NY Daily News Finds 'Republican Voters' Critical of Palin...at Obama Rally

September 2nd, 2008 7:13 AM

Your humble correspondent is thinking of writing a story about Democrat voters who are insulted by vice-presidential nominee, Joe Biden. And I think I know just the place to find such Democrat voters---at a John McCain rally in Ohio. Just to save time and effort, I'm not even going to find out if the people I interview are even Democrats so I won't specifically identify them as such even though the headline for my story will read, "Joe Biden excites, insults swing-state Democrat voters."

Does that sound ridiculous to you? Well, guess what? That is exactly what New York Daily News staff writers, Michael McCauliff and Celeste Katz, did in reverse with their article, "Sarah Palin excites, insults swing-state Republican voters." I guess the crack investigative team of McCauliff and Katz figured that the best place to find Republican voters would be at an Obama rally (emphasis mine):

But Palin didn't impress voters who spoke to the Daily News at a Barack Obama rally in Ohio, perhaps the most critical swing state of all. "I think McCain is using it as a ploy to sway Hillary voters, but Palin is entirely against everything Hillary stands for, and I think women will find it offensive," said Emily Miller, 25, of Toledo. "It will backfire."

Debra Esthmeyer, 28, of New Knoxville, Ohio, said, "I'm insulted, as a woman. If Sarah Palin were a man with her same credentials, there is no way John McCain would have picked her." Palin's "no Condoleezza Rice. She's no Hillary Clinton," Esthmeyer said. "She's no Michelle Obama, either."

Notice that neither woman, the only ones "insulted" by Sarah Palin in the article, were specifically identified as Republicans in the article itself. However, that didn't keep the Daily News from making it seem that "Republican voters" were insulted by Palin in the title of their article. See, the trick is to find "Lifelong Republicans" when writing an article portraying supposed members of the GOP (who are almost always not members of that party) who are critical of Republican candidates. McCauliff and Katz didn't even make the effort to bother with that shallow pretense.

Well, back to work on a history book I'm writing. It's about "Republicans" insulted by Abraham Lincoln based on the memoirs of delegates to the Democrat convention in Charleston, SC in 1860.