As I have watched the political campaigns unfold since the conventions, I have found myself trying to come to grips with the way the Republicans came out slamming, slandering, and sucker punching. All of this after having chosen a VP candidate that embodies every bit of the "lack of experience" rhetoric with which they had criticized Obama.
Then they turned it all around in favor of Palin. I have laughed heartily at her "Commander-in-Chief "experience" at the head of the Alaska National Guard. She is pictured as being against Federal handouts while she received untold millions. Her international experience is touted as the fact that her state "borders" two foreign countries. The trash talk has gushed forth as she has become the darling of the right wingers.
The sad part here is that so many have embraced this garbage as the issues have been placed in the backseat. As Palin has emerged and her story and its downright lies have been brought out, the McCain campaign has used it to move the front page news away from addressing the issues, because they can't defend McCain's cuddling with Bush. Many of my friends actually believe or have made themselves believe all of the lies and innuendo that McCain and Palin have placed before them to my dismay.
At the moment I am very disappointed with the way the politics have turned. If the polls are, indeed, correct (Frankly, I don't believe them.) all of the lies have been effective in convincing Americans that McCain-Palin is the answer to our woes. We know this isn't so, and I hope that this is simply a short-lived post campaign bump and that the starry eyed right wingers really haven't won already. We simply cannot afford another Republican administration, especially one of this ilk with a VP that would make Dick Cheney look like an innocent pre-schooler.
I am going to take a break from the campaign and clear my head of this frustration. I look forward to a great Petit Lemans coming up at Road Atlanta in a few weeks and our annual SEBA Bluegrass festival a week from now. I also have my basement project to complete. I know there will be some positive posts emerge from all of this.
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About Me
- Georgia Mountain Man
- Blairsville, GA, United States
- I retired and returned to my hometown of Blairsville, GA. in 2005. I enjoy following politics, sports car racing, a few stick and ball sports, and music, especially "home made music." We have so many special musicians in the mountains of North Georgia and they provide good entertainment. I consider myself somewhat middle of the road politically. On some issues I would be considered by many to be quite liberal. Yet on other issues I am more conservative. I equate the average to be middle of the road. I expect today's so-called conservative would consider me an appeaser because I believe in compromise when possible.
Blood Mountain From My Deck
2 comments:
GMtnMan:
I hope you are checking huffingtonpost.com daily.
Arianna has best answer to date about the McCain Fog Machine gambit with the Trojan Moose.
And here is how Baptist Cooperative Program Dollars helped placed Palin on the ticket.
You'll like the whole article at tnr.com and get the word to JBabbTaylor.
Another factor played into Rasmussen's thinking: The birth in April of Trig Paxson Van Palin, her fifth child, who has Down syndrome. Palin had long ago declared herself anti-abortion, claiming during her failed 2002 bid for Alaskan lieutenant governor that she was "as pro-life as any candidate can be." But Trig's birth gave her the kind of unassailable pro-life bona fides that few Republicans can claim. It also gave her a touching story and made her more difficult to attack on the podium.
Though most Americans beyond Alaska had still never heard of Palin, the story of Trig made her an overnight hero among influential evangelical leaders like Dr. Richard Land, of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was publicly touting Palin as a strong choice in early August. Land says the McCain campaign solicited his advice on the veep issue around that time, and he argued that a pro-choice candidate on the bottom half of the ticket, such as Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge, would poison the candidacy. He recommended either Palin or Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia. "When it became clear that [Palin] had given birth to a baby with Down syndrome, she became an instant heroine in the pro-life community--it elevated her above all other pro-life office holders," Land says.
The Trig story also resonated with Glenn Beck, the popular pundit and TV host, who has a child with special needs of his own. Beck says he had never heard of Palin until he read a moving news story about Trig's birth a few months ago. He wanted to get her on his CNN Headline News show, which hammers a populist theme but lists to the right on most issues.
"I loved her language about Trig, and the fact that when she found out the baby had Down syndrome, she said no to more testing," recalls Beck. "I said, 'Can we find her and get her on the air?'" After running a segment on Trig, Beck brought Palin on the show to discuss the need to drill for oil in ANWR. "I was talking to my producer two weeks before the announcement, and I said, 'This is just the kind of person we need--this is the kind of person that would excite me.'" The day she was put on the ticket, Beck, who considers himself a conservative but not necessarily a Republican, went on the air and said McCain had chosen the one veep who could possibly persuade him to pull the lever for Republicans.
Few of Palin's early boosters seem fatally discouraged by the soap opera quality of her candidacy thus far. Whether McCain's vetting of her was sufficient is little more than a "process issue," says Barnes, "and even people who like process issues probably won't care." The forthcoming birth of her daughter's child only reinforces her pro-life reputation, argues Land. "I work with eight women at my office here in Nashville," he says. "These are women who are not normally given to giddiness, but when the announcement was made, we had one skipping down the hall and another clapping her hands together."
And as for Palin's unfamiliarity, most conservative pundits agree that the more they hear, the more there is to like.
"We're crazy about her," Kelly confesses. "She touches all the bases with courage and grace. She's Ronald Reagan in a dress--or the brains of Margaret Thatcher in a more attractive package."
Dave Jamieson is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.
Sfox
Trust me, a break will do you a world of good. I will be looking forward to your non-poitical posts.
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