Obama's choice speaks of competency and solid judgment; McCain's choice reeks of desperation and political gimmickry.
5. THE PALIN SUBTEXT
McCain's choice of Palin is not only suspect because of how and why she was selected: namely, to fire up the GOP base and make sure they vote on Election Day, and to lure angry ex-Hillary supporters to the cause. It's that she also brings her extremist politics and her abuse-of-power scandals into the race. It was clear almost immediately after McCain nominated her that Palin was never truly vetted on her background and positions, nor was the McCain staff aware of her inability to respond intelligently to political questions from the national news media.
While Palin continues to dump on Obama for his past ties to ex-radical
William Ayers, it's important to remember that Palin and her husband Todd have connections with the extremist, anti-U.S. Alaska Independence Party, which preaches hatred of the federal government and has been advocating for secession from the Union. Todd, until just a few years ago, was a member of the party; Sarah Palin, who attended a state convention of the party but who apparently was not a member, in her role as governor has praised the party and wished it well in fulfilling its aims.
She tried to get books not to her ideological liking removed from the Wasilla library. She is categorically opposed to all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. While she was mayor of Wasilla, she OKd having her administration bill sexual-assault victims as much as $1200 for their rape-kit examinations. The Alaska legislature had to pass a special bill outlawing such mean-spirited billing.
After a lengthy investigation (which Palin tried to stop), the Alaska
legislature last week found that Palin, as governor, abused her power by firing state officials who would not support her vendetta against her sister's ex-husband, a state trooper. By doing so, the legislative investigator concluded that she violated the state's ethics laws. She, Todd and numerous other officials time and time again tried to get the trooper fired, even though Palan had been warned that this was inappropriate behavior for a governor.
In short, Sarah Palin might be acceptable for small-town politics, or even as a governor of a tiny-population state, but she's an embarrassment on the national stage, and reflects poorly on McCain's judgment in naming her. It's clear that were something to happen to McCain if he were elected, as President she would be, if it's possible to imagine, even worse than George W. Bush.
6. IRAQ AND WAR POLICY
Obama would never use war as the first option, but only the last. Obama spoke out against the war on Iraq before it was launched, and supplied prescient warnings for what might happen if the U.S. attacked and occupied the country. McCain voted enthusiastically to authorize that war, and passed on all the lies about the supposed "weapons of mass-destruction" (which didn't exist) and alleged ties of Saddam with the terrorism of 9/11 (which didn't exist).
The U.S. Treasury is shelling out $10billion a month right now for an
occupation/war in Iraq that all experts agree cannot be "won" by military force. McCain, still hoping for a military "victory," says we might be there for a hundred years and that that's fine with him. Obama wants to start withdrawing troops over a 16-month period, and putting that $10billion a month to better uses inside our own country.
7. THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
Our financial system, which was essentially unregulated (thanks largely to Republican ideology), has collapsed, and we are heading into a long recession, which potentially could slide into another Great Depression.
McCain, like Bush, wants to cut taxes for the rich and corporations in an
effort to stimulate the economy; Obama seems more willing to grow the economy from the bottom up by creating more jobs, thus keeping the middle-class and poor from the depredations of poverty and hopelessness.
8. TORTURE/CIVIL LIBERTIES
McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and thus spoke with moral authority, for years led the opposition within the Republican Party to the Bush Administration's torturing of "enemy combatants" in U.S. custody, calling torture illegal and immoral. That is, until McCain was told that position wouldn't go over well with the rightwing GOP base in his race for the presidency. At which point, earlier this year, he flip-flopped to permit the CIA to utilize what is euphemistically referred to as "alternative interrogation
techniques" when questioning prisoners in U.S. care, including
"waterboarding," i.e. near-drowning. (Neither Obama nor Senator Clinton were in town to vote on the bill.)
Obama, who has taught constitutional law, has been much more forthright in adhering to the moral pronouncements of the Constitution. (But his hands are not totally clean: He caved also when it came to approving of warrantless domestic spying.) Still, overall Obama's defense of civil liberties tends to be much stronger than that expressed by McCain, who is more willing to bend to "military necessity," even if torture is involved.
