Palin to speak today in Jeffersonville

With just less than a week to go until the Nov. 4 elections, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will make another stop in Indiana.

After delivering an energy policy speech Oct. 22 in Toledo, Ohio, Palin will campaign through Ohio and Indiana, making a stop today in Jeffersonville, Ind. It will be Palin’s third visit to Indiana in October, highlighting the Republicans’ increasing unease in a state that has gone red in every presidential election since 1964.

“The polls, right from the beginning, have really shown it to be a close race in Indiana,” said Edward Carmines, a political science professor at IU. “It looked like for a while that Senator McCain’s campaign was going to hope that the tradition of this being a Republican state would carry though, and they wouldn’t have to make any effort, but recently I think they’ve seen the polls, and they know it’s going to be very close.”

The Republican vice-presidential nominee will speak at Capstone Realty, Inc., in Jeffersonville at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. She will appear with country singer Hank Williams Jr.

While McCain hasn’t made an Indiana stop since July 1, Palin has encountered wildly enthusiastic crowds on her trips to Fort Wayne and Noblesville, Ind. Palin is expected to appeal to the conservative Republican base, especially the religious right.

But Carmines said the fact Palin is in Indiana at all highlights how close the race really is.

“Senator Obama coming has been to reassure people in Indiana that he does take the state seriously, and he does intend to compete here and to win here,” he said. “But for McCain to send Palin here is to say he realizes this is close. He has to be elsewhere, and she’s designed to activate the base of Republican party and to hope that by solidifying that base it will be enough to win on November fourth.”

Palin’s recent speeches have focused on working-class Americans. Taking the example of “Joe the plumber,” the Ohio man made famous for challenging Barack Obama on his tax plan a few weeks ago, Palin has used the examples of “Doug the barber” and “Chris the electrician” to argue that Obama’s tax plan doesn’t help “average Americans.”

At her last Indiana appearance, Palin took the stage with her husband Todd and daughters Piper and Willow. She was also joined by prominent local Republicans.

An Oct. 22 Big Ten Battleground poll showed Obama up 9 percent in Indiana, getting 51 percent of the vote to McCain’s 42 percent. Such results on Election Day would mean a loss of almost 20 percent of the vote for Republicans, who won the state with 60 percent of votes in 2004.