New McCain Mailer Pushes Palin As Ticket-Head And Moderate

The McCain campaign and the RNC are sending out a mailer that pushes Gov. Sarah Palin as both the figurehead of the GOP ticket and a centrist.

A reader in Pennsylvania sends over a four-page pamphlet titled "McCain-Palin Solutions for Our Family," which labels as priorities for the Republican team non-traditional conservative positions such as climate change and stem cell research. The inset includes a copy of a USA Today article with the headline: "In targeting big oil, Palin 'governed from the center': She didn't press conservative views on lawmakers."

The next page includes a campaign statement on how "John McCain and Sarah Palin will work with Democrats and Republicans for sensible solutions." And underneath is a graph about how Palin "as the mother of a special needs child... knows first hand the value of advanced medical treatments research."

The final page is a photo of McCain and Palin which noticeably features the vice presidential candidate in a more prominent placement than the presidential candidate himself.

What's noteworthy here is not just the push to feature Palin -- whose popularity and favorability ratings have fallen drastically over the past few weeks -- in a leading role. It's also how consciously the campaign is trying to track away from conservative orthodoxy. The pamphlet was sent from a reader in Philadelphia -- obviously not the state's Republican stronghold. And it is tradition for presidential tickets to move towards the center as the election approaches.

But the desire to break from the party has really become a defining feature for McCain-Palin. Over the last few days, some of the loudest applause lines at their rallies have come when McCain declares that he is not George W. Bush.

Comments

[sueno]

If this doesn't signal the beginning of the end- I don't know what does.
The GOP when from supporting a "war hero" to supporting
"a joke, dressed as the anti-hero, secessionist", for president.
Talk about a vote for facism!

[LiberTLover]

wow, they can't keep up with the lies fast enough...

[honestpolitician]

Well.. at least this one is little more tasteful - misleading - but tasteful.

POLITICAL AD ATTACKS http://politicaladattacks.blogspot.com/

[BluePride]

This is a 1965 Voting Rights Act national radio commercial: Things Are Changing

http://current.com/items/89388751_obama_08_things_are_changing

[dloitz]

more like the top of the ticket for the 5 o'clock newscast in AK!

[ohioan73]

Why is Palin at the top of the card at the podium but McCain's image seems muted and ineffectual? I get the impression that SHE and not HE will be the one actually ruling the Oval Office. Picture that happening in other campaigns: Reagan/Bush, Clinton/Gore, Bush/Quayle, Bush/Cheney...I dont even remember who was Jimmy Carter's VP. Very bizarre. Its like they EXPECT McCain to die and we will have to deal with this woman. They are getting us used to it. *shudder*

[Audrey704]

McCain is a mama's boy....he graduated at the bottom of his class....his only heroic ordeal was not of his choice but as a prisoner....Have you noticed, he can't hold an audience on his own...he needs his wife, Palin or his Mommy there....he has been riding on his wife's money for years after rejecting his first wife. Palin already spilled the beans weeks ago when she announced the Palin/McCain ticket at a rally....McCain has spent a lifetime in the shadow of strong women, his health is not good...it has been declining steadily for the past 6 months....fatigue...or something else...if McCain wins....Palin will be a central figure... and yes I think they want us to get used to it.

[ErnestineBass]

Walter Modale was Carter's Veep.

[mairs]

It's at the rearranging the deck chairs point.

[keepemhonest]

whatever...