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You're killing me here. Once again, you're about to screw the pooch, because you simply do not understand why McCain chose Sarah Palin for his VP, why she is dangerous to your party and how on earth to handle her.
Michigan should not be in play in this election. We've voted for Democrats in the last five presidential elections. We have a Democrat Governor, a Democrat controlled state house and senate. Both of our senators are democrats. We're bigtime union country and our economy is actually worse than the rest of the nation. And yet, we are in play – which tells me one thing:
Obama is in big fucking trouble, and needs to do something about it RIGHT NOW.
You need to understand that despite all the talk about her appealing to all the disgruntled Clinton women PUMA voters, that's not even the primary reason he chose her. And that all of the hollering and screaming about “OMG JOHN MCCAIN IS ASSUMING WE'LL VOTE WITH HER BECAUSE SHE HAS A VAGINA. WHAT A FUCKTARD!” is completely missing the point.
This is what John McCain wanted to do with this pick:
Steal Obama's thunder right after his speech at the end of the DNC and to keep the press on the Republicans until after the RNC. Let's face it, if the VP choice had been less shocking it would have been a footnote, and Obama's DNC speech that would have gotten days of airtime coverage. As it is – the Democrats are so desperate for media attention that Obama went on Bill O'Riley's show last night, because they knew it would make headlines.
Galvanize his base of conservatives who have been totally lukewarm towards him but now are just as excited about her as Democrats are about Obama.
Rub salt in the wound and keep the wedge between the disgruntled Hillary voters and the Obama supporters. I really don't think McCain figures he's going gain many votes from the women who vote mostly on Roe v. Wade. But what he wants to do is keep them pissed off enough at the Obama camp so that they stay home or vote for a third party candidate. And every sexist statement by the media or your supporters helps make this happen.
Add someone onto the ticket who's not a Washington insider. This is another huge bonus, because people love voting for governors. In fact, there's only been two siting congressmen that have ever won a presidential ticket. And as much as people hate Bush, they hate congress even more (they have what, a 19% approval rating? Even Bush has more supporters than that). The fact that she's from Alaska makes it even better, because people romanticize the state,like it's the last frontier or something.
Woo the independents and Reagan Democrats. This is where he's planning on picking up votes – from the NASCAR, blue collar, gun toting, pickup driving, union, church going, deer hunting crowd. And dude... she's tailor made to appeal to them. They love her, and they think of her as one of their own which is why when Democrats attack her family choices they're shooting themselves in the foot. If she plays well here, I suspect she'll also be popular in Ohio, Penn and other states that are heavy with Reagan Democrats.
So what should you do?
Back the fuck off when it comes to asking about whether or not she can handle being a mom and on the pregnancy of her daughter, because if this campaign becomes about Sarah Palin's family – you're going to lose.
Stick to the issues, especially the economy and gas prices, and pound the shit out of the Republicans there. Talk about how how jobs are moving out of the country – and what the hell you're going to do about it.
Stop trying to compare Palin's experience to Obama's experience. Let's face it, their experience is equally thin. And since your inexperienced candidate is on the top of the ticket, you're the ones with the most to lose. Besides, this argument is a loser argument. It didn't work for Hillary. It didn't work for McCain, and it's not going to work against Palin. It's a waste of time, and turns one of your biggest strengths (that Obama hasn't spent tons of time in Washington) into a weakness.
Don't make anymore statements about guns and religion. Do not let them make you out to be one of the out of touch, intellectual elite, Washington insiders.
And for Michigan specifically – take advantage of the fact that Kwami Kilpatrick has finally been booted out of office. Point out that it was the Democrats that were the driving force getting him out and fighting corruption from within their own party.
Seriously. Don't underestimate this choice, by minimizing it or thinking it's stupid. It's goddamned brilliant. It's your election to lose, and in the last week or so, you've done a spectacular job at fucking up an almost sure thing.
Michigan should not be in play in this election. We've voted for Democrats in the last five presidential elections. We have a Democrat Governor, a Democrat controlled state house and senate. Both of our senators are democrats. We're bigtime union country and our economy is actually worse than the rest of the nation. And yet, we are in play – which tells me one thing:
Obama is in big fucking trouble, and needs to do something about it RIGHT NOW.
You need to understand that despite all the talk about her appealing to all the disgruntled Clinton women PUMA voters, that's not even the primary reason he chose her. And that all of the hollering and screaming about “OMG JOHN MCCAIN IS ASSUMING WE'LL VOTE WITH HER BECAUSE SHE HAS A VAGINA. WHAT A FUCKTARD!” is completely missing the point.
This is what John McCain wanted to do with this pick:
Steal Obama's thunder right after his speech at the end of the DNC and to keep the press on the Republicans until after the RNC. Let's face it, if the VP choice had been less shocking it would have been a footnote, and Obama's DNC speech that would have gotten days of airtime coverage. As it is – the Democrats are so desperate for media attention that Obama went on Bill O'Riley's show last night, because they knew it would make headlines.
Galvanize his base of conservatives who have been totally lukewarm towards him but now are just as excited about her as Democrats are about Obama.
Rub salt in the wound and keep the wedge between the disgruntled Hillary voters and the Obama supporters. I really don't think McCain figures he's going gain many votes from the women who vote mostly on Roe v. Wade. But what he wants to do is keep them pissed off enough at the Obama camp so that they stay home or vote for a third party candidate. And every sexist statement by the media or your supporters helps make this happen.
Add someone onto the ticket who's not a Washington insider. This is another huge bonus, because people love voting for governors. In fact, there's only been two siting congressmen that have ever won a presidential ticket. And as much as people hate Bush, they hate congress even more (they have what, a 19% approval rating? Even Bush has more supporters than that). The fact that she's from Alaska makes it even better, because people romanticize the state,like it's the last frontier or something.
Woo the independents and Reagan Democrats. This is where he's planning on picking up votes – from the NASCAR, blue collar, gun toting, pickup driving, union, church going, deer hunting crowd. And dude... she's tailor made to appeal to them. They love her, and they think of her as one of their own which is why when Democrats attack her family choices they're shooting themselves in the foot. If she plays well here, I suspect she'll also be popular in Ohio, Penn and other states that are heavy with Reagan Democrats.
So what should you do?
Back the fuck off when it comes to asking about whether or not she can handle being a mom and on the pregnancy of her daughter, because if this campaign becomes about Sarah Palin's family – you're going to lose.
Stick to the issues, especially the economy and gas prices, and pound the shit out of the Republicans there. Talk about how how jobs are moving out of the country – and what the hell you're going to do about it.
Stop trying to compare Palin's experience to Obama's experience. Let's face it, their experience is equally thin. And since your inexperienced candidate is on the top of the ticket, you're the ones with the most to lose. Besides, this argument is a loser argument. It didn't work for Hillary. It didn't work for McCain, and it's not going to work against Palin. It's a waste of time, and turns one of your biggest strengths (that Obama hasn't spent tons of time in Washington) into a weakness.
Don't make anymore statements about guns and religion. Do not let them make you out to be one of the out of touch, intellectual elite, Washington insiders.
And for Michigan specifically – take advantage of the fact that Kwami Kilpatrick has finally been booted out of office. Point out that it was the Democrats that were the driving force getting him out and fighting corruption from within their own party.
Seriously. Don't underestimate this choice, by minimizing it or thinking it's stupid. It's goddamned brilliant. It's your election to lose, and in the last week or so, you've done a spectacular job at fucking up an almost sure thing.
From:
Yes. THIS, THIS AND MORE THIS...
Yup. My worry about this is that I'm skeptical that we're going to be able to pay for some kind of national health care as well as social security, medicare, medicaid and all the other government entitlement programs.
But I totally get why this appeals to people. Health care is so completely fucked up right now and something really has to be done (hell if I know what that is... but I'm willing to listen to both sides).
Then again, while I'm very interested in Obama's message, his foreign policy inexperiance worries me. For example, his latest gaffe about the Georgia situation - He said we should bring it up to the UN and pass a resolution - basically have the UN make Russia stop. Dude, while personally I'm not sure wtf to do, even I know that Russia sits on the security council and would Veto anything.
Yeah, this was a really bad moment for the Obama campaign. There was a big *facepalm* for me that day.
I also recognise that - despite what he says - some of the domestic plans will invove tax increases. If not for me personally, then indirectly. The 'fat-cat businessmen' whom he does hit for taxes will pass along any costs they have to the consumer. They always do. Or they decide taxes are too high and just move the businesses overseas, resulting in job loss.
The trick is to balance the needs of business with having them pay their fair share. I'm not so sure he can.
Exactly. Over the last five years my husband has been laid off three times, and I've watched business after business after business move out of Michigan. In fact, at his current job, they're moving an entire shift over to Malaysia and we're wondering how long it will take for the whole division to move overseas.
But why are jobs moving out of Michigan to other states and countries - because our corporate business tax is one of the highest in the nation. And when you add that to the federal corporate tax - it's just cheaper for them to move out.
What's the answer? I dunno. I just know that adding to their tax burden is going to make a bad situation much much worse.
There has to be a way to find balance there, but I'm not sure that Obama is willing to find it.
On the other hand, I'm really not all that thrilled on McCain.
Me either. He has just as many wtf moments as Obama has and just as many policy problems too.
I can't tell you how extremely pissed the hell off I was over the down-syndrome baby crap. I had an on-line political blog friend pass along some Palin shit when her name was announced, which included some baby comments.
Pretty despicable stuff. What makes this even crazier is that the Democrats are the ones that are supposed to be championing people like these - and this sends the message of, "We only care about people like this, if they're on our side." Bad, bad, bad.
While I recognise all that crap isn't Obama's view, if he can't seem to reign in the crazies on his side he's going to blow this.
Yup. I think his friends are much more harmful to him than his enemies. It will be interesting to see if he can get them under control.
From: (Anonymous)
Re: Yes. THIS, THIS AND MORE THIS...
omg yes, he's probably wishing they would all STFU.
http://explorations.chasrmartin.com/2008/09/06/palin-rumors/
is now up to 66 rumors and counting.
Now I'm starting to wonder if the Repubs are planting this to make the Dems look like elitist pricks... then I wander over to some Dem sites and see it for myself and WTF...
Then more political ads come on the TV over and over - omg everybody STFU! It's overkill.
-Feza
(Shhhh still at work)