I’m fighting allergies today, so I’m going to go for the cheap shot: I do not understand the fawning over Gov. Palin – nor do I understand the cheap attacks from my compatriots on the left.
Quick note: Note that I did not say the Obama campaign, and that Sen. Obama quickly made a point of being classy enough to say “Keep families out of this and focus on the issues.” Please note that – as Scalzi pointed out – the politeness would not be returned were things different.
I don’t understand comments like this one from Scott Sigler: “This is amazing to me. If the Dems trotted out a mother of five, special needs mom,
son in service, they would say she’s awesome.”
Or this one: ” Black co-worker w/special needs child says she would vote for Palin over Obama. This is the co-worker who adores Obama. “
Okay folks: It’s great that she’s a woman and is able to have this kind of political standing. It’s great that she’s the mom of a special needs child, and that isn’t the huge stigma or drain that it could be. (Mother of 5 and kid in the military – well, depending on who you talk to, that’s good or bad.)
And that has absolutely nothing to do with her politics. And – something that many seem to have forgotten – her family has absolutely nothing to do with the politics of John McCain.
Do we not remember Dick Cheney going against the interests of his daughter for political purposes? That’s between the two of them – but to pretend that because her family looks like yours in some way, to pretend that because she shares a gender with you that her politics and interests are like yours is a huge bloody mistake.
Why is that consistency important to me?
In 2000, I thought John McCain was a pretty cool sounding guy. I didn’t know about the Keating 5 – I just knew that John McCain said he wasn’t going to engage in the same old crap. And then he got shot down by Karl Rove’s dirty playbook tricks in the Carolinas. He was screwed over, slammed by his own party in dirty political maneuvering.
And then he played along with them for eight years.
I understand why he made that political decision to lick thier boots. He’s getting the payoff now. From a certain “good old boys” point of view, it makes sense.
But that’s not the maverick he claims he is.
If John McCain had broken away from the party that had lost its moral way back then, if he had stood for his principles instead of his ambition, this would be a lot tougher decision for me now. But John McCain showed us how fast he’d sacrifice ideals for ambition over the last eight years – and choosing a VP candidate who shares his political ideology no matter what gender or race or family makeup they have is not going to change that.