I would not have thought it possible, but McCain and his advisers have made the perfect vice presidential selection in Sarah Palin. It is an ingenious, even thrilling choice, and one that is all the more remarkable in that it was completely unexpected. All the other candidates, such as Romney and Pawlenty, were boring and came with serious drawbacks. Obama has certainly added excitement to the Democratic ticket; now, with his choice of Palin, McCain has done the same for the Republicans.
Compare Obama's unimaginative selection of Joe Biden--another Washington D.C. blowhard--with McCain's choice. I suppose Biden is supposed to win over lower-middle-class white voters by the fact that he is a backslapping good old boy who likes to watch football games and eat chili dogs. What Biden offers is a proven record of mediocrity, and perhaps he can appeal to mediocre people on the basis of a shared absence of accomplisment.
I'm not saying that Palin has accomplished much either. What she has is potential. The Obama camp has already released its first commercial attacking Palin. But how ridiculous does Obama sound in faulting her for lack of experience? Palin is serving her first term as governor, but then Obama is serving his first term as senator. Palin has no foreign policy experience and has only been to Iraq once; Obama's level of foreign policy experience is exactly the same. It's worth noting, in this context, that Obama, unlike Palin, is at the top of the ticket. Palin will at least have a chance to learn on the job; Obama wants to step right into the Oval Office. So every time the Democrats use the experience charge against Palin, they remind the American people of Obama's greatest weakness.
Here's why Palin is such a good choice. She seems like an incredibly wholesome person who doesn't so much talk about family values as embody them. This is the best kind of social conservative: one whose life is an exemplar of the kind of American dream that we can all admire. In attacking her, I think her critics like Paul Begala and James Carville sound like total jerks. I'd like to see more of those carping attack dogs on TV: they can only help Palin.
With her support for a muscular foreign policy and guns and oil drilling, Palin is an across-the-board conservative, which will reinforce McCain's credentials with the right-wing base of the party. Not that those guys had anyone else to vote for, but the choice of Palin will increase the enthusiasm of GOP activists in working hard for a McCain victory. Second, unlike Bush, McCain has chosen a deputy who can be a future leader of the Republican Party. Palin is also young and thus helps to neutralize Obama's youthful advantage. As a woman, Palin will not so much win over the disenchanted Hillary supporters as pick up Hillary's argument to independent voters that it's about time America had a strong woman in its top echelons of political office. For every Obama supporter who can claim an historic first for the Democrats, Palin enthusiasts can make an equal historic claim for the Republicans.
The media will continue to lionize Obama-Biden and attack McCain-Palin. It's only a short time before we start hearing that Palin is the "wrong kind of woman." (Would anyone dare argue that Obama is the "wrong kind of black man"?) Still, the American people have gotten pretty good at seeing through the media charade. A whole summer of media genuflections hasn't produced a substantial Democratic lead. For months, McCain and Obama have remained virtually tied. Now, with Palin, the Republicans have their first chance to pull ahead.
Reader Comments ( Page 21 of 22)
301. Clif...........please get a good stiff drink and a nice comfy nap.....K?
sjd8325 at 9:44PM on Sep 2nd 2008
302. Ok I agree with DD on this one. Obama's experience is non-existent. I actually heard a supporter on the radio during the Dem convention say that they were voting for him because he was a good speaker. Please I would be embarrassed to say something like that. Dems vote based on blind allegiance to the party. Are the Republicans any different? They seem to only vote for an anti-abortion candidate. They weren't "energized" until Palin was chosen. Mccain's experience wasn't enough to "energize" them?
So this is what we get as a country. One candidate that has no experience with a retread VP pick and another who panders to religious believers with a questionable VP chose. I'll either have a President who taxes the heck out of me for redistribution to under performers or someone who might support intel design education in science class as equal weight to evolution.
How about someone who will protect my country from terrorism and illegal invasion? How about someone who will stay out of my bedroom and let me have my privacy? How about someone who will keep the playing field level for poor/middle/rich citizens? Is there this someone? I haven't seen him/her?
Americans take responsibility for your own lives. Don't expect others to control your neighbors actions or finances. This government has shown countless times that there isn't a whole lot they do well. I don't want to entrust them with more then we have to.
Secular American at 10:07PM on Sep 2nd 2008
303. Just held my 10 month old niece. She is completely incapable of living on her own. She is a parasite. William, because she's not grown up yet, is she not a human being?
xxxxxx
well, god's this way and that about it. In numbers he says it's a human being over one month:
Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them. And Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD. -- Numbers 3:15-16
In many places, the unborn is not valued biblically:
Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. -- 2 Samuel 12:14
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life. -- Exodus 21:22-23
and so on. The bible isn't any useful reference when it comes to humanity of fetuses.
Clif Kuplen at 11:53PM on Sep 2nd 2008
304. How about someone who will stay out of my bedroom and let me have my privacy?
-social liberals, or democrats.
They aren't interested in your sex life and we expect to reexamine the fisa garbage after the election with a more favorable political distribution, hopefully.
That will put your fourth amendment rights back where they were before bush and the neocons.
xxxxxxxxx
How about someone who will keep the playing field level for poor/middle/rich citizens?
xxxxxxxxxxxx
YES! That is THE major issue this election.
The democrats want to enforce the Sherman and Clayton anti trust acts, which were written in 1890 and 1914 to outlaw monopolization in restraint of trade and price fixing and corporate collusion like the present web of directors sitting on each others' boards voting privilege for themselves at the expense of productivity. Failing to enforce them created the social imbalance and shrinking middle class that are conservative and republican trademarks as iterated in the conservative bible, Russel Kirk's The Conservative Mind
They worked and will work again but please help, please please please. Thanks for asking what I think is the most important questions we should be asking and I hope you can find a way to verify this for yourself. I'm pretty comfortable with the Obama platform and I know it can be done.
Even Clinton didn't do what he should have in this area. Obama talks about this a lot and it's a large part of the change we anticipate and are voting for.
Enforcing these laws again will give the small startup business a level playing field again for the first time since 1979. It will also disable the 'military industrial complex' Eisenhower warned against and neocons made into reality.
If you'd like some reading, I'd recommend talk show host Thom Hartmann. He's has an extremely detailed grasp of how our economic history went wrong these past thirty years, and how it can and ought to be normalized.
It can be done, but no republican is going to abandon corporate control of markets and outsourcing government to for profit corporations, both American and offshore.
They have to be regulated as we knew in 1890 and 1914 up until Reagan. It's time to do it again. Before Reagan, one middle class income could raise a family of four, buy a house keep new cars and send kids to college while mom stayed home and raised kids unless she *chose* a career.
Try it since Bush. Hell, try it since Reagan.
xxxxx
Is there this someone? I haven't seen him/her?
I think the democrats have the key and the man this year, Obama is like none before him. He's dedicated, an incredible mover and I think if anyone can bring the nation back to sanity, he can. I hope he can convince you too. One thing is certain. Mccain is just more of what we had the past eight years.
Clif Kuplen at 12:11AM on Sep 3rd 2008
305. thought 911 was when you have fallen and can't get up? You are a little closer to that age group, aren't ya?
xxx
Oh yeah, age. Think you'll last as long as I have?
Once again, hockey puck. make me a living zygote from dead gametes. Who stuck your fuckin tit in a wringer? You havin' a PMS moment?
Get it through your carapace. Gametes are alive. maybe a lot of your brain cells aren't.
Clif Kuplen at 12:37AM on Sep 3rd 2008
306. 301. Clif...........please get a good stiff drink and a nice comfy nap.....K?
sjd8325 at 9:44PM on Sep 2nd 2008
xxxx
I just polished off a quart of flaming light sweet crude cut with good ole Iowa gasohol outta Sean Hannity's skull. How's that?
I was indeed going to make a nice blanket out of the intact skin and catch a few Z's but it's gonna take a while.
He's a republican. You ever try and CLEAN one of them things?
Clif Kuplen at 12:52AM on Sep 3rd 2008
307. "well, god's this way and that about it. In numbers he says it's a human being over one month:" - Clif
Funny, but I don't remember referring to the Old Testament in any way, shape, or form. Are you assuming I'm following judeo-christian ethic? I was simply following the logic of Hays.
I can pick and choose from the bible also:
Psalm 139:13-14
13. For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Publius at 11:34AM on Sep 3rd 2008
308. Oh yeah, age. Think you'll last as long as I have?
Once again, hockey puck. make me a living zygote from dead gametes. Who stuck your fuckin tit in a wringer? You havin' a PMS moment?
Get it through your carapace. Gametes are alive. maybe a lot of your brain cells aren't.
Clif Kuplen at 12:37AM on Sep 3rd 2008
Oh yes the wise old man has spoken again or should I say preached again. I am Clif Kuplen , I am older then you therefore wiser then you. The fact that I, Clif am still living back in the 60s is of no matter . Just follow me and i will show you the true path to Woodstock, er I mean happiness.
At least you have dropped some of the foul language in your responses.
"Think you'll last as long as I have?" That will be easy considering the amount of self medicating that is evidently been going on by you.
M2D5 at 1:44PM on Sep 3rd 2008
309. can pick and choose from the bible also:
Psalm 139:13-14
13. For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Publius at 11:34AM on Sep 3rd 2008
xxxxxx
you certainly can, and thank you for cementing the point: the bible will tell you anything you want it to tell you and that is the salient point in dismissing it as an authority.
Clif Kuplen at 2:14PM on Sep 3rd 2008
310. The fact that I, Clif am still living back in the 60s is of no matter
you are the cracker, billy bob. go back to huffin' paint and fucking pigs or your cousin or whatever. If you had one good thing to say about me, bubba, I'd want delousing and rehab. Get a man crush on somebody else you closet rump wrangler. Try Hitler - he was just your speed.
Clif Kuplen at 2:23PM on Sep 3rd 2008
311. Try Hitler - he was just your speed.
Clif Kuplen at 2:23PM on Sep 3rd 2008
Naw he was really your speed. He was the one who was so intelligent. He had all the answers just like you. He could not tolerate somebody that disagreed with him. He viewed others as sub-humans who did not shared his views, animals just like you do. Like you, he referred to those of mix racial parents as half breeds. He was nothing more then a basket case with an over inflated opinion of himself like you . He was able to use people like you try to do.
M2D5 at 4:11PM on Sep 3rd 2008
312. Clif... what is with the hostility? we can discuss eggs and sperm all you want, but the core issue is the developing fetus and the semantics surrounding it. I really don't think anyone glorifies abortion, be it atheist or christian, and no one wants someone's beliefs forced upon them either... how about some balance, without the 911 calls?
Shannie at 4:40PM on Sep 3rd 2008
313. I really don't think anyone glorifies abortion, be it atheist or christian, and no one wants someone's beliefs forced upon them either... how about some balance, without the 911 calls?
xxx
If you treat me respectfully I will respond in kind. If not, I can play the dozens too. I didn't start it. You singled me out. Reread your posts.
I'm not moving on this but I will try to illustrate in a real world context and not make believe.
If someone showed up at my house with irrefutable proof that gametes were not living, meaning everything I learned in cytology, embryology, cellular pysiology, molecular genetics, enzyme biochemistry, physical chemistry, the works were fraudulent, I'd have an injury case right now and would supboena the messenger as expert testimony.
This would be possible because the statute of limitations would toll until I was informed if I had no reasonable way (and if all of science is wrong I would certainly have no reasonable way) of determining these things were fraudulent for myself.
I could certainly seek injury as could every college graduate and about any life touched professionally by them - virtually everyone.
So the epiphany that gametes are not living protoplasm, that their enzymes do not function ultimately tells you that the chemical theory would have to be wrong, because all syzygy is chemically is exchange of outer shell electrons but blocking that challenges the physics and ultimately the math.
So you can insist on whatever you believe but if science heeded you, it would grind to a halt right here right now and would not budge another inch.
The same thing would happen if your religion demanded that Pi equal 3.140. That would be the end of math, engineering, physics, chemistry and on and on.
That's why I keep saying that if your religion has any validity it *must* embrace 21st century science, just like it had to embrace Newton and La Place and Galileo and all scientific human progress through history.
If if can't reconcile evolution, which is about as non controversial as a science can get except among fundamentalists and people who use them, it isn't worth anything.
It's your privilege to believe anything you want, but you have no right to attempt to infuse superstition into things you very clearly don't grasp.
As a national policy, I mean - you're welcome to a personal opinion..this is not something that can be selected by popularity. We can legislate against snow but it will still fall.
You act like I'm the only one who knows this, but the things I mentioned here are basic first year college science 101, nothing complicated that everyone is exposed to.
Every person should know the things you argue aren't so. You only maintain this because your religion won't permit anything else, not because there's any evidence to the contrary. There is none.
That only hurts and it only hurts you.
If you have no faith in science, you become separate from reality and eventually will get taken in by anything, much like the wild guy who hates everyone and says he doesn't and uses his jesus du jour as the excuse. I've seen people like him all my life. They're not in any short supply.
Somebody gets his money without earning a nickel of it. That's the scam. Read william hays.
I'm just the messenger here, and I don't think we're in the land where time stood still. 21st century science may be scary now, but wait twenty years. If we don't destroy ourselves, you'll be amazed. Getting up to speed earlier than later ought to make sense to you. It always has to me.
Clif Kuplen at 6:33PM on Sep 3rd 2008
314. I'm just the messenger here, Clif Kuplen at 6:33PM on Sep 3rd 2008
Damn Clif, you sure are a popular fella here, maybe you should come out with your own cologne or something... "CK Blue State" maybe???
And God only knows how I bypass the URL limit... or why George W. Bush never got impeached or charged with treason for his war crimes OR his role in outting a CIA agent OR his illegal influence in the hiring of US Attorneys OR his utter failure to respond immediately to Hurricane Katrina or the attacks on 9/11...
FINN at 8:52PM on Sep 3rd 2008
315. ....maybe you should come out with your own cologne or something... "CK Blue State" maybe???
xxx
well, I did have some suggestions for Midsummer's Eve back in the seventies, but I never saw my industrial strength scent suggestions materialize on the shelf. I don't know why. I figured cheddar, mackerel, Durian, lutefisk and especially Novocaine would probably sell themselves. Go figure.
Clif Kuplen at 9:36PM on Sep 3rd 2008