September 8, 2008
They’re out there … all around you. You just don’t know who they are yet. Right now, all across America, they’re out shopping for those Kawasaki eyeglass frames … trying to re-style their hair into that half-beehive/half-mullet look. They’re the Sarah Palin wanna-bes — forcing their sons to join hockey teams – each hoping to earn that coveted title for herself: “Hockey Mom” — a ticket to success in today’s America. There is no question that Sarah Palin will be the most popular Halloween costume subject for 2008. Beyond that, there are many thousands of American women, currently adapting their lives to accommodate Sarah Palin as their new role model.
The rest of us just aren’t sure we know who Sarah Palin is yet. The McCain campaign is obviously training her on the difficult subject of interviews with journalists. As of this time, there are no Palin interviews scheduled, other than the rumored possibility of an interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson. As I write this, McCain campaign CEO, Rick Davis, is holding out for “ground rules”. I suspect that if the campaign’s senior strategist, Steve Schmidt, were to have his way, any such interviews would be tightly scripted and choreographed, with all questions and answers written in advance by Schmidt. Meanwhile, Joe Biden appeared on the September 6 edition of Meet The Press. Biden had to answer at least one question with:
I don’t know what Governor Palin’s position on this issue is, because I haven’t heard it yet. I have to assume that her position will be the same as Senator McCain’s.
When asked about the impending federal government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Biden pointed out that he had just discussed the subject with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the previous evening. I could not help but wonder what the hell Sarah Palin would have said in answer to that question … “Freddie Mac cracked a lot of sexist jokes at an Obama rally. Didn’t he die recently?”
Nevertheless, we are beginning to obtain information about Palin for ourselves by using our computers over the Internet. The mainstream media have nothing for us, other than the superficial biography offered by the Republican National Committee. What we have initially learned is that Sarah Palin spent six years working toward her Bachelor’s Degree, while attending five different schools in that effort. Many consider this as evidence that she may be significantly dumber than our current President. Although I refer to Governor Palin as “The Gumball”, I don’t consider her six-year college tour as a justifiable basis for criticizing her. Many of us who attended college either made school transfers ourselves, or had friends who did so — at the cost of lost course credits. For someone to change colleges five different times, yet graduate in only six years, is quite an accomplishment! Congratulations, Sarah!
Additional information about Palin has been provided by David Hullen in the September 4 edition of the Anchorage Daily News. Hullen quoted an e-mail written by Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla, Alaska, where Palin was formerly mayor. Ms. Kilkenny was described by Hullen as a “stay-at-home mom, letter-to-the-editor writer and longtime watcher of Valley politics.” This article and e-mail are essential reading for anyone with more than a nanobyte of curiosity about who Sarah Palin really is. Before I quote a passage from Ms. Kilkenny’s e-mail … let’s revisit The Gumball’s quip about Barack Obama, included in her acceptance speech, as written by Matt Scully:
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.
Ms. Kilkenny of Wasilla informed us about the consequences for Sarah Palin’s failure to fulfill those responsibilities:
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She (Palin) had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.
In other words, Palin’s duties as “mayor of a small town” had to be “outsourced” to someone else, because Palin was in over her head and on the verge of being recalled. Was this administrator from Bangalore, India, by any chance?
As we learn more about The Gumball, we are repeatedly reminded of our current President. Here’s another remark about Palin, from Ms. Kilkenny’s e-mail:
She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.
If you thought that John McCain was becoming a lot more like President Bush, Sarah Palin appears to have a head start. No wonder she is being kept under wraps!
Many have criticized the mainstream media for “not doing their job” during the run-up to the Iraq war. Those same news sources appear to be well on the way toward repeating that performance, as we enter the run-up to the Presidential election.
From St. Paul to Ron Paul
September 11, 2008
The first time I ever voted in a Presidential election was when I decided to vote for the Libertarian candidate, Roger MacBride. I agreed with the principles of the Libertarian Party. They had good writers, putting their message together in a way that could gain the enthusiasm of those not electrified by “Oatmeal Man” Gerald Ford, or by the tranquil Jimmy Carter. Although they have not managed to get many charismatic candidates to act as their standard-bearers, the Libertarians finally have one this year. Bob Barr served in Congress as the Representative for Georgia’s 7th Congressional District from 1995 to 2003. In Congress, he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, as a member of the Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Veteran’s Affairs. Although he was a harshly partisan antagonist of Bill Clinton during the impeachment promotion, he subsequently took on a relaxed, charming demeanor, winning over the usually “cold room” for conservatives on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. In 2004, he left the Republican Party to join the Libertarian Party.
Bob Barr is now running for President, as the candidate of the Libertarian Party. In 1988, Ron Paul was the Libertarian Party’s Presidential candidate. You may remember Ron Paul from the 2008 Republican primaries, occasionally beating Rudy Giuliani and the other “also-rans” of this past spring.
On September 10, Barr’s campaign manager, Bob Varney, issued a press release, disclosing that Bob Barr has invited GOP Congressman Ron Paul to be his running mate in the upcoming Presidential election. The press release disclosed that:
Wayne Allyn Root, who has been Barr’s running mate in this election, was quoted in the press release as expressing support for the selection of Ron Paul as Barr’s new running mate:
Many might consider this entire idea as the daydream of some “fringe” political group. Nevertheless, you may want to look down the road (as the Libertarians obviously are) to a scenario wherein Sarah Palin, for whatever reason, alienates the centrist Republicans and independents, who may have otherwise voted for McCain. These people might then vote for Bob Barr. Add to the mix, those not currently enthusiastic about a McCain Presidency, who just can’t get motivated to vote for Barack Obama (for whatever reason). With Ron Paul on his ticket, Barr has the possibility of winning enough electoral votes to prevent McCain or Obama from winning a majority of Electors as a result of the general election, in the event that “wild card” Palin turns out to be a disaster. If that happens and no single candidate has a majority of Electors in the Electoral College, the Twelfth Amendment requires that the Presidential election shall be decided in the House of Representatives. Since Bob Barr and Ron Paul both served in the House, unlike Barack Obama, there is a chance that Barr could win the Presidency. The mere fact that the Democrats have a majority in the House is of no consequence. The Twelfth Amendment requires that each State shall vote in the House as a single delegation, with each State having only one vote. That vote would be determined by the majority of a State’s Representatives voting for a particular candidate. He who has 26 States, wins. (The Vice-President is elected by the Senate, making a McCain/Paul administration possible.) With Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate, a Barr/Paul Libertarian ticket could get some breathing room. If there is enough breath to carry that ticket out of the Electoral College, we could be in for some wild times.