Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Problem with Being in Charge


Wise words often came out of Jedi Knights. One I rhetorical question voters in 2008 should heed to is one Obi-Wan offered us a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away: “Who is the greater fool? The fool, or the fool who follows the fool?”


This is a time to be judicious. This election is not all about change. It is about who will bring the change we need, the good change. It is not a battle between change agents, Obama and McCain, but between a change agent, Obama, and an extension of the current norm, a referendum on the Bush administration, McCain.


Why should voters see it this way, and not be led by ‘fools’ telling them otherwise? Senator McCain continually claims that he is a ‘maverick’, a rebel within his party, and would not win a Miss Congeniality vote in the senate. But his record voting by party lines is too long to dismiss, and his partisan worldview is too ingrained in him to set aside. Over 90% of Bush’s policies have been accepted with an Aye vote by McCain; he has only disagree with the president and the GOP at large when it favored his immediate constituency, Arizona, more than it favored his party or country. Immigration, environmental issues, pork-barrel spending, these are all issues that are favored in Arizona, leading McCain to vote for them in order to keep his job, but even then, he has flip-flopped when pressure from his party been too much to bare.


He was pro-choice, now he is pro-life; he was for renewable energy, now he is for offshore drilling; he was for immigration reform, now he is for militant border security; he was against pork-barrel spending, now he added to his ticket a governor with one of the worst pork-barrel spending records in the country; he was a straight-forward politician who was the victim of shameful, disparaging, and untrue negative ads, now he has become George W’s 2000 campaign in worse ways.


As far as his record and priorities are concerned, John McCain is as much a Republican as George W Bush, Trent Lott, and Newt Ginrich. He has always been Red, but teased with being Purple. With Sarah Palin, he is not just Red, but beet Red.

The problem with being in charge, as the Republicans have been for 14 years in Congress, 7 years in the Supreme Court, and the last 8 years in the Oval Office, is that whenever a set of problems as we have seen during the last week, month, year, dominate the forefront, then they engulf those who created them. They bite the hand that fed them. The disastrous situation of the economy, foreign policy, environment, and partisanship, are not creatures of serendipity, but your own. They are you and you are them. And you, Senator McCain, are part of them.


So when Senator McCain, or Sarah Palin, or any other Republican with a microphone in their face, start to talk about ‘change,’ or ‘reform,’ or ‘fixing Washington,’ or blame Obama, then they are living in the ridiculous. It is as if I borrowed my dad’s car, wrecked it because I was drinking, and then blamed the guy on the sidewalk who saw me crash into the tree.


You, Senator McCain, ARE the Washington you want fixing; you ARE what we need to change; you ARE to blame. How will you fix something when you embody the problem and just won’t leave?

This is not an election between two Jedi Knights. It is not between Obi-Wan and Yoda. It is between Luke and Senator Palpatine. And, yes, Senator McCain, you are the former.


lhp

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Let's Debate the Debate!

Photo courtesy of the Washington Post
As true as that the sun will rise, the post-debate debate will do so also.  Who won? Who looked presidential? Who looked awkward? Who had the best one-liner?

There is no shortage of commentary on who was the boss Friday night.  So, in order to fill the trough anymore, here are some of the best links I have found that comment on the debate and the reception of it afterwards.

  • Dick Morris begrudgingly gives it to Obama.
  • Thinkprogress.org:"ABC's Charlie Gibson and PBS's David Brooks and Marks Shields note that McCain never looked at Obama during the debate."
  • CBS Instant Poll gives a slight edge to Obama overall, but a slight edge to McCain on Iraq.
  • CNN gives debate to Obama.
  • Run of the entire mill reviews.
Overall, my feeling in two sentences would be: Obama stayed cool, comfortable, and fired up at times.  McCain went for the jugular and the heartstrings, staying feisty and aggressive throughout.  A draw, with a slight edge to Obama because of the better aftertaste his performance left everyone.

lhp
  • Fox News runs 4 pro-McCain debate stories, one slyly ridiculing Obama, and a non-story.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Bailout Approved, No Excuse Left for McCain


According to CNN.com, the gargantuan bailout that has a popularity rating lower than Bush's, has been approved.

What will McCain say now? He had claimed that at this time of 'crisis', he needed to suspend his campaign and postpone the first presidential debate this Friday, in order to rush back to Washington and save our economy! Thank you SuperMcCain!

Two possibilities:
  • This was exactly what he wanted. He is a long-term Senator and has many back-alley connections with everyone in Washington. He might have already known that the bill would have been passed today as early as right before he decided to suspend his campaign. Knowing this, he called off the campaign, hoping to draw attention, surprise, and, hopefully, a sense of admiration from the American public, who would now see him as this selfless political creature (oh what a thing!). Today, the bill is passed, conincidentally right after McCain returned to Washington in his cape and tighties, and TADA! McCain and Co. will casually lay praise on themselves. This could have never been done if he weren't there to save the day!
  • He has been dazed and confused since the economic disaster filled the headlines. Rattled again, he pulled a gambit like he did when he chose Sarah Palin after being scared by the successful Democratic National Convention. He suspended his campaign, thinking that would at least give him some much needed press attention, and hope Obama would bite. He didn't. He actually came out with great rebuttals ("A president should be accustomed to taking care of more than one thing at once"), and maitained a firm on keeping the debate schedule as is. Now that the deal has been done, he will go back to the debate podium, like a little rascal that got caught with spray paint on his hands, and do the deed.
Whatever the case, the debates should be back on schedule. That is, of course, unless McCain throws yet another Hail Mary.

lhp

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Letterman Drubs McCain's Campaign Suspension


lhp

Palin, Deer In Headlights, Keeps Mouth Tight


From Politico.com:

Palin gets question, looks to McCain, demurs

This is what happens when campaigns let reporters into photo ops. They get all uppity and ask questions.

From the pool report account of what happened after McCain and Palin's meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvilli and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko:

McCain then looked around the room and gestured as if to welcome questions. The AP reporter shouted a question at Gov. Palin (“Governor, what have you learned from your meetings?”) but McCain aide Brooke Buchanan intervened and shepherded everybody out of the room.

Palin looked surprised, leaned over to McCain and asked him a question, to which your pooler thinks he shook his head as if to say “No.”

lhp

The Most Important Debate This Year


Both candidates had their share of a grueling debate schedule this year.  McCain clocked in around 20, while Obama had over 26.  You would think they are both tired of talking.

Ha.  These are politicians, and they love to hear themselves talk.  More importantly, they love to hear themselves talk WELL.  As the old saying goes, in politics you need to have a big head and broad shoulders...and a loose-enough tongue.

The first presidential debate between Obama and McCain will be this Friday at 9pm EST.  The topic: Foreign Policy.  The importance: Huge! well, actually, it depends.  It could be huge, if somethings goes a certain way; it might end up being a non-factor and alter little more than Saturday morning's headlines.

For Obama this debate can propel him to the finish line.  Already with a slight lead in the national polls and (most importantly) in battleground state polls, Obama can use this debate as a slam dunk on McCain's pasty face (racial intonations intended).  If Obama can use, as the New York Times in a very interesting three-piece series analyzing the candidates' styles,  called his "facility with words, his wry detachment, his reasoning skills, his youthful cool", he could prickle McCain enough to make him snap.

Too bad the subject is foreign policy.

In a tricky twist of fate, the first topic to be debated, the first debate that could onset a snowball effect for either candidate deals with the very subject Obama has been doubted on the most and McCain presumptuously relishes.  

McCain is scrappy, deprecating, and often cutting in a way that can be both a strength and a potential rhetorical downfall.  He used this style best again Mitt Romney, the front runner by many accounts of the Republican primary.  He would make fun of, scandalize, and even lie about him to his face, all while smirking and winking.  McCain is not afraid to push in the rhetorical shiv.

So a cool, relaxed, and often winded Obama goes against smirking, mischievous McCain.  Who would win in a debate about Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, N. Korea, Iran, Russia, and our relation to all of the above?  It depends on who brings their best face and mouth forward.  If McCain is at ease throwing around anecdotes and little funny asides, while he disses and spits at Obama's face, it looks like McCain would win.  If Obama sticks to his talking points of equating McCain to Bush in terms of foreign policy, reminds everyone his many faux-pas toward Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and brushes off McCain's disses turning them into nasty misses, then Obama may light enough of a fire in Old Man Winter to let America see a nasty side of his many do not know of yet.

In other words, if Obama plays a charming, knowing Kennedy, he will make McCain look like a cranky, sweaty Nixon.

lhp

Monday, September 22, 2008

Where is Michelle Obama?


Few would believe that the woman dominating this election would not be either a Clinton or an Obama, but a Palin. Hillary Clinton is taking the activist college freshman angle on her support for Obama, limiting it to a pin and a funny bumper sticker on her car that says something like "Obama Said Knock You Out". She is, essentially, half-assing it. As far as she is concerned, she looked and played nice at the convention, quelling any storylines of intra-party feuds, and keeping her in good enough shape for the next election.

But as for Michelle, where did she go? Her appearance at the Democratic National Convention, The View, and her ever improving stump speech made her a force to be reckoned with. She is a woman with keen working class and feminine sensibilities like Hillary; a figure that inspires curiosity and likeability like her husband (and she is far prettier, lovelier, attractive..umm, sorry, I digress). But she is nowhere to be found.

She may be too ready for prime-time. Obama folks may think she is better off as a non-factor than as an x-factor. They rather play it safe and keep her away from galvanizing any side, including the opposing side, than to make her Eva to Barack's Peron, Hillary to Barack's Bubba.

If this is so, the Obama campaign is stepping into familiar marshy terrain. They are playing it too safe. Michelle Obama could be the Sarah Palin Sen. Joe Biden has failed to become. Yes, she could rile up the right-wing, but she will also fire up the rest of the electorate, and even Barack and Joe themselves. If there is anything Michelle certainly is, it is a strong, confident woman. And that is something that will fire up anyone for or against the very idea of one.

Sarah Palin is nothing more than a lighting rod. And that, in politics, has more pros than cons. That is what gave Hillary her die-hard loyal support, and what gave Bush his re-election. Playing it safe, and nice, and too friendly might do Barack in. He needs to roll up his sleeves (even more), trust his wife's instincts, kick Biden in the balls, and come out swinging.

Michelle Obama could be Barack's running mate, more than Joe has. Hey, it worked for Sarah with her First Dude, Todd Palin. Why not?

lhp

Thursday, September 18, 2008

After 08, Would They Get Re-elected? The Economy


Not to take any of the heat away from the 2008 election's kitchen, but as Nov. 4th looms, one uncertainty grows: Would either Obama or McCain get re-elected in 2012?

Headlines for the past week have summarized the dire situation that has simmered for years. A 'once-in-a-century [economic] crisis'; a 'fragile' situation in Iraq; an exponentially threatening healthcare emergency; a diminishing American presence and influence abroad; an uncertain relationship with Iran, North Korea, Russia (a member of Sarah Palin's PTA), and Pakistan; and a potentially gloomier scenario if a certain candidate *COUGHoldmanwinterCOUGH* gets elected.

Putting aside what might happen in November, a good question is what might happen in November...2012?

The incoming president will inherit a bundle of problems that would need not one, but a FDR-size four terms to at least assuage them. Either a 73 year-old or a 47 year-old commander-in-chief will have such a heavy workload of titanic implications that I would not be surprised that Obama, not McCain, suffered a mental breakdown.

First off, the overall economic picture is considered anything from shaky to disastrous, depending on who you ask--or 'strong', if you ask McCain before he backpedals.

As history has taught us, the president is not so much judged by what he does but by what happens during his tenure. Bill Clinton was not necessarily an economic genius, but he was smart enough to get outta the way and enjoy the praise afterwards. W. Bush was dumb enough to mess with things when they going awry, pushing them into flammamamable territory.

Either president will have a historic deficit, high rate of foreclosures and unemployment, and thuggish Chinese competition to deal with. Emphasis on DEAL, because they will be asked to do the seemingly impossible: reverse a disastrous 8 years of economic irresponsability, negligence, and overall poisoning. The context wont matter much, since the key question every election is: Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?

Being as objective as I can be, I have to give Obama a slightly better chance of coming out of his first term in better shape than McCain in terms economic performance of the country. For two reasons: McCain has voluntarily chained himself to the Bush tax cuts, ensuring the disaster of before will come to the fore four years from now. He IS Bush in terms of the economy.

The second reason is more imperical than psychological: Obama's economic plan has received greater praise and support by experts than McCain's 'disaster'. Coming out at least a little better than how he came in is enough to give Obama a 'good try' pat on the back by voters in 2012.

But, what about 2012 foreign policy....

lhp

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Palin's Shine Begins to Wear Off


Call me Nostradamus. Well, not yet, but get ready to.

The Palin novety is done settling in the political arena, and after this fairytale was dissected, it became just another folk's tale.

Now Palin is seeing her number dip. Fast. Her favorability rating is dropping, her unfavorability rating is rising, and she has the smallest gap of all four men in the race.

She will rebound after the debate with Joe, no doubt. Even if she tanks, the McCain campaign will claim a victory for women, or torch Biden for bullying her and women around the world, or call her Joan of Arc with Tina Fey glasses. Either way, Joe just needs to not screw up too bad.

But in the long run, she will not have her shine to ride on. She may be what wins McCain this election, but she also may be on the wrong side of a landslide.

lhp

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Greenspan: The US cannot survive McCain tax plan


What does he know?  He is only the former chairman of the Federal Reserve.


lhp

Eve Ensler on Sarah Palin


Even Ensler, the playwright, performer, and feminist activist best know for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the following on Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin.

This has not been edited or modified in any way.  It will also not be commented on.  It is worth to read it and make your mind up on it.  It is, indeed, powerful.

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a
member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned
and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for
Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact
that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or
touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice.
Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life
trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against
them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin
choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this
choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to
Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the
earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options,
opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous
choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the
fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that
America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact
that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a
joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be
elected to the presidency with regularity. Sarah Palin does not believe in
evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of
Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not
believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are
destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of
God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered
species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and
plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The
oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and
plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who
are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a
right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I
imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies
that makes. Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I
gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to
dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an
environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and
might very well be the next president of the United States. She would
govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth. Sarah believes in
guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to
kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But
when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared
in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is
the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything
America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in
our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of
the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies
to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will
determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or
whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It
will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest
our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and
destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and
healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will
determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed
place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to
get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin
spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of
drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I
think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the
brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of
the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and
peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
lhp

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Sarah Palin Factor


I understand Republicans now. Kinda. I am at odds with a cocky, charismatic, and stubborn woman. I have my Hillary Clinton in Sarah Palin.

I must admit, I didn't this hockey mom had it in her. She has shaken things up more than Biden every has, or will. She has galvanized the Right AND the Left. She has re-energized McCain, and put fire back in Obama's belly. She has made this election more about her, than what she stands for. So far.

As the real Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton, will prove, the aura of an unbeatable female force only works so far. Issues, past, and associations end up propping you up or eating you down.

Sarah Palin is riding a wave of popularity with (gasp!) women and (double gasp!) men. Polls are showing she is more popular with the men that with her sisterhood. What gives?

She is a novelty. She is experiencing what Obama has riden for the last 4 years: a new, shining promise within the party, a figure to guarantee a future beyond 2008 no matter who wins or loses. If McCain and Palin lose in November, she will be back. Oh yes, she will. As will Barack and Michelle. McCain, however, is riding his last horse to the promised land.

Sarah is supposedly shaking up the divides, and making women McCain McCrazy. According to everyone who owns a microphone, she is successfully courting Hillary voters, men, women, moose, Jesus, and even Malia and Sasha. Or so they say.

The Palin factor is an evanescent political phenomenon. She is big at the moment because McCain is so small. She cannot continue to be this gargantuan figure in the ticket because it aint her ticket. Don't be surprised if murmurs of a McCain/Palin & Bill/Hillary comparison start to arise. He might end up looking whipped if he lets her steal the show.

With the ludicrous Lipstickgate now garnering headlines (sign of a slow news day), the introduction of Sarah Palin is moving this campaign from the historic to the histerical. Soon enough, if Obama and Biden stay on task, and the media does its job, the Palin factor will loose the steam it is riding. Sarah Palin will be revealed to be a woman that shares few, if any, positions on important issues with other women, and as a blowhard, stubborn, enraging political figure with no place in the White House. I truly feel I have found my Republican Hillary Clinton.

lhp

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Jon Stewart Vs. Palin's Crew

Because you should.


lhp

RNC: Really Nasty Caucasians


I tried to being objective.  I really did.  And after the first day, I kept my objective head and gave it a decent grade.  They delivered their message of service first and courage and all that good stuff.  As a sales pitch, they made me curious enough about the product to listen more.

Then the true angle of the Republican National Convention was revealed.  With Thompson.  With Giuliani.  With Palin.  With so much red meat, I had to run after a tofu burger to balance it all out.

The convention is soaked in anger, cynicism, and, to an extent, hate.  Rudolph Giuliani and Sarah Palin's speech summed it up.  They tore apart Obama's community service, threw out his experience as a state legislator and Senator, lied about his record, and were unable to offer details of McCain policy proposals.

She revealed herself as a puppet with few words to say on her behalf.  The Republicans are definitely happy with her performance.  But analyzing it objectively, she just preached to the choir.  She was a cheerleader, not a speaker.  Giuliani was the mascot.

The main purpose of Palin's speech was to introduce her and show off her VP credentials.  I am still waiting...

lhp


Monday, September 01, 2008

Palin's New Granddaughter: The Storm Swells


The GOP has always been proud of its family values.  Now it has a slightly larger family to share those values with.

In another turn in this soap-opera of an election year, McCain's freshly inked VP pick, Sarah Pallin, is having a granddaughter.  Yipee.  Oh, and her daughter is 17...yipee?

Out of wedlock, young, and the daughter of a staunch conservative, Bristol Palin (apparently the Palins are NASCAR fans) will bring in another dash of drama to a GOP convention that is slowly turning into a disaster greater than Gustav.

The hurricane is stealing the thunder (literally) from the convention, and, I believe, at a gut level is reminding what other instances the Republicans and a massive storm in New Orleans have occurred recently, and how they felt then.  

When we do or see something in conjunction with something else, we remember that something else everytime we do or see the same thing over again.  In Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) this is called 'anchoring'.  For example, if you point your finger when talking to someone about love, anytime you point your finger, that person will start to think of love and go from there.  Or, if you see a Republican party on the TV at the same time you hear about a hurricane in Louisiana, many will subconsciously go back to Katrina.  This may not happen, but an easy association could come about.

So what about this new granddaughter?  They are going to keep it they say (duh), and will support her daughter all the way through.  They will even volunteer to throw her a baby shower and register her at Target.  Do they have Target in Alaska?

McCain made a blunder when he picked Palin.  She is such a transparent choice, that he now has to make the case for her on top of making the case for himself and against Obama.  Biden does not need to sell himself; he is Biden and he has his support locked.

The Convention starts today for the Republicans, so expect a lot of flags, a lot of 'patriotism', and a lot of borderline offensive attacks on Obama.  Expect a lot of mud being slung around--and I am not talking about Hurricane Gustav.

lhp