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Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
THE high-heeled, moose-hunting governor of Alaska has sent Barack Obama's campaign into a state of panic as support for the Democratic presidential candidate haemorrhages in the battleground states he must win to reach the White House.
Sarah Palin, 44, continued to scythe through Obama's support among women by taunting the first potential black president for declining to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate and by declaring that questions about juggling work and family were 'kind of irrelevant' in the modern age.
The mother of five, who has been called Xena, the warrior princess, said in a television interview: 'I think he's regretting not picking [Clinton] now, I do. What determination and grit and even grace through some tough shots that were fired her way - she handled those well,' Palin said.
She presented herself as a champion of no-fuss, no-non-sense working mothers. 'Of course you can be the vice-presi-dent and you can raise a family,' she said brightly. 'I'm the governor and I'm raising a family.'
I n t h e f a c e o f P a l i n ' s onslaught, Obama has continued to base his campaign on the outdated claim that John McCain and his running mate represent four more years of a failed Bush administration.
A senior Obama adviser said candidly that claim did not work. 'I don't think it's sticking. The McCain campaign has stolen our message of '˜change' - the very thing we've been campaigning on for 20 months. Well, who's the change? It's McCain.' Palin's astounding rise has left the Obama camp floundering for a new narrative that will capture the imagination of voters in the run-up to the November 4 election. 'There is overreaction and panic,' the official admitted. 'The hard part for Barack is she's stolen his thunder a bit. It has knocked us off our game.'
In a series of interviews with ABC, Palin brushed aside charges that she had changed her mind about a notoriously expensive 'Bridge to Nowhere' in Alaska and distorted her record of seeking congressional subsidies for her home state. The only 'gotcha' moment came when she was at a loss to understand the concept of the Bush doctrine, defined by Charles Gibson, the interviewer, as the right to self-defence by taking preemptive action against terrorists. Gibson, however, has run into criticism from conservatives for patronising Palin over a doctrine whose definition has changed and is not widely recognised outside the world of Washington foreign policy analysts.
Obama's adviser said the attacks had misfired. 'At the end of the day, women are sick of men running everything. They're thinking, '˜Enough already.' It has nothing to do with what she stands for. Our mistake was thinking women had nowhere else to go.'
The Democrat cheers that greeted the selection of veteran senator Joe Biden, 65, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, as Obama's running mate have died away.
'If we had picked Hillary Clinton, we would have saved ourselves three months of anguish over the summer,' the official said. 'If we had spent the time unifying the party, we'd be in a totally different place. I'm not sure McCain would have picked Palin if Hillary was VP.'
Palinmania has washed away Obama's polling leads in several swing states that he had been counting on to win.
A clutch of polls last week showed McCain ahead by five points in Missouri, four in Ohio, four in Virginia and eight in Florida. New Mexico and N e v a d a , t w o t o p O b a m a targets, recorded narrow leads for McCain. Other states that had appeared to be comfortably in the Democratic camp now look precarious. In blue-collar New Jersey, Obama's lead has shrunk to three points; in latte-sipping Washing-ton, it is down to two.
He is still narrowly ahead in Colorado and Michigan, where Palin has been campaigning energetically, but the ground is shifting beneath his feet. Advisers fear the get-out-the-vote machine that served Obama so well in the primary campaign against Clinton will be overwhelmed by Palin's legion of female fans. 'Are we running a primary campaign in a general election?' the adviser wondered. 'Our campaign has an unbelievable ground game. It's far superior to McCain's but at the end of the day, people vote on emotion. Do I like you? Do I trust you? Do you care about me?'
A poll by the Associated Press last week showed that white women preferred McCain to Obama by 53% to 40%.
'People still don't know what Obama stands for. There's a perceived elitism and something aloof about him. They just don't connect with him,' the adviser added. 'As a person, Palin is very intriguing. She's attractive and funny and she's a hell of a speaker. There's an element of '˜she's like us'.'
It is all the more galling for Obama's supporters that Palin has been in the news for little more than a fortnight. Voters told pollsters last summer that they had heard too much about Obama but they cannot get enough of Palin for now.
She remains a high-risk choice for McCain, who has been overshadowed by Palin's role as 'campaigner-in-chief'. The crowds melted away for McCain's first solo appearance without her last week at a Pennsylvania diner where he was heckled by Obama supporters.
There is still much to learn about the Alaska governor before voters go to the polls. Investigators in her home state are seeking to subpoena Todd Palin, her husband, for his alleged role in Troopergate - a dispute over the alleged dismissal of a police chief for refusing to sack Palin's former brother-in-law, a state trooper who had fallen out with her family.
The tabloid National Enquirer, basking in new-found credibility after it exposed the former White House candidate John Edwards as an adulterer, claimed in its latest issue that Palin's 19-year-old son Track was a regular drug abuser who was packed off to the army to clean up. His unit deployed to Iraq last week on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Obama campaign expects support for Palin to subside. It takes comfort from memories of the collapse of Clinton, who was leading by double-digits in the polls when she mishandled a question about driving licences for immigrants. Her standing plummeted.
However, there is little time for voter disillusion to set in. Palin's working-class, Wal-Mart-mom appeal and moving life story are insulating her from attack.
Her decision to raise Trig, a Down's syndrome baby, and support for her pregnant 17-year-old daughter Bristol have been widely praised.
At a rally attended by 23,000 supporters in Fairfax, Virginia, last week, Jayne Young, 57, a registered independent, said: 'My heart goes out to her family. I liked what she said about being '˜just an average American family'. You can be one of those übermoms and on your kids 100% of the time and they still go off the rails.'
Katherine Hoppe, 65, was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan 'Another Democrat for McCain'. She worked as a volunteer at Hillary Clinton's headquarters in Ballston, Virginia, and was present at her concession speech to Obama.
'I felt horrible,' she said. 'When McCain announced that he had picked Palin, I went crazy. When you're my age and Hillary's, you want to give to the next generation. Hillary did that. She gave us Sarah.'
Clinton is said by friends to be 'gutted' that she put 18m cracks in the glass ceiling for women only to have Palin kick in the pane. But she is thought to share Palin's conviction that the media are treating the Alaskan governor unfairly.
Mark Penn, Clinton's former chief strategist, said: 'The media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. People are going to conclude that they're giving her a rougher time. This is an election in which the voters are going to decide for themselves.'
Some conservatives are concerned that Republicans are overplaying the sexist card. Earlier this year, Palin accused Clinton of 'whining' about the attacks on her, but the McCain camp worked itself into an even greater lather last week over Obama's comments about 'putting lipstick on a pig' - regarded as an insult to their 'pitbull in lipstick'.
Ramesh Ponnuru, an editor with the conservative journal National Review, complained: 'The Republicans are coming across as whiny grievance-mon-gers. Don't they realise that this harping on ambiguous slights is what people hate about political correctness? It was bad enough when liberals were trying to destroy Palin. Now Republicans are trashing her brand. They're undermining her appeal as a different, tougher kind of female politician.'
After repeated jabs from McCain, including the false charge that Obama supported sex education for kinder-garteners, the Illinois senator hit back with a negative advertisement mocking his 72-year-old rival for being out of date and out of touch with computer technology, including e-mail.
It backfired when it emerged that McCain was unable to type because he was injured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
The Obama adviser said the Democratic candidate should remain true to himself. 'He has to be who he is. When he was totally himself, he was doing so well. He should keep at the things he cares about instead of having people turn him into a pretzel.'
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
Great, GREAT article. I love how the journalist made sure to make it liberal smear proof by talking to democratic advisers. Its crystal clear now that dems realize Obama is in trouble. We already knew that, but its good to see it come straight from the Obama camp. We also have proof she is stealing democratic votes away from Obama.
I also agree that the republicans risk overplaying the Palin card, but as long as the liberals keep smearing her, the card can never be overplayed.
The question now is: Does Obama change tactics, or does he stay the course and lose?
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
I do think Obama screwed up by not picking Hilary, and I do think he's feeling that now... but I don't think Palin should be talking about it.
Let's get to the issues folks.
I do think Hilary is probably happy to see a chick out there kickin' ass... I just think she'd wished it was a pro choice Democrat. Which is understandable.
As for Obama, I think a key for him now will be to SHUT BIDEN THE FUCK UP, for one, and then focuse on where McCain falters on issues of the economy, the future of the country, gas, etc. Whatever he needs to do.
But focusing on Palin, and her inexperience is a waste of time. Plus it totally UNDERMINES his campaign. He ain't got no experience either, and HE'S RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. Not Palin.
It also might help Obama if he starts denouncing bloggers and sites like MoveOn.org. They do not represent him or his beliefs, would be a GREAT way for him to get back some favor. Obama is good, he's just got to control these assholes that think they speak for him, and don't.
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
I totally agree. Obama has got to stop these smear tactics, If he wants to use "negative" ads, go right ahead. However, 24/7 smears on liberal websites and on news networks has backfired tremendously. Not blaming him for that, I'm blaming his base for that. He needs to tell them to stop immediately.
Yeah, not picking Hillary was a massive mistake, but hindsight is 20/20. While she would have partially neutralized the Palin craze, she is a liberal senator just like Obama and you don't want the top and bottom of your ticket being the same thing. The Biden pick makes no sense and never will. He needed a governor or someone like Wes Clark to shore up his ticket.
Not talking about the issues favors the republicans, and for some reason the democrats don't realize this yet. When Huffington informs the world they are idiots for liking Palin, it just causes more people to like Palin.
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
Huffington is a nazi.
She knows nothing, and is quite possibly one of the dumbest human beings i've ever heard speak. I listened to an interview with her, where a PRO-Obama interviewer was quoting Obama positively, and stuff Obama had said, and good stuff i'd heard him say, and because it was Pro-2nd Amendment, pro-Iraq, anti-Iran, anti-Pakistan... she called the guy a liar. A LIAR.
Even though Obama had said it. But because it didn't fall into Ariana's facist Nancy Pelosi way of thinking, she called the guy a liar and hung up. Even though they were factual, and positive Obama quotes.
She's a fucking moron. She's apart of these baby boomer-minded San Fran liberals that are D-Y-I-N-G.
Good riddance to bad garbage.
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
I totally agree. Obama has got to stop these smear tactics, If he wants to use "negative" ads, go right ahead. However, 24/7 smears on liberal websites and on news networks has backfired tremendously. Not blaming him for that, I'm blaming his base for that. He needs to tell them to stop immediately.
Yeah, not picking Hillary was a massive mistake, but hindsight is 20/20. While she would have partially neutralized the Palin craze, she is a liberal senator just like Obama and you don't want the top and bottom of your ticket being the same thing. The Biden pick makes no sense and never will. He needed a governor or someone like Wes Clark to shore up his ticket.
Not talking about the issues favors the republicans, and for some reason the democrats don't realize this yet. When Huffington informs the world they are idiots for liking Palin, it just causes more people to like Palin.
He already told them to stop. They won't listen, just like the right wing sites are STILL calling Obama a Muslim and STILL using blatant racism against him, even after McCain tells them to stop. Extremists are extremists. They will do what they want.
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
He already told them to stop. They won't listen, just like the right wing sites are STILL calling Obama a Muslim and STILL using blatant racism against him, even after McCain tells them to stop. Extremists are extremists. They will do what they want.
You cant compare the "Obama is muslim" garbage to the destroy Palin strategy. Apples and oranges. Obama needs to speak a bit louder on the issue because they are literally killing him.
Ever been to that Hillary Clinton forum? http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/index.php Its a bunch of women voting for McCain/Palin.
People are tired of this shit.
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
tejastech08 wrote:He already told them to stop. They won't listen, just like the right wing sites are STILL calling Obama a Muslim and STILL using blatant racism against him, even after McCain tells them to stop. Extremists are extremists. They will do what they want.
You cant compare the "Obama is muslim" garbage to the destroy Palin strategy. Apples and oranges. Obama needs to speak a bit louder on the issue because they are literally killing him.
Ever been to that Hillary Clinton forum? http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/index.php Its a bunch of women voting for McCain/Palin.
People are tired of this shit.
But people aren't tired of the constant distractions from McCain's campaign? Seriously man, the ads he's been running are some of the lamest, non-issue ads I've ever seen.
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
By the way James, those Hillary supporters are bitter. They're pissed b/c their candidate lost, but what you have to realize is that THEY don't realize their own damn candidate pissed off over half the Democratic Party during that primary campaign by running a pretty sleazy campaign. Her most ardent supporters are delusional. They're voting for her vagina rather than on the issues.
Re: Obama camp in panic as ‘Xena’ Sarah Palin scythes through support
They're voting for her vagina rather than on the issues.
A vote is a vote....
But people aren't tired of the constant distractions from McCain's campaign? Seriously man, the ads he's been running are some of the lamest, non-issue ads I've ever seen.
Obama laid a golden egg of irrelevancy. Issues are off limits. If McCain didn't try and sidestep some issues now, I would question his intelligence. Its all about winning at all costs now, and Obama made it where the issues have nothing to do with anything. Its all about Palin and a Bush third term, and unfortunately for him neither strategy worked. Now he's fucked. His only hope at this point are the debates.
