Palin: The Latest GOP Distraction the Dems Shouldn't Buy (AlterNet MUST Read)

[Triana]

Guys -n Gals, WE NEED TO STICK TO THE ISSUES. Obama and Biden are going to do that and we need to HELP them by not getting distracted too much by Little Miss Alaskan Psychopath. Her PURPOSE in McSame's campaign is to keep DEMOCRATS and VOTER'S minds OFF the serious issues we're facing every day in our lives: healthcare, high gas and fuel bills, high food prices that keep going higher, the mortgage crisis, the climate change/energy-independence/national-security trilogy, loss of jobs/lack of jobs, worker rights, women and minority rights, and the economy. Time to get back to BUSINESS.

...

Here's the deal: Palin is the latest G.O.P. distraction. She's meant to shift attention away from the real issue of this campaign -- the awful state of the nation after eight years of Republican rule. The Republicans are brilliant at distractions. Willie Horton was a distraction. The chatter about gays, guns and God has been a long-running distraction. And we all remember the Swift-boat campaign.

If you want a real issue, forget all of the above and revisit Monday's front page of The New York Times. Hundreds of families are being forced out of their homes each month in Louisville, Ky., because of mortgage foreclosures. With record numbers of poor and homeless students, the public schools are struggling.

The crisis has only been made worse by fiscal difficulties facing the schools. Higher energy and other costs, combined with a $43 million cut in state aid, have left the school system in a sorry state.

The reason this should be high on the presidential campaign agendas is that the problems in Louisville are widespread. As Sam Dillon of The Times reported: "As 50 million children return to classes across the nation, crippling increases in the price of fuel and food, coupled with the economic downturn, have left schools from California to Florida to Maine cutting costs."

Even as these districts are cutting back, wrote Mr. Dillon, "the number of poor and homeless children is rising."

That is the kind of substantive issue the Democrats should be focused on: how to educate America's children and improve the quality of their lives; how to bring health care to those going without; how to put America back to work.

To their credit, Senators Obama and Biden seem unwilling to jump aboard the bash-Ms.-Palin bandwagon. Both have been exceedingly mild in their comments about the Alaska governor.

Last week's Democratic convention dramatically illustrated the most effective approach available to the party. The convention built in intensity night by night with featured speakers who focused powerfully on substantive matters.

MORE:

http://www.alternet.org/election08/97493/palin%3A_the_latest_gop_distraction_the_dems_shouldn%27t_buy/

[gateley]

1. K&R -- Thanks! nt

[Triana]

2. I'm going to start calling IT - The Alaskan Distraction.

That's what IT is.

[trueblue2007]

16. Its 3 am in the morn. I watched LARRY King. Adrianna Huffington said it best

Sarah is just a distraction. She is NOT about this election. She is nothing!

I think we need to pay attention to Mccain and all the goofy mistakes this old kook is gonna make. He doesn't have a prayer. He is McSame!! He is Bush for another 4 years.

Drop Sarah Palin. I know we have brought up stuff about her and I've had fun poking at her dismal family situation. I feel sorry for that kid.

That KID and SARAH are NOT this election. Let's get back on target and defeat old man McCain. McCain is more of the same.




Hillary was right on!! NO WAY.....NO HOW....NO McCain!!!!

[gateley]

17. I like it! I'm going to steal it, so you may see it around. :-D nt

[JeffR]

3. I'm just some anonymous dope out here in the ether

and I'm quite capable of doing my utmost to stick it to McCain and his running mate simultaneously.

She's not a goddamn distraction. She's the bottom half of the Republican ticket. And she stinks, possibly even worse than the top half of the ticket. And I'm supposed to lay off?

Screw that. I say hell no!

[FrenchieCat]

5. I think they are talking about the personal stuff. The rumors and

tabloid parts of her.

We shouldn't be posting those bathing Hoax photos, discussing those kids, and that stuff. Even troopergate is dangerous, because it revolves around a personal family situation. Let the investigators and the media deal with that....

We certainly should focus on the policy lies that she has in her closet.....but the religion, Sex, and family value aspect of Ms. Gimmmick, we need to try and stay away from. Because we don't want the election to be about any culture war.

[JeffR]

8. Yes and no, Frenchie.

And I'll emphasize that I've had no truck so far with the tabloid aspects, other than that they amuse me greatly.

Obama has signaled his intention to take the high road, and I applaud him for it.

But posters on an internet discussion forum need feel no such compunction, and while I don't intend to start posting 'shopped pics of Palin having sex with a goat, I frankly don't believe I or anyone else here needs to observe any decorum whatsoever. Fuck MCain, who is a liar, and fuck Palin, who would have been kicked out of the Miami or Savannah PTA for just being plain godawful irritating.

I'm not running for president here. Obama is.

After the last 28 years of what these fucks have done to our country, I'll leave the decorum and diffidence to Pelosi and Reid. I'm done with that approach.

[DontTreadOnMe]

4. Why not expose it all?

Isn't the entire McCain/Palin Campaign a distraction? Why not cover it all?
Yes, put more emphasis on the bigger issues... but there are plenty of people
to cover hundreds of issues.

Let there be a tidal wave on non-stop spotlights on everything they represent!
It puts them on the defensive.

They seem to be "wanting" to run with a theme that the media is "against them".
Americans are too smart for that drivel. Let them dig their own hole.
You can't win any election when the media is "against you".
IS the GOP planning on winning with sympathy votes?

[FrenchieCat]

6. We need to let the people know where our candidates stand.

We want folks to go into the voting booth and vote for the person who can help them...not someone that they decide to vote for because someone else made them mad...since liberals are getting blamed for even questioning the family stuff, Obama would be the most blamed, even if he has nothing to do with it.

So I would say no....not "expose" it all.

Gov. Gimmick will soon expose herself. She is not qualified, and as long as she has to come out and show herself, that part will show. McCain has actually put this country in danger by selecting this woman, who no matter how personable she might be, is not someone I want at the helm while I'm sleeping. I have children that I care about.

[NanceGreggs]

7. I'm a bit confused by this "distraction" thingy ...

... I keep hearing about.

My experience has been that the vast majority of Democratic voters are rarely too distracted by their own gum-chewing to be rendered unable to walk.

[goletian]

9. yeah, but this is about fence sitters who dont know any better.

you let mccain get too much breathing room, and the general perception of mccain = bush will fade as a result. we dont say this because we are worried about dems.

[JeffR]

10. And of course those fence sitters are carefully parsing a highly partisan

progressive internet discussion forum to make their decision? I'm sure...

[NanceGreggs]

11. If the fence-sitters decide not to vote ...

... for McCain/Palin because he's an idiot or she's an idiot, I really don't care either way.

People who care about the issues won't be distracted by tabloid fare, just as people who care about salacious gossip won't ever vote on the issues.

I say come at them from all sides - and whatever loses them votes, on whatever basis, is fine with me.

[Undercurrent]

12. I enjoy seeing Palin, and her ilk

squirm and squeal as much as anybody, but I don't want to see the noise, and commotion overwhelm the message our guys need to present to the voters.

[democracy1st]

13. Just think if we BS with this crap for another week or two then the GOP

will create tension with Russia that will dominate the airwaves. I agree let the Palin bs go

[chill_wind]

14. Sarah Palin IS a serious issue. We're capable of addressing more than one at a time.

She's a menace to democracy. If the economy and the life-blood sucking war are the fore-front issues (which I'd agree they are) at the very least, she does nothing to shore up or fix McCain's mess on those matters. She just adds more excrement to the pile.

The Sleep of Reason Amid Wild Dogs and Gin

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6924779

[Triana]

18. capable of addressing more than one at a time but on DU there are more threads...

...about Palin than anything else. I've contributed to them - BUT I think it's time to move on. Ignore the issues at stake at our own peril. I didn't say STOP raking the little moosehunter over the coals but get the PRIORITIES in order and realize she was put out there as a DISTRACTION from the hideous Republican record of the last 8 years and from the ISSUES.

WE may be able to address them all AND Palin but most voters CAN'T. They'll see and hear Palin and her cute little story and little else. What about:

healthcare
climate change
energy independence/ntl security
jobs/economy
mortgage crisis
food, gas prices
education

NONE of that will be on their minds - and on ALL those issues our Dem ticket is 200% better - but if all voters see and hear is Palin this and that - guess what?

They VOTE accordingly and will have no clue what Obama/Biden will do about those issues in COMPARISON with Palin/McCain. They'll ONLY know about Psychopath Palin's deceptive, pretentious little hockey-mom label and her story and scandals.

I'm just saying - WATCH the priorities. She's a distraction.

[lamp_shade]

15. kr