4 posts tagged “election 2008”

I had to write this for a class on Politics and Civil Rights. We were supposed to write "observations" and not "opinions," but as I go to an art school where gen eds are geared toward border-line retards, I figured I'd just been an asshole about it.

Vice-Presidential Debates 2008:  Observations
The Vice Presidential Debates of 2008 were sure to be momentous.  Unlike previous elections, the VP debates gained more attention than ever before, due to the unlikely choosing of the young, inexperienced, female Sarah Palin as Republican VP candidate in an election people are choosing to make a battle of sexism vs. racism.  When pitched against Joe Biden, a talented debater with even more senate experience than Palin’s running-mate, John McCain, millions of Americans tuned in to see what would happen – if Palin’s charisma could compensate for her previous slip-ups with the media.
 
The debates, and the after effects, ended up being largely uninteresting – like the rest of Palin’s time in the spotlight, her supporters were charmed by her inadequacy, and chalked up her ignoring of debate rules in deferring questions and changing subjects as her being stubborn and independently minded. At best, Palin’s performance could be described as unprepared.  “When Gwen Ifill asked a question Palin did not have a notecard answer for--whether she agreed with Vice President Cheney's egregiously overreaching interpretation of the constitutional role of the vice president--the answer was ladled up straight from the Palin linguistic smorgasbord”  (Hirshman). 
 
 I had been looking forward to the debates just as much as anyone else hungry for the downfall of Sarah Palin.  But it’s pretty hard to define a “downfall” when the competitor disregards rules and regulations completely, despite the fact that both the Republican and Democratic camps agreed on a less challenging debate platform for the vice presidential nominees.  Palin at one point blatant stated, “I may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you [Joe Biden] want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people” (Times), the pinnacle of her image as a straight-talking fellow American rather than a conventional politician.  Forget the fact that Palin has plenty of time to talk straight to the American people on her own time at rallies, during interviews, etc. – one must cover one’s own ass if she plans on winning, especially when she has no idea how to do anything but spew lines off note cards about energy plans and health care and tax reform. 
 
Palin gets credit where it’s due – she didn’t make herself look like a complete idiot, and her outfit was fit for the red carpet, and apparently to many reputable news sources, that’s enough to make you the declared winner.  What I find disheartening is that many who praise her for her charm on camera are obviously not listening to what she’s actually saying; she actually winked while talking about her track record of reform.  It may have been cute when talking about moose hunting and beauty pageants, but not when trying to set your muddled past straight to the American people.  That’s just plain fishy.
 
I personally find it astonishing and sickening that people are scratching their heads over who the winner of the debate could possibly be, when if this had been a debate team competition in high school, Palin would have been obliterated by her coaches for appearing uninformed about both the subject matter of the debate and disrespectful of the format and the rules.  Perhaps it’s a testament to American audiences – an attractive woman is always more entertaining to watch than a white-haired man getting choked up about his son-away-at-war, but when the attractive woman isn’t parading around stage in a bikini and a crown and is instead trying to argue why she deserves to be a heartbeat away from running the country, one must stop and wonder if this country is even worth saving in the first place.
 
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Works Cited
Hirshman, Linda. "Sarah Palin, Mean Girl." The Nation. 3 Oct. 2008..
Times. "Vice-Presidential Debate Transcripts." 2 Oct. 2008. New York Times. .

In a campaign where demographics seem to be destiny, one of the most striking factors is the segregation of voters by age. In state after state, older voters have formed a core constituency for Mrs. Clinton, who is 60, while younger voters have coalesced around Mr. Obama, who is 46. Age has been one of the most consistent indicators of how someone might vote — more than sex, more than income, more than education. Only race is a stronger predictor of voting than age, and then only if a voter is black, not if he or she is white. Age is likely to play a particularly strong role in the Democratic primary Tuesday in Pennsylvania. The outmigration of young people has left the state with the second-highest proportion of people over 65 in the country, after Florida. Fifty-eight percent of registered Democrats are older than 45, a consistent dividing line in the race. ...According to exit polls conducted by Edison/Mitofsky in the states that have voted so far, 57 percent of voters 65 and older have supported Mrs. Clinton and 36 percent have supported Mr. Obama. Most of the Clinton voters say they want a candidate with experience. Of voters age 30 and younger, 59 percent have supported Mr. Obama and 38 percent have supported Mrs. Clinton. Most of Mr. Obama’s supporters say they want change. ...“If I was in my 20s, maybe I’d support Obama,” said Germaine Donahue, 64, who lives in Sullivan County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and helps run a cleaning service. “But life tempers you. I’m with Hillary.”

Source.

Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.

You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.

I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.

So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
Nope.

Is that why you’re not following it?
No, because it’s just—it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. It doesn’t really make a difference. These are the last years.

But it would be pretty big if we had a first Black president. That would be huge.
I mean, I guess…. What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, “Here you take it. Take my mess.”

Right, exactly.
It’s all a fuckin’ setup. It’s all a setup. All fuckin’ bullshit. All bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about none of that.

Source

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she disagrees with Geraldine Ferraro, one of her fundraisers and the 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate, for saying that Barack Obama "would not be in this position" if he were white instead of black.

...Last week, Ferraro told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

She also faulted a "very sexist media" in the historic race between a man bidding to be the first black president and a former first lady seeking to become the first female president.

In the AP interview, Clinton said, "I do not agree with that," and later added, "It's regrettable that any of our supporters _ on both sides, because we both have this experience _ say things that kind of veer off into the personal."

...

Obama called Ferraro's comments "patently absurd."

"I don't think Geraldine Ferraro's comments have any place in our politics or in the Democratic Party. They are divisive. I think anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd," he told the Allentown Morning Call.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said Ferraro should be removed from her position with the Clinton campaign because of her comments.

"The bottom line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you're really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes," Axelrod said in a conference call with reporters.

Source