Palin said she was "having fun and not thinking about the politics of this," but didn't miss the chance to energize her base in one of the most critical regions of the largest swing state."This is awesome," she said. "It's all-Americana event. Good, patriotic, wonderful event that's bringing a whole lot of people together. I think this is good for our country." (I am sorry, but how is watching a bunch of guys driving around a racetrack "good for our country"?)
Sporting a black coat, blue jeans and heels — no hand notes — the self-described "hockey mom" got the full experience in her first visit to the Daytona 500.
She sat through the pre-race driver meeting, muscled her way through pit road, took to the stage on the infield and wished drivers a safe race. She drew roars from throngs of racing fans, many shouting "We love you, Sarah!"
Palin wasn't with her husband, Todd, on Valentine's Day. She told the crowd he was back in Alaska preparing for the Iron Dog snowmobile race. (Well this may actually be true. The Iron Dog starts this Sunday February 21 and the racers just had banquet last Saturday. Besides it is a much better reason than that whole "fixing the roof" excuse.)
"Whether it's racing cars, dogs, snow machines, it's an event like this that brings all Americans together," she said.
Palin took just two questions from the only two reporters around her entourage, consisting of about a dozen security personnel and managers. That didn't stop her from doing what she does best: getting out in the crowds and mingling with supporters.
"I'm thinking about this good, active, speed-loving event that a lot of Alaskans, too, are really in to," said Palin, adding that some elements — minus the snow — were similar to the famous Iditarod sled dog race. (Oh yeah Daytona and the Iditarod are almost EXACTLY alike. One is a bunch of guys, in souped up cars, turning left for five hundred miles and the other is a race that covers 1170 miles of the most inhospitable environment on the planet and that can take anywhere from a little over a week to almost a month to finish. But hey, a race is a race right?)
"We've got our snow-machine races up there. This is, of course, on a much greater scale," she said. "Same type of sport, though, same type of risk-taking, speed-loving all-American event that we participate up north. We love it. You bet." (To read the rest of the AP article just click the title of this post.)
Well this is certainly Palin's type of crowd. Any group of people who would spend Valentines Day watching a bunch of adolescent walking billboards driving their expensive toys around a racetrack are probably not the most politically savvy potential voters in the country.
I mean the guy has a Hefty trash bag logo across his chest!
I think that Sarah should follow his example. Perhaps she could have her plastic surgeon's name stitched onto her blouse, or News Corp emblazoned across the back of her jacket, or SarahPAC printed on one sleeve and C4P down the other.
After all it is not the FIRST time Sarah would have used her body to sell a product. Of course in John McCain's case it was not terribly successful.
Update: Okay I am going to have to offer a mea culpa to my visitors who take umbrage that I lumped ALL Nascar fans into one category.
Clearly there are some people who enjoy the races who are not ignorant, or Palin-bots, or even Republicans. And to those people I apologize for my insensitive generalizations.
And besides, as more than one commenter pointed out, they DO always turn to the left, so maybe these are in fact MY people. Stranger things have been known to happen.
