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Sep

14

Post o’Palin Perspectives, Part II

Filed Under Politics, Sarah Palin, Vice President, WH2008 | 7 Comments

Because there are so many and I’m still doing at least one a day on the main attraction.

Will Palin Get the Same Scrutiny Hillary Got? I mentioned the value of scrutiny in my Reason #54 to vote for Obama/Biden.  E.J. Dionne writes:

There is also a question here for the media. When Hillary Clinton claimed last March that she had to evade sniper fire during a landing in Bosnia in 1996, the media came down on her hard. It was a huge story. But at least Clinton actually visited Bosnia. Will the media focus the same attention on the false and exaggerated claims about Palin?

Journalists gave Al Gore endless grief about supposed exaggerations and even suggested he said things (about inventing the Internet) that he actually didn’t say. Aren’t Palin’s claims about opposing earmarks, when she actually tried to get them, and about saying “no thanks” to the bridge to nowhere, when she initially supported it, part of a larger narrative of deception?

The media made a big deal about whether John Kerry, when he served in Vietnam, did or didn’t cross the border with Cambodia. Why doesn’t Palin’s relationship to the Kuwait-Iraq border deserve at least as much attention?

Tony Knowles, the two-time Democratic governor of Alaska who lost to Palin in a three-way race in 2006: Op-ed contributors, Are We Experienced? Governing Happens:

A governor’s priorities also must include Hubert Humphrey’s moral test of how we treat “those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life — the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

My state has a partnership with the federal government to provide health care for children whose working parents cannot afford it. Giving incentives to families to continue to work is a moral, social and economic mandate. Yet today, sadly, fewer children in Alaska have a chance for this vital service than when it was initiated in 1998, even though the state now has huge surpluses as a result of the high price of oil.

Several years after I left office, a young man approached me at the grocery store. All he wanted to do was say thanks. He said that without the health care program, he and his wife never could have adopted their three young children because they could not have afforded the special health care they needed. That’s the experience a president needs.

Palin should be laughingstock to all feminists:

Sarah Palin makes me sick because although black Democrats have been responsible for giving white candidates the boost they needed to beat their Republican opponents in tight races, these voters are now being insulted by feminists who say they will cross over into the McCain camp because of her.

How can that be?

Palin’s extreme views on abortion (she once said she would be against her daughter having an abortion even in the case of incest or rape) and her support of abstinence-only programs should make her a laughingstock to feminists.

Instead, she’s a star.

That ought to be enough to make any true feminist sick.

Ed Koch (former Mayor of New York City) on Sarah Palin in his endorsement of Obama:

So the issue for me is who will best protect and defend America.

I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.

What I think about Palin: A list for undecided moms:

I think she’s drop-dead gorgeous.

I think Tina Fey had better come back to SNL to play her in the skits.

I think she’s a dynamic speaker.

I think she’s closely tied to Ted Stevens.

I think it’s no one’s business but hers and Todd’s how they run their family life.

I think she’s a secessionist who is more loyal to Alaska than the Union.

I think she’s a force to be reckoned with.

I think she’s talking out of both sides of her mouth when she says she killed the Bridge to Nowhere but then it turns out she was for it before she was against it, and kept the earmarked funds for it in any event.

I think she’s talking out of both sides of her mouth when she says she’s against earmarks in the first place but then it turns out she hired a lobbyist to make sure Wasilla got as many earmarks as possible.

I think there’s a very good chance that as the Troopergate and Dairygate scandals continue to be investigated it’ll turn out that she has seriously abused her power as governor.

I think I’m sorry for Bristol’s boyfriend–he looked like a deer in the headlights, and his MySpace page said he never intended to have children–but then, my cousin married at 18 and they’re still happily married 30 years later, so who knows? Not my business. Just a thought.

Wayback machine (just to less than two weeks ago) re: do we have to take the path of the culture wars?

John McCain’s convention gambit is a culture war strategy. It depends for its execution on conflict with journalists, and with bloggers (the “angry left,” Bush called them) along with confusion between and among the press, the blogosphere, and the Democratic party. It revives cultural memory: the resentment narrative after Chicago ‘68 but with the angry left more distributed. It dispenses with issues and seeks a trial of personalities. It bets big time on backlash.

At the center of the strategy is the flashpoint candidacy of Sarah Palin, a charismatic figure around whom the war can be fought to scale, as it were. The Politico is reporting just that: Palin reignites culture wars.

I have no idea if the ignition system will work; nor do I claim that “this is what they were thinking” when they made the decision to nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Other interpretations may turn out to be truer than mine. This is my look at the bets McCain and company seem to be placing. I am not recommending the strategy. I am not predicting it will succeed. I think it was improvised, like my description here.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:42 pm September 14th, 2008 in Politics, Sarah Palin, Vice President, WH2008 | 7 Comments 

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Sep

14

Reason #52 to VOTE FOR Obama/Biden

Filed Under 57ReasonsObamaBiden, Barack Obama, Economy, Joe Biden, Voting, WH2008 | 5 Comments

Because Barack Obama’s desires for our economy have a superior likelihood of improving this country’s economic situation.

Over the next several posts, I will be examining the Obama/Biden position on what should be done to improve our economy – on as many levels as I can muster writing about.  If there is an area of particular interest to you, e-mail me or leave a comment.

You can start reading up on the issues at Economists for Obama (yes, an obviously biased but still analytical site that offers links to pro-McCain economists and their ideas) and this transcript of a Obama’s major economic policy speech given about a year ago.

As Paul Begala said this morning on This Week, every day that John McCain is not talking about the economy is a day he wins.  And every day that we discuss the economy, Obama wins.  No matter what McCain is talking about.

John McCain will not be winning if I have anything to do with it.

On November 4, vote for Obama/Biden.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:18 am September 14th, 2008 in 57ReasonsObamaBiden, Barack Obama, Economy, Joe Biden, Voting, WH2008 | 5 Comments 

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Sep

14

A primer on white privilege and hateful racism

Filed Under BlogHer, Race, Social Issues | Comments Off

Maria Niles wrote a crash course on the concept and reality of white privilege and racism, especially as it’s playing out in the presidential elections, in her BlogHer post, Racism and the race: What’s white privilege got to do with it?

I first saw the latest lightening rod that reveals how alive and well the racism -ism is on Plunderbund and Maria mentions it as well.

Again, we’re facing the “it was a joke” and “lighten up” defenses over something that shows how deepseated this particular -ism is.

I appreciate Maria offering a great list of reading material to help people understand why those excuses for inexcusable insults fail.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:23 am September 14th, 2008 in BlogHer, Race, Social Issues | Comments Off 

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