Pakistan

Obama’s grating pronunciation of “Pakistan” alone lost him some votes tonight.

The YouTube Vote

After watching what YouTube offers up, favorites, and pushes to the top of the Most Viewed lists . . . I pray that they forget the date of the election.  What a waste.

The Palin Supremacy

It’s the topic that will not go away:  Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate.  It has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in politics.  The media has gone completely nuts over her selection.  I’m not talking about what the opposition is saying – they will always say the politically prudent thing.  The Republicans went after Edwards as inexperienced when he was selected as Kerry’s running mate, but was the media reaction to his selection comparable to what’s happening now?  It’s almost surreal.  I’m not a Sean Hannity fan (I listen, but only as long as I can tolerate it), but he has called this election the death of the media.  I’m inclined to agree with him.

Slowing down to think

Now that the excitement of the Palin pick and the conventions is winding down, I think I’ll slow down a bit and think and ruminate more upon what this blog initially set out to do: examine my personal political convictions in light of Catholic teaching.  I am fully aware that I have my biases and my personal preferences.  I also am aware that some of these may be at odds with what the Catholic Church teaches.  I hope I am also willing to change.

I think I’ll start by examining the document Gaudium Et Spes.

“The One” promises to reach across the aisle . . .

yet can he explain why he’s simply a partisan hack with no record of doing so?

Another smear bites the dust . . .

Here. Oh, and a running count of failed attempts to ‘get Palin’. But . . . but . . . “She didn’t mention that military suicide might actually rise enough to be on par with those of the civilian population! Tsk Tsk.”

Some people . . . .

Okay, I’m tired, but I have to say something

I really enjoyed McCain’s speech tonight.  We all know that he’s not the best speaker, so the expectations weren’t that high to begin with.  Yet, in his own way he delivered.  He didn’t dwell to much on specifics, but he did highlight specific areas where he and Obama differ.  Their basic concept of the role of government comes directly to mind.  His personal recollections of what made him the public servant he is truly moved me.  When he said, “They broke me,” I could hear the pain in that statement.

I also liked that he wasn’t on the attack against Obama.  Everyone in the media was talking about how sarcastic and caustic Palin’s speech was . . . but aren’t these the same people who tell us every election cycle that the job of the Vice President is “attack dog”.  Didn’t Obama himself attack McCain in his acceptance speech far more than McCain did likewise tonight?  I think I’m right about this. I’m up for a good correcting.

The whole of the convention went well.  I will highlight things I wish were better:

1)  The war-mongering wasn’t as rampant as some make it out to be, but some of the references to ‘our enemy’ and such bothered me. I would have like to have heard the word “Islam” not as part of the phrases “Islamic extremists” or “Islamo-fascists”.  What happened to the emphasis on “Islam is a religion of peace. Our enemy is those that have misused this great religion for their nefarious purposes”?

2)  Though the snarkiness in light of the beating the left has given Republicans over the past few years was cathartic in a way . . . I could have done with a little less.  Palin’s was almost perfect. Perhaps a phrase or two cut from the speech and it would have been flawless.  One line that will live to haunt Obama though (paraphrasing here – I’m tired): “It’s kinda like a community organizer, except we actually have to make decisions.”  As so many said: “Ouch.”

3)  Why not put more new faces front and center? Palin was a breath of fresh air.  How unfortunate that Bobby Jindal had a natural disaster to deal with.  I would have loved to seen him speak.  But there are others throughout the country that would have been great to feature.  Michael Steele gave a particularly good speech, but it wasn’t prime-time and hardly anyone saw it.

4)  Less with the ‘early realease’.  The story is important, and perhaps the campaign knows they have to say things over and over again to make the point stick . . . but those who know already (like me) – boy it was annoying.

5)  More details.  McCain’s speech highlighted specific differences with Obama, but not specific details. Personally, I’m excited about his plans for education (I loved his line about it being *the* civil rights issue of our time – though I disagree with it – abortion is still the civil rights issue of our time).  I am also excited about his plans for health care and for energy independence, etc. etc.  Perhaps there wasn’t enough time to get into details, but details are going to be important.  I hope that during the debates he can fill in the lines he so clearly drew tonight.

6) Abortion.  I had made a prediction that both McCain and Palin would highlight this issue.  In his introductory video, McCain made it clear that he was staunchly pro-life . . . but neither of them spoke to this issue.  I was disappointed.

That’s enough for now.  God bless.

Why does Vox Nova have so many “comments off” posts?

Come on, guys.  It’s silly.

Best line of convention coverage comments

If I were her, I would say “It’s okay Barack, you can come out from under the bed. The bad man’s gone”.

(a suggestion for Palin’s opening comments after Rudy’s evisceration of Obama)

More Convention Thoughts

I loved the speech tonight.  I can’t wait to see the online donations report from the McCain camp after that . . . .  The whole night was great.  I could have done less with every one of the speakers mentioning his refusal of early release.  It can wear thin.  I do think it’s an important part of his history, but come on.  Rudy was the attack dog from my neighbor’s back yard tonight.  Just think about it.  How many more millions of Americans tuned into the prime time event to watch Palin, got to see Rudy rip into Obama – and then saw a spectacular performance by Palin  . . . all because the left has spilled so much ink and vile about her over the last few days.  Thank you, thank you, thank you – to all who participated in drumming up interest.  You got the seats in the seats in front of their televisions, and I couldn’t be happier.

(I posted this in a comment at Vox Nova, but thought I’d reuse it.)