Sarah Palin's Battles With McCain Campaign—a Culture War?
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
According to the Associated Press's early look at Sarah Palin's forthcoming Going Rogue, the "closest Palin comes to naming names occurs in the passages about chief McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt."
The Palin/Schmidt rift clearly embodies the cultural clash between John McCain and his veep pick. Schmidt wanted Palin to brush up on policy and to defer to McCain's people on media strategy. Palin wanted to go rogue: to open up to reporters and show voters her true Wasilla colors.
But the Palin/Schmidt tensions also appear to embody the broader culture wars.
Schmidt, you may remember, told the Log Cabin Republicans—the largest GOP gay group—earlier this year that he supports gay marriage, while he warned his party against getting too much religion. "If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party," he said. "And in a free country, a political party cannot be viable in the long term if it is seen as a sectarian party."
The day before Schmidt gave that speech in April, Palin delivered an address of her own, to a Right to Life dinner in Indiana, that positively brimmed with religious references. She spoke of a "providential series of events," described her son Trig as "made in the image of God," and compared the Declaration of Independence to a "holy text." It was exactly the kind of faith-based posturing that Schmidt was about to inveigh against.
Were such differences merely tangential to Palin's uneasy coexistence with Schmidt and the rest of the McCain crew? I suspect not. But I'm eager to read the book and find out.
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Tags: John McCain | religion | Sarah Palin
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Mom Palin as Creationist = not so "bright."
If Mother Palin said it sooner in her campaign, would she have won any votes? Almost at the last moment in her campaign, Creationist Palin made the amazing statement that she believes dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans. About 65 million years ago, dinosaurs were no more. She said she saw a photo of human footprints inside fossil dino tracks. Those faked photos were debunked years ago by Skeptics at Cal Tech. It's regrettable she would never belong to a group that criticizes religion--it would have spared her from being exposed as an unevenly-educated person. How could McCain (with his beautiful Lesbian daughter) have accepted her as his VP? Now there is her remark that her Downs Syndrome son is "made in the image of God." Scripture writers made many contradicting claims. They stressed that God is not made of matter like everything in this material world. He's supposed to be timeless, existing everywhere at the same moment. But there is "the right hand of God," etc. There is far too much religion in politics now. Entire congregations vote like sheep, the way their preacher tells them. Even Obama ADVANCES religion by emotionally saying he asks God's guidance.
Not Just Palin vs Schmidt, its Palin's $$$ vs Any Moderate Secular GOP
The real Cultural War you're talking about is the fight for the heart of the Republican party. Its sure convenient to suggest Steve Schmidt as the meek opponent of some mighty cultural warrior Sarah P. But aiming at Schmidt is a cheap shot by Palin, just like connecting this with Schmidt's support of Log Cabin Republicans. It demonstrates a narrow scope of what's really at stake.
Palin doesn't have the guts to criticize McCain directly, but we know she didn't really write this book herself. Of course Palin's anti-gay ghostwriter attacks Schmidt, the McCain loyalist, who represents moderate republicans and what lots of strong, moderate women republicans stand for - most identifiable with the McCain women. We shouldn't forget that the Evangelical Right forced McCain to pick Palin because so many Republicans at their convention proclaimed McCain was too liberal. Lots of us recognize the same socially conservative wing of the GOP has also been the wing of the party all too ready for corporate giveaways, ready to spend liberally on wars, and overeager to offer tax cuts for the rich. Socially conservative but fiscally irresponsible. That's a recipe for disaster, and we don't need to watch reruns of the evangelical president who drove economy off a cliff last fall.
Palin is a gem no doubt. Now that she's the latest product of that conglomerate News Corp, the sweetheart of big oil and the holy-rollers is jumping on Murdock's mythmaking machine to make a quick buck. While its great humor to follow her shenanigans, but no one is buying her culture anytime soon. It would just hilarious to think Palin is the only potential candidate for GOP in 2012, if it obviously wasn't such a disaster.
Your right
It would of been easier for the republicans to lie, and deceive the nation like the Obama people did. Sarah was beening Sarah, open honest, glowing, energy, shineing !!!!! These were things the nation have not seen in so long they forgot what it looked like. And it scared the liberals so much they would sale their soul to stop her ! Maybe they did ?????????
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