Tag: Palin

Categories
Election 2008 McCain Obama Politics Videos

McCain: Insulting the Voters’ Intelligence

[digg-reddit-me]McCain’s new ad:

Edit: McCain took down the ad from his YouTube page, but it is now posted on some others, so I have replaced the link to the ad in McCain’s YouTube with this copy of it.

The comments it is based on:

In Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver, he predicted this type of attack:

If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.

The question is: Are the American people dumb enough to fall for it?

And it’s far from the first time he has.

Continue reading “McCain: Insulting the Voters’ Intelligence”
Categories
Domestic issues Election 2008 McCain Politics

The Complicated Business of Judging Sarah Palin

Emily Bazelton and Dahlia Lithwick explain the complicated business of judging Sarah Palin (which “like it or not, in whispers and sometimes shouts…is what women do when they talk to each other”):

We don’t begrudge Sarah Palin her decision to run for vice president, or her decision to have a baby with Down syndrome, or even the act of doing both at the same time. Under most circumstances, that kind of ceiling-cracking would have us burning our nursing bras in solidarity. But oh how we wish we didn’t have to hear about her pulling off all these feats without household help—and without, or so she’s determined to make it appear, breaking a sweat or gaining a pound. Most of us mommies wish we could tote our kids to the office and work uninterrupted as they macramé quietly in their Pack-‘n’-Plays. It never worked for us, though. Does this woman sleep? Do conservative feminists really have to be the kind of larger-than-life working mothers who make every pro-family policy or job-based concession the rest of us require, and have finally demanded, seem like self-indulgence?

Think of the family-friendly policies Palin’s example would seem to brush aside. No need for child care subsidies or universal preschool if a mother of five can run the state without a babysitter. Who really needs family leave laws that protect women’s jobs if a governor can go back to work a few days after giving birth? And no need, it would seem, for employers to make any kind of concession to the complications that working parents bring with them to the workplace. Feminism, to the GOP, appears to mean never having to say you’re exhausted.

Categories
Election 2008 McCain Politics The Media

Chastizing the Media

Roger Simon at the Politico apologizes to Palin on behalf of the media:

On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry.

On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.

We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?

Bad questions. Bad media. Bad…

[W]e should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).

[And w]e should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: “Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.”

Categories
Election 2008 Humor McCain Politics

I Got Almost as Many Votes as Palin When I Was in College

[digg-reddit-me]

Not to be snide, but I realized when reading about Sarah Palin’s rapid rise to political stardom that until she became governor less than two years ago, her only elected position was mayor of a town about the size of a medium-sized college.

(I’m going to put aside – for the moment –  the fact that she won her election by politicizing the non-partisan job of mayor – running on a plank of Christianism, opposition to abortion, and gun rights – for a job that had nothing to do with any of these. And, in fact, her election marks the first time the state Republican party ran advertisements in the non-partisan town elections.)

McCain claims that Palin:

has been in elected office longer than Sen. Obama.

True enough. Because 616 Alaskans put their faith in her after the state Republican party spent valuable resources and she campaigned on issues she would have no say about.

The funny thing I realized was that I got nearly as many votes when I ran for campus-wide office in college and lost. The winners – Kevin Gallagher & Nicole Mortorano – got two less votes than Palin did. And my college only had 2,700 people in it. ((Yea, Palin got more votes later when she won the governorship – but McCain keeps saying that she’s been in elected office longer than Obama – because she won her first election in 1996.)) Palin won another term as mayor, and then lost a race, leaving her without an elected office for a few years.

Based on McCain’s understanding then, the moment someone is elected in an election as substantial as Palin’s, they start gaining “experience” in elected office. So now we can say that Palin – elected by a few hundred votes in 1996 has more experience than Obama – because she won elective office before Obama did.

My question is then, how many high school and college student leaders have begun to accumulate valuable “Experience”? And of course, McCain has been arguing that it is “Experience”, not judgment or knowledge or stuff like that, that makes one Ready to be a leader on Day One.

So – who out there has begun to accumulate this valuable experience that will enable you to be chosen as vice president? All you need is 616 votes, and the clock starts. Make your case here.

Email me at [email protected] or post the information in a comment and I’ll keep a running list.

Please include the name of each student leader, what they were running for, whether they won or lost, and any other information that seems appropriate (pictures, background, size of student body, and wherever possible, a link demonstrating the results.)

The Ready-On-Day-One Club

Name Votes Position Comment
Sarah Palin 616 (W) Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska We can’t all be as cosmopolitan as Obama, but this experience makes Palin Ready-On-Day-One.
Kevin Gallagher &
Nicole Mortorano		 614 (W) Co-chairs of Holy Cross SGA They almost reach the Palin threshhold.

[Image by svanes licensed under Creative Commons.]

Categories
Election 2008 McCain Politics

Palin’s Speech

Having watched Palin’s speech, I must say, Sarah Palin is quite a speech maker. But my instant reaction – is that it will not have the effect the Republicans hope it will. After every speaker attacked the media for being sexist and unfair to Palin, Palin was gratuitiously and obviously unfair to Barack Obama. In the hall, it played well. Among partisans, it played well. Among most independents and other voters, I’m sure it played well. But she had no vision for America, not sense of what comes next. She refused to acknowlege the tough times we are in.

She only did two things: defend herself and attack Obama – and she did both well. But this election will not be decided based on smears and whining. It will be decided on policy, if only a candidate can make the case. And Obama can.

My prediction is that polls taken that include tonight will show a McCain bounce. Polls taken that do no include tonight will not. Barack Obama will enter the second week of September with the same 8 point lead he entered the first week.

There is still more to come – and Palin can rally the Republican base like few others. But tonight, for all it’s electricity, was disappointing – because if Palin is the future of the Republican party, she has nothing to offer but fear – primarily of Obama, secondarilty of Islamic extremism, and tertiarilty, of taxes.