Party Platform Differences For Dummies 2

 

Chapter 2: Social Issues

Abortion Rights

McCain has been less strident in the past than most of the right on this issue, but in order to appeal to his base, he is now 100% against allowing a woman to decide whether she wants, or needs to terminate a pregnancy. Palin, who barely believes in gravity, follows the evangelical totalitarian view that “life” is “sacred”. Except for civilians in countries we invade, criminals on death row, any wildlife she chooses to blast from her helicopter, and women who need to terminate a pregnancy which threatens her life. McCain swears that there is no litmus test which a candidate for SCOTUS must pass. Yet somehow, conservatives seem to find Judges who want to repeal Roe v Wade (and the Bill of Rights, e.g. habeas corpus, etc.). Why they (Bush and other neoconservatives) do not consider their conservative appointees to be legislating from the bench is beyond me. This opinion rings hollow when promoted by President Bush who sought to consolidate power in the executive branch with his signing statements, and through the agenda of VP Dick Cheney. They seem to disdain the notion of checks and balances that our Founding Fathers found so important, and which is crucial to the American form of true democracy.

Obama will defend a woman’s right to choose. He will also appoint Justices who will not legislate from the bench; i.e. they won’t conform to an almost theocratic notion of governance as the appointments of a McCain-Palin administration would surely do. As a former student of constitutional law, and a former editor of Harvard Law Review, Obama understands the precepts on which our great nation was founded.

Marriage Equality

McCain-Palin are against any form of marriage between members of same-sex couples. Apparently their interpretation of the constitution does not protect homosexuals in their pursuit of happiness. Again, Palin belongs to a theocratic cult which tries to “cure” homosexuals. She feels that she is on a mission from God, which normal religious people consider to be filled with hubris, and is mean spirited toward those who are different. They will abdicate responsibility once again, in the name of Federalism, to the states. Sounds more like con-federalism to me.

Obama-Biden will try to encourage fair and equal treatment to same-sex couples. They will act responsibly as executives on the Federal level to defend these rights. They will allow the states to consider issues which are, constitutionally in their domain. They will not promote a constitutional amendment to deny these rights. Obama-Biden, in deference to the opinions of most Americans, will not redefine marriage, but they will allow civil unions in which the partners have hospital visitation rights, and all of the other rights that are available to married couples.

National Service: Both candidates have spoken about voluntary service, but only Obama has a clear plan. he is also more likely to inspire people to participate, in my opinion.

See Obama’s ideas on national Service in helping our country to rebuild our infrastructure, offer help to the homeless, perform tutoring or mentoring, etc.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/service/

Palin Attacks Biden’s Remarks About Crisis in 6 Months

 

Yes, the woman is an idiot. Or she thinks the voters are…or both.

Power abusing, $150K clothes-spending, charge-for-my-kid’s-trips, Tina Fey wannabe, Sarah Palin is an expert at straw-man arguments.

The rhetorical flourish…um, I mean hyperbole…um, I mean (what is it that you non-elite, barely literates call it? I will look for a neo conservative Thesaurus). The statement that Joe Biden made had everything to do with the times in which we live. He was simply expressing confidence in Obama’s steady hand and thoughtful skill, with which Senator Obama is very capable of handling any crises that face our great nation.

 

 

The Joe Biden Show

permalink to:

 

The Joe Biden Show

By CHARLES M. BLOW

Published: October 4, 2008 The New York Times

While watching the vice-presidential debate with the New York Young Republican Club, I realized it was not The Sarah Palin Show, but The Joe Biden Show. And, it was good.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/opinion/04blow.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

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My comment to the article above “the Joe Biden Show”

If Palin were taking an oral exam at university, she would have failed miserably. Armed with intensive coaching on republican talking points and some notes, she still was unable or unwilling to directly answer many of the questions presented by Ifill. When she did answer, she used sentences which defied comprehension because they not only lacked a substantive response to the question posed, but also because many lacked some of the parts of speech necessary to form a grammatically correct English sentence.

Her “talent” seemed to be the ability to deflect. She did so by using the passive voice, or ignoring the question altogether to recapitulate something that she had already said on a different topic, or just spewing gibberish composed of fragments of the talking points which were crammed into her head. Her constant, calculated use of colloquialisms, winks and inappropriate smiles added to the impression that she was speaking to the Wasilla PTA, rather than to the nation and the world.

 

 

Sarah, You Betcha! Doggone It

So Palin had enough prepared notes to avoid sounding like a community college dropout on drugs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Unless you’re running for the second highest office in the land.

Let’s see what some journalists had to say.

She subverted the whole purpose of the exercise by merely repeating the key points of her running mate, Sen. John McCain and ignoring questions that called for more specific answers.

…Palin’s answers in the debate were more about herself than about the policies of McCain or George W. Bush or even the country’s current economic crisis.

MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, one of the fastest-rising and most enigmatic personalities in talk television, listened patiently to Buchanan’s praise for Palin’s presentation and responded, “Boring but right versus exciting and wrong — that’s America’s choice?” Commentators on many of the networks marveled at Palin’s insistence on avoiding substantial comment on issues and on simply ignoring questions she couldn’t answer convincingly.

Palin basically stated early in the debate that this would be her strategy. She said she wasn’t necessarily going to respond to the questions of the moderator or charges from Biden, but instead, “I’m gonna talk right to the American people.” Since this was billed as a debate, not a speech, her remark came across as arrogant, and as an admission she would duck tough questions.

By Tom Shales Friday, October 3, 2008; Page C01Washington Post

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Palin, in her 90 minutes on the stage Thursday night, left the firm impression that she is indeed ready to lead the nation — with an unnerving mixture of platitudes and cute, folksy phrases that poured from her lips even when they bore no relation to the questions asked.

“Let’s commit ourselves just everyday American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation,” she proposed when asked about the mortgage crisis. (HUH?)

“I want to go back to the energy plan,” she said when asked about the federal bailout plan.

“I want to talk about, again, my record on energy,” she said when asked about bankruptcy.

At other times, her answers defied comprehension, as when Ifill asked about her trigger for using nuclear weapons. “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period,” she answered. (WTF?)

When backed into uncomfortable terrain, such as defending the Bush administration’s economic record, she exploded into cliche and non sequitur: “Say it ain’t so, Joe. There you go again pointing backwards again. . . . Now doggone it, let’s look ahead.” Before finishing her answer, she mentioned her “brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here’s a shout-out to all those third-graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.”

By Dana Milbank Washington Post

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My Gal: On sarah Palin’s speech patterns. Satire

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/09/22/080922sh_shouts_saunders?currentPage=all

by George Saunders September 22, 2008 The New Yorker magazine       

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    The End Is Near

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2008/09/ill-always-thin.html?yrail

Posted by George Packer September 29, 2008 The New Yorker magazine