You aren't so senile after all. You've also proven you've still got some fish swimmin' in your man pond because you chose a former Miss Alaska runner-up to be your running mate.
That Sarah Palin is one fine piece of ace.
Unfortunately, as fine as Governor Palin is, and she's super fine (look at those glasses - she could peruse my card catalog any time), she has excruciatingly less experience in public office (at least public office that matters) than Barack Obama. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the main tenant of the McCain/Republican attack on the Democratic candidate?
Now I'm not going to sit here and jerk off Obama (I've already done that enough that any women that read this site have probably been blog-o-seminated by proximity.) However, I will try and examine why John McCain chose Sugartits (that's my new pet name for the governor - like it?).
According to her Wikipedia page (because seriously, why should I even bother doing any more research when other people have done it for me!?), Sugartits was a Wasilla, Alaska city councilwoman in 1992 until 1996 when she became mayor of Wasilla. She was re-elected in 1999 and ousted incumbent governor Frank Murkowski in 2006 where she's been ever since. Wow. That's quite the resume. I'm sure there's so much important stuff to take care of as a city councilwoman...in Wasilla, Alaska. I suppose she had a little more responsibility as mayor of a town 6,715 strong. Ah, to be fair, they give themselves the status of "first class city" on the city's web page FAQ. One can only assume it earns that label because it's the home to the Iditarod Dog Sled race. Shouldn't they then give the city the classification of "Best In Show"? What, no good?
Here's a fun fact though - Sugartits was an original supporter of the Gravina Island Bridge or as you may know it, the Bridge to Nowhere. Remember that little ditty? It was a bridge that would have cost $398 million of federal money that would connect the town of Ketchikan to its airport which for some reason is on an island off the mainland. What's the problem you ask? The airport barely has 200,000 passengers a year and already has a ferry that transports people to the airport.
The biggest gripe about the bridge besides the fact that it's only a quarter mile from the mainland to the island is that Alaska officials refused to fund the bridge themselves. They wanted all $398 million to be taxpayer money. Not only that, but when the government wanted to re-apportion all that money away from the bridge to help New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) threw a temper tantrum and threatened to quit the Senate.
This became a media spectacle and everyone from Alaskan residents to the media to Congress itself called the bridge project an example of porkbarrel spending which in layman's terms means "a waste of f*cking money."
Now, back to our beautiful governor.
She supported this plan...well, until it blew up in the state's face and became an embarrassment and she had to save face. So last September she officially canceled the plan. But guess what, all that taxpayer money got to stay in the state! Yup, the government said that Alaska should decide what to do with all that money. Wonder where all that money went...
A few more tidbits about Sugartits (hey, that rhymed!). She fully supports opening up the Alaska Wildlife Reserve to drill for oil that we wouldn't see for 10 years and is a metaphorical thimble full when compared to the rest of the world's supply. Also, she stated that she does not think global warming is man-made...but only after she was announced as McCain's running mate. And on that same tip, she threatened a lawsuit against a government motion (by the Repbulican Secretary of the Interior) that would put the polar bear on the endangered species list because it would "hurt oil and gas development off Alaska's north shore." Aww, isn't that nice.
Now Palin, pardon me, Sugartits isn't all bad. I'll give her one piece of credit. Remember that blank check the government gave Alaska after the Bridge to Nowhere plan was abolished? This year she's given Alaska residents an "energy debit card" worth $1,200 to help ease the crunch of gasoline prices. So actually, I think we should all feel better about ourselves because now we know where some of our tax money is going. To help all those Alaskans drive a little cheaper! Yahoo!!
That's about it for Sugartits. Remember, she's only been a governor for 21 months. I mean, I can see why John McCain picked her now. I mean she totally has more credentials than Barack Obama and his eight years as an Illinois State Senator and four as a U.S. Senator. And I mean, Sugartits's Broadcasting degree from the University of Idaho is so much more impressive than Obama's Political Science degree from Columbia and Law degree from Harvard where, oh by the way, he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude.
There's no comparison, right? I mean, Obama's biggest flaw is his lack of experience right? That's what McCain is trying to convince us of. He's not experienced enough. Man, I'm sure glad he picked a running mate that has experience then. He's not throwing a Hail Mary in an attempt to convince all the pyscho-feminist Hillary supporters that they should cross party lines and choose him instead of Barack Obama whose policy stances are very similar to those of Clinton. He's not trying to do that. And I mean, it's just a coincidence that she happens to be very attractive, right? You're not going to intentionally try and convince sexist Republicans that wouldn't vote for a woman president but would let it slide if she's a VP and easy on the eyes, right John? Nah. Not calling Shenanigans on that one.
I'll assume the Republicans are trying to take the high road here. Maybe a bridge; those are high roads. Yea, that's a good metaphor.
McCain-Palin 2008: "A Bridge to Nowhere."
13 comments:
First, Palin has 15 years experience in elected office. Second, 1.5 years as Ak governor TRUMPS Obama's 3 years as a senator when it comes to preparation for the presidency.
Finally, the election has become a very simple choice. On the left we have the privileged elitist son of an ivy league grad who was handed a prep school education and two ivy league degrees. Contrary to his commercials, he DID NOT work his way through college and one could argue he has not ever worked a day in his life. His running mate is yet another blue blooded, elitist, white-haired, white man. As someone who comes from a working class background, it is literally impossible to support such an elitist ticket. (And it makes me sick that people in this country actually think Obama had anything other than a silver spoons upbringing!).
Both parties have ill intentions, and these intentions indeed work in concert. The Reps focus on making the rich richer, and the Dems focus on making the poor poorer. The end result is the same. If we can prevent the further decline of the poor for at least four more years, that will benefit me and almost everyone I know.
Social programs are the opiate of today's time. By increasingly making things "easier" for the less fortunate, their children grow up without a sense of urgency regarding the attainment of wealth. As a result, the most brilliant people in the US never see university.
I would rather be forgotten by the right than actively oppressed by the left.
michael,
i appreciate that you care enough to read this and comment on it. and if you had some good evidence and solid points i'd applaud the debate. however, you are completely misinformed and/or brainwashed into thinking things are what they aren't about obama and his campaign. it's really unfortunate. the goal of this site is to enlighten as well as amuse. i'll be doing a follow up to this article next week as clearly some people still don't understand reality even though they stubbornly think they do.
Objective facts:
Obama's dad went to Harvard.
Obama attended Hawaii's best prep school.
Obama attended Columbia.
Obama attended Harvard.
(ref: www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/obama_b.htm)
We're you previously unaware of Obama's privileged background? (Most americans seem to be, I wouldn't fault you for it.) I am confused by your claim that I am misinformed. These are simple, verifiable facts.
did you even read my article?
in your first comment you said palin has 15 years experience as if i didn't mention her "experience" in perfect detail mentioning each of her positions of elected office.
but i'll let that slide...
now you say obama went to columbia and harvard, again, as if i didn't already write those in the original article. did you actually read the article michael? haha. this is becoming a joke.
also, obama's father left his family when obama was 2 years old to go back to kenya and died (after only seeing his son once before he did so) in 1982, a year before obama graduated from columbia and six years before he even attended harvard. i'm sure his father's corpse...in kenya...really helped him get in.
Now this has become an emotional debate for you. I apologize for evoking this, and must say I am shocked you would take personal shots at me over a political debate. I am certainly grateful that this election does not affect me to the point that it is emotional!
My reference to Palin's experience was a quick aside that has nothing to do with my choice not to support Obama. You know I have been long undecided and equally unimpressed with each candidate, so now that a simple set of facts has solidified my decision not to support Obama, I thought it appropriate to bounce it off of you. You have yet to rationally reply to my line of reasoning.
Obama's father "left" to take a position of power in Kenya. There is no way this did not benefit Barack. Are you honestly telling me that being the son of one of the most powerful individuals in an entire country does not benefit a person? Jokes have emerged indeed!
Barack Sr. being dead did not change the fact that Obama was a legacy at Harvard. Checking the box indicating this on an ivy league application ALWAYS aids in the admissions process. Again, was YOUR argument a "joke?"
I do not wish to support a privileged individual that has not put in hard work in this life. You questioned my assessment and I provided a reference to verify a simple set of facts upon which I am basing my decision. I think you are well aware that should you offer a cool rebutal with references of your own to dispell my alleged "brainwashing" I will be all ears.
emotional? that's a strong word and one that i wouldn't attach to politics in any way. passionate? yes. because i give a shit where this country is headed.
now, i am not so naive that i don't think fathers or mothers have helped their sons get into schools. hell, look at george bush. that's a clear silver spoon story. however, barack obama even with a father who attended harvard did not have anything handed to him. his mother and grandparents were poor as dirt and originally his father was too. hard work was the reason why his father got to be what he was and the reason barack was able to ascend to where he is. connections only take you so far. you don't become the president of the harvard law review because your dad went there 20 years before. to think that is so far past skeptical it borders on crazy.
BUT, regardless of how obama got to go to columbia or harvard or teach grad school at u of chicago (how'd his father help him there or columbia for that matter!?) he got a first rate education. and i'm sorry, when was it ever bad for a president to be intelligent...more intelligent than you are i?
here's the deal: people nowadays are dumb because they want to elect someone they can relate to. that is the worst logic possible. i don't want someone as smart as me. i want someone better, smarter, better equipped to deal with the problems a president of this country has to face than me.
naysayers dub this elitism. realistic people call this "the way it should be".
the president of the USA is the most powerful position in the world. why you WOULDN'T want the best (which is what elite means, btw) to be in that position?
so if wanting the smartest, most civil, most reasonable, most caring president is elitism than i'm an elitist. i want the best. you can have your meat and potatoes but you're gonna have to enjoy them without any heat on because the mccain camp won't be giving you any breaks on your taxes because they only care about their rich friends.
so: you failed to prove that palin has even remotely enough experience to be included in a campaign like this. and you've also failed to make anything more than wild assumptions based in stereotype about obama's work ethic.
oh yea, and the day that a poor black kid that came from nothing is thought of as more elite than a rich white guy is the day we can breathe underwater. it's just preposterous.
even though your logic is severely flawed i can still appreciate your enthusiasm in the process. but wow, there's a reason there's about 75 articles written in two days about how stupid mccain is for picking palin. mine isn't an anomaly.
More comedy! Thank you so much! Okay, I'll play your game.
Son, I am literally at the pinnacle of academic achievement and understand it a lot better than you do. Barack, the JD is "more intelligent" than an MD, PhD?? Now I am rolling on the floor.
It is clear that you have not done research on how academia operates. It is clear you are in denial about Obama's roots (even though I provided a link for you to read it in black and white--peculiar).
Being the son of a government official is obviously going to help someone get into Harvard AND Columbia, which subsequently will get someone a job at UofC. What is preposterous is suggesting otherwise.
I sincerely thought you would make a logical argument, but you are clearly just another Obama band wagoneer. Think for yourself. Get your information from places other than the media machine.
And thank you for pointing out Barack's becoming president of the Harvard Law Review: yet another position only attainable by those born into certain social circles. (What's next, pointing out that he sits on the CFR? yeah...he wasn't born privileged...).
Again, provide a cool explaination of how your ideas are even rational, let alone correct, WITH REFERENCES, and I will be all ears. Regurgitating what we hear from every mainstream media outlet is of little value.
Bottom line: I respect hard work. Barack has never worked. My parents really did grow up in a ghetto and really did overcome adversity and hardship to give me the life I have. Barack makes a joke of hard work when he suggests that his life has involved struggle. (He and his wife even go so far as to suggest that they struggled together at a time when it can be verified that their income was 200k a year! Oh, poor Obama!) I guess when you grow up in Westport, going to a MERE top prep school is considered "dirt poor?" What does that make me, a slave? An animal? Come on, you can say what you really feel.
I think we both know where each other stands. The difference is, I have provided a list of cold verifiable facts to support a position. Still waiting for you to attempt the same.
If you want someone to defend the McCain/Palin ticket, you'll have to find someone else to debate. All I did was point out that objectively, Palin has more experience than Obama. That he subjectively has more experience is a seperate argument.
Regarding the articles bashing Palin: are you serious? If she weren't a good choice that has the Dems worried, they wouldn't be putting so much effort into bashing her. Watching the dems run around as if they'd been soaked in gasoline and lit on fire for the past two days has been hilarious to watch.
sources huh?
i'm so glad you've provided me with so many "verifiable facts". oh wait, you gave me one link to information i've already read and used in my original article. again, did you actually read my article because if you did you wouldn't constantly try and tell me things i already know.
and also, all your obama bashing is complete speculation. it doesn't say anywhere in your one source that "barack obama senior wrote a letter to the dean of columbia to help him get in" and so on. you assume that because you have an angry prejudice against people that grew up on the richer side of the tracks.
funnily enough, he didn't even grow up on that rich side. just because your dad is a big gov't wig (in fucking kenya, who cares!) does not mean that your mother or grandparents has any money. there's no evidence that his father left him money or whatever.
YOU are making wild assumptions based in your own prejudices about people in general that grew up with more than you. you say are an independent mind with top tier education but no one on this planet is making the assumptions about obama that you are. even the republicans are just saying that BECAUSE he went to those universities that he's elitist. not how he got to them which you are saying he's been handed those educations which you cannot prove and even the far right doesn't believe.
no one in their right mind believe sarah palin's experience as a city councilwoman and mayor of some podunk town in alaska and then governor of a state smaller in size that 16 CITIES in america, oh yea, for less than 2 years has more experience than obama. i don't know what kind of fantasy camp you're living in.
btw, THAT was what the article was about. the fact that she clearly was a poor choice because her lack of experience cancels out the only "attack" mccain had on obama.
you look at everyone and their mother bashing palin and her lack of experience and you see it as running around in panic. people with logical eyeglasses on see it as everyone laughing at the republicans because it is such a terrible pick for him. she brings NOTHING to the table. nothing.
that was what the article was about and then you went on your diatribe about why you're butthurt over the fact that some people have had a more privelaged life than you which you try and attach to obama...unsuccessfully. again, you've only given me one source and it was lame because i already knew all that information.
and as far as personal attacks go, i find it funny that you'd suggest because my family lives in westport, ct that automatically i've had a silverspoon upbringing myself. no sir.
your entire argument is nothing but prejudice and hurt feelings. the way you were raised is admirable but if you had to choose between obama and mccain to better suit you in the next four years, thinking mccain would be the better choice is like standing in the middle of the street and thinking you're impervious to being hit by a car.
you talk a big game but honestly, you've shown me nothing. you have no "verifiable facts" that i haven't already seen. in fact, you've given me one source...which sucked.
oh and i didn't go to a prep school as you assumed. again, your "facts" are wrong. so much for all that education you got huh?
You are arguing against points that I never made. Not once did I bash or attack Obama. Not once did I endorse McCain. Not once did I assume you went to a prep school. I did question how one who can afford the best prep school in their state is considered "dirt poor" in your eyes, which you have yet to answer. Again, how is it that you view people such as myself? If I were bitter about my socioeconomic status, don't you think I would have passed on surgery (read: 14 years of post university training, in my case) to be making six figures now (i.e. as a JD, a degree I would have finished two years ago)?
Again, prove that Obama did not have the financial support of his father growing up and prove that he is somehow the only person in history to be an ivy league legacy who's legacy was ignored during the admissions process. Also take note of the fact that I never faulted Obama for having this upbringing, only for lying about it. Do this and Obama will return to the top of my list which currently has a total of zero names on it. In all seriousness, if you support Obama so vehemently, why not try to win my vote [I live in a swing state] rather than demonize me? If it's such an easy argument, be cool and enlighten me. You are well aware that's why I started the dialog (months ago, even)--because I know you pay closer attention to this stuff than I do. Most importantly, CPunch, please realize there will be ZERO hard feelings arising from this debate on my part, so don't hold back (as if you would!). I hope you feel the same.
Four years ago big money duped America by placing John Kerry at the top of the democratic ticket. He was literally the only man on the planet incapable of toppling GWB. Now America is being fooled again, by GWB in JFK's clothes.
my mistake on the "me going to prep school" thing, your phrase where you assumed since i was from westport i thought prep school was no big deal read differently to me the first time. however, i don't believe any prep schools are cheap. however there is a thing called scholarships. i'm sure you've heard of them.
now i cannot prove in this moment that that is how he got to the prep school he did however regardless of how he got there, legacy alone (at another school mind you) would not soley be the reason one got into columbia and eventually harvard. you need to have the grades. because obama has (as far as my memory serves) never openly said how he got to either school i find it a bit unfair to blatantly assume columbia and harvard both remembered who this kid's dad was (why would columbia?) and think "we have to get this kid in!"
i understand you not wanting to trust any politician and assuming the worst. my problem with this election is i feel that finally there is someone that is trying to end that cynicism. he's doing more than any other politician has to keep everything about him and the gov't he hopes to lead as trasparent as possible.
as far as john kerry goes, the democrats had no idea what they were doing 4 years ago and didn't have any qualified picks. i voted for kerry purely on the grounds of "there is no way we can cope with four more of gwb." and i think we can all agree that was the only logical choice in that election as bad as kerry was.
to compare obama as bush in democrat clothing is THE worst argument against obama i have ever heard. it's laughable. seriously, i'm glad we're having this conversation but seriously, you cannot actually believe he is another bush just painted in the opposite colors. c'mon now. you're better than that.
May I interject? I have read both of your opinions and like the verbal volleying.
However, I have no witty barbs or funny comments nor do I have any links to verifiable facts and research. My issue is this. I am sick of the same old same old. Not fond of either party or our candidates. But, I will be voting Obama.
I say that as a almost middle aged white woman who actually grew up in the "ghetto", worked since I am 14 putting myself through college full time. My parents were poor. They were also republican. Go figure. I don't give a crap if Obama is an elitist. I don't care if he got a free ride throughout his life. Seriously. DON'T CARE. Throughout history regardless whether you are talking USA or otherwise - people in "high places" I say that jokingly are always elitist, priveleged and such. So f**g what. And, no offense kids, if you have balls to run for office your ego is probably bigger than..Well, you get the picture.
Personally, I dont like McCain. Why you ask? He's too goddamn old. Period. You may also say "well, Reagan was old." A 72 yo Reagan and a 72 yo McCain. Night and day. I was there and I guarantee, I am older then both you two and know what I'm talking about. Not my first rodeo, pardon the pun.
That's all folks. Just throwing my two cents in the ring.
this argument sounds terrible. both of you sound like little babies.
"whaa! i dont want the pretty girl to ruin my man-crush on B.O."
"whaaa! i paid so much for my education and people STILL dont care what i have to say, so i pick fights on blogs"
lame
what about Biden being a total cock?
what about the fact that Palin could be our first VPilf?
After watching the RNC convention last night I concluded that Cindy McCain is really Sarah Palin's 5th child. Just look into those eyes... If she isn't ripe with Down Syndrome I don't know who is.
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