(I'm in full on triage mode for my nearly 400 posts over the past year at the other place; yes, it would have been better if I could just export that blog completely. Yes, you make a compelling case. Stop now.)
Rick Davis is John McCain's campaign manager. He recently said "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."
If you agree with him, you're reading the wrong blog. Come back when I finish the football pics (5 divisions left, I know, I'm behind, all the time with the working and whatnot).
If what matters to you is what Obama bowls or Palin's knocked up daughter or Biden's hairplugs or (spoiler alert) that McCain was a POW 35 years ago then vote accordingly.
Me, I don't know, seems to me that issues matter more than personalities. You know who has a terrific personality - that dude who won the last Project Runway.
That dude was entertaining. And I think he lives in New York, probably just a short cab ride away from the site where the World Trade Center once stood. Which, since apparently, living near something (Alaska...very, very close to Russia) equals having experience with that thing; this Project Runway guy is poised to lead our War on Terror.
And if you say he doesn't - you hate women. Or fashion designers. Or something.
For too many years, people like me (The Angry Left) have largely just resigned themselves to shaking their heads as this country has been taken over by the stupid.
I don't mean the leaders of the corporately owned political parties are stupid, I mean the American people have gone stupid; as I've written in previous places; I think the Iraq War has largely been a success for those who concocted it. If I had money in oil or a gigantic "defense" contract (incidentally - next time a conservative sneers about political correctness, probably because he can't call people fags anymore without fear people will think he's, you know, a scumbag - suggest that whenever it is we stop using the word "defense" to refer to money we spend on the military, and "collateral damage" to refer to the civilians that military murders, we can start talking about the language) I'd have gotten rich.
And that's what it's about, if you've seen McCain's plan for hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax cuts for each American multi-millionaire, you understand that. It's about oil rising from 20 bucks a barrel when Bush took office to over 120 bucks a barrel now. It's about Exxon-Mobil having the most profitable quarters in the history of civilization. It's about you paying 4 bucks a gallon for gas, watching your food prices skyrocket, and worrying every month if you can afford your electric bill. It's about a repeal of an estate tax that none of you will ever be in a financial circumstance to pay while the United States ranks 37th in overall health care quality in the world. It's about 45 million Americans with no health insurance; two million Americans in prison; about a Vice-Presidential candidate who wants creationism taught in schools, who opposes allowing women the right to abortion even in the cases of rape and incest. It's about 7000 foreclosures a day. It's about plans of permanent global wars; permanent tax cuts for the wealthy; permanent disregard of science. Of facts. Of issues.
John McCain said last night that "we need to change the way government does almost everything."
Fine. Let's start with changing the political party which has controlled the Executive branch for the past 8 years.
Oh - and for another "issue" that we should ignore - read this http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080903_why_we_were_falsely_arrested/
I don't care even a tiny bit who anyone but me sleeps with, despite what may or may not be on my DVR (multiple input porn + giant HD resolution is error, word to the wise) whether the underage daughter of a woman who attended a half dozen crappy colleges has another kid (er, I mean, a first kid, of course) could not possibly matter less to me. I'm more interested in why Audrina blew off Lauren at Frankie's Vegas birthday bash (I know, right?).
But as a thought experiment, consider the following:
What if the African-American candidate for President of the United States had a pregnant 17 year old daughter?
How would the conservative (and the mainstream) media be discussing it?
Would there not be talk about "babies having babies" and the pathology of the Black community and how if Obama has those permissive liberal values at home imagine what would happen if he ran the country?
The conservatives would sneer derisively. Hell, Fox News coined the phrase "terrorist fist jab", what do you suppose they'd do with a pregnant 17 year old black teenager?
But better than that - what about this:
"Ya fuck with me I'll kick [your] ass."
The father's an 18 year old athlete with an arrest record. His name is Levi (what the hell's going on with the names in Alaska?). The above quote's his, from his myspace page (now set to private)
It it were a 17 year old daughter of Obama, with an 18 year old African-American athlete, with an arrest record, whose myspace page said, "Ya fuck with me I'll kick your ass." then what do you suppose the reaction would be?
Do you think the young black athlete with the arrest record who knocked up the 17 year old girl, who said "ya fuck with me I'll kiss your ass" would have been invited, as Levi was to the Republican's - to the Democratic National Convention?
Would he be onstage? Would he hug Obama, shake hands with Biden? Would there be an AP photo like the one above?
And if that happened - would the response from the media, both conservative and mainstream, be "leave them alone?"
Or would it be "gangsta" this and "thug" that and "baby daddy" over there?
I don't care about any of that. But it's interesting to think about.
I do care that Sarah Palin believes the Iraq War was declared by God.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/politics/06church.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
I do care she opposes abortion in cases of rape; she'd like to see creationism taught in schools; she supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, and you should read this http://www.alternet.org/election08/97939/weird_theology_in_wasilla%3A_a_look_inside_sarah_palin%27s_pentecostal_church/
about her Pentecostal Church and this http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/09/08/sarah_palin_wolves/
about how Palin's committment to life doesn't extend to wolves.
Really, it never stops. But she kinda looks like Megan Mullally, so, you know, it's probably all okay.
Now, to consider if Obama had the same connections with a secessionist movement that Palin does - or... consider when it will be that Spencer's sister proves Brodie right by turning on Lauren. Either way.
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