Woo Hoo! I’m ready (I think) for two months of intense Presidential campaigning!
As a staunch Libertarian/Constitutionalist/Social Liberal/Fiscal Conservative, none of the mainstream candidates in recent U.S. Presidential races have interested me. Well, except Ron Paul. But the Libertarian-in-Republican clothing never had a shot in my opinion. I
AM pleased though that he managed to at least get his/our message to some of the people. A few of whom might actually have listened and an even smaller group might have “Got it”.
In my mind, most of the candidates have been a waste of good, clean (*cough* *cough*) air and would not be missed.
Today, everyone and their dog is blogging about Republican John McCain picking Sarah “Barracuda” Palin as his running mate for this election. Well, so am I.
While I don’t feel that McCain (nor any other Republican) can win the ‘08 Presidential election at least he’s making this one interesting and torpedoing Obama’s campaign at the same time.
Why don’t I think a Republican can win? Because the game is rigged. I have no proof other than history. Albeit an extremely small sample, history shows that the two major parties swap places every eight years. The aberration in recent years was Republican U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush who actually managed to be elected after two full four year terms of his Republican President (Ronald Reagan for those with short memories.) His election and term delayed the switch to a Democrat as President by four years. Due to this statistical pattern, I predicted last year in a forum I’m on that our next President would be a Democrat and that no campaigning or complaining would change that. This was before we knew who any of the candidates would be. Well, except for Hillary. As soon as they moved to New York so she could run for the Senate, I was convinced that she’d run for President. When she promised she wouldn’t, I laughed.
So John McCain (to get back on current events) picks his running mate. A beautiful, intelligent and articulate mother of five who has displayed solid Family and Republican base values. McCain’s handlers stepped over numerous Washington Insiders to pick this jewel.
Some call it a Hail Mary pass (frantic and desperate last minute play in a game where it’ll be a miracle if you score) and they are probably right.
On the other hand, this move is perfect in that it does considerable damage to the Obama campaign.
- John McCain actually found a running mate with LESS experience than Barrack Obama (though only marginally less). Not that this fact has stopped the Obama campaign and supporters from pointing out Mrs. Palin’s lack of experience. Young and inexperienced Obama chose an old Washington Insider with tons of experience as his running mate. Old, experienced Washington Insider John McCain chose a young and inexperienced running mate. The only difference is that unless Barrack Obama is assassinated, it’s unlikely that Joe Biden will take over as President, while with McCain’s age and health issues, there’s a very good possibility that Sarah Palin will become President of the United States. Any attack at Palin’s inexperience by the Democrats directly reflects back on Barrack Obama’s inexperience.
- Sarah Palin is likely to attract female voters, especially away from the Obama camp. There are a lot of Hillary supporters who may be swayed. Many have already stated that they’d support McCain rather than Obama. Now they can support another female as well. Though, at least one professional political pundit calls Sarah Palin an insult to Hillary supporters as Hillary is qualified to be President and Sarah isn’t. (Hillary Rosen’s thoughts, not mine.) Personally , the only insult to Hillary supporters is that the Republicans also have an intelligent and articulate woman to offer. But the Republican Party’s woman is actually pleasing to look at.
- Barrack Obama got a huge bump in the polls from the Democratic Convention that just finished in Denver. McCain’s move just stole most of the press away from the Obama campaign.
- Sarah Palin is getting the attention of the younger males of both parties. She has a presence on camera that can’t be denied. Combine that with her looks and she’s giving men a pause. I was in line at the cashier’s cage at a local Casino to cash my paycheck today. (I live in Las Vegas, Nevada) and they have big flat panel monitors running the Golf Channel, ESPN and CNN in clear view while in line. The guys (typical working-class 30 somethings for the most part) were all glued to her images on the CNN panels. Many comments were about her looks, and I was surprised that they were mature comments rather than crude. In discussing her, not that there was much to discuss other than her looks as we didn’t/couldn’t know much else about her yet, one said, “I thought Obama had this election sewn up. Now, I’m not so sure.”
On a personal note, Sarah Palin is said to have some of my core beliefs... family values, right-to-life and pro-gun (like me and many others, she’s a Life Member of the NRA.) Yes, I imagine the right-to-life part surprises some of you as I’m Pro-Choice. It is possible to be both. I can’t see myself (if I was female) choosing abortion in most cases. As a man, I certainly wouldn’t want my lover or child to choose it. I feel that abortion though is one of those necessary evils that should be available as a last resort.
Despite the minimal information about Mrs. Palin that is available to the public so far, I think she’d make a great Vice President and probably a pretty good President. So at this time, I’m seriously considering voting the McCain-Palin ticket instead of my protest vote for the Libertarian.
Meanwhile, I’m going to stock up on microwave popcorn as the next two months should actually be interesting.
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Democrat, John McCain, Politics, Republican, Sarah Palin
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