So.....I've not had time to digest it all - any opinions already formed?

She's articulate with a tele-prompter, preparation time and a host of speech writers, but when do we get to see Sarah Unscripted?

I think we did see her unscripted. Her snarling relish said it all for me.

Perhaps this is a minor issue because poetical and it's odd for me to be defending Obama, whose own speech I just lambasted on a nearby thread (I'm a democratic socialist, à la George Orwell). But why this obsession with Obama's "clouds of rhetoric" (that's rhetoric on my part; I know the answer)? To craft one's words and to deliver them with passion used to be hallmarks of care and sincerity. Now they indicate their opposites.

What we heard last night was close to fin de siècle Vienna's politics "in a sharper key," falling just short of a call to violence. (And, no, I'm not approaching a Hitler comparison. I won't destroy my argument that way.)



[This message has been edited by Mike Slippkauskas (edited September 04, 2008).]

What I heard was a call to class warfare. Obama didn't do that, McCain never has, Biden hasn't. But it's all Palin has to offer. And it can destroy any real discussion of issues - and what's left of our national dignity and direction - unless we get beyond it.

Yes, I think the accusation is going to be: "If you don't like her, you're a snob".

That's a really cynical defence and I'm terrified it will work.

Because the whole world will be affected by her if the heartbeat fails, I looked for depth. I didn't find any. I found smugness and brashness and not a little conceit.

I think Australia has seen her type before. Our Pauline Hanson was very similar.

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited September 04, 2008).]

She was arrogant. And the belittling of "community organizer" troubles me in the context of Palin vs Obama.

At the moment, Microsoft spellcheck recognizes Obama, but not Palin. Let's hope that doesn't change.

RM

The if you don't like her/him you're a snob thing worked with George Bush. All those refrains about lowered expectations during the debates. Of course, in Bush's case it was an out-and-out lie. The tiny germ of sincerity here makes this even more frightening.

All that crap about community service vs governorship--the subtext being one community is better (and more "American") than another.

And all that crap about always having been proud to be an American. No matter what silly or grievous shit your country has done, it's great. After all, it's a mark of a lack of patriotism to confess and regret socio-historical blunders. The genocide of the American Indians, hey, I'm proud of it! The internment of Japanese during WWII, good for us!

Thank God I'll be traveling for 5 weeks, far away from television's terrifyingly high-stakes advertising wars.

Nemo

[This message has been edited by R. Nemo Hill (edited September 04, 2008).]

While everyone in the greater community is busy discussing Palin, US troops crossed into Pakistan today on ground assult raids that destabilize the new government, and Cheney is busier than ever setting up Tiblisi for more Russian violence by maintaining a discernible presence that provokes Putin. Even as we speak, Cheney is on his way to Georgia to stir up trouble there.

It's scary, but it is not Palin that scares me. Not yet.

Michael's observation is quite chilling. If all the class antagonism that we've managed in the US--even throughout the 2004 election--is funneled to an overt rallying call for class warfare...well...

I think Michael's observation is also quite accurate.

And I envy Nemo his well-timed trip.

Kudos to the T.V. producers who picked out five or so brown-skinned faces in the crowd. But the more panoramic shots of the hall told rather a different story.

"Class warfare"? Bollocks. I'm all in favor of class warfare--strikes and movements for social justice and expropriating capitalists and stuff like that. The Republicans, to the extent they are "class warriors", are warriors for the capitalist class (not that the Democrats are terribly different in the fundamentals).

Well...there is a social aspect to class warfare that blurs the economnic lines. It is a worse bag of fish entirely, and it's the kind I thing we're looking down the barrel of. Either way, class warfare becomes a civil war with no north or south. Remember, Rudy was the mayor of NYC. Those blurred lines are a killer.

I could just taste her power-lust with every sarcastic, shrill word. She's definitely a divider - like W. but worse. There is something very, very sinister about this woman. I would like to say more about the speech which I just re-listened to via podcast, but will have to come back to this. She described herself as a pit bull with lipstick! Did you hear that?!

It was a bunch of white, red-neck, gun-lovin', oil-guzzlin', pitbulls, mostly over 50. That's my best stereotype for the crowd I saw.

This factoid could make it into the appendix of a new edition of Freud's Psychopathology of Everyday Life: Rudy Giuliani snapped, foamed and grimaced so long in his keynote that he preempted the short biographical film meant to introduce Governor Palin to America.

Well thank The Lord that it wasn't a Democrat that described her that way.

I love that McCain has been foaming at the mouth demanding that no one dare mention her family again - and then half the speech is devoted to, you guessed it, her family.

But we can't talk about them. Families are off limits. Sacred. Beyond reproach.

I must be the only one who remembers the not-so-distant past when the Almighty-Appointed Defender of Family Sanctity, John McCain, asked the infamous "Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly" question and the answer he so gleefully supplied the entire GOP gathered together to hear his speech was - "Janet Reno is her father."

Oh well, I guess if he can change his mind on earmarks, oil drilling, health care, the value of experience, the press, and the importance of being consistant he can also change his mind on family, too.

Funny how poorly the shoe always fits when it's your own foot that's suddenly and uncomfortably the other one.



[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited September 04, 2008).]

It appears the GOP has decided its only chance is to wrap itself in the flag and cry, "It's us real folks or those people, so which are ya?" I guess we're about to find out.

Easy enough for you to be so casual about it, Roy - you don't have to live here, nor do you have to live with the knowledge that nobody ever lost an election by appealing to the worst instincts of America, by dumbing down an election. We should be discussing foreign and economic policy, health care, long term energy independence, environmental concerns, dealing with China and Russia - instead, the Republicans want to make it about pose and personality, and good ol' swaggering George will be replaced by feisty Sarah, as John McCain turns his back on every thoughtful position he's held in the past.

Ron Reagan (son of former President Reagan), remarking on Sarah Palin's GOP acceptance speech: "It must be said that this was a catolog of dishonesty."

I try and stay out of these US political discussions, Michael because I'm just an outside observer. McCain will no doubt address some substantive issues tonight after the Palin criticism. Even though Obama looks like the man with the plan, will Americans elect a black president? A black man running against a war hero? This certainly is going to be interesting! You're right, I'm glad my health insurance isn't riding on the outcome. http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/wink.gif

Can someone please explain to me how POW translates into war hero?

I'm not trying to be unpatriotic or demeaning or detracting or whatever else people get accused of being when they ask the question. I just really want to know.

Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart.

I just read that Obama has raised nearly $10M since last night. That's a healthy response on the part of the sane. Don't write Americans off just yet.

My father (WWII) had all those things - several of then, if fact. He was a mailman. My oldest son's father (VietNam) had all of those things and then some - he was an alcoholic.

Can I now begin referring to both of them as war heroes?

I mean, my dad was - kinda - to us, anyhow. He worked hard, he didn't complain and he never cheated on my mother or hit us very hard unless we really deserved it. But I don't think he ever thought of himself as a "war hero." He was a guy who enlisted, served his time, got wounded, did some extra things and got some medals. I've still got 'em someplace. He didn't talk about them very much. In fact, he only talked about them if we pestered him because we had some school project. Otherwise he kept them in a box in the closet along with some pennies from the Phillipines and a bunch of fading postcards from his mother. It was what he was at one time - but then he got over it and did something different - and continued to prove his worth.


My baby-daddy, tho, he was another story. His medals embarassed the heck outa him. He said "Getting shot or injured is easy - any fool can do it. The really good soldiers, they managed to avoid it whenever possible."

So much for the Purple Heart recipient as Hero theory.

I know what you're getting at, Lo. But your argument's just too controversial when "How is being a POW preparation for being the President?" is too much for most Americans (and certainly the media's story lines).

Some would say (and it may be, I'd grant) that any service is heroic.

My father was wounded in 1944, in and out of VA hospitals his entire life, and never mentioned it to me. He died drunk, so maybe he should have, and certainly didn't claim lay claim to, or have, a “high moral character,” tended to brag about everything else, but didn't talk about his war experiences.

I had an uncle that was in the army when WWII started—1938 until 1948. North Africa, Italy, Germany—wounded and captured. Came home and lived in a tiny house by himself until his heart gave out. Never mentioned it.

McCain uses being a POW to justify marrying a multi-millionaire so her father would get him started in politics. How dare you to ask him to count his houses! And he has character?

Oh, I agree with that. It truly IS heroic to volunteer to take part in any sort of dangerous action. And I would certainly never dispute the fact that war is dangerous.

But, following the same line of thought, then isn't every policeman, fireman, paramedic or soldier to be considered heroic?

And, if that is so, then are they, too, qualified to be elected president?

Because as much as I've never felt like heroic material of any sort (most of us, police, firemen, medics, career soldier, etc., we just LIKE what we do - many of us would do it for free if they didn't pay us - and in the case of volunteer firefighters/medics, do just that) I certainly don't feel like presidential material.

I don't mind McCain's party saying he's a hero - I just mind the whole party saying it makes him a president.

Yes, absurd statements about qualifications are running rife. Senator McCain mentioned Governor Palin's PTA history as an important Vice-Presidential qualification. (And isn't the PTA a form of "community organizing" -- just a mainly white, exurban, comfy-cozy apple pie version?)

Some blowhard on FOXNews said that as far as he's concerned anyone with 5 kids can be Vice President.

I don't give a rat's ass how many houses McCain has or children Palin has, and McCain forgetting the number of the first can easily be written off to them basically being his wife's and she's busy dealing with them.

There are great number of things that creep me out about Palin, but once I read a Time magazine article on her, one leapt to the forefront: She's into censoring libraries too.

I know, I should probably rank other evils before this, but I don't. To me, it's not just a deep and personal offense, but a mark of someone of the lowest character, the type that make other people's business their business and go out of their way to impose their creepy made-up morality on anyone who doesn't share their excuse-for-a-faith. And I don't want someone like that on my PTA board, let alone the highest office in the land.

And to Palin's "pitbull with lipstick" remark, I will simply add "and rabies."

Apparently she's a great fund-raiser.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ion-for-obama/

The Silver Star is a big one. You should be very proud.

Well, in that case, I'm gonna have to check it out again. I don't recall him ever saying he'd been awarded a "big one." Whenever we'd get him to talk about the medals he'd always make sure we didn't think he was the only one to get them - he'd really downplay the whole thing, as in "Oh heck, LauraJean, they'd give them things to everyone." He probably wouldn't say that about a really big one. Or maybe he would. He'd usually end up telling us about his brother and his cousins and his friends who never made it home. Then he'd be sad - and then he'd get quiet. And eventually we grew up and realized it pained him, and so we quit asking.

It was more fun to talk about his tattoos anyhow.

I wonder if John McCain has any of those? I wonder if Sarah does?

CARTOON FROM THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Sarah unscripted? This, my friends, is Sarah unscripted:

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For useful context, as well as some perspective on that fabled 80% approval rating, see also THIS BLOG from the Anchorage Daily News around the time of the incident.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ace-barracuda/

Hi Lo,

Your link has been scrubbed. Either you have bad timing, or someone at CNN got cold feet real fast. And no cache neither. I googled "mccain +palin +embrace +barracuda." The same dead link shows up . . . but no cache. Curious, that.

Anyway, perhaps you could tell us what it was about?

Steve C.

The group, Heart, has asked that the McCain campaign immediately cease using their song, Barracuda, as an intro for Sarah Palin. They do not endorse her nor do they appreciate their song being used without permission.

I wonder why the story was scrubbed?

edited to add - try this one:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ace-barracuda/


UPDATE: Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart said Thursday night that Universal Music Publishing and Sony BMG have sent a cease and desist notice to the McCain-Palin campaign over their use of 'Barracuda.'

"We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We
hope our wishes will be honored," the group said in a statement that said they "condemn" the use of the song at the Republican convention.



[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited September 05, 2008).]

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Lo,
That video is priceless!

Thanks, Catherine. Made my morning!!

Below is a link to an email (supposedly) written by one of Sarah's neighbors in Wasilla. I can't verify it yet, I'm at work and it's not easy to check things from here, but it seems to have made a lot of the newspapers and Internet sites. It sounds pretty legit, but, again, I can't confirm if it's authentic or not.
http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341

http://cartoonbox.slate.com/davidhorsey/2008/09/03/
http://cartoonbox.slate.com/davidhorsey/2008/08/22/