Sarah Palin
Submitted by samc088 on September 4, 2008 - 3:27pm.
Republican Convention
Hello Everyone!
I wanted to get some feedback from the community on how everyone thought Gov. Palin did last night. I see there have been several blog postings on Gov. Palin and wanted to get some info on exactly how we all thought she did, in one place.
Personally, I was shocked to see Sarah Palin drew more than 37.2 million combined viewers on six networks, just short of Barack Obama's 38.3 million viewers last week.
As always, thanks for the feedback!
Sam
did well considering the massive scrutiny she was under ever since she was announced on Friday. She really gave it to the Democrats and the crowd seemed to love her. My Republican family members are excited by her addition to the ticket.
I don't agree w/her politics, but I was way more impressed than I thought I'd be. She won't get my vote, but she has my admiration.
The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off. ~Gloria Steinem
1) In my opinion, Sarah Palin has received more negative and hostile mainstream media and tabloid coverage in less than one week than Barack Obama has received in this entire election so far. She is fighting back hard against it which Hillary could not really do in the primary so we will not know what may happen about potential media backlash with middle America until we see how this fully plays out:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/03/sitroom.01.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
All Eyes on Sarah Palin Tonight; Iowa and Minnesota: Two Battleground States for Obama & McCain; Obama Slams Republicans
Aired September 3, 2008 - 16:00 ET
GLENN BECK, HOST, "GLENN BECK": "To the media, I think she needs to quote Archie Bunker and say, "Shut up, yous." It is amazing to me, Wolf, the coverage on Sarah Palin.
You said earlier that I'm a big supporter of hers. I'm not really a big supporter of hers. I am intrigued by her. I like what I do know about her.
I don't know enough about her yet. I've never seen her speak before. We'll see it tonight for the first time. So I can't say I endorse her or anything else, but what I can say is, I don't hate her like the many in the media just have this vitriolic hate for Sarah Palin.
I saw this today. This is amazing to me. It's "US" magazine. It's "Babies, Lies and Scandal."
And in it, it talks about -- it's a story on the blog story about how the baby's probably not hers. It's probably her grandchild, which is completely unfounded. But that's what it is.
Then there's another story about Troopergate in here. Troopergate, they conveniently leave out, is really all about the fact that her sister-in-law was married to a state trooper. The charges were that he was taking his stun gun and abusing the family with the stun gun. He then, and this has been verified, threatened the life of the governor's father. And yet somehow or another, that part of Troopergate never seems to get out.
And then in my favorite part -- by the way, "US Weekly," owned by a huge Obama supporter and the owner of "Rolling Stone," the other reason that you shouldn't vote for her is because she has iffy friends. Wow, I find that ironic from a group of people who told us that friends don't mean anything when it comes to Barack Obama.
The hypocrisy here is stunning.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: But when you want to run for president, though, and vice president, it seems -- and all presidential and vice presidential candidates, whether Democrat or Republican, they certainly have to realize they're going to be exposed to this kind of treatment.
BECK: No, no, no, Wolf. You are exposed to treatment. But Americans, what people don't understand, I think, is that Americans -- and this is not left or right, this is America. Republicans, Democrats, Independents. We are fair people.
We want to -- we want to hold your feet to the fire. We need to be able to see if you can take it. But we also would like it to be somewhat fair.
Tell me, the "Babies, Lies and Scandals," what exactly is that? We're not getting a fair look at Sarah Palin. We are getting -- she's being Quayled. She's being Clarence Thomased. I don't know what you want to call it, but in 30 years of broadcast, I have never seen the kind of attitude that the media has expressed toward Sarah Palin. And quite frankly, the list goes on.
If you stand against Barack Obama, God help you, because the media will do the dirty work for you. They don't need a hatchet man. They've got the media..."
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/03/ec.05.html
CNN ELECTION CENTER
Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin Address Republican National Convention
Aired September 3, 2008 - 22:00 ET
GOV. SARAH PALIN (R-AK), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: "Well, I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And...
(APPLAUSE)
... I've learned quickly these last few days that, if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
PALIN: But -- now, here's a little newsflash. Here's a little newsflash for those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.
(APPLAUSE)..."
Will Palin get some kind of sympathy for this in a backlash against the media with middle America that Hillary could not get with most Democratic primary voters? We will have to wait to find that out!
2) McCain probably did not fully vet Palin close enough as the Washington Post reported so we do not know what legitimate issues may still come out about her in the future:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090203462.html?hpid=topnews
Aides Say Team Interviewed Palin Late in the Process
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 3, 2008; Page A01
ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 -- "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday..."
3) Trooper Gate may come back to hurt Palin since all of the facts about it do not seem to be fully out yet:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/01/lkl.02.html
CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Gustav Makes Landfall; Sarah Palin's Teenage Daughter Pregnant
Aired September 1, 2008 - 23:59 ET
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: "Do you have some news about that Trooper Gate story?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I do. I was able to talk to the head of the investigation. And if everybody's not up to date, Larry, on that investigation or on what's -- on Trooper Gate and what's happening right now, just in a nutshell, once again, the governor -- her decision making --- being questioned here.
Did she use her political rank to somehow try and pressure the police commissioner to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper here that was in the middle of an intense custody battle with the governor's sister? I had a chance to talk with the investigator. He is now saying not only does a phone call exist between Lieutenant Trooper and her office, but apparently there are a number of e-mails that have surfaced now. They are continuing to sift through more evidence, evidence coming through as they've been able to get access to this.
And there are e-mails, apparently, that exist between the governor and those there with the trooper's. Will we get access to those, will we be able to see what those e-mails have to say, not sure. But apparently, this is some new evidence coming forward that they think will be pretty powerful in this investigation.
KING: Thanks, Kyra..."
4) Rep. Michele Bachmann in my opinion could not give a direct answer to Larry King's very simple question about McCain picking Palin "are you saying that this is most qualified Republican he could have picked?"
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/01/lkl.01.html
CNN LARRY KING LIVE
Gustav: Death, Destruction, Danger; Will Palin's Daughter's Pregnancy Matter?
Aired September 1, 2008 - 21:00 ET
LARRY KING, HOST: "Congressman Bachmann, are you saying that this is most qualified Republican he could have picked?
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA, SUPPORTS MCCAIN: This is the pick that John McCain made. And I think John McCain has exercised excellent...
KING: No, the que -- that's not the question.
The question is, is it in your opinion this is the most qualified Republican he could have selected?
BACHMAN: I think the answer, again, is this is the one that John McCain selected and she is qualified. Let's face it, she is a qualified candidate for vice president.
She has come up. She's become governor. And let's take a look what she did. The former governor of Alaska, she took his plane, sold it on eBay. She said no to the bridge to nowhere. This is a woman with a lot of guts who knows to root...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, she didn't.
BACHMAN: ...who knows to root out a lot of corruption and evil. This is a woman we want for vice president of the united states..."
5) We need to see how she does against Biden in the VP debate as well as when she has to answer hard policy questions in tough interviews. I do not know what her nuanced positions are on many of the issues yet so we will have to see how well she can articulate herself when she is not speaking to a friendly RNC audience!
The bottom line in my opinion is that so much is still very unknown about Palin that there is no way right now to see how she will do one way or the other until more of the events that I described above play out!
Either Paul Begala or Pat Buchanan could be right about Palin and they both have very different points of view:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/29/begala.palin/index.html
updated 2:27 p.m. EDT, Fri August 29, 2008
Commentary: Is McCain out of his mind?
By Paul Begala
CNN Contributor
"For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment..."
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28351
Patrick J. Buchanan
Johnny's Got a New Girl
09/03/2008
"The risk John McCain took last Friday is comparable to the 72-year-old ex-fighter pilot knocking back two shots and flying his F-16 under the Golden Gate Bridge.
McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his co-pilot was the biggest gamble in presidential history. As of now, it is paying off, big-time...
As the Democrats were being rudely stepped on, however, Palin ignited an explosion of enthusiasm among conservatives, Evangelicals, traditional Catholics, gun owners and Right to Lifers not seen in decades.
By passing over his friends Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge, and picking Palin, McCain has given himself a fighting chance of winning the White House that, before Friday morning, seemed to be slipping away. Indeed, the bristling reaction on the left testifies to Democratic fears that the choice of Palin could indeed be a game-changer in 2008..."
Sarah Palin in my opinion right now is like a random roll of the dice where anything can come up which could be either lucky or unlucky for McCain!
"more negative and hostile mainstream media and tabloid coverage in less than one week than Barack Obama has received in this entire election so far"
I guess you were not watching cable news during the time that endless loops of Rev. Wright were being shown, or when the trumped up flag-pin controversy was discussed ad nauseum.
Reality-based science equals real national security.
I will agree that this issue is a matter of perception so one opinion is just as valid as another one is as far as I am concerned.
As far as I remember, most of MSNBC protected Obama from the Rev. Wright story more than they actually criticized him for it while CNN gave the Rev. Wright story some serious coverage but then that story went away shortly after almost never to be heard from again there. FOX News brought up the Rev. Wright story quite a bit but what else would you expect from them?
I completely stand behind my statement "In my opinion, Sarah Palin has received more negative and hostile mainstream media and tabloid coverage in less than one week than Barack Obama has received in this entire election so far" as far as MSNBC and CNN are concerned because that is what I believe the evidence clearly shows which I documented above as well as right here:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/15744
VIDEO: Dan Abrams asked about Hillary's primary loss "Is it the media’s fault?"
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on June 9, 2008 - 5:58pm.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/15744#comment-309677
There is NO question in my opinion of anti-Hillary media bias...
If you disagree with me and have a different perception about the issue of fairness in media coverage than I do, then I have no problem with that at all!
After the withering criticisms aimed at her and her family since she was announced, one might have expected the pressure to perform would cause nervousness and missteps. She was strong and sure in her first national speech and seemed to draw energy from her audience. I believe she has an inner strength and self-confidence and is not going to be cowed by "the good ole boys" and will be able to stand on her own. The reaction of pundits, even those who have been obviously biased toward Obama for months (Mika, Chris, Keith to name a few) were grudgingly complimentary.
Democrats will mock and belittle her at their peril.
Four stars for you on your point about pro-Obama media bias and the guilty pundits who you named!
Hillary could not really fight back against this kind of unfair mainstream media bias in the Democratic primary when most Democratic primary voters watch these biased pundits to get their so-called "news" BUT that is a totally different story now when it comes to the general election in my opinion!
Most of the key moderate swing voters in middle America who ultimately decide close elections do not watch biased media idiots like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Jack Cafferty who are clearly in the tank for Obama!
Many of these key moderate swing voters in middle America will be watching FOX News which is in the tank for McCain instead of Obama and they will be judging McCain and Palin by different standards than how most Democratic primary voters do so biased pundits like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Jack Cafferty will NOT really be able to protect Obama in the general election against McCain in the same way how they were able to protect Obama against Hillary and help turn the Democratic primary his way by doing all that they could to try and destroy Hillary's candidacy:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/15744
VIDEO: Dan Abrams asked about Hillary's primary loss "Is it the media’s fault?"
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on June 9, 2008 - 5:58pm.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/15744#comment-309677
There is NO question in my opinion of anti-Hillary media bias...
I agree with you that "Democrats will mock and belittle her at their peril" because this is now a general election, it is no longer just a Democratic primary!
uhhh or um one single time. That was amazing. Everyone says it occasionally, and some say it waaaaay too much to the point of distraction. So in the sense of presentation against all the media focus on her and her family, I think she did really well. I heard 2 callers on C-Span claim they were Democrats who would be voting McC/P because of her "performance." See how easy it is to get people to vote for someone? Just put on a great performance and you're in! Ugh.
Other than that, she's a typical wing nut and will work for everything we've all fought against most of our lives... I think we're in trouble and need to do whatever we can to build up a veto proof Dem majority in congress.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Had no desire to add to the numbers. heh
Sounds like she's a fighter from what I've heard. Also sounds like she far enough to the extreme right that the repubs will lap her up like a bowl of warm milk.
Goes to show we definitely need Democrats in office and need to do all we can to get them there.
Random thoughts:
- Give me a flowery hope & change speech any day over the venom I hate to witness last night. Last week, it felt like we might be on the right track. That the universe if giving America one last chance to get it right. Compare that to last night's free-fall into the bowels of Hell.
- Why on earth would a woman refer to herself as "a pitbull with lipstick?"
- Lotta suits in the audience last night.
Even more significantly, overall, in terms of style, substance and delivery, I think her speech was far better and more hard hitting than any speech ever given by either Bush or Cheney. That's one reason I think the Obama/Biden team now faces a very tough ticket which will be hard to beat if McCain/Palin can successfully convince enough low information voters that they are somehow different from Bush/Cheney. Furthermore, I think Democrats who dismiss this possibility do so at the Party's peril.
The LA Times has an article describing just how well her speech went over with the assembled delegates. It also has the full text of her speech.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/sarah-palin-vp.html
Having watched the entire speech and seen the reactions of the delegates, I think the LA Times is spot on. While I agree with others who object to some of the ways she mis-represented Obama's platform, mis-representations of the sort she made are fairly commonplace, and are still committed by both sides. I wish that weren't the case; but that's the way it is; and I doubt that any but the most partisan and/or activist of voters will hold that against Sarah Palin, who after all last night seemed to embrace the "barracuda" and/or "pit bull" role that VP candidates are quite often expected to fill.
Nick Kelly
Wes Clark could still secure America as a national security candidate.
with 12% still undecided and 1% saying they aren't voting. Palin gave McCain a bounce. Obama/Biden have to come up with a plan to win independents and moderate republicans. Sonce the GOP is still the grand oil party with their mantra of "drill baby drill," and re-starting the culture wars with the pick of Palin and energizing the base, we're back to the usual election dynamic. At least it's the usual election dynamic in KS. No democrat can win without crossover republicans and indies.
It could well come down to those lunch bucket, blue collar, rust belt, gun-totin' patriotic-military-veteran Appalachian voters. Tough crowd for Obama during the primaries.
representation in the electoral college. wonder how many of them will feel inclined to back a ticket that includes a former small town mayor?
Nick Kelly
Wes Clark could still secure America as a national security candidate.
If so, that is a very bad sign for the O/B ticket.
Nick Kelly
Wes Clark could still secure America as a national security candidate.
So many were decided. She energized the base, which no doubt brought some into the McCain camp who probably were W voters the last two elections. It remains to be seen what the last of the undecideds do.
one week. as i said before, Palin is a brilliant pick by McCain.
Nick Kelly
Wes Clark could still secure America as a national security candidate.
they gave John McCain up by 5% when no one else did, there's something screwed up about their process, they must be over sampling certain demographics.
Gallup shows Obama up by 7% and all other major polls show Obama is still up.
I wouldn't trust the polling until the middle of next week, that will let everything sink in. I personally think McCain might get a Kerryesque negative bounce, McCain didn't build any bridges by picking Palin, right wingers were already behind him, just not as enthusiastically as they are now. And picking a hard core right winger burned bridges to many moderate/independent voters and energized the democratic base.
I see it as a loser politically, he didn't win over disaffected Clinton voters, and in fact he appears to have lost ground, and even insulted many of them.
[snip:]
But Stephen Hayes, a senior writer with The Weekly Standard, said she might have what it takes to woo voters to her side.
"You look at the kinds of arguments she was making last night. A lot of the arguments went back to the narrative that Republicans are trying to battle about Barack Obama being elitist, about him being too -- caring too much about himself, not enough about his country.
"It could be a pretty effective line of attack, especially if she can deliver it with a smile," he said.
But looking back to the last election, it's not a method that worked well for John Kerry. His attempts to motivate people on the basis of being anti-Bush backfired, and Avlon says the same thing will happen to McCain and Palin if they fuel their campaign with negativity.
Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/04/palin.independents/index.html
That was his total media persona, which he fueled himself in some cases with the windsurfing, for instance.
just what does a "community organizer" do? I've read where, in Chicago, it has to do with "signing up" supporters for the Daley machine. I truly don't know, but would like to.
For instance, who was obama working for? Who paid him? Is it a church, city, county, state or charity group? And was it a true living wage job?
None of the Above
Snip:
After graduating from Columbia University in 1983 with a major in political science, Obama worked as a financial consultant in New York City. But he was bored—and drawn to public service. In 1985, he moved to Chicago to work with local churches organizing job training and other programs for poor and working-class residents of Altgeld Gardens, a public housing project where 5,300 African-Americans tried to survive amid shuttered steel mills, a nearby landfill, a putrid sewage treatment plant, and a pervasive feeling that the white establishment of Chicago would never give them a fair shake.
Jerry Kellman, a social activist who recruited Obama, recalls, "He was very bright, very articulate, very personable, and very idealistic," inspired by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolence. Kellman offered Obama a job at the annual salary of $10,000, and he threw in $2,000 so Obama could buy a ramshackle car to get around.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070826/3obama.htm
Pleading temporary insanity, I forgot about Google. There's a lot on the subject. Apparently 0 started out with good intentions in Harlem, of all places, then moved to Chicago.
A rather lengthy piece on that period in his life is here:
http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=2e0a7836-b897-4155-864c-25e791ff0f50
"Obama arrived in South Chicago in 1985 to find a bleak scene. Roseland and the northern edge of Riverdale, the neighborhoods to which he was assigned, had been decimated by the collapse of the steel industry. In Dreams from My Father, Obama wrote of "the boarded-up homes, the decaying storefronts, the aging church rolls, [and the] kids from unknown families who swaggered down the streets." Most middle-class whites had moved out, and, while the area was home to a few middleclass blacks, "[t]he stores and banks had left with their white customers, causing main thoroughfares to decompose." Many of the area's residents lived in the 2,000-unit Altgeld Gardens, public housing that was bounded by the fetid Calumet River, an expressway, and a sewage treatment plant that emitted, Obama wrote, a "heavy, putrid odor."
The election in 1983 of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, had given blacks in South Chicago "a new idea of themselves," Obama observed. Yet the mayor's efforts to revive the city's worst neighborhoods were stymied by the conservative white majority on the city council.
Obama had moved to Chicago to work for Kellman, a transplanted New Yorker eleven years his senior, and his partner, Mike Kruglik. The pair was trying to build a regional community organization that spanned South Chicago, Chicago's southern suburbs, and Northwest Indiana. Kellman and Kruglik wanted their new recruit to establish a branch centered in Roseland. It was to be called the Developing Communities Project.
Obama had worked briefly as an organizer in Harlem, but, in Chicago, he learned the principles of community organizing from Kellman, Kruglik, and other disciples of Saul Alinsky, a hardscrabble, profane Chicagoan who, in the late 1930s, had organized white ethnic meatpacking workers in the area around the old Chicago Stockyards. Alinsky was heavily influenced by John L. Lewis, the president of the United Mine Workers and founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). He wanted to do for working-class communities what Lewis and the CIO had done for workplaces: unite people of different backgrounds around common goals and use their collective strength to wring concessions from the powers that be.
But his campaign has taken the point a step further, implying that Obama the politician is a direct descendant of Obama the organizer--that he has carried the practices and principles of community organizing into his campaign, and would carry them into the White House as well. This is the version of Obama's biography that most journalists have accepted.
In truth, however, if you examine carefully how Obama conducted himself as an organizer and how he has conducted himself as a politician, if you consider what he said about organizing to his fellow organizers, and if you look at the reasons he gave friends and colleagues for abandoning organizing, then a very different picture emerges: that of a disillusioned activist who fashioned his political identity not as an extension of community organizing but as a wholesale rejection of it. Indeed, the most important thing to know about Barack Obama's time as a community organizer in Chicago may not be what he gained from the experience--but rather why, in late 1987, he decided to quit."
None of the Above; America needs Wes Clark as Secretary of State!.
I admit, I'd never heard of a community organizer until this election when Obama cited it as a major part of his resume. I've lived in very small towns, small cities and medium sized cities and this was new to me. I asked my husband today if he'd heard of this job, and he hasn't either so I'd look forward to knowing if these roles are only in larger cities, minority communities, or exist everywhere and I'm just unenlightened. I've also read that Obama's community organizing job was more political than, say, Roland Martin who said his parents perform roles like finding jobs.
Her put-down of community organizing was an insult to organizations and people across America that believe that when you can do good, you should.
As I just saw Biden mentioning on T.V., never did she mention the word education, health care, or middle class.
She is smug, hateful, and moronic in her fundamentalist, anti-science, anti-environment mindset. A Palin presidency would be the greatest threat to the national security of the U.S. since the Civil War.
Palin will sink the McCain ticket by turning off swing voters. He's bent over backwards for the Republican right, and thrown what little integrity he had left as a so-called "maverick" out the window.
I'm pleased that so many watched this disgusting spectacle with their own eyes (I'm hoping a lot of them were undecided swing voters), and If were placing bets, I'd bet on a drop in the polls for the Republican ticket showing up in polling tomorrow.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
but I'll try to be a little more gentle.
To me, Sarah Palin is a gimmick, nothing more. Any one of 20,000 good lookin women could have given the exact speech last night and the reaction would have been the same. What if Meg Ryan or Michell Pfiffer had read the same speech, and the Repubs didn't know who they were? Same reaction. To believe that people would instantenously connect with someone they know nothing about simply because she is pro-lief and shoots gun is outright disgusting. What are these people thinking?
I agree completely of the insult to community organizing. Someone like Obama who is moved to help those is despair is a great thing. For the Republicans to diss community service is all too typical.
A "disgusting spectacle" is what it was. I am hoping for a considerable drop in the Republican polling, but it may take a while.
Meg Ryan and Michelle Pfeiffer don't have the title "Governor" in front of their names.
Oh, I know, Alaska is a small state, population-wise, and Palin hasn't been governor very long. But most people won't look at the details. They will accept that having been governor is a qualification, and it's one that Obama and Biden (and McCain) don't have.
I had to turn off the TV.
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
But I did watch her speech and the reaction to it. Like Mitch, who does the oppo research for this group, you have to know what your opponents are up to in order to plan your responses. Those who immerse themselves totally in the safe shows like the ones on MSNBC have a skewed view of how their candidate's race is really doing.
Found this superbly written, insightful commentary I'd like share. It's right on the mark:
"I had dinner last night with a Republican-leaning independent who was despondent over John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She had been looking forward to supporting McCain as a fiscal conservative with a deep understanding of foreign relations. But all she could now see was that picture of Palin's pregnant 17-year-old looking defiant and stupid as she held mom's fifth baby.
Many religious conservatives are jubilant. They regard Palin as a swell choice because her high-schooler was going to have the baby. The line sent my friend into shock. This is not a matter of abortion politics, she said, but of managing one's own affairs.
"Don't they have birth control up in Alaska?" she asked.
If that view has any currency among Republican-leaners, you can imagine what other independents are thinking. Or disaffected supporters of Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama's recent pandering toward the Clinton holdouts didn't do the Democrat a fraction of the good that McCain is doing him. McCain's apparent belief that dangling any woman before diehard Clinton fans would win them over may be optimistic.
Until now, one could counter the Democrats' argument that a McCain presidency would amount to a third term for Bush. After all, McCain is a deficit hawk. He cares about the environment. Many pro-choice voters were willing to overlook McCain's generally anti-abortion stance on the belief that he didn't really care about the issue. And the widespread concern regarding McCain's age could have been assuaged by the choice of a competent vice president.
Then who does McCain pick for VP? A 44-year-old who parades her dysfunctional family as a poster-child for conservative values. Who has virtually no foreign policy experience. Who as mayor of an Alaskan town of 6,700 hired lobbyists to reel in $27 million in federal pork. That's $4,030 of the U.S. taxpayers' money per resident. We thought McCain wanted to close down the trough.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has five children, but she waited until they were grown before she ran for high political office. Palin returned to the job three days after giving birth to a special needs child, all the while her 17-year-old is entertaining a lover. And what about plans to have the girl wed the stud, author of some very unromantic remarks on Facebook? Note that she's been pregnant for five months and still no matrimony. These nuptials couldn't be a last-minute political move, could they?
Palin supporters insist that her out-of-control home life will resonate with many American families. Yes, if they're from Mars or perhaps on welfare.
What a McCain presidency now promises is another four years of Terri Schiavo and other artifacts of the cultural right. You remember Schiavo's husband having to fight the Bush administration and Republican Congress to remove his wife -- in a vegetative state for 15 years -- from life support. It's four more years of national humiliation as our leadership undermines the teaching of evolutionary science, and if something happens to John McCain, opposes stem-cell research.
One tries to untangle McCain's political calculations. The Schiavo case, creationism and similar excesses appeal to a passionate but small slice of the electorate. They are one reason voters are booting Republicans out of power. So while some religious conservatives may be "energized" by the Palin pick, most everyone else is revolted.
You can't figure McCain. He had been doing well up to now -- holding even with Obama in a dreadful year for Republicans and building support among the independents who call the shots in swing states. This Palin deal makes you question not only his judgment, but -- if he really had vetted Sarah Palin -- his sanity.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
How many children did Nancy Pelosi have? How many children are born out of wedlock in the United States each year?
America needs Wes Clark as Secretary of State!
I'm sure Sarah would agree. It's all "God's will."
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
#1 Utah (no surprise there)
#2 Texas (Bush's state)
#3 Arizona (McCain's state)
#4 Idaho (the great red wonder)
#5 Alaska (Palin's state)
Well they're just all peas in a pod!
source:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763849.html
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
He's a guy, totally blameless in the situation. It's his wife's fault he's got all those kids, doncha know. :P
"She hopes to open shadowed eyes on a different world...." Robert Smith, borrowed from Penelope Farmer
not much else to do in these places at night. Strangely, the far-right conservative "christians" seem to have the most "knocked-up" unmarried mothers. I lived in a small "conservative" strict christian town and shot-gun marriages were the norm rather than the exception.
None of the Above; Wes Clark as Secretary of State!.
Aside from Arizona (and ... well maybe 'half' of Texas) weren't those Obama states during the primaries? (I know they're over, just reflecting for an instant on those high birthing voters' preferences)
and suspect reflects the impression most swing voters got out of her appearance.
May the day never come when we are not judgmental about those running for the highest offices in the land.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
"May the day never come when we are not judgmental about those running for the highest offices in the land.".
It is offensive and it is stupid.
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
that he keeps going on and on about how morally irresponsible it is for anyone to have 5 kids and both you and I have revealed we come from families that big, I find it more than a little insulting to both us and our parents.
"She hopes to open shadowed eyes on a different world...." Robert Smith, borrowed from Penelope Farmer
where the government believes it can tell people how many children to have...?
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
He's ruining my main argument to swing votes that lean right on life.
I tell them, look, there's no such thing as pro-abortion. abortion is a horrible choice to have to face, but it's a choice that has to be available to prevent a slide back into butchery and medieval techniques that existed before Roe v Wade.
Now, I have to leave out the part about nobody being pro-abortion.
If someone is willing and able to have a baby and take care of it and nurture it into adulthood, then all the power to them.
Whew.
it's not somewhere we should go in our politics. It turns people off, try building bridges to voters instead of burning them.
Then a wee bit snarky with the going negative, but if she's supposed to be the attack dog, she did just what she was supposed to do. The crowd ate it up, that's for sure.
I thought her family looked great, and well done to the way she's handled the 'controversy.' She has an approachable authenticity that and conveys that same sort of sense of humor and fun that Bill Clinton had going on.
I wouldn't just write off the McCain/Palin ticket if I were the Dems. I think they've got a hill to climb over the next couple of months. Personality wise, the authenticity oozing from McCain/Palin has it all over the intellectual and somewhat elitist and controlled Dem ticket.
Not to mention her outsider status. Obama/Biden can't lay claim to that...so it remains to be seen how this all shakes out as the more casual observer and voter comes into play.
McCain blew it when he picked this nutcase. In fact, picking her revealed he has as much pathetic, irresponsible judgment as she does. Watch the polls over the next few days.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
Clarkie since Summer, 2003
Obvious. But McC hasn't exactly been the favorite of the season for these folks, delegate or no.
I listen to a fair amount of RW radio, and the last few weeks, yappers and callers have not been exactly over the moon about McC. Until SP spoke - and the last two nights, there's been quite a shift in the tone.
They seem to be plenty excited again. And you know what happens when the GOP base gets fired up.
There's a hill to climb, and the Dems should take note - all I'm sayin'.
Mechanically and oratorically, she did very well. The delivery was excellent. It was light on substance on the issues, but that was not the point of the speech. As a speech introducing her to the country, it was quite effective.
But it wasn't as good as many, many people said it was, including some pros.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Make America All It Can Be!
will come back to haunt her, she came off as very petty and somewhat angry when she was making her remarks about community organizers vs mayors. Great red meat for the base, but it's the kind of thing that give a swing voter pause, mainly because it sounds like Bush/Cheney. The more they sound like Bush the more they play right into Obama's strategy, which has been to shackle McCain to an extremely unpopular president. If you look at from a rhetorical point of view, they do sound so much like Bush that it's unsettling.
Because no matter how he answers her, he'll be battling the lower half of McCain's ticket while McCain stays out of it and tries to look presidential. He can't go 1 on 1 with Gov Palin.
Obama is wisely tying her remarks to McCain and Bush, so that he's not trying to answer her point by point. It poses a dilemma similar to the one John Kerry faced with the Swiftboaters. Do you get into a 1 on 1 battle with peripheral players, or do you ignore them? Neither option is very good, so it's best if you can tie them to your main opponent and try to force him/her to either agree or denounce whatever mud is being flung.
Obama and his surrogates should simply ignore Palin, as I wrote last evening. They should pretend she doesn't even exist.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Make America All It Can Be!
are because so many people on the right and left wanted to see this Unknown. They wanted to see if she had any substance.
Her speech sounded like a high school class president speech.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden 08
http://barackobama.com