Please be gentle, it’s my first time

Aweek ago, I was drowning in a sea of information and opinions:  too much, too fast, too many messages, too much negativity, and way, way too many lies being spread too fast and too far.  

[click to continue...]

Setting aside differences in party, policy, temperament, character and judgement,  there’s at least one last difference in the overall tone of the Obama and McCain campaigns:  Hope vs Fear

Beginning in the primaries, Obama has carried a consistent message - that he represents a hope for positive change. 

After a bit of toying with a variety of other messages, McCain seems to finally focused in on a central point to drive home - the fear of the change Obama represents.

[click to continue...]

If you’re like me, you’ve been watching with awe and admiration as the McCain-Palin ticket finds new ways to alienate that "darn gotcha media." 

Maybe you’ve even wondered how you, too, can further your presidential aspirations by developing an antagonistic,  fruitful relationship with main stream journalists…  

[click to continue...]

I woke up this morning, and while wandering various election headlines, I wound up a the Fox News page that has me in knots. 

The story reads:

"GOP Site in California Removes
‘Waterboard Obama’ Graphic"

The Sacramento Republican Party’s Web site encouraged readers to "Waterboard Barack Obama" and compared Obama to Usama bin Laden, drawing criticism from state and local Democrats and Republicans.

A copy of the graphic is shown on the Fox story - I won’t include it here.   I won’t link to it, either -  I’m sure you can find it if you search for it, but I find Fox’s display of it to be reprehensible. 

[click to continue...]

In many ways, this was a better debate.  McCain seemed to find his fire for the first time - and he seemed decidedly more comfortable with himself.  Maybe it’s because he’s seated, and at 72,  that’s got to be physically more comfortable, but whatever the reason, he was more animated and more engaged.

In the first segment of the debate, his animation worked.  He was connecting well, strongly, and he tossed out what was by far his best line so far: "If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run 4 years ago!"

But as the debate went on, the fire seemed to be less passion for his own plans and vision of the country, and more passion for attacking his opponent. 

[click to continue...]

So the other day, my Significant Whatever was once again wandering through Walmart** when he happened upon yet another group of employees-on-break.

No, they weren’t discussing cavemen riding dinosaurs this time. Instead, the all male group was engaged in a heated argument over Troopergate, and seemed split predictably down party lines.   It was about to come to blows, when my husband popped up with just the right comment.

"Guys, guys… settle down!  It’s a win-win situation!" he butted in. " Ok, so Republicans don’t get Palin in the White House.  But look at it this way - she’ll be free to do a spread in Playboy!!!"

The conversation stopped. 

The Walmart folks considered the possibilities.

"Do you think she would??"  asked one of the guys, hopefully.

"Maybe not Playboy - but Maxim for sure!" said another.

"Ohhhhh or she could take on the education issue, and do a full color spread dressed as a school marm! Oh my god, that would be so great… " 

The group wandered off together happily ever after, having found common ground with the promise of a bright future. 

Setting aside the questionable ethics of my husband’s conflict management style, hearing him relate this exchange to me sparked a thought about Palin’s future career.

No, not in Playboy….   As  a pundit.

I predict that Palin is going to be not the next Ronald Reagan but the next Rush Limbaugh!

( Ok, if Rush were likable and had oodles of sex appeal. Ok, any sex appeal)

Seriously, her political future looks kind of dim.  Unless something almost unspeakably dramatic happens, McCain won’t win this thing, and Palin is pretty much done in the national politics.  She’s going to take at least part of the blame for the loss from Republicans, and "I can see Russia from my house!" is too deeply burnt into the America psyche for the folks in the middle to forget.  

She may be able to stay in power in Alaska, but I think she’s gotten a real taste of the bright lights,  big influence and fast life of the Really Big Stage, and she’s lovin’ it.  She’s not likely to give that up easily.

And she doesn’t have to. 

She can have those bright lights, adoring fans, and  a strong influence if she takes it to the airwaves. 

It makes sense.  Her education is in journalism.   She’s a former beauty queen.  The camera loves her, she seems to relish her current attack dog role, and she delivers snarks with a wink.  Her far-right wing views will help rather than hurt her, because people don’t feel they have to agree with everything a political talk show host says, and the more outrageous, the better.  She’s likable, she has great charisma, and has a ready audience, filled with both rabid fans, and people who love to hate her.  She can even set out with a mission — to provide balance and clean up that gosh darn liberal media!   

It wouldn’t prevent her from re-entering politics somewhere down the road, and might actually allow her to overcome the cloud of cluelessness hanging over her image right now - though I don’t know if visibility will ever be clear enough to allow her to actually see Russia from her house.

But it’s the perfect reality show ending — lose the prize,  gain an even bigger prize: a career as a celebrity, and the ability to manipulate public opinion directly.

**Some details changed to protect the identities of the politically incorrect

UPDATE: While I was writing this post, Senator McCain *did* take the high road in a Town Hall meeting this afternoon. Thank you, Senator McCain. I hope this truly marks a new trend in this election, and that this approach is repeated often and strongly, and that it does earn you a few votes back (though not too many )
__________________________________________________

Every four years, mask-makers rake in big dollars with political masks, and I’ve always been amazed and amused about people who impersonated the candidates and joked about ” the most frightening costume ever!”>

This year, I’m not laughing.  I’m scared.  The Republican rhetoric has worried me since the convention (and I’ve written about it ad nauseam) but it’s reaching new heights and it has my head spinning.  Most frightening, the attacks and insinuations are not coming from independent Swift-Boat groups, but from the top of the ticket itself.

The crowds at the McCain/Palin rallys are getting increasingly outspoken, angry,  and aggressive, and McCain is doing nothing to calm them or condemn their remarks.

I am scared for my country, scared for what we will do to ourselves.

The nature of the smears from the McCain camp are more than divisive, more than twists-of-the-truth, more than character assassinations.   They are *dangerous,* when taken in context with one another, a sort of muddled pea-soup spewed out by the campaign.

[click to continue...]

Republican Incumbent Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) has announced he’s pulling his negative ads. 

"At times like this, politics should not add to negativity — it should lift people up with hope and a confident vision for the future," Coleman said in prepared remarks. "And second, I decided that I was not all that interested in returning to Washington for six years based on the judgment of voters that I was not as bad as the other two guys."

If the top of the Republican ticket cannot see (or do not care) the damage they are doing to this country, I am glad to see that some members of the downticket do see the results. 

And yes, for those cynics out there, I am aware that this could well be nothing but political strategy.  I don’t care what the motivation is.  The negativity cannot go on at this level.  Politicians have got to stand up against it.  It doesn’t matter to me if its because of their ideals, or their ambition.

"Today people need hope and a more positive campaign is a start."

Thank you,  Senator Coleman.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/10/as_mccain_goes_negative_a_gop.html

I almost let this go.  I almost decided to mostly ignore my friend Mr.Herdwatcher’s blog post challenging a  casual point I’d made having to do with  climate change and anti-science attitudes, and the VP debate. 

Then two things happened:

• The 2nd Presidential Debate and Sen. McCain’s criticism about Obama’s 3 million dollar earmark for an "overhead projector" for the Adler Planetarium.
• The exchange I wrote about on MindTweaks this morning, about a group of teenager’s total ignorance of basic Earth Science  including  moon phases and the basics of our solar system. 

These two items may not seem connected, but bear with me, they are.

[click to continue...]