Ok, it's 7:34am in the morning, I'm watching analysis of the debate, and I CANNOT STAND IT ANY LONGER. My fingers are literally itching to blog. Correction, my entire body is itching with irritation and disbelief.
WERE THEY WATCHING THE SAME DEBATE????
All I'm hearing is that Sarah Palin did a "great job", sounded "articulate", "charismatic", and that she made a "compelling case".
I have to tell you, me, Hubby, and my Dad, spent the entire, excrutiating 90 minutes at turns laughing at her complete ineptitude, yelling at the tv because of her inaccuracies and lies (wrong name of the commander in Iraq, saying Obama voted for tax increases 94 times), and cringing at her dumbed-down, down-home style.
We were absolutely astonished when the media came on for "analysis" thereafter and told us that she did a good job. Well yeah, if your expectation going in was that she was going to have the chops of the leader of the high school debate team. Even then, I'm not sure my expectations would have been exceeded; I've heard 17 year olds express themselves more eloquently.
Yes, she had some actual information on her side this time. She didn't freeze and say "I'll have to get back to you on that" (although at least then she could have taken the time to find some facts vs. spitting out mistruths). Yet the reality was she sounded like a wind-up doll who had been programmed for several weeks with "data", who let loose at warp-speed with a litany of somewhat related data in an inarticulate, disconnected set of sentences, that demonstrated she wasn't thinking only repeating parrot-fashion, and that she really didn't understand anything beyond the surface-level of what she was saying.
Unfortunately, in this country, 'debates' don't include any actual follow-up by the moderater to the candidates responses, which explains how Palin managed to get away with not answering the question she was asked (by ABC New's count) an astounding 12 times. (BTW, the same analysis of Biden's performance came up with 6x for him). Worse, if the question wasn't something she was 'programmed' for, she simply picked a question she was programmed for and answered that instead - in most cases a completely different topic!
Now, I know that politicians by nature have a tendency to re-frame the question in such a way that enables them to stay "on message" but again, I need to repeat this: in those 12 times she didn't answer the question, almost every time her answer had nothing to do with the topic!
She still couldn't defend the completely true charges by Biden that McCain had voted for wall-street de-regulation consistently, that his health plan would actually be a net tax-increase and level-of-care decrease for the majority of Americans, and that his tax plan includes billions of dollars for oil companies who have already made $600 billion in profits over the last 6 years.
Meanwhile, all she could manage to scratch back was the usual, tired-old Republican lines: Obama will raise taxes (untrue) and that Obama will lead us to defeat in Iraq (no, he has an actual plan not a blank check book).
I am beyond astonished, beyond incredulous, just beyond understanding how anyone in their right mind could even consider this person qualified to be second-in-line to the presidency. I wouldn't put her 2nd-in-line to make my eggs at Dennys.
There have been many instances of my life here in the U.S. where I have had to just accept that mind-sets out here are just different to those in my home country, where I have had to dig down to understand why people feel or believe the way they do even if I can't "get there" myself. It hasn't always been easy but I have been willing to do it. But this time, if McCain/Palin get into the White House, I have to say that I'll officially give up trying to understand this country because it's quite clear that it's beyond understanding.
I'm sorry if this sounds harsh. I used to like McCain - I really did. I didn't agree with him on most things but I thought he was straight up, someone who did what he thought was right, and played an honest game. But since he won the Republican nomination and picked Palin, I've lost all respect for him. Palin's pick was political maneuvering at it's worst: an attempt to win back the press with a controversial pick, an insulting wink at women who voted for Clinton, and back to the old, failed philosphy that people should (as they did with Bush) pick someone who voters felt they could have 'a beer with' (or in this case, hang-out at the hockey game with) vs. someone who may just be a tad more intelligent than us, to lead the most powerful nation in the world.
It has nothing to do with "Country First" and everything to do with "politics first". I'll be embarassed for America if this ticket gets to the White House. Not because of their politics but because of her ineptitude and what it says about how McCain has run his campaign.
Yes, I'm angry and bitter. I think this country, at it's heart, really is better than this.
2 comments:
Couldn't have said it better myself. Only I think if McCain wins the election, it's not going to be simply embarrassing, we're going to be plunged into the depths of hell. And if we vote him into office, we fucking deserve it.
Well, not those of us who WON'T vote for him - we won't deserve it. I wish I had the time to head to battleground states to help with Obama's campaign. The reality is I don't have the vacation or the physical wherewithal right now, to make a meaningful difference. And living in democratic CA there's not a whole lot you can do to affect the outcome. Of course, I did donate some $$ to the campaign, so that's something.
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