Barack Obama is a socialist and Democrats are liars in Sarah Palin's world, writes Mark Hennessyin Nevada
IN THE 2008 race for the White House there are, it seems, two distinct groups of Republicans seeking the favour of the American people when they go to the polls on November 4th.
Warming up a 7,000-strong crowd in Henderson, Nevada, the white-haired, local assemblyman Lynn Stewart yelled, to cheers: "Are there any Republicans out there?" To slightly louder cheers, the local politician asked: "Are there any McCain Republicans out there?"
However, the audience roared to the rafters when he called: "Are there any Palin Republicans out there?"
In the world of the Sarah Palin supporter, Barack Obama is a socialist, or worse; the Democrats are liars and responsible for most of Washington's ills and the economy has been brought to its knees by a wealthy cabal.
And the United States is "that shining city on the hill" once spoken of by Ronald Reagan: "We have won the ovarian lottery. We are the luckiest people alive. We are Americans," Nevada state senator Barbara Cegavske told the crowd.
During the warm-up, the crowd was urged to sing along and they did so gustily, with God Bless Americaand later, The Star Spangled Banner, before country music star Lee Greenwood led them in God Bless the USA.
The political leanings of the crowd, in which white over-65s were predominant, but middle- class and middle-aged Hispanics were also well-represented, were evident from the time people began to stream in at 10am for Palin's 2pm speech.
Jerry, who described himself only as Jerry the Plumber, wore a T-Shirt that declared: "Christian, American, heterosexual, pro-gun, conservative. Any questions?"
Three rows behind Jerry, a man wore another shirt carrying the faces of Obama, his vice- presidential running mate Joe Biden and Massachusetts Democratic senator, the ailing Ted Kennedy, under the heading, "Axis of Evil".
Before such a crowd, perhaps surprisingly, Palin chose to speak about women's rights and she did so with passion, in a bid to win over women Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Obama, she pointed out, failed to offer equal pay to women on his Capitol Hill staff in Washington, offering instead "only 83 cents on the dollar. Does he think women aren't working as hard?"
In reply, the Obama camp said men occupied higher-rank posts in his office.
"I know one senator who actually does pay women equal," Palin said, speaking of her running mate, John McCain.
"This is just another reason why American women . . . should not let Barack Obama take their votes for granted.
"Those who work inside the home and outside the home . . . they're overlooked by politicians in Washington," she added, "and Barack Obama hasn't given us a single reason to believe that he would be any better.
"When the time came to make a decision, Barack Obama couldn't bring himself to pick the woman who got 18 million votes in the primary. You've got to ask yourself, why wasn't Senator Hillary Clinton even vetted by the Obama campaign?
"Our opponents think they have the women's vote all locked up, which is a little presumptuous," she went on as the crowd's roar of approval drowned her out. "A little presumptuous, and only our side has a woman on the ticket."
At times, the audience's attention wandered as she talked about the need to make it easier for women to work from home and of the benefits congressional laws had made to female students interested in sports during the 1980s.
Every time it was clear that her audience had begun to drift, Palin quickly brought them back, by introducing her children - Piper, Willow and Trig to the right of the lectern.
Later, she launched a barrage of criticism against Obama's tax plans: "Joe the Plumber [Wurzelbacher] thought it sounded like socialism. The rest of us didn't like it either." The chants of "Sarah, Sarah" were quickly restored.
Kept on stage for nearly an hour after she finished her speech, Palin signed endless numbers of autographs and stood for photographs with the elderly and newborns. The crowd loved her, unquestioningly.
Outside in the unseasonally harsh sun, a small group of Obama supporters kept up a chorus of "Obama, Obama" in the face of withering sarcasm and quiet abuse from a minority of the Palin supporters as they left the Henderson pavilion.
"For socialism to work you have got to keep the population stupid," said Rob, a Minnesota- born teacher now living in Las Vegas, who spoke witheringly of the capabilities of the children who came before him in class daily.
"Back in Minnesota, in my day, there was one handicapped boy who knew more about American history than 95 per cent of the kids today," he said to friends, before turning to the Obama group standing next to mounted police and sneered: "Why don't you be quiet and play with the nice horses?"
Waiting to wave the Alaskan governor farewell, a woman in her 30s spoke confidentially to the woman beside her, saying: "Did you hear that our radio will go off if Obama wins? I mean conservative radio. It's in a bill or something in Washington."