The strategy was audacious on its face.
Picking a vice presidential candidate who would energize the GOP's Christian Right base while also appealing to millions of independent voters, including lots of former Hillary Clinton supporters?
Sounded impossible.
Gallup is out with a new poll on the abortion issue that suggests the plan--McCain picking Palin--might not be so audacious after all.
The poll finds that most swing voters simply don't care much about the abortion issue.
[A]as Gallup polling in 2008 and all recent past elections shows, only a small fraction of Americans are highly activated on the abortion issue. Most Americans downgrade the importance of abortion to their vote, saying either that it's not a major issue for them (37%), or that it's just one of many important issues they consider (49%). Only 13% of Americans told Gallup in May 2008 that they vote only for candidates for major offices who share their views on abortion.....the abortion issue appears to be even less of a factor for independent women than it is for their partisan counterparts. According to Gallup's May 2008 Values and Beliefs survey, 20% of Republican women said they vote only for candidates who share their views on abortion, as did 14% of Democratic women but only 8% of independent women.
All of which is to say that a candidate like Palin could (and has) mobilize the GOP's religious voters without scaring off the middle of the roaders that McCain will need to win in November. It's anti-convention wisdom. But the results of the Gallup poll are loud and clear.
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How can you support the right of anyone to buy and own a gun and be against the right of a woman to make a private decision about terminating a pregnancy. I just don't get it. But I guess Sarah Palin knows what God's will is better than the rest of us do.
The polls are showing that Sarah Palin is more popular than any of the other three men. In fact speech Rasmussen Reports indicate that her speech was viewed live by more than 40 million people, and that Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters.
I think she has turned the tables. I think she has captured America’s attention, and -with it- she has put in our faces the fallacies of the abortion debate as ‘presented’ to us by the Media and Planned Parenthood.
Regarding abortion too many bumper sticker slogans have replaced reason. Instead of relying on 'opinions' or 'religious' or political ideas (that only get people in a frenzy), we must strive to be objective. We are supposed to be educated people, so it is time we start acting like one.
Instead of clouding peoples’ reason with cliché statements, we must first look at the biological facts about the human embryo. These facts are not partisan, they are just facts.
The most used slogan is that abortion is about a woman’s body. This is a misleading slogan. If abortion was about a woman’s body we wouldn’t be having a debate. We surely are not having one about any woman getting an appendectomy, or about a woman going to the dentist to get a painful tooth extricated. Abortion of pregnancy is a procedure intended to terminate pregnancy by killing a human embryo or fetus. We must stop glossing things over and face the scientific fact that the human embryo is NOT a part of the female body.
See, throwing a tantrum hoping to overlook a scientific fact like that would be akin to insisting that the Earth is flat, or that the World is the center of the universe. There is not a single scientist in the World that would deny the fact that (from implantation onwards) the human embryo is an individual of the Human Species. This individual is NOT his/her mother. You can take a small biopsy from an embryo, amplify the DNA by PCR, and prove that this individual is not the mother (I have done it myself). So, abortion is NOT just about the woman’s body. Anyone telling you that is telling you a lie.
The other bumper sticker slogan is that the embryo is not human. Well, as I explained above the fact is that the human embryo is an individual of the human species. Developmental Biology tells us that this individual will remain as such until his/her death (natural or otherwise). Development will not make this individual more Human, it will just make him/her more developed. Those claiming this human individual is not human do it from OPINIONS. Others have used OPINIONS to deny humanity to vast sectors of the Human Family (remember slavery and the concentration camps in Germany).
I think Sara Palin, involuntarily -by living a cohesive life- is reminding us that ALL individuals are equal. This includes the unborn human individual, as well as individuals with disabilities. The life of Sara Palin is a living testimony to what America should be. BTW: She did not need a pay rate to arrive to the right conclusions and to walk the walk.
Sarah Palin apeals to me because she's not a social climber & her career developed out of her interests. Obviously a very smart lady who can fight her own battles. Her nomination shows the Republicans walk the walk & do not pay lip service to woman. Shows they have faith in her abilities. Hiliary was beaten down by the old boys club. I don't think Obama listened to what the people wanted. Obama picked a dud. I'm Catholic & all the Catholics I know would vote for McCain. Obama will further bankrupt the country with his plans.
Not an Oprah fan much anymore.
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