Yolanda,
I have one piece of advice. Do not underestimate Sarah Palin. She is about to give John McCain the White House.
Within 24 hours of Palin being named by McCain as the VP candidate I joined a Facebook group called "Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton." It is a group of women offended by the idea that Palin's candidacy could be used as a cynical identity politics ploy to get HRC voters. But tonight I realized something much scarier: Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton, she is much worse.
Palin is more ruthless, more eloquent, more audaciously dishonest, more single mindedly ambitious, more likeable, and eminently more electable than Hillary Clinton has ever dreamed of being. I am scared. America is loving this woman. I predict a 5 point jump in the polls after her speech tonight.
The most important statistic two months before an election is not the number who like or dislike a candidate; it is the number of people who do not yet have an opinion. We call this the "potential for learning." A savvy campaigner knows that if many people still haven't formed an opinion then you have plenty of room to teach the public about yourself on your own terms. This was the problem with HRC and part of why I claimed she was unelectable. Everyone had an opinion about Hillary: good or bad, there was no learning potential, people had their minds made up. With Sarah the game is different. No one had any opinion, how could they? Now the GOP has two months to tell us anything they want about her and we have little choice but to listen. Tonight's speech was round 1 and Palin delivered a knock-out.
Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton. Hillary put her own dreams on hold for decades to stand by her man and pursue the dreams of her husband. Then she watched as he squandered much of her potential political capital this season. Palin has allowed nothing to stand in the way of her meteoric political rise: not a pregnant, unmarried teen daughter; not a son leaving for war; not a special needs infant still in arms. Sarah Palin is a frightening and potent political mix. Her uterus is just part of the terrain of her politics. Her children are evidence of her pro-life agenda and small town values. She shameless stands next to her pregnant teen daughter and the baby-daddy while proclaiming herself the future guardian of our children. No thanks Sarah, I would rather not have you making policy for my daughter.
Sarah is no member of the sisterhood of traveling, sweet-potato inspired, pantsuits. She is a pencil skirt wearing tough girl who makes jokes about being a pit bull in lipstick. She boldly asserts that her record as the mayor of a tiny town is relevant experience for the US presidency. She correctly pronounces Iran, which is something our current president cannot do. She laughs at the national media and lets them know she is not interested in cuddling up with them. hell no, Sarah can field dress a moose, she will not need to have Chris Matthews' approval. She makes fun of Barack Obama with an audaciousness and ugliness that Hillary tried to summon, but never quite managed to pull off with as much charm and self-deprecation as Sarah did tonight. Trust that Sarah Palin is not going to cry about the mean things the pundits say about her.
And I have to say it Yolanda, Sarah speaks with a kind of fiery self-assurance that is very familiar to me. It is the hard, bright blindness of righteousness that I so often see in evangelical Christian political leaders. There is something remarkable and frightening about truly believing that you are marked by God to do what you want to do. It makes you impervious to criticism and unlikely to experience self-doubt.
This woman will not stumble. If she has an ounce of breath in her body she is going to try and drag that old man across the finish line.
Melissa
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15 comments:
Right on the mark! Shrewd choice for the conservative base, and it will be a long 2 months.
Also, I felt very early on that she also was selected to provide McCain with a door to drilling in ANWR. Her only real policy comments were in this area and people even had signs ahead of time - all calculated! Combine that with T. Boone Pickens...
After Obama went out of his way to show kindness in response to her scandals, I was very turned off by her smugness and self-righteousness.
i have to agree with you .iam a barack obama supporter but theirs
somthing about this woman. i found my self liking her. it was her boldness to go after obama her being unafraid to speak her mind. not being afraid to go after what she wants even thou shes a mother of 4 kids.
She came hard! Rudy came hard! Man, what is Mccain going to do on Thursday. They attack and attack BO. I am scared! It is going to be a up hill fight for this one. The Democrats have to come back hard. Get ready for the debates! I had five dollars on that Rudy was going to mention 911! I am fie dollars richer! And another thing, if I hear one more time about John Mccain and the war, man I am going to scream!
Certainly we all agree that the RNC thus far has been a litany of the atrocities suffered by John McCain in order to distract away from his history of poor choices. People can continue to cheer for the idealization of a man who served his country with honor, but would now have that same country lose its honor by utilizing torture. They would also have you believe that we can win the war in Iraq and fault Barack Obama for not holding out for victory, despite the fact that millions of Americans are suffering as a result -- and I don't just mean our valiant soldiers. The millions of dollars that are being squandered in this war are harming Americans right here at home, but the Republicans don't want to draw attention to that. That is why they don't touch the economy or any issues of real substance. They simply mock those that call them out on their antiquated ideas & policies by claiming that they (Obama/Biden) are not experienced or 'common' enough to truly understand what this country needs.
So, the Republicans tell you what the country needs, an old man who is mired in the ways of the past and a calculating young woman who will do anything to gain more power and attention for herself, even when it means accepting a nomination for which she is not qualified.
As John Kerry mentioned at the DNC, no party has a monopoly on the flag or ideals of the United States of America. It is expected that Republicans will hail them (McCain/Palin) as heroes and keepers of the sacred flame. Those of us with a clear, rational mind need not be overwhelmed by that show of solidarity. We know that evil exists and that many of its proponents blindly vote Republican.
Take heart, Jesus overcame the world in the least likely of ways -- by His death. His death was hailed as a victory by those who hated Him. But we know that not everything that is billed as a victory is such (i.e. Mission Accomplished). We know how this story ends, though it it is yet unfinished.
Similarly, the story of the 2008 election is not yet finished, but we can have the faith to see what is not seen -- after all, that is the very definition of faith.
Believe that we can change this country, just as we, ourselves, will one day be changed.
Melissa:
I hope that you are wrong, but I share your concerns. Roland Martin put it on the money in the reflections afterwards - the Obama campaign is going to have to come at her, and come at her hard. (This is where Hillary will need to step up and do some of the attacking to insulate Obama from the sexism critique.) Then they are going to have to back off and stick with McCain, so as not to give her too much additional spotlight.
I have been rehashing recently Bill Maher's sardonic insight that the American people are too dumb to be governed; in a lot of ways, he's clearly right. I do think that most of the content of her speech was pretty transparent though, and clearly just a sign of old-school Republican politics. Supposedly, we are in a different age now; supposedly, there is a greater proportion of people looking for something different. We're just going to have to hope and pray that this is, indeed, the case. We have to believe that it is...at least I do.
I considered her on Friday a one-dimensional scheme but until I heard about the teenage daughter being pregnant with the possibility of understanding the mother was not the parent of the baby boy, Trig, I started to understand something different that did appeal. It was that small town temerity that, yes, small town and middle America understands and that is how to keep secrets and be prideful of it. I come from a duality of outskirts and a medium-sized American city that I always considered a town and still do.
I had an extended family member that went away to boarding school and came back with a baby and no one understood how she pulled it off. They were a known family and yet, people to this day live by the said story and not what we really know of the scandal. That is how small towns work.
So when I learned of the pregnancy, I have to admit, it connected to that type of loyalty you learn in those situations. Blacks used to live by that same code when girls got pregnant up North and was sent down South to have their babies and have the Southern relative raise it so the girl could have a second chance as a "normal" life. The child would be called her cousin and people knew but it was acceptable.
I don't know what a second pregnancy however could tell but a desperation on the part of the teen but the family and town support to keep the secret is very close to home in how people kept taht secret for more people many more times before and Sarah Palin's family is not special. This may be scary but it is quite normal of how people "pull" together to keep secrets.
I hate the shame of family secrets but I feel for teenage girls because they are so rebellious and dumb. I just had to check some teens on the train yesterday morning while other adults were too afraid to say anything. They are so grown and families are trying to deal with it while some, especially here in the metropolis are allowing young people to do whatever. I could see how maintaining the secret of her previous young age being pregnant would have been too much of a scandal for a politician but no different than any of the family dealing with fast girls that think they are invincible.
That touched me even as much as I hate, hate, hate secrets that family keep. The Black Community is dying from the dysfunction but for Whites, it is part of their kryptonite. They are systemized differently and their tenets work for them in ways they simply don't work for us. For us it is a shame that does not really work to push the entire unit forward like they use their secrets too. For us, it works as toxic shame.
And when it comes down to her lack of experience, it is part of the small town value system to protect her. It is very intricate that Buchanan keeps calling her a "gal" instead of woman. People will protect a gal. People hate "women". And as long as he keeps defending her as a "gal" it seems the semantic coding that she is their baby --- a prideful extension of them.
Those are two things I noticed that over the weekend seem to override the rationale McCain's foxy behavior. The pregnancy and possible pregnancies and secrets signal to those in America that value what she did, they see it as sacrifice and know they would have wanted to be able to get away with it themselves if they could pull it off. People know that the baby is not hers and yet they don't see it as a lie. They see it as a sacrifice for the daughter. That is how it is measured and it tells of the determination of a woman to maintain her family's system. The lie is honorable in small towns and middle America. It's not weird. It's a way of life and we used to be a part of the same methodology of doing when our family units (Blacks) were closer and more connected.
And the other thing I think that pushes her over is the Mrs. Pritchard effect. She is a gal and not a woman in the eyes of so many. With John McCain picking someone who could do something so intrinsic in admit to carry a baby that is not hers, it is sends a message of a soldier. She, to him and so many, she is old-school honorability.
Liberals don't measure soldiering and sacrifice as assets. Their base is not comprised of old-school value ethics so it would not matter as much. It's about what George Lakoff has been talking about for years of framing.
I see the appeal because I come from a small place and I get it. And it did not surface initially but just like it would if someone found out about the baby of so-and-so's scheme where we came from. We would realize that it's not that serious of a lie like killing someone or stealing or whatever that too would be kept quiet. It's a way of life.
So for all those people who grew up small town, they will identify with this "gal" no matter what ever else. Like you said, she is carrying her man on her back and that is what small town families do. We used to do it too.
It's not so much now that Sarah Palin is doing anything. She already did it and I did not see it Friday but I see it now. It is about duty-served and at her young age, in contrast to the very ambitious Obama(s), it appeals. The youth of her to Obama is a contrast in types of sacrifice that small towns can process through interpretation. For her, it symbolises not a selfishness but a selflessness. That is something a liberal won't understand.
And as for her inexperience (and she will not be ready on Day 1 if John McCain dies on during inauguration ceremonies or even November 5th). Obama has a team constructed from the get that know more than him about every area. I believe at this point that is what they are doing for her and for her, it is just going to be intensely rigorous. If worse comes to worse, it will be the team running the government for however long if McCain dies. The country will not stop and nothing will fall apart. It will be similar to Obama's presidency but he will just have been better prepared since he has been planning to run since arriving to Washington and setting up his networks. She, she does not have that but will have an already intact machine coming together for her at late notice.
This is really smart of McCain to give the Party this gift. He is walking in a minefield wagering his imminent death to deliver the goods to those of his interest. He is also paying Barack back for playing politics with him before this election and during.
No matter that liberal and progressive women despise what she stands for on women's rights, we understand sacrifice to get ahead. She is a dichotomy of two worlds. That was not understood on Friday. Amazing what a pregnancy (2 pregnancies scandalized) can teach about temerity and ambition. My mentee was shocked how I recoiled when I found out about the pregnancies because it added more dimension that speaks volumes. She is equally as ambitious as Obama but from a different route of travel. McCain is matching his ambition to hers and is making the people slowly see it and judge which one is more noble...a dreamer or a (2) soldier(s).
Don't hate. This is competition matched now. That is what politics is about. It's just not about policy and this campaign has been about ideology all year long. This is more of the same. It is a fight for a way of life.
Get a hold of yourselves people! What's wrong with you? Are you so fickle that every noise in the dark would make you jump? Jeez already!!
As uppitynegress said, the battle is now about to be joined; it will be fully joined after McBush says his piece.
Therefore, as the saying goes whenever there's close combat: "Hold your fire! Shoot only when you see the whites of their eyes!"
We ain't seen their whites yet, only the tips of the icebergs.
I close with this ayat from the Q'ran: Remember Satan made their (sinful) acts seem alluring to them, and said: "No one among men can overcome you this day, while I am near to you": But when the two forces came in sight of each other, he turned on his heels, and said: "Lo! I am clear of you; lo! I see what ye see not; Lo! I fear Allah: for Allah is strict in punishment." (Sura 8:48)
Yes! We can!
ADDENDUM:
Sarah Palin described herself as a pitbull with lipstick. What Th?
I hope she realizes that when a pitbull attacks a dignified human, the pitbull always gets put away in the end, if not before.
Let's be clear. The Republicans came nasty. They came lying. They came full of hate and animosity. They came not about the issues that affect ALL Americans or really even most Americans. NOTHING WAS SAID ABOUT THE MORTGAGE CRISIS. NOTHING SUBSTANTIVE WAS SAID ABOUT REVITALIZING PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THIS COUNTRY. NOTHING WAS SAID ABOUT HEALTHCARE. They came ready to sacrifice any- and everything just to win. They came doing business as usual. This is nothing new. There is nothing admirable about these politics or those who resort to these politics. And be clear McCain-Palin and their die-hard supporters know exactly what they are doing. What scares me is that the media is being ridiculous silent with regard to the level of disorganization of the Republican convention, the lack of substance of the critiques of Obama and the Democrats, and the downright hypocrisy of the Republicans and conservative right and the fact that they are not being called on it by anyone in the mainstream press (or even PBS). Liberal media, indeed! Though we have ample reason to be afraid, we should not let this stop us and the movement for change in this country. The Republicans just played their card. It is the only card they have. It is the only card that they have ever had. Now, people must decide. And the decision is clear to me.
I AM VOTING FOR BARACK OBAMA AND JOSEPH BIDEN IN NOVEMBER!
Folks, there is a reason to be frightened, but no cause to lose hope. Sarah Palin _is_ the "real deal" -- that is, she is a real Republican. She is ruthless, disingenuous, and inspired by bad policies. To my mind, ultimately that is a strike against her. And it is not sustainable.
Given her speech last night, we need to hold on to Obama's appeal for "change" and "hope" more than ever.
One last thing. If she takes that mean tone to the general election, it will backfire. The "faithful" might yelp in applause at sinister snipes at Obama, but the general electorate will be more suspect. Well, let's hope.
For all the obvious Harriet Myers and Clarence Thomas comparisons, I came away from last night's speech certain that the most apt comparison for her is George W. Bush, except she's clearly sharper, and I think, even more mean-spirited.
She's ambitious and hugely confident in her wrong-headed, overly simplistic, vaguely faith-informed ideology.
With her speech last night, it's clear that the Rs are marking a path that is the antithesis of what Sen. Obama has made his campaign about.
At the very least, the true independents who are at stake will have a clear choice.
Run away to Canada? I already did because I saw the
road Bush was leading us down. I gave a convocation
speech at Plymouth State U. in NH 7 days before 9/11 saying how the world saw the U.S. not totally with love. Sarah can read lies beautifully. Can she
spin them in a debate with Biden and get away with it? She is a quick study but you can't make one trip abroad to visit Alaskan Guardsmen in Kuwait into a foreign policy wonkship. The whole world is watch-ing and shaking the global head in disbelief. Do we have to be pit bulls to make it to the big screen?
Dolores Sandoval, Ph.D., Pres. & founder of the DaCosta-Angelique Institute - Canada's 1st Black
Think Tank & Prof. Emerita, U. of VT, former Democratic cand. U. S. Hse from VT '88 & '90.
Brilliant post.
Brilliant.
Every time I read what you and Dr. Pierce I am so damn proud to be a black woman.
You two are dangerous!
Thank God for you.
That said, I'm not scared -- I still think Obama's going to take the Oval Office. It's that hope he gave me -- I just can't surrender it.
Still, I will do as you say -- I will not underestimate her. Based on your commentary, it seems as though Palin should be the woman running for President on the Republican ticket. She's got all the charisma, attractive controversy (which makes her a popular media feature), and conservatism that McCain *does not*.
Lastly, Dr. Harris-Lacewell wrote: "If she has an ounce of breath in her body she is going to try and drag that old man across the finish line."
ok.
Hilarious.
I know you're not foolin' -- but hilarious statement.
Melissa... you got jokes:)
Melissa, first I just have to say I love you. lol!
But to the meat of this post. I think you are correct in much of what you say. But judging from the way she has been whisked away back to Alaska, I don't think she will be able to carry McCain over the finish line. He has to do that for himself. And I don't think he can.
Her job is to inflame and highlight the polarities in our country. To be sure, racial innuendo will come to the fore as well. It depresses me beyond belief. Here I thought we were moving to some other, higher ideological plane in this country and it turns out that all you have to do is take one pretty lady from a small town, with strong views, and a craven-ness that makes you fear, admire, and loathe her all at the same time, and the spigot explodes.
I'll reserve my judgment, but something inside me says the American people aren't that stupid. This woman is George Bush in a skirt. Make no mistake.
haha don't give up your day job... you were all WAAAY off.
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