Well I must admit that Sarah Palin did much better than we had all been led to believe. Perhaps this is the George W. Bush technique of setting the bar so low with the initial interviews that anything beyond that would seem genuinely good. I was actually very surprised at how well she handled herself. My opinion from the two previous interviews (I’m only counting interviews with journalists here so her fluff piece with Sean Hannity on Fox doesn’t count) was that she was woefully unqualified to be in the position she’s in. I’m still not sure she is. Perhaps this was just a good showing after weeks of intense coaching. She was coherent on stage in a way that was the complete opposite of many of her answers to Katie Couric’s rather straightforward questions.
Do I believe she’d do a good job? No. Do I believe Obama/Biden would do a better job? Probably not, but we’ll see. You see, I happen to think that both parties are full of shit. The idea that we have two separate political parties in the country is ludicrous. What we have is the illusion of choice. We don’t have choice, we have, in the words of the late George Carlin, “Fucking Owners”. They own our asses and know that we’ll do whatever they want as long as they put some folksy charm up there with a few “Nuculer’s” and “You Betcha’s”. They parade this phoney down-home charm up there because we fall for it every single time. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to figure out why we base our votes upon who we’d most like to have a beer with as opposed to who we think would do the best job.
Our nation, I hate to say it, has become a nation of dim-witted fools utterly convinced of their own entitlement and completely xenophobic towards anything not positively dripping with false Americana. From the grotesque displays of 10 mile per gallon Hummer’s parading as domestic vehicles in the midst of an energy crisis to the empty gestures of the flag stickers afixed to them, we have truly embraced patriotism and politics exactly as we embrace celebrity gossip and reality television. We are spectators in our own democracy.
Bek on October 8th, 2008 at 5:54 am says:
Well, I just finished reading about AIG’s multi-million-dollar condolence party they threw for themselves out in California at a spa the day that their debts were erased, and I am sickened through and through with these bit players in the arena called “politics”.
And, yes! Doesn’t it all appear as though the debates are conducted the same way a reality show would be done? You know . . . sort of like that hideous show “Dancing With The Stars”?
And I can totally embrace the “What the Fuck” mentality when I have lived the life I have lived for a long time with your Dad. We have done without anything grand and expensive, never taking elaborate vacations even while we were mocked for always visiting relatives instead of flying around the world, saving extra money for retirement even while we were made fun of for never spending shitloads of money on a hotel and a “night on the town”, living in that little hovel we lived in up North in order to “save more money”, never going to a beauty shop to have my hair done or my nails manicured, buying clothing at resale shops and picking up furniture at garage sales, agreeing with your Dad that his raises (which are few and far in between, no matter what any asshole believes about management) should be ignored and used for more stock in the company . . . . all so we could retire debt free and be able to leave you and your sister something to inherit that would truly pay off for both of you and your nephew.
That was our soft and sappy little dream . . . to have you inherit from our hard work and our continual doing without . . . something you couldn’t possibly be expected to understand as you are not a parent of a child.
We’ve worked so hard to keep a credit score of 800, and we’re now frightened to even begin to buy a home down here because of how floppy the fucking market is.
Neither one of these assholes and their cohorts are going to induce me to vote for them. When was the last time one of them stood in line at the grocery store, watching the checkout girl accurately scan their groceries so they wouldn’t have to pay more? When was the last time they went over their own bills and had to write checks for their own accounts? When was the last time any of them sat at the kitchen table, clipping coupons to go shopping?
When people reached their supposed pinnacle of success (i.e. running for President) they are so far out of the loop with the regular American citizens that actually listening to them can go two ways – you cry yourself to sleep or you laugh hysterically.
Trust me . . . I’m trying to work up a chuckle.
Ian on October 8th, 2008 at 7:36 am says:
Well I will dissagree with you on one thing. I think it’s fairly obvious and documented well that Barak and Michelle Obama actually do their own shopping (at least before the craziness of a campaign and constant Secret Service prevented that), live in a modest home on the South Side of Chicago near the University, pay their own bills and, especially compared to McCain, live quite modestly.
This is something that I really wish the media would pay more attention to because I don’t think we’ve had a candidate for office that is actually as close to an average American as Barak Obama and it’s pretty obvious to me that if his name was Barry and he was white then this election would essentially be even more over than it is now. If he was white there would be absolutely no question at all as to who is more qualified.
Just my $.02