September 1, 2008
In a perfect world, there would be a floor fight to take Sarah Palin off the ticket at the Republican Convention. It would make for some good TV this week. On the Friday, August 29 program, Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO), National Public Radio’s Michel Martin made the strident claim that those who criticize Sarah Palin “do so at their peril”. Sarah Palin is a Gumball. There. I will say it again, as well. Although I would agree that anyone who resorts to sexist criticism of Palin does so at their own peril, there is plenty of room for reasoned dismay at McCain’s choice. Meanwhile, Michel Martin’s claim that Palin’s experience is analogous to Tim Kaine’s experience, should have been made at Martin’s peril. Actually, it was. Tim Kaine is the Governor of a state that just happens to be next door to our nation’s Capitol. Virginia’s population is 7,702,091 people. The population of Alaska is less than one tenth of that at 683,478. Although Kaine’s time served as Governor of Virginia is equivalent to the time served by Palin as Governor of Alaska, Kaine previously served four years as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia — a job with similar day-to-day duties as those of the Vice-President of the United States. You see, both the Lieutenant Governor and the Vice-President preside over a body called “the Senate”. The Lieutenant Governor presides over the State Senate and the Vice-President presides over the United States Senate. The Gumball made the mistake of asking the question, into a TV camera, of what the everyday duties of the Vice-President might be. Tim Kane learned the answer by presiding over the Virginia Senate for four years. In case The Gumball doesn’t know (and she doesn’t, by her own admission) Kane’s duties as Lieutenant Governor matched those of the Vice President of the United States. Michel Martin must be aware of this … she just might not want anyone else to be so aware. Before Tim Kaine was Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, he was the Mayor of Richmond Virginia for four years. Two years ago, The Gumball was the mayor of her home town: Wasilla, Alaska (population 9,000). Tim Kaine was the mayor of a city with a population over twenty times the size of Wasilla, Alaska, at 200,123 people. Tim Kaine went to law school (Georgetown). The Gumball didn’t, nor did John McCain.
The stupidity of this episode is “off the charts”. On the heels of an outrageously successful Democratic Convention, McCain has made a desperate reach for those disgruntled supporters of Hillary Clinton. At the same time, with his choice of The Gumball, McCain has sold out to the televangelist lobby in the hope of connecting with that ever-elusive Republican “base”. The term “desperate” has been used by many commentators. Jonathan Alter of Newsweek was kind enough to analogize the selection of Palin to a “Hail Mary” or “Hail Sarah” pass at the end of a close football game. McCain’s media sycophants claim that McCain’s selection of Palin as his running mate, reinforces his “maverick” persona. To the contrary, if McCain really were a maverick, he would be standing up to the televangelist lobby, rather than sucking up to it, as he is with this choice.
Sarah Palin (a/k/a “The Gumball”) is a “wing nut” who wants creationism to be taught in public schools and who refuses to believe that global warming has been caused by human activity. To her credit, Palin went to term with a baby known to have Down Syndrome, based on her anti-abortion stance. Her ability to do the anti-abortion walk as well as the anti-abortion talk will give her some degree of “street cred” with a limited population.
Nevertheless, with his choice of Palin, McCain has alienated his own “base” – the independents, moderate Republicans and centrists who believed that once elected President, McCain would tear off the rubber mask and return to his old self. As Arianna Huffington said a while ago: “The John McCain of 2000 is not a candidate in this election.” McCain’s choice of The Gumball just drove that message home.
The fact that The Gumball was not adequately vetted, has become glaringly obvious to many Republicans. She hasn’t been Governor of Alaska for two years and yet, she is already in trouble there. A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate her activity. She has been accused of “abuse of power”. Our current Vice-President has that as his middle name. This situation should make life easy for those writing the negative ads about the Republican ticket.
As long as Michel Martin has directed our attention to Tim Kaine, let’s remember where he was born: a city named St. Paul, Minnesota. If you want to find out what life is like there now, with the Republican Convention taking place, read Lindsay Beyerstein’s article, “Inside an RNC Raid” at Firedoglake.com. It will make you sick, with reports of warrantless searches at homes — even one owned by a former military police officer. When a woman staying at the house discussed in the story asked for a warrant, she was detained. Local police were blended with apparent “contractors” or private Gestapo-for-hire. Of course, this is all completely illegal in the United States where we have lived for all our lives. Those in control of the 2008 Republican Party don’t care about the rule of law. They make a point of promoting “leaders” who know nothing about it, either. The reasons for this are obvious.
The Secret Candidate
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:
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:
Ms. Kilkenny of Wasilla informed us about the consequences for Sarah Palin’s failure to fulfill those responsibilities:
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:
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.