A Slight Delay

If you’re reading this, you may not be an American. If you’re an Obama supporter, you most certainly–at least by some people’s reckoning–are not. And the top man on the Democratic presidential ticket? Nope, not an American either.

Ignoring the television (and with it, the noise coming from both campaigns at the moment), I’m still hearing plenty of the aforementioned crap. I’ve been informed by someone, in all earnestness and without a trace of irony, that Barack Obama is a Muslim, not a Christian; that he’s a Socialist; and that he’s a very, very dangerous individual who will set the United States down a sure road to ruin. Another friend sends an email that calls Obama “the enemy from within,” and asserts that Obama’s record-breaking election fundraising is coming not from American citizens, but from the Middle East (and no, they don’t mean Ohio).

The commentariat hasn’t helped matters any, asserting repeatedly that Obama is not an American citizen, having been born on foreign soil; he wasn’t, and besides, by that logic, John McCain would not be either. Rush Limbaugh went so far as to suggest that Obama’s visit last week to his grandmother was part of a larger conspiracy to cover up the facts surrounding his birth, and hinted darkly that Obama would silence her, or have her silenced. The bullshit, needless to say, doesn’t stop there. (more…)

The top ten reasons Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me, in no particular order:

1. The “One Heartbeat” Test: The conventional wisdom is that in presidential elections, voters are primarily eyeing the top of the ticket. As usual, that’s too much convention, and not enough wisdom. Past experience shows–from Lincoln to McKinley, Arthur, Kennedy, and a host of other close calls (FDR and Ronald Reagan come to mind)–that it’s generally a good idea to pay attention to a ticket’s number two spot ’cause, well, you just never know. Factor in McCain’s age, POW experience, and health issues, and it becomes apparent that anyone he had on his ticket would deserve closer scrutiny. To her discredit, Palin does not stand up under that scruitiny.

2. The Morals Issue: There’s nothing wrong with running, or governing, from a moral center. The one biggest thing that was overlooked in the flap over the flap over Palin’s pregnant daughter is exactly why this was such a big deal: when you run on a platform that not only assumes, but also loudly proclaims, your moral superiority, your morals will necessarily be put under a microscope. As a moralist, though, Palin inspires a kind of Bierceian cynicism; she’s the kind of moralist who seems to define morality in terms of how others ought to behave.

3. The Maverick Problem: As Palin likes to point out, and the advertisements have hammered home with their usual lack of subtlety, she is a “Maverick” in the McCain mold. It’s an ingenious bit of branding, to be sure, but falls short on the merits. McCain, as has been pointed out elsewhere, hews very close to the Bush-Cheney line; not rhetorically (regardless of the points that’s scored him), but practically–in his legislative record, where it counts. Similarly, the moments when Palin has gone against the grain–as she did when taxing oil companies in Alaska and then passing the profits back to the taxpayers–stand out precisely because they’re so rare. The stance toward oil companies was likely softened considerably by the fact that she’s campaigned strongly for drilling offshore and in the ANWR. (more…)