Conservative Talk Radio Ecstatic Over Sarah Palin's VP Nod

'THIS IS TREMENDOUS'

Talk Radio Finally Excited About Presidential Contest







It's not every day that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton agree on something, but John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has them all sharing in the excitement of what could result in America's first female vice president.

With Palin, everybody gets something: Limbaugh and Hannity get a real conservative on the GOP ticket, while Ferraro gains the satisfaction of knowing her 1984 VP bid truly blazed a trail. Finally, Hillary Clinton has received some vindication knowing that somebody in the presidential race finds her 18 million voters worth pursuing.

That's not to say Clinton and Ferraro necessarily agree with Palin's conservative stances, but both see the bigger picture, especially after Barack Obama's curious choice of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) as his own running mate.

From Ferraro: "Without Hillary being the nominee it's really quite equally as important. There are a lot of women who are disaffected by how Hillary was treated by the media, by how she was treated by the Obama campaign … not speaking up when sexism raised its ugly head in the media."


For conservative talk radio and the blogosphere, the Palin pick brought a rare shot in the arm at a time when upbeat political news has been hard to come by. Limbaugh said her "story and experience dwarf Barack Obama."

From Friday's program:

RUSH: It's an inspired choice. They kept this secret. They totally befuddled the Obama campaign. The Obama campaign is now busy doing their opposition research, and the one thing that just blows me away that just makes me laugh, and I haven't been laughing much this week, is that they're talking about how this is a bad pick because she doesn't have any experience. She's got more experience than Obama does! She has more experience running things. She's got a bigger story to tell than Obama has, and she's got plenty of people who will tell that great story of hers. Obama has nobody he wants us to hear tell his story. He has to tell his story himself. I think they've been rope-a-doped here. I think McCain has made a brilliant move. Folks, look what we got here.

We do have a woman on the ticket, but she is a Republican woman! It's not Hillary, and Sarah Palin doesn't have to wear pantsuits, ladies and gentlemen, and her husband is not a crook. This woman's nickname is Barracuda, from her high school basketball days. She takes no prisoners. She's a government ethical reformer. She's been opposing Ted Stevens, who's got problems. Her husband works in the oil business.

He helps to create the fuel that Obama uses to fly all over the country. The fuel that Obama says he wants to get rid of in ten years. This is tremendous, and everybody saying, "Well, how is she going to stack up against Biden?" It's not how she stacks up against Biden. It's how she stacks up against Obama. McCain has the experience-vs.-Obama thing wrapped up. "Well, what about foreign policy? She doesn't have any foreign policy." Neither does Obama! Our vice presidential choice is more qualified to be president of the United States than Barack Obama, the Democrat choice. Democrats today are not happy.

The Drive-By Media is not happy. They're not crazy about the speech last night in the civil rights community. I can't tell you how much Drive-By Media criticism there is of this speech, from the AP and Reuters and so forth, and there's Tom Brokaw: Democrats, don't be fooled by this raucous crowd, these big crowds at these things don't mean anything, it's going to be forgotten. It already is forgotten, folks. We've got audio sound bites of this that we're going to get to in due course.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin said of the choice, "Yes, I’m impressed. Very impressed." Other pundits appeared to agree.

And Palin's VP nod has already seemed to boost McCain's rally turnout. In a sign of early damage to Obama's candidacy, Boston Herald media reporter Jessica Heslam noted a huge coverage shift away from the Illinois senator and toward McCain's candidacy, perhaps for the first time in recent memory.

But not everyone is happy, especially among those firmly in the Obama camp. Boston-based blogger Dan Kennedy called her "Dan Quayle in a skirt", while libtalker Randi Rhodes delivered this rant:

RHODES: (hour two, segment one): I mean everyone knows John McCain is not running his campaign. His campaign is being run by lobbyists and talk show hosts. This is this Sarah Palin chick is Rush Limbaugh’s oil chick. He’s the only person in the country that knew her name and every day I’d sit there and listen and I actually looked her up a long time ago cause he’s been advocating for her cause he wants an idiot. He wants a ah little puppet who sits on ANWR.

Cause he has not done a show for his audience in I cannot tell you in how many years. Just like corporate TV is doing it for their corporations, he is shilling for the companies. That is what his show is all about. That is why he is a global warming denier. That’s why even though you can show him Mount Kilamanjaro then with the ice caps and now with the grass on it and no ice. He still denies that he’s looking at, he says the pictures have been doctored.

MOCKING LIMBAUGH VOICE: Blu blu blu give me another oxycotin Wilma Wilma Wilma. Go to the Denny’s and get me oxy.

The real beauty of McCain's choice is that it opens up a whole new discussion area for talk radio, a fresh topic of which only the surface has yet been scratched. Now, conservatives have a real reason to jump in and participate.


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