If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Posted on 09/03/2008 8:55:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Whatever you might think of John McCain's pick for vice president...
"I think it was a hail mary," Lansing resident Sarah Schmid said.
"I think it was a great pick," another Lansing resident, Jim Brooks, said.
Wednesday was Sarah Palin's coming out party.
"It's her defining moment," Bill Rustem said, president of Public Sector Consultants in Lansing, said.
But what does this surprising choice mean for the GOP ticket here in Michigan?
Not much according to Rustem.
"With her being from Alaska," Rustem said, "it's kind of a neutral for McCain here in Michigan."
Rustem said if McCain was looking to gain ground in Michigan with his VP pick, another governor with ties to the state might have been a better choice.
"Had Romney been the candidate it would have been a plus for McCain in Michigan, not necessarily elsewhere, but a plus here," Rustem said.
While some Michigan voters said they already support Palin.
"She's one of the most exciting things to happen at the federal level in a long time," Brooks said.
Others expressed their concern with what they call Palin's lack of experience.
"I just don't take her seriously has a vice presidential candidate," Schmid said.
"One of the questions you always have to ask of the VP nominee is are they in a position to assume the presidency?" Rustem said.
There are many questions for for the relatively unknown governor.
"It's Alaska, it's a long way away so no one's ever heard of her until now," Lansing resident Jon Kitson said.
Palin has about three months left to answer them.
If you know anything about Michigan, they love their hockey...like no other place. If they play up the Hockey Mom angle, then they’ll win Michigan.
Do they have small towns full of ordinary people in MI?
Bring out Todd to talk about fishing, hunting and snow machines and she’s got Michigan locked.
I'm sure Sara Schmid's job as a Writer at Democratic Communications in the MI House of Representatives didn't influence this opinion.
It's nice that the author of the article failed to mention this. (eyes rolling)
Big DITTO on that....get Palin on a stage with The Captain and Mickey Redman and Michigan would go red for sure!
Sarah's like a ray of sunshine from the 80's. There's hope for conservatism yet!!
Michigan has gone blue in recent presidential elections, but not overwhelmingly so--3.5 to 5%.
MI is like PA or WA. Take out Philadelphia and Seattle and those states go red. Likewise if you take out "Detroilette," MI goes red.
Of course, we can't just "take out" Detroit. The western side of the state will have to show up at the polls big time. Nevertheless, it could happen. McCain has always had a solid following in Michigan. MI should be in play this time. It could happen if McCaine plays his cards right.
Do they have small towns full of ordinary people in MI?
oh HELL YEAH!
Of course.
Problem is we also harbor the biggest ghetto in the nation.
Detroit.
I suspect there are a few Hockey Moms in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and even Colorado...
If you don’t know about Flint you don’t know about Michigan.
Michael Moore ring a bell?
I think Palin will play very well in Michigan — she’s got a similar accent, she’s a hockey mom and hunter, and she can tie the oil industry to the auto/manufacturing industry.
It’s time to rescue Michigan from it’s Dem captors.
I do know about Michael Moore, but I also thought Flint had pretty well disowned him.
Gordie Howe has signed a jersey and the MI GOP is trying to get her to sport it on Friday in Sterling Heights.
McCain fool that he is would not want to deny this on their first campaign stop as the official nominee after the convention.
We don't have accents, get a clue.
But that depends on where one is hailing from.
Obama has zero experience.
What you say about Palin’s experience is triple true for Obama. And you want him to be president.
Don’t you see the contradiction in that?
Who would you rather have learn on the job: Your president or vice-president.
One thing we could do for Michigan is get Ted Nugent to campaign there. Even Kid Rock seems to lean libertarian, if not conservative on some issues. There are some good guys there, just gotta get ‘em motivated.
Ha ha, that's what my cousins tell me.
I think McCain wins here because of the Bradley effect. It may not be the right reason, but this year, I'll take it.
The other day I considered posting "Juno in Juno" about Palin's daughter, but since her speech tonight, I'll save the joke. I like her. She delivered 110%.
And her youngest daughter is going to have her own show any day now. Did you catch when she licked her palm and slicked down her baby brother's hair? You could almost feel hearts melting all across the country.
My late mother-in-law's people are from the UP and I noticed the same about Palin. I don't know where her folks are from - did they move to Alaska from somewhere in the Midwest? Gov Palin sure sounds like she's from these parts!
man I have friends who moved here to Nashville from Michigan....they speak of Michigan like the problems there are pretty tough
I’m not optimistic.
parents from Missouri
man...my wife was sure sobbing thru most of that and I had some odd saline moisture building up in my eye corners too
must have been the cat...
If her people are from missourah, she has great pronounciation. Ozark speak tends to slur words together - I love hearing the old-timers talk.
I loved it.
This is not a contrived family. It was a real live American family.
Everyone has to know that her promise to special needs families is real. They'll have a friend in the White House.
No, most certainly don't count on the "D". Unless, of course, the FBI investigations have any sort of chilling effect on the elections. I also don't see A2 voting for the McMaverick.
ping
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
don’t worry too much about east lansing. the kid palin’s son lived with is a freshman at MSU. he’ll get the word out to the students. :)
The small towners are the very heart of the mitten. Unfortunately, the rampant voter fraud in Wayne, Genesee, and Ingham Counties (Detroit, Flint, Lansing/East Lansing) is insurmountable. Even in a wholly honest election here, McCain/Palin is a very tough sell. The liberal stronghold of Detroit, coupled with the stranglehold that unions hold over most of our major cities, would probably have given BHO a win here anyway.
Michael Moore never lived in Flint. He was raised in Davison. Sarah will do well here in spite of the leftest press like WILX. There are a lot of hunters, fishermen and snow machine riders in Michigan. OH small towns too.
don’t count out the unions. remember that the unions are still comprised of a lot of blue collar “good ole boys.” race will be a factor in UAW votes.
Maybe they are just talking the talk and hiding some closet racism, and in the booth they'll draw the felt tip line for McCain, but right now the "good ole boys" are foaming at the mouth over BHO.
Two words: Government bailout.
Hundreds of thousands of productive, working citizens, who tend to vote republican, have left Michigan. And Detroit will wait until all precincts report results and then manufacture whatever votes needed to give nobama the win.
Guaranteed.
And the RINO sock puppet state attorney general will whimper and do nothing.
Guaranteed.
Michigan is NOT a battleground state.
that’s right, you’re right in lansing, aren’t you?
out around charlotte, eaton rapids, potterville, grand ledge and olivet, i still hear alot of ‘not voting for a (very bad racist word)’ coming from blue collar union types.
Yes, we do. But we also have voting precincts in Detroit that report greater than 100% turnout!
Gov. Palin does everything for this Michigan voter and his wife.
Gov. Romney does nothing for us. We were very displeased with the conduct of his campaign and didn’t vote for him in the primary. He would NOT have brought us back to a GOP ticket that we were feeling very reluctant and lukewarm about. We are not the types who will vote for someone just because there’s an (R) next to their name or because they happen to be from Michigan or even our home town.
It wasn’t until Sen. McCain’s impressive appearance at Saddleback Church that we started to warm to his candidacy. Now, with the selection of Gov. Palin as the VP candidate, we are very much excited about the direction of the party again and have gone from uninterested and disappointed to excited and involved again.
"Had Romney been the candidate it would have been a plus for McCain in Michigan, not necessarily elsewhere, but a plus here," Rustem said.Winning Michigan is a long chance for McCain, but Palin will help him everywhere. Thanks grellis.
Hubby and I as well. He'd resigned himself to support McCain but I held back until the Palin choice was announced. He couldn't have made a better choice, period. Makes me a lot less suspicious of who his judicial nominees could be as well.
I agree about Romney, also. I wouldn't mind him as Governor, and I sure would support him if he ran against either of our braindead Senators, but on the national ticket? He does nothing for it. He's a minefield.
Palin, IMO, will boost McCain's numbers in the mitten--particularly her knowledge of energy. I don't think it's going to be enough to overcome union dreams of a government buyout of the auto industry, though, and nothing will sway Detroit from BO.
I’d donate big money to McCain’s campaign for an autographed photo of Sarah Palin wearing a Red Wings hockey sweater, especially if she was standing with Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman.
I suppose it depends on which "college town" you mean. If you mean Holland, where Hope College is, that's the reddest area of MI. As for the rest....we haven't got the proverbial "snowball's chance."
Someone above mentioned Macomb and Oakland counties as being crucial. That's definitely so. They are about the only areas around Detroit where McCain will pick up appreciable numbers of votes. The western side of the state will have to show up and vote big time as well.
I couldn't find it on the net yet, but one of the comedy shows is already all over this. The daughter's name is Piper, so showing the video they did a mock commercial something close to this: "Piper ON, apply directly to the forehead, Piper ON, apply directly to the forehead" Then a guy comes out: "Piper ON, I hate your commercials, but your product is AMAZING!" I busted out laughing. :)
She will help for any number of reasons. The democrats who disagree with that are in denial.
Michigan already was in play. It is only weakly in the Obama camp according to Rasmussen.
Therefore, Obama had troubles in Michigan even before the Palin pick.
We must keep repeating that our Vice Presidential candidate is more qualified than their Presidential candidate.
If you have a job opening that requires you to manage: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
And you have 2 applications:
1. the first from a lady who has already managed: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
2. the second is from a man who has already managed: Zero of the above, but he has been in a committee discussion of a few - B, E, G.
Do you go hire the one with experience, or do you hire the “BEG-gar?”
Macomb County will be another story.
Hey, if a Bradley effect works, let’s go with that.
And to everyone else who’s posted back to me, thanks — feels really good to be this much a part of so involved a thread.
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