8 posts tagged “politics”
It's a bit unusual for me to care or even pay much attention to politics, but I managed to listen to much more of the VP debate than I thought I would. Here are some of my thoughts:
- I wasn't very impressed with the moderator, Gwen Ifill. She didn't hold anyone's feet to the fire and didn't even attempt to redirect either candidate to actually stay on point or answer the question she asked.
- I loved when Biden (near the end) finally called Palin out on the abuse/use of calling McCain a "maverick". Finally! Let's put an end to this nonsense....
- I will give Palin credit that she seemed better than Biden at talking into the camera and not looking down at the podium or just at Gwen Ifill.
- I think its extremely sad that Palin is considered to have exceeded expectations - short of running off the stage in panic (a la Ashely Simpson) she would have met expectations - that's how low the bar was set. She answered the actual question given to her less than half of the time and was still doing that rambly thing that she throws in phrases about everything - healthcare, Iraq, partisanship --- regardless what the topic is.
- Here's one of the statements that drove me the most crazy - "I do respect your years in the U.S. Senate, but I think that Americans are craving something new and different and that new energy and that new commitment that’s going to come with reform,” Ms. Palin said. “I think that’s why we need to send the maverick from the Senate and put him in the White House, and I’m happy to join him there.” (from NY TIMES article) How can you beat up Biden on being in DC too long when McCain has been there just as long!!! New energy, my @ss!!
- The other topic that drove me nuts: The cause of climate change. How can you talk about a solution without determining the cause.
- Last one: neither candidate supports gay marriage, just giving them the same rights.... I think this topic of defining marriage as just between a man and a woman is going to be abolished, similar to only white men being considered citizens. Please stop pandering to the conservative, religous voters.
- I thought Biden did a good job of relating to middle class Americans "sitting around the kitchen table" and taking away some of the Palin sympathy-vote without sounding like a blatant attempt to talk about his family's tragedy.
- Why does every political analysis call Palin "folksy"? It's annoying.
- Words/Phrases I'm sick of hearing: maverick. hockey mom's and joe six-pack. wall street versus main street. you betcha. partisianship.... I'm sure there's more. These are the worst offenders...
Thought of one more... foreign policy. Biden mentioned having been in Chad and the efforts done to stop genocide. Palin mentioned that the Alaska investment fund, took their investments out of Sudan because they didn't want to "give the appearance" of supporting their actions. Way to be proactive!
Wow - this is going to get long. Found an interesting quote on a women's blog (The XX Factor over at the Slate) that does a better job of summing up my comments on gay marriage. ...I was disappointed (if not surprised) to find that one of their few moments of total agreement concerned the issue of gay marriage. When Biden firmly said "no," neither he nor Obama supported gay marriage, I thought: *here* is politics as usual. Two candidates who've suffered discrimination in different ways (Obama, Palin) yet both defend a profound form of continued discrimination. Nice.
Here's a nice summation of Palin comments from Slate.
Great article in Slate today about the role of gender in the debate about Palin's competency... here's an excerpt:
The problem is that Palin is a vice-presidential candidate who is not ready to be president, not that she's a woman who isn't ready. Given that, let her fail now, before she does real damage in office.
But Palin's gender is at the center of another set of reactions I've been hearing and reading among women who don't support her ticket, filled with ambivalence over how bad she is. Laugh at the Tina Fey parodies that make Palin ridiculous just by quoting her verbatim. And then cry. When Palin tanks, it's good for the country if you want Obama and Biden to win, but it's bad for the future of women in national politics. I'm in this boat, too. Should we feel sorry for Sarah Palin? No. But if she fails miserably, we might be excused for feeling a bit sorry for ourselves.
Palin is the most prominent woman on the political stage at the moment. By taking unprepared hesitancy and lack of preparation to a sentence-stopping level, she's yanking us back to the old assumption that women can't hack it at these heights. We know that's not true—we've just watched Hillary Clinton power through a campaign with a masterful grasp of policy and detail.
Got emailed this webpage today: http://abcnews.go.com/politics/MatchoMatic/fullpage?id=5542139
It is 13 head-to-head quotes by each candidate on a variety of topics. You are asked to select the statement you agree with (blindly) and then it tells you which candidate most agrees with your view. Personally, I thought it was pretty clear which candidate said what, so I wasn't too surprised that I agreed with Obama on 9 out of 13.
What did surprise me was that I agreed with McCain on both immigration questions.
The flaw to this method is that in some cases you may not agree with either candidate, but you can't really opt-out of a question. I don't agree with either on the topic of gay marriage.
Looking forward to the VP debate tomorrow night - well, as much of it as I can stomach. I couldn't manage to stomach even 15min of the last debate. To be honest, I guess what I'm really looking forward to is the SNL spoof that is likely to follow the debate!
Rewritten to clarify: The first debate, on the 26th, is a Friday - why did they make it a Friday?
I'm looking forward to Palin getting destroyed on the 2nd!
|
|
 |
Had to share....
I'm getting very tired of hearing all the creative ways the Republicans can reference that McCain is a POW.
This is the latest I read in a NYTimes article....“Fellow citizens,” the president said at one point, “if the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will.”
Don't even get me started on the Palin nomination!!!
I have a love/hate relationship with Maureen Dowd. Got a big kick out of the intro to her latest Op-Ed though.
The guilty pleasure I miss most when I’m out slogging on the campaign trail is the chance to sprawl on the chaise and watch a vacuously spunky and generically sassy chick flick.
So imagine my delight, my absolute astonishment, when the hokey chick flick came out on the trail, a Cinderella story so preposterous it’s hard to believe it’s not premiering on Lifetime. Instead of going home and watching “Miss Congeniality” with Sandra Bullock, I get to stay here and watch “Miss Congeniality” with Sarah Palin. Sheer heaven.
Later in the piece, she writes - This chick flick, naturally, features a wild stroke of fate, when the two-year governor of an oversized igloo becomes commander in chief after the president-elect chokes on a pretzel on day one.
Adam is THRILLED that Biden was selected by Obama. I can't tell how much of that is because he's a Delaware-ian and how much of that it is what Biden brings to the table. Personally, I'm still un-decided on if this was the best choice. Clearly, Biden is a better choice than "Billary" or Edwards, but I don't really know who else is out there.
Obama was caught in a bit of a Catch 222, either you pick someone else that is young and you leave yourself open to attacks on inexperience; or you bring in someone that plugs some of your weaknesses (strengths similar to McCain - foreign policy and experience in Washington, mainly) and you have a harder time pitching a platform of change.
There was an interesting article in the WSJ today on the topic and I loved the intro: For a U.S presidential candidate, picking a running mate is like buying a new house: It's a huge investment, you try to get all the features you'd like, but you also recognize that its usually impossible to get everything you want in one package..... like the house that lakcs that extra closet space, the choice doesn't necessarily fill every need.
