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Footloose and fancy free:
“There’s a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent,” Biden said.
“She’s good-looking,” he quipped
Oh, I think Barry's pretty good looking, too. Doesn't everybody?
Anyhow, Joe, suppose we take you at your word, and that is the key difference. Why should we vote for you, then? And a funny thing. The Democratic platform agrees with Joe:
A great nation now demands that its leaders abandon the politics of partisan division
So, seriously, if you believe that, why not vote R? According to the Ds, it's a perfectly acceptable choice. See, what you really don't want to do is vote for trailer trash (and yes, I know that meme is only subtly sketched by Joe; check Shakes for the hard stuff).
But wait, you say. Joe Biden was joking.
NOTE Shakes is, of course, keeping a list. And do read this by Anglachel on class hate from the boiz.
People, this is not going to get better. You know, I was actually moving a bit more toward Obama and away from the Greens, because of the NOLA legislation that Obama actually got passed (Policy! Yay!).
But right now, based on the OFB's behavior and what I saw on the teebee last night at the Republican convention, the key difference between the Rs and the Ds is that the Rs are repressive, old, tired, and weak, while the Ds are repressive, younger, feral, and willing and able to experience new ways of doing harm. Especially to women and the poor (see, again, Anglachel).
Notice, also, how extremely effective Obama's reproof on going after 17-year-olds was. Everybody knows the score, now. He wants that done, because he doesn't really do anything to stop it, like hold anyone accountable. Same as the primaries. Beyond disgusting.
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Hating On Women
it brings people together! Unity ponies for everyone, just so long as the women don't mind the ponies' tendency to kick them in the face.
It is interesting that the attacks on Palin over her family and reproductive choices have taken on a vicious hysteria that the attacks on McCain have never quite managed. Like Anglachel, the only other recent politician I can think of to be treated that way was Hillary Clinton.
I think Anglachel is right, it is about gender and class, an intersection of the Blogger Boyz hate. And, of course, it's still okay to call poor white folks trailer trash or to use that as a slur against whites generally. Something to be avoided. Because it's okay to slur people for being poor. Just like it's okay to lecture poor black men on why they aren't good fathers and not lecture all those rich people who contract out their parenting.
The weird thing about Jeralyn's latest post making the Palin family fair game is that by her standards, the Obama kids are fair game since they were trotted out on stage by their parents and used for political purposes (and that's why they were there). What's more Palin doesn't have a whole lot of good choices about what to do. She can hide her daughter away. She can have her daughter there without the father, highlighting the issue. Or she can have the father there. Of those three choices, I'd argue the latter two are better policy in that it sends a signal of inclusion and support, not shunning and shaming, which is good for all women and girls. And between those two choices, as a political matter,* it makes much more sense for Palin to have the young man there. Can you imagine what will be said about her daughter by progressives (or people calling themselves that) if she's there pregnant and by herself?
The problem with this entire mess is that too many people are wrapped up in seeing this in partisan ways and not recognizing the ways that this could be used to forward progressive and feminist social positions within the electorate. What's more the focus on these kinds of things ensure that real issues aren't getting discussed, which is bad for progressives. If this election becomes a referendum on Palin as a mother, not only is that bad for women and could cost Obama the election, but it also is a lost opportunity to have the electorate reject the GOP for its crappy policies and governance even if Obama wins. It's one more step towards dumbing down our political discourse and turning our elections into a circus, which is bad for liberals (and women and people of color) as we've seen for the last 30 years.
And I'm not even going to go into the morality of launching an all out attack on a 17-year-old after people like Pelosi have refused to even accuse Bush of committing any crime. If the Dems do that, they deserve to lose this election, IMO.
* Not that I particularly care what's good for Palin, but I do care about what message her choices send to women and girls even if she's sending those messages for other reasons. This is where I think we're losing an opportunity. We have an opportunity with Palin's selection to get the GOP to say good things about women in careers, in politics, and now to walk back their slut shaming of teenagers. I don't care if they don't believe it. I don't care if they change their minds in the next election. I don't care if it's cynical manipulation. The more people we have out there talking about women's equality and condemning sexism the closer we get to a society that makes it unacceptable to engage in sexist discourse, which is good for women and liberals. Roe will always be in danger so long as we live in a culture where people can call a presidential candidate a bitch like they did with Hillary. So given the choice between a party that cynically allows sexism for its electoral gain as the Democrats have or a party that cynically bats down sexism for electoral gain, I'll take the latter. Doesn't mean I'm going to vote GOP, I'm not. But I also recognize that their short-term interest (pushing Palin) doesn't match their long-term interest (hostility to women) and to try to leverage their short-term actions to undermine their long-term goals.
Amen BDBlue!
Seems like nothing gets the energy and juices a-flowing like good old fashioned sexism and misogyny. Works every time. When the excitement just seemed to drift out of the Democratic primary after Clinton suspended her campaign, I figured it was just my take on things. Then came the Palin nomination and wham! Back comes the energy, enthusiasm...and attack of the batshit crazies.
If memory serves, Gerry Ferraro had to stomp around debating the "throw weight" of ICBMs when she was nominated as VP. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same. (Alas, I studied German and Spanish, not French.)
Stealing votes and voter intimidation
Do you really believe that a presidential candidate and his base who are happy to take the nomination the way Obama did will have the best interests of the country at the top of their agenda? These people stole votes--they stole freakin votes. They allowed taxpayers to spend millions on primaries and caucuses in elections that didn't matter (check out the "roll call" results).
It really is surprising how liberals don't mind the vote stealing much. Is it because the "good guys" did it this time? Or perhaps just the "better guys"?
+1000000000 BDBlue
+ a googolplex
+ a universillion
Oops, I think my "faux outrage" is showing.
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Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites
Aren't we forgetting Harriet Miers?
..and the way that our side treated her during her nomination for the Supreme Court? The GOP may have killed her nomination in the Senate but our treatment of her appearance had a lot to do with it.
We didn't attack her (much) on her legal opinions but more on that she adoringly loved Bush (even though I'm sure a lot of people were just as sickeningly in love with him as she was), wore too much makeup and 'seemed' like a real floozy.
This isn't new for the Dem side.
Oh yeah, Miers...
I also remember personal interactions where Dems/Libs attacked Miers for not going to an Ivy League school. I was floored at the time. Perhaps I should have expected that.
I'm having a harder and harder time not believing this will get much worse with Obama. Sigh.
I don't get it
"Notice, also, how extremely effective Obama’s reproof on going after 17-year-olds was. Everybody knows the score, now. He wants that done, because he doesn’t really do anything to stop it, like hold anyone accountable. Same as the primaries. Beyond disgusting."
Sorry, I don't follow this odd criticism. Obama made a pretty clear statement about leaving Palin's kids alone...just as he wants his own kids left alone.
What exactly is it that Obama is supposed to do to stop criticism of Palin's daughter? Ask Internet providers to censor content?
A Long History
Not just with Obama, but politicians generally to say some issue or attack is wrong or off limits so that they appear to take the high road while their allies continue those attacks. The reason those attacks continue is because the candidate doesn't really want them to stop, they just don't want to be associated with them.
If Obama really wanted these attacks to stop, he'd do more than issue a single statement wouldn't he? He advertises on blogs, for example.
If Obama wanted his allies to focus on something else or attack on something else, they'd be doing it.
High road, low road
The reason the Palin haka feels like the same thing these clowns did to Hillary is that it is the fucking same thing.
Except for us being all "progressive" n stuff.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Exactly, lambert
right down to WWTSBQ?
The question will be whether the voters will blow off the haka with Palin as they did with Hillary. That's something that folks seem to forget - the haka didn't work, Hillary still won big, important primaries. It's just that they had a back up in the RBC, something they don't have for the GE. The GOP is every bit as good at stealing elections as the Obama folks are. And don't talk to me about new voters and ground game because Obama lost the ground game in California, Ohio, Texas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, etc., etc., to Clinton. Unless it's a caucus, Obama didn't have that much of a ground game. He won a lot of his states based on the AA vote and that didn't need a ground game.
This is going to be ugly. If this continues, either Obama rides a wave of misogyny into the WH or suffers a backlash for it and we get President McCain. Once again the losers are the American public. But I guess that's a feature and not a bug.
Having the kids on stage make them ":fair game"??? Oh,
Has someone drunk the Kool-Aid? Alas.
By that standard, the two little Obama girls are now "fair game"? Bcz they've been on stage several times now--even used to help build up the Beautiful Family Tableau. Oh, my.
Alas.
Biden's son, the MBNA employee? Any offspring who appear on stage? And, iirc, sometimes fiances and intendeds did show up in the mass onstage groupings, iirc.
Sigh. Heavy sigh.
yup--& Having the kids on Extra for 2 nights makes them ????
it's such a crock--let's talk about the Obama girls then--why is the little one heavy, and the big one so bossy? who watches them every day? what are their grades at their expensive private school? ...
and let's definitely talk about the Biden son who's under investigation and is a lobbyist too.
they're not fair game--Chelsea never was--and not even Jenna and Tonic.