A few notes on the two major speeches given last night at the Republican-Fascist Convention in St. Paul. I listened to them in the car as I was driving home from work...
Rudy Guliani: What a mistake the GOP made in putting him in a prime-time TV spot. The former NYC mayor came off as angry, blustery, sour, and angry. If they thought that was going to appeal to undecided Republicans and on-the-fence independents then it's no wonder they're in the position they're in right now. If you can stomach it, click here to see the diatribe.
Sarah Palin: Set aside the fact that her voice makes my ears bleed (ugh!)...her speech did nothing (nothing ) to ease the worry most Americans have over her readiness (or extreme lack thereof) to be vice-president (let alone president). There was absolutely no substance to her remarks. Yeah...she introduced us to her family as if the convention were an episode of "Family Feud," and she gave the laundry list of her rather unremarkable accomplishments as governor of Alaska. But from a federal policy stand point, this speech was lackluster.
Rather than give us a sense of her readiness, Palin caterwauled her way through a speech that was better suited for a run as high school student body president. And while she may have appealed to a certain segment of American "hockey moms," I can't believe for a minute that she made the masses comfortable with the thought of her as Vice-President of the United States. Her entire speech can be viewed here.
One more note: I don't want to hear a word, not a whisper, from the Republican Party, from the John McCain campaign, or from the right-wing blowhards about Palin's family being off limits. In front of the TV cameras they passed her 4-month-old special needs baby around like a bong in a college dorm, they paraded her pregnant and unmarried teenage daughter on stage with all of the other Palin kids at the end of her speech, and also managed to haul the unborn baby's father out with the entire Palin clan. The hypocrisy of that moment floored me!
Imagine for just a minute how the Fascists on the right would have reacted if Barack Obama's daughter was 17, pregnant, and unmarried; the campaign announces such news right before the Democratic convention, and then parades her out with the father on stage following his speech. Rush Limbaugh's head would explode and Sean Hannity would be having a red-faced temper-tantrum.
But THESE are Republicans, and therefore immune from such scorn.
Give me a fuckin' break!
This morning's headlines predictably call Palin's speech a home run. It wasn't. She's still nowhere near qualified for the vice-presidency and John McCain's decision to put her on the ticket solidifies in my mind that he should not be trusted with the presidency.
