Lots of major political happenings the past few days. Obama accepted the nomination on Thursday, right down the street from me, but I deliberately avoided any and all proceedings related to the DNC (I have issues with crowds. And crowd control, which seems an oxymoron).
I watched his speech on Thursday. I wasn’t nearly as moved by his as by Hillary’s, but then again, I think that might be for the better. I’ve heard some people complain that it lacked his usual passion and rhetorical flair, but I have to wonder if that would have been the right place for either. I thought it was a basically nuts-and-bolts speech in which he accepted the nomination and then indicated what he planned to do. One of the biggest complaints against him (besides “arrogance,” but don’t even get me started on that) is that many people felt they didn’t know what he was running for or promising. They didn’t know what his policies were going to be.
I think we have a better idea now. We might not yet know how he plans to accomplish his plans, but at least we know he’s got them, and I think that’s the important part for anyone who was undecided, which is really who that speech was addressed to. I was going to be voting for him anyway, regardless of what he said, because really the other choice is a senile old man, and I think that his speech was for everyone who hadn’t already been swayed by his brilliant rhetoric and bombastic charisma.
And how about that senile old man? McCain’s the other big news with his choice of Sarah Palin, the Tina Fey-lookalike Alaskan governor nobody besides Alaskans had ever heard of before yesterday, to be his vice-presidential candidate.
So, basically, I think McCain believes that all the disenfranchised Hillaristas who are so upset Obama beat their candidate, hands down, are voting based on gender and not ideas or politics, so anyone in a skirt will appease most of them. I can’t think of any other reason. His most oft-repeated criticism of Obama is that Obama lacks experience; meanwhile, Palin’s been governor for less than two years, and of a state whose total population is less than that of Brooklyn. One could argue that she, as a governor, has more executive experience, but if one really wants to make that argument, she technically has more experience than any other candidate, none of whom have political experience outside of the Senate.
I wouldn’t make that argument. I think she’s totally crazy and completely scary. She’s anti-abortion rights. She believes Creationism should be taught alongside evolution in school.
And most of all: do you know that average life expectancy for an American man is 75.6 years? McCain turned 72 yesterday. Which means that, if he’s elected, and if he actually manages to live through his first term, it will actually be unexpected. And this is a man who’s battled malignant melanoma four times between 1993 and 2002.
So on one ticket we have a senile old man who wants to bomb Iran and his conservative, Evangelical Christian running mate who’s been a governor for only slightly less time than McCain is yet expected to live.
On the other, we have a man with solid integrity who seems utterly committed to uniting America in the change he sees as a vision for the future, and his senior Senator running mate.
It really should be no contest, and it’s a damned shame it’s not.
August 30, 2008 at 3:57 pm
you know when I frist heard that people were fighting Creationism I couldn’t understand why people were fighting it… because I had a different idea of what it was. If I were teaching it chapter one would be on the christian, jewish and muslim beilief of how the earth was formed. Chapter two would be native american beliefs (differn’t tribe very on how the earth was formed though some are similar. Chapter three would be Buddism and you get the idea. I didn’t realise it was a smoke screen for “why evolution is crap 101.”
I like McCain and if he wasn’t running right after Bush I might vote for him, but I think it’s a bad idea for now. I don’t think he will be as drastic in fixing Bush’s problems. Obama will set a time table for Iraq and where as I was orginally against this I now feel that if we don’t set one, people won’t get their butts in gear (the prinicaple aplies to cops and statute of limitations on certain crimes). The most important reason I won’t vote him is I feel it would send a message to the republicans that they’re doing something right when they’re not. Both parties need some serious party renovation, but the republican party needs it more.
The first time I saw Obama was on Jay Leno. This was two years before the election I think and he said he probably wouldn’t run. I think he changed his mind because some one told him to look around at what the other parties options were. This is the first time in a long time that the party standards have gone up, in my opinion. think of this way, out 10 points how many points would you give Bushes first four years? Got the number good. No based on that number don’t you think the republican party should have been able to find someone with a higher point scale then Kerry? If he had one it would not have been by a lot.
At least we get some good jokes and blogs out the whole thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adc3MSS5Ydc
September 6, 2008 at 5:02 am
‘Tis true … shouldn’t be much of a race at all … and yet I am the lone Democrat in my neighborhood, in my family … god help me, am I the only one in this town? Conservative, traditional, “Christian” values are so deeply ingrained in so many people that they automatically accept such without giving it much thought. It seems their great-great-grandparents were Christian Republicans and thus they too shall be! Old habits die hard and – in this case – seem to be hereditary!
September 6, 2008 at 10:41 am
@Gotham: I like McCain, too. He would have been great had he won in 2000. He did not, and now his time is past.
@Fitch: yeah, why is it conservative, Christian values never seem so, well, good? And it’s always the smaller towns, unfortunately.