--> The big story the last couple days, outside of Sarah Palin, has been Hurricane Gustav bearing down on New Orleans, a storm that many fear will be more destructive than Katrina itself. Thus, for fear of being seen as political plutocrats who eat cake while New Orleans drowns (again, that is), the GOP has all but canceled the first night of their National Convention. The below picture, just for the record, is President Bush celebrating Senator McCain's 69th birthday, dated August 29, 2005.
Canceling the convention was the right move, ethically. All our elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, should be focused on doing what they can to help the people of New Orleans. Senator Obama's campaign is certainly doing its part, as the campaign is planning to tap its massive database of volunteers and donors to urge them to send money, supplies, or even volunteer their time to the areas hit by Hurricane Gustav. This is a great idea, and it really is a pragmatic use of a political resource.
On the other hand, canceling the convention was, in no uncertain terms, a political decision. Republicans were worried about the photo-op of them celebrating during a hurricane. Perhaps more importantly, McCain gets to avoid a half-hour speech by President Bush praising him (thus, a half-hour of Obama attack ads now gone to waste). And of course, the hurricane is seen by many GOP strategists as an opportunity to paint McCain as the candidate who "puts his country first," apparently because he is more willing to interrupt hurricane preparations and go take a photo-op on the Gulf Coast than Barack Obama. In fact, McCain's campaign manager already attacked Barack for making a statement against McCain/Palin's stances against equal pay, saying that it wasn't appropriate during a natural disaster.
Whatever.
--> Speaking of out-of-touch, a new New York Times/CBS Poll of Republican delegates demonstrates that while 90% of Democratic National Convention delegates believed that the economy is in recession, a full 72% of Republican delegates believe that we are not in a recession. I suppose that makes sense, given that Republican Convention delegates would be expected to share the economic vantage point of their candidate: they don't know much about it.
--> Of course, Republicans aren't the only ones who play political games with hurricanes. Just ask former DNC National Chairman Don Fowler, who was caught joking that the hurricane hitting during the RNC was clearly a sign that God wants the Democrats to win this year. Eesh.
--> But now lets turn to the hottest political story out there: Sarah Palin (easily the hottest, ahem, story of this presidential campaign).
People are still freaking out about her on both sides. Democrats are thrilled that John McCain scoured the country and found literally the least-qualified Republican to run alongside him. Most Republicans are thrilled, and since the announcement McCain's fundraising has skyrocketed. Political analysts are split, however; Pat Buchanan for one called the choice "the biggest political gamble in all of American history."
--> More interesting, to me at least, was this quote:
"I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative."
Normally I would think that this quote is, at best, a tepid version of what I and many people have been saying for days. But, this quote happens to come from none other than the mother-in-law of Sarah Palin.
I'm sure there's some sort of mother-in-law joke I could make here, but frankly the quote itself is funny enough.
I'm actually gonna halt this post here; there has not been much going on lately, in part due to the impending hurricane. I'll be praying for the people who have not evacuated New Orleans, and those living in the surrounding areas that may be hit.
1 comment:
hey ben-
Send the questions away, but I'm going to have something together soon
I'm not much of a journalist, but I'm going to give it a shot...there were definitly some really cool things out here last week
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