I've been reading and hearing A LOT about Sarah Palin. It's impossible not to these days. In fact, if you'd just woken up from a 4-year nap in front of your TV in the middle of her ABC interview you'd swear she was the front runner for the top spot in this year's election based on the journalistic rectal exam she was given by Charlie Gibson.
I'll confess I've yet to see the entire interview, but he really went after her. And while some pundits on the right have been criticizing him for a double standard, I for one was glad he did go after her even if he wasn't even handed. From what I saw and heard she did about as well as any other candidate--some good answers, some not-so-good answers and some good ole' fashioned election-year non-answers. I think there will be plenty of ammo for both sides to come out of this.
But one thing I really, truly do not understand is the vilification of this woman and I'm used to the liberal hate machine. I mean she's yet to have a confidant commit suicide under mysterious circumstances or had to disown her pastor of 20 years for his racism, yet we are being told she is some she devil that has emerged-no wait-crawled from a swirling cesspool of "Babies, Lies and Scandals" in Alaska to steal reproductive rights, shoot wolves into extinction, persecute rape victims and probably eat our young. OK, I haven't heard that last one yet but it's only a matter of time. In the last three days I've seen more big media stories examining her conduct as a governor and mayor than I have investigative reports of Obama's voting record in the entire year+ he's been a candidate for President. And he has admitted ties to a convicted felon.
I can only conclude one of two things from the furor she's generated. Sarah Palin is pure evil OR the media and Democrats have lost their minds again. I'm not alone in suspecting the later. Camille Paglia, an atheist feminist, who also happens to be one of the most brilliant minds God has put on this earth, would say as much herself. At least that's what I gather from her essay that appeared in Salon a couple of days ago. I strongly encourage you to give it a read, especially if you want Obama to win.
Fresh Blood for the Vampire
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
The reason that Sarah Palin is getting hit with stories is because she's new. We have less than two months to get to know who she is when we've already had 19 to get to know Obama. This is a first time in American history we as a people were presented a decision that involved a relative nobody and have so short a time to get to know who she is and how she governs. The media frenzy should be completely expected.
Another thing she's got going against her is that the McCain campaign is shielding her from the media. Again this is a historical first in a presidential election to shield a VP from the media for so long. So this leaves everyone to rightfully seek the information they need in other fashions.
It also doesn't help that a large portion of what Sarah Palin says is completely contrary to fact. This isn't media spin I'm talking about, this is her own words and public record of her voting style.
As mayor she's been shown to be a reckless fiscal spender, and she raised taxes. If you examine the budgets of Wasilla, the town of 6000 with a 18 million dollar budget had no long term debt. After two terms it had 22 Million of long term debt. She hired a lobbiest connected with the convicted felon Abramhoff to secure $27 million dollars in earmarks from the government. That's $9000 per person (which by the way is a far more direct and nastier connection then that of Obama's weak connection to Ayers). And what did she spend it on? A $15 million new hockey rink for her son, that is still losing money in Wasilla.
As governor of Alaska she's still far and beyond the biggest earmark requester in the US, while on top of that handing every man, woman, and child $3200 in cash this month, and still maintains the largest per capita surplus in the Union. Why are we sending so much federal money to AK when they can obviously pay for it themselves?
But the real problem is with McCain. He's asking us as Americans to vote for a political newbie with little to no record of any major accomplishments, while a consistent record of fiscal irresponsibility and abuses of power. All evidence shows McCain did no vetting whatsoever in is VP pick. This is reckless. She is the most unqualified person to be on the top of the ticket in modern political history.
I used to respect McCain, and I would've voted for him over Hillary Clinton or any democrat because I once believed he was not of the GOP party. But I've watched him over the last few years start selling himself out, and now he makes the most irresponsible decision I've ever seen. You'll now see me running to the polls for "anyone but McCain"
We just got done with 8 years of Bush, and look where it got us. I don't care for 4 more. I'll admit, I voted for Bush the first time. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
BTW, this is only about 1/10th what I could rite about McCain/Palin and Obama. And all my opinions are based on sound facts, not media spin.
One last thing about that interview. That was a bunch of softballs. The GOP picked ABC's Gibson for a reason. If Gibson really wanted to press her he would've presented all the physical evidence that she's absolutely lying through her teeth.
When Palin gives an interview that would be equivalent to Bill O'Reilly's interview of Obama, then we can talk about how well she can hold herself.
And I thought no one read this. Good to hear from you. You say she's a relative newbie but you seem to have had no trouble finding information about her and forming an opinion within two-weeks of her nomination and after a single speech and media interview. Sounds like you didn't need much more time.
As for her being the most unqualified person at the top of the ticket in modern political history, that would be Obama. He has marginally more experience than her and he's actually running for President. And as for associations with scandal and corruption, you can't get much seedier than the Chicago political machine. Ayers is the least of his problems.
I mean if you're concerned about facts, it's a fact that Obama has a grand total four years on the national stage. McCain, nearly 22. Obama was a friend of convicted felon Tony Rezko. He took money from Rezko. He got a house through Rezko. He carried water for Rezko while in state office. This is not some six-degrees of separation association like you cite between Abramoff and Palin-who I will remind you is NOT the candidate for President. That's the most important fact in this entire debate. And the one fact that Obama's camp is ignoring to their peril. Because while they try to make her the issue, the rest of us know it is his relative lack of experience that has the greatest likelihood of biting us in the ass first. If he wants to win this election he needs to spend less time comparing himself to the opponent for the #2 position and more time reassuring us he's ready for the job he's actually running for.
I mean doesn't that bother you in the least that Palin is compared more often to him than she is Biden? The media and his campaign are actually trying to make the case that we should elect Obama president because he's slightly more qualified than his opponent's VP candidate.
And if they keep it up, that's why they will lose.
One more thing, do you really believe that Palin is more reckless a choice than Joe Biden who has already gone on the record to say he wasn't the best choice? He might as well have said, "Obama, while clean and articulate, was crazy for picking me." And knowing Biden, that was entirely within the realm of possibilities.
The argument about Rezko and Ayers is done until you can show ONE single shred of evidence that Obama did any wrong-doing or attempted to. The Chicago Suntimes had been digging with absolute ferocity into Obama's record for 3 years and haven't found even a single small piece of small evidence that Obama did anything. I know because I live in Chicago and I've read it. This is the same paper that has a long history of exposing Daley and the Governor's corruption. Even they had to apologize for jumping the gun and speculating "Public Official A" in the Rezko investigation was finally revealed to be Gov B. Since then the Suntimes has practically shut down the Obama part of the Rezko investigation, because it was based on Public Official A being Obama, and no new evidence of wrong doing on Obama's part ever surfaced in his trial.
With Ayers, all he did was go to one fundraiser and serve on a board with him. I served on a homeowner's association board and I can guarantee that there were people up there with that I didn't agree with at all. Serving on the board with someone does not equal agreement. This is classic GOP guilt by association with no evidence whatsoever tactics.
You even say that he's part of the political machine of Chicago, yet completely disregard that he lived and in the neighborhood that is the biggest thorn in Daley's side - Hyde Park. He and Daley barely spoke until Obama started running for president. You don't barely speak with Mayor Daley if you're part of the Chicago Political Machine. What launched Obama's political career was his community service. He made a name for himself doing that, not being a Daley hack.
Nothing is more powerful than the extremely corrupt Alaska political machine, the proof is the vast amount of earmarks received that far outpaces any other state per capita by the most oiled lobby machine in Washington. So does that mean Palin is currupt? No. The evidence showing she's had direct involvement in multiple abuses of power show she has a pension to be corrupt and the evidence that she still engages in the most oil lobbing machine until being picked for VP does. There is not one piece of evidence against Obama that even remotely compares to the hard physical evidence that continues to stack up against Palin. She's acting as if none of her deeds as Mayor or Governor were ever written down and recorded, or that her words to the Alaska press never made it on video attempt. She seems to think that now she's VP she can just completely forget all of her past and completely remake herself and no one will question it. I guess this comes from her college career that I discuss later. She has a bi-partisan committee agreeing to subpoena her husband and 12 other accomplices. She's had a conservative judge call her a child abuser on several occasions before she became governor for crying out loud and threatened to take away her sister's visitation rights if Palin and Todd (and other relatives) did not stop talking about baseless accusations of Trooper Wooten to her sister's kids. Deprecation of a parent to a child is most certainly emotional child abuse.
Obama has FAR more experienced than Palin. Mayor of a town of 6000 is NOT qualifications for VP. If Obama had the same experience, I wouldn't be voting for him. But if that's the mark, then I am more qualified to be VP than she is, but I am humble and smart enough to realize I'm not. I repeat, she is the only candidate in 50 years to never once even meet a foreign dignitary.
Normally the argument should be about the top of the ticket only. However this is a very different case than normal. You have the oldest candidate ever running for president, that continuously gets skin cancer and is a POW. POWs are dying at a MUCH higher rate than their non-POW counterparts. This is reality. Therefore, there is a much higher possibility that Palin will one day become president. Because Palin's experience is by far the least of any top ticket candidate, and it's plainly obvious that McCain made this decision by his gut without any vetting whatsoever, it's not a very good indication of McCain's decision making skills. The VP is the first and only real example of how we as voters can judge how a Presidential candidate will make their decisions. So according to McCain's example, he will make them by the gut, with little or no preparation, and without even researching facts. This is scary. Contrast that against Obama who obviously vetted Biden heavily and picked someone that compliments him greatly, and if something happened with Obama, absolutely has the experience and gravitas to take the helm if needed. Joe Biden's answer to if he has experience is an example of his humility. Palin's responce of you have to say yes without blinking is either a response that shows hubris far and beyond anything Obama has ever been accused of, or reckless analysis. You never make tough decisions like this "without blinking." You take time to sit back and evaluate the facts, reflect on your past decisions, then try to make the best decision possible. Joe Biden had plenty of time to evaluate that very real possibility of becoming VP. Palin had no clue until she got the phone call. She'd only ever met McCain once, filled out one questionair, and had one phone interview. No one from the McCain campaign sent anyone to AK to research her. Even the FBI background check the McCain campaign said they did turned out to be a lie. They didn't even do that.
Obama has a history of representing more people over a greater period of time. He's met with foriegn dignitaries and wrote at length about his foriegn policy principles for years now. He's served on the Senate foriegn relations committee and worked extremely hard on nuclear non-proliferation. To this day, Palin has absolutely no experience on any governing matter that is outside the boundaries of Alaska, and has never expressed one once of interest until now. Less then 6 months ago she said the only thing she new about the Iraq war was the little she heard from the news, and she was quoted as saying it was a "task from God." And if you believe she was quoting Abraham Lincoln I have a bridge to nowhere to sell you, because in that same speech she also said that building another pipeline was also a "task from God." Last time I checked, they didn't have pipelines back in Abraham Lincoln's time.
The evidence that Palin somehow ever remotely compares to Obama on experience is slim at best. The evidence that Palin has any of the experience to be placed as VP, is none.
And we aren't even touching Educational experience either. Palin's education was a bachelor's degree earn by attending 5 colleges in 6 years finally earning a degree in journalism from a school (University of Idaho) that is not known for turning out the greatest journalists. Obama when to Columbia and earn a Juris Doctorate from Harvard while being President of Law Review. I don't know how you feel about this, but just in case you happen to think these education experiences are somehow equated, you would first need to tell me - honestly - which education you'd prefer your child to have.
The grim reality is that Palin wouldn't even have been considered for VP if she was a man. And that exposes the absolute cynicism of the McCain campaign. Apparently after he got unfairly smeared horribly by Bush in 2000, he's lost his faith in the American people to do the right thing. And he's sold his sole to the far extreme religious right. Not that I'm an athiest, but the far extreme religious right always forgets those of us who are spiritual that have more moderate social leanings.
I get it. You don't like the woman.
I'll simply say to you what I had to tell another friend the other day, "Forgive me if I don't believe everything you've read."
I guess the official budgets of Wasilla, actual court documents of proceedings, videos of Palin's own words, and official records and numbers of her experience are something not to trust?
So are you basically telling me that you don't care about the hard evidence, you're going to believe what you want to believe? If so, what caused you to believe Palin so quickly? Would you even read the documents above?
Those aren't intended to be condescending questions.. I'm truly am wondering if that's what you mean.
And it's not that I don't like her.. it's that I feel she's grossly unqualified for any elected position. Given her record, I would never vote for her for anything until she proved to me in someway that she's learned from her failures. However, I would also say that's an uphill battle with her, because the first thing she has to show me is that she's no longer as comfortable as she is now with lying. Even Hillary Clinton finally fessed up to lying when she was caught in the same kind of whoppers Palin's telling right now.
My "feelings" are grounded in cold hard facts.
And for the record, I've done as much investigation into Obama. And I do have some disagreements on the man's policies, especially regarding his implementation of Health care and his FISA vote.
But if you had to ask who is the most qualified to be president and commander-in-chief, hands down it's Obama.
And forgive me if I have to say, I can't trust your judgment on the matter for now. It's essentially what you told me anyway. I was truly hoping you had more to add to the conversation, because I am trying to understand why people find Palin and McCain appealing.
OK
I just wanted to say: Good luck, we're all counting on you.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!
Post a Comment