Rant - "the woman candidate"

Aug 30, 2008 07:42

Those of you expecting a rant against the Republicans on this score, you're about to be disappointed.  Nor is it praise for them. Nor anything about the Democrats ( Read more... )

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Comments 51

ilcylic August 30 2008, 15:43:27 UTC
"Who's Senator Palin, Jimmy?" "She's the Republican's woman candidate." Uh, huh.

Governor.

Well, I have to cop to referring to her as "Sarah Palin", too, but I call all the candidates by their names, (titles are for feudalisms) and I've certainly being doing it with respect. But then, she's the person I hoped would get picked for the position for a couple months, now.

I'm full of acid, and perfectly willing to admit it, but not over Mrs. Palin. :D I wish she wasn't a twit about gay marriage (well, I wish she wasn't a twit about abortion too, but that one's way more entrenched as a GOP thing) but overall, I really like her. The bit about selling off the executive jet that her predecessor bought on credit, on Ebay, well, that just warms the cockles of my dank black soul.

I had an amusing exchange with R. last night, where I said I must be channelling her, because it was pissing me off all the people who are saying she just got the job 'cause she's a girl. As though she couldn't possibly have been picked for her merits.

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attutle August 30 2008, 17:14:27 UTC
"As though she couldn't possibly have been picked for her merits.I hadn't paid the slightest attention to who McCain might be looking at for a VP, and didn't have any clue who might be on the list, but when Obama selected Biden instead of Hillary, I was certain McCain would select a female VP ( ... )

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ilcylic August 30 2008, 17:28:06 UTC
I'm not attempting to claim that it was entirely a non-factor. I'm haranguing the people I've heard claiming it's the only reason she was picked.

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attutle August 30 2008, 18:14:04 UTC
Yeah, obviously they put some though into it, instead of picking randomly from a phonebook.

Anyway, his short list was leaked some time ago.

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unclevlad August 30 2008, 15:51:33 UTC
Ok, I am a social liberal - no secret there - on most things. I have a problem with Governor Palin's position on certain issues that are important to me, including abortion, gay marriage and freedom of religious expression. I am still trying to look past a lot of the rhetoric being spewed to find her actual position and voting record on other key issues I feel are important.

All that being said, I am not happy with either the Republican or Democratic tickets. I think both VP choices involved way way too much pandering. No slight against either person selected, but nothing in politics can occur in a vacuum. Was her gender a consideration when Governor Palin was chosen? Probably. Was it the only consideration? I doubt it and certainly hope not.

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docstrange August 30 2008, 19:18:14 UTC
I have zero - zero - problem ripping into her for her deeds and her positions on issues. I have major - major - problems with those self-professed liberal friends of mine who cannot resist throwing in a dig at her being a "walking uterus for the Republicans" or the like. I think it tells about a deep, dark well in those people.

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holzman August 30 2008, 21:08:51 UTC
I'm also unimpressed with her creationism. Nor her suit against the federal government trying to delist polar bears as an endangered species ( ... )

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docstrange August 30 2008, 21:48:25 UTC
Personally, I am finding out more about her, especially what her administration took on and did. The investigation, I think, is going nowhere with even the special prosecutor's office saying they're getting full cooperation and no major results so far; and even the Alaska Democratic party leadership has good things to say about her ( ... )

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keyne August 30 2008, 17:15:37 UTC
I don't think any serious analyst, Republican, Democratic, or otherwise, doubts she was chosen for her gender as well as her right-wing credentials (see Andrew Sullivan's blog for a number of reactions). McCain's only chances to win are to pick up some of Clinton's disaffected primary voters, and he believes he can attract both the PUMAs and the Christianists with a single pick. I think it was a good call on his part, and I hope he's wrong.

No, I don't feel that two years of experience governing a population smaller than Boston's - following on the heels of being a mayor of a town of six thousand - come anywhere close to Obama's years as a state legislator and then a senator dealing with foreign policy issues. Palin has said, in an interview this summer, that she doesn't even know what a vice president does. That's just sad ( ... )

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docstrange August 30 2008, 19:42:53 UTC
See, there you are criticizing her for her actual positions and statements. I may disagree on the value of her experience vs. Sen. Obama's, but let's be clear we're not arguing over their token aspects.

So, I think her old comments on the vice presidency were apt. If being offered the position by a McCain Presidency, she would need to know what it would entail. The powers of the VP, other than tie-breaking in the Senate, are defined by the presidency. There's not much more "there" there. The VP was once considered the graveyard of politics. It's only since fairly recent times that the position had any power.

As to the rest, Obama's experience is is something we'll disagree on; I'm very disappointed in his performance, having given him my vote twice before this campaign - he was for a time my state senator and US Senator. He never has been in a position to decide anything in government, and Emil Jones ran him on a fast track in the IL senate.

But this, my good friend, is a good argument.

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attutle August 30 2008, 17:31:49 UTC
"No, after all, we complained the press weren't calling Senator Clinton by her title while calling her opponents by theirs, as that's demeaning; but Palin, we're gonna never use her title?"

Hilary's campaign should get some of the blame here as well. They decided to use 'Hilary' instead of 'Clinton', 'Senator Clinton', or anything else. This set the stage to refer to female candidates by first name.

"The obsession of looks->negatives is mostly coming from the general left, and maybe that's slanted because my friends' list is generally very left - but reading this outpouring of misogyny - and it is, you deniers, it is - I can only wonder if the left has more closet misogynists than the right."

Sounds like they're bitter. They've been out-played, and they know it.

Picking Biden instead of Hilary handed this advantage to McCain, and they're pissed because they understand it could cost them the election.

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docstrange August 30 2008, 19:46:04 UTC
Hmm. A good point on the Clinton campaign having a hand in creating the "lack of title" scenario it later complained about. Is that a subtle buy-in to the predominant ethos/culture that would think it OK - nay good - to "humanize" a strong woman that way?

Of course, bitter is no excuse for dredging up one's personal swamp. I'd be freaking if the Clinton camp were calling Obama a token [slur] or Lieberman a kike. I think this is no better, bitterness is no more an excuse than drunkenness.

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attutle August 31 2008, 07:15:16 UTC
"bitter is no excuse"

Of course not. Trying to understand, not to justify.

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docstrange August 31 2008, 14:29:26 UTC
Ah, I was vague - your making of the comment I took as explanation not justification. Those harboring bitterness, I condemn for the outbursts, though they are no doubt just "bitterly clinging" to their politics.

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rmjwell August 30 2008, 18:41:09 UTC
I apologize for not referring to the Governor by her title.

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docstrange August 30 2008, 19:12:19 UTC
And maybe apologize for dumping my name in your journal when it appears no where else on LJ? You're doing great in my book, sir.

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rmjwell August 30 2008, 19:22:20 UTC
More than an apology; edited out.

The only reason I used that reply was you addressed me by name; it was not meant in any other way.

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docstrange August 30 2008, 19:49:40 UTC
Ah, your name's out and mine isn't. I'm hyper-conscious about it since a few people on my F-list are even more name-protective than I am. Thanks for cleaning that up.

I'm still reeling from what I read in your journal. Perhaps you'd care to agree wholeheartedly with someone describing Lieberman as the "token Jew of the independents?"

I know I am giving you a hard time.

And I don't even really like Lieberman.

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