McCain, Obiden Sham, Palin Shows

The candidates running for president and vice-president pretended to take the day off from campaigning to honor the memory of the victims claimed on 9/11/2001, but they really didn’t.

Barack Obama and John McCain “not campaigned” together, so, I guess it wasn’t really “campaigning” after all.

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama made ground zero their common ground for one rare day, free of politics and infused with memory. Putting their partisan contest on a respectful hold, they walked together Thursday into the great pit where the World Trade Center towers once stood and, as one, honored the dead from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Since neither candidate ran ads today, the “non-campaigning” thing holds up.  In an alternate universe kind of way.   However, at a televised community service forum, they did mention campaign stuff.  I guess if 9/11 victims and their families attend, it doesn’t violate the “no-campaigning” thing.

Republican John McCain declined to disavow Thursday the tough criticism by his campaign of his Democratic opponent’s experience as a community organizer, saying politics is “tough business” even as he praised Barack Obama’s service.

Obama praised his own service, too.  His “not campaigning” service, that is:

“Our campaign from the beginning has been about changing government,” he said, recalling some great accomplishments of American government: Civil rights legislation, the interstate highway system, and the National Park system.

Obama would, he said, “transform Washington” and “make government cool again.”

Joe Biden, Dem VP wannabe, appeared at American Legion Post 703 in Parma, Ohio.

“This is not about politics today,” Biden said, seated on a stage alongside five first responders. “This is about remembering our fallen heroes and remembering that there are a whole lot of people like the people I’m sitting with here today and many of you who will and are ready to God forbid respond to anything that would happen.”

Not about politics, huh?  Suuuurrre, we all went to an American Legion hall today, Joe.  Joe also was supposed to show up at the forum, but it seems like either nobody noticed, or nobody cared, since nobody mentioned him.  Sarah Palin, meanwhile, spent the day sending her son off to the military at a “non-campaign” deployment ceremony.

“We’re going to miss you,” she said at Fort Wainwright, a large Army installation near Fairbanks. “We can’t help it. We’re going to miss you.”

“With our prayers and with great pride, we are sending off these brave men and women,” she said.

Since this appearance had been scheduled before she was tapped as McCain’s veep pick, she deserves some slack.  Besides, she was sending her kid off to war, for Goodness’ sakes, or else she’d be 9/11 sham scum in my book, too, just like the fellas.   On second thought, her Charlie Gibson interview was taped shortly before the ceremony, so maybe she is 9/11 sham scum, after all.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Sorry Bill, Barack May Win, But He Shouldn’t

Bill Clinton said today that Barack Obama will “win handily.”

“I predict that Sen. Obama will win and win pretty handily,” he said.

Obama added: “You can take it from the president of the United States. He knows a little something about politics.”

Let’s just say, this is the first time I’ve disagreed with the former president.  Mainly because when he was in office I didn’t pay much attention to politics at all.  It was the 2000 contest that began to pique my interest.  Something never seemed quite right about George Bush to me, and I desperately wanted him to lose.  Both times.  He didn’t, so, here we are now.

Sure, I was aware of Bill Clinton as president.  To tell you the truth, what I knew about him, I liked.  It wasn’t necessarily his politics, though; I’m still no political maven and was about 100 times less so back then.  No, it was his “aw shucks” demeanor, his “two-fer” candidacy, his gay and lesbian advocacy and his promise of health care reform that got me.  And, to be perfectly honest, I just liked the guy.

I never understood the rabid Republican anti- anything Clinton stance, either.  Okay, the homophobia and fear of real reform of the health care industry I get, but the “Hillary hatred” always seemed over the top.  What was so bad about an Alan Alda, Phil Donahue-ish marital stance being representative of American manhood?  Hillary always seemed more than competent enough to justify it, in fact, she always came across as the real “power-behind-the-throne.”

Everything surrounding Bill Clinton’s presidency seemed over-hyped to me.  His “Sister Souljah” moment could probably have been handled better, but so could Sister Souljah’s statements that set off the media firestorm in the first place.  The media was also being pretty irresponsible at the time, if memory serves.  Gays should be allowed to serve equally in the military, bullets kill them just as dead as they kill straight people, so why discriminate when enemy fire doesn’t?  The fact that every American deserves affordable health care is so obvious that any objection has to carry an ulterior motivation.  Bottom line is, I never understood why Bill Clinton got so much grief.

Okay, so he had an affair or two, or twenty.  Not my business.  It certainly wasn’t the first time in my living memory that such a thing happened.  Why were Clinton’s transgressions impeachable when none of the Kennedy brothers’ were?  Quite the opposite, in fact, their extra-marital activities were held up to the world as sure fire-signs of All-American male virility.  Why was Hillary Clinton’s defense of her husband lamentable when Jackie Kennedy’s tacit approval was laudable?  When JFK’s mistress sang him “Happy Birthday” on national TV, it was a ratings bonanza even though the first lady, for some reason, urgently felt the need to take that opportunity to take the kids on an imperative horse-riding trip.  Was Kennedy’s fondness for movie stars and glamor girls enough to excuse his behavior, while Clinton’s more “ordinary” tastes were not?

Who knows?  Anyway, I never thought he should have been impeached for a marital indiscretion.  And don’t give me the “he lied” bullshit.  There never should have been an official interrogation on the subject in the first place.  Besides, what would you expect any married man or woman facing that question to say?  Oh, sure?  The Clinton witch-hunt by the Republicans is a big part of the reason I’m skeptical of that party to this day.  My memories of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Oliver North and Clarence Thomas, among others, don’t help allay my concerns.  Not to mention the Bush administrations, all three of them.

Fast forward to today’s meeting between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  Clinton says Obama will win handily.  That may or may not be true, but Clinton’s implication that Obama should win, if it exists, is what bothers me.  Yes, Obama “beat” Hillary Clinton in the primaries.  Right.  Whatever.  But it’s not my disappointment that HRC didn’t win that motivates me now, it’s the fact that Barack Obama did that gets my jaws tight.  There’s a difference.

I wish I could support this black man for president.  His nomination is indeed a milestone.  But I don’t want a government made in Obama’s image; I’m not even sure what that would be.  I don’t want a president so racially cavalier that he will exploit black people when it benefits him and ignore them completely for the same reasons.  A gaffe-prone, seemingly weak, wishy-washy, scared to make waves kind of guy is not my ideal first black president.  Why can’t he be decisive?  Why can’t he have principles?  Why can’t he get angry?  Of course he could and should; Obama’s inherent personality flaws drive the media and campaign created pr narrative that he shouldn’t.

So, for all those who want to tell me that I owe allegiance to Barack Obama because we’re both black, screw you.  I’d rather have a good president than a black one.  And to those who claim that now that the race is down to the Democrat, Obama vs. the Republican, McCain, I should vote for the Democrat by default, screw you, too.  I don’t have to vote for either one, there are third party choices and I could always exercise my right as an American to decline to participate at all in an election I feel to be non-representative.  Lastly, to you, Mr. Clinton, if you are indeed suggesting that Barack Obama should win, handily or otherwise, then…well…let’s just say I strongly disagree, and leave it at that, okay?

And, oh, Bill?  I hate to break it to you this late in the game, but in my opinion, you’re no Hillary.

But then again, I think you’ve always known that.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

September 11, 2001-2008

Maybe OBiden Should Just Quit

Barack Obama told a group of high school students in Norfolk, Va. today that he wouldn’t advise them to run for president:

“I’m not sure I’d advise everybody to run for president,” Obama said with a smile. “I’ve been sleeping out of hotel rooms for two years now and I miss my kids.”

He also told them that at their age he was a “goof-off.”  No mention of the “Junkie. Pothead” thing, though.  Meanwhile, Joe Biden said Hillary Clinton “might have been” a better VP pick.  You get the feeling these guys know they’re in way over their heads and are ready to pack it in?

We can only hope.

Maybe if these two would just give it up, we could talk the “better pick” than either of them into rescuing us all from this increasingly farcical travesty of a campaign.

Sarah Palin, RNC convention, Sept. 4, 2008:

“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?” she asked.

“Lipstick.”

Barack Obama, Lebanon, Va., Sept. 9, 2008

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig.”

Whether Obama was talking about Palin directly is immaterial, the timing sucks.  Either he was being sneakily sexist, or he’s stupid.  On The David Letterman show he explained:

“Keep in mind that, technically had I meant it this way –- she would be the lipstick!”

“The failed policies of John McCain would be the pig,” Obama says. “I mean, just following the logic of this illogical situation.”

Logic?  No, Senator O, if logic were involved, you’d take your buddy Joe and go home.  Leave the politics to the grown-ups.  They’re always the “better pick,” and they usually know exactly what to say.  Surprisingly, I do agree with you on one thing, though, B.O. 

Enough.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal