US Elections 2008 - 4

[Guest]

<b>Palin reignites culture wars </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The annual Pew Religion and Public Life Survey recently reported that after voters gauged how liberal McCain and Obama were, <b>“the average voter places themselves much closer to McCain than to Obama.” </b>
<b>Forty-nine percent of Americans say their “moral values” are conservative, while only 20 percent say they are liberal</b>. About half of voters, when asked to assess the moral values of the candidates, <b>described Obama as liberal </b>while nearly<b> six in 10 said McCain was conservative</b>.

Given the intensity of Palin support among conservatives, McCain may very well end up with greater flexibility than ever to make his own direct appeal to independent voters. <b>Palin can keep social activists at ease — and excited — while McCain seeks to reclaim his maverick image with a more direct appeal to those Hillary Clinton supporters and undecided swing voters.</b>

“In the last 72 hours, the focus [of social conservatives] has sharpened not only because of Palin’s selection but the instinctive reaction of the left to her, that ‘she is small town, what does she know; she’s religious right, she’s an extremist,'” said Bauer. “They are eliminating any chance they had to switch some of these” traditionally Republican states to the Democrats.
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