We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. ...
We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we
get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the
real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic,
um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.
Sarah Palin, public address, Greensboro, NC, October 16, 2008)As is the case with every politician who comes into national focus, as soon
as former Governor Sarah Palin had accepted the Republican vice-
presidential candidacy in the 2008 presidential election, the media outlets
began their investigations. Broadcast, print and internet news sources
reported on the Governor’s history, her performance as a politician and a
government official, and her positions on topics relevant to the role she
sought. In Palin’s case, additional subjects were added: her appearance, the
nature of her religious beliefs, and her children and family circumstances
were also brought into play.^12 That is, much of the debate around Palin’s
candidacy was gendered, and as such, overtly sexist.^13 Beyond sexism was
the issue of socioeconomic class.
In the course of an election campaign, political parties focus on specific
groups within the population where they need support. Palin was presented
as a small-town, working-class American mother with a no-nonsense
approach to politics. At the same time, she accused her Democratic
opponents of being too removed from “real Americans” to know what was
needed. She emphasized the difference (as she saw it) between city and
country, secular and non-secular, and the classes.
Palin speaks a regional variety of American English specific to the
Matanuska-Susitna Valley of Alaska, which is unfamiliar to most
Americans in the Lower Forty-Eight. In her public appearances, the
Governor chose to emphasize her regional features, which was one way to
underscore her origins and claim a certain kind of authority.^14 Sarah
Palin’s stylistic choices got the immediate attention of the media and the