twittering away..

Sarah Palin as your mom?

Okay, so the Vice Predidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden is tonight and we should be spending our time figuring the pluses and minuses of each candidate... wait, that's no fun, let's go all trivia on it instead....

Here's something you gotta love, there's a site called Shop the Vote that was born from a documentary called '18 in 08' that decided to motivate the 29 million new voters in the 2008 election.  It's all about participating, taking charge of your future, taking your voting right seriously, things like that.... Well, guess what the only survey question on the home page is?  Wait for it....'Would You Want Sarah Palin As Your Mom?'

Okay, so now take a moment and try to remember your youth...and putting yourself in that frame of mind, try to guess the answer before you look - remember these kids are all young, don't read newspapers, get their political views from Saturday Night Live and, if they are like a slightly older version of my 16 year old, think that being responsible means not leaving ALL their clothes on the floor of the bathroom after a shower, just the really dirty ones, oh and the towel.

The answer:

Yes (15%)
No (83%)
Who's That? (2%)

This is either really scary, or a saving grace depending on how you look at it.  Either they base all of their political decisions on how the candidates do or don't look and act like their parents... in which case we're all doomed, or they think that Palin is just a terrible person and would be a fine vice president... which says something about how low the standards of our political leaders have fallen, in which case we're still all doomed.... So forget the saving grace part.

Actually, I think they probably didn't think one way or another about Gov Palin, just wouldn't have wanted to be named Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow or Piper (her kid's names).  Want to see what you'd have been named if you were her child?  You gotta know there's a website out there that will tell you.

The Presidential Debate

The Presidential Debate and reaching across the isle.

I have, like I suspect we all have, a diverse group of friends.  We all have our different takes on politics - left, right and center.   But we came together last night watching the Presidential Debate.  We found ourselves in the rather rare situation of all agreeing on something - that we need Obama's style, if not his politics, in the Whitehouse.

For an hour and a half last night Senator Obama did what he said he would do - he reached across the isle, in this case the stage, and presented himself and the country with an example of how politics can be run.  He looked directly at Senator McCain on numerous occasions, told him when he agreed with him, told him when he thought he was right on an issue, and when he disagreed he did so firmly and respectfully.

McCain, despite telling us that he would reach out across the isle, and end one of the most rancorous, divisive political times in our history, didn't.  And, if I'm not mistaken, he didn't look at Obama once.  Not once.  In his stance, attitude and actions embodied the kind of disrespectful, argumentative, non-presidential attitudes that we've had for the past eight years.

The American public, and the world, has seen enough of partisan, self-centered, stand alone, politics to last us a lifetime.  This country is in trouble - politically, financially, and morally.  We need to work together, with each other and with the world to reestablish this country as the once respected example of a Democracy that it once was, and we can't do that if we don't at least look at each other.