Was anyone on fluther positively influenced in a conservative direction by McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for VP?
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ezraglenn (
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September 6th, 2008
As in, did choosing Palin make you want to vote for McCain any more than you did before he chose? Is Palin a deciding reason for anyone to vote republican in this election? Hillary supporters? Anyone?
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69 Answers
Any ideas I had about voting for McCain are gone now. I would never put her in the white house.
Not because she is a woman, not because she is a mom or has a pregnant daughter but because of her politics.
Here is an example of her “my way or the hi way” attitude. We need a reach across Pres and VPres.
McCain might have done that. I don’t think she will.
No. What is positive about his choice? What has she done professionally that’s made a positive difference in the world? Someone, please enlighten me.
Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving “full support” to the mayor. – Time Magazine
I cringe at the thought that she would preside over the U.S. Senate; as much she claims that her idealism has done wonders for her in her home state, I think that kind of attitude will be met with much antagonism when she sets foot in the Capitol Building, and will do very little to “bring” interests together to work for a common set of causes.
Uh. No.
I would not have imagined he could have chosen someone to make the Heffalumps even MORE unappealing, but he managed it.
I am never swayed by the pick for Vice President, pro or con. It seems like a weird way to make one’s decision on the President.
@Larssen, heffalumps, ho ho, I like that.
@ Marina – After what our current VP has done in his own best interests i.e. contracts overseas, and, as sndfreQ pointed out, presiding over the Senate, as well as the fact that were something to happen to the president the second in command takes over, how could you not be swayed? I don’t understand that at all
@Bri_L You make a good point. Most Vice Presidents do not exercise the authority or influence that the evil Dick Cheney has.
They are largely irrelevant, however, unless the unthinkable happens. I don’t want to make my decision on who is to be President based on the what if of the unthinkable.
I can echo everything said above; but, admittedly, my vote was decided somewhere around 2001. Having said that, Palin has galvanized my support for the Obama-Biden ticket and my opposition to the Republican ticket. Now, with Palin on board, we have shifted from more of the same to even worse. Yes, I think Palin is worse than Bush.
I’m not really going to get into the politics, but I’m more of a obama fan.
Not that this is the most authoritative source for info, but while George H. W. Bush was in office as VP and President of the U.S. Senate, he chaired the Presidential task force on deregulation.
The site stated “As vice president, Bush cast three tie-breaking votes to renew chemical weapons production, supported sale of missiles to “terrorist” Iran and the illegal arming of the Nicaraguan contras and other paramilitary groups he called “freedom fighters. He also chaired The Presidential Task Force on Deregulation which, according to Mary Fricker in her book Inside Job, “set the tone” for bank deregulation which led to the savings and loan financial disaster of the 1980s.”
Not to mention that prior to his V.P. tenure, Bush was the head of the CIA…
I’ll tell you guys a little secret…though I am definitely a Democrat, I married a Republican. He likes her! We’ve had two fights, in two days, (more than we’ve had in the last 2 years) over this! My God, what have I done? Seriously, I do love the man, I just don’t understand him at all. No more political talks for us till after the election!
@augustIan: like or like like?
Obama’s speech was really moving. My mom was getting teary
I have to know what he likes about her. I am dumbstruck.
I can’t answer that very well…before I figured it out, we were screaming and slamming doors!
I think it’s that the nasally grating voice goes so well with the snotty attitude and skirting the issues.
Before the Palin pick, I was for Obama, but only in a “gee, I think he’ll make a great leader and I’m excited to vote for him” way. Now, I am so rabidly against the GOP because of the choice that I really can’t even discuss it calmly. I’m even a little surprised myself at what base negative emotions she has stirred in me. I guess I wanted to believe that McCain meant what he said, that he would take the high road, and that the republicans would see that their culture war really hurt the US. Now that I see it continuing, I ache for my country and worry about the future. Never before has politics gotten so under my skin.
My mind was made up long before the Palin pick, it changed nothing.
The Palin pick has solidified my oppostion to McCain. I was strongly for Obama before this, but I now see a McCain presidency as totally disastrous. What we would we be saying to ourselves and the world if we allow someone with Palin’s extreme religious and social convctions to win? And what does it say about McCain’s cynicsm and desire to pander to the right that he chose her over other more qualified people?
I truly believe in the separation of church and state and I hate the erosion of that and the fear mongering that has eroded our civil rights.
Marina: Considering 2 (almost 3) of the last 9 presidents have been replaced midterm by their VPs and that Senator McCain has a less than stellar medical history as well as potentially being our oldest president, it is very shortsighted not to look at the VP candidate.
Generally it boils down to this-WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???
Were they trying for Hillary supporters? It had to be the choice of men who think all women are alike. With almost any male choice maybe those progressive women might have voted 3rd party, Republican or just not voted but Sarah Palin not only loses those women but also inevitably some moderate Republican women.
And what an insult to Jodi Rell, governor of Connecticut since 2004 and elected to the state legislature in 1985, Oklahoma’s Mary Fallin, who was first elected to political office in 1990, and dozens of other Republican women. Maybe women who work for their party 20+ years just aren’t hot enough.
I dont like her, and i think it is an insult to hillary supportes that they would vote for him just because he has Boobies on his Ticket, I dont see why any Hillary suppoter would like her, I think she will just ruin everything women have fought for. Macain made me SOOO mad when we accounced her and i wasnt even a hillary suppoter
She makes me want to puke—a B.A. in Journalism from some podunk-state school, and she compares herself to Obama, Harvard Law? WTF?
I didn’t care for the condescending way she compared her governorship to his volunteerism. What a snoot.
I cannot beleive that we will elect another Republicn ticket after the last 7 1/2 disasterous years.
What about Giuliani making fun of community workers? Can you imagine what big cities would be like if poorly paid workers or volunteers were not there to help the poor, disabled, and disenfranchised?
community workers are mostly faith based—the republican base. I think republican’s hate the poor, don’t they? In that world view (not mine) they are poor because they are unjust or out of line with jesus—if they were in line with jesus they would be rich, in that world view, right?
I gues Jesus wasn’t in line with Jesus then was he? at least not in the Republican interpretation…
Giuliani is a stuffed shirt who loves to hear himself talk. Ask the New York fire fighters what they think of him.
So 33 responses in, it looks like the answer would be No, ezraglenn. Palin hasn’t positively influenced any potential McCain voters on Fluther, except for maybe augustlan’s husband?
I just wanted to add a possible reason for McCain’s pick… when I heard playful musings about the possibility of Bush being assassinated, the conversation was often shot down by the realization that Cheney would then become president. Even worse.
Maybe McCain is doing the same thing – Palin is his insurance policy?
Palin does scare me. McCain scare me just as much. A man who lived across the hall from McCain at the Academy and later was a prisoner of war with him has said he would never vote for him, because McCain is a hothead who just reacts and does not think things through—not a man I want in the White House.
The other thing he said was that McCain’s lifespan (like that of the other POWs) will be significantly shortened by the years of poor nutrition and untreated injuries. That makes the Palin choice even more scary in light of galileogirl’s statistics.
@Trustinglife: interesting theory!
Hopefully, I was just kidding. Better yet, we’ll never have to find out!
@trusting – don’t mistake the opinions voiced here as a representative cross-section of American opinion – on any subject ! Nothing replaces doing your homework.
How representative is fluther of the average voter? Wouldn’t it be great if Obama wins by as big a landslide as his support here on fluther seems to represent??
It would be great, but I wouldn’t count on it. Probably one of the reasons I like Fluther so much is the fact that there are so many liberals in the collective. When compared to my daily interactions with people in the “real” world, it’s a breath of fresh, idealistic air!
All my friends that voted for Bush in 2004 are voting for McCain. I am so fucking confused: Do conservatives have themselves? Their Families? Their country? Do they love failure?
Or are conservatives just stupid beyond belief?
@Allen, with respect… You might want to ask them. You’re their friend. I think it’s good when people talk to each other about hard stuff, and try to understand.
@ljs: Those two reads made me sick to my stomach. How can I can convince my husband that he just can’t vote for that ticket, without ending up in divorce court? We’ve already agreed not to talk about it anymore, but ugh, it’s so hard to bite my tongue!
@augustlan: I know what you mean. I wish I had some suggestions for you. My republican mom is visiting tomorrow and I’m asking my friends if they have a valium stash I can borrow. I think one thing I took away from the jezebel piece was how many women feel the same. I find that very cool. It’s not like being a feminist in the 1950s when you were fighting just about everyone.
@augustlan- you can distract him on election day and make him run a million errands and get him so busy and distracted he forgets it election day…........or you can some how convince him it is november 3rd instead of the 4th and convince him that election day is actually tommorrow when it is really not, i know its convincing him not to vote for Macain Paling but it is preventing him from actually voting for them(which is the next best thing). im sure he will thank you on a later date.
I have to say I’m also sick of hearing people say she’s a great speaker. It sounds just like people used to sound when they said Limbaugh was smart but they disagreed with him. It takes no great intellect to lie and deny over and over. She’s a lousy speaker, too.
augustlan—CUT HIM OFF! Come on women, you all are 51% of the electorate, get together and CUT OF the conservative men in your life. I can hear the chanting crowds, “CUT HIM OFF, CUT HIM OFF…..”
Most definitely. I’m going to get more conservative with my cash. I need to make a bigger donation to the DNC, and if Obama loses, I’ll need the money for food after the Rebublicans plunge us into another depression.
Allen: I would advocate the Lysastrata ploy but I am convinced that McCain supporters expend their energy in other areas like clapping each other on the back and cheering O’Reilly and Limbaugh.
I heard Bob Woodward talking on Larry King about some new top secret technique or technology which has allowed us to capture some top terrorists in Iraq. It was asked why they haven’t used this to capture Bin Laden and his answer was, “Maybe that will be the September or October surprise.” I wonder if they have the technology to kill Bin Laden but they are waiting to use it to impact the election.
Oh, that would piss me off royally!
Kind of reminiscent of Iran-Contra and the hostages being released during Reagan’s presidency. Isn’t it?
The town she was mayor of has 6,000 citizens.
My food co-op has 12,000 members.
sigh
I don’t have an exact figure and am too lazy to look it up, but I think Wasilla had closer 4–4500 citizens when Palin was elected the first time (she got 625’ish votes), maybe 5,000 when re-elected (650’ish votes).
@Bri: I’m not sure if you noticed, but the clip was from an ‘07 debate during the primaries. Though he definitely wasn’t referencing Palin with those comments, it’s still pretty interesting!
@ augustlan – Thanks, yeah I did notice. I was applying the political rules of longevity to the scenario. hehe.
McCain stands NO chance of getting my vote. I was open to him as Prez b4 this election…then, I was undecided for a good chunk of this summer. I was leaning left, then he struck with Palin. I’m back to being a Socialist now.
@breed: Hilarious! Thanks for that : )
That’s really brilliant. I’ve thought for a whle that this whole Palin thing was like a bad movie.
After reading a transcript of her interview with Katie Couric, I’m convinced she’s like a Chatty Kathy doll. All she can do is regurgitate Republican ideology when asked anything. Her boss is even less impressive. Democrats will raise taxes (pull, zip) Democrats will increase the size of government (pull, zip), Democrats will cost America jobs (pull, zip). It’s exactly the same thing Barry Goldwater was saying in 1964. Hell, it’s the same thing Thomas E. Dewey was saying in 1948. It’s like they all read from the same script, and Americans are so dumb they fall for it every time.
The choice of Palin was calculated to negate the post convention bump Obama would get. I suspect the decision was rushed because of a time constraint. Nothing about the woman made me more likely to vote for McCain. If anything, it made me less likely….
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