Category: Political

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I don’t necessarily want to write much about politics, but I think that if we women don’t speak out about this presidential race, the menfolk will continue to assume that we focus on identity politics, rather than issues. In other words, we’ll vote for a candidate just because she’s a woman, and not because of the candidate’s position on issues.

I supported Hilary Clinton because she had one of the best platform positions on universal health care. In addition, I felt she had a good grasp on what it would take to turn this country’s economy around. I was also saddened, angered really, at the condescension shown towards her at times by the seemingly liberal males in the Democratic party. We have a long ways to go before the Democrats are truly a party based on “equality”.

Having said this, I find that in most issues, especially the important ones, Clinton and Obama share the same views—particulary the view that we need to focus on problems within this country, as compared to some seemingly never-ending threat elsewhere. Because of this shared viewpoint between Clinton and Obama, I am just as happy to vote for him, as President. His being black is an added bonus, but is not the reason I’m voting for him. Clinton being a woman was an added bonus, but not the reason I voted for her in the Primary.

Sarah Palin is no Hilary Clinton, and neither is she comparable to Joe Biden. Joe Biden may be a white male, but he and I share the same beliefs, interests, and concerns across the board. Palin and I are both women, and were both born in the Northwest; here the similarity ends. Ends abruptly, in fact.

If you line up all Americans and asked me to pick who I would want as a VP candidate—and potential president— Palin would be in the last few thousand: just before Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Phyllis Schlafly, that red neck with the confederate flag in the back of his truck window who cut me off on the freeway last week, and any remaining members of the Bush family.

I do think that McCain’s choice justifies our concerns about McCain’s age. You can’t look at Palin only as VP—you have to think of her as potential president. To be blunt, she doesn’t have the experience to be any kind of a good leader, and I’m not talking about foreign experience. All she knows is her little corner of Alaska. From all indications, she’s rarely visited the Lower 48. She certainly doesn’t understand the diversity that is America.

More importantly, she has no experience dealing with a government that isn’t lushly sponsored by a single resource: oil. As it is, her own government in Alaska is frustrated with her because she’s not taking care of business, even in a state with only 670,000 people.

Now, for other views:

• Blogher has an interesting debate on Palin. The site has both conservative and liberal readers, so you’ll find a fairly even debate in the comments.
• Editor & Publisher is publishing a series of articles on getting to know Palin, featuring editorials from, and interviews with, the Alaskan media. Parts I, II, and III.

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I think that McCain has gone soft as a grape in his head. Why else would he pick an unknown from a state that’s already securely red? And one who is only going to appeal to people already voting for him?

Governor Sarah Palin has barely begun serving the second year as Alaskan Governor, and before that she was three-term mayor of a town of 6,000 people. She did serve for a time on the Alaskan Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, before quitting because of “ethics”. As for leadership experience being governor of Alaska: the state has 670,000 people. I wouldn’t say that she has experience with larger, diverse groups of people. In fact, she has had little exposure to a diverse population.

She’s primarily known for two things: cleaning up Alaskan politics because of all of the corruption, and getting more taxes against oil profits for the state of Alaska.

However, she has ethics issues of her own. She’s involved in an ethics investigation about using her office to get her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, after her sister and he had a messy divorce.

She was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, and later moved to Alaska, both areas having some of the most conservative of people in this country. The ultra-right will be happy with her, but I can’t see how she’ll appeal to the undecided.

Palin claims her husband is one-quarter native American, but the accuracy of this statement has been disputed. In addition, she’s not met with any of the indigenous people in her own state, yet, and in fact has supported groups who don’t have the best track record when it comes to the native Americans in Alaska.

As an environmentalist, Palin sucks, big time. Her husband works for BP, she wants to drill for oil everywhere, including ANWR, doesn’t believe polar bears should be listed as endangered, and she supported the pulling of wolf cubs from dens to be shot, in order to increase moose herds—probably so that the moose could be shot by hunters, like herself. She’s a card carrying member of the NRA, though there are few people in Alaska who aren’t.

Palin’s anti-choice, very conservative socially, and believes in teaching creationism in schools.

There’s speculation that McCain picked a woman in order to grab Clinton voters, as if we’re interchangeable parts, just swap one out for the other—an opinion I find to be rather offensive, as well as being ludicrous. The only thing Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin share is that they’re both women. Everything else, is different. Vastly, different. More than that, Palin has shown herself to be very unfriendly when it comes to issues specific to women, including women’s right to choose when it comes to our reproductive systems. Contrary to what the White Haired Dude may think, I and other women don’t vote for women just because they are women.

There has to be another reason McCain picked her, other than just her sex. For the life of me, though, I haven’t a clue what it is. Except that the man has gotten soft as a grape.

I’m not going to write much about politics. I know how I’m going to vote and if you live in the States, it’s unlikely I’ll change your mind about how you’ll vote. I will say, just once, that I was also a Hilary Clinton supporter; one who has gladly switched my vote to Obama, because I have no interest in four years with a hot headed, war mongering, corporate kiss butt, otherwise know as McCain. Good lord, this country can’t afford a man like McCain.

If you’re a Clinton supporter who is thinking of switching to McCain, in some kind of a snit, then I have to ask: do you even bother to read the platforms for both candidates? Or are you the type who votes based on hair style and personality, rather than issues? Because I can’t understand any Democrat having enough of a hissy fit to actually switch from Obama to McCain. Obama and Clinton were more alike than not. Obama and McCain are worlds apart.

Anyway, back to not writing about politics. One of the stories this week is about the Republicans rather sleazy approach to invading the Democratic convention. So much for McCain being a leader for “change”, eh? I find the whole thing tacky, as I find McCain reaching out to Clinton supporters to be rather sad. Is it a case of us white folks have to stick together, or something? Sure comes across that way.

However, what goes around comes around. If the sad, worst case scenario happens with Gustav next week, it will make landfall about the same time as the Republican convention starting, and will most likely re-awaken old angers about Katrina. Katrina, where the differences between white and black were never more apparent, or more devastating.

If Gustav does follow the worst case scenario, we don’t have to send Democrats to disrupt the Republican convention, because nature will do the job for us. Gustav is a reminder of the threats this country really faces, and how, a few years ago, Americans were let down by an Administration whose focus, then and today, rests thousands of miles away, rather than our own backyards. A timely reminder of what’s at stake for the Democrats, too. What’s at stake, and what’s important.