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Monday, October 20, 2008

Palin a Hit With 10,000 Fans

By Jeff Jones
Journal Politics Writer
          ROSWELL — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin swooped into southeastern New Mexico on Sunday to aim a flurry of political shots at Democrat Barack Obama, coming within a ricochet of calling him a socialist during a campaign rally that drew an estimated 10,000-plus cheering fans.
        After telling the huge crowd that the Democratic presidential contender intends to raise taxes on "Joe the Plumber" and "Ed the Dairyman," the Alaska governor added:
        "Barack Obama calls it 'spreading wealth.' Joe Biden calls higher taxes 'patriotic.' But Joe the Plumber and Ed the Dairyman, I believe that they think it sounds more like socialism. Now is no time to experiment with socialism. It will destroy jobs. It will hurt our economy. And it's about time that we all call Barack Obama on it."
        With polls showing Obama with an advantage in the closing weeks of the 2008 race for the White House, Palin headed to friendly country — oil-cattle-and-sheep country in conservative southeastern New Mexico — for her first rally after a widely watched "Saturday Night Live" appearance the night before.
        Enthusiastic supporters packed into a giant aircraft hangar at the Roswell Industrial Air Center.
        "There's no place that I would rather be than here — live from Roswell — on Sunday afternoon," said Palin, who stepped off her blue-and-white campaign jetliner at 3:37 p.m. with infant son, Trig, in her arms.
        "I send John McCain's greetings," said Palin, who was joined on stage by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. "... Are you ready to send us to Washington, D.C., to shake things up?"
        Country singer Hank Williams Jr. warmed up Sunday's crowd with a few high-volume tunes that thundered inside the cavernous metal hangar.
        "Aaalll my Sarah friends will be in New Mex tonight!" Williams growled as belted out a variation of his "Monday Night Football" anthem.
        Palin plugged McCain's economic and energy plans as the best proposals to put the staggering U.S. economy back on track and slash America's dependence on foreign oil.
        She continued to cite Obama's acquaintance with 1960s radical William Ayers. She made no mention of former Secretary of State Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama earlier in the day.
        Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, responding in Tacoma, Wash., to Palin's socialism arguments, repeatedly linked Republican presidential candidate John McCain to President Bush's tax policies, saying that the wealthy and big corporations have received millions of dollars in tax cuts that could have gone to the middle class and small businesses.
        "John McCain has been a party to the most significant redistribution of wealth in American history and it has been all the wrong way," Biden said.