This Started Out To be About The Dems

But John McCain announced his running mate this morning, and it called for a change of gears and priorities. And I know that the announcement had hardly hit the airwaves when Andy Borowitz had already had his say about how Palin would remove a moose from your front lawn, but I have a slightly different set of takes.

The given availability of well-known, stalwart Republicans, time-honored, conservative defenders of the faith and proponents of neo-con brain fade that McEmptiness had to choose from (somewhere Romney is weeping and Huckabee is praying for a pestilence), this choice seems McStrange (so what else is new?). For openers, nobody knows her (do you know ANYONE from Alaska? Have you ever? It's like North Dakota, just farther away), she is (pardon the expression) no Hillary Clinton and we have no evidence that she can spell (or do anything else better) than Dan Quayle. And , like any good Repug of our time, she brings with her the taint of having perhaps played political games with hiring and firing practices, over an in-law's job with the State government. She has come from literally nowhere and brings practically nothing to the table. A Republican without a scandal of some sort is like a steak without A-1 sauce. However...

While the American people should be worried about her current qualifications and long-term liabilities, the person who should be really worried is Cindy McCain. Ms. Palin is young (44), attractive, a former pageant winner, and to some onlookers, maybe even a bit sultry. Given McCains' track record for trading in older, used models, if I were Cindy, I'd be keeping an eye on the phone logs for calls made recently to divorce lawyers. On the other hand, Cindy has all the money needed to pay the nine mortgages and ante-up for the those $500.00 loafers. (Did you hear Bill Richardson's speech? He said that McCain may wear expensive shoes but the American people are expected to pay for his flip-flops. Cute. Funny. Scary.)

The second point, and one to be taken more seriously, is that if McCain's choice of Palin, as the media portrays, is designed to lure the disaffected women voters unhappy about Hillary's loss, it is a very opportunistic move (and Palin should resent being used), and it is typically Republican and old school for a move by a self-proclaimed "maverick". But most appallingly, it is blatantly sexist. That alone should give women give reason for pause and concern about whether or not to vote for this guy. Given McCain's track record when it comes to pro-choice, right to life, abortion and Roe Vs. Wade, I find it hard to believe that Palin is standing so proudly at his side.

Oh, wait. She is a Republican. Ooops. They will do/say anything to win.

And someone else told me yesterday that another speech maker at the convention commented that for a woman to vote for McCain was like having a chicken vote for Colonel Sanders. You can make your own conjectures about McCain, foxes and henhouses.

McCain's cause was weak to begin with, and I don't think he has done himself or his party any good, or done the American people any favors by selecting Palin. If nothing else, McBlather has merely obfuscated and confused the issues, once again. At least he is consistent in that, especially in his own mind. As the flag bearer for the Republican party, this aged and aging spectacle has continued to be an embarrassment. I'm surprised he remembered what he's done, from one day to the next. What special skills does Palin have in the area of health care for seniors?

Oh. The Democrats. They had a convention this week. No surprises except perhaps for the kick-ass speech by Bill Clinton ,wherein it looks like he decided to get back in the fight. Whew. And it was a happier event than I had expected.

"The" speech: As a writer and someone not unfamiliar with essays and public presentations, I think Obama's rhetorical offering was very well done, in several respects. First of all (thank God) it wasn't too long. He gave no impression of being too full of himself. Secondly, it was eloquently and meticulously crafted. The points were made in the proper order, they were clear and well substantiated. He was appropriately lyrical for having ot face a crowd of 80,000 people, and his delivery (as well as the points he delivered) was (and were) well measured. There was no bombast, you had no exhortation to emotional, gut-wrenching anger or self-pity and only sufficient acknowledgement of the fallacies of the past eight years (and potentially the next four) to foster needed awareness, engender hope and instill confidence. If he were a student in my class, he would have gotten an "A".

And by the way, about that stage and backdrop used in the stadium: This is the one that the conservatives have been chiding for days as being "too Romanesque", or something like that? A setting which was presumptuous and implied or promoted an "emporer-like" status for Obama? Please look closely: It was very Jeffersonian, looked very much like a portico on the White House and seemed to mimic Federalism. After eight years of an emperor who has defied the Constitution, repeatedly ignored and broken laws, and paraded around without proper clothes and hasn't cared one whit about it, this casting of aspersions seems very much like a very large joke. Give me a break. If the "aspirational horizon" here was to demean or cheapen the presentation, they missed.

Back to the speech: A conservative pundit I heard the first thing this morning observed that "Obama is not a Muslim: he is a socialist". Perhaps, especially after Obama's observation that "ownership" in America, according to George Bush and John McCain, means that "You are on your own", if even you are sick, unemployed, homeless or an Iraqi or Viet Nam war vet on the street, we should think more seriously about socialism. It would not hurt for the United States, like Sweden, Switzerland, England and Germany, to name a few other civilized countries, to actually give some though to being social, and take better care of our own. This would not be unrealistic, undemocratic or beyond our capabilities. And don't give me any nonsense about"this is all big government": Homeland Security, the TSA and telecom survelillance is not big government? Don't make me laugh! (While we are on the subject of conservative pundits: Does anyone else agree with me that Joe Scarborough is a jerk and wonder why Mica puts up with his juvenille antics?)

Above all, "the speech" was immensely logical in its' approach, its' delivery and its' proposals. I don't know yet (but I can guess) what manner of linguistic baloney will come out of the Twin Cities, but I will venture this: unlike "the speech", it will all be full of hyperbole, dramatization, emotional diatribe and exaggeration. The question I am asking is, do we want this country to be led, in the next four years, by logical evaluation and measured comprehension, or by Chicken Little-like, "The Sky is Falling!" emotional extortionism?

I grew up the son of a Republican, WWII navy vet. Election after election, he voted for the very people who screwed him the most (and repeatedly)and helped him the least (and repeatedly), because what "they" proposed was easier than acknowledging the need for real compassion and sacrifice for the common good. If he were alive today, I know how he would vote, not because Barack is black but because Barack has called us to accountability and that word is not in the Republican vocabulary. Our continued existence and welfare does not revolve around lower or higher taxes: it revolves around our grasp of humanity.

It's Convention Time!

You may have already seen this insert, but I'm posting it anyway. Down underneath are today's add ons.

In addition, the news,just this morning, says McSilliness embarrassed himself yet one more time last night. This time on Leno. I suppose he will have to begin actually drooling in public before anyone catches on that he has escaped from a nursing home. Here goes from yesterday:

In an age of McDonalds and McMuffins, the question is whether or not McCain is McAble. I find it all McDoubtful, but while I'm Biden my time, consider these:

McCain cannot McMember how many McMansions he has;

McCain's being shot down and captured in a war several decades ago does not automatically McQualify him to be the Commander in Chief of anything larger and more complicated than a shoebox, the cell he was held in or the horse he rode in on;

McCain volunteered his McWife to be in a beauty pageant for biker babes, and to show how bright SHE is, she actually smiled at the idea. McDumb. And she doesn't even care that she got him second hand. Maybe she has had too many McBeers. But I don't think either one of them is Budweiser enough to lead the country.

McCain partied his way through the Naval Academy and finished near the bottom because he thought he had enlisted in McHale's Navy and piloting an airplane was like playing a video game. Maybe thought dropping naplam was just another way of making McFries.

McCain thinks the US economy if on sound footings. That is McScience McFiction. The US economy is being held up by McChinese Checkers.

McCain thinks (?) that off-shore drilling will save us from something. He doesn't know WHAT exactly, but something. And he went and stood on a McPlatform to McProve it. McNonsense.

McCain keeps calling everyone "My Friends". McNonsense: he doesn't have any friends and I resent being McCalled one. . He is McWhistling in the McCemetary.

What we really need is a real "Big Mac", a real McCoy, not a McPhoney. Someone who can think, enunciate, manage and lead. What we don't need is a McRonald McReagan McAltzheimer who is trying to sell us a Whopper.

I can't wait to see who he picks for McVeep: McStooges? End here; pause for fresh coffeee.....

Add ons:

While I clearly believe that electing McCain is just McStupid, here are some other examples of stupid (and few that save the day):

While cruising through Craig's List, looking for jobs, opportunities and conversation, I found this posting from a 34 year old woman, in "Strictly Platonic": Pin pals wanted. I started to think about the implications and just moved on.

PM Maliki (Iraq...remember that place, where thousands and millions have died?) has confirmed that there is a "firm schedule" for the removal of US troops from that country. Condi Rice and the WH continue to insist that it is only an "aspirational timetable". The administration continues to use empty, meaningless words and phrases and continues to expect us to believe them and what they say. The inmates have indeed taken over the asylum. Please hold an election, SOON?

The Olympics have closed. Yawn. China won the most gold. Yawn. Or Yaw-ning: it sounds more Chinese. And a good trick for under-age drinkers. The spectacle was spectacular but after the revelations about digital fixing, how much of it could you believe was real? Lots of Memorex used in this affair. But thank you Mr. Phelps. Your next assignment, should you choose to accept it......I think fixing China is a Mission Impossible. The same thing could be said about fixing the Congress of the US. To do it, first you have to bring everyone back in from the Lobby. With any luck, the intermission of reality will be over, soon.

I watched four speeches last night. Well, at least three of them were speeches. Here's the review:

Pelosi: Morose-ee. Stiff, poorly prepared, stale, dull, robotic. The Speaker of the House needs to be sent to Bose Electronics for refurbishment. Her woofer is rattling and her tweeters are dead. How the hell?????? Oh, her cable is disconnected.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg: Spoke like a Kennedy. I don't need to say anything else.

Big Ted (The Senator) Kennedy: Brilliant, inspiring, spoke like a Kennedy and very brave, as sick as he is obviously is. I wish I could stand that tall.

Michelle Obama: Now would everyone else please be quiet? Even Keith Olbermann at MSNBC had nothing to say, afterwards. And the kids are cute. But please, Barack, remember which city you are in?

The Hill (The mole hill?) and the Big Bill have yet to speak, while the Denver cops pepper spray onlookers and legal protestors and some half-drunk, druggie Colorado cowboys get arrested for talking out loud about shooting Obama, driving badly and owning guns (I know people in TX who do that, every day). Somebody broke into Cindy Sheehan's hotel room in Denver to bug her phone, and both Cindy McCain and Darth Vader Cheney are going to Georgia (No, not that one, the one underneath Russian on the big map) during the Dems big party in the Mile High City. Cindy is going to "assess civilian casualties" (like she is really qualified to do that) and Dick is going...well, to be Dick, or a Dick, depending upon your perspective. He will be largely invisible during the first part of the Republican party in St. Paul. Why no one though to just leave him in Georgia is beyond me. Another fabulous lost opportunity. For most of the world, Georgia is an undisclosed location.

Life goes on in Texas.