signs of a landslide - buried in an Indystar item about Palin coming to Indianapolis

[salin]

Palin to visit Indianapolis area Friday
By Mary Beth Schneider
Posted: October 12, 2008

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, will hold a rally in the Indianapolis area Friday.

---snip---

Palin's visit will come a little more than a week after McCain's opponent, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, held a rally that was attended by about 21,000 people at the State Fairgrounds. Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, was in Southern Indiana in September.


---snip---

A recent Indianapolis Star/WTHR (Channel 13) poll showed Obama leading McCain 47 percent to 44 percent among likely voters in Indiana.

article at: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081012/NEWS0502/810120398
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Folks, Indiana hasn't voted for a dem at the top of a ticket since 1964. And that was a rare vote.

I still have only seen 1 McCain bumper sticker here (on a van with out of state license plate), and 2 yard signs.

I have seen many, many, many Obama stickers and yard signs.

I have only seen 1 McCain ad on local network tv, and I see about 5-10 for Obama - almost nightly.

I increasingly have moved from hope for a Hoosier Obama win to increasingly believe it is likely that there will be an Obama win.

I can't imagine Obama winning here, and it not being a national landslide.

[1corona4u]

1. My sister is in Indy, and she says the same thing....

:hi:

[salin]

4. Glad to hear that others are seeing the same thing.

It is inspiring. I wasn't able to go to the latest Obama event, but know many who did. The energy was apparently inspirational. The pics show folks of all ages and races cheering with happy/hopeful looks on their faces. I have to try to remember to try to get and compare the crowd pics from last week's events, to those that will be taken at Palin's events.

:hi:

[1corona4u]

11. Yeah, I bet it looks just like all the other hate filled rallies...

with 'tight shots' so no one can see the crowd.

[salin]

12. I am going to book mark this thread - so I can quickly find the photo gallery

of the Obama event - and compare it to the one that will be created for the Palin event (unless they start barring photogs from her events.)

[occe]

2. Gives me hope

Thanks for sharing :bounce:

[mucifer]

3. lots of activity there. I think the black vote will be HUGE!

I've canvassed in Gary. It's great!

If they don't steal it people will be shocked at the huge Gary numbers.

It's gonna be like Harold Washington in Chicago.

[Sodan]

5. Indiana would be so HUGE!

[ikojo]

6. It would surprise me if Indiana went for Obama

At one time in the early 20th century, the Klan wielded A LOT of power in Indiana. The power to elect candidates. Not sure whether those intense feelings of racism have subsided.

I know the polls show Obama with a healthy lead, but we must remember there are 20-plus days remaining and McCain/Palin are slamming away at Obama's character and it seems Obama says NOTHING about Palin being affiliated with a secessionist party or McCain's affiliation with G Gordon Liddy and other far right extremists. I know the economy is important but in the end, when *some* white people are in the pollig booth, will they be thinking about the Republican economy or will they be thinking about all of those negative ads the McCain/Palin campaign have been running about this guy with the Arab sounding name? Most people don't know or remember the Keating 5. Obama or his surrogates need to constantly remind people of the Keating 5 (so what if there were Dems involved as well, they are not running for president!). There were conservatives on the same board of directors of the organization that Obama served on with Ayers but they are not being smeared, only Obama is because he's running for president.

I REALLY hope white America does not bow at the alter of racism, but I live in St Louis and I know how deeply that sentiment is ingrained.

[mucifer]

7. The thing is in the African American areas in the state usually voter turn out is low.

This time it won't be. But, I don't know what percent of Indiana is African American.

[salin]

9. check out the Indystar photo gallery of the Oct 8 event.

it is not just the African American voters that are being energized.

http://www2.indystar.com/autofocus/galleries/show/3922/4

[1corona4u]

14. LOL....

Jeez....Evan looks like he's going to plant one on Obama, LOL :rofl:

[mucifer]

18. Thanks! that makes me feel great! I only see a small snapshot in Gary and East Chicago when I canvas

[salin]

27. Thank you - for your work canvassing

you are absolutely right - turnout is going to be very important!

[1corona4u]

10. 9%

[salin]

8. Check out the pictures on the side of the linked (below) article on the Obama event last week:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/NEWS0502/810090498/1310/ARCHIVE

Certainly in some rural areas there is still ingrained racism. However, something big has been happeneing here. The economy is a disaster in the state, and the public (even rural) is angry. Three congressional seats turned blue in 2006 - and all are being challenged - but none are seriously considered likely to go back to the GOP this November.

A big factor in Obama's popularity here is his presence since April. Because the primary season lasted so long, for the first time in memory (due to our May primary date) the campaigns were incredibly active. Both candidates and many of there representatives were in the state on a nearly weekly basis. It energized (and grew) the state party's presence and organizing. It also made Obama become very familiar here. It has been as if the campaign has never left. Obama has had ads running for months - and they are inspirational ads. This works for Hoosiers.

I have never experienced or witnessed the energy that I am seeing in Indiana around any presidential campaign (even Reagan's).

[saltpoint]

13. Some county Dems we know in Indiana agree with you -- that the level

of activity and energy for Obama in Indiana is significant and that he has a definite shot of carrying the state.

No one used the phrase "sure thing," but they have not been this encouraged in years.

[salin]

16. Its not just the energy FOR Obama... it is the TOTAL LACK of energy for McCain

the combination is what makes me move from hopeful, to starting to believe in the likelihood of Obama winning here.

[saltpoint]

17. salin, I like that kind of talk!

I am all for it, and will be paying extra-close attention to those early returns from the Hoosier State.

With any luck at all, Indiana voters will choose Jill Long Thompson over that prickly jerk Mitch Daniels.

[salin]

28. as much as I think it is very possible (growing likely) for Obama to win here....

it is growing unlikely that Jill Long Thompson will beat Daniels. Folks aren't hot on Daniels but they aren't bitter, and he has been doing heavy campaigning on air waves, while she hasn't the money for much of a media buy. She just isn't very present, I am very sad to say. If we weren't such a split ticket voting state, I would hope that some coattail action could give her an updraft. But we are notorious for our split ticket voting. (There would be no Senator and former gov. Bayh, were that not the case.

I do see sporadic pro Mitch signs/stickers - and even fewer Long Thompson ones. But back to the original - there is a visible ABSENCE of anything McCain.

[Jane Austin]

25. We are on our way back to Texas after spending four days in the Indianapolis area.

I was expecting it to be wall to wall McCain bumper stickers, but we saw only two, and that included a day trip to Urbana, IL.

We were in the Lawrence area which seems to be fairly well-to-do, but we only saw two McCain signs there - on the very visible 82nd Street.

Our host and hostess there were a medical doctor and Ph.D. husband and wife, and the wife really likes Obama and sees much of what I do in him.

The husband seems to get some of his information from conservative sources based on our conversations and is a fiscal conservative. But as a doctor thinks we should have a health delivery system along the lines of medicare with no skimming by insurance companies!

I think they'll both be voting for Obama.

We had our Texans for Obama sticker and Goldens for Obama magnet on our car but most people we saw didn't have anything either on their cars or their lawns.

Maybe a lot of people there like Obama and plan to vote for him but don't want to have to explain themselves to their neighbors? At the very least I'd say there was no visible enthusiasm for McCain.

Anyway, the temperature was perfect and the trees gave us a gaudy show of autumn and we had a lovely time in Indiana!

[salin]

30. the absense of McCain stuff here makes me (foolishly) think that it

must be like this in other Red areas. But, reading DU it seems as though were Obama is making in roads to red areas is very unpredictable. I am not talking 'swing states', but hard core red ones like Indiana.

Closer to downtown around 42nd street and down to Fountain Square (just south of downtown) one spots a lot of Obama signage. Of course in Bloomington (where I spend part of each weekend) it is Obama everywhere!

Glad you were able to spend time up here :-D Safe journey home!

[DCBob]

15. Could be their strategy is now to just keep it from being a rout.

[theothersnippywshrub]

19. You are right that if Obama wins Indiana it will be a national landslide win for him.

For years Indiana has been called for the republican candidate as soon as the polls close there. Even if McCain ends up winning Indiana, if it is too close to call for a significant amount of time after the polls close there it will indicate that Obama is doing well nationally.

[casus belli]

21. The strange thing about that is...

Democrats have always done well in local elections here. It's a red state by classification, but that really only applies to National politics.

[theothersnippywshrub]

22. Two possible reasons for that occur to me.

First, most state and local democratic candidates in Indiana may be more conservative than the democratic presidential candidate in any given election. Second, most Indiana voters know their state and local candidates better than they know the democratic presidential candidate. Consequently, republican attempts to define the state and local democratic candidates as too liberal for Indiana are less successful than their attempts to define the democratic presidential candidate the same way.

Since democratic presidential candidates have spent very little time or money in Indiana in the past to counter the republican attempts to define them, many Indiana voters, by default, have accepted the republican definition of the democratic presidential candidate. Obama definitely has not ignored Indiana voters this year and definitely has not allowed republicans to define him there.

[casus belli]

20. We're just north of Indy...same story here.

I posted about a week or so ago about an encounter with a veteran in the Lowe's parking lot. He pulled in with 3 Obama bumper stickers on the back of his small pickup and jumped out, oxygen tank in tow. I gave him a thumbs up and said "I like your bumper stickers", he smiled broadly and pumped a thumbs up in the air enthusiastically.

On the way out, I decided to do an unofficial poll of bumper stickers in the lot...5 Obama, 0 McCain. I've got a good feeling about this one.

[salin]

31. North... like Hamilton County area? Not a traditionally liberal area

and harder to dismiss than, say, bloomington. I drive between Indy and B-ton everyweekend. Usually south of 465 through Morgan county run across lots of conservative signage (from the old red white and blue car magnets to signs and stickers for GOP candidates.) I have not seen a single one. The only McCain Palin sticker saw was on an Illinois car in Fountain Square, and the only signs were on keystone just north of Brookside Park. Both of those areas have a lot of 'appalachia' migrants (families long ago recruited by the Big Three to work automotive jobs, due to the resistance to Union organizing that the Big Three attributed to folks in Appalachia.)

Bloomington, of course, is a big sea of Obama signage.

[Overseas]

23. I am delighted to hear that the slimeball campaigning that McLiar is doing

has been turning off more people and helping them see who has new ideas rather than old smears.

[IndianaJones]

24. we are going to turn this state blue! nt.

[madmom]

26. While I live in Ohio it's close enough to Fort Wayne Indiana that

we go there occasionally, in this area of Indiana there are a plethora of mclame signs but also ron paul signs.

[salin]

32. I still see Ron Paul signs/stickers down here

I think there are a lot of unenthusiastic Libertarians who just can't bring themselves to proclaim their allegiance to McCain, publically (ala signs). The question is whether or not they will vote, as they would certainly vote for McCain.

[yy4me]

29. My daughter is in Indy. Split household. Hubby cane home with

Mcsame sign, she went out right away and got an Obama sign. Yippee, she is a transplanted New Englander and I'm proud of her.

[salin]

33. I am thinking that there are going to be a lot of 'couple negating' votes

here - given the demographic divide per gender (Obama's numbers much higher).

[mucifer]

34. In Gary the repubs are trying to block the poor from early voting by not having

early voting polling places in the poorer areas so people will have to spend hours and gas money to go to Crown Point. But, the Obama campaign is doing their best to counter this by running free shuttles twice a day to Crown Point so people can participate. It's part of the canvassing effort to talk people into doing this because election day is only 12 hours for voting and it's going to have crazy long lines.

[salin]

35. good to hear/read about the Obama campaign response

Action - and calling attention to the ridiculous policy.

The state GOP and Tod Rokita in particular just got slapped by the SSA - for having a disproportionate number of requests to check/verify voter registration against SSA databases. Apparently that is supposed to be one of the last resorts to verifyvoters - states are supposed to use more local databases such as the dept of motor vehicles. Indiana has made as many requests as the state of California.

I am sure there will be other dirty tricks tried to suppress the vote.

I just think the size of the win may be by too big of a margin for the tricks to work. I could be wrong, of course.