Dispatches from the Flying M

McCain/Palin 451

No, they haven't advocated burning books--yet.

But putting aside all the other reasons McCain's pick of Sarah Palin for VP is further evidence of his inability to handle the job of president (the lack of vetting that went into the pick, the fact that she's facing serious abuse of power accusations, the fact that she lied in her very first national speech about her opposition to earmarks and to the "bridge to nowhere," the fact that living in the state closest to Russia does not make one a foreign policy expert and overseeing the Alaska National guard does not make one a military expert, etc.), here is all the reason I need to oppose the idea of Sarah Palin coming anywhere near the White House (emphasis mine).

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

The full story is at Time.com.

Apparently Ms. Palin not only doesn't know what the vice president does all day, but she doesn't understand that the First Amendment says the government doesn't have get to decide what my family and I get to read, write, say, think, or believe.

And her abuse of power habit seems to go back to her mayoral days.

Poor word choice

This morning on "This Week," former Democrat George Stephanopolous was interviewing Sen. John Kerry about McCain's Palin pick.  Kerry rightly pointed out that McCain seemed to want to pick someone with more experience and national recognition, but more important, someone with whom he was personally comfortable.  Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman were both names that were tossed around a lot, and both men would be more useful in the VP's chair (and in the Oval Office, just in case) than Palin.  But the right wing went nuts, with the Rush Limbaughs of the world declaring, quite literally, that such a pick would "destroy" the Republican party.  In the end, McCain kowtowed to the bigmouths and chose a staunch anti-choice conservative who he has only met or spoken with a couple of times in his life.

The word Kerry used was that McCain's choice demonstrated that he was a "prisoner" of the far right.

I don't think McCain's POW experience inoculates him from all criticism.  He has plenty of life experience after that, and he shouldn't hide behind that shield at all times, as he's been doing lately.

But it should protect him from "prisoner" references used hyperbolically.  The meaning of Kerry's comment was true, but the phrasing was very unfortunate.  George cut Kerry off right after that, so even if he'd realized his error and tried to correct it, he didn't have a chance. 

Troopergate

So far, the talking heads in the media seem content to give Sarah Palin a pass on Troopergate.  Yes, her sister's ex-husband sounds like a jerk.  But does that excuse abuse of power on the governor's part?  Haven't we had enough abuse of power these last 8 years?

These are serious charges, and it's almost impossible to believe that McCain's campaign would choose a VP candidate with this hanging over her head.  Unless they know the fix is already in, of course...

For a thorough analysis from someone who's been covering the story since well before she was named as the VP choice, check this post from Talking Points Memo.

Gustav

Our thoughts and best wishes are with the people of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.  I can't even imagine living there, rebuilding after Katrina and Rita, and then being faced with another monster storm so soon.  I hope you're all safe and dry and your homes and businesses are spared.

George Bush is doing the right thing by skipping the Republican convention and staying on the job (also not going to some birthday party for John McCain or hiding out in Crawford, as he did last time).  McCain, of course, is delighted that Bush is skipping the convention.  I can't remember a time that a sitting president didn't make an appearance at his party's nominating convention, but then there's never been a president as unpopular as Bush.  I hope the convention proceeds with the right degree of attention paid to the Gulf Coast, and without excessive spotlight-hogging by McCain (who has already threatened to give his acceptance speech there--just what overburdened local officials need on top of everything else).

RepCon, Day -1

Before the Republican convention has even begun, before the protests have even started, Minneapolis police have begun the difficult job of arresting people for actions they MIGHT commit as opposed to crimes they have already done.  How is it that Republicans approve of this sort of thing?  Do they have a separate version of the Constitution that's not shown to the rest of us?  And are they really so afraid of opposing viewpoints that they want to put anyone who expresses them in jail?

Sarah Palin

Only 24 years after Geraldine Ferraro ran as Walter Mondale's VP selection, John McCain has yanked the Republican party into the last quarter of the 20th Century by picking a woman as his running mate. 

The selection of Sarah Palin was nakedly political, calculated for only one reason--to try to win back some disaffected Hillary Clinton voters who might have been swayed by Hillary's arguments in favor of Obama.  The argument cannot be made that she is qualified to step into the presidency, should anything happen to  McCain.  So he is reaching for the female vote, trying to make the case that a McCain presidency would be as historic as an Obama one because it would put a woman in an office which a woman has never held.  Certainly, it's past time for that.  But is she really the best one for that job?

Gov. Palin has two things in common with Hillary Clinton--she is white, and female.  On the issues, they are almost diametrically opposed.  Palin is anti-choice, extremely conservative, and tied to the oil business.  Like Bush, she worries about Iran gaining NUKULAR weapons, as she said in her announcement speech a few minutes ago.  A couple of weeks ago, it came out that she or people close to her arranged the firing of a state trooper currently going through a nasty divorce from her sister, and when her state's Public Safety Commissioner refused to do the firing, he was fired himself.

The town of which Palin was mayor, Wasilla, AL, had a population of 7,738 people in 2004.  For local folks, that's sort of like making the mayor of Bisbee governor, then a VP candidate.  She has served as Alaska's governor for two years.  She does serve one purpose--it's hard for McCain, a guy who has never in his adult life drawn a paycheck that didn't come from Washington DC, to convincingly attack business-as-usual in Washington.  Palin, on the other hand, is from a place about as far from Washington as you can get and still be on the continent of North America.

Republicans seem to have a tradition of picking lame VP choices.  Dan Quayle?  Lloyd Bentsen destroyed him in their debate...but Quayle became VP, and Bentsen is largely forgotten today. 

Will McCain's political calculation pay off?  Or will American women vote for the issues and their own interests, rather than voting for McCain simply because his running mate is a woman?

McCain's announcement was cleverly timed to take some of the wind out of Obama's sails after the triumphant convention and acceptance speech.  But if the Republicans postpone their convention because of Hurricane Gustav (which I would hate to see, because the irony of them meeting when the Gulf Coast is once again under assault is so delicious), then his announcement will lose its own momentum.  By the time they do meet, Palin will be old news, and I have a feeling Obama is going to keep up a steady attack along the lines laid out in Obama's speech.

DemCon night 4

I thought Bill Clinton's speech on Wednesday night was just okay--not one of the great speechmaker's best, but it did what it needed to do.

Obama, though, gave a magnificent performance last night, delivering a 42-minute oration loaded with specifics of his own policies, specific and true attacks on McCain and Bush, some sweeping rhetoric, and some historical consideration to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech 45 years ago yesterday.

The convention was perfectly orchestrated, with a building theme, and Obama put it all into words last night. He was forceful, he more than answered John McCain's desperate attacks on his character and, while refusing to engage McCain on that same petty level, launched a series of attacks on real issues.  McCain can't campaign on the issues, because he's on the wrong side of most Americans on the biggest issues of the day, and on some of the major ones--taxes, immigration, etc., is on the opposite side of where he himself was before he decided to abandon all his principles in order to secure the right wing of his party.

Here are some of the bits I thought were particularly good.

 "Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land – enough! This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight."

 "But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change."

 "Now, I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn’t know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people’s benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?

    It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it."

"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.

    For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just “muddle through” in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives."

"I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.

    So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first."" America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess."

UPDATE: You can read the full text of Obama's speech here.

Sychronicity

Writer Tod Goldberg, brother of writer and IAMTW co-founder Lee Goldberg (of the famous Writin' Goldbergs), has penned a delightful essay for the L.A. Times on writing tie-in novels based on the TV show Burn Notice.  I have never watched Burn Notice, because I rarely seem to notice (sorry) when it's on, and when I do, it's opposite something else I want to watch, and/or am writing tie-ins of my own for.

So that's not where the sychronicity comes in.

No, that comes in because this morning, a few hours before I read his essay, I was listening to a Partridge Family tape (no, not an 8-track! What am I, a caveman?).  You have to read his piece to find out how that fits in.

And Tod, if you find out who has that license (or It Takes a Thief or The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)...

Vote or die

Republican candidates, since 2001, have a particularly unpleasant habit of warning us that if we don't elect Republicans, we will die.  Sometimes it's couched in vaguer terminology, but that's essentially the meaning.  It's nearly always vile and repugnant--the implication being that only Republicans care about the safety of Americans, or that somehow Republican policies are the only ones that can ensure that safety, all evidence to the contrary.

Hillary Clinton came close to making the reverse charge last night, when she said " Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance."  But she pointedly did not say that you would die if you don't vote for Obama, and "the future of our children" covers a lot of ground, from the threat of global warming to the economic risks of building up a massive debt that will fall into their laps.

Ultimately, we can't know the future until it happens, and there are aspects of the past we can't know, either.  We might assume that a President Gore would have moved faster on his own commission's recommendations on airline security, including hardened cabin doors--recommendations ignored by the new Bush administration.  We can expect that the continuity of a Gore administration would have meant keeping up the efforts against terrorism that were being made, as opposed to the new Bush administration's ignoring of the topic (only three meetings on it were held before 9/11).  We don't know how a different administration would have reacted to the August 6 briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside U.S."  9/11 might have happened just the way it did, regardless of who was in office.

But the tragic, unmistakable fact is that Americans have died because Bush was in office.

No other president would have had this one's particular psychology, or been surrounded by the same foreign policy team of people who wanted Bush's father to take out Saddam in '92 and tried to persuade Clinton to do it during his terms.  Only Bush's son, with the strange family dynamics at work there, would have considered Saddam a threat because he tried to kill Bush Sr.  Only Bush, therefore, would have used 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq, a country that had no connection to 9/11 and no WMDs.

So more than 4,000 Americans have died because of this president.

Would a President McCain bring more American deaths?  We don't know.  All we have to go on is his history, which is a history of never meeting a foreign policy crisis that he didn't think could be solved with American military action, combined with a hair-trigger temper.

Surrounded by cooler heads and seasoned experts, he might run a calmer administration.  He might turn out to be an Eisenhower instead of a Bush. He might surprise us all with unexpected depths.  Should he be elected, I hope that's the case.  I believe he has the best interests of America at heart, even though I disagree with his policies to preserve and protect those interests.

It'll be interesting to see how many people at next week's RepCon warn us to vote Republican or die.

LATE UPDATE: I'm not the only one worried about McCain's warlike tendencies--see this post from Josh Marshall (and by extension, Andrew Sullivan).  This is a real problem.

DemCon Night 2

Or it would be DemCon, if it was put on by sf geeks instead of political geeks.

My own Governor Janet showed last night what a ball of fire she can be, as she gave a rousing speech that, among other things, invited John McCain to join a distinguished list of Arizona politicians who have run for president and lost.

Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana delivered a real barn burner, in which he used my favorite twist yet on McCain's housing problem--pointing out that Americans can't drill our way out of our energy problems, even if we drilled everywhere, including backyards McCain doesn't even know he has.

But the night was Hillary's, and she delivered the best speech of her career.  It was a brilliantly constructed thing, beautifully written, and delivered with forceful perfection.

It opened as a ringing, leave-no-doubts endorsement of Barack Obama.

Then it turned into a speech about her campaign--why she ran, what she wanted to accomplish.  As always, she brought in personal stories told to her along the trail, of people left behind or ignored by the current administration.  She reminded her supporters of why they supported her in the first place, and may have caught up some others along the way.

But then, in the speech's great twist, she spun those stories around.  "I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?"

Then it became a speech about Obama, showing why he is the leader America needs right now, to bring us back from the collapse of eight years of failed policies, misguided priorities and disastrous incompetence.

She segued from that into why McCain offers only more of the same, tying McCain and Bush together with one of the speech's best lines: "With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart."

Bringing it back around to herself as she moved toward the close, she reached back into history--a history uniquely pertinent to a female senator from New York.

"I'm a United States Senator because in 1848 a group of courageous women and a few brave men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, many traveling for days and nights, to participate in the first convention on women's rights in our history.

    And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years, handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter - and a few sons and grandsons along the way.

    These women and men looked into their daughters' eyes, imagined a fairer and freer world, and found the strength to fight. To rally and picket. To endure ridicule and harassment. To brave violence and jail.

    And after so many decades - 88 years ago on this very day - the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote would be forever enshrined in our Constitution.

    My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for President.

    This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.

    How do we give this country back to them?

    By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad.

    And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice.

    If you hear the dogs, keep going.

    If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

    If they're shouting after you, keep going.

    Don't ever stop. Keep going.

    If you want a taste of freedom, keep going."

That led into a call to action--the call to work and fight and do whatever is necessary to elect Obama, because, as she put it, "Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance."

As a writer, I appreciate the word craft that went into the speech.  As a not particularly gifted public speaker, I appreciated Clinton's gift of delivery. She'll be followed tonight and tomorrow by two of the best speechifiers in the party's history, her husband and Barack Obama.  If they rise to the challenge, we're in for some great speeches.

UPDATE: You can read Hillary's speech here.