Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin gave an historic speech at the Republican National Convention on September 3, 2008. This speech was historic because she is the first woman to accept the Republican nomination to be their Vice Presidential candidate. This advancement for women comes during an Emotional High in American Cycles. In contrast, when were in an Emotional Low in 1984, former Vice President and Presidential candidate Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro as the first woman to run as the Vice Presidential candidate in American history, but the ticket suffered historic losses later that year in the general election.
Governor Palin’s speech received the third highest Nielsen ratings of any convention speech, Republican or Democrat as it drew 37.2 million television viewers. This was second only to Senator Obama’s acceptance speech as the Democratic nominee for president on August 28, 2008 which obtained a record breaking Nielsen rating of 38.4 television viewers. This record was broken on September 4, 2008 when Senator McCain’s acceptance speech as the Republican nominee for president which reached a Nielsen rating of 38.9 television viewers.[1. Source: blog.Nielsen.com] These record breaking numbers show active enthusiasm of an interested public during our Emotional High.