Now that the first reactions to Sarah Palin have run their course, a few things have become perfectly clear. One, in his haste to counter the nation’s overwhelmingly favorable response to Governor Palin, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama has forfeited any claim he had as a “new type of politician.” Turning uncharacteristically vile in the last few days, Barack has allowed his advisers to guide him into an unfamiliar campaign style, and the ill fit shows. The Senator’s strengths are few and narrow – large-scale teleprompter-aided speeches are his forte — but most of those big show productions are behind him. The name-calling of recent days — “lipstick on a pig,” “rotten fish” — portray Obama in the worst possible light: small, desperate, an old-style politician in classic attack mode. (His selection of an elderly white guy and one of the longest serving Senators in history as running mate, Joe Biden, was safe, stupid, and more proof that the change Obama keeps talking about is smoke and mirrors). The jig is up; Obama is one more far-left, more-government-is-the-solution-to-everything, unelectable Democratic nominee. Will they ever learn? I hope not.
Two, the Democratic Party leadership and its far-left supporters are not ready for a women to lead the country. After rejecting the more experienced and politically savvy Hillary Clinton in favor of a lightweight political neophyte, they have now turned on Sarah Palin with all the subtlety of rabid dogs. This is the irony of ironies; for decades the Democratic party has worked to brand itself as the champion of minorities, the downtrodden, and women. But with the ascension of Palin the Dems have gone out of their way to betray every pro-woman stance they’ve ever taken. For the second time in history a woman is nominated for the second highest office in the land, and the Democrats promptly go about slandering her in every way imaginable. An ”every-woman” comes out of the kitchen to become Mayor of her hometown and a wildly successful and popular Governor, and the left hammers her at every turn. Sooner or later, minorities and women will learn that it’s the Republican Party that is not afraid of the dramatic change Sarah Palin represents. She is one more in a long line of Republican firsts and equal rights accomplishments. Ronald Reagan nominated the first female to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Conner. George H. W. Bush nominated the second black to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas. George W. Bush appointed the nation’s first Hispanic Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, the first black Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and the first female as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who also happens to be black. Only the willfully blind cannot see the hypocrisy on the left as they attempt to slice and dice Governor Palin. The empty rhetoric of “Change we can believe in” rings more hollow with each cheap shot.
Three, Sarah Palin’s nomination as McCain’s running mate has produced the biggest difference in presidential polling numbers ever. By far. The common political wisdom has it that Veeps, no matter how good, bad, controversial, or bland, do not alter voter affiliation by more than 1%. At the end of the day, the top of the ticket is all that really matters. Not post-Palin. Some polls showed double-digit swings overall and even more dramatic movement among specific demographic groups following the Palin unveiling and her convention speech. White women are abandoning Obama/Biden for McCain/Palin at an unprecedented rate, one poll recording a 20-point swing among white women to McCain. Palin’s impact may be unique to this election. Here’s why.
Obama found himself cornered by history as he sought to choose a running mate. His hands-down best choice, Hillary Clinton, was somehow by-passed, a fatal cave-in to egos and power politics. Regardless of their bitter primary campaign and all the baggage Hillary and Bill bring to the table, an Obama/Hillary ticket would have healed any remaining rifts in the Democratic Party, electrified the base and God-knows how many independents, and — here’s the clincher — blocked John McCain from ever picking Sarah Palin. A Palin pick with Hillary on the Dem ticket would have looked ridiculously political, an obvious “we have a woman too” gambit. Hillary supporters would have had no reason to seek alliance with another woman, and McCain’s hands would have been tied. Barack/Hillary could claim, with some credibility, that the two best Democrats — certainly the two most popular — were on the ticket. But, either Barack or Hillary, or both, could not swallow their pride and the dream ticket went up in smoke. That left Obama in the position of having to shore-up one of his many weaknesses, foreign policy experience. Thus the choice of Joe Biden, a long-time member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. And that set the stage for the boldest move John McCain has made in a long time. The selection of Sarah Palin, coupled with Obama’s uninspiring choice of Joe Biden, will combine to induce the first-ever presidential election decided by the bottom of each ticket. It’s one for the books.
The second round of Palin-bashing is in full swing and will no doubt continue to increase in intensity right up to election day. Democrats are caught in the unenviable position of having to argue that their presidential selection is more qualified for high office than the Republican’s vice president. Democrats cannot beat Palin at the polls, so must attempt to take her off the ballot. Their best hope is to dig up dirt so devastating that McCain will be forced to remove Palin from the ticket, ala Tom Eagleton. Thus, dozens of Obama staffers have descended on Juno, Wasilla, and anywhere else in Alaska political mud may be found. Palin’s religion, family, and actions as Mayor and Governor will come under the bright glare of inquiring snoops, all of it playing right into McCain’s master plan. The more they smear, the better McCain/Palin will look. On November 5th, Democrats will wake up to a familiar nightmare, having lost another election they should have won going away.
Following are excerpts from Politico.com, WomenCount, factcheck.org, and The Rush Limbaugh Show, typical of the tactics being adopted by the left as they seek to destroy Sarah Palin. Happy reading:
Jonathan Martin of Politico.com:
“The leaders of a women’s political organization that launched earlier this year to support Hillary Clinton are speaking out against what they say are examples of media sexism toward Sarah Palin and urging members to tell the press corps ‘to back off.’
“WomenCount, a group co-founded by top Hillary fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell, posted a lengthy item on their blog decrying questions over whether Palin can, as a mother of five, juggle her family responsibilities and still be vice president.
“‘The very notion that Sarah Palin should not have accepted this nomination because she is a mother with demanding challenges underscores just how far we have to go,’ wrote Rosemary Camposano, the group’s communications director.
“She added: ‘It will be good for America to watch Sarah Palin on the campaign trail – bouncing from parenting to politics. That’s how most women function – multi-tasking, leaning on friends and family, and waking up each morning and doing it all again.’
“The group notes, however, that they do not approve of Palin’s politics. ‘We cannot pretend that Governor Palin meets any standard of progressive politics or social values,’ Camposano writes.
“Unlike other feminist organizations which have taken up against Palin because of her conservative views, however, WomenCount says they’ll ‘work to stamp out sexism when we see it on the campaign trail.’”
Sliming Palin
False Internet claims and rumors fly about McCain’s running mate.
Brooks Jackson, Jess Henig, Emi Kolawole, Joe Miller and Lori Robertson
factcheck.org, Sep 8, 2008
Summary
“We’ve been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.
“Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.
“She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a “What if?” question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin’s first term.
“She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.
“Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a ‘courtesy’ when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.
“Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska’s schools. She has said that students should be allowed to ‘debate both sides’ of the evolution question, but she also said creationism ‘doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.’
“We’ll be looking into other charges in an e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis.”
Analysis
“Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, information about Palin’s past has been zipping around the Internet. Several claims are not true, and other rumors are misleading.
No Cut for “Special Needs” Kids
“It’s not true, as widely reported in mass e-mails, Web postings and at least one mainstream news source, that Palin slashed the special education budget in Alaska by 62 percent. CNN’s Soledad O’Brien made the claim on Sept. 4 in an interview with Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign:
“O’Brien, Sept. 4: ‘One are that has gotten certainly people sending to me a lot of e-mails is the question about as governor what she did with the special needs budget, which I’m sure you’re aware, she cut significantly, 62 percent I think is the number from when she came into office. As a woman who is now a mother to a special needs child, and I think she actually has a nephew which is autistic as well. How much of a problem is this going to be as she tries to navigate both sides of that issue?’
“Such a move might have made Palin look heartless or hypocritical in view of her convention-speech pledge to be an advocate for special needs children and their families. But in fact, she increased special needs funding so dramatically that a representative of local school boards described the jump as ‘historic.’
“According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislation in March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding.”
Not a Book Burner
“One accusation claims then-Mayor Palin threatened to fire Wasilla’s librarian for refusing to ban books from the town library. Some versions of the rumor come complete with a list of the books that Palin allegedly attempted to ban. Actually, Palin never asked that books be banned; no books were actually banned; and many of the books on the list that Palin supposedly wanted to censor weren’t even in print at the time, proving that the list is a fabrication. The librarian was fired, but was told only that Palin felt she didn’t support her. She was re-hired the next day. The librarian never claimed that Palin threatened outright to fire her for refusing to ban books.
“So what about that list of books targeted for banning, which according to one widely e-mailed version was taken ‘from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library Board’? If it was, the library board should take up fortune telling. The list includes the first four Harry Potter books, none of which had been published at the time of the Palin-Emmons conversations. The first wasn’t published until 1998. In fact, the list is a simple cut-and-paste job, snatched (complete with typos and the occasional incorrect title) from the Florida Institute of Technology
library Web page, which presents the list as ‘Books banned at one time or another in the United States.’”
Closet Secessionist?
“Palin was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party – which calls for a vote on whether Alaska should secede from the union or remain a state – despite mistaken reports to the contrary. But her husband was a member for years, and she attended at least one party convention, as mayor of the town in which it was held.
“The party’s chair originally told reporters that Palin had been a member, but the official later retracted that statement. Chairwoman Lynette Clark told the New York Times that false information had been given to her by another member of the party after she first told the Times and others that Palin joined the AIP in 1994. Clark issued an apology on the AIP Web site.
“The director of Alaska’s Division of Elections, Gail Fenumiai, confirms that Palin registered to vote in the state for the first time in May 1982 as a Republican and hasn’t changed her party affiliation since. She also told FactCheck.org that Palin’s husband, Todd, was registered with AIP from October 1995 to July 2000, and again from September 2000 until July 2002. (He has since been registered as undeclared.) However, the AIP says Todd Palin ‘never participated in any party activities aside from attending a convention in Wasilla at one time.’”
No Creationism in Schools
“On Aug. 29, the Boston Globe reported that Palin was open to teaching creationism in public schools. That’s true. She supports teaching creationism alongside evolution, though she has not actively pursued such a policy as governor.
“In an Oct. 25, 2006, debate, when asked about teaching alternatives to evolution, Palin replied:
“Palin, Oct. 25, 2006: ‘Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject – creationism and evolution. It’s been a healthy foundation for me. But don’t be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.’
“A couple of days later, Palin amended that statement in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, saying:
“Palin, Oct. 2006: ‘I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.’
“After her election, Palin let the matter drop. The Associated Press reported Sept 3: ‘Palin’s children attend public schools and Palin has made no push to have creationism taught in them. … It reflects a hands-off attitude toward mixing government and religion by most Alaskans.’ The article was headlined, ‘Palin has not pushed creation science as governor.’ It was written by Dan Joling, who reports from Anchorage and has covered Alaska for 30 years.
Gingrich blasts reporter:
“This is Newt Gingrich. He was on PMSNBC after the convention, after the speeches were over. The reporter was Ron Allen. And Ron Allen said to Mr. Newt, ‘To be fair, Palin’s resume is not something that we’re familiar seeing with presidential candidates.’
“Newt Gingrich: ‘It’s stronger than Barack Obama’s. I don’t know why you guys walk around saying this baloney. She has a stronger resume than Obama. She’s been a real mayor. He hasn’t. She’s been a real governor. He hasn’t. She’s been in charge of the Alaska National Guard. He hasn’t. She was a whistleblower who defeated an incumbent mayor. He has never once shown that kind of courage. She’s a whistleblower who turned in the chairman of her own party and got him fined $12,000. I’ve never seen Obama do one thing like that. She took on the incumbent governor of her own party and beat him and then she beat a former Democratic governor in the general election. I don’t know of a single thing Obama has done except talk and write, and I’d like you to tell me one thing you think Senator Obama’s done.’
“ALLEN: ‘I’m not going to argue the case.’
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Posted by Jerry Pomeroy in Campaign 2008, Video