She's No Lady
This week, John McCain made the stupidest move of his political career. He put Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on the national stage.
It’s not that he put an unvetted, untested young politician in the spotlight, nor is it that he put her family, unwittingly or not on the national radar. It’s that he put out there a politician that will outshine him at his own convention, and possibly for the rest of the campaign. He placed a woman on the ticket that energized the Republican base and connected with them unlike McCain who had been struggling with them since the primaries began. With one pick he once again fired up the culture wars where we seemed to be actually talking about issues…for a moment.
Set up by low expectations, Sarah Palin has come out swinging, but just like McCain there’s little substance behind the snarky attacks against the Democrats, the media and those uppity citified folks who live on the coasts. Sure, she can give a speech, but the Republicans are holding her back from talking about foreign policy, or even domestic policy. Not only is the party keeping her sequestered, but they also claim that any criticism against her is “sexist.” It’s funny how they are trying to tell us that she’s so experienced, but apparently they are afraid to let her in front of a microphone without a script.
Still, Sarah Palin represents something far, far more dangerous. She is the candidate that the Christianist base of the Republican Party has been waiting for. While having to deal with Romney and Giuliani trying to make plays for their votes, and Karl Rove devising issues to keep them in line with the party but never fully delivering, here’s a candidate that has been lifted up for their approval. While we’ve all been cynical of her appeal to Hillary voters, the true beneficiaries of this candidacy are the hard core right wing Christians who finally have one of their own.
She is the culmination of all of the years of Bush-Cheney-Rove politics. As they encouraged the attacks on culture, and tried to rally people with talk of morals and fighting back against attacks on Christmas and life and marriage, you never got the feeling that their heart was really there. You never felt like they would actually fight for those issues more than putting it on the table for the next campaign.
Instead it encouraged more and more of the true believers to seek public office, to get in there and make the changes in small towns, and become state congress people. You end up with mayors trying to ban books and state representatives telling their supporters that homosexuality is the darkest evil, right after Muslims. Slowly these people have been empowered and it was just a matter of time before what would have been something on the fringe, like the John Birch Society, took hold of a major party.
So McCain unwittingly puts one of these true believers on the ticket. Reports said he wanted Joe Leiberman, but was told by the core base of the party that it was unacceptable so he quickly pulled Palin’s name. He didn’t know that she undermined his ability to be a reformer, a government spending cutter, and a maverick. Whatever she told him originally was an opportunistic lie that’s being borne out of her record as a small time mayor and a governor of a distant state. As much as any other regular politician, she goes with whatever message she thinks will sell until she’s caught in a lie. She doesn’t prove he’s a maverick, she proves that McCain can’t make important decisions.
The danger with her is that she’s a nasty piece of work. If you got sick of the “Loyal Bushies” over the last few years, then you’ll love a mayor who asked everyone to resign just to prove their loyalty. Or one that raises taxes, signs up for a lobbyist who’s attached to Jack Abramoff, builds unnecessary buildings and puts a once solvent town into debt just to get her vision of what the town should be.
Gone is the true spending cutters. Seven years of Bush have shown us that government can be bigger and more invasive than ever and when it comes to the Christianist base, the more the better. They are happy to see more spying, if it means knowing how the neighbors are plotting against them, happy to spend more for programs that used to mean money out of their pockets, like charitable works. Why shouldn’t the government give churches money to feed the homeless so the churches can then use their money for a bigger church, or a fancy new car for the pastor? Why not build a bridge to nowhere as long as it’s the government’s money, not ours. Oh, but don’t raise our taxes.
Sarah Palin is a person who would thank Bush for the Iraq war because she feels that it’s the Lord’s will. She’s already said that a new pipeline in Alaska is also the will of God. Anything can be wrapped up as a good thing if we just add God and Patriotism since those are the things you cannot attack, cannot criticize, but you can sure use against someone else in your attacks. It just goes back to the hypocrisy of saying your family is off-limits when embarrassing truths come out, but then you parade them on stage for half of your speech. Nothing is too outrageous of a claim to make anymore.
If you want four more years of Bush, the John McCain is not your man. It’s not to say that he’s not a sell out, and won’t be beholding to all of the people in the Republican Party who have put him there, but the true heir to the Bush Legacy is Sarah Palin, and many, many people may be looking to jettison McCain and go right to her. It’s not the fact that she’s great on policy, or foreign relations or that she’s a capable leader, it’s that she’s a true believer. Sure, she has an unwed pregnant daughter, but that sin is completely redeemed by the fact that the daughter will keep the baby, and has pledged to marry the poor sap that knocked her up. In the next few weeks they will find ways to find excuses for so many other shortcomings just because she’s one of them. You could see the glee in James Dobson’s eyes when she was picks, and now he suddenly supports the ticket.
Tonight John McCain will make one of the most important speeches of his life, but most people will come away not speaking of him, but praising the fact that he brought them Sarah Palin. I heard this morning on talk radio a caller saying he was happy that McCain brought them the second coming of Ronald Regan. Wrong president, but you get the idea.
She’s the legacy of the last 30 years of the conservative revolution, the natural extension of the pandering and selling of fear tactics and setting up straw men in pursuit of power. She is the natural end of a party that has overreached, overplayed their hand, and been eaten by the people they once laughed at as they courted their votes.
There’s very little he can do tonight to help himself, he’s already overshadowed by his pick, not just from the party base that loves her, but she’s gained all of the attention from the media and the Democrats, too. Just when McCain should have had his night, he finds that he’s been passed over for the new model.
It’s not that he put an unvetted, untested young politician in the spotlight, nor is it that he put her family, unwittingly or not on the national radar. It’s that he put out there a politician that will outshine him at his own convention, and possibly for the rest of the campaign. He placed a woman on the ticket that energized the Republican base and connected with them unlike McCain who had been struggling with them since the primaries began. With one pick he once again fired up the culture wars where we seemed to be actually talking about issues…for a moment.
Set up by low expectations, Sarah Palin has come out swinging, but just like McCain there’s little substance behind the snarky attacks against the Democrats, the media and those uppity citified folks who live on the coasts. Sure, she can give a speech, but the Republicans are holding her back from talking about foreign policy, or even domestic policy. Not only is the party keeping her sequestered, but they also claim that any criticism against her is “sexist.” It’s funny how they are trying to tell us that she’s so experienced, but apparently they are afraid to let her in front of a microphone without a script.
Still, Sarah Palin represents something far, far more dangerous. She is the candidate that the Christianist base of the Republican Party has been waiting for. While having to deal with Romney and Giuliani trying to make plays for their votes, and Karl Rove devising issues to keep them in line with the party but never fully delivering, here’s a candidate that has been lifted up for their approval. While we’ve all been cynical of her appeal to Hillary voters, the true beneficiaries of this candidacy are the hard core right wing Christians who finally have one of their own.
She is the culmination of all of the years of Bush-Cheney-Rove politics. As they encouraged the attacks on culture, and tried to rally people with talk of morals and fighting back against attacks on Christmas and life and marriage, you never got the feeling that their heart was really there. You never felt like they would actually fight for those issues more than putting it on the table for the next campaign.
Instead it encouraged more and more of the true believers to seek public office, to get in there and make the changes in small towns, and become state congress people. You end up with mayors trying to ban books and state representatives telling their supporters that homosexuality is the darkest evil, right after Muslims. Slowly these people have been empowered and it was just a matter of time before what would have been something on the fringe, like the John Birch Society, took hold of a major party.
So McCain unwittingly puts one of these true believers on the ticket. Reports said he wanted Joe Leiberman, but was told by the core base of the party that it was unacceptable so he quickly pulled Palin’s name. He didn’t know that she undermined his ability to be a reformer, a government spending cutter, and a maverick. Whatever she told him originally was an opportunistic lie that’s being borne out of her record as a small time mayor and a governor of a distant state. As much as any other regular politician, she goes with whatever message she thinks will sell until she’s caught in a lie. She doesn’t prove he’s a maverick, she proves that McCain can’t make important decisions.
The danger with her is that she’s a nasty piece of work. If you got sick of the “Loyal Bushies” over the last few years, then you’ll love a mayor who asked everyone to resign just to prove their loyalty. Or one that raises taxes, signs up for a lobbyist who’s attached to Jack Abramoff, builds unnecessary buildings and puts a once solvent town into debt just to get her vision of what the town should be.
Gone is the true spending cutters. Seven years of Bush have shown us that government can be bigger and more invasive than ever and when it comes to the Christianist base, the more the better. They are happy to see more spying, if it means knowing how the neighbors are plotting against them, happy to spend more for programs that used to mean money out of their pockets, like charitable works. Why shouldn’t the government give churches money to feed the homeless so the churches can then use their money for a bigger church, or a fancy new car for the pastor? Why not build a bridge to nowhere as long as it’s the government’s money, not ours. Oh, but don’t raise our taxes.
Sarah Palin is a person who would thank Bush for the Iraq war because she feels that it’s the Lord’s will. She’s already said that a new pipeline in Alaska is also the will of God. Anything can be wrapped up as a good thing if we just add God and Patriotism since those are the things you cannot attack, cannot criticize, but you can sure use against someone else in your attacks. It just goes back to the hypocrisy of saying your family is off-limits when embarrassing truths come out, but then you parade them on stage for half of your speech. Nothing is too outrageous of a claim to make anymore.
If you want four more years of Bush, the John McCain is not your man. It’s not to say that he’s not a sell out, and won’t be beholding to all of the people in the Republican Party who have put him there, but the true heir to the Bush Legacy is Sarah Palin, and many, many people may be looking to jettison McCain and go right to her. It’s not the fact that she’s great on policy, or foreign relations or that she’s a capable leader, it’s that she’s a true believer. Sure, she has an unwed pregnant daughter, but that sin is completely redeemed by the fact that the daughter will keep the baby, and has pledged to marry the poor sap that knocked her up. In the next few weeks they will find ways to find excuses for so many other shortcomings just because she’s one of them. You could see the glee in James Dobson’s eyes when she was picks, and now he suddenly supports the ticket.
Tonight John McCain will make one of the most important speeches of his life, but most people will come away not speaking of him, but praising the fact that he brought them Sarah Palin. I heard this morning on talk radio a caller saying he was happy that McCain brought them the second coming of Ronald Regan. Wrong president, but you get the idea.
She’s the legacy of the last 30 years of the conservative revolution, the natural extension of the pandering and selling of fear tactics and setting up straw men in pursuit of power. She is the natural end of a party that has overreached, overplayed their hand, and been eaten by the people they once laughed at as they courted their votes.
There’s very little he can do tonight to help himself, he’s already overshadowed by his pick, not just from the party base that loves her, but she’s gained all of the attention from the media and the Democrats, too. Just when McCain should have had his night, he finds that he’s been passed over for the new model.