Quote of the Day
Example moves the world more than doctrine.Henry Miller
The Lost Art of Vetting
Two years later, I remain convinced that John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin was really based on a few things: (1) he wanted to swerve the news media and the Democrats; (2) when Barack Obama astonishingly decided to bypass Hillary Clinton as the obvious VP pick, I think McCain was looking to counter and make a statement by selecting the first female running mate in GOP history; (3) energy was a hot issue, and Sarah Palin was governor of the biggest energy-producing state; and (4) Sarah Palin was a fellow reformer or maverick.If you go back to the early days of my blog, you know I raised Sarah Palin as a possible nominee and quickly ruled her out, because Troopergate was already under investigation and the report was due a few weeks before the election. At the time I thought it would have been reckless for McCain to expose his one and only chance to be elected President by gambling that investigation would clear her. (In fact, despite Sarah Palin's attempts to spin the result, it was no exoneration.)
I'm not going to restate the history of Sarah Palin in this blog. Originally I was euphoric; she seemed remarkably articulate; as a pro-lifer, I found her decision to carry her Down syndrome little boy to birth versus engage in eugenic abortion was inspirational. But there were 3 marker items: (1) she implied that she had returned the Bridge to Nowhere money to Congress (false); (2) she told the moderator during the VP debate that she was going to take advantage of the time allocated to speak her mind, not necessarily answer the moderator's questions; and (3) there was the bizarre deer-in-the-headlights question/answer sequence during the Katie Couric interview when Sarah fumbled a softball question about her reading habits. She later told a fawning Fox News reporter that the reason she didn't answer the question directly because she felt she was being asked the question only because she was Alaskan and the question reflected negative stereotypes about Alaskans.
In fact, Sarah Palin seemed clueless about the fact her attempt to explain the reading material questions made things worse.
Let me illustrate with a little story involving a project I was working on in Brazil in 1995. My project leader didn't particularly like this excitable client technical analyst and knew how to jerk her chain. I had finished a backup utility, but the client still hadn't rolled it out into production. I briefly mentioned this at this social gathering, when my boss decided to confront the analyst about it. She claimed she never got word about the program; my boss claimed, in fact, he had sent her an email a week earlier and could prove it. The rest of the clients and I watched in stunned amazement at the exchange. The analyst went from tears to screaming at my colleague to tears again. "I know why you're worried about backups--you did something really, really bad to the database and you're looking to shift blame--but I'm onto you..."
The fight isn't the point of the story; it was what happened after the fight. The next business day, my boss got called into the client management's offices. The analyst had filed an internal grievance against my boss claiming that he had called her an "Indian". (Absolutely false allegation, but I knew that it was her way of striking back against my boss.) What's the issue? In Brazil, calling someone an Indian is considered the ultimate insult, a cultural no-no. Brazilians take pride in having one of the largest, most diversified economies in the world, and they suspect that Americans have a stereotype of Brazilians as living along the shores of the Amazon chucking spears.
The point is, it's important for any politician (or adult) not to sweat the small stuff and to pick the right battle. Filibustering a question about newspapers or magazines you read regularly?
These are things Palin did and said in front of a camera, when she was on her best behavior. The end result? There is no doubt she has captured the imagination of a motivated number of vocal supporters, but she also picked up the worst rating of any VP pick in decades, she was relentlessly mocked on Saturday Night Live and her selection was a deciding factor in losing the votes of many moderates and independents. The McCain team plainly blew it on vetting the governor.
A similar thing is happening to Christine McDonnell, and the Tea Party Express is finding itself in a living hell. This election was supposed to be about limited government and fiscal responsibility. Instead the late night comedians are all focusing on her past views on masturbation, her limited income and loan defaults. Caveat emptor.
Your Tax Dollars At Work: $2M Per Job
Los Angeles received $111M from the Obama stimulus bill, generating or keeping some 55 jobs, according to Los Angeles controller Wendy Greuel. Arithmetic question for progressives: if it takes $111M to generate or keep 55 jobs, how much federal tax-and-spending does it take to generate jobs for the 14.9M unemployed workers?Dumb Liberal Quotes
Jenny Erickson has a nice collection of 50 dumb liberal quotes. I'll just list a few of my favorites:
- John Conyers on the Health Care Bill, which he voted for: "I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill ... What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?'" [Pass the bill...What good is passing the bill if it's a thousand pages and...]
- Nancy Pelosi on the economy: "every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs." [And apparently 200 million also lost their lives...]
- John Kerry on health care: "I'm going to be honest with you -- I don't know a lot about Cuba's healthcare system. Is it a government-run system?"
- Rod Blagojevich, former white governor of IL: "I'm blacker than Barack Obama."
- Jerry Brown, former governor of California, and current candidate for the same position: "The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs."
Political Humor
After showing a clip of O'Donnell saying, "The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery, so you can’t masturbate without lust," Stephen Colbert said: "Thank you madam. Masturbation is adultery. I know this is horrible news for my home audience, many of whom are committing adultery as we speak."[Not to worry, Stephen. Watching your show gives me a headache...]
"She’s also against masturbation. I'm afraid you lost me now, lady. If she wants to win this November, she may have to change that position." –Craig Ferguson
[Now, Craig, she's not going to make a Vanna White entrance just so you can commit adultery.]
