I talked to a couple of women this week who don't really follow politics all that closely. They were angry as heck about the way Sarah Palin has been treated by the media and by Obama's camp. Listening to the intensity of their disgust I wondered how many others might feel the same way, not just about Palin's treatment, but Joe the Plumber's as well. I thought there were likely many more out there who felt the same way, but never thought one of Obama's speechwriters would be among them.
Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I'm a woman writing in the election of 2008, "very emotional."...
This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton's grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn't "a real plumber," and "They're fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager," and the patronizing, "I've got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber."
Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as "hooker lines"--a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they're reporting meaningful news.
As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with "erratic" and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It's not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me."
Comments (13)
Got this email...spread it ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Mary Beth | October 29, 2008 7:41 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Got this email...spread it around!
***************
Just a reminder the very successful Tele-Events to Close the Deal for McCain end tonight. Try to join in
8 PM ET
Call in 712-775-7100 then code 131349#
Hope to meet you there!
Jacquerie
W.A.M. Coordinator
1. Posted by Mary Beth | October 29, 2008 7:41 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on October 29, 2008 19:41
2. Posted by Larry | October 29, 2008 8:21 PM | Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
This is the problem with emotional infatuation in the context of politics; one day it just goes away. And you are left there, feeling like a complete jackass.
2. Posted by Larry | October 29, 2008 8:21 PM |
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 29, 2008 20:21
3. Posted by RicardoVerde | October 29, 2008 8:54 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Finished our safety audit today, and other than a few record keeping uh-ohs it went well. I'm in a good place right now, and I do believe McCain will pull this off. Obama may get more votes, but McCain can take the electoral college.
3. Posted by RicardoVerde | October 29, 2008 8:54 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 29, 2008 20:54
4. Posted by Kevin | October 29, 2008 9:07 PM | Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
I don't exactly consider Wendy Button's endorsement a coup for the McCain camp.
4. Posted by Kevin | October 29, 2008 9:07 PM |
Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
Posted on October 29, 2008 21:07
5. Posted by Larry | October 29, 2008 10:18 PM | Score: 0 (6 votes cast)
Kevin:
I do. This is way better than Colin Powell in my opinion. This is a lady who toiled in the trenches, not one of the elite who had handlers to do all the dirty work.
In years, I too was toiling in the trenches and I have a nose for the meaningless garbage all politicians spew.
Colin Powell gave us his reasons for endorsing Obama. Bull. He did not tell us the truth.
Wendy Button told us the truth.
5. Posted by Larry | October 29, 2008 10:18 PM |
Score: 0 (6 votes cast)
Posted on October 29, 2008 22:18
6. Posted by Adrian Browne | October 29, 2008 11:13 PM | Score: -1 (7 votes cast)
I predict that we'll find out that Wendy Button is also Ashley Todd's speechwriter.
6. Posted by Adrian Browne | October 29, 2008 11:13 PM |
Score: -1 (7 votes cast)
Posted on October 29, 2008 23:13
7. Posted by Parthenon | October 30, 2008 12:28 AM | Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
Well she's entitled to her opinion. Even about Greek-styled architecture, which is about as American as it gets, at least for anybody who's been to D.C. or a state capitol.
Anybody else here never put stock in any endorsement, ever?
7. Posted by Parthenon | October 30, 2008 12:28 AM |
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
Posted on October 30, 2008 00:28
8. Posted by pvd | October 30, 2008 10:34 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Adrian: Would you care to offer any evidence for your inane comment or are you content to allow it to stand as it as testimony to your intellect?
Fact: An Obama speechwriter and formerly solid democrat leaving the party.
Is this an outlier or is this indicative of a larger movement in the populace?
8. Posted by pvd | October 30, 2008 10:34 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 30, 2008 10:34
9. Posted by hyperbolist | October 30, 2008 12:18 PM | Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
pvd: why don't you ask George Will, Christopher Hitchens, Mike Murphy, David Ignatius, Richard Cohen, Charles Krauthammer, Christopher Buckley...? They aren't all endorsing Obama, but they've given up on McCain (especially since his crass selection of Palin and his cartoonish reaction to the financial crisis).
Your party is hemorrhaging intellectuals which a sane person would regard as worrisome, though you'll probably interpret it as a healthy purge of book-reading nerds.
McCain-Palin is exactly what the Democrats needed to solidify their hold on Congress and to take back the Executive branch.
9. Posted by hyperbolist | October 30, 2008 12:18 PM |
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Posted on October 30, 2008 12:18
10. Posted by HughS | October 30, 2008 1:15 PM | Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
why don't you ask George Will, Christopher Hitchens, Mike Murphy, David Ignatius, Richard Cohen, Charles Krauthammer, Christopher Buckley.
If that's some sort of conservative composite you're serving up, hyper, it doesn't work.
Krauthammer has not given up on McCain. Buckley has been asked to move on from the family legacy. Hitchens? Please, you jest? Richard Cohen? How does he fit in?
George Will? Not a member of the conservative club any longer.
The party is not hemorrhaging intellectuals, it's shedding pretenders.
10. Posted by HughS | October 30, 2008 1:15 PM |
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
Posted on October 30, 2008 13:15
11. Posted by yihdego | October 30, 2008 2:04 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
I agree that its hard to relate to fellow Democrats who believe liberal trash. I got caught up in the Palin pregnancy and it took somebody calling me out on being a sexist idiot before I realized that I was being a sexist idiot. I began "trolling" conservative blogs in order to find out when liberal smears where untrue.
Imagine my shock to find out that my own mother has been talking about how Joe the Plumber isn't actually a plumber. I laughed it off but my mom watches network news and I surf the web and don't watch tv yet she's the one hearing the character attacks.
I love my mom to death but when she fills out all Democrat on the absentee ballot its clear that a very disturbing mob mentality is being pushed on to average Americans.
Still don't take that as an endorsement of McCain, just a very honest lady acknowledging the disturbing truth.
11. Posted by yihdego | October 30, 2008 2:04 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 30, 2008 14:04
12. Posted by Ken | October 30, 2008 2:08 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
This just shows that even within Obama's own camp, that there are those that don't believe what it is that Obama is selling. It is NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE THE CHANGE AND VOTE FOR McCAIN/PALIN.
The American people cannot allow Obama to be elected our next president for he is the wrong person to get us out of the mess that Bush got us into.
America, we need McCain/Palin to be our next president and vice president. They are the ones that DO HAVE the experience, talent, skills and the knowledge to turn our economy around and make our great country even greater than it is now.
NOBAMA 2008
McCain/Palin 2008
12. Posted by Ken | October 30, 2008 2:08 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 30, 2008 14:08
13. Posted by lymond crawford | October 31, 2008 1:32 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
If you follow Wendy's blogs you find she has a propensity to form political opinions based on her own personal interaction with the people she works for rather than on the substance of their views or policy decisions. She seems to have been infatuated with John Edwards and then burned as if he betrayed her with his infidelity. She was never an Obama speechwriter. It is hard not to miss that fact that she did not land a staff job after Edwards. She has some scores to settle and obviously craves attention.
13. Posted by lymond crawford | October 31, 2008 1:32 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 31, 2008 13:32