If I recall, the attack accusations begin within 20 minutes or so of the Sarah Palin announcement, when even the most hardened media pundit was reeling from the surprise selection.
Sarah Palin' accused Obama of "saying one thing about Pennsylvanians in Pennsylvania and another in San Francisco." She was referring to his comment at a San Francisco gathering that some people turn to "guns, religion and xenophobia" when they lose their jobs. I don't recall him singling out small-towners. However, he may have been singling out ADD/ADHDs without knowing it.
Although Barak Obama is doing his best to hold "One America" together, he's not having mush luck. Perhaps there's good reason: there may actually BE two Americas, but they may have nothing to do with race, region, religion or gender. Rather, America may divided into those who tend toward ADD (attention deficit disorder)/ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and those who don't.
Last year, a paper appeared in the journal Clinical Endocrinology, demonstrating that long-term stress in a pregnant woman can lead to developmental disabilities, especially ADD and ADHD. Long-term stress causes the pituitary gland to pour elevated levels of the hormone cortisol into the bloodstream. From the bloodstream, cortisol can spill over into the amniotic fluid. Researchers found elevated amniotic cortisol levels in fetuses as young as 17 weeks.
Current thinking is that the in-utero environment prepares a fetus for life outside the womb. Elevated cortisol levels "warn" the fetus that it's not very peaceful out there. The result is increased development of the brain's "flight or fight" apparatus (toward the brain stem) and diminished development of the frontal portion of the brain, where mental focusing and sequential reasoning take place.
Common sources of long-term stress include work-related (i.e. mother afraid of losing her job, long-term exposure to flickering computer screens) and exposure to television, especially (although not necessarily limited to) violent programming. These stimulators are increasingly common in our society, and may be causing an ever increasing incidence of ADD/ADHD.
My guess is that Karl Rove and his operatives are all too aware of this phenomenon. Witness the Republican convention. I believe that gruesome 9-11 "tribute" was specifically designed to produce a fear (read that stress) reaction in viewers, especially those who are most susceptible to it. Follow that with short, carefully crafted sound bytes (Good Christian Lady Under Attack!) and the troops get all riled up.
I'm afraid the prescription won't be of much help in this election, and it isn't very feminist-friendly. Pregnant women need to leave work much earlier than they do now--probably by the end of the first trimester--in order to assure a peaceful in-utero environment for frontal lobe development. They also need to maintain that peaceful environment for at least the first 18 months of the child's life, the time during which most brain wiring takes place.
It would also help if they killed their televisions.
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