JSA Wrote:I saw an interview with Jimmy Carter the other night. He recalled that in 1976 after the Republican convention, Reagan's supporters swore they would never vote for Gerald Ford. They came around, of course, and in the end it was a very close election.
At the 1948 convention, Truman* told farmers and labor if they didn't stand by the party, they were "the most ungrateful people in the world." The Clintons and Obama need to do the same thing with Hillary's supporters (in a politic way).
* The Republicans' favorite liberal Democrat
JSA, I heard Carter's quote when he said it, and I dismissed it then. He all but said the reason he won in '76 was because of the split in the Republican Party. I guess he forgot that something called WaterGate had a wee bit of an effect in turning anybody but die hard Republicans away from the voting booth that election (and many other Republicans and independents voted democratic for that reason). Even an inexperienced and non-noteworthy Southern Governor was able to win that election for the Dems (due both to the Watergate lingering tarnish and the gawd-awful economy-- with sky-high inflation), despite lacking the charisma that Clinton would bring to the table 16 years later.
As for the selection of Palin, I'm at a total loss how this is going to help McCain. Admittedly, I'm a staunch Democrat, but Palin is largely unknown to the nation...is a Governor of a small and inconsequential (in the grand scheme of things) state, with negligeable electoral votes and almost assuredly going Republican regardless...and who has hardly any experience whatsoever. Sure, her social positions appeal to the conservative right wing, but it's not as if she has the appeal to the religous right as a Hucklebee or even Ramsey would have...and both of those would at least counter McCain's admitted weakness on economic issues. As for the woman angle, anyone who honestly thinks that she is going to get anything more than a miniscule fraction of the Hillary voters just doesn't understand what the Hillary voter is all about. It's not feminism, per se, but rather, Hillary's long-standing and strong public positions and advocacy of issues that appeal to women-- education, women's rights, health care, child care, etc. Palin does nothing for the women-- or men (such as myself)-- who are appalled at the current far right-wing stacked composition of the
Supreme Court, and will do anything to keep the next President from further slanting the court to a truly dangerous extreme. I personally do not like Obama. I think he's two-faced (e.g., running a very dirty campaign against the Clintons behind the scenes, but successfully conveying himself to the media as a "different type of politician" who doesn't believe in personal attacks), inexperienced, has created an image of himself void of actual validation (e.g., he works across party lines and is a uniter), and is far more a PR machine than a substantive politician. Having said all that, I'm still going to vote for him over McCain, largely because McCain and his policies scare me big time, and the once self-proclaimed maverick has changed his positions to cater to the conservative right of his party...and we don't need more of the same that we had with the current administration. Thankfully, Obama chose Biden as his running mate, and I've always been a big fan of his.
Just my two cents.
