The time is now to frame this choice, and to define Palin for what she really stands for – before the republicans lie and do it themselves.
It is crucial now in the first few days to set the tone and the narrative with respect to what is really the latest major decision by the McCain campaign questioned by both the left and right. And once everyone gets past the surface, and once anyone looks beyond her inexperience, her personal story, how “desperate” this may or may not look, the fact that she is the first woman VP candidate on the republican side, her “not-being ready for prime time” when it comes to foreign policy matters, the comparisons to Quayle or Agnew (both of whom were on winning tickets, by the way) and whatever else is said about McCain’s choice (inappropriate or not), there is one thing that still shines through:
Palin is really just more of the same.
More of the same belief in the failed republican and conservative policies that got this country to were we are now. More of the flippant remarks about the importance of high level Administration positions. More of Bush. More of Dobson and the fundamentalists. More “out of touch with America”.
Her positions and views will come trickling out over the next few weeks. Some of them will likely be obscured, while others (both good and bad) will be covered more. This could very well turn out to be dismissed and ridiculed as the Harriet Miers debacle was, or it could be played up based on her family and background.
But all of this should be tied to one overarching theme – her choice as running mate may be unprecedented for the republicans, but she is a typical republican on most of the important issues.
This has to be about ISSUES and her extreme republican views.
- More of the same cozying up to Big Oil;
- More of the same reliance on “sound science” to deny climate change;
- More belief in government intruding into people’s private lives when it comes to their own personal private decisions;
- More ethics investigations;
- More potential abuse of power;
- more ties to corrupt indicted republicans;
- More lack of a clue about the middle class plight with strong approval by the Club for Growth.
There is already a desperate attempt by republicans to play up her “life experience” to offset the lack of any foreign policy or major executive experience (less than 2 years of a first term Governorship hardly qualifies). This is what the right will try to do in order to make up for her lack of a resume.
And with all that, the inexperience, the opportunity to define not just Palin but more importantly, McCain’s judgment and hypocrisy and shameless pandering is a short window. Her stances, positions and views will come out in time. And all of them should tie into one overall theme:
There is no difference between Palin and McCain and Bush and the failed republican policies. And what’s worse, Palin would be in way over her head if anything were to happen to the 72 year old man who is not in the best of health for his age at the top of the ticket.
More of the same. But with less experience.
The Obama campaign is right on top of it.
http://www.jedreport.com/2008/08/obama-biden-vs-bush-mccain.html
Palin is just more of the God, Guns, and Gop mindset that we’ve endured as a country now, for 8 years. Choosing Palin was completely irresponsible on John McCain’s part, and it really does show just how much contempt for America the Gop really does have.
God forbid-should anything happen to McCain-we’d actually have a president who doesn’t even have an opinion-yet-on a war that is literally tearing the country in two. Haven’t we already done that kind of ignorance and self-involvement with the Bush White House? I don’t think the United States could handle even four more years of this kind of incompetent, ignorant, arrogant, governance. Heaven help us.
Yes, it isn’t personal. She’s a nice lady. She has some strange beliefs on a few things…little wacky, but she’s a good person. The problem is that she has no qualifications to be president and that she agrees with Bush and Cheney on almost every important issue. It’s not personal.
But the focus will be on the personal – her story – her beliefs which unfortunately many people share – and she is a good person – a fresh face after an endless campaign season.
Bush wasn’t qualified to become President – likeability and rigged elections worked well.
Thanks clammyc! I’ve been trying to think of her name since yesterday. McCain’s decision making process is all Bush. We will have to get some preschoolers together to figure out the thinking behind this pick.
A search of the archives proves that Steven D predicted this.
Wow he sure did.
That’s all well and good for us, the base. But the question about Palin right now is whether she can take over at a moment’s notice. We need to be hammering to the American people the singular message that she isn’t ready, not that she’s conservative. We can do that later if need be. But her inexperience cuts across ideological lines and is something everyone is asking themselves. That is the game-changing issue. We need to define her as too green.
We need the MSM to stop repeating rethug lies, since the brewing scandal
Alaskan blogs are reporting her approval drops albeit 67 is still high it is NOT friggin 90%
here is the info
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-is-mccain-thinking-one-alaskans-perspective/
Oh and according to Poblano of 538…WOMEN repeat WOMAN are less happy with the Palin pic according to reTHUG Rassmussen pollers….bwahahahaha
I have to disagree. Palin, and what this choice says about McCain, is not more of the same. Her selection marks a shift as far right as you can get.
McCain pretended to be concerned with global warming, yet picked a successor who thinks global warming is a lie.
He pretended to care about women, yet picked a successor who wants the police to force a 14-year-old girl to deliver what grew in her after her daddy raped her.
He pretended to care about the environment, yet picked a successor who want to declare open season on polar bears and the rest of the endangered species in America’s last wild place.
He pretended concern that the commander in chief should have long foreign policy experience, yet chose a successor whose administrative experience consists of governing a population the size of Memphis’s for a year and a half.
He pretended to care about corruption, yet chose as his successor Ted Stevens’s number-one protege who went on to fire the state’s head law enforcer for not using his power to harrass her brother-in-law sufficiently.
McCain pretended to care about America’s education, yet chose a successor who wants to force America’s public schools to teach its children that the Earth is 6 thousand years old.
John McCain pretends to care about safety and security, yet chose a successor who sees no problem putting AK-47s into the hands of any crazy fuck who likes to hang around schools and playgrounds, any gangbanger who sees killing 8-year-olds as mere collateral damage to a driveby shooting.
McCain struts around as the straight shooter, yet chose a successor whose family received a government dole of $11,788 last year from the oil fund, but still loves to rant about rugged individualism and the evils of socialist welfare.
John McCain is not more of the same. With his sexist attempt to win the votes of a few gullible women he ripped the mask off his own face. John McCain learned destruction at the feet of a master, but like any good student he did his mentor one better. We thought Bush shoved America into the lowest circle of Hell, but we now know that McCain has found a secret door to an even lower depth. Bush hurt America more deeply than Bin Laden could have ever aspired to. McCain as he stands revealed before us now will make Bush look like a minor nuisance. A vote for McCain is no longer just insane: it is an act of treason.