Not Cool, McCain Camp. Not Cool At All.

I dislike Sarah Palin just as much as the next normal American. I think she was unqualified, irresponsible and a constant drag on any type of real conversation about the issues. In fact, as I have made known before, I think her selection was the reason McCain lost so easily.

But now, the disjointed McCain staffers are playing fast and loose with their new-found hatred for Palin and blaming her for everything for being naive. It's a drastic turn from two weeks ago when she was the true family-values warrior.

Instead of finding fault with a campaign so unorganized and unfocused that it imploded months ago, the staffers are turning on Palin calling her a "diva" and "dumb." It blows my mind that they've turned on the very characteristics that they claimed to love in Palin from the beginning, just to blame her for the very fact of their loss.

I can't decide if this is blatant sexism (blaiming the VP candidate who happens to be female over the actual presidential candidate who happens to be male and, well, the candidate), or just plain stupid. What I do know is that it signals a long road ahead of the GOP to mend wounds within their own party before they can attempt to make a plea to the American people either in the midterm elections two years from now or in four years.

The fact is that it isn't Sarah Palin's fault per se that the McCain camp lost. I think her selection cost the campaign dearly and made the loss very easy, but it wasn't her fault--it was McCain's fault for selecting her. He didn't properly vet his candidate and chose to inspire a base that would have voted for him anyhow because they weren't going to vote for a Black baby killer. (In fact, it is coming out that the reason the GOP lost so big across the nation was because of moderates, not the so-called "base".)

Nope, this loss was not Sarah's fault. This was all YOU, Johny boy. It was your choice and your choice alone. So own up to it and come out against these attacks. We all know she's dumber than a doornail when it comes to current events in the world. But your campaign staffers need to stop using it as a blame-sheild to block the career-killing bullets aimed their way.

That would be the real mavericky thing to do, in my opinion.

Election Day Commentary/Prediction: How Sarah Palin Ruined McCain's Chances to Win

Long before candidates were announced for VP, it was a crucial part of McCain's strategy to pick up the pro-Hillary Dems who were miffed by Obama's wins int he primary. As most pundits would tell you, this was a Democrat's year to lose, and McCain had to pick up ground where he could. But instead of picking a smart choice that rose above partisan politics ina Democratic year to lose, McCain chose to shore up his base--a base that would have voted for him in likely any situation--and pick a base VP candidate, Sarah Palin. In the months that have ensued, we have watched McCain's campaign unravel with McCain even admitting, in humor on SNL albeit, that his VP had gone rogue and was gunning for herself.

Prior to August 2008, Sarah Palin was a relative unknown to anyone outside of political circles. She was the governor of a state rich in natural resources, but low in political clout. She was known inside the Republican party for being staunchly-pro-life, but nothing much else. In the months leading up to the conventions, McCain's campaign pulled a page out of the Hillary Clinton playbook, calling Obama elite and un-American. It rang true with white American voters--particularly those white men and women who were miffed at Obama for his "clinging to guns and religion" comment during the primaries.

It was clear that McCain needed to garner this support, but how to do it without alienating the conservative base was the tricky part. It was like asking for a peanut butter jelly sandwich and expecting not to get your hands sticky--it was, in other words, impossible.

So in the same form in which McCain changed his mavericky ways from a maverick independent bending partylines while crossing them to a conservative maverick siding with one of the worst presidents in American history, just to get a fraction of the Christian evangelical support George W. Bush once conquered, McCain decided to abandonned those who admired his independent streak, and hope that the conservative Christian Bible-Belt Americans would get him through.

Thus, he picked the most conservative sheep in wolves' clothing.

McCain aimed high by picking a woman in order to gather support from the Clinton campaigners bitter that another election cycle had gone by without a woman in the White House. But his aim was off and instead of picking a qualified candidate, he picked one who typified white, female tokenism--a cute, energetic, airheaded white woman who was folksy as the day was long.

In the past eight weeks, McCain's campaign has fallen apart, in large part just because of this choice. He has shown his weakness to those who hold the party's pocketbooks by picking an ultra-conservative. He has shown his willingness to forego his independent ways (as independent as a Republican can get and still get elected) on issues such as LGBT rights and reproductive choice just to get a few mad women to vote. He has shown, in otherwords, that he is erratic and cannot be trusted with truly vital choices for this country.

McCain may claim Country First, but he certainly doesn't play with that slogan in mind.

Like a kid in a candy store, instead of sticking by the penny candy that would have lasted him the rest of the election, he went with the shiny lollipop which was bright and colorful for awhile, but has faded away into less than a stick of its former self. In fact, if he wanted to garner the world's attention with his brand new toy, he hould have picked a better toy because the world is watching and they're sorely dissappointed.

True, Palin has energized the base of the new Republican party, but unlike the way in which the Rove machine did it for GWB in 2000 and 2004, this time around, the more liberal Republicans and true fiscal conservatives feel disowned. Talk show after talk show, report after report, shows Republicans turning to Obama in waves of dissappointment. The man they once called Maverick has instead gone bersurk, pandering to the very people who would have voted for him with any other Republican VP candidate. In fact, as a reformer, you'd think he would have picked someone without a questionable ethics record.

Consider this--if McCain had picked a Rudy Guilianni or a Tom Ridge as VP it may not have been as glamorous at first and would have carried its own risks, but it would have been a smart choice to satiate those Republican faithfuls hell-bent on lowering taxes and limiting government. Instead the people that he invigorated, the social conservatives, are the same people that would have turned out for him anyhow because they could never picture themselves voting for a pro-choice candidate, much less one who was Black.

In the end, after tonight, it is likely that McCain will regret this pick for the rest of his life. A VP gone rogue has slashed and burned his last chance at becoming president. And for a Maverick, it is just as important to admit wrong turns as it is to take chances.

Sarah Palin Feminism is Anti-Woman

There are many schools of feminism. There's the school of feminism that believes you vote for a woman no matter what the consequences because she is a woman and we need more women in government. There's the school of feminism that believes you vote for the most qualified person and if that happens to be a woman, even better.

Now there's a new school of feminism, created solely for those saps who didn't believe in feminism before September 2008--Sarah Palin feminism. It's made up of thousands if not millions of women who are recognizing for the first time, or at least admitting for the first time, that sexism exists and that we should support women candidates.

The problem with this last type of feminism? It ignores everything that feminism has been about for centuries in the hopes of electing one woman who could set our gender back decades, if not further.

You may ask yourself, and I'm sure people will ask me, why Sarah Palin is bad for women. Go ahead--ask it. And I'll answer you in a well-thought-out set of talking points that you should take with you to the bank and store away for safe keeping.

1. Sarah Palin is a token woman.
Sarah Palin is the GOP's Vice Presidential candidate for no other reason than the fact that she's a woman and they need pissed off Hillary supporters who may ignore politics to vote for someone who has a vagina. That's plan and simple. To think otherwise is to fool yourself, and I hope you try to avoid that at all costs.

Definition: A token woman is a woman placed in a predominately male setting placed there for the simple fact that she is a woman and a woman is needed for appearances.

By all definitions, Sarah Palin is that woman. I think in the past few weeks, Palin has showed us how vulnerable she truly is as a politician, lacking experience and even the quality of character to do her own interviews, stay on point or talk the issues with any sense of cohesiveness or consistancy. Sarah Palin is to John McCain what Colin Powell was to Bush I--a convinient way to say "I have friends that are Black..." or "I have a woman friend..." without having to justify or discuss their issues which oppose the majority of Blacks or women in society.

In other words, Palin is not there for her brains or her politics as much as she's there because she has, presumably, the physiological parts that comprise a woman--a demographic from which the GOP needs a win.

2. Sarah Palin is not a politician in her own right as much as she is a figure head to be viewed in the male gaze.
For those of you unfamiliar with the male gaze, here's a (very) basic primer: The male gaze is the point of view from which a situation is viewed that casts (or typecasts) a woman as an object, not as the subject of the situation. It was a theory derrived from a study of film. If you still don't get it, this Dinosour Comic explains it much simpler and definitely more understandible.

So how does Palin fit into the Male Gaze? Well, it's actually so blatant that it becomes obscured, like viewing a close up item with binoculars. Sarah Palin has been viewed, from day one, as not an independent woman making decisions on her own and joining the McCain campaign for her own political motivations or beliefs, but rather a figure head for the GOP's attempt to gather women voters and solidify conservative males by creating a "VPILF". Instead of creating a persona for herself, Palin has become an object, rather than a subject. She is viewed as treating McCain as a sugar daddy or even pimp, thus furthering the view.

In other words, Palin is not on the ticket as McCain's equal or even his second in command, but she's there to be a figurehead for women, subjugated to the same myopic view of the world that has existed with men in charge for millenia.

3. Sarah Palin doesn't care about women.
Remember when Kanye said George Bush does not care about black people? He was right. That was the irony of the uproar over it. George Bush's policies have disenfranchized Black America from receiving their piece of the pie from day one of his presidency and even as Governor of Texas. In the same vein, Palin represents not a policy driven perspective intent on helping women achieve equality, but rather one that attempts to both use and abuse her gender for gain when necessary and drop it when convinient. Her policies about everything from rape kits to family planning imagine a world where women do not have choices over what happens to their bodies and once it has happened, have no recourse with which to address the aggressor. Her ideas about "counseling for life," even in the cases of child rape and incest are beyond regrettable. But even in the most stunning of changes, Palin denies that sexism plays a part in our media culture, something even Mom Grace could tell you, she claims the latest hullaballo over the price of her clothing was sexist. (Oddly enough, McCain campaign advisors are playing into the sexism Palin claims surrounds the wardrobe malfunction.) She doesn't believe in comprehensive sex education, even after her daughter falls victim to abstinence only policies.

In other words, if a man had these policies, you'd think of him as anti-feminist and anti-woman, but because she's a woman she's gotten, in large part, a free pass.

Feminism is about supporting women in achieving equality based on the theory that women are equal to men and should be treated alike. Sarah Palin Feminism is the idea that women can be touted around to serve agendas, present a strict set of so-called "family values," but never to stand on their own two feet and declare policies that support fellow women.

I hope for the sake of all the women in the world and those yet to come into existence, that we remember these things when we vote next week and recognize that a vote for the McCain/Palin ticket supports such backwards views of women and feminism.

Best SNL Opening Skit Ever

Well, maybe not, but this was fucking hilarious. Tina Fey should win some sort of Nobel prize or at least a Pulitzer for this shit. (And yes, I know what those awards are for--I'm being ironical.)

Gol' Darn It, Joe

Well, it wasn't the trainwreck I thought it could be. I kind of thought this would happen--only mediocre gaffes and the refusal to answer any of the questions. No giant hyperbole about reading all the newspapers in the world or the Great Depression.

Nevertheless, a tip of the OBYCB hat goes out to Sen. Joe Biden. I'll be damned if he didn't inspire the hell out of me last night. Even DadGrace called from the truck at one point (he drives trucks on the overnight shift) to laugh about a Joe Biden comeback. It was classic. I recalled myself going "oh snap!" more times than I can remember.

Of course the media is saying Palin won the battle against herself just by keeping her cool. While that may be true, keeping cool while regurgitating memorized speeches is not the same thing as participating in a debate. Next time, the GOP better program its robot better.

You can read my blow by blow comments on my twitter feed to the left.

Here are some other observations:

1. SP's bangs really get in her eyes and it bothers me.
2. Don't question Joe Biden on being a single parent. Ever.
   
3. That flag pin of SP's was really distracting. I'm like a cat when it comes to shiny things.
   
4. The colloquialisms were off the chart. It was such an overt attempt by SP to connect to rural America that it was transparent as hell.
   
5. The 90 minutes felt like 30 tops.
   
6. My favorite part of the whole night was JB's speech about how McCain isn't a maverick when it matters. Pure brilliance.
7. I kept picturing Jenny From the Block Granholm practicing with JB.
   
8. It's a sign of weakness not to admit any weaknesses. It's a sign of strength to admit to your shortcomings.
   

You can read the transcript here. But really, all you need to read is this from JB in response to SP's mentioning of the term "maverick" for the five-millionth time:

Look, the maverick -- let's talk about the maverick John McCain is. And, again, I love him. He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives.

He voted four out of five times for George Bush's budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he's got there.

He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against -- he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.

He's not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.

He's not been a maverick on the war. He's not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.

Can we send -- can we get Mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can't -- we can't make it. How are we going to heat the -- heat the house this winter?

He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.

Maverick he is not, indeed great Jedi Master JB.

Eat 'em Up Joe: It's Showtime for Palin and Biden

The birds are singing, the sky is blue, the air is crisp and the stage is set for the biggest VP debate in history. Sarah Palin has just arisen to a new day and is reading EVERY NEWSPAPER IN THE WORLD to prepare for this debate. (She might want to bone up on some SCOTUS decisions while she's at it.)

I have the "Opening Night" song from the Producers stuck in my head. It's just that kind of furry that surrounds what is ordinarily the least watched of all debates. Get your Moosehead beer ready for the Sarah Palin drinking game and let's begin!

For those of you who want to know my thoughts on the Palin-Biden debate, you can follow me LIVE over at twitter at http://twitter.com/kmcsaks. I'm working on putting that feed on here as well.

Is it Thursday at 9 p.m. yet?

The answer, sadly, is no. (Unless you're reading this on Thursday at 9 p.m. In which case, the answer is that when I wrote this the answer was no. So take that.) I have to admit that which needs no admission--I'm pumped about the Biden-Palin debate. I think John is too, if you look at that picture above.

I could sum up all of the crazy menutiae that has come out of the mouth of Sarah Palin lately, but instead, I'll let my good friend at The Palin Effect do so for you. She's much better at capturing it anyhow.

TGIT!

And we have our reason...

With all the gaffes Sarah Palin has been making on the campaign trail (Great Depression, anyone? How about 'Stump the Candidate'?), it's no wonder that the McCain campaign wants to shut her up. So when yesterday's great announcement about a campaign suspension came about, it was discovered very quickly what the motive may have truly been:

McCain supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham tells CNN the McCain campaign is proposing to the Presidential Debate Commission and the Obama camp that if there's no bailout deal by Friday, the first presidential debate should take the place of the VP debate, currently scheduled for next Thursday, October 2 in St. Louis.

There you have it folks. Instead of finding a qualified candidate who can actually talk about the issues, McCain has decided to find something in a skirt to appease still-angry Clinton supporters without actually making a true difference to women. (The women who fall for this should have their vagina cards revoked, by the way.)

How convenient.

What's on deck for today?

Yesterday was just nuts. Clay Aiken came out of the closet. Laura Bush said Sarah Palin doesn't have sufficient foreign policy experience (you know, like her husband had). And John McCain out did them all by suspending his campaign to take care of his friends in big business.

What a day. We'll miss you September 24, 2008.

The Unraveling of The Wall: When Schools Teach God

I am all for religious freedom. However, I think that there should be boundaries. As the very wise Brian Vander Ark (former lead singer of the Verve Pipe and now solo artist) said on his last album "I believe in God there is no debate--but I believe in separation between church and state." So any responses to this that try and peg me as anti-God or anti-religion best to just check themselves at the door.

I have to say though, that when it comes to public schools, religion should be left at the door...if not off the property entirely.

I grew up in an era that was largely free of the now-almost-rabid reach of evangelical Christians. It was only towards the end of my free public school education that I started seeing religious groups at school. It started off with an after-school bible study which turned into a prayer group which then led to more organizations like it. It was sad really, because how do you explain to young impressionable teenagers that religion doesn't belong in schools if they're right there?

But since I've moved on to college, then law school and finally the workforce, I look back and wonder how people see the line anymore as it is so blurred. In fact, it's down right muddy.

I don't believe there should be prayer in schools. But honestly, that's not my main concern. My main concern is when things like logic and science are thrown out the window at the whim of religious zealots. For example, many evangelicals believe that evolution did not happen. Instead of doing what other parents would do when they want an additional subject taught in schools, which is to teach their children that in appropriate forum such as home or church, they are insisting that public schools teach some form of creationism--now Orwellianly called Intelligent Design. Sarah Palin and John McCain believe in this. Instead of teaching kids the basics of how the world has evolved, teachers are finding themselves having to name some omniprecent being as the "designer" of it all. This isn't right.

To top it off, we've taken basic health information and politicized it to the point where it has become a controversy to teach basic functions in school. Comprehensive sex education is not only a liberal idea--it's a good idea. I know that had I not been told certain things in sex ed (however scant that sex ed was), I would have had total disinformation about everything from periods to condoms and pregnancy to STIs. Today's youth are finding out about sex from television--something that is bound to happen, but should not be the soul source of a child's sexual revolution. Although I thank Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" video for my own sexual revolution, I was primed with information about the basics long before I saw Helena Christensen parade across my television screen. Today's youth don't have that right to knowledge and information--instead it's been turned into a luxury for those who have parents unafraid enough to talk to their kids about sex.

The fact of the matter is that the whole point of a free public education was to keep religious and moral ideas out of our children's heads while learning the basic information needed to become a contributing citizen. Instead, religion--normally a good thing--is infecting our schools and taking over the curriculum.

The sad part is that the vast majority of Americans are stepping aside and letting this happen. Electing someone like John McCain as president and Sarah Palin as vice president will only further such public dis-education. Palin is a big evangelical who believes in teaching creationism as the sole source of our natural history to our youth. Though John McCain has never put forth a pro-creationism standpoint, he has done nothing to even downplay Palin's involvement in such ideas. (Really, he can't if he wants to capture the evangelical vote that was so crucial in electing GWB.) John McCain doesn't want to teach kids comprehensive age-appropriate sex education--in fact he misrepresents what the concept means just to garner a few more scared white people votes. McCain has often been a supporter of abstinence only sex education--something that obviously doesn't work.

Obama supports comprehensive sex education--something McCain even admits (though he lies about what it means). Obama and Biden are realists when it comes to education and science. For a refreshing first in a long time, they believe that it should not be imposed in schools.

If and when I have children one day, I'd like to send them to a school where they're given scientific information in science and health class. I just hope that school still exists then.

Let's Play Stump the Candidate...With Your Host, Sarah Palin

If only Sarah would stop giving me things to talk about....

Today, in Michigan no less, Ms. Palin was on the stump. When she was questioned by a participant in a town hall meeting about her experience with foreign policy matters, here's what her highness said:

"I am prepared."

Ah, yes. The good ol' "I am prepared" experience. I had that when I ran for VP too...of my 1L law school class.

Palin went on to say:

"I have that confidence. I have that readiness. And if you want specifics with specific policies or countries, you can go ahead and ask me. You can play 'stump the candidate' if you want to. But we are ready to serve."

Can we really, Sarah? Can we really play Stump the Candidate? Horray! I'll get out my Trivial Pursuit cards and we can all play a round. Or wait, do you use the Ouija board? My bad.

What a dumbass move. No wonder the Maverick McCain stepped in to try and correct her gaffe. There's no correcting that.

Just an FYI, Sarah--knowing the president of Zimbabwe isn't a good test of how you'll do as VP. As my law professors taught me, regurgitating facts isn't going to make your point.

I Can't Help It

I want to be done with these Sarah Palin posts. She kind of drives me nuts. But at the same time, she provides so much food for blog thought.

Most recently Mr. SG sent me a link to Wikileaks where they claim to have hacked into Palin's personal e-mail account at yahoo (how professional) where she has been rumored to conduct official business so as to avoid transperancy laws (how convinent).

The above is a screen shot from her e-mail.

Some of this has been confirmed...I'd like to know more. I'm waiting for a post at The Palin Effect.

UPDATE: 4:33 p.m.--News outlets and other more reputable sources are starting to pick this story up.

A brilliant Sarah Palin page

Whoever did this is a brilliant person. Satan's Concubine is a blog dedicated to loving (in the Stephen Colbert sense of the term) Sarah Palin. And boy is it funny as hell.

Some highlights:

• A post entitled "Experience? What do you call Miss Wassila?"
• A list of topics that are off limits, including: facts, truth, reality, Todd's Questionable Sexuality, and The Children
• Many pictures of Sarah with the classic librarian look.
  

Just brilliant. You deserve a slow hand-clap for that.

Scary Palin

I've been busier than a whore on the eve of the Republican Convention today, so I apologize for the lack of posts. But here's a post that delivers some interesting information. Alternet has done a piece about the nine (don't ask me why nine) most disturbing beliefs of Sarah Palin.

Check it out here.

And is anyone else a bit weirded out that we're talking more about this chick than the issues or the actual candidates? I'm hoping this fades some over the next week. Both me and DadGrace have had enough Palinpalooza.

How Convinient: Republican Media Whores Allow Sexism as an Excuse for Palin, not Clinton

In this brilliant clip from yesterday's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," the Republican media machine comes under fire for being biased when it comes to who can (cough*saraH palin*cough) and cannot (cough*hillary clinton*cough) claim sexism.



This clip just highlights what I've been saying since McCain announced Palin as his pick for VP: The pick is nothing more than a feeble attempt by a flailing politician to placate women who were pissed that Hillary didn't make it. Otherwise, why would it be okay to invoke the term "sexism" or the term "bias" now when it clearly wasn't before?

Cut the games, Republicans. Just cut them right down the middle. I'll provide the scissors.