With the election over, the knives have come out. Yes, open warfare has broken out between the staffers of John McCain and Sarah Palin, each one blaming the other for Tuesday's loss.
McCain's people let slip to the media that Palin was rather fuzzy on some basic facts. For example, she thought Africa was a country rather than a continent and she didn't know which countries are party to the North American Free Trade Agreement. (Answer: the United States, Canada and Mexico.) They also said that her now-infamous shopping spree was far more expensive than previously disclosed and that many of the clothes have mysteriously disappeared.
Even Fox News - Fox News! - has found it hard to defend her.
In retaliation, Palin's people have gone crying to Rush Limbaugh and the nuttiest of the wingnuts, complaining that all the people saying bad things about this poor helpless woman are just a bunch of sore-loser poopyheads. And the real wingnuts in the GOP have vowed not only to boycott Fox News, but to push all the insufficiently pure out of the party, leaving only the true believers behind.
Yes, they're serious. The American people rejected on Tuesday a Republican Party controlled by the crazies, so the solution is quite simple: more crazies!
I, for one, welcome a GOP controlled by people who are firmly dedicated to denying reality. After all, that's a sure-fire recipe for permanent Democratic control of our government.
11/06/2008
11/05/2008
The Morning After
Wow.
Just - wow.
What a night. After eight years of disastrous government, of endless and useless war, of a completely preventable economic collapse, the grownups finally got elected last night. The American people soundly rejected the fear-and-smear politics that has marked the GOP for the last twenty years, and told Karl Rove and his acolytes to go back to their caves.
As John McCain made his concession speech last night, you could see it in his face - the crushing realization that had he not jettisoned his principles and caved in to the God-guns-and-gays wing of the party, he might well have won the election. But no, he allowed Sarah Palin to be foisted onto the ticket and handed control of the campaign over to the crazies.
And now we have the results.
Barack Obama gave us real-world solutions to our domestic and international crises, while McCain could only mumble about Joe the Plumber and Bill Ayers.
The GOP sneered at Obama's Ivy League education as "elitist," portraying Palin's six-schools-in-five-years college career as something to be emulated. What they never figured out is that when it comes to important things like government, we want our leaders to be not just good, but the best.
Let's suppose you get very sick and have to be rushed to the hospital. What sort of doctor do you want working on you? Do you want someone who went to Harvard Medical School, been board-certified in numerous specialties, keeps up with the latest research, regularly takes refresher courses, and generally makes sure that she's the best damn doctor around?
Or do you want someone who graduated at the bottom of her class from some fourth-rate school, barely passed her medical boards, and just manages to avoid losing her license every other month?
The tale of the Regular Joe solving everyone's problems with some down-home common sense makes for a good story, but in the real world we see what that gets us - a government that lurches from disaster to disaster, consumed by the arrogance of power.
With the Democrats taking control of the White House as well as both houses of Congress, we now have a real chance to restore economic and social justice to America. No more trickle-down economics that ends up trickling on the people who need help the most. A strong middle class makes it better for everyone. And even though there are bumps along the way (e.g., California's apparent passage of the ballot initiative banning gay marriage) it's time to treat all Americans as first-class citizens.
So let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. We've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go.
Just - wow.
What a night. After eight years of disastrous government, of endless and useless war, of a completely preventable economic collapse, the grownups finally got elected last night. The American people soundly rejected the fear-and-smear politics that has marked the GOP for the last twenty years, and told Karl Rove and his acolytes to go back to their caves.
As John McCain made his concession speech last night, you could see it in his face - the crushing realization that had he not jettisoned his principles and caved in to the God-guns-and-gays wing of the party, he might well have won the election. But no, he allowed Sarah Palin to be foisted onto the ticket and handed control of the campaign over to the crazies.
And now we have the results.
Barack Obama gave us real-world solutions to our domestic and international crises, while McCain could only mumble about Joe the Plumber and Bill Ayers.
The GOP sneered at Obama's Ivy League education as "elitist," portraying Palin's six-schools-in-five-years college career as something to be emulated. What they never figured out is that when it comes to important things like government, we want our leaders to be not just good, but the best.
Let's suppose you get very sick and have to be rushed to the hospital. What sort of doctor do you want working on you? Do you want someone who went to Harvard Medical School, been board-certified in numerous specialties, keeps up with the latest research, regularly takes refresher courses, and generally makes sure that she's the best damn doctor around?
Or do you want someone who graduated at the bottom of her class from some fourth-rate school, barely passed her medical boards, and just manages to avoid losing her license every other month?
The tale of the Regular Joe solving everyone's problems with some down-home common sense makes for a good story, but in the real world we see what that gets us - a government that lurches from disaster to disaster, consumed by the arrogance of power.
With the Democrats taking control of the White House as well as both houses of Congress, we now have a real chance to restore economic and social justice to America. No more trickle-down economics that ends up trickling on the people who need help the most. A strong middle class makes it better for everyone. And even though there are bumps along the way (e.g., California's apparent passage of the ballot initiative banning gay marriage) it's time to treat all Americans as first-class citizens.
So let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. We've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go.
11/03/2008
One Day to Go
Election Day is tomorrow, and that means both campaigns are pulling out all the stops. It is said that the final few days of any campaign tells you far more about the person running for office than all the speeches and debates can possibly do. Let's compare:
But now it's all up to you. No matter who you support, get out to the polls tomorrow and cast your ballot. Make a difference. Exercise your right to steer our nation's future.
Vote!
- Barack Obama bought thirty minutes of prime time television to tell America in plain English how he will rework the nation's tax policies, work to fix the economic crisis, and rebuild our shattered international image while dealing with potential threads.
- John McCain sent out his surrogates to call Obama disloyal.
But now it's all up to you. No matter who you support, get out to the polls tomorrow and cast your ballot. Make a difference. Exercise your right to steer our nation's future.
Vote!
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