Wasn't Palin chosen to usher Hillary voters into the fold?
Isn't she supposed to be a dynamite choice for women, mothers, and those cherished "family values"?
Here's a great article about how Palin is viewed by the very demographic she is supposed to appeal to: disaffected Hillary voters and small town women.
It might surprise you.
UPDATE: Wow! My first rec list!
I'd like to thank the academy...
and all the folks who are finding my diary helpful and inspirational.
Remember: we can't trust those talking heads on television. The "open mike" moment was the first real truth to come out in a long time.
To the Flipmobile:
This September 7th article from the LA Times was written by a reporter visiting Uniontown, Pennsylvania, a former coal-mining town in the foothills of the Appalachians. Exactly the kind of town that is supposedly "trouble for Obama."
But this is also the kind of area that is particularly hard hit by the economic policies beloved of the Republicans.
So what are these ladies saying?
Trish Heckman, 49, restaurant cook and disappointed Hillary supporter:
"I wanted Hillary to win so bad, but I saw Sarah, and it just didn't work for me," said Heckman, taking a break in the empty courtyard of J. Paul's restaurant in a downtown struggling to revive. "I have no retirement. Obama understands it's the economy. He knows how we live."
Gosh! An African American man from an big urban city knows how she lives.
What does a 46 year old waitress at the local diner say?
She had already declared Palin "the perfect candidate" after watching her Wednesday speech. Artice had already decided that her vote would go to the first candidate who mentioned gasoline prices.
"And -- I'll be danged -- it was Obama," Artice said, between servings of liver and onions during the lunch rush.
I love that "I'll be danged." It's exactly how my own female relatives talk.
Sandy Ryan, 59. How did she view Palin belittling Obama's history as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side?
[She...] clicked the remote.
"That's enough of that. I switched over to 'House Hunters,' " she said with some disgust over dessert with a group of women from the senior housing complex she manages.
I think it was a mistake to make fun of community organizers. It sure played well with a bunch of party faithful who already are reluctant to give up any of "their money" to the poor and needy. But those who actually live in small towns know how much the people in these places depend on community effort and community support.
It's heartbreaking to see how many pancake breakfasts and spaghetti suppers are held in my area to help a sick child or a family breadwinner facing a serious illness. A tip jar on the counter of my local store is not even going to touch the needs of that six year old who needs a kidney transplant, or the local volunteer coach with Lou Gehrig's disease, to just name the two most recent residents with their pictures on those coffee cans.
Patty Tobal, 63 year old retired nurse and lifelong feminist says:
"We don't need any more fighting in Washington," Tobal said while having her hair done at a little shop on Route 40, where the customers go longer between appointments in these hard times. "Women are not for women just because they are women. We are intelligent enough to make a conscious decision."
Exactly my take on the Palin pick. I was insulted by this brazen appeal to what the Daily Show's Samantha Bee calls "Vagina-Americans."
Jennifer Glisan, 23, an EMT, says:
"I think Palin is a fake. She will run the economy into the ground," Glisan said after catching glimpses of the vice presidential nominee's speech between emergency calls.
"I have to kill myself every day at work to earn enough to pay for gas to get there. I think Obama is sincere. I think we need a change."
This is powerful stuff, right from the people Palin was supposed to appeal to.
But I'm not surprised. This was a classic head fake from the Karl Rove playbook. Palin wasn't chosen to scoop up women and the small town crowd: unless those very people are also right wing evangelicals.
Palin is there to shore up their previously indifferent Base. Those folks who care more about preventing abortion than they do about caring for all the babies their policies are designed to create.
Those "Christians" who skip over the part where Jesus himself says we should take care of the neediest among us.
Those people who love George Bush.
The Base was indifferent to McCain. The non-Base weren't buying his "centrist, not-Bush" compaigning. So to keep this election from being a total blowout, they had to, once again, pull in the Base as the only GOTV effort they still had.
So, in conclusion:
--Step away from the despair. Karl Rove turns out to be a one-dirty-trick pony. This is all they have. In a year where Bush is breaking records in disapproval ratings, that's not an endorsement of Rove's talent assessment. It's an indictment of their governing policy, which has had time to settle into even the most clueless voter's mind.
--Palin is a flawed choice. Sure, they would have preferred a wingnut woman politician without the stew of scandals that haven't even come to a full boil yet. They would have preferred an abstinence advocate without a pregnant teenage daughter. They would done better to have gotten a woman who was an actual feminist to pick up disaffected Hillary voters, who were so passionate in large part because of their strong feminist values.
But I guess they run with the whacky woman wingnut they have, not the one they wish they had. Demographically, Palin looked perfect, as mother, governor, and darling of the religious right. But despite all their carrying on, it's not working.
Palin is going to lock up their Crazy Base World vote. Because McCain, despite all his pandering, could not.
But that's not enough to win.
And they know it.