Now that Palin has FINALLY done an interview I can comment on it. I don't think from a political standpoint it was that bad, but she made some definite gaffes. First, know what the Bush doctrine is. I'm glad she knows less about the last 8 years than me (I 14 when Bush made that doctrine and even I remember it). Second, I don't think the best way to approach Russia is to say in your first interview with national media that you support going to war with them over Georgia. That's not a smart move diplomacy wise, but who said anything about needing diplomacy in the GOP. The worst part of her speech was her tiptoeing around the foreign policy experience question. She said that Alaska is close to Russia so she knows about Russia basically which is the dumbest thing to say. Beside that one stupid comment, she insists that her foreign policy experience comes in the form of government reform and energy experience. No Sarah, your government reform and energy experience come from your government reform and energy experience. I understand that energy is a foreign policy issue, but only a small part of foreign policy. That in no way qualifies you in foreign policy experience for VP. She has never met a head of state!?!?!? Oh it's ok though because she says a lot of VP candidates would have said the same thing. Well, let's list them off. Cheney, Gore, Quayle, Bush, and Mondale had all certainly met heads of state. So that makes it at least 30 years since a VP candidate had not met a head of state. Way to check your facts.
I would also like to note, on a different subject, that the lies that are coming out of the McCain camp are ridiculous. His new ad basically claims Obama is a sexist and uses quotes (none of which are from Obama) completely out of context to justify this. Factcheck.org ripped them on it. It is an abomination that they can do this and the American people don't throw a fit. Hm we need to get the women Hillary voters and we have no legit way of doing it so let's pick an unqualified woman VP and then say Obama is sexist when he says something bad about her. Real nice strategy Karl. Let's just ruin our country even more. Eight years obviously wasn't enough. If you vote for the McCain-Palin ticket you deserve all the hardships of the last 8 years and of the 4 that would come in the future. Do you not have the problem-solving ability to understand that Obama has been talking about change forever and now McCain talks about it so Obama must be right? If your opponent steals your campaign mantra and wins, the electorate is stupid. Period.

I find it quite insulting that the GOP thinks it can pillage the American people. Then again, maybe it can. If the public does not wake up and pay attention to what is going on in reality, we are doomed as a society. Why in the world would you elect a sell-out Repub and a conservative extremist after the last 8 years? I guess the GOP figured that if their campaign wasn't working, they would just steal the other guys slogan. Change? How does McCain represent change? He's old, out of touch and has been in Washington forever. I find it appalling that Palin attacked Biden because he is a "Washington creature." Hmmm, so is McCain. Maybe she didn't know that because she doesn't seem to know much. It is also insulting that the person who could be the next VP of the US is being hideden from public scrutiny. Obviously the McCain camp wants her out of the real media spotlight until A. they know more about her since they decided not to vet her and B. she actually learns about national issues. By the way, is Cindy McCain taking those painkillers again? If the best thing you can say about your VP candidate's foreign policy experience is that she governed the state geographically closest to Alaska, she should not be VP. I don't think the American people understand how devastating this election could be if McCain wins. As a college student, if he wins, I am seriously considering moving to another country... at least for a while. I will have lost faith in American democracy if the McCain-Palin ticket wins. With so much work to be done, how will electing a guy who bragged about voting with Bush more than 90% of the time going to help us? On another note, with so many weaknesses in the GOP ticket, if the Democrats can't take advantage of it I will be disappointed in our party as well. Senator Obama: enlist my help. If the GOP wants to play hardball we can play too. Instead of attacking experience or (good) personality, we can attack issues in a cutthroat manner. There are ways to approach issues on the atack and on the defensive. Obama should attack McCain on EVERY SINGLE ISSUE at the debates. He has no revolutionary plan. He has no change. He has no way to help this country. Expose him for who he is: a liar, a sell-out, a panderer and a typical Washington Repub. Please, the future of the greatest country in the world is at stake. How do empires fall? Failure of internal infrastructure and overextension abroad. Hm, sounds like us right now. Unless you want to live in a world dominated by China, Russia and Japan, vote for Barack Obama, the REAL candidate for change.

Until tomorrow,
A TRUE believer in democracy

So here is what I can deduce about the McCain-Palin platform from last night's speech:

1. Cut taxes for the rich and say Obama is raising taxes when he isn't

2. Drill, drill, drill

3. Retrain workers for the new workforce (the only one I agree with)

4. Continue the Iraq debacle

5. Some vague things about health care

6. Do everything Bush did

7. McCain is an American hero (which he is)

None of that tells me what McCain is going to do about the 6.1% unemployment rate or the millions of uninsured Americans. Actually, the McCain camp said they aren't uninsured because they can always go to the emergency room. Two things are wrong with that statement. The first is that it makes absolutely no sense. That's not insurance. Get a dictionary. Secondly, that statement is half of what's wrong with health insurance. Claims from emergency room visits that could have been prevented are ridiculously high (I intern for a top 5 health insurance company). Oh yea, apparently John McCain has insight into the next 100 years because he said that education is the civil rights movement of this century. First of all nobody is struggling to gain access to education in the sense that they are denied from having it by the government like they were civil rights. Second, we are 8 years into the century... John McCain will be dead before we are a quarter of the way through it.

To the Democratic Party/the Obama-Biden camp:

Winning formula:

1. Nail Palin on the ISSUES. Her positions do not coincide with any undecided voter. They aren't center right or even right. They are stupid. Teach creationism, deny global warming exists and ban books. That is all Biden should have to say in the debate.

2. Keep the spotlight off Palin. She is only a distraction. Focus on McCain. He is by far the weakest candidate on either of the tickets. His Rove prodigy says this is going to be a campaign of personalities and not issues. Let's make it about the issues, but when it gets diverted to personality let's highlight McCain's faults: he's out of touch and a horrible speaker.

3. Don't go negative. Don't be like the Republican party. They suck.

4. Call out the Republicans on their lies in the debates. You can't let McCain get away with saying Obama is going to raise taxes. Have Obama recite the chart on cnnmoney.com with the tax figures for the two plans. If you want to market something you have to make it concrete. Give the people numbers... real numbers.

5. If the McCain camp tries to pull the flip-flop thing again PLEASE highlight all of McCain's flip-flops from ok policies to Bush policies.

6. Force McCain to lay out his plans concretely (he doesn't have any good ones so just let him talk about them all he wants).

It isn't that hard. I love America and I would hate to graduate college in a couple years and have to leave the country because if McCain wins that is exactly what I'm doing. I've had enough of these socially backward, economically ignorant, free-market loving idiots that have been running our country. They call us angry liberals. We are liberals and we are angry so thank you. We are angry because you ruined our country. Thanks a lot guys.

Until tomorrow.
A TRUE believer in Democracy

P.S. Michael Dukakis was awesome on Larry King... just stay out of that tank.

Coming from a woman who touts herself as a Washington outsider, Governor Palin sure did take a play from the Republican playbook. Check that, she took the whole playbook. Last night's attacks on Senator Obama were agregious. Nowhere in between insulting community organizers, condoning the restriction of people's rights and sarcastically attacking Barack's service record did she mention anything about how to help our struggling country. I know I will feel safe if we get a VP whose experience consists of beign a mayor of a town smaller than most colleges and being governor for less than two years.
On a side note, if one more Republican says the Democrats are being sexist toward Governor Palin (see the Larry King spot with the always amazing James Carville and that stupid US Rep from Minnesota), I may have to find a way to make a national media spotlight. First of all, nobody in the Obama or Biden camp has said anything about her family. In fact, for those of us that pay attention to such things as facts and issues, Obama said he would fire anybody that brought it up. Secondly, the most sexist thing I have seen thusfar are those stupid buttons that say Hottest VP from the Coolest State or something of that nature. That's not objectifying women or anything....
Anyways, I just started this blog because I am sick of the Republican party and their little games. They are backwards in so many ways. In fact, they have the completely wrong philosophy on government. That will be my next post.

Until tomorrow,
A TRUE Believer in Democracy

P.S. A note to my man known as the Ragin' Cajun: in that Larry King episode where that woman called you sexist (Lol at that) because you said Palin has no experience, you should have said "Then all of the Republicans must be racist because they say Obama has no experience." Race card > gender card.