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Cue Drudge siren:
Zogby Saturday: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error… McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama’s lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all…
October 31st, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Well – we’ll see. I don’t trust Zogby. I just don’t. If there is corroboration in the other tracking polls, if McCain can cut his RCP average back to -5 or -4 then I’ll get excited. It’s tightening. I am just not convinced it is anywhere near enough.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
McCAIN IS WINNING! HE HAS SURGED AHEAD! HE HAS THE BIG MO!
October 31st, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Can we put up big sirens??
October 31st, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I will take it but I dont trust Zogby’s polling. If Rassmussen has McCain within 2% in his final poll considering he is giving Dems over a 7% ID advantage then I would say the race is basically tied in the popular vote.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Put this in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” category!
October 31st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Rush Limbaugh is right 98.6% of the time. He woke up this morning with a good feeling after going to bed last night not knowing what November 4th would bring forth. He asks: “Why is Obama going to Iowa today when he supposedly has a double-digit lead there?” As to Zogby, I believe in my eyes he has lost 99% of his credibility; however, think about it-the only reason to report a bogus poll would be to get Obama’s supporters to the poll. This may be the case, but it could also be the case that Rush always says about pollsters-they have to get it right at the end. Zogby has been reading the tea leaves-he can appear a buffoon and maintain that Obama is going to win in a landslide or he can attempt to salvage whatever professional reputation he has left and jump on McCain’s bandwagon of momentum and begin to reflect polling reality. For the last couple of days it had been rumored that McCain was gaining ground; the only thing Zogby’s poll does is confirm it. Is it in the bag for McCain? Certainly not, but in football terms the teams are now tied and the winner will be the last one with the ball (how the undecideds break).
October 31st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Ras has semi-confirmed this….two of the last three days Mccain has goten to 47…his best performance in a while….TIPP will be very interesting the next few as the last of the Dow Jones slaughter days comes out of the poll
October 31st, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Adam I would ignore the NYT/CBS type polls – If McCain gets within 3% in the avg of the Gallup Traditional Likely, Rassmussen, Tipp, and Battleground then he can win imo.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Trick or treat, Obama!
October 31st, 2008 at 10:14 pm
YES!!! Granted, it is Zogby, but if this is backed up by another such poll, then we will win this election.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Regardless of the polling company, anything that convinces a McCain voter to believe they can make a difference is a good thing.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:23 pm
This is a good birthday gift for me.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Happy birthday Df! As I have been saying, this.is exactly like the democrat primary. The one cannot close.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:27 pm
What needs to happen: Obama MUST come down below 50%. Get him down to 49%, 48%. McCain needs to get within 2 to 3 points of this. Undecideds can help McCain push above Obama in election day. But, the popular vote does not win elections (though it is nice to have it on your side).
October 31st, 2008 at 10:27 pm
When we win, we need to:
1) Hold the media accountable!! Especially the LA Times and MSNBC.
2) Prevent credit card donation fraud from happening again.
3) Prevent ACORN fraud from happening again. Shut ACORN down!!
October 31st, 2008 at 10:44 pm
SURGGGEEEE
Sit down Obama booyah
Rasmussen will follow up likely also
October 31st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Did Zogby call the election of 2004 correctly?
October 31st, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I want to believe this, but Zogby is an outrageous publicity hound — he’ll do anything to get a headline, and this is a typical stunt from him.
I agree with many of the comments above — if McCain is within 2 0r 3 in the combo of tracking polls by Monday, then I’ll feel fairly confident. He was closing steadily earlier this week, but lost ground the past couple days. It’s still do-able, though.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Yes, Zogby’s final 2004 poll was Bush +1.
Intrade still at 17%.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:59 pm
This, if true, is great news!
Yet I have to say, when it comes to Drudge headlines, linkage to the story about how “Plumber Joe” was publicly humiliated was the worse offense.
Can you imagine?! You’re asked by a candidate or campaign your opinion of a political race and openly state your opinion. As a result, you’ve got state government employees ransacking your files for anything embarrassing to publish!
The defense of the public “servants” cited in the linked article are absolutely amazing: ~We always check people who’ve come into public view for child support compliance when we learn about them.~
How sick can politics get!? I mean, I’m all for getting any bastards who’ve made any attempts to duck their responsibilities. But in which police-state loving part of the US is this common practice?
What a disgusting display of shameless partisan politics. And yet the national media entertain the fiasco as normal reporting.
Anyone want to look into the parking tickets, divorce records, and other humiliating details of the lives of our MSM overlords? I wouldn’t think so. They all get the celebrity protections by authorities and media fellows rather than the embarrassment doled out to us dumbos outside their elite circles.
I’d say it’s time for our overlords to be brought down a peg or two. Has anyone actually proven that Catie Couric or Brian Williams are financially clean? Let’s find out!
October 31st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Rasmussen probably will not close because 3 nights ago they had a pretty big night for McCain. With that rolling off, I would be okay if it was flat. I would be happy if Rasmussen closes 1 point. I would be exstatic if it closes 2.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I don’t know if Jindal is this popular and I don’t know if this is a good pollster:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2121449/posts
I mention Jindal because he cut an add for Kennedy.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I don’t know if Jindal is this popular and I don’t know if this is a good pollster:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2121449/posts
I mention Jindal because he cut an ad for Kennedy.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I’m waiting to get excited till Rasmussen’s poll comes out in the AM… remmeber on election day, Zogby predicted President Kerry would get over 300 EVs.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Anyone catch the Greta Palin interview? The David Brooks’, Kathleen Parker’s, and Peggy Noonan’s of the world ought to be heartily ashamed of themselves. Their “cancer” has, surprise, morphed into a fantastic interviewee, who has sounded a good deal more coherent then McCain for weeks now, and manages to better explicate the tickets’ principles and agenda.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:12 pm
#25 for educated people these conservative turncoats who are taught to tolerate other people and understand differences these writers sure revealed themselves as idiots of the first order by condemning someone they had never met based on a substandard performance in 2 interviews and completely disregarding Sarah’s ability to do the job of a governor, have a 80% popularity rating in her state and the ability to speak eloquently and with charisma.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:15 pm
#25/26: I suspect it had more to do with her rhetoric dividing urban vs rural, educated vs uneducated, intellectual vs unintellectual.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Zogby had predictions on his web page in 2004 showing Kerry winning — this was after the first exit polls came out. When the results and later exit polls showed that the early exits were wrong, he took the earlier predictions down.
The man is a fraud and a charlatan.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:27 pm
I have said this many many times on this site, but I am pretty sure the race will play out this way….
1) McCain has to (and I think will) pick up MO and NC. I also have a really good feeling about NV (despite the polls) due to the one exit poll I have seen.
2) McCain will have to also take Ohio and Florida to have a chance. I believe this is why he has been pushing so hard for the Jewish vote and campaigning so hard in Ohio the last few days (to ensure it is in hand). My odds in him successfully pulling this off? 50/50
3) Finally, McCain will need to then either pick up PA, or VA+1 other state. My odds in him successfully pulling this off? 40/60
Net, I am really happy we have some good news, but the 48/47 number is based on 400 people and we have got a lot of work to do…
October 31st, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Just so I’m clear.
Zogby has Obama up buy 10 it’s bunk.
Zogby has McCain up by 1 this is the only poll we now trust?
October 31st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
31. Look at the posts but any good news helps with turnout.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Metro,
Palin only really used the “urban” vs “rural” divide in the first week or two after her selection, when her favorability ratings were enormously high. And the extent of that “division” was in response to team Obama’s “small town mayor” attack. She tossed off a pithy line about small town mayors and got in a dig about community organizers. That’s really it. I defy you to find anything more substantial indicating her so-called rhetoric dividing urban and rural voters. I’ve seen every interview she’s given and all but a half dozen of her rallies and nothing comes to mind. Her so-called digs at the educated are equally non-existent. She chafed at a Couric question over her reading habits, because the question had a whiff of condescension (as if Alaskans don’t read the same things as everyone else). I recall nothing more substantial. Ditto for “intellectual vs. non-intellectual”. No offense Metro- you’re a smart guy and a fair guy- but I think “anti-intellectualism” of Palin is a figment of the coastal set’s collective imagination. She said some folksy things, she botched a few questions in interviews, and her every sentence wasn’t “diagrammable”, and this is all points to anti-intellectualism supposedly. Pretty thin gruel, in the absence of any evidence whatsoever.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Mike…don’t bother…Heath is a troll
October 31st, 2008 at 11:36 pm
#31..no, but it is one more that shows a slow creep up for Mccain….two out of three days at 47 in Ras, positive movement in the Fox poll…its better than nothing
October 31st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Oh, and she smiled too much…did I mention that? If you smile too much, surely you can’t be serious? Well she hardly smiled at all tonight (she’s probably tired and a little miffed) and sounded, dare I say it, intellectual.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
#25- I am definitely not a Palin fan by any definition but she was very impressive and likeable during that interview.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
#33: The message came through very loudly and clearly.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
#31, Righto Captain Canada. We American conservatives are pretty dumb. Just write clearly and keep it simple for us. Then we may understand your wisdom.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Ask yourself what would’ve made me go from posting comment #5 here http://race42008.com/2008/08/30/palin-bounce/
to my current view of Sarah Palin.
Just a dream I had?
October 31st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
BTW, I am actually writing tonight from my bother’s house in Western PA in a very very blue collar, democratic area (a very depressed area where a steel mill was shut down a couple of decades ago). I have seen no Obama signs and 2 McCain signs. Talking to a few people you can see these folks trying to decide whether to hold their nose and vote for Obama or hold their nose and vote for McCain. They are not excited about either pick. However, the socialist argument has definitely worked with these folks. In their heart I think you can see they don’t want to vote for Obama, and McCain has finally given them a reason not to (as they see socialism as being very un-american).
What is amazing to me is I have no doubt that if Hillary Clinton was on the top of the ballot, she would have already closed the sale and probably would have won in a blow-out. Democrats really went all or nothing on this election by trying to pick the most liberal senator in the nation, when they could have simply picked a “fairly” liberal senator and assured themselves the election…
October 31st, 2008 at 11:44 pm
To quote from South Park, “I’m so startled!”
October 31st, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Metro,
You’re a metroRepublican. Or a metroindependent. As such, you’re understandably influenced by other metrorepublicans, metroindependents, metrodemocrats, metrocommentators. If they think Palin’s a dope who hates intellectuals, despite the fact that she’s never expressed any such sentiment and has quoted Plato in interviews, then you’re bound to be influenced. It’s not a particular knock on you, its how the world works. We’re influenced by those we most nearly relate to, those of our set, and one thing leads to another… avalanches and all that. But, I’m pretty confident that the world will be the Brooks’/Buckley’/Parker Palin commentary in bewilderment 5 years from now.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I’m a suburban coastal Republican, and I’ve heard moderate Republicans, or socially liberal Republicans express the “McCain’s fine, but gosh that Sarah Palin is such a backwoods, anti-intellectual dope” viewpoint. When I challenge them, they rarely have any clear reason for believing she’s a dope; it’s just a vague sense they have, no doubt formed at the watercooler. When they do have more then a vague sense, it’s based on Tina Fey parodies, or 1 minute snippets of the two bad interviews she’s done out of dozens now. Nowhere is there any sign of worry that Joe Biden thinks that there were frickin TV’s in 1929, and that good ole’ President FDR appeared on them regularly. Joe Biden can’t be a dope or anti-intellectual; it’s impossible. He lives in the NY/DC corridor.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:01 am
We’ll see how far you get in life trying to convince people Sarah Palin is an intellectual.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:02 am
Latest Update on the polls and the state of the race
November 1st, 2008 at 12:03 am
Zogbys Obama lead is 5% now – I want to see his poll on Monday.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:03 am
Obama: 49.1%
Mccain: 44.1%
November 1st, 2008 at 12:05 am
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1620
This was the poll YESTERDAY. And now McCain is up by 1%? Yeah, no. There’s a reason why one-day polls aren’t trusted. Rolling averages, fine, but Zogby is already unreliable, and his swings make it even worse.
EVERY OTHER MAJOR TRACKING POLL SHOWED OBAMA WIDENING HIS LEAD.
STOP cherry-picking polls. It’s embarrassing.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:06 am
47 – Zogby said it would move tomorrow as long as McCain has a decent day because a big Obama day will be rolling off…
November 1st, 2008 at 12:07 am
MVRed good info – What I have noticed in east central FL is that the AA early vote looks strong but I see no evidence of the youth vote movement we hear about. McCain will take FL I am 90% sure on that – Old Dems here like him it seems.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:09 am
YoYo get in line and vote early for McCain.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:09 am
I already voted.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:11 am
Love it guys…
I am about to do my absentee from here in PA….
November 1st, 2008 at 12:12 am
Metro,
I won’t get far in life trying to convince “people” that Sarah Palin is an intellectual. As I said before, “intellectuals” do not let anyone into their caste unless they’re either born there, or drop all of their previous ideas, mannerisms, and associations. You keep referring to Fred and Rudy as intellectuals, but no one thought of them as intellectuals in the primary. I remember Fred being repeatedly ridiculed as dumb, and Rudy was turned into a semi- anti-intellectual caricature after Biden’s “noun, verb, 9/11″ quip. Fred and Rudy never made it into the caste of intellectuals, because they still retained some of their roots. Newt and Romney were up to their eyeballs in the intelligentsia, thus are acceptable. Reagan was endlessly ridiculed as anti-intellectual. Nixon tried to leave his humble roots behind, and thus was acceptable. You really should have a better memory than this. Palin is squarely in the Fred/Rudy/Reagan tradition; highly intelligent people, who were nonetheless despised by the elites and ridiculed as dullards.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:18 am
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D945TEE01&show_article=1
Turns out Obam’s Aunt is here illegally and getting govt housing anyway. Personally I dont really care but lets see if the media runs with this like the Joe the Plumber stuff.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:19 am
55, I bet Reagan knew what a precondition was. I bet he didn’t think the First Amendment protected politicians from criticism from the liberal media.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:25 am
#55: Fred is philosophic. Rudy is a man of principles. Reagan was an intellectual, having read all the books, corresponded with the authors, gave speaking tours for years on the ideas….
Sarah is uninformed and takes pride in it.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:28 am
Also, Matthew, if Reagan, Fred and Rudy are attacked for not being intellectual, that’s all the more argument that Sarah will be ridiculed… because they ARE intellectuals and she is not.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:30 am
#58:
Metro, Sarah Palin is the average American and takes pride in it! Most Americans don’t know or care about what happens in the Straits of Hormuz or the attack on S. Ossetia by Russia. They care about whether or not they still have a job next week. They care about how Sally is going to do on her math test or if little Jimmy does well at his soccer game. Sarah Palin epitomizes who those people are, the average American in “fly-over country”. If you don’t like it so be it, but that is how things are.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:33 am
Jonathan, give me a break. You cannot lead a nation without any intellectual underpinnings.
Not to mention, Americans DO care that their President knows what happens in the Straits of Hormuz, even if they don’t.
Have you gone totally populist now? William Jennings Bryan your new hero? Presidents who know nothing of foreign affairs?
This party has become an F’ing joke.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:41 am
#61:
If Gov. Palin was our Presidential nominee then yes you would have some legitimate complaints, but she isn’t. She is running for Vice President. “A bucket of warm piss” as John Nance Garner called it. Besides, President Bush is no ‘intellectual’ by the standard definition and yet he got elected over your type of people; elitists who think they are smarter then everybody, and that the average person is just a brain-dead idiot. The American people want a President who they think will do what is best for our nation, all other considerations come second.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:50 am
Yay for celebrating mediocrity!
FYI, I don’t want the Vice President, one accident or disease away from the single most powerful position in the world, to be an everyday American. That is GARBAGE.
It’s insulting that I’m supposed to eat it. Absolutely insane.
But then, I guessing being halfway through law school makes me an elitist.
November 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am
Matt and Metro,
I don’t want to get in the middle of you two, but I want to point something out that seems to be talking past one another.
There is a difference between an intellectual and a person who is smart.
Miller won’t have to convince anyone Palin is an intellectual, because he won’t need to. He does need to be among those who convince voters that Palin is smart, but not necessarily an intellectual.
Dennis Miller (no relation to Matt I surmise;-)) nailed Palin and not just in my imagination. “Y’know why they all hate her and make fun of her in the media? Because she is onto something! And they know it”
What is she onto? Well, it’s where our schism is in our party and I think in the country. There is a big anti-inEFFectual movement going on and it’s the intellectuals who are the vexillaries of the ineffectuals.
How did we get into this mess on Wall Street and in the global economy?
Why do we hate W and the Congress even more? Congressional approval rating gets carded for R-rated movies.
Well even “dumb” people who glance at the news are glancing a few more times than normal post-convention and watching the markets from 9/15 on. What did these “dumb” people see?
-”Goldman Sachs approves Goldman Sachs to bailout Goldman Sachs” = headline on Michael Savage’s website as he linked a news story showing how everyone involved in getting us into the mess and/or getting us out had connections to Goldman Sachs
-CEO’s of failing investment banks getting 8 and 9 figure parachutes for wrecking their companies.
-A reminder that Bush is still President and gave us a Fire Drill chat telling us to panic if there was no bailout instead of a fireside chat attempting to calm us down like a leader is supposed to.
-Seeing Bush again reminded us that he faced off against not only someone who went to the same elite college as him, but was also in the same infamous secret fraternity. Was that even a choice in 2004?
My point in those bullets is the whole damn thing is broken from Wall Street through Main Street to K Street. And with even a passing glance, everywhere we look there is an ineffectual intellectual at the helm who thinks that because he or she went to Harvard, Yale, NYU, Stanford, or any of the top 50 schools for under or grad that they can do no wrong when the wrong thing is all they’ve been doing.
November 1st, 2008 at 1:29 am
64 – Great post….I love Bush on his picks for the Supreme Court, his cutting taxes, and rallying the country after 9/11. I dislike Bush for spending us to death (so he could get his other policies through), and not having the full plan on Iraq (telling everyone what it was) before we initially entered the country.
I am not sure how effective Palin will inevitably be in Washington, but she definitely ran on it and is very much loved in Alaska because of it. Further, McCain’s platform has the word “reform” in it, but he never did hit it as hard as he should have. The one thing he could have done to have totally distanced himself from Bush was attack Bush himself for being ineffective. I think McCain never did it because he is too decent of a guy, but it would have helped his campaign a lot…
November 1st, 2008 at 1:29 am
63 – great post that is…
November 1st, 2008 at 1:44 am
YOYO -why does NY get all the lawyers & NJ the rubbish dumps?
Because NJ was given the first choice.
November 1st, 2008 at 2:52 am
that’s the amazing thing with everyone focusing on Palin. If McCain wins, she’ll disappear for around three years. You’ll see her in photo ops and foreign visits. She’ll give speeches on special needs kids and energy every so often. Go around meeting with suburban/exurban folks and soccer mom types and help McCain’s populist image. You’ll see her sitting next to Nancy Pelosi in late January.
Then, starting sometime in the fall/winter of 2012, McCain will announce he’s only serving one term and will designate Palin his heir to run against Hillary Clinton.
But her actual effect/impact as VP will be nil.
November 1st, 2008 at 7:03 am
Metro,
Ah, I see. Fred, Rudy, and Reagan are intellectuals. Sarah isn’t. Why? Because Metro says so. Do you, by any chance, have a list of the books Sarah Palin has read in the last year? Do you, by any chance, have a copy of Sarah Palin’s latest IQ test? Or her SAT score? No? Shame. I do recall that Rudy’s SAT score was reported. It was sub 1100. And Manhattan College, in the relevant statistics, is essentially identical to the University of Idaho. And of course, the people who’ve actually reported on this, remark that Sarah Palin got straight A’s at her first two colleges, at least. Or could you point me to examples of deep philosophical musings Rudy made during his first 8 weeks as a Presidential candidate? Any talk of Locke, von Mises or Burke- any dueling with Rousseau or Mill? But, Rudy Giuliani is an intellectual, while Sarah Palin is hopelessly gauche. Why? Because Metro says so of course.
November 1st, 2008 at 7:14 am
63. Evil Conservative
Great post. Kavon should think about promoting that one to the front page.
November 1st, 2008 at 7:53 am
You can’t even compare Rudy and Palin. Rudy was a US Attorney in the Reagan Administration. He turned around a city. He lowered taxes despite a city council that tried to block him at every turn. He cracked down on crime. In short, he proved his mettle. There’s no debate about this. Even NYT endorsed him because his results were so obvious. He talks with depth on fiscal matters and foreign affairs. Palin doesn’t. He debated these tax policies effectively in debates with the likes of Romney and Thompson. Everyone knew that he knew his stuff. Palin has never been made to prove her worth, and many people have suspicions that she’s not up to snuff. She has had a promising start in AK – but she is still just a rookie.
So Rudy clearly has the smarts. Palin reminds me more of Bush. She just sticks to talking points. I heard it. Joe Biden, whatever his exaggerations were in the debate knew that she wasn’t in his league. She doesn’t belong on a national ticket. Now, obviously Barry doesn’t either but that’s a different thing. We’re having a family argument here. REPUBLICANS and not Democrats are the ones that always say that people ought to be promoted based on their strengths and talents and not some affirmative action program.
I don’t care which books or which newspapers Palin reads. I don’t care if she is what Ivy Leaguers would deem “intellectual” per se. But I do care that our guys and gals are up to speed. The last thing the GOP needs right now is more Brownie’s or Harriet Miers. I can’t help but get the sense that this woman, however talented she may be, is just in over her head on national issues. She didn’t run for president and wasn’t in the primary battles – so she probably just didn’t give it a thought. McCain hastily chose her and she had little preparation. It became obvious for all to see. The Couric interview was a complete disaster. Even Palin boosters like Matt Miller have to agree with this. Would Rudy have looked so utterly lost? Romney? Thompson? No way!
And if it wasn’t bad enough, she almost conveys the sense that she revels in her ignorance. Like when she said this,
Now I can’t stand Obama and the Democrats make my skin crawl. But why is it that Republicans get so outraged (And I get outraged too) anytime a Democrat or a liberal makes any kind of slight, real or perceived, among rural or Southern populations? Or among pro-lifers? Why is it ok for someone who probably never spent more than a scant amount of time around Suburbia, USA and some of the cities to offhandedly dismiss their patriotism? NYC was attacked, not Juneau or Fairbanks. Rudy Giuliani should have been insulted. If we’re going to get outraged over “bitter cling” then we really need to stop with this urban versus rural crap.
Case in point, NoVA is turning blue and we’re going to lose Virginia. Part of it is because of 20-something kids that are working for the government and moving into the area and part of it is just the culture of government employees already there. But partly it is because the GOP has basically said that if you’re not Southern, backwoods or stridently pro-life we don’t want you around. The party has stopped even trying to talk to these people. How many times do people on this site say “Well of course the Northeast is going to vote for Democrats. They’re out of touch with regular America”? How many times has Limbaugh said it? It’s poisonous thinking because the Democrats are moving onto our turf – and not the other way around.
Palin’s selection is only making it worse.
November 1st, 2008 at 8:08 am
#69 Very few people have brought up the point that Sarah has been an avid reader from childhood and a student of the Greek philosopers, especially Plato. If you remember when she was first introduced to the national political scene, the main knock against her from the MSM wasn’t her intellectual capacity, but her perceived inexperience with foreign affairs and just an overall lack of familarity and curiosity with ‘real world’ dynamics. In other words she wasn’t in the loop. Now after that argument has been debunked because of Sarah’s performance in her convention speech and her takedown of Joe Biden in the foreign affairs section of the debate, the MSM have decided to go after her based on her naive folksiness, lack of brain power and intellectual capacity to perform as VP and/or President, implying that anybody who is from a small town cannot be the intellectual equal to anyone who has attended Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Of course the Dems don’t care if they throw Harry Truman under the bus, as long as they can diminish Sarah. One of my favorite phrases is let’s get real. Sarah Palin is the governor of Alaska and had to defeat an incumbent governor in the primary and a former governor in the state election; she has had to possess eloquence, persuasiveness, and moxie to achieve that. Then to run an administration Sarah has had to use her judgment to hire good people for her cabinet and possess the ability to make the right decisions for the good of the state of Alaska-does anyone really think that she would possess an 80% approval rating if she was a total moron who couldn’t talk her way out of a paper bag and constantly screwed up and made awful decisions? What the MSM has attempted to do was to paint Sarah as incapable and subtly hint that women in general may be hampered by a lack of intellectual acuity. As far as I’m concerned anyone who has never met and talked to Sarah has no right to pass judgment of her intellectual soundness and her ability to grasp the issues of the day. Those ‘intellectuals’ who snipe at her from the sidelines in their attempt to diminish Sarah actually succeed in only diminishing their own reputation and standing as they engage in uncharitable acts of snobbery and vilification.
November 1st, 2008 at 8:11 am
Adam,
As far as Rudy having better credentials and accomplishments then Palin, I wouldn’t disagree. But, that wasn’t Metro’s assertion; he asserted that Rudy was an intellectual. I’ve seen no sign of this, if we’re using the traditional definition. I don’t happen to think Rudy did particularly well in the debates; he didn’t do as badly as McCain, but I only recall him winning the second debate. Out of like 20 or whatever. He did a fair job of explaining his actions in NYC; he did a considerably worse job defining his principles or his future agenda. I never once thought to myself “man, that Rudy is a genius”, whereas I constantly felt that way about Romney (despite the fact that I like Rudy, personally, more).
November 1st, 2008 at 8:20 am
Well, Palin has her plusses. She certainly gets the Evangelicals on board. I wish she found a way to do it without alienating so many others. She’s a doer and she knows energy policy – so that’s all to the good. I’m just really skeptical. I suspect she is going to give it a go in 2012. And why not? She’s been through the ringer from a hostile press. I’m going to be interested to see just how she stacks up against her GOP peers all throughout 2011. I’ll be skeptical but I’ll keep an open mind. And by then she will have had more executive experience than Romney and almost as much as Giuliani.
November 1st, 2008 at 8:37 am
#74 Let’s see what Sarah has done for the McCain campaign. On Aug 28 a week before the Republican convention, many pundits were predicting that the Republican convention would be a letdown compared to Obama’s extravaganza, and that Republican conservatives and evangelicals would leave the convention saying all the right things but without a true fire in the belly for a ticket of consisting of ‘2 boring white guys’ who advocated middle-of-the-road policies. Instead with the choice of Sarah, Republicans left the convention fired up, evangelical groups consisting of tens of millions got on board including James Dobson, money began to flow to the McCain campaign in record numbers and just released by the McCain campaign the GOTV campaign has become the biggest in history, even better than George Bush’s effort in 2004. The impact of Sarah on the logistics of the McCain campaign cannot be minimized. As to now
Sarah is on top of her game and actually she explains Obama’s socialistic tendencies and McCain’s economic policy way better than McCain does. In doing so she is eloquent, charismatic and convincing. Sarah may not be an egghead but she understands how to convince voters to be on her side and as governor knows how to run a government. Many people seem to forget she is the sitting governor of the state of Alaska.
November 1st, 2008 at 8:44 am
bob,
All true about her invigorating the GOP – but her star has fizzled since then. If she understands how to convince voters to be on her side then we wouldn’t be in trouble in the suburbs all across the nation. It’s not her fault that the mortgage crisis and economic downturn has hurt the ticket but she still doesn’t have much depth on economic policy. Then again, a VP candidate can only do so much.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:27 am
We lost lots of ground in the rosy-red suburbs because of the precipitous decline in housing wealth over the past year—the mortgage crisis, the collapse of the housing bubble, do you really want to hold Gov. Palin responsible for that? Another problem not of Palin’s making is that energy costs have crashed too; oil is receding to its 2000 price of about US$40.00 a barrel, which gives the lie to the whole peak oil argument—OPEC has cut, is cutting production, yet the price of light oh-so-sweet crude continues seek its own bottom.
November 1st, 2008 at 11:09 am
I agree with Heath 30. Until the state polls change dramaticaly McCain is still behind by about 5% or so. We can look at the state polls and say that they are wrong yada yada.
Has anyone thought that if people feel that the election is one way or another people will not vote.
It works for McCain if people who vote for him feel he has a chance so they will come out and vote and it works for Obama if people who vote for him feel he has to fight so they wont take it for granted and come out to vote to ensure a win.
November 1st, 2008 at 11:12 am
I read over some of these again bob and a few others agree that this could be a way to ensure people go to the polls. I would say it for both sides to go.