Wake up, America

[kuddliphish]

I don't often post about politics. These days I admit that I don't often think about politics--I've got enough on my mind keeping track of my little corner of the world without worrying about things that are largely out of my control. But the fervor over Palin has broken into my little politics free bubble and so today I donated to the Obama

Comments

[percussivebunny]

i just want to say thank you for the post. because: exactly.

[akjdg]

My expectation is that once the McCain campaign lifts the media access blackout on Palin (as it must eventually do), then America will start to realize that she is just window dressing. I think her clock will run out before the election. If nothing else, the VP debates should be definitive.

Issues aside, I didn't think she had the credentials to govern Alaska, and 2 years in office is insufficient time to prove me right or wrong with any of her big policy actions (although the AGIA press conference where she opened the five proposals to build a $20 billion gas pipeline, and the media had to scamper off and google four of the five applicants because no one had heard of them was telling) Needless to say, I hardly think she is qualified for the vice presidency.

[kuddliphish]

I very much hope you are right. And thank you for commenting, since you've got more experience with her than the rest of us.

[goteam]

Word is the Obama campaign got $10 million in donations just during Palin's speech at the RNC, which I'm hoping means there's lots of people having a reaction like yours to her nomination. Also: gah! And of course you are ever so right.

[kuddliphish]

I have heard this rumor, and I rejoice and am glad in it!

[akakd]

Palin has the complete self-assurance of someone who knows she's right all the time. That can be immensely appealing to the segment of American society that sees introspection as weakness and that feels that certainty, even when misplaced, is better than thoughtfulness.

That said, I really can't see her doing much more than mobilizing the base. If McCain really chose her, as is the rumor, in an effort to win over disenfranchised Hillary voters, I cannot imagine it will work. The only thing that Palin and Clinton have in common is that they are both women.

[pmb]

Disagree. The status quo right now is v. v. bad. We need the pendulum to swing the other way for about 2 years before we reengage gridlock. Also, McCain wants to go to war with Iran, which remains a v. v. bad idea.

[kuddliphish]

Ordinarily, I'd agree with you--I do like Washington to be split, but the Democratic Congress has been doing a very poor job fighting the truly awful Bush administration. I think the Dems need the ego boost, for lack of a better word, of winning the White House in order to be more effective at creating gridlock later. I think if they *don't* win back the White House after suffering through eight years of Bush, they will become completely demoralized and unable to block McCain on anything. Much better for Republicans to win back congress in a couple of years.

The possibility of more Republican picked Supreme Court Justices also weighs heavily on my mind.

(plus I worry that the people crazy enough to pray for McCain's death might decide to take the matter out of God's hands, as it were)