Debate Not Relate

The scariest thing I hear about the Palin nomination was that she would appeal to voters because they would be able to relate to her and she to them. I get that. There are many places where relatability is key. I am a recovering addict alcoholic and finding another group that relates to my struggles is/was key to my sobriety. When I am at school I find myself grouping with others whose kids share the same issues, interests. People tell me all the time that the More magazine article where I showed what my real body looked like in comparison to the air brushed images most women are fed, was important and made me relatable. That too is great. The problem is I may be relatable and share some of your experiences and concerns but you don't want me as president of United States. Relatability gets you nothing in a complex financial crisis. Relatability doesn't help you understand the Gordian knot of trouble in the Middle East. Relatability doesn't help you untangle the obscenity which is our health care and insurance system and relatability doesn't train the hundreds of thousands of new teachers and repair and rebuild the smashed infrastructure and schools where they work.

I couldn't hold my own for one minute in a debate on any issue with someone like a Barack Obama or Joseph Biden and neither can Sarah Palin. When the call comes at 3AM I want a mind who was at the top of their class, who has gravitas and a real intellect. I want a leader who is a scholar who can hold the history of civilization in his head and will read and learn from the past as he charts the future. Real debates, where issues are explored, are the only way, prior to an election, to get the two candidates and their running mates to share their ideas and plans for the myriad contingencies they will/might face. This isn't a test. We don't get a re-do. This is the hardest time this generation has ever faced and people are all scared about the economy, our health care and mostly our children's futures. That is what millions of Americans and I can relate to.

Comments

[Gone]

12:37 PM on 09/11/2008

Jamie wants a leader who can hold history in his head? Obama demonstrat­es a feeble grasp of America, Americans, and the Presidency­, in addition to his weakness in minor areas such as the economy, the military, etc., etc. and 143 days worth of experience­?
Is this man truly the best candidate the Democrat Party could come up with?

[Lisa Earle McLeod]

04:28 PM on 09/08/2008

Half the country voted for George Bush because he was the kind of guy you can sit down and have a beer with.

Do we really want a VP you can watch a hockey game with?

I'm with Jamie Lee. Call me crazy but I'm kinda' thinking we might want leaders who are smarter than the average Joe or Jane.

If you want a guy you can have a beer with, or a woman who knows how to run a PTA, feel free to give my husband or I a call.

But if you want a leader with a high IQ and a global world-view who has the plans (and the team) to reverse the 8 year debacle of debt and doom created by Mr. Relatable and his Republican buddies, you might want to consider voting for Obama.

[AProudRepublican]

10:13 PM on 09/09/2008

I wouldn't mind having a beer with Obama, but McCain is my pick for President. I like Obama, but I wouldn't feel safe with him in office. I just don't feel he's ready for that.

[tommyp48]

01:35 PM on 09/08/2008

Jamie.....­maybe you can't debate Obama but I can. I'd love to. He's Obama, not Winston Churchill or Henry Kissinger. I know any number of educated people who would take him and his ideas apart, one by one.

[ProgressiveGoat44]

01:02 PM on 09/08/2008

Why in the world would I vote for someone just because she is a woman..... I can vote for someone just because he is black... That would make me feel better. And it gets me more PC Points...

[dannyS]

06:13 PM on 09/08/2008

John McCain can tell you why you would vote for someone just because she is a woman: Because you're a Hillary supporter and he wants your vote.

[DallasMike]

12:27 PM on 09/08/2008

Just because you couldn't hold your own for one minute in a debate on any issue with someone like a Barack Obama or Joseph Biden does not mean Palin can't
"When the call comes at 3AM I want a mind who was at the top of their class, who has gravitas and a real intellect.­"
Didn't Biden come in 76th out of 85 in his class?
And where did John Kerry finish At Yale or Harvard?

[dannyS]

06:11 PM on 09/08/2008

Palin can't hold her own either, that's why she was immediatel­y sequestere­d from the press.

[AProudRepublican]

08:29 PM on 09/09/2008

The VP debates are coming up... we'll see about that.

[york61]

03:45 PM on 09/12/2008

O please, didn't Palin go to 5 or 6 colleges before she graduated. I'm just so sick and tired of the American people voting for a guy they can "relate to". Yeah, the country went with Bush and how did that turn out? I just find it incredible how Americans make the same mistake over and over. Hegel was right, history does repeat itself. If we democrats loose this election with a trillion dollar war and budget deficit, an educationa­l system that is among the lowest in the industrial world (just above Mexico), 6.1% unemployme­nt, impeachabl­e offenses by the executive branch, failure to address global warming, (I can go on and on) then we will never win. I think Mat Damon said it best "does she really believe that dinosaurs were here 5000 years ago? "I really want to know, because she will have the nuclear codes"

[ItHasToGetBetter]

10:55 PM on 09/07/2008

This brings up a great point with regards to style over substance. For too long, the GOP has gotten by with the "I'm one of you" card while they make policies that bury the people who "related" to them. It's been said that people felt like they could have a beer with W, though I wasn't one of those people and what the hell does feeling like you can have a beer with someone have to do with their ability to run a country? How does coming across as down-home translate to competence and compassion­. People need to look pass the same visceral arguments the GOP keeps recycling and look at their reality. Unless you're in the top percent of the wealthy of this country, I'm guessing the reality isn't too pleasant.

[anniegirl9]

09:23 PM on 09/07/2008

Carl Rove slammed Tim Kaine as a potentail VP pick for Obama. He said that Kaine was completely unqualifie­d, being a governer (Virginia) for only three years and mayor of a city of only 200,000. But Palin is iminantly qualified as a governer of one of the least populated states for 20 months and mayor of a town with less than 9,000 people. They hypocracy coming from the Repugs is astounding­. And my favorite argument for her qualificat­ions is that Alaska is the closest state to Russia, so of course she has foreign relations experience­. .

One of the things I have heard over and over agin is "where are the great men and women anymore? where are the Goerge Washington­'s, the Abe Lincon's, the JFK's or the MLK jr's?" But how can you find greatness when your biggest votting criteria is "can I invision having a beer with this candidate?­"

Look, I don't want my leaders to look down on me, but especially in the case of the president, I do actually want him or her to BE better than me. I want them to be better read, smarter, more diplomatic and articulate­. Yes, we should be able to be anything we want to be, but we should have to work to that position. Obama is all these things and the Repugs call him an elitist.
Save wanting to have a beer with Larry the Cable Guy and elect a person with intelligen­ce and vision for a change.

[MinneapolisBob]

08:11 PM on 09/07/2008

The Greedy Obnoxious People (GOP) supporters will say and do anything to keep control of the White House. They are the most hypocritic­al and lying set of people you will find anywhere.

If Obama had picked a running mate with the so-called experience of Palin, the GOP would have said it proves their point regarding his bad judgment. And would we want our country in the hands of a woman with such a background if Obama (God forbid) was assassinat­ed?

If Obama or Biden, for that matter, had a pregnant unmarried teen aged daughter, they would jump on the opportunit­y of rolling out their family values b.s.

Now Grumpy McSame is saying he's the candidate of change. He's trying to steal Obama's message because the "he's not experience­d enough" line failed because he picked Palin, which destroyed that talking point.

McSame's version of change is like the teen aged kid who changes a shirt for the cleanest dirty one he can find.
__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­_________
VOTE! Save our rights, freedoms and liberties by saving the Supreme Court from the right wing loons.

[simkmer]

02:10 PM on 09/08/2008

I am so frustrated with the Media and their biases, Republican­s with their "we'll say and do ANYTHING to win tactics, and McCain and Palin repeating their speeches on the road. UGH!! Come on Obama.

[onetiredcowboy]

08:09 PM on 09/07/2008

Jamie Lee:

Thanks for your thoughtful take on all this relational nonsense..­..it's the very same issue that got us into trouble with Bush......­the guy people could relate to and wanted to have a beer with. Anyone with half a brain can see just how that worked out. As Alec Baldwin said, Sarah Palin is the same as George Bush. Maybe even nastier.

The real issue is John McCain and his many unresolved psychologi­cal issues, many of which are probably connected to his failure to come to terms with his POW experience­. For him, that experience is the crown jewel in his resume, and he just can't stop reminding everyone of it. No one questions the honor of his military service, but I'm highly skeptical of someone so psychologi­cally attached to a sense of victimhood­, and the notion that the experience of trauma grants special status to the one who experience­d it. Just as Bush never really addressed the issues of growing up in a privileged yet pathologic­al family, and the root issues of his alcoholism­, the same is most likely true of John McCain and his emotional wounds. Sadly, both of these guys are way too macho for therapy. They see themselves as John Wayne characters­; I see them as "damaged goods". It's really quite sad.

[jalyn]

07:41 PM on 09/07/2008

Yes, I wouldn't want this woman to be on the 3:00 a.m watch as well. I was appalled at the many women who could "relate" to Sarah Palin this past week; where is the wise generation that looks for integrity, or for at least a woman who can act like a "lady". The sneering, snivelling remarks she demonstrat­ed during her speech shows lack of diplomacy, kindness. As someone new on the block, at least a little humility. I can't relate to pitbulls, barracudas­, the school yards are full of bullies, who needs more?

I think americans are tired of showmanshi­p. They want results!

[nobamanoway]

12:16 AM on 09/08/2008

I think americans are tired of showmanshi­p. They want results!
EXACTLY!!!­! Which is why you should look into Sarah Palin's accomplish­ments in her term in office. They speak for themselves­.
Obama's credential­s for office:
A community organizer in ChicagoTwo years experience as a U.S. senator, with not one accomplish­ment that can be noted? Giving scripted speeches? Writing a book about himself?
I am UNDERWHELM­ED!!!!

[hereitis]

10:03 AM on 09/08/2008

You don't have anything original to add to this post, huh? Everything you said was scripted straight from the RNC. Sarah Palin's acomplishm­ents during her term if office have proven her to be . . . and now I am going to use her own analogy of herself . . . a pitbull in lipstick. Do us all a favor and 1) go back to bed. 2) Do some actual research on Sarah. 3) Do some research on pitbulls.

[helleborine]

07:40 PM on 09/07/2008

Jaime, I wish you were a speech writer. Very well said.

Americans fear intelligen­ce, thinking, education. That's why Kerry lost and we were stuck with Bush. That's why Bristol's Palin's pregnancy is seen as a blessing in disguise - the loss of educationa­l opportunit­ies for the young woman counts as nothing.

Americans elect dumb leaders. They worship dumbness. Witness the Simpsons, Family Guy... we ridicule knowledge, curiosity, intelligen­ce. We discuss the possibilit­y of teaching creationis­m - as if high school kids in an anti-intel­lect society have the means to tell truth from fiction.

The opposite of the Age of Enlightenm­ent is happening.

[sunny555]

07:32 PM on 09/07/2008

My guess is that Jamie Lee would be voting for the Democratic ticket, even if the most brilliant and educated person in the country was the GOP nominee.

[SaraTaylor4]

08:07 PM on 09/07/2008

No worries there. I don't think, if the past eight years is any demonstrat­ion, that anyone brilliant remains a Republican­. Education isn't the issue, intelligen­ce is.

[evilwhitepatriarch]

07:20 PM on 09/07/2008

Perhaps Jamie Lee wants a philosophe­r king like John Kerry, who had a lower GPA in college and a lower SAT score than Bush.

Why won't Obama release his academic records?

Biden is capable of losing a debate without his opponent opening their mouth.

[granamica]

03:46 PM on 09/08/2008

Idaho State

Fifth from the bottom of the class.

Your peers.

[evilwhitepatriarch]

07:18 PM on 09/07/2008

Perhaps Jamie Lee wants a philosophe­r king like John Kerry, who had a lower GPA in college and a lower SAT score than Bush.

Why won't Obama release his academic records?

Biden is his own worst enemy in a debate.

[abrevaderci]

06:59 PM on 09/07/2008

It's very presumptiv­e of you to say that Sarah Palin can't hold up to Sen. Obama or Sen. Biden in a debate, being as they have never debated before. Another point is Senator McCain offered 10 town hall meetings/d­ebates to Sen. Obama. He declined the offer. Why? Because he is such a deep thinker that he can't put three words together to make a sentence if he's not reading off a teleprompt­er. Now you presume to judge Gov. Palin. who you probably were introduced (to like the rest of America) at her acceptance­.....a week ago. I don't think you have the needed "gravitas" to add weight to such a statement. You may want someone "who can hold the history of civilizati­on in his head" but knowledge is secondary to wisdom in my estimation­. And considerin­g the fact that Sen. Obama thought the bomb was dropped on pearl harbor. He evidently has neither.

[giles29]

07:45 PM on 09/07/2008

Ya, know I read JLC's post with admiration that recognizin­g someone's political wit vs. wisdom and "experienc­e" as a just assessment of Sarah Palin. We barely know Sarah Palin, and what has been revealed is not honest, nor is it trustworth­y. As I type this, I am watching the 2006 debate Palin had for the office of Governor of Alaska, and she is sharp, but does that mean she can debate with Joe Biden or Barack Obama, or for that matter challenge John McCain? Likely not! In America, it is said you can do anything, you can be bi-racial and reach what Obama has, you can suffer like John McCain and Joe Biden did in the early 70's and achieve what they have or you can be Sarah Palin, who has done what the GOP has directed her to do. Liberal, Maverick, Republican­,Democrat, ....my head is going to explode! If we do not hear from the woman who wants my vote, which she will never get, we then get to spend another 4-8 years of the aforementi­oned "labels" dictating our division. Thank you Jamie!

[abrevaderci]

08:18 PM on 09/07/2008

You saw her debate Gov. Murkowski? Did you know that he was an Alaska senator for over 20 years. He debated Biden in the well many times. And yet Gov. Palin defeated him. I think she will crush slow Joe.

[MartinLeoJr]

08:12 PM on 09/07/2008

Here's a thought (expressed in a fictitious headline) - you think about it: Biden Yields to Hillary for VP Debate - Cat Fight!