Returning the Favor and other Slices of Life

Returning the Favor
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Thursday, September 04, 2008

I enjoy talking politics

I really do. It's one of the few things left in the world that you're allowed to actually disagree about. And I disagree with several of my good friends on politics. And we can still be friends! It's ok to disagree.

For example, Easycure has a post up about the "liberal hack job" that Us weekly is doing on Sarah Palin. I commented, and StB replied to my comment. Instead of adding yet another wordy comment, I thought I'd just post here.

My Comment -

I just think she's a bad choice overall. This bit takes the "moral superiority" card off the table. The TrooperGate BS takes the "reform politician" card off the table. And her two years experience running Alaska takes the "my opponent has no experience" card off the table. She may be a very nice person, but politically she takes away valuable ammo from the McCampaign.

I don't doubt that she's a fine person and a good mom, even though her stand on abstinence-only education seems a little retarded now. But she was not the right call for the McCampaign. They would have been better off with any of several more visible, more viable female candidates.

StB's response -

Troopegate takes the reform card off the table??? That is laughable. Sure, let's put aside her ousting her own corrupt party members. No big thing there. How she didn't get pushed around by "big oil".

The experience card is gone because of Obama's experience doing what? Leading a city? Leading a state? It must bother you that Palin has more experience that Obama. That she has accomplished more than Obama. That she has taken on bigger challenges than Obama. Refute that.

See this pick is so much better than Biden that everyone feels the need ot bash it to bits.

As writers you should be concerned about Obama's attacks on free speech. But that isn't the cool thing yet so ignore it.

Now there are a couple of good points here, so I'll address them.

1) To me, Troopergate, unless it's resolved quickly and Palin is absolved of any innapropriate use of authority, does indeed take the reform card off the table. If she is found to have fired her employee because he wouldn't fire her former brother-in-law, then she's not much of a reformer. If she did indeed get a bunch of pork-barrel for her state by the same tactics that every other politician in the world has used for decades, then she's just more of the same. Not saying that the folks I've chosen to support are necessarily better, just that if those things are true, then she's no reformer.

2) The experience card is off the table because she has actually less experience in national-level politics than Obama. Yes, she has led a city. And she has led a state. She has the most chief executive experience of any of the four people on either ticket. She has more chief executive experience than her own running mate. And she still has never had to deal with any type of international politics, or make any decisions for more than 700,000 constituents (based on 2006 Alaska population stats). Obama, in his role as senator from Illinois, represented nearly 13 million people in the US Senate.

Now I'm not going to argue that there isn't a difference between governing a state and being a senator. Obviously the two posts are very different, but you can't really play up chief executive experience when your own lead dog doesn't have any. And since she's got less foreign policy experience than Obama, the card is off the table. And it was the best card the Republicans had t play against Obama.

And yes, she has accomplished great things, becoming the first female governor of Alaska. Raising a family while she's doing it. More power to her. But really, how much more has she accomplished than the guy who came from a broken home to make it to Harvard, then on to the Senate, and to become the first black dude to get on a major party ticket for president? I'd call this one a push on personal accomplishments. Now if we're talking accomplishments in office, we're probably gonna go with a push there, too, since neither of them spent enough time in office to actually make any lasting changes. Obama is a first-term senator, so he's not managed much. And Palin's been governor for less than two years, not nearly long enough to make much sweeping change. But I could certainly be wrong, and am prepared to concede this point if I am.

3) She is a much better pick than Biden. Hands. Fucking. Down.

StB, you picked yourself off the floor yet?

I've never been thrilled with Biden's selection, although I see it for what it was - a move to get some old white guys on board and shore up a weak foreign policy background. Even though I think Palin is totally unqualified to be one more tumor away from the White House, I still think she's a better pick. My gripe about John Edwards four years ago was that he didn't swing for the fences. The Palin pick is swinging for the fences, and that's the kind of moves McCampaign needs to make to win.

But she's just getting the same treatment every other candidate got through the primary season of upon their emergence into national politics. She certainly would have seen this same level of scrutiny by the Republican power machine if she'd run for the big chair herself. So she's getting tagged for having a knocked-up unwed daughter. Well, some of us (myself included) think that's what you reap when you sow abstinence-only education. Unfortunately, she's reaping a dose of reality about the fact that teenagers like to fuck! And the Troopergate thing is just like the Clinton land swindle. It's a pile of BS that the opposing party is bringing forward to make her look bad. Yup, it's BS, but it's no more or less BS than the fact that Obama sat on a board of directors and took $200 in campaign contributions from William Ayers.

TrooperGate is 99% likely to be a pile of crap. And Obama is 99% likely to be completely uninfluenced by the fact that William Ayers was a domestic terrorist. But the 1% makes it worth looking into. Which brings me to the most disturbing allegation - that Obama is attacking free speech. So I googled it, and it looks like the Obama campaign is pissed about some attack ads featuring his connection to William Ayers. And they've asked for a big DOJ investigation into the ads in the hopes of getting them blocked as “a knowing and willful attempt to violate the strictures of federal election law,” according to Obama's general counsel.

This is stupid. It's a terrible move on Obama's part and makes him look too much like the people he's fighting to depose. Srsly, he needs to get back on message and drop shit like this. It does need to be talked about, which might mark a record for number of times I've agreed with StB in any political discussion.

But I do think that Palin was the wrong call for the McCampaign VP slot. If she was a grab for Hillary voters, someone with no national or international-level politics is going to get it. If she was a grab for gun-toting anti-abortion voters, just run another war hero ad and get someone with more experience who has no surprises floating around. But it's gonna be interesting.

17 comments:

StB said...

Having trouble seeing the monitor from the floor...

DuggleBogey said...

Let me get this straight. Obama, a Senator, hasn't led a state, so he's less qualified to be president than Palin.

Check.

What is John W. McCain again?

DrChako said...

Insightful write up. As an undecided Republican, I think Palin was a good choice. She certainly has the Obama camp (and the liberal media) in a tizzy. And Hillary must be spitting-mad because she's no longer in the spotlight and may not be the first woman in the White House, so we've got that going for us.

I love listening to NPR in order to pick out the subtle (and not-so-subtle) subversive tones in their stories. So far, they have never mentioned Palin without an immediate segue into Troopergate. They really must be scared.

-DrC

Lucypher said...

Am I the only one troubled by the fact that the Republican platform would deny a raped woman the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy?
Forget the terrorists, the greatest threat to American freedom and liberty is the Republican party.

StB said...

Name Obama's accomplishments while in office duggle.

Easycure said...

Palin was picked, in my opinion, to counter (or compliment) McCain's age, sex and lack of real conservative standards. You have to realize that many Republicans think McCain is too centrist. Too capitulating. (Bet that scares you.) Palin is also strong on the 2nd Amendment, cannot be tied to the current (failed) Congress***, cannot be tied to Bush, she's female, a fresh face on the scene, and frankly, she's hott. I think she's a great pick; she's got the Republican base whipped up good, and could turn the tide in a close election.

If anyone thinks that Obama is going to win in a landslide is fooling themselves. It's a toss up. The electoral map is split fairly evenly, and Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Colorado are gonna decide the whole shooting match. And of course, if Obama can get Florida, he's the winner regardless.

***failed Congress being the Republicans who lost the majority because they spent like Democrats. The current Congress, unbelievably, is worse. (9% approval rating? LMAO)

Fuel55 said...

Which candidate for President spends the most in the last 4 years?

Which candidate holds America's creditors at bay for another 4 years?

Anonymous said...

Don't lose sight of the fact that Palin is the VP candidate. She is not running for President. I think you should compare the experience of the Presidential candidates, not the VP selection versus Obama.

Since Obama has not provided any specifics to his "change everything" campaign, do you know, SPECIFICALLY, what Obama will change, HOW he will change it, and how will he PAY for all of the changes? Yes, I said PAY for the changes.

You do know that the money will come from your wallet, right? A reduced paycheck is not that big of a deal, right?

You are OK if/when he grants amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens and you have to pay for pretty much every thing for them (Spanish speaking teachers since they do not want to learn English, health care, job training, housing, food stamps, welfare). We have to take care of Americans first. The rest of the world second.

Are you OK with 150 billion tax dollars being given to companies for alternative energy R&D? So much for capitalism. You really think that GE (largest producers of wind turbines) needs the "extra money"?

He does not want to drill in ANWR due to environmental concerns. Have you ever seen pictures of where the proposed ANWR drilling is to take place?

Do you believe him or a general in the field when Obama says the surge in Iraq is not working? If he says it is not working, SPECIFICALLY how is it not working in his opinion?

Say Bin Laden is found hiding in a cave. Do you think Obama has the guts to order the air strike to KILL him?

Obama does a great job of promising everything to everybody to get their vote. It is called pandering. He is a great used car salesman.

To Lucypher: Honestly, no real republican would deny a woman the right to abort a fetus because she was raped. Forget the Republicans and the terrorist. The greatest threat to American is Obama.

Lucypher said...

To anonymous: If that is true, then why did they deliberately remove rape as an allowable exception from their official platform? If you are suggesting they are hypocrits, then I will agree with you.

Anonymous said...

To lucypher:

I don't have the republican platform memorized (I know, I'm a bad middle of the road conservative republican), but if that was "in there" and then "removed", yes hypocrites.

I live in a red state that was red before it ever became a state. No body I know or have talked too would deny a woman that right.

There is not an Alaskan snowballs chance in hell that Palin would ever advocate that a woman should not have that right. No woman would.

On a side note, Alaskan snowballs are very heavy and more icy than their cousins that are found in the lower 48. They are similar to Canadian snowballs, except sometimes, those snowballs are made with Moosehead beer (which, by the way, is illegal to do in at least three Canadian provinces). The Canadian snowballs made with Drewrys are antiques. Keep those.

Fallstaff (more beer, which is never a bad thing), my apologies for high-jacking your blog comments. Perhaps I should start my very own poker blog and "brew something up."

Anonymous said...

Hey lucypher. Whenever someone makes a claim about a candidate, I always see what factcheck.org has to say:
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_mccain_want_to_ban_all_abortions.html

" He has said he favors a Constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion. He would allow exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at stake."

BigPirate said...

Reasonable discussion has no place on the internet. Move along.

Lucypher said...

OK, Ricardo. Here is a link to the New York Times article that specifically states the 2008 platform does not allow an exception for rape. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/politics/31abortion.html?ref=politics
You are right that McCain wanted the exception but I am right that the extremists would not allow it.
So, I ask you, is this what you would want for your sister or mother or daughter?

Anonymous said...

To lucypher:

Dude, everyone in the world knows that the New York Times is a propaganda machine for both the extremist liberals and conservative democratic parties (FOX is a propaganda machine for the republicans, CNN democrats, ...).

How many times has the New York Times published this type of information time after time, only to have a retraction a few days later that is buried somewhere in the middle of the paper!?! The retraction does not appear on the front page does it? No siree, and do you know what is even better? Huh? They never publish a mistake or an 'expose' on the front runners in the democratic party or for shame, on the final democratic candidate do they? Why is that you wonder... propaganda machine, thats why.

That rag (those tree killers) is not worth using as a liner in a bird cage. If you have a really catchy title or revealing cover story, you sell more papers. Sell more papers, make more money. Thats what it is all about in the long run, money.

Anonymous said...

So you vote based on party? What's the point of this discussion then?

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