Alaska Women Reject Palin Rally

I received an e-mail "Fwd" today about the Alaska Women Reject Palin rally in Anchorage, Alaska, claiming that it was the largest rally ever in the state of Alaska and that it vastly outnumbered the Welcome Home rally for Sarah Palin (which received all the mainstream media attention). I usually don't believe anything I read in forwarded e-mails, but this was worth checking out.

I found the story in The Huffington Post, verifying everything I had just read. Basically, a bunch of women met over coffee and decided to start a rally against Palin. They posted fliers and notified some of the local media about their plans and had a turnout of close to 1,500 (making this the largest rally ever in Alaska).

Video and images from Mudflats:

So I guess the question I'm trying to ask here is... why did I read this in a forwarded e-mail? Why would Palin's Welcome Home rally receive all the attention while this one's biggest media coverage was an Alaskan blogger?

And the Winner Is...

Well, according to an ad, which appeared on the Wall Street Journal website earlier today before the debate even occurred, it was McCain.


According to a CBS early poll of 500 uncommitted voters, however, it was Obama. This was determined after the debate, by the way, not before.

Personally, I think that neither of them "wow-ed" me, but neither completely embarrassed himself either. McCain absolutely demonstrated his experience with the military and swore to take care of America's veterans. Obama, on the other hand, reminded us that he saw this financial crisis coming and tried to stop it, while McCain and the Republican party allowed it to happen. Those were two things that really stuck out to me, at least.

McCain did, however, show us that he's willing to come down hard on extraneous government spending while Obama may be asking for large sums of government cash to fund his various projects. Obama defended his position, though, not only by stating the importance of government spending on educatoin and health care, but also by refuting many of the claims McCain was making about his (Obama's) proposed policies.

On a completely superficial note, I was watching on NBC, and maybe it was different on other channels, but the fact that the camera frame had to be adjusted for Obama, who stands 6'1.5" tall, versus McCain who is only 5'9" made McCain look older and Obama look more presidential.

Does this really matter? Well, yes. According to this article as well as the Presidential Height Index, the taller presidential candidate usually wins the popular vote. Of course this isn't always true, but I think in this election in particular, it's a little more important. McCain isn't a young, healthy guy. In fact, he's 72 years old (compared to Obama who is only 47), and this obvious height difference only adds to the "frail, old man" image McCain does not want.

But getting back to the point of this post...

Who is the real winner? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Who Wears the Pantsuit?

According to Katie Couric from CBS News, women are 1) more likely to vote than men and 2) more influential when it comes to decision-making within their homes. Couric asks if the woman's influence will make it to the voting booth:


Watch CBS Videos Online

And if you're looking for that clip of Obama singing "I'm Every Woman," the audio is here:



So, who really does have the female vote?

Couric, Palin, and Those Shifty Russian Neighbors

So we've all heard that Sarah Palin lives right next door to Russia, therefore giving her all the foreign policy experience she could possibly need. There was no way Katie Couric could not bring this up during her recent interview with Palin.

I think my favorite part was when Couric tried so hard not to smirk about the whole Russia thing:

Watch CBS Videos Online

In case you missed the facial expressions, here they are for you:


Palin defended herself by re-iterating the importance of Alaska's proximity to Russia, but it left me thinking... isn't Siberia kind of the Alaska of Russia? (Sorry Alaskans, we still love you).

First, I pulled up a map of Alaska and Russia on Google Maps:


But then I zoomed out, and put a little marker on Moscow (represented by the letter "A"), because I think if Palin is going to talk about foreign policy experience with Russia, she must be referring to the Russian government, right?


Not so close, really. Actually, the distance from Palin's office in Juneau, Alaska to Moscow, Russia is approximately 4,470 miles (data from Google Earth). So this got me wondering, what else is Palin 4,470 miles away from (and therefore completely knowledgeable of)?

Well, according to Google Earth, the list would include both Panama and London, so perhaps Palin should add those to her foreign policy résumé, as well.

About Those Wolves...

I was just reading Mike's blog, where he posted this video:


How can anyone not find this completely disturbing? Also, why has it taken so long for anyone to pick up on this issue? I rarely hear any mention of Sarah Palin's wolf-killing policies in the mainstream media. Mama for Obama commented on Mike's entry about how Michael Vick went to jail for dog-killing, but we're considering electing this woman for VP.

Speaking of Michael Vick, who didn't know about that? I don't follow sports or watch ESPN, but I read about Michael Vick and his dog-fighting ring nearly every day for weeks because it was that big of a story and hit nearly every media outlet. Why was it decided that Michael Vick's story of an underground dog-fighting ring was so much bigger than a government policy to kill wildlife in Alaska under the leadership of our potential future VP?

Who Owns the Internet? And Also, Where's Joe?

With the Internet becoming more and more important in campaigning, a good question to ask is, who's on top web-wise? According to hitwise.com, Obama's website consistently gets more hits than McCain's:

However, Sarah Palin seems to be taking over the spotlight as people are wondering where the Democratic VP Joe Biden is. In fact, according to Fox News:

"Online searches indicate that Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin overwhelming has captured the attention of Web users, placing her No. 1 on the list of mostly widely used political search terms.

Joe Biden? He didn’t break the top 10."

So, where is Joe Biden? Well, according to this website, Biden is "everywhere that matters," making personal appearances in a number of important states. While these stories don't make the cut for national news, they are circulating through more local newspapers. Is Biden flying under the radar and gaining more localized public attention that we don't even know about?

I guess we'll have to wait and see if all this "local press" really does make a difference.

Palin Shows the Press Who's Boss... But Not Really

Today, Sarah Palin met with world leaders to increase her "experience" in foreign affairs. Palin and her people agreed to allow photographers and videographers to collect a few images of the meetings, but refused entry to any reporters.

CNN, in protest, pulled its TV crew from the first meeting Palin had with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Palin wanted the high visibility that the CNN TV crew could provide, however, and eventually agreed to allow a CNN producer in, as well.

This raises the question of who's really in charge? The candidates can agree to take questions or not, they can choose whom they are willing to be interviewed by, they can make stipulations about what they will and will not discuss, but in the end it seems to be the media holding the real power. Candidates have to get their faces out there somehow, so the last thing they should want to do is disengage with the media.