Sep 11 2008
The Palin Movement Is Massive
Marc Ambinder has one of the best indicators of how large the Palin phenom truly is:
According to a Republican official, countywide, seven to ten times as many new volunteers are signing to help as compared to the same days a month ago.
The day McCain announced the pick, and the Wednesday and Thursday of the convention, the numbers were through the roof, dwarfing the number of new volunteer sign-ups during that same period in 2004.
And that wave is sucking support from Obama and the Dems in much larger numbers than I think the polls are showing. on their bottom line numbers (even while parity is being reached between the self identified dems and reps – erasing a one time large gap).
In case you only watched the ABC news cuts of Sarah’s interview with “Charlie”, here is the complete interview via YouTube. No cuts. Sarah did very well with the attempted “gotcha” questions. She did not stutter, no ‘uh’s, ‘duh’s’. Very positive. She came across as knowing the material. Biden had better study more before the debates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ALsjhDDdaA
Here is part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cba-VU13Bsg
Repub. precincts have run out of McCain signs. I’ve been by 3 times, and as soon as I walk in the lady at the desk says, “I’m sorry, we don’t have anything with ‘Palin’ yet.”
I did get a sign for myself, a neighbor, and my mom, and between us, we’ve had 7 people stop us while in the yard asking for one of their own.
I’ll bet the printers are working overtime at the RNC.
Here in Texas, a news article a couple days ago related how all local democrat party volunteers are being sent out of state to areas where obama still thinks he has a chance, such as new mexico. In a nutshell, Obama’s pulled out.
I played with the electoral college map this evening – looks like Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are going to be the states where this race is decided.
Here in GA, the latest polls have McCain up 18%. 2 months ago The One thought he had a chance here. I haven’t seen a commercial for Obama on TV here since before the DNC convention. I’m not quite sure what he is doing with the $50M he raises a month.
It is obvious that Charlie didn’t like her answers, even the fact that she had answers. I think he thought he would break her down with his ‘insisting’ she answer his question, even though the basis for his questions were not what he thought they were. She did an excellent job, and as you said, no stuttering,, no maybes, good solid no nonsense answers. Biden is hoping she won’t show up, maybe he’ll try to get Hillary to sub for him in the debates, pretending he has a headache.
There’s a micro-cultural component to what we are witnessing. I remember when the non-stop Bush-bashing by the media and the worrisome trajectory of the war in Iraq had given liberals at the water-cooler the upper hand. Let’s face it, it was difficult for us when talking about the war with libs in those days.
Then we won the war.
I don’t know about you, but I started to hit liberals where it hurts when Iraq came up. I think…. no….. I know there was and is some embarrassment there that they were so wrong about Iraq. It’s impossible for them to defend their position now, it’s a more significant emotional event for them than they are willing to admit, and the anger that was once there is slowly buy surely being replaced by embarrassment.
Then Obama began giving them something indefensible to defend, almost daily, and continues to do so. Disillusionment, and embarrassment.
Then gas prices spiraled, the drilling issue surfaced, and it became even more embarrassing to be a Democrat. The peer-group paradigm has changed, it’s no longer cool to be a Democrat. I know people at work who have made a complete turnaround on how they view the issues, and us conservatives. They are making concessions to us on the war, and I know at least one tree-hugger colleague at work who is ready to drill ANWR now.
Then came Sarah Palin. I know a couple who used to brag about having voted for Clinton twice. The husband works for the Dept of Environmental Quality. The wife has become absolutely livid about the media’s treatment of Sarah Palin, and is now at odds with her husband because she is going to vote for McCain.
It’s no longer cool to be a lib.