Maverick

Americans romanticize mavericks - the lone, rugged individual who does "the right thing", no matter the consequences. It's a nice myth in the movies, where the maverick always turns out to be right in the end and everybody is grateful to him for having saved the day.

In the real world, though, it's not so simple. I've worked with mavericks before, and you likely have, too. You know, the person who walks into the meeting after you've spent months working on a proposal and negotiating among the various parties to get a workable solution, and just blows the whole thing up. It's usually not because this hero has thought of an important angle you overlooked, but more like a three year old throwing a temper tantrum. He blows it up because he can, and that's how he gets attention.

John McCain has long had the reputation of a maverick, and he had fooled a lot of people into thinking he was the wise, brave, rugged individual who put the country first. After all, he was a POW, and that experience unquestionably required those attributes. But if you think about your experiences with mavericks, you'll realize that another word for maverick is 'asshole.' Being an asshole is probably a good thing when you're a POW, but as John McCain has displayed this week, in the regular world, mostly you end up pissing everybody off.

Emergency!

A bunch of Wall Street fat cats need help! John McCain feels their pain, and he wants to be there for them. So he's putting aside his own campaign to rush to Washington to make sure they get taken care of. He's bringing his own coterie of lobbyists campaign staffers to help out, too.

But, sadly, that means that as much as he wants to debate Barack Obama this Friday, he just can't until a deal is reached. So, he wants to postpone Friday's debate.

Hey, you know what, there's this other debate scheduled for next Thursday; he thinks he can make that date. Nobody really cared about a silly Vice Presidential debate, anyway.

What a joke. I was even thinking of lifting my long-standing rule of refusing to watch debates, just because I thought there was some probability that McCain would just totally melt down. Who knew it would happen before we even got to the debate?

Where's W?

Constitutionally, George W. Bush is still President of the United States, at least as far as I know. Where is he? Is he off with Cheney hiding in that undisclosed location? His Treasury Secretary just nationalized one of the biggest insurers in the country, and Bush is nowhere to be seen.

I have no idea whether Paulson's $85 billion bailout of AIG is a good idea or a bad idea; I suspect it's merely the least painful of several bad ideas. There are no easy or good solutions at this point; maybe something could have been done 4-5 years ago to mitigate this meltdown, but those things weren't going to happen under a Republican administration. They probably wouldn't have happened even under a Democratic administration, but at least it wouldn't have been going against holy writ.

But Bush has not stood in front of reporters or anyone else to discuss his administration's actions. Extraordinary.

More Things Palin Isn't Qualified To Do

Sure, Democrats have been claiming that Palin isn't qualified to be a heartbeat away, but it's more interesting to look at what her supporters say she isn't qualified to do or be. We've already mentioned that they don't think she should be the head of her family or her church, but now, former HP CEO and McCain/Palin supporter Carly Fiorina says that Palin isn't qualified to be head of HP.  So, to sum up, according to Republicans:

Head of Family: NO

Head of Church: NO

Head of Hewlett Packard: NO

Head of State: Absolutely! You're a sexist to even question that!

Just a thought

With the current financial meltdown going on, with no bottom in sight yet, does anybody really want a member of the Keating 5 and a governor of a state fully funded by the oil companies to be in charge of the economy?

Always Entertaining

It's always entertaining and informative to see what happens when values conflict in a person. The Palin pick has delighted ultra-right wing Fundamentalists like James Dobson and company, but how to reconcile the pick with their belief that women should be submissive? How can they be okay with Palin as Commander in Chief, when they think she should submit to her husband, or shouldn't be head of a church?

Well, they say, that's different. Just because she can't lead a church or her own family, she can lead the country. Of course, these are the same people telling us that the US is a "Christian nation," and that separation of church and state is a myth.

Like John McCain, they'll say and do anything for power.

What to do about Palin

The Republicans are cackling with glee over their cleverness in naming Sarah Palin as the VP candidate. They believe she's energized the base and is impossible to attack. Anytime the Democrats say anything remotely negative about her, they just scream "sexism!"

So, don't attack her. Attacking her is treating her seriously as a candidate, and she's just not a serious candidate. Instead, make fun of her. No, not personally, but there's still plenty of opportunity to make fun of her without delving into the personal. She thinks that living next to Russia is foreign policy experience - hey, Obama grew up in Hawaii, so he must be an oceanography expert!  Or, Palin is qualified to be Commander-in-chief? She must have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express!

Treat her like the joke she is. Sure, the Republican base won't like it and think you're being elitist and looking down your noses at her and them, but hey, they think that anyway, no matter what you do! Might as well channel your inner Molly Ivins and have some fun!