Governors vs Senators

I was stunned by the choice of Sarah Palin as VP not because I hadn't heard of her, but because she was the wildest of guesses in random VP chit-chat with my friends. Therefore before commenting on the matter I wanted to cool off, let the excitement and intrigue out of my system and attempt to look at facts soberly.

Firstly, she is a choice befitting McCain's character. It is a surprise move and smacks of mavericking. It also throws the Obama campaign temporarily into disarray. I suppose they had attack ads against every likely VP, ready to get on air as payback for the Biden ad stunt. They likely had nothing ready on Sarah Palin, so the momentum could not be sucked out.

What did suck out the momentum and the attention from aspects of Palin's career and life was hurricane Gustav, thankfully passing without catastrophic consequences. Now, however, we're back at it. And Palin's record and values are being legitimately questioned.

The most prominent flaw in Palin's value system is her own daughter, pregnant at 17. I was torn between a "Sucks to be a so-con" position and a feeling of understanding for Bristol Palin. However we must realize no-one is a saint and no-one has a perfect family. Palin's situation may turn out to be appealing to those voting families who faced or may face the same dilemmas.

Most parents fear their children will make mistakes, many parents experience disharmony between their value system and pragmatic (or cynical) reasonings (e.g. sex ed) and there are many families in the US who were teenagers when parenthood struck them. Independents who may be frightened by a conservative VP choice may feel reassured by Palin's collision with the rocks on which she built her beliefs. Whether it moderates Palin's stances or not, the Bristol factor is a potential reassurance to independents and undecided voters: as VP Sarah Palin will not have the grounding to push for socially conservative legislation even if she wanted to. Chances are John McCain knew all too well Palin's daughter was pregnant, and decided to play this wild card.

Maybe I'm just speculating. Palin, however, is more of an everyday woman than Hillary Clinton could ever hope to be, and is certainly bound to make Obama look more out of touch with the general populace than he already is.

Obama and Biden are careerist senators without experience of running anything. Obama has an evident desire for more power and more prestige, Biden wanted to grow up so he could enter the Senate. McCain and Palin, on the other hand, have both been in the governor's seat and have run communities. This means knowing what "in touch" is actually about.

A further ace up Palin's sleeve is her status as potential President should McCain die in office. People frequently look for former Governors in the Prez's seat, and Palin gives that reassurance. McCain-Palin is a truly executive ticket, while Obama-Biden offers legislative mindsets and greed for power.

We'll see.

Obam-ology bashed

The good old Times cautions against placing excessive hopes on Barack Obama and bestowing virtues and laud upon him before seeing the goods. I will not lie, I like the guy. The policies he proposes are as sure to miss their targets as American missiles are of missing Bin Laden when there's no US election coming, but he gave the heir presumptive Billary the roughest ride of her life, and maybe the boot out of politics.

In a recent reply on his "Italians" blog, Corriere Della Sera journalist Beppe Severgnini argued that an Obama nomination would ensure the grassroots and "new electorate" he galvanized will come out and vote Democrat in November, while Clinton on the ballot paper would suffice to disillusion them, securing a Republican victory. This is possibly true, and it would be a sad reality. It would indicate an Obama personality cult of sorts, an "Obama or nothing" mentality that would damage the Democrats far beyond the drawn-out nomination race we are witnessing.

Hailed as the breath of fresh air with a bit of anti-establishment feeling, Obama has charmed many to the point that nothing seems to sink his ship. From reverend Wright to Hamas-entangled aides through blue-collar insults, his campaign does not seem to suffer.

This is worrying. He hasn't been the subject of the kind of scrutiny most presidential candidates go through, and hasn't been held to account for his weaknesses as a person aiming for such high office should. He may be inspiring and charming, but I fear for his ego.

The premature sanctification of St Barack of Chicago (or Honolulu if semantics is important) is consistent with the savior ideology many Dem fans adhere to. This kind of thinking is likely to give President Obama a power trip, which can only result in ill-thought measures being rushed through a blue Congress in the wake of popular (or factional) enthusiasm. Hoping for a messiah weakens people's perceptions of their liberties as well, as they entrust the newly-come prophet with any authority he may demand to carry out the promised "Change We Can Be Duped Into".

It would be interesting to investigate how the party that champions civil liberties (but also statism) can be the egg that hatches the biggest threat to American freedoms and Americans' love of them since the Patriot Act. For my part, I'd stay safe with McCain and a weak Democratic majority in one of the Houses.

Is Al Gore drooling now?

I like John McCain. However his latest courting of environmentally-concerned voters is a little too much territory conceded to the scaremongers. (Reuters)

In remarks he prepared to give at a wind technology firm in Portland, Oregon, on Monday, the Arizona senator said he would seek international accords to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and would offer an incentive system to make businesses in the United States cleaner.

"The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington," McCain said in remarks he planned to give at the Vestas Wind Technology plant.

"Good stewardship, prudence, and simple common sense demand that we act to meet the challenge, and act quickly," he added.

Thinking of cutting worldwide greenhouse gas emissions is delusional, and McCain shouldn't feed the delusions of people duped by Al Gore who are generally trying to find answers to questions they can no longer ignore. Advocating clean technology is a sound policy without the "global warming" and "worldwide challenge" bells and whistles. The Cap and Trade system he proposes is workable, nuclear energy works just fine and no international accord can stop China's or India's emissions, if anything because they have the world's two vastest populations to spare on the altar of tiger growth.

Don't get carried away with the appealing to America-loving Democrats.