Så här en helg efter att John McCain tillkännagav sitt överraskande vice-presidentval, har skribenter runtom USA börjat få ett visserligen litet, men likväl ett perspektiv på valet. Somliga röster är negativa, och menar att detta val visar hur desperat McCain är - men andra är positiva och menar att valet av Sarah Palin gör att presidentvalet kommer att handla om helt nya saker än man tidigare hade trott.
I En artikel i National Post, skriver Raymond DeSouza följande:
Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska is not your typical governor. And she is now a very atypical vice-presidential candidate...
Unlike Senator McCain (22 years in the Senate) and Senator Biden (36 years in the Senate), she is not someone who has risen in politics by sheer longevity...
And unlike Senator Clinton — who, with her husband, never quite exits the stage -- she achieved early success by defeating the old bulls who ran her state, not by marrying the hottest ticket in Arkansas...
Governor Palin is pro-life, as is Senator McCain...while both Obama and Biden are pro-choice, ..
The Palin selection indicates that the McCain campaign wishes to sharpen this contrast. A few months ago, it was widely thought that this election would leave behind the red-state/blue-state Bush elections. Instead of cultural politics, there would be personality politics. McCain, the noblest war veteran in America, versus Obama, the anointed one who would heal the planet and calm the oceans. It would be a new kind of election.
Then surprises. The man of change, Obama, chose the safest, most insider running mate imaginable, Joe Biden. The old man, McCain, went with the groundbreaking outsider. It is all upside down, but the result will be a campaign quite familiar. In a culture war election, Governor Palin will be a not-so-secret weapon.
Och i en artikel för Politico skriver man hur McCain sedan utnämningen av Palin (för två dagar sedan) fått in 7 miljoner extra dollar, och hur evangelikala som tidigare varit skeptiska nu börjar vakna till liv på riktigt:
The selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has electrified conservative activists, providing a boost of energy to the GOP nominee-in-waiting from a key constituency that previously had been lukewarm — at best — about him.
Palin, say conservative activists, has instantly changed how they feel about McCain’s campaign and spurred them to go to work for the Republican ticket.
First, though, they’re expressing their newfound fondness for McCain with their checkbooks. Since tapping Palin, the campaign has raised nearly $7 million online, according to McCain aides.
“There is an electricity going through the social conservative crowd right now; it’s unbelievable,” said James Muffett, head of Michigan’s Citizens for Traditional Values, who had met with McCain in the weeks leading up to his selection of a running mate.
“My wife and I watched an MSNBC special on her last night,” he said. “My wife knew nothing about this woman. But she was in tears listening to her articulate the views she had.”
“’Boy, what kind of prayers have you been saying for McCain?’” he said with a chuckle about the question asked on one phone call. “He went and chose a Pentecostal for his running mate!”
The adoration goes beyond Christian conservatives.
Sportsmen are also overjoyed at the addition of one of their own, and can’t get enough of video and pictures showing Palin firing a weapon.
“She's one of us,” wrote Michael Bane, a prominent Colorado-based gun enthusiast who has a show on the Outdoor Channel, on his blog.
“You know I've had my problems with McCain, but he has reached out a hand to us both at the NRA Annual Meeting [earlier this year] and with the amazing selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate,” Bane added.
The sense of rejuvenation is not just limited to party activists, though. Conservative elites, among the most disdainful of McCain, are also coming around.
James Dobson, long a McCain skeptic, said after the announcement Friday that he’d support Palin.
And he’s not alone.
“I’ve talked to two prominent social conservative leaders in the past 24 hours who told me they had previously not planned to attend the convention, but were now coming to Minneapolis after the Palin pick,” wrote Ralph Reed, a Christian conservative leader who has tangled with McCain, in an e-mail... I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a veep pick energize the grass roots like this.”
Rush Limbaugh, who exulted on the air this week, summed up the response he’s gotten from his loyal listeners: “Home f***ing run.”
“Palin=Guns, Babies, Jesus,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Contrast that to Obama's bitter clingers. Obama just lost blue-collar, white Democratic voters in Pennsylvania and other states.”
Listan med olika intryck av Palin kan göras mycket längre, men detta får räcka för den här gången.
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