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Campaign Crawlers
Sunday With Sister Sarah
Pro-American Americans don’t think it’s over.
TAMPA — In 2000 Florida became critically important only on Election Day and after, when it became clear Florida’s 27 electoral votes would decide the matter. This year we know up-front that Florida will be critical, especially for John McCain, who can’t win without it. This is why with a week and change left until the election it’s hard to take a walk in Central Florida without tripping over somebody on one ticket or the other.
Last week it was Barack Obama’s turn for a multi-day Florida visit, and Joe Biden will be in New Port Richey today, Ocala and Melbourne Tuesday, and the West Palm Beach area Wednesday. But Sunday was Sarah Palin’s turn to fire up the local faithful in an appearance before about 4,000 at the Tampa Convention Center. And fire them up she did, with the standard McCain/Palin themes of lower taxes, less regulation, smaller government, energy independence, and a vigorous, no-defeat, foreign policy.
“We need a tough, experienced leader now,” Palin said, leaving unsaid but hanging in the air that a rookie who recoils from the word “victory” just won’t do. “Our pro-growth policy will get the economy back on track,” she said. “We recognize small business is the backbone of our economy.”
Palin repeatedly returned to the theme that a McCain/Palin administration would lower taxes and allow Americans to keep more of their own money rather than increase taxes to allow the federal government to “spread the wealth around,” as would almost surely happen in an Obama administration. She said, “It’s not mean-spirited or negative campaigning to call someone out on their record.” She then went on to call out you-know-who in clear terms. The word “socialist” came up.
There was plenty of red meat in the rest of Palin’s remarks, including a huge cheer when “drill-baby-drill” came up, as it always does. She promised that a McCain/Palin administration would spread opportunity rather than “your wealth,” and would not punish hard work and initiative. She said the McCain/Palin agenda “is not the Obama, Pelosi, Reid agenda.”
AS INSTRUCTIVE as Palin’s remarks were, and as enthusiastic the response to her was, what her assembled fans shared with me before the services got under way was just as interesting. Pollsters and most of the left-stream media may think the race is over (you can look up the numbers yourself), and that Obama has only to put the finishing touches on his inaugural address and choose a collection of lefties for his cabinet. (Bill Ayers for Secretary of Education?) But the Sunday bunch in Tampa still believes the race is on. They gave up a big cheer and some hoots when Palin said that she and Obama had both played basketball, “but you have to win the game before you cut down the net.” These guys are enthusiastic McCain/Palin boosters, and they know why.
Some samples:
David Parks of Lakeland, a 41-year-old former Marine captain who does IT work, said the lead changed hands when the economy took a dive and could just as well change again. He questions the methodologies some pollsters use when designing their samples. Troy and Amy Beaubien of Bradenton say they aren’t big believers in polls. “It’s a stacked deck,” Troy said.
Martha Chianella of New Port Richey, a middle-aged, pro-life Catholic, likes Palin’s energy and optimistic personality and appreciates her lifetime associations with upright people rather than some of the distinctly off-plumb characters Obama has chosen to hang with. As a young woman and mother of four in New York, Chianella found herself for a time on welfare. But she said when things turned around for her she paid the state back all the money she had collected. What a concept.
“Life is a do-it-yourself project,” she said. “It’s not a give-away.”
Richard Platt of Brandon was wearing an NRA tee-shirt with a campaign button that says “You go, girl” next to a picture of Sarah Palin. Platt is still clinging to his guns, but he’s not noticeably bitter (I didn’t ask about his religion). He says Obama and Pelosi and Reid are all anti-gun and fears Obama would try to stack the Supreme Court with anti-Second Amendment justices.
Thirtyish Jennifer Jolly-Gonzalez of Tampa was fetching in a hat with homemade moose antlers. Her advice for voters leaning toward Obama was, “Just vote present.” Her husband, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, wore a tee-shirt with the legend “Misery in the Making” over a likeness of Obama. Juan says he’s a record producer, mostly heavy metal stuff, which I told him sounded like Democratic territory to me. He said many of his rockers are conservative, at least in the economic area.
“You can be crazy as a loon and still not want to pay high taxes,” he said.
Good point.
About the Author
Larry Thornberry is a writer in Tampa.
Todd Lothery| 10.27.08 @ 10:51AM
"Martha Chianella of New Port Richey, a middle-aged, pro-life Catholic, likes Palin's energy and optimistic personality and appreciates her lifetime associations with upright people rather than some of the distinctly off-plumb characters Obama has chosen to hang with."
Upright people like the Alaska Independence Party and the witch hunter pastor who visited her church several times?
Please, it goes both ways, people. The Palin pick was a shocking bit of reckless irresponsibility by McCain, and anyone with a brain knows it.
Oh, but she's just like regular folk!!! So's my Uncle Ernie, and I don't think anybody wants him running the country.
Dave Mills| 10.27.08 @ 11:11AM
Hey, your Uncle Ernie may just be the guy we're looking for.
I'd wager the first 600 names out of the Columbus, Ohio phone book would govern this country better than the slick politicos of both parties who've done a bang-up job of screwing things up.
Having said that, Sarah Palin is a real American. She's smart, feisty, and determined and much more qualified to be president than the community organizer from Chicago. That's apparent to all but the most rabidly partisan.
Michael Roush| 10.27.08 @ 11:42AM
Dave,
Uncle Ernie is not the guy we're looking for. He's the guy we've already seen for the last eight years. Ain't W. been just great! You betcha. He leaves us in real fine shape.
Dan Greef| 10.27.08 @ 12:53PM
Michael,
How's that change you voted for in 2006 working out for you? The "oversight" of Nancy, Harry and Barney has certainly done a wonderful job of tanking the housing and financial markets (with a lot of help from Jimmy's Community Reinvestment Act).
Michael Roush| 10.27.08 @ 1:50PM
Dan, the problem with Nancy, Harry and Barney isn't that they provided oversight which tanked the markets. The problem is that they didn't provide the oversight necessary to prevent our current crisis.But how could they when Congress was controlled by Republicans until 2006 and the Mitch McConnells in the Senate can still gum-up regulatory efforts? Geez Dan, even Al Greenspan has finally admitted that the belief that financial markets could and would regulate themselves was a mistake.
disgusted | 10.27.08 @ 2:07PM
quote: "OK, the poll numbers remain pretty doleful for McCain/Palin."
Only an absolute moron would look for any semblance of truth in polls (or from the dinosaur media, for that matter.)
megapotamus| 10.27.08 @ 2:09PM
There is a misconception about Fannie/Freddie that threatens to take hold. It is not a lack of regulation or oversight that ALLOWED these institutions to be milked to death. No, these entities are government BY the Democrats, OF the Democrats and FOR the Democrats from top to bottom. Dodd, Barry and Frank knew what was going on, they were MAKING it go on with the denunciation of any financial insitution who would not go along with sub-prime n0 doc interest only ARM's on inflated properties by ACORNies and others with the Cong Dems a) drawing lucre from pet mtg companies and b) getting Fannie/Fred to buy them up. This all was a concoction by Democrats and Democrats alone. The Republicans were met with cries of racism and antipathy to "the poor" whenever nasty customers like McCain or Bush actually proposed to let some reality or at least sunlight into the process. If you don't believe that, that's fine. Vote in your precious Democrats and they will do the same to the government and economy across the board. It seems the hard way is the only way for a sizeable fraction of this country to learn the easiest and earliest lessons: There is no such thing as a free lunch.
And, on Greenspan, I saw his statement. He makes no allusion even to the practices that we all know had the rude effects we are experiencing now. We know the banks were subsidized in sub-primes by the government. This was the fatal error and easily explains the events that are so astounding to Greenspan. Hey, I didn't think the banks would make these dodgy loans. Market failure! No. Socialist policy failure. From each... to each... with the usual results. How such a supposed genius cannot see that is obvious.
Michael Roush| 10.27.08 @ 2:23PM
megapotamus,
Have you been drinking?
Tex| 10.27.08 @ 3:07PM
I'm tired of the shots directed at Sarah Palin. McCain was this Republican's last choice in the primaries and his VP pick was one of the few things he has done right in this campaign. And to the left-you've vilified Cheney and Quayle (at least "potato" had 6 letters, not 4 as is the case with "jobs") as the worst persons in the world. This is getting old, get a new playbook.
Jim| 10.27.08 @ 3:55PM
One thing we know for sure Mr. Roush, you HAVE been drinking. Lot's and lot's of Kool-Aid.
megapotamus| 10.27.08 @ 4:15PM
Michael, not lately. Is that the full response? Do you have any counterfactual info that does not put Fannie/Freddie and the resultant collapse at the feet of Democrats including, conspicuously, Barack Obama? Do you have any support from Greenspan or anyone else on the point? This whole thing is the fault of the Democrats period. The only way any proximate blame can be laid on the Republicans is if you denounce them for failing to keep the Democrats under control. Don't believe it? That is fine and dandy. Fannie-ism is coming soon to an EVERYTHING near you if Barry gets into the big chair (and probably even if he doesn't, given Dem Cong majorities). There will be sub-prime no doc healthcare. Sub-prime no doc education. A sub-prime no doc military. A sub-prime no doc State Department. A sub-prime no doc Justice Department. A sub-prime no doc IRS. A sub-prime no doc electoral system, pre-school, press, judiciary... really our whole national zeitgeist will mirror what the unbridled Democrats did to the financial system. Now, I work in the legal field so I'm fairly certain this will be pretty neutral for me or perhaps even beneficial. The country at large, not so much. In the end, reality will intrude as she always does and we will claw back our way from the Obama Depression though not easily. I will give you one area of culpability for the Republicans though and McCain is the poster boy for this. As we know, nearly all government expenditures outside of defense are unconstitutional as the Constitution is a document of enumerated powers and the power to, say, buy sex changes for crack whores is not among those powers. We all know it but somehow when someone says, Hey, it's for the kids, or whatever everyone looks the other way. McCain, though never taking an earmark his career long has been the front man for this kind of claptrap and has made his late career on castigating other Reps who were truer to the Constitution and the virtues of limited government. Now we see the predictable result of this softheadedness masquerading as softheartedness. Everyone has their hand out and why shouldn't they? Everyone else is getting bailed out, right? What's the harm? The only longterm solution, and Barry is rocketing us towards this, is to inflate away the debt. Of course you inflate away much else too but that ship has sailed. Again, skeptical? Fine. Fine and dandy. Strap in, McCain or Obama, we are going to have to pay for all this absurdist spending sooner or later. And not later.
martha chianella | 10.27.08 @ 6:05PM
Elite Scholarship in many cases dosen't equate well with right choices and decision making! Anyone with a brain knows that !
Michael Roush| 10.27.08 @ 7:47PM
Dear Megapotamus,
Lets begin with philosophy. Government is always the problem and never the solution. Now, lets implement the philosophy. Strip away oversight and regulation of either GSEs or financial institutions. Fiercely opposed any looking into hedge funds. After all, didn't Al Greenspan assure us that financial institutions would govern themselves? He has recanted. So, who initiated "liars loans?" Who bundled these loans? Who created credit default swaps to "insure" these loans? In reality, CDS were simply bets on whether or not mortgages would be paid. This used to be illegal until the Republicans deregulated the financial industry. Have you really convinced yourself that it was primarily Democrats who brokered the bad mortgages, bundled the junk and, then, created the equivalent of a gambling casino to "insure" the junk? Once upon a time, Fannie and Freddie worked. Then, along came Reagan and the stage was set for our current crisis. I fault Democrats for going along to get along. I fault Republicans for creating the philosophy and the conditions for this crisis.
M. Tobias| 10.27.08 @ 9:10PM
Mega and Mike,
Let me jump into this discussion for a moment. You are both correct, sort of.
Mike, the seeds of the sub-prime mortgage mess were planted during the Carter administration, nurtured by the Clinton administration and most of the politicians who actively protected the program and financially benefited from it were Democratic members of Congress.
Megapotamus, the sub-prime crisis could not have occurred without either the tacit approval or the disinterest of the Republicans in Congress and the Bush administration.
See, more than enough blame to go around. Which is why few, if any, politicians are pointing fingers of blame at members of Congress. As to "deregulation" being the root of the evil, this is not exactly true. The Democrats did, in fact "broker the bad mortgages" by forcing banks, and lending institutions to approve them in the first place. Banks, reluctant to grant the mortgages at all, were assured that the Fannie and Freddie would cover them. This assurance was what the investment banks, insurance companies and even some of the banks, themselves, were betting on when they acquired these packaged loans. How can you lose if pseudo-private organ of the Federal government is guaranteeing them? Well, we all just found out, didn't we.
There is a lot of blame to go around, but it starts with the Dems.
OCPatriot| 10.28.08 @ 2:13AM
The real battle is internal. It's someone who is right-to-life (anti-abortion) struggling against "it's the economy, stupid", which McCain didn't get till very late in the game. Too late, I'd say. It also might be "he's black" versus "it's the economy, stupid". Which trumps the other in such an internal battle? I'm inclined to say the right-to-life side wins out, but the racial issue may not be as strong; in fact in places like Michigan it sometimes sounds as if the economy issue is winning out. We'll see about Florida, which is close:
RCP Average 10/20 - 10/26 --
Obama = 48.2
McCain = 45.5
Obama +2.7
OCPatriot| 10.28.08 @ 2:29AM
To M. Tobias:
Most people conveniently leave out, or don't understand, that the problem was never with the mortgages themselves. It was first with the banks that made lots of money by not checking whether people could actually pay for those mortgages; one well-known Orange County sub-prime lender said, What's the requirement to get a mortgage? Answer: A pulse. No joke, now. No, the real problem was with the derivatives, which were unregulated, and which contained sliced and diced mortgages so artfully arranged so no one could tell what was in the package that was sold to all kinds of financial institutions. The deregulation permitted the banks to lend without really checking out the borrowers, and the real crime was the deregulation that never instituted any standards for the derivative packages so financial institutions buying them could really assess their value. Nobody cared about standards until the mortgagees started defaulting, and the magic flow of money to those holding derivatives ceased.
ruth| 10.28.08 @ 3:15AM
Liberal social engineering is the reason for the mortgage meltdown. Congress blackmailed banks(Acorn) into giving loans to people who could not afford them. Republicans raised objections but were scared off by shouts of 'racist'. Lack of regulation wasn't the problem--liberal ideology and greed in congress were , right? Those in congress drove this mess with plenty of corporate greed to match. I have found all of this substantiated information on various websites, it wasn't hard to find.
Mike| 10.28.08 @ 4:14AM
Being on the left, it would annoy me to see Palin in the White House. But I've got to admit, the woman may have what it takes. That is, she may have the same magical combination of skills on the Right that Obama has on the Left, the kind of combination of diplomacy, charisma, intelligence, savvy, perception, intensity and judgment that rarely come together. No, I don't happen to share her values. And no, I don't think she was ready this time. But neither was Obama four years ago. Four years from now, Palin might easily take the nomination. She has some catching up to do in terms of national and international political knowledge, but she has more than enough skill to do that. She appears to be a natural. Her biggest liability could be the perception that she "needs" her husband's advice or input. If she can cut that cord, she's golden.
wordwolf| 10.28.08 @ 7:11AM
If my hunch is correct and Mike Roush is really the television critic for TV Guide (coals to Newcastle, anyone?), everything becomes clear. He's got lots and lots of time on his hands, and his chief professional interface with life involves slickly produced fantasy. Clears everything up, doesn't it?
Jeff| 10.28.08 @ 9:26AM
"Having said that, Sarah Palin is a real American. She's smart, feisty, and determined and much more qualified to be president than the community organizer from Chicago. That's apparent to all but the most rabidly partisan."........Would you consider Frum, Scowcroft, Powell, Hagel, Goldwater, Eisenhower, and the other 20% Republican crossover to be rabidly partisan? If the Party if Ripon is going to pull itself together, it has to consider that the 'traitors' are not those who are leaving this year, but those who made a mess in the first place.
ruth| 10.28.08 @ 11:05AM
Jeff, you like traitors, right? Well your candidate sure does! His political career was launched in a traitor's living room.
Daphne Kenward| 10.29.08 @ 11:49AM
I am surprised that America does not understand what the difference between 95% and 5% means in a country with 300 Million people in it.
Obama said tax will only rise for 5% this 5% of people are the Wall Street fat cats who has bankrupted their country. If the American President is only earining 400'000 per year I doubt if Jobe the plumber is earning 250'000 per year. So most of the people who are being brain washed that their tax is going up it's a lie.
This ideology of spreading the wealth around, is McCain twisted interpitation, to mislead people.
I have had to close my business because people do not have money to use my services, because Mortgage interest payment went up. So cutting taxes as Obama proposed is a good idea, because people can come out and spend and Businesses does not have to close down. If all the tax goes to the Rich who don't need it, it means the middle and lower income people have less to spend and to save. So Middle income people will lose their businesses, and their employees end up with no jobs, that's the policy that is inplace now. And as a result the country has gone broke, and people are losing their jobs. Its simple maths, I find it hard to think or imagine that the American people can not understand simple logic.
The policy that McCain propose is exactly the same as what they have now, and only the rich has any money, and if the wealth keeps going one direction out of America to invest in Asia, it leave America and Americans out in the cold.
And I am convinced as we go through this election campaign the global community is thinking America is not only dangerious militarily, but economically too, and need to fire wall them selves from this economic meltdown happening again. This is a serious problem, this idea that I am fine, the rest of the country don't matter, not true.
If Wall Mart ran their business based on that policy they would be out of business. Black people shop the same as white people, if white people and Black people have no money to spend it affects all Businesses, and America as a whole.
Just the same as if all people around the world said they do not want to buy anything American, you would go bankrupt too, if you have no jobs, and nothing to export, your economy dies of as well.
So it's about investing in people, if Americans are 14th in the world in sacience and maths, you are not a third rate country you are a 3rd world country. The danger is a 3rd world country with Nuclear Missiles and a threat to the developed world, that is where America is heading, living on the old customs of Racist ideologies without development of mind and culture is a dangerious place to be.
Ms. Know| 10.30.08 @ 12:19AM
If they look passed her clothing and children long enough, they may see she has good ideas with drilling. That could make us spend less money making the oil companies rich. But you won't hear that because the mainstream media illuminati paint her as this airhead.
Dan Greef| 1.19.09 @ 1:14PM
Michael,
Apparently, putting "oversight" in quotes was a bit too subtle for you. The quotes were meant to make my point: there was no oversight when oversight was needed.