GOBAMA/BIDEN ’08!

To my fellow Americans and Australians,

As a an American born and newly minted Australian citizen, I apologise to you all for the ineptness of my birth country when it comes to choosing leadership, because it affects all of us around the world and also here in my new homeland.

I’m sorry that Americans don’t vote.

I don’t know why they don’t. God, we dumped tea in the Boston Harbor once to insure our rights to representation and now we can’t be bothered to get to our neighborhood polling places. Beats the hell out of me why we can’t do this once every four years.

I’m sorry that when the people of my former homeland do bother to vote they elect leaders like George Bush, Jr and Dick Cheney.

I am utterly mortified at the prospect of Sarah Palin following Dubya into the White House. Surely a case of ‘Dumb and Dumber?’ Only it isn’t really very funny, is it?

Having watched this election with great anticipation and hoping against hope for a big turnaround, it is disheartening indeed when the media in the US focus on such things as Palin’s wardrobe, hairstyle and mannerisms instead of her very substandard performance at the Vice Presidential debate. Opinion is mixed as to whether she came off as looking pretty good in the debate or just surviving the debate, because the bar was set so low for her.

It is embarrassing and insulting to me (and it should be to every female particularly) that she actually WINKED at the camera during the debate like some cheap hooker when she made her cutesy “folksy” and completely irrelevant answers. How astonishingly unprofessional! No male candidate from either side of the political track would have gotten away with that excepting the late Ronald Reagan, who defied all expectations for fluffiness during both of his presidential campaigns.

And it may be worth mentioning that Palin is worth a couple of million dollars and eats moose burgers. This is not the quintessential American experience, no matter how ‘Joe Sixpack’ or ‘Hockey Mom’ she claims to be. Maverick? Perhaps in personal lifestyle, but not politically unless you count someone who believes that men and dinosaurs existed on this planet during the same time period, that Climate Change is not man-made and that book banning in public libraries is typical Maverick behavior.

Palin’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden was unable to question her fairly or even respond effectively to her incorrect answers partly because of the rules of the debate, but mainly for fear of looking like a sexist or a man who bullies women. This is obvious reverse sexism and hobbled Biden severely during the debate. I’m suprised the Republican party didn’t have Palin on stage in a swim suit draped in her Miss Alaska beauty pageant sash, or surrounded by photos of her 5 children on the lectern to accompany her apple pie, mumsy stance and remind viewers that she is indeed a mother, in addition to being a bit of a hottie.

Would McCain’s running mate or McCain himself have been so gentle with Hillary Clinton? I think not, and Hillary wouldn’t have expected it. Hillary would have been able to actually give intelligent and thoughtful answer the questions posed based on her experiences. Palin clearly has no such resources to draw on, as evidenced by her now infamous and cringe worthy answers to Katie Couric’s light weight questions in what was surely the most entertaining political interview of the campaign as yet.

McCain chose Palin because he thought maybe he could persuade American women (the most misunderstood and powerful voting block in the US) that the Republican Party is the women’s party of the new millenium. What an insult to all women!

It looks a bit silly from the outside, it’s almost like McCain’s advisers said, “Ok, who’s got a womb and is conservative? It doesn’t matter if she’s not qualified. And for Chrissake make sure she supports The Bush Doctrine, The War in Iraq and overturning Roe-vs-Wade. No IQ testing necessary, we’ll tell her what to say.” And Sarah Palin was the best they could do. Never mind that she didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is. And never mind that she can’t name the newspapers she reads. What a pity for us all.

John McCain’s campaign managers have now put Palin on the offence as the one who will be making the most pointed attacks on Obama’s character and his record as a public official. This is particularly cynical and shrewd, as Obama’s campaign has stated from the beginning that they will run an even handed and positive campaign, and even if they do digress into some mud slinging as the election date draws nearer, they surely will not want to look as if they’re attacking a woman.

In my heart of hearts, I don’t know if 50-70 year old Americans will go into the polling booth and vote for a black man. I hope they will. But I’m afraid of all of the years of divisive campaigning and black hating and baiting in America.

Racism runs deep where I’m from, like a bad polluted river. Hopefully the new generation of voters can row against that toxic current.

I choose to hope that Obama and Biden will win on merit and on the desire Americans have for change. I want to believe this will be the year for change…but then I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that George Bush and Dick Cheney would be elected, the first time with a bit of flimflam and trickery, the second time legitimately right after 911 when they exploited a nations fears for their own twisted agendas. But never mind the reason, they still got elected, didn’t they?

We’re all still paying for that.

And the result of that election has made the world a much more dangerous place and has ruined the America of my youth, the one that still lives in my imagination.

I hope I can find that America again one day and I hope it will exist again. Trust me. people. it wasn’t always a place that scorned new ideas and intelligent debate.

I wish to hell I could figure out when it became ok to be stupid and overtly populist in America. I hate to speak on behalf of dead people that I haven’t met, but having done some reading, I think that George Washington, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr and Benjamin Franklin are probably rolling in their collective graves to see what passes for political debate in my former homeland.

These people came from all sides of the political divide, the common factor was intelligence and a willingness to find workable solutions.

Obama/Biden ’08, PLEASE.

Karen Conrad

WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN – THE WHO

We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the next war

I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

Then of course, the finale grand rap up of the song is “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Which would be business as usual in Washington D.C.

But I think not if we get Obama in. Hell, I hope not.

Here’s hoping for something better for all of us.

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