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Well, didn't see that coming
Sarah Palin? Really?
It's an...interesting tactic, I guess, desperately skewing toward the elusive PUMA (well, those who kept their TVs off this week) while still pro-life. I don't see it working, though. Troopergate aside (which will feed right into the Democratic attack line of cronyism and corruption, politics as usual), I don't see her bringing women voters to the polls -- her popularity up north will probably cement Alaska's electoral votes (all three of them) which were leaning red anyway, but I don't see that appeal cutting into the Democratic base. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm just glad there are some fresh faces in the cycle this time around. Much, much more fascinating.
The ultimate benefactor of this move, regardless of how the presidential race turns out, might just be Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens, the Republican senator since the discovery of gunpowder, under indictment and seventeen points behind Mark Begich. I don't know that even Palin's place on the ticket will help him close the gap, but the man needs every ounce of help he can get. If Stevens pulls out of the primary and another Republican steps up to the plate, though, all bets are off.
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alstaria: Tigh/Roslin '08! This beats out my other dream ticket of Roslin/Airlock.
It's an...interesting tactic, I guess, desperately skewing toward the elusive PUMA (well, those who kept their TVs off this week) while still pro-life. I don't see it working, though. Troopergate aside (which will feed right into the Democratic attack line of cronyism and corruption, politics as usual), I don't see her bringing women voters to the polls -- her popularity up north will probably cement Alaska's electoral votes (all three of them) which were leaning red anyway, but I don't see that appeal cutting into the Democratic base. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm just glad there are some fresh faces in the cycle this time around. Much, much more fascinating.
The ultimate benefactor of this move, regardless of how the presidential race turns out, might just be Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens, the Republican senator since the discovery of gunpowder, under indictment and seventeen points behind Mark Begich. I don't know that even Palin's place on the ticket will help him close the gap, but the man needs every ounce of help he can get. If Stevens pulls out of the primary and another Republican steps up to the plate, though, all bets are off.
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alstaria: Tigh/Roslin '08! This beats out my other dream ticket of Roslin/Airlock.
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But yeah, I'm not too concerned with this choice. If he had gone with Hutchinson then I would have been worried.
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Of course, but then it's just a matter of poking through the archives and dredging up the obligatory "Hillary Clinton = harpy" clip and running it immediately afterward for ultimate comic effect.
And interestingly enough, Alaska became a state when McCain was 21 years old.
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He just did that.
I'm giving both candidates the benefit of experience and the fact that we all learn. Mistakes are made and over a lifetime we all make some doozies. I'm looking over the last 6-8 years. Recent conduct and behaviors.
Obama has no demonstrated pattern of bipartisanship. McCain on more than once occasion has gone against the Republican party on a bunch of issues including the environment and election reform.
Obama's ongoing statements regarding foreign policy scare the hell out of me. He's made several statements regarding Pakistan and Iran that border on irresponsible. I don't care if you aren't a policy whiz. I do care that you have done some basic reading to actually comprehend the situation BEFORE you open your mouth.
I wasn't sold on Obama in the primary, and NOTHING I've seen since has me feeling the warm fuzzies. I don't vote based on party. Ever. I vote based on issues. I have one very significant issue I disagree with McCain. That issue is not enough to override the deep concerns I have about statements made again and again by Obama.
And frankly, I got pissed when he backed away from a very clear promise to hold to the federal matching funds for the election. Time and time again he said that he was going to work with the system. The second he got an advantage it was, "whoops, sorry I changed my mind." I'm okay with people changing opinions over time. I'm not okay with you doing it like that. It gets me thinking, what are you going to go back on that you are promising me right now? Cut taxes? Whoops, sorry, changed my mind. Money into education? Whoops, sorry that won't work. No new schools for you.
I doubt I'll say it much of anywhere else because I respect all my friends and their opinions. I don't want to get into fights with them over differences in politics. Just this once...
McCain/Palin O8.
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I don't know enough about her to have formed a truly informed decision yet about whether she's someone I could live with as VP, but I do know that only a few minutes into being the VP candidate, she'd already flip-flopped on one (and a half) of the issues she's now trumpeting as being part of the core of what she represents for the ticket. (Being the "Bridge to Nowhere" and Congress' use of earmarks to fund special projects like it, both of which she was definitely in favor of when she was elected governor, and both of which she now states she is against.)
Obama has no demonstrated pattern of bipartisanship.
Scusi, but that's not quite true. (And more here.)
Obama's ongoing statements regarding foreign policy scare the hell out of me.
And yet, time and again the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Commander in Chief, etc. have ended up discovering that Obama was right all along, whether they admit it or not. (And McCain's sabre rattling, regular conflation of Sunni and Shi'ia, frequent parroting of even the discredited Bush talking points re: Iraq, etc. scare me much worse than anything Obama's ever said, foreign policy-wise. Not to mention the McCain campaign's possible very direct ties to the cause of the escalation of the Georgia situation.)
I got pissed when he backed away from a very clear promise to hold to the federal matching funds for the election.
Said promise being checking "yes" on a questionnaire back in September '07, and explaining that he was doing so because he was in favor of reducing the influence of big-money special interests on elections.
Given the reason the federal matching funds system exists in the first place, and that Obama still refuses any money from federal lobbyists, Obama's fundraising is arguably almost as public as the public financing system itself is, and much less reliant on the efforts of lobbyists than the McCain campaign is. Also, I'd argue that McCain's shenanigans regarding using using a promise to accept public funds to secure a private loan, then opting out of the public funds system is a much worse sign of things to come than making a decision then discovering a different way of achieving essentially the same end, even though the FEC (Bush-appointed, and we've seen how nonpartisan his appointments tend to be) has now decided that McCain technically didn't do anything illegal.
And given the increasing number of issues on which the McCain of 2008 has done a complete 180 flip-flop from the positions of the McCain of 2000 (or even the McCain of 2004 or 2006), and how much he's turned from merely misrepresenting by exaggeration to flat-out lying about Obama's actions and positions in the last couple of months, I don't know if it's possible to trust a single thing he says anymore.
I might have voted for McCain in 2000. There's absolutely no chance at all that I will in 2008.
And that's my "once" for this thread. :-)
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So I now presume that Roslin/Airlock is a good thing, yes? As in, mess with me and you get to deal with my VP?
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But yes, Roslin and the airlock have a strong working relationship, and not always good cop/bad cop (read: idle threat), either. You'll come to recognize its awesomesauce.
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Aside from the corruption and the "put the polar bear off the endangered species list so we can drill more" things, Palin's also a creationist, oh joy. I think she fails the "someone we can live with" test.
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Personally, McCain's choice pisses me off. He's playing the Vagina Card, hoping to win over feminist votes.
Not only that, but outside of this whole Monegan business, i think she's doing a pretty damned good job here in AK, which is more than i can say for her predecessor. I'd like to see her stick around a while, and she can't do that if she has to run off to Washington with Senile McIdiot.
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-- Like Odin, he trades it for wisdom
-- Dick Cheney's convention-stopping demonstration of his "disappearing pencil" trick
-- Explodes during a debate
I'm setting the computer to record the debates as soon as they're announced. It's going to be a Kubrick movie, it is.
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From what I've read, Palin's done a good job of fighting corruption in Alaska, but did support Stevens in the primary. I like what a commenter at AOSHQ said, Palin ran a town and a state, McCain ran an attack squadron, Obama ran for office and Biden ran his mouth.
One interesting fact about the tickets; the members of the tickets represent the 1st, 48th, 49th, and 50th states. Not sure where Obama's extra 10 states fit into the mix, so for Obama the tickets might represent 1, 58, 59, and 60.