One last political note for the day

It’s an absolute shame that McCain’s running mate has dominated the news, or at least my own brain. Really, the most important note of the week was Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. Here it is. You should watch it if you haven’t already:

Obama is, and I’ll happily say this without feeling like I’m exaggerating, a genius. I was impressed by how he attacked McCain’s policies and positions without once attacking McCain the man. “We are better than these past eight years”, Obama reminded us. “Patriotism has no party”, he says, and I can’t tell you how glad it made me feel to hear a national politician say this.

I still have a few minor quibbles with Obama, but nothing that can’t wait until after he’s been elected President and our nation is being steered back off the path of self-destruction it’s been on since 2001.

Shuddering…

“I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem…” -Sarah Palin

The more I learn about this woman, the more frightened I become. And the more I would want to slap McCain around and ask, “What in the world were you thinking?”, if I seriously believed that McCain had much say in the VP selection.

She’s a friend of Big Oil. She wants to see “Intelligent Design” taught in public schools. Her lack of experience suggests that McCain’s campaign doesn’t mean it when they attack Obama’s lack of experience. I mean, seriously. No one can hear McCain use that particular card anymore without laughing hysterically:

MCCAIN: My opponent lacks the experience necessary to lead the free world.

AMERICA: Dude, have you SEEN your running mate’s resume?

MCCAIN: Why, no. Who is he, anyway?

And don’t say it’s different just because she’s only the VP candidate. When the President might keel over midway into his first term because of a heart attack, her experience is very much relevant.

The other wanker of the month is, of course, John Goodman, who may or may not be a McCain campaign adviser, who gleefully pointed out that everyone in America has access to free health care in the form of their local hospital emergency room. While technically true, I suppose, it’s disingenuous to say that an emergency room visit could be considered free to anyone. Whenever someone does get free care at the emergency room, guess what? That care still gets paid for. It gets paid for by everyone else who uses that hospital, in the form of higher costs. It was stupid when Bush said it. It was stupid when Goodman said it. It will still be stupid when Palin says it.

Meh. Whatever. According to both Pollster.com and Electoral-vote.com, Obama has, as of today at least, a pretty solid lead over McCain. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Sarah Palin

So, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is apparently going to be McCain’s running mate. An interesting choice. I wonder if McCain’s gunning for the disaffected Hillary Democrats who feel spurned by the party’s choice of Obama over Clinton? If so, will her anti-abortion / pro-drilling stance still appeal to the Clinton holdovers?

It’s also kind of a confusing pick for me, since McCain has been working so hard to win over the evangelical right-wingers, many of whom have difficulty with the notion of a woman in a position of authority (though I guess they did grudgingly accept Rice as Secretary of State). Is McCain going after centrist/moderate Republicans who have felt disenfranchised by their own party, many of whom have declared their intention to support Obama/Biden? She’s also younger than Obama, which may undermine McCain’s attacks on Obama’s inexperience.

I wonder what Geraldine Ferraro has to say about this?

At any rate, this campaign has already been making history. McCain’s upped the ante, and I commend his choice, but I still plan on voting for Obama, and so should you.