The Atlantic - Latest Comments in About those Hillary voters

Re: About those Hillary voters

SJ — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:02:18 -0000

I agree with 'scruncher.'

When I heard about this pick, I first thought: 'who the hell is she?' Then, when I heard her 'acceptance' speech and the more I read about her, I became angry and completely insulted. Just having a 'woman' on the ticket does not necessarily mean ALL women are going to vote for him. That is how HE thinks, I am sure. Plus, he wanted to dominate the newscycle. How better to take the attention away from Obama who had 90,000 people present and 38 million people watching him on tv? This was their push to get the attention off of him and on them. They succeeded. But, you know what? It is working--at least right now. My family which is full of Evangelical women who had planned NOT TO VOTE because of the abortion issue--are now completely on board with McCain. Others who are maybe less 'conservative' and were unsure are also now ready to cast their vote with McCain--men and women. Why? Because the Right knows how to campaign and the pundits, rabid supporters in the media and private sector, and surrogates have all gotten the memo which spells out the talking points. They will repeat these points over and over. The main concern many have on the Left is that Joe Biden will not be able to 'really' debate her, because she is a woman. All he has to do is let her stumble around trying to answer how she would advise her 'president' on foreign policy issues, international trade/commerce issues, national domestic policy issues and she will crumble and stumble and do the damage herself. Obama's campaign has played it low key, letting McCain himself stumble around and make mistakes--they should let her do the same.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Elrod — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:07:19 -0000

tomtom,

If the whole "Trig is Bristol's baby" thing comes true, the whole nomination is done with. Sorry, but America just is not going to go along with a VP who faked her pregnancy and lied about it repeatedly - even if to protect her teenage daughter (from what?). If the baby story is true, this is Thomas Eagleton. And yes, lots of folks felt sorry for Thomas Eagleton too.

Re: About those Hillary voters

tomtom — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:41:17 -0000

Hillary's attraction is that she is not superwoman. She gets beaten and attacked and cheated on, and she fights back with her inimitable and magnificent tough bitch voice. Hillary takes her hard licks and puts on a game face. I love Hillary.

Sarah Palin is not human. She gives birth at 43 and there is not one single photo showing even a bulge? (There are lots of photos and she looks like... Superwoman in glasses.)

She breaks water in Texas, gives a speech, gets on an Alaskan Airlines flight

"Governor Palin was extremely pleasant to flight attendants and her stage of pregnancy was not apparent by observation as she didn’t show any signs of distress," Alaska Airlines representative Caroline Boren.

And travels not to Anchorage but to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, right outside of Wasilla!!!

Sarah Palin is Superwoman!!! Since when do HRC voters want to vote for Superwoman?

Hillary voters might vote for a protective mom who bears her teenage daughter Bristol's baby to spare here daughter shame. But that's not the story Sarah Palin and the RNC tell. Purely circumstantial evidence for that, (Bristol out of school for 5+ months before Trig's birth with mono, photos where Bristol looks a lot more pregnat than mom). That story might get some Hillary voters.

Re: About those Hillary voters

scruncher — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:08:46 -0000

I'm a woman, albeit not the demo McCain is after: I'm not an evangelical and I never supported Clinton. But my initial reaction to Palin was anger -- anger that McCain's camp thinks women are such simpletons that *any* woman on the ticket will suffice. Then I went to hillaryis44 and saw that with a small band of total whacko Clinton diehards it may very well work.

Re: About those Hillary voters

JonF — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:20:34 -0000

Re: When was the last time "Reagan Democrats" went for a Democrat?! Clinton, '96?

There are no Reagan Democrats. They either became full-fledged Republicans (mainly those in the South), or reverted to full-time Democrats (most of the Rust Belt ones).

Re: And the base is actually excited and energized

How long will that last? Through the convention maybe?

Re: I am so surprised McCain didn't pick Huckabee.

Too many negatives with Huckabee. McCain’s best pick would have been Pawlenty. Solid pro-life credentials, good resume (including executive experience), no negatives, may have been able to put a swing state in play.

Re: think there are a lot of other female Republican candidates that would have been more competent

Liddy Dole is too old, and the rest of the women in the GOP field are either more obscure than Palin, or insufficiently pro-life.

Re: libertarian (leaner)s do too, small gov.

Alaska makes a grand pretense of being a very libertarian state, what with its liberal pot law and all. But if you look at the bottom line it’s the most socialist state in the union. How many other states skim enough money off their major industry to send a welfare check to every resident?

Re: Everyone says the GOP "brand" is damaged, and she presents a legitimate shot at effective "rebranding"

How so? OK, she’s more photogenic than your average GOP pol, but she supports the same old tired stuff the rest of the GOP does. There’s not a trace of The New Republican Party (whatever that is) to be seen in her.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Dyre42 — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 08:22:45 -0000

I'm thinking that to Clinton supporters Palin is coming off as a consolation prize from Bizarro world.

Re: About those Hillary voters

socctty — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:05:56 -0000

libertarian (leaner)s do too, small gov

As someone who once took a very long and hard look at the Libertarian Party, it somewhat angers me to see the term "libertarian" used like this. To me it seemed as if the favor towards small government amongst libertarians was that the larger government was, the more likely it was to violate individual liberty. It was less about paying for government programs than it was about making sure that government needed people more than people needed government.

I don't see Palin coming off well amongst those kinds of people.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Breukelyne — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:31:06 -0000

He picked the Pretty Young Thing. I know she's more politically formidable than that, but that's the scenario it's pulling to mind. Lots of women are reacting with great skepticism. And I don't just mean Democrats. As a narrative, that's a tiresome story for older women in general.

This pick comes off as amazingly condescending. Rice, Whitman, Hutchinson or Snowe would have been a genuine (and somewhat effective) appeal to Hillary supporters. Picking Palin has rallied the Hillary supporters to Obama in a way I never dreamed possible.

She's totally a pick for men and for the religious right.

And a base energizer. It's dramatic and exciting and unpredictable and none of that could have been used to describe the Republican side of the race until now.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Raindog — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:24:14 -0000

"MILF" - "Mother I'd Like to F**k".

The thought is she does well with GOP men because she is good-looking in that "Fox News anchor" kind of way. Myself, I don't see it, but then again, I'm not a Republican man.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Brad — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:46:29 -0000

One thing I think interesting in these polls is the surprise by some at the fact men (gasp!!) like the idea of a hot Cougar in the white house while middle-aged and older women (gasp!!) are not nearly as happy that some young, attractive woman with little experience got ahead of the older, heavier, but much, much more experienced candidate (Hillary).

Has anyone in the MSM not worked where young, hot interns are not loathed by anyone over the age of 30 with kids?

Look - it is one thing if she shared the same ideology with HRC supporters. But to bring on a hotter version of HRC without any of the same ideals only further indicts her in the minds of HRC supporters.

Of course men love her. We always like the younger, hot secretary.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Choska — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:24:18 -0000

Why does she do well with Republican men?

Anyone else know what 'MILF' means?

Re: About those Hillary voters

Persia — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:22:53 -0000

Wannabe VILF, Curtis.

I'm not sure what evangelical women will think of her in the end-- she's got a four-month old with special needs. Granted, they sleep all the time at that age, but...I don't know.

Re: About those Hillary voters

howard — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:15:42 -0000

hardcore news followers like us are still struggling to get any kind of handle on palin's views beyond the most superficial right-wing tropes (and, indeed, whether she has any views beyond the most superficial right-wing tropes other than her strange affection for socialism regarding oil, where she taxes the oil companies to pay for rebate checks - you know, obama's plan!), and yet random citizens in a poll can claim to have a sense of readiness for the presidency?

sometimes you really have to shake your head....

that said, it is amusing that it may well turn out that mccain played to his true base - older white guys - with this pick....

Re: About those Hillary voters

Amy — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:06:46 -0000

I think she does worse with women because they know how demanding having a new baby is, and they are uncomfortable with the mother of a special-needs infant taking on such an incredibly demanding position.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Curtis — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:44:52 -0000

Palin's greatest contribution will be adding VILF to our vernacular.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Bart — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:07:53 -0000

My limited interactions and informal peer polling suggest . . .

Conservatives dig this choice, life issues.

libertarian (leaner)s do too, small gov. In the near term, keeping this coalition together is important/essential for conservative political success.

She unseated a Republican governor to get where she is, so she can be the image of the "New GOP". Everyone says the GOP "brand" is damaged, and she presents a legitimate shot at effective "rebranding" (not band timing for such an opportunity).

Of course, it could end up coming off like "New Coke".

Re: About those Hillary voters

Joel — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:57:48 -0000

This ain't a "Hillary supporters" pick. I think that meme is just lazy analysis (although the McCain campaign welcomes it, and any other headlines!)

Re: About those Hillary voters

Whitey — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:38:04 -0000

Men like her because she's a hottie, from what I can see. My non-political friends who bashed the Biden pick have responded to criticism of McCain's pick with "but she's hot!"

Re: About those Hillary voters

albatross — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:20:56 -0000

I think a lot of conservatives are really unhappy with the Republican party right now. McCain bringing a relatively young, untainted-by-the-past woman into the campaign probably makes them more likely to come to the polls. It may help that she's good-looking (an advantage Obama shares), but I suspect her not being one of the guys who's been betraying a bunch of the principles of the party/movement for the last eight years helps out more.

But it'd sure be nice to see her provide some evidence that she's up for the job she's running for, especially given McCain's age and previous health problems.

Re: About those Hillary voters

socctty — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:13:05 -0000

I don't buy the base argument, either. Before the convention, McCain was sporting a higher amount of support amongst the GOP than Obama was amongst the Dems.

Maybe it will encourage the religious crazies to come out and volunteer for McCain. I don't know if the VP slot is really that exciting for people, though... especially since no one has an idea of what she'll actually be doing as a VP.

Re: About those Hillary voters

jaye — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:55:39 -0000

I am so surprised McCain didn't pick Huckabee. If he had, I don't think Obama would have any chance of pulling any Evangelical voters. I saw Huckabee on Colbert, I wanted to give him a hug he seemed like such a good guy. But I do agree he is dangerous for that very reason. He comes across as a total wide-eyed sweetheart, but he has some seriously screwed up ideas.

Palin is a such a strange choice. I think there are a lot of other female Republican candidates that would have been more competent, I don't understand why he chose her.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Deborah — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:33:13 -0000

What carsick said--as a play for PUMAs, it failed. But I think there are about 400 pumas, so that really doesn't matter.

The Christian right is ecstatic. And the base is actually excited and energized, something one couldn't say previously about this campaign. Aside from that her value may be in bringing out the nasty in Democrats--after months of tearing people apart when they tried to claim that Hawaii wasn't America, the same people turn around and claim governing Alaska isn't governing. And then go on to diss working mothers, everyone in a small or rural state or town, moose in general, and on to alienating all those voters we were eager to pick up.

Criticize McCain for picking someone he barely knows. I don't think she's been thinking about governing the nation and the US's role in the world, but about governing Alaska and its issues and concerns. I could be wrong, though, so let's at least set the bar high--An unknown, she must be fabulous! An awesome command of the issues of the day, that he would elevate her over more obvious choices! Her record must be stellar! And so on. The way Obama supporters (not Obama and Biden, to their credit, or Hillary, to hers) have been going on about her, a modest ability to keep it together in an interview and not flub the way McCain does will seem like a stellar command of the issues, and be reported as "We underestimated her."

Don't underestimate her. Give her plenty of credit, and let her hang herself with enough rope. At least if she doesn't, you're then playing on equal footing, rather than pouting about how she fooled everyone.

Re: About those Hillary voters

siddhartha — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:24:43 -0000

It's exactly about locking up the base. The Palin pick appeals to the right wing while supporting McCain's alleged "maverick" branding. It's a brilliant move for stopping the rot within the core Republican coalition. Beyond that, if it manages to peel off a few Hillary voters and/or bait leading Dems into chauvinist behavior (always a possibility), that'll be gravy. But it's not the core rationale for the pick. The core rationale is keeping both the social conservatives and the individual/libertarian-leaning wings of the Republican party on side.

Re: About those Hillary voters

Huskialto — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:12:14 -0000

McCain: "Hillary voters, your pet cause just died. So here's another one that's superficially similar—um, exactly like it, really!"

Replacing something of value that was lost with an inexact clone, who wouldn't leap at that?

And oh yes, Fox News is about to become MILF News, 24/7— and more shameless about it than anything Chris Matthews could dream of pulling off.

Re: About those Hillary voters

carsick — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:11:43 -0000

This reminds me a bit of your race spokesman contests that included Billy Dee and Homer Simpson.

Do white women want Sarah Palin to be their appointed spokeswoman? And, appointed by John McCain?