Presidental Politics Part 2

[strredwolf]

Okay, Obama went with Biden, which gains many positives.  Of course, there's some negatives to.  I won't get into ether, because of what happened to day over on the Republican side.

If you don't know, I do have issues with McCain.  I would respect him if he wanted to change the Republican position, but unfortunately it's still in line with current policies of the White House.  His Internet policy is completely wrong to boot (Pro-RIAA/MPAA, Pro-DMCA, Anti-Neutral).  His health is worse than that of VP Dick Cheney, and there's questions over his POW status in Vietnam.  McCain's own personal image looks like he's just constantly constipated (influenced by the right pose paired with a LOLcat, and a caption saying "We're poopin'").

And now, we find out he's chosen Sarah Palin.

My first reaction was "A governor from ALASKA?!? Oh great.  Once again the Republican party picks a VP that has no touch of reality in the lower 48."

Now that I research her, she's only been governor for a year, a mayor for six, and a city council member for four.  City politics and experience don't apply too well for the entire country, and being from Alaska makes it worse.  She's also under investigation for firing a public saftey commissioner for not firing a state trooper... who was a brother-in-law and the two were having alot of problems.

She's anti-abortion.  She found out her fifth child was diagnosed with Down syndrome before birth, and decided to raise the child.  Her reasoning evokes a heavy religious bent which should be illegal in politics.

She's pro-drilling and pro-oil, being a member of a oil consortium.

And to tick off the enviromentalists, she's an avid hunter, a member of the NRA (which I respect), and wants to allow shooting from helicopters.

Add onto it that in an interview a month before, she reguarded the VP position as a waste of time and resources, not knowing what the job entailed.

Ugh.  Alot of things tell me they only got her for the womens vote... and there's a high chance of it backfiring.

Comments

[drmercurious.livejournal.com]

I don't think McCain picked her. Notice that while she was giving her speech he never left the stage and was fidgeting with his fingers the whole time. I think he was TOLD to pick her for the SOLE reason that she was a female, and one the Neocons could stomach -- i.e. a Stepford Wife.

[griffinwolf.livejournal.com]

Nah, I think she was chosen because she's the archetypal Republican and Christian Right, who just happens to be a woman, too.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

>She found out her fifth child was diagnosed with Down syndrome before
>birth, and decided to raise the child

Even if you dislike her views on abortion, I'm not sure why you think this reflects poorly against her.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Read further. My view is if you can afford to raise the child, go ahead. However, her faith sounds to be deeply rooted -- enough to cloud her judgement. That raises many concerns in me.

[questorthews.livejournal.com]

I don't know about respecting the NRA. Maybe if it didn't act like part of the republican party.
I am a hunter. I say this to put what I am about to say into perspective. I dislike the NRA because it is no longer about gun ownership, but electing republicans. I dislike the gov of Alaska because she authorized aerial shooting of wolves. That is not hunting, that is gunning down animals from the sky.

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

She was mayor of a town of 8,000. Yeah, I'm sure that makes her qualified to be VP, whatever a VP is, to a country of over 300 million.

She was chosen for two reasons. Disgruntled Clinton supporters and disgruntled Clinton supporters in 2012. There are already some jaded people that are casting anti-Obama spite votes this November. McCain is playing the long road of hanging onto them for his reelection. I don't doubt he'd go for reelection, no matter how old he his. He wants power and he'll do what he needs to get more and keep it.

[bibliophage.livejournal.com]

1) She's a token to the ultra conservatives. Don't worry about all the various things that she is or isn't. That's the main purpose of her being chosen. If you don't like her, shoot her first, then McCain, so you don't end up with her being president.

2) I'm getting EXTREMELY sick of people that go off on the "You have to be a politician to be able to be a politician". That's, quite frankly, bullshit. A huge chunk of our problem is that we have too many _politicians_ and not enough _businessmen_. Or to be more blunt, we've got too many people in office that are dislocated from reality - usually by being insulated from normal people through law school, law practice, then straight into politics. I'd rather vote for someone that built up a business from scratch to a multi-million dollar a year income, rather than some 'old money' legal asshole that's never worked at any job for an hourly wage in his life.

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

True, but at the moment to get a business person, you have to go all the way to the vice president in the libertarian party. Executive experience is executive experience though. Both running a business and running a state or city have benefits to a future president. A business is better because you actually have to be a success to stay a business executive. A state has the advantage of having much larger budgets and larger scale to manage than most businesses though. Even a small state like Alaska has a state operating budget of around 6 billion.

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

As a libertarian, Palin has me tempted to vote republican this time. Obama is just so utterly frightening for a freedom loving libertarian. McCain is similarly frightening, but at least this way we have someone less scary if he drops dead. With Obama we get *Biden*. Out of the 4, Biden, Obama, McCain, and her, she has the most experience actually running something with a multi-billion dollar budget. The rest of them have just been 1 of 100 with minimal interaction to actually operating anything, just sitting in their ivory tower throwing out laws.

Even if she is heavily religious, it comes down to if she is willing to force her views on other people. Her answer there shows that she is willing to live those views herself, but says nothing about if she wants to legislate those views. Traditional fiscal conservatives would say that you live those views yourself, but don't inflict them on others.

For conservatives, she cancels out most of the complaints about McCain on the ticket. She's anti-corruption, not only going after a republican governor in the primary that she felt was corrupt, but also attacking a number of other pork projects in her state. The conservatives hate the corruption that has taken hold of both major parties and would love to have someone in there with a history of busting corruption even in her own party. She's been on the talk radio shows numerous times even before being announced as VP, and the fiscal conservative audiences of those shows always call in with praise about her.

She might actually bring conservatives back to the McCain ticket who have been fleeing like rats from a sinking ship.