News Will Palin's VP Debate Performance Impact McCain's Campaign?

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The discussion centers around John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election. Participants express mixed reactions to her nomination, noting her limited experience as the governor of Alaska and questioning whether her gender will attract disenchanted Hillary Clinton supporters. There is speculation about Palin's appeal to female voters and potential strategies to counter Barack Obama’s campaign. Concerns are raised about her qualifications and the implications of having a less experienced candidate on the ticket, especially given McCain's age and health issues. The conversation also touches on the broader themes of gender in politics, the effectiveness of her candidacy in swaying voters, and the potential for her to energize conservative bases. Overall, the selection is viewed as a strategic move, but opinions vary on its effectiveness and implications for the election.
  • #181
Astronuc said:
Divine intervention perhaps? :smile: :rolleyes:

Master puppeteer Rove must thrilled.

Meanwhile my best tip for the day - fill up the gas tank before the oil and gas traders get into work on Tuesday.
 
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  • #182
Now it would be interesting if the remnants of Gustav move up the Mississippi River Valley to Minneapolis - St. Paul.
 
  • #183
The latest news is that Cheney won't go to the convention either ... because of course he is so vital to emergency planning - like Bush is? (Cheney's job is to move Bush's mouth maybe?)

Now it seems they don't want Bush interfering with recovery efforts either, where will he go?

Perhaps with nothing for Bush to do, he can be at the convention to let his popularity rub off on candidate McCain after all?
 
  • #184
  • #185
Does anyone find McCain's claim- that Palin is more qualified than Obama - disturbing? There seems to be a some insinuations here, for one it's totally disregarding.
 
  • #186
GCT said:
Does anyone find McCain's claim- that Palin is more qualified than Obama - disturbing? There seems to be a some insinuations here, for one it's totally disregarding.
Lindsey Graham said much the same on ABC's This Week. Just the slur with no justification, aside from his assertions that Obama "got it wrong on Iraq" and was willing to negotiate with Ahmadinejad. Of course there was no honest explanation that if the US wanted to negotiate with Iran, they would be negotiating with representatives of the Supreme Ayatollah, who actually holds the power in Iran. Fear-mongering and lies from one end to the other. If Graham can explain how Palin is actually more experienced and better-suited than Obama, he wasn't letting on.

In my opinion, Obama got it right on Iraq right from the beginning, and his willingness to negotiate with Iran instead of bombing them as a first resort (after pretend-negotiations and bluster) is a sign of maturity and experience. We haven't had that in the White house for the last 8 years.
 
  • #187
turbo-1 said:
Lindsey Graham said much the same on ABC's This Week.
Graham, Giuliani, the campaign...they've all got the same cue card. And they seem to have got it from Limbaugh.

TpvoGd75Kxg[/youtube]
 
  • #188
Well, it's not working on the college crowd, at least not here. The Evo Child was foaming at the mouth today about Palin. She will probably mobilize the entire campus to come out in force to vote against McCain/Palin, and she's just the sort that could do it. Katrina was nothing compared to Hurricane Evo Child. I had to listen to a long lecture about Palin today. I'm afraid my youngest daughter has become a political activist. :bugeye:
 
  • #189
Evo said:
Well, it's not working on the college crowd, at least not here. The Evo Child was foaming at the mouth today about Palin. She will probably mobilize the entire campus to come out in force to vote against McCain/Palin, and she's just the sort that could do it. Katrina was nothing compared to Hurricane Evo Child. I had to listen to a long lecture about Palin today. I'm afraid my youngest daughter has become a political activist. :bugeye:
Give her a hug for me, Evo, and remind her that if the Democrats start pulling the same kind of crap after they've been in power for a while, we'll need her to help us keep them honest. Sheep get tyranny, thoughtful people can fight that.
 
  • #190
Evo said:
Well, it's not working on the college crowd, at least not here. The Evo Child was foaming at the mouth today about Palin. She will probably mobilize the entire campus to come out in force to vote against McCain/Palin, and she's just the sort that could do it. Katrina was nothing compared to Hurricane Evo Child. I had to listen to a long lecture about Palin today. I'm afraid my youngest daughter has become a political activist. :bugeye:

I don't think Palin/Cain use facebook.

Obama's biggest group has ~645,604 members (he's even on imeem :eek:)
Mc Cain less than 500
 
  • #191
Is anybody else expecting an all out slaughter this November? It is my understanding that polls are taken mostly from older people and nobody is really accounting for all the new young voters that Obama has attracted.
 
  • #192
I see a John McCain page on facebook with 250,225 "supporters".
 
  • #193
Math Is Hard said:
I see a John McCain page on facebook with 250,225 "supporters".

oops, I was using "Mc Cain"
 
  • #194
WarPhalange said:
Is anybody else expecting an all out slaughter this November? It is my understanding that polls are taken mostly from older people and nobody is really accounting for all the new young voters that Obama has attracted.
Do not underestimate the effects of 2 more months the Rove attack-machine, and do not forget that the Republicans have been honing voter-suppression techniques for longer than that and will surely bring out new ones this time around. They still have some effective tools with which to try to force a Republican win regardless of the intent of the voters.

In 2000 cops were out heavily in minority neighborhoods of Florida, and people with names similar to those of felons were not allowed to vote unless they proved that they were not felons, and even then they were only allowed to file "provisional ballots" which are so under-counted as to be not much better than useless. In 2004, whites in Ohio in affluent neighborhoods had to wait little if at all to vote, while minorities in poorer neighborhoods often had to wait in lines for many hours. Even if the electronically-tallied votes were not tampered with, the suppression resulting from voters having to choose between staying to vote, going home to be home for their kids after school, voter having to leave the line to get to work, etc, all could have and probably did affect the outcome of the 2004 election in that pivotal state. Also in 2004, Republicans used "caging lists" primarily against deployed military personnel. They sent letters to soldiers' homes by a method that required a signature of the recipient and when the deployed serviceperson ws unable to sign and the letter was returned, they submitted those letters to the registrars of their states, demanding that the soldiers' names be removed from the polls because they were not living at their address of record.
 
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  • #195
I'm still surprised nobody has been put to death for those things. That's the only way these "elites" will understand, when they realize the common man has the power to take his *** to jail or worse.

Right now they're not even getting a slap on the wrist.
 
  • #196
I think they have decided that San Antonio is safe enough for Bush to protect through the bad weather.

Though for the life of me I can't imagine why he couldn't mismanage things from Minneapolis just as well as from San Antonio.
 
  • #197
WarPhalange said:
Is anybody else expecting an all out slaughter this November? It is my understanding that polls are taken mostly from older people and nobody is really accounting for all the new young voters that Obama has attracted.
You don't realize what a well oiled machine the Evagelicals are. Now they are fighting to get one of their own (Palin) elected. They will stop at nothing, I'm not kidding, I've seen the levels they will go to first hand.

Hopefully the mainstream religious people will be alarmed by the fact that Palin is Pentecostal.
 
  • #198
Math Is Hard said:
I see a John McCain page on facebook with 250,225 "supporters".

That's right. McCain's has a shave over 250,000 supporters on facebook. Obama has a shave under 1.5 million supporters on facebook.
 
  • #199
Evo said:
You don't realize what a well oiled machine the Evagelicals are. Now they are fighting to get one of their own (Palin) elected. They will stop at nothing, I'm not kidding, I've seen the levels they will go to first hand.
WarPhalange, I didn't want to get into this because of the repercussions that might come from steering a political discussion into religious waters, but since Evo is OK with it:

The Evangelicals are extremely efficient. Their leaders can produce almost monolithic blocs of voters if they want, and if they are willing to put in a little pulpit time. They don't have to say "vote for Palin" from the pulpit, and if they did so, they would almost certainly face challenges to their tax-exempt status. They are not that stupid. All they have to do is stop just short of asking for votes and instead point out just how faithful and Christian Palin is, and preach about how she values life (carrying a Down Syndrome baby at age 44 certainly qualifies) and how she shares the values of the Evangelical congregation being preached to. It's not going to take much to swing their congregations, even though the Republicans have courted Evangelicals in every modern election, and then dumped them like an unattractive blind date shortly after each election.
 
  • #200
Evo said:
But then people that don't like me would turn on you, so maybe you're better off if I ignore you. :wink:

Gokul43201 said:
No one can turn on Bob. He's unturnonable! :biggrin:

Andre said:
I think Evo intended another context: for others to be turnonbobable

I think this evolution of terminology has become discombobulated.

Beside, the PF sisterhood can turn Bob on anytime.
 
  • #201
BobG said:
Beside, the PF sisterhood can turn Bob on anytime.
Let's not taunt Bob lest he turn on the sisterhood. It could get ugly.
 
  • #202
BobG said:
I think this evolution of terminology has become discombobulated.

Beside, the PF sisterhood can turn Bob on anytime.
:biggrin: Oh, Bob knows not what he's getting into!
 
  • #203
NOW against Palin

The National Organization for Women has offically spoken out against Palin as being against women's rights.

If McCain's intent was to get more women voters he has failed miserably.

Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women's rights, just like John McCain.

The fact that Palin is a mother of five who has a 4-month-old baby, a woman who is juggling work and family responsibilities, will speak to many women. But will Palin speak FOR women? Based on her record and her stated positions, the answer is clearly No.

In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would "choose life" -- meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion.

Palin also had to withdraw her appointment of a top public safety commissioner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, although Palin had been warned about his background through letters by the sexual harassment complainant.

What McCain does not understand is that women supported Hillary Clinton not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues. They will surely not find Sarah Palin to be an advocate for women.

Sen. Joe Biden is the VP candidate who appeals to women, with his authorship and championing of landmark domestic violence legislation, support for pay equity, and advocacy for women around the world.

http://www.now.org/press/08-08/08-29.html
 
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  • #204
chasely said:
That's right. McCain's has a shave over 250,000 supporters on facebook. Obama has a shave under 1.5 million supporters on facebook.

I wasn't making any particular point with that. That was simply a reply to rootX's post (below).

rootX said:
I don't think Palin/Cain use facebook.

Obama's biggest group has ~645,604 members (he's even on imeem :eek:)
Mc Cain less than 500
 
  • #205


Evo said:
The National Organization for Women has offically spoken out against Palin as being against women's rights.

If McCain's intent was to get more women voters he has failed miserably.



http://www.now.org/press/08-08/08-29.html

A friend of mine made a good point. She's going on the campaign trail and attempting to take office as VP even though she has a four month old child at home. While it would probably outrage his female supporters if Obama's campaign poked at this issue I have to wonder what all of the conservative Dr Laura fans would say about that. So far I can't find Dr Laura comments on Palin.
 
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  • #206
Good point. Going all conservative gung-ho will be hard if she's not there taking care of her kid. What kind of mother is she? :rolleyes:

Although you're right, Obama pointing it out would cost him a LOT more than it's worth. I wonder if he can get someone outside of the campaign to do it?
 
  • #207
well this very interesting, and of course anything can happen. i have made numerous pessimistic statements because it is easier to bear good news when you have braced yourself for bad, but honestly, if the dems do not win by 10-15%, then america definitely lives down to its low international reputation.

as my younger son put it, if the republicans win this time, i can no longer even attempt to defend the US to my friends in europe.

i know i am hopeless optimist, but surely, the general electorate is not THIS stupid. only absolute nutcase right wingers can possibly vote for this team, right? i mean palin is a young phyllis schlaffly, and her state literally has a smaller population than cobb county, georgia, making her experience roughly that of the ceo of a moderate sized county.
 
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  • #208
mathwonk said:
i know i am hopeless optimist, but surely, the electorate is not THIS stupid.

When I was interning last month I rode my bike to work. I got a flat one day. I was angry. Profanities were said. But then my friend said "Cheer up. It happened. Now you can rest easy knowing it won't happen again. I mean, what are the chances?"

It happened twice more. That same week.


Moral of the story? Don't tempt fate.
 
  • #209


TheStatutoryApe said:
She's going on the campaign trail and attempting to take office as VP even though she has a four month old child at home.
And a "special needs" baby to boot. Not much for "family values". Apparently career comes before family. Can anyone say "hypocrite"?
 
  • #210
sighhh...
 

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