xhonzi said:
Oh, and RE: Palin. (here I go, derailing my own thread)
I think it's unfair to call her detractors 'sexist' when I think she was dragged out on the McCain campaign for sexist reasons. The left had played the race card. The right then decided to play the gender card. I like Palin as a politician well enough, but I think you're crazy if you think she was put on the ticket as a genderless polician.
It was an experiment to see if unpolitical Americans were more embarrassed by imaginary sexism or imaginary racism.
I was embarrassed by my part stooping to that level. I thought we were supposed to be above the silly superficial level of politics and focus on the issues. Ah, well...
And that is why Republicans keep on failing...
Unfortunately, politics IS an image game... it can be about ideas, and it SHOULD be about goals and achievements (and how to accomplish them), but most people simply react and do not think many things through (even Harvard grads and PH.D.s, as seen on Fox and other news programs), or are simply biased by their political/superstitious beliefs (as politics as essentially BECOME the new "the boogeyman is gonna getcha!" that the devil was for 1000+ years).
Until Republicans figure out that you need a woman and/or minority who can ALSO communicate true straight-forward conservative philosophy (ie "has a personality"), have the plan to show as to HOW to accomplish said goals AND is willing to sacrifice something of themselves (50% personal paycut; 24 hours of community service per month of term; etc) they are going to be trapped by the Democrats propaganda of them.
Or put in another way: until George (Bush) McFly learns to have balls and stand up for himself against Biff (Clinton), everyone is going to pick on him as an irrelevant wimp. That is not even to say that Republicans need to match the violence/belligerence of the left (G4 riots, etc), just stand up for themselves and be willing to prove themselves.
In regards to Sarah Palin, I believe she is an intelligent person and a good person; I do not know of her committing adultery or any other direct betrayal of her family or friends, nor do I know of her accepting bribes, looking the other way or starting some secret military operation against a third world country.
My biggest complaints are she sounds (1) like The Nanny or the lady from FARGO and (2) like a typical programed, robotic politician - forget specifically republican or conservative, she has that same "wound-up by the key in her back" personality that Hillary, Barack, John and the rest have going on. She is no "far, right-wing nutcase" (sorry leftys), as she simply (and typically) states the generic republican basic beliefs. Hell, the fact that she has to write "tax cuts" on her hand may show her human nervousness, but can also show her "not ready for prime time" nature... I mean really folks... is there ANY conservative out there who has to write down "tax cuts" on their hand to talk about tax cuts?
Now Bobby Jindal on the other hand...
Oh yeah! To keep it on topic...