Aug 31 2008
McCain’s Desperate Attempt to Pander to the Women’s Vote
John McCain just doesn’t get it. As he watches his last chance to become president slip through his fingers he has made one last desperate attempt to shore up his crumbling base. His choice of Sarah Palin demonstrates McCain is totally out of touch with the real world.
John McSame actually believes that the women of this country backed Hilliary because she was one of them. It was not Clinton’s gender that attracted a large following, rather it was her message. McCain’s choice of a right wing, gun toting, Steppford wife from Alaska illustrates how little he really understands about middle class America. By his choosing a nobody as running mate, someone no one ever heard of is an insult to the intelligence of American women.
Oh, and did we mention, that like so many other politicians she is presently under investigation?
Palin made her name in part by backing tough ethical standards for politicians. During the first legislative session after her election as governor, her administration passed a state ethics law overhaul.
Nevertheless, she is under investigation for her firing of a state official, Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. She has been instructed to hand over documents and recordings of telephone conversations as part of the inquiry, which grew out of allegations that she sacked Monegan for refusing to fire her former brother-in-law from the state police.
She has denied wrongdoing.
But Palin acknowledged that a member of her staff made a call to a trooper in which the staffer suggested that he was speaking for the governor.
Palin has admitted that the call could be interpreted as pressure to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, who was locked in a child-custody battle with Palin’s sister. She suspended the staffer who made the call. (Source: CNN)
So long John, its been fun. Now you can just go ahead and check yourself into Senior Meadows Rest Home. We all need a break.
Da Frog…I wish I could be optimistic about Sen. McCain’s chances being slim; yet as our recent history shows, the Electoral College is capable of egregious wrong. We are still only 538 Electoral votes away from more disaster.
Mad Celt, you are absolutely right. The Electoral College cast the only votes that count in this country. Citizens are under the mistaken impression that this is a democracy. It is not. We are a republic and as such we delegate people to speak and vote for us.
The Electoral College is an anachronistic institution that should be abolished. It is the result of 18th century thinking and has no place in the political landscape of the 21st century. It is a real shame when a candidate wins the popular vote only to loose the Electoral vote.
Sarah Palin, as a soccer mom, is a self-described pit bull. This image was enhanced by her acceptance speech on the 2008 republican presidential ticket. This speech, as it turns out, was written by Matthew Scully, a Bush speech writer. It was penned on an all-night session by Scully two weeks before Palin was chosen to be John McCain’s running mate. Like the glass slipper of a fairy tale princess, the republicans were looking for just the right princess to fit the pre-written speech.
McCain’s reasons for choosing Palin are not clear. His first choice, according to an insider, was actually Joe Lieberman. That leads to the possibility that McCain was not trusted by republican insiders to make his own choice. What Palin proved to her enthusiastic convention audience was that she gets an A+ for a faultless reading of someone’s else’s speech.
To think that this woman with her brief fling at public politics and her convoluted family politics was chosen above all others as John McCain’s vice president, is an affront to serious Americans of both sexes. Palin is still a political unknown except for the either glowingly flattering picture of her political triumphs by far right wing reporters or the picture of a 21st century reconstructed mental Neanderthal as seen by her horrified opponents.
When I watched the conventioneers’ reaction to Palin’s acceptance speech the other night, I was almost hynotised by the rapt expression and the wild enthusiasm of the audience as she read Scully’s speech. I am old enough to remember the newsreels that preceded WWII showing Adolf Hitler ranting before huge audiences of German citizens. The most common American reaction was that Hitler was a madman and a joke. People laughed. Soon after, the US was drawn into Hitler’s war and no one was laughing.
The expressions on the faces of Sarah’s listeners were almost identical to those of Hitler’s long ago captive audiences. All seemed totally taken in and the applause was loud and enthusiastic. Those who see through the sham, however, should be wary of laughing or taking Sarah’s tirade lightly. We already know she is a masterful demagogue with some very regressive ideas about the role of government and with the potential for vast misuse of power–and that is a very unhealthy thing for the 2ist century world.