Most Looking Forward To: Gee, I wonder...maybe Barack Obama speaking to a crowd of over 80,000 people in Denver and tens of millions of American viewers at home and around the globe !?!?!? Plus, it's always exciting to listen to Al Gore give an intellectually rousing speech, so that should serve as a nice layer of icing on the massive, glorious, historic cake that is Obama's speech tonight.
Least Looking Forward To: The embarrassment that will be the Republican Party convention in St. Paul next week.
*** Watch online HERE! **
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[UPDATE (Friday, 11:30AM): Wow, I'm speechless right now. I cannot believe McCain is going to pick Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his VP. I've always said that if McCain picks a woman or minority candidate for VP that offers little experience, and little else aside from their gender or race, that this would backfire in the long run as a shallow ploy. Not to mention that there have to be about a half a dozen other republican politicians that feel disgusted that they were past over for what many would characterize as a glorified PTA mom. The fact that Palin is under state investigation only makes it that much more amaazing that she would be chosen.]
P.S. My prediction for McCain's VP announcement tomorrow? I'll go with Missouri Governor Tim Pawlenty, easily one of the most politically safe, media-boring choices for McCain (considering his other top contenders are a Republican primary nemesis that's a Mormon and a pro choice, former Democratic vice presidential candidate). It's quite a dilemma for McCain: he can't risk picking someone quite as "exotic" as Mitt Romney or Joe Liebermann, for fear of retribution from the conservative base, and therefore he must choose someone like Pawlenty who will, however, provide very little excitement and attention for the campaign.
Thus, it appears that boring and safe will trump unique and risky for the McCain campaign, but we shall see for sure at McCain's announcement tomorrow where, by the way, he will be celebrating his birthday. Recognizing that age, whether fairly or unfairly, is a potential liability for the McCain campaign, I'm not sure how wise it is to reveal your VP selection on the same day that your candidate is celebrating his 72nd birthday. I guess the McCain campaign, and the Republican Party as a whole, have greater issues to attend to at the moment...like hurricanes.
P.S. My prediction for McCain's VP announcement tomorrow? I'll go with Missouri Governor Tim Pawlenty, easily one of the most politically safe, media-boring choices for McCain (considering his other top contenders are a Republican primary nemesis that's a Mormon and a pro choice, former Democratic vice presidential candidate). It's quite a dilemma for McCain: he can't risk picking someone quite as "exotic" as Mitt Romney or Joe Liebermann, for fear of retribution from the conservative base, and therefore he must choose someone like Pawlenty who will, however, provide very little excitement and attention for the campaign.
Thus, it appears that boring and safe will trump unique and risky for the McCain campaign, but we shall see for sure at McCain's announcement tomorrow where, by the way, he will be celebrating his birthday. Recognizing that age, whether fairly or unfairly, is a potential liability for the McCain campaign, I'm not sure how wise it is to reveal your VP selection on the same day that your candidate is celebrating his 72nd birthday. I guess the McCain campaign, and the Republican Party as a whole, have greater issues to attend to at the moment...like hurricanes.
2 comments:
You are aware that the experience of being a governor usually is more important in running a country than that of a Senator? She has more experience than the top of the Democratic ticket for crying out loud. And Obama's initial reaction of criticizing her for coming from a small town is weak at best, but hypocrytical at worst, especially from Democrats. Hope, Arkansas has a population of just over 10,000. Plains, Georgia has a population of under 700. Why are those important, oh wait, those are the small town homes of the last two succesful Democratic candidates for President. If that is the best attack they have on Sarah Palin, Obama/Biden should be concerned.
And the investigation has no legs. When people hear that the trooper that was to be fired had commited domestic assault and tasered his 11 year old son, most logical peoples' response is going to be "Well he should be fired." Anybody who doesn't think that is probably a sad human being. And she has been clear that she never made that particular request and as Governor, they have the executive decision to dismiss members of their cabinet. If we want to talk about scandals, I hear Tony Rezko is selling some land...... ;-)
Well, your comment covers quite a bit of ground and in a bit of a chaotic way, but I'll do my best to respond.
Regarding the issue of experience, you seem to have argued against your own points here. You state that the position of governor is "usually" more important than being in the Senate, but fail to realize exactly how Palin falls short of this usual maxim in so many ways. First, Palin has less than 2 years of state wide political experience. Second, being the governor of Alaska doesn't come close to the gubernatorial responsibilities of most all other states. Which leads into the third problem, which is that Palin has ZERO foreign policy experience in her political career (something that may prove to be a very big problem for someone who is next in line for the presidency with a relatively older presidential nominee, and during a time in which our country is involved in two wars and various other serious foreign policy issues). So when you compare Palin to Obama, someone who has served 7 years of state wide elected office in Illinois and 4 years of national elected service in the U.S. Senate, having been involved with foreign and domestic affairs on a national basis throughout such service, your being quite disingenuous with such an assertion. I'll defer to the apt statement made by Newsweek's Howard Fineman in that "Sarah Palin makes Barack Obama look like John Adams."
Now, regarding your reference to the populations of Hope, Arkansas and Plains, Georgia, I assume you are referring to statements made about Palin's hometown. The problem here is that you are missing the point of such statements. They're not attacking Palin for coming from a small town, they're pointing out that prior to Palin's minimal statewide service as governor of Alaska, her next most relevant sets of experience, as stated by Palin herself, are being the mayor of a town with less than 9,000 people and being the head of the PTA. Again, the next in line, after the potentially oldest president elect, to be commander-in-chief of one of the most powerful nations in the world is citing a mayorship and PTA service as qualifications. Such is most certainly a fair criticism of any individual running to be the vice president of the United States.
And finally, you are correct that the details of the state investigation against Palin are quite saddening, but to assert that such circumstances make them off limits for assessing any potential abuses of power by Governor Palin seems a bit off (especially considering that the state itself decided to pursue such investigations, so they clearly feel compelled to investigate despite such sad personal circumstances). But, all that withstanding, there are plenty of other sources to go to regarding Palin's history of ethical cloudiness: her working relationship with Senator Ted Stevens, her ties to big oil, etc. And, to be fair, I think the Tony Rezko situation can be discussed just the same, but the only problem with that seems to be that it HAS been discussed, many times, over the course of a primary and general election campaign...and yet nothing seems to arise from it of any substance. To borrow a tired phrase, it appears there isn't any there there, now is there.
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