WHY SARAH PALIN SCARES ME
For the first time since this long presidential race began, I am truly depressed. Even though there have been a number of ups and downs over the last few months (Jeremiah Wright anyone?), I have been continuously comforted by the fact that no one cares about the Republicans. And no matter how bad things got for the Dems, the country remained excited about the possibilities of the party. Could we have a black man or a woman as president? Could this field be any more talented? For the Republican side, on the other hand, it was always one big yawn.
That all changed on Wednesday night when an unknown Alaska governor named Sarah Palin came out of the mountains and -- to my great fear -- slam dunked her speech. And in one 36 minute interval, the GOP now has momentum, energy, and excitement: things they've completely lacked up to this point.
"Why so worried," people ask? "I mean, she's totally unqualified to be VP, and people will see that." My response: will they? If the Thursday morning Palin-gasm by the "liberal media" is any indication, I can totally see the -- often idiotic -- country falling in love with this woman's plucky spirit and down home values (whatever) but never really knowing that ...
- she thinks God wanted the Iraq war.
- she thinks God wants an oil pipeline through Alaska.
- she think creationism should be taught it schools.
- she thinks global warming is not man made.
- she doesn't believe in a woman's right to choose (under any circumstances).
I mean, she's pretty much Bush with lipstick (or maybe worse?), but here you have Wolf Blitzer calling her an "American hero" after one well delivered speech. Ugh, I think I'm going to throw up.
So, can we say anything negative about her to shake people back to reality? Of course not. What about her 17-year-old pregnant daughter? Oh, the family values, abstinence only crowd is telling us that this is a private matter. Would it be a private matter if Obama's kid was 17 and pregnant? Okay, so what about the fact that she has no foreign policy experience? Oh, Alaska borders Russia, so she's got that covered (still can't believe the liberal media lets that fly). Oh, and of course, she's an expert on energy, because ... um ... she thinks drilling is good? What about the fact that her only experience before governor is mayor of a small town? Oh, well, Barack Obama was a community organizer 20 years ago, so I guess they're even. I could go on ...
Why do I have this sinking feeling that McCain is going to walk into the Oval Office in January, and it's going to be because of a 36 minute speech on Wednesday night? Call me a pessimist, but I'm just so sick and tired of hearing Democratic concession speeches.
Labels: sarah palin
posted by Trekking Left @ 3:12 PM
23 comments
23 Comments:
Amen. Well put.
Who are you anyway AverageMan? Curious minds want to know..
(I promise I'm not a Palin henchman)
Here's a great rebuttal why the sugar rush of Palin's selection and speech may not last long. http://www.alternet.org/election08/97651/
Gives me some hope, at least.
And sorry, AverageReader, can't reveal that. But thanks for asking! :)
Be afraid.... ve veeeery afraid.
Today's Gallup has McCain with a ten point lead amongst people likely to vote.
"The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters"
How on earth is a survey of a thousand people going to tell us how 100 million people will vote? C'mon.
You left out the biggest reason to fear Palin. Most J6Ps were about to stay home on election day. They couldn't get it up after 8 yrs of bushco and mcshitstain at the plate. Now, with the eminently boneable ms palin in the race they have reason to go vote.
"Be afraid.... ve veeeery afraid."
Actually, more to the point, are you afraid of her as well? You've said before you're an atheist, and she's as nutjob evangelical as they come.
the evangelical thing is only one thing, though. in fact i'd rather have the evangelical in there than the loony tunes leftist. she cant foist her religion on all of us, but the loony tuners have succeeded in foisting the gay marriage and third term abortions down all of our throats. it's a lesser of two evils thing.
plus shes hot.
hello averageman,
i quit drinking the pentecostal flavoraid some time ago. To quote the movie Deathrow Gameshow: "I'm afraid of no-one". The presidency keeps getting stupider and stupider. I wouldn't have thought it possible because W was a new low, but they did it. There is no difference, Obama will be the same fascist with a liberal cloak. I doubt if I'll even vote.
http://www.bartcop.com/
buzzflash.com
By CNN Political Editor Mark Preston
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul will call on supporters to back a third party candidate for president Wednesday, rejecting his own party’s nominee and offering equally harsh words for the Democratic candidate, according to a senior Paul aide.
Paul, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination, will tell supporters he is not endorsing GOP nominee John McCain or Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and will instead give his seal of approval to four candidates: Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, independent candidate Ralph Nader and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, according to the aide.
The announcement will take place in the morning at the National Press Club in the nation’s capital.
"There is no difference, Obama will be the same fascist with a liberal cloak."
Edgar, absolutely not. If nothing else, three words: Supreme Court Justices. Besides that, he's an intelligent, capable man, who is going to be far more willing to listen and respond to our agenda than mcsame ever will. FDR and Teddy both ran as moderates, then public pressure made them do the good things they did.
Quit being so defeatist! Go volunteer for the campaign, and put that aggravated energy to use already, willya? :)
"she cant foist her religion on all of us, but the loony tuners have succeeded in foisting the gay marriage and third term abortions down all of our throats."
She could absolutely foist her religion. McSame ain't no spring chicken. She wants creationism taught in public schools. She fired a librarian who balked at her inquiries for banning books. And she's made it very clear she would outlaw all abortion -- rape or incest, doesn't matter, girl's gotta carry it to term. That's incredibly f&cked up, pun intended.
Nobody, not on the right, the left or inbetween, is "in favor" of third-trimester abortions. It's an extremely rare procedure (done only when a doctor is certain the mother's life is at stake) that's being used politically to provoke unnecessary outrage. Hell, nobody I've ever known is "in favor" of abortion, period. I want it legal, safe, and made as absolutely rare as possible, through education and contraception. And leave the final call up to the one who has to bear it and is ultimately responsible for it.
And lastly, how does gay people getting married affect you in the slightest? Legalizing it doesn't mean you have to get one, you know. :) It simply means people have equal rights under the law, which is what this country is all about.
But I forget, you would rather suck up to power (and/or those who make you feel powerful) than vote for your best interests. Never ceases to amaze.
defeatist? naw, i'm leaving on the spaceship in a little over four short years baybee! I'll be back when the world is free and clear once more. It shouldn't take more than an eon or teo. :D
But how is voting for B. Hussein in MY best interests?
Even the President doesn't have the power to singlehandedly make it law that creationism gets taught in schools. Even the President doesnt have the power to singlehandedly outlaw fetus slaughter. Even Sarah Palin as President singlehandedly turn every American into a tongues talker. You might be a little too scared of this woman.
"But how is voting for B. Hussein in MY best interests?"
If you make less than $250K a year, he will lower your taxes. How's that?
aha! i do. try again.
Dude, in what way have the last eight years been good to you? How on earth can you want more of that?
Well there's one way: none of my friends got killed in a terrorist attack on our soil, unlike on 9/11, so there's that.
Aha! So never mind our falling economy, loss of your home's value, our jobs going overseas, plus continuous lying, stealing, and incompetence -- just continue kissing the asses of the (seemingly) powerful, and you'll be safe from terrorists.
Not only is a bullying, go-it-alone, military action-only strategy not going to protect us, it's draining our treasury dry.
You've let irrational fear override your logical decision making process. The Republicans (especially Rove) know this full well, and unfortunately, they're using it to manipulate you.
Think for a second about what the actual, realistic threats to you and your family's health and safety are on a daily basis. Odds are, "terrorist attack" isn't even in the top hundred.
Firstly, no one's kissing anyone's ass over here. You can imagine it happening all you like, but it ain't.
Secondly, my home's value may have decreased over the last two years, but I'm not going anywhere, I'm not trying to make a buck off of it, and I'm not looking to make a profit from it very soon. As for lying and stealing, well, that's just your dim view of the world shining through into your commentary.
How is it that you lefty's feel as if you can "see through" the alleged lies and manipulations of the Rove's of the world but the folks who ascribe to that doctrine are blinded by it? It sounds arrogant, man. Do you think you're smarter than me? It sounds like you think you're smarter than me, that you think I'm some kind of sheep, blindly following. I'm in a good fucking spot. I might be in a better spot than you. Yet, you still believe that you are more intelligent than the folks from my wing because we fail to see through the manipulations of the people we as a nation elected, and who some support (gasp!). It's pompous of you to allege that.
As for a terrorist attack affecting me personally? Like I've said before sir, one already has. Does that diminish the odds of me personally being affected by the next one? Maybe. Is it so wrong for me to have high on my priority list the prevention of another one? Listen: you might need to re-think your stance in this thread. I thought the liberals were all about helping out the next man, concern for the welfare of everyone in the society, you know, fighting for the little guy. Your comments about terrorism not being in the top 100 says to me that you seem only to be concerned about yourself. Yes we live in an enclave here that will likely only be touched by islamofascism if the wind blows west from LA after the first dirty bomb goes off there. Not likely, right? Your tact then is to say, why worry? It's not affecting you, right? My only point is that it hasn't happened in seven years, and thanks go to the current administration for employing thousands of men and women and billions of dollars to make sure that we as Americans are doing all that we can to keep a 9/11 from ever happening again. And to you and your ilk, that is a bad thing. There's something wrong there.
No, I don't think you're unintelligent, quite the contrary! I'm sorry if you took it that way. My point was that this is how our brains are wired -- when we're scared, we go into the primal, animalistic "fight or flight" part, that tells us to side with whoever we think will protect us, no questions asked. On the other hand, when we're calm, we can use the part that thinks rationally and evaluates. Rove, Cheney and co. absolutely know this, and use it to their full advantage -- scare the hell out of us, then tell us only they can protect us. (Hell, it's McCain/Rove's entire campaign strategy -- "Obama's a muslim! Obama's a black radical! Obama wants to teach sex ed to kindergardners!" None of it's true, and after a few days everyone realizes it, but by then they're on to the next lie.)
I know it works, because I feel it too when Bush & Condi talk about "mushroom clouds" and Powell holds up the little vial. I start to think "shit, we could really be in trouble." But when I calm down and look at the actions they take, and what their track record is for actually being right about absolutely anything at all, I realize they are quite deliberately scaring us so they can loot our treasury, break our laws, and sell the broken pieces of our government off to private businesses.
Neocons have absolutely no intention of running the government well, and I don't trust them for a second to do what it takes to stop another attack, or handle it if we had one -- look at Katrina and the failing economy for just two examples. If terrorists attacked right now, would you blame them for their incompetence, or believe them when they tell us yet again that they're the only ones "tough enough" to protect us? It's a shitty, shitty trick they've been playing, and they should be hauled off to jail (at the very least) for it. I don't think this is a "dim view", it's just acknowledging the truth.
My overall view of people and the world is quite the contrary, actually -- we absolutely need to stick together and look out for each other! In fact, it's the only way to make the world a better, and safer, place for our kids and grandkids.I certainly don't want to ignore the threat of a terrorist attack, just put it in perspective. Since you lost friends, I can understand why that's tough to do. But the fact is, hundreds of things -- diseases, natural disasters, traffic accidents, hell, probably shark attacks -- are far more likely threats. Which means that health care, a clean environment, regulation of business and our economy, and working with (instead of against) other countries to police the world, should be our top priorities.
That, and killing all sharks.
As usual, you make several excellent points sir. I think I'll keep reading :)
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