We're in Big Trouble

We're talking to ourselves.

And we're not saying anything that's going to help win this election.

Everyone who cares knows that Sara Palin is a born again, right wing Republican. That she's a right-to-life, anti-gay, anti-global-warming, book-banning kind of gal.

No one seems to care.

The package and not the content is what's attracting interest. How cute she is when she says it. How cute she is when she skins a caribou. How cute are those barely grown expectant children of hers.

My first instinct was to scream from the roof tops that no self respecting woman was going to fall for this McCain manipulation. But apparently, plenty have. Plenty share her views and the crowds and the TV ratings are growing. The same way they grow for American Idol and other reality shows. Seems like we would rather watch ourselves, however diminished, on TV and in the public eye than people watch people with actual skills and talents. Watching people just like ourselves eating bugs and falling into vats of peanut butter has become a favorite American past time. And apparently, we would rather have an ill informed, inexperienced leader than one with experience and education. Experience has been denigrated to the level of liberal as a word. It's to be laughed at and ridiculed. And a lot of people are buying it. And we're supposed to slink away, like the nerd in high school being attacked by the football player.

But this isn't high school and we're supposed to know better. We have got to take back these words and what they stand for. Leaders need to be chosen from the most talented among us, not from the bottom of the barrel. And we shouldn't be afraid to say so.

What kind of misplaced chivalry would keep the Democrats from calling Sarah Palin what she is? An ignorant, misinformed, inexperienced, bigoted fraud. And unless we find a way to do it, she will be running the country before we have time to turn around.

This will not be easy. I spent hours on the telephone to Ohio Democrats last presidential election. There was no way I was going to convince these working class Democrats that they were wrong to vote for Bush. Kerry scared them. And no manner of logic would turn it around. They voted against their own economic interests, against college for their kids, against their own medical care, against their first amendment rights. Why, because they had been told that Kerry was going to challenge their belief systems. He was "for abortion", "against the troops."

We're going to have to frame the argument in the same way. Who is Sarah Palin? A woman for sure. The package is nice, but the content is out of date and spoiled. If she gets anywhere near power we can expect global warming, the destruction of the constitution, the end of Choice, and books banned in our libraries. And we've got to make people understand this. And even if we can frame it this way, the question remains, are there many Americans who would care? Enough to sustain the constitution? Life as we know it?

I am terribly afraid that we are counting on good sense, and decency and it has gone the way of the ten cent subway ride. We are not thinking about each other. We are thinking about ourselves. Why else would we even consider a woman who tried to get her brother in law fired from his job for daring to divorce her sister. Who tried to get a local librarian to remove books she disapproved of from the library.

Politeness is not in order. We need to be scared. Terribly scared. We need to pull out all the stops. She's not going to self destruct in front of an audience who likes these things about her. Who abhors the clarity and thoughtfulness of Obama. There is no drama in it. There's drama in teenage pregnancy, political scandal and moose hunting.

McCain seems to have known just what he was doing. Now the question remains, do we?

Comments

[justrational]

To get independents to start listening again, Dems must stop the...
1. Hyper-partisanship – Tone it down already. McCain/Palin do not represent the forces of darkness vs. the angels of mercy.
2. Patronizing disdain for middle-class, middle Americans – Don't expect people to listen to you when you tell them they’re idiots who grew up in the wrong region, went to the wrong schools, etc.
3. Complete lack of strategic thinking – Was McCain’s choice impulsive or just timed perfectly so as to squash the DNC convention bump? Is the slow release of information on Palin an attempt to hide her, or just a smart way to keep people engaged and curious about her?
4. Disdain for American institutions and society – Most of us will wake up 11/5, ready to work for our families and country no matter who wins. Those of you ready to take off for Canada, Europe, Costa Rica – Good riddance!
5. Grandiosity and an uncritical attitude toward your candidates – Obama/Biden have shocking weaknesses. They will NOT save the world. They're nothing but politicians.
6. Hatred and conspiratorial thinking – The Martians are not about to invade. Get real.
7. Ad-hominem attacks – Don’t count on Republicans getting Bork-ed again.
8. Bush bashing – Tarring McCain with Bush is strategically useless. It will not be credible for more than another week.
Stop ranting and venting. Everyday people may actually start listening to you.

[tedbear]

Palin's church video, now on utube, needs to get immediately put into an Obama ad.
Palin's church video needs to put on every news outlet and run 24/7, just like Rev. Wright, who was an angel compared to this insanity she calls religion. Man, this is the stuff that gets people to drink spiked koolAid. Serious business people, she has to be exposed in no uncertain terms, this info about the real Palin has to be flooding the public now.

[youngone]

CNN headlines news showed a little bit of it today.

[UnbiasView]

Here's the question for you:

Do you want to really bring that story back in?

Remember people are going to vote the top of the ticket and not the bottom.

[fairwitness]

"When tyranny comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carriying a cross."

The Republicans rightly see this as a fight for the power to tyrannize all of us with their corruption and theft and they will stop at nothing to win, that much is certain. If the Democrats, and most especially Obama and Biden, do not see this as an existential fight for the soul of the country and do their passionate, firey utmost, they will fail us and our children and our children's children.

[Lee2320]

They're already failing us. They need to have non stop commercials out their on the airwaves pointing out the hypocrisy of these people. And yet all they're doing is trying to stay positive, thinking that is all they will need to do to bring people over to their side. Like John Kerry, and Al Gore before them, they are not even beginning to understand that in this fickle celebrity obsessed society, you have to shove your message down people's throats if you actually want them to get it, because most people are just going to vote for whoever's the most popular on election day, if you don't. And right now, we all know painfully enough who that is, and it's not Barack Obama.

[jacq8411]

We just want you to leave our money alone. The little bit we have after taxes

[SSaffer]

ISomehow we must move comments on the internet to the mainstream media. Someone has to be in a position to influence the mainstream media and put this "sexy pitbull" in a fenced yard where she belongs! Obama chides the republicans, "...ya know, ya can't just make up stuff." OH YES THEY CAN. THEY HAVE BEEN SINCE DAY ONE OF THE CAMPAIGN!" His responses must be sharper, clearer, no hems and haws, no half laughs. If he can't do it, someone else HAS to. What happened to Joe Biden? I heard him respond strongly, but only ONCE. How come it wasn't repeated over and over and over, like every stupid little thing Palin says???? I assume the vice presidential job is 24/7." I guess we'll just have to put up with her kids in all her meetings, at every speech she makes, every trip she takes and every burb she evokes! The media is worried about personal issues when they should be talking about her position on key issues. It may be that too many people are sleeping at the wheel to think we might be able to save our country from things like global warming. The media covers Sarah Palin as she ridicules and spits on one of our most promising newly emerging leaders and Americans cheer and clap and snicker! EGADS!!!

[SeanHannity4Obama]

it's not that we are in trouble. it's normal to trail so that you do not take things for granted

[IntExec]

Well written...­. we need a full court press with no gloves.

[Whatshop]

Interresting! Sarah Palin's comments noted above were posted on the Wall Street Journal. This is just a small part of what she said and it's worse than what is above. When I read it I was amazed that this women had NO CLUE what she was talking about but that didn't stop her from running off at the mouth.
The comments posted below the article showed the complete lack of understanding of the issue, to say nothing of understanding that Fred & Fannie was not the example of more failed government but that they actually failed because of a lack of government oversight of a privately owned and run company. It is more taxpayors having to bail out the corrupt big business practices and CEO's got huge pay and now just get to walk away with us holding the bag. DEREGULATION = CORRUPTION

When I tried to post clarification, the WSJ had closed the comments. Guess they were afraid that the truth would be told.

[HRG]

Send this to the Obama campaign.

The strategy of taking the high road is going to send us on a losing path. It's pathetic that integrity stands for so little in this race but lamenting that is not going to win the White House. If the Repubs play dirty, we need to one-up them.

[AnitaBreak]

True dat, true dat. I started with Hill b/c I was counting on her ruthlessness to win, now I'm wishing O was ruthless instead of admirable. Repubs have the strategy to win forever, keep America as stupid and illeducated as possible and call anyone who questions things a sissy. It is like living in the 8th grade all the time.

[DarwinsBulldog]

There have been a number of comments from Republicans saying something along the lines of "Face it, you libs have picked the wrong candidate again." What will it take to convince you otherwise? Who is this magical candidate? Someone dumb? Someone "down to earth?" How much more down to earth can you get than a black man who grew up on the streets of Chicago, raised in the middle class by a single mother, and who lives his life with Christian values, as opposed to just giving them lip service?

Your candidate is a person who rallies the base with fake promises of keeping Christian values by making abortion illegal, while in the same breath calling his wife a c*nt/trollop. A person so out of touch with the common person he doesn't know how many houses he owns. He graduated 5th from the bottom in his Naval Academy. He gets his geography confused, while talking about how he's far more knowledgeable in foreign policy. He picks a VP who as even NeoCon incarnate Karl Rove has said is more of a campaign decision than a presidency decision. How is this a better candidate than the one the Liberals have chosen, and what would it take to convince you? If there's nothing that can convince you, then you're not thinking rationally. You're thinking with a very heavy bias. If you can't admit it to everyone, at least admit it to yourself.

[texasdemocrat1]

in the words of Obama to all you Defeatocra­ts.......

ENOUGH!!

So all it takes for you guys to say it's over is for McCain to get a convention bounce. If you want to roll over and take defeat (which is secretly comforting to too many of you), kindly roll completely out of the way for those of us who want to take our country back. Thank you.

[gotborked]

Your article is the very essence of elitism.

Fail.

[cdailyr]

I am glad I am not the only person terrified by this. Well written.

[GatoPreto]

Well, it might help if 0bama stopped pandering to the freaky-right ("Surge succeeded beyond wildest dreams") and returned to those who got him there in the first place. He could run on a single issue, ending the war, and he would win. Just to be sure, he could add Universal Coverage Medical Insurance, like we have in Canada, that should do it. No need to go after the bible-thumping public, just stick to your allies.

[Jeffin90019]

For mercy's sake, does it really matter one bit what religion the man is as long as he is a man of decency, principle and vision? Are we Americans so religiously baised that belief in Jesus Christ as the one True Savior is a mandatory requirement for the President of the United States? I am a pro-choice Independent (I ran from the Democratic party after the embarrassment that was John Kerry), but I believe there is room for meaningful limits on when an abortion can occur. That being said, I too was troubled by Obama's support for late term/partial birth abortions. While these procedures are rare and are often used as a smokescreen to take away all abortion rights, the act of murdering a viable fetus is indefensible. On this subject, Obama disappoints. But the Republican Party has disappointed the world on so many levels, that their failed leadership style must end now.