Doug Watts, a painter from Phoenix, watched in spite of himself. There was Sarah Palin on television, and he found himself mesmerized.
"I was flipping channels and stuff and when she finally came on I'm like, 'I'm not going to watch this.' And then I sat there and 15 minutes go by and a little bit more," Watts said. "She seemed like she was sincere. She's the new face."
Just a week ago, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now she finds herself the most debated and dissected person in the nation. After a dizzying crash course on her life and her family, the emerging picture is riveting to many Americans, perplexing to others.
Her introduction to the Lower 48 culminated Wednesday night with her speech to the Republican National Convention. It predictably roused the delegates and captivated many TV viewers still getting acquainted with the unfamiliar political figure tapped by John McCain as his running mate.
Saturation media coverage has already made Palin's biography part of political lore: Self-styled hockey mom with five children; wife and hunting partner of a snowmobiling oil field worker; high school basketball star and beauty pageant finalist; PTA activist and mayor; and finally, governor willing to take on the oil industry and kingpins of her own Republican Party.
There's a dose of melodrama to her family life — the infant son with Down syndrome, the 17-year-old daughter pregnant but unmarried, the rift with an in-law that has spawned a legislative investigation. Palin has provided endless fodder for the blogosphere, grist for late-night TV gags and multiple topics for gossip magazines.
"Sarah Palin's Dark Secrets" read one National Enquirer cover headline.
Her many newfound admirers have reveled both in her role as mother and in her "Sarah Barracuda" image of toughness.
"This woman who knows how to look down the barrel of a gun and gut an animal in the wilderness is not afraid that she'll break her nail when she punches some deserving opponent right between the eyes in a political brawl," said Sandy Froman, a former president of the National Rifle Association.
But Ellen Bravo, a Milwaukee author and activist who advocates on behalf of working women, voiced doubts about Palin that many feminists share.
McCain "is trying to pass off Gov. Palin as a career mom who knows the difficulties of balancing job and family — hoping women won't notice the ticket's opposition to every measure that would ease those difficulties, from expanding family leave to paid sick days to equal pay," Bravo said.
Karen Button, a freelance writer from Anchorage, said Alaskans were proud of the attention Palin had brought to their state but also less enthusiastic about her governorship now than earlier in her term.
"She's not always that easy to get along with," Button said. "If you don't see things her way, she doesn't have a lot of patience for that.
"She has a good image, she looks good on television, she knows how to deliver a speech," Button said. "But what's disturbing to me is that it's all about image right now. Let's look deeper."
At Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix, in the heart of McCain country, Katie Lahaye, 23, discussed the Palin phenomenon Thursday at the Three Dog Bakery, where she works.
"I was a little shocked just because nobody knew anything about her," she said. "So I was a little bit eager to learn things about her and how her family is."
She ticks off some of those things: "A mom of five is ... wow. And going from, you know, the parent-teacher thing all the way up is just amazing."
Prior to the speech, all Lahaye thought of Palin was "that she's a real person; that she's got real problems. Everyday people problems."
But after watching the speech: "It was shock and awe ... I'm just very excited."
Watts, the Phoenix painter, was touching up a shopping mall bannister. He had been leaning toward Obama before Palin's speech — now he's undecided. Continue >>
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palin gets people energized too. Obama's ideas were tested by carter and showed to fail. He has no foreign policy expereinece and don;t give me that Biden response. You can have all the experience in the world on a given matter, but when you are consistently wrong it is worthless.Biden said Reagon couldn't win cold war and was always against him.Who was right. When it came to Iraq he wanted to split it up into three parts and the rest of the world laughed at him. He said the surge wouldn't work and it did. Palin would have more right experience in 6 months as vp if something would happen to McCain than Obama has going in, or the advice he would get from Joe.
Nice spin on Obama. Had Palin written any best sellers? Obama was chosen because he has the amazing ability to energize people and he has ideas that will work.
Mike2685, I guess you for got Satan can energize people too. Remember, he convinced Eve to eat the apple which she was not suppose to eat. James says faith without works is dead. He even mention: You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble!.
So belief would seem is not enough.
Obama: 8 years as Illinois statehouse back bencher, never an author of a law.
Palin: ten years as mayor of town with 1100 businesses.
Obama: 3 years as Senator, half of which spent running for president, never author of a law.
Palin: 2 years as governor of state with 6 billion dollar budget, several new laws passed.
Now everyone is debating Palin and Obama. She is not running for president. So why is the democratic president being pitted against the republician vice president. Talk about being unequally yoked.
Nice spin on Obama. Had Palin written any best sellers? Obama was chosen because he has the amazing ability to energize people and he has ideas that will work. Palin was chosen because she is a woman and McCain needed the Hillary voters as well as those sheep, I mean evangelicals, who were on the fence about McCain. Palin is a pawn, and it terrifies me that if he keels over in the white house she could become our new president!
Obama: 8 years as Illinois statehouse back bencher, never an author of a law.
Palin: ten years as mayor of town with 1100 businesses.
Obama: 3 years as Senator, half of which spent running for president, never author of a law.
Palin: 2 years as governor of state with 6 billion dollar budget, several new laws passed.
Why does no one say: It's insulting to blacks that someone with such limited experience would be selected on the basis of his skin color.
The vicious attacks against Palin are simply a reflection of the utter fear & dismay of the hard-leftists.
What was once a slam-dunk by Obama is now a dead heat. And the momemtum has definitely shifted towards McCain/Palin.
Let's go Palin!
Palin Power!!
pretty clear to me, this is a woman who believed that books should be banned, that god is directing her life and others are doomed, that her faith is the right path for every american and those who disagree are moral failures. that she can use any weapon to defeat those who do not accept her rule. my sister is getting screwed by her former husband, let's nuke him and go have some bbq.