Celebrity Death Match 2008
September 4, 2008 at 5:29 pm | In Uncategorized | 7 CommentsAs I have mentioned previously, Barack Obama’s speech last week was viewed by 38.3 million people, a truly massive and unprecidented number… until last night. Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech was viewed by 37.2 million people, almost exactly the same as Obama’s.
Likewise, Survey USA polling seems to indicate that both speeches were equally as popular. Using a GPA scale, Republicans gave Palin’s speech a 3.7, Independants a 3.0 and Democrats a 2.2. In separate polling, Survey USA found the exact opposite for Obama’s speech: Dems gave it a 3.6, Independants a 3.0 and Republicans a 2.2.
This does seem to present an interesting dilemma for Republicans. I think anyone who has watched any portion of the Rep convention must be struck by how much of it is about Palin, almost more than McCain. It would not suprise me if his speech tonight pales in comparison in terms of total viewership and response.
Does that leave Republican’s with a strange sort of buyer’s remorse, as in, “Hey, the wrong person’s at the top of our ticket!” If Obama and Palin get paired in people’s minds in this campaign, it seems to me that McCain is in danger of slipping to the Biden position of his ticket (in a metaphorical, emotional sense). If this happens, how can it not hurt Republicans?
I mean, if the 2008 elections becomes a celebrity death match, why vote for the tag-team where the celeb is in the #2 position? For those who vote on that sort of gut, emotional level, I think the Obama-Biden death match pair have a serious edge over the Palin-McCain pair.
As I said in a previous post, McCain is choosing to fight this battle on Obama’s fields and, frankly, celebrity-lite is no better than change-lite. If you care about those sorts of things, who buys the knock off when you can afford the real thing?
More and more, I believe that, when the history of this election is written, it will say John McCain lost this thing the moment he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.
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Good Post, the viewership worked in different ways. Quite a few say 14million or so wanted to see if Hillary was a nemesis for PTAlin, a vote stealer and keep in mind imperative, at McClone’s age, his odds, folks would be looking at the next President. Don’t be surprised if the viewership is higher for her than McPOW. I honestly, hope I am right people tuned in to see Obama because he sincerely has more voters than the polls are indicating! We’ll see! By the way, had this been an election Obama by sheer numbers by a million or so would have won! Similar to existing polls or electoral based on today!
Comment by Kay — September 4, 2008 #
Can I just say, I love calling Sarah “PTAlin.” I want to use that from now on!
Comment by Peter — September 4, 2008 #
McCain was losing this before he chose Palin. that said, in a few weeks, it will be clear that he made the road tougher for himself.
Comment by mike — September 4, 2008 #
I wouldn’t dismiss the value of Palin to the McCain-Palin ticket. She has unified Evangelical support behind McCain and has given a lot of blue-collar,Bubba-types a “Brassy, no-holds barred, slap-down those Liberal elitist” Heroine.
Unfortunately, the same economic insecurities that cause the bubba-types to feel left behind will now drive them in droves towards McCain-Palin.
Right now, the election hinges on weather enough blacks, hispanics and young voters turn out to vote for Obama. If they turn out in the same percentage as previous cycles, the bubba-vote will give the election to McCain…
Comment by Russ — September 5, 2008 #
Sigh. Always the pessimist. In ABC polling released today exactly half of those interview felt that Palin was not qualified to be president, whereas only 21% felt that of Biden. The special prosecutor in Alaska today said that he is moving up the date of release of his report on “troopergat” to mid-October (it had originally be set for 4 days before the election). The Enquirer now is running a story that Palin had an affair with her husband’s business partner. This is what happens when you don’t vet a candidate. And, we reporters crawling all over Alaska, we are probaly going to be treated to many more of these things as the next 2 months creep on. Picking an unvetted candidate was a foolish, amatuerish mistake and most Republican insiders know it (I assume most folks have seen my “It’s over” post). Voters may say they don’t care about these issues but, where there is a barrage of them, they will take their toll. In addition, despite what Russ fears, early polling numbers seem to indicate that Palin is not reaching the very consituency she was plug for (women remain put off by her). I stand by my original statements; Palin is an albatross.
Comment by Peter — September 5, 2008 #
Regarding Palin, I loved this quote from The Economist: “John McCain’s choice of running-mate raises serious questions about his judgment…
“The moose in the room, of course, is her lack of experience.”
Comment by Troy — September 6, 2008 #
[...] looks like the McCalin celebrity death-match tag team have managed to piss off the press. Check out this week’s headlines (located on a great [...]
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