Sarah Palin Is Correct (Again)

National Review ^ | 10-23-08 | Gimpel

[Wegotsarah.com]

Joe Biden may be “tired, tired, tired, tired, tired!” of hearing that some places in the country are more patriotic than others, but Sarah Palin is right: Patriotic and pro-American sentiment run higher in some areas than in others.

Naturally, how to measure patriotism is a matter of argument. One way is to look at differences in 1. military involvement: Rural and small-town families are more likely to see their children go off into combat, and return in body bags. Or, we can turn to one of the few recent non-partisan surveys on the matter, the American National Election Study from the University of Michigan. It’s produced every election year, and the most recent data is from 2004.

1. This installment asked two pertinent questions: 1. How strong is your love for your country? . . . EXTREMELY strong, VERY strong, SOMEWHAT strong, or NOT VERY strong?

2. Is being an American EXTREMELY important, VERY important, SOMEWHAT important, NOT TOO important, or NOT AT ALL important to you personally? If we scrutinize the responses from large cities, suburbs, and small towns, the small towns are far more patriotic. Nearly three in every four (73.4 percent) respondents from counties of fewer than 25,000 people expressed that their love for their country was extremely strong, compared to only half of those in counties with more than 300,000 inhabitants. In the nation’s largest population centers, those expressing “extremely strong” love for country stood at only 46 percent. And over two-thirds of respondents from small counties reported that it is ”extremely important” to be American, compared to about half of big-city folk. It is certainly possible that factors other than simple geography are at work here. The populations in small towns are older, and older people are generally more expressive of pro-American values than younger people are, for example. Also, rural areas are more Republican, and the University of Michigan survey shows a significant partisan difference in patriotism. Democrats are considerably less likely to express strong love of country than Republicans are, and less likely to think being an American is important. Of those who claimed to be “Strong Democrats,” only around half expressed extremely strong love of country, compared to three-fourths of the “Strong Republicans.” A sizable share of (but by no means all) committed Democrats are apparently embarrassed about their country and about being American.

Perhaps Governor Palin’s comment is one of those truths that is better left unspoken. The McCain campaign seems to be treating it that way. But there is certainly no falsehood in her remarks, as Senator Biden suggested.

— James G. Gimpel is a professor of government at the University of Maryland, College Park.

[Wegotsarah.com]

She's usually right -Gov. Palin has incredible political instincts. And the McCain advisers should have never made her back off "Pro-American"---she should have just amplified it to say what she meant.

www.wegotsarah.com

[GitmoSailor]

[The Louiswu]

Good gravy she’s hot!

[steve0]

Here is a anti-american (unpatriotic) location they did not list, Any place where the American Military is not welcome(ROTC) multiple of multiple college campi. Berkley where city council passed harrassing ordinances directed at recruiters. Was that on their list?

[GeorgeWBiscuit]

Yeah, you try to not be sexist or focus on her looks, but great googly-moogly the gal just has it! The great thing is she is absolutely as conservative as she is beautiful, and also as intelligent. Indeed she is a breath of fresh air.

[The Louiswu]

I try to be sexist..after all I am a man and as a man I love to look at good looking women. I appreciate beauty and she is a beauty.

[HighlyOpinionated]

I just put this poll on FaceBook, should prove interesting since it appears FaceBook is full of Liberals and Pornos (maybe I think this way because the “admin” uses a soft porn photo?).

Sarah Palin is a “natural” when it comes to politics. I expect John McCain to win. There’s enough time for the MSM to pick up on the “citizenship” question relating to Obama since Rush and Fox (was it?) have picked it up as well as some localized papers and tv/radio stations. The more the “spread the wealth” statement is passed around, the better chance that some Democrat business people will “wake up to reality” and decide not to vote or not to vote Obama.

As I’ve said on another post, I have a friend who actually emailed me that she believes I should give her half of my retirement income because she didn’t have jobs that had retirement plans and she’s been without a job most of her adult life. She’s about 13 or 15 years younger than I and currently lives with a male friend who supports her.

One of my dearest cousins is an Obamabot and counters everything I send her with something from the Left. But what I read from her is RATIONALIZATION and not accurate FACTS. I email her verified and documented facts. But it makes no difference, she’s drunk on the kook-ade.

[paulejb]

Well lets see; There is the Peoples Republic of Vermont, the Peoples Republic of San Franciso, the upper west side of Manhattan & of course Washington D.C. I could go on but I think you get the picture. Most of the folks in these areas are proud of their anti-Americanism.