The Palin Effect
Women from around America look at Sarah Palin and find something about themselves in her. They’ve had to juggle a professional career and raising a family. They’ve had to ponder cutting their hair, switching to pantsuits and getting contact lenses. Voters often seek to identify with a candidate - polls show its one of the top reasons why people vote for a particular candidate. For these reasons, so many women have gravitated to Sarah Palin.
An article in Wednesday’s Washington Post is titled, “Palin Energizing Women From All Walks of Life.”
The recent bounce in the polls for McCain is no doubt related to the ‘Palin Effect,’ and the galvanizing impact she has had on voters, particularly female voters. But, the question remains if this bounce will hold, or will it recede when voters learn the full scope of Palin’s political beliefs?
Palin is not a feminist, but she does resonate with female voters. Perhaps, shes a neo-feminist, one that does not embrace traditional feminist ideology, but seeks to establish a professional identity without sacrificing her femininity.
The Washington Post, in its article, is reporting:
Susie Baron is a Republican, a mother of two and a home-schooler. She voted for Mike Huckabee in the Ohio primary, but now — because of Sarah Palin — she thinks she is part of something much bigger.
“I wouldn’t even call it a Palin movement, I’d call it a sleeping giant that has been awakened,” Baron, 56, said at a rally here Tuesday. She described its members as a silent majority of women in Middle America who “are raising our families, who work if we have to, but love our country and our families first.”
“And until now, we haven’t had anyone to identify with,” Baron said, adding that traditional feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women do “not represent me.”
If voters continue to identify strongly with Palin, even regardless of her issues, it could spell serious trouble for the Obama campaign.
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9 Responses to “The Palin Effect”
Go Palin. We can identlfy a lot better with you than with Biden for sure.
Former Hillary supporter.
Comment made on September 10th, 2008 at 2:19 amI am a female, registered as an Independent voter, and do not identify with Sarah Palin politically in any way. I did identify with Clinton politically in a number of ways. And this is about political and legislative issues, not about switching from normal blue jeans to high waisters, suffering through a bad haircut or dye job, changing diapers, or creating a career while balancing mommy duty at home. Friends, colleagues, and professional women’s associations are for support in those areas of Private Life. This election is about Political and Legislative dominance of the country.
BECAUSE Clinton’s stand on issues related to women and on some other issues are what I believe is important and should be protected and promoted, I supported Clinton. I did not support her because she was a woman but because she was a woman who spent her career in politics defending things that I believe in as important and vital to our freedoms and our equality. BECAUSE Sarah Palin’s stand on these issues IS what HRC gave her energy to fighting against, I do not support Palin.
Supporters of HRC who decide to support the McCain-Palin ticket because Palin is a woman and neither Biden nor Obama are women, never truly supported HRC for her intellect and her work, the place where she put her energy, the things that HRC values about herself, they never really supported her and their decision reflects not only the sexism that Clinton spent her life fighting -judging someone’s ability based on gender, but they switch their support to someone who seeks to undo what HRC worked her life to help create and defend.
If those issues were not important to you in the first place, why were you supporting Clinton because by doing so, you were voting against your belief system about how the country should be structured and so against your own self-interest.
HRC is concerned about a whole lot more than pantsuits and hairdos. So is Palin. They both have goals and agendas for which they work. That is why they are doing what they do. If you believed HRC’s were in your best interest and in the best interest of the country and in the best interest of women then you have no choice but to believe that Palin’s are not because they are as different as a green pantsuit with a hibiscus design is from a basic black one.
What are you concerned about? Gender identification OR the rules that govern this country that affect gender based freedoms and equality? I’ll wear a pantsuit probably in the not too distant future and identify with women who do, but I want to wear it in an environment that supports me rights to move freely, be paid equally, and make my own choices about my own body.
The dem ticket carries the torch for the things that HRC continues to work for and to promote. They will have my support. Because they represent what I believe in. HRC has asked those who supported her to support the Dem. ticket and not just because of party affiliation but because it supports what she supports and it is important to her. Supporters of her who shift support to Palin are essentially issuing a major slap in the face to Clinton….bigger than the one they think she received from the party when she conceded. That was one personal and singular. Theirs is about something bigger than a person, and HRC’s history shows that her values are about somthing beigger than herself.
You want solidarity within the gender, you supported HRC, then you continue to support the things she values. You don’t, then you were never there for the reasons should would have had you there in the first place and you become a part of what she fights - and she fights it for You as well as herself.
If Palin were a man, and you cared about the issues HRC represented, you would find her ideas about how You should live to be poison. HRC does and it’s part of the cause that she gives her life to, as have countless women (and men) over the past 50 years. My friend, a bright and well respected professional woman in her mid 40’s, who I know supports many of the same issues HRC does, said this weekend that she was thinking to vote McC-Palin because of Palin. I asked her how she would feel if some of the these things were lost. She said that the presidential administration can’t make those decisions. I said, the Supreme Court does and the president appoints Supreme Court judges. She asked me how the supreme court works and how many judges are on it.
Enough said.
Comment made on September 10th, 2008 at 7:16 amIts funny to watch all the dummies out try and down play Obama’s accomplishments! And we wonder why other countries hate our racist butts!! This KKKountry hasn’t changed one lick from its racist past! Instead of Hooded Sheets you all now where SUITS and you think we should forget about everything racist that this country has done!! REMEMBER HURRICANE KATRINA!!! RACISM IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE KKKOUNTRY!! And you better believe we havent forgotten!
Obama-
Occidental College - two years.
Columbia University - B.A. political science with a specialization in international relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude
&
BIDEN-University of Delaware - B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Versus
McCain-
Comment made on September 10th, 2008 at 8:03 amUnited States Naval Academy - class rank 894 of 899
PALIN-
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in journalism
And she became Governor??!!
MY TURN!!!
How insulting to women to offer this caricature as our role model. She does not represent any of Hillary Clinton’s views. She says to parents of special needs children that they will have an advocate in the White House, while she opposes stem cell research and a national health care program. It is shocking to me that anyone can say they were a Hillary supporter and now they are a Sarah supporter, when Palin is the antithesis of Hillary Clinton.
This Pied Piper needs to be stopped.
Comment made on September 10th, 2008 at 10:49 amthe only thing that Plain does is make their rallys less borrrrrring, so on a scale from 1 to 10, now their at a -50!
Comment made on September 10th, 2008 at 3:57 pmSarah Palin disgusts me…she is a true politician. She has lapped up everything fed to her by McLame and his cronies and now claims it as her own. She didn’t hesitate in her interview because she did NOT have a single original thought. How does her self proclaimed knowledge of energy impact national security? Her views on women’s issues are OFFENSIVE! Her daughter was able to make the decision about her body but she doesn’t want anyone else to have that choice? Even in the cases of RAPE and INCEST?! I am gob-smacked that anyone could claim to support HRC and then vote for Caribou Barbie. Wake up people!!!!!
Comment made on September 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pmVoters were going nuts over Sarah Palin before they ever knew her. The day she was introduced was a riot of women screaming for her. Very evident to me they didn’t care who was nominated as long as it was a woman…any woman.
I am a woman, I was a cheerleader 40 years ago and I have a mentally disabled sister. Why wasn’t I nominated!!!
I have been never missed an election in 46 years and I never voted on someone who I had no knowledge about. I love my country more than that. I think people are forgetting that Palin is not running in this election. This is a PRESIDENTAL election. This contest is between McCain and Obama not Obama and Palin.
Her views on pro-life are fine but wanting to eliminate Roe and Wade, after that was debated and in the courts for years, is ridiculous. This would be a serious set-back to Womens Rights in a terrible way unless YOU happen to think a little girl of 12 that was raped must bear this child.
My first email from a male friend after the nomination of Sarah Palin said this…..”wheweeee….Sarah Palin”. This idiot thinks she should be Vice because she’s pretty.
I keep an open mind until I get to know someone and now I know Palin as one lie after another and that awful interview did it for me big time. She was horrid, knew nothing, and fumbled through all the things she had been scripted on totally missing the basis of the questions.
I have decided that anyone who votes for this ticket is just dying for 4 more years of the same lies. You finally have a change things so why don’t you?
Comment made on September 14th, 2008 at 9:24 amIT PISSES ME OFF TO SEE OBAMA A BLACK ISLAMIC, MUSLIM, SEXIST EXTREMIST BIGOT ATTACK AN PALIN ACCOMPLISHED, SUCESSFUL, HONORABLE, PATRIOTIC ALL AMERICAN HOMETOWN WHITE WOMEN!! GO BACK TO KENYA O!
Comment made on September 14th, 2008 at 1:28 pmI AM A HILLARY SUPPORTER VOTING MCCAIN/PALIN 2008!!! AND 77% OF WHITE CAREER MOMS ARE WITH MCCAIN! AND HAS NOT GONE BACK TO OBAMA AS THE NEWS LIE REPORTS!
Perhaps you might like to get a few facts before spreading vile lies.
http://obamafactcheck.com/
The lies that Palin told have been proven. Those you are spreading have been proven NOT true.
I haven’t heard Obama say one thing against Palin! All I heard him say was talking about her family was off limits.
Comment made on September 15th, 2008 at 10:21 pmLeave a Comment