Watching The Debate With Nevada Republicans
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In Reno Thursday, a group of Republican women — including Nevada's GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden —watched the Palin-Biden debate together. We attend their debate-watching party and see what they thought of the vice presidential candidates.
ALEX CHADWICK, host:
People all over the country gathered at televisions sets to watch last night's debate between vice presidential nominees Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden. Producer Adam Burke joins some Republican political operatives in swing state Nevada and here's what happened.
ADAM BURKE: If there's a political touch stone for rule Nevada, it's somewhere in Elko. Here is Sue Lowden, Republican chair for the state party.
Ms. SUE LOWDEN (Republican Chairman for the State Party): Elko is conservative, I like my guns, get out of my life, I will raise my children. I don't like taxes and I don't like people in my land kind of place.
BURKE: Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have campaigned heavily in Elko over the last year. And Lowden herself has visited the city several times.
Ms. LOWDEN: OK, we need to stay on Fifth then to get to Idaho.
Unidentified Woman #1: Idaho.
Unidentified Woman #2: Right. So...
BURKE: Lowden lives in Las Vegas, but yesterday she started a road trip through northeast Nevada with three other women, all Republican party organizers in the state.
Unidentified Woman #1: It's a girl trip.
BURKE: Along the way they stopped for lunch in Winamaca.
Unidentified Woman #2: Two of us had liver and onions, and two had chicken and fries today, with mashed potato...
BURKE: And later in Elko, they watched Mitt Romney's stump for John McCain at a local community college. An hour after Romney spoke these woman and several dozen other people returned to the auditorium's giant projector screen for what was truly the main event of the evening for them. Sitting down, loud and flashed and anxious look.
Unidentified Woman #1: As we welcome Governor Palin and Senator Biden.
(Soundbite of crowd clapping)
BURKE: Are you nervous?
Unidentified Woman #2: Yes, this is a very big moment for Sarah Palin and it's a big moment for Republicans because the whole world is watching
BURKE: And these women have been watching Palin's approval number slipped and her disapproval numbers go up in the recent weeks. Lowden and her pals had a lot riding on this debate and they were not disappointed.
Governor SARAH PALIN (Republican, Alaska, Vice Presidential Nominee): And unless you're pleased with the way that the federal government has been running anything lately, I don't think that it's going to be real pleasing for American's to consider health care.
(Soundbite of applause)
BURKE: You could almost hear oxygen-replenishing blood cells as these women watched Palin go toe to toe with Joe Biden. She was confident, she peppered her foreign policy questions with names and details, and she did so with humor and spunk. Afterward, Carol Shank, party chair of Pershing County in northern Nevada expressed relief and pride that Palin has come so far, so fast.
Ms. CAROL SHANK (Party Chairman, Pershing County): Obviously, the Republican party has been schooling her, which is what they needed to do in preparing her for the debate, so that she could answer questions on diplomacy and foreign policy, and hold her own and know these things.
BURKE: And Lowden confidently answered the critics within her own party. Republican Conservatives had called for Palin's withdrawal after a disappointing performance on CBS with Katie Couric.
Ms. LOWDEN: Well, I think it was outrageous that anybody would call for her to step down, honestly, based on a Katie Couric interview. I thought she did a great job and I think people will eat their words.
BURKE: Later, the group gathered with other local Republicans for dinner at an Elko Restaurant. Not more liver and onions, I might add. Carol Del Carlo is secretary of the Nevada Republican Party.
Ms. CAROL DEL CARLO (Secretary, Nevada Republican Party): The last couple of weeks had been two rough weeks for the McCain campaign. I mean, I think there was a little trepidation going in this for most of us loyal Republicans.
BURKE: And now, at least for the moment, they all appeared supremely satisfied.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Unidentified Woman #3: Cheers, to victory...
BURKE: And with McCain pulling up stakes in Michigan, the enthusiasm of these Nevada Republicans grows even more crucial to the McCain-Palin ticket. For NPR News, I'm Adam Burke in Elko, Nevada.
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