Well!
Round one of the debates is over, and next week we’ll start round two. Sarah Palin proved that she could just about manage to clear that bar of expectations last night. Good thing it had been lowered so far that she wouldn’t even need to worry about jumping over it in her heels. With all the bullshit about Gwen Ifill over the past few days (trying to obscure some of that Katie Couric footage… seriously, is there more of that interview still? What else does CBS have in their pocketses?), I believe the McCain campaign actually got out bulldozers to bury that bar even further below ground level. All Palin had to do was show up, throw around some folksy bullshit, and WHAMMO! Palin for President! Er, Veep! Whatevers!
No, really, not joking: I have a neighbor around the corner who proudly hung a banner from his fence that says “Pro God, Pro Guns, Pro Life- Palin for Vice President” on it. No mention of John McCain anywhere, not even a McCain/Palin yard sign elsewhere. I haven’t seen that Palin sign anywhere else. Do you think my neighbor went and had it made up specially?
Speaking of the folksyisms, one subject that seems to get a lot of play on my favorite librul, eleetest blogs is the Palin pronounciation of the word ‘nuclear’, which mirrors Bush’s pronounciation. I have to say that I grew up hearing and saying it the way that Palin and Bush say it: ‘new-cue-lur’. I have to FIGHT myself to say it correctly (‘new-clear’, not three syllables but two), and still Tracy catches me sometimes. It’s not my FAULT. I had to teach myself to say strange words like ‘soda’ instead of ‘pop’ when I got to college, and I drop lots of g’s all over the damn place. On the other hand, I can speak for the effectiveness of folksyism. I know that people in rural areas all over the country react to me better when I speak with my natural flat Midwestern twang, so why should I hide it? If I walk door-to-door in my own neighborhood on those Obama canvasses, I always end up spilling g’s all over the sidewalk, talking with a ‘howdy’ this and a ‘y’all’ that, and although I can’t really help it, I do feel like people are friendly, friendlier than if I showed up with a clean, Eastern liberal-arts-college accent.
Reacting badly to a simple difference in pronounciation is the kind of thing that gets the red staters all pissed off at the blue staters in the first place, which leads to the left losing elections. So maybe those of us who are true blue but speak all folksy should wear it with pride, maybe change some minds. Right?
I’m still digging the ‘Smart People for Obama’ sign I saw last night on MSNBC during the pre-game show. I mean, how can you argue with that one?
I wanted Biden to be an attack dog last night. I would have really enjoyed watching another woman go into that debate with Sarah Palin, and I think it is sexist that he wasn’t really allowed to go off the leash, tear into her, and beat her to a pulp with the podium, you know, metaphorically speaking. I mean, it was sexist that the McCain campaign would call ‘sexist’ on that, that’s what I mean. Obviously, Biden is a smart guy and wasn’t going to go out there calling her a ‘nice broad’ or whatever; that would really indicate actual sexism. But the McCain campaign is all about real sexism in this election, with the soft bigotry of low expectations as an actual strategy, as long as it can keep Palin under wraps for the rest of the election, except when she’s trotted out to do Republican fundraisers and answer no questions from the press. Because, seriously, they won’t let her do any more interviews now. There’s no reason to do them, and they have everything to lose from it.
I did hear someone on CNN last night suggest that Palin was giving a 2012 speech, which, like, ok, but I don’t think Palin’s going to leave this race clean enough for 2012, no way. When has a losing Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate (in modern times- in the last thirty years) been strong enough to handle the next primary? Edwards came closest, which is about how close he was in 2004 before he was picked for the Veep nod. Palin would have to do some major proving of herself over the next few years. Obama beat the Clintons, and he’s about to beat McCain (who’s backed by Karl Rove and the rest of the Bush 2000/2004 team). I think he could wipe the floor with Palin.
Generally, I do think this race is Obama’s to lose at this point. McCain will get a small bump from last night’s non-trainwreck, but there’s still several weeks to go, and we know he’ll try pulling out a couple more bullshit maneuvers (sucker punches, punk moves) from his arsenal as a way to say, “hey, I’m the Maverick! You know, the nickname I gave myself!”, but as long as Obama keeps his cool and doesn’t take any of the bait, I just don’t think that he’s going to lose.
That doesn’t really mean that I’m letting myself believe that Obama will win. I just can’t let myself believe that yet. If McCain wins, I’ll be disappointed, but maybe not as bitterly disappointed as I was in 2000 and 2004. I still believe that there’s something reasonable about McCain, and I would hold out hope that he would be a reasonable President, even if he’s a Republican. I would hope that he certainly couldn’t be as bad as the last eight years, even if he did put a bunch of Bushies into office. So though I might want to think that I could move to Canada if Obama doesn’t get into office, I won’t do it.
But what will I do if Obama wins? I can’t get through ten pages of his book Dreams From My Father without crying a little (and I’m not usually a crier). It just fills me with pride and joy that we’ve managed to pick a Presidential candidate who comes very close to speaking to the realistic ideals that I hold as a person who believes in the need for progress. I think that if Obama wins, I’ll have to bite my tongue from wanting to scream with excitement, cry with relief, and just generally dance around like a lunatic. Oh, and also, I’ll have to keep myself from driving to DC on January 20 to join the party in the streets on Inauguration Day. Seriously.
But I can’t believe yet that this will happen. We’ve been burned too many times before!
I am enjoying the election year so far. It has been a wild ride. If it didn’t mean everything, absolutely everything, I would say that it’s been fun.
I say new-clee-r.