C'mon Right!

I am watching more and more of the election news and listening to people from the right give their praise to Sarah Palin. I listen to my conservative friends and hear she "kicks ass."

Fine. I understand not everyone can be as enlightened as myself. cough cough. Seriously, as unenlightened as I may be I still respect other people's opinion. These are my friends after all so they must have some redeeming qualities. But where I have issues (and according to my wife I have many with many people) is the hypocrisy I am discovering within these people.

These same friends would tear Hillary Clinton apart in discussions I had with them during the primaries. At the time I was on the fence between Hillary and Obama. At the time I was even considering McCain. It was early. So I found myself defending Hillary by, at the very least, default if not for my support of her. The ridiculous reasons I heard to not vote for her blew my mind. They were so blatantly sexist and ignorance I could only gape in disbelief at my friends as they continued on in complete seriousness.

The reasons were shallow and unrelated to any issues or stances she took on these issues. I didn't hear they felt universal health care didn't work because it hasn't worked elsewhere. I'll listen to you if come with this opinion. They didn't say they had a problem with her stance on Roe v. Wade and so they didn't want to support her for that reason. I would even listen to that. This is not the fact that I won't listen to and respect differing opinions of my own. This is about how ignorant and stupid people can be just looking for reasons to not vote for someone as opposed to looking for reasons to vote for their opponent. There is no credibility in saying you can't trust someone because they are more prone to make decisions based on emotion or a biological cycle.

So now here we are at this new point in the election where McCain has obviously picked a running mate to play off this very point of discussion. Sarah Palin is nothing more than a ploy to get women voters. Now I am hearing all this noise from the right and my conservative peers that she "kicks ass" and the whole emotional, biological cycle thing suddenly does not matter. Somehow her lack of experience in the federal government or in a locality with any substantial number of constituents is OK despite the loud rants that Obama's senate experience is a problem. I admit I, too, have been a bit worried about Obama's minimal track record but how is Palin's OK? She has done even less than him?!

So what's the deal right? Is Obama's record too light or not? Are women OK to handle office or not? Make up your mind. You can't have it both ways. You are being hypocritical if you were against Hillary and suddenly love Palin. You are contradicting yourself if you list Obama's track record as a problem but support the Palin choice. If you love that Republican ticket then take back what you said about Hillary. If you support the Republican ticket then find another reason why Obama wouldn't be a good choice...or better yet find a different reason why your choice is better than the Democratic ticket. And don't pull that Muslim, terrorist, he is black card. Be real.

I say that the conservatives had their chance. Go ahead and stay home this November. Let those of us tired of this crap we have dealt with the past eight years go out and vote for you. I bet we get it right. Things cannot remain like this for much longer. This country is in bad shape for those of us making under $200,000. We need a change. We do not need someone who voted WITH the current administration 90% of the time. 10% change isn't enough to fix things. That's an F last I checked.

How Have You Felt About the Past Eight Years?

Ok, honestly, comment and say so. I don't mean personally but think more macro. How have you felt about things going on around you in this country? I feel more and more like moving to Canada. Not a joke. If I could take my daughter with me, I truly believe my wife and I would be there as we speak. I am seriously not exaggerating. She is on board with that.

Let me tell you why? My wife feels her rights as a woman are being stripped. I agree. We both feel the "fixes" for education are underfunded and backwards. We are in the midst of a HUGE hassle selling our house that is related to this mess we are in economically. We, like you, are paying through the roof for gas. We are spending billions of dollars for Iraq but witnessing more and more poverty here. I do first hand. We have more and more people moving in that don't speak English and make no attempt at learning it. There is more and more negativity amongst our leaders.

These are factual observations. Things we see. I can't take another 4 years of this. As comoprozac likes to call him, McSame will be that same thing. Is this what you want? Think about it.



I am still cringing at the thought.

That's Palin as in Van Halen

I recall sitting in my religion class in 9th grade at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin and learning about Satanism. We got an earful of the Satan music that is bad to listen to. You know the albums that if you played them backwards they would send you sublimal messages to kill yourself or worship the Devil. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw a reference to Van Halen. Even I, the one who never talked, laughed out loud at that. Well, this sort of out of touch perspective reminds me of the proponents of Sarah Palin.

I just want to say "Whaaaaa?!"

I find myself blogging about politics more lately because it is on my mind. I will be the first to admit my knowledge is minimal. I consider myself a moderate in the competition between Dems and Republicans. But the more I read about Sarah Van Palin and hear her speak, the more I cringe. I openly admit I kind of liked McCain. I figured he would be ok if he won. Now.......with this decision.......

I referenced Comprozac's blog. He is much more schooled in this than me and I cannot match his knowledge or find the evidence or support for my view like he so eloquently does as liberal as he may be. I worry when I step into this arena that I am in over my head. He has several posts I have yet to read, but I wanted to write this before I read them because I want to come from an unbiased, uninfluenced perspective. I want this to be 100% me.

I watched Van Palin's RNC speech and OB's acceptance speech. I felt two totally different overall tones that lead the way in swaying my support to OB. On one side I felt like Van Palin was playing the snotty, bully who picked on her rival from afar. I don't mean to be sexist here but I really did not like the tone nor had much respect for it. It felt to me like it was a case of someone pushing another down to appear higher.

When I watched OB's speech I heard respectful references to McCain and his well documented experiences in the armed forces. I heard critiques of McCain that were prefaced with positive remarks. "I don't believe John McCain doesn't care. He just doesn't know." These were his remarks instead of the mocking, bully antics of Van Palin.

Don't tell me I am scared of Palin. I'm not. Her hockey mom reference fell on deaf ears. Again, this comes off sexist and I apologize if it is but I truly do not "fear" Palin because she is tough or right, I fear her because she is approving a "bridge to nowhere" with money from taxpayers. I fear her because she inexperienced. Really, inexperienced. I fear her because she truly thinks abstinence only programs work. She is anti-abortion rights. If I fear a woman because they are intimidating....that would be Hillary Clinton and I would vote for her in a heartbeat if OB wasn't there. That woman is intelligent and when she criticized OB it wasn't in a snotty little brat manner SVP did.

This brings me to another example of the positive slant versus the negative, bully vibe. While Palin comes out with a 17 year old daughter who is already pregnant opening herself up to all kinds of criticism, what do OB and JB do? They lay off and instead make it a point to declare that her family is off limits. If the tables were turned would Palin do the same? After listening to her snotty speech, I think HELL TO THE NO!

This is where I wanted to go with this post. I have more feelings regarding the boo's from the Republican crowd regarding the claims of Palin's inexperience. Somehow it is unfair to call out her resume but not OB's?? C'mon! But the contradictions go on!

Bottom line: While the Republicans continue the mudslinging campaign style Bush was so good at, OB is talking about the issues that mean something to me. He is addressing education and the economy along with the war. The others can't get off the war and the lack of experience of OB. They continue to use fear to control us. My cousin Hank so eloquently referenced this in a recent thread within my extended family regarding ethics. It fits here. We are giving up liberties out of fear. We are continuing the Vietman part deaux and wasting money. We had the budget balanced if I recall correctly during the Clinton years. With a Republican in the White House we are back to those old days with Reagan and Senior where the deficit was skyrocketing.

This is where I begin to lose focus and find holes in my stance. But I just need people to know....don't fall for the brat. She may have designer glasses and all that but she has little or no substance. Let me hear how she is going to help me get my students to learn more. How are we going to increase the value of our homes? How are we going to fix the value of the US dollar? How are we going to decrease the crime rate? How are we going to fix health care? What about the homeless? What about immigration? And can my Cleveland Browns get a decent defense this year?

OB is invigorating. If he won't get change done he will inspire us to do so. I feel it. I know it. Palin? McCain? Not so much. Just four more years of good for the rich.