Of Lipstick, Pigs and Politics

The 2008 election campaign has officially hit its lowest point today after the "Lipstick Gate" controversy. For those few lucky ones that are unaware, uninitiated OR uninterested, Barack Obama called McCain's economic policies the same as Bush and used the Lipstick on a Pig phrase to illustrate his point.

Today, McCain's campaign feigned outrage saying that Obama's comments were in reference to the lipstick comments by Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin at the recently concluded Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN.

So, it has started. The mud-slinging, the lies, the swift-boating, the deceit and the smears. Just when I thought that this election was a bit different, I have been proven soundly wrong. Beneath all the shiny suits, the $400 loafers and polished talk, every politician has a streetfighter's mentality and in times such as these (http://www.gallup.com/poll/107674/Gallup-Daily-Election-2008.aspx), it comes out and rears its ugly head.

I am not going to start debating on who was right and who is wrong. I think it would do the citizens of this country a lot of good if the discussion were to get back to the issues (the economy, the nation's security and energy policy), rather than this "you said, she said, I said" Kindergarten routine that we're in right now.

The one interesting thing though is that amidst all this noise, we seem to have completely lost track of the other VP candidate, Joe Biden. Where is he? Wasn't he supposed to be Obama's "Attack Dog"? Isn't he the "loud-mouthed" one? Maybe Obama needs to focus his attacks on McCain and Biden on Palin. The more Obama attacks Palin, the more he frames the comparison in people's mind's between himself and Palin, rather than himself and McCain. The odds for Obama in a comparison against McCain are good but not so against Palin. Likewise, Biden against Palin is a cake-walk for Biden BUT the Republicans are cleverly framing this as Palin vs. Obama rather than Palin vs. Biden and looks like the Dems are falling into the trap.
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Pale-in-Comparison

I know. It's not about the VP candidate but about the person on the top of the ticket. VPs are just there for the ride (unless you are Dick "Lord Vader" Cheney, in which case you control the puppet President).

So let's for a moment go with that assumption. The next question then is, why so much noise around Palin?

It is not because of Palin herself, a lite-featherweight at best, but what her selection tells us about Grandpa McSame:

1. He put "winning first" and "COUNTRY LAST" because he realized that his original choice, Joe LIE-berman, would have gone nowhere with the conservative right-wing (think Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Corsi). And he also knows that he's putting a small-town (more like a village) mayor from Alaska who just got herself a passport, a heartbeat away from the presidency. McCain is a two-time cancer survivor and not in the greatest of healths.
2. He is desperate to reinforce his Maverick status by doing the unexpected. The problem is that when the unexpected also becomes the "under-vetted" OR "under-cooked", then that's where a Maverick moves quickly turns into a moronic one.
3. Again, in order to win at all costs, he is shamelessly pandering to the extreme right-wingers in the Republican party, while he himself is against some of their wierd positions (abstinence only education, creationism and other such nonsense).

How a person at his age can be so consumed by the hunger for power that he is willing to sacrifice his core principles and beliefs just to win, is frightening. That should warn all potential independents that are thinking about voting for the McSame/Palin ticket.

And some closing thoughts on Palin herself:

No doubt a strong characted and a good person but one has to question her judgement to thrust her pregnant teenage daughter into the national limelight (think front page of National Enquirer) just to advance her own political career. Whatever happened to the GOP being the Party of Family Values? I'm not saying that she shouldn't run for higher office at all but just questioning the timing of her decision. And Oh, BTW, she cannot hold a candle to Hillary (or Biden for that matter). Sphere: Related Content