The new poll question is up:
Has the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s VP changed your vote?
Last week I asked what was your take on McCain’s pick of Palin…
Bearing in mind Vizu only tracks the most recent 500 votes, it appears liberals sandbagged early votes but conservatives rallied. Internationals appear not to be impressed by Palin…
As always, make comments to either this or last week’s poll here, not on the Vizu website.
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Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Well, God bless America and Serbia.
Hi Jill, I’m surprised at the low number of your readers who were happy with Sarah’s selection!
Andy, like I said, it appears liberals voted heavily early and then conservatives rallied, based on the fact Vizu only shows the most recent 500 votes.
At any rate, my polls are often overtaken by liberals.
You know, if you look at the maps it seems Americans favor her and Europeans are the ones that are cringing.
Sorry to my European friends, but I think you should have stayed out of this. Or that there was some way to get a less skewed result.
I think you should have asked “Who has now decided to vote for McCain because of Palin and would have never voted for Obama!” If McCain had picked a pro-abortion running mate, many of us would have wrote in Alan Keyes name. I cannot vote for a man or woman who supports killing the unborn!
Darn liberals! They take all the fun away!
Now that it has been revealed that Palin’s church has intitiated a gay conversion program
a/k/a “pray away the gay”, I’m sure the base will even further rally to her…
Not so sure about the Log Cabin Republicans.
Just think how dull it would be if McCain had picked a qualified VP. Pawlenty dull!
Yes LTL,
and they are rounding up all gay alaskans and FORCING them to join the church.
Phooey.
I have a theory about Saint Sarah.
I understand there is a new “reality” show in which wildly unqualified people are assigned a hard job- a ballet instructor becomes a oil field roughneck, a tax accountant is assigned to a fishing boat, and drama and hilarity ensues.
I think the conservative base thinks Saint Sarah is a contestant on this game show, and will be President for 46 minutes (60 less commercials).
With luck, by the election, they will understand this is real life, you can’t change the channel.
If McCain had chosen a pro-choice VP, I would’ve stayed home this time.
First of all, Sarah is not running for president. I don’t know what is so hard to understand about that, but she’s not. Secondly, she has more experience than Obama. If Sarah Palin as president would be a reality show, Obama/Biden as president would be a ventriolquist act. Guess where Biden’s hand goes!
Jill:
The maps and the percentages don’t jive.
Just take a look.
In the US I counted about 50 red pins, 10 green pins and about 6 blues.
In other areas I counted 12 greens, 1 blue and 1 red.
Totals: 51 reds, 22 greens, and 7 blues.
The overal percentages would be Red – 64%, Green – 28%, Blue – 10%.
I’d be calling VIZU and asking for a refund.
HM: Vizu only posts the most recent 500 flags. I’m guessing the bulk of the first 299 were green voters.
… everything is pointing to a well placed selection in Sarah Palin.
The more ‘green’ makes the case.
keep up the good work Jill
WCC +>
Personally, I was a red voter.
I think McCain made a politically intelligent, though risky, choice. Personally I’m hoping it doesn’t pay off and backfires, but right now McCain’s choice has been helping more than hurting him. At least for the moment.
I understand there is a new “reality” show in which wildly unqualified people are assigned a hard job- a ballet instructor becomes a oil field roughneck, a tax accountant is assigned to a fishing boat, and drama and hilarity ensues.
I think the liberal base thinks Obama is a contestant on this game show, and will be President for 46 minutes (60 less commercials).
With luck, by the election, they will understand this is real life, you can’t change the channel.
Posted by: LTL at September 6, 2008 12:17 PM
LTL:
The above sounds much more like reality than your post.
I suspect there were many old fashioned evangelicals like my self that did not watch Wednesday night because we still have church then. I see her viewership was still higher than Mr. Obama. The only risk I see would have been if there had been a woman picked by Obama. As it was he picked Biden for whom voters have voted strongly against since 1988.
I for one was thrilled! I was planning to support McCain, but didn’t realize it was possible to be this excited and enthused about the campaign. Now that Palin’s the nominee, I’m thrilled to volunteer and do whatever I can to get them elected. And for the “she has no experience” crowd… I’d rather have an unqualified vice-president than an unqualified president.
Just something to think about.
“Read twice (if necessary) post once (or not at all, if the post is thus obviated).”
Confusionotus
“Read twice (if necessary) — post once (or not at all, if the post is thus obviated).”
Confusionotus
(Then there’s the old standby, “Post once, read once.”)
Jill:
Still doesn’t make sense.
Tha maps say one thing and the percentages another.
I’d get a better understanding of exactly how they display the results.
And WCC, Europeans, Asians, East Indians, and Muslims that aren’t Americans don’t vote in US elections unless of course they are living in Illinois.
“Vote and vote often”, Mayor Daly.
Jill:
Are you saying that the map visual represents the last 500 votes and, the percentages numerical all of the votes.
Why post the map then?
Does not compute. It’s meaningless.
Jill:
My proof is the idiotic comment from Andy.
Where’s Alaska and Hawaii? They must have voted on this one!
…………………….
xalisae @ 12:27 PM,
If Sarah Palin as president would be a reality show, Obama/Biden as president would be a ventriolquist act. Guess where Biden’s hand goes!
LOL!
Intellectual Inconsistency
I was once charged with trespass for refusing to move from the doorway of a building where pre-natal humans were being killed. In the subsequent trial I was interviewing perspective jurors. They all answered questions under oath, understanding that lying would be perjury, a crime. I read the part of the 14th amenndment to the U.S. Constitution which states: ‘nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
I asked each perspective juror which of these three rights was pre-eminent, life, liberty, or property. Each one of them said liberty was the most important. I then asked them how you could possibly enjoy liberty if you had been denied life. They all said you could not. I then said, ‘If that is true, then you would have to say the right to life trumps all others, would you not?’ Each one of them, in turn, agreed. Life is numero uno/number one.
Now here is the interesting part. I could only interview one juror at a time. The remainder of the jury pool was present and heard me ask all the previous persons the same questions. But when it came their turn, each one of them answered the same way. Initially, liberty was the most important right, but when asked how you could enjoy liberty without life, logic dictated that the right to life is our most valuable right.
All the perspective jurors answered the questions honestly. But initially they were all honestly wrong. When required to exercise logic they had to acknowledge the truth: Without life every other right is meaningless.
What kind of embryo/fetus was in your mother’s uterus when she was pregnant with you?
Here are some clues: not bovine, not feline, not canine.
I know this is really difficult for some of you. You do not want jeopardize your bliss by giving up on your willful ignorance.
Are you smarter than a fifth grader?
And all the fifth graders said, “Human!”
What do you say?
ps:They convicted me of criminal trespass. I believe they would have voted to execute me if the penalty had been available. I know some of you would have.
Jill Stanek: “At any rate, my polls are often overtaken by liberals.”
You may want to consider bagging them. Yours isn’t the only site where polls get hijacked and ballot-boxes get artificially stuffed.
BTW, I think the “pray away the gay” idea at Palin’s church (assuming it’s even true) is rather dense, but the media should hold Palin accountable for that about the same time they hold BHO accountable for everything Rev. Wright has ever said.
I would have voted for McCain anyhow, only to do my part to defeat Obama. His choice of Palin just makes me much more enthusiastic about supporting them!
kbhvac: I know this is really difficult for some of you.
No, but you’re making it difficult for yourself. The unborn in this argument are human, no question about it. That’s not the debate, but you seem determined to act otherwise.
Jill Stanek: “At any rate, my polls are often overtaken by liberals.”
bmmg: You may want to consider bagging them.
BMMG, then what?
“What’s the special on bagged liberals, today, Clancy?”
“Three for ten Dollars.”
“Okay, give me two bags.”
HisMan: I’d be calling VIZU and asking for a refund.
You’re just mad because Oliver’s rectangle had an area of 12.5, not 12. ; )
Are you saying that the map visual represents the last 500 votes and, the percentages numerical all of the votes.
HisMan, the map shows the last 500 votes, period. It need not reflect the total voting percentages at all.
…..
The maps and the percentages don’t jive.
I believe this phenomenon has been referred to in the past as a “devastating Liberal raid.”
If, for example, the last 500 votes would have been blue, then that’s all we would see, regardless of how many reds and greens came before.
“I believe this phenomenon has been referred to in the past as a “devastating Liberal raid.”
And there really is a good reason for this – your web site was mentioned in a comment at PZ’s site.
Hey idiots out there, Sarah Palin is the most qualified of all the nominees to be in the race. Put up a chart and list all accomplishments of all of them! Did I read in the constitution that a VP nominee has to be a Senator? Governors are just a important, and Jill, if you are like all the rest who “didn’t know who Sarah P. was” whose fault is that? She has been doing her job, it is just that you and your cohorts haven’t been doing theirs. GO McCain/Palin!
I knew about her refusal to abort her downs syndrome child because I subscribe to a few Pro Life e-mail news lists. And I am proud to say that I will be voting for the McCain/Palin ticket.
And yes, I am a woman. An ANTI ABORTION-is-your-only-choice woman.
Hey Stumpy. WSJ cut and paste for you:
WASILLA, Alaska — The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.
The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin’s legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.
“It’s too bad that the city of Wasilla didn’t do their homework and secure the land before they began construction,” said Kathy Wells, a longtime activist here. “She was not your ceremonial mayor; she was in charge of running the city. So it was her job to make sure things were done correctly.”
Ms. Palin, now Alaska’s governor and Republican Sen. John McCain’s running mate, has pointed to her two terms as Wasilla’s mayor, from 1996 to 2002, as evidence that she has enough executive experience to take on the presidency, should the need arise — more than Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who touts his own background as a community organizer in Chicago.
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” Ms. Palin said Wednesday in her acceptance speech at the Republican convention.
Litigation resulting from the dispute over Ms. Palin’s sports-complex project is still in the courts, with the land’s former owner seeking hundreds of thousands of additional dollars from the city.
ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because she is a “babe”.
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents
for seven months.
She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything
like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She’s smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about
670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal onservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over
33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they
benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed
money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage
the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a
new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.
While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will
make us energy independent and increase fficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while
she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.
She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from
the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin
fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).
As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top
cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that
an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation
for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town
introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She
abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one
of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this
Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).
As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative
action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant
she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.
Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s
mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.
As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march
to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.
There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.
However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are
regretting it.
CLAIM VS FACT
.”Hockey mom”: true for a few years
.”PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
.”NRA supporter”: absolutely true
.social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
.pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
.”Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
.”Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
.political maverick: not at all
.gutsy: absolutely!
.open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
.has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
.”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
.fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
.pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
.pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
.pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
.pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000”, up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.
Anne Kilkenny
HYPERLINK “mailto:annekilkenny@hotmail.com”
Oops, the above was posted by me.
Vida,
Thank you for the info about Palin…BUT whatever she’s done in the past in Alaska would offset the DAMAGE an Obama/ Biden administration will do to the rest of America.
She’s still human with failings like the rest of us…as I mentioned before re McCain…better to have an 80%pro-lifer in the Oval office than a ZERO%!