Palin in New Hampshire: 'We all love good moose hunting.'

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: October 15, 2008 - 3:11 pm

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Palin tries on running shoes from Sarah Emberley at Joe King's in Concord, N.H.(AP/Jim Cole)

Making her first swing through the Granite State, the governor does an interview on local television, and tells a rally that the state motto there, "Live Free or Die," would work for Alaska.

From the Wall Street Journal politics blog:

One of Sarah Palin’s main selling points during her bus tour in New Hampshire Wednesday was that the Granite State was much like her home state of Alaska.

“I know that we can count on the good people of New Hampshire because you’re a lot like the people of Alaska,” she told a crowd in Dover, N.H. “We all love good moose hunting, I know that. And we both so enjoy our great lands, the clean water and the fresh air and the abundant wild life and good fishing, we love being outdoors.”

Here's the AP story:

Palin sees similarities between NH and Alaska

By HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press Writer
DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said Wednesday she feels a kinship with the moose-hunting, tax-hating voters of New Hampshire who gave John McCain his first primary victory.

At the first of three rallies, the Alaska governor said New Hampshire's state motto, "Live Free or Die," would be a good motto for her state.

"You're a lot like the people of Alaska. We all love good moose hunting, I know that. We both so enjoy our great lands, with clean water, fresh air and abundant wildlife and good fishing. We love being outdoors, and I know that is New Hampshire also," she said. "And we both take seriously your state's motto — I think it should be ours also — "Live Free or Die."

Alaska's state motto is "North to the Future."

The two states are the only two with neither a general income nor a general sales tax, and Palin played up that history in repeating her argument that Democratic nominee Barack Obama would raise taxes.

McCain proposes extending all of President Bush's tax cuts; Obama would raise income taxes on families making more than $250,000 and individuals making more than $200,000 and has proposed $80 billion in tax breaks mainly for poor workers and the elderly.

"Here in Dover, there's home to two kinds of people: the fine people of New Hampshire, and the fine people of Massachusetts who got sick of paying all those taxes," Palin said. "That should tell you something. The rest of the country is looking at this area and saying what is it that New Hampshire wants?"

For all her praise of New Hampshire, however, she misspoke about its location, at one point talking about Dover and "other parts of this great Northwest."

Palin was making her first trip to the state that launched McCain to the GOP presidential nomination but where he now trails Obama in polls. About 1,000 people turned out for her first rally at Dover High School. More than 5,000 were expected at an evening rally in Salem.

After her Dover speech, Palin went outside to speak briefly to a crowd of people who couldn't get into to the gymnasium. Holding a microphone in one hand and her son Trig in the other, she addressed someone who appeared to be heckling her.

"Sir, I don't know what you're saying, but if you're protesting, that's cool, too," she said. "My son's over in Iraq fighting for your right to protest."

Cheering fans by far outnumbered Palin's critics, but several protesters stood outside the school. One sign read: "Welcome to New Hampshire. Abuse is offensive. So are you."

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