Hi everybody. I've had posting privileges on this site since it started up but I've been too much of a little wussy to write anything here. But then I figured, screw it. Read, contemplate, digest, discuss, and recognize.
I mentioned in this post my opinion regarding the upcoming Presidential election. I’ve never been enthusiastic about voting since I became legally old enough to do so. I guess my own values/opinions on government must be pretty far outside the mainstream, because I’ve never seen a candidate that I liked. There’s just always been the guy I don’t like and the guy I like less than the other guy.
My opinion on this election has changed somewhat. I don’t know if it will last, and if history is any indication it probably won’t. Still, for once I see a candidate that I can get enthusiastic about. Too bad she’s running for Vice President.
I thought that Sarah Palin did a pretty good job in her speech last night. Before she came out I wasn’t sure if her experience in Alaska would prepare her for a moment like yesterday’s, what with the big huge crowd and all the BS that has been spinning around since the announcement of her selection. I thought she might be outwardly nervous or trip over her own feet or try and take out a reporter with an elephant gun or do something else that would be ridiculously embarrassing.
That didn’t happen, and I’m glad for that. Well, I’m glad that everything but the elephant gun thing didn’t happen. That would’ve been kind of awesome to watch.
I thought picking her was a brilliant move. The media and the Democrats (insert joke here about them being one and the same) seemed to be as surprised as I was but for a different reason. They’d never heard of her; I just figured McCain would pick some jackass no one outside of Washington gave a damn about. They immediately began with the “research” and “vetting” and other euphemisms for “bending over backwards to destroy her reputation and that of her husband and children in a vain attempt to get her to drop out of the race.” I had a feeling they’d be pretty nasty and try and paint her as some hillbilly, gun-toting Jesus freak. (I didn’t expect the party ostensibly in favor of “women’s rights” to suggest that she should stay home and raise her kids instead of work outside the home for a living, but I guess I was expecting their refusal to support the liberation of millions of women in Iraq as a one-time bout of hypocrisy.) Anyway, having seen her speak a few times on Youtube and other websites, I had a feeling that this strategy of attack wouldn’t be very effective, because she has her shit together. She reminds me of other women I’m a big fan of, like my wife, my grandmother, and others (like Big K, for example) who don’t take any crap from anybody and respond to insults with a well-placed cutting remark that makes the attacker look like a complete imbecile.
Anyway, with four or five days of the media and the Democrats (insert joke about me repeating myself here) lowering the bar of expectations for her, she came out last night and ripped Obama a new one. Between her and Giuliani, I think Barack is going to be limping around wearing some of Uncle Joe’s Depends for a few days.
This is part of the genius behind the pick. The opposition couldn’t help themselves trying to denigrate Palin’s experience. Which of course opens the door for McCain - and Fred! and Giuliani and Palin - to respond by pointing out that Obama’s experience, to put it nicely, is non-existent. Unless you count his Presidential campaign. I seem to recall Obama catching himself when discussing why Clarence Thomas wasn’t a good choice for the Supreme Court because he wasn’t exper- I mean wasn’t the kind of legal thinker blah blah blah. Obama knew that experience was his weak point and he tried desperately to pretend that argument didn’t exist. Until he and his supporters put on their blinders and jumped in with both feet.
The Democrats got played for suckers in this one and I think they know it. They’re going on and on, talking about how she isn’t qualified for the job and how she is a terrible choice for Vice President and so on. If Palin really was such a bad choice I doubt the Democrats and their friends would be so outspoken about it. Really, the Vice President is not the most vital office that will be filled in this election. A smart strategist would work overtime to ignore her if she was so bad, because you don’t interrupt your opponent when he’s making a big mistake and you certainly don’t go out of your way to tell everyone why it’s such a big mistake. You keep your damn mouth shut and hope they don’t figure it out until it’s too late. And psst! that’s why you don’t hear Republicans talking about how god-awful a pick Joe Biden was. Then again, I’m probably overestimating the intelligence of a group that has somehow managed to have a majority Congress with worse approval ratings than an unpopular president and nominate a guy who has never done anything impressive aside from write a couple of autobiographies and get elected as a Democrat in Chicago.
I hate politics. I try to stay informed on things so as to be a responsible citizen and whatnot, but really I wish that we could eradicate the earth of the political class; people who have done nothing with their lives other than run for office and be in office. I doubt it’ll ever happen, but I have hope that someday things will change for the better.
See what I did there? That was clever, if you ask me.
Anyway, barring a disaster of some kind like a revelation that Sarah Palin is actually a mole in the employ of a Czech arms dealer sent back in time to kill the leader of the resistance against an effort to convert humanity into a power source for a race of artifically intelligent machines, I’m going to vote for someone in this election and not feel like getting ridiculously drunk afterwards. And that’s a good thing.
Cross-posted on Current Events
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