Photographs show women at an anti-Palin rally held in Anchorage, Alaska.
The above-displayed photographs were taken at an 'anti-Palin' rally held in Anchorage, Alaska, on 13 September 2008, as described by the Associated Press:Hundreds of people protesting the policies of Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lined a busy street on Saturday, waving signs and chanting 'Obama!' The protest came about two hours after Palin delivered a rousing speech at Anchorage's new convention center before leaving the state to return to the campaign trail. Palin was named John McCain's running mate on Aug. 29. This was her first return since then to her home state. The protesters, including supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama and those who don't agree with Palin's positions on abortion, polar bears, Iraq and other issues, lined one side of the street near Anchorage's main library building. A much smaller number of mostly pro-Palin supporters were on the other side of the street, chanting 'Sarah! Sarah!'The Toronto Star also offered a description of the rally:The wheels were barely up on Palin's plane when the other Alaska awoke, protesters lining a downtown city street to denounce their governor and try to warn the country that she is not ready for the post for which she has been tapped by Republican nominee John McCain. It was a clash of Alaskan Pride and Alaskan Pique, with much of the continent and the world looking northward in fascination. The voters who know Palin best put their passions on display in Alaska's largest city, at one point chanting competing slogans across 36th Ave., as America's dramatic presidential election moved its stage to the unlikeliest of locales. At the downtown Dena'ina Civic and Convention Centre as many as 1,500 supporters swarmed the brand new building, holding signs reading 'Read My Lipstick' and wearing T-shirts that said: 'Alaska, Where Men are Men and Women Run for Vice-President.' Almost as many stood on a library lawn at lunch time, holding signs that read: 'Sarah Palin, Bush in a Skirt,' 'End Palin's 15 Minutes of Fame Before She Does Any Real Damage' and 'Books Are Not For Burning.' Those who saw their gun-toting, moose-hunting hockey mom governor as a gift to the nation waxed poetic. Those who saw their governor as an untested cliché of a candidate were equally adamant. They railed against her pro-life abortion position, her decision to force rape victims to pay for medical tests while she was mayor of Wasilla, her flirtation with banning certain books in the city. They protested her support of the war, her backing of teaching creationism in schools and the way her lifestyle is turning their state into a caricature. Most of all, the anti-Palin crowd, many of them professional women, wanted the world to know that they, too, know how to field dress a moose, haul a caribou carcass out of the Alaskan bush or catch wild salmon. That's what women do in Alaska, they say.The claim that the anti-Palin rally's total of approximately 1,400 participants constituted 'the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state' is something of an exaggeration, given that a political rally held in May 1998 (also in downtown Anchorage) drew over twice as many participants:A jubilant throng of Alaska Natives drummed and sang their way through the streets of downtown Anchorage to declare their solidarity and protest an 'across-the-board assault' on Native rights. It was almost certainly the largest political demonstration ever in Alaska, with the predominantly Native crowd swelling from around 3,000 to an estimated 4,000 once the march culminated in a rally at the Delaney Park Strip.Footage of the anti-Palin rally and comments from some of the participants can be seen in the following video clip:
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