. More merciful to give them back to God. Like the decision made by the Chinese mother in the stark famine in the book “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck. There was life to choose over life.
The planet chooses NOW — life or death.
Order the priorities. Number One - Economic viability.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Ha…got ya goin huh Cynapse?
September 6th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
If spreading easily debunked nonsense is a synonym for getting me going, then yes. If you mean getting me angry then no. Debating against the remnants of a dying aristocracy is cathartic. It’s also as close as I’ll get to knowing how the Romans felt when they realized the Barbarians were pulling ahead. Amusing.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Anna is correct - it is about the economy. Without jobs, people cannot pay taxes; nations crumble. See The Golden Age of Greece, Rule Britania….
September 6th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Current and fixed capital moves so freely around the world that even a tariff heavy America/Canada has no chance to compete with Mexico, India or China in large-scale manufacturing. The latter nations can build the same quality products for cheaper via lower wages, fewer worker benefits and more environmental violations.
Specialization is what’s going to save the Canadian and American economies. For instance, while GM and Ford lay off workers stateside to build standard cars cheaper in Asia (which will ultimately be the growing market as well for the finished products), upstart companies like Zenn Motors are manufacturing zero-emission cars for sale in the USA, Mexico and Europe. The cars are built right here in Canada. Of course the cars are fairly limited in their scope for now but with some research funding they could one day compete with traditional cars. For a few years at least, we’d have the only plants that could build them if they really caught on.
Our world advantage has historically been our creativity. For too many years we’ve let that leading-edge creativity bleed away to the States (from actors to the designers of the Avro Arrow) while propping up mature or declining industries that cannot compete with low-wage nations. What’s needed it a change in attitude. If China is going to be the world’s manufacturer then Canada can position itself as the world’s R&D lab.
September 6th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Nonsense? You mean to say that the mere 2 left wing nut case organizations I mentioned aren’t saying such things? Of course they are, and like you and your polls, they are wrong. You of all people should have a fairly good idea of the worth of the vast majority of polls, not just the ones you happen to agree with. There is one good place for polls and the CBC, in the trash. That’s where I figure the ones you identify belong. The truth be known I’d venture to say that the vast majority of people are sick and tired of pollsters telling them what they think or how they should think. I know I am.
September 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Heh, you can tell that the Palin factor has the Democrats worried from the typical lefty responses. “”Those people” just don’t know what’s good for them”, followed by scare tactics and finally the reclaiming of perpetual victimhood. Well, that and the fact that the Democrats are running two vice-presidents just trying to beat her. The Republicans have been in power for some time now and although they have been distracted and obstructed (albeit more by the looney left than by Al-Qaeda), abortions are still available as is welfare and emergency medical treatment for all. However, because the economy is failing, this upcoming election has always been more for the Democrats to lose than for the Republicans to win, and with the help of the MSM they may just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
For amusement I have been reading some of the Democrat blogs and many people on that side are thoroughly disgusted and disillusioned by what has been going on within their own party. The Democrats tout themselves as the party of the people, but when it comes right down to it they are as intolerant as anyone else, have little respect for the majority of the people they claim to represent, and like feminists, only ever champion their certain kind of people. Big ZerO and the Democrats may talk just as big about healthcare, inclusion, and living wages but their “It takes a village to raise a child” rhetoric only lasted about one day once it no longer suited their purposes as they faced a strong female candidate outside of their preferred mold.
The lefty elitists will probably lose because they will alienate the majority of Americans by criticizing Palin’s decision to be a working mother (now there is a winner), her down home accent (while most of the country has one), her hunting (while millions of Americans subsistence hunt, and even more would have to if the lefties came to power), her daughter’s pregnancy (this one has already been done to death), the fact that she grew up in a small town instead of a big city (just like the majority of Americans), that she went to college in Idaho and not in some Ivy League School (again, just like the majority of Americans)….. And just like Palin and McCain most Americans actually, and with good reason, love and appreciate their country.
When the majority of Americans look at the Palins they see an imperfect but coping working class family that’s about to send their oldest off to war, because that’s what working class families do in America when there is a war (whether they happen to agree with it or not). When the majority of Americans, including many Democrats, look at Obama they see yet another Merlot-sipping, prep-school grad who never worked a day in his life, who talks down to them, and who thinks he’s “entitled” to their vote because he went to Harvard. They see someone who equivocates and prevaricates, and they wonder if he’ll do that when he has to make a tough call while their kids’ lives are on the line. Is it any wonder at all which of the two choices available to Americans will ultimately prove to be the most refreshing change?
September 6th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Brian:
If people believe that about Obama then they had better do some more research because he and Michelle have seen harder times than the gun toting hockey mom ever has. Of course you could pick a hobo anywhere in America and he’d have had a harder time than all four candidates combined - doesn’t make him presidential material.
The Democrat party of today is 10x more tolerant than the Republican party of today, and the “small-town America” of the Republicans’ fan base resent that fact. As I wrote in my blog recently, the RNC convention went stone silent to images of MLK and Rosa Parks while cheering wildly for John Wayne and similar individuals. They are scared of the social change the Democrats bring because it removes their state-endorsed social advantage. The closest recent parallels that come to mind would be the fear among Boers close to the end of F.W. De Klerk’s reign and the paranoia currently in East Bolivia (in this case, the socially elite actually are urban) - privileged populations that are scared the tables might even out.
Americans and Canadians have developed a pretty nasty anti-intellectual streak (across the political spectrum) but an election is supposed to be about selecting someone who can lead the country rather than electing a drinking buddy or someone who reminds you of yourself. This includes knowing how to respond to economics and handle delicate international matters (of which there will be many in the near future). America no longer runs the world economy and so the brash cowboy approach that US voters favour will do more harm than good. In the meantime, we’ll keep ridiculing intellectual people who aren’t common as dirt then wonder why Indian and Chinese immigrants are “taking all the good jobs”. Seeing that right now in this fine city of ours. I’m sure you noticed it too.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
BTDT:
I do know about polls which is why I cited a large volume of polls on the same topic. Assuming even a portion of these polls were conducted correctly, the evenly-split results of nearly all of them effectively eliminate the chance that the actual population has one extreme opinion or another.
Sarah Palin’s view is extreme and there is no scientific evidence that it is a widespread view. The only way you could prove it was would be to take a poll … ah, you don’t like polls though … even though you implicitly “take a poll” every time you look at a ideologically concentrated forum like Jack’s NewsWatch and take its overall sentiment to be the general consensus of the population.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Obama and Sarah should have a few games of one on one BB to decide the election. Bet she would win.
This election will be based on do you vote for the guy who has made you ashamed to be american or proud to be american.
That Flag recovery from the democrats will not play well with those that take great pride in their flag. Trashing it is just not done, except by Ayers supporters.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Unfortunately, Mary, you are right. Optics and kitsch, particularly where the flag is involved, always trumps actual issues. The Democrats appear to be imploding, to be honest. Notice how all of McCain’s major Republican rivals have echoed his attacks against Obama, while not one of Obama’s Democrat rivals have aided in his bid. The Dems are a house divided while the Republican Party has been hijacked by the religious right and is singing in unison. This all but clinches the result.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Cynapse, describing the majority of Americans as gun lovers, fundamentalist Christians, neo-segregationists, anti-abortion activists and anti-gay activists is not what being tolerant is all about. How would it come off to you if I described the entire populations of the cities of Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington as gun loving, drug dealing, bastards?
You are one hundred percent correct that innovation through education has been most responsible for the advantages that the west has enjoyed up until now. However, it is the left that has infiltrated and destroyed our educational institutions, replacing critical thought with indoctrination. Thanks entirely to the left one can become an intellectual and get a better education from the internet than from most colleges in Canada or the US. Therefore, I am not ridiculing intellectual people, I am ridiculing so called “educated people” of the liberal arts variety. Just look at what our schools of journalism have been turning out. Further, research and development can only be our future if we can prevent the Chinese from stealing our intellectual property, which is something that our Liberals like Chretien have been dead set against because they realized early on that they can profit personally from the current global dynamic.
You are also correct that it would be preferable to make this a contest about issues rather than about personalities, however that is difficult to do when Democrats have nominated a candidate who has spent the last couple of years creating a cult of personality, and who then, with the help of the MSM, spent the entire primary ducking any substantive discussions.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
If voters vote straight party line in Nov, and pull the lever for McCain/Palin, what will that do for the congress and senate.
Would Obama really want Edwards to come out for him, I doubt it.
Where is Richardson. And did Hillory go to Florida today, as ordered. She is the one really in a dilemma, support Obama and give up her dream, or wait and take on Sarah in 2012.
I really think americans are tired of wives standing up there to support their unfaithful spouses, and I bet if it happened to Sarah, well she shoots moose.
September 6th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
This guy says it all for me. The Democrats are as dangerous to the Americans as the Liberals are in Canada.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/09/powerful_video_addressed_to_ob.html
September 6th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Evening, Brian:
Cynapse, describing the majority of Americans as gun lovers, fundamentalist Christians, neo-segregationists, anti-abortion activists and anti-gay activists is not what being tolerant is all about.
You are correct, which is why I never made that claim of all Americans. This election would not be the horse race it is if that were true. Rather, it was an assessment of the RNC convention and McCain/Palin supporters. McCain would be the first to agree, since he was targeting exactly that demographic when he chose a potentially divisive governor with rural credentials that no one had heard of. McCain is virtually a centrist (probably why I like him) and hardcore rightists were suspicious of his motives. This wouldn’t have mattered except that he’s going against a very charismatic Democrat in a potentially historic race - voters in the center were deserting him in droves in order to be a part of history and punish Bush. McCain had no choice but to appeal to the hard right and its ugly social prejudices. I don’t blame McCain for what he did - it will prove a disaster for the governing term but was tactically brilliant for the election.
“How would it come off to you if I described the entire populations of the cities of Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington as gun loving, drug dealing, bastards?”
Wouldn’t come as a surprise, given the political slant of this forum. You have to remember, Brian, I grew up in a rural area around the salt-of-the-earth gun-totin folk. What I have not seen in person was well explained in the voluminous literature on American/Canadian social relations over the past few centuries. Thus my observations are really no different from your (correct) observations about how low-income Jamaican youths will give academically-inclined blacks a really hard time.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Brian: I think you just defined the modern Lib left movement in 5 words “replacing critical thought with indoctrination”.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
That could describe any political movement, as they all attempt to provide simplistic answers for complex problems. Look how uncritically you are treating Sarah Palin - she called herself a conservative, mouthed a few patronizing words about being a down-home girl and suddenly gained millions of acolytes despite aspects of her record/life contrary to her words.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Thanks Fred, I welcome that after reading parts of Cynapse’ preceding vomit.
There is hope.
CRB
September 7th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Cynapse: Modern lib left is simply contrarianism against the conservative values that built this country. Whatever liberalism once stood for has been lost to that.
Radical socialism, and modern lib left policies and leadership have failed wherever they have taken root.
You cannot have a coherent or functional ideology that is based on simply opposing conservative values.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Ward:
Exhibit #1 is right above your post. Only knows what he DOESN’T like since it’s probably offending his old town values.