Two years ago Sarah Palin's only elected experience was as the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Now John McCain and the Republicans think she's worthy of being a breath from the White House.
Here's a list of selected North Carolina metropolises that are more populous than Wasilla:
Waynesville, Dunn, Mt. Holly, Washington, Holly Springs, Pinehurst, Kings Mountain, Lincolnton, Hendersonville, Southern Pines, Tarboro, Smithfield, Hope Mills, Newton, Indian Trail, Graham, Wake Forest, Cornelius, Boone, Reidsville, Mint Hill, Albemarle, Clemmons, Eden, Henderson, Carrboro, Roanoke Rapids, Elizabeth City, Morganton, Morehead City, Garner, Lenoir, Kernersville, Mooresville, Shelby, Lexington, Apex, Thomasville, Lumberton, Asheboro, Matthews, Havelock, New Bern, Sanford, Statesville, Kinston, Huntersville, Monroe, Salisbury, Laurinburg, etc.
So here's my challenge to the Obama campaign: these towns represent pretty much every tv market in the state, and I bet an equally ridiculous sounding lists of cities bigger than Wasilla could be produced in almost every other state that they're targeting. Get a group of friendly Mayors to do a press conference in every one of those markets the day of Palin's nomination speech and talk about how they're evidently qualified to hold the second highest office in the land two years from now. I'm sure viewers in the Triad would be a little shocked to know that this women just recently was leading a town smaller than Eden and Reidsville, folks in the Mountains would be a little taken aback to find it was smaller than Hendersonville and Waynesville, and so forth.
This pitch is fat and Obama's folks should be sure to knock it out of the park.
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13 comments:
I think this pick is good for Obama.
For me, Romney was the best pick for McCain. Nevada and Colorado would have difficult for Obama and Michigan would have been really in play.
The republicans said than she energizes the base, but Romney or other picks( no Lieberman or Ridge) would have also energize.
Palin is new and fresh, but when the people will know really his positions against women rights and his scandals + not ready for to be president if McCain dies, Obama will win more easy.
Well, I have an opposite view. Actually, Sarah palin was in city council before obama was in Illinois legislature. By the way, she has some executive decisions on her belt. Can obama say so? Can obama point out to single good legislation in the senate? She is running for vice president and obama is running for president. Is obama ready to lead from day one? Mccain might live for another 20 years.
Lot of conservatives are very excited. Pro life and suburban security moms and soccer moms are going to like her. I have seen palin's debates in the 2006 election for governor. she is not a softball. She will go toe to toe with Joe Biden. Moreover, she will visit the small rural towns in ohio,PA, and MI.Now the western states are out of obama's reach.
This gamble has a good chance for success. Even if she gets 5% of Hillary clinton supporters, it is a huge success. After palin's selection conservative base is totally behind McCain. This is going to be a game changer
There really were no good choices for McCain. Romney would have alienated the religious conservatives even more, and made it extremely vulnerable to the elitist argument. Pawlenty was too 'standard', a bit of a lightweight that wouldn't do much - and McCain needed something gamechanging.
Huckabee might have been the best possible choice for McCain - rallying the base, while his populist message wouldn't alienate independents too much. SUSA had showed him polling much stronger than Romney and others as a VP pick.
Critics of Palin do not mention her service as the Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. In this position, she railed against corruption. Her activities in this position angered Republicans.
I think McCain should have picked someone else. However, Palin's experience is more than serving a small town in an elected capacity and then being governor for less than two years. The position she held that I mentioned in the former paragraph provides much of her reformer credentials which dovetail with McCain's biography.
I love how leftists like Mr. Jensen rail against Sarah Palin's supposed "lack of experience" yet seem to have no problem with Barack Obama even thinner resume.
How is Sarah Palin not qualified to be a Vice President, yet Barack Obama is qualified to be President right away? This is a question people like Mr. Jensen refuse to address. You can't have it both ways.
ranjit you have drunk too much from the kool aid. go on believing what you like but perhaps you should read this little tidbit from Rasmussen's poll out today (actually it is Andrew Sullivan's summary of the cross tabs but good nonetheless):
But among the critical undecideds, the Palin pick made only 6 percent more likely to vote for McCain; and it made 31 percent less likely to vote for him. 49 percent said it would have no impact, and 15 percent remained unsure. More to the point: among undecideds, 59 percent said Palin was unready to be president. Only 6 percent said she was. If the first criterion for any job is whether you're ready for it, this is a pretty major indictment of the first act of McCain's presidential leadership.
One other striking finding. If McCain thought he could present Palin as a moderate, he was wrong. A whopping 69 percent view her as conservative (37 percent as very conservative), and only 13 percent see her as moderate.
Those pushing the reformer creds of Palin may also like to know that she is CURRENTLY under investigation for abuse of power while serving as gov (really she has been gov for 18 months and she already has a corruption probe?!). Plus this is not the only problem: She also appointed someone as head of state police in Alaska even though she knew he had been accused of being a sexual harraser; she subsequently had him resign when the allegation hit the press. And oh, she also was threatened with a recall during her glorious days as mayor of 5,000 for her handling of that town's chief of police's forced resignation (seriously what does Palin have against cops?).
I know than she energizes the conservative base, but i always think than on election day the vast majority of conversatives would have vote for McCain. Not with the smile but they would have cast McCain. Before this picks, McCain had already the republicans with him.
The most important is the independents and i think when most people will be know who really she is, she will have no traction.
She's not moderate.
While we are at it Tom, we can run a few ads that show state legislators giving press conferences about how well qualified they will be in four years to be the President of the United State of America. (Basnight in 2012? Sounds ridiculous, right?) I'm not sure the Obama camp should push the experience argument....
Anonymous,
I have a news for you. In the last 24 to 48 hours, republicans are very excited. Personally, I have come across Republicans who are ready to put up their signs and make those phone calls. Before that forum with Rick waren, they had to beg republicans to work for McCain.
If you guys are going to show me the polls, I have news for you. In a recent polling of Rassmussen, they found that 47% of Americans are conservatives. Every time, Republicans nominate a conservative, you wait and watch the enthusiastic turn out.
McCain people are not naive to think that, Hillary clinton voters will all vote for Sarah Palin. Just few votes here and there can change the outcome in swing states.Also dont forget the energy issue. She is a from a state which is producing most of our energy. Please check her interview with Maria Barteromo in CNBC. She has such a mastery of the subject.
About the investigations, I am sure, it will be nothing. Already, there is a indication that the guy she pressured to fire was really a bad brother in law. It will not go well with women voters.
Problem with her will be some unknown issue and how, the campaign overcomes it. If they can do it, she will have a big impact. More and more they talk about her experience, obama experience comes to lime light. From watching the morning sunday shows, it is clear that the republicans want to talk about obama's experience. They seem to be thrilled to have a discussion on experience.
While we are at it Tom, we can run a few ads that show state legislators giving press conferences about how well qualified they will be in four years to be the President of the United State of America. (Basnight in 2012? Sounds ridiculous, right?) I'm not sure the Obama camp should push the experience argument....
If Basnight (who is he? a state senator?) would be running for Doles senate seat and lead by 19 points (Obama_senate margin 2004- (Bush victory margin NC - Bush victory margin Illinois =41-22=19), if he would have given the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, I thought that he was likely to run in 2012 or 2016, yes.
A rising star in the Democratic Party.
ok, it´s maybe a BIT unfair. Dole is an incumbent, Obamas Illinois opponent was a loser. Say Basnight leads Dole by 8. And gives a formidable keynote address.
(resurrecting a really old post) Basnight, maybe not, but I'm pretty sure Kay Hagan's district in Greensboro is bigger than Wasilla.
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