And then McCain picked Palin. "I absolutely loved it," Rinehart tells me. "It was a game-changer for me. It was huge for me as a conservative for some light at the end of the tunnel."

Following Palin around Ohio and Pennsylvania in the last days of the campaign, you meet a lot of Republicans like Rinehart. They don't hate McCain they have too much respect for what he's done in his life but they felt a distinct shortage of enthusiasm for his candidacy until he picked Palin. Talking to voters in these key states, it's clear that McCain shouldn't have had to rely on something so momentous as his vice-presidential pick to fire up a constituency whose support he should have already had, but that is what happened.

Now, there's real enthusiasm for Palin. Standing in front of the picture-perfect 1858 courthouse in Chillicothe, she draws about as many people as Barack Obama himself drew earlier this month. And they're just as excited to see her. "Love her," one woman tells me. "She's a great gal." "It's exciting," says another woman. "She just speaks what I think is the truth, right down to earth," says a man.

Just as it was in Pennsylvania, people here in Chillicothe remember Obama's famous remark that, when times get tough, people like them "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." Palin is introduced by a man named Tom Moe, a retired Air Force colonel and fellow POW from McCain's days in the Hanoi Hilton. He certainly remembers Obama's remarks. "A person coming here to central Ohio and trying to stroke us with all the things that we like to hear, and then going over to California, to the Hollywood crowd, and telling them that all we can do because of our frustration is cling to our guns and Bibles I don't think we want to put a person like that in the White House," Moe says.

"Right," a woman in the crowd yells. "You got that right."


CONTINUED    1   
Still, this crowd has come to see the governor of Alaska. They cheer when she gives them a little rap on Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi "It's not negative campaigning, and it's not mean spirited, to call someone out on their record, their plans and their associations, so we're gonna do it." But Palin spends most of her time on what has become, in the final days, the basic McCain theme: No matter what he says, Barack Obama is going to raise your taxes:

Let's talk about the issue of taxes, though. And we'll talk about this for a minute because our opponent is not being candid with you about his plans for his tax increases. And again, it's not negative campaigning to call someone out on their record and on their plans. John and I have a very basic and fundamental disagreement with our opponents on this issue.

Senator Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes. And though it seems that he changes the details of his tax plan pronouncement almost daily now, flip-flopping around on the details, but his commitment to higher taxes, though, doesn't change. And you just have to look at his record on this.

He voted 94 times for higher taxes, even on hardworking middle- class individuals making $42,000 a year, higher taxes for them. Ninety-four times, he had an opportunity to be on our side and instead, each opportunity taken for more government taking more from you and growing government instead. And now he's committed to almost a trillion dollars in new government spending; won't tell you where those dollars will come from to pay for those proposals.

So you can either do the math or just go with your gut and either way you draw the same conclusion: Barack Obama is for bigger government and higher taxes.

The crowd gives a big, hearty boo for that one.

And so does Eric Rinehart. "I'm scared to death of Obama," he tells me. "He's going to tax us into oblivion. My wife and I are rich in his mind and we're not." (Rinehart is a physical therapist and his wife is a real estate agent.)

"I'm one of those bitter, clinging people with my AR-15 and my 9 millimeter. I own two weapons, and he's not taking them from me. I guess I better be clinging to them if he's elected. And I go to St. Peter's Catholic Church over there go to mass about every other day."

"I'm also extremely scared from the military side of things. He scares me to death. I'm not for losing any wars, and Obama beat Hillary because the far left thought he was more radical on the war. America's greatness is in winning wars and being who we are as a capitalist society."

As we speak, Palin has finished up and is shaking hands with supporters. She's down in the crowd for a few minutes, and then climbs back on stage to wave goodbye. We both turn to the stage for a look. "She's awesome," Rinehart says. "Absolutely awesome."


Orignal Artical