Goldy

See, this is why I’m cautiously optimistic about Obama’s chances in November.

Not because Joe Biden is damn good.  (And he is.)  And not because it looks like we finally have a Democratic presidential campaign that’s willing to fight back hard.  (And it looks like we do.)  But in this election, all the issues are on our side, and it looks like this is one campaign cycle where the electorate actually cares about the issues.

With unemployment topping six percent and the misery index at a 17-year high… with the home equity piggybank that fueled our economy for much of the past eight years smashed on the hard rocks of reality… with stagnant wages unable to keep up with skyrocketing costs of food and fuel, let alone college tuition… with record high budget deficits, a record low dollar and a depleted military diminishing our power and influence abroad… with tens of millions of Americans struggling to maintain access to health care while tens of millions more have no access at all… I just think that voters are looking for a bit more of a substantive debate than they have the past couple cycles.

Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe enough voters will once again fall for the Republicans’ relentless efforts to brand themselves as The Party of God.  Maybe there are enough swing voters out there who think John McCain should be given the Oval Office as compensation for the years he spent in a Vietnamese prison.  Maybe an irrational fear of terrorism is enough to hand our nation over to yet another warmongering administration.

But outside of the South… I don’t think so.

UPDATE:
The McCain campaign now says that they meant to show their nominee standing in front of Walter Reed Middle School.   Yeah. Right.  TPM cogently explains why this explanation is total bullshit.

Over on Blue Oregon, Carla says what a lot of folks have been afraid to say out loud:

Its not as if I don’t understand what its like to have a wonderful and beloved job in politics. I’ve had that. But when my teenagers (who were not actually in any trouble or crisis) began to show signs of needing their mother’s guidance and presence in a more profound way, I gave up that job to do what I knew was right for them.

Isn’t that what “family values” is supposed to be all about? Or is being a secular progressive a “family-values” nonstarter in the eyes of conservatives, no matter what? And does being an anti-choice, book-banning, global-climate-change denier mean otherwise, no matter what?

Sarah Palin either deliberately placed her pregnant, 17-year old daughter directly into this ridiculous media scrutiny–putting her in the position of being eaten alive by the rabid tabloid press–or she didn’t know that her child was 5 months pregnant. Neither of those scenarios speaks especially well of Ms. Palin as a “family-values” candidate, in my view.

Read the whole thing.  Really.  Then pass it around.

“Federal Highway Fund About to Run Out of Money.”

Which, of course, is why a gas tax holiday was such a great idea, wasn’t it Sen. McCain?

The Seattle Times editorial board isn’t particularly impressed by Sarah Palin:

Palin’s selection was a calculated move to lure Hillary Rodham Clinton voters. Palin all but said so herself. But those who were excited about Clinton shattering the glass ceiling will move away from Palin as they learn she opposes abortion in nearly every instance, including cases of rape and incest. She supports abortion only to save the life of the mother. That’s a dramatic position for a lot of voters accustomed to decades of legalized, and safe, abortions.

Once the chatter fades about her skills hunting, fishing and field-dressing a moose, she will not bolster McCain’s standing because her more relevant credentials are weak. She was for the overpriced Bridge to Nowhere, then later opposed it. She opposes congressional earmarks in the abstract. As mayor of tiny Wasilla and later as governor, she was a fan of earmarks.

So what you are saying is that Sarah Palin is far out of step with voters on reproductive rights, and a total hypocrite when it comes to her stated opposition to earmarks.  Hmm.  Sound familiar?

In fact, the Times’ favorite “conscience driven independent,” Rep. Dave Reichert, shares Palin’s extremist opposition to safe, legal abortions, opposes requiring pharmacists to fill legal birth control prescriptions, opposes all federal funding of family planning programs, and only votes to support sex education if it is strictly “abstinence only.”  (Because that worked so well for Bristol Palin.)

Similarly, Reichert was one of our state’s most accomplished practitioners of congressional earmarking, repeatedly bragging about his booty in campaign literature, before conveniently (and hypocritically) announcing a one-year moratorium on his own use of the controversial practice now that he’s in a tight election.

The question is, will the Times ultimately hold Reichert up to the same standards by which they judge Palin?  And if they don’t, does that make them sexist?

Remember those rumors about a Sarah Palin affair?  Well Andrew Sullivan reports that Todd Palin’s former business partner has filed an emergency motion to have his divorce papers sealed.  Hmm.

(Though, if I understand Christianity correctly, infidelity and premarital sex would do nothing to diminish Palin’s “family values” credentials, as long as everybody acknowledges their sin, and asks Jesus for forgiveness, right?)

Exceptionalism is a dangerous vice, but I cannot help but feel that this election is different.  Past elections have been won on character or fear or both, but in 2008 I don’t believe the majority of Americans will vote for the candidate they’d most like to have a beer with, or who promises to kill the most Moslems. And while I don’t doubt that our nation remains closely divided on ideological grounds, the divide itself is not nearly as wide as the Rovians would like to believe.

This has also been a brutally long election season in which Americans have had the opportunity to get to know Senators Barack Obama and John McCain in excruciating detail, and so I don’t expect the polls to fluctuate wildly between now and November.  Voters have been waiting for both sides to show their hands, and with the vice presidential selections on the table, the waiting game is pretty much over.  McCain will get some sort of convention bounce—every nominee does—and then within a week or two, the vast majority of undecideds will pretty much make up their minds.

Which way will the swing vote swing?  If I had to bet money, I’d wager on Obama.  No doubt McCain has energized his party’s right wing base with his naming of the ultra-conservative creationist Sarah Palin to his ticket, and that will likely mean shorter Obama coattails here in Washington state, where we had been hoping the Ellen Craswell Republicans might stay home en masse.  But national elections are won in the middle, and amongst moderate voters Palin will have much more limited appeal.

Indeed, the tone of the two conventions couldn’t have provided a greater contrast.  The GOP convention peaked on Wednesday, when a lineup of speakers, endcapped by Palin, entertained the crowd by belittling Obama and his supporters with overtly mean-spirited (if admittedly clever) barbs.  And while McCain gamely attempted to recast himself as a bipartisan reformer in his speech last night, it was the partisan sniping that will most likely be remembered by viewers.

The Democratic convention on the other hand adopted a more hopeful and uplifting tone, culminating in Obama’s historic acceptance speech before a roaring crowd of 85,000 at Denver’s Invesco Field.  It was (and I somewhat shudder to type the adjective) almost Reaganesque.  It was also laced with considerably more substance than the Republican sequel.

Obama has promised tax cuts for 95% of American households; McCain has promised tax cuts for corporations.  Obama has promised universal access to health care; McCain has promised tax incentives to make health insurance more affordable.  Obama has promised to invest $150 billion in developing the alternative energy sources of the future; McCain has promised more off-shore drilling.  Obama has promised to end the Iraq war honorably, and bring our troops home; McCain promises a hundred years war.

And Obama wants abortion to be legal, safe and rare, whereas McCain wants to outlaw abortion while denying young woman access to the birth control and medically accurate sex education that would prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place.

On all these issues, and most others, it is Obama who appeals to the middle, as he does in tone and character.  The Republicans will attempt to brand him as tax-raising, gun-stealing, terrorist-loving liberal… but I just don’t think these charges will stick, and my instinct tells me that it is probably too late.  By the end of next week the vast majority of voters will have made up their minds, and all that will be left to do is figure out the electoral math.

McCain needs to win both Ohio and Florida to capture the White House, but Obama doesn’t, with Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota, Indiana, Virginia, and North Carolina presenting him an endless number of reasonable scenarios toward securing 270 electoral votes.  And Ohio and Florida are still toss-ups.  And if in the end it is as close as the last two presidential elections, and turnout becomes the deciding factor, there too Obama has the advantage, having invested in extensive field operations McCain can’t hope to match.

This race will be closely fought, and Democrats can’t let their guard down, but let’s just say that coming out of the conventions I am cautiously optimistic.  But then… I could always be wrong.

Please God, make it stop. I wrote better speeches in jr high school. I just can’t take it anymore.

UPDATE:
McCain’s speech brought tears to my eyes… but then, my eyes always tear up when I yawn.

Seattle Times chief political reporter David Postman is leaving the paper, and journalism, to take a “media relations” job with Paul Allen’s Vulcan, Inc.  Huh.  With so many journalists leaving the industry to take media relations jobs, pretty soon there won’t be any media left to have relations with.

Postman says he’ll have more on this later, and so will I, but as I mentioned on last night’s podcast I find the relatively sudden implosion of our state’s political media to be depressing and distressing.  Postman should have been in Denver and St. Paul covering the conventions, instead of sitting at home blogging on the bloggers and sending out his resume.  I’m not sure how the Times thinks it can stem its steadily declining revenues by producing less and less quality, original content… but they seem intent on trying.

Anyway, Postman may not believe it but I’ve always respected him and always thought he was one of the best in the business.  (His editorial board, not so much.)  He’ll be missed.

Democrats Work is holding a day of service this Saturday, September 6, and there’s plenty of opportunity around the state to help chip in:

• Seattle: Beautify the grounds of Roosevelt High School, in the 43rd LD
• Kent: Repair the Way Back Inn, transitional housing for homeless families
• Tri-Cities: Bake sale to benefit Tri-Cities Food Banks and voter registration drive
• Vancouver: Sign up low-income families for free children’s health care with the Clark County Young Democrats

You can RSVP on their website or send them an email at rsvp@democratswork.org to get involved.

Effective politics is about a lot more than just waving signs and insulting your opponents; it’s about building community.  And Democrats Work is a great way to involved.

Let’s be honest, when Republicans like Sarah Palin accuse Barack Obama of being an “elitist,” they’re really calling him “uppity.”  (As opposed to when they call Jews like me “elitist.”  Then they’re just calling me, um, a Jew.)

So you gotta at least applaud Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) for his honesty:

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

Yeah, Westmoreland knew the word “uppity” was racially tinged, and he intended to use it in that context.  Because… well… that’s how Republicans win elections.

Postman follows up on a PolitickerWA report from the Republican convention, noting Attorney General Rob McKenna’s bold prediction that Dino Rossi is dead in the water if John McCain loses Washinton state by double digits.  But I think the more interesting McKenna comments came earlier in the piece.

Speaking at a WA delegation breakfast, McKenna noted the many buttons he’d seen cheering the selection of Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court, calling the buttons “absolutely right”.

“He made two outstanding picks,” McKenna said of the president, “and it makes an enormous difference.”

The difference he referred to was the court’s typical 5-4 split with the alternating ideology of Justice Anthony Kennedy. The attorney general predicted that Justice John Paul Stevens, at age 87, was very likely to leave the court during the next president’s tenure

“You get another Alito-Roberts type in there, that ain’t gonna happen anymore”, he said of Justice Stevens’ typically liberal vote and Justice Kennedy’s swing vote altering the Court’s opinion between liberal and conservative decisions.

“In contrast, think of who Barack Obama is likely to appoint of the Supreme Court,” McKenna proposed, and when the crowd scoffed he answered, “Enough said.”

“Enough said,” indeed.

McKenna is often depicted by our local press as a moderate, even pro-choice Republican, but his comments before friendly crowds indicate that he is anything but.  A McCain/Palin victory would install in the White House the most anti-choice administration in the post-Roe era… an administration intent on making abortion illegal, even in the event of rape or incest, and regardless of the health of the mother.  And this is exactly what McKenna is promoting when he celebrates the appointments of Roberts and Alito.

This is in fact the platform of the Washington State Republican Party, and it is the position supported by Dino Rossi, Dave Reichert, Cathy-McMorris Rodgers and Doc Hastings.   Our state Republican Party and their leaders want to outlaw abortion, under nearly any circumstance, restrict access to birth control, and teach abstinence-only sex education in our schools (which has worked out so well for Bristol Palin).  They want to return us to the era of coathangers, knitting needles and back-alley abortions… yet our local press continues to let them slide away by saying “I’m not running on that issue.”

Of course they’re not running on that issue.  They’re position is both immoral, and counter to the opinion of the majority of voters in Washington state.

The elevation of of Sarah Palin to the national ticket was a blatant and cynical appeal to the GOP’s right-wing fundamentalist base, and as such it is incumbent on the press to start asking the tough questions of all Republican candidates, up and down the ticket.

McKenna, to has credit, was absolutely honest with the WA delegation in St. Paul:  what is at stake here is the composition of the US Supreme Court for decades to come, and whether it will allow our nation’s Christianist minority to interfere with the most personal decisions a family has to make.

Now it is time for McKenna and his fellow Republicans to be just as honest with voters back at home.

Danny Westneat is smitten with Sarah Palin…

I liked her — despite all the tiresome culture-war derision she aimed at “elites.”

Too bad she hates you, Danny, and the rest of us Ivy League elitists, so good luck getting that interview you’re lusting after.

Who knew a Harvard degree would someday become a political liability?  I better send my daughter to the University of Idaho—or better yet, a two-year, unacredited Christian college—if I ever want her to have a career in politics.