On Friday, following McCain’s announcement that Sarah Palin was his choice for running mate, like way too many others I allowed myself to indulge in the fantasy that this was the stupidest decision of a GOP presidential candidate since Dan Quayle was tapped for the role. Now that my post-DNC sense of invincibility has worn off, however, so has my triumphalism. I woke up yesterday morning with a much different sense of the Sarah Palin choice. I think it’s a trap.
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Of course, Palin is useless for any actual debate on the subject that might require policy expertise and persuasive argumentation. In that, she’s similar to McCain, who is not identified as a Senator with any special knowledge on economic issues, and has been exposed as an out of touch multimillionaire.
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The McCain campaign is going to trot Palin out whenever they need to make the case that they feel America’s pain. They’re going to contrast her story to Obama’s, and even to Biden’s (not the part about being a scrappy kid from Scranton, but the part about being in the Senate for a million years). They’re going to have her stick relentlessly to her personal biography, and avoid at all costs any discussion of policy.And whenever any Democrat attacks her for being inexperienced, they’re going to turn to working class voters and ask why all these Harvard-educated, pointy-headed know-it-alls think that they know better how to help working families than a woman who worked her way through a demanding career while raising five kids, stayed married to her hard-working husband, and was so successful that she became a governor and then a VP nominee.
You Donks have said truly revolting things the past few days about Palin and her children. You sick weirdos ATTACKED HER CHILDREN. Your sick and twisted Donk leaders have been cheering on the destruction of New Orleans.
The Donk party is the party of hate. You should be ashamed of yourselves and your hateful behavior.
McCain/Palin needs some clever marketing for such a strange product. It might be a hoax. Still, a business school study.
Consider Nabisco’s Chocolate covered Chicken Fingers. A short lived product that appealed to lots of fat kids separately, but together made no sense. Many of the targeted obese liked it, but failed miserably when pushed more broadly.
“And whenever any Democrat attacks her for being inexperienced….”
”’Republicans will point out that Palin has more experience than Barry Sotero. Barry only worked in the Senate 144 days and didn’t actually do anything other than run for president.
Me thinks this “Drink the Koolaid” political diarrhea is soiling this poor little website.
“So, basically the thrust of this idea is that in a country filled with a lot of people who are demonstrably NOT smarter than a 5th grader, the Republicans want working class/poor America to vote for a candidate who selected one of them rather than because he and his VP are qualified to hold this office? Does that strike anyone else as just a tad condescending?”
It is if you’re a dumb ass Uncle make-it-up.
Are you?
haha, is Donk the new euphemism for Democrats and their sympathizers?
Yes! The Dems are going to do the work for the GOP themselves. Obama has such a mystical aura that they forgot that the main knock against him is inexperience.
Stepping in it again.
I don’t know a whole lot about Gov Palin yet but she must be a great choice. Look how the donks have gone into total panic mode.
She’s the only choice that makes McCain look good, all the ‘others’ would look better than him.
I get Palin and why the GOPers will like her — especially the conservative evangelicals.
Plus, she makes the ticket half as young and ten times as beautiful.
And she’s a woman!! WHOO! HOO!
Democrats’ plan was to say that if you vote Republican it means you hate niggers. Now if you vote Democrat, you’re sexist.
They wanted to call for change in Washington, and now the Republicans bring someone from Alaska and Arizona.
I think the plan is to make Democrats go crazy, and people will vote against those crazy people, kind of like when they gave George Tenet a medal.
# 1 Lou Minatti
“You sick weirdos ATTACKED HER CHILDREN. ”
Oh you mean like when that fat fuck Rush Limbaugh called Chelsea Clinton “The White House Dog”?
I don’t remember any republican outrage back then.
“Your sick and twisted Donk leaders have been cheering on the destruction of New Orleans.”
Just like a Republican shill to mis-interpret what he thinks he understands. While I think their approach was poor their intent was to point out the irony of how the religious right always claims “God” is on their side. Well if that is the case why would he give the Dem’s great weather for their convention and cause a Hurricane that is disrupting the Republican one.
Since I don’t believe that God, if their is one, causes anything to happen. So, I think that “some” liberals thought it acceptable to point out how “God” doesn’t seem to support the Republicans this year. They DO NOT wish harm on New Orleans or anyone else except the Republican party. They simply are pointing out the irony of the situation.
All republicans are disingenuous Hippocrates, just 4 years ago they were expounding the belief that the dems had chosen a VP that was way too inexperienced. How they won then I still don’t understand (probably stole the election).
“Of course, Obama is useless for any actual debate on the subject that might require policy expertise and persuasive argumentation.”
Of course. The appeal to the 5th graders is that if they elect him they’ll get free crap that is taken from the “rich”.
Lou Minatti: “You sick weirdos ATTACKED HER CHILDREN.”
Nope, we merely asked the question as to who her latest child was born. The good Governor could easily refute the allegation with a few medical records, but yet she doesn’t. Mmmm… I wonder why?
“Your sick and twisted Donk leaders have been cheering on the destruction of New Orleans.”
And the far Right actively prayed for the same to occur in Denver. What’s your point?
“The Donk party is the party of hate.”
You derogatively refer to all Democrats as “Donks,” “sick and twisted,” and “weirdos,” but yet we’re the party of hate?! Good luck with that brain of yours. It’ll take you far.
You should be ashamed of yourselves and your hateful behavior.
Oh, we are.
Good post Dave, and I think you have it nailed on this one. My question for you is how different is this than Clinton’s “Aww shucks…” nature? I wouldn’t consider it genuine either, would you?
In other words, is playing to the populous any different than playing down to the populous? For national politicians I doubt there’s a difference.
#18 – Your reply is prime evidence why people scroll past your statements. If you want to be like me you’ve got to throw in an ounce of content with your gallon of bullshit.
Political discussion in the United States is dead, and so with it, goes the Republic.
#14
> Well if that is the
> case why would he give
> the Dem’s great weather
> for their convention and
> cause a Hurricane that
> is disrupting the
> Republican one.
There is a hurricane in Minnesota? ;->
Just go on Digg and see how many anti-Palin stories have been floated to the front page. Since I consider most Digg users to be as far left as possible, its a good barometer of their fear. It really was a good choice.
It all basically started with this:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223 … the famous baby gate
Like usual the blogs got it wrong. It turns out the daughter is pregnant, underage and is currently not married to the father but will be according to the family. Whatever…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26496189/
Why or why does anyone care about any of this crap anymore? It feels so wrong even posting this stuff… I can’t imagine anyone wanting to blog about it.
From CNN:
Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior aide to Sen. John McCain confirmed to CNN Tuesday.
Republican presidential candidate McCain was aware of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he chose her mother for his running mate, the aide said.
“Senator McCain knew this and felt in no way did it disqualify her from being vice president,” said the aide. “Families have difficulties sometimes, and lucky for her she has a supportive family.”
The 17-year-old, a senior in high school, is about five months along, in her second trimester, according to the aide.
The aide said it was decided the campaign would reveal this information now because of rampant Internet rumors that Sarah Palin’s 4-month-old baby, who has Down syndrome, was actually Bristol’s.
“In the course of correcting that, we needed to get the truth out,” said the McCain aide.
Sarah and Todd Palin issued a statement saying they are “proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.”
They also asked the media to respect their daughter’s privacy.
It’s condescending for McCain to try to appeal to the kind of people you condescendingly refer to as “not smarter than a 5th grader”?
But Jeff this doesn’t disprove anything. 5 months pregnant means she conceived in May. That child was born in April.
Isn’t it “interesting” that the Bristol Palin announcement was made during the height of the hurricane?
Long and strong evidence that people tend to vote for the person who “feels right” since taking time to weigh the stances on issues gets in way of real life.
People on this blog constantly say that Obama hasn’t given detail about how he plans to pull off the promises of his speachifyin’ without taking the time to go to his campaign site to see some of the most spelled out policy papers that I can remember from any candidate. Compare them with the ones on the McCain site and there is no question who has provided the better level of detail.
But that takes time, and mental effort to digest, so people go with gut, back it up with anecdotal evidence from a few folk they know (so few that the probability of sampling error isn’t just large, it’s inevitable) or echo chamber blogs, or MSM channels they choose, and so American politics goes.
Ms. Palin will have strong emotional appeal to folks in the Developmental Disability community because she has a disable child. The attachment will be that she would therefore be sympathetic to policy and legislation that would help the DD community. There will be some backlash from parents who will see that she has farmed the kid out to relatives while she and Todd pursue careers, but it’s hard to know how many will react that way over the first hope. Others are going to question the judgement of a woman who will start leaking amniotic fluid, and risk a long trip back to her home with some bad odds. The problem with both “problems” is that if opponents try to make a big deal out of it, then they can (as Laura B has already in a preemptive strike) be countered with sexist bias. (Can’t a woman have a career? Can’t a woman choose?).
Reading comments on a couple of AK blogs and newspaper sites, it’s obvious that Ms. Palin is getting a bit of a Baby Bush reputation. A living advertisement for a collection of values, fronting for ambition, and dependent on her advisors to have a clue. But that’s going to be a hard sale, because there are a whole bunch of AK residents who are besides themselves with pride of place that an Alaskan Woman is on the ticket. And tribal instincts trump reality all the time.
Wee Sarah is a very canny pick by clan McCain indeed. The fact that she has zero real political experience is already being countered with she has “more executive experience” than all the other three, and that’s going to become a major talking point for Fox and friends. It’s T-Ball executive experience vs political experience in “the show” where the heat comes in at 100+ mph, but people who don’t want to get it wont, and will go with gut: she shur is perty, and smart, and owns guns, and shur is perty, and Christian, and ran the AK national guard sorta so she can fight, and shur is perty…… Dan Q is living proof that you don’t have to be qualified to be Veep: not even close to qualified.
It is interesting that the attacks come in the form of Christian=Bad, and Gov. of AK=Worthless Post in the Wilderness.
I think one thing the Left is really afraid of is the fact that the real change is now on the R side. You’ve got a straight-out-of-the-60’s-Liberal and his Senate Dinosaur with a healthy Left voting record on the “change” ticket. Now, the Rs have a VP candidate who’s as far outside the Beltway as you can get. If you really want a break from the same tired old politicians of the past, you’d have to go for the Hockey Mom. I can guarantee you my Mom would make a better POTUS, VPOTUS, or Representative than what’s on the ticket now.
So, who’s got the change now?
#28–kballweg==you are right up to date. Congrats.
I am amused by the FACT that NONE of the candidates have demonstrated leadership experience===they are all politicians.
Answering the obvious question, I think Johnson and Eisenhower are the most recent candidates with any kind of “proven” record.
Not amusing was the repuglican puke on Meet the Press yesterday who said “this election is not about issues, its about values.” Usually, the repug puke machine is not so obvious and direct about it.
Values is what makes people vote against their own economic self interest. Why abortion, gays, guns, and no new taxes has this appeal to 50% of the voters is beyond me.
Isn’t it interesting that an outspoken advocate of “abstinence only” sex education has a pregnant daughter?
And the gist of the article is that it is Republican’s who are not smarter than a 5th grader. Considering their inability to comprehend such basic scientific concepts as evolution, global warming, peak resources, population overshoot, and extinction, they may be right.
Oh and I am now hearing rumors that there may be some serious blowback on the whole Palin nomination coming from within the GOP, such that she may be pressured out in favor of Romney who has not released the 187 delegates he holds.
#29–geof==I wondered what your problem was and I think I’ve spotted it. You think your mom would make a good POTUS. And we should read anything else you post because……….