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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
This whole piece is circular reasoning, but I don't have time to explain. Let's just say it's devoid of provable premises (FDR changed....what an argument!).
Readerreader, you have got to be seriously infatuated with Ms. Palin to be calling her the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Was just reading about him this past week, and I know for a fact she doesn't have one bit of his graciousness or love of language. His letters are quite marvelous and moving and the people who worked for him speak highly of him. Palin can barely speak a coherent sentence and cannot write well. The people she works with have nothing good to say about her prima donna behavior and work habits. I have to thank her, though, for the best Thanksgiving I've had in two decades in Alaska. My in-laws, ranging from 88-8, have roots here going back five generations and are absolutely typical Alaskans (high school educations mostly, but a few with college degrees, hardworking, community minded, newspaper readers, church goers with several different faiths) with no particular agenda. I generally say they are more "conservative than dirt" and avoid talking politics because my "yellow dog democrat" world view (thanks Mom!) is generally very different from theirs. This year, however, not a one of the fourteen had anything good to say about Palin. It was remarkable. They are all outraged that she is flying around the nation still campaigning...it's Georgia this weekend...when our state is facing education, health care and energy challenges like it has never seen. The price of gas and fuel oil here is still pushing $4 a gallon, it's worse in the bush, and people are fleeing the small towns for work in Anchorage, putting our school funding in a crisis. We lost 100 students this first semester alone. That's a lot of families who won't be shopping locally, paying rent, etc. It's just not Alaskan to put glitz and glamour ahead of hard work and everyone here knows it. When push comes to shove, this state is about people who roll up their sleeves and get to work. Palin wants the titles, she wants the press attention, but she does not want to put in a day at the office. This, you admire???
AIPAC. Nothing displayed the power of this foreign lobby more than ALL the candidates making an appearance at this group's convention to pledge undying fealty to the Likud Party's policies. Steve,l World War 2
First, let me be clear: McCain/Palin BAD! Obama? Simply a very bright man with a great sage presence and the gift of gab like a snake-oil huckster at a side show.
We'll soon pay for the continued erosion of our engagement as a people in political life.
Obama offers nothing new. He'll be far more articulate than the boob, George Bush, but he'll just take the comedy to a more intellectual level. If he's praying at all, it is that the American people remain the consistent dupes they have become since Ike warned us to pay attention.
Throughout the campaign there've been plenty of Obama policy positions "worthy" of our complaints. He doesn't even support lesbian and gay marriage - even though such support would not have cost him a single vote, I suspect. His statements about the situation in Israel/Palestine were to the right of Bush, not the least because he surrounds himself with advisors whose advise has already proved worse than useless. It is the job of informed activists to remain active and vocal. Whatever his personality and judgment, Obama can't know everything about everything: we can only hope he'll listen and learn from community "specialists."
Sue Katz, author
Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter's Guide to Sarah Palin
You could be right, of course, but allow me to suggest a contrary point of view. Palin's last appearance on the televised stage was her debate with Joe Biden. The Monday following that debate (reflecting three days of post-debate tracking), McCain made his last mini-surge in the polls, peaking at -2 in both IBD and Zogby. After that, Palin went on to a string of well attended rallies, the stock market crashed further, and McCain's numbers fell with it. The loss was McCain's fault.
As far as Mitt Romney is concerned, his "connection" with the auto industry strikes me as somewhat laughable. He campaigned in the Michigan primary as the "son of a car executive," with emphasis on the word "son." He claimed he would fight for the union jobs which are being lost (unlike free trader McCain), then, conversely, recently came out in favor of a chapter 11 filing for GM (which likely would accelerate the move toward selling GM's assets to foreign competitors, and ending the UAW). Romney has a business background, but no fresh or convincing ideas.
As far as Sarah Palin's experience is concerned, she has been an executive for twelve years and had a very successful start as governor, including a landmark conflicts bill, oil rebate program, and initial work on a substantial natural gas pipeline. The rap against her was that she wasn't conversant enough on federal and international issues, and it wasn't right just 60 days before the election to put such a person in the #2 spot behind a 70-something year old nominee. That's a fair argument, but if she ever runs for president, she'll have plenty of time to build her platform. She's very young; she could wait 8 years instead of 4, health permitting.
Also, I suspect the real reason a bit of souring took place over Palin was her criticism of Obama/Ayres. That happened, as you say, at the time people were locking in for Obama, and some "centrists" I know were not just bothered by the criticism . . . they went ballistic over it. One person I know responded to a robo-call on Ayres by calling the police, the newspapers, and everyone else they could think of to complain. Also became bitterly angry at Palin, suggesting she was trying to incite violence against Mr. Obama.
If you saw David Letterman's interview McCain touching on Palin and Ayres, his hands were shaking at one point. I've never seen Letterman so unglued. Again, I think it was just cognitive dissonance -- people who wanted Mr. Obama to win did not want to hear anything so unpleasant as friendships with bombers, even though you could of course responsibly put the thing in context, and support Mr. Obama anyway. Many apoloitical types did not want to do that; they chose to demonize Sarah Palin instead.
Finally, I don't think Sarah Palin is a "mindless populist" (as Newsweek called her), or another William Jennings Bryan (per one of her "defenders" in Newsweek). She is more like the old style Republicans from Benjamin H. Harrison to William McKinley: pro-business, pro-western development. I was surprised upon studying her record that she has never even spoken publicly on the 6-day creation, stating instead she believes that God created the world, and how it happened is a matter of private belief. That's how she's actually governed in Alaska, and would do so nationally, I believe.
So, sure, I think she has a great future.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
