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After four different women accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment Mr. Cain’s approval rating dropped to within one point of Mitt Romney’s. The unmistakable conclusion is that the Republican Party, the party of God, views being Mormon as reprehensible as being an abuser of women. Perhaps this should come as no surprise after the nomination of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. It was clear that the pick was made because she was an attractive woman, and little else. While there were many other more experienced Republican women from which to choose, John McCain’s standards for women were based totally on appearance. Herman Cain seems to value women by the same criterion as John McCain. Because Mitt Romney’s favorability ratings are now virtually the same as Herman Cain it seems that Republican voters find being Mormon as offensive as being a man who would use and abuse women.
When the allegations against Cain made headline news, voters supported him by giving him more money. Something is terribly wrong with any political party that supports and promotes harassment of women. In 1982 I was a brand new, 25 year old attorney in Dallas, Texas. Dee Brown Walker was a sitting judge and had been a district judge in Dallas for at least the last 30 years. Walker was the definition of a “dirty old man.” After my first hearing in his court, he started calling me at work for no particular reason. Sometimes the calls would last 30 minutes. In one of the more memorable calls, he said he learned that I had been a nurse, and he sure would like to get some of my tender-loving-nursing-care. I became so concerned that I had a senior partner of the firm listen in to the calls so that if I did have to bring a suit, I would have someone from the firm who could confirm what had been said. The culmination of the harassment came one day when a case in his court had a hearing. I walked into his courtroom and sat in the audience section of the room, attempting to get as far away from the judge as possible. Judge Walker was on the bench, so I hoped he wouldn’t see me. He was in the middle of a hearing with at least 10 attorneys in the main part of the courtroom who were participating in the hearing. When he spotted me, he arose from the bench, without explaining his actions to the attorneys before him, as if they were not speaking. He stepped down and walked the length of the courtroom and came into the area where I nervously wondered what he was going to do. With a courtroom full of attorneys, he approached me, sat down next to me, put his arm around me, and kissed me on the cheek! I was horrified! The male attorneys in the courtroom looked the other way. They simply waited until the judge returned to the bench to continue their arguments.
Some attorneys would say that I was lucky because if my clients should be so lucky as to be assigned to Judge Walker’s court, they knew my clients would always win. However to me this conduct was totally unacceptable and from the date he kissed me, I asked for reassignment of any case in his court to another attorney in the firm. I did not file a suit. I did not make a claim. As a young attorney, trying to compete in a man’s world I knew that asserting such a claim would effectively end my career at the firm, and among other judges. Of course the other male attorneys in the courtroom the day of the kiss could have filed a claim, and the male attorneys in my firm could have filed a claim. A claim was never filed. The only reason the judge stopped calling me was that a friend of mine lied to the Judge telling him that I was engaged to a huge Dallas Cowboy football player who could beat the sh*t out of him if he bothered me. It wasn’t justice that caused him to leave me alone; it was fear of a beating that caused Judge Walker to leave me alone.
This event happened in 1982 and 1983. Things were different then for women; but not that different. Four different women have each accused Herman Cain of inappropriate behavior and he has suffered imperceptibly in the polls. He denies the claims even though there was a $45,000 settlement with the woman who filed a claim. Shailey Tripp stated Todd Palin paid her for sex, and she took a lie detector test three times, which indicated that she was telling the truth. Yet the press believed the APD even though their press release was directly contrary to their own records.
Answer: When it is the Ames Straw Poll
Anyone following politics watches the poll numbers. Major news sources conduct their own polls and make headline news simply by reporting the results of their polls. For many of us we consider the source of the information, and the methodology used to conduct the poll. The reason we are intrigued about the results of a poll is that IF the poll is valid, it would be an indication of the popularity of a politician. A poll is simply a number of votes cast or recorded. Obviously, a poll is only a reflection of the actual popularity of a candidate if the poll is honest and fair. Typically we think of people voting in polls of their own free will and with no hidden agenda. We don’t think of people voting in polls due to coercion or to accomplish a personal goal. Therein lies the problem with the Ames Straw Poll.
The Ames Straw poll in Iowa is a presidential poll taken by Iowa Republicans. It is held in the early fall before the presidential cycles, and is supposed to be a “first indicator” of the strength of a candidate’s “organization and message.” The first problem with the Ames Straw “Poll” is that people have to PAY to vote. This year a fee of $30.00 was paid by each and every person voting. Additionally candidates are not prohibited from paying people to vote. Because the money raised goes to support the Republican Party in Iowa, there is an argument to be made that it actually helps the party by causing people to give money to the party, regardless of the reason. After all, candidates who are unable to raise money, or get media attention will likely not prevail in the general election.
In 2007 about 450 reporters covered the Ames Straw Poll. . This year the number of reporters covering the event almost doubled, being 800. Thus the headlines from this poll would appear in media sources across the nation. The headlines from this year’s poll announced that Michele Bachmann “won” the poll. Mission Accomplished. Bachmann “won” the poll, and garnered a significant amount of media attention. Americans like to be associated with a “winner” and now Bachmann is identified as a “winner”. Who needs to read beyond the headlines? Who cares how she won?
The truth is that Bachmann won by buying most of the votes cast for her. Michele Bachmann spent close to $1,000,000 to pay for over 6,000 tickets for people to see Randy Travis, a popular country and western singer. She even paid to bus 152 Travis fans to the fair to see one of their favorite singers. The only price of admission was to “vote” for Michele Bachmann.
Thus the Ames Staw “Poll” was more of an indicator of the popularity of Randy Travis than any politician. It is also an indication of the willingness of Michele Bachmann to do any and everything to get elected. If she gets the Republican nomination, maybe she’ll adopt a Down’s syndrome baby from a lesbian couple to gain attention for her anti-abortion, anti-homosexual platforms.
Several people have been asking if Sarah Palin earned ANY write in votes in the Ames Staw Poll. Here is confirmation that Palin had the same number of votes in the Ames Straw poll as there are theaters showing the Undefeated. Zero, none,ninguno (spanish), geen zier (dutch), kein (german), nessuno(italian). She did earn some kernels of corn but it is unclear how many of those kernels might have represented the votes of Peter Singleton.
This article offers some insightful observations about the results of the Ames Straw Poll. Sarah Palin performed exceedingly poorly. Will it have any effect on her decision to run?
CNN shares interesting insights and poll numbers that place Palin running dead last among Republicans, and indicating that Huckabee is the favorite Republican.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2010/12/29/ac.raw.politics.cnn.html
Most people reading this blog have been sick of Sarah Palin for a long time. We have watched as people have given her money, bought her books just to get her signature after waiting in the cold for hours, listened to her on TLC, Fox, and giving speeches posted on the internet. We have read about her comments on Twitter and Facebook. We have shared our embarrassment as foreign reporters have expressed amazement as they have written stories about her popularity. Finally we have some relief!
Huffington Post reports that Sarah Palin only has a 33% favorability rating in Alaska, which represents a 12 point decline from a similar poll taken last winter. Perhaps more importantly, they reported that the majority of voters in EVERY STATE polled had an UNFAVORABLE view of the Emperess. www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/28/sarah-palin-popularity-poll_n_801907.html.
These results were consistent with a poll conducted by CNN of likely voters. CNN reports that among Republicans surveyed, Palin’s popularity has declined dramatically in the last two years. Among Republicans surveyed, 28% in Dec. of 2010 were “very unlikely” to support her for President, compared to 12% in Dec. of 2008.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/12/28/cnn.2012.poll.pdf. Thus 16% more Republicans today would NOT support her. These results were consistent with decline in approval ratings for Sarah Palin from other Republicans during the same period. In Dec. of 2008 32% of Republicans indicated that they were “very likely “ to support her for President in 2012. In Dec. of 2010 only 23% of the Repuiblicans indicated they were “very likely” to support her; a drop of 11%. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20026715-503544.html. At the same time Obama’s popularity among Democrats is improving. Ibid.
It is interesting that as Republicans generally were rising in popularity, Palin’s popularity was declining. Because Palin’s popularity has so dramatically declined during the last year when Republican candidates generally realized greater support in the mid-term elections it is a powerful statement that Palin’s popularity is on the decline, and will likely stay that way. It seems that if she were ever going to be more popular among Republican voters it would be now. It isn’t. It seems even conservative Republican voters are admitting that the Emperess is naked! They may be slow to admit it, but what they observed in 2008 was embarrassing and ugly.
Please help me educate others about Palin, so we can make sure her numbers stay low for two more years. Send everyone you know to www.justsaynotobs.com and they can decide for themselves. Thanks for your help. Malia
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