All I keep hearing about the Palin nomination is about how John McCain made his pick to get middle American, independent voters, especially those who voted for Hillary, over to his side. Now, while that may have had something to do with it, I don't feel it is what the pick is actually doing.
It has done two things, one people have noticed; and one only a few have seen. One, it has excited and energized the social conservative base of the party, a group that is so large that, IF you get them fired up for you, you own the presidency. We can see that the far left and vicious Obama supporters (who btw are a tiny minority of Obama's people) understand that; and as such are stopping at NOTHING to destroy Ms. Palin.
The second thing it has done is not being noticed, and time will tell if it actually bears out. One group of people she has fired up, and are talking about her all over the web, are libertarians. People haven't noticed that Bob Barr has been running at about five percent in most polls when all the candidates are considered.
McCain already HAS independents. he already had a significant number of former Hillary supporters who are disgruntled by the shabby treatment of the Obama campaign. He already had many of those who feel Hillary was robbed of the VP slot. Those were enough to keep him pretty close to being tied or slightly behind Obama in a year where he should be getting creamed.
No, that's not what he needs. What he needs are the people who do NOT like big government republicans, who are disappointed with big spender Bush and feel the Republican brand is "more the same" as the democrats. What he needs are the people who the Democrats do not know exist. Small "L" libertarians.
In this close election, he who wins the libertarians wins the race.
We'll see how this plays out; I still don't know where I am going to vote this year, but I DO know I am FAR more likely to vote for a McCain/Palin ticket than if he had picked another big government Republican like himself.
I can't say that he did THIS on purpose, or if THIS is what he was after when he picked Sarah, but it IS what is happening out there.
2 comments:
McCain is a budget hawk and the only person (in either party) to take a stand in the torture debate on the "no - by which I mean fucking no - no god dammit - no" side.
For me, he gets big points for that, and it just makes me wish he'd beaten Bush in the primaries years ago all the more.
But c'mon. Obama is gonna win, and thinking there's a shot that won't happen is just delusional.
:)
He certainly may; the fact that he is doing so badly in the polls when he should be kicking McCain's butt is very telling.
He barely got a bump from the convention (smaller than John Kerry's), and otherwise his lead has been within the margin of error in most polls.
This in a year where the republican name is so tarnished by Bush and the corruption within the party. That shows Obama was a terrible pick for the Democrats. Hillary would be doing MUCH better.
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