Inform Your Consent

First of all, thanks for the great feedback some of you have already given me!  Since this is part political diary and part resource, I was a little worried it would be like singing off key in the car by myself, where no one should ever hear me….

I digress.

Two good commentaries I want to highlight.  First an analysis which puts the latest polling data and the electoral math in realtime perspective.  Very informative, and for those of you Obama backers, heartening.

Now, on to Obama, and what he needs to do to win this election.  Arianna Huffington writes a great post today pointing up that the Obama campaign needs to give us all a good smack in the face, get us out of our Palin-panic tailspin or lovefest, whichever the case may be, and get us focused on what’s really at stake here over the next 57 days.  Here’s a taste:

And the plan has worked beautifully. Just look at what’s being discussed just 57 days before the election. Is it the highest unemployment rate in five years? The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The suicide bombing yesterday in Iraq that killed six people and wounded 54 — in the same market where last month a bomb killed 28 people and wounded 72? That the political reconciliation that was supposedly the point of “the surge” is nowhere near happening? That Iraq’s Shiite government is now rounding up the American-backed Sunni leaders of the Awakening? That the reason 8,000 soldiers may be leaving Iraq soon is so more can be deployed to Afghanistan where the Taliban is steadily retaking the country?

So. I am a woman, and I take real offense when I hear people talk about the big bad old boys club that Sarah Palin has outfoxed with her X-tra chromosome.  It drove me insane (and Palin too, actually, if you google that interview, you know, the one where she just doesn’t look six months pregnant, and she’s telling Hillary to quit whining) to watch Hillary punch hard and then whimper if one of the boys landed a punch on her.

Palin is already fond of smirking that she wasn’t running for a congeniality contest in Alaska (oh, that’s cute- she really did win one!).  What Palin has done what any good politician should- take advantage of the climate (Murkowski was unpopular), sculpt a cult narrative (hot mama huntress goes to Washington) and love what your audience loves (oil, pipelines and oil pipeline profits).  I don’t begrudge her for any of that.

Obama is, well, a black and white cookie.  He’s got both sides to him, which is what makes him so appealing to people who want national reconciliation (and international healing).  The community, and the professor.  But either of those sides can easily get someone caught up and not look farther.  Someone close to me who had been considering Obama shut the door completely once Rev. Wright appeared on the scene.  I happen to think Obama was in that church of his largely because it was useful, it was how to meet people and how to BE somebody in what I hear is a rough and tumble politics town.  But part of where he falters is that he takes his professor personality with him into office- and I love it.  He considers things, he looks for compromises, he explains the nuance.  That’s what I want in a leader.  Other people.  Like short.  Choppy sentences. Like George Dubya uses.  Makes ya feel good.

Now, McCain likes to compromise too, and that makes him an effective lawmaker.  But he does it by slashing and burning; he makes his name by embarassing someone else (who often, in the past, has deserved it), or by bullying.  When every Republican is lockstep with George W., there is an opening for a ‘maverick’ legislator to get in there and shake things up.  Frankly, I think he is far more valuable in the Senate than the White House (where he would surely get us into some kind of war with or around Russia, oh goody!).  He can be lynchpin-in-chief.

Biden, back in the Senate, I’d heard he was really egotistical, a jerk.  But he loves the sound of his voice so much he’d chat with anyone, other people’s staff sitting dutifully on the back bench of the chamber.  He came sat among myself and others once, and I will admit to being impressed.  (Hillary always seemed so cold and calculating in a ‘let’s get this overwith’ sort of way)  I enjoyed his exuberant indignance.  What I like best about Biden is his experience in foreign policy.  He knows it cold.  I can’t fathom what he was thinking on the plagiarism thing, it is just so utterly random.  I ought to be disgusted with the charge, but frankly, I just don’t care so much.  If plagiarism is the worst we can come up with, I’m ok with Joe.

So far, on Palin, the vibe I get is that she likes to play the accountability executive.  I’ve been reading quotes from folks who say she wants to expose ethics violations but doesn’t (obviously) like the light when its turned on her.  I’ve been reading about some 1100 emails she’s withholding from a FOIA-type request in her state, claiming executive privilege (even though her husband is cc’ed on many of them?).  She’s clearly a strong and winning personality, but, as she has said herself (and I will link to these things just as soon as I learn how;o), she “hasn’t thought much” about Iraq.  I don’t suspect she has any more insight on what the Fannie and Freddie takeover means for the economic system in the US any more than I do….though, given that I listened to a great story on NPR this morning, I probably know more.

I am so pleased to see someone in the press sticking up for themselves on the so-called campaign bias issue.  Carney says it plainly: the press IS biased–toward the more commercial narrative, as he puts it.  Journalism is a business.  

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1839416,00.html

Obama was generating the excitement–both positive (historic nomination, moving speaker, adorable family–and negative as well–anyone remember the round the clock Rev. Wright coverage that got so tiresome (they played the SAME clip over and over and over again)?

Well, now it is Palin’s turn.  She is the very new kid on the block and with no pre-vetting by the media, which was so hungry for the veepstakes they jumped on reports that Pawlenty and Romney were both the pick within hours of the actual announcement.

Thing is, Palin has a lot of drama in her life, and arguably, she has invited scrutiny of it.  Do not tell me a similar story about a 17 year old Chelsea Clinton would not have generated nonstop, possibly career flattening coverage for a Clinton in the same position as Palin is now.  

What’s truly rich is that the same senator who has had the media eating out of his hand for 8 years finally has the shoe on the other foot.  He’s no longer the anti-establishment guy.  Worse, he puts that foot in his mouth a lot.  To the point that his campaign won’t let him open it much any more.

Have a look and see how fun covering him can be when he won’t tell you anything:

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1839416,00.html

Today Biden pointed out that he would like to see Palin go on Meet the Press and get grilled the way he does….and its a crying shame that Tim Russert is no longer with us to get that interview, because no one could turn him down, and no one got off easy with him.

I hope to do some research on Obama, McCain and Biden, but frankly, Palin is the more interesting one because we all know so little about her.  So, here’s a story worth reading if you want to understand the role her Pentacostal faith plays not in her life, but in her policy.  Note, the comment about the Iraq war being a mission from God. . . 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94332540

Inform your consent is what I want any reader I should be so lucky to get to do here …because it was my growing consumption (junkie, my friends affectionately call me) and sharing of information during the 2008 presidential election that drove me to start a blog. I just want people to read, and learn and discuss.  And feedback would be helpful too.  Thanks!