Loose Ends... Vol. VI

This week, John McCain named his VP choice and Hurricane Gustav approached New Orleans.

John McCain shocked the country by selecting the little-known Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. I actually like this choice, but I see two key flaws with the decision. First, if the McCain campaign actually thinks they can capture the disaffected "Hillary" vote, then I would suspect they are underestimating the intelligence of that electorate. I (really) hope that voters don't vote based on gender (or race for that matter). Palin's stance on issues differs quite widely from those espoused by the former First Lady. Second, this choice limits McCain's ability to attack Obama on his lack of experience. This is exacerbated by McCain's age.

But, as I said, I do like this choice. She brings youth, good looks and the element of surprise to the campaign which can and will offset the charismatic aura of Barack Obama. Her back story fits nicely with McCain as well. I think this signals an opportunity for McCain to focus on his government reform message which I believe is where he's at his best (other than the glorification of the military). She also has a very strong conservative message which will help appeal to the Republican base with whom McCain has had difficulties. She is pro-life, pro-guns, and wants to reduce wasteful spending. She rejected the money for the "Bridge to Nowhere", fought the oil companies, and her husband is a member of the steelworkers union.

While her inexperience makes Obama less vulnerable, she should be fairly insulated from attacks. In fact, if I were the McCain campaign, I'd welcome the attack. She has executive experience; he does not. She has been Governor almost as long as Obama has been Senator. She was the Mayor of Wassila for about as long as he was in the General Assembly. She held elected office as a city-councilwoman for four years prior to that. So, she's held elected office longer than Obama. Is serving as Mayor of Wassila relevant experience for the President of Vice President of the U.S.? Well, maybe not. It is something. It is arguably better than serving as a member of a state legislature. I think they can fight back on this. As I mentioned in my review of the candidates, I'm not concerned that Obama is too inexperienced. And, despite liking the choice of Palin, I'm still not voting for McCain.

As I type this, Hurricane Gustav is pummelling the Louisiana coast. This is a big, bad hurricane. The Federal Government with Bush, Chertoff and FEMA are not going to sit idly by and let things get as screwed up as they did with Katrina - well, they are at least going to try. Local governments have also been gearing up for the disaster calling for mandatory evacuations, imposing curfews, and declaring states of emergency. Meanwhile, news crews are going straight to the action so that we can watch the events unfold. What's wrong with this picture? First, I have a bit of a problem with the government treating the residents of the gulf coast like five year-olds. Mandatory curfews? C'mon. Second, we get to witness the hypocrisy of the media while they tell everyone to get the heck out of dodge and split-screen to their on-the-scene reporter fighting off the wind and rain posing as a journalistic hero. Really?

This is what we get. The news media is going to exploit this and they should do so. That's what the people want to watch. If people turned the channel, rating would go down, advertisers would look to other programming, revenues would decrease, and the news would learn to cover other stories. That's not going to happen anytime soon. Why? Because people want to watch the news coverage of the hurricane, and that is ok. Further, at this point, I have to side with the government in their actions as babysitters-in-chief since they will be blamed for inaction if they do otherwise. The government will end up paying the bill for cleanup, and the bill would be higher if people didn't evacuate. So, as long as my money is being stolen from me to pay for the mess... ugh... I guess I want them to make sure they minimize their costs. There is so much that is broken with this mess that I can't say anymore without this becoming too long of a post!

Later...