Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Sarah stops to hug the kid with Down's
Yes, Sarah Palin is a politician, but gestures like this move many Americans more than great speeches do. People feel moments like this.
12 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Tue Sep 09, 08:49:00 PM:
The look on Cindy McCain's face is genuine.
I find it odd and surprising that it is now Republicans who are talking about 'feelings' on the campaign trail. That's new to me.
By 
, at
Tue Sep 09, 09:46:00 PM:
It shouldn't be, Dawn, it has been part of the people who are Republican since the party was started. What is different now is the internet is allowing it to be shown.
By clint, at
Tue Sep 09, 10:01:00 PM:
Show me, don't tell me.
That's been the biggest new theme in the McCain-Palin Campaign. ("They talk about XXX, We have the record of doing XXX and the scars to prove it.") And it's all the more powerfully expressed by being expressed without words.
Compare today's two biggest comments about disabled children:
- Governor Palin hugging a child with downs syndrome --- a genuine moment rather than a typical politician-kisses-baby moment. She must be thinking about what her own child will be like in a few years.
- Senator Biden argues that Republicans don't really care about disabled children, because they don't support the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
Could there be a greater contrast?
If the Dems don't wise up, and fast, this isn't even going to be a close one.
(Is it wrong that I worry about the effect on race relations in this country if Obama loses in a landslide?)
By JPMcT, at
Tue Sep 09, 10:21:00 PM:
@dint
"Is it wrong that I worry about the effect on race relations in this country if Obama loses in a landslide?"
Mr. Obama did not descent from American slaves, never lived in an urban setting, began reading about the American Black political theory while in an upscale prep school in Hawaii (paid for by loving grandparents whom he later threw under the political bus because they where white), attended an ivy league college, speaks without any discernable ethnic cadence and readily bacame a part of the Chicago sleaze machine. Other than a few extra melanocytes per square inch in his epidermis...WHAT does this man share with the average Black American???
If his loss triggers poor race relations, it will be a racist burden borne by blacks...not others.
By Larry Sheldon, at
Tue Sep 09, 11:27:00 PM:
I recall reading a while back (somebody's b;og, but I have no idea now whose) about President Bush doing something like that with the mother of a soldier that had died in Iraq.
I don't remember enough of the details to make a recitation make sense.
I'll see if I can find it tomorrow.
By , at
Wed Sep 10, 06:45:00 AM:
One politician hugs a kid with Downs syndrome. Another stops to ask the mother why she didn't have an abortion. Who are you going to vote for?
By Cardinalpark, at
Wed Sep 10, 08:29:00 AM:
Authenticity. Selflessness. Optimism. These characteristics cannot be faked. This ticket is exceptional really.
By Catchy Pseudonym, at
Wed Sep 10, 09:05:00 AM:
"Authenticity. Selflessness. Optimism. These characteristics cannot be faked. This ticket is exceptional really."
Really? It's McCain guys... remember... McCain. You guys hated him less than a year ago.
You guys are amazing.
By TigerHawk, at
Wed Sep 10, 09:11:00 AM:
What are you talking about Catchy? I'm not sure that any of the four of us has ever "hated" McCain. I wrote a post around Super Tuesday that endorsed Romney over McCain for the Republican nomination, but it was a close enough call for me that when I sat down to write it I was not sure how it would come out. Even the 'Villain, who was no fan of McCain among the Republicans in the field (I seem to remember at least one snarky "Keating Five" reference from him), does not (to my knowledge) hate McCain.
By Catchy Pseudonym, at
Wed Sep 10, 10:02:00 AM:
I guess in my comment I should differentiate between the four posters here and the people who comment, though the comments tend to color my view of the blog as a whole. So as far as you and your 3 partners here, I'll agree with you.
But I have been involved in more than one comment thread in the past when I mentioned how McCain was one of the few Republicans I liked, and heard from so many people on this site telling my why McCain isn't really Republican and a litany of reasons why he's bad for this country. I remember thinking how incredible it was that the one Republican I liked was hated by his own party so much.
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed Sep 10, 01:16:00 PM:
Social conservatives, mostly, pissed off about his immigration stance. (which he backed away from after he was almost kicked off the Senate by the people of Arizona) There's an undercurrent regarding McCain-Feingold, as well.
I posted here, long ago, that Guiliani was my preferred candidate, seconded by McCain.
*few minutes googling*
Here we go.
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2008/01/were-you-fredhead.html
You also have to remember that most of that was during the primary season, where there were ideologically pure rivals for the Presidential nomination. (RON PAUL!) I predicted that most disaffected Republicans would come in from the cold after a few months, but fewer Democrats because of the intensity of the Hillary/Obama war.
By , at
Thu Sep 11, 12:37:00 PM:
Hug your kids and forget the trees
