The response to this speech is astonishing. The right is ultra-energized...But so is the left. Their reaction is perhaps even more hysterical than the glee from us conservatives. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like this.
But here is the question.
What about those voters in the middle who are sadly the ones that actualy win elections for one side or the other? It is their response that counts.
For my money, I think there are more people like us and Sarah out there, than there are latent liberals who are going to be stirred up by Obama.
If that is the case, then we will win. If that is wrong, then the other side wins.
American Thinker had a recent column about polls and the writer pointed out that historically most Americans have identified themselves as Conservative as opposed to Liberal.
If we can get those people to the polls on issues they can relate to there is no question the GOP will win big.
Remember: this last November the only reason the Democrats won is because they turned out the anti-war vote and convinced independents the war was lost and they (the Democrats) would get us out of it!
Here is the American Thinker Column:
In August 2008, Americans answered that question this way: (1) 20% of Americans considered themselves to be very conservative; (2) 40% of Americans considered themselves to be somewhat conservative; (3) 2% of Americans considered themselves to be moderate; (4) 27% of Americans considered themselves to be somewhat liberal; (5) 9% of Americans considered themselves to be very liberal; and (6) 3% of Americans did not know or refused to answer.
Sixty percent of Americans considered themselves conservative. Does this mean that most Americans do not know what “conservative” means? No: The question specifically provides an out to people who are not sure about their ideology; it provides an out to people who want to be considered “moderate.” Americans reject those choices. They overwhelmingly define themselves as “conservative.” This is a huge political story - except that it is not “new” at all. Look at the thirteen Battleground Poll results over the last six years, and how do Americans answer that very question? Here are the percentages of Americans in those polls who call themselves “conservative” since June 2002: 59% (June 2002 poll), 59% (September 2003 poll), 61% (April 2004 poll), 59% (June 2004 poll), 60% (September 2004 poll), 61% (October 2005 poll), 59% (March 2006), 61% (October 2006), 59% (January 2007), 63% (July 2007), 58% (December 2007), 63% (May 2008), and now 60% (August 2008.)
The percentage of Americans who define themselves as “somewhat liberal” or “very liberal” has always been puny. In thirteen straight polls, this percentage has never been higher than 38% (June 2004) and it has usually been much lower. The gap between self-defined conservatives and self-defined liberals has been as high as thirty percentage points and as low as twenty-one percentage points. What does that translate into in electoral politics? If conservative presidential candidates simply got all the conservative votes - if virtually all moderate voters, uncommitted voters, and liberal voters went for the liberal candidate - then the conservative candidates would win a landslide bigger than Ronald Reagan in 1988. Have you ever wondered why liberals like Obama never call themselves liberals? Maybe their advisers have read the Battleground Poll internals.
Are these remarkable results skewed? This has always been the argument, but it is a hopelessly flawed argument. The poll results are incredibly consistent over time. These results are the same when President Bush has poll numbers at rock bottom and when Republicans were facing electoral disaster, like in October 2006 when 61% of Americans called themselves conservatives. The very consistency of these percentages is powerful evidence of their inherent validity.
If people did not know what conservative, liberal, and moderate meant, then the poll results to that question would bounce around over time and people would flock to define themselves as “moderate” or they would say “don’t know.” When given four different options to the conservative label, respondents overwhelmingly chose to define themselves, instead, as conservatives.
Do people feel pressured into calling themselves conservatives? Think: Hollywood regularly excoriates the image of conservatives; the mainstream media demonizes conservatives; schools teach that conservatives are narrow minded bigots; academia tries to hound independent conservative newspapers and organizations off campus. It requires much more courage to define yourself as a conservative than any other label, particularly when the banal “moderate” answer is so easily grasped. No: These answers to Question D3 are real, profound, and great.
more at:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/08/the_biggest_missing_story_in_p.html
The response to this speech is astonishing.
I think deserved regardless of whether she wrote it or not. Her big test will come during the debate. I believe she has already started to study different things to get prepared. I am sure Biden is as well.