With the election 3 weeks behind us, a new administration building their cabinet and Senator McCain’s forthcoming meeting with President-elect Obama to discuss a way to ensure that the United States has an efficient and effective government to represent it, one thing remains on the minds of every American from Bangor to Wasilla: When will Sarah Palin go away already?
The election has not even been in our memories for a month and the former Vice Presidential candidate has held numerous press conferences, appeared on several different news shows, given out a handful of one on one interviews and created a media frenzy at the usually mild-mannered Republican Governors Conference in Miami this past week. It is quite clear on all political fronts that Governor Palin is choosing to milk her 15 minutes of fame for all it’s worth as she positions herself to make a run for the presidency in 2012. But of all her many, many flaws, one thing in particular has always “grinded my gears.” The term “Hockey Mom.”
While trying to identify with the American people, Governor Palin has used this sports reference on many occasions and adopted the bravado of a “working class, Hockey Mom” as she campaigned around the United States. She then started referring to the people who live in between the East and West coasts as the “only Americans, full of hockey moms and dads.” Hockey, Governor Palin? Hockey?
Now I don’t want to sound like a traditionalist, but If I were running for a major office in the United States I would certainly try to identify with the people by using a sport that was actually American. Football, baseball, basketball and yes…even youth soccer moms would have all sufficed in this context.
By trying to connect with the people on a personal level, what Governor Palin really did was show the country that she is actually a bit out of the loop. If you break down the country geographically, the Northeast has an extremely large amount of children and teens playing youth soccer and baseball. When you move down to the Southern and Mid-Continental States states, youth Football is king. And as you venture out west, the same formula is applied, except the fact that out there even volleyball is more popular than hockey.
In no way am I trying to insult hockey fans, I just believe that calling the blue collar voters of the United States “hockey parents” was a simple microcosm of the cluelessness of the Republican Party. Perhaps her advisors should have noted that besides her frozen home state of Alaska as well as Goron Bombey’s territory of District 6 in Minnesota, no one really identifies with the term “hockey mom.” There is a reason the NHL is the lowest rated league of the Big 4. Could this be a possible reason why McCain lost to the basketball playing Barack Obama? I’d like to think so.
As far as I am concerned, Governor Palin could not be more birdbrained about her “real America” if she tried. I also believe it is time that she simply fades away. Either that or do Playboy. She would have my endorsement for either option.
One reply on “Hockey Mom-ents of Weakness”
“I just believe that calling the blue collar voters of the United States “hockey parents” was a simple microcosm of the cluelessness of the Republican Party.”
You’re exactly right. The biggest reasons hockey is losing popularity right now is because the economy is bombing and hockey is the most expensive sport to play in the world. What really makes Palin’s “hockey mom” motto perplexing is that hockey families are generally wealthy, white-collar workers. One of the funniest sights was on election night when my buddies and I went to the bar to watch election coverage and celebrate and we saw a woman wearing a “Hockey Moms for Obama” sweatshirt. I loved it and it showed how awful Palin’s strategy worked.