Republican Convention
If you ever attend a gathering of Republicans, be sure to wear sunglasses. The reflection of light off all those white faces is hard on the eyes. When John McCain introduced Sarah Palin to a Republican crowd last week, the day after he met her for the second time and picked her to run with him, I counted four black faces in the crowd. One was a secret service agent. One was a face back in the crowd who must have done something to disqualify him from a more visible spot. The third was a somewhat dorky looking chap in a "Leave it to Beaver" striped polo shirt who was prominently placed in second row central. The fourth was a young girl with number three, who was picked up and put down by him several times to alleviate her boredom. When Beaver got a chance to take Sarah's picture up close, he could not get his camera to work.
Last night at the Republican Convention, the whiteness was overwhelming, with a few Spanish brown overtones, a periodic Asian face and an extremely light peppering of black. From the late 1960s, the GOP has cultivated and embraced white people who resent the disassembling of America's historical white privilege. Southern segregationists, the Dixiecrats, converted to Republicans, as did northerner white flighters, who ran to suburbia to be more distant from inner city blacks.
Adding to the injury of this racial prejudice was the vilification of our American government. Republicans turned whites against our own government, making it the villain that was supposedly taking their money and rights away and giving them to non-whites. A thin disguise of legitimate conservatism has been maintained in claims of fiscal restraint and individual rights. But in fact, the GOP has been fiscally irresponsible, running record deficits with tax breaks for the rich, corporate welfare and imperialism for the benefit of war profiteers. For Republicans, individual rights does not mean protecting civil liberties, but rather protecting white privilege and its spinoffs, homophobia, evangelical Christianity and the right to bear arms to shoot anyone seen as a threat.
This week's Republican production had all the potential to be a classic dud. Bush and Cheney speeches would remind America that the hugely unpopular Bush administration was a Republican creation. On the big stage, McCain would be playing to his weak suit. Some of the losers from the primaries would bore us again. Only turncoat Lieberman would offer a spark, particularly if McCain bucked tradition and chose him for VP. Hurricane Gustav threatened to be a reminder of Bush eating McCain birthday cake in Arizona while Katrina ravaged New Orleans, but the Republicans were able to use supposed storm care duty as an excuse to dump out on the first day's schedule, thereby eliminating Cheney and reducing Bush to a brief video appearance.
Last night, ho-hum Fred Thompson relived the McCain POW horrors for us, in an evening celebrating military service in general and McCain heroism in particular. McCain's heroism is all about his imprisonment, nothing about his actual combat missions, except about being shot down. Thompson did say being a POW does not automatically qualify one for the Presidency, but the whole evening seemed to be intended to send the opposite message. Also speaking was turncoat Joe Lieberman. Every time I see Lieberman, I wonder why Gore picked him in 2000. I also wonder why Connecticut Democrats did not stick to their guns after voting him out in the primary. I guess they figured his seniority was good for getting earmarks, which offers another reason why earmarks should be eliminated - getting rid of earmarks might get rid of some senior dead weight politicians.
Tonight's menu includes Rudy Giuliani, whose $50,000,000 primary campaign did not net one delegate. His nouns, verbs and 9/11s will be sales pitches to expand his extremely lucrative security business, especially overseas. Then comes the star of the evening, Sarah Palin. I started writing about Sarah in Sense comments on the Democratic Convention. Stories continue to pop up daily confirming what an untested choice she is. Her 17 year old daughter is pregnant due to lack of the abstinence her mother advocates in lieu of sex education about birth control. Sarah's first child was born early following an elopement, and around the same time her husband had a DUI arrest. The daughter will marry the young putative father, whose now privatized My Space pages said he is a "f__king redneck" and did not want to have a child. Sarah's husband, who at first was referred to as a commercial fisherman, now is reported to get his primary income as an employee of BP oil company. Compounding concerns about Sarah's priorities as a mother is the word Sarah went back to work only three days after the birth of the child with Down's. One does wonder who takes care of this special needs child and why Sarah accepted the VP nod, knowing the story of her daughter's pregnancy would subject the girl to international embarrassment.
John McCain is a solid 95% Bush Republican, which should make him a loser in itself. He is supposedly a maverick who will stand up to power. But many people wonder whether he is actually a man of bad temperament and poor judgment. His pugnacious saber rattling over the Russia-Georgia conflict, even jumping the gun on George Bush, shows how eager he is to get into a fight, as if he needs to make up for all those years of being tortured without being able to strike back. The Palin pick shows how poor his judgment can be, shooting from the hip and taking a gamble on an unknown. And it also is apparently an example of him not standing up to power in his own organization, because he actually wanted to pick Lieberman, but backed down when Republican powers rejected that idea.
In picking Palin, McCain may have been persuaded as much by her good looks as by anything else. Republicans like former beauty queens. At least two of their U.S. Senators are in that category, Dole and Hutchinson, and McCain even volunteered his wife for the Miss Buffalo Chip contest at Sturgis, apparently unaware it is an uncouth pageant that includes a topless segment and is sponsored by a beer company competitor of Cindy's.
posted by Tom Blake | 11:13 AM
7 Comments:
Last night, after a sequestered weekend of intense coaching, Sarah Palin demonstrated why she early acquired the nickname Sarah Baracuda, and why she delights in saying the only difference between a hockey mom like her and a pit bull is that she wears lipstick. Her flashing teeth willingly bit off the task of adding to the McCain praise pile while tearing at the flesh of Barack Obama and taking a nip or two at Joe Biden. She obviously enjoys the stage and handled her assignment well. She was able to throw in the few foreign policy references written for her in an off hand way that pretended like she was an old hand at the subject - just like phoney Bush did. But she did Bush one better, learning to pronounce nuclear correctly.
Earlier, Rudy Giuliani gave the keynote and savagely disparaged Barack Obama's record, portraying him as a man who had never done one thing worthwhile. The zealous prosecutor might as well have been asking for the death penalty, for the dastardly capital offense of "community organizing without mayoral responsibility", a theme fellow ex-mayor Palin gleefully repeated. Palin constantly said she was interested in doing the work of the people, but had no problem totally ignoring that a community is those same people and that a community organizer is also doing the work of the people.
Palin's speaking voice is completely fresh and new, since she has come out of virtually nowhere. The first impression is that it is refreshing and pleasant. But even after just this second speech, I can see why the office of Harry Reid said she sounded shrill. That adjective may have overtones of sexism, but the fact is that most women do have higher pitched voices and when they go on a tirade it can sound shrill. Palin was having fun last night, so she did not deteriorate into tirade, but in spots was getting close to the edge. I think as she takes more heat and gets more weary, her tone may become more grating and tiring and more people will agree she does sound a little shrill.
As expected, Palin did very little introduction of her personal story and a somewhat perfunctory introduction of her family, including the young stud who is making Palin a grandmother. When this lad was in sexual delight a few months back, he had no clue his partner and he would be parading on a national stage before a huge TV audience. They are both attractive young people and I hope they are really in love and can make their marriage work, but the odds against such success are high and the imposition of international attention on their relationship may make it especially difficult. Use of a condom could have made is all unnecessary.
While minor children of candidates should not be fair political game, the fact that Palin opposes sex education and line item vetoed funds for teenage pregnancy aid does seem to make the pregnancy of her unmarried teenage daughter relevant. Rumors that her daughter's pregnancy is being faked to hide the fact that the Down's baby is not Palin's but instead is her daughter's are going too far, but Palin contributed to their rise by hiding her last pregnancy from the public. Hiding the pregnancy showed bad judgment, as did acknowledging the pregnancy of her daughter and then adding about what sounded like maybe a shotgun wedding, instead of announcing the wedding first and then acknowledging the girl is pregnant. There seems to be a pattern with Palin of trying to control what is perceived as true, which sounds too much like George W. Bush.
Palin's padding of her resume would be funnier if she wasn't running for such an important office. A total of 1,100 people voted for her to be Wasilla Mayor and her awesome responsibilities included a minuscule budget that she managed to leave in a deficit at the end of her term. Alaskan politics has always been an embarrassment to Democracy. Pork is their way of political life, and in spite of her claims to the contrary, Palin has been a vocal member of the choir in singing the praise of those who have brought it home. As Mayor and as Governor, she hired lobbyists to work Washington for pork projects. Her claim to have rejected the funds for the bridge to nowhere [actually a bridge intended to connect Anchorage with its new airport to be, replacing a ferry ride] is bogus; as Governor, she did accept the money for the bridge, though no commitment was made to build it.
Palin boasts of what sounds like single handedly getting a monumental natural gas pipeline built. Actually, no such line has been built. Several proposals have been milling for years, and all Palin did was cash in on being at the right place at the right time to cooperate with the legislature to take one more little step in the direction that some day, if all further negotiations and dealings work out, a pipeline may start getting built. So also with her self praise for not needing the private jet enjoyed by her Republican predecessor, and being clever enough to put it for sale on e-bay, whose Republican pioneer Meg Whitman also spoke last night. Public outrage at the jet purchase was a campaign issue that enabled Palin to knock off Murkowski in the primary race. Palin made it sound like the jet sold on e-bay, and maybe even made a profit, but in fact, the State eventually had to hire a broker to find a buyer and lost $600,000 on the deal. The e-bay listing was a wasteful publicity gimmick that Palin is continuing to milk.
The Republicans continue their culture war mentality, now portraying the media as the enemy of the people. This from John McCain, who has been getting a free pass from the media for years as their darling. Palin wants to chill the media by playing victim, but so little is known about her background that the media would be shirking its duty by not raising questions and following leads. There is lots out there to legitimately damage Palin and it will continue to come out as the campaign progresses. Troopergate is a bi-partisan investigation into abuse of office by Palin. Another story to be developed is that in the 1990's for two years Palin was a member of a party demanding independence for Alaska.
Troopergate has the potential to catch Palin in cover up lies. She obviously has no problem embellishing the facts and purposely creating misleading impressions. This may have worked in Wasilla and for a few months Alaska wide, but she is at great risk now in the national spotlight. Her personal luster will diminish to the extent the blemishes in her record are revealed. You can bet her handlers will try to keep her reined in safe from the media, as they have with McCain who no longer gives the press easy access as he did in the past. But if questions asked by the media denied access go unanswered long enough, the public will demand answers or assume the worst, and the truth will come out.
Notably absent from the Palin speech was any substance on what the McCain administration would do for America, other than the mantra "drill baby drill", which was invoked last night. She made no mention at all of the economic woes facing American families. McCain will speak tonight and try not to look dull after Palin, so he will probably use a lot of patriotic lingo and tough foreign policy noise, while avoiding serious talk of the real bread and butter issues. In spite of all the compelling biographical stories of the four principals, this election should be decided on what the candidates are offering America. McCain and Palin offer four more years of the Bush policies. Obama and Biden offer change for the benefit of all Americans, not just the rich whom the Republicans serve.
Again out of character, I watched some of the Republican convention last night. I felt I had to because this is such an historic campaign. I marvelled at Rudy Giuliani's keynote address. It was beautifully done. He was having more fun than all of the Democrats combined in their conventiion. I swear I saw blood in his wide toothy smile. The speech was clever, funny, and rabble rousing. It was just what the Republicans needed as an antidote to the very successful Democratic convention.
I felt sorry for Sarah Palin having to follow this masterpiece. But after about two minutes I didn't feel sorry for her anymore. This morning's Arizona Republic had only one line about Rudy giving the keynote address. Conversely, there were four full pages of coverage of Palin.
She had some excellent sound bites. The Hockey Mom one is getting a lot of play. But I thought her most devastating one was when she said her experience as a mayor of a small town is like being a community organizer except "I had real responsibilities". I loved that line.
Her handlers were very good at diminishing the negatives. I thought having Cindi hold Trig was very obvious, but a good touch.
You can write all you want about the hypocrisy a social conservative having an unmarried teenaged daughter. But that is such a common plight for all Americans today. She will gain many votes just because of that. I read recently that 20% of all births are to an unmarried, divorced, or separated woman. Sarah comes off like a good mother and grandmother.
Your use of the old phrase "shotgun wedding" is as obsolete as Sarah's insistence that her daughter will marry the father. You know, her daughter may never marry the schmuck. Then we don't have to worry if the marriage will last. Who cares if she marries the bum? We should only care about the unborn child.
Your carping about her stridency (maybe or maybe not) reminds me of the same attack on Hillary. Poor Hillary. Her dedication to public life is undone by an unknown Alaskan beaty queen turned politician in a matter less than a week.
Troopergate is the only thing about Palin that gives me pause. It appears to be a blatant abuse of her office. But that's also very common for politicians. Her exposure in doing that was probably due to her inexperience. I can imagine LBJ destoying someone's career before having his morning coffee. And no one saying a word.
John from Phoenix
John McCain closed the Convention with his acceptance speech, reminding of his biography and emphasizing his security and bravery credentials. He pictured himself as the man we know to be a truth speaker who stands up to power. The emphasis on McCain proven strength is in stark contrast to his VP choice, however. His speech contained the usual Republican platitudes and no specifics on policy. His one mention of his own Party having gone astray got a tepid reception. He did what he had to do and closed with a well written litany of great sounding generic slogans.
Larry King has had panels of Democrats on his show responding to each day of the Republican conclave. They have all made great points. The McCain of 2008 is not the McCain of 2000. He is not a maverick now, but rather a 90% Bush follower. He wants to run on his old reputation, but he in fact is now McBush.
Arianna Huffington correctly chastised those like me who are buying into the distraction of the Palin soap opera, rather than just criticizing her for her extreme right wing positions: denial of global warming; denial of abortion even in case of incest and rape;attempted library book banning in Wasilla; etc. As for her 20 months as Governor of Alaska, the point was made that the Illinois District Barack Obama represented for 10 years has more people than the entire State of Alaska.
Mario Cuomo made me sit up when he said Barack Obama has the best package of legitimate talents and abilities to lead our country that he has seen in his entire career in politics.
Now as the campaign is in the final two months, the debates will be the main events. Advertising will be intense and surrogates widely used, including several Democratic women to take Palin down on the issues. Race will be used against Obama, subtly by McCain and blatantly by surrogates. The put down of community organizing is actually a play to white backlash over people who stir up inner city blacks. Arianna said racilly prejudiced people would not be voting for a Democrat, even if he was white. Cuomo said the American people are smart enough to not to reject the best candidate because of race. I hope they are both sincere when they say these things, and I hope they are right.
The polls are out and McCain/Palin lead Obama/Biden by a whole bunch. The previous poll showed Obama/Biden leading McCain/? by a small bunch. (I don't remember numbers well.) McCain's pick of Palin (and her performance) made a huge difference.
Then, adding insult to injury, McCain blithely stole the Democrats' theme: change. I've been criticizing the Democrats on Sense for their buying into Obama's fluffy rhetoric. In one decisive move McCain has declared the Republicans are the party of change and now any arguments about which party is really the party of change will sound like bickering childishness. I would much prefer to argue about who has the best experience for the office: McCain or Clinton.
Speaking of Clinton, I have not heard any comment from her about Palin. Have you?
I believe Obama wants to change the subject from "change" to more substantive issues. But now McCain controls the debate.
I'm afraid that the Democrats have again painted themselves into a corner. They mean well but they can't help themselves. Gore, Kerry, and now Obama. I'll vote for Obama, but I am not rooting for him anymore than I would root for Palin. But I would root for Hillary.
I don't want McCain for three reasons: 1. His position on Iraq. 2. His position on environmentalism. 3. He's old and I fear a Palin Presidency.
I think the Democrats can win only by making Palin look like a weak sister and McCain looking like a doddering old man. Hillary could have done that. Can Obama?
John from Phoenix
The polls do not show a "whole bunch" lead. Some show a McCain lead of about 4 points, less margin of error, and some show the race even. McCain had the last convention and the more exciting (not meaning the best) VP nod, so a bounce was to be expected. It should settle down a little as everyone looks forward to the first debate, September 26. That will be a huge factor.
McCain is trying to steal "change", because it has been working for Obama, while "experience" did not work against Obama, either for Clinton or for McCain. McCain threw the experience claim out the window when he chose Palin to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Pundits, including amateurs like you and I, are torn between believing either that voters are gullible and foolish or savvy and smart. Politicians base their campaigns on what they believe about voters. Most Republican pols believe voters are gullible and can be fooled with security and tax fears and manipulated with culture wars playing into prejudices. Most Democrat pols believe voters are smart enough to chose the right candidate and so they try to make the campaign based on discussion of the real issues. After eight years of Bush/Cheney, one might think the Republicans have an accurate disdain for the public. But remember, the Supreme Court chose Bush in 2000, and the Republican Ohio Secretary of State cheated his fellow African Americans out of their voting rights in 2004.
McCain cannot win honestly on the issues. He has to make it about personalities. He is trying for his sympathy Oscar, like Liz Taylor in Butterfield Eight. His trophy VP attracts some males, but actually turns off more women than it draws. They are keeping her under very tight rein, but putting her with Charles Gibson of ABC Thursday - hm, isn't that just happens to be 9/11, so I guess she might try to take us down that fear path to avoid the big issues of today.
Hillary is being deployed strategically. We always should remember, the election is not about who gets the most popular vote, but rather who wins the electoral college. Deployment and ads are being targeted on battleground states and especially the four that experts agree are likely to be tossups on election day and will probably determine who gets elected, Colorado, Ohio, New Hampshire and Virginia.
Just before reading your sense entry above, I saw a news report of a poll or polls on ABC. It said there has been a dramatic shift of women voters from Obama to McCain since the convention.
John from Phoenix
I just remembered that the ABC report was an interview of George Stephanopolis. He was the one who was reporting the dramtic shift from Obama to McCain by female voters. He also said that in 2000 Gore clobbered Bush on the issues. But Bush clobbered Gore on personal characteristics. He didn't mention, as you rightly did, that the Supreme Court decided the 2000 election. But Bush managed to make the election a dead heat on "personal characteristics". That alone gave the Supreme Court authority to express its will. McCain by himself cannot clobber Obama on the subject of personal characteristics. But Obama is obviously vulnerable. McCain/Palin has the potential to do that.
John from Phoenix
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