Sarah Palin heads for Indiana Friday; not a good sign for GOP
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will campaign in Indiana on Friday.
Not a good sign for the Republican ticket.
The 44-year-
old vice presidential candidate wows the faithful wherever she goes. She's mobbed by fans, especially young girls. She draws publicity. All good.
But the Republicans should not have to campaign in Indiana less than three weeks out from election day.
Latest state polls show the McCain-Palin ticket ahead by two points in the Hoosier state; Karl Rove's national electoral map, published regularly here in The Ticket, shows the Republicans just having regained Indiana from the tossup category.
But it's a measure of how the Obama-Biden campaign, rolling in money, has forced the GOP candidates to play defense far too long into the campaign. They've recently also been forced to shore up support in two other once-staunch-Republican states -- Virginia and North Carolina.
Even if the Democratic ticket doesn't take Indiana on Nov. 4, it's forced the Republicans to "waste" a precious day of candidate time defending the heartland state and not chipping away at Democratic states elsewhere.
Indiana hasn't voted Democratic in a presidential election since the year Palin was born.
--Andrew Malcolm
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Photo credit: Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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The Republican ticket seems to be grasping to keep their fellow Republican votes and sway undecided. Sending Governor Palin who the American public is still trying to understand may not be the best move. There is a lot about her that people don't know. Dailysource.org has a lot of evidence on Palin's current political views and actions, which presents her high and low career points as Alaskan governor. Go to http://dailysource.org/palin to see it.
Posted by: Satyra | October 13, 2008 at 06:44 PM
Sarah Plain is never a good sign for the Lib media,
so what else is new?
Posted by: steve rodriguez | October 13, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Okay, but it's fine and dandy when Obama is rallying in Philadelphia right?
Posted by: John | October 14, 2008 at 07:43 AM
There is a lot about her that people don't know.
Well, there is an awful lot about Obama that people don't know about also.
Posted by: Hoosier8 | October 17, 2008 at 11:50 AM
At least the GOP is focused on obtaining LEGITIMATE votes. (ACORN...need I say more?).
Posted by: Bob | October 17, 2008 at 06:34 PM