2008 US Election

as chauvanistic as my palin post was it brings up some important points: given that the republicans like to paint democrat voters as a bunch of single mother gangbanging crack smoking beggars it's slightly ironic that this woman is running to be 2nd in command for them.

and the point about the job i was making was she has 5 kids, running on the family ticket, what happens to said kids and family when she's working 24/7 all over the world?

i just find it selfish that someone who is really selling the family values ticket is quite willing to put career before hers and yes i know that is chauvanistic but then again ther are plenty of independent career women who not only don't harp on about family values but actually choose not to have kids because it'd be selfish to try and juggle both

Was just reading through this thread and needed to say that it's pathetic that the American Democrats call themselves "liberals". They're certainly no liberals, and Adam Smith is probably turning in his grave at the thought of that.

As for the elections, an era of conservatives is approaching and the US will be part of it, no doubt. John McCain will win, just like David Cameron will win in the UK, just like Merkel will again in in Germany (and form a coalition with the Liberals), just like Sarkozy has already won in France, and just like Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and most of Eastern Europe. Not to mention that even the Sweden and Denamrk are taking a more market-oriented government approach.

Left-wing politics have led to the lowest growth-rates in a century. It's time for a balls-to-the wall laissez-faire era. As Nobel-Prize Winner Milton Friedman put it: "Let the government manage the Sahara Desert and in 2 years there will be no sand". That's what I think about left-wing politics, and Obama's oratory talents don't change anything in that. Lots of big words, very little substance. The usual.

Far be it from me to defend Sarah Palin, but would you ask the same question if the politician with five children was a man? Are you just as 'concerned' for Obama's children?

Yeah, Maria asked a similar question a page ago and I gotta say I'm susprised about Jim's comments. Dunno. Didn't expect it from him.

Oops

This is sweet. My gut feeling is that Mccain will win, but if he does lose, Palin will be the reason.

New revelations about the Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin — including her membership of a party that wants Alaskans to vote on becoming a separate country — are raising questions about how thoroughly John McCain's campaign vetted her background before adding her to the ticket.

Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence party (AIP) before becoming an elected Republican official, and recorded a video message for the AIP convention this year. The party's chief goal is securing Alaska a vote on seceding from the US, a goal that AIP leaders believe the state was denied before it became part of the US almost 50 years ago.

Yet it is the AIP's motto, "Alaska First, Alaska Always", that may cause the most trouble for McCain. The Republican's campaign slogan this year is "Country First".

At the convention where Palin's video was played, the AIP vice-chairman, George Clark, told the audience that she was an AIP member before getting her first political post as mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Alaska.

"But you get along to go along — she eventually joined the Republican party, where she had all kinds of problems with their ethics, and well, I won't go into that," Clark said. "She also had about an 80% approval rating, and is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership."

Palin suggested in a July interview with CNBC news that she would insist on making Alaskan issues a high priority before agreeing to serve as a vice-presidential candidate. "We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans, and for the things we're trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the US, before I can even start addressing that question," she said.

Intense media scrutiny of Palin since she became McCain's running mate four days ago has led to speculation that the Republican party failed to fully examine her background. In addition to the pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, several other disclosures threaten to throw the McCain camp into turmoil.

Palin has promoted her independence from Alaska's powerful senior senator, Ted Stevens, who is facing seven criminal charges in Washington. But she served for two years as a director for one of his political groups that was able to raise unlimited money from corporate patrons.

Palin faced pressure to resign as mayor of Wasilla in 1997 after she fired the city police chief for not fully supporting her agenda, leading to a lawsuit for breach of contract.

In Alaska, Palin faces an ethics investigation into whether she abused her office by firing the public safety commissioner, who refused to intervene in a messy divorce case involving her sister. Palin has hired an attorney to help her handle the case, leading to another round of embarrassing press coverage.

McCain's spokesman, Tucker Eskew, defended the selection: "This legal defence is neither new nor uncommon nor at all political. It is a matter of her job and is not recent and it is not related to her selection on the McCain-Palin ticket."

You know Sarkozy & Merkel dig Obama, right? Sarkozy even endorsed him more or less officially during a joint press conference.

US Democrats are far from "left-wing" compared to european politics.


Ponrauil

I'm a fan of Friedman, but I've not heard that quote before. That's a good one, I'll have to use it.

We have very much similar views. That's cool.

Adrian

You are kiddin' me, right?
First of all, national politics have nothing to do with international politics. There's several reasons why they would "endorse" (that word is waaaaay tooo strong) Obama, and that's because on an international scene you follow your country's best interest, whether left or right. Or how would you explain that a party like Labor is bet friends with a party like the Republicans?

First, both France and Germany have opposed the Iraq war which was sustained by the Republicans, not the democrats. Second, it's always a matter of picking the winner. When Obama was in Europe, he seemed to smash McCain. Sarkozy is not stupid. I am also, convinced that Sarkozy underestimates Obama (who wouldn't) and sees him as an easier partner and a president who wouldn't mind if France gained significantly more political power than any of the Republicans would even imagine. Additionally, Merkel and most of the Christian Democrats opposed Obama's speech in Berlin and if you read German press you see that most of them, especially the more conservative CSU who runs Bavaria, do significantly oppose him. Same is true for large parts of the FDP, pretty much the only LIBERAL party left in Europe, although the views within this party are more polarized.

Your second statement might have been true for the Democrats until Clinton, but with the programmes which Obama or Hillary want to pursuit, you either must be making fun of me, or you have simply not followed their content. Either way, by now the democrats are as social-democratic as any social-democratic party in central Europe. I'd even call LABOUR in the UK to be more right-wing. Definitely.

I agree that an era of conservatism is approaching, but drawing from your first paragraph, that doesn't mean that Obama won't win in the US. I don't think he's much more left wing than the Conservatives under Cameron are in the UK