The cult of personality I was referring to has absolutely nothing to do with Sarah, but some of her followers. I'm pretty firm in my convictions and politics, so it's really no sweat of my back, but all I did here was voice an opinion on a photo, and suggest/observe that she and her staff may wish to be tighten that up a little. Many of her dyed in the wool supporters here took that as a personal attack, and jumped all over me for it.
There are a lot of people out there who fence sit, and don't follow politics closely. They won't start looking and deciding until late next summer. They will raise issues and doubts planted by the MSM. Will the die hard supporters attack them too, simply for repeating something they heard, or a doubt they express or will they try to win them over? The evidence on this thread suggests to me that any comment that is anything less than flattering toward Sarah is going to be met harshly by her staunchest supporters. That's going to be counter-productive, and that's something I'd hate to see.
I say this because of numbers of otherwise conservative leaning people I've spoken to since 2008 and in the wake of the founding of the Tea Party. The media has successfully planted doubts and misrepresentations about SP in their minds. Personally, I've tried to debunk them and defend Sarah, but I get the feeling here, that there are more than a few followers whose 'in-your-face' advocacy are going to turn a lot of people off who might have otherwise been persuaded.
I should have pinged you to that post as your name was in it.
IMO, the strategy since the 1992 election has been for politicos and pundits to steer everything toward those "undecideds" or people who call themselves "independents" but are really no such thing. I'm sure you've seen those mini-focus groups with voters who essentially want to be wined and dined for their ultimate, last-minute decision. Evidently they have no principles or deep beliefs in anything, but they make up a portion of our population and always will.
Why wine and dine the wishy-washy, mushy middle when they are essentially a fickle bunch? (try saying that 4 times, fast-LOL) The Dims'n'Libs always use the split-them-into-groups-first tactic and then "community organize" them into a larger common-interest voting bloc.
It seems to me that Sarah Palin doesn't see Americans as subdivisions by whatever characteristics; she sees us as Americans who love our liberty enough for many to fight and sacrifice their lives for it. She sees and relates to We, The People. That is her "constituency". Even some fence-sitters will jump down and join in when they realize that the common ground includes them. That's why it's so important for her to run and most of all to win the nomination.