California Conservative

Based on this AP article, it’s obvious that Missouri is getting ‘Palin Fever’. Tickets disappeared for Gov. Palin’s planned event for Friday morning that campaign officials were forced to change venues:

A rally with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is being moved to a larger site in Springfield. Friday morning’s event was initially scheduled for an arena at Missouri State University.

But the party says all 4,000 tickets were snapped up within 90 minutes Wednesday morning at Republican headquarters in Greene and Christian counties. Hundreds more Palin fans were left empty-handed.

Palin’s “Road to Victory” rally will now take place instead in the parking lot of Bass Pro Shops in Springfield. The outdoor outfitter is one of Missouri’s biggest attractions. The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday. No tickets are needed.

I’d be surprised if this event draws 10,000 or more. I’ve never been to the Bass Pro Shops in Springfield but I know it’s huge. That means they’ve got a huge parking lot. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gov. Palin’s event draws 20,000 wild-eyed supporters. Her charisma and her straight talk draw people to her.

In some ways, this election is more about Joe the Plumber and Gov. Palin than it is about Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain. That’s the best shot Sen. McCain has of winning.

Sen. Obama’s lead is shrinking, too. Here’s what IBD/TIPP poll results:

McCain has cut into Obama’s lead for a second day and is now just 1.1 points behind. The spread was 3.7 Wednesday and 6.0 Tuesday. The Republican is making headway with middle- and working- class voters, and has surged 10 points in two days among those earning between $30,000 and $75,000. He has also gone from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point lead among Catholics.

There’s other fronts on which Gov. Palin is attacking Sen. Obama on. Check this out:

Citing a study of Senate payroll records, Palin said women in Obama’s Senate office received 83 cents for every dollar earned by male staffers.

“Does he think that the women aren’t working as hard?” Palin said of Obama. “Does he think that they are 17 percent less productive? And Barack Obama can’t say that this is just the way that its always been done around the Capitol, because I know one senator who actually does pay equal wages for equal work, Sen. John McCain.”

Obama has repeatedly criticized McCain for refusing to support equal pay for women using a line that the Arizona senator famously said earlier this year. McCain had said that instead of equal pay, female workers “need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else.”

Obama campaign adviser Anita Dunn also told MSNBC, “Sen. Obama has fought for equal pay for an equal day’s work, while Sen. McCain has suggested that women don’t get equal pay because they need more education and training. While Sen. Obama has proposed a plan to help working women, the McCain-Palin campaign offers just more negative attacks and distortions.”

This is a great contrast. Sen. Obama talks about one thing, then doing the opposite. Then his spinmeisters claim that Sen. the talk, then walks a different walk. Sen. Obama’s spokesperson can spin all she wants about Sen. Obama’s history of underpaying women but verifiable, documented facts are difficult to argue against.

That’s why Ms. Dunn’s only option was to avoid the issue by talking about something that isn’t related.

Conversely, Sen. McCain just treats everyone fairly. That’s a study in contrasts. Finally, it’s worth considering this:

Former Clinton supporters including Lynn Forester de Rothschild and Prameela Bartholomeusz joined Palin on Tuesday’s Nevada rally.

Rothschild, a member of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Platform Committee, made headlines last month after she officially endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Some observers had pointed out her statement, despite being a baroness, to CNN this summer, “This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don’t like him [Obama]…I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”

I’m not buying into the polls showing Sen. Obama up by double digits. These campaign appearances are by former Hillary supporters. PUMA claims a membership of 5-7 million people. That’s a huge number, especially considering the fact that President Bush’s margin of victory in 2004 was 3,012,000 votes.

Let’s also remember that the turnout models pollsters are using are, at minimum, partially based on turnout in the primaries. Let’s remember that those numbers are inflated because of Operation Chaos. Subtract the GOP crossover voters in the late primary states and PUMA voters and the outlook shifts pretty rapidly.

In the end, these tidbits of information is why I think this election is far from over. That’s why I think it’ll be a late night on Nov. 4th. There’s 12 days left in this campaign. As we’ve seen over the last couple weeks, that’s a political lifetime.

While the polls give us a variety of verdicts, the crowds at Palin events give us just one verdict: America hearts Gov. Palin.

Technorati Tags: Palinmania, Bass Pro Shops, PUMA, Lady Rothschild, Joe The Plumber, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Polling, Turnout, Barack Obama, Hillary, Operation Chaos, DNC, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, DNC, Election 2008, Hillary, McCain, Obama, Palin, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.