Archive for August, 2008

Sarah Palin. WTF?

Whoa. There are literally dozens of women I could easily see as president of the United States of America. Sarah Palin just doesn’t happen to be one of them. I’m watching her “intro” speech and the political operative in me is just stunned.

To be totally honest, she’d need to be coached up to be a decent state house candidate — I’ve worked with better candidates — male and female — right here in southeast Pennsylvania. This is ridiculous…can anyone seriously see this woman as our president?

And you have to ask that question, with John McCain 72 years old — and a history of cancer — he’d be one of the oldest presidents in history, which would make Palin’s succession to the White House a real, distinct possibility. Read the rest of this entry »

Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate.

They’re saying all the right things, of course, about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s pick for the Republican Vice Presidental nomination. She’s tough, she’s a reformer, she’s all about change. Arguably all true, of course, but she and her selection is all about something else: John McCain thinks that a number of women will vote for her strictly because she has a vagina.

Most women are pro-choice; Palin is not. Most women support some sort of gun-control, Palin does not. In fact, on most of the issues that matter to women, Palin holds pretty much the same position that John McCain does, which is to say, not the one that most women agree with.

Palin’s pick is nothing more than a transparent play for those Clinton supporters still not sold on Barack Obama. McCain thinks so little of women, that he assumes they will ignore issues and ideas and flock to the idea of a woman on the ticket.

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Here’s my take on a nasty, yet fun attack ad on John McCain. I made it in less than an hour. I know, i know…it seems like it shouldn’t have taken more than 20 minutes…but hey, I’m old…uh…experienced.

So…let’s hear what you’all have to say.

Bill Clinton. Which Clinton do we see tonight?

Okay, regardless of how the pundits slice and dice it, Hillary Clinton got the job done last night. It was a great speech and it hit all the right notes, especially in light of the pathetic attack-dog commercials John McCain has been running. Most of the delegates seemed to get it — that failing to fight for Obama was failing to fight for the things Clinton has been fighting for — and she made the point very strongly.

Begin Rant

Of course, CNN’s train-wreck convention coverage managed to find a delegate unable to come to terms with reality: Anne Price Mills of Washington State. Generously, she said she wouldn’t vote for McCain in November, but that Obama had two months to convince her to vote for him.

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Hillary Clinton. It all rides on her speech tonight.

The future of the next few years — and maybe longer — could be riding on a speech given tonight by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her ability to convince most of her supporters to get on the Obama bus tonight will ultimately tell the tale of how this election goes.

If she gets the job done and most of her supporters swing to Obama, then November will be a very, very happy on for the Democrats. Sure, they’ll be a few nutballs who hold out pining for Clinton and swearing they’ll vote for McCain — but to be blunt, those few people are idiots. Idiots. (See, I told you my return to politics wouldn’t temper my ability to say it like it is).

There’s no logic in electing John McCain — which no matter how awfully destructive it will be for the country, and make no mistake, McCain looks to me to be a downgrade from George W. Bush — if Clinton’s supporters torpedo Obama, it is her legacy that will be trashed, not to mention Bill’s. Had Obama lost in the primaries to Clinton, there’s zero chance that I would be out there whining and bitching and claiming I’d vote for McCain rather than Hillary.

So while Thursday night seems liek the media event, Tuesday will be the pivotal night. By midnight, we’ll have a much better idea of what the future holds.

Welcome to the new blog site.

Woo hoo! Captions that work!

The old site was getting a little long in the tooth and frankly, it was overdue to move it into it’s own blog directory — freeing up the main www.mikemcgann.org domain for other things in the coming weeks, months and years — I hope you enjoy the new design and expect to implement a number of new things, such as video and some of the offbeat humor I enjoy putting out there.

Which brings up a difficult problem for a soon to be former former-politican: either I have to self-censor myself to be “politically correct” or doom myself to people finding out exactly what I think.

So here’s the deal: it’s not going to happen. I’m going to say opinionated things that will offend some people — and certainly certain groups, not to mention any number of minimum-wage earners working for Journal-Register, but so be it. I expect to run for office in 2009 — and do so in a less than subtle way.

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