Governor Sarah Palin isn’t the only first-term, female governor from a Pacific Northwest state.
Governor Chris Gregoire has similar stats. Add in the fact that Gregoire has tried to work with Palin on regional issues, and suddenly Gregoire becomes a valuable asset to the Democratic party: She has the credibility to weigh in on the national conversation about the famous governor next door.
Gov. Gregoire–who’s pro-Plan B, pro-choice, pro-accurate sex ed, and believes global warming isn’t a biblical plague, but rather a human-made mess that demands a real-life solution (like the carbon-cap legislation she passed last year)–should tell the press what it’s like to work with an arch-conservative like Palin. It’s likely Gov. Gregoire wouldn’t have very nice things to say. And it’s likely those not very nice things to say would get national attention.
That’s a golden campaign opportunity for Gregoire. She’d immediately become part of the national Obama story while undermining the Palin girl-power schtick and the McCain/Palin “We’re good for the environment” schtick (lie).
Bingo, with a few national headlines–“WA. Gov. Slams Palin’s Environmental and Women’s Rights Record”–Gregoire would fire up her own otherwise blase base: Liberals in King County who she ignored (and who ignored her) in 2004. While these voters aren’t particularly enthused about Gregoire in 2008, they are ga-ga over Obama. It’d be wise for Gregoire to commandeer the microphone and talk trash about Palin.
For example, let’s look at that global warming bill. It directed Washington state’s Dept. of Natural Resources to devise an emissions cap in concert with regional players like California, Oregon, and even Canada and Mexico. (That’s the only way a carbon cap is going to have a real effect.)
What about Palin’s Alaska?
MIA, according to environmentalists who worked on the bill last year. Why? Gov. Palin doesn’t believe humans have anything to do with global warming and so, she’s not interested in regulating emissions.
Gregoire should get on the horn with Newsweek about that. Sigh. Instead she’s issuing statements to the press like this:
“I congratulate my fellow Western governor, Sarah Palin, and her family. Last night Barack Obama made history and today Sarah Palin did the same, by being named the first female, Republican vice presidential nominee,” Gregoire said in a statement.
“She’s been a committed public servant and a dedicated mother,” Gregoire said. “As a mother myself, I sincerely commend her for that, knowing that it takes strong devotion and focus. Having worked with Governor Palin, I know that she truly believes in her work and has been a strong leader for Alaska and its people.”
But as an early endorser of Democrat Barack Obama for president, Gregoire also picked up on the talking points that many other Democrats had already began hammering away with on Friday’s announcement.
“When Barack Obama announced Joe Biden as his nominee for vice president, he said his decision was not only based on him being a good partner but also someone who was ready to lead. With Governor Palin only having two years of experience as Alaska’s governor and serving as mayor of a small city prior to that, it’s something the voters need to consider and weigh carefully as this election progresses,” Gregoire said.
Talk about human emissions.
Or Gregoire could just quote the relevant portions of the IPCC reports that tell us that man is causing global warming.
Too bad they don’t exist!
I was a paragraph into this nonsense and quickly glanced up to the byline to see who wrote this shit. IT”S JOSH FEIT. Dan Savage’s former squeeze. The juvenile and snarky editor of Seattle’s favorite (conservative) hipster publication:THE STRANGER!
C’mon Goldy-Do you think the way to compete with the NY Times is by hiring a Bill Kristol wannabe? Haven’t you ever read Feit’s columns in The Stranger?
This is a negative moment for the HA!
Putting Gregoire on the attack might be a mistake. Although I’m sure some aspects of Palins Alaska leadership may be overblown, she seems to be gaining momentum. If Gregoire attacks Palin, what happens when Gregoire comes under the same scrutiny? Debt, no viaduct replacement, bloated government, huge increase in spending, long line of Dem. governors (ie “Its time for real change”), etc. Get it? When you compare the two, our Gregoire doesn’t look so good. If Gregoire goes hard after Palin, she would probably take herself out also, especially considering it is a close race. Gregoire is smart on this, and this is really a no-win situation for her.
Have a nice day,
Farmer Fred
I’d be thrilled if Gregoire pretty much did anything at all. I’ve been quite sick of Rossi’s ugly-ass mug on TV advertisements, trying to ride on Obama’s coattails.
With only fifty-six days left, it seems like she doesn’t have a lot of time to do anything, and she seems quite content on doing nothing.
I was just thinking back to the election recount in the last match up between Rossi and Gregoire. A columnist at The Stranger,either Kaushik or Feit advised Gregoire to throw in the towel to avoid creating hard feelings. That’s the quality of advice and commentary we can expect from Mr Feit, The Stranger’s (and now HA’s) own Bill Kristol.
Gregoire can’t afford to attack Palin. Gregoire is going to be too busy raising money for her legal defense fund after Governor-Elect Rossi has the Feds investigate Gregoire’s kickback schemes with the Indians.
4 – This blog should shrug off the Palin noise and go on the offensive against Rossi.
6 – kickback schemes? I don’t recall Rob McKenna having any problem with gambling compact.
Just another right wing delusion – nothing to see here.
Gregoire’s a nice, polite, person, who makes friends among all who know her (regardless of party affiliation), and who quietly does her job well without tooting her own horn. It makes for being a great governor, but it has its drawbacks as a political candidate.
That’s why the Republicans have been attempting to demonize her – so that those who DONT know her, already have a negative opinion of her without any basis in fact.
I think Gregoire’s got her hands full, and she should stay out of the Palin debate. She needs to win this election by a convincing majority in order to have a mandate to get things done in this state.
What I want to see is a forcefull and immediate reply to Rossi’s lying commercials which try to make people believe that the state budget is in dire economic peril and only Rossi can come in on a white horse to save the day. It’s Rossi’s only hope: try to convince people that Washington State, which is actually doing pretty well economically compared to the rest of the nation, is in a state of “crisis”, and therefore a change is needed.
Problem is, there is no “crisis”, no need for change – especially taking a risk with a real estate salesman who is trying to sell the broken-down condemned house which is his transportation policy as if it were a “charming cottage” with “real potential”.
Gregoire’s people need a fast-response team ready to respond to these ads with their own ads within 24 hours, and issue news releases in the interim. Rossi is getting far too much milage out of these ads without an effective response.
re 1: Do you think that carbon emissions cause smog in large cities and have a ‘greenhouse effect’, or is that just an unprovable fiction, as well.
Endlessly repeating your idiocy will never make it true. The big lie will only work for so long.
Sun-Tzu in ‘The Art of War’ advised that a good strategy for defeating an opposing army is to retreat to higher ground that is fronted by a river (in the McCain campaign, this would be a river of provable lies). Allow the opposing army to cross the river halfway, then attack.
You effectively cut the enemy’s army in half. A good strategy right now would be to concentrate on McCain’s lies.
Someone with a bent toward creating attack ads might get Heart and Van Halen to do a remake of ‘The Knickerbocker’s’ hit single “Lies” and intersperse the songs lyrics with McCain’s Lies.
“Lies! Lies! That’s all I ever get from you.”
McCain’s not a war hero. He’s a prison camp survivor.
“I am a black war criminal.” John McCain
Klingon @ 11: Well, that tactic (attacking an army while it is crossing a river) worked for William Wallace at Sterling. At Fredericksburg Lee didn’t attempt to hit the Army of the Potomic while it was crossing the Rapidan, because that crossing was covered by superior Union artillary on the higher northern bank of the river.
I’m not sure of it’s application to politics, however. People who aren’t well educated in the details of politics tend to remember the charges, but not the refutation of the charges.
I think a better campaign is to attack continuously. When Bull Halsey took over as commander in the Central Pacific in WWII(replacing Fletcher), his first order to the fleet was a model of brevity, if politically incorrect: “Kill Japs! Kill Japs! Kill Japs!”
I think Gregoire’s campaign should generally take the high road and talk about her accomlishments, with lots of on-camera endorsements from prominent people. (Exception: Quick response to Rossi’s attack ads).
The rest of us should take on the role of attacking Rossi, reducing him to ridicule for being the empty suit that he is, his lying ads, and his subordination to the BIAW.
To do this, we need to spend some time away from the internet and these blogs, and get together with our neighbors. Host an “end-of-summer neighborhood barbeque”, with hot dogs, chips, & pop, and invite everyone. Be sure to talk lots of politics, and be ready to counter conservative talk-radio nonsense with actual facts. Let them know that the smart people – the ones who have actually looked at the issues – all support Gregoire, only the right-wing lackeys support Rossi.
Remember that only a small proportion of the electorate actively follows politics in any detail. This leaves about 30% who can be swayed by advertising and the news media coverage. Although you aren’t going to change any committed Republicans, you can easily change the vote of at least 10% of the people you invite.
I might not expect Gregoire to attack but I sure thought Hillary would. Hillary is in the position to take on Palin and yet is being surprisingly meek.
I was talking to an old jarhead who told me that the reason he was going to vote for McCain was that McCain was a veteran.
Old jarhead pauses and looks at me significantly.
My reply was that Timothy McVeigh was also a veteran. Would you vote for Timothy McVeigh instead of Obama?
Old jarhead drops jaw and has no reply. Wonder how often that happens? Sometimes a refutation can be very effective.
Josh—
Your immaturity is showing all over the place again. Gregoire handled this perfectly (as hard as that is for me to admit).
All you angry KLOWNS know is smash-mouth politics….which the vast majority of folks are tired of. Attacking Palin would have been awful for Gregoire. Good thing you aren’t her advisor you KLOWN!
You rationale that it will “fire up Gregoire’s Base” is sheer lunacy. Part of her base is career women you fool.
No wonder you KLOWNS pull defeat out of the jaws of certain victory so frequently. Read my lips—YOU ARE NOT THE MAJORITY! The majority is not angry pinheads Josh. You need moderate votes to win.
You KLOWNS spend waaaaaaaaay too much time jerking each other off. You are going BLIND!
re 15: Who you callin’ Klown, Klown?
Why don’t you and your mama go pray to Jesus for your daddy’s soul and leave the thinking to the grownups?
Klingon @ 14: It’s going to get real interesting to see how the “veteran” issue plays out over the next few decades. Most of the politicians up to now have been from the era where the draft was in effect, more or less continuously, from 1940 to 1975. With the much smaller all-volunteer army, the demographics alone suggest that having a veteran run for office is going to be a much rarer occurance.
Post-WWII elections tended to feature veterans facing across from one another. If a polilitican wasn’t a veteran, people wanted to know why.
1948: Truman was a WWI vet but Dewey hadn’t served, and that hurt him in 1948.
1952 & 1956: Eisenhower was in his own special catagory as a WWII vet when he went against Stevenson in 1952 & 1956.
1960: The Kennedy/Nixon election of 1960 was the first to feature the “new generation” of young WWII vets.
1964: Even Johnson could claim WWI vet credentials, albeit dubiously. Goldwater was an Air Force pilot flying ferry flights and supplies across the “hump” into China (a dangerous task).
1968: Humphrey tried twice to enlist in the Army but was rejected for medical reasons. This hurt him against Nixon in 1968, which was against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.
1972: McGovern, a WWII bomber pilot was beat by Nixon, a WWII Navy supply officer.
In 1976 Jimmy Carter was an Annapolis graduate and peacetime naval officer versus Ford, a WWII navy vet.
1980: Carter went against Reagan, who could claim WWII service (albiet in the special Signal Corps unit which stayed in Hollywood and made movies for the Army).
1984: Mondale was a Korean War vet (service stateside), against Reagan.
1988: Dukakis served in the Army in Korea (1955-57), George H.W. Bush was a pilot in WWII. Ironically, after the “tank picture” most people with the idea that Dukakis was never in the military, although the opposite was true.
1992: Clinton avoided the draft during Vietnam, which George H.W. Bush tried to make a campaign issue. This was the first time you heard Republicans saying “Nobody who hasn’t served in the military is qualfied to be Commander in Chief”. This time it didn’t work, because economic issues were paramount in that election, and the elder Bush was considered to be too much an “insider” and too far removed from the problems of everyday Americans.
1996: Dole was a disabled WWII vet, but his age and a recovering economy worked against him in his campaign against Clinton. The collapse of the Soviet Union made any security issues minimal during that election.
2000: George W. Bush is infamous for his controversial mediocre service in the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam, while Gore was in the Army in Vietnam albeit working safely as a journalist for the Stars and Stripes. Gore didn’t make Bush’s service an issue because of the potential backlash from other National Guard military, who might resent their service being considered less honerable than that of others.
2004: Kerry vs. Bush – Kerry was a Naval Acadamy graduate and a decorated commander of a combat patrol boat in Vietnam. The Democrats tried to make a comparison of service between Kerry and Bush a campaign issue, against the backdrop of continuing and escalating insurgencies in Iraq. Rove & Co. effectively negated the issue with the “Swift Boat” campaign to discredit Kerry’s service, and the “forged document” in the 60 Minutes piece, which killed Dan Rather’s career and pretty much made every other newsman afraid to touch the issue.
But now we have in McCain the last of the Vietnam era politicians, and the emergence of the Post-Vietnam generation as represented by Obama. I suspect that in future elections, having a veteran at the top of the ticket will become more and more of a rarity.
As for my own observations, it seems to me that more and more veterans are moving against the Republican Party. The “stop-loss” campaign, and sending f2-year-old grandmothers in the National Guard off to Iraq, is taking it’s toll.
16. W. Klingon Skousen spews:
“Why don’t you and your mama go pray to Jesus for your daddy’s soul and leave the thinking to the grownups?”
You, like all Atheists I’ve met, are unhappy, empty human beings. However, I’ve seen folks much more hard-hearted than you fall to their knees in confession and acceptance of Christ as their Lord & Savior. Most of the time it’s a catastrophic event. But often it’s an enlightment that humans don’t have perfect knowledge and just because they cannot see, feel or touch God, doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist.
Let me ask this fundamental question:
How can you have Creation without a Creator??
One other thought to ponder:
If you are right and death in this life is the end all, what am I risking by confessing my faith? You & I end up in the same place anyway…says you.
But what if I’m right and you are wrong??
I know this is a hard one for you angry Atheists to address seriously…so I expect your normal screeching in response. Surprise me with a legitimate intellectual, non-emotional argument.
You: “But what if I’m right and you are wrong??”
Me: But what if I’m right and you are wrong?
That, my friend, is the difference between you and me. The truth always matters.
Philosopher David Hume presented the proposition that if the universe needs a creator, then that logic demands a creator for the creator —- ad infinitum.
If you were in Iraq, you’d bow down to their religion. You bow down to authority figures and hope you are right.
Then Gregoire wouldn’t have supported Dave Ross in his run for congress, because he had no experience prior to running, right?
The Klingon at #14 rants that McVeigh was a vet, like McCain. Unspoken in the Marine’s reply to you is the fact that McCain was an honorable man going into the service, served honorably and lived honorably thereafter. Not so McVeigh.
Slicing the baloney fine in order to make a dumb, erroneous point is typical of the leftfringe.
Even as the horsesasses go on after Palin about her “thin resume”, I caution them that it is wiser to have the “trainee” at the bottom of the ticket and not at the top like the Obama-Biden miscarriage.
re 21: Timothy McVeigh served honorably in a war zone as well — as is evidenced by his Honorable Discharge.
Unspoken in what I was saying is that being a veteran is not a qualification for high office.
Cutting a wide and needlessly damaging swath in a failing effort to be always ‘right’ at any cost is typical of the Right Wing Noise Machine — of which you are a tiny mechanical, squeeking cog.
Kudos to Goldy and HA, you got one right.
Gregoire Blows!
Not interested, but it’s good to know.
Thanks for the info.
Josh!
A breath of fresh air at HA!
Gregoire’s current “campaign” against Rossi is unbelievably inept. Take Rossi’s personas and CG’s somewhat flatter package, roll them both into sound bites in 30″ ads, add in CG’s lack of a visible role as a leader for the last three years … Rossi will win.
OTOH., attack Palin! this moves the rhetoric from the 30″ sound bite, to the free news media. AND Palin is very attackable on issues that matter to this state:
woman’s issues
Alaska’s tax that WE pay in the price of oil.
creationism
ability to promote foreign trade
God’s war in Iraq.
Tie a great big bow around Rossi’a neck. Add in a wift of the suggestion that Palin is a femnale version of Uncle Thomas Clarence, Cook well.
What would Rossi do in return? Defending McC is fine, except that is dog bites man and won’t get him free press. Worse, Cg can strike back calling Rossi a Pander boy for opposing the interest of WASTATE while supporting the evil witch from the north.
Too bad Gregoire does not read HA.
I disagree with Goldy.
Gregoire is not a good surrogate at all to highlight the extreme right winger views of Alaska’s Governor.
There are plenty of other surrogates who are already doing the job.
The contrast you propose won’t pick up votes for Obama where they are needed most – in more rural swing locations in places like Colorado and some of the other swing states.
Obama, Gregoire and the democrats should focus on the top of the GOP ticket and the legacy 8 years of the worst leadership the county has ever experienced under Bush and McCain.
Gregoire is running against G.W. Bush in her attack ads.
She has no guts to attack Gov. Palin unless she’s a bigger fool then I think.