Has Sarah Palin really saved McCain's campaign? The article in The Wall Street Journal titled "How Sarah Got McCain's Groove Back" seems to think so. The article says that McCain was losing public interest simply because he was "too old". Paris Hilton's comments didn't seem to help his cause as many people felt that he was not relevant and couldn't connect with the American voters. In contrast people saw young and fresh Barack Obama who always seemed to be optimistic as a threat to McCain's campaign. Then came along Sarah Palin, the always cheery woman who seemed to be exactly what the McCain campaign needed. Not only does she connect with women but she has also connected with the Independents. The article draws attention to how Palin has made it into the entertainment world when Saturday Night Live performed a skit depicting Palin as a bimbo. The author believes that the skit did just the opposite, he feels that it depicted Palin as a cheerful and optomistic runningmate to McCain. The article finishes up by criticizing Obama by sayin that he remained calm and collected at the beginning of the campaign but now as the race has progressed he has become tactless and defensive.
Personally I feel that this article was completely bais in favor of Palin. The authr gushes about how wonderful Palin is and what she has brought to the campaign. However the only evidence the author provides is that she is always cheery and optimistic. To be honest I don't see really antying that Palin has brought to the table other than the fact that she is an attractive woman. Yes, she may have brought popularity back to the McCain campaign but I fail to see why. I do not consider myself to be a feminist in the least, nevertheless this quote from Women Against Sarah Palin sums up my feeling about Sarah Palin: "Feminism...It's about protecting and supporting the rights of women of all classes, races, cultures, and beliefs. Palin's record and beliefs do not align with this. She was chosen by John McCain specifically because he believes that American women will vot for any female candidate regardless of their qualifications".
What are your thoughts/feelings about Sarah Palin? Do you think she has revived the McCain campaign? If so what do you feel she has brought to the campaign to do so?
6 comments:
The easiest way to answer the reason why Sarah Palin revitalized the campaign is because she is an actual conservative. John McCain is center-right, but he had not captured the Republican base until he chose Palin. She was not chosen entirely because she was a woman, but because McCain knew he could not win unless he picked a conservative.
She is against raising taxes, is pro-life, is for the drilling of ANWR and offshore drilling, and she does not believe in global warming, which are just some of the widely held conservative views.
McCain is center-right, but he does things that make conservatives go crazy, such as his attempt at comprehensive immigration reform and stating on 60 minutes just two days ago that he would put former Clinton HUD secretary Andrew Cuomo as the new SEC chairman if he had his way. Palin has yet to make such blatant anti-conservative views and I don't believe she will.
As much as the McCain campaign claims that they picked her based on her 'maverick' status, this is not the case. He picked her because she is a conservative and is even willing to fight her own party's corruption in order to fix things.
I think Palin is a great and strong woman that has accomplished a lot and respect her a lot, but I don't think McCain chose her for that reason. In response to Robin's comment I feel that its the complete opposite. I feel that McCain(the old and not fresh candidate) like Obama (the new and fresh candidate) pulled this as a political stunt, having all the good things about Palin as a bonus like how robin says, "She is against raising taxes, is pro-life, is for the drilling of ANWR and offshore drilling, and she does not believe in global warming, which are just some of the widely held conservative views." McCain being viewed by the democ. party as Bush 3, had to change that, and what better way then to have her on his side and taking him out of the picture. If he chose any of the others I don't thing we would see the same spotlight on them as we do with Palin. Ever since he picked Palin as his running vp, all the heat has been taken off of him and put on Palin, which is what i feel he wanted. Palin has also helped McCain go up a little, but as we see now Obama is back up and hitting the 50% again on the polls. I feel that McCain needs to pull another stunt to get his polls back up, I'm just waiting to see what he will do next.
Sarah Palin was seen as having gotten McCain's "Groove Back", however she is now seen as a liability to the campaign. She has not only shown her severe lack of knowledge of what is truly going on in the world, but she is now making McCain's choice for vice president seen to be ill informed. When she was interviewed by Katie Couric she was uninformed and was unable to answer the questions that she was being asked. Palin's experience with foreign policy, she has claimed is from the experience of having Russia as her neighbor, which I do not think is nearly enough experience to consider yourself worthy of being vice president. She is not well informed about McCain's views and in my eyes is defiantly not ready to be in any part of the white house. It has been reported multiple times on the news that two former supporters of Palin are now saying that Palin should step aside. Although Palin has gained attention to McCain's campain, it seems to be negative attention that is making people question weither or not she is anything more then a pretty face.
I believe that Sarah Palin definitely gave the John McCain campaign a much needed boost, in that it gave the public something to talk about.Her initial contribution was to give the McCain the advantage of the female voters, in that she was an solid example of feminism and someone that the majority of women in the US could identify with. This plan has backfired. She seems as though she is not a adequate fit for the position of vice presidency. In her recent interactions with the media she seems to be uneducated on the basic doctrines and principles of her party. I addition her recent interview with Katie Couric showed her lack of experience and understanding of foreign policy.This has countered her initial contributions to the McCain campaign making her a liability and another questionable endorsement by John McCain.
I personally think the Palin craze has worn off. Simply put, the main reason that Sarah Palin brought any life to the McCain campaign is this: she is a former beauty queen, a mother, and could field dress a moose in the dead of winter (in a bikini haha). Her appeal (for the most part) is that she is a novelty to the Republican Party. The only long run revamping that Sarah Palin has given the McCain campaign has been to ignite the evangelical voter base (which, granted is quite a large and a usually untouched demographic). Don’t get me wrong, she has fabulous public appearance and a natural spunk that demands attention, but she has yet to really prove herself as the possible leader of the free world.
While I support John McCain, I do have my doubts about Palin’s ability to lead this nation (if McCain were to die in office). Its not that I do not respect Palin, she is a remarkable woman, I just have not been particularly impressed with her previous interviews. I’m sure she is intelligent; I just need her to prove it before I give her my support. I guess I will just have to wait until the vice presidential debate in a couple days.
I would furthermore have to disagree with qdutton’s statement about the female voter base. Palin, according to most feminists, is a step backward for women’s rights (not that I personally agree, but it seems that is the general sentiment). I think feminists should give Palin more credit for what she has accomplished, even though she might not stand for what they believe.
In my opinion, Sarah Palin has only revitalized the campaign for John McCain because she is young, fresh, and outspoken. Before Palin came along, many people did think that McCain was just too old in age or for our generation to be a good leader for our country. He has been through life-changing experiences and has learned and grown from them, but I do agree that he is old and that was hurting him, especially running against Barack Obama who is always energetic and optimistic. Now that attractive, young Palin is running with McCain, people have taken more notice to the conservative perspective.
Sarah Palin does seem to be witty, smart, and confident, but I still don't think that that's enough to help their campaign. I honestly don't even see how McCain and Palin work together as a team, they seem as if they would butt heads, even though they have the same opinions about many topics. Her personality and demeanor seem different from his, and I think that by having her run with him, he knew it would shake things up.
However, I don't think people's votes should be swayed by Palin because she isn't going to contribute enough to make McCain's campaign stronger than Obama's.
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