From The Road
October 6, 2008 11:09 AM

Lagging In The Polls, Palin Shifts To Fear Tactics

By
Scott Conroy
Topics
Sarah Palin
(CBS)
From CBS News' Scott Conroy:

(FORT MYERS, FLA.) On the day when the McCain campaign released a new attack ad not-so-subtly titled "Dangerous," Sarah Palin made a concerted effort to use words like "fearful" and "afraid" to describe Barack Obama, signaling her campaign's decision to make the election a referendum on Obama's character, rather than the issues facing the country.

"I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America—as the greatest source of good in this world," Palin said at a rally this morning in Clearwater, Fla.

"I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country. This, ladies and gentlemen, has nothing to do with the kind of change anyone can believe in—not my kids, not for your kids."

Palin has devoted a significant portion of every one of her stump speeches in recent days to lamenting that the "filter of the mainstream media" has not given her a chance to do what she really wants to do: talk about the issues. But in filter-free forums across the country, Palin continues to speak in generalities about where she and John McCain want to take the country, calling for tax cuts, winning the wars, and reforming government, while providing very few details on how she would accomplish those goals.

Instead, Palin has increasingly focused her remarks on tearing down Obama.

"Either do the math or just go with your gut," Palin said at a rally here this morning. "Either way you're going to come up with the same conclusion — Barack Obama is gonna raise your taxes. So there's a pattern here of a left-wing agenda that is packaged and prettied up to look like mainstream policies."

Though it is nothing new for Palin to question Obama's promise to initiate tax cuts, it has only been in recent days that she her stump speeches have been marked by a series of scathing, personal attacks. Beginning with a fundraiser in Denver on Saturday, Palin has linked Obama to former 60s radical William Ayers at every public rally and closed fundraiser she has attended. The Alaska governor said the two men had a relationship akin to being "pals," even though the Associated Press and many other news outlets have concluded that Obama and Ayers' relationship added up to far less than a close friendship.

In the 1988 and 2004 elections, Democratic nominees Michael Dukakis and John Kerry also found themselves coming under personal attacks in the waning days of the campaign, and both men were criticized for not responding forcefully. By contrast, the Obama campaign is not only defending its candidate, it is launching a full-on counterattack against McCain, using a similarly questionable guilt by association tactic of highlighting the Arizona senator's involvement in the "Keating Five" savings-and-loan scandal of almost 20 years ago.

The shift in Palin's rhetoric comes as the McCain/Palin campaign finds itself trailing the Democrats in nearly every important battleground state. A WBZ poll out today shows the Obama/Biden ticket with a whopping 13-point lead in New Hampshire, marking a dramatic turnaround in a state where, in January, McCain won the first-in-the-nation primary and Obama lost.

Although she almost always wears a sunny demeanor, smiling broadly even as she delivers her scathing barbs against Obama, Palin's words show that she has embraced the traditional vice presidential candidate's role of being the attack dog and is even more willing than McCain to engage in personal mudslinging.

Palin recently questioned Obama's relationship with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, even though McCain vowed that his campaign would not use Wright to score political points.

"Those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that—with, I don't know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn't get up and leave—to me, that does say something about character," Palin told New York Times columnist William Kristol.

"But you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up."

  • Scott Conroy

    Scott Conroy is a National Political Reporter for RealClearPolitics and a contributor for CBS News.

Add a Comment See all 73 Comments
by timoteotk October 7, 2008 2:22 PM EDT
Good for her...they have bashed Palin since she came out of the gate...time for her to do some BASHING...average citizens know that the Mainstream mass media mind manipulators are for Obama-they think if they get some Hollywod stars to tell people to vote they will vote democratic- they have to use crude comedians to "INSPIRE" people to vote- one comedian- who looks like the twin of Amy Winehouse says she will take her bra off under her clothes while she waits for you to register to vote...umm...she will also have to wait til I am done puking...Ellen"God Bless America"Degeneres asks the potential voter to stop looking at internet porn long enough to vote??? WHAT HAVE WE COME TO?? THIS IS THE WAY THEY INSPIRE CITIZENSHIP????
Reply to this comment
by mhuppman October 7, 2008 11:59 AM EDT
So much for "Country First" and Americans want a clean campaign. More proof that John McCain is no maverick and has no idea of the concept of Straight Talk.

John McCain, the Double Talk Express...
Reply to this comment
by billyrollins October 7, 2008 9:26 AM EDT
I am astounded at the tactics of Palin. She is turning the GOP off. I believe one thing, John McCain and Sarah Palin DO NOT need to be running this country. It would just be wrong.
Reply to this comment
by lakotadee October 7, 2008 6:26 AM EDT
Poor Sarah Palin, shoutin'' and flailin'', flingin'' some old moose doo-doo. She don''t have to read, she don''t have to think, and she''s got her sights set on you. Please Mrs. Dude, don''t be so darned rude, don''t stoop to those old Karl Rove tricks! If you''re gonna run, put down that big gun, put away all the stones and the sticks. Remember Old McCain, who''s now such a pain, the way he once talked straight and true? C''mon, Sarah Palin, this tactic is failin'', let''s hear somethin'' honest from you. (GObama!)
Reply to this comment
by olderthanjoe October 7, 2008 6:08 AM EDT
Now, now. McCain really IS a maverick. That''s why he chose Palin--to ensure we''d all vote for Obama! It was his plan all along...
Reply to this comment
by zoozoob-2009 October 7, 2008 2:28 AM EDT
I find it despicable that you say that the Obama Campaign''s linking of McCain to the Keating Five is "questionable" and "guilt by association." Don''t you know he faced accusations of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating? This is not only relevant but reprehensible, and does not show the kind of judgement of someone who can lead us out of the current, much larger financial crisis.
Reply to this comment
by zoozoob-2009 October 7, 2008 2:27 AM EDT
I find it despicable that you say that the Obama Campaign''s linking of McCain to the Keating Five is "questionable" and "guilt by association." Don''t you know he faced accusations of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating? This is not only relevant but reprehensible, and does not show the kind of judgement of someone who can lead us out of the current, much larger financial crisis.
Reply to this comment
by zoozoob-2009 October 7, 2008 2:19 AM EDT
I find it despicable that you say that the Obama Campaign''s linking of McCain to the Keating Five is "questionable" and "guilt by association." Don''t you know he faced accusations of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating? This is not only relevant but reprehensible, and does not show the kind of judgement of someone who can lead us out of the current, much larger financial crisis.
Reply to this comment
by zoozoob-2009 October 7, 2008 2:13 AM EDT
I find it despicable that you say that the Obama Campaign''s linking of McCain to the Keating Five is "questionable" and "guilt by association." Don''t you know he faced accusations of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating? This is not only relevant but reprehensible, and does not show the kind of judgement of someone who can lead us out of the current, much larger financial crisis.
Reply to this comment
by zoozoob-2009 October 7, 2008 2:09 AM EDT
I find it despicable that you say that the Obama Campaign''s linking of McCain to the Keating Five is "questionable" and "guilt by association." Don''t you know he faced accusations of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating? This is not only relevant but reprehensible, and does not show the kind of judgement of someone who can lead us out of the current, much larger financial crisis.
Reply to this comment
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