Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:11
Embroidered clothes
have already gone on sale in Alaska to support the idea of Sarah Palin running in the 2012 US presidential elections.
Ms Palin came to popular attention at the side of Republican Senator John McCain in his bid to take over from George W Bush in the White House. She was selected for the vice-presidential nomination for the Republican Party and accrued supporters and opponents in equal measure during the campaign.
However, Senator McCain lost out in the presidential election to Democrat candidate Barack Obama who claimed a historic victory. Mr Obama will now become the 44th president and the first ever African American to occupy the White House.
The whole US election campaign saw promotional clothing reach a new level – with fashion deemed the number one way to show support. American voters were photographed wearing a number of embroidered t-shirts featuring messages of support for their chosen party.
Despite being unsuccessful at the polls, Alaskan governor Palin garnered strong support among some quarters of the American public which has triggered a strong responses in her home state.
A shop in the Alaskan town of Wasilla has opted to create a range of embroidered polo shirts to back Ms Palin's credentials for the White House in 2012, reports NBC News.
Ms Palin has been on the campaign trail with Senator McCain for the past three months but will now revert back to her previous life in Alaska. She returned to Wasilla, which has a population of 9,000 people, last Wednesday and was met by a group of supporters urging her to consider running for president.
Hundreds of the promotional t-shirts have reportedly already been sold as support grows for Ms Palin in the wake of the election. Available in a range of colours, the embroidered t-shirts have slogans such as Sarah Palin: Our Kind of Change emblazoned on their front. People in Alaska are buying the Palin 2012 embroidered tees to support their governor after she returned to her daily duties on November 7th.
However, Ms Palin has so far remained quiet on whether she intends to run for president in 2012 but is known to be very ambitious. Should senior members of the Republican Party decide to tempt her into make a run in four years time, then it is believed she would be interested.
Despite gaining support in many quarters, Ms Palin also suffered criticism and controversy during the election campaign. This led to the increased sale of a number of embroidered polo shirts bearing negative slogans.
By the end of the presidential race, opinion polls indicated six out of 10 US voters considered that Ms Palin was unfit to be considered for president.
However, a powerful lobby of right-leaning individuals are ready to back Ms Palin's cause, including William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, alongside representatives from conservative thinkthanks.
Brent Bozell is president of the Conservative Victory Committee which is devoted to getting rightwing candidate elected into public life. He told the Guardian that Ms Palin represents a fresh candidate who is committed to conservative ideals but who can also generate a national following.
"There are many in the Republican party who wrap themselves around conservative ideology when campaigning but abandon it as soon as they are elected," explained Mr Bozell. "People have grown wary of that betrayal, and in Sarah Palin they see someone who truly espouses what she believes."
People living in Wasilla certainly agree with this as they continue to snap up the embroidered t-shirts supporting Ms Palin ahead of the 2012 election.
