In the Land of Palin.

I’m off for the Labor Day weekend.  Little would I have known that my scheduled weekend away, right in the heart of Palin country (known to Alaskans as “The Valley”) would fall on the weekend she became one of our Vice Presidential nominees.  No, it still hasn’t sunk in.  I’ll be passing through Wasilla itself and will post more pictures when I return, and get some local reaction on the “day after”.   I’ll have internet access, though it will be dial-up.  Eek.

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UPDATE:  Just watched the back-to-back McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden rallies in the “rust belt”.  I was waiting to hear Palin’s second speech, but got the recycled speech from yesterday.  McCain’s intro was the same too.  Palin keeps referencing Alaska, which no doubt endears her more to her fan base here, but I keep asking myself….can people relate to Alaska gas issues?  When she talks about Juneau, do they even know that’s the capitol of Alaska? 

The most remarkable thing?  The McCain camp obviously hoped to endear themselves to the disgruntled Hillary supporters by choosing a female running mate. But when Palin saluted Hillary Clinton saying that she ran her campaign with ‘determination and grace’….there were Boos.  Lots of them.  I’m guessing that any Hillary supporters who had tuned in to check out the McCain/Palin party didn’t feel very welcome.  I doubt that they’ll mention Hillary again on the open road.  They won’t want to risk that again.  Maybe we’ll hear it at the convention where delegates will understand it’s strategically not good to jeer at the candidate whose votes you hope to win.

Then the Obama/Biden appearance.  Looks like they’re being cautious about Palin.  Obama referred to Biden as one of the great statesmen of our times.  They didn’t even have to say Palin for everyone to make that comparison in their minds. Then Obama made reference to the fact that he’d visited every state except Alaska, and that, come to think of it, he ought to visit now.  He’s been saying this for months, but nothing firm yet.  I think it would be great.  Obama got 75% of the votes in the Democratic caucus here, and the caucus site in Anchorage was packed.  People were literally having to park 2 miles away from the caucus site and ran in 5 below zero to make it in on time.  I know many people that couldn’t even make it into the building.  I think a huge rally for Obama would go a long way to show how much support he has in Palin’s home state.

In my trip throgh the Valley today, I didn’t see any McCain signs.  I wasn’t really surprised, as McCain came in a less-than-impressive fourth in the Alaska Republican caucus.  But I’m sure when the name Palin gets added, they will pop up like mushrooms overnight.  I did see a resurrected ‘Sarah Palin for Governor’ sign in front of a store.  The shopkeep said he cried with joy when he heard the news, and that she was a good woman who supported Alaskans.  Then he said that he had given up on all those ‘liberal socialists’ and decided they may as well all be ‘queer’.  I’m hoping that this is one of the more extreme reactions, and I was really glad I took the Obama sign out of my car window before leaving home. 

The only other person I’ve talked to so far is an Independant (over 50% of Alaskan voters are Independant or registered non-partisan) who said she was stunned by the announcement and added, “But she’s not qualified!” She also said that she didn’t remember Palin standing up against the Bridge to Nowhere.

More tomorrow.

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