Reality Check

Published by Al Adomite on August 30th, 2008

I’m astounded by what I’ve heard in the past 24 hours.  Obama surrogates attacking Palin in the same style that would make Karl Rove proud.  In a search for intellectual honesty - and it’s hard to find in most of the commentary out there today - I’ll make a couple of observations.

Eric Zorn makes comparisons to the pick of Dan Quayle:

Take away the gender factor with Palin and you have Dan Quayle redux — a young (she’s 44; Quayle was a 41-year-old U.S. Senator in 1988 when George H.W. Bush picked him for vice-president)[...]

Not.  Dan Quayle was infinitely more experienced than either Palin OR Obama.  Quayle was a US Congressman for four years and US Senator for eight years prior to being chosen by Bush 41.  Twelve years experience in Washington - yes, but still very young - when he was tapped.  Obama and Palin COMBINED don’t have the amount of experience at the level of Dan Quayle in 1988.  I’m not saying that makes either unqualified, but let’s at least be honest.

While I credit Zorn’s argument that the pick is inconsistent for McCain (while I like the pick, I agree in it’s inconsistency), the Obama surrogates’ criticisms are more of just the “usual attack politics” that Obama has criticized.

This pick makes me chuckle, because of the hypocrisy it exposes for McCain and Obama.  And, ultimately, a respectable public servant who deserves praise for her accomplishments (Palin) is getting beat up this morning.

At this point, it would be hard to say what “change” Obama’s campaigning for, certainly not a move away from Karl Rove-like attack politics.  Obama’s side has certainly mastered that art.

The “truth” is starting to look more like this: We got a Clinton presidency because of dissatisfaction with Bush 41.  We got a Bush 43 presidency because of dissatisfaction with Clinton.  Now we’ll get an Obama presidency because of dissatisfaction with Bush 43.

“Change” this cycle unfortuntately doesn’t mean getting a good choice.  We can at least say we had a 50-50 chance of being a heartbeat away from someone different.

Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss.

Filed under National Issues

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