BLOGGERS FOR SARAH PALIN

After my experience working with more than 300 bloggers on the "NoBama Mission Bloggers" group, there's a great need for "Sarah Bloggers" to speak coherently and persuasively about our favorite candidate.

A key for Gov. Palin in getting elected in 2012 is to increase her appeal to moderate and independent voters. Bloggers can help her do by emphasizing . . . her moderation and her independence. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is.

In the recent election, some bloggers wasted tens of thousands of hours trying to deliver a knockout blow to Obama (Ayers! Kenya! Raila Odinga! Rev. Wright! birth certificate!). That was a failed effort. It didn't work. Barack Obama got elected by a substantial majority.

As muckrakers, bloggers aren't very effective -- unless they also get support from the MSM. Anti-Obama material had no traction with the major networks or the big print media. Sadly, many bloggers just "didn't get it" that their "revelations" had almost no effect.

Unfortunately, the anti-Sarah smears did have some traction. Most Obama voters believed that Sarah said, "I can see Russia from my house." In fact, Tina Fey said that on SNL. Sarah never said any such thing.

The MSM helped the Sarah smears, which ranged from lies to misinformation, to stick.With Sarah Palin. We need a positive, compelling message. That may be a challenge because (I believe) the Obama presidency is going to be a traumatic experience for most Americans, and there may be a tempation to fixate on his inadequacies.

I've been asking/urging bloggers and other onliners to join ReadMyLipstickNetwork. If we do our work right, we should have thousands (3,000? 4,000?) bloggers in place six months before the election. They could be a powerful force.

Okay, I found the NoBama Mission Bloggers (maybe 20-plus of them) were producing material superior to anything that was appearing in the NYTimes, WashPost, Newsweek, etc. We need to figure out ways to get the best material out to a wide audience. A big part of "media reform" will be to encourage the new, alternative media represented by bloggers.

Make Calls for John, Sarah

If Pennsylvania is a battleground state -- and it is -- then Beaver County, where I live is Ground Zero. The county has a Democratic edge in registration, but we intend to win it big for John McCain and Sarah Palin.


"We cling to our God . . . and our Children" -- Sarah, Todd, and Trig Palin

Note: It's absolutely critical that all of us reach out to as many people as possible to indicate our support for John McCain and Sarah Palin. Here's how you can do so: Make Phone Calls from Home. . . Reaching out to undecided voters in your state. That's vital to spreading the word that John McCain and Governor Palin are the right choice for voters all across America. That's why we're asking you to take a few minutes or even a free evening to make calls for John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. You can call your local McCain or GOP office and volunteer, or you can phone from home in your spare time. Visit www.JohnMcCain.com/PhoneBank to get started today.

When I've asked people in Beaver County, PA, where I live (yep, we're those God-loving, gun-toting folks that Barack despises), over the phone to volunteer their time for the campaign, they almost never do. When I ask them, face-to-face, how often do they volunteer? So far, always.

At the Beaver, PA GOP headquarters today -- and "Beaver" differs from "Beaver Falls," where Joe Namath grew up, three women volunteered -- Dee Byers, Darlene Cutlip, and Sandra Boyde. Actually, Dee's husband volunteered her, which as a long-time husband myself, I told him could be risky business. Did I sign her up? Of course. "In love, war, and politics, all is fair."

The volunteer I'd like to highlight is Sandra Boyde, who lives near the Ohio line. She mentioned she had converted various relatives, including in-laws, into rabid supporters of McCain-Palin, and she was prepared to do the same with friends and neighbors. She's pretty, smart, and funny.

Then, I heard her talking to the volunteer coordinator ("Kyle," a gal Kyle, not a guy Kyle). She mentioned that she might have trouble doing a lot of door-to-door work because she was undergoing chemotherapy. She told me she had experienced a recurrence of her cancer, which had first surfaced six-and-a-half years before.

Sandra is volunteering to make phone calls to voters, probably a whole lot of calls. She has children who do football and all the other things we wish WE were doing. She's not too tired to reach out to voters, to be an essential part of the ground game. Of great interest to me, she's a great deal like Sarah Palin, a person of real courage -- fearless and even at peace with the hand she's been dealt.

Most people who make calls, offer yard signs, and bang on their neighbor's doors probably don't do so because they're so much fun They do these things because the "other guy" i(Obama) is doing it. If we don't do it better than he, we probably will lose.

If a person like Sandra accepted losses easily, she wouldn't have been in the Beaver, PA, GOP office offering to help. She's NOT sitting around bemoaning her fate. Instead, in a small way, she's making history.

How critical is Beaver County? If PA is a battleground state -- and it is -- then are Ground Zero. There's a Democratic voter registration edge, but there are early signs that we could win big here. Our surveys -- and we're not Gallup -- show McCain could win by two-to-one. The "Sarah Palin Effect" (remember God? remember guns?) is off-the-chart. When Gov. Sarah appears here, as she will, the multitudes will gather.

The Ground Game is more than get-out-the-vote. It's also wake up the voter, and remind him or her that he or she has a big decision to make.

Please join Sandra, Dee, Darlene, and yours truly as volunteers. You may have to be persistent to get the attention of campaign people to guide you in the right direction. You presumably will have to endure the "Great Yard Sign Shortage of 2008."

Sadly, political campaigns are nick-of-time,, hit-and-miss events. They are not well-oiled machines. They are, "Oops, didn't anybody ever put oil in this thing?"

Volunteer on JohnMcCain.com. Call up your local McCain office. If you don't have a local McCain office, create one. If you wait for orders from on high, you may end up waiting unto eternity.

A good step is to call up the local Republican office. If you're a Democrat or Independent, call anyway. Trust me, you will find that Republicans are among the most harmless of God's creature.

Why VOLUNTEERS have to be persistent in volunteering is one of the riddles of the universe. But tough times demand tough people, much like Sandra, whom I met today and who, with her family, will now be friends for life. I don't know exactly what her "stands" are on the "issues." I don't exactly care either.

NOTE TO BLOGGERS AND OTHER ONLINERS: The best thing you can do with the blog columns and thoughtful e-mails you write is to turn them into 200-to-250 word letters to the editor of your LOCAL newspapers. I bet you'll find the the following links will connect you with every newspaper in America -- from Alabama to Wyoming. What about Guam? Well, what about it?