Word To The MSM: You Are Making Yourselves Irrelevant

By Noah    

There's no question that the media gasbags have out gasbagged themselves to the point of blow up over the Sarah Palin story. It's also not surprising that 99% of the over-blowdried talking hairdo news cretins missed many of the most salient points of the story altogether. One, that the naming of Palin was a money fix for a financially strapped McCranky campaign. He may have wanted Joe Lieberwhore, but his lobbyist-infested inner cabal pushed for Palin because they knew that those who believe the world was created on a Wednesday afternoon exactly 6660 years ago would take a second to open the checkbook while they were fretting about who their neighbors were having sex with.

Two, the media missed that it was damn insulting of McCranky to think that simply picking a woman, any woman, for the VP slot would pacify the general population of women, including disappointed Hillary supporters, because, after all, all women think alike, if you call what they do thinking. They're so darn emotional. At least that appears to be the Repug view of "the little ladies." What else do you expect from a man who calls his wife a c-word in front of reporters (and I don't necessarily mean he called Miss Beermoney a cashcow).

And, three; what does picking someone so spectacularly unqualified say about McCain's desperation or contempt for the office of Vice President and his country and its people? Suffice to say, he was just thinking about himself and thinking about winning. The job of President takes a huge toll on the winner. Just compare the pictures of any President two years after inauguration with those from the day of inauguration. Now apply that to Senator McCain, a man who is far more frail than the media would have you know. Take a good look at the man. What are the odds that he lives out his first term? He'd stick us with Palin? Talk about arrogance!

The so-called mainstream media (MSM) may miss such concepts; after all, most of them aren't hired for their brains anymore. We don't. They also may choose not to "go there," either because of their own failings or the agendas of the companies they work for. The great thing is that now there are ways to go around the hacks. Why else do you think they fear net neutrality? Blogs and people talking amongst themselves in large numbers are now their competition. They are filling a vacuum created by the MSM's abdication of responsibility. Just like Tom Paine wrote pamphlets that changed people's hopes and thinking, so can all of us talking to each other with the email machine.

Several days ago, I received an email from an old friend who now lives in London. It was an intelligent letter to a bunch of friends who read it, and, passed it on to others who, in turn, passed it on to still more citizens. Unbeknownst to my friend, she had become an inadvertent blogger. She received numerous responses from her friends, myself included, and others. One friend of hers, Elisa Gordon, a New York wife, mom and social worker, wrote the very fine piece you will see below and submitted it to the New York Times, hoping they would publish it as a letter if not as an Op-Ed piece from an area social worker . Not surprisingly, they rejected it. It was not news that fit their agenda. They, like many of the terminally smug, don't come in much contact with social workers and community organizers. Elisa Gordon has had enough.

I responded to her that the McCranky choice has lowered the bar. Maybe, I said, it started with Daddy Bush's choice of Dan "What a terrible thing it is to lose one's mind" Quayle. That was certainly disrespect for all of us, and the office. Now, John McOld has trumped that choice. His choice is the height of disrespect and contempt, even to those who fall for it. Choosing Palin was a sexist move in itself. The Repug world view assumes that women are so superficial and the same, that women will vote for a woman just because she is a woman even if that woman is the enemy of so many women (and men). The media may just parrot McCain's Rovian rhetoric that Elisa Gordon refers to, but, there are OTHER VOICES.     

  
Submission for New York Times Op-Ed Page
Elisa Gordon
September 8, 2008
 
I am disheartened, dismayed, and completely insulted by so many aspects of what was said at the Republican convention last week. 
 
As a woman, I am insulted that the Republican party assumes that putting a woman on the ticket will entice me to vote for John McCain, simply because of a female presence. Does it matter that he chose a woman who wants to take away the reproductive rights of all women in this country? Does it matter that he chose a woman who would like to ban certain books in libraries (and would have liked to fire her town librarian for refusing to remove the "questionable" ones)? What about the fact that-- as Cindy McCain boasted-- Governor Palin is a "pistol- packing mother of five?" Gun violence may not be a problem in Alaska, but it is certainly one in New York and many other states. Or the fact that she believes that to get away from our dependence on foreign oil, we need to increase offshore drilling and suggested little else as potential solutions? (Did you hear the chants of "drill, baby, drill" during her and Senator McCain's speeches?) Does it matter that all of the speakers made few if any reference to the major problems in our country, including the rising unemployment rate, the lack of affordable heathcare, or the environment?

As a social worker, I am disgusted that Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin poked fun at Barack Obama's experience as a Community Organizer, an honorable position in which he helped people who had lost their jobs and who had few opportunities to improve their circumstances. And then, I was completely dumbfounded when John McCain called on all Americans to "serve a cause greater than yourself."  Did he (or his speech writers) see the hypocrisy in these opposing statements?

As a "hockey mom," I was floored when I realized that thanks to Governor Palin, people across this country now see women such as myself in the same light as they view pit bulls (with or without lipstick).
 
Finally, as a US citizen, do I really want someone in the job of Vice President, and potentially President, who is under investigation in her home state for the improper firing of the Public Safety Commissioner? This is the person who could ultimately be appointing the US Attorney General!
 
Let's not be fooled by all the rhetoric being thrown out there by the McCain campaign. They would like us to believe that anyone who questions Sarah Palin or, more importantly, John McCain's judgment in selecting her, is sexist and/or part of the east coast elite. But the reality is this: the fact that Governor Palin's family has personal issues they are dealing with-- and whose family doesn't-- is irrelevant to this campaign. What we all need to focus on is what it will mean to each of us, as Americans, to potentially have a President who, during the campaign, is ignoring the issues, while saying and doing whatever is needed (and whatever he is told by Karl Rove's henchmen) to win, and potentially have a Vice President as single-minded and divisive as Sarah Palin. 
 
In previous elections the potential outcome has never been a scary proposition. I may have liked one side more, but I wasn't fearful if the other side won. This year is different. This year, we should all be very afraid.