Australian political changes and US political foolishness

[tcpip]

It seems that the West Australian Labor government has been re-elected by the skin of its teeth. A very cogent explanation of why the election was so close by crankynick basically blames a poor Labor campaign, although the Liberals were helped by astoundingly biased reporting from the West Australian newspaper. In a very sensible effort to shore up what has become a particularly unpopular government, the Labor Party in New South Wales has finally rid itself of the pro-privitisation treasurer and Premier; the former was sacked by the latter and then the latter was sacked by his parliamentary colleagues. I have hopes that Nathan Rees and Carmel Tebbutt will be able to 'do the right thing' and regain the trust of the NSW public.

Far to the north and east, the U.S. political landscape received a shockwave of sorts when Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain appointed Sarah Palin as the Vice-President nominee. This self-described "bulldog with lipstick" has come with a lot of attention, with her viewpoints on banning books, teaching Creationism in schools (but not comprehensive sex eduation), and opposing abortion in nearly all instances. What is remarkable about the choice is that (a) it shows how much the Republican Party is still under the influence of the fundamentalist religious lobby which seeks to impose their narrow worldview on the American public and (b) how irresponsible, divisive this choice is which, yet another sign of how completely unfit McCain is for the office of President.

In my own life everything is going very well. Ran a good game of RuneQuest on Sunday (Borderlands, Jezra's Rescue for those who know such things), and have received some excellent endorsements for RPG Review. Have been dealing productively with a number of work issues relating from everything from a particular Drupal module, HR and motivation issues for administrative staff (I've decided that our new administrative staff should at least do our Introduction to VPAC Computing course to give them a better sense of what we're on about), to dealing with some unprofessional behaviour from a software vendor.

Comments

[aske.livejournal.com]

After that Republican National Convention everyone seems to be a little "John who?"... argh. I'm a little disappointed with the way he's changed over the past few years, for a while there he seemed to be the most sensible person the GOP had. And even though this Palin campaign has come out with guns blazing it seems like it could unravel quite easily. Looking forward to seeing how Palin holds up in the firing line of reporters and Biden.

Also, I've never considered myself to be one to buy into all the knee-jerk anti-American sentiment we throw around in Australia, so it pains me a little to say it, but I don't have much faith in the American voting public to dig a little deeper into these candidates (on both sides) beyond the jingoistic rhetoric they'll be copping through TV ads and sound bites. There was an interesting column about the election in The Age today, I think it was sourced from The Guardian, you might've come across it. Can't remember the author or the title for the life of me, though.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I think the choice will backfire in any combination of three ways.

a) Palin will end up saying something so mind blowingly stupid that even her closest allies hang their heads in shame.
b) People will forget that McCain is even running for President thus diminishing his vote even further.
c) Intelligent conservatives will grit their teeth and vote for Obama, simply because he is ultimately a more responsible candidate.

I just had the joy of watching Warren Beatty's "Bulworth". Now there's an American politician I could like!

[cluebyfour.livejournal.com]

"Intelligent conservatives"? Oxymoronic! ;-)

As for a), Palin is nowhere near that stupid I think. The left is digging out every possible skeleton in her closet, just as the right did with Obama, to see which one scares voters the most. But I don't think they're finding much that resonates. The polls indicate Obama has all but lost whatever bounce he got from the DNC.

Quite frankly Biden is just as likely if not more so to shove his foot in his mouth at some point; he has a reputation for it after all. Personally I think the VP debates will be more entertaining than the Presidential debates.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

You know, I've heard it said that Biden is gaffe-prone, but the worst I can find is borrowing from a Neil Kinnock speech twenty years ago.. and as far a borrowing sources, it was a good choice as well!

[aske.livejournal.com]

Scenario a) doesn't sound entirely impossible, or perhaps we'll have the joy of Todd "First Dude" Palin doing that for us. ;) One would hope the intelligent conservatives would wise up to the fact that a lot of what she's been throwing around (especially in regards to her harping on about vetoing excessive expenditure during her time in office) is absolute rubbish.

Hey, right now I'd probably vote for Bill Pullman in Independence Day. ;)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Palin's "Bridge To Nowhere". I wonder how often they think they can repeat that lie before decent conservatives vote against them in utter disgust.