My friend, Chiara, sent me this note on Thursday, the final day of the Republican National Convention. I managed to miss the note and I’m offering it now for your consideration.

Last night, my sister-in-law, Joyce, a nurse, mother of three, and grandmother of many, wrote to a number of us in the family to express her views about the presidential election.  Joyce focused on an aspect of a potential  and unthinkable Republican victory that I think few of us — certainly not I — have considered at any length.  I believe Joyce’s take on a McCain/Palin administration is worthy of contemplation and so I’d like to share with you the note she sent to us from Santa Rosa last night, at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention.

Yes, we can.

Chiara

Dear Kim, Tami, Erik, Steven, Deena, Todd, Chiara, Lucia, Kathleen and Eddie

As most of you know I am very pro Obama.  I had the opportunity to watch all major speeches for the Democratic convention and now I’m giving equal time to the Republicans.  Two very different takes on patriotism.  I was heartened by Obama, Biden, and Michelle Obama.  This week, I watched John McCain become animated over his sudden secret weapon, Sarah Palin.  I listened to the speeches last night and heard similar slurs in each one, obviously written by the same team. No lies told, but less than the truth said.  The crowd went wild. There are lots more at home who believe and will vote.

Tonight, after listening to Cindy McCain’s profile (she has been an international relief worker!!) and her well delivered speech following Sarah Palin’s rousing rendition of the republican working super mom last night, I know big work must be done if the White House is to stay in the hands of the party that I believe is more fair and balanced.

But my greatest fear is that, if the McCain/Palin ticket wins, my grandsons, Jeff, Brennan, Justin A and Justin C will be registering for the draft before the end of 2009.  Devin won’t be far behind. There are simply not enough volunteer bodies to fill the battle needs in the many places our hawk leaders feel we should go.  I was a fierce mother against the war in Vietnam when Steven was a child and I can do it again.  And be even more involved this time because watching my grandsons go off to war for oil and power doesn’t feel patriotic to me.

I’m calling the local democratic party headquarters tomorrow.  I will volunteer however they need me because I now have the time to go with my passion that the charismatic folks running on the republican ticket are defeated in Nov.

John McCain just finished the most compelling speech I’ve ever heard from him.  Almost, but not quite eloquent.  That the crowd is going wild is an indication of what’s happening in front of millions of American TVs.  Scary.

Oh woe, we have lots of work to do.  Both parties want change in Washington, but only one party wants to escalate war in several world regions.

Going forward, I’ll keep the grandson faces in front of me to remember why the war mongers cannot win.

With love,

Mom, Joyce

I concluded a post two days ago with a word that I meant to be derogatory:

Next to Sen. Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, with their Republican National Convention comments, showed themselves to be pygmies indeed.

Although the term “pygmies” is commonly used to refer to a member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 4 feet 11 inches in average height, especially tribal groups in Central Africa, I should be sensitive to how destructive my usage of the word is.

I am sorry and I apologize to everyone who read that expression.

Gawd, I hope this isn’t true. There’s a rumor circulating around the internet today that Governor Palin used racist and sexist slurs to refer to Senators Obama and Clinton:

So Sambo beat the bitch.

The rumor is thinly sourced to a woman named “Lucille,” who allegedly overheard the governor make the statement at a diner in Alaska.

I don’t think it’s worth getting hysterical over a thinly sourced rumor, but I do think that this particular rumor is serious enough that questions need to be asked. Here’s hoping that some enterprising journalist tries to find Lucille and gets her story on the record if she exists.

The press also ought to ask the Governor for her side of the story. The problem is that the McCain camp is now saying that Palin might not be available for a press conference for about two weeks. Yikes.

So let’s put this one in the tickler file for September 21. In addition to asking specifically about Lucille’s allegation, I’d like to know what her views are on race more generally. Does anyone have any clue?

Cross-posted from Facebook.

Susan B. Anthony helped guarantee women’s suffrage in the United States.

Sen. Barack Obama defends himself against Republicans

Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral vision led the way in the struggle for civil rights and economic justice

Then this from Daily Kos:

Catholic worker Dorothy Day was fiercely saintly in work for peace and to alleviate poverty

Mohandas Gandhi peacefully led the people of India

Next to Sen. Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, with their Republican National Convention comments, showed themselves to be pygmies indeed.

The nation’s backbone

Method to the FOX madness . . . but will it work?

Along with the prego teen daughter, trying to fire everyone who ever crossed her, views that are out of the mainstream with most Americans, among other things, it turns out Sarah Palin’s bulging and very colorful closet may spill yet more secrets.

Andrew Sullivan says: Todd Palin’s former business partner files an emergency motion to have his divorce papers sealed.

Bristol Palin’s Choice

Bristol Palin has made the decision to have her baby, but Samantha Bee tries to remember another word for it.

Does it matter that Sen. John McCain, (R-AZ), is, at best, a spent force who mortgaged any ideals and principles he might have had in a Faustian bargain for the Republican Party nomination for president of the United States?

It was painful watching McCain last night and then listening to the empty suit media types prattle on about how well he did. All he has left to spout are the inanities and incoherent babble he spewed haltingly last night.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party nominee, needs to stick to the issues. Hit them hard. Stay on message for the next 60 days talking about issues that affect ordinary Americans and how to begin to repair the damage wrought by Pres. George W. Bush and his minions. Don’t engage these idiot Republicans. Talk to the American people about the future and how he would get the nation out of the morass the Republicans have created the past eight years.

The Republicans cannot, must not win on Nov. 4, 2008.

The Central Virginia Progressive-The DAVISReport sent us this message:

I’ve got to give her props, Sarah Palin has redefined chutzpah.

There is something very unseemly about this self described pit bull mom. As the mother of three daughters and the aunt of a special needs child this woman is really making me angry. Will this woman stop at nothing and yet point the finger at her opponents for playing the gender card and and drawing her children into the dialogue? You can’t play the gender/mom card and then cry fowl when your opponent brings it up.

In her convention speech she referred to herself as a mother at least five times. She then opened with “As a mother of a special needs child you’ll have an advocate in the White House.” Well my sister who has fought for 30 years to get her son the services and education he needed to become a functional adult, was not impressed, and in fact, thought her shout out was just the beginning of the evening’s overall exploitation of her children to “excite the base” and found it disingenuous.

Next came her foreign policy position pitch which began and ended with, “I’m a Mom with a son in the national guard who leaves next week for Iraq . . . (cue to camera closeup on the kid). Again the Mommy card played face up, her son used as a deflection, why? Because a month ago when asked to discuss foreign policy, she stated, “I really haven’t focused much on the war in Iraq”-ouch!

It should be noted here that Biden and McCain also have sons who have, are currently, or soon will be deployed to Iraq, and they have had the class to leave their son’s out of the fray. In fact, taking his cue from Va. Sen. D. Jim Webb, John McCain, when pressed on the subject in an interview recently, stated: “Id rather not discuss my sons military service if you don’t mind”. (Perhaps McCain and Palin need a sidebar)

But the coup de grace of the evening was yet to come. Talk about Brass Ovaries! All while demanding her daughter be left out of the campaign rhetoric, she flew the baby daddy of her 17-year-old pregnant daughter in from Alaska, to the convention, and then pranced the gum-chewing man child around on stage with the moose in the headlight daughter!

As a mother of three daughters ( I’ve got a mommy card of my own to play) I found this disturbing on so many levels it hurt my heart and head.

The Inmates have taken over the Asylum!

Ms Palin, As I try to process what I saw and heard I have questions:

1. In light of recent events, do you revisit your decision to cut funding earlier this year to Passages, a teenage crisis center? According to Passage House’s web site, its purpose is to provide “teen mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives” and help teen moms “become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families.”

2. You oppose all funding to prevent teen pregnancies, “sex-ed programs will not find my support,” you wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial candidates but you cut funding for the teenage mothers who do not have the family or socioeconomic support your own daughter will have the privilege of-please explain how this connects you to the needs of everyday people?

3. Will the time missed out of high school classes qualify baby daddy an excused absence? cool!

4. Social Conservatives decried the movie Juno, complaining it glorified teenage pregnancy ( teen gives baby up for adoption), and indeed a spike in teenage pregnancy was dubbed the Juno effect. So I ask, with all this prancing about, can we expect a Bristol effect and what are you going to do about it if you’re the VP?

5. You decreased teen pregnancy services, but increased funds for aerial wolf shooting, please explain?

One more thing, being pro choice is not pro abortion, what part of that is hard to understand?

The DAVISReport

Posted by www.EileenDavis.blogspot.com The Davis Report - The Voice of Central Virginia and the Capital City.

If I had to pick one word to summarize my impression of Gov. Palin’s speech tonight, it would be “shrill.” It was a fiercely partisan speech, a mocking speech, a culture-war speech. It was ably written and ably delivered, but it came with a sneer. While it may be the kind of speech that plays well in the convention hall, I have my doubts about its ability to persuade the shrinking number of undecideds remaining to vote for a McCain-Palin ticket. We’ll see.

What may be most significant about the speech, however, could be what it portends for the fall campaign. Palin’s goal, it seems to me, was pretty simple: make common folk dislike the Democrats again. It was a speech very loosely grounded in fact but deeply rooted in division. She threw around the old canards (and some new ones, too) with aplomb. I think this is a sign that we may be in for a bitterly negative campaign.

On that level, I’d have to pronounce the speech a success. Palin proved herself to be at least a decent attack dog. One needn’t have any foreign policy experience to fill that role and fill it well. She came out swinging and never let up.

Democrats who’ve scoffed at her will have to think again. Obama’s weakness since the beginning has been his inability or unwillingness to throw an effective counterpunch. Unless his campaign quickly figures out a way to do that against a self-professed Hockey Mom, I think we just might have been looking tonight at the next Vice President of the United States.

UPDATE:  A conventional wisdom seems to be emerging that this was a speech designed to energize the GOP base.  I disagree. By and large, I think the base is energized by Sarah Palin already.  To me, this was a speech designed to drive up Obama’s negatives with swing voters.  The only question is whether she succeeded and will succeed despite the ugly sneer that accompanied her negative broadsides.

Cross-posted from Facebook

What some conservatives are saying about the Palin selection

TalkingPointsMemo had a the transcript …

Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we’ll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We’ll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she’s the right woman for the job Up next, one man who’s already convinced and he’ll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.

(cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys — this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it’s not gonna work. And –

PN: It’s over.

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she’s never looked comfortable about this –

MM: They’re all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this — excuse me– political bullshit about narratives –

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what’s really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.

You good readers have to know that I have been reluctant to say much about this Sarah Palin mess. Needless to say, the selection by John McCain of this untested, unprepared governor is reckless, irresponsible and downright cynical.

At 72 years old, McCain is one of the oldest candidates to run for the presidency. Sen. McCain’s father died of a heart attack at 70 and his grandfather died of a heart attack at 60. McCain himself has survived four skin cancers (melanomas), including one in 2000 that was classified as Stage IIa.

As someone pointed out the other day, McCain has never had an Alzeheimer test, a grave oversight when you consider 13% of Americans over 65 have Alzheimer’s.

My point is this: Because of all these factors, McCain, who has been sloganeering that he is running for the presidency to put “country first,” owed the nation an unquestionably and superbly qualified vice presidential nominee.

Forget the scandals that have dogged Palin since she stepped into the arena. The fact is that she is a horrible choice because she is not qualified to be president of the United States. When we vote for McCain, because of his advanced age and health history, we’re also voting, this time more than at any time in the nation’s history, for his vice presidential pick as President of the United States.

Palin is so far out of the mainstream it does the term injustice to call her a conservative. She is a fringe right wing lunatic. Her postion on reproductive freedom is extreme, including cutting off funds to unwed teen mothers in her state. She says yes to creationism and denies global warming. She hounded out of a job a state police superintendent because he would not help her pursue a vendetta against an ex-brother-in-law by firing him.

I mean, Sarah Palin and her husband at one time or another belonged to a group that wanted Alaska to secede from the United States.

I am sorry to say this but, if the McCain-Palin ticket wins office, there’ll be no hope left for this country. No hope not because they won but that people voted for them.

Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH)

The Ohio governor, Ted Strickland, got off the best, unheard line of the Convention when he said that, unlike George H. W. Bush, who was born on third base and thought he hit a triple, George W. was born on third base and stole second.

–David Remnick, The New Yorker

Excerpt . . .:

Obama has been more moving at the lectern—at the Convention in Boston four years ago, when he relied mainly on the story of his modest, yet remarkable, multicultural upbringing; at the victory party after the breakthrough win in Iowa, last January—but he has never described himself and his political vision with more clarity. In order to win the votes of the unconvinced, he could not allow “change” to remain an airy mantra. (If anything, he risked the specificity and length of a Clintonian State of the Union address.) Obama was also newly and surprisingly direct in his assault on John McCain—whose policy differences with the Bush Administration have narrowed to the vanishing point—and even questioned his opponent’s “temperament and judgment.”

In an interview with The New Yorker magazine two weeks before Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was sounding very much like an Obamacan:

Before she was running against him, Sarah Palin—the governor of Alaska and now the Republican candidate for Vice-President of the United States—thought it was pretty neat that Barack Obama was edging ahead of John McCain in her usually solidly red state. After all, she said, Obama’s campaign was using the same sort of language that she had in her gubernatorial race. “The theme of our campaign was ‘new energy,’ ” she said recently. “It was no more status quo, no more politics as usual, it was all about change. So then to see that Obama—literally, part of his campaign uses those themes, even, new energy, change, all that, I think, O.K., well, we were a little bit ahead on that.” She also noted, “Something’s kind of changing here in Alaska, too, for being such a red state on the Presidential level. Obama’s doing just fine in polls up here, which is kind of wigging people out, because they’re saying, ‘This hasn’t happened for decades that in polls the D’ ”—the Democratic candidate—“ ‘is doing just fine.’ To me, that’s indicative, too. It’s the no-more-status-quo, it’s change.”

Continue . . .

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Gail Collins had interesting thoughts on Sen. John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate:

It is conceivable that some people will think John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate because she is a woman. I know you find this shocking, but I swear I have heard it mentioned.

McCain does not believe in pandering to identity politics. He was looking for someone who was well prepared to fight against international Islamic extremism, the transcendent issue of our time. And in the end he decided that in good conscience, he was not going to settle for anyone who had not been commander of a state national guard for at least a year and a half. He put down his foot!

The obvious choice was Palin, the governor of Alaska, whose guard stands as our last best defense against possible attack by the resurgent Russian menace across the Bering Strait.

Continue . . .

The Central Virginia Progressive- The DAVISReport sent us this message:

Say hello to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, John MCCain’s VP select ,the governor of a state where its citizens by birthright get checks sent to them up to a couple thousand a year, that represent oil profits gained on state owned land.

Yes Virginia, Alaska, the sparsely populated other world of Alaska, the Kuwait of the United States, fat with oil money, sparsely populated, and except for remote pockets of indigenous eskimoe communities,largely caucasion, is where John McCain has found “the best person” to serve as our VP?

As I ponder McCain’s choice, knowing that he believes that this decision will help deliver purple Virginia, I dig deeper and get more astounded that he thinks he has made the sale.

Virginia, with both urban and rural poor,immigration issues,(Henrico County Schools alone have 90 plus languages registered in ESL classes), with our population density and DC proximity terrrorism issues, military and port concerns, highway infrastructure issues and commuter issue(good old 95)- with all of this Virginia is ranked number one best run state and is also ranked best place to raise a child with the outcome of it being solidly educated. My question is why do these honors go to Virginia and not Alaska with more money and less challenges to successful outcomes?

Seems to me Alaska should easily have these rankings. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel for them , compared to the challenges we face here in Virginia, but yet we prevail. But that’s my point, a first term Governor of Alaska whose last job was a town smaller than Ashland can’t really be expected to step into the VP gig ground ready, and cross training is not an option. Bluntly stated, she doesnt know what she doesn’t know.

Choosing your VP is the first big decision the candidate is judged on and John McCain has shown himself to be a reckless flyboy who must think woman are really stupid. Too stupid to notice she is in way over her head, too stupid to realize that a Hillary supporter,to vote for Palin just because she’s female would have to abandon every social and political position most Hillary supporters share. Why?; because Palin is an ultraconservative,a gun toting NRA member, Anti Choice even in cases of rape and incest.

The idea that one woman is as good as another is arrogant pandering, and will result in blowback that McCain will regret. The arrogance is also compounded by the fact that this 72 yr old with 4 bouts of cancer thinks no one will consider the heartbeat away question, does he really think that we are so giggly to pick a chick we won’t think this possibility through?

“Ms Palin, I know Hillary Clinton, and you are no Hillary Clinton”

The Central Virginia Progressive-The DAVISReport

Posted by www.EileenDavis.blogspot.com The Davis Report - The Voice of Central Virginia and the Capital City