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I remember in 2004 being a passionate Kerry supporter phonebanking for Kerry-Edwards. As you can probably tell by my username, Senator Kerry is someone I feel a lot of loyalty and respect for. But I seem to remember call after call in 2004 of people who said they didn't warm up to John Kerry or just didn't like him, but loved John Edwards and said if he was the leader of the ticket--they'd vote for 'em. I'm not saying this to bash John Kerry, because let's face it--I just wouldn't do that. But I think this is interesting to consider when you consider the following:
Now we hear from the Huffington Post a steady stream of people left a McCain-Palin rally in Iowa today after hearing just Palin speak. That means they didn't come to see John McCain speak, they came to see Sarah and just Sarah. Once she was done, several left and went home, not bothering to hear what John McCain had to say. Is this a problem? Is this an issue? Voters rarely vote for tickets based on the VP pick, and history shows us that VP picks aren't enough to sway a voter to decide on a candidate they may not warm up to or trust.
The McCain campaign seems to want to make this race about Barack Obama, and anytime the Obama campaign gets back to making it about McCain, they push Palin to front and push her in front of the line of fire. This is so the race can't be about McCain, so we get stuck on this "lipstick on a pig" non sense and the phony outrage whether that's sexist or not.
This will backfire in two ways.
First, one group of people will look at the situation as unfair. They'll think Obama is picking on Palin, and these voters are generally voters who say they like Palin (despite not knowing much about her) and like her placement on the McCain ticket. However, it's very possible that these voters will say on November 4th I like Palin, just not McCain, so I can't vote for McCain. So they'll stay home or say "well, Obama is the lesser of the two evils"
In the second way, another group will look at this in a different light. They'll say the phony outrage over "sexism" by the McCain campaign shows how low they'll take this race, and as the Obama points fingers at the McCain campaign and suggest they're running a low and gutter style political campaign, it'll turn some voters off to McCain. These voters probably are the ones who think, rightfully so, that McCain is too like Bush to trust for four years as President. These voters are open minded, but probably won't respond well to slimy politics like this.
So in conclusion, I think Palin's popularity or lack there of helps Barack Obama's chances of victory.
The more focus on her scandals, her lack of experience on the issues, the family issues, and the phony outrage manufactured by the McCain campaign, the better the chances we'll win in November.
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