Sarah Palin, for real?

So, billed previously as Alaska’s hottest governor, and probably Wasilla City Council’s hottest councilperson, Sarah Palin has been named to the VP slot on McCain’s ticket.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not discriminating because I’m against pretty faces in politics, but chiming in at 44 years old, she is even younger than Barack Obama. Needless to say as well, she has literally no experience in national, let alone international politics. On these two notes, Barack Obama has been relentlessly torn at by his republican opponents. But to McCain’s loyal groupies, these don’t matter, as long as you’re the Vice President, despite the age and fragility of John McCain himself and that he even said publicly that his VP would be one who could take the helm at a day’s notice… just in case, you know.

Sadly, it is all a cheap ploy to pick up some votes from undecided middle-ground women and socially conservative women. It’s not about bringing change to Washington as she claimed – and allow me to digress slightly here – she pretty much stole the Obama campaign slogan for change in her acceptance speech. McCain’s platform has never been about change. It has been about maintaining strong military presences in the middle east, staying dependent on oil regardless of its source, and continuing to think the US can unilaterally use brute force to police nuclear materials, dictators, and rogue states while taking on huge debts from China and not acknowledging the emergence of China as a new superpower. Yes, that is indeed, change. Although, Palin does openly support overturning Roe v Wade and endorses the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in public schools, and even create a constitutional amendment creating legal restrictions on who can love one another and get married. So, actually, I correct myself here, she does promote change – change being a regression to the 1950’s. Hooray.

Now, back to her as a woman candidate. It is a ploy to gain some ground with some of McCain’s weaker demographics. It’s not genuine, though. She claims herself to be a feminist and praddled on about Hillary (rightfully so) and her accomplishments in the democratic primaries, and said that the women of the nation aren’t done yet. She proudly thinks she will be the first female high office executive in our nation’s history, and yet said nothing about what she wants for women in this country.  Even Joe Biden mentioned closing the pay gap between men and women in his acceptance speech. It would be one thing if this was reversed and she was announced first, and Bidon, appealing to the undecided women voters made a stab for support in such a way. But it wasn’t like that at all, he genuinely said that without political prompting in his speech, and Sarah Palin just said she is going to shatter the glass that Hillary Clinton scratched.

In terms of strategy, it was a sound decision, and one that probably seemed good at the time. I have my doubts about it’s payoff come November, but we will see. She is detached enough that young moderate voters might actually see her as bringing about political reform; she has socially conservative views which will help bring about the “religious right” but she isn’t openly faith-guided in her politics which will help with the seculars as well. Her track record isn’t particularly sound, but I think McCain might be hoping she has been far enough under the radar that there won’t be enough time to air all of her questionable policies before the election.

I said this of Bidon, and it certainly applies to Palin. It’s not about the person or position of the vice president. We all know that the VP is a glorified non-voting Senator who is just next in line. Dick Cheney has set a high bar in vice presidential meddling, but that will probably remain the exception and not the rule. So it’s not about who is filling the role as VP, but about how it affects the electability of the team. Obama made a choice to help the apparent weak spots in his campaign instead of choosing another “we want changer,” or someone influential in a battleground state or demographic. McCain has chosen to pick someone who will be a counter to the public’s hesitation on his age, and pick up key weak demographics in his campaign.  We’ll see how it goes.

On an eye-rolling note, the die-hard McCain suppoters are even going so far as to say that this is just simply in his nature as a Maverick. Don’t be fooled, this is a purely calculated political dance. McCain may “shoot from the hip,” and that may appeal to some voters. I, however, would rather be represented to the rest of the world by a deeply thoughtful, insightful, intellectual president who weighs what he says and what he does before “shooting.”  Esepecially after Dick Cheney’s now legendary shooting (ooh, cheapshot!).

An Open Letter to Democrats.

Dear members of the Democratic Party, elected officials hailing from said party, and left-leaning political spectators,

Please, please, please, please don’t fuck this up (catch the J. Stewart reference, anyone?). We need this election, and we need ti badly. I think we can safely say we’re within striking distance of a united Congress and President.

Put your minor differences in liberal ideals aside for a moment, and think of the unifying concerns we all face. Health care, gas prices, defense spending, social security, declining housing market, unemployment, global social welfare (like contributing to disaster relief funds), and the list goes on (and was only in a marginally intentional order). While we, as democrats, may have minor differences in opinion about the best outcomes and procedures to procure such outcomes, we all have the same vague ideals in mind. Now, think about what we could get done with either of the two nominees. I won’t name them since that could be read as endorsement. Your favored or your less favored will still accomplish many of the goals of our party when paired up with the democratic Congress.

So is getting YOUR nominee to be the nominee in November worth risking throwing the high office to McCain? Let’s knock off the in-fighting; focus on constructive ways to strengthen your candidate and our party at the same time so that no matter who it is, our candidate doesn’t enter November with a black eye courtesy of the Democratic Party.

Sincerely,

Metadnauseam