Posted on 08/30/2008 12:31:59 AM PDT by grey_whiskers
I was at the Minnesota State Fair all day today, resigned, but not too disappointed, at the prospect of hearing that Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty had been named the Republican Vice Presidential candidate to run with John McCain. A blue collar, environmentally-friendly guy, pro-life, not red meat for the base, but enough (maybe) to soothe them will extending a tepid hand to blue collar voters in the industrial Midwest and Rust Belt.
Imagine my surprise, when, after wandering around the fair for most of the morning, and eyeing the cheese curds, I chanced by the Minnesota State Republican Party building (not too large in this state), and seeing on a white board outside the following words scrawled in erasable marker:
McCain
*
Palin
I did a double take--I didn't bring my glasses and wasn't sure. PALIN ???
(I had seen a couple of rumors here last night, but dismissed them as wishful thinking. My own wishful thinking pointed towards FRed Thompson. More on him later.)
When I got home, and began to FReep, all heaven had broken loose. Articles on "Palin Pick Causes 'Elation' among Evangelical Leaders " -- "Choice of Palin Steals Spotlight" -- "[Sarah Palin] The Game-Changer". And the press has been having conniption fits: from Andrea Mitchell to Bob Beckel, nothing but silence, contempt, feeble jabs, and stuttered incoherent rage. Not only has the choice of Palin stopped the Obama momentum and news cycle over the weekend--it has literally turned the race on its head.
Consider the following factors:
1) It energizes the jilted Hillary voters, getting them to (at worst) sit out, and (at best) re-think their allegiance to the Dems. This will play out more in the future, as the non-hard-core Feminazis decide whether an unvarying committment to Roe Vs. Wade really outweighs all else.
2) It energizes the Republican right, who had been fearing Lieberman or Ridge. Palin is pro-life and has recently given birth to a disabled child (Down's syndrome).
3) The energizing of the base makes the question "why to vote FOR the Republicans" than "why to vote AGAINST Obama", always a preferable position.
4) The shift from defense to offense, means that the race card has been knocked out of Obama's hand. Women have a race-proof excuse to prefer a woman. And with men, they have an excuse for Palin too -- she's a hottie. (Hey, Republicans ARE the Neaderthals, right?)
5) Palin completely destroys the "Washington insider" game -- Alaska is as far as you can get from D.C.
6) Palin by her background and story, has a much more compelling "personal interest" than Obama ("I went to Ivy League Schools, and So Did My Wife, but we're victims of racism."). She is solidly, truly, earthy and blue collar--she has fought corruption and "big oil" (another attempted Democrat talking point) -- her husband is a native Inuit (another victim card), and a UNION MEMBER.
7) The viral factor. This is the same day of the nomination, and there are already a bunch of sites out there talking about her: a humor site similar to the Chuck Norris jokes, another one with an offcolor title, and "buzz". This is the excitement, the connection to the grass roots which the Obamabots have been trying to generate, but which could not be sustained by mere hype, smoke, and mirrors.
8) She has five (F-I-V-E) kids. While being governor (and now maybe VEEP). She is the vindication of every overworked soccer mom in the country. Even Hillary's "I should have stayed home and baked cookies" falls flat next to this. You want experience? Five kids trumps 30-odd years as a Senator commuting to Delaware from DC, or pissing through $50 million dollars in grant money for failed socialist education projects in Chicago. It's almost as impressive as surviving the Hanoi Hilton.
9) Yes, she knows oil, being the gov. of Alaska, and thinks manmade global warming is a bunch of hooey. And being from Alaska, she is self-reliant: she is not about to put up with B.S. about tire gauges. This is a woman who used to get up at 3 A.M. before school to hunt MOOSE. (Did I mention she's a member of the NRA?)
Cheese, Moose, Palin.
Sounds like a Møøse just bit Obama.
This is where FRed Thompson comes in. He announced yesterday on redstate.com that he is setting up a PAC (FREDPAC) to promote conservative candidates and ideas. Sarah Palin is a one-person rainbow coalition -- and she's conservative. While everyone is still excited, let's see what we can do to see that she establishes "coattails" in the lower races in this election: and then, working with FRED and other interested parties, wrest control of the party, and then the country, from the RINOs and socialist appeasers. It's time for a new conservative revolution!
Kind of Dumb when you consider who her running mate is, and who Bullwinkle's enemies were.
But it's a Dem. Intelligence not included.
Cheers!
Diana,
I hope the Left feels afraid of “real” women, because we are legion.
Being a wife and mother is one of the toughest jobs in the world, and a blessing.
The Left tries to outsource our role and make it meaningless. I’m glad Sarah Palin has such a big network of family and friends to help her along the way. Trig is so cute. I’d volunteer to hold that little sweetie for a long time.
Pretty much sums it up.
Inuits are generally, to put it politely, “profoundly homely”.
He’s 1/8th Inuit from what I have read.
bump^ and bookmark
The gifts from the Palin VP pick keep on coming.
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