Sunday, February 1, 2009

Palin's Appeal to the GOP Starts to Make Sense

Looking at the map that accompanied last week's Gallup poll showing a weakening trend nationwide in support for the GOP, I've finally figured out why Sarah Palin is so important in their thinking:
Now, this is one of those phony maps that shows Alaska about the same size as Washington state, and twice as big as Hawaii. But if you were to put Alaska there in its real size, our state's importance to the national Republican Party would be more clear.

The area of the other four GOP states - Idaho, Nebraska, Utah and Wyoming, totals 343,770 miles. The area of Alaska totals 663,268.

Our state is about 1.8 times the size of all the other GOP states in the union combined.

Finally, her tremendous appeal and popularity makes sense.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Lord! The picture that was posted with this story pretty well sums it all up. Thank you.

SP's interview with Rush in which she said her First Amendment rights were being "threatened" by media criticism was a crazy-backwards understanding of what "freedom of the press" is about.

Never in my life have I voted Democrat, except in this last election. Sarah Palin, and her attempt to censor the Wasilla library tipped me over the edge.

I thank God daily that this amoral, grasping, vindictive women is far away in Alaska, and may she stay there. Amen.

Philip Munger said...

anon @ #1 - some weeks one anonyous positive comment makes up for all the negative anonymous comments added together.

Thanks!

KaJo said...

Phil, pardon me for asking, but isn't it the POPULATION of these states that's important, rather than their square miles?

Looking at it that way, even if you count the grayed-color states in addition to the 4 red and 1 dark red states, the GOP is marginalized.

Anonymous said...

As an electorate, we're not important.

What makes us important to the GOP is the resources.

Philip Munger said...

KaJo,

Maybe I need to start using tags. This post would have had "snark" among the tags...

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately sq miles doesn't directly translate to anything. If Alaska had a huge population and a lot of Representatives, maybe. If Alaska had enough electoral votes to really swing an election, maybe. But plain geography doesn't rate high politically.