Just watched Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC.
...boy, I think the Dems are in trouble. Okay, not to get too carried away here; the bar was set quite low and she did deliver one hell of a speech. It was great theater at best, demonstrated a high level of stagecraft, didn't pretend to be anything she wasn't, and certainly we can thank a GW Bush campaign speech writer, Matthew Scully as much as we can the orator.
But I say it again less facetiously...the Dems are in trouble. During the last two presidential campaigns, it can be said that the Republicans ran better campaigns...and conversely, the Dems made blunders. I believe, and I hope I'm wrong, that the Biden and Palin choices speak again to the legacy of missteps on the part of the Dems and of shrewd political manueverings on the part of the Repubs.
But what happened last night at the RNC with Palin was clear: Palin solidified the Conservative base, unified the Party, and set the political cross-hairs squarely in the battle-ground states.
I can't say it better then the following talking heads so here is a recap of last night's post Palin speech comments, paraphrased unless quoted:
- Rudy Julliani: Without Hillary, the Obama camp have relinquished all to important electoral demographics; small-town America, women voters, as well as Midwest battleground states. Palin has placed herself squarely into these niches. She is the "Cultural Contrast" to Barrack and Michelle.
- Karl Rove: "McCain has found his attack dog." She came out swinging and made no apologies for being a small town hockey mom. And she can stab you deeply with a barb and smile at you while she's doing it.
- Paul Begalla: Palin is a "Cultural Warrior". She represents every-woman, and her family represents every middle American family. Her story resonates with alot of Americans and whether she is liked by liberals or the media is irrelevant. Want counts is that she is liked by conservatives.
- Alex Castellas: She appeals to populist America, small-town America, and Reagan Democrats. She represents a value system that still exists and exists quite strongly among and within a large part of this country.
- Wolf Blitzer: While the Dems have yet to fully consolidate and made little headway in uniting their party, the Republicans in contrast had much less drama during their Primary, united their party with less fanfare, and with Palin's choice is reaching far and deeply into the void left by Hillary Clinton.
- Me, theSupergoober: The task set before her was to solidify the evangelical conservative base in rural red-states. And with those voters, she hit a home run. What she so miserably failed at accomplishing, given her smug and insolent sarcasm, was to establish ANY credibility with ANY part of America that does not include "small-town folk". Her utter lack of humility combined with an attitude re. politics that displays a belief that she simply has nothing more to learn with regard to the Presidency and the people in the United States speaks directly to her arrogance and abject naivety to which she proudly wears like a frikin badge of honor.
The most offensive part of her speech was how she attempted to discredit Obama supporters by minimizing their experience, as if they were merely lulled by his candor and eloquence. She tells us not to be fooled, and essentially urges us to STOP LISTENING to him....Hmmm....interesting. Stop listening....like she tells people in her state of Alaska to STOP LISTENING to the experts on global warming and listen instead to the canned studies put forth by the oil industries. Or when she tells the school children in her State of Alaska to STOP LISTENING to sex education because it promotes promiscuity and by no means protect children against acquiring STD's or attempt to stem the tide of unwanted pregnancies and increasing rates of abortion. Or when she tells the parents to have their children to STOP LISTENING and opt out of courses and books that run counter to their creationism beliefs. Or when she tells us to STOP LISTENING to our allies and the majority of her fellow Americans when they say that all attempts at Diplomacy must be exhausted before we carpet bomb. Or when she tells her small town to STOP LISTENING and demands that the library remove books that she finds offensive.
Palin is not the New Maverick as was touted by McCain. No, she's an old school Conservative Republican and of a particular type that I simply can't stand. Obama should have a field day with her. Her rhetoric is precisely the type that he can't stand for in politics. Palin was chosen to "divide" but I believe our Country is better than the one she envisions. I truly hope more Americans than not see through her and the Republican campaign's line of bullshit because Palin is precisely what we do NOT need anymore in American politics.
But I say it again less facetiously...the Dems are in trouble. During the last two presidential campaigns, it can be said that the Republicans ran better campaigns...and conversely, the Dems made blunders. I believe, and I hope I'm wrong, that the Biden and Palin choices speak again to the legacy of missteps on the part of the Dems and of shrewd political manueverings on the part of the Repubs.
But what happened last night at the RNC with Palin was clear: Palin solidified the Conservative base, unified the Party, and set the political cross-hairs squarely in the battle-ground states.
I can't say it better then the following talking heads so here is a recap of last night's post Palin speech comments, paraphrased unless quoted:
- Rudy Julliani: Without Hillary, the Obama camp have relinquished all to important electoral demographics; small-town America, women voters, as well as Midwest battleground states. Palin has placed herself squarely into these niches. She is the "Cultural Contrast" to Barrack and Michelle.
- Karl Rove: "McCain has found his attack dog." She came out swinging and made no apologies for being a small town hockey mom. And she can stab you deeply with a barb and smile at you while she's doing it.
- Paul Begalla: Palin is a "Cultural Warrior". She represents every-woman, and her family represents every middle American family. Her story resonates with alot of Americans and whether she is liked by liberals or the media is irrelevant. Want counts is that she is liked by conservatives.
- Alex Castellas: She appeals to populist America, small-town America, and Reagan Democrats. She represents a value system that still exists and exists quite strongly among and within a large part of this country.
- Wolf Blitzer: While the Dems have yet to fully consolidate and made little headway in uniting their party, the Republicans in contrast had much less drama during their Primary, united their party with less fanfare, and with Palin's choice is reaching far and deeply into the void left by Hillary Clinton.
- Me, theSupergoober: The task set before her was to solidify the evangelical conservative base in rural red-states. And with those voters, she hit a home run. What she so miserably failed at accomplishing, given her smug and insolent sarcasm, was to establish ANY credibility with ANY part of America that does not include "small-town folk". Her utter lack of humility combined with an attitude re. politics that displays a belief that she simply has nothing more to learn with regard to the Presidency and the people in the United States speaks directly to her arrogance and abject naivety to which she proudly wears like a frikin badge of honor.
The most offensive part of her speech was how she attempted to discredit Obama supporters by minimizing their experience, as if they were merely lulled by his candor and eloquence. She tells us not to be fooled, and essentially urges us to STOP LISTENING to him....Hmmm....interesting. Stop listening....like she tells people in her state of Alaska to STOP LISTENING to the experts on global warming and listen instead to the canned studies put forth by the oil industries. Or when she tells the school children in her State of Alaska to STOP LISTENING to sex education because it promotes promiscuity and by no means protect children against acquiring STD's or attempt to stem the tide of unwanted pregnancies and increasing rates of abortion. Or when she tells the parents to have their children to STOP LISTENING and opt out of courses and books that run counter to their creationism beliefs. Or when she tells us to STOP LISTENING to our allies and the majority of her fellow Americans when they say that all attempts at Diplomacy must be exhausted before we carpet bomb. Or when she tells her small town to STOP LISTENING and demands that the library remove books that she finds offensive.
Palin is not the New Maverick as was touted by McCain. No, she's an old school Conservative Republican and of a particular type that I simply can't stand. Obama should have a field day with her. Her rhetoric is precisely the type that he can't stand for in politics. Palin was chosen to "divide" but I believe our Country is better than the one she envisions. I truly hope more Americans than not see through her and the Republican campaign's line of bullshit because Palin is precisely what we do NOT need anymore in American politics.
posted by supergoober at
9:58 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting comments, supergoober... as I did not actually hear her speech, I cannot comment as to your claims of the condescending nature, but I would say that your response is a bit extreme (especially given that you love the role of diplomat). I would maintain that your centrist view resonates with a good portion of America, but the far right and far left have equally ardent support. There are some things on which one should not compromise, and I think that an overly concilliatory attitude can be just as detrimental as an extreme one (look at all centrists who colluded with any extreme dictator on either the far left or far right - it is typically compromise that can lead to a dictator firming up a base in a country, but more on that later). As to your contention about global warming, we should have a real discussion on the science, not extremist rhetoric on either side. If you look at the numbers, the world has been cooling for the last 8-10 years, even as carbon emissions have increased. The Arctic Ice pack is indeed thinning, but there have been many periods in history where there has been no ice (every interglacial period for example). CO2 tends to be a lagging indicator of warming, rather than a presaging one; as sea temperatures rise, CO2 becomes less soluble and of the thousands of billions of tons of CO2 dissolved in the oceans, some goes into the atmosphere (one reason why Al Gore did not overlay those two slides in his movie). Even the IPCC report, the internationally respected report put out by the UN scientists actually states that mankind is contributing to some (not all) of the warming with a 90% degree of certainty - note that this does not meet the 95% confidence interval that the scientific community has established for statistical significance. Mankind is much more likely responsible for localized warming - global trends seem to be best connected to solar irradiance. Even if you believe that humans are a significant cause, there are far better ways of dealing with it than attempting to shackle developing economies and dooming much of the world to the subsistence economies that they currently have. For some excellent reading on this, check out Bjorn Lomborg's book Cool It - he believes that global warming is a problem, but actually suggests a level-headed approach - relying on the best scientific data, rather than overselling the argument and hurting a bunch of people in the short term while simultaneously having no long term benefit. Take the Kyoto Protocal, for example. It's estimated cost is in the tens to hundreds of billions in lost economic activity, with a net gain of delaying the onset of warmth by 5 years in the next 100, so we can expect a minimal impact for a maximum cost.
But more on that another day... I will attempt to blog on my own about this, so you can read my full thoughts as well as the science behind the actual discussion, not the crap that politicians on both sides fall back on. Let cooler heads prevail.
I KNEW I'd get your goat on the Global Warming comment!! Anywayz, to tell you the truth, it is this belief in conjunction with her book banning, creationism as a science, abstinence only, no sex-ed in school, all-government is bad, no-one in Washington has done any good, PLUS her trivialization and diminishment of not only Obama but of his supporters!...that we're dumb and we've been lulled and we shouldn't listen to him. Throw OUT the global warming, she still frightens the HELL out of me Prof.
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