reeg2223 wrote:What's up SSS? My memory is you were one of Clinton's biggest defenders. Why are you so over the top hostile towards the Obama/Biden ticket and so defensive about McCain/Palin? Were you that upset that Hillary lost or is something else going on?
The Democratic Party has gotten completely off track in this campaign, after what looked like a golden opportunity in 2006. Party leadership has been obsessed with two themes: win at all costs (out-Swift Boat them), and punish the Clintons. They have turned to a candidate who is unprincipled, inexperienced, arrogant, sexist, race baiting, but one who recognized what drove the Democratic leadership and encouraged it. The result is comments like this, a witch hunt against Sarah Palin, and a complete abandonment of the principles that this party went by.
By any objective standards, John McCain is a moderate conservative, far more moderate than anyone else running for the Republican nomination. He has run a campaign that is fairly clean by modern standards, and remarkably clean by Republican standards so far. But the Democrats continue to portray him as a cross between Richard Nixon, George Wallace, and Attila the Hun.
In so doing, the Democrats have abandoned any semblance of morality, logic, reason, or ethics. One Democratic blogger whom I at one time respected, yesterday called Sarah Palin the most divisive force in politics in years. By divisive, I guess they mean getting your opposition so angry that they unleash a largely unwarranted firestorm of vitriol. I challenge anyone to show one thing Palin has said or done that's more than the standard level of partisanship. Her attacks on Obama pale in comparison to the McCain/Bush bashing that went on at the Democratic convention.
Another blogger whom I once respected talked about a "very bad campaign appearance" for McCain yesterday, without Palin there with him. When I clicked on the link, I thought McCain might have stumbled around somewhat. Instead, it turns out that his appearance was disrupted by Obama supporters who crashed the rally and were able to shout him down for a while. Taking pride in breaking up an opponent's campaign rally is not something I would have thought any Democrat would do. But the worst elements of the party and the worst facets of our personalities have been enabled and encouraged by Barack Obama.
Sarah Palin is a conservative, but she's not a fire breathing harpy, and she has a record of sound fiscal policy in running the state of Alaska and the city of Wasilla. When the Democrats do attack her policies, they engage in gotcha politics that concentrate on "proving" literal inaccuracies with their own versions of what Palin said rather than looking at the overall picture.
Palin has run the city and the state the way one would hope a prudent CEO would run any business. Increase revenue (by renegotiating oil deals when necessary and restructuring the tax code), improve the infrastructure, cut waste without needlessly throwing people out of work, and expanding the state (and city's economy). So an unneeded plane was listed on ebay but sold privately. So she took a smaller living allowance than her predecessor (in a state in which appearing with one's family sometimes in very remote locations is an unwritten job requirment). So she reassigned a chef, saved a job and saved money. So she abandoned lukewarm support for a project she later realized was a complete waste of money and reallocated the money.
Make no mistake. In my opinion, her views on most social issues are wrong. Her views on the Iraq war (as far as I know) are wrong. Her views on conservation are wrong. Her views on energy are somewhat misguided. But I contrast that with Obama, a man of no principles, and no firmly held convictions.
In my view, the next four years of an Obama administration would probably be, in some ways (and I have no way of knowing just what ways), better than an Obama/Palin administration. In some ways, they would be worse. A strong Democratic Congressional majority could head off any really bad initiatives coming from a Republican White House, while the party would be pretty much forced to fall in line with whatever Obama decided (which is usually whatever seems politically expedient at the time).
And an Obama administration will likely be a failure for which the Republicans will blame "liberal politics" and use it as a weapon to keep Democrats out of the White House for another couple of decades. All this to kowtow to an unprincipled opportunist like Obama.
I can't do that.
