Weekend Report, August 30-31, 2008

Hurricane Gustav scrambles GOP convention

Late Saturday night, the RNC was planning to issue a release announcing the formation of a "working group of representatives from each of the states in Hurricane Gustav's path. The group will ensure that all affected delegates have information and assistance in real time.

... Officials insisted that the convention, scheduled to open here on Monday, will go on — albeit in a more limited and sedate form — even if Hurricane Gustav stays on its projected path.

... McCain was scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech Thursday but now may do so from the devastation zone if the storm hits the U.S. coast with the ferocity feared by forecasters.

see also:

McCains, Palin going to region threatened by storm

McCain, Palin to test hurricane preparations

Palin has Republican delegates' confidence

When Washington area Republicans learned that Sen. John McCain had picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, the feeling was "literally like if the Redskins had just won the Super Bowl," said Jeff Frederick, chairman of Virginia's Republican Party, who was already in Minneapolis meeting with fellow conservatives in advance of the Republican National Convention.

People were high-fiving, giving each other hugs, smiling from ear to ear. It was euphoria."

The announcement came as local GOP delegates to the convention were already preparing to rally behind a candidate that in many cases had not been their first choice. However, McCain's selection of Palin -- whose conservative credentials on everything from abortion to gay rights to gun rights are unquestioned -- appeared to give that effort a shot in the arm. ..

Palin electrifies conservative base;

McCain raises $7M online since naming Palin veep

"Boy, what kind of prayers
have you been saying for McCain?
He went and chose a Pentecostal for his running mate!”

“FINALLY, we can get 100% behind the Republican ticket ...
... change we can believe in!”

“While [Barack Obama] wants to ban AR-15s;
Palin shoots AR-15s, and apparently pretty well.”

The media elite – as well as elite members of the GOP consulting community – have all but mocked Palin as a former smalltown mayor with zero Washington experience. But that view of her totally misses the cultural resonance she carries to crucial Republican power centers and could not be more at odds with the jubilation felt among true believers that one of their own is on the ticket.

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.

Most importantly for McCain, the two constituencies who are most energized by Palin just happen to be the two grassroots pillars of the GOP: anti-abortion activists and pro-Second Amendment enthusiasts and sportsmen.

... “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 email. “One scrambled to find a hotel room and is coming tomorrow; the other re-arranged his schedule and is flying in Wednesday. I got a call this afternoon from an evangelical business leader who told me he was contacting the McCain campaign and offering to host a fundraiser with his friends for McCain (sans the candidate) before the Thursday deadline [when McCain shifts to the public financing system]. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a veep pick energize the grassroots like this.”

see also:

Palin bump brings McCain $7 million in a day
 

Sarah Palin: conservatives find the girl of their dreams

“We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

Sarah Palin was born in the conservative heartland of Idaho before moving to Alaska as a baby. At school she was nicknamed Sarah Barracuda on the basketball court because she was so competitive and she led the prayers before each game.

She was a “hockey mom” who cut her teeth at the parent-teacher association before becoming mayor of Wasilla, a suburb of Anchorage with a population under 7,000. In 2006 she beat the corrupt male establishment in Alaska to win the governorship. She opposes same-sex marriage, but one of her first acts in office was to veto a bill blocking health benefits for gay lovers of public employees.

She hunts, ice-fishes and is a crack shot who knows how to fire an M16 rifle. “I was raised in a family where gender was not going to be an issue,” she said. “The girls did what the boys did. Apparently in Alaska that’s quite commonplace.” No softy, she sued to stop the federal government making polar bears an endangered species and favours drilling for oil in the Arctic wildlife refuge. However, she also levied a windfall tax on oil companies. ..

... even though the Clinton aides could barely conceal their satisfaction when she was chosen, the woman who Palin upstages most of all is Hillary. If Obama wins the election, Hillary will have to wait until 2016 to stand again. And if he loses, Palin will be first in line to become America’s first woman president.

Limbaugh on Palin pick: 'Home f***ing run'

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 email.

“Contrast that to Obama's bitter clingers. Obama just lost blue-collar, white Democratic voters in Pennsylvania and other states.”
 

Hello, Gov. Palin!