I think Palin was selected to energize the right-wing base that votes on religious beleifs and personality. Palin is an anti-abortion creationist who belongs to the NRA and can shoot a wolf from an airplane. Many religious fundamentalists beleive that Got will guide a leader\’s decisions, so as long as the leader prays every day, then God will be on our side and we can defeat the non-Christians who want to enslave or kill us.

She reveals that the Republican argument that Obama \"doesn\’t have enough experience\" IS bullshit, and she and the rest of the Republicans are creating a persona based on lies. Examples of these lies: She has more experience that Obama (not even close); she is against earmarks and pork (she actually has requested and gotten record-breaking $ amounts in earmarks and pork); she is an \"outsider\" (not to Ted Stevens and the lobbying firms that help get pork for Alaska); she is for \"small government\" (but Alaska gets more federal money per capita than almost any other state, so as long as the lower 48 taxpayers are supporting her she is fine with big government); she supports pregnant teens having their babies instead of having abortions (but she cut funding to a home for teen mothers).

Palin definitely has shaken things up, and the event has forced me to become much more honest about the role of emotions in voting. My support for Obama is fueled largely by emotions because I identify with his vision. His vision and hopes for the US are very similar to mine, although this vision includes details about issues rather than superficial aspects such as whether Obama knows how to shoot a moose. But in many ways, my enthusiasm for Obama may be similar to a religious fundamentalists\’ enthusiasm for Palin – support for a candidate is an act of identifying with what they represent.