Palin's female fans: Why they can relate
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/07/art.palin.fl.jpg
caption="Gov. Sarah Palin in Florida on Tuesday"]
Editor's note: Watch Randi Kaye's report tonight on Election Center and AC360° at 8 and 10p ET.
Randi Kaye
AC360° Correspondent
Put ten women in a room and there is no shortage of conversation!
That was the case during a recent visit I made to the home of Tami Nantz.
Tami is a 37-year-old stay-at-home-mom who lives in Florida, a battleground state.
She invited some of her friends over to chat about Sarah Palin for a story I’m working on.
You see, since Palin was named as the V.P. Republican nominee her fan base has really dropped off.
In fact, CNN polls, and many others, show that John McCain has actually lost any gains he made among women voters after Palin was first named to the ticket. Time Magazine’s recent poll shows Barack Obama with a 17 point lead among women.
Women I meet either love her or hate her.
The women we met in Florida are big fans. They call her nomination “brilliant.”
Why is that?
Tami and her friends really relate to Sarah Palin. Like her, they are pro-life and oppose embryonic stem cell research.
They think the fact that Palin chose to go ahead with the birth of her son she knew had Down Syndrome is a “blessing.” One woman told me it shows “with the grace of God” a family can overcome anything.
They believe her support of her teenage daughter’s pregnancy should be commended.
These women are the voters John McCain likely had in mind when he picked Sarah Palin. He was having trouble winning over the conservative base. Not anymore.
These ladies told me they agree with Palin 100% on the issues. They feel like if she had been a part of our gathering that afternoon, they would’ve chatted away like she was “one of the girls.”
But for them it’s really about her conservative beliefs, and less so about the fact that she is a woman.
Never before have conservative women had a strong female conservative voice on the national stage.
In Sarah Palin, they found their champion. She has re-energized them. They say they “get her” and can relate to her feistiness, her winks, and her sarcasm.
The women told me they prayed for her, many of them numerous times, before she debated Joe Biden recently.
They are all members of a Bible Study and deeply religious. They think she’s qualified for the job and is just what Washington needs.
They believe she is a Maverick.
Tami thinks criticism of Palin has been so unfair she started a blog to defend her, called Moms4SarahPalin.
She told me about half the comments on the blog have been negative, even targeted Tami personally, but she’s not giving up.
What do you think? Can you relate to Sarah Palin the way these women do?
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Filed under: Barack Obama • John McCain • Randi Kaye • Raw Politics • Sarah Palin |
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I cannot even imagine the US with Palin as vice president or president! I also let a pregnancy go to term with a baby who had disabilities, but that has nothing to do with politics! This woman is ignorant, uneducated, and will be an embarrasment to our country is she is elected!
I respect Gov. Palin as a person and her quick accompanishment in life. I do not relate to her in her belief and do not see that she is qualified to be a heart beat away from Commander-in-Chief.
She may have experience on municipal and state level, but we need a person with great educational and work background to run our country. Gov. Palin had a BA in jornalism and less than 2 years experience as a governor does not make kher qualify for a VP of great US of A. McCain has senatorial exprience with no educational background. What are we telling our kids here? That anyone is qualify to rule out country? No, we need to encourage education and it als reflects mostly on our RULERS...
Obama on the other hand earned a JD from an elite school with concentration in foreign affair. He is loaded with educational and work experience-You cannot compare the two.
Gov. Palin is pretty and an aggressive woman, but her winking and they way she smiles when she makes her negative remarks really gives me a chill.
We need a change and that can only be accomplished by someone with experience.
I admire Hilary and her belief. She has the same belief as Obama/Biden.. i am voting for Obama, come November!!
Corey De Simone – Personal Trainer.
Yes for Palin!
So many comments are describing my own opinions. No Christian attacks and lies as Palin does and does it with such ugliness. No good mother puts her children lacking of her support (and she is more than just a working mother, she is an absent mother); no true American discounts the beliefs of others as she does and no intelligent woman comes across to pitiful. She tries to relate to the common person. Well "folks" she isn't one of us.
Her encouraging the hate towards Obama is dispicable-not Christian like or patriotic. McCain almost had my vote, until he chose her–now I am questioning his ability to lead in a bipartisan way. He is no better than she and that is sad BUT at least he can speak without a speech written by others and he gets to go out to the public all by himself–she can't be trusted to do that too much. Wonder why folks?
I find it sad that Christian women say they can relate to her–doesn't say much for our Christian population–she does not relate to my Christian women's group. ALSO, Christians, in your conservative circle, how many Joe Six packs are there???? I am sure the preacher would be surprised to hear you say lots!
Ladies,
Do you know Palin made a law making a raped woman in Alaska pay for her rape kit. So I guess if she can't afford it her rapist can go free and welcomed to rape you and your daughters. Open your eyes and see the trueth. Palin never in life is a role model for any self respecting woman. How can I relate to a women who believes raped women should have no choice to carry the child of her rapist. Yes please remind me everyday for nine months of that awlful day. Please send us back to the back woods to kill oursleves with coat hangers, and unskilled doctors. Yes take away my civil liberties to happiness.
Oh yes I can't forget that attending 5 different colleges (failed out of one) deems you as smart.
Sarah Palin is married to a terrorist. He didn't want to have his state part of the US and she spoke many a times at the conventions.
Oh and the shot out to third graders was because that was the extent of her husbands eductional background.
For those who keep addressing Anderson Cooper, this blog was not written by Anderson. It was written by Randi Kaye, a CNN correspondent. Go back and look at the top of the blog. And for those who keep accusing CNN of being bias, the people who leave comments here are not affiliated with CNN. They are the comments of regular people. I doubt that CNN is telling these people what to say. I'm not a CNN staff. I'm just a regular person who's tired of hearing people blame the media. The media is such a large entity, you wouldn't even know where to point fingers. The media is profit driven. They're just doing their job because viewers watch them. If you don't like the media, stop giving them ratings then.
Actually, for me, the choice is simply a matter of life or death:
1) Sarah Palin embraced the gift of a child with Down syndrome; and,
2) In 2001, Barack Obama not only voted against Illinois State Senate Bill 1095, providing an equal protection clause for premature infants who had been born alive, but spoke against it on the Senate floor, stating that this was due to the fact that, "...they are persons that [sic] are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a child, a nine-month-old child that [sic] was delivered to term...the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child..."
No to Sara Palin. I considered voting for McCain until he chose Palin, which shows a lack of leadership and common sense on McCain's part, and also shows that he, like President Bush, will do what they can to win the religious fundamentalist vote. McCain, like Bush, will forget his religious buddies if elected.
Palin insults the strong, intelligent women who could have been chosen but weren't, and her subtle racist hints – no accidents but perfectly scripted remarks – are unsettling, dangerous, and immoral.
This woman Sarah Palin who John McCain plucked from the Tundra is out of touch with the majority of American women, myself included. Smart, savvy, educated women, don't call themselves Joe-Six-pack, don't say you betcha,and they know what periodicals they read when asked.
Her few interviews with Corporate Media have been disastrous. She was incoherent, ignorant, and unprepared. I would like to think that a Public Official is intelligent enough to think on his or her feet. This woman definitely does not have leadership qualities. Too bad for Alaska.
For decades, feminist wanted a strong role model who could be accomplished, a professional, and show that a woman can do as much or more than men could.
#1. She took on her own party, and won the election.
#2. To be a commercial fisherman, you have to be physically tough. She was a commercial fisherman.
#3. To take on labor unions, you better be tough also, and have not only the guts, but the smarts. She did that and more.
#4. She has just as much experience as Obama does, since he spent most of his time running for President. She is not running for President but for VP. Obama could run for VP, but does not has the experience or the judgement to run for President.
#5. Palin brought the feminist movement to the 21st century, because, like Pelosi said, she is a mother, a professional, I doubt that those commenting or criticizing her on this article are near close to be elected Major, much less Governor of nowhere. She prove that she can be human, tough, an elected official, and smart enough to rally over 20,000 people, which is about what Obama brings.
Being a racist is deplorable, discriminating against Palin because she is a mother first, is just as bad, it is sexist, irrational, and prove the low intellect of the complainers.
For those who defend Obama's friendship with Ayers, I have this question for you.
Would you befriend with one of those 9-11 terrorists if he were still alive?
Ayers publicly condoned the bombing of US government building and wished for more of them.
Ayers is just like one of those 9-11 terrorists. But, yet Obama befriended him in 1995, long after his terrorist records were made public.
yeah i'm going to have to agree with these ladies in here – Palin is just terrible.
Sarah is everything in a woman that I detest. If Joe Binden had said "drill baby drill' their would have been an outcry, but because she says it and winks people think she is great. Joe Biden was being a gentleman, she was being common
Hey Daisy....are you ashamed of Obama's middle name? Or are you afraid that if the general public knew that his middle name is Hussein, that perhaps the messiah wouldn't get elected?
I am a Canadian male and it is so refreshing in reading all of these comments to realize that America can be great again at last.
I have come to think that incompetence and dishonesty are traits that conservatives value highly.
No way. She is not the kind of woman I would like to see anywhere close to the White House!
As a Christian woman, I cannot relate with Sarah Palin. A true Christian do not stir hatred. Yes she got the looks and she have executive experience but that's about it! I am not sure why she's stepping this low smearing dirty tactics and raising bitterness and anger during her campaigns. Sorry I just can't relate with her!
I do not in any way, shape or form relate to Sara Palin. If for some reason McCain and Palin are elected (which I do not think will happen) - hold on to your hats, shirts, pants and anything else you can grab, because they plan on taking the US on the ride of it's life - and it won't be fun.
It's not enough to be a President. Serah Pelin trying to get to the white house without any foreign policy experience. She keeps failing or did little good in all the interview and debates. Right now the crisis in this country, 'Moms for Pelin ' doesn't work. If she wins of course she has tremendous work than thinking about the moms. Right now she doesn't have time for for her own new born.
It is unfortunate that McCain couldn't have found another woman or man who shared these conservative views and was intelligent. I feel that Palin is a bad example of a professional American woman.
The bar has been set so low for Palin, that as long as she shows up and doesnt drool, she will have been considered to do well.
Yes, in the sense that she is a mother with moral beliefs that she sticks to. I'm sure she loves and is loved by her children and puts a high value on her family life. However, you can't vote based on likeability. Family life has nothing to do with world politics, and before September Sarah Palin had zero knowledge of the world stage. So understand her, yes, but could I vote for her? No.
I wanted to vote for McCain but I am absolutely horrified by his VP pick, Sarah Palin. I am going to vote for Obama as McCain let me down.
McCain must think that we are a bunch of morons.
Gun happy, hillbilly, don't we have one of those now in office from Texas? No, as a woman I am not impressed with Palin either. Sad but true. But I don't care for Obama either. Do we get another choice?
Relate? What does that have to do with picking someone qualified for President of the United States? Anyone who votes based on relating is an idiot – I guess that's why we've had 8 years of this disastrous Presidency?
That's great they feel like she's one of them, but how does that in any way qualify her to be VP? The two are not related.
I am female, pro-choice, do not attend church, married with 1 child, and work full-time in an executive level position. I am also a Republican and I support the nomination of Palin. The notion that all Palin supporters are pro-life, religious, and stay-at-home Moms is ridiculous.
It is not Palin's lack of experience that makes her unqualified. It is her lack of knowledge.
AC – I think maybe you need to find a different group of women to base the story you're doing on because from the responses I'm reading here, what you're going to end up with is a real good "story"
I do not relate with Sara Palin. She is annoying and I won't say stupid but I will say she needs work. Even if that work produced a more knowledgeable Sara Palin I still would not vote for her. Compare her to Hillary and then envision Sarah talking to visiting dignitaries.
there are many many more qualified women. If Sarah Palin was unattractive...think about it for a minute....no one would be paying attention to her. Period. That's just the truth
Being able to see a foreign country from your home state does not qualify as having foreign policy experience. Palin has no experience serving in a federal office, as the presidential candidates do. Has she mentioned anything about how she will improve women's rights in America? How will she help other teenagers like her daughter get a college education? How will she help women earn equal pay, or get longer maternity leave? Electing Sarah Palin will turn the lives of women in America backwards.
All you have to do is imagine Sarah Palin sitting across from Putin. Are you more embarrassed or scared? Vote for Obama.
When John McCain came calling, a SMART Sarah Palin would have said, "I'm flattered by your offer, Senator McCain, but I'm NOT qualified."
Forget Sarah Palin, she is just one person proud to be ignorant and divisive. It’s her minions out there who “love her” that frighten me. They could be my neighbors.