The selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s vice president is a masterful move that serves nothing less than a game-changer. In the weeks running up to this decision, Conservatives like myself have worried about McCain’s choice. “Lieberman” just had me digging my face in my hands in frustration. When Palin’s existence and lineup of achievements to date came to my attention, I wanted her to be the VP pick.
BHO’s campaign has made one mistake after another leading to the convention in his treatment of Hillary, of his politics-as-usual speech on the last night of the convention, and his bold attempt to suppress free political speech regarding Bill Ayers. McCain has turned identity politics on its head. My first worry was that the Palin pick was a blatant attempt to pander to disenfranchised HRC supporters. Many of the far-left women won’t like Palin anyway: a mother of five, family woman who has managed to balance career and family and still stay lovely and true to her principles. As a woman she is a complete non-victim, her lack of victimhood is anathema to gender-baiters anyway.
McCain’s campaign was suffering from an extreme lack of charisma: he’s older, his wife isn’t a hardcore firebrand, and its aim was mostly to ridicule his opponent. BHO has charm, charisma, and the ability to induce fervor in his supporters. Palin provides what is missing. Hers is the parallel antithesis to BHO’s family: true blue-collar origins, a son in active duty, her other younger children who show just as much enthusiasm for her on stage as BHO’s children do, executive achievement. In the ultimate feint-and-strike move, McCain just got an Obama-level figure of his own.
I am pleased at the Conservative reaction to Palin’s selection. The role of a VP has mutated recently into that of co-president (which I think started with Bush II and Cheney). If BHO chose Biden for his foreign policy role, then Palin will serve as McCain’s domestic issues partner. Any attacks on her inexperience will only underline BHO’s own. She is the second in the ticket; he’s running for President. And already, the Obama campaign’s misogyny, and the general misogyny of his supporters, has reared its ugly head.
Until yesterday I was a McCain supporter because I did not want Obama for President. I think now I have reason to actually support McCain for President. This has just become the most exciting and interesting election I have stood to see, and it will only get better.
2008-08-30, 12:09
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Filed under:
Politics
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4 Comments
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We interrupt the lack of posts and politics to bring you a short and sweet review for a book I received from Regnery Publishing. The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate by David Freddoso of NRO is a print distillation of the many criticisms and issues that conservatives have raised about the now-acclaimed Democrat presidental nominee.
It raises points made on NRO, The Corner and many columns about Obama’s inexperience, the persona that he presents versus his track record, and his background of radical ideological bedfellows. These are things that political junkies left and right have debated and studied for the past year; the timeline Freddoso places at end of the book terminates Obama’s reversal on his stance on public financing for his campaign. Freddoso unfolds his case carefully and meticulously. All the while, it maintains the running thesis on his duplicity and maintains just a slight tone of disdain. His work is replete with citations that back up anecdotal reports. It’s laid on thick in the chapter, The Accidental Candidate.
The book was published this month. Much of what is in the book is already known by most of us political junkies. But the true significance of this book was mentioned to my by a friend who bought himself a copy: “a lot of people are buying this book because they don’t know enough about him.” There is plenty of chatter among “regular folks” on how the media has had this weird love affair with the very junior senator from Illinois. Many of them do not take the time to go sifting through thousands upon thousands of blog posts with different opinions and conflicting evidence. What they might just take time for is to read this book: short but concise, damaging but not polemic.
Verdicts: Binary – 1. Rating – 4/5. Buy it.
2008-08-28, 0:04
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Filed under:
In print
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No Comments
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Reading through my political blog list (though not commenting on them much) the issue of the double-nickel speed limit has been raised as a means of saving gas. I’m not a big fan of having to force people to drive slower, especially since I doubt the safety of our highways would be increased by slowing people down. The reason I say this is because there are too many folks on the road who are impatient, selfish, aggressive, and don’t respect the rules anyway.
Remember: if someone can get away with bending the rules a little bit, they will. In Maryland it’s a ticket offense to drive ten MPH over the speed limit, so you have people burning just a little more and going 70 on a 65, 60 on a 55, just to save ten seconds a mile to get to where they’re going. (Personally I draw the slow-drive line at 45, which is the sweet spot for my car and I can roll along at 1500RPM. Sadly they put stoplights on streets that slow.)
I understand, folks. Your time is valuable. In fact it is so valuable that the 5 minutes you save for every hour you drive is worth the ill will you produce on the road weaving in and out of traffic, edging people out from merge lanes, and riding someone’s rear bumper, right? Well, not everyone’s as self-important as you. People have told me that us slowpokes doing the speed limit on the right lane are a danger on the road because we force the impatient ones to have to switch lanes. I don’t think I even have to justify that with a rebuttal. I just want it to hang in the air for a second so it can sink in. In fact, let me place it in its own paragraph, with complete emphasis.
People have told me that us slowpokes doing the speed limit on the right lane are a danger on the road because we force the impatient ones to have to switch lanes.
Seriously, who is the greater danger on the road? Might I make a suggestion instead? Chill the hell out. Roll your window down in great weather, feel the wind in your face, take it easy, let the workday blow away with every second you stick your hand out the window and feel the breeze through your fingers. You can’t change the way people drive, but you can certainly change the way you react to them. It took a while, and I admit to being hypercritical (and no, I don’t mean hypocritical in this context) at times and grumbling under my breath, but I don’t let that affect the way I drive. Despite that personal quirk, this change of attitude helps a lot to prep me for my gym time after work. I am refreshed despite fifty miles of driving in rush hour traffic. And all this without the gubmint reducing my speed limit.
2008-08-19, 10:10
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Filed under:
Living fine
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5 Comments
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This is me grumbling about my previous job, where I used to dissect cadavers in the name of medical research. All those gloves and handwashing? Yes, it helped limit my risk of infection. Yes, it helped protect me against a lot of things and the only thing I would do differently is apply for that job in the first place, but seriously: I now have a patch of eczema on my right hand and that shit never ever goes away.
I have a constant reminder of the five months I spent there. Hope you all rot in hell.
2008-08-18, 12:53
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Filed under:
Living fine
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1 Comment
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Dinner at home with the family isn’t so bad, and it’s not often that we do, but when we do, it’s fun. The only problem is that I’m not a Bud beer drinker. Not that I’m a beer snob, no way. I drink Coors Light, thankyouverymuch.
But when I do want to get my drink on with the no-longer-so-American beer brand that is at hand and readily available, it gets better when mixed with some really cold apple juice. That’s right. Apple juice and beer.
Give it a try. Get a beer you wouldn’t disgrace yourself with drinking, pour it into a glass halfway and fill the rest with apple juice.
2008-08-17, 23:16
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Filed under:
Food and drink
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2 Comments
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