1) She's Alaskan, and they all live on the government teat.
2) Her main "accomplishment" was to give away $500 million dollars in state money to TransCanada, the pipeline company, to kinda, sorta, maybe start building the natural gas pipeline the Big Three have been using as a carrot and stick against the Alaska legislature for years.
I know this sounds like I'm obsessed with pipelines, but the Alaska gas pipeline is the biggest perennial issue in Alaska politics and everyone in the Northwest knows it. It was behind the whole VECO case.
3) I don't underestimate the emotional reasoning. Getting personally involved in Democratic party politics has taught me that - before it broke my spirit.
On an emotional basis, the choice of Palin is *attempted* brilliance. The Republicans have a HUGE corruption problem - particularly with Ted Stevens. So, they cleverly bring on the woman who - while only not corrupt by Alaska standards because she didn't have the time to get corrupt (and she's probably not taken seriously enough) - was the leader of the (corrupt, because it's Alaska) coalition that took advantage of the meltdown caused by the VECO scandal.
She seems so perfect. They know the press is going to go after her and they think they can intimidate and shame the press into not doing it, thus a lot of issues become toxic, go away and it's all about "mavericks".
Because Barack Obama is black, they must do ANYTHING they can to keep him from reaching the "tipping point" in popularity, since racist Americans generally idolize "breakout" figures from despised groups - thus Bill Cosby, Will Smith, Ellen Degeneris and - the goddess herself - Oprah.
Because they must withhold their natural bigotry to appreciate these people at all, Americans become very psychologically open to these people.
Palin is a super-high-risk choice. If you were watching Charlie Rose last night, or reading the sexually-aroused David Brooks, you were seeing it working. But if you were watching CNN, or looking at the "entertainment television" shows, you were seeing it NOT working.
It's all about how Sarah Palin does on the weekday morning shows. That's the demographic the McCain campaign must win here. Basically, they know Regis will treat her like a queen, "The View" might trash her, but that little nazi on there will go mental and quit or something, and the "Today Show" will have to decide. Palin's free media on those shows is the gold ring here, because those are the "persuadables" McCain needs.
I'm sure the Repugs have a strategy here, but I think they've just taken too much of a risk.
On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 5:47 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski
<swsokolowski at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- On Tue, 9/2/08, boddi satva <lbo.boddi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Republicans are always for objective standards - as long as
>> there are
>> two of each.
>>
>
> [WS:] What appears as contradiction from a logical point of view may be perfectly consistent from an emotional point of view. Do not underestimate, as most liberals do, the significance of emotional reasoning in the US politics.
>
> Palin is a much more formidable opponent than "educated liberal elites" who emphaize "rationality" want us to believe. She is a quintessential "all-American girl" who "made it" and become popular despite her lowly background and relative lack of education (BA in journalism from the U of Idaho is her highest academic credential.) And she is also an "ass-kicker" and government basher - which no doubt will resonate with many middle class Americans.
>
> In a way, she is another Anna Nicole Smith, the quintessential trailer trash and gold digger who used her sex appeal to "make it" (i.e. get rich and become popular) - an ideal with which countless middle and working class women can easily identify and which "liberal elites" scorned. Who cares that her politics suck - she is a "Woman like me" someone "I can idenfy with" (just like George Bush once was), so "I will vote for her instead of that stuffed shirt uppity N-word with the Harvad law degree."
>
> Anti-intellectualism and gutter populism are formidable forces in American politics, especially when combined with racism. Before Palin's selection for VP, I thought that Obama had a pretty good chance of winning in November. Now I am not so sure. I am afraid that Mccain may have a better chance. Any liberal attempt to poo-pooh Palin as a lightweight provincial goose will only increase her appeal to "middle America." Obama understands that rather well and refrain from any overt criticism of her, especially along these lines, but then there is not much that a guy from Harvard can do to undermine the appeal of the Anna Nicole Smith trope to lower middle class folk populating middle America podunks.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
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>