Divas don’t or wouldn’t muddy themselves in the dirty, dog eat dog world of politics.
Sarah Palin is a shrewd, ideologically rigid politician that has cultivated and energized the base of her political party, the Republicans, and will undoubtedly remain a force within it for years to come.
Many have preoccupied themselves with her clothing allowance/expenses (yes, 150 000 is a bit much..but hey I would take it in a heartbeat wouldn’t you? ..lol) interview missteps and basic lack of knowledge of critical international issues.
However, Sarah Palin, in the last few months has come to symbolize the modern conservative woman. And many in the conservative movement recognize that she will not compromise or wither, as other chosen ones have when confronted by democrats, in her support of their signature issues-pro life, anti-gay marriage and closer ties between religion (Christianity) and the state.
Palinhas them fired up and ready for ‘war’ and with the Republican party in shambles, the leaders of specific fractions of the Republican base will emerge and ultimately one of these leaders could assume control of the entire party. Palin is in a unique position at the moment, not only does she have a built in base of support but no other individual has emerged to challenge her for control after the election.
Mccain is not a threat since he has never had any real creditability or power within his party and if he loses the election any power he did have will be gone. So, Sarah Palin will brush him aside in a heartbeat and who else is there? Governor Bobby Jindal? Governor Tim Pawlenty?
While both men are widely regarded as rising stars Palin’s star far outshines theirs and that will continue well into the future.
Palin should be watched very, very closely by democrats because she has no plans of going gently into the night and if she emerges as the savior of the GOP and it looks like she could, then 2012 could prove to be the toughest year yet for Democrats.
And should she become and even more effective communicator and better versed in the ways of Washington and the world she may yet ascend to the highest office in the land…remember stranger things have happened-a man by the name of Barack Obama is on the verge of becoming the 44th President of the United States.
Hillary Clinton and Obama are appearing side by side in Florida together. In fact check out the live feed.
A few minutes ago she gave a warm introduction to Obama. I still don’t think she means all of what she says but it was awesome to see them together.
And Obama even got the audience to chant Hillary’s name. He even talked admirably and glowingly of her. Now, this is what we should have seen more of over the last couple of weeks.
Hip Hop has been dead to me for a few years now, glorification of a ghetto lifestyle, videos and a station (BET) that left me feeling humiliated every time I watched it were eliminated from my life.
But these two with, this one song, have resurrected hip hop for me with lyrics, beat and a series of messages..Hip Hop is slowly, slowly coming back to my life, I don’t know how long it will last but for now this song is on blast!
BTW this is the uncensored version, you’ve been warned..lol
Obama is up in the polls, he just got Colin Powell’s endorsement (I think this matters very little but as i say since this is the biggest job interview in the world, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have him as a reference)democratic registration is through the roof, John McCain and his campaign are stumbling and fumbling their way through this campaign while the country is hungering, begging for change.
Across the country, democrats in congressional and senate races can see the finish line and if the polls are to be believed it is there’s to lose BUT losing is still a real possibility.
Obama has so far mounted and effective defense to Mccain and Republican attacks but the American public is still unsure and ‘uncomfortable’ with an Obama presidency (in past posts i’ve explained some of these reasons) and there is a very real possibility come election day that some voters who have not openly voiced their concerns with pollsters will cast their vote for Mccain. In addition, the youth vote which has propelled and fuelled the Obama campaign may not turn out en masse thus handing victory to Mccain and the Republicans by default once again.
The Obama campaign and democrats shouldn’t, and I hope they’ve learned their lesson after 2000 and 2004, send out the invitations to the inaugural balls just yet. It ain’t over till the last vote is counted and every voter and possible voter matters in this election and I believe that for the first in almost twenty years voters are really paying attention so one little slip up by Obama in the next 15 days could usher in the end of his campaign.
And With John Mccain and his team searching for a narrow victory scenario you know that they aren’t taking anything for granted and that they will utilize every weapon in their arsenal to win and democrats always seem to have a hard time doing the same and should Obama and democrats become complacent and start to believe it’s a done deal they would’ve have created an opening and path for a John Mccain victory.
At the moment John Mccain, thinks that tying Obama to a socialist ideology ( I will discuss socialism at length in an upcoming post)while appealling to white working class men and women like ’Joe the Plumber’ with his tax cut rhetoric and sharp jabs by running mate Sarah Palin will consolidate many of these low information voters behind him. And the constant signals they both transmit to voters that Obama isn’t and could never be one them (we all know why just look at him wink wink) regardless of where you stand on the right or the left is an effective often practiced divide and rule political strategy. I don’t know if it will work in this election but we cannot dismiss the fact that is has before.
However, I hope that Obama and his team anticipated these tactics and mount a quick and effective defense to them while at the same time reinforcing Obama’s real working class roots while highlighting his intellectual capabilities and ability to lead and inspire us to be better.
Democrats must recognize that they are still votes to be captured and that nothing, NOTHING should be taken for granted over the next two weeks and they do so at their own peril.
Now, I’m not willing to say tht Obama has it in the bag. Even though all the polls have him up nationally, there are still three weeks left to this campaign and anything could happen.
Obama is still capable of making a catastrophic misstep and those white working class voters who are still on the sidelines could suddenly jump off and throw their full support behind John Mccain. I don’t think either of these things will happen but they are a possibility.
In the last week, I’ve tried to watch John Mccain’s campaign objectively, (yes, I have..lol) and all I have to say is that his campaign is undisciplined and his messages lack direction and consistency.
One day his campaign is attacking Obama’s character and his past associations vigorously. The next day he’s attacking his record. The next day he’s telling his supporters, he’s not an arab but he’s a decent and good family man. The next day he’s talking about his economic plans.
Now, if I were a rational, intelligent, Republican leaning independent voter I wouldn’t know which message to listen too. But I do know the message that Obama is an Arab, marxist terrorist with plans to enslave white people would NOT be an effective or persuasive enough argument to get my vote.
And this is and continues to be John Mccain’s problem. His messages are inconsistent and imprecise.
And with only three weeks left to the general election this is a failing strategy.
Yes, the current unfavorable political climate, economic conditions and an unconventinal opponent should have caused the Mccain camp to adjust their strategy but not so much so to cause their campaign to appear in disarray and desperate.
Karl Rove and his team would never have allowed this to happen.
For all the reasons we liberals hate Karl Rove we must admit he maintained, practiced and demanded message discipline from the candidate and their supporters and when he found a weakness in his opponents he zeroed in on it, concentrated his resources and exploited it effectively to the benefit of his candidate.
Mccain and his team, and the Republican party in general at the moment, lack these capabilities and although it didn’t work in 2006 it can be argued that it might have worked this time around even with all the obstacles.
Mccain has been trying to replicate some of the plays from past Republican play books and they just aren’t working however, I do believe if they had practiced the ‘Karl Rove fundamentals 101′ from the very beginning we might be seeing entirely different poll results but we’ll just have to wait a few more days to see if their missteps and misfires were disastrous.
Did anyone watch the Jon Voight interview on MSNBC today?
OMG, was it painful.
Contessa Brewer was interviewing him and in the beginning of the interview he spent almost one minute of air time talking about her name and how beautiful it was..it was excruciating to watch and it just got worst listening to him talk about his support of John Mccain and about Obama supporters being Marxist, you would think that as actor he could have acted his way through the interview but i guess when they are no prepared lines or stage directors most of them would just fall flat on their faces as he did.
Faithful reader, how many of you under 30 (it’s not fair if we let the older people play, sorry..lol) have ever heard about The Keating Five? Hint..they was linked to the collapse of one major savings and loan- Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.
Ok..nobody, nobody at all? Well, that’s not surprising..when the US savings and loan crisis was taking place I was still playing with barbie dolls and listening to Milli Vanilli ( you were too so don’t laugh didn’t you just love the braids..lol).
Ok, so you don’t know about it learn morehereand below
The Keating Five scandal probably left the biggest blemish on McCain’s career. And McCain obviously shies away from speaking about his role in the entire affair. Wouldn’t you? If you caused or were accused sorry, of causing thousands of people to lose their life savings would you want to shout it from the rooftops or would you want to crawl under a rock and die? I hope you would chose the latter but anway over the years McCain has rebuilt his reputation and standing in the Senate and the community, character attacks on him have seldom succeeded since he’s now seen as a straight shooter.
But in the next few days you will start to see some character assassination attempts on Barack Obama, by members of McCain’s camp. Some of the attacks might even come directly from John McCain, betcha he goes for the jugular on Tuesday at the presidental debate? But believe me you’re going to hear and read aboutObama’s link to ‘terrorists‘. His connection to corrupt Chicago business man Tony Rezko and of course, of course Rev.Wright.
Don’t expect a gentleman’s campaign over the next few days. There will be no October surprises but there will be lots and lots of mud and stone throwing.
Instead, if I were them I would throw away the Republican play book and try to follow the old proverb people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones because the stuff that might be thrown back, by the Obama team and a press core trying to appear fair, just might demolish my entire house.
Biden talking about his life he’s tearing up OMG..I don’t know if those tears were real..but it was awesome..oh no a girl made him cry..no just playing,,he was talking about his hardships and the death of his wife and daughter..
Oh my god..Joe Biden spends a lot of time in Home Depot..She just said..say it ain’t so Joe..OMG the first one liner..of the night..and I don’t see Joe Biden at Home Depot
I love the CNN barometer, they have some funny name for it..it’s cool..I haven’t seen any real spikes all night.
She just gave a shout out to some third graders in Alaska that was nice…I guarantee after this debate her likeablity factors go out by a billion points.
Oh my god Sarah Palin actually got a couple right..she even pronounced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s name right..and oh s@#$ she even said they hate us for our freedom. My god she’s got the GOP talking points down..wow this is no repeat of the Katie Couric interview is it?
And now Biden brings up the Spain gaffe, that’s not right…
Two state solution. This is getting boring, no fireworks, not one..all she’s doing is talking..I want more Katie Couric.
At least Biden is looking at the camera. And I guess Joe Biden is Israel’s best friend..
but who knows what causes it or what it could be Obama all his hot wind right? God, I’m funny..lol
And here comes Joe to give her an environmental lesson listen Joe, I watched an Inconvenient Truth..I KNOW, I KNOW no more lessons, I’ll stop using plastic bags..i will, honest.
Drill baby Drill, that’s what she hears at rallies..oh my god..that’s terrible..lol
Ok..so foreign people and rich people aren’t going to get my money..great they don’t need it anyway..a dollar a day is just enough in my opinion for those darn foreigners!!!
While Joe Biden keeps looking at her..he should do the same..now she’s talking..who’s responsible for the subprime meltdown..and she just used darn and heck..see that makes her cool..lol
He just talked about John McCain being out of touch when he referred to the fundamentals of the economy being strong..ok..now Palin is just talking about how much of a maverick she is..more and more talking points my god when I’m going to start hearing answer..see Gwen just pointed it out..
Senator Biden is talking about what Obama’s economic policy is..he’s just rattling it off..let’s listen to Palin..she’s talking about a soccer games being a good barometer of the economy..she looks nice as usual..looking to the camera..good..
How long do I have to listen to Wolf and Olberaman and Gregory?..oh ok..I’ll listen to Ifill..she’s great..can’t believe the GOP were trying to diss her..
Every pundit out there keeps talking about either how low the bar is or how much Sarah Palin has to prove tonight but you know what? Sarah Palin has nothing to prove and there is no bar. All she has to do is show up tonight and she wins.
It’s that simple.
So what if she doesn’t know anything about foreign policy. How many Americans do infact let’s be honest how many Americans care about what takes place outside our borders? I mean who cares about those ‘other people’ all they want from us is our money anyway, right?
So what if she can’t name a court case that she significantly disagrees with? How many Americans can? All we have do is overturn Roe v Wade and everything will be fine.
Listen, people Sarah Palin is a sideshow, a very interesting one, i’ll give you that, nevertheless she’s still a side show. She was picked not because she helps John McCain with liberals and television know it alls or because she can rattle off world leaders and the issues affecting their countries. Please, she was selected to help John McCain steal women voters from Obama and because the photos with her and her hubby and their baby are priceless.
Insulting yes but isn’t that obvious?
And the fact she’s on the stage tonight with Joe Biden as the first female GOP vice presidential candidate might be enough to earn her and her boss some votes and enough to quell some fears on the conservative side.
But if you believe that she will be marked equally or on the same curve as Joe Biden you’re wrong. If you doubt me listen to the comments after the debate tonight. Unless she says something remarkably foolish Sarah Palin will be judged the winner. Who cares about substance? Who cares about experience? I mean those things are soooo 2004..all I can say is Idiocracy is definitely upon us people- and she just might be our next vice president..God help us all if that day happens..
*** I will be live blogging as usual, just in case you care..lol..i’ll even send some of you text updates***
As my page states, I am a black liberal. I was born into a family of unapologetic liberals and will undoubtedly remain one for the rest of my life. My blog title borrows from a book I once read called Conversations with an unrepentant liberal by Julius Bixler if you should get the ... Continue reading »
