Palin a Threat, Not a Distraction
1. Sarah Palin is a mortal threat to the possibility of Obama winning, not a distraction. The reason is simple: if she can add a couple of points to McCain from defecting white women and the newly-energized right wing religious base without losing more independent votes, McCain pulls ahead in some key states.
The dangerous tendency of the Obama campaign and its Democratic surrogates is to not fight back, but treat Palin as a "distraction" from McCain, the economy, the issues they feel familiar with, etc.
If they assume that the Palin bubble will return to earth naturally, or that the mainstream media and Saturday Night Live will do the job for them, the Obama campaign is mistaken.
There needs to be a controlled message that treats Palin as an extension of McCain, not a bobble-head to be laughed at.
The message has to cut off independent and women's support for McCain-Palin and, if possible, divide some of the right-wingers. Not an easy task.
Perhaps the point is that we've already suffered eight years under a president Bush and vice-president Cheney who were, in Palin's words, so "wired in a way to be committed to the mission" that they could neither blink nor think. She and McCain, like Bush and Iraq, are faith-based missions that will crash on us.
An excellent editorial in Sunday's NY Times makes the connection from McCain to Palin in terms that will reach independent and moderate voters. It should be quoted and widely circulated. The choice of an unqualified candidate to be a heartbeat from the presidency of a 72 year old man with four melanomas "was shockingly irresponsible," the Times said.
I think we can see in McCain-Palin a kind of faith-based extremism that reminds us of Bush and, even more, the persona of Gen. Custer.
We have seen where righteous faith-based politics goes in the Supreme Court decisions, corruption scandals, the official lies, and the unnecessary wars of the past eight years, all carried out in the name of what both McCain and Palin now call "God's plan."
2. The McCain-Palin foreign policy is a mortal threat to America from the same neoconservatives who brought us Iraq wrapped in lies. Her neocon speechwriters had the audacity to repeat the 2002 claim that Iraq was behind 9/11. She told her son's Iraq-bound troops that "you'll be there to defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans." [NYT, 9/14] This was the original lie of Bush's war.
We cannot give the Republicans an advantage with their false clams of "victory in sight." We have to emphasize the three-trillion dollar cost of the war, and we have to connect the war to the price of oil. Democratic consultants should stop compartmentalizing the economy like it was 1992 all over again.
This is apparently not the advice of the biggest Democratic heavyweights like Bill Clinton and James Carville who tend to revert to "it's the economy, stupid." But it's not 1992. It's the 9/11 era, the Iraq War era, the War on Terrorism era -- and also the middle of the worse economic and energy crisis in memory. The issues are tied together. Not enough people will vote on "lunch bucket" issues if they think McCain-Palin will protect them from terrorists, but they might vote against McCain-Palin if they think they are being lied to again.
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The Iraq War was never a "mission from God", it was always a crime - a deliberately calculated grab for the Iraqi oil fields by Cheney et al. All of the WMD and al Qaeda connections and every other shred of phony justification BushCo ever conjured up has proven to be false. Whether they say we're winning or losing is all just spin. People are dying because of Republican
McCain + Palin = thousands more dying in the name of their god, which is Big Fat Oil. Are we willing to send our sons and daughters to be slaughtered for the quarterly profits of Exxon/Mobil?
get real mglorainey
That IS real. We know now that all of the reasons given by Cheney-Rove for the conquest of Iraq were fake, and known by the "administration" to be fake well before the invasion began. Since none of the reasons given to the press, our allies, the UN, or the people of the world by Cheney were true, what could the actual reason be for such a costly undertaking, if NOT the oil?
Hatred of Muslims? Cheney, Rove, Bush, et al. are not actually Christians, that's a pose they adopt for political purposes. They don't really know anything about Islam or Muslims. They don't give a hoot in hell about anyone's religion, except that it's a handy propaganda tool - it's easy to scare the uninformed with mis-charac
Everyone killed, wounded or maimed in Iraq has suffered and sacrificed in a war for oil. Cheney & Bush have killed more Americans in their crime than Osama bin Laden did in his.
This is one white woman that is not ever going to vote for her and frankly, I haven't heard any white women say they support her. In fact, there seems to be a pretty passionate dislike. We despise even the idea of her. She makes us look bad.
I suspect many of the white women who are showing up at rallies are bused in from evangelical churches. Whenever one of these women state they love Sarah because she is one of them, I suggest the following retort:
"yes, well, I don't want you for vice president either".
If you are a Mother....
What does that have to do with the topic at hand?
WHAT?? Perhaps if Obama's sex ed plan was in place in Alaska a year ago, Palin would not have had any reason to BE the kind of mother who teaches a child about the ramifications of premarital sex! She can't manage her own family, let alone running a free country- not if but- when McSame kicks the bucket!
I detest Sarah Palin! She is a lying Fascist and when she told Charlie Gibson about her plans to reform America, I got chills. I was surprised that he didn't ask the question, Reform HOW? By making women accross America pay for their rape kits like she does in ALaska? Take away women's birth control? Make women carry a rapists seed to term when she gets raped because she doesn't belivee in abortion under any circumstances? Make abstinence education the law of the land (it worked so well for her daughter Palin) I think that women accross America should go to any Halloween party as Palin, complete with witches hat, pinocchio nose, right wing glasses, and T shirt that says Mooselini or whatever. Bring a sign also, that says rapists need to sow their wild oats too dontcha know! We must get people asking "Why don't you like Sarah Palin?" I hate to say it, but there are a lot of stupid people in America who don't know what she stands for and who think she is a hoot.
Here's another white woman! She is an embarassment! I also don't know ANY other women who are voting for her.
She is both a threat and a distraction. Obama and Biden win on the issues and they need to stick to them. Where has Joe Biden been anyway?
Joe Biden has been quite literally wowing the crowds wherever he goes...lik
You really should do yourself a great favor and check out all that Senator Biden has been doing to support this ticket since he was tapped as running mate. The effort that will be required to do that on your part will be well worth your time - I guarantee it!
Forget the four melanomas. John McCain's father (John McCain, Jr.) died of a heart attack at age 70. John McCain, Sr. (his grandfather) died of a heart attack at 61. McCain has already outlived his father by two years and his grandfather by 11.
Innovations Report recently cited a new study that said, "The parts of the genetic make-up that are thought to determine an individual’s maximum possible longevity, so-called telomeres, are inherited from the father but not the mother. This is shown by a research team at Umeå University in the coming issue of the U.S. scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
So the risk factors for a McCain heart attack are conceivably as high as those for another melanoma. I don't want to wish ill health on anyone but the family history is there.
But Tom - you already wrote that Obama was definitely going to lose. And that was before Palin was chosen. Why do a piece like this, condemning Republicans, when your crystal ball already told you they're going to win. What difference does it make to you whether they're right or wrong - it's a done deal. Remember?
I don't think I can stomach a person near the whitehouse who spoke in tongues at a Pentecostle church. Call me prejudice but it takes a special bit of wacko to do that.
If only we had a tape of that this election would be over.
why don't people in the punditry and on this blog just come out and say it. there is a large segment of the voting public that needs nothing more than the picture of two white folks vs a white guy and a BLACK guy. There is still a large segment that would never vote for an african american. period. no questions asked. dems will never get those people this election. so forget about them and call mccain a racist and a liar. then all you have to see is a mccain ad and you will realize that obama is right. when will the media admit that those folks exist. they now use coded phrases like rural voters, and working class voters or west virginia voters. NO ONE IS TALKING "STRAIGHT TALK!"
No no one is talking straight.B
Remember that post about 'I know you are but what am I?" Obama-warning his supporters after the primaries and BEFORE the Convention-stated that 'They will try to tell you I'm different. That I don't look like everybody else.' AND THE SCREAMS of 'RACE CARD' that went up from the McCain campaign were resounding! BUT-McCain still trailed in the polls. McCain was trailing in the polls up until the announcement of his running mate. However-the McCain campaign had previously suffered from some kind of amnesia, because they WERE playing the race card BEFORE Obama even MENTIONED that he looked different from everybody else. I CANNOT SAY THIS ENOUGH! McCain wanted HILLARY CLINTON to be the NOMINIEE. The RNC WANTED HILLARY CLINTON TO BE THE NOMINEE. The RNC has a NOTEBOOK FULL of slime and slander based on Obama's career in the Illinois Senate. Imagine the ENTIRE LIBRARY OF SLIME AND SMEAR THEY HAVE ON HILLARY CLINTON! And when they MAKE THINGS UP-out of the slime and slander that they have on OBAMA-even their 'GURUS' call them on it. NOPE! Obama's DOING JUST FINE in ELECTORAL COLLEGE LAND!! JUST KEEP WORKING-ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIVE IN OHIO OR MICHIGAN OR PA.!!
Obama has to paint a clear picture of the way things are and point out not so much "more of the same" but worse. X,Y, and Z, and these are John MC and SP's solutions? Who's kidding whom? However, we must be real, the game will be won on the ground on polling day, and that's what needs to be going on without wasting a day. Also, this isn't just about Obama; this is about us and the future of our country. Are we going to just let it happen? Sarah Palin is both a distraction and a threat. We need to get John McCain front and center, and everytime he plays the person card-call him and raise. He's a bore but an even bigger threat in the present--and he's a serial youtube liar. The Palin damage is only a symptom of that, even though he's let loose the whirlwind, and I believe this won't win, lose, or draw be the last we see of the little lady. Four years from now, she's going to come armed for bear, not just caribou. But for now, first things first.
What do you say we revisit this issue...AF
What I find depressing is she is an excuse not to vote for Obama... Well, maybe he didn't ever have a chance.. On Meet the Press today they talked about the "BUBBA" vote ignorant semi-racist men and women who might have voted for Hillary in the primaries but will never vote for a black man to the White House... You k now what? Even if they voted for Hillary in the primaries, I bet they wouldn't have voted for her in the general either.. It is up to us to squeeze out as many votes and we can find.
Did it ever occur to you that Obama may not be winning because his message just doesn't resonate with some voters? Stop living in this bubble of kumbaya and face the facts: the man has some BAD positions, as does McCain...s
It would be hillarious if it were just a story, but this is really happening.
I have seen this unfold countless times from business meetings to local, regional and national politics. Palin was cover for usurpation of the "change" message. Put out an idea that people seem to like and the opposition will repaint themselves in that color. Palin IS a distraction from that tactic by McCain. Now he is the "change" candidate too and no one seems to have noticed but Barack.
She also served the purpose of ripping the scab off of the settlement between Clinton and Obama. Keeping sexism front and center in the public's mind IS a distraction.
And if the distractions are a mortal threat to Obama winning then Palin is a grave threat to America because, whether she becomes President or not, the poilcies of another Republican regime will destroy this country.
It is, in fact, the economy. If the economy continues to be weakened by "voodoo" economics 4.0, the nation will continue to be weakened. Combine that with a military that has already been weakened and it is easy to see that anyone interested in the defense of or even survival of the United States are kidding themselves if they vote Republican.
So Sarah Palin is a threat not only to Democrats but to Republicans and Independents as well. Hmmm, a threat, then, to the nation.
Unfortunately, I agree that Palin is a threat because she's wooing women who can't see beyond their bible belt mentality and men who just can't see beyond their belts. Sarah Palin no more represents my beliefs as an American woman, even much less so as a mother, than RuPaul. Gosh, having said that, I feel the need to apologize to a drag queen...
Ru Paul is probably a better human being.
There is nothing Christian about wars and taking from the poor to give to the rich. I wish the Dems would, like, notice that and say more about it. I think Obama gets the "messiah" rap because he's essentially speaking a Christian "love thy neighbor" message that people have responded to for 2000 years and that fear hasn't killed yet. I think people are so sick of "fear thy neighbor" and "kill them before they kill you." I know I am. Heartsick.
General Custer?? (were you kidding or is that a real comment?)
Listening to Carville and Clinton would be the BEST thing the Obama campaign could do - but it appears they won't because they are still in the Obama Bubble. Imagine taking advice from a successful campaign that unseated a sitting President? What could they possibly know?
btw Obama just beat that team. (Imagine that! What could he possibly know?)
I agree Obama-Biden have to attack both McCain and Palin, as worse than George Bush in what they do do in foreign policy. They can't just hope that she will implode once the press vets her.
"Neoconservatives plan Project Sarah Palin to shape future American foreign policy"
http://www
That is the plan. McCain will train her in to take over for him in 2012. She will be future hope for conservatives in this country. The core of this country is conservative, I would have though you would understand that by now. You don't have to like it, but at least be a realist about it.
Tom,
I agree. I also think that there are only
two reasons to vote for McCain/Palin.
1 Racism
2 Stupidity
which go hand in hand with each other.
Now I am going to butcher a favorite
quote.
It may have been a P.T.Barnum quote, not sure.
"You will never go broke betting on
the stupidity of the American people"
To McCain/Palin's politics I say thanks but no thanks.
Their political platform is a platform to nowhere.
There are only two reasons not to vote for McCain Palin:
1. Sexism
2. Fear of small-town America and it's values
Farmers organizations give Obama 100% for his voting record on behalf of farm issues and McCain 0%. Also if you're talking about pro-life, tell me why the same party/people who want government to make that choice for you also support wars, torture and capital punishment? And letting your brother fail without helping him? And saying keep the government small and local when they do exactly the opposite? I can't stand the hypocrisy and I just don't get it. I choose life myself and I want everybody to have that freedom to choose. In the name of freedom you're turning us into a police state.
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