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Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.
Sarah Palin came to Nevada on Tuesday to reinvigorate the base.
And, boy, does the base ever need it, especially in this swinging state where the pendulum clearly has moved away from McCain-Palin since Saint Sarah arrived in Carson City during her savior period five weeks ago. John McCain still can barely find the state on the map — but he did do a telephonic town hall this week! — and he dispatched Palin to try to salvage a battleground where the war, as Harry Reid might say, might already be lost.
Palin may not have been able to smell it in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center or the beautiful Henderson Pavilion, but that scent in the Nevada air for the GOP is desperation. You can see it in the numbers, on the airwaves, in the mailboxes.
Perhaps the most telling sign of the Republican straw-grasping occurring came from one of the warm-up speakers for Palin, state Sen. Bob Beers, who can play more tricks with numbers than most magicians can with rabbits and hats. Beers urged the crowd to go out and vote because Democrats are beating Republicans in the early vote, but told them to take heart that fewer Democrats had voted each day and more Republicans were going to the polls each day.
Forget accuracy for a moment — more than 15,000 Democrats voted the first day, then about 12,000 the second and 13,000 the third. More important, for Beers and the GOP, everything is relative — 5,700 Republicans voted Saturday, a little more than 5,000 on Sunday and about 6,000 on Monday. If that pathetic pace continues — though it seems unlikely — by the end of the 14-day early voting period, Republicans will be far enough behind to make Nov. 4 an afterthought.
The state Palin visited Tuesday has been overtaken by a Democratic registration tsunami that has put the GOP more than 100,000 voters behind statewide. And now, after three days of early voting, it appears Democrats have converted their registration machine into a turnout juggernaut, holding a 59 percent to 25 percent lead in Clark County in the early vote — 56 percent to 29 percent, if mail ballots are counted.
That is nothing short of devastating if it holds up — no GOP Election Day machine, no voter suppression techniques, no wailing about ACORNs and Ayers can change that. Even Palin seemed to have been tipped off to what is happening in Clark County as she gave a speech that, except for references to her running mate and Ronald Reagan, could have been delivered by Hillary Clinton.
She mentioned the glass ceiling several times, talked about equal pay for women and railed against the subjugation of females in other countries. It was a direct appeal to the kind of voters the McCain-Palin ticket is hemorrhaging, partly because some women have been turned off by the vice presidential nominee who, despite the bobbing of all those “Country First” signs in Henderson, has become a symbol of the emptiness of Politics First.
The Republicans, despite an enthusiastic crowd here for Palin on Tuesday, know they are in trouble. Indeed, the site of her speech — Green Valley — is a traditional GOP stronghold in a congressional district never held by a Democrat, but where one may just win this time.
Rep. Jon Porter, who was on stage Tuesday, needed all the help he could get from whatever is left of the Palin Effect. As the campaign winds down, Porter has decided to answer the question, “How could he top 2006, when he called Tessa Hafen, scion of a family that has lived here for generations, a carpetbagger?” The answer, we have come to find out: Blame Dina Titus, the state senator running against him, for the current economic crisis.
Porter and his allies have at least two ads that have recently aired that accuse Titus of “shady schemes” and have tried to directly link her votes for an infamous pension increase nearly two decades ago to the current recession, portraying her as rapacious in the face of struggling families. It would be comically brazen, except most people probably don’t know the separation in time and might buy it.
If this were any other year, that issue might have killed Titus. But look at those early numbers in CD3: 22,613 Democrats, 11,330 Republicans. If that pace holds, even Titus, despite her baggage and funding disadvantage, will unseat Porter.
Maybe that’s why Palin, arriving in a Democratic county getting more Democratic all the time, decided to sound like a Democrat — the frothing faithful barely noticed. After all, if Democrats aren’t crossing over for McCain-Palin, Porter and others, the landslide is coming.
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This hockey mom paid $150,000 in tax payer money at SAKS and Neiman Marcus. I just love knowing my tax money is outfitting her and her husband!
I shop at WalMart!
That's been my point all along - NONE of these politicians can relate to what the average American family is dealing with. Must be nice to spend that kind of money on clothes while others are praying to find a job that pays a decent wage for survival. How people with money can be so frivilous is beyond me - it's as if they are living in another world and they truly do NOT have a clue! Sad to say but I don't know what real choice the people have. We have to wait for the government to throw back crumbs of the money they get from US, the taxpayers, and then I guess we're expected to feel ever so grateful - I think it should be a given that when the people who paid in to begin with start suffering because of their serious lack of funds that the money should go back, without hesitation, why should the very people who paid the money in the form of taxes and what-not then be made to deal with not having money to pay their bills while the government uses the peoples money to cover THEIR expenses? Something is truly wrong with the way this government has such total control over every last bit of our lives lately - even telling business what they can and can't allow as it pertains to tobacco - a legal substance - this doesn't sound like Democracy to me folks - not one bit.
Oh, yes. Sara Palin is going to defend women. Except when and where it counts.
This is my body and no one has the right to tell me what I can or can't do with it.
I'd like to see how a man would react if the government decided that he must not use contraceptives, and could never have a vasectomy.
Yep, you just go ahead and believe what St. Sarah is telling you. She is going to protect your rights. To work, to bear children and to be chattel to your husband.
Remember, she is a fundamental Christian. That means women are inferior to their husbands and must OBEY them.
What a load of crap. Thinking woman can see through her lies.
"Oh, yes. Sara Palin is going to defend women. Except when and where it counts."
xxxx
"This is my body and no one has the right to tell me what I can or can't do with it."
Yet, "you" wouldn't mind slaughtering innocent life, would "you"?? A fetus, acc to "you", an unwanted inconvienence, just kill it? Murderer!
Don't want unwanted preganacy, have him slap on a condom. Take apill. Take responsibility. There are no unpreventable "mistakes" in this regard.
xxxx
"I'd like to see how a man would react if the government decided that he must not use contraceptives, and could never have a vasectomy."
This doesn't happen with anyone, thus your statement is simple delusionally-liberal political propaganda.
xxxx
Yep, you just go ahead and believe what St. Sarah is telling you. She is going to protect your rights. To work, to bear children and to be chattel to your husband."
I love reading liberal political vitriolic attacks against someone who has achieved much more than you have - despite (she has said having a family is an honor) the burdens of all these children and her "dude", who she loves and actually has the greater career than. You penalize the woman who - both sides of it - who has the greater AND lesser work presences.
xxx
"Remember, she is a fundamental Christian. That means women are inferior to their husbands and must OBEY them."
Your religious discrimination is both political delusion AND fundaMENTALly retarded, but in line with modern liberal political dogma. Being a "fundamental Christian" MEANS NO SUCH THING. Honoring one's spouse (works both ways) is a major part of what makes marriage work.
xxxx
"What a load of crap. Thinking woman can see through her lies."
The "load of crap" is YOU! Murderer of innocent life, political delusional and liberal anti-conservative-woman goose-stepper = thank you for exposing yourself and the opinion that only a LIBERAL woman has any place expressing herself in today's society.
A "thinking woman" such as yourself is a disgrace to those who actually ARE!
NVMakz, here's your ACORN implications right here, except of course that the intent of the fraud WAS to effect the election outcome...
"Ex-GOP operative tells cautionary tale about 'how to rig an election'"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/r...
Gosh, you righties are just so squeaky clean. It's no wonder you slather this site with your arrogance.