Friday, September 05, 2008

The Home Stretch

Hey, boys and girls, we're now about two months away from the American presidential election, about which you've heard bits and pieces for the past two years. By now, you all know that the tickets are:

Democrats: Obama/Biden
Republicans: McCain/Palin

Common wisdom holds that Obama chose Biden as his running mate because of the latter's extensive knowledge of foreign affairs and the inner workings of Congress. As far as McCain's choice of Palin, common wisdom holds that McCain is hoping to capture a) disenchanted Hillary Clinton supporters and b) disenchanted evangelical Christians. It remains to be seen how successful he will be with (a), but he has scored some major points on item (b). Dr. James Dobson said,

“Sen. McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is an outstanding choice that should be extremely reassuring to the conservative base of his party. She is a strong executive who hates corruption and puts principle above politics. After floating the names of Tom Ridge and Sen. Joe Lieberman in recent weeks – selections that would have created consternation among pro-family Republicans – Sen. McCain has chosen a solid conservative who has a reputation for espousing common sense.

“Gov. Palin’s commitment to the sanctity of life is not just a political position. She was advised to abort her fifth and youngest child when it was learned he had Down syndrome. She refused. That’s bravery and integrity in action.

“Gov. Palin’s views align with Sen. McCain’s own stated position that human life is precious and must be protected – and that gives us confidence he will keep his pledges to voters regarding the kinds of justices he would nominate to the Supreme Court and the way he would conduct our nation’s domestic and international affairs. This selection by Sen. McCain is a very encouraging sign for his campaign.”


My question to evangelicals is this: are you going to allow McCain and the Republican party to manipulate you yet again? They just want to win the election by any means they deem necessary, and they'll court your votes to do that. Moreover, they'll laugh behind your backs and snicker about your predictable gullibility all the way to the White House. As far as Hillary supporters, I'm guessing that most of them will see through this ploy and refuse to take the bait. I'm incredibly insulted that McCain expects huge numbers of women to vote for his ticket on the basis of gender rather than issues. Excuse, me, Senator, but women have functioning brains and a lot of us care about issues, such as making substantive progress on addressing women's concerns. We will not reward your obscene use of a woman as a trophy running mate.

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have been doing some excellent commentaries on Comedy Central over the past couple of weeks. I'll close this post with this bit from Jon Stewart:

5 comments:

Dave said...

Daily has done a masterful job of showing how political spinmisters use whatever argument is convenient at the moment even if they are out of keeping with what they said before. I am alarmed with Dobson's blindness. He praises her as highly qualified because of her position on a few of his pet issues even though there are concerns that this unqualified woman has been unethical. Dobson's qualifications are simple for anyone to be President, a) they be a strong Christian, b) they stand against abortion and stem cell research, and c) do not support gay marriage. Dobson would be thrilled if only strong passionate evangelical Christians ruled the country and transformed it into a modern version of Calvin's Geneva.

Jenn said...

couldn't get the video to play - but from an outsiders point of view, it did seem like a desperate ploy. however, from all the coverage i've seen here, it seems like mccain has put himself back in the race by making this decision

Evie said...

Here's a link to the video.

Catharine said...

Jenn, you can also keep following the link to get t to play through CTV.

I always find it interesting to listen to the rhetoric of politicians. It never changes from election to election. Could it be that the public really is that gullable?

We have begun, officially today at 9:15 am, our own election process. Unlike the States, our election is taking one month with our election taking place on October 14th. While it is only one month long, the public will become saturated with the issues and rhetoric. One month is all we can take.

The political parties have become masters at manipulating ,edia so that the message has several undertones. For instance, Atephen Harper's commercials as of late are portraying him as a family man. While initially it is a sound message, the way the words are said and the tone is that only a man with children has the best interest of Canada at heart. I wonder how many Canadians will read past the obvious to this message?

Barbara said...

Jon Stewart is a favorite in our house. I always can tell when Matt is watching him by how much laughter is coming from the family room.