Porn is Bipartisan?

The Nut: National Conventions are miserably dull unless you’re there in person. Sarah Palin is not hot, does not have a record to support anything she claims to stand for and will be remembered as ‘that lady that lost with the old guy in 2008.’ A full breakdown of her candidacy included. Simple talking points to properly highlight Palin’s credentials are at the bottom.


Is Porn Bipartisan?

I’m asking! There was a trailer with an inflated elephant proclaiming that porn is bipartisan cruising downtown Denver during the convention. With the pick of Sarah Palin, the GOP has attempted to beautify the old wrinkly Presidential ticket they have been putting together.

With the selection of the two-year (not two-term) Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, the GOP and John McCain have a Vice-Presidential candidate with so much experience, she makes Barack Obama look like Bill Richardson. In addition to being the mother of a newly born infant with down-syndrome, she brings a record of raising taxes on working Alaskans, increasing spending without balancing budgets and a few good years in front of the camera covering the local news in Michigan.


Experience v. Change

Palin’s choice as McCain’s running mate takes the question of Obama’s experience off the table. Sarah Palin has spent two short years in the Alaskan Governor’s igloo and before that she was mayor of the town of Wasilla. Wasilla, AK had roughly 5,000 citizens . . . the size of the more over-crowded high schools in some big cities. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin had to hire a city manager to attend to truly administering the city. So, she has two years of experience as chief executive of a state of 670,000 people and the experience equivalent to a high school student body president of a large high school . . . bear in mind, the class president usually leaves most real decisions to be made by the principle of the school and the school board (just like Palin did).

Oh, you argue that she’s only going to be #2 and she’s along for the ride whereas, Obama is running for President where he’ll do all the work. First, lets remember the last 7 ½ years of Cheney running the show from the VP seat and then lets be reasonable. Obama’s VP pick brings more experience to the executive than the other three candidates combined. More importantly, the worries of Obama not completing his term in office are not nearly as high as the worry of McCain. AND if some idiot would miraculously pull off the unthinkable, Obama has Joe Biden – the man that would probably be the nominee if experience was all it took to become President.


Real reform

She made her name in Alaska as a reformer that cleaned up the ethical lapses that permeated the Alaskan Republican Party. While she did bring many corrupt politicians to justice, she has not found herself outside of the inquiries. Her work to expose and prosecute corruption has led her to be exposed for her own political improprieties. There are accusations of her attempting to get an ex-brother-in-law fired from his post as a state trooper. She has a record of political hiring and firing that echoes of Alberto Gonzalez’ administration of the Department of Justice. It almost leads one to wonder if her presence on the ticket could put Alaska back in play for Obama with disenchanted Republicans voting for Obama out of spite.

What about the family?

More disgusting than her fierce aggression toward people who disagreed with her politics is what she has drug her family through just for her own political ambition. The fact that she has a infant child with down-syndrome while sitting Governor doesn’t confirm her conviction to her opposition to abortion rights, it affirms her bond to her political ambition. This demonstrates her selfish conviction to her own goals. Being Governor of a single state is not a day job. Its not a 60-hour a week job. When you’re Governor of just one state, you’re busy 24/7 attending to political and governmental duties. When you run for one of the only two nationally elected offices in the United States, you miss the quiet days at the Gov’s igloo.

Now that she has accepted the Republican nomination to be one heart attack away from the oval office, she has overtly stated she has no interest in being a real mother to her newborn child. Do not credit her for sticking with her conviction to anti-abortion stances. Credit her political ambition. She knew if she would have aborted the pregnancy, it would have been discovered and her political career would have been trashed. But despite needing to attend to a newborn child, she has seized her one impossibly lucky political opportunity despite the needs of her family.

Not only does she tout this as her true proof of her anti-abortion stance, she offers her husband’s membership in a union as proof of her support of working class Americans (as opposed to a record of signed legislation guaranteeing labor unions the right to form or raising wages for the members of these unions [raising the minimum wage raises most union wages as union wages as often set as a percentage of the minimum wage, i.e.: 250% of the current minimum wage]). She offers her son’s voluntary enlistment in the nation’s military and being sent to Iraq this year as her proof of her patriotism, not a record of what she has done to provide our veterans with health care, mental health care or quality jobs after they leave the military.

And the little things

The little things with no extrinsic meaning do bear significance, as well. Palin’s announcement demonstrated the true difference between Obama and McCain’s campaign. Obama had millions across the nation receiving text messages on Friday night as they hung out with friends. The message was instantly spread virally to everyone’s local networks (there are rumors that a fake message proclaiming Hillary won was also spread to many people’s chagrin). People didn’t learn about it from Matthews or Matthews or Wolf, they learned about it from their friend (as I did) and it began a discussion about the election.

Sarah Palin became the VP nominee around 10 on a Friday morning (eastern) after a monumental speech from Sen. Obama. I watched ABC break in with the news. When they went to show who McCain had picked to accompany him on the ticket, they had to dig up grainy youtube video to show footage of her.

The colossal difference in messaging and style is more than just the little things they do. This is a simple game of contacting the number of voters you need to win the election. Obama’s campaign is contacting the people they need to win the election while McCain’s team is almost approaching the election as a foregone conclusion. If Mit Romney really turned down McCain’s offer of VP, you would surely have to conclude that the GOP recognizes that this election is un-winnable for them.

Hillary lovers unite!?

The first thing everyone has said about this selection is that it was targeted directly at disaffected Hillary backers that are unwilling to support the presidential nominee that supports all of the public policy that they need and desire – Barack Obama. While Sarah does share anatomical similarities with Hillary (i.e.: earrings), her politics are as divergent as possible. The educated guess of Barack Out With My Cock Out is that polls will show around 15% of former Hillary supports stating they are supporting McCain because of Palin’s choice.

There is little to do about this number of people and votes for Obama are best found elsewhere. It is unlikely that these voters would have supported Obama even if he had picked Kathleen Sebelius (Gov., KS) and McCain would have picked a man (Sebelius if offered as an example because Hillary had absolutely no chance of becoming the VP nominee. NONE!). If that number stays around 15% or less of former Hillary supporters, there shouldn’t be many problems in November for Obama. Currently, roughly 30% of former Hilldoggers say they can’t pull their head far enough out to vote for Obama and these same polls show, with no ties or toss ups, a 273-268 win for Obama realclearpolitics.com with New Mexico being the 5 vote difference. Now, think about what happens when 15% of those voters vote for Obama instead of McCain.

Talking the talk:

So to boil it all down to what is and is not, here are the simple positions of the hockey mom of a 5-month old child with down-syndrome, Governor of Alaska, former mayor of Wasilla, AK and GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin:

Abortion: So against it, she even carried through her down-syndrome pregnancy and now has a 5-month old child to bring along on the campaign trail. However, she has no record in governmental action (legislative or executive) of taking action to eradicate abortions or to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

Budget and Fiscal Responsibility: She raised taxes on middle class Alaskans and gave tax breaks to larger companies. She took office with balanced budgets and left behind deficits. She proposed bond issues (borrowing money to pay for a current project) when the state had plenty of money from oil and gas severance revenues.

Environment and Energy: She is a true Republican in support of undeterred oil and gas exploration. She has questioned the existence of global warming and has worked to keep the Department of the Interior from holding oil and gas mining operations accountable for their environmental impact. She supports drilling to solve our energy problems, not renewable resources.

Iraq War: Her son is on his way to the warzone and she couldn’t be prouder. She supports John McCain’s approach of stabilizing Iraq as our operation point for the Middle East and does not support a timetable for a phased, controlled withdrawal.

Ethics: In her limited career of public service, she has fired many political opponents even within her own party and has taken criticism for making many of the firings because of political and personal motivations. She is currently under investigation for attempting to get her ex-husband-in-law fired as a state trooper.

Real World Experience: Before entering politics, she worked as a local news reporter . . . a perfect fit for a former beauty queen.

But She’s Beautiful: So are millions and millions of other women. Do you really want to lust after your Vice President? The porn star that ran for President in Italy lost because Italians weren’t idiots (they naturally went for the bigger celebrity in the race).

Bottom Line: If Mit Romney really refused the VP nomination, you must wonder who else passed up McCain’s offer. When they finally came around to finding a two-year Governor of Alaska to make a feeble attempt at woeing Hillary supporters, they may have conceded the race to Obama.