I’m not intending this to be flame-fest; nor do I intend this to be a big debate on the issues. I’m just trying to clear a little something up. So, this being a simple poll, I believe this is the proper forum.
I claimed in this thread that practically no one had even heard of Sara Palin before she was nominated for Vice President on the Republican ticket.
aldiborontidisagreed with me.
So answer honestly (and feel free to expound on how, when, where and why and all that) – what did you know about Sara Palin before September of this year?
I knew that she was a relatively young, popular Governor in Alaska whose name had been thrown around as a potential VP. I also knew about the Troopergate story, and I figured it alone would be enough to keep her from being nominated. In fact, I made that argument in a GD thread the night before she was nominated.
I am a slightly leaning conservative from Massachusetts. So I was interested to see if Romney was going to be the pick. I like her, and have not been dissuaded by all the negative attention I’ve read about here.
A few months ago, I read a profile of her in a magazine at the hospital but then had to leave it unfinished as they called me to have some tests done. She seemed to be bright & attractive, but since I didn’t get too far in the article, I thought “Yeah, here’s a bright attractive accomplished Republican woman but she’s probably a pro-choice social liberal.”
Anyone who was paying attention to conservative blogs and/or talk radio would have heard of her. She was mentioned as a “long shot” possibility for VP (together with Bobby Jindal, 30-something new governor of Louisiana) around the time that McCain wrapped up the nomination. There was some discussion of her record in Alaska, with emphasis on the things the McCain campaign is emphasizing now (took on Republican governor and won, fought corruption on Alaska oil & gas commission). However, most of the speculation was around whether it would be Romney, and if not, whether it would be someone like Pawlenty, Ridge or Lieberman.
So depending on where you get your information, you could have heard something about her and checked her out long before she was announced.
However, if you rely upon the “MSM” (or “dinosaur media”), there was no coverage of her, mainly because they tend to follow the usual suspects (and those usual suspects are in DC) and I think McCain head-faked them quite a bit by making it sound like others – that the MSM knew and therefore were more willing to talk up or write about – were more in the running.
I’d never heard of her, or if I did hear something, it didn’t stick. I get all my news from NPR. I don’t subscribe to any news magazines and I don’t visit Republican/conservative blogs or websites. Stevens and Murkowski are the only newsmakers from Alaska that I’d heard of.
I read a fair number of conservative periodicals and blogs, so I knew WHO Sarah Palin was, and I knew that many conservatives regarded her as a potential star. Someone who, like Bobby Jindal, was worth keeping an eye on for future success.
I had also heard about her son Trig, and his Down’s syndrome.
But that’s about all I knew. I had never seen or heard her speak, and knew little about her record as governor.
My take on her now? I’ll give the pluses and minuses:
Pluses:
Superficially, I LIKE her. She seems like a cool person.
She seems to share most of my stances on most major issues.
The minuses?
She seemed like a reach on McCain’s part, having minimal experience as a governor and none in international affairs.
While media coverage of her family crises have been overblown and often extremely unfair, McCain’s vetters should have seen potential problems early, and been ready to deal with them. That they didn’t speaks poorly of McCain’s inner circle.
I’ll add this: IF I had been in her shoes, I would have dropped out after my daughter’s pregnancy became public. NOT because there’s any hypocrisy, but because I wouldn’t want my child to become a national joke, as Bristol is sure to be.
I was watchnig Craig Ferguson almost nightly during his “I want to be a US citizen” thing and I probably saw Palin appear on the show in a taped message for Craig.
But I didn’t know anything about her and I didn’t remember the Craig Ferguson appearance until someone posted it here.
My daughter always sends me forwards from her animal rights groups. I only remember her from a few months ago because there was one with a photo of her kneeling proudly over a dead animal. That’s the image that sticks in my head.
As my governor, I knew her quite well. She was doing a pretty decent job, I have to say, and her approval ratings were through the roof. With the looming scandal of Troopergate, opinion was starting to turn a bit, however. My biggest complaint about her was her allowing her husband to conduct or attend cabinet meetings and to be copied on all emails. WTF? Who elected YOU, cornpone?
I had heard of her since her name had been mentioned in the American Spectator back in February as a potential VP pick for McCain. Seemed like a very good idea at the time and we’ll see what happens.
I started researching her as a possible VP nominee back in February and- this is absolutely true- soon decided “Will never happen- she was mayor of a town in Alaska and a newly elected governor and then the scandal of the people she fired when she took over” and didn’t think about her again for several months. (I was convinced McCain was going to go with Lieberman or Giuliani.)
I had read a news story about her when her youngest son was born about how she went back to work so quickly after the birth. I thought “Hey, cool” but didn’t commit her name to memory so it took me a minute of research to remember who she was when she was nominated.
I was glad we finally didn’t have a Murkowski in Juneau. I wasn’t overly impressed one way or the other on her performance, though. The bar for satisfaction was set pretty low by her predecessor. As long as she didn’t have that constant drip-drip-drip of scandal that seemed to follow Murkowski, I was relatively satisfied. I was quite shocked she was chosen, though, primarily because of the aforementioned Troopergate blossoming right at the time McCain is making his veep decision.
A guy I worked with told me she was going to be the VP nomination. I probably couldn’t have told you her name, but he said that a female governor from Alaska would get nominated. He’s kind of a Christian Republican leaning self proclaimed “Libertarian” from a medium sized city in Texas.
