I don't know if Palin would change anyone's minds, but she might get a lot of people to the polling places who would normally sit at home for midterms

First understand that I really like Palin and you could very easily take this the wrong way. But, Hanna Montana could get a lot of people to the polling places too, but so what? Her fans can't even vote. the people who support Palin are active anyway and already know who they would support and why. Again, my view is the liberals don't understand the Palin affect.

I hope you meant the Palin effect. The Palin affect (as in mood) is, in my opinion, a whiny henny-penny screechy frustrated ex-housewhore anti-woman thing. Certainly there aren't enough of same running around our country that she has a chance in hell of being elected? I mean, haven't we come a long way, baby?

I expected women to grow as evil as men as we scratched and clawed our way out of subjugation, I just never expected society as a whole to embrace evil in this way. Certainly we could have been a shining light, if in the lack of embrace, women could have truly found that peaceful strength that has defined our gender in so many ways. Sadly, evil women are just as tiresome and dangerous as evil men. Who knew?

Right wing populists who are not afraid to throw red meat to the base are not that new and not that inexplicable.

She's a media personality who had the good fortune to be picked for a presidential ticket. If Limbaugh or Beck ever decided to run for office they'd get similar ratings and support.

there's no mystery about the appeal for the poujadiste set of sarah palin. there's no mystery what kind of nonsense constitutes its ideological base.

Beck's latest conspiracy: Van Jones, Pelosi, The Coming Insurrection and the revolutionary "populist rebellion bomb" | Media Matters for America

listen to some of the delightful beck or limbaugh flights into dissociative reactionary fantasy on the right of the main page as well.
it's pretty stunning stuff.
and there's ALOT of such material floating about.

this kind of nonsense is not new.
it's not interesting. it's just another instance of that kind of populist-to-fascist nativist jank that's been a prominent part of the rightwing underbelly of american politics since the reconstruction period.

it is kinda frightening that it is even a remote possibility that these people will get into power.

in the interest of being nice, i'll say that the media conduit that feeds people toward a teabagging perspective neither accounts of the detail of everyone's worldview who is attracted to that perspective, nor does it have to. it's enough that it resonates.

but it's pretty funny that when folk who swing that way are challenged, they try to distance themselves from the media channels that are responsible for the "perspective" getting any exposure which is the condition of possibility for gaining any traction or currency.
so it's all reasonable, what i may think.
but the fact is that it resonates with what these people are doing and saying.

I am not clear on the correct word, but when I look up "affect" I got this:

Affect | Definition of Affect at Dictionary.com:

And for "effect":
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/effect

When wrote "Palin affect" what I meant was that the Palin phenomenon was an emotional response in the hearts and mind of those who support her, not that she has had any real influence or brought about any result on a national level. I did vote for McCain because of Palin, but he lost and other than that I simply root for her, I respect her, and we share common views. I will defend her because the attacks are dishonest and mean in my opinion.

ace, he's being pedantic. "effect" is a noun, "affect" is a verb. As a thing, a phenomenon, whatever, the correct term would be "Palin Effect"

Now, back to the thread...