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twitterELECTION 2008:
Palin fever brings out campaign volunteers
Leila Navidi
Ana Wood, center, calls Sarah Palin “the average person who does everything.” Wood, who was calling voters this week at a field office in Henderson, works alongside Adam Hopkins and Nolga Valadez.
Sat, Sep 20, 2008 (2 a.m.)
McCain-Palin campaign volunteer Julie Hereford works the phones this week at a Republican field office in Henderson. Admiration for the vice presidential candidate has attracted many new campaign workers.
Reader poll
Sun Archives
- Palin connects in Northern Nevada (9-15-2008)
- Nevada Democrats’ machine is well-oiled (09-7-2008)
Beyond the Sun
They’re on a first-name basis, and first name only. It’s just Sarah.
That would be Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president.
With the Palin pick, Arizona Sen. John McCain has helped erase some of the enthusiasm gap in Nevada, with Republican hope, energy and volunteer participation on the rise, according to GOP volunteers interviewed this week.
“Sarah brought me in,” said Linda Lee Burnett, who was making phone calls at state Republican headquarters in Las Vegas this week. “She rocked the base,” said Burnett, a naturalized citizen from Canada and longtime conservative activist.
Burnett came in about a week ago and had put in 15 hours, she said.
Analysts say McCain’s first task was to excite his Republican base, and he’s done it. In fact, here’s how much he’s done it: People are demanding yard signs that say “McCain/Palin,” rather than just “McCain,” according to a Republican operative.
Why do they like her so much?
The answers vary. Her conservative bona fides are important to Charity Chase, a young libertarian: “What she stands for and her record,” Chase said at Republican headquarters. McCain has long had problems with conservatives, who see one of their own in Palin.
Other interviews reveal an admiration of Palin’s remarkable unpretentiousness — working mother with a pregnant teenage daughter, high-end blue-collar hobbies such as moose hunting and snowmobiling. They can relate to her life easily.
“When you’re a mother, you have better instincts and can solve problems,” said Kayla Carter, who at 16 is working on her first campaign. She was calling voters from a Henderson office.
But Republicans also love that Palin’s no average working mom — she’s like an average working mom with extraspecial life force that has fueled a rocket rise, taking on the allegedly corrupt Alaska Republican establishment and beating it in 2006.
“She’s like the average person who does everything,” said Ana Wood, a volunteer at the Henderson office.
The Palin fever is reminiscent of the aura of excitement that’s surrounded Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama since his famous keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
National Review, the venerable conservative magazine, has Palin on its cover this week, with a slightly tongue-in-cheek headline: “The One!”
Georgia Parker, who volunteered many hours for President Bush in 2004, came into the Henderson office for the first time this week proclaiming Palin “emanates pureness.”
McCain has closed what had been a yawning gap between the two parties on enthusiasm, with 74 percent of Republicans now satisfied with their candidate, up from 49 percent this summer, according to recent polling by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
This excitement matters, according to Michael McDonald, a political scientist who studies voter behavior at the Brookings Institution and George Mason University. “Volunteers, small donors, the people who participate actively, they have to be enthusiastic about participating. They won’t participate if they don’t care much about the candidates,” he said.
This seems obvious, but is increasingly important. Campaigns once relied heavily on TV advertising, but are in the process of returning campaigning to its roots in person-to-person politics because they believe it’s more effective.
As Yale political scientist Donald Green has shown, interactions with neighbors and friends are often the most effective way to win votes. The new Palin Nevada volunteers widen McCain’s potential pool of voters because the volunteers will chat up their own social and family networks.
Analysts think these social, family and church networks were crucial to President Bush’s 2004 reelection.
The only downside of the Palin bounce for McCain: She’s become a polarizing figure, McDonald said, without the sort of appeal to independents that McCain had hoped for.
Indeed, according to the most recent New York Times poll, Palin has helped McCain only with the Republican base.
But for the Republican volunteers at offices in Southern Nevada, that hardly matters.
Discussion: 34 comments so far…
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People removed from middle America just don't seem to be able to understand. When they sit around in their own circles and discuss things they are sure everyone must agree because all of their friends do. They forget, people in New York City and San Fransisco and other urban inner cities are very different from the rest of the country, and we are the majority.
Palin appeals to people because she represents them. Not necessarily agreeing with all her positions, but overall the person herself. She represents a citizen politician. When you read something ridiculous the government does and you say, "If I could be in charge for just a week, I would fix that place quick". She is that person. She is the one that said, I can do better than the idiot in charge. Then she ran for Governor and proved it.
The American public is in love with her and her folksy way and raw outdoors feel. They love her can do attitude and lack of fear. They love her family, especially because it has its own problems. They see her as REAL. They know what she stands for, because they do too. They also know standing for something doesn't make it always occur, because no matter how they all tried, they had failures too. They like it that she is still trying with all the normal problems. And when people pick on her, like this article, they rally around like someone just picked on their family, because they think she is.
It's going to be a fast finish from here. The Palin love affair cannot wear out in 7 weeks time, and attacking it wont do any good, because the people that have fallen for her, have adopted her, and you are attacking them. The biggest worry the democratic party should have now, is, do they lose the Senate and the Congress as well, the love affair is a real one.
The doey-eyed sheep are all one-sided as stated in this article - they're already part of the republican party. It's the 2000 and 2004 republican plan all over again - injecting religion into politics where it doesn't belong.
Not everyone loves Palin, take the women of Alaska, from her own backyard (they can see Russia too), who know her and who she is far better than any of us down here in the lower 48 after just seeing her repeat her lies for the past 3 weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv3Tp2XsL...
http://womenagainstpalin.com/blog2/2008/...
I respect everyon'es right to choose whatever religion you want - just keep it out of our politics.
"injecting religion into politics where it
doesn't belong"
I guess the sunreader will have problems voting for Obama.
Obama's title of his book comes from a Rev. Wright's sermon. At Obama's old church, they regularly gave and still giving political sermons.
Obama wants to expand the Bush faith-based charity program.
"At an evangelical church in Greenville, S.C., Obama said he seeks to be an "instrument of God" and expressed confidence "we can create a kingdom right here on Earth."
"I don't think it [a same-sex union] should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state," said Obama. "If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans." (See video here) St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans condemns homosexual acts as unnatural and sinful. "
"The pamphlet has circulated in other primary states and is striking for its overt appeal on religion. The words across the top read "Faith. Hope. Change." Obama is pictured at a church pulpit, with a large illuminated cross in the background. A quote at the bottom reads: "My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won't be fulfilling God's will unless I go out and do the Lord's work."
TrooperMoose, is as crooked as McBush. Neither has a clue. Neither have a plan, other than continue Bushes downward spiral. I am sure they are getting cash out of it somehow. Eight years of shame, corruption, meaningless killing of young men & women for greed is enough. McBush and TrooperMoose are just clones of the same poor policy we have been stuck with for the last eight years. We need change, not McNance change, or McNeinman change, which is no change. Positive change bringing back fiscal responsibility. Vote Obama.
Does Palin have a fever? Is she pregnant again?
I live in a small town. Palin is a rotten American. She does not stand up for people. She punishies rape victims. She abuses wildlife. People in small towns generally like nature. Palin is a corperate whore who is trying to look rural. It is a front and anyone who falls for it is a weak minded fool!
The only thing Gov. Palin has in common with me is an X chromosome. Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she is FOR women. She is nothing more than a more attractive Dick Cheney.
Her lack of knowledge isn't as disturbing as her lack of integrity and honesty. Transparency? Really? Is that what you call refusing to cooperate in an investigation after originally agreeing to? Is that what you call instructing your staff not to answer any questions and have them directed to McCain's campaign people? Is her idea of reform telling the same lie over and over and over, even after it has been debunked, or is it firing anyone who dares disagree with her and hiring her high school friends?
Sarah Palin is one shady character, just like all the others in the McBush clan. Which is why she fits in so well.
Taking into consideration this article is NevaDUH specific, the Palinoid Dummocrats are off again chasing the rabbit instead of the fox.
Whatever the likes or dislikes of her by either side, she is singlehandedly unraveling everything the Dummocrats built in their caucusux.
Which again demonstrates what a feckless party they are in NevaDUH.
Wow tex, did you come up with those derogatory homonyms all by yourself? impressive. That solid red state can learn a lot from you.
Yeah jfnance, you got me on that one huh? Just because I support Obama doesn't mean I agree with everything he says or calls for. Religion is man-made, meaning all the different churches started up by regular ole Joes like you and me. Heck we can get ordained as ministers over the internet! This great country wasn't founded on the sole basis of one single religion or religious belief was it? I don't think so. Tell me honestly that you believe and like everything McCain/Palin say?
Overall, I firmly believe Senator Obama will serve ALL of us for the greater good of the country. And [insert the name of your supreme being here] knows that the country is in serious need of healing. McPain/Palin I believe would continue to deep rift and failed policies Bush/Cheney created.
Libs are scared to death of Palin because she does exactly what this story says: She represents them. That's been missing from American for the past 20 years. Now we have a true conservative who is true to our principles and we are excited. Palin will make the difference in this election and make a huge difference in Washington when she is sworn in. We can only hope McCain will allow her to have some influence. If he doesn't, he won't have a prayer at a second term.
Liberals are afraid of Palin because Palin represents liberals? That doesn't make sense dave!
So you're saying you're voting for Palin. McCain just happens to be on the ticket and hopefully he doesn't get in Palin's way.
Your argument has nothing to do with OUR great country - all you care about is you and people who believe in what you believe in, the hell with everybody else.
Exactly what OUR country does not need.
It sounds to me as though all of you with Palin-mania think you are voting for American Idol and not the American Presidency. If you look at the facts and not the spin you will realize that Palin is not the reformer she claims to be.
She kept the money for the bridge. It was not used for the bridge, but she did keep it. That is not reform. That is called a lie.
Her and her staff are refusing to testify in her ethics investigation. This is not reform; these are the tactics Bush/Cheney have used repeatedly.
Wake-up and smell the moose poop.
It sounds to me as though all of you with Obama-mania think you are voting for American Idol and not the American Presidency. If you look at the facts and not the spin you will realize that Obama is not the reformer he claims to be.
www.BarackObama.com/Plan
Where is McCain's Plan?
I know, a moose ate his homework.
For the last week....Obama was.....uhggggg..."studying the issues"
I guess he was trying to get the 411 on mortgage meltdown from his ex-CEO Fannie Mae crooks who have been his economic and VP selection advisors.
Obama plan is to raise taxes on job creation capital investments......yea...we do not need jobs in Nevada...lol......
....wait a minute....Obama now thinks that will hurt the economy...he is now reconsidering raising taxes....Lol
Here is McCain site: http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/jobsfor...
People say they like Palin's folksy way and they see her as real. Are people delusional??? The economy is in the dumper. Auto-ailine-finance-real estate-banking are in shambles. People can't even sell their houses. Credit is not available & there are no jobs. After 8 years of what we've all been thru-the GOP has not earned the right to continue leading this country.
I will save this page because of the amount of heat it will generate on a cold winter's night. Just the facts here - Palin was the mayor of a small town - back room politics and all - I did in one part of my life work with lots of wonderful small town mayors in New York state - they were wonderful but mostly un-sophisticated and frequently clumsy but well meaning and their dedication got them through. They were NOT presidential material. I am happy that Palin has had a nice run in Alaska - she has had coffers overflowing with the income from 4 buck a gallon gas and could kick some of it back to the 650,000 citizens of Alaska - let her do her on the job training up there instead of against Putin and the big guns! Think about it - with the paling and failing McCain - there is a good chance she will be the ONE if the voters don't carefully consider what they are doing. Oh, I will probably vote Libertarian - I don't trust either party (R or D - red or blue)to do anything but screw up the country. God bless America!
'Barbie' has more international experience than Sarah Palin. I don't want 'Barbie' in the White House either.
"I like her because she's just like me"
These are the same idiots who elected Curious George twice. I don't want a president that's just like me. I'm not qualified to be president. And neither is she.
She gives the same tired stump speech over and over, while not offering one single specific idea on how to fix the mess that George Bush created.
Her townhall meetings are a farce. They are "invitation only" (registered republicans), and when a voter asked her to give a specific foreign policy credential, she answered with nothing but general talking points:
"As for foreign policy, you know, I think that I am prepared, and I know that on Jan. 20, if we are so blessed as to be sworn into office as your president and vice president, certainly we'll be ready. I'll be ready. I have that confidence. I have that readiness. And if you want specifics with specific policy, or countries, go ahead and you can ask me. You can even play stump the candidate, if you want to."
This woman is a joke. Look at what we got with the last "average joe" candidate. An illegal war, an economy on the brink of collapse, people losing their homes, high gas prices, millions without proper health insurance, and a president that doesn't uphold the constitution. Haven't we had enough? When will people learn that we need someone who actually understands the issues that face our country?
Say NO to Dipstick/Lipstick '08
Say YES to Obama/ Biden '08
A Washington "Maverick."
An Oil Connected Governor.
A War Hawk.
A Hunter and Gun Lover.
A Christian Coalition Support Candidate.
No Foreign Policy Experience.
Palin is just like Bush. We tried this 8 years ago and it hasn't work out so well. It's time for Republicans to accept responsibility for the past 8 years instead of trying to fool Americans AGAIN. This time it wont work and Americans are waking up to the reality of McCain/Palin. Check out the most recent polls...People have had enough.
It is Sunday morning, if you who read this go to church say a prayer for sanity over insanity, dialogue rather than diatribe, peace over war, love instead of bigotry and hate, and learn to behave and love your neighbor as yourself. God bless and save us all, maybe then America will be an land of the free and brave - not the prisoners and the violent! Think about, do it, and learn to love!
Biden on Obama: "From a debate in 2007, a clip shows Mr. Biden standing next to Mr. Obama. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News queried Mr. Biden: "You were asked, "Is he ready?" You said, 'I think he can be ready but right now, I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.'"
Obama on Obama not having enough experience to be President.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/0...
Wake Up People!
The AP and network news reporters want Obama elected. They have supported and protected him for 20 months.
We have not been told the truth about his friendship with Willian Ayers Weathermen Underground bomber,
Tony Rezko slum lord and Daley political machine contractor,
Rev. Wright racist hate filled sermons,
James Cone Obama's mentor and author of book Black Theology and Black Power,
Cone's book will scare you to death. He blames white people for everything. It is a very hateful book.
Obama's advisors James Johnson CEO of Fannie Mae 1991-98.
Obama advisor Franklin Raines CEO of Fannie Mae 1999-2004.
They are at the heart of this mortgage mess. Google their names and read for yourself.
Please don't elect Obama.
Name one time Obama fault corruption in Chicago or in Illinois. He doesn't have a record of fighting corruption or reducing gov. spending.
He is all talk. He has been a senator for three years and for two years he has been flying around America running for president.
He has zero executive experience and very little senate experience.
How can people support him? I don't understand. It has to be the news media. They all want him elected.
Truth please - not a diatribe! That is everyone dig in and try to apply some intelligence here instead of a lot of rhetoric! Pray more - less heat and more light!
Ah, more lies from the neocon right. Franklin Raines is NOT an advisor to Obama.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-ch......
In fact, the Washington Post, the so-called "source" for the Raines-Obama connection, gave the "advisor" allegation TWO PINOCHHIOS!
"The McCain campaign is clearly exaggerating wildly in attempting to depict Franklin Raines as a close adviser to Obama on "housing and mortgage policy." If we are to believe Raines, he did have a couple of telephone conversations with someone in the Obama campaign. But that hardly makes him an adviser to the candidate himself -- and certainly not in the way depicted in the McCain video release."
Raines supposedly talked to "someone" in the Obama campaign twice on the phone, and now the neocons are calling him and "Obama advisor?"
Don't believe the hype!
Washington Post conflicts with the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
Johnson was the VP selection chairman.
How are they wiggle out that one?
Greetings from Alaska! Right now all questions for Palin are handled by the McCain Headquarters. We can not talk to our own Governor. We get released statements from a New York lawyer and a McCain spokesperson. The McCain campaign has inserted itself into our state investigation of Palin. The McCain Camp is controlling all information, and the lawyer is telling people to not testify in the investigation.
Does this sound like the kind of government we want in America?? Is this what McCain/Palin are offering as leadership?? Secrets?? Coverups??
What I am seeing here in Alaska is not a fresh faced, small town, reformer. I am seeing strong arm, good ol' boy politics at it's worst. Find the anchorage newspaper online if you want to read more.
I have been looking at the electoral college layout and I think Nevada might be a key state in electing our next President. Obama is not perfect by any means, but what I am seeing here gives me very uneasy feeling about the McCain/Palin leadership. Please do not put McCain and Palin in charge of our country. We deserve better.
Johnson held a position in the campaign for a week, hardly a "top economic advisor."
In addition, he was attached to Veep vetting, not economics.
The Washington Post debunked Raines... not a surprise the neocons still cling to a DEBUNKED interview where the characterization was a few phone calls, a characterization from a liar like Raines.
LOL, keep spreading the lies!
Not a top advisor.......in-charge of selecting the VP....LOL
Boy, you guys can tell a big one.
Raines did give economic advice to the campaign on more than one occassion...that is a fact jack....can't run from that either.
Can't run from the fact that Obama is number 2 on the list of getting cash from Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac either.
Can't run from the fact that the man running McCain's campaign, Charlie Black, was a lobbyist for Freddie Mac for 10 years.
No, Johnson being on the Veep vetting squad is not a "TOP ECONOMIC ADVISOR."
Raines says he got two phone calls. Never said he met with, spoke to, or even called Obama himself. That's NOT a "top economic advisor."
LOL, debunked and clueless!
"In addition, he was attached to Veep vetting, not economics."
This is funny.
Obama: Mr. Johnson, we know that you are crook. As CEO we know that you ran Fannie Mae into the ground. We know that you cooked the books to give yourself and your crooked friends millions in bonuses. We know that you are a lousy in economics, but we want you to be in-charge of selecting our VP.
LOL....LOL.....that was a good one.......He is not giving us economic advice...so it is OK.....LOL
Coming from someone whose candidate employed Phil Gramm, the architect of the current fiscal meltdown on Wall Street, as his MAIN ECONOMIC ADVISOR?
McCain's economic plan was WRITTEN by Gramm, the man most responsible for deregulating the mortgage and securities industries!
McCain said he'd STILL consider Gramm for the Treasury Secretary?
LOL, still clueless!
Governor Palin has had approval ratings in the 80's-90's, the highest of any Governor in the U.S. There is a good reason for this: she is doing an outstanding job.
Under Palin, Alaska now has an estimated 5 billion dollar surplus (some say 9 billion). Alaskans each received checks for over two thousand dollars from the surplus.
Palin successfully negotiated a deal for a 1,700 mile natural gas pipeline to the lower 48 states. It was a great achievement.
Sometimes Alaskans call Sarah Palin "Our Margaret Thatcher." Maybe it is because Palin as Commander in Chief of the AK National Guard, was recently faced with a national security crisis from Vladimir Putin in the form of his Russian bombers flying close to the Alaskan coast (the Russians were angry over America's recognition of Kosovo). She must have handled the situation skillfully, because the Russians backed off and America was not attacked.
I would say that counts as foreign policy experience.
Last year Palin visited her Guardsmen in Kuwait and stopped at the Landsfuhl military base in Germany to visit the troops.
If you recall, Obama was supposed to visit wounded troops at the hospital there, but decided to go to the gym and do some shopping instead.
Palin was on a list of possible VP picks along with Romney, Pawlenty and Jindal. There were many people promoting her qualifications for months before she was chosen by McCain.
Do not be fooled by the Democrats' attempts to demonize and diminish her. This lady is a talented, patriotic American leader.
60,000 people came out to see Palin in Florida yesterday. Those are huge numbers, bigger than what Obama draws.
Expect more lies and smears about Palin and her family. The Dems will continue to throw the kitchen sink at her in an attempt to destroy her.