Gov. Sarah Palin's Appeal --- For those who don't get it
The Republican Party vetters and strategists were simply brilliant in picking Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. It does not matter how few times McCain had spoken to her before the announcement (no more than twice according some reports), the choice would quiet down the tongue-wagging critics of McCain's somewhat liberal positions during his long Senate career. Big-wig right wing talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh et al would be whistling a sigh of relief now.
That she will draw the disaffected women from the Hillary-support camp is only a small fraction of the calculation behind the choice of Palin. I don't see big numbers in that draw; it could in fact backfire and drive women voters back into the Dem fold.
Sarah Palin has tons of qualifications that Hillary and Obama desperately lack. It may be difficult for us Indian subcontinentals, or even Europeans, to appreciate them. To a vast number of Americans living West of Mason-Dixon line, earning a Harvard or Yale Law degree is a sure sign of possessing an effeminate character. When you don't have the brawns to fell trees in the dead of winter in
To these communities www still stands for Wild Wild West. People of these communities are frontiersmen, lovers of nature's abundance to be used as God has willed it to be used by Man. They are cattle ranchers, cowboys, cowhands and farmers, handymen in pickup trucks and moms driving old cars in hair-rollers. Summer weekends consist of churchgoing followed by a College Football game, a backyard or tailgate barbecue where huge chunks of burnt meat are consumed, washed down by pints of beer bottled by local brewery. Long winters are conducive to indoor activities such as church group meetings.
Suggesting that God created the world in six days is a poetical expression; a Scriptural metaphor, or a "creation myth" as in many religions of the world could land you in big trouble with these church groups. In the Biblical phrase "God created man in His own image" the word 'image' is taken to mean a snapshot of God; and God in that picture is most definitely a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male. Other than a handful of farmhands of Mexican or Honduran origin, mostly illegal immigrants, ill-paid, badly exploited and totally marginalized, there is not much of a racial mix in these communities. Thanks to the media hype, a Muslim and a terrorist are synonymous to them.
Sarah Palin's husband is a fisherman, and so is she. He owns a trawler, I believe. She is an outdoor sportswoman like many of her likely voters, a rifle-toting hunter and a snowmobile rider. Her one area of expertise seems to be in the energy sector and her enthusiasm is all about continuing usage of fossil fuel in the foreseeable future since there is much to explore in her own backyard, the pristine forests of
McCain could not have ensured a larger vote-bank by choosing any other running mate. I cannot see all Hillary supporters voting for McCain just because he has a woman as his VP nominee. Palin's strong conservative credentials though will help backslide the map into old red and blue colors of post-election 2004. That is a huge gain for McCain and a cause for concern for the Obama/Biden ticket.
Another 2004-election debacle would be hard to stomach.
Farida Majid
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
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