Right Wing Nation

This time, the media, who The Anchoress reports are saying that “More than 1,000” or “Crowds” showed up in Cedarburg, WI for the McCain-Palin appearance. Except that there were more there — a great, great many more. Althouse and her commenters report.

Headless Blogger, I was there, too! We arrived just before 10 and gave up on the line as it was easily a half-mile long, maybe more. However, we hung around an intersection a block or so from the rally site, and managed to see the motorcade go by.

and

We walked for blocks and blocks trying to try to find the end of the line, yet as far as we walked, we could only see blocks of people stretching before us. The line curved all the way around the downtown Cedarburg area; it was easily over half a mile long but I couldn’t see the end, so who knows? Could have been a mile.

There’s a slideshow of pictures here. It sure looks like a whole lot more than 1,000 or “crowds” to me.

The Anchoress:

The thing is, the press can play this game all they want. All they do is destroy their own credibility; they don’t change those numbers. Lying about facts does not change the facts.

In fact, all the press is managing to do at this point, besides destroying themselves and hurting their candidate, is to really piss off the audience they need in order to continue to work and sell ads for, you know, revenue.

Forget revenue. They piss people off and we get their votes. And they’ll never figure it out.

McCain and Palin are touring suburbs and small towns across America, and apparently, to great effect:

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — John McCain may have swapped one enthusiasm gap for another.

As he touched down in suburbs outside of Milwaukee and Detroit, the just-crowned Republican nominee found himself first on the newly fashioned signs proclaiming the unlikely GOP ticket, but seemingly second in the hearts of the thousands who thronged rallies to catch their first glimpse in person of Sarah Palin.

McCain drew loud applause, first at a morning appearance in the downtown of a quaint, Republican-leaning Wisconsin village and then at a more boisterous amphitheater rally here in Michigan’s working-class Macomb County.

Yet it was Palin who many, especially women, in both crowds were thrilled to see up close just days after she exploded onto the national political scene.

Clutching signs with messages such as “Girl Power” and “Sarah Is my American Idol,” moms and their daughters lined the barricades just outside The Chocolate Factory in Cedarburg, Wisc., that served as the backdrop for the rally.

[ . . . ]

The two events Friday both drew about 10,000 people, comparable numbers to what the newly formed ticket saw last weekend

And the people let the media have it:

CEDARBURG, Wisc. — Hundreds of angry people in this small town outside Milwaukee taunted reporters and TV crews traveling with Sen. John McCain on Friday, chanting “Be fair!” and pointing fingers at a pack of journalists as they booed loudly.

On the first leg of the “McCain Street USA” tour — which will take the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to small towns across the heartland — the 30 or so reporters and crew were walking back to their buses to join the McCain motorcade when hundreds of townspeople started yelling.

Wasn’t it Victor Davis Hanson who last week said people were sick of being lectured to by liberal media elites? But let me go back to that first article and pull something out of it.

“She’s a real woman, she’s a real feminist but she’s not strident — she’s like us,” said Hauswirth, a middle-aged mother who didn’t offer her age. “She’s strong, powerful and opinionated, all the things a women should be, while still retaining her femininity, her womanhood.”

[ . . . ]

But for the many who showed up to see the newly minted Republican team, it wasn’t any issue or political posture that had brought them out.

It was just a woman that they saw a lot of themselves in. Or, as one homemade sign put it, “Pro-Life Hockey Moms 4 Palin.”

“She’s got a real family with real troubles, just like the rest of us,” said Melody Halstrom, a middle-aged women from River Hills, Wis., who came over to the Cedarburg rally. “You know, she’s got teenagers,” Halstrom said, alluding to without actually bringing up the well-publicized pregnancy of Palin’s unwed 17-year-old daughter.

And it’s not just Palin. Jay Cost:

On the first viewing of McCain’s speech, I was pretty much in line with Tom Bevan’s thoughts on it: it was good enough, but far from great.

Later in the evening, though, I felt compelled to go back and review it. I couldn’t get a few of the lines out of my head, which made me wonder if I had misjudged it.

I have to say that it grew on me by leaps and bounds. Over two weeks of speechifying and politicking, it was my favorite.

[ . . . ]

And we simply have to give McCain credit for this kind of gutsiness.

On an October morning, in the Gulf of Tonkin, I prepared for my 23rd mission over North Vietnam. I hadn’t any worry I wouldn’t come back safe and sound. I thought I was tougher than anyone. I was pretty independent then, too. I liked to bend a few rules, and pick a few fights for the fun of it. But I did it for my own pleasure; my own pride. I didn’t think there was a cause more important than me.

Then I found myself falling toward the middle of a small lake in the city of Hanoi, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and an angry crowd waiting to greet me. I was dumped in a dark cell, and left to die. I didn’t feel so tough anymore…

A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I’d been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I’d been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.

Who does this in a nomination speech?

Typically, presidential candidates use their time in combat to reinforce the warrior virtues. Recall, “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty!” McCain basically turned that on its head last night. It was not his heroism or leadership in war that shows he’s ready to command. Instead, it was the horror of war that made him understand how great our country is, and why it is worth fighting for. He was a cocky jerk prior to his captivity, but the brutality of that experience broke his selfish, independent spirit. It was the idea of America that saved him, and - per the speech - he was reborn her humble, imperfect servant.

Delivered in his blunt style, these passages reinforced the idea of McCain being honest even when it isn’t expedient. He’s willing to talk straight about anything, including his own frailties.

Cost calls the speech Jacksonian. I would say it was quintessentially, authentically Jacksonian, as was Palin’s speech. Neither McCain nor Palin was speaking to Republicans, but the whole nation. They were two Jacksonians speaking to Jacksonians.

And what did I say?

Obama’s cultural problem is that he is a Cosmopolitanist. He not only has a cultural disconnection with the American character; he fears and despises it. We saw this with bittergate and arugulagate. We saw this with the “Why I don’t wear an American flag lapel pin” statement, and the pathetic attempts later to spin it away. Obama is out of touch, and it appears that he doesn’t even realize it.

Cosmopolitans don’t even have a basic understanding of Jacksonian America. This is why when they run Cosmopolitanists and lose, as Cosmopolitanists always do, they always speak of “learning to speak to” Americans, or “learn to talk about values with” Americans. If they had even the most superficial understanding of Jacksonians, they would realize how fruitless such ploys are.

Jacksonians divide the world into those within the community and those without, where the community is both geographical and cultural (Meade goes into this in great detail; if you haven’t read it, I suggest you do). Jacksonians also have a sixth sense, if you will, that allows them to tell whether someone is from the community or not.

McCain and Palin have something Obama and Biden never can have. Authenticity. Note the people who showed up because “she’s just like us.” Authenticity is either there or it isn’t. You can’t manufacture it. This is why Palin is becoming a folk hero and not merely a candidate, and the Democrats and the media don’t understand it now and never will understand it.

Forget parties for a moment. McCain and Palin are doing a very savvy thing. They’re communicating with and meeting their base — not their political base, but their cultural base. This is how you win elections.

I also said this:

Obama and the Cosmopolitanists, to judge from what they way, hold a mistaken idea that running against John McCain will be more or less the same as running against Hillary. It will not. Obama will have a much more difficult race when his audience is the entire United States, and not just Democrats.

[ . . . ]

Although Hillary and McCain may both appeal to Jacksonians, they are not the same. Hillary is an outsider, although she is an outsider who shares some Jacksonian values and understands Jacksonians. McCain is a Jacksonian. If Obama is to win the election, he must convince Jacksonians not to vote for one of their own, and vote for a Cosmopolitanist instead.

And indeed, Obama is just starting to figure out that running against McCain — McCain and Palin, more to the point — is very different from running against Hillary. Yet, he hasn’t figured out why that is, to judge from what he and his supporters say.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are meeting their own (McCain is having a townhall meeting in Lancaster Tuesday, though I probably won’t go, since I’m supposed to work the phones at McCain headquarters, and it’s a 120 mile drive). By doing so, they not only broadcast their status at authentic members of the “family,” but they show that they care.

Still, they need to send Palin on the speaking circuit, and McCain on the townhall circuit. But this is an excellent start to what will be an exciting campaign.

Uhm, Democrats, this doesn’t leave a very good taste in the mouth. From the Denver Post:

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.

No doubt.

Like I said, creating new GOP voters every day.

Here’s the picture.

Ed comments:

Didn’t anyone make arrangements for better disposal of these flags from Invesco?  At the very least, they were an investment that could have been re-used at rallies in Colorado as well as the rest of the nation during the general election.  Instead, they’ve handed a dramatic moment to John McCain and Sarah Palin, as well as relieved them of the cost of 12,000 such flags — as well as a full 3?x5? flag that also wound up in the trash.

A dramatic moment, indeed, and merely bringing them onto the stage will say it all.

This is surprisingly stupid thing the Democrats did. I could use other adjectives too, but you can probably supply those yourself.

So yesterday, we heard about how Obama was asking Hillary to fight Palin for him (itself a sign of yet more weakness). Is she going to do it? Eh, not so much.

The question is, will Mrs. Clinton fight Ms. Palin to help her former rival, Mr. Obama? Clinton advisers say that Mrs. Clinton wants to do everything she can to elect Mr. Obama, so that she cannot be blamed if he loses — yet she also does not want to be too closely associated with him if he does lose, nor to tarnish her own image by taking on a rookie national politician like Ms. Palin and possibly coming up short.

Mrs. Clinton is heading to Florida on Monday to campaign for Mr. Obama. And while his advisers expect her to serve as a counterweight to the McCain-Palin ticket, Clinton advisers are emphatic that Mrs. Clinton does not plan to attack Ms. Palin.

We really should start a charity, and send Obama boxes of Depends.

Hey. That’s not a bad idea. Hmmmmmmmm . . .

And this Hillary supporter sez (actually, the whole thing is really good):

Let me get this straight, Sarah-cuda beats you up and steals your lunch money and instead of standing up for yourself, you write a little note about how she hurt your feelings as a community organizer and you send out another girl to fight your battle. Er, OK. Will you also be sending her out to do business with the Russians, the North Koreans, the health insurance biggies? How about if she does all the debates for you too? Because if you need Hillary to do all the fighting on your sorry ass behalf, then maybe she should be nominee.

Your damn surrogates in the blogosphere have been raking Sarah Palin over the coals for 6 days now.  6 Days!  No panty was left unsniffed, no ovary unexamined, no uterus unexplored.  You have done the same crotch shot of Sarah Palin in 6 days that it took the Republicans 8 years and $40 million dollars to do to Hillary Clinton.  And Sarah still kicked you in the junk and gave you a wedgie.  And guess what , Barack.  We *liked* it.

She’s a Democrat, and she gets it.

Update: Here’s another Democrat:

News last night from The NY Times, via Riverdaughter, that Obama has run home to Big Sister to plead with her to fight his battle with Saracuda Palin for him. Oh, the poor Precious! Can’t face a tough woman on his own, huh? What’s the matter Barack? Just tell Saracuda that she’s likable enough. Call her a Sweetie and tell the media that she gets moody and bitchy periodically when she’s feeling down. That oughtta work.

Depends For Obama. Give Before He Pees Himself On Camera. I like it.

Not one, but two Palin smears debunked. First, the “affair” rumor. Then, the “book ban” rumor.

Like the man says:

Keep it up — please.  Keep informing the public that women have to stay on the ideological reservation or they have to stay in the kitchen, and that they’re not really free to have their own minds.  Keep punishing those who express their own opinions and defy the media with despicable slurs and innuendo and by all means keep attacking their children.  None of that will have any effect on Palin’s credibility — but it will strip her critics of theirs.

Liberals: Creating GOP voters daily.

Oh. Charles Martin is keeping a list of debunked Palin smears. It’s getting pretty long, but keep them coming!

Remember how Obama and Biden declared children off limits? Obama’s finance chair didn’t get the memo:

Gutman continued, “this wasn’t a working mother issue, this was a parent issue…The proper attack is not that a woman shouldn’t run for vice president with five kids, it’s that a parent, when they have a family in need, a Down’s baby who needs them — mother or father.”

“So you are judging her parenting skills,” Ingraham said. “You’re saying you don’t think she’s a good parent for doing this job.”

“I’m saying the proper criticism is not that it’s a woman or man – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Todd or Sarah,” Gutman said.

This is good for us in two ways.

Backlash. It has already started. Now, backlash is fragile. It happens, then it dies off. But the Democrats and the media are going to be re-igniting the fire until November.

It’s also good for us because it makes Obama look like a weak, ineffective leader. If he can’t control his own campaign, what does that say about how well he’d lead the nation? And how did he respond to the member of his campaign? He issued another weak “He shouldn’t have done that” statement.

You keep it up, Dems. We can use the votes.

Sarah Palin’s first radio address is here.

I’m burning DVDs, and Rudy’s speaking. I didn’t see it before, but there’s a shot of a little girl waving one of those McCain “I’m not bitter” Terrible Towels.

I know where she’s from!

Actually, before I start, let me say something about Cindy McCain. Several people have said she was the most boring speaker at the convention, and I must agree, but there’s no reason for her to be a good speaker, is there? But it wasn’t so much her speech as it was the video of her life that pointed up the difference between Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama — without doing so explicitly.

Cindy McCain has spent her life working to help others.

Michelle Obama has spent her life whining and getting high paying jobs because of her husband’s position.

And that’s what they’re still doing. Philanthropy. Whining.

But on to the speech.

Overall: He said exactly what needed to be said, and it was better than I expected.

Specific: The first half was what I expected. McCain isn’t a great public speaker. But he laid out the differences between his platform and Obama’s, and did so respectfully.

Finally, a word to Senator Obama and his supporters. We’ll go at it over the next two months. That’s the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn’t be an American worthy of the name if I didn’t honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement.

Ah, but the second half, that was far better than I expected. McCain spoke from the heart, and nobody missed the sincerity and yes, the pain. And the end was — especially considering that it was John McCain speaking — remarkable.

A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I’d been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I’d been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.

When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn’t know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me. Through taps on a wall he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for our country and for the men I had the honor to serve with. Because every day they fought for me.

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.

I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.

I’m going to fight for my cause every day as your President. I’m going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I’m an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me.

Fight for what’s right for our country.

Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.

Fight for our children’s future.

Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.

Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God Bless you.

Nobody was sitting. I expected accumulated excitement at the end, but that wasn’t what made these people stand up. It was what McCain said, and the heartfelt way in which he said it. Very, very, very well done.

Highlights: What can only be described as an evil grin when he said this:

She knows where she comes from and she knows who she works for. She stands up for what’s right, and she doesn’t let anyone tell her to sit down. I’m very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington.

And

A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I’d been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I’d been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.

That last sentence was jarring. He did not emphasize it, nor did he pause, but went right on, and that made it all the more striking. It’s a line I will not forget.

I’ve been an imperfect servant of my country for many years. But I have been her servant first, last and always. And I’ve never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I didn’t thank God for the privilege.

Here’s the speech.

And just because it was so remarkable, here again is Palin’s acceptance speech.

The best summary of Troopergate Tasergate here (long and highly detailed).

If you care. That’s not to diminish Beldar’s work in writing this up. It’s just that it’s a non-scandal, and I couldn’t care less — except that the POS Wooten didn’t get fired.

Illiterate, stupid, and fact-challenged loser. And liberals are supposed to be our intellectual betters?

Pardon me while I laugh.