Filed under: happenings
After last night’s very disappointing speach by Barak Obama, which lacked any substance or specific plans (I kept thinking: “You serve ME – You are my employeee – What are you going to do while I am paying you?!?” No answers.), I began leaning away from my previous pledge to vote for the guy. I can’t express how disappointed I was with that!
But as I write, Sarah Palin is being unveiled as John McCain’s VP pick 30 miles north of where I live, and my mind is made up. This pick closed the sale for my vote.
John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate today is one that makes it really hard to stay away from political thought and discussion. I guess for me I can allow myself back into political conversation now that I have a distinct knowledge of what is of a Kingdom and what is of an Empire.
This past May I sat in my living room with friends and told them that I thought McCain would pick either Palin or Bobby Jindal. BTW – I am looking for a 2004 Obama-esque speech from Jindal at next week’s RNC. I thought that either of them would be picked because both are true Conservatives, and governors in states of big issues (Oil and Katrina, respectively). They are also strong future candidates for the Presidency, and I think we could see a Palin/Jindal ticket in 2012.
By McCain picking Palin today, he just injected a lot of fuel into the GOP base, specificlly the Conservative wing. Pundits for the Moderates and Left will call this move desparate, but I know otherwise. This is the shot in the arm the McCain ticket needed. Up til now he had been running neck-in-neck with Obama (despite what NBC would have you believe), and I will not be surprised when polls show this pick giving McCain a boost. Obama’s pick of Biden did nothing for his campaign.
I also have a few other random thoughts that keep piling in my head as the day goes on:
- The Palin pick will take more than a handful of Hillary supporters.
- She’s pro-life which, alone, will energize the Conservative base. Not just talk either – she has a 4 month old that I’m sure some feminists would have aborted due to her son being born with Downs Syndrome. She also has 5 kids, so I guess she and her husband like to party
- She’s the governor of a state rich in oil, and she is strongly in favor of drilling for it using the eco-friendly technology that exists right now.
- Obama cannot talk about her lack of experience without calling out either his own. And bringing up Biden’s experience will only serve to diminish Obama’s “change” mantra. Picking her just took away a pretty big card for Obama.
- She’s a union member, and card-carrying member of the NRA. I’m sure the polls will reflect Obama support with unions, but come November I’d bet the booth tells another story with this demographic.
- Both she and John McCain have sons in the military, and her son is serving (or has served) in Iraq. Though I’m opposed to this war – and all war – this removes the “would you send your son?” arguement Democrats like to bring up. (BTW – my answer to that question is a firm, resounding “NO.”)
I’m sure there’s lots more to come to mind in terms of why this is a good pick.
One more thing: I think it’s refreshing to see someone on the GOP side actually fight back, politically. McCain is not the pussy I thought he’d be. His ads have been factually stinging, and very quick contextually. If I had to predict today, I’d say that McCain/Palin would win in November, and might just win big.
