posted
A fetus IS an UNBORN BABY (in humans). C'mon, you don't actually believe this nonsense. It's just politically incorrect to say outloud what you really believe - that you believe in MURDERING unborn children. Facing the truth might be therapeutic - give it a try.
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So, one minute after birth, it's a baby. One minute before birth, it's what??? A goose? A bird? A kitten? That's ridiculous!
Smoke that comes off a trash fire is not the trash it was one minute before and that molded left too long in the "frige" piece of ham does not continue existence after the various alterations that produce the smoke. Even you should know better than to rely on that simple minded abuse of logic.
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posted
More gibberish Bdgee? So, what are you saying...that a baby is a piece of trash or a piece of ham one minute before birth? I guess that explains that you have no problem killing it! C'mon - if you think real hard, you know what it is - IT'S A BABY!
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posted
No, it isn't gibberish. It is common sense.
That crap you regurgitate from Fat Rush, the Doper, and Anal Attentive Ann Coulter and the RNC is gibberish and it is illogical trash. If you actually believe even a smidgen of that BS, then you are truly a mental ninny.
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posted
Of course not, CCW, because nature requires that what is a baby is able to survive with only normal and natural attention. That which cannot yet survive with only normal and natural attention but might be a baby in the future is called a fetus (or dead fetus if all hope of it eventual alteration to babyhood is gone).
A patty of raw ground beef, even on a bun and festooned with lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, etc. is not hamburger.
A spoon of leaves with no hot water poured over them, then allowed to steep, is not a cup of tea, simply because the ingredients required are there.
A 10 year old boy is not a mature man just because he may one day become one and he should not be granted all the privileges, responsibilities, and freedoms that may one day be his simply via that hoped for and expected possibility. He remains boy!
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posted
There are "forms" of cronyism, one of which is to eliminate (read that have fired in this case) those not completely in step with your own views.
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Open Mic Night at MSNBC September 3, 2008 St. Paul
Well, I just got mugged by the nature of modern media, and I wish it weren't my fault, but it is. Readers deserve an explanation, so I'm putting a new top on today's column and, with the forbearance of the Journal, here it is.
Wednesday afternoon, in a live MSNBC television panel hosted by NBC's political analyst Chuck Todd, and along with Republican strategist Mike Murphy, we discussed Sarah Palin's speech this evening to the Republican National Convention. I said she has to tell us in her speech who she is, what she believes, and why she's here. We spoke of Republican charges that the media has been unfair to Mrs. Palin, and I defended the view that while the media should investigate every quote and vote she's made, and look deeply into her career, it has been unjust in its treatment of her family circumstances, and deserved criticism for this.
When the segment was over and MSNBC was in commercial, Todd, Murphy and I continued our conversation, talking about the Palin choice overall. We were speaking informally, with some passion -- and into live mics. An audio tape of that conversation was sent, how or by whom I don't know, onto the internet. And within three hours I was receiving it from friends far and wide, asking me why I thought the McCain campaign is "over", as it says in the transcript of the conversation. Here I must plead some confusion. In our off-air conversation, I got on the subject of the leaders of the Republican party assuming, now, that whatever the base of the Republican party thinks is what America thinks. I made the case that this is no longer true, that party leaders seem to me stuck in the assumptions of 1988 and 1994, the assumptions that reigned when they were young and coming up. "The first lesson they learned is the one they remember," I said to Todd -- and I'm pretty certain that is a direct quote. But, I argued, that's over, those assumptions are yesterday, the party can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people. And when I said, "It's over!" -- and I said it more than once -- that is what I was referring to. I am pretty certain that is exactly what Todd and Murphy understood I was referring to. In the truncated version of the conversation, on the Web, it appears I am saying the McCain campaign is over. I did not say it, and do not think it. In fact, at an on-the-record press symposium on the campaign on Monday, when all of those on the panel were pressed to predict who would win, I said that I didn't know, but that we just might find "This IS a country for old men." That is, McCain may well win. I do not think the campaign is over, I do not think this is settled, and did not suggest, back to the Todd-Murphy conversation, that "It's over."
However, I did say two things that I haven't said in public, either in speaking or in my writing. One is a vulgar epithet that I wish I could blame on the mood of the moment but cannot. No one else, to my memory, swore. I just blurted. The other, more seriously, is a real criticism that I had not previously made, but only because I hadn't thought of it. And it is connected to a thought I had this morning, Wednesday morning, and wrote to a friend. Here it is. Early this morning I saw Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and as we chatted about the McCain campaign (she thoughtfully and supportively) I looked into her eyes and thought, Why not her? Had she been vetted for the vice presidency, and how did it come about that it was the less experienced Mrs. Palin who was chosen? I didn't ask these questions or mention them, I just thought them. Later in the morning, still pondering this, I thought of something that had happened exactly 20 years before. It was just after the 1988 Republican convention ended. I was on the plane, as a speechwriter, that took Republican presidential nominee George H.W. Bush, and the new vice presidential nominee, Dan Quayle, from New Orleans, the site of the convention, to Indiana. Sitting next to Mr. Quayle was the other senator from that state, Richard Lugar. As we chatted, I thought, "Why him and not him?" Why Mr. Quayle as the choice, and not the more experienced Mr. Lugar? I came to think, in following years, that some of the reason came down to what is now called The Narrative. The story the campaign wishes to tell about itself, and communicate to others. I don't like the idea of The Narrative. I think it is ... a barnyard epithet. And, oddly enough, it is something that Republicans are not very good at, because it's not where they live, it's not what they're about, it's too fancy. To the extent the McCain campaign was thinking in these terms, I don't like that either. I do like Mrs. Palin, because I like the things she espouses. And because, frankly, I met her once and liked her. I suspect, as I say further in here, that her candidacy will be either dramatically successful or a dramatically not; it won't be something in between.
But, bottom line, I am certainly sorry I blurted my barnyard ephithet, I am certainly sorry that someone abused my meaning in the use of the words, "It's over", and I'm sorry I didn't have the Kay Baily Hutchison thought before this morning, because I could have written of it. There. Now: onto today's column.
posted
She is so lying lol She got caught on tape and thats that... much like Jesse Jackson got caught on tape about Obama, Bush got caught on tape about Wall Street and other topics etc... the tape does not lie...
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
posted
This is the truth....Obama supporters are getting nasty about her. Well, I guess thats politics!
Poll: 51 percent say reporters are trying to hurt Palin rasmussenreports.com Thu Sep 4, 9:43 AM ET
Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage, and 24% say those stories make them more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November.
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Thirty-nine percent (39%) also believe the GOP vice presidential nominee has better experience to be president of the United States than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
But 49% give Obama the edge on experience, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken before Palin's historic speech Wednesday night to the Republican National Convention.
While Republicans and Democrats predictably favor their party's candidate by overwhelming margins, the experience gap among voters unaffiliated with either party is even narrower than the national totals. Forty-two percent (42%) say Obama has better experience to be president, but 37% say Palin does.
The potential problem for Democrats is that Obama, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois and a former state legislator, is the party's standard-bearer, while Palin, an ex-mayor and now governor of Alaska, is number two on her party's ticket.
Palin's highly successful debut on the national stage Wednesday night at the GOP convention is sure to impact these numbers, too. Her speech repeatedly highlighted her experience versus Obama's, something she is expected to focus on from now until Election Day.
Just a week ago 67% of voters told Rasmussen Reports they didn't know enough about Palin, only the second woman ever to be on a national political ticket, to comment on her. Heading into last night's speech, however, 52% had a favorable opinion of Alaska's Governor.
In the new survey, while 24% are more likely to vote for Palin due to recent news coverage, 19% say the opposite and 54% say the stories have no impact on their votes.
Nationally, the Rasmussen daily Presidential Tracking Poll showed Obama with a modest but expected bounce following the close of his convention last week, but that is already being offset by the bounce McCain is beginning to get from his party's gathering.
Since McCain announced Palin as his running mate on Friday, she has been subjected to an unprecedented wave of negative media stories, many focused on her personal life and especially the pregnancy of her unmarried 17-year-old daughter. The focus of the coverage, especially in the ****osphere, has even prompted Obama to distance himself from it.
Republicans have responded angrily, and the media was the target of numerous negative comments over the first two nights of the GOP convention. Several aides to Hillary Clinton, who Obama defeated for the Democratic presidential nomination, also have criticized the media coverage for its sexist tone.
In the new survey, although 85% say they are following news stories about Palin at least somewhat closely, just five percent (5%) think reporters are trying to help her with their coverage, while 35% believe reporters are providing unbiased coverage.
Eighty percent (80%) of Republicans say reporters are trying to hurt the GOP vice presidential nominee, and 28% of Democrats agree. Only six percent (6%) of Republicans and even fewer Democrats (4%)think the reporting is intended to help her. Most Democrats (57%) think the reporters are being unbiased, but just nine percent (9%) of Republicans concur.
Among unaffiliated voters, 49% say reporters are trying to hurt Palin, while 32% say their coverage is unbiased. Only five percent (5%) say reporters are trying to help her.
Voters are more ambivalent about whether the media coverage of Palin and her family reflects a double standard that treats women worse than men. Forty-six percent (46%) say it does, but 35% disagree. Most Republicans and unaffiliated voters say the stories show the media's double standard against women, but a majority of Democrats disagree.
The findings, nevertheless, are troublesome for the embattled news industry and parallel what voters said in surveys earlier this summer. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of voters now believe most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win, and 49% believe reporters are trying to help Obama this year. Only 14% think they are trying to help McCain. In another survey, 55% said media bias is a bigger problem for the electoral process than large campaign donations.
Although women voters by a 48% to 35% margin believe the coverage of Palin reveals a double standard in the media, they continue to support Obama more than men. Palin in her comments already has made clear that one of her key missions is to lure women voters disaffected by Clinton's defeat in the Democratic primaries to the McCain column. This national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on September 3, 2008. The margin of sampling error for each survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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posted
more is beginning to trickle out about Palin's record:
The documents show that Palin used city computers to manage her campaign and billed taxpayers for mailings, phone calls and literature. Palin also had her city secretary, Mary Bixby, print 75 thank-you notes to campaign donors and book a campaign related trip Ketchikan in May 2002 while on city time.
Former city officials said Palin and her campaign staff worked upwards of 10 hours a day using Wasilla City Hall as her campaign headquarters where campaign faxes were sent and received, and campaign staffers used city phones to solicit donations.
On Palin’s lieutenant governor candidate registration form with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, she used the e-mail the city gave her — sarah*ci.wasilla.ak.us — for “campaign chairperson” contact information and the Wasilla City Hall fax telephone number for "candidate information.”
Palin’s mayoral schedule for June 12, 2002 showed that she met with Herold Advertising Products in her office at City Hall. Soon after, the company faxed the city’s deputy administrator, John Cramer, "Sarah Palin Lieutenant Governor" artwork and an invoice for the work.
Former city officials said they were unaware whether Palin reimbursed the city for funds she used to promote her campaign. Neither spokesmen at the governor’s office in Alaska nor McCain-Palin campaign representatives returned telephone calls and e-mails for comment.
this might seem like small-town politics as usual, but it doesn't fly in a National Campaign...
here's where it get interesting:
Ironically, as chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Palin reported Ruedrich, a fellow commissioner, to Gov. Frank Murkowski’s administration, accusing him of an ethics breach for conducting work for the state GOP on government time.
To obtain evidence of Ruedrich’s alleged malfeasance, Palin hacked into his computer, an ethical lapse in its own right. In January 2004, she resigned from the commission in protest over what she billed as corrupt practices.
Palin’s ethics complaint against Ruedrich gave her a reputation as an anti-establishment reformer at a time when the Alaskan Republican hierarchy was coming under scrutiny for corruption. Reudrich paid a $12,000 fine after an investigation revealed he had violated state ethics rules.
posted
The Anchorage Daily News reports back in September 2004:
Sarah Palin never thought of herself as an investigator. Yet there she was, hacking uncomfortably into Randy Ruedrich’s computer, looking for evidence that the state Republican Party boss had broken the state ethics law while a member of the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission.
The next week, when Palin went back to work at the AOGCC, she noticed that Ruedrich had removed his pictures from the walls and the personal effects from his desk. But as she and an AOGCC technician worked their way around his computer password at the behest of an assistant attorney general in Fairbanks, they found his cleanup had not extended to his electronic files.
The technician “said it looked like he tried to delete this, but she knew a way to go around and get some of the deleted stuff,” Palin said in an interview. “I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I was there.”
In early September 2003, Palin said, she called Clark for help after staffers complained that Ruedrich was conducting party business on the job and Mat-Su Borough residents were complaining that Ruedrich was siding with the company trying to develop coal bed methane. Three weeks later, on Sept. 27, Clark finally got back to her, Palin said, and told her: "That's what a chief of staff is for -- I'll handle it."
Three months later, as Palin dug through Ruedrich's computer, she found a message dated Aug. 18 at 2:54 p.m. from John Tanigawa, Alaska representative for Evergreen Resources, the coal bed methane developer in the Valley. Four hours before the Sutton meeting was to begin, Tanigawa was shipping Ruedrich his slides over the Internet.
Reudrich was definitely across the line according to this article...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:Originally posted by Propertymanager: A fetus IS an UNBORN BABY (in humans). C'mon, you don't actually believe this nonsense. It's just politically incorrect to say outloud what you really believe - that you believe in MURDERING unborn children. Facing the truth might be therapeutic - give it a try.
a certainly believe that abortion is a pro-life choice!!!and if you believe that abortion is murder than I believe in murdering a fetus up to 14 weeks...
posted
this answer seems to be the lowest common denominator of a truly distasteful argument...
World's most premature baby set to leave hospital
* 22:20 20 February 2007 * NewScientist.com news service * New Scientist and Reuters
A premature baby only slightly longer than a ballpoint pen at birth was due to be sent home in the coming days from a US hospital after four months of neonatal intensive care, the hospital said on Tuesday.
The Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida, said Amillia Sonja Taylor was born at 21 weeks and six days on 24 October 2006, making her possibly the most premature baby on record to survive.
The claim was based on the University of Iowa's registry of the tiniest babies. The university bases its registry on media reports and medical journal reports and says it does not attempt to verify the information submitted by contributors.
Amillia weighed just under 283.5 grams (10 ounces) and measured 24.13 cm (9.5 inches) in length when she was born.
as a blood drawer at a large county hospital, i was confronted with having to take blood samples (sometime every 4 hours) from babies just a little larger than this. you just had to tell yourself it was for their own good...
A full-term pregnancy is 37 to 40 weeks. Babies born at less than 23 weeks and 400 grams (14.11 ounces) in weight are not considered viable, and 70% of all babies born at 23 weeks die, according to the US National Institutes of Health.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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posted
seriously? she layed the smack-down last night.
as PM says? she energised the base.
no question of that. but you reap what you sow.
i started readin up on her a few minutes befor eshe was announced. i didn't post most of what i found cuz i was hoping she really is change too. but quite frankly? what i've found is politics as usual...
she's managed to get herself elected three times, and her success amounts to less than half a million votes.
in 2004? there were 190,000 registered GOPs and 111,000 registered Dems...
how politically educated does that make her? that's a lock for any GOP isn't it?
her town that she was mayor of? 5000 people...
let's get real here. Memphis TN has as many people as the whole state of Alaska...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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posted
September 4, 2008 Palin speech pulls in $8 million — for Obama Posted: 05:19 PM ET
From CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser
(CNN) – Barack Obama's campaign says it has raised more than $8 million from over 130,000 donors following Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday night.
The campaign also says it is on track to raise $10 million before John McCain takes the podium at the Republican National Convention tonight.
Filed under: Barack Obama
Seems like the Palin speech energized more than just the Republican Base.
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: Glass, sometimes I wonder if it is better for a small town mayor to give it a shot instead of some big flashy city.
Memphis...no offense glass but I have driven through there before and didnt feel comfortable at all.
i'm not being critical of the town.
here's the difference, and here's why i said she has no clue what she's gotten herself into...
she has "managed" the media in Alaska... BFD..
the national media is nothing like the local newspapers or even the Anchorage Daily News which i quoted above..
i found a local newspaper interview with her where she talks about when her water broke for the baby...
she gave the interviews and the details, its not like these newspapers have been out to "get her" cuz she's a GOP in a very heavy GOP state that has tolerated huge corruption for years...
her handlers have not allowed her to speak with ANY media on her own since the announcement..
there's a reason for that..
her handlers were complaining about press questions about her water breaking in Texas and her flying home afterwards...
the "thing" is? SHE is the one who told the newspapers about this stuff...
so why wouldn't the press ask more questions?
her handlers are freaked out cuz they know they have real trouble on their hands...
she's just not ready for prime time yet...
furthermore? there's quite a few other GOP women who actually are ready for prime time and McCain skipped them...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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someone edited Sarah Palin's Wikipedia page Friday just before the word got out that she was John McCain's pick for a running mate. The edits were obviously made to make Palin look good. There were about 30 of them, made by one person.
posted
You have to admit...republican or democrat that there is a huge smear campaign going on with her. Trying to bring up a DUI 22 years ago from her husband...give me a break. Poking at her town where she is from. Saying she cant be a mother and VP at the same time, as if Bill Clinton wasnt able to juggle his women on the side while being a husband and father.
This is just getting out of control, and certain media outlets both online, and print are just slamming her. So much in fact that im beginning to feel more strongly about voting for McCain. It also exhibits nervousness. If they werent so worried why **** and attack so much online.
You see mass opponents to Obama but they are not this nasty to him.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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posted
Palin aides peeked into trooper's files, union saysStory Highlights State police union files ethics complaint against Palin
Palin or aides saw protected files, union chief alleges
Files were on Palin former brother-in-law, an Alaska state trooper
Palin aide on paid leave during investigation
Next Article in Politics »
From Matt Smith and Scott Bronstein CNN
(CNN) -- Aides to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin improperly obtained her former brother-in-law's state police personnel files and cited information from those records to raise complaints about the officer, the head of Alaska's state police union said Thursday.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has put an aide on leave during a probe into the firing of the public safety commissioner.
"It's apparent to us that the governor or someone on her staff had direct access to his personnel file, as well as his workers' comp file, and those are protected," said John Cyr, executive director of the Alaska Public Safety Employees Association.
Palin, now the Republican candidate for vice president, is battling allegations that she sacked her public safety commissioner in July because he refused to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, her sister's ex-husband. The governor has denied any wrongdoing.
In an ethics complaint filed Wednesday, the union names the governor and three aides, one of whom cited Wooten's records in a tape-recorded call to a state police lieutenant in February. And the former commissioner, Walt Monegan, said he believes his refusal to fire Wooten led to his firing.
someone edited Sarah Palin's Wikipedia page Friday just before the word got out that she was John McCain's pick for a running mate. The edits were obviously made to make Palin look good. There were about 30 of them, made by one person.
posted
We know her stand on guns, polar bears, abortion, teaching creationism in public schools, that the climate change is not man made, drilling for oil& gas on the North Slope to make Alaskan's richer but what about forgein policy, the economy, Healthcare the real meat and potatoes issues.
How can anyone support her candidacy without know about these key issues.
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: At least Palin is not affiliated with Rev. Wright ( Christian version of Farrakhan, a black supremacist and deeply anti-Semitic)
See there's the BS again. Obama went to his CHURCH. Doesn't subscribe to the Rev veiws and has said so publically.
It's all guilt by association. So then going off of that association. Since Palin and McCain know and support President Bush they are as guilty as him for the mess this country is in.
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posted
How Palin changed the race Jim VandeHei, John F. Harris Thu Sep 4, 5:13 PM ET
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Until Wednesday night, many political professionals were whispering that there was a good chance that in picking Sarah Palin as his running mate John McCain had lost the election.
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And some of them thought that with his last-minute, seemingly impulsive selection of a little-known and little-experienced governor he had lost his mind.
It’s as true on Thursday afternoon as it was on Wednesday that Palin is a risky pick. The public — and no doubt the McCain campaign as well — still doesn’t know what it doesn’t know about Palin, whose personal and public record in Alaska is still being raked by reporters and opposition researchers.
But in the space of one 36-minute speech by Palin, McCain proved that his choice was not a lapse into temporary (or even permanent) insanity. The speech’s political significance goes far beyond the fact that Palin showed herself capable of delivering a spirited reading of words that other people wrote.
Just as Barack Obama’s 2004 convention speech transformed his career, Palin’s speech has the potential to transform the dynamic of this race — in some ways that are obvious and some not:
• McCain is liberated
It is hard to overstate how underwhelmed most Republicans are by McCain and the current cast of GOP leaders. This was especially true of social conservatives, many of them religious evangelicals, who are most thrilled by Palin.
Now that Palin has cleared the bar — truth be told, a fairly modest one — of delivering an effective speech, McCain has much more flexibility to follow his own instincts.
He can play up reformist rhetoric and play down socially conservative ideology — the exact combination that in 2004 had some liberal commentators hoping McCain would abandon the GOP and go on the Democratic ticket.
Before Wednesday night, McCain was in big trouble when it comes to mobilizing conservative faithful. Now, Palin can help the party organize and turn out the same base of Christian evangelicals, Second Amendment supporters and abortion-rights opponents that proved instrumental to the back-to-back George W. Bush victories.
Before Wednesday night, McCain had little room for error with the right. They measured every word and made him pay for straying too far on the issues they care most about. Now, McCain can stretch and twist like a yoga instructor.
The key to watch in Thursday night’s acceptance speech is how McCain uses this new freedom —particularly his newfound ability to put even more distance between himself and a deeply unpopular president. It was no accident that the immediate response to Palin’s speech from the Obama campaign was to try to link her and McCain back to Bush.
• A competing storyline
Palin hasn’t seen the last of stories looking for contradictions or flaws in her record, or suggesting that her accomplishments or intellect are as substantial as a souffle.
But by presenting an engaging side of herself and her family, she ensured that those stories, written mainly by political and investigative reporters, will be countered by other stories written mainly by lifestyle reporters.
People magazine reporters and bookers for "The View" and "Oprah" will be watching Palin with a lot more interest than they will be watching Joe Biden. In Palin's own way, her story and rapid rise are as arresting to the mass audience as Obama’s.
And many voters in these big audiences likely will swoon for a telegenic hockey mom who eats moose she kills herself. You can’t make this stuff up. Her story is made for TV, glossy mags and the big screen.
A mother of five with a pregnant daughter. A ruggedly handsome husband who drills oil and races snowmobiles. She hunts. She fishes. She runs.
She is now a curiosity in a good way. That means big crowds at events and attention from people who otherwise might have ignored a more traditional ticket of two, old, rich, white Republican men who promise to kill terrorists and cut taxes.
None of this proves she understands the complexities of world threats or can endure the stress of office. But she at least gets more time to make her case. Before Wednesday night, she was only one or two news cycles away from irretrievably losing control of her public image.
• The hatchet man wears a skirt
Palin’s speech was a jackhammer of partisan shots and sarcastic digs. That is the traditional role of vice presidential nominees. But she performed that role with a smile and folksy humor, coming off like a younger, Republican version of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards.
McCain needs Palin to tear into Obama and Biden in speeches, debates and media appearances. She showed she can do it, at least when given time to prep.
It remains to be seen how effective she can be in more improvisational settings. Biden has weathered national campaigns and controversies; she has not. Biden has traveled the world, mixed it up with tough foreign leaders and mastered the complexities of global threats; she has not. Biden has studied virtually every national issue and debated them; she has not.
But she has shown a willingness and talent for tough talk. And it will be harder than usual for Democrats to attack back. Republicans will charge sexism at every turn. They will call women to her side to amplify their case. They will shame the media. Many of these complaints will be unfair — but some of it will probably be effective.
• Republicans can play identity group politics too
This brand of politics — voters who support a candidate not because of what that person has done in public life but because of the symbolism of the candidate's personal story — is a big part of why Obama is the Democratic nominee. With Palin, the GOP showed that it, too, can play this game.
Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, told us this week that his wife, who is even more conservative than he is, doesn’t think much of McCain. But she loves Palin, perhaps enough to get her to now back the GOP ticket. He said he was astonished how Palin has woken “the sleeping giant: Republican women.”
It is the talk of the hallways, in the convention and nationwide. Women, especially Republican women, were thrilled by the Palin speech. Already, the campaign is reporting a huge surge in fundraising. The bigger question is whether this will translate into a huge surge at the polls. Republicans get clobbered in national elections when it comes to the women’s vote. One way to narrow the gender gap is to juice turnout among your own people. Palin could do that. Another way is to juice turnout among female swing voters.
That’s still a tall order for Palin, but not the laughable one it was before Wednesday night.
Harris reported from St. Paul; VandeHei from Washington.
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