Junto Boys

TAKE DOWN

Here's how the left is going after Gov. Palin.



1) She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power
2) She strongly supports big oil (her husband works for oil company BP)
3) She believes creationism should be taught in public schools
4) She is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest
5) She has no federal or international experience. Prior to being governor (for less than two years) she was only the mayor of a small Alaskan town and a beauty queen!
6) She believes global warming is a farce and is opposed to listing the polar bear as an endangered species
7) She stands for everything that Hillary Clinton stood against
8) She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and anywhere else big oil wants
9) She supports Pebble Mine which will destroy the richest salmon run in the world
10) She supports aerial shooting of bears and wolves in Alaska
11) She is pro-war



But the attacks are missing the point. A lot of reporters are missing the point. The GOP does not expect to, and does not need to, pull hardcore Ds over to R. That isn't going to happen. All they need to do is sway unaffiliated, undecided voters in the middle, and the early Rasmussen polling augurs well for the GOP. If it holds up that 9% of Hillary supporters are considering voting R, that is a tremendous boost to McCain. Palin made a highly favorable first impression (unlike Quayle, who was forever saddled with his negative one), with 53% positive overall and 63% among unaffiliated voters. Biden had a 43% positive after his introduction. The initial enthusiasm could wane, of course -- or could grow stronger.

I've watched some video of Palin and read a lot of reporting since Friday noon, and she has good answers to most of these attacks, at least as I see it.



1. Innocence is the best defense in a court of law, but the court of public opinion will be swayed somewhat by the endless repetition that she is under investigation. From what I have seen, there is not much to the charges in point of fact.

2. Alaska has oil that only Big Oil can get out of the ground. She is extremely knowledgeable about energy issues at a time when somebody needs to be. Her husband quit his job to avoid conflict of interest concerns when she entered negotiations with Canada over a new pipeline.

3. The context of her remarks about teaching creationism is that we should not stifle ideas and debate if we want to call it education, and that she was not advocating making creationism an official part of the curriculum. Likewise on global warming.

4. I haven't seen anything on this, but she was raised in an Assembly of God church which was likely very conservative "fundamentalist" and of course she brought her own "defective" baby to term.

5. Does any governor? She negotiated a major deal with the Canadian government, which is more than most governors have done, and dare I say more than Obama and Biden combined.

6. She sits on a grizzly bear in her office. I'll take that over nuanced global warming double talk.





UPDATE: Her dad shot the bear.

7. Good. So do I.

8. Fine by me. Americans want to drill. McCain should announce on Thursday that he wants to drill in ANWR and offshore and in his own backyard. It's a winning issue. He can finally call the environmentals on their stubborn high-minded idiocy, flip flop be damned.

9. I don't know anything about this. I like salmon though, and it's easy to cook.

10. The criticism is probably overstated, which won't be the first time or the last.

11. No one is pro-war. Some of us are anti-passivity in the face of real and gathering threats.

Count me among the wave of new enthusiasm for the Republican ticket.