Via CNN: McCain’s name nowhere to be seen at Palin rally
the GOP nominee’s name was literally nowhere to be found on any of the official campaign signage distributed to supporters at the event.Members of the audience proudly waved “Country First” placards as Palin delivered her stump speech. Those signs were paid for by the Republican National Committee.
The other sign handed out to supporters read “Florida is Palin Country,” but those signs were neither paid for by the Republican National Committee nor the McCain campaign. In small print, the signs were stamped with the line “Paid for and authorized by Putnam for Congress” — as in, the re-election campaign of Florida congressman Adam Putnam, whose district skirts Polk City.
That’s just plain weird. The main answer has to be total incompetence on the part of the McCain campaign and the rally organizers. However, that is not a comforting conclusion to reach for a campaign that is struggling to pull off a miracle next week. Surely the goal here wasn’t to promote Palin at McCain’s expense?
Here’s the sign mentioned in the piece:
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:00 am
Portions??
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I guess they’re just looking ahead. If the pollsters are right and Obama ends up the accidental champion of the 2008 election, you’ve got to figure out who will be a viable option to go up against him in 2012.
Personally I think it doesn’t matter. He’ll be a single-term president, as would McCain be if he were elected; expectations of the next president are unrealistically, unreasonably high. Obama is particularly susceptible to being shot down after one term because the democratic party will have a virtual monopoly of the government.
When it accomplishes the same thing that the republican monopoly of 2004 accomplished (A BIG FAT NOTHING) there will be a reactionary movement against the incumbent president and party in general. Since our nation’s economy is inextricably tied to our debt, there is no quick and easy way out of that mess; as long as we’re so deeply in the red we will have a volatile economy and there’s not a darn thing a president can do about it in one or even two terms.
The wars we are involved in also have no neat and easy end in sight, and anyone who thinks otherwise has not much knowledge of military science. Obama’s grasp of insurgent and counterterror warfare is very weak, as evidenced by his constant referral to us “dropping the ball” in Afghanistan. He seems to think we can just re-allocate troops from Iraq to Afghanistan and that will put an end to AQ once and for all.
Now, I’ve been to the ‘Stan and first off we never dropped the ball there; in fact, thinking that the ball is in a certain place at all is problematic and reveals a very conventional line of military thinking, when the problem is an asymetrical threat, not a conventional one. If we are to think of AQ as “the ball” then the court isn’t Afghanistan; the court is the world, and if we put more conventional soldiers on the ground in the ‘Stan, AQ will simply move to another, more hospitable place. There are places in Africa (the Sudan and Somalia, off the cuff, would be easy places to set up shop, but there are half a dozen others) and Asia (AQ has a strong presence in the Phillipines that could be built upon) where they could quickly and easily transfer their leadership to. And that’s what will happen.
Anyway - people think that their guy (Obama or McCain) is going to just wave a magic wand to make a bunch of jobs, and wave another to fix the entangling wars we’re involved in, and that will be it. They’re going to be really, really P.O.’ed in 4 years, and we’re going to see this same song and dance about change, change, change, and there will be a reactionary movement to boot the incumbents. We’ll go back to the 2002-2004 arrangement of the house, senate, and white house, and still nothing useful will happen.
Anyway - the GOP could run a three-legged dog in 2012 and beat Obama if he wins. And if McCain somehow pulls off the upset, the same will be true in the opposite direction.
I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth the effort I put into caring, and mayhap I won’t participate in the process any further; it’s just too stressful.
Beyond morbid fascination not unlike that which drives me to crane my neck at bad highway accidents, the process is becoming horribly un-interesting, totally devoid of meaning, and ultimately an expression of futility if you really care about your country; I get one vote in a state that would be red under any and all circumstances. Honestly, what difference does it make if I participate or not?
Besides - any debt I owed to this country I paid, and then some, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo. I owe it nothing further - not even a vote.