In Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention, she promised millions of parents with children who have special needs that they would "have a friend and advocate in the White House." In The New York Times article "Parents of Special-Needs Children Divided Over Palin’s Promise to Help," reporters Jennifer Steinhauer and Amy Harmon discuss the parents reactions to her promise.

Although disability has not been a main issue of Palin's during her time as governor, she chose to bring it up in her speech. Also, although she did not develop legislation dealing with the disabled she did sign and support legislation for more financing for children with special needs in Alaska.

The public is skeptical of what Palin meant by her promise. Did she mean that she was going to pass legislation to restore the Americans with Disabilities act? Does her idea of advocacy mean that she might want to pass legislation to prevent abortions of fetuses with Down Syndrome? Or did she mean that she would help assist with medical care of the new born children if the parents decided to have the disabled child?

The lack of clarification of what she proposed to do with this issue has left parents with disabled children a bit up in the air about whether they support Palin or not.

I believe that she is a very down to earth, likeable, and compassionate person from what she has shown to the public so far. She personally identifies with many Americans, and we saw that in her persona in her speech at the convention.

However, although a lot of people can be won over by emotional appeals, Palin needs to start stating specifics and clarifying what she stands for with specific details. With such a cut throat race to the White House, details and specifics of how the candidates feel about certain issues are going to play a large role in the decisions that the public make about who they are voting for.