INTERESTING MOVE

This is getting to be a pretty interesting game of chess. Not to carry that analogy too far (nor could I) but if Obama and McCain both lost one of their bishops early on (Wright and Hagee, or however you spell the name of the McCain preacher who called the Catholic Church the “Whore of Babylon” and the Pope the anti-Christ) and each lost a knight (was her name Samantha Powers, that brilliant Obama advisor who made the mistake of calling Hilary something nasty in an interview in England, and the McCain advisor who was still working as a lobbyist (one of way too many on his staff)), and McCain’s campaign has been aiming an all out assault on Obama’s front ranks, the pawns in the game, and Obama took out one of McCain’s castles (rooks) with his speech last night (or maybe both of them it was so good), then McCain’s choice of VP has checked Obama’s queen, not taken her, but has her temporarily blocked.

Okay, enough chess. The point is, it’s an interesting counter attack by McCain’s camp. It satisfies the Republican base, she’s about as conservative as you can get on the Republican side, and it satisfies the oil companies that control the Republican party hierarchy, or are it, since she’s big on drilling everywhere and anywhere and making our economy like Alaska’s, completely dependent on oil and the oil companies.

But she’s young and attractive, and there’s too many voters in this country who only go by appearances, and iconography, and imagery, something the Republicans learned well and use even better, or had until the last eight years brought about so much dysfunction and failure most voters finally get it.

She’s not dumb either, and they are harping on her supposed reputation as a reformer, though the Alaskan Republican Party machine was the most corrupt in the country according to many reports, and all she did was take on the most obvious unmitigated corruption and hide the rest, including her own attempts to get a state trooper fired because he was involved in a messy divorce with her sister (I think it’s her sister).

She’s also less experienced than almost any public office holder, having only been governor of Alaska for less than two years and Alaska being one of our least populated states with no, as THE DAILY KOS points out today, agriculture to speak of and no urban areas, let alone problems, to speak of, etc.

Before that she was mayor of a town smaller than most lower 48 suburbs. McCain also leaped over other, way more qualified Republican women to choose Palin, and of course many more qualified men.

But, there are probably a fair amount of women who will vote for McCain now simply on the strength of a female on the ticket. And to those who have no idea how conservative McCain already is (many women still think he’s pro-choice even though he isn’t, and Palin is militantly anti-choice, but I doubt the pundits will be talking about that a lot).

Plus McCain and Palin have the gift of less scrutiny and more favorable coverage, despite the rightwing claims that the media is liberal. A myth they have been bale to maintain for too long.

Yes, more reporters identify as liberal on many issues, of course they do, they’re generally well educated intelligent people who are interested in uncovering the truth.

But as someone who has seen articles written about either me personally or projects I have initiated or been involved in, sympathetic and truthful articles written by reporters who interviewed me or observed the project or whatever, and then saw what happened to those articles after the editors (or managers or publishers) altered them to fit their always more rightwing perspective, I know how the media works (let alone all the studies that have been done that bear this out).

While Obama has to navigate a high wire made of dental floss, as my friend Don McGlaughlin put it today at lunch, I added that McCain gets to ride around in a golf cart. I suspect Palin will get the same hands-off treatment.

Oh and did you notice how the talking heads either talked over, or the major networks and cable outlets simply ignored, most of the convention speakers?

The three most poignant moments in last nights activities for me, excluding Obama’s speech, because there were so many poignant moments in that it would be impossible to list them all, were when a long line (thirty or so?) of generals, we’re talking GENERALS and admirals (like McCain’s father and grandfather), many of whom had been supporters of Junior and Cheney, many of whom had not just been involved in the Iraq war, but had actually seen combat there or in the earlier one, etc. stood on the stage as one of them made a brief speech about why they all backed Obama and know he will make a better commander-in-chief than McCain.

Pretty significant for all the naysayers about that. But all these pundits who had been pointing out (ala the Republican machine’s talking point for the day) that Hilary hadn’t said that Obama would make a great commander-in-chief ignored, IGNORED, this array of top military officers saying OBAMA WILL.

I wonder if they’ll do the same for the Republican convention. Any bets?

The second poignant moment was when several ordinary Americans, many of them Republicans until now, told their stories, some great moments among them, the North Carolina nurse whose husband had heart surgery and lost his job and health insurance, the small business owning woman from Florida, the middle America former Republican Barney Smtih who had the great line about how the Republicans care more about Smith Barney than Barney Smith, et. al.

And the third, for me, was when Obama’s family members crowded the stage after his speech, and there was this wonderful array of supposed categories of “Americans” from what is commonly called “white” to” black” to Asian to Latino, but is really just the face of this country not only as it should be, but as it is. Sweet moment.

I have to admit though, for the first time in my life I’m including a politician in my daily prayers, because there’s no way the oil companies that run this administration and have had such a grip on our country for so long and have garnered the largest profits in the history of the world in these recent years are going to give that all up without a struggle, I mean a ruthless, perhaps even lethal battle.

Let’s pray they are smart enough to begin switching to alternative fuels and figuring out a way to make profits on them and aren’t as savage as I’m afraid they might become if their profits are threatened by, well, anything (after all, over four thousand American’s have died and who knows how many hundreds of thousands of other people, in a war that is all about oil, oil that has made Iraq rich while America bleeds money trying to protect what?—the oil there).