Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

[MrSaigon]

People let's hang up our gloves and all agree that God is a Lutheran and a Republican, and everyone else can go to Hell.

[clement]

There's no governor or mayor that doesn't try to get some earmarks or federal funding.

That's not actually true, but that's not my point. My point is that she is disingenuously painting herself as a reformer and an opponent to earmarks and she is lining herself up with McCain on this issue, who has not only criticized earmarks for a long time, but has specifically called out earmarks that Palin herself has been awarded on at least three different occasions. And you use the qualifying word of "some" earmarks, but the quantity of earmarks relative to the populations of the city and state that she has gotten them for puts her earmarking on the highest end of the spectrum. Ted Stevens is the second largest earmarker in the Senate this year (at $500 million) and that's for the 47th largest state in the country! And who was lining up to benefit from those earmarks and supported him even as he was being indicted? Palin. There are some Senators that have never requested a single earmark. Palin as a small-time mayor lobbied for them, hired professionals to help her do so, and succeeded in getting $27 million dollars for ~8000 people (that's more than $3000 per person while she was mayor). And as governor she has now overseen the largest request for more earmarks per capita in the country.

You can paint it as a "that's the rules so why not try and get the most for your constituents", but then don't turn around and say she is a reformer.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la ... 2434.story

And it's a lot easier to cut local property taxes on a population of a few thousand people when you are bilking the federal government out of huge amounts of money through a powerful, corrupt and now indicted Senator (who is now up for re-election) to pay for projects that will attract new business and new people to your village. And while cutting property taxes, she supported and later increased the sales tax in Wasilla. Overall tax revenues went up while she was mayor, though that was largely due to growth in population (though that was largely due to her ability to secure federally funded earmarks for significant economic development projects).

everything I've read (I linked to an article on this earlier) suggests she's willing to make tough choices in this regard and even tick off people her own local party establishment. That is very much a quality I'd like to see in a President, and one we haven't seen in a while. My guess is she'd probably be tougher than McCain in this respect.

It's an admirable quality, especially if you're tired of the partisan party politics, but there has to be more to a good candidate for any office than just that. I'm looking for the rest of the story. So far the only thing I can find is her far right positions on social issues and her disregard and ignorance about environmental issues. Obviously neither of these aspects of her substance are appealing to me.

[Jocephus]

[haltz]

Ted Stevens is the second largest earmarker in the Senate this year (at $500 million) and that's for the 47th largest state in the country!

To be fair, it takes a very long series of tubes to get the Internet to Alaska.

[BenNX74205]

all of these issues are state issues anyway...if a state decides that it wants to ban gay marriage or abortion or drugs, or hell, unmarried sex or birth control or smoking cigarettes or whatever then I'm fine with it...when the federal government does it then it's fascism...

Why is it fascism when the federal government does it, but something else when state government does it? The fact that some powers have been reserved to the states doesn't change the characteristic of exercising said powers.

[sighyoung]

I do think everyone should do a little research on what fascism is,because it ain't what some people think it is.

I can recommend the following (I read a lot about politics these days):

The Third Reich - Burleigh
The Anatomy of Fascism - Paxton (very deep read, but excellent)
It Can't Happen Here - Lewis (fiction, but a good depiction of how fascism arises)
The End of America - Wolf
The Authoritarian Specter - Altemeyer

We should also remember Godwin's Law: as a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

[sighyoung]

all of these issues are state issues anyway...if a state decides that it wants to ban gay marriage or abortion or drugs, or hell, unmarried sex or birth control or smoking cigarettes or whatever then I'm fine with it...when the federal government does it then it's fascism...

Why is it fascism when the federal government does it, but something else when state government does it? The fact that some powers have been reserved to the states doesn't change the characteristic of exercising said powers.

++

And, I would add, part of the growth of federal power in the 1960's (Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act), as well as key decisions by the Warren Supreme Court, were responses to decades of abuses by state and local governments.

[BW23]

Bin Laden said the September 11 attacks were partly because "you separate religion from your policies" so maybe he'll calm down if we get some people in there doing a better job of legislating (religious) morality.

Right. Bin Laden got mad at Bush Sr., then he sat on his hands for 8 years until Bush Jr. got in office. He liked everything about Clinton, so he didn't do anything during that regime.

It doesn't matter who's in office. He's going to do all he can to cripple us.

[BW23]

actually, wanting christian morals to be enforced through federal policy is fascism...

and it's what the founding fathers didn't want...


all of these issues are state issues anyway...if a state decides that it wants to ban gay marriage or abortion or drugs, or hell, unmarried sex or birth control or smoking cigarettes or whatever then I'm fine with it...when the federal government does it then it's fascism...

I'm still trying to figure out why you lean so heavily left....you know, for someone that want so much less federal government.

[ghostrunner]

I think the experience issue is a fair argument, and a point of concern. But comparing her to Obama I don't see a deficit there. I don't have any idea how she'll do with Putin, Sarkozy, etc...but i really have no idea how Obama will do either. I agree that people have largely decided that he'll do okay. But I see an attitude that Palin doesn't even deserve that shot, and her selection is automatically laughable or irresponsible. Let her do some interviews and debates and let the public decide.

I knew this from working in France this summer, but Obama is almost universally liked and respected by the Europeans I worked with. Based on some articles I've been reading in the French speaking newspapers Europeans are well aware of her shortcomings and are highly skeptical and not trusting of McCain.

Just my personal experience, but at least on the European front I would say Obama would have a much easier time than McCain. Electing McCain will just reinforce to that part of the world their perception of what Americans are all about.

I agree that they like him, and that may make some things easier and that overall it's better if we're liked. At the same time, being liked isn't the most important thing and my guess is other countries will get over Obama-mania pretty quick. Bush had only been in office for 8 months when 9/11 happened. Clinton was burned in effigy in more than a few places during his time. We're big and we export our culture and products, and that generates resentment. I don't think we ought to count on Obama changing that.