Sunday, September 7, 2008

This Sarah Palin Thing is Really Galling Me.

You know, I really don't think that John McCain stands a snowball's chance in hell of winning the election in November. I believe that Barack Obama is history in the making and that McCain is a crusty old tax-slashin' conservative who tries not very convincingly to paint himself as some sort of moderate/maverick/thorn in the side of his own party. Yeah, he talks about the environment and the need to end bipartisan squabbling in Washinton, but by now he's backtracked on so many of his former stances like abortion and the religious right, and he voted almost every single time with worst president in the history of the universe, and anyway don't you get the feeling that, like any good conservative, McCain has a permanent hard-on for Ronald Reagan? Anyway, the point is: John McCain is like a moth in the face of an advancing storm, so why, especially after eight years of having the Antichrist in the vice president's office, is it so galling to me that McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate?

If you pay as much attention to the news as I do, then you too have noticed that Barack Obama is black. Moreover, his main adversary in the democratic primaries was a woman. One of these two was going to change history by becoming the first non-white male to win a major party's nomination. How does the Republican party react? By doing as they always do: pay lip service to progress. After all, it's the Democrats who were making the headlines while the Repubicans shuffled out a field of eight tired old men. They had to do something to pump some life into their campaign, right?

Apparently McCain and the Republicans think so little of the intelligence of the voting public that they thought they could choose this unknown governor from Alaska and that we'd mindlessly swallow the idea that she was the one they thought best qualified for the job. I mean, it's so obvious that, in the wake of the despicable Dick Cheney, in the face of all that's happening on the Democratic front, they came up with a list of potential women candidates and chose the most telegenic of them. Did they think a whole bunch of Hillary Clinton supporters would jump ship and swim toward any random female candidate? I think Clinton supporters are astute enough to do a little research and see that Palin is no substitute for Hillary.

Now, all this is not to say I don't think they should have chosen a woman. Sarah Palin may have a great smile, but I gotta believe there were better choices out there.

nwb

5 comments:

Kid Shay said...

Eight men out!
Glad you mentioned Snowe. My family's from Maine and they can't say enough good about her. For Obama I would have reccommended Janet Napolitano, but then Arizona would have been out a good governor.

BillBow Baggins said...

Snowe has always seemed a reasonable person. Wow, that's about the nicest thing I've ever said about a republican politician.

All of this is moot of course. Obama will triumph in a bloodbath of epic proportions, in spite of the cynical tactics of the right.

nwb

Anonymous said...

McCain in 08
Palin in 12

Where the hell has Jeff been? Freaking loser.

BillBow Baggins said...

Where the hell have YOU been? Cavs preview coming soon, just for you, Slates.

nwb

Anonymous said...

Snowe definitely would've been better than the secretive "Jews for Jesus Palin." But then again, nothing stirs up a wacko base by posting up one of their followers.

I have a very bad feeling about this mcbone...could be the stale late summer 2000 election again where Gore couldn't seal the deal and instead let Bush hang around with zingers like "they think Medicare is a gov't program" or "I wanna put food on your family."

Something is just strange in the air.

kb