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.
Is this man truly the best candidate the Democrat Party could come up 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.
"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?
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.
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.
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VOTE! Save our rights, freedoms and liberties by saving the Supreme Court from the right wing loons.
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.
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!!!!
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.
Why won't Obama release his academic records?
Biden is capable of losing a debate without his opponent opening their mouth.
Fifth from the bottom of the class.
Your peers.
Why won't Obama release his academic records?
Biden is his own worst enemy in a debate.