Monday, September 1, 2008

I prefer Michael

Sarah Palin: Governor of Alaska, Vice-Presidential nominee, and woman I absolutely cannot stand...

11 comments:

Stewed Hamm said...

Granted, this is about the farthest thing from a political blog, but seeing as you broached the subject, let's hear your case.
On the off chance that the rest of us don't follow Alaska politics like lemurs on meth, fill us in on your beef against Palin. Surely she hasn't done something so greviously awful in the three days since the vast majority of America learned she exists?

Or, if you'd prefer a comment related to the picture, she should be holding a crossbow and straddling a dead moose. Other than that, not bad.

Anonymous said...

Why didn't you draw her knocked up daughter?

Dax said...

It's true, I did broach the subject...

She seems to be the polar opposite of me, politically, socially, conceptually, etc.

But with further thought, my main problem with her isn't technically with *her*, but with McCain's choice of her. She seems--to me, at least--to be a strategic choice to please and energize the "base" of the Republican party (which, I think it's fair to say, is not enamored of John McCain).

And maybe that's very smart, but I think choosing a vice-president should be mostly about choosing someone who could take over the job of overseeing the most powerful country in the world should anything happen to the President. There's nothing on her resume that even remotely points towards that level of responsibility and experience.

Plus, McCain would be the oldest elected President, and one with a myriad of health problems. So...yeah, I just don't like the choice for that reason in particular.

Also, I feel like screeching like a howler monkey whenever I hear her speak. But that's just me.

Stewed Hamm said...

Fair points all, Dax. Much classier than anon, to be sure.

McCain's a crafty bastard, what can I say? He knows that in recent years, he's seriously pissed off a lot of Republicans. There was a lot of talk from both conservative and moderate Republicans of not voting for president, or even not voting at all. So yeah, she's a strategic pick to shore up his base.
While most VP picks are blatant attempts to appeal to a particular state that looks borderline, (LBJ and Bush 1 come to mind immediately) McCain didn't have that luxury... though it could be argued that if he went with Lieberman, as he reportedly wanted to do, it would draw a lot of votes... but it would still be a strategic choice. That's the nature of the modern VP, and I don't see us escaping it anytime soon.

Would I like to see Palin have more executive experience? Certainly. However, I think it's fair to point out that she has more executive experience running the State of Alaska than do Obama and Biden combined.
Some of the media attacks on her in the last few days are absolutely sickening. The sewage that would never get put in print if she were a man, the vile accusations made about her children - none of whom are actually running for anything, it's more than I've ever seen thrown at a candidate. And it's never happened so fast and so viciously... so if the pressure of this campaign can't prepare her for whatever she didn't learn in taking on the Alaskan Murkowski/Stevens machine, then nothing can. Time will tell.

What concerns me more than her experience is both of her opponents' records. Biden has a very long history of shooting his mouth off, and saying some staggeringly idiotic thing. For example, in Oct 01, when Biden convened hearings on an appropriate response to 9/11, he suggested "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran," with raised eyebrows, and a 'How do ya like that?' look on his face.
In 2005, Biden reportedly told Israel that they would have to live with a nuclear-armed Iran. A prospect that would send the entire ME into an arms race, as every Arab nation quickly stockpiled weapons to prevent an attack by Iran... to say nothing of what Israel would feel compelled to do.

Obama's record is equally questionable, chiefly because there's not much there. He hasn't actually done anything while in office, other than co-sponsor a bunch of bills (along with hundreds of other senators) and vote "Present" over 100 times.
Yes, he taught law for a few years and was a community organizer... whatever that is. His only executive experience (unless you count his asinine claim that running his presidential campaign counts as executive experience - which he doesn't even do, because he's not the campaign manager, he's the candidate) comes from chairing the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, with among other people an admitted terrorist. I'd like to be able to look at what he did there, but those records were only allowed to be accessed last week - well after his party's nomination process was complete. Early reports are that the group burned through $160 Million in 5 years, without much to show for it. A lot of that money seems to have gone to friends-of-friends and other "connected" Chicago people.
Maybe that's not an accurate or fair assessment, but that's entirely Obama's fault for not releasing those records earlier, so that he could show everyone all of his executive experience. (Unless he's not particularly proud of it, of course)

So, while I could go on at length about the Democrat candidates, I think the few examples show that they both have legitimate questions about their experience.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that we can both agree Alaska is a real state (I'm told it's a pretty big one, too) and that Sarah Palin actually runs it as Governor. She's no stranger to tight budgets, and tough negotiations. In short, if her opponents have enough experience, then She's got enough as well.

I can't help you with the howler monkey thing. If it helps, everytime I hear Gore speak, I want to say "lockbox" all day.

Lawwwwwwwwwwk Bawwwwwwwwwwwks.

Dax said...

I do buy, to some degree, the theory that how well you run a campaign can be applied to how well you might run the country. It's an oversimplification, of course. But Obama put the main players in his campaign in place, and they operate according to his instruction, and so far they've beat the doors off of the Republicans (and the other Democrats) in how to run a national campaign.

As to the whole running a state thing, I seem to recall that Carter was a successful state governor, but objectively failed as a president. It's not that cut-and-dry.

I also think Obama is an exceptionally bright guy, whereas Palin doesn't believe that human activity affects climate change. Which from my elitist liberal point-of-view, isn't very bright at all.

Dax said...

Ehh, anyways, I'd rather not go on about this. I probably shouldn't have commented on her on the blog, primarily because I want to stink mainly to arty/comicy topics here. It's my bad.

Now...Chris Ware and Paste Pot Pete...THAT would be a ticket!

Stewed Hamm said...

I'd vote for Paste Pot Pete if he promised to make Willie Lumpkin the Postmaster General.

Dax said...

He's the only choice that makes sense. My man Willie. I wonder if he's still alive in the Marvel universe?

Anonymous said...

Willie has since retired, and his niece Billie has taken his position as the Fantastic Four's mail carrier.

So says the vast 'knowledge' of the Wikipedia.

Dax said...

Eventually I would've caved and looked it up...thanks for taking the hit for me.

Crusty Hank VIII said...

Ya know, Sarah Palin once shot a man just for snorin'.