Wednesday, October 29, 2008

GammaBoy is No Lil' Saint; YGG is La La and I'm Outta Here!

VP is extremely important. The VP is in charge of the Senate, Gammaboy, or hadn't you heard?

Look, don't turn this into an elitist, Ivy-league blue-blood coastal condescension thing. I don't give a damn where she went to school or lives; if she is tabbed as VP and has weeks to bone up without giving interviews, she should be able to answer the softballs lobbed at her much better than she did. We made the mistake of excepting such skills in exchange for innate leadership with Bush, and look what it got us. I find her eloquence and intelligence to be less than Bush's. Further, since its tough to argue, I guess we would have to agree to disagree as to whether she is an innate leader. Suffice it to say, if we're stranded on the island, I'm not giving her the conch, (by conch, I mean shell and am alluding to Lord of the Flies; other interpretations of conch may lead to alternate answers from me.)

Finally, I don't believe her Alaskan heritage represents a fierce libertarian streak; you cannot be a true libertarian and have most of her social views. Whenever a GOPer screams for gov't to get out of our economic lives but dig deeper into our social lives, I am highly cynical that there are rich lobbyists whispering into that person's ear and influencing the "economic" view just as there are influential lobbyists whispering on the social issues. McCain was a true exception in this regard.

I was not looking for a defense of Palin, which was half hearted and disappointingly played the, "you don't get it if you're not a Joe Six Pack card." I'm looking for how and why McCain made that choice in your opinion. I guess if you believe she is one of the best, then that explains why it didn't phase you in the context of a McCain presidency. The point is, do you believe McCain had no better choices than Palin? Do you believe he fully vetted her and all the others and said, "This is the best; the absolute cream of the GOP crop! And she stands for all I believe in to boot." Or do you think he made a rash decision for electioneering reasons? Not only am I disappointed that he did not choose on principle but rather expediency, but the decision proved very poor from a campaigning POV now that Palin has become a punchline. (Exhibit A- Me and all the other Lexington conservatives.) Thus, in my opinion, he showed both a lack of principle and poor decisionmaking. Hence, he lost me and several others.

Since you used the phrase, "You got served." I took the liberty of IMDBing the appropriate response from the now classic movie of the same name.

David: Y'all just mad. Because today, you suckers got served. Served. Served. Served! Served! [crowd takes up chant]
La La Vasquez: Oh my God! Oh my God! The Lil Saints have won $50,000! I'm La La! I'm out of here! Peace, y'all!

I couldn't have said it better myself. OK, I have no idea what that means, but hopefully you get the point.

4 comments:

Yo Gabba Gabba said...

Interesting link addendum on the rift that Palin is causing in the GOP. I think its a fair point that the GOP has been splitting along libertarian and socially conservative lines for some time, and I could see how she is the flashpoint for that if the rift goes public.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/29/palin.gop/index.html

Yo Gabba Gabba said...

Let's try posting that link again.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/29/palin.gop/index.html

Yo Gabba Gabba said...

Nope, didn't work. Anyway, last part of it after the "i" is "ndex.html"

GammaBoy said...

If my defense of Palin sounded half-hearted, it was. Like I said, I really don't care much about the VP slot. I also didn't mean to suggest you were playing the blue-blood card - my comment was just an aside concerning a lot of the coverage. I still think she is a natural leader - where she would lead you, though, is another story.

Interesting article about a Republican civil war. It's high time we had one. The libertarian and financial conservative wings of the party have basically nothing in common with the evangelical Bible thumpers. When I hear Republican "leaders" get all fired up about something like gay marriage, it's just embarrassing. We are in the same party only as a result of electoral necessity.

The sad thing is that back in the Reagan days, Republicans were the party of ideas. We once promoted ideals like small government, liberty, and economic freedom, ideals that sound common enough, but are in fact the exception in the history of governments. Then the DeLay Republicans and evangelicals turned the party into a gang of free-spending cultural warriors.