The Gov. Sarah Palin Rootin' Tootin' Moose-Shootin' Revival and Gun Show arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, Sunday night, hosted by a capacity crowd at the city's Civic Auditorium.
The Omaha World-Herald reported that about 5,000 Republicans -- mainly local college students -- appeared to receive her. "Palin wows the GOP faithful" blared the headline Monday morning. "Members of crowd call her 'one of us,'" said the sub-headline, an interpretation the McCain camp was no doubt betting on.
Though McCain leads in Nebraska, the arrangements for the Palin appearance were made to rouse flagging enthusiasm among Republicans in the Upper Midwest. Nebraska Republicans have weathered economic uncertainty during the past several presidential election cycles and but remain numerically dominant. The present economic lethargy seems eerily distinct to downturns in 2000, 1992, and 1980. Resurgent Democratic registration fuels anxiety. Nebraska is one of only two states to award electoral votes proportionately, rather than winner take all. A 269-269 electoral vote split--once viewed as a worst case scenario by the GOP--has now become a best case scenario. If the Republican vote is diluted here by young, hyperactive Democrats, Obama could earn a 4-1 split of the state's 5 electoral votes, and win the electoral college by a single vote. Fearing the general anxiety will bring voting apostasy, Republicans have been attempting to buck up disappointed, disaffected and notoriously independent Nebraska voters.
Enter Sarah Palin. Fresh from what in these parts is called her victory in Thursday night's beauty contest with Joe Biden, Palin has been "ridin' the conservative circuit" the way Buffalo Bill rode horses. Rep. Steve King from Iowa introduced Palin to the hyperpartisan, flag-waving crowd. King -- chief engineer of the crackpot express ("If you're a dad, you're a first dude!" enthused King) -- displayed remarkable chutzpah by criticizing Biden's recent gaffes about when precisely FDR occupied the White House. Now, one would think saying anything even remotely evocative of Herbert Hoover, bank failures, breadlines and the Depression generally would be eschewed by Republicans in today's climate, and one can accuse King of many things, but self-reflection isn't, sadly, a conservative habit and never has been. Like a rodeo clown, King's appearance was thankfully brief and he faded into the crowd, which cheered lustily when Palin appeared.
Striding to the stage in her debate costume of coiffed dark brown hair, Japanese designer half-glasses, over-the-calf black stilletto boots, and all-black blouse and skirt that made her resemble a cross between Johnny Cash's daughter and a flirty country-western singer (and the affect is not coincidental), Palin has been striking a few key themes lately that she is now honing to a fine, sharp point. She reminded the audience she wanted to visit Nebraska and not, as the pundits have alleged, because even reliably red states like Nebraska need reinforced. "I wanted to reach into that TV and say 'No. I want to [come] to Nebraska,'" she insisted. Having established a rapport with the crowd, she lit into her main target, Obama. He doesn't "see America" the way others like Ronald Reagan and she do as a "force for good," she said, and repeated the charge that Obama "work[ed] with" people who committed terrorism, referring to former Weatherman Bill Ayers. The acts committed by Ayers and his wife occurred more than 35 years ago, when Obama was a prepubescent boy, but Palin talked about Obama and Ayers has if they were lifelong friends and co-conspirators.
Holding the microphone to her mouth like a cold bottle of beer, Palin muttered the "liberal" charge, a reliable conservative shibboleth in every election cycle, calling Obama the "most liberal senator in the senate," an honor most of us thought John Kerry and John Edwards won in 2004. How Obama managed to steal the mantle from both wasn't made clear by Palin, nor did she mention where McCain ranked. Then came Palin's other theme of the moment: "We need to tap into the natural resources that God so richly blessed us with," referring, one supposes, to oil, though natural gas or methane from cow afflatus could have been the point.
Interviewed by the World-Herald, most audience members, not surprisingly, were entranced by Palin, finding her to be "down-to-earth," and unpretentious. "She just seems like someone you could have a conversation with," chirped Rebecca Albano of Papillion, Nebraska, without irony. (Presumably, Palin would speak to Albano coherently.) Using self-deprecating humor a la Ronald Reagan, Palin laughed and said "I was just trying to give [Saturday Night Live star] Tina Fey more material." (Indavertantly, one supposes.) The crowd cheered wildly again.
With that rather disconcerting thought, Palin exited the hall to applause, cheers, smiles, and general relief, whisked away to another anxious, red state audience.
