It's gonna be a short diary. My apologies.
I work for a defense contractor (I'm not the bad guy, I promise). Needless to say, I work around a LOT of ex-military white Republicans. And they are freaking out right now. The most staunch of the die-hards just yelled out that McCain has lost the election. That his vote went from solid McCain to a no vote. He is not going to show up. I gleefully told him about the corruption, her lack of experience, how young she was, she had a newborn (read: social conservatives would crucify her for putting career above family), and her husband worked for Big Oil. I thought his head was going to explode. This is a man who has the distinction of still supporting Bush and Cheney.
He actually just had a mini-tantrum and threw things off his desk.
I thought I would need to wait until November to see this reaction, but I got it today and from an unlikely source. Thank you McSame!
UPDATE: Didn't mean to imply her having a baby with Down's is a negative in and of itself. It really is an admirable thing. I brought it up to my co-worker in the context that having a baby, much less one with special needs, may preclude her from campaigning as hard as someone that doesn't have such pressing family responsibilities.
And co-worker lost his shit before I told him the details on her. I admit, I was just rubbing it in for hearing non-stop about McCain for the past 2 years.
UPDATE II: Well, co-worker just left for the day b/c he's so distraught. From what I was able to gather, he thinks the pick is lousy because she's from a red state, a young female, and the Republicans have lost the "experience" attack line. His dislike is more from a strategic POV than an ideological one. He's not from the Gods/guns crowd. He's from the strong military/low taxes crowd.