And, too be honest, some of the Palin haters on the Right, too. But, let’s deal with the Left for the moment, shall we? Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight shows that the Palin hatred (this story isn’t quite in the PDS region) will drive them to use any rational to demean Palin
Sarah Palin’s political action committee — SarahPAC — raised $733,000 in the first half of the year and is set to push past $1 million in the wake of the recent attention she’s gotten herself. On the one hand, this isn’t that impressive. Mitt Romney, for instance, has raised twice as much. Kay Bailey Huthcison, Palin’s sometime rival who is now running for governor in Texas, raised nine times as much. For somebody with a political celebrity dwarfed only by Barack Obama’s, that’s just not all that much cashflow.
But, Palin isn’t actually running for Federal office, hasn’t announced she is running for Federal office, and obviously isn’t running for Governor of Alaska. Furthermore, SarahPAC is not about raising cash for a federal run.
To give Nate his due, though
What is impressive about Palin’s fundraising haul, however, is who it came from: the grassroots. Based on her FEC disclosures, I identified 406 donations worth $200 or more, which are worth a combined total of $289,932. That’s nothing, really: Home Shopping Club can bring in that much in 15 minutes selling vacuums. That leaves, however, $443,608, or 60 percent of SarahPac’s total, which came from small donors. That is a very high percentage — higher than for any of the ’08 presidential candidates but for Ron Paul — as you can see from this chart where I’ve colored Palin’s total in Misogynist Pink.
What that means is Palin is reaching out to, and reaching, the core of the Conservatives, those who will give $5 here, $20 there, $50 on the flip sides, the small donors that drove Dubya’s two elections. Those small donors are who we are. We may have the cash to drop, but, we will nickle and dime the politicians we are rooting for, to make sure they stay on track.
The more I watch this, the more I realize there really is a “paradigm shift” taking place. It’s a relief!
I think Palin, just like Ron Paul, isn’t about her as much as it’s about a movement. Our traditional American spirit is rising … and the Beltway’s in trouble!
Let’s hope so, theCL. The Inside The Beltway folks hate when politicians stand up for the citizens.
Back in September 2008, we saw her wagging her finger that Hillary Clinton, that Hillary should not whine about tough media coverage, she was not doing women any good, she should just plow through it, she should have known what she was getting into and should just try harder and prove herself. “WOWâ€, I guess she loves measuring others by standards that she does not follow. What a hypocrite, but expected from most political false prophets types. Now we see that she attempted used her official position for personal gain, this is too sweet. Thank you Sarah, great job.