sweetheart-mine

hmm, i'm sure some of that stuff is happening, but in some ways it's no different from the initial reactions to geraldine ferraro, dan quayle, etc. the fact that she's a woman makes no difference to me whatsoever except that it smacks so completely of tokenism. i mean, that's what it is, and i agree with mrs beltmann that it's condescending in a big way. but there's plenty beyond that to be skeptical about -- most of her views, for example -- and let's face it, she is greener than green. most people never even heard of her until today. for those reasons and more, it's pretty hard to t

thank her for us. it's looking like she did a downright decent job!

hmm, she might better leave the council and mayor positions off her resume. her town has 3000 fewer people than mine, and believe me, this town government is small potatoes in the extreme.

sounds likely. she has governed for a year and a half a state with a population of about 670,000. how complex and difficult can that be? not that i'd want to do it!

as long as biden doesn't say, with hand gestures, "we're going to put it in a lock box and throw away the key" fifty billion times, he should do pretty well in the debates.

you're right, and it's certainly not a reason not to vote for someone outside the system. right now that vote just makes me a little raw -- queasy, literally -- only because the past eight years have been so damaging, and another choice is coming up.

casting a write-in vote says a lot more than not voting. that said, and while i agree that big business runs this country and is making politics mostly meaningless, i voted for nader in 2000. am i sorry? you bet i am. if gore had won (sort of like he did!), there would be a lot of status quo everywhere but the situation can be much, much, much worse than that, as we have seen since then.

that's okay. most things do.

yah, but are you working for the revolution as well as not voting? NOT voting is the easiest way to maintain the status quo. it takes a little more effort to go out and vote.

is 65 the new elderly? wow.

as i watch and hear palin speak, it occurs to me that mccain is ensuring that the clintons will be working for obama's election at least twice as hard as they were already planning to.

i agree with your first paragraph, both points. the effects of palin on the mccain campaign and election in general are bound to be interesting. whatever comes out of the close scrutiny she'll get will be fascinating, because she is totally new. mccain's age is probably the biggest factor that makes her selection so cynical, to my mind: people literally are going to need to envision her as president as they evaluate her, and how successful will that make his campaign? i think the surprise is kind of fun for people now, but looking ahead in a serious way, yikes.

i'm with ya on this, but dead fur is far from dead in alaska. at this point (still shortly after learning of mccain's pick), i'm pretty much reeling at his cynicism. i had no idea it was this deep. also, the wackiness, the tokenism, the -- well, it's probably a really courageous move, in a perverse and suicidal sort of way. this makes bush senior's pick of quayle look standard. p.s. doesn't this pretty much kill mccain's chances of attracting independents in november?

that's true, and it's also been hitting me in the couple of minutes since i posted how extremely interesting mccain's pick of palin will make the campaign -- way more interesting than i could have imagined.

many inconvenient details about these picks don't fit into your summary here, though it is a clever and concise summary.

mccain's v.p. choice is so breathtakingly alarming that i don't know where to begin. that's not true, i can begin: with mccain as old as he is, how responsible is it to pick someone with the least age and experience on the national stage? wait, she hasn't even been on the national stage. just for starters.

Breaking News Alert The New York Times Friday, August 29, 2008 -- 10:44 AM ET ----- McCain Chooses Palin as Running Mate Senator John McCain has selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, according to Republican sources. Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

that is truly fortunate, for you.

yah, that's crucial in this day and age of so few national and international problems.

thank you. if not, don't worry, i'll just keep reminding you every friday until you can't stand it anymore.

then there was the trickle-down theory in the reagan 1980s. former senator george mitchell finally said "the american people are tired of being trickled on," and i certainly feel that way now. in fact, where is that trickle.

analogman, why are you spending time reviving old threads when you haven't posted pics of your circa 1970 yarn knapsack yet? i, for one, am still waiting eagerly.

thieves and looters are far from my favorite people, but "they should be shot on sight"? a little lack of imagination there, sir. and if assault rifles and ammunition are the answers, why, i'll vote for bush's third term.

i agree with you. we'd all like to make up our own president, perfectly, and some would base every judgment on current events according to that subjective standard. reality is, we have two options to choose from, as usual. in view of that, i'd take obama over not only mccain but most other presidential candidates in my lifetime, which hasn't been short. i'd list the reasons why, but there are too many, and i listed them here 5 or 6 months ago. and now i'm tired. but satisfied.