Friday, April 9, 2010

SIZING UP SARAH


There wasn’t a person of color in the crowd of four thousand Arizonans.
The parking lot was filled with motorcycles and trucks of all sizes and shapes. People wore cowboy hats and carried American flags. They had all come to see Sarah Palin. It was a rally for the re-election campaign of John McCain, but the crowd wanted to get a glimpse of the little lady from Wasilla. “We want Sarah” the crowd chanted in rhythm, folks wore buttons that said SARAH—FOR PRESIDENT.

“She speaks her mind” the woman beside me said. “She has common sense and that is really all you need to be the president”, another chimed in. I smiled benignly as the woman turned to me and said, “Now she is a real role model for women.”

The Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson was a fitting backdrop for this rally of like minded souls. The red Arizona dust swirled in the parking lot as we all inched up the line to have our bags examined by burly policemen. But it was a peaceful crowd, peaceful until Obama’s name was mentioned. “Are you sorry yet?” the hand held sign screamed carried by a man wearing a shirt imprinted--- OBUMMER!

As Sarah whipped up the crowd in her introduction of McCain, her references to the President were met with responses like “put the cuffs on him”. To her rhetorical questions about liking the new Health Care Bill there were shouts of “Hang him”. And although both Sarah and McCain spoke the platitudes of not wanting violence, there was violence just a little below the surface on this sunny afternoon.


Sarah was dressed like a biker chick. Shiny black cropped leather jacket with silver zippers, a very tight and very short skirt, upswept hair and the librarian glasses. Her accent was a mixture of hillbilly and cowboy. She does say “youbetcha” and the crowd loves it. Her voice was high pitched and shrill, but she talked like the girl next door. Like she was chatting with you in the supermarket, like she was sympathizing with you and felt exactly as you did about the world.

She said that John Mc Cain would never win the Mr. Congeniality Award in the Senate; she said he is not known for “going with the flow”. And what I thought was the best line of the day she added. “I am a commercial fisherman and I know that the only fish that “go with the flow” are dead fish! We do not want someone representing us who goes with the flow.
The crowd went wild. “That’s my girl,” a scraggly man dressed in black who was standing beside me roared. “Tell it like it is, Sarah!” And she does and she did and John McCain seemed grateful.

Cindy McCain looking blond, bland and put together said a few dutiful words. And John McCain spent his time beating up on the health care plan. He vowed to be part of the constitutionality challenge that will happen in many states and he vowed to represent the people in the room and to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT---against big government, Washington, and all things threatening to the constitution. And so the members of the Arizona Republican Party with its “pick yourself up by the bootstraps and take personal responsibility for your own life” message seemed to rally around the Maverick senator who all will agree is an American Hero.

But Sarah Palin summed up the mission of the Republican Party’s future when she said that the evil press is calling them, “The Party of NO.” She railed against the belief that her party is just a group of obstructionists at heart. “That is just not true”, she screamed. We are not the party of NO---we are the party of HELL NO!

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