Palin talking to the press? Why would you think that?
September 5, 2008
Lest there be any doubt about Palin’s complete inadequacy to be Vice President of the United States, TIME’s correspondent found out that Palin won’t be dealing with the press. Check out this piece I pulled from Jay,
According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don’t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace — in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough’s show — the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin’s scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.
Wallace’s bash-the-media exercise has its merits as a campaign tactic. It certainly rallies the base. But the base won’t lift McCain to 50% in November. More importantly, in her smug dismissal of the media’s role in asking questions of the candidates, Wallace was really showing contempt not for reporters, but for voters. I bet there are a lot of undecided voters out there who were intrigued by Sarah Palin last night, but who don’t yet know enough about her — what she believes, what she knows — to be comfortable with the idea of her as vice president of the United States. It’s important to them to know if Palin can handle herself in an environment that isn’t controlled and sanitized by campaign image makers and message mavens. Maybe she can, maybe she can’t. As far as Wallace is concerned, it’s none of their — or your — business.
God help us,
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Obama does the right thing
June 19, 2008
Breaking News: “Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday called and apologized to the two Muslim women who say they were told they could not stand behind the candidate at a rally in Detroit on Monday because they were wearing traditional hijab.”
Just yesterday, I wrote that Obama’s campaign wrong and that he needed to call these two women (one of whom I know incidentally) and apologize, so I will take some satisfaction in helping put pressure on Obama to do the right thing.
This is a teachable moment because for starters, how you campaign is a good indication of how you will govern. If Obama, through his campaign is willing to take the low road by offending the Arab-American community, then what would prevent him from doing so once he got elected? And contrary to popular belief, holding Obama’s feet to the fire will not cause him to lose the election.
In his stump speech, Obama tells people that he is a better candidate after going against Clinton in all fifty states (save MI and FL). In the same way, Obama will be a better candidate for making those two calls. Not for nothin’ we are talking about making two phone calls and I know Obama is busy but he ain’t THAT busy. And now, his campaign will be much more sensitive to offending various constituency groups not just during the campaign but translate these lessons into governing the country.
Why is it so outrageous for people to think that Obama should be held accountable to a higher and dare I say progressive standard?
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
