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?
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No commnet.
I will continue to fight to the end. A lot can change so don't give up!
So do what the media is powerless to do because of the Monopoly.
Get up off your coffee and donut eating arse and fight. Talk to everybody, in supermarkets where prices are high, in gas stations where they pay at the pump.
In restaurants and gyms about the financial bailouts by the republicans for Bear and Sterns, Fannie and Freddie mac, and none for the taxpayer, who has to get the tab.
Talk about when a parent could stay home to care for kids and over the last thirty years, that choice has been taken.
Talk about the teen pregnancy rates and how just giving condoms or birth control in a HIV age, can stop spreading HIV to the child if the parent has it.
These things aren't as available to our daughters as they were for us.
Women should have the choice on when to bring life in a WAR TORN WORLD.
Do what you have to to meet victory for Joe and Barack.
They are fighting for us, We the People must fight to have them in office.
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!
HuffPost's Pick
And fight is what we must do! We can read blogs and respond to them all day long but that is not going to elect Obama. We need to put our words and desires into action for this campaign!!
If you can travel to a battleground state, then do it! I'm going to Colorado with 2 friends at the end of October. That's my vacation this year.
The #2 people on the tickets aren't the problem. People vote for the top of the ticket. Therein lies the problem. The Democrats picked the wrong candidate this year. Surprise.
your one-note tune is getting very boring.
and you really miss the point: if Hillary had been nominated, we'd still be hearing the same script with a different cast.
Your self serving candidate can not even get it up to help us win this election. She will receive the rewards she earns between now and November.
Normally I would agree pupbayer, but I've seen too many already that weren't excited about the McCain ticket and had pretty well already admitted defeat, now energized about the McCain ticket. The strange thing is that they aren't energized about McCain! Most could care less about him. It's ALL about Palin. It is almost as if the bill has switched and it's become the Palin/McCain ticket.
I really feel that Palen is going to self-destruct when she's in front of people and away from the handlers, but what if she doesn't. THIS is why McCain brought her on so late. It's a late-coming arrival equivalent to the excitement surrounding Obama all this time, but it's so late in the game that the American people and the press won't have time to go through this woman's closets to find out what she's really like.
We MUST NOT BACK DOWN.
You mean the democratic VOTERS?
Rules have just changed, in case you haven't noticed: on this election, people vote for Palin AND Mccain; or for Obama (Biden is not included, the VP nominee could be just anybody else).
Sarah Pailin will stay on the news 'cause she's the one who attracts the crowds, not McCain; nor Biden, for that matter. Therefore, Palin is going to be Dem's problem all the way to Nov.4.
Obama screwed up big by passing on Hillary.
"Obama screwed up big by passing on Hillary."
THAT I certainly agree with. Although, they should have put HIllary at the top of the ticket and she'd be ahead.
I think when the facade breaks down and the skeletons in her life start gaining proof and
verification she's going to become a libility and it will be too late to dump her.
"What kind of misplaced chivalry would keep the Democrats from calling Sarah Palin what she is? An ignorant, misinformed, inexperienced, bigoted fraud." By calling her that, we will allienate more and more common people, most of them are less smart and less informed than her. what will we get by insulting the voters?
We are to blame for living in another planet.
We as a country get what we deserve, period. And if our country wants to elect moronic, self-serving, homophobic, bigoted, rich white suburbanites, poor excuses as politicians, and even poorer excuses as human beings, then so be it. Your fear is well-placed, Ms. Foner, but, ultimately, impotent.
And you can rest assured that most of this populace did *not* mature past high school, or even junior high school. The evidence is clear: McCain leads in current polling. That should tell you everything right there.
Once again: we get the leaders we deserve.
Sis-boom-bah.
It's not our fault! We just want our leaders to look like us and somehow we keep getting "moronic, self-serving, homophobic, bigoted, rich white suburbanites, poor excuses as politicians, and even poorer excuses as human beings"!!! I can't figure out where the problem is...
This should be the next big talking point for Obama
PAY NO ATTENTION TO WHAT THEY SAY.......
I agree. The republican have always been very anti-intellectual. In fact they actually thrive on it. Sadly people fall for this all the time. Thanks to Bush and Rove and the stupidity of our voters, graduating from Harvard has become a liability.
Sarah Palin’s the best example. When ever she says she’s “just your average hockey mom” she gets wild cheers. The same thing happened in 2004. Kerry was viewed as an elitist while Bush was your everyday average man. Why would you want an average person to govern your country? I would want someone who is a hundred times smarter than me !!
Sad that this is true, because there used to be some great intellectual minds in the Republican party. Linoln, Roosevelt, etc... Now it is an intellectual vacuum.
C'mon, everyone. Spread the word!!!!! This election has got to be about brains, period, which the McCain/Palin ticket sorely lacks.
It upsets me greatly to see people's emotions and love for this country preyed upon and they don't know enough to know better. You want to know how the Russian Revolution happened? Same thing. The great masses in Tsarist Russia were undeducated, and the Bolsheviks absolutely fed them exactly what they wanted to hear. Because of the lack of education, sophistication and communication, the Soviet Union was born.
In this day and age, information abounds, and citizens of the US have a civic duty to know as much about their government and the people who want to represent its people as possible.
Rove, not McCain, knew what he was doing. This choice illustrates the level of distain McCain has toward the American public. He knows we are not well informed about our democracy. He knows we are ignorant about how Washington actually works. He knows we are bigoted. He knows we are not united in our religious beliefs. And, he has chosen to divide the country yet again. How sad that Senator Obama's message of uniting people is falling on deaf ears. We are all about winners and losers and not about problem solving. If McCain wins, I do not want to hear any more hollering from the MidWest about jobs. I don't want to hear any more complaining about the troops not being outfitted properly - as there will be more wars under McCain. If you care so little about yourselves and other people's children that you will shoot yourself in the foot, then you deserve what you get. The abortion issue will rule again. Remember, no one told Sara or her daughter that they must have their babies. They had a choice. We won't have a choice after McCain destroys the Supreme Court. We are indeed in big trouble.
I agree. John McCain's AMBITION is demonstrated in everything he has done since returning from Vietnam -- and he will do ANYTHING to get the Presidency Cindy thinks she bought, no doubt.
Not only does HE know he is ill-equipped, his pick of someone even less so demonstrates CONTEMPT for the American people.
He has no shame STEALING the themes/memes/ideas of Barack's successful Campaign -- and has freely lifted from Hillary Clinton's strategy as well.
We never heard CHANGE from McCain until his Republican Convention. He lacks authenticity and is dishonest. Only he could find someone more so -- in that COWARD and LIAR, Sarah Palin.
sak & coolfin: we hear ya, ...loud and clear...un
Sak you are so right. This whole thing was orchestrated by Rove, the Fox News "strategist" who uses that network as a direct pipeline to perform mind-melds on the ignorant who will perform in lock step when the election comes. Just listen to them as they regurgitate the talking points. When in their lives did they ever use the word "embolden?" Or appeasement? Add the weaselly little cheerleader Carl Cameron and you've got a constant assault on middle America. I was surprised in 2000 and absolutely gob-smacked in 2004. This is our last and final chance at an assault against ignorance.
The Democrats and the Obama campaign just lack the killer instinct that the Republicans have. By now McCain should have been framed as an opportunist double-talker who is willing to sell out all the principles he had previously espoused in order to win and to tell blatant lies whenever politically convenient.
Alright Captain Video, what are you doing to change it.
What are you prepared to do?
Fight Fight Fight and win.
Yes WE Can, remember?
Get off your arse and get out the vote.
One way to deal with Sarah Palin:
"If your daughter was raped and got pregnant, would you want the government to force her to carry the pregnancy to term? SARAH PALIN DOES. That would resonate and convince many women who are in the center, rather than right-wing ideologues, that she is not one of them.
This election is not fair or balanced. The mccain/palin bunch could say the sun wonl't shine tomorrow because they are going to sale it on Ebay, and the people of the U.S could care less! let them live in the grief they vote into office is all I have to say.
LOL!!! NO candidate has EVER been treated as badly or talked about as badly as Sarah Palin. It has been absolutely disgusting and sickening. Get real.
Captain,
Would you prefer that the government force a woman to kill her child?
Just asking.
That's not what "choice" is. You weren't just asking. You were just spinning.
Pro-choice does not mean anti-life. Pro-choice is about giving women the opportunity to make the decision themselves, and not have the government tell them what the devision is.
No one has EVER suggested that.
That's the kind of criminal misdirection that Republicans specialize in.
LOL, yes, because that's Obama's policy. If Obama is elected, he will FORCE women to abort their children NO QUESTIONS ASKED! Spread the word!
This is way too cute and cuddly for the MSM not to thrive on. Forget it. They'll never fact-check her and are affraid of McPOW & the GOP. This is over. And until Fox New, O'Reilly and Limbaugh lose their power, we will ALL be at the mercy of the right-wing rule. Game over.
This is why the Democrats need to emphasize that McCain is a rich, priviledged country club Republican who isn't one of the ordinary working people and whose economic policy is designed to take from working people and give it to the rich. Making an issue of the fact that he did not know how many houses he has was on the right track but was not fully exploited. A major issue should have been made of Cindy McCain's $300,000 dress. A major issue should be made about how big a tax cut McCain would get as a result of his policies.
"An ignorant, misinformed, inexperienced, bigoted fraud."
Yes, that sounds like Bush. She is Bush in a dress.
Yes, we do know what we are doing. This is the nervousness felt by winners, not losers. Just because McCain is fighting back doesn't mean his blows will connect. Sure, he picked the lovely Sarah Palin as his running mate (or is it the other way around) but, she has yet to engage in an independent interview. I believe Bob Schiefer or Tom Brokaw can crack her quite easily when the wheel starts spinning. I'm not sure she will last the interviewing process. On stage in front of a bunch of adoring fans is easy for Sarah. I think the buck stops there. Winners, while atop the heap, look to maintain there place and at times wonder if what they are doing is the way to keep themselves up there. This is your sensation, Naomi, and it is only natural. Naturally, your response could and probably should be, patience.
I agree with playinjured, I think one of the big reasons you're seeing the hike in ratings is because even liberals want to see what she's going to say. Not because we agree with her, but because we want to see what we're up against. Or what this train wreck really looks like. I don't think the polls are correct, look at the funding, Obama got mad cash after Palin's speech, McCain did, too, but not anywhere near what Obama did. We just need to keep punching for the last eight weeks, things will be ok in the end.
You have to assume that Schiefer and Brokaw will not cow to the right and will really ask the tough questions that need to be asked. It is up to us to put pressure on news casters and the networks to ask for the answers to questions that voters need. When will the real journalists stand up for what is right? This is what we are really fighting. Otherwise it is up to us to get the facts out. To register voters, to pound the street, to make phone calls - get out there and do the work.
I agree with the sentiments of this piece. Unfortunately Naomi is preaching to the choir. Do we get hold of people and try to shake some sense into them. They seem both blind and deaf. Sleep-walkers!
This is pathetic, I'm not quite there yet but I'm beginning to wonder if this country really might have a death wish. Does Palin have to drop on the floor of CBS news and start speaking in tongues for us before we see this for what it is? God created Alaska as a refuge for the coming tribulations? What? Are you kidding me? She's giving snake oil a bad name.
For my money, Obama's hopes (all ours really) are tied to his ability to get the 18 - 24 voters out in massive force. By far this demo is behind him but also all to often somehow forgets to actually get around to visit the polling booth in the numbers that matter.
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