Why we’re still watching Sarah Palin
If you watched the turkey interview given by Sarah Palin, you must have asked yourself why it was covered by the national news services. How many interviews does this person have to give, butchering language, logic and now fowl, before some people accept the fact that she makes most high school cheerleaders sound like they have a doctorate in English Literature. Every time she opens her mouth, she confirms the fact that she cannot speak a single coherent, complete sentence, and is unable to articulate the suffix “ing”. In this particular interview, she tries to sound politically adroit in her folksy kind of way, but comes off like Leo Gorcey from the old Deadend Kids serials. Of course, the turkeys being slaughtered in the background aren’t the issue. It’s the idea that she was so totally oblivious to what was going on right behind her and how disconnected it was from what she was talking about. An intelligent person would not try to add “a little levity” to a scene of animals being bled out right behind them. It was a classic metaphor of her world-view. A complete lack of awareness. If Palin ever wants to be taken seriously in national politics, the first thing she’ll have to do is go back to high school and take a few English and public speaking courses. Maybe some World and U.S. history classes would help, and a couple of semesters studying world georgraphy wouldn’t hurt, either. Unfortunately, there is no course that will correct her intellectual impairment. And the college that gave her the degree in Journalism should lose its accreditation immediately. This woman is a walking traffic accident and right now the whole country is rubbernecking, hoping to catch her next slaughtering of the language.
How to fix our broken election process…
Now that this election is over, it’s time to face the facts: The state of the greatest democracy’s election process is an international embarrassment. The campaigns lasted too long, got too nasty, and cost far too much money. Plus, there were too many long lines and malfunctioning voting machines, and not enough convenient polling locations. But all of this is easily fixable with these five simple steps:
1. Our primary season lasts far too long, and the gap between the conventions and election day could be shorter as well. This extended campaign period has led to two obvious negatives: first, it has made this election the most expensive in U.S. history and, second, it has encouraged the kind of nasty politics we’ve seen for the last two months. A shorter campaign season, from the beginning of the primaries until election day, would result is less costly campaigns and less mud-slinging. If you’ve only got 9 months to explain what you stand for to voters, you’ll probably spend less time attacking your opponent’s personal life.
2. Campaign finance reform is essential, but it won’t work with the current protracted primary and national election schedule. If Step #1 is implemented, it would dramatically reduce the need for candidates to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in order to run for office. For the national election, give each of the final candidates $80 million and tell him or her that they have 3 months in which to spend it. They should be able to advertise in any way that they like. Chances are that they will understand that they don’t have the time or the money to run negative ads. Voters will benefit from this in a number of ways, including being able to learn more about the candidates’ positions on various issues, as well as not having to listen to relentless defamatory commercials which do nothing but polarize the country.
3. Voting in this country, which is supposed to be the most advanced democracy on Earth, is a joke. Los Angeles Country, an area with more than 12 million residents, had one early voting location for this election. Nevada seems to be the only state that provides genuine early voting on a state-wide scale. Having many polling places in various locales, such as malls, supermarkets, banks and post offices, will lead to shorter waits to vote and that will encourage voter turnout. Voting machines should be junked and sold for scrap metal, and voters should be handed a piece of paper and a #2 pencil so that they can vote like people do in most of the other democracies in the world. if we’ve learned anything in the last 9 years, it’s that technology is no friend of democracy.
4. Because the press cannot and should not be controlled in a democracy, it will probably continue to project results long before the last polls close, and this can have a real impact on turnout in the states voting in the later time zones. For that reason, polls should be open at the same moment from coast to coast. Voting can start later in the east and earlier in the west. Similarly, polls should close at the same moment, no matter what part of the country you’re voting in. If Step #3 is implemented, this should not result in lines and long waits. It just means that the window to vote will be shortened. And that leads to Step #5.
5. Election Day in the United States of America should be a celebration of democracy and a national holiday. Surely, it is at least as important as Labor day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, or Veterans Day. If necessary, businesses can apply for a tax credit when they give employees a paid day-off to vote which does not count as a vacation day. This will also encourage voter turnout and spread polling place traffic out over the entire voting day.
The most dishonorable campaign in U.S. history
Something happened to John McCain in the early summer, just before the Republican convention. It was during this time that he was coerced by powerful RNC operatives to select a person he knew nothing about to be his running-mate. At that moment, McCain made a key decision: he would do and say whatever was necessary to win this election, even if it compromised his integrity and put the nation in peril. When he came to that conclusion, the tone of his campaign turned bitter and angry. His manic, thumbs-up gyrations seemed more like punches at some invisible opponent, and his smile became more grimace-like. The words “My name is John McCain and I approved this message” became a label that would stick to any insinuation, half-truth or outright distortion. McCain knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to “go negative”. It had nothing to do with “Country First.” It was all about “Campaign First” and victory at any cost. I don’t think Senator McCain has enjoyed this campaign, but it’s clear that Sarah Palin has wallowed in the adoration it has brought her. When she speaks at rallies, it’s like watching a stand-up comic who knows she has the audience in the palm of her hand and that every joke will work. It is telling that both McCain and Palin have chosen to exploit a hapless oaf who has turned out to be a pathological liar with show business aspirations. Joe-the-Plumber is a mythical character who has been co-invented by an out-of-work handyman and the Republican Party in an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the most uninformed, gullible voters in the country. That is where John McCain has pinned his hopes. If you’re going to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin, it is important that you understand what these candidates think of your critical skills and basic intelligence. Because they’ve been talking to you as if you have a 2nd grade education and believe whatever you see on television. While Barack Obama is saying that he admires John McCain’s courage and his service to this country, John McCain is casting suspicion on Obama’s patriotism, religious beliefs and integrity. When McCain loses this election, it will be because he showed the American people that he is not the man he has pretended to be for so many years. When the chips were down, it was more important to him to win his “victory” than it was to keep his honor and run a clean campaign.
JohnRJohnson 