Friday, September 12, 2008

Republicans Running Against Themselves - Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor writes in a piece in The Irish Times,
"SO THE Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling: "Throw the bums out!"
Yeah, throw em out. An 8 year hiatus will give them time to come up with some fresh plans.

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VP candidate Sarah Palin gets an F for her first ever national interview with Charlie Gibson. I don't know what was more frightening - the fact that she doesn't have a clue what the Bush Doctrine as defined in the U.S. Government document The National Security Strategy 2002 is (it says among other things that "we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting preemptively"), the fact that she will lie about her stance on Global-warming (we've had 8 years of an anti-science administration, we can't stand more), or saying she recently contacted Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili and told him, "we will be committed to Georgia. And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable...".

That's great - we have a woman who hadn't been out of the U.S. until last year, has never met a head of state, and who says she knows about Russia because, "they're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska ... from an island in Alaska."....talking to the President of Georgia? I can see a hospital when I look out my back door, using her logic I guess that means I'd be a good candidate if they need a surgeon in the operating room.

Combine that with Cheney's saber rattling, the fact that one of the many lobbyists on McCain's campaign team is a lobbyist for Georgia, who's been paid more than $730,000 by the Republic of Georgia since 2001, and the idea that a military/industrial complex needs a war...makes the conspiracy theorist in me wonder what the hell might be on the horizon.

No style points either - Her poise was lacking, she was not able to reflect and articulate independent thoughts in an acceptable manner and if you look at her face you can see she was afraid (as she and we should be).

Having a clown for a VP running mate isn't necessarily a show stopper but having an under-informed, dogmatic, fundamentalist, will be.

I think we all can have faith that the future will be bright with Barack Obama as the leader of a revitalized America creating real change, economic growth, helping those least able to help themselves and ending the divisive "fight fight fight" attitude of the last 8 years.

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James Fallows writing in the Atlantic does a great job explaining why that blank stare Sarah Palin gave Charlie Gibson when he asked her about the "Bush Doctrine" is not acceptable for someone being put before the American people as a Vice Presidential candidate.