Last reflections on the GOP VP candidate...for now

[scarlettina]

Bob Herbert's written a thoughtful op-ed to the Democratic party about how to consider the Palin nomination. Money shot:

Here’s the deal: Palin is the latest G.O.P. distraction. She’s meant to shift attention away from the real issue of this campaign — the awful state of the nation after eight years of Republican rule. The Republicans are brilliant at distractions. Willie Horton was a distraction. The chatter about gays, guns and God has been a long-running distraction. And we all remember the Swift-boat campaign.... Respectful criticism of Sarah Palin is fine. But the great issues of this campaign loom like giant redwoods over the pathetic weeds of politics as usual and the myriad distractions that have turned one presidential election after another into a national embarrassment.

He's right. So far, Palin's been a perfect distraction. We're talking about her ethics violations and her pregnant daughter. We're talking a little bit about Hurricane Gustav. What we're not talking about is the war in Iraq, the economy, health care and all the other important issues that this campaign needs to be about. (There's also the ray gun the Pentagon has developed that was featured on "60 Minutes" -- and be sure to check out the signs the fake protesters are holding; made my head hurt -- but that's another post for another time.)

At the Democratic convention, Obama said:

...if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.

It put me in mind of President Sheppard's speech in "The American President," about using fear to distract voters from the issues of the day. (I suppose Obama's speech writer could do worse than taking a cue or two from Aaron Sorkin.)

That's the point. We've been distracted. We need to get focused again. Barack Obama did a fantastic job of focusing our attention by the end of the DNC. We need to find that focus again, and fast.

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

These are excellent points. Thank you.

[mysticalforest.livejournal.com]

Well said!

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure that Obama writes his own speeches. What a concept!

Otherwise, very much in agreement with what you've said.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Well, so did Bill Clinton. It's refreshing to see such literacy in a Presidential candidate; thanks for the correction. (And I'm sure you've noticed how hard the Republicans--and even Hillary when she was his opponent--have slammed Obama for his facility with language. That sh*t makes me crazy. It's as though somehow his being educated and being able to use the tools he's developed is a bad thing. No wonder we've been stuck with President Moron for the last nearly eight years.)

Seriously, though, go and watch the Sheppard speech (and any of the speeches given on "The West Wing") and my guess is you'll hear familiar cadences in the language and similar word choice and usage. More than once during Obama's DNC speech, I found myself thinking, "Gee, he's taken a page from Sorkin." Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and, like I said, he could do worse than taking a cue from there. It's nice to hear a presidential candidate actually inspire me. It's been a long time.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I've heard Bill Clinton speak in person. He was fabulous. And literate, and articulate. And he wrote his own speeches. After 8 years of W, one forgets.

[oldmangrumpus.livejournal.com]

We're building death rays now? Seriously?

I've got to look into that... Hasn't Dick Cheney shot enough people in the face already?

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not a death ray; it's a repellent, a sort of people repellent. It's kind of fascinating, actually. And wait until you hear why ithasn't been deployed yet.

[selinker.livejournal.com]

Well, it is a death ray, if you turn it up. The point is that it is not always a death ray—unlike, say, a machine gun bullet. It is a breakthrough, but I think it's far more likely to be used by American security firms at home rather than in counterinsurgencies.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. One way or another, it'll certainly be interesting to see how it is eventually deployed.

[oldmangrumpus.livejournal.com]

Wow. This whole thing is surreal, stem to stern. Just about everyone but the former Marine seems nuts. And, yeah, those "protesters" were pathetic.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Pathetic? Interesting descriptor. Mostly, I was astonished that they allowed a news crew to film the US Army shooting at protesters holding up signs that said, "PEACE NOW" and so on.

[oldmangrumpus.livejournal.com]

"Pathetic" as in "this was the best the Army could imagine for a 'protester'? That's pathetic."

[shadowdaddy.livejournal.com]

I basically agree, though think it's only temporary. But the core issues are actually pretty big:

- ethics in the political arena
- sex education
- teenage pregnancy and the right to choose

I'd counter that any of these things could - and probably should - be major issues to tackle in the campaign.

Ain't a Democrat alive that the right wing would let within a country mile of the white house if they'd been investigated for ethics violations, even though we've had the likes of Cheney and Rove running the show for the last eight years. If McCain wants to distance himself from the previous administration, this isn't starting off on the right foot. It's something to talk about.

Want to reach the heart of America? Talk about what happens when a 17 year old girl who hasn't finished high school gets knocked up, but her boyfriend won't marry her and her parents kick her to the curb, and then have solutions for prevention and support. It's education, it's healthcare.

It's not Iraq or the economy, but they are still valid as issues, and I think that's what people are really talking about. The trick is doing it without making Bristol into a totem of wrong or an inadvertent martyr for the right.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

At base, I agree with you, but here's the thing: People aren't talking about these subjects as symptoms of their larger issues, at least not that I've seen online and on TV. It's all been reduced to a tabloid sort of treatment. This morning on The Today Show was the first time I've seen any media take up the subject of Bristol's pregnancy as a kicking-off point for a discussion of teen pregnancy even though the story's been being discussed for three days now.

And I do have an issue with Palin's ethics investigation, but Bristol's pregnancy and Gustav have minimized that as well. As for the rest of the discussions, they've been completely off the table. And I don't think they should be. There are larger issues here, that effect far many more Americans than teen pregnancy. These issues are valid, but with regard to their reach and implications, far smaller than the war and the economy.

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

Ain't a Democrat alive that the right wing would let within a country mile of the white house if they'd been investigated for ethics violations, even though we've had the likes of Cheney and Rove running the show for the last eight years.

I can't help but wonder what the Republicans would do to a Democrat female VP candidate who had a pregnant unmarried 17-year-old daughter. My guess is that she'd be condemned as an unfit role model on Faux News every night between now and the election.

[shadowdaddy.livejournal.com]

Exactly so. The left has been bringing sporks to the gunfight for years; in going at Palin full-force, they're finally bringing a gun.

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

I think they should save the big guns for McCain, rather than being diverted by a publicity stunt who is no more to be taken seriously than Dan Quayle.

[ex-frankwu.livejournal.com]

Interesting point - the Sarah Palin thing (a whole clusterfuck of political disasters) is a trainwreck on a micro scale. In some ways, a distraction (Sarah Palin hates polar bears! Sarah Palin's daughter's boyfriend is a redneck dork!) of microissues - but they do reflect on larger issues. Is McCain competent to lead the nation? Could Palin run foreign affairs?

And what's up with her crazy old pastor, Ed Kalnins, who says that you're going to hell if you voted for John Kerry or criticized George W Bush? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html

And what's this about more abuses of power? Palin wanted to fire the town librarian Mary Ellen Emmons - the librarian! - because she wouldn't ban books and supported Palin's opponent in the election.

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend, strongly recommend, Thinking Points: A Progressive Handbook by George Lakoff and the Rockridge Institute. We were required to read it for work, and I found it awesome. Listening to Obama's speech, I found myself wondering if he'd read it, since he seemed to be following its recommendations practically point-by-point.

Attacking Sarah Palin is divisive, and that is wrong. Tempting, but wrong. Ignore the cheese and avoid the trap.

There are bigger fish to fry than Sarah Palin, or what McCain was thinking. Developing a rhetoric that joins us on our core, base values that bring us together as a people, that propel us into the future with a united, positive vision is what's important. Ignore the tempting National Enquirer bait that's dangled in front.

If the Democrats (and I'm not a Democrat, I remain independent) want to be different, then be different. Just because the Republicans would do something isn't a good reason for the Democrats to do it.

That, at least was never a good reason in my mother's view. She did, occasionally, make a good point.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

It's a nice thought.

I'm more in the crowd of 1) win election 2) then spend next four years cuddling everyone.

Obama can reverse these if he chooses. I'm not that high-minded.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that many of the best speeches in The West Wing are actually the work of Eli Attie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Attie)...