Standard Republican Fare

In Sarah Earmark's speech at the Republican Convention accepting her nomination for vice-president, she described John McCain as

A leader who's not looking for a fight, but is not afraid of one either.

She went on to criticize Harry Reid and the Senate he leads (to strengthen her credentials as a partisan and outside-of-the-Beltway figure), then contended

Clearly what the majority leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain. That is only one more reason to take the maverick of the Senate and put him in the White House. My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of "personal discovery." This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn't just need an organizer.

Palin claims, in a somewhat disjointed manner: 1) McCain is not "afraid" of "a fight"; 2) McCain is "the maverick"; 3) Obama is on "a journey of 'personal discovery'; 4) she herself is a "pit bull."

What is the message? The Democratic candidate is not quite manly.

This concept was explored this concept on June 15, 2008 in an opinion piece published by The New York Times and written by Susan Faludi, who noted

The attacks are already under way, as is evident if one enters the words “Obama” and “effeminate” into a search engine. The effeminacy canard lurks in Mike Huckabee’s imaginings of Mr. Obama tripping off a chair and diving for the floor when confronted by a gunman, and in the words of Tucker Bounds, Mr. McCain’s campaign spokesman, who depicted Mr. Obama as “hysterical.”

News media blatherers and bloggers are taking up the theme. On MSNBC, Tucker Carlson called Mr. Obama “kind of a wuss”; Joe Scarborough, the morning TV talk show host, dubbed Mr. Obama’s bowling style “prissy” and declared, “Americans want their president, if it’s a man, to be a real man”; and Don Imus, the radio host, never one to be outdone in the sexual slur department, dubbed Mr. Obama a “sissy boy.”

Obama is only one in a long line of Democratic presidential candidates to be characterized as effeminate. Glenn Greenwald wrote on July 17, 2007

For some time now, it has been commonplace for Democratic candidates to be depicted as gender-confused freaks -- Al Gore, emasculated with earth colors at the hands of the controlling Naomi Wolf; John Kerry, the wife-dominated, French windsurfer; Hillary Clinton, the domineering, emasculating, pants-wearing dyke; and John Edwards, the pretty, womanly faggot obsessed with his hair. One can make a strong argument, as some have, that those personality-attack themes have played a far larger role in the outcome of the last two presidential election than any substantive issues, and liberals simply have nothing close to the potency of the right-wing filth machine in advancing these gender themes.

I could whine about this being the real "sexism," as compared to the other, mythical, sexism claimed by the Repub Party and legitimized by the mainstream media. But the GOP has cornered the market on victimhood.

Quote Of The Week

"If executive experience is truly important on the Republican side, they must be looking for someone to replace their presidential nominee."

-Obama communications director Robert Gibbs, asked on 9/3/08 on MSNBC about the GOP claim that the managerial experience of his candidate is dwarfed by that of Sarah Palin

Saint McCain

When it was reported that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant, Sarah Palin, the presumptive Repub Vice-Presidential nominee, said in a statement released by the McCain campaign:

Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy, as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.

In June, 1998, however, the man whom she hopes to serve, John McCain, quipped about Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Attorney General Janet Reno:

Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.

Sarah Palin believes the media should respect the privacy of children of candidates. Yet, the head of her ticket thought it funny to ridicule the 18-year-old daughter not of someone then standing for election, but of the President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Will the media ask Mrs. Palin her opinion of jokes made at the expense of children of Presidents? Not likely- even then, as David Corn reported at the time, "in several major newspapers, the joke itself was kept a secret." It's still being kept largely a secret, even as Governor Palin self-righteously scolds the media. But then, this is John McCain, the "maverick" who dared to pander to his base and his party in the choice of the person he would have be second in line to assume the Presidency of the world's superpower.

The Christian Right And Humility

"Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you." (James 4:10, New American Standard Bible)

".... for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5, NASB)

Thus asked about the origin of life at Reverend Rick Warren's forum at Saddleback Church, Barack Obama, in the spirit of humility, replied:

Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.

The response from conservative Republicans? Fred Thompson in his speech on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention echoed the response of most conservatives, including white evangelicals: "And we need a president who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade."

Give most white evangelicals a choice: an extremely proud, pro-life, candidate such as John McCain or a humble pro-choice candidate like Barack Obama. Like the (secular) Fred Thompson, most of those on the Christian right will choose the former, every time. Which will tell you a lot about the Republican mind-set.

"Country First?"

Representative Eric Cantor (R.- Va.) yesterday was on message, if divorced from reality, with his party's reigning talking point: "The theme of this convention is putting country first, and I know John McCain has a 20-year track record of doing just that ."

People change over the course of twenty years and John McCain arguably has changed more than most- almost minute to minute, in regard to his views, such as on gay marriage. But on his blog on National Review Online, former Bush 43 speechwriter said it best:

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Why Not McCain?- 4

Asked on August 31 by Steve Kroft why he selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, Barack Obama on 60 Minutes explained:

Let me tell you the reason I picked Joe Biden. Number one, he can step in and become president. And I don't think anybody has any doubt about that. Number two is that if I'm in the room making the kinds of tough decisions that the next president's gonna have to make, both on domestic policy and on international policy, then I want the counsel and advice of somebody who's not gonna agree with me a 100 percent of [the] time. In fact, somebody who's independent enough that can push back and give me different perspectives and make sure that I'm catching any blind spots that I have. And Joe Biden doesn't bite his tongue.

An ability to assume the powers of the Presidency. Independence. Willingness to question the President. Putting country first. Can John McCain claim the same of Sarah Palin?

Right- And Right About Palin

Now that I've posted about Republicans who have been exposed as hypocrites for supporting identity politics as long as the individual is a right-winger, I'll concede that there are conservatives who defy hypocrisy and decry the selection. Unfortunately, they are in the minority- and reports are that Palin already has boosted donations to the McCain campaign- but David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, and Heather Mac Donald are loyal conservatives who deserve recognition. Apparently, they are conservatives disappointed that John McCain is not putting "country first."

David Frum is a former Bush 43 speechwriter, a columnist for National Review Online, is associated with the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, and author of "Dead Right." Although conceding the choice of the Alaska Governor is "probably a shrewd one," he wrote in an article for nationalpost.com

The day that John McCain announced his selection of Sarah Palin was his birthday. His 72nd birthday. Seventy-two is not as old as it used to be, but Mr. McCain had a bout with melanoma seven years ago, and his experience in prison camp has uncertain implications for his future health.

If anything were to happen to a President McCain, the destiny of the free world would be placed in the hands of a woman who until the day before Friday was a small-town mayor.

Mr. McCain's supporters argue that he is more serious about national security than Barack Obama. But the selection of Sarah Palin invites the question: How serious can he be if he would place such a neophyte second in line to the presidency? Barack Obama at least balanced his inexperience with Mr. Biden's experience. What is Mr. McCain doing?

Frum concluded "So this is the future of the Republican party you are looking at: a future in which national security has bumped down the list of priorities behind abortion politics, gender politics, and energy politics."

Charles Krauthammer is a syndicated columnist and Fox News commentator and wrote the following in his Washington Post blog:

The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead -- on the theory that because Palin is a maverick and a corruption fighter, she bolsters McCain's claim to be the reformer in this campaign. In her rollout today, Palin spoke a lot about change. McCain is now trying to steal "change" from Obama, a contest McCain will lose in an overwhelmingly Democratic year with an overwhelmingly unpopular incumbent Republican administration. At the same time, he's weakening his strong suit -- readiness vs. unreadiness.

A fellow at the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute and contributing editor to City Journal (for whom she wrote this), Heather Mac Donald reminds her readers of her conservative Republican bonafides by contending "Of course, Democrats have been playing the identity-politics game to the hilt this election cycle; it’s what they do." Ideologically consistent, though, she explains

Washington Republicans have hardly kept themselves free of race- and gender-based decision making: one can think of many cabinet members and judicial nominations made on these grounds. But now they’ve gone all the way and introduced irrelevant chromosome considerations into the presidential race—the most important political choice in the land. And they have lost any standing to criticize Democrats for playing the race and gender cards.

MacDonald refers to Palin's "motherly qualities" as "admirable," but scoffs, eloquently, at their significance for governing:

But her maternal feelings are irrelevant to her executive acumen and knowledge of economic and geopolitical issues. Palin may have those attributes in spades, but if so, let’s hear about them, not her domestic relations.

MacDonald concludes "it’s a sad day when Republicans decide to match the Democratic predilection for chromosomal consciousness, since there will be no turning back."

This article, entitled Sarah Palin (R-Diversity), is an especially valuable read. It informs us liberal Democrats that occasionally there is intelligent, conservative commentary- and conservative Republicans that John McCain has embraced the concept that experience is to be trumped by the value of immutable, genetic characteristics.