"Alaska Women Reject Palin" Rally - 150% the Size of Pro-Palin Rally

by chrisblask, Sun Sep 14, 2008 at 04:04:16 PM EDT

Crossposted from Motley Moose

Mudflats, a blog by Alaskan AKMuckraker has an article today about a rally - organized by eight women over coffee - held to counter the event held earlier in the day welcoming Gov. Palin home from her ordeal answering questions for the first time since being nominated by the GOP for President (er: Vice President).

Alaska Daily News also has an article with 50 more first-hand pics.

Alaskan Women Reject Palin was, by this account, the "biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state".

The turnout dwarfed the Pro-Palin rally yesterday.

At least 1,400 people showed up, and to put that in perspective that would be akin to 100,000 New Yorker women showing up to a political rally in New York City (we can be fairly certain no-one took the train from New Jersey to Anchorage or drove up from Philadelphia for the event). This compares to perhaps 1,000 Palin fans who showed up for her event that same day.

It's a good thing I wasn't tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.

Mudflats has a lot of pics of the event, here are a few:

KTUU Alaska also had coverage of the event.

"Alaskan women reached across party lines to reject Gov. Palin today...".

I wonder if there is an Alaskan Palin popularity poll popping up prior to Nov. 4th?

-chris

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Tags: Alaska, Anchorage, anti-palin, Democrat, GOP, mccain, obama, Palin, protest, rally, Republican (all tags)

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Tips for Alaskan Women

by chrisblask 2008-09-14 04:15PM | 0 recs

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Re: "Alaska Women Reject Palin" Rally

I'd love to get some independent confirmation that this was indeed the "biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state." That kind of info may be anecdotal at best, though. Still, this was a major event, and seems to have received the appropriate coverage on KTTU and hopefully other outlets.

The Palinapologists are fond of quoting that "80% approval" poll from long ago, so it's important that there are images, especially of women, presenting the view of the vocal opposition.

Earlier today I linked the current rec list diary to the dkos one from this morning, which had a ton of pics along with the video and more information about the rally. Those interested in more images and info should head over there. It looks like it was a tremendously successful event, despite the best efforts of rightwingers to derail it.

by BobzCat 2008-09-14 04:22PM | 0 recs

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Yeah the favorability thing

is overrated; why is it so impressive for someone to be viewed favorably in the state for which he or she serves as an elected representative? Rasmussen has her favorability at 72% in Alaska, with a 56% very favorable rating so there's no question that Alaskans love her.

However, Biden and Obama are viewed favorably by 68% and 64%, respectively, in their home states, two states with a greater number of people from the opposite party. So those two guys are widely loved by their constituents as well.

by Blazers Edge 2008-09-14 04:34PM | 0 recs

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Re: Yeah the favorability thing

Because all too often Governors have approval ratings that are in the crapper.

Our most populous state, California has Schwarzenegger currently at 31% approval.

by wasanyonehurt 2008-09-14 04:42PM | 0 recs

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Re: Yeah the favorability thing

And will somebody now add McCains Arizona rating. He failed to get 50% there in the primary and has not polled out of the forties there in the general.

by politics64 2008-09-15 03:38AM | 0 recs

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More pics at the Mudflats and ADN

articles linked here.

And the "biggest ever" is simply AKMudRaker's comment. I can't find anything to compare it to.

by chrisblask 2008-09-14 04:45PM | 0 recs

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Sarah Who?

A bit off-topic but here's a pretty cogent knock-down of Palin from Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla):

"All Sarah Palin is being asked to respond to is whether she's up to the task," she said. "And it is absolutely fair game. And all I've seen is her being asked about her background, her experience, what qualifies her to be vice president, and whether she knows anything.

"So the tough questions that have been asked of Sarah Palin thus far just have been about the fact that she doesn't know anything and isn't ready to be vice president. That's fair game and it has nothing to do with her gender.

"You're saying she doesn't know anything, or you're saying that's what she's been asked about?" asked host Bob Schieffer.

"Well, she's been asked what she knows," Wasserman Schultz said. "She's been asked to demonstrate her foreign policy knowledge, which she clearly has very little, based on the Charlie Gibson interview. I mean, she didn't know what the Bush doctrine was. She really had almost no grasp of America's foreign policy. She really knew very little about domestic policy.

"Quite honestly, the interview that I saw and that Americans saw on Thursday and Friday were similar to when I didn't read a book in high school and had to read the Cliff Notes and phone in my report. She's 'Cliff-Noted' her performance so far. And all of that is fair game. The American people deserve better than that."

Dem: Palin "Cliff-Noted" Her ABC Interview CBS 14 Sep 08

by Shaun Appleby 2008-09-14 04:25PM | 0 recs

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Every knock down is good

Some People want to leave Palin alone but I'm having none of it. She is what is making the GOP ticket competitive and needs to be taken apart.

The only political conversation I had this weekend was with the wife of a Sailor, and she was all jazzed up about Palin. This new-found toy needs to have its wheels come off, and I'm happy to do anything I can to help.

Would love to see you over at the Moose, btw.

-chris

by chrisblask 2008-09-14 04:35PM | 0 recs

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Re: Every knock down is good

Every knock down keeps her in the spotlight - Obama knows this and obviously doesn't share your opinion.

Now Obama is loathe to speak her name on the stump and probably even asked the 527s to build attack ads only directed at McSame and not her. I think Obama's tack is the right one.

I'd like to see you at Dkos.

by wasanyonehurt 2008-09-14 04:46PM | 0 recs

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Obama doesn't want to talk about

her, which is exactly right. They've been making hay out of him mentioning the GOP VP pick at all.

But she is stirring the base with a big stick. The MSM needs to pop her bubble, and we meer bloggers can help them to be unable to avoid doing it.

Ignoring Wright didn't work, either.

BTW - I am on DKOS. Drop in and say "hey!"

by chrisblask 2008-09-14 04:50PM | 0 recs

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Re: Obama doesn't want to talk about

They need to talk about her, I think. She is just too dangerous to have so close to the presidency. Her positions are appearing more and more threatening. All of this is why even someone who sees McCain as benign (and I don't get that at all) needs to reexamine the possibiity of a Palin presidency. I think it is a legitimate issue to talk about, not sure why there is such resistance to it. Maybe the faux feminist outrage but we need to get over that.

It's not just about McCain's judgment in choosing her, it is about the danger she poses to, well, the world.

by mady 2008-09-14 04:58PM | 0 recs

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Re: Obama doesn't want to talk about

To elucidate just a bit; she does not seem to have heard of, among other things, mutually assured destruction as it relates to Russia. Her idea that we can wage a war with the Russians, I mean what planet has she been living on all her life?

by mady 2008-09-14 05:03PM | 0 recs

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Re: Every knock down is good

I tend to agree with this approach, which argues that though she is not a credible VP, she is a credible candidate:

The response of smart Democrats to Palin will not be to diminish her but to treat her as a serious contender. In doing so, they will get beyond the expectations game and on to the vital dialogue about whether a Republican ticket that -- whether Palin knows it or not -- adheres to the Bush doctrine and just about every other failed policy and wrongheaded strategy of a president whose approval rating is about twenty point below the level that will be required to elect the McCain-Palin ticket come November.

John Nichols - "You Can't Blink!" And She Didn't 11 Sep 08

Having said that the kind of reasonable criticism which I cited above from Representative Wasserman above seems just the kind of modest surrogate attack that we should level at her once a news cycle for the remainder of the campaign.

by Shaun Appleby 2008-09-14 05:11PM | 0 recs

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Re: Reject Palin

Today's Toles seems at home here.

by January 20 2008-09-15 02:11AM | 0 recs

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Do you think

they freaked about the "lipstick on a pig" comment because they realize that Palin is the Pork Queen?

Seriously, ignore her and attack McCain. If we do that, and he keeps trying to hide behind her apron he will no longer look like the "war hero" and how much he has lost his honor will become quite clear.

by IowaMike 2008-09-15 08:38AM | 0 recs

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They are both targets

and she has a halo she doesn't deserve.

Anyway, I'm just one person. I'm sure the rest of the blogosphere can come up with some McCain diaries (and don't worry, I'm not done with him, either... ;~)

by chrisblask 2008-09-15 09:53AM | 0 recs