That’s Pretty Sad, Guys
August 30, 2008
Thinking about things last night, and filling out my $10 donation card to McCain before the campaign finance laws shut down individual donations to candidates on Monday, I had a bit of another thought about Palin. Last night, the media and the Democrats were scraping the bottom of the barrel for criticisms of Palin (that’s her daughters baby (huh, National Enquirer calling?)! she fired a trooper (dude tasered his stepson and threatened to kill his father-in-law)!, etc). Now, I’ll give them that they were so focused on Mitt Romney and as such, filled with the kind of smug glee that comes only from living in a target-rich environment, that they forgot to investigate other possibilities — particularly ones that clued-in persons have known about since late 2007 — but what’s been bandied about is below the threshold I usually reserve for Democratic attacks.
And, like all Democratic attacks when Democrats become desperate, they’re amazingly easy to counter.
I have enjoyed the “don’t you hate that McCain picked some fluffy girl from Alaska because he needed a token woman” argument, particulary because it reveals such allegiance to a deliberate misunderstanding of the Republican or conservative view of gender. What this is essentially saying is that McCain, like all other white, male Republicans, hates women, sees them as nothing more than a pair of boobs in a suit, and as such, took the first one that came along as his Vice President, rather than someone who was more “qualified” for the job. Well, judging by the response from conservatives and libertarians yesterday, I’d say that most people on our side view Palin as more than just qualified. In fact, I’d say they were pretty satisifed. So what, exactly, is the standard for “qualified?” I assume, as I do with most Democratic standards, that this means “more like a Democrat,” and indeed that is exactly the problem. Apparently, women around the country who don’t normally vote Republican were hoping that McCain would pick a pro-choice liberal veep. Instead, he picked someone in line with conservative values. Instead of a Democrat…he picked a Republican! Who was a woman!
I can imagine the utter shock. Women? Republicans? Isn’t that just being a colluder in sexism? Damn traitor bitches have scored one for Team Vajayjay while they were busy fawning over an underqualified state senator from Illinois and taking their female candidate for granted. Palin is everything they fear — she did it all herself and she did it well. And just like the Democratic women that are picked to run for higher office, she fit the bill in terms of conservative ideals, conservative beliefs and conservative credentials. Just try to talk abortion with a woman who was offered the opportunity to kill her Down’s Syndrome baby and passed it up, choosing instead to give the baby life. Just try to talk about health care, the price of groceries and the price of gas with a woman who raised five kids in the wilderness. Just try to talk about unions and labor jobs with a woman married to a union steelworker who does Deadliest Catch style crab fishing. On these issues she’s Rock. Solid.
And then there’s that thing about experience. The more that I thought about it, the weirder this argument gets, and not just because Democrats chose as their Presidential candidate a man who lists his study abroad semester as his foreign policy experience. Democrats widely deride Cheney for overstepping the bounds of the Vice Presidency. Prior to Cheney no one knew what the hell a Vice President did other than ride around on Air Force Two and pretend to be important. Sometimes, if the President doesn’t feel like going on a diplomatic mission to a backwater nation, the Veep would get an extended vacation. Al Gore used to use the long plane rides to teach his kids about global warming. Cheney is widely viewed by the left as the puppetmaster, the brains behind the operation, and the left has never forgiven him for being more effective than Earthy Al. In fact, they frequently talk of impeaching him for it.
And yet, they picked a “complimentary” Vice President in Biden…someone who could fill in when Barack discovered that he was in over his head. Biden is supposed to be some sort of foreign policy assistant when poor Obama can’t handle the office he was elected to. Biden fills in where Obama lacks any sort of qualification whatsoever, and somehow, the left thinks this is acceptable. Biden will be Obama’s Cheney — the man who waits creepily in the bushes, watching Obama’s every move and orchestrating the day-to-day foreign operations of the White House while Obama delievers glowing speeches sans tie and toting cute children, helping the nation to feel better about Change.
The man who wanted “change,” adopted the Bush mentality on dual Presidency.
McCain, on the other hand, went back to a standard complimentary Vice Presidential pick. Sarah makes up where McCain lacks, but only in the ideological sense. She has executive experience, which no other candidate on the ticket has, she’s engaged in one-on-one diplomacy over fishing rights with a nation we now consider hostile, and she ads that sense of calm, real-world knowledge and strength of ideals that McCain was missing. McCain has foreign policy experience out the butt. He doesn’t need anyone telling him what to do from the rose bushes when it comes to handling the drama of foreign relations. What he does need is someone around to remind him what the average American is thinking, to provide advice on how to effectively run a country from the position of executive, how to do it on a budget and with a smaller governmental body, how to control and curb ethics problems and go after corrupt politicians, and someone to be a watchdog when McCain’s “maverick” ideals get the best of him and he falls back into the old habit of selling the Republican party down the river.
When it comes to experience in that, she has it in spades. And that’s what McCain needs. In that sense, its a shrewd political move, not a disasterous one. She is who she is, and thats fine with…wow…$3 million dollars worth of voters.
And no, that is her baby.
Posted in Uncategorized
August 30th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Love this posting, you took the words out of my mouth!
August 30th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Having already expressed my disdain for either candidate and my decision to vote for neither, the choice of Palin is intriguing. I might just begin to begin to reconsider. Palin seems to have a good deal of what is so lacking in politicos – the courage of her convictions. She seems to be her own man, er… woman, uh… person – whichever. I await the first “butâ€: Yes, I voted this way… but, I believe… but. If she can weather the pressure of advisors and handlers insisting on “buts†I shall take the next step.
August 30th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Part of the rage of the left comes from the fact that there isn’t a lot to blast her for. Any other selection, and she would have been exalted by liberals as the running mate McCain SHOULD have picked, if he wasn’t so committed to furthering the agenda of the Old White Male party. (You mean, like Joe Biden?) But McCain DID pick her, and so now comes the fury.
About the only pick that might have enraged them more is if McCain had said that he was running with Dick Cheney.
August 30th, 2008 at 9:52 am
“Team Vajayjay”, lol. That’s why I enjoy this blog so much
August 30th, 2008 at 10:28 am
You hit all the points that needed to be said. The race just got more competitive.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
As far as VP experience goes, does anyone remember John Kerry’s VP pick in 2004? That would be John Edwards, an expert in affairs for sure - foreign affairs, not so much.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
“Damn traitor bitches have scored one for Team Vajayjay while they were busy fawning over an underqualified state senator from Illinois and taking their female candidate for granted.”
I love this line. Excellent post.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Lack of experience, huh?
4 years City Councilwoman
4 years Mayor of a Town of 9000, major booming suburb of Anchorage
2 year President of the Alaska League of Mayors
3 years Governor’s PetroChemical Advisory Panel
2 years Governor of America’s largest State
Hmmn, that’s what people are describing as “lack of experience” these days?
August 30th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Great read. Just love Sara - wow!
August 30th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I laughed out loud when I saw that Enquirer piece. Talk about desperation….
August 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
[...] I was going to save this till Sunday, but, this article by the American Princess on Palin and the Liberal’s hysterical reactions is a necessary read. If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds. Don’t forget to Blogroll Pirate’s Cove! addthis_pub = ‘wteach’; addthis_logo = ‘http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/wteach/pirate/addthis.jpg’; addthis_logo_background = ‘EFEFFF’; addthis_logo_color = ‘666699′; addthis_brand = ‘Pirate’s Cove’; addthis_options = ‘favorites, email, digg, delicious, fark, newsvine, technorati, facebook, google, live, more’; [...]
August 30th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I was won over by her immediately. Her nearly extemporaneous speech made it clear that she was speaking her heart. You can just sense in her that she knows her own mind and has rock solid values and more importantly operates out of them. She doesn’t need nuance, she has integrity.
You really can trust someone like that.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Congrats on being linked to at HotAir. And for working “vajayjay” into this post.
Love,
Boko
August 30th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
“to control and curb ethics problems and go after corrupt politicians”
That is really going to make some of the Dems nervous. Harry Reid, Charlie Rangel and Chuck Schumer just to name a few.
Great article. I have you bookmarked now.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
A well written and articulate assessment of the situation Ms. Zanotti. While I was directed here by the folks at “Hot Air”, you can be sure I will return in the future to get both your take on issues of the day as well as a dose of your pithy prose!
August 30th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Pretty kewool that Hillary now has to DISMOUNT her broom and use it to sweep up all that glass that the GOP rained down all over her swollen head.
And with Dean holdin’ the dust pan.
**sweeeeeeeeeet**
August 30th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Oh, there’s plenty to work with.
It looks good in the short-term, but not everyone on your side is happy with it.
Ramesh Ponneru, David Frum, and K-Lo for starters at NRO.
Secondly, she backed Buchanan back in 1996 and 2000, and I’m sure that’s going to go over well with the Hillary crowd, let alone people in South Florida.
Third, I’m sorry, executive experience or not, she did what beforehand? Mayor of a really small town? Some media work? McCain, like it or not, is 72, older than Reagan by almost a full-term’s worth (and Reagan was far healthier than McCain has been, with no cancer and no five years of POW torture in his background), older than Dole in 1996, and there is a legitimate reason to be concerned about his ability to even serve ONE full term without suffering health issues. And Sarah Palin, who when asked about Iraq in an interview with a newspaper up there late last year, said all she knew about it was what she saw on the news. When asked about it just a couple of weeks ago, she still professed to know very little. Her diplomacy was over FISHING RIGHTS, a FAR cry from nuclear weapons, terrorism, managing two wars, and keeping the support of allies. She hasn’t even put on a veneer of attempting to know what’s going on over there, and whether you agree with my side’s view or not, it has to be a little disquieting that the person a heartbeat away from the presidency is someone with all the depth of Dan Quayle, that like Quayle was for Bush Sr., she’s great for a moderate who wants to shore up his conservative base, but whose credentials are domestic issues, and is thin on resume. I mean, good Christ, it makes THIS Bush look great by comparison when he was a governor.
Hillary women are going to look at her, look at her stance on issues, look at how inexperienced she looks next to Hillary, and be insulted that this was McCain’s play for their votes. I wasn’t the biggest fan of how Hillary ran her campaign, I was rather insulted at times myself, but compared to Palin, she looks like a world champion.
McCain made your base happy. He picked the first woman ever on a GOP ticket. He picked a Washington outsider who reinforces a maverick message. But that’s where the pros of this pick end. Because he gave up a lot, including the one thing that he had going for him on the experience issue, because polling this whole year showed a lot of voters had concerns about his age, and I doubt that people concerned about his age outside of the GOP base are going to be comforted by her thin resume.
Facts are facts. It won’t draw even close to the hoped-for amount of Hillary voters, and I’d imagine that Obama, if he’s smart, will have Hillary out there prominently this fall playing attack dog, something that she’s pretty good at, and that will keep most of her supporters in the fold.
As an addendum, Gallup polling from after yesterday’s announcement:
“There is also wide uncertainty about whether she’s qualified to be president. In the poll, taken Friday, 39% say she is ready to serve as president if needed, 33% say she isn’t and 29% have no opinion.
That’s the lowest vote of confidence in a running mate since the elder George Bush chose then-Indiana senator Dan Quayle to join his ticket in 1988. In comparison, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was seen as qualified by 57%-18% after Democrat Barack Obama chose him as a running mate last week.”
Good luck. Revel in your moment. You’ve won a few days of nice media coverage and a chance to gloat about pushing aside Obama’s acceptance speech coverage for this weekend. Next week is your convention, and then it’s game time, and you’d better hope she can hold up under scrutiny, because if not, then this will be all about McCain again, and really, that isn’t something to be excited about.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I have a problem with people who supported Edwards for VP and Obama for Prez saying that Palin is unqualified. She has more relevant executive experience than either. The difference is that she’s an attractive woman, so they can’t bring themselves to take her seriously.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
“a FAR cry from nuclear weapons, terrorism, managing two wars, and keeping the support of allies”
Seriously? Obama has done exactly what that convinces you he can manage these issues better? (specifics, please)
Fishing rights is just one example to throw out…she also has conducted quite a few negotiations with Canada (our largest trading partner) and clearly has a deep understanding of the energy market (which is one critical element in understanding both our economy AND foreign policy). In fact, she has already made decisions that will have impacts on the U.S. energy market for decades.
August 30th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Put a sock in it THAAAaaaaAAD.
Why EM tolerates you is BEYOND me.
But every village needs an idiot.
And the louder you mewl, the more certain we are that YOU ARE CERTAIN that McCaiin /Palin is going to eat your lunch on November 4th.
Enjoy YOUR moment, THAAAaaaaAAD. It is the last sixty six days of NEENER NEENER you will have for the next, oh…..SIXTEEN YEARS.
And hey…grab a broom…..Hillary needs your help.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I Like Her. If she fired a trooper for threatening a life, imagine what she will do to someone who tries to bomb the capital or pentagon. There won’t be any nuance. Ha!
August 30th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Seriously awesome post. Glad I found your site!
August 30th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
sees them as nothing more than a pair of boobs in a suit, ….
Isn’t that the Democrat ticket?
August 31st, 2008 at 7:12 am
God, I love you. I am SO GLAD you are back.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Looks like you really struck a cord with this post. Well done. It’s excellent by the way. I love seeing the blogging right buzzing these days.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:30 pm
[...] That’s Pretty Sad, Guys, E. M. Zanotti, American Princess [...]
August 31st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
There is only one thing to remember in this election. A vote for any Democrat either in the House, Senate, or running for President is a vote for higher gas prices. Enough said.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:56 pm
GeoPal-
With respect, there will be always be a “but” with any candidate. If you want a perfect one, you’ll need to run yourself.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:40 am
haha, the old man learns to say Drill Here, Drill now…then says $700 billion going overseas to folks that don’t like us much is nonsense…now he picks a woman with executive experience (more than the 2 Dem’s combined)… who said he was too old?
as for Obama’s experience when decisions were to be made in the Illinois legisature
he voted “present” rather than make the “YES or NO” decision on the pending bill. That’s cowardice, taking the easy out, rather than standing and being counted. how many times you say ? well over 175 times this was his vote….sheesh what a wuzz.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Giving credit and respect to Ferraro and Clinton for promoting the future of “women” was a genius tactic. The feminists gave her no such respect showing them to be rude and shallow, not in tune with promoting ALL women. This clearly differentiates the liberals from average American women. They aren’t interested in promoting women, just a man hating baby killing, harpy agenda.
There are many more ulcers on the left today because of wonderful Sarah.
September 1st, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Team Vajayjay?