Others here have written of friends and relatives seeing divine light thanks to the intervention of Sarah Palin - and running towards the Obama/Biden ticket.
Less than half an hour ago, the same thing happened in my family. I don't often write on here these days, and when I do, it is seldom about the personal, but I thought that given the spirit of the day, I'd throw this story into the mix.
My mother is 78 years old, a retired schoolteacher, a lifelong republican and the daughter of republican parents. For her, party affiliation goes far beyond politics - it is very much a part of who she is as a person.
The America she has always believed in, and continues to want desperately to believe in, is a land of opportunity where everybody gets an even shake, where people pull themselves up by their bootstraps and triumph over adversity, where hard work wins the day every time, and where the flag truly stands for freedom and justice for all. For reasons that I have never been able to understand, the transgressions against her ideals by her republican idols - from nixon's sneaking and treachery to reagan's wanton politics of division to bush's genocidal wars of aggression - have never dampened her belief in the GOP. No amount of argument by myself or my siblings or her friends has been sufficient to shake this faith.
She has always been a fan of John McCain (her dad was a WWI veteran who faced some extraordinarily dire circumstances in trenches in France; I think that she associates her own father's struggles with McCain's as a POW). And despite my relentless propagandizing, I never had the slightest doubt in my mind that she would wind up casting her lot in with McSame in the end.
A few days ago, when Palin was first introduced, my mother was dazzled: A real american reformer! A real-life working mom, like herself, standing as the possible US VP! She was thrilled.
That changed this afternoon. Midway through a phone call, she asked me if I'd listened to Sarah Palin's speech last night. "Yes," I said, sighing, expecting to be subjected to a soliloquy recounting her incredible virtues.
"I thought she sounded mean," my mother said. And in her best schoolteacher tone: "That wasn't necessary." And a moment later: "Obama's the only one who hasn't acted that way. Hillary acted that way and McCain acts that way but Obama hasn't."
"Wouldn't it be nice to have an adult as president again?" I asked.
"Yes it would," she replied.
When you've lost my mother, you've lost America.
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Note to Sarah Palin: You managed to do in 45 minutes what I've been unable to accomplish in 27 years...my many thanks.