the supremacy of partisanship

[_rck_]

Apparently the reactions of people to Gov Palin are dominated by their party affiliation, a new ABC news poll finds

Comments

[mijopo]

And one can really not blame the politicians for playing to their base--apparently the other side isn't listening anyways.

Well, typically after the primaries the candidates stop talking to their bases and start campaigning for the independents, swayable crowd.

[amyceleste]

With respect to the Palin speech: reactions are partisan likely because the speech was intensely partisan. I was pretty sure that after her speech that you'd see a drop in swing/undecided voters in the tracking polls -- and, in fact, that's exactly what they suggested. Plus, Republicans loved it because it made fun of Democrats, and Democrats hated it for just that reason. And Democrats think she was a bad choice for the ticket since it changes McCain's moderate image. Republicans love her for just that same reason.

thanks for contributing to my continued education in US politics

[_rck_]

I think this is a good point; I hastily generalized from the reception of Palin's speech to the general reception of political statements.

I like your analysis of how the complementary expectations of the two groups explain the complementary reactions--as if hand in glove.