Sarah Palin: Who?
Well, I made it back to Cleveland today.
This morning, when I got to Denver Int'l Airport I was treated to the sound of a member of a TV crew asking this question at loud volume into their cell phone: "Who the hell is Sarah Palin?"
So I told them: Sarah Palin is 44 years old, the mother of 5 who is the governor of Alaska, a state with less than half the population of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. 18 months ago, she was the mayor of a city with less than 10,000 residents. And in the 18 months she's served in office, she's already gotten herself embroiled in the Ted Stevens scandal.
This is a horrible, horrible VP pick that shows just how far the GOP has fallen. This is the Ken Blackwell trick all over again: in 2006, the Ohio GOP reasoned that maybe black voters would vote for a conservative ideologue if he was black. Now John McCain is betting that PUMA's will vote for a pair of conservatives ideologues because he put a female on the ticket.
If he really believes that, then he obviously can't read polling data. The older white women who were at the heart of Sen. Clinton's campaign for President and who held out at showing full-throated support for Sen. Obama are deeply concerned about the right to choose. McCain would have had a better shot at luring these voters had he chosen someone like former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a pro-choice GOPer who also was the first Secretary of Homeland Security.
Instead, this pick insinuates the GOPer belief that women will vote for a woman no matter what her politics. This has already offended many former Clinton supporters, at least one of whom has left me a message today to let me know she has gone from PUMA to firmly on the O-train in less than a week.
The scary part of this pick is that with the GOP nominating a man who would be the oldest ever person elected to his first term in office, in a job that is not exactly designed to bring youth to a person, and now he proposes to put a heartbeat away from the presidency someone who is shockingly inexperienced. As I said, 18 months ago Sarah Palin was the mayor of a city with significantly less population than the Cleveland suburb in which I reside. What if John McCain has a bout with cancer, or dementia, or a heart attaack? Could Sarah Palin negotitate with Vladimir Putin?
All I can say is, I'm already popping popcorn to watch Sarah Palin debate Joe Biden. That's going to be the most one-sided contest since, well, Ted Strickland beating up Ken Blackwell :)
Ford vs. Carter
Bush vs. Clinton
She certainly has fought back and challenged her party
Bullshit. Ted Stevens endorsed her for governor. Want me to give the video to prove it and post it just to prove how wrong you are?
Cleveland has 21 city council wards--about 10 too many. In each of those 21 council wards, there is approximately THREE TIMES as many people as there are in the whole of Palin's city. Numerous Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland suburbs have far more than 8,500 people--population of Palin's city. The city of Columbus has more people than all of Alaska.
Alaska doesn't even have much of a tax system to manage--aside from sending people oil money checks--and Palin's foreign policy experience consists of flying from Alaska to the United States. She told politico she doesn't know what the vice president's consitutional duties are. She's under investigation for attempting to get her sister's ex fired without cause. Ted Stevens appeared in 2006 ads for her. Despite these last two points, her entire political resume consists of attacking corruption. Remember those Elliot Spitzer and Marc Dann fellows, who were so full of themselves that they abused their powers after ranting and raving about others' corruption?
John McCain shows he puts country first by choosing a complete amateur to be one breath away from the presidency held by the oldest in history when we're currently in two land wars, Russia is threatening Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, and the Czech Republic, Iran and Russia are colluding against us, etc. Anyone think she's ever even BEEN to Detroit or Cleveland, let alone has a clue about the economic issues gutting these and hundreds of other cities? Anyone think her gender was a throw away, and not the central deciding factor? This is an unfathomably irresponsible selection. I understand the pick strategically. But to claim that John McCain "puts country first" is a crock. Let's just hope Biden tears her apart early and then runs out the clock like Jim Tressel, because if he lays into her too much or gets too cocky he could make a bad mistake/gaffe.
...and saying to himself...
"...articulate and bright and clean and...nice-looking...I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
"But guess what? You idiots have queued up so many women to vote for identity politics, it may not matter. All they care about is gender - guess who fills that need?"
Please be sure to say this to every Democratic woman you know all day, every day, through November 4. Thank you and God bless you.
TAmber, I find your comment about ritual suicide laughable. For one, neither of the owners of this site live in Columbus, so ritual suicide from the Lane Ave Bridge wouldn't make any sense.
What will I do if McCain wins? I'll watch him thrash for 4 long years against a Congress that will be firmly in Democratic control, knowing that by 2012 the last of "Generation Y" will be turning 18 and thus eligible to vote, creating a block of 85 million young people comprising fully one-third of the electorate who know that conservative policies haven't served them well, and will vote accordingly, and think to myself that John McCain could be the last GOP president for 20 years.