Posted on 09/14/2008 5:49:53 AM PDT by markomalley
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin has so far taken the country by storm, giving a needed boost to Republican John McCain's bid for the White House, but over the next few weeks both the McCain and Obama campaigns will be watching closely to see if she has staying power.
Palin, a surprise and historic pick as the first female GOP vice-presidential candidate, has unexpectedly added a new dimension to the presidential race, as well as some unpredictability in the role she will play over the next 51 days before the Nov. 4 election.
"I don't think we have ever seen a situation like this," said veteran GOP strategist Bill Lacy, director of a University of Kansas political think tank.
Several factors will affect what happens to Palin's current star power, including her performance as a national candidate, new disclosures about her, the political calendar and her position as No. 2 on the GOP ticket, experts in politics and public relations said.
"I don't think we can extrapolate where she is today and say this is where she will be by Nov. 4," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, whose polling showed Palin has helped McCain's image.
Yet as she enters her third week as McCain's running mate, Palin is still the center of a tug-of-war between the McCain and Obama campaigns over the attention of the public and media.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
LMAO
Many scoff at the thought of Ms. Rodham joining the party at this late date, but IMO we underestimate the possiblity to our own peril. The libs have been out for blood since 2000. There's absolutely nothing they won't do win this election.
Well I am sure 34% of the 490,000 actual readers of Newsday will read this and say...who knows? Then the column will be tossed into the who cares file along with millions of other columns written each year.
Palin’s star power will run through November...methinks she still has a few knock out punches in her to spread out over the next 2-3 weeks and that will take Obama off the front page and off message.
Be afraid. Very afraid.
Well if last night’s Saturday Night Live was any indication...that is exactly what they plan to do.
Once you have thrown down your cards, you can’t pick them up and draw an additional one.
Sorry, the bid is on the table, and now the counting will be done. Not even Joe Biden can drop out of this race now.
Because if it were going to be done, it would have been done when Bill Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., the charismatic, messianic Magic Negro, walked out of that meeting together.
Not afraid. Prepared.
Obama campaigns will be watching closely to see if she has staying power.
The person without staying power is the man with the “muslim faith”!.
He is starting to come apart like a wet paper bag full of groceries.
Being an every day working stiff is now “Star Power”?
Who knew?
Obama Partisan Tampers with Palin Subpoena List
Amanda Carpenter
Saturday, September 13, 2008
A Friday hearing revealed that an Obama partisan has manipulated an independent investigator’s subpoena list for a controversial inquiry against GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The investigation is intended to determine whether Palin abused her office by firing Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin says she fired him over budget issues. Her foes believe the firing was due to Monegan’s unwillingness to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law State Trooper Mike Wooten, a man who has admitted to “tasering” his stepson, illegally shooting a moose and has been accused of threatening his former father-in-law with violence and drinking in his police car.
Investigator Steven Branchflower admitted he had ceded control of his subpoena list to Sen. Hollis French (D.) during Alaska’s Joint Judiciary Committee September 12 hearing that was scheduled to approve subpoena requests. [CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO.] French is a partisan who has endorsed Palin’s Democratic presidential ticket rival Barack Obama for president and is actively supporting his candidacy.
Lawmakers approved 13 of Branchflower’s subpoena requests that day, which included one for Palin’s husband, Todd. Four other subpoenas were approved for aides Branchflower believes participated in a meeting called by Palin’s former chief of staff Mike Tibbles where Wooten’s firing was allegedly discussed.
Rep. David Guttenberg (D.) asked Branchflower why he was requesting subpoenas for only those people attending the meeting and not Tibbles himself.
Branchflower said he would “have to defer that question to Mr. French.”
“I put the list together with, talking to Mr. French,” Branchflower added.
Sen. Gene Therriault (R.) told Branchflower, “I don’t understand why you would have to defer that question to Sen. French. If it’s your list you’re in complete control of the list, then why can’t you answer the question?”
Branchflower had no explanation. He only offered, “I’m not sure why his name was removed. My initial request was to have him on the list.” At that point, French interjected. “It appeared to me there wasn’t the political will to subpoena Tibbles.”
“Something’s fishy here,” Therriault replied. “I mean either Mr. Branchflower conducts his investigation without direction, and now we know he’s been directed on the date and changing what he’s doing and how he’s doing it because of the time pressure he is feeling. And now we’re hearing that people that he’s trying to get information from, there’s direction going on on that, too.”
Indeed. Although the investigation is far from concluding, French has suggested it may culminate in an “October surprise,” perhaps even Palin’s impeachment as Governor— a game-changing outcome that would certainly increase the Democrats chances of winning the White House in November.
The final report, which French has already described as “damaging,” is set to be released on October 31, four days shy of the presidential election. Since the investigation began last August, there have been disputes over the timing over the report’s release, as Therriault mentioned. Although there’s been general agreement that Branchflower should conduct his investigation in a “timely” fashion, some Democratic politicos, like French, have been pushing for an October deadline.
French, who is “project director” of the inquiry against Palin, and investigator Branchflower are two of three main players in this investigation Republicans say have been tainted by partisan politics. The other is Democratic Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of Alaska’s Legislature’s Legislative Council that’s overseeing the investigation. Both French and Elton are strong Obama backers.
Branchflower, who currently resides in South Carolina, was appointed by French to conduct the actual investigation. He worked with French several years ago when both were members of Alaskan law enforcement.
Palin’s lawyer Thomas Van Flein said the entire investigation is “unlawful and unconstitutional.” He recently wrote a terse letter to Branchflower, blasting the investigator’s “seemingly biased conduct of the investigation in recent weeks.”
Alaskan Republicans have asked Chairman Elton to replace French with someone less partisan, but Elton denied their request.
According to campaign finance data available on opensecrets.com Elton has donated at least $2,000 to Obama’s campaign. Three other Democrats on the Elton’s 14-member council are also supporting Obama for president, as identified on Obama’s presidential website.
Further fueling the GOP’s fire is the fact that former Commissioner Monegan and state trooper Wooten are surprisingly mild-mannered about this “scandal” that’s blown into a national news story after Palin’s vice presidential appointment.
Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News on August 30 that he was never pressured to dismiss Palin’s former brother-in-law. “For the record,” he said, “no one has ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff.”
Wooten, for his part, has reportedly turned down at least $30,000 from tabloids hungry for his side of the story. His union, however, the Public Safety Employees Association, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office, to find out if Wooten’s personnel file had ever been illegally disclosed.
The same week PSEA filed their complaint, CNN reported that Obama campaign officials had been contacting Wooten’s union, although Obama spokesmen have vehemently refuted CNN’s report as well as one from the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund that said more than 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researches had been deployed to Alaska to dig up dirt on Palin.
After all, FR had been taking (in hopeful terms!) about her since April. A few radio hosts has mentioned her as early as Feb.
Extrapolate this Andrew......middle America is on fire. Palin will be the VP then she'll be the next president.
MSMedia, you ignorant slut. It is not “star power” that draws us to Gov. Palin, rather quite the opposite. She is one of us and THAT is the draw.
Wonder if she will do as much in Washington D.C. (to republicans) stopping just short of the democrats.. If so, then somebody is pretty smart.. The democrats seems to be guiding American politics (( BY )) running rididulous candidates (Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, Obama).. Yes even Clinton who was a mistake, Perot got him elected..
All she has to do is to keep smiling and she will have the last laugh. Without all this attention to Palin, McCain would have lost this election. Now with all the attention being focused on Palin, I'm predicting a landslide.
Its funny, but I think the MSM knows they are helping McCain by trying to shoot down Palin, but they can't help themselves. At this point it is a snowball effect. The more they tear her down, the bigger her star grows.
As soon as Americans hear (and they will) that this cop tazered his son and threatened to kill Palin's father, was drunk in his patrol car, beat his wife etc. there will be NO support for this commission or the dems.(are they saying they are actually backing this guy?)
As a matter of fact even most dems will think this guy abused his power and needed canning. Just stupid on their part.
Remember that thirty lawyers were dispatched to Alaska to find dirt. They found this well ploughed dirt and promised God knows qhat ot the Alaskans to dig it up again and make everybody look at it.
When you are dying, it makes no difference if you expose your self to a Tuberculosis.
I always laugh when the media is describing her as unknown. We at FR had been telling McCain for months to pick her. For a real education, browse FR.
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