So, after discussing my sincere sadness for Sarah Palin’s position, one of my housemates pointed me to this article. It conveys a lot of what I was trying to say, but is written much better than my own.
For the first few weeks after the Palin appointment, I was way too angry at the McCain campaign for feeling like they should manipulate women in the way they were so obviously doing. It made me so livid I could hardly even wrap my head around Sarah Palin herself.
Though, as I have spent more time paying attention to what she is saying, I really can’t help but feel absolutely terrible for her. Here’s the thing. I really don’t think that she is as stupid or as incompetent as she seems in interviews. I think the problem is that she is not prepared.
It’s not a lack of experience, really, but it is that she was not working towards a federal government position. It was a last minute decision by the McCain campaign that was foisted on her. I mean, yes, she did have to *accept* the nomination, but I am sure she had no idea just how difficult this would be.
This really has nothing to do with her credentials, or her gender, or her right wing nuttiness. She comes off as stupid because she has not had time to think her arguments through. She has not lived her life dealing with federal government issues and she has not learned how to play the game yet (though I can see how many people would think that is a good thing — I’ve met more than one liberal terrified of Obama’s charisma)
The way she is arguing and stumbling over her words in the Katie Couric interview is strikingly similar to the sorts of conversations I tend to have with people I disagree with. Neither of us are prepared to talk about it, so we mumble and meander through topics without really forming an excellent argument. I don’t think this makes me, or my debate opponent stupid, it just makes us inexperienced in debate and really indicates a lack of knowledge and forethought about a subject.
But once again, I don’t see this as a result of Sarah Palin herself, I think the issue is that she is suddenly in a position with is new, different, and not one that she was planning for in any way.
When I was a kid, I spent a ridiculous amount of time at my neighbors’ house. It might surprise the people who know me if I told them that these neighbors were devout Catholics. They had a stay-at-home-mom, a dad in a 9-5 job, and so many freaking kids.
These people were absolutely some of the kindest and most devoted and loving people I’ve ever met. So of course it has been really hard to watch them struggle to raise a (completely dependent) daughter with a very severe form of autism. I was vaguely aware of a lot of things about her, that she would get very anxious in public places, that she needed a lot of attention, that she couldn’t talk, and needed a special sort of computer and went to a special sort of school. Another thing I knew and took for granted was that her autism was caused by vaccines.
So you can imagine how my first-hand experience caused my ears to perk up when I first began collecting evidence about this hypothesis, and the more I read about it, the more I know it was false. I think these gives me a sense of unease, because I have no idea how to protect my future children.
Anyway, there is a really great article about the whole issue on Salon.com, which covers a lot of the hype and how it does not always chalk up to an understanding.
Under the McCain plan, the rich get richer, and everyone else gets… All their services cut to pay for rich-folk taxcuts. And since the economy depends on everyone not-rich pooling their resrouces to defend themselves against the depredations of the rich, we’re screwed under McCain’s plan.
Unless anyone thinks the traders at Lehman Brothers, brokers at Enron etc couldn’t have spared a few hundred thousand of their millions.
Of course, under Obama’s plan, all but the top .1% of income earners do better than today. For the other 99.9% of us, Well, we get to buy things to fuel the economy. Neat, huh?
2/3rs of this blog’s writers are off to Ohio to work for Obama. Posting may be light. Patriotism will be high…
In the mean time, enjoy a rather amusing video…
Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life
The name “planned parenthood” will turn off a lot of people…
I do not buy music. As a college student it was an expense I could not afford, and now as an unemployed graduate, it remains as such. Yet, the music given to me by loving friends, family, and boyfriends who think my music collection is ridiculous has grown rather huge. While it doesn’t even begin to fill my iPod, I’m still impressed it almost reaches 10 gigs.
iTunes released a new version today, and I was as psyched as those technology geeks around me. Genius, the new feature that suggests songs that go together – songs you own and songs suggested you buy – is the big new feature. But I won’t be able to play with it.
Since I don’t buy music, I also don’t have an iTunes account. I tried to sign up for one, but Apple requires I also put in my credit card number to qualify. As a general rule, I am not very invested in finding new music. And now I’m even less vested if it’s in exchange for my credit card number.
It’s not that I don’t trust Apple with my credit card information. It’s that Apple doesn’t need that information. I know that Genius is going to be used to try and sell me things, but can we at least pretend the commercialism is a layer deep? I am not going to buy music from Apple, and I feel that my credit information should be optional.
If anyone knows of a way to get around giving them this information, I’d be much obliged. For the moment, I’ll just dance with my own crummy self-made playlists. Hopefully it’ll be okay.