I’ve been meaning to write something about the Sarah Palin thing since I first learned about it. Of course I’ve been swamped and bullshit politics seems to always get pushed down the list of things I want to think about but I wanted to actually say something before the election actually happens. I read the incredibly thought out piece that danah boyd wrote about being offended, as a women, by this choice and watched this video that Jason DeFillippo posted.
And those folks said, much better than I could, pretty much everything I was thinking. Choosing her was such a transparent grab for votes it’s amazing. I’ve had good things to say about McCain in the past but this is so shady and so spineless it’s fairly clear, to me at least, that none of what he’s said in the past holds true and he’s right in line with “cheat and play every dirty move so long as we win” policies that Bush laid out. What’s worse is that people are buying it. I don’t recall a time recently where the two biggest public reactions I’ve seen to a political move have been “Are you serious, you’d have to be a complete idiot to not see that this is a total scam move” and “Amazing! Best move ever!” It’s shocking, it’s embarrassing, and it’s disappointing. In my travels outside of the country I’m frequently confronted by folks who want to know how Americans can be so stupid as to support Bush enough to elect him twice, and I have to explain that it was a close call and there’s a lot of people who don’t agree and actually think things through. But then something like this happens and I can’t turn on the news without seeing some a mic shoved in some housewife’s face while she goes on and on about how she either used to support Hillary but since she’s out Palin is clearly the choice, or how she wasn’t sold on McCain but with the addition of Palin she’s 110% behind him while her husband stands supportively behind her nodding. Hook. Line. Sinker.
And today, the “lipstick on a pig” thing. I can’t believe the McCain camp thinks anyone believes they are offended by it. I can’t believe the McCain camp thought that would be the good thing to pull out of context and over react about. I can’t believe that McCain supporters are jumping right in line behind this and wagging their fingers. I can’t believe it. Yet it’s happening right here in front of me. A month ago I was positive there was nothing McCain could do to win, and that Obama was locked in already. I think I was giving the Republicans too much credit.
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