Posted on 09/06/2008 11:45:47 PM PDT by Schnucki
Last week's dramatic entry of Sarah Palin on to America's political stage did more than revive a flagging Republican campaign and give heart to John McCain. It provided graphic evidence of the deep cultural divide that shapes the country - and put God, guns and sex right at the centre of the election
The small, pretty college town of Northfield, Minnesota, is only an hour's drive south of urban St Paul, site of the Republican National Convention, but it is a world away. A welcoming sign promises 'Cows, colleges and contentment'. Its main street bustles with shoppers and its town square boasts a food fair selling fried cheese curds and corn dogs on sticks.
It is quintessential small-town America, surrounded by fields, farms and lakes and where everyone seems to boast a Scandinavian or German surname. It is in Northfield - and thousands of small towns like it - that the impact of Sarah Palin on the race for the White House will be judged. So far the jury on Palin seems to be out. 'It is easy to talk big. But delivering big is a whole different story,' said Sandy Molkenbur, as she swept the floors of the town's flower shop.
There is no doubt that John McCain's surprising choice for Vice-President has electrified a race already long on drama. Alaska's female governor has rejuvenated the Republican party. She is wildly popular with its conservative base and has brought glamour, sex appeal and star quality to a McCain campaign lacking all three. She has revived the culture wars and put guns and God into the election. Gone are the old themes of the economy and Iraq; here are the ancient battles of abortion rights, evolution in schools and a contest to see whose faith is the most genuine. She
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
yet another reasonable article from the foreign media
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
indeed and from the Guardian no less...an unabashed lefty org if ever there was one in the English speaking world
The Guardian is not our friend, and this was no puff piece although it wasn’t all negative. I’m tired and skimmed over it, but they used the flower shop girl with the broom to start the people reaction part on a negative note and end on a negative note. The knife cuts both ways. Promising big things vs. delivering big things. She will have to obey the laws of politics. BS. That’s what McCain and Palin are trying to shake up. Business as usual.
Northfield, Minnesota is an interesting choice to examine the election. About a century ago city slickers Jesse o’Bama and Cole Biden raided the town, but were unprepared for the local reaction of the moose-hunting citizenry.
Limping away with the survivors of his shot up gang, Jesse o’Biden was heard muttering with disgust, something or other about Christians who cling to guns. And know how to use them.
When contrasted with the countless wildly pro-obama articles that they normally publish, I got the feeling that they're beginning to see the mccain/Palin ticket with some sense of respect.
My father went to school in Northfield a long time ago.
It has two superb collages.
The description of the town is accurate.
not a safe town for my kinsmen on horseback with mal intent I hear..lol
Seems they just happened to interview “Sandy Molkenbur, treasurer, Rice County DFL: $500”
A British Laborite newspaper, but you are correct. It is much more reasonable than most of the biased coverage we get in American.
Many experts believe centrist women voters, attracted by her strides for women, will be equally put off by her extremist politics.
However, not totally without bias. Why is Palin an extremist, and socialist Obama is simply a reasonable man? That makes no sense at all. Why is tradition considered extremist, and an impossible Utopian dream considered reasonable? At any rate they tipped their hand. The left is going to try and paint Palin as an extremist. It's coming, so get ready for a good fight.
The spearhead of Obama's pushback against Palin is going to be Clinton. Obama's former rival is being dispatched to the key battleground state of Florida tomorrow to make her first campaign stop post-Denver. She is set to deliver a stinging rebuke to some of the points Palin has been making. At the same time a rapid response team of senior women Democrats is going to be deployed elsewhere, also taking up the mantle of pushing home the message that Palin and McCain are simply an extension of the Bush years. The women involved include Arizona governor Janet Napolitano and Kansas governor Kathleen Sibelius.
So, that is the strategy. The Democrat woman are going to do the dirty work. They are going to demonize Republican policy as extremist. Will they attack Palin personally? They will let their cohorts in the media do that for them.
Huh? Didn't he resign from McCain's campaign when 0bama became the Dim's nominee? He said he respected 0bama so much that he didn't want to go against him. Now, he said something like this?
Northfield, Minnesota -
What a coincidence. My coworkers and I just ate lunch there after coming back from a meeting in the Twin Cities this past Friday. It seemed like a nice town with a huge cereal factory that dominated the part which I saw.
I had never been to the town before in my life.
Note to the world: Welcome to real America.
This Marine Mom is far more likely to be tackling issues (not 'worried') about of conservative ideology that include falling house prices, and the war in Iraq. Slowing economy? I'll wait for the explanation of all the new construction that is STILL in progress.
The spearhead of Obama's pushback against Palin is going to be Clinton.
Isn't that just a slap in the face? Hillary, are you a masochist? Do you like it when men treat you like dirt?
It's just how progressives see the world. To them, America's founding belief in liberty and limited government was "extreme." As Bill Clinton put it during his presidency:
“When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly… that they would work for the common good, as well as for the individual welfare… However, now there’s a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there’s too much freedom. When personal freedom’s being abused, you have to move to limit it.” – Bill Clinton, April 19, 1995
`If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government’s ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.’’ -- President Bill Clinton, August 12, 1993
``The purpose of government is to reign in the rights of the people’’ –- Bill Clinton during an interview on MTV in 1993
``We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans…that we forget about reality.’’ -- President Bill Clinton, quoted in USA Today, March 11, 1993, Page 2A, ``NRA change: `Omnipotent to powerful’’’ by Debbie Howlett
Nice catch.
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