So...what a weird weekend it's been in American politics.
Though the Euro and the Yen bounced back this morning on the strength of various bailouts in the U.K. and the E.U., there are still serious questions being raised about the amount of pork-barrel spending and lack of accountability in the recently-approved $700 billion bailout bill. Electoral-vote.com has more information on this...it's well worth checking out.
The next presidential debate is scheduled to take place on October 15th at my graduate
alma mater, Hofstra University, and I plan to be there photographing the event. It should prove to be interesting, because while New York is historically a so-called "blue state," Hofstra University is located on Long Island, which tends to lean Republican thanks to the affluence of its inhabitants.
But McCain has other things to worry about besides the debates (Barack Obama, according to the BBC, was the clear winner in both prior debates, and he's expected to make a strong showing this time around as well). First, there's that pesky
Rolling Stone article by Tim Dickinson that, while untouched by the mainstream American media, has caught a fire that just won't die.
In the
well-researched article, McCain is illustrated as having a short temper, an entitled child of privilege who coasted on the prominence of his grandfather and father into a career that was mediocre at best (sound familiar?), a political flip-flopper (as his recent Tancredo Republican alliance against his own immigration bill has proven) who uses political opportunity for his own personal gain, and a less-than-admirable family man who frequently cheated on his first wife and married his second wife -- the Vicodin-addicted "Budweiser Barbie" -- to gain access to her family's extensive funds (much needed after that Keating scandal -- even the Reagans, inexplicably held up as the paragon of Republican values, distanced themselves from the McCains after the Cindy McCain/Keating scandal one-two punch).
Then there's an increasing concern about McCain's political strategy amongst his purported supporters. The Associated Press
reports that many of the Republican parties' most notable members have expressed concerns about McCain's increasingly disastrous strategy in this election. (Let's just say that when Newt Gingrich thinks you're messing up, it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate...)
Finally, there's Sarah Palin. She may have come out of the gate with all guns blazing, comparing herself to a "pitbull with lipstick" (way to perpetuate a breed stereotype AND insult dogs everywhere, Sarah)...but, as my beloved grandmother used to say, you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig.
On Friday, an Alaska legislative committee found Gov. Sarah Palin’s dismissal of the state Public Safety Commissioner to be a violation of state ethics law (though don't tell that to her -- all of her public statements are contrary to the legislative committee's findings, leading me to believe she's either stupider than she looks and sounds, or thinks
we the people are stupid enough to simply swallow her statements whole, without question). This was, of course, after she winked her way through that joke of a vice-presidential debate (if Sarah Palin is a feminist, then I'm Pia de Solenni -- feminists are NOT such simply by virtue of the fact that they're female, and NO feminist would be caught DEAD winking her way through a debate while doing
Matrix-style bullet dodging). And finally, during an appearance this week at a Philadelphia Flyers’ home game, Palin actually dropped the ceremonial first puck...and was booed viciously.
Perhaps the American public is finally seeing what the U.K. already seems to
know: despite her milquetoast appearance and down-home folkie accent, Palin is little more than a gun-totin', war-mongering, anti-abortion creationist who will be an environmental stormbringer if she actually does ascend to the vice-presidency (which is becoming less and less likely), who will not fight against oppression of women, children, and/or minorities (her teenage daughter's 1950's-style shotgun wedding is perfect evidence of that -- I seriously wonder how the media would handle it if Chelsea Clinton turned up unwed and pregnant at 17, or -- more pointedly -- if one of Barack Obama's daughters turned up unwed and pregnant at 17. Somehow, I doubt Obama's daughter -- were she to turn up pregnant and unwed at 17 -- would be upheld as a role model for how teenage girls should act, unlike Bristol Palin).
