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

[Blackwidow]

Sarah "Pale's in" comparison to Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Get over it folks... MCsame and Palin are a mockery to this country. What kind of a bad joke was tried to be played on us? I hope people don't fall for it this time. We have real issues to deal with.

[booksnmore4you]

I don't want elected officials to be "just like me".

Dammit, I want them to be much, much better than me, otherwise I'd just run for the office myself.

[Daps]

That's the problem, they want a monoculture. Everyone like them. No real discussion. No real "change". No "values" issues, however sins, adultery, and sex only matters with dem candidates. Rep candidates can sin and seek forgiveness over and over again, just as they do stupid things, cheat on their wives, but see the Obamas as an abomination.

[FairB]

I TOTALLY agree. My 3 yr old son Chase is cute and relatable put his name in the hat! LOL

[Spesabsquemetu]

Bravo, Jamie Lee!!!

Bravo!!!

McCain is no maverick! He's a TROJAN HORSE, and America cannot afford the 8 years of G. W. Bush that lay inside the McCain trojan horse claiming to be a 'maverick", when in fact - it's a trojan horse that is CHOCK FULL OF G. W. BUSH'S POLICIES AND GOVERNANCE STYLE.

America cannot afford 4 more years of the last 8 that we have suffered through.

America wants CHANGE THAT WE CAN TRUST AND BELIEVE IN.

NOT A TROJAN HORSE, THAT IS FULL OF 8 MORE YEARS OF G. W. BUSH.

[alephnaugh]

I think it's true that Palin would lose badly in an actual debate against Biden. In fact, I think she'd lose badly in a real debate against a randomly selected person from my yellow pages. Unfortunately, I suspect that she's going to be coached to say a few stupid things on each issue and to repeat them whenever she is in trouble, and that this will somehow count as a "tie" in the pundits' eyes. I hope I'm wrong, because it would be so awesome to see a real debate; i.e., to see her lose to Biden.

[MM216]

Don't worry Jamie....there is NOTHING about Palin I can relate to.
OK, I take that back......we gals can always relate to hair and make-up! LOL :D

[GrammieJ]

Nothing I can relate to Palin either. I cannot even relate on the make-up and hair, although I do wear a little lipstick each day. I was totally appaled when she suggested that woman are pitbulls with lipstick. She lost me there, a complete insult.
Anyone can READ a speech, she did a c- job in my estimation. She did not seem real or genuine and did not look like she believed anything she READ. Just play-acting to the crowd.
I really have empathy though for her family that she has put in the lime-light and displayed all over national TV.

[giselley]

I agree! I don't get the idea being pushed out by the media that she's such a great speaker...

[Daps]

"OK, I take that back......we gals can always relate to hair and make-up! LOL :D"

And y'all love babies, right?! BABIES.

[zetacplus]

This campaign is all about the issues but McCain wants to turn it into a "Days of our Lives" soap opera. Everyone needs to look at where he stands on important issues

One position of his that I will never understand is him voting against the new GI bill that will give every service member 3 years of tuition after serving their first enlistment; this is one of the most prolific changes to educate the military I have ever seen and I've been on active duty Air Force for 22 years now. He's just like the other republicans who want to keep the average person uneducated so they will work for them for peanuts and not know any better. Knowledge is power and he doesn't want the military being powerful? Shame on you McCain for your hypocrisy. In my eyes you are an evil man who is only out for yourself. And how dare you use your POW status over and over--everyone knows you were a POW and you endured hell for 5+ years. But to keep beating that drum makes you look icky.

[thinkworklivelove]

Here, Here! America STILL has a Constitution. I want a President that knows it backwards and forwards. Many Americans voted for Bush because he was relatable. How many people had that beer with him? How many people can still afford a beer after 7 years of his Republican Admininstration? If American is going to remain a Super Power, we need someone like Barack Obama. The Republicans are only offering political gimmicks (get some relatable, who cares if they are knowledgeable) AND Name-calling politics to keep the power of the Whitehouse. It's disgusting and outrageous. EIGHT IS ENOUGH!! ENOUGH!

[4wehttam]

Extraordinary perspective Ms. Curtis. Your absolutely right, I want my president to have a brilliant mind, an open mind and someone that puts diplomacy ahead of rash military force. I want my president to be honest, dedicated to serving ALL people and makes policies not on his OWN beliefs but by utilizing OUR CONSTITUTION. I want a president that isn't hypocritical and won't look in straight in the face and outright LIE to me as Bush did and McBush/Yup Yup are doing now.

[giselley]

I want a president who has EXPERIENCE _teaching_ Constitutional law! Someone who knows and respects the constitution like the back of his hand...O/B '08!!

[ThePeacemakers]

On October 31, if he McCain ticket still seems to have steam...I will be really relating to Jamie Lee.

I already feel like I'm being chased by gun toting neo-cons who want to kill, kill, kill and they just won't die.

[chris48]

Jamie you are so right. I also want a leader that has the intellect to make the important decisions. Remember the movie Idiocracy? I truly fear we are headed in that direction. McCain/Palin will only continue the "I could have a beer with him" mentality in choosing people to the highest office in the world.

[Daps]

"Remember the movie Idiocracy? I truly fear we are headed in that direction"

Levi is right out of that opening scene. He's starting it all off ;)

[JaniceL]

This just about sums up everything I've been thinking for quite a while now. Why has the bar been set so low in this country that the litmus test for political leadership is whether a candidate is someone you could drink a beer with? Many Americans seem to forget that we tried that approach already for the last eight years and it's gotten us in a hole of such magnitude that we're going to have a very hard time digging ourselves out.

[smit9187]

We should have learned our lesson about the "someone you can drink beer with" when we go Bush. He has governed like someone drinking beer.

[SnoopyLover67]

Indeed, relatability is not something that the Presidents of the past would have needed. Though not all were stellar, at least they were elected on their merits, and not because they could read well from a teleprompter.

I agree, Jamie, that I want someone who can do the job, not tell me about hockey moms and pit bulls. Horrid that people respond to this kind of pandering.

[olephart]

The Palin nomination has all of the earmarks of political calculation and none of the astute quantifications of rational sobriety. This person, a heartbeat away from the Presidency, has none of the gravitas required of that position. Having played the experience card on Obama, McCain has played the Joker on himself. To say that she is simply not qualified is like saying the Titanic had a bit of a problem on her maiden voyage.

Yet there may be method to this madness. I am at once reminded of the Emperor Tiberius in his adoption of Caligula as his heir. He stated “I am nursing a viper for the People of Rome.” His belief being that regardless of how badly he was viewed, Caligula would be so much worse that his debaucheries would pale in comparison. Thus McCain may simply be assuring that his memory will be enhanced by comparison with what will follow.

[michiganvoter]

Thank you, Ms. Curtis. I can relate to your perspective as a voter and citizen, and I share your fears. I only hope those being fooled by what a McCain/Palin ticket "offers" will themselves become educated.

[2sunny]

Thank-you! for your voice of reason, Jamie.
I did not watch the Republican convention. Cannot stomach old white farts blinded by power.

Eight years ago I was distraught when GWB took office as the president. I say, EIGHTyears ago!
My thoughts were, " Well, a president in the making". I wanted him to succeed, maybe even function as commander in chief. I continue to be baffled every time I hear said, "the Pesident wants this or that, The President decides this or that." It is ALL a mirage....the illusion is....THE KING WEARS NO CLOTHES. I enter these last two months wary & weary of what is yet to come.