I have not been following the "veepstakes" as closely as some. I think the VP pick matters more for McCain than it does for Obama because of McCain's age, but really wasn't paying attention to the candidates that much. Gov. Sarah Palin was a surprise to me because I knew only vaguely of her. Being involved in my own political activities, I haven't paid as close attention as I should have.
Many have written about what this pick means for McCain and Palin's resume. I'm sure more detailed biographies of her will be out shortly. For my part, I like what I see. Gov. Palin's record for reform and taking on the party establishment is exactly what the Republican Party needs. In similar fashion as Gov. Jindal in Louisiana, she has made no friends with the old guard. Lest anyone try and convince you that she's part of the corrupt Alaska Republicans, remember she got the state GOP chair nailed on ethics charges.
What is, however, most interesting and disturbing about the pick has been the response from some on the left. I spent the day on and off perusing some of the leftie websites seeing how they'd react. The fair criticisms (like experience) are drowned out by the overt rage and misogyny of so-called progressives. Here, you have the party of "tolerance" and "diversity" saying she got the job because of sexual favors for McCain. And that is the most benevolent of some of the comments from known hate sites like the DailyKos (also known for anti-semitism). Go there and read the comments if you don't believe me.
Here we get a shocking moment of honesty and transparency from the left. See, they don't believe a woman can make it on their own without sexual favors. They've already put up websites commemorating the "VPILF" (figure it out). Here is what this should tell you about the left and why this election matters:
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - John M
Sorry to say that vpilf.com has been registered for a couple months and articles have been up for a week before this announcement.
2 - RJ Elliott
The Left always goes berserk when a member of a minority** group joins the "Dark Side" and experiences success as a conservative.
Examples abound. Clarence Thomas is just one of the most famous. Andrew Sullivan (back when he really was a conservative) is another. And so it shall be with Governor Palin, it appears...
**Women actually make up a majority of the population; why they are referred to as a "minority group" has always baffled me. Perhaps I'm too literal?
3 - Jordan Richardson
I'm not sure tracking down a bunch of asshole internet commenters is the responsibility of the Left or the Democratic Party. Frankly I find it unreasonable to take the pulse of just about anything through broadband, but that's just me.
4 - John Bambenek
Track it down? No.
Shut it up? Yes.
If McCain had KKK commenters, you'd be all over him for it.
5 - Jordan Richardson
No, I wouldn't. Again, I know the difference between broadband idiocy and actual party platforms. You can't control the masses, especially on the internet.
6 - Tom
Lets be real...Sarah Polin was chosen because she is an attractive woman and might appeal to Hillary Clinton supporters. That she is a bona-fide conservative and an outsider was secondary.
I understand that the VPILF is offensive to many people. It's supposed to be offensive. By selecting an unqualified former-beauty queen over the hundreds of other qualified women John McCain has done something that women everywhere should find offensive...in a way that really matters.
Why not Senator Hutchinson from Texas? Why not Senator Collins or Senator Snow from Maine? Or Senator Dole ... or one of the dozens of women in the House?
Frankly, any Clinton supporter that would switch to McCain just because he picked Palin to be VP is so ignorant of the issues that they should do the country a favor and stay at home on election day.
7 - Dave Nalle
Hutchinson declined because she wants to run for governor of Texas. Collins and Snowe are too liberal. Dole is too old.
The reason to pick Palin is not that she's attractive, but that she appeals to the parts of the GOP who had doubts about McCain, including the Ron Paul supporters (those who are halfway sane), and because she DOES have executive experience - more than McCain, Biden, Obama and Hillary Clinton added together.
I know that you find the choice threatening, Tom. But that just proves what a great choice it is.
Dave
8 - Baritone
A year and a half as governor of Alaska and seven years (is it?) as the mayor of a very small town does count as executive experience, I guess. Oh, I'm forgetting her time with the local PTA. That should help her ease in behind the Oval Office desk in the event that McCain is unable to complete his term. They may need to provide her a world map, a gazetteer, and a phonetic list of the names of world leaders, or she could just give GW a call to clear up any problems in that area.
Actually, aside from having a fairly irritating voice, she seemed to be reasonably on top of things for her initial introduction. I wonder how many times we are likely to hear the word "maverick" over the next few months. You realize of course that the primary definition of maverick is "an unbranded calf or yearling," and among several synonyms for the word are malcontent, extremist, radical, also aberrant, quarrelsome... I guess those are good traits for a president and VP, no?
B
9 - Arch Conservative
The GOP has someone who's unqualified as VP on their ticket...the Dems have someone who is unqulified as the pres nominee on their ticket.
one is obviously much worse than the other.
10 - Silas Kain
Frankly, any Clinton supporter that would switch to McCain just because he picked Palin to be VP is so ignorant of the issues that they should do the country a favor and stay at home on election day.
And a vote for Obama is an INFORMED vote? Come on, now. Last night's "political event" was a cheap imitation of The American President mating with a Boyz 2 Men concert. It was all rock star and celebrity and NO substance. Read Obama's speech transcript and compare lines to scripts for the aforementioned movie as well as a wide variety of The West Wing scripts and you will discover a disturbing truth. And if I need to spell that truth out to anyone perhaps it is they who needs to remain in their living room on Election Day.
11 - Jordan Richardson
And a vote for Obama is an INFORMED vote?
It sure as hell could be. But switching parties (and issues) completely based around the Palin nomination for veep is far from rational. Surely you see the distinction here.
12 - Silas Kain
I DO see the distinction. I haven't converted to McCain just yet. I'm still writing in Dave Nalle.
13 - Jordan Richardson
Lol, now that's even more ridiculous.
14 - RJ Elliott
"By selecting an unqualified former-beauty queen over the hundreds of other qualified women"
Hundreds? Okay, there may be a few GOP women who are arguably more "qualified" than Palin. But few, if any, have her executive experience and accomplishments.
And what's wrong with beauty-queens, exactly? Should McCain have picked an ugly woman instead? Do you automatically associate an attractive woman with a low IQ and incompetence?
The misogyny from the Left begins, as predicted by this very column...
15 - RJ Elliott
If you look on HuffPo, right now, there is a headline that implies that Palin might have fucked McCain for the job. I shit you not...
16 - John Bambenek
That's the Democrats for you... unless you are a Democrat you better get back in the kitchen.
17 - handyguy
Right-wing loudmouths complaining about how mean and awful left-wing loudmouths are...well, maybe it's the most amusing way they can find to waste time on a Labor Day weekend.
But to pretend that the loudest and most obnoxious voices on either side represent the GOP or Dems as a whole is not funny...it's just stupid and offensive.
18 - Tom
Executive experience? Alaska is a rich state with few people. If she was governor of California I would say that a couple of years would begin to qualify as real executive experience, but Alaska is probably nowhere as challenging as California nor any other state that doesn't see huge money from oil companies.
On the Democratic Convention: Yes it was staged just as the Republican Convention will be highly staged. What is your point -- that they did a great job and it was entertaining? Sure it would be wonderful and compelling for REAL decisions to come out of the conventions...but that is just wishful thinking at this point.
Frankly, that the Republicans would get behind Palin is astonishing. I'm not saying that she will NEVER be ready, but there is no way she is ready now.
Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? If Bush had been in office we would all be dead right now. Kennedy had to overcome pressure to launch an attack on Cuba and if he had not been as intelligent and as prepared as he was then history would have been completely different. Republican anti-intellectualism is going to get all us "folks" killed.
By the way, I was not a Hillary supporter becuase I thought that she could never unify the country. That wasn't Hillary's fault, but it was a fact that the right considered her the devil incarnate. At some point candidates need to do what is best for the country even if that means skipping an election cycle.
19 - David Quijano
"By selecting an unqualified former-beauty queen over the hundreds of other qualified women John McCain has done something that women everywhere should find offensive..."
Hundreds? I can't think of one. I would say it is just as offensive to select an unqualified former community organizer over at least a half dozen other far more qualified presidential candidates just because he is black. To pretend that stapling posters to telephone polls gives Obama any significant edge over Palin in terms of experience makes me laugh.
At least she isn't friends with any terrorists
Let's be serious. If Obama had the speaking skills of George W Bush he would be doomed to obscurity. He has done nothing.
20 - David Quijano
She is one illegitimate child from being about 5 times as qualified as John Edwards was in 2004.
21 - Baritone
You know. When it comes down to it everyone commenting here, myself included is full of shit.
There's not a damn one of us who knows diddly squat about any of this. All of our charges, all of our predictions amount to meaningless crap.
People here lambast the MSM and the various pundits who blather on about this and that, yet, that is exactly what we do here. Most of those who appear on the various television networks, radio broadcasts, and most of those who write for the major news magazines and newspapers are people who have spent most of the their adult lives involved either actively in politics, and/or reporting and/or analyzing politics. Many of them know the pols personally. Some have held office at some level or other. Yet, for the most part, their various analyses and prognostications wind up wholly missing the mark, much the same as economists who make their supposed educated guesses about the direction the economy is likely to take. Weather forecasters have a far better track record than most political pundits. Generally, if a few do get it right, it's just the luck of the draw. Someone has to win; someone has to lose.
Pretty much all of us here are hacks at best. We all have our opinions, and we are certainly free to share them. What I find so disturbing and maddening is how often most of us, again, myself included, are either totally uninformed, or it's discovered that the majority of our so called "facts" are gleaned from other WEB sites and publications having a heavy bias, and therefore, no better than questionable credibility. Yet we brazenly come here and repeat the drivel that these places publish as truth. Who knows the truth? What the hell IS the truth?
Everybody here claims to know that Obama, McCain, the Clintons, Bush, Cheney and the rest are lying, cheating, stupid, ass kissing, groveling, elitist bastards. But, not one of us knows any such thing.
I say I despise George Bush, but when it comes down to it, I really don't know anything substantive about the man. I think his performance in office has been abysmal, but as a man, he may be, hell, I don't know, charming, funny, a pleasure to be around. The same may be true of McCain or Rumsfeld.
I have often been told that Bill Clinton in a one on one situation is absolutely captivating. Apparently, he is able to charm the pants off of some people. I talked with a couple who had Obama come to their home here in central Indiana to talk about their lives, and their economic situation. (The guy, Mark Fisher, even spoke at the Dem Convention last Monday night.)
They said that Obama was very friendly and seemed honestly sincere. During that visit, my brother in-law's wife met and spoke with Michelle Obama. She was also said to be funny and very personable.
There are people here on all wave lengths of the political spectrum who spout their hatred - real hatred - for any or all of the candidates, their wives, probably their kids, and many other politicians as well. Many claim to have personal or "inside" information about this or that person, but again, most of that so called information is no more credible than 95% of all the crap that gets bandied about here.
Most such people either are, or are verging on being, conspiracy theorists, who imagine that the candidates and politicians they have chosen to oppose, and, therefore, hate, are the embodiment of evil in league with equally evil forces that supposedly run the political machine.
I have spent most of the last hour just reading a few articles and several of the comments here, including my own. Upon some reflection, for the most part, it's all childish bullshit, carrying no more weight, often having less, and certainly no more, veracity than the same kind of bantering we see and hear ad nauseam on the boob tube.
We need to grow up, and perhaps get ourselves a life.
B
22 - David Quijano
I am a hack on a good day.
23 - Dave Nalle
Baritone, by your logic I'm only qualified to comment on Bob Barr, Al Gore, Evan Bayh and the various Texas politicians I've gotten to sit down with for a real chat so that I got to know them at least somewhat personally?
By that logic almost no one except the other candidates is qualified to discuss the election because they probably haven't gotten truly personally familiar with all the candidates they would want to discuss.
The average voter knows even less about the candidates than any of us do, yet they have the far more important role of actually voting to give them the most powerful jobs in the world. Perhaps we should disqualify the voters and just let the politicians pick each other?
Dave
24 - Pablo
"Perhaps we should disqualify the voters and just let the politicians pick each other?"
Uhhh they already do Davey, your just a bit slow bubba.
25 - Matthew T. Sussman
"Here, you have the party of "tolerance" and "diversity" saying she got the job because of sexual favors for McCain. "
Awright, finally, someone who reads Internet comments and takes them seriously. This a watershed moment for commenters everywhere. The average American can finally be summarized by what one reads on Fark and 4chan, which I do devoutly.
I now believe that the most important issues in America are the overabundance of centipedes in vaginas, /b/tards, paint-huffing Warriors fans, Domo-kun attacks, excessive linking to Rick Astley songs, and tough-guy Godwinning n00bs. FAIL.