Go Pat Go!!

Is this because no-one reads them in situ, or is it because you are mentally incapable of writing more than one post in a day?

Well, I sincerely hope that either party is America still has a “base” which, like Buchanan, sees the neocons for what they are (old Trots, simply going about it by different means), and says so.

A “base” which, like Buchanan, is right about family values (strongly shared by Obama’s black base, and by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton), right about strictly limited and strictly legal immigration (strongly shared by Obama’s black base, and by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton), right about “free” trade (strongly shared by Obama’s black base, and by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton), right about constitutional checks and balances (strongly shared by Obama’s black base), right about real national security (strongly shared by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton), right about energy independence (strongly shared by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton), right about real environmental responsibility, right about Second Amendment rights and responsibilities (strongly shared by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton), right about Civil Rights (not “affirmative action”, and in those terms (strongly shared by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton, as well as by a growing number of blacks who see the Hispanics getting AA these days), right about America as an English-speaking country (very, very strongly shared by Obama’s black base, and by the rural and blue-collar whites who rallied to Clinton), right about foreign policy realism, and at least open to the Biblico-Patristic critique of Americanism itself.

But not a “base” which, like Buchanan, is wrong about the protection of workers and consumers (although he is not terribly badly wrong on that one these days), wrong about fair tax (likewise), wrong about universal health care, wrong about Social Security, and wrong about Civil Rights (in the sense that he still makes occasional rhetorical flourishes towards the remaining George Wallace Tendency, not they are ever going to get anywhere now).

And you can’t be a “fiscal conservative” in Alaska. It’s Alaska. Where Palin has also been a good friend of the indigineous peoples.

I’m still backing Obama, but Palin, though certainly not McCain, is looking better and better, not least for the Democratic Party in the long run: it needs to become one again the party that reaches out to, and represents, those who will be and are being attracted to Palin.

Corrections:

The 109th Congress, to which Barack Obama was elected, only began sitting in session on 4 January 2005. Of the past three years Barack Obama has spent two not in the Senate doing his job but running for President. Before starting his bid, he had a grand total of less than 150 days in session in the Senate, less than half a year of senior experience. Palin, on the other hand, has been runing the largest state in the Union for considerably more than triple that time.

Unfortunately, it is Obama who is trying to run for President. If elected, he would be the most unqualified to take that office in American history.

if her comments on CO2 emissions and evolution are anything to go by its just a matter of time before she becomes Dan Quayle with a Bible.

Absolutely absurd to chide McCain for thinking about electoral strategy – are you seriously imagining that Biden or any other VP wasn’t selected while thinking of the same?

But yes, actually, merit was a key reason McCain made this inspired choice:

Palin is, in a way, Pawlenty with a ferocious record of reform. She went after her own party’s state chair and exposed his corruption at the Oil and Natural Gas Commission. Palin defied Ted Stevens and Don Young in refusing to accept the Bridge to Nowhere and told them that Alaska can build its own bridges. Otherwise, like Pawlenty, she enjoys and excels in sports, has a young family, and prior to entering the governor’s mansion lived in a solidly blue-collar home. Palin is, as Pawlenty often points out, more Sam’s Club than country club.

For a candidate who wants to run on a platform of change and reform, Palin fills the prescription perfectly. Not only has she not spent more than three decades immersed in Washington politics, she already has a proven track record of attacking corruption wherever she finds it — even in her own party. As Time says, Palin provides everything McCain needs in a partner for his mission of reform.

Compare that with Obama, who has spent most of his short political life patronising local felons like Tony Rezko, rabid racist preachers like Jeremiah Wright, and domestic terrorists such as Bill Ayers. Most American voters here I’ve met, particuarly women, seem to be thrilled with the pick, and some have said they will now vote GOP. Look forward to seeing the polls next weekend.

someone from daily kos? she cant really govern 24 hours a day, and talking to press is part of the office. she probably has done other stuff unrelated to office too: like peeing, eating and sleeping. Crazy woman.

Perhaps Rep. Robert Wexler’s instincts were right here, and the Obama campaign will likely drive this one home with the Jewish community in Florida and Ohio: Palin (along with her husband), says former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, was a “brigader for me in 1996.”

Buchanan has his own page on the website of the Anti-Defamation League, which says he has “racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-immigrant views” and offers quotes going back well before 1996, including his 1990 description of Capitol Hill as “Israeli-occupied territory.”