MORE THOUGHTS ON US POLITICS

Thought #1:
I watched Greta Van Susteren's interview of Sarah Palin last Monday. It was part 1 of 2; I didn't watch the second part. I was surprised at how Van Susteren handled this interview. She was obsequious and simply allowed Palin to prattle on as she wished to whitewash matters such as the $150,000+ clothes and jewelry she and her family had spent during the campaign.

I recall when Greta Van Susteren was a reporter for CNN, along with Wolf Blitzer and Christiane Amanpour. I thought these reporters (and the other CNN reporters) were great; they seemed fearless in wading through dangerous situations to give the audience a good idea of what was going on in the hot spots of the world. This Monday interview was nothing like those CNN shows; this was such a silly interview,if it could be called an interview at all. Greta Van Susteren would say something like, "I checked with one of the McCain campaign people and this person assured me that you never said Africa is a country - what do you have to say about this?" At which Palin did her Palin-monologue to promote herself. (She whitewashed all the negative-stuff that happened during the McCain campaign, and there was this unrealistic bit where Palin prepared Moose-dogs.) This was solely Palin infomercial (as my husband put it). The only thing lacking was for Greta Van Susteren to wipe Palin's shoes. It was the dumbest interview I've ever seen. It seems it wasn't just McCain who sold his soul, but Greta Van Susteren as well. She had created an intelligent image of herself in CNN, now in Fox, she's proven herself lightweight.

Thought #2:
When Obama won, I realized I'd gotten old. He's younger than me, and a younger generation had voted him in. This younger generation is now running the show. The Clinton and Bush years had gone by quickly and suddenly I opened my eyes and I'd gotten old.

Thought #3:
Isn't my cat the cutest? She's lying right in front of my 2 monitors, partly on the keyboard - the purr-fect Muse! (The 2-monitor setup is the brain-child of my engineer son who thinks it can allow me to multi-task - pretty hard to do with a demanding cat batting my fingers every time I type something!)

Education - Political candidates

The following information is interesting. I knew Obama and Biden were highly educated but I didn't know that McCain was at the bottom of his Naval Academy class; and that Palin attended 4 colleges to get her BA Journalism; I'm actually surprised she has a degree at all; she can't say a complete sentence with subject-predicate-object.


Barack Obama: Columbia University 1983 - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations; Harvard University 1991 - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden: University of Delaware 1965 - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law 1968 - Juris Doctor (J.D.) vs.

John McCain: United States Naval Academy 1958 - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University 1982 - 1 semester North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters 1987 - B.A. in Journalism

More Thoughts on Bush, McCain, Palin, Obama, Biden

I have watched some of our friends support and vote for Bush. Even when it became apparent that Bush had done a lousy job, they continued to find excuses for him. I have not seen them since the recent Bailout crisis, so I don't know if they remain Bush fans, but I suspect that they continue to support the Republicans and will vote for McCain.

This used to boggle my mind because from the start, I could see clearly how terrible Bush was, and it confused me when other people couldn't see what I saw. Right now, I see plain as day what a disaster McCain and Palin will be as president and vice president of the United States. McCain is another Bush; he has the same values, and operates on the same doctrines. He has the same Bush-people helping him (White House Adviser Karl Rove is running the McCain Campaign). I don't understand why Americans are buying McCain's line about being different from Bush. He will continue the Bush administration; the U.S. will continue to borrow money from Japan and China to sustain the 12 billion dollars per month cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The economy will plummet even more. A McCain administration will be a disaster.

And Sarah Palin? You know what she makes me think of? - Women like Imelda Marcos, Marie Antoinette, Eva Peron - yes, beautiful, charismatic, but not deep enough. These women were leaders when their countries were in turmoil - perhaps the people allowed them to be in power because they were a diversion - but ultimately they were not good for the people and in fact precipitated the political changes in the Philippines, France, and Argentina.

I hope that enough American voters will see through the politicking and tricks that Republicans have been pulling: there's the surprise nomination of Sarah Palin; there's limiting Palin's contact with the media; there's McCain's sudden abandonment of his campaign to "save" the bailout; there's the media buzz to lower expectations of Palin in the Vice presidential debate; there're plans to take advantage of media attention over the wedding of Palin's daughter and instant-beau - trick after trick to manipulate the media and the minds of the people.

Interestingly it's the dire economic situation that has made people favor Obama in recent polls. Well people need to keep in mind that voting for McCain will be more of Bush. Bush=McCain; McCain=Bush. And should McCain be president and die, the next president will be Palin, and that administration will be even worse than the Bush administration.

It does not take a rocket scientist to spell all of these out. You just have to look, observe, read, and think.
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For more, click below

Matt Damon talks about Sarah Palin in YouTube
Anne Kilkenny's letter about Sarah Palin
Part 2-Couric interviews Sarah Palin about foreign policy, in particular about Pakistan, Alaska and Russia
Sarah Palin * Katie Couric - Foreign Policy (Russia right next to Alaska)
Couric Stumps Palin with Supreme Court Question