So… It is hard to blog about the latest developments in politics and ignore the fact that the news of Palin’s daughter but that isn’t really why I’m here today.
Instead lets talk about the poor choice of the McCain Campaign and why I’m still worried.
Here are the facts: Gov. Palin is the chief executive of Alaska, est. 2006 pop. 670,053. Prior to becoming governor in *cough* *cough* 2006 she was mayor of Wasilla, est. 2008 pop. 6,715. Here’s a picture from a fellow WordPress Blogger in Alaska, Mudflats.
For reference, ForthandBack International Headquarters and Resort is located in Milwaukee. Milwaukee County, which also has an executive, has a est. 2006 population of 915,097.
Also of interest, is the fact that her acceptance speech in Dayton was in front of a crowd of 15,000, which is twice the size of the town she has lived in virtually her whole life. I have nothing against the small town since both Back and I comes from small towns, but I have to say, I am uncertain that I’ve met anyone in either of those towns I felt capable of becoming the Vice President in under two years.
What has the selection of Gov. Palin done that is positive for the McCain campaign? Excitement, conservatism, and of course unconventionality.
The excitement gap has been discussed at length in the conventional news media. John McCain has been at a disadvantage for a long time when it comes to energizing anyone to follow him. His message of honor and commitment to the nation is that of a bygone era. While we may seek to regain that sentiment it is unlikely that anyone will become excited when Sen. McCain talks about staying the course and sacrificing for the greater good. The surprise of Palin has spun out a message-less kind of excitement because it was so surprising.
Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton and will not be welcoming to the tent hoards of Hilary supporters. If the McCain campaign thought as much, Palin’s second speech in which she was booed for mentioning Hilary Clinton is proof enough. No, instead Palin brings in conservatives. What worries me is not that McCain wasn’t going to get the conservative vote, but instead that this selection will get a few more out than he might have before. There was always the chance that some would just refuse to vote. That chance had always worked in Obama’s favor since he has been registering and energizing more new voters than previous campaigns. Some of that effect may be mitigated now though by the excitement brought on by what seems to be the highly conservative VP pick. On the major divisive issue she is Anti-Abortion, Pro-Guns, and Pro-Drilling. She will attract those highly conservative members of our country that I frankly don’t trust. On the more intimate matters it seems she is the conservative leader of America’s most conservative state. Her 90% approval rate has fallen to 65% but is still very high. On the plus side, this state was so conservative that it was never even considered in play for Sen. Obama. Whereas Biden (D-DE) makes Pennsylvania playable, Palin brings McCain no states. Of course, Biden didn’t bring Delaware since it was already blue.
Unconventional is my polite way of saying Gov. Palin is a woman. She makes it hard for the Democratic ticket to attack without looking like bullies and she might bring a few females from the middle that were unsure of Clinton’s liberalism. Before Palin they might have stayed home. Here is what I will say about it though. It feels like cheap politics. A choice made because she is a woman. Sen. McCain has spoken of experience, insight, and service. Gov. Palin was not chosen for those reasons. She was chosen because of what she is, conservative and feminine. Hilary Clinton is a woman but she had to work hard for every vote she got. Gov. Palin was chosen as what looks like a political expediency in the waning months of a campaign that has been able to keep it close but never close enough. Is this a complement to our better half or a pander? It is my feeling that Sen. McCain was trying to hit two birds with one stone -the heart strings of women and the purse strings of conservatives. But sometimes, you miss both birds. When the luster wears off, as it appears to be doing already, I think we’ll see that McCain is running out of trick plays.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Alaska’s Republican State Senate President Lyda Green: “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?” (Green is from Palin’s home town of Wasilla.)
~Forth
3 responses so far ↓
Danielle // 2 September 2008 at 6:35 am |
Ok, I’m going to respond to the blog since [Forth] suggested I do so. I have worked with and have met Governor Sarah Palin. For those who don’t know, I live and work in Washington, DC and was a former politcal at the Department of the Interior. Anyway, I would like to say that out of the candidates on the ticket and yes even John McCain, Governor Palin is the only one with executive experience. Yes you can argue the whole, well she has only been governor for not even two years, but Governor Palin is not afraid to take on members of her own party. For those who don’t know, Governor Palin has sued the federal government and my former places of business for the listing of the polar bear as “threatened.”
Not only has she been Governor, but she was the Mayor of a small town. She was also Head of the Ethics (or at least I think thats the title) for the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission. When she saw that ethics violations were taking place she took then Governor Frank Murkowski on. Again for those who don’t know, Gov. Murkowski used to be a US Senator and replaced his position in the US Senate with his daughter, Lisa Murkowski. When Gov. Murkowski refused to investigate, she quit and ran for Governor. Not only did she beat a well known Republicans, she beat a well known Democrat as well. Saying that she doesn’t have “foreign policy experience” well, I guess working with Canada doesn’t count. Maybe going overseas to see the troops doesn’t count. The main role, I thought of a VP was domestic issues…guess I need to go back to school on that one.
Now, many will go after her because of the “ethics investigation” that is taking place for the firing of a state trooper that was married to her sister. However, when I read that there were reports that the trooper was “tazing” their children, yeah I would want someone fired too. The fact that the head the legislative investigation has said that Gov. Palin and her staff have been open during the investigation, leaves me to believe that there really isn’t an issue and that the Gov. was just doing her job.
In regards to experience, again Palin still has more experience than the rest of them. What exactly is a “Community Organizer” anyways? Thats great, Obama has served in the State Senate, but look at his record. In one of his ads he claimed to have been a major part in the welfare reform in the Chicago. But Senate records show that he actually voted against it. There were investigations of Sen. Obama throwing people off the ballet. And I love all those “present” votes he cast. Health Care for Children, yep, unless they survive an abortion!
In the US Senate alone, he has only showed up for work 143 days since taking office in 2004. On November 8th, a reporter for the AP asked him about running on a national ticket. Obama clearly stated that he was not comfortable with doing that, because he would have to start then, without having served one day in the Senate. Sen. Obama has voted for that “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska instead of sending federal earkmarked money down to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He has voted for bike trails over sending money to Minnesota to help rebuild the I-35W bridge. He did however, support a $1 million earmark that went to the University of IL-Chicago Hospital soon after his wife received a $200,000 pay raise…
Joe Biden, well thats a story in an of itself. He has been in the Senate for 32 years (but according to Obama, Washington has only been broken for 30 and McCain has been there for 26). Back in the 80’s, Biden was plagerizing speeches and last year made racist comments about Indian Americans working at 7-Elevens. He even made a racist comment about Obama at one point.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not McCain’s biggest fan. I believe that McCain/Feingold was a direct violation of my 1st Amendment right to give money to whoever I want. The Amnesty deal last year, ugh, don’t get me started on that. As someone who has had their ID stolen by an illegal immigrant, the first thing that comes to mind is, what part of illegal do you not understand???
As a young women in politics, I believe and admire Sarah Palin for everything she has done. She has stood up to the good ol’ boys in Politics and as the saying goes, “there is a trail of bodies of people who have crossed Sarah Palin.” I think she will be a wonderful VP and potential President, if that situation where ever to present itself.
I will end with this, I did find myself agreement with Sen. Obama on one thing…children of candidates are OFF-LIMITS.
Forth // 2 September 2008 at 5:03 pm |
There is a lot here and I’ve talked to Danielle about some of the stuff, but one point I want to contend is the issue of Palin’s former brother-in-law and what Danielle said about pushing for his firing.
I think it is a mistake to talk about it as an issue of whether he was a bad trooper or even of whether he is fit for duty. Sure he doesn’t sound like a real peach but that doesn’t give her a righteous duty to go above and beyond the law. The question is whether she abused her position to intercede in a matter with which she had a conflict of interest and then, when the AG stood up to her, remove him, too. What I want to know is whether the GOP is putting up a candidate for a very influential position who might not see the difference between right and legal. The law is meant to be a burden which might make it easy to say someone is guilty but difficult to prove.
On top of that, there are local reports that the complaints of the brother-in-law’s violations came long after the actual events which makes them seem more self-serving than magnanimous.
The biggest problem I see in all of this is that I don’t think McCain is very adept at controlling the news cycle. He is playing for keeps and I can’t for the life of me believe that a man of his experience and stature didn’t expect this reaction from the media. It is called Freak Show Politics for a reason and the likes of Drudge and Rove have been avid players for years. Political books are written about the genius (or evil-genius) of Rove and I’m sure McCain has a few of those books. It seems desperate to pick a VP-mate who is under investigation no matter how good she seems. There is just too much at stake.
Danielle // 3 September 2008 at 8:48 am |
Joe Biden’s son and brother (both lobbyists) have been indicted for fraud, but that hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention as 17 year Bristol Palin. How about Barack Obama’s ties to a domestic terrorist by the name of William Ayers or jailed developer Tony Rezko? Again, not much press on those two guys either.
I highly believe that there is a double standard in the media. Say what you want about Foxnews, Drudgereport (he was right on Clinton) etc. The fact that the media is so in love with Obama is a problem and they are not doing their jobs as journalists. The media has spent more time on Sarah Palin than they did on Eliot Spitzer using state funds to pay for sex. Spending more time on Palin than on John Edwards being unfaithful to his sick wife. I guess there really are two Americas in Edwards life…