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war and noise, the momentum and the medium

Posts tagged with "mccain"

Palin-dromatic

Friday, 5. September 2008, 22:30:43

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Forwards or backwards, it's all the same. Am I the only person with a semi-objective view of it all?

I hate being a libertarian in California. To defend the right is to invite the wrath of the entire Bay Area, and to defend the left is to look as crazy as the worst of them. My stance has always been behind the underdog, so don't misunderstand my position when I say that Republicans are not getting a fair shake... remember where I live.

But by any measure, the attack on Sarah Palin, John McCain's VP pick, has been absolutely vicious, and not wholly fair. For the record, I know she's nothing more than a political tactic, but c'mon so was Joe Biden, unless you think him and Obama have some kind of chemistry that I haven't seen. Even as a political tactic, she was a shrewd choice for a desperate candidate- NRA hockey-mom, PTA, down-syndrome kid out of 5 more, union member / snowmachine racer /fisherman husband, the list goes on. You don't hail mary if you aren't losing in the eleventh hour, and this was a hail mary. Anything else would have been a slow, agonzing death.

But the press has been very unfair in their desperate search for controversy. Granted a lot of things should be investigated more, but here a short sample of topics I saw during the RNC that are misrepresentative and often taken out of context:

- Bristol pregnancy proves Palin a hyprocrite.
- Palin calls Hillary a whiner.
- Troopergate.
- Palin raises $8 billion for the Democrats.
- Peggy Noonan calls Palin "Bullshit"
- RNC stopped riots outside with teargas and flashbangs.
- Cindy McCain's outfit estimated at $300,000.

And so forth and so on. If you've seen any of the above, read a little closer and you will find that the stories are more nuanced than their headlines suggest. I'm not complaining about the fact that the media is trying to dig up dirt, but for fuck's sake leave the sensationalism out of it! Don't liberals realize you can't fight lies with lies? I imagine Republicans would be infuriated by the media's lack of balance mentioning the RNC riots but not the DNC ones... but they're not! What's going on?

I've noticed more and more that both sides tend to be equally hypocritical, but the Republicans are much easier to thrash for a simple reason... they preach from a moral high-ground. Admit it... a conservative caught lying just look a heck of lot more arrogant than a liberal. If the Republicans want to have the kind of influence that Obama has, they need to stop praying The Message (you know what I mean) is all they need to drill (pardon the pun) into their adoring masses, and start admitting mistakes.

This campaign ain't over yet, but it's clear Palin changed the game. A week ago, Republicans were trumpeting experience and Democrats braying about change, and now they've literally flipped sides. What I do is listen to the extreme wing-nuts from each side, and research the truth in the middle. But as long as I'm in California, I can't help but laugh when someone tells me Ariana Huffington is a centrist.

Is there a liberal bias in the media? If your answer is yes, or no, then you are wrong. If you answer is "let me spend 5 minutes researching it on Google first" then you are closer to being right. Or left. Same thing.

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"HILLARY THREATENED BY BLACK MAN"

Thursday, 7. February 2008, 07:11:52

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...so read one hilarious headline by The Onion. Super Tuesday gave no real surprises, with Clinton predictably taking California, Huckabee taking the old boy south, and McCain coming into the lead as hard-line conservatives failed to agree on a sizable challenge. Obama took more states, Clinton more delegates, leaving a democratic race way to close to call.


I took all the questions at nifty Votehelp.com and it placed me at 88.9% similarity with McCain, who I've been a huge fan of for a long time, and who's win in New Hampshire convinced me to vote for the first time ever. While I find his push for environmental reform utterly misguided, he had it right on Iraq, and has it right on fiscal discipline and immigration. Hard-line conservatives hate him for the latter, but true capitalist should realize building a wall across Mexico is folly. Illegal immigration can not be enforced against without brain drain and labor costs soaring, assuming it can even be enforced. I'm proud he told Michigan that many of their jobs were gone for good... the truth hurts don't it?

But policies don't make a president. A president's job is not to run the country well (there are plenty of fuck-ups to do that). No, his job is to represent the people. He should be what we vote for, not just a platform, not a flip-flopping snake. Hate Bush's incompetence as much as you want, but the man has done what he believed to a fault. I rather a president true than right. I don't expect any one to understand that.

That is why I will vote for McCain. It is also why I'd vote for Obama if McCain wasn't a choice. They are both men who follow their own moral compasses, undistracted by political opinion, ambition, and circumstance. Democrats better realize that Obama has the best chance against McCain, as surveys have shown. Hildog doesn't fool me, even though her well-loved husband fooled a whole nation with a fake "balanced budget," paid for with a social security accounting fraud. Worse than an unpopular, ideological war? Maybe not, but then again what ideology lies in the purely self-serving?

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