While I have much to say about our amazing Presidential victory, including heartiest congratulations to President-Elect Obama, the Obama family, and all of America for a job well done, for now just a comment about Sarah Palin.
I personally wrote some scathing posts about Palin during the campaign, focused mainly on her ideology and her unpreparedness for the role of Vice President.
For weeks Tina Fey and SNL have been busting on Palin, and we've been laughing right along with them, at everything from Palin's Fargo-like accent, to her beauty queen days, to her bizarre and stilted interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. Palin herself even tried to be a sport about it and got in on the game.
Now that the media is beginning to release behind-the-scenes stories about Palin, from her outrageous clothing purchases at Neiman-Marcus to her mishandling of her own handlers, I see something most clearly.
The fault for the Sarah Palin debacle lies not with Palin at all, but solely and completely with John McCain.
McCain chose Palin to be his VP running mate without vetting her, and then shoved her into the national spotlight when she possessed neither the experience nor the worldliness to carry it off.
He plucked her from near obscurity, took her to the most important prom in the world, expected her to accomplish for him what he couldn't do for himself, and then dropped her off the edge of a cliff.
Whether Sarah Palin has or own political ambitions or not, she was not handled fairly by John McCain.
Make no mistake here. I am NOT a Sarah Palin supporter. Zero percent. But I do see the human side to her story, and really do feel for what she must now be going through.
My disagreements with her ideology aside, Palin never should have been part of a national campaign. She wasn't ready for it, nor will she likely ever be ready for it, as her experience and knowledge base is simply too shallow and too far afield to handle presidential and international politics.
How could she have done better when she didn't know any better? But John McCain should have known better. Instead, he put his own ego and career before all else.
I hope Sarah Palin can recover the life she wanted in Alaska, and wish the Palin family all good wishes now that they have returned home.
This has been on my mind for a long while, and I would like to express it here.
I am not in the military, although my father served six years in the Navy during Korea, including four years on the U.S.S. Missouri.
Our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan serve heroically, and yet when a soldier is fatally wounded in action, at the behest of our current administration, their ceremonial return is never shown on television.
Perhaps there is something I don't know or understand about why this is, but personally I think that's about as disrespectful as it gets, not only to the families of these brave men and women, but to all Americans, who have a right to know, understand, and pay their respects to our fallen soldiers when they come home.
I would like to ask Senator Obama, here and now, should he win the Presidency, not only to follow through in bringing our troops home, but to let all Americans fully know and understand the great sacrifices that are being made by our soldiers.
I've heard so many people ask and wonder over the past eight years why no one protests the war, why no one marches, why no one does anything to STOP the war. It seems to me that the present administration does everything possible to sanitize the war from the American people, in order to protect themselves and how they got us into it in the first place.
I hope most sincerely that I have not offended anyone with this posting --- especially families in service --- as my intent is only that we need to give MORE respect to our military for the work they do, not less. The hiding of information from average Americans by our current administration is the reason I write this. The only place I ever see names of fallen soldiers is on ABC's Sunday program This Week With George Stephanopoulis, when the names are flashed on screen near the end of the program. It makes me feel terrible that we don't do more to honor these brave people.
May everyone come home safe and well.
Many of us have voted early. But millions of us have not. Literally each and every vote cast makes a critical difference for Barack and Joe.
The Obama campaign is grassroots to the core. Which means that even if you NEVER step inside a campaign office, knock on a door, or make a phone call on behalf of the campaign, YOU CAN STILL HELP AND BE PART OF THIS MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE.
How? It's easy.
Take a friend or two or three with you to the polls to vote. Who else might need a ride to the polls? Your grandmother? Your co-worker? Your next door neighbor?
This campaign isn't over until there's a winner. Please don't assume we've got it nailed down. It takes VOTES to make it happen, and the campaign needs YOUR vote as well as the votes of EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
VOTE OBAMA/BIDEN ON NOVEMBER 4TH, and let's change the direction of this nation.
I can't wait until Tuesday, the results are finally in, and hopefully we can begin to address our candidates as PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA and VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN.
It's been a stressful year for all of us, between the failing economy and the stinkiest campaign run by the Republicans in American history.
But here's Barack at the rally in Florida tonight, sharing the stage with President Clinton as I type this, making jokes about how sharing his peanut butter sandwich back in 4th Grade makes him a REDISTRIBUTIONIST.
Thanks for the laugh! I needed it this evening.
It's beyond fascinating listening to the Republican Party turn in on itself, and somehow at the same time Sarah Palin is rising from the ashes as the self-annointed Republican candidate in 2012.
Huh?
This clueless speech-reader, who knows nothing about running anything, thinks she is going to be the next President of the United States? Well, kudos to her for having the ambition. My suspicion is that after this election she will sink like a stone back to her home state of Alaska to ponder how to make it happen, and she will come up empty.
Somehow in the hoopla of the past seven weeks, Palin has begun to believe her own press. She is, no doubt, the darling of the ultra-conservative right. But does she realize that she's not only turned off most of America, including women and independents, but a good chunk of the Republican Party itself?
How will she be perceived when she no longer has a multiple daily platform to make digs at Obama and Biden, the designer clothes are turned in, the jet goes away, the army of handlers go away, daddy McCain no longer gives her cover, and the press begin to look even more closely at the her breaches of gubernatorial power in Alaska?
It's going to be fascinating to watch.
This past Saturday I stood on line for two hours to vote early in Indiana.
This past Sunday I located the Obama/Biden field office near my home, stopped in, and volunteered.
On ELECTION DAY, I am going to be a DRIVER for this office. I signed up for two consecutive shifts, and will be ready to take people who need transportation to the polls when the calls come in.
As good as Barack and Joe's polling numbers look today, we can't take any chances that this win is assured until it is actually won and in the books.
C'mon, won't someone out there match my time commitment on Election Day?
Yesterday we went to the Noblesville Court House in Hamilton County to vote early for Barack and Joe. The place was PACKED. The line was just under two hours long, and people got on the line as fast as they were being processed.
I have to say, it was a wonderful experience. Voters waiting on line with us were every age, race, color, and creed, many toting infants, and one voter was pushing an extremely aged woman who brought a seat with wheels. They came prepared.
The folks in the Court House were organized, and despite the crowds, things moved along quickly enough. The line was long, but it moved continuously.
The reason I say it was a wonderful experience is because it was simply fantastic to see so many people here in Indiana energized about CHANGING THE DIRECTION OF THIS COUNTRY. Of course no one discussed who was voting for whom, but it was nice to see a well-organized Obama party going on all afternoon across the street from the courthouse.
We know Sarah Palin is completely out of her league as McCain's vice presidential candidate. Yet she's out there in front of the cameras every day, her poll numbers waaaaay down in the dumps, happy, smiling, jabbing Barack and Joe, and showing up on SNL to preen around in front of the cameras.
There's Trooper-gate, and the concerns she's charged the State of Alaska for spending nights in her own home, as well as for unauthorized travel for her children. There's the nepotism in hiring her friends, the censorship of library books, and the fact that the builder of that huge sports arena in Wasilla also built the Palin family home. Nothing seems to faze this woman while in the national limelight. Nothing at all.
What is Sarah Palin auditioning for? Is it politics or something else entirely? Someone close to me insists she simply wants to be president, and it's really an early run for 2012. I don't buy it. She'll never develop enough education or worldliness to undo the impression she's made on America. Maybe she doesn't realize that. Or maybe she's got her eye on Hollywood or maybe it's Fox News.
Thoughts, anyone?
I'm so proud to be voting for Barack Obama in the 2008 General Election, but I have to say, I am emotionally wiped out from the bizarre, trick-laden, deceitful, garbage-filled campaign that John McCain and the RNC have run.
We've been through so much horrible stuff these past eight years thanks to George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and their cronies. Eight corruption-filled years in which we've watched our nation deteriorate right before our eyes. A war in Iraq we didn't need. New Orleans ravaged. Our national debt out of control. Our economy destroyed. Oh yes, and the bad guys still on the loose.
Who in heck do the Republicans think they are? To me, they are not the pro-corporation, fiscally conservative party I remember from decades ago. Instead, what I see is a neo-conservative, hard right, religiously extremist party who will act above and outside the law whenever it suits their advantage. I don't like it, I don't get it, and it gives me an off-balance sense that we're growing our own terrorists right here in country.
I'm still learning about politics, but what I would expect to see in a presidential campaign are exchanges of ideas and forums where citizens can learn what the candidates stand for. From what I can tell, that doesn't exist any longer, at least on the Republican side. Any trick they can come up with to win a media cycle, any slime they can hurl to hurt an opponent, any lie they can tell to ruin a decent human being, is how they run a campaign.
Why, I wonder. Why?
....to the Obama family for good health a speedy recovery for Barack's grandmother.
For months and months you have participated in rallies, attended Obama events, blogged, texted, and gotten involved in politics for maybe the first time ever.
And the movement for CHANGE and HOPE hasn't just been on your campus, but on campuses all over the country. PRETTY AMAZING STUFF.
Now that you've registered to vote, it's SO CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that you actually place your ONE SINGLE VOTE --- your voice --- for Barack Obama on Election Day. If you can vote early, get in there and do it! Bring your friends! Celebrate with a pizza afterward, or raise a cup at the local coffee house.
Do you remember hearing how people marched and protested against the war in Viet Nam, how they showed up for three days of music at Woodstock, how the civil rights movement, full of regular people wanting change, was led by Dr. King?
These were all life-altering events in our nation's recent history, and have you ever met anyone who told you, I remember that day.... I was part of that.... I WAS THERE.
Well, this election is one of those I WAS THERE moments. Perhaps this is the first time you've voted for a President of the United States, or maybe it's the second. Any way you slice it, voting for president is right up there with some of the biggest things you'll do in your life.
THIS IS ***YOUR TIME*** and ***YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN***. Don't assume Barack is going to win because of the huge numbers of people shown on the news.
YOUR ONE VOTE MATTERS. IT'S A HUGE DEAL.
MAKE SURE YOU PLACE YOUR VOTE ON ELECTION DAY, AND IF YOUR STATE OFFERS IT, VOTE EARLY!!
We can do it, Indiana. For over a month I've seen McCain/Palin signs all over the streets here in Hamilton County. Well, the Obama store must have finally caught up, because my huge blue street sign arrived, as must have for countless others. Last evening I saw new Obama/Biden signs out on front lawns all over my area.
Indiana is teetering blue, and we can do it!
EVERY SINGLE VOTE MATTERS. Please talk to everyone you know about the importance of this election! Tell them Barack's vision as president is for the middle class. Tell them taxes will not go up for families earning under $250K. Tell them it's about job creation, healthcare, education, and being able to retire. Tell them it's about fixing the economy destroyed by Bush and his ally John McCain.
Make sure to VOTE EARLY, and encourage others to VOTE EARLY as well.
INDIANA FOR OBAMA. LET'S TURN THIS STATE BLUE!!
Faced with losing this election by a landslide, Viet Nam hero John McCain has allowed his name to front what is likely the slimiest wind-down to an election yet.
Robo-calls tying Barack to William Ayers. Palin 100% negative campaigning. TV ads 100% negative. Calling Obama un-patriotic. And worst of all, allowing GOP surrogates to attempt to impede the voting process in a multitude of states across OUR DEMOCRATIC NATION.
What does that say about John McCain and the type of presidency he'd run?
What we're seeing in the McCain campaign is BUSH/CHENEY all over again. Bend the rules to win. Bend the rules to suit the elite few. Bend the rules to suit their own self-interest.
I've wondered throughout the campaign WHAT the McCain message is. And yes, I finally realize, THIS IS THE MESSAGE. McCain and his GOP cronies matter. The rest of us don't.
Shame on you, John McCain.
It's one thing to blog here. But next week I will practice my democratic right as an American citizen and and VOTE EARLY FOR BARACK OBAMA.
American deserves better than this.
Please practice what you preach, Governor.
This afternoon in your stump speech you beg for the mainstream media to ask Barack Obama the tough questions. Last I checked, Barack and Joe haven't run from a single question yet.
Yet when YOU are asked ANY questions from the mainstream media you protest that you're being asked GOTCHA questions.
Please stop talking out of both sides of your mouth.
How about booking yourself on MEET THE PRESS this Sunday? Or are you too afraid they'll GETCHA?
I'm truly frightened by the direction the McCain/Palin campaign is heading, inciting their rally crowds to think and shout out all kinds of nasty stuff about Barack Obama.
There's a really disturbing video at Huffington Post this morning in an article by Seth Colter Walls titled "McCain-Palin Rallies: Obama Is A Terrorist." The videographer talks to assorted people outside a McCain-Palin rally, and the level of misunderstanding, fear, and denial about Obama is just unbelievable.
That John McCain and Sarah Palin are purposefully inciting these people into some sort of action or violence is beyond the lowest I could ever imagine in the United States of America in 2008.
I wonder how the Secret Service is handling McCain, and what they can do to tamp down this nonsense.
We're a democracy, and everyone's got a shot. But if all you have left is to play on FEAR, then maybe you shouldn't be in the game in the first place.
Barack Obama sounded and looked presidential. He's already beyond McCain. That's why McCain can't catch him in either campaigning or debating. Obama has been ON MESSAGE since the beginning. I think his calmness and evenness is what is appealing to America right now, especially in consideration of the current economic crisis.
I shudder to ask for opinions on this: Is John McCain a racist? Between his strategy of not looking at Barack in the first debate, calling him THAT ONE in this debate, and even more so allowing Palin to push the Ayers terrorism garbage which is inciting some really nasty crowd commentary at Republican rallies, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? There's a line not to cross in ANY campaigning, and if this is where the McCain people are headed, they are truly spawning some disgusting stuff here.
Thoughts?
Nice work, Senator McCain. You can't give the American people a straight answer about what you'll do to improve this country, yet you'll do whatever you can to smear your opponents as a way to try to win the election.
We were all expecting it, I suppose. But the saddest part is that in the next four weeks until Election Day the American people are going to get dragged along with you through the mud, millions of dollars will be spent, and the Obama/Biden ticket will win anyway.
America is tired of the same old politics. We desperately want to see a brighter future where our leaders are truly interested in making the country a better place for all its citizens, not just an elite few. Enough of the pandering, enough of the deceit, enough of the negative campaigning.
I am continually reminded that you are an American hero and you served our nation with great honor and distinction during the Viet Nam war. That does NOT make you qualified to become our next president. I am truly disturbed by the campaign you have run. I will not vote for you.
It would take a perfect world for any politician to be able to deliver on all their promises. But where you must start is with HONESTY, INTEGRITY, and VISION. A vision that includes an economy that works and isn't broken. Job opportunity. Affordable housing. Affordable college education. Better cost of living. Affordable and dignified retirement. Promise for the next generation.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden have this vision, which is why they have my vote. I don't have a clue what you would do to improve this country, despite months of watching your campaign. You've been all about showing us your glossy tactics to win, but unfortunately I have seen little substance beneath the showmanship.
Please do America a favor and don't take the remaining four weeks of this campaign into the gutter. We need hope and security from our leaders, not more of the same tired politics.
I watched the debate live two evenings ago, as did 70 million other Americans. It was a fascinating event on every level: Seeing if Palin could hold her own, watching Biden and Palin interact, listening to the information presented, hoping for hard-hitting questions from Gwen Ifill.
I'm now watching the debate literally a second time --- this moment, as it is re-running on MSNBC --- and I'm seeing a whole lot of stuff I missed the first time.
Joe Biden:
A highly intelligent, well spoken man who has devoted his life to making our country a safer and more prosperous place for us to live. He would make a wonderful Vice President, and God forbid it became necessary, he would make a wonderful President as well. A statesman on every level.
Sarah Palin:
The Governor's method of speaking, as well as the content delivered to us, was simply beyond the pale. The dozens upon dozens of annoying folkisms aside, Governor Palin talked mostly in a rapid-fire, staccato method of speaking that sounded robotic and often difficult to understand. Memorized? Most, or all of it, for sure. But then add in the cutesy, sarcastic digs to Senators Biden and Obama, the winking, the promising her brother's students extra credit for watching, the recognition of her dad in the audience, the endless qualification references to being a business owner and a mayor in Alaska, and the multiple mentions of her husband Todd, I clearly have the sense she cared less about the country than getting her cues right, saying the stuff she was TOLD to say, invoking John McCain's name as often as possible, and showing her interest in POWER and ADVANCEMENT at every turn.
Her performance was COMPLETELY UNPROFESSIONAL to me. At times Palin sunk to flirting outrageously with the camera, at times she was downright rude to Senator Biden, and her comments on several matters felt utterly disingenuous. Sarah Palin LOVES THE STATE OF ISRAEL? Really? Could she even point to where the country is located on a world map?
In this blog I've tended to share my first impressions. But if I've been particularly harsh I've tried to go back and take a second look with a more open mind.
I do think Palin is well-suited to her role as local politician in Alaska, whether I personally agree with her policies and methods of governing, or not. But she has no business wasting our time on the national stage. None, whatsoever.
I don't know about everyone else, but I actually prefer our President and Vice President not only to BE highly educated, but to SOUND highly educated.
For eight long years we've listened to tough-talking cowboy George W. Bush struggling to string coherent sentences together, not to mention his purposeful mispronunciation of NUKE-ULAR.
Now we've got the Governor of Alaska, whose speech is rife with gollies, gotchas, and gee whizzes, sounding more like she is campaigning for FIRST CHEERLEADER than Vice President of the United States of America. Oh, and energy expert that you are, Governor, you are, of course, aware that you too mispronounce NUKE-ULAR.
What's the problem? To me it's not cute or folksy, but rather gives a poor impression of the American people, both within our country, and to the rest of the world.
I think the President and the Vice President should represent the BEST that we can be, and not the oppoaite.
With all due respect.
Governor Palin was not able to distinguish the McCain/Palin ticket from George W. Bush's disastrous eight years in the White House.
You can dish out all the jabs and barbs you like, Governor, but you weren't able to tell us anything we didn't already know.
JOHN MCCAIN = GEORGE W. BUSH = JOHN MCCAIN
It's that simple.
