Thank God it's Over

I've got McCain's speech on, but I can't really listen. What is there to say? It's making me sick. I heard a lot about his story and very little of any substance about what he would actually do to improve the lives of the people "he so desperately wants to serve." I didn't hear him explain how voting for Bush's policies over ninety percent of the time these past eight years qualifies him for being such a "maverick."

HOW is he going to change health care? HOW is he going to fix the economy? HOW will he improve education? Tackle environmental issues? End the war? I just cannot stomach this guy and this convention, which is 93% white. How sick is that?

I went to an Obama fundraiser tonight and I feel more hopeful that we can win. We only need five percent more votes than we got in the last election and that is totally possible. I can't stand the fact that Sarah Palin is being taken seriously because she was able to "perform" a well crafted speech (filled with inaccuracies) without making a complete idiot of herself. She has no right to be a vice presidential nominee. She should be terrified to debate Biden, but we know how well rehearsed she will be. I just hope that Obama and Biden will respond strongly to every attack. Tonight James Rubin, formerly of the State Department under Clinton, spoke at the fundraiser. He reminded us that "Republicans know how to elect people, they just don't know how to govern." He talked about how McCain doesn't view force as the option of last resort. He gave an example from 1994 when Clinton was under pressure to bomb North Korea and McCain was one of the senators who was pushing for that. Fortunately, Clinton used diplomacy. He talked about Bush's policy of not talking to Iran as being "childish" - I think that was the adjective he used. Not a productive foreign policy and probably one that McCain would continue.

(Rubin also mentioned seeing "HAIR" the night before with his wife, Christiane Amanpour and some friends, and how much it reminded them of a time when individuals were more passionate about their politics. I loved it for that reason too and really want to see it again.)

Whatever we can each do...five percent more. That's all. Five percent. We can do that. We can do what the Republicans do, get people to the polls. We can send a little more money. We can talk. We can vote.

And did you know that Sarah Palin's glasses have no prescription in them?!

I Had The Strangest Dream

In this dream John McCain (who was running for President) nominated a governor named Sarah Palin, an extreme conservative who's anti-choice and a COMPLETE enemy to the environment, to be his Vice Presidential running mate.

I think she was a mom, fine, great, then a mayor of a small town, nice, then a governor of a state with very few people, okay... and then she would be Vice President of the United States, one heartbeat away from the Presidency.

NO WAY?? What an insult to every single woman in this country. To every politician. To every citizen. I want to wake up from this insanity.

A Little too Little

I don't know about the first night of the Democratic convention. This is the image I got: there's a duel...or a boxing match. Obama's on one side, he's all dressed up and smiles at the crowd and everyone loves him and cheers for him and he's such a good guy. His wife is there, happy, talking about what a wonderful guy he is and how hard he's worked all his life and at the other side of the ring are the Republicans with knives and machine guns and giant planes and they are ready to do battle. I didn't hear a word about the war, the recession, the giant mess this country is in.

And then there's the whole women issue, see Susan Faludi's article in the NY Times today. Worth reading.

I hope tonight is a bit more on topic.