I’m In a Purple State of Mind

Last year my husband and I left true blue New York for redder pastures in the south. Little did I know we might be giving up a pair of swing state votes:

Seven weeks until Election Day, the race for President has tightened in New York, with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) leading Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 46-41 percent among likely voters, according to a new Siena (College) Research Institute poll released today. Obama’s five point lead is down from eight points in August, 13 points in July and 18 points in June, when he led 51-33 percent.

The Siena poll has New York looking pretty purple.

I’ve been eligible to vote in three presidential elections, and each time the Dems won New York comfortably, with 58 to 60 percent of the vote. But this year, even though Empire State Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2.3 million voters, it looks like my motherland might actually be in play for McCain. That’s likely an overly optimistic outlook, but we’ll see what other polls say during the coming days.

I almost feel guilty for leaving New York when my vote could have helped. I guess if I want to influence the outcome in a battleground state, I’ll have to keep working on my Obama-leaning sister in Colorado.

Update, 9/17/08: As I kind of expected, pollsters are raining on my parade.  The latest Rasmussen poll gives Obama 55% of likely New York voters and McCain 42%.  That gives Obama a nice 13 point cushion, and Rasmussen estimates the Dems have an almost 90% chance of taking New York’s Electoral votes in November.

Still, it’s worth noting that Rasmussen gave Obama a 31 point lead in June and a 20 point lead last month.  He probably won’t take New York, but his performance will be embarrassingly lackluster compared to Kerry and Gore.

September 16, 2008 · Filed Under Election 2008

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Crap! Sarah Palin Linked to 1980s Killing Spree

Following numerous laughable attempts by the hollow-headed left to link Sarah Palin to nefarious types like Osama bin Laden and white supremacists, someone finally has the dirt on the Alaskan governor and it ain’t pretty.

Here’s just a taste of what’s been pieced together about Palin’s sinister background:

One must wonder if George Orwell would have seen the irony in Palin winning the Miss Wasilla Pageant, for it happened, of course – in 1984, only a few miles from a local animal farm. Eerily, this is the same year that Richard Ramirez, also known as the Night Stalker, claimed his first victim. Whether Palin was in contact with Ramirez at the time cannot be verified, but when Palin finished second runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, it is unlikely that the outcome sat well with either of them. Few experts know what drives serial killers to kill serially – but later, Palin winning the “Miss Congeniality” award, must have been icing on the cake.

A very deadly cake, one might add. With murderous frosting. Made of death.

And murder.

Read all about Sarah Palin’s Murderous Web of Death at The Daily Gut. It’s also at HuffPo, but I’ve sent them enough traffic this week.

September 15, 2008 · Filed Under Sarah Palin

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Dear Jong

This weekend feminist author Erica Jong published a “Dear John” letter addressing John McCain. Among other things, she called Sarah Palin a racist. This is my response.

Dear Jong,

Erica, on Saturday I read your HuffPo piece, Not That Stupid: Erica Jong’s Dear John Letter, in which you label Sarah Palin a racist for cutting funding to black teen mothers, and I wanted to tell you you’re right. You’re right that American women are “not that stupid.” Most of us don’t buy it when you try to peddle your fictions as fact.

Calling Sarah Palin an anti-feminist racist was nothing more than an amateurish attempt to advertise to the world how progressive you are. Perhaps circulating that lie was some sort of perverted apology to black Americans for the white privilege that plagues you so?

Erica, I understand you’re a 9/11 truther, so facts may not interest you, but I’d like to set the record straight for any of your readers who happen upon this letter.

“Cutting funding for black teenage mothers is anti-feminist and racist,” you wrote.

The myth that Sarah Palin slashed funding to teen mothers arose from a Washington Post report about government money allocated to Covenant House Alaska, an organization that happens to run a home for teenage moms. As I’m sure you already know, that smear has been thoroughly debunked.

Sarah Palin actually increased Covenant House funding by more than three times, from 1.3 million dollars in 2007 to 3.9 million in 2008. The state of Alaska will be phasing in further support for a capital project Covenant House has undertaken.

The notion that Sarah Palin somehow directly targeted black teenage mothers is truly absurd. Even if Governor Palin had cut the Covenant House budget (which she didn’t), African-American clients made up just 11 percent of the youth they served in 2007 (PDF). Perhaps, Erica, you decided otherwise when you looked at the Covenant House Web site. A photo of a black teen must mean all of their clients are black, right?

Or maybe you simply made it up.

Did you think spreading lies about racism was funny? Did you try convince yourself you were working in the interest of “the greater good”? Or were you trying to soothe your guilty conscience by publicly coming to the “defense” of black people?

Racism is alive and well in America, and there’s a filthy trail of it leading right to your wretched heart. Next time you decide to write something, Erica, we’ll tell you thanks, but no thanks.

Jenn Q. Public

September 15, 2008 · Filed Under John McCain, Liberal Absurdity, Misogyny, Racism, Sarah Palin

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Letters to Charlie Gibson

A 500 character letter to Charlie Gibson, inspired by Jim Treacher’s much wittier effort:

Mr. Gibson,

Thank you for attempting to expand my definition of journalism during your interview with Sarah Palin. I was not aware that deliberate distortion and misrepresentation were acceptable practice in your field.

I’m sure you and your editing team appreciated the opportunity to do your jobs unencumbered by professional ethics. Principles can be so limiting to a journalist’s creativity.

By the way, your credibility called: it won’t be coming home. Ever.

Good luck in your new career.

Submit your own “Dear Charlie” letter at ABC.

If Sean Hannity is right that 2008 will be remembered as “the year journalism died,” Charlie Gibson may go down in history as the one who dug it up and violated its rotting corpse one last time.

September 13, 2008 · Filed Under Media Bias, Sarah Palin

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Required Reading: Proud to be a Republican

Liberals often promote the idea that they have a monopoly on inclusivity and acceptance, while the GOP is the party of homophobia, racism, sexism, and a host of other -isms. It’s a myth I bought into for an embarrassingly long time, a myth that contributes to the inability of the GOP to appeal to more blue staters.

B. Daniel Blatt of GayPatriot has written a piece for the Washington Blade that should be required reading for liberals. In Proud to be a Republican, he describes how his experience as an openly gay republican at the RNC helped him confirm that “it’s easier to be openly gay among conservatives than it is to be openly conservative among gays.”

Lately I’ve been somewhat disheartened by my own skepticism about the existence of a big tent, but B. Daniel Blatt’s account of how he was received at the Convention gives me hope and makes me proud to be a Republican.

September 13, 2008 · Filed Under Big Tent, Gay Issues

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You Can Put Lipstick on an Ass …

But Barack Obama is still an ass.

With the Obama campaign’s release of a new campaign ad today, we saw a desperate attempt to use John McCain ’s reported lack of Internet fluency as an indicator that he is generally out of touch. As it turns out, what the Obama camp paints as neo-Luddism is actually attributable to lingering effects of the McCain’s POW injuries. Jonah Goldberg explains:

The reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):

McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Mark Steyn wonders how team Obama could have missed this. Maybe they don’t know how to work The Google.

Allahpundit points out a recent NYT piece in which John McCain says he is learning to get online by himself. I would guess that McCain is either accessing the Web with assistive software, like a voice recognition application, or he has an alternative input device that offers better ergonomics for someone with reduced range of motion.

Suitably Flip shares a Forbes article from 2000 that describes McCain as “the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist” and “an inveterate devotee of email.” The article says Cindy handled the physical aspects of computing for her husband at that time.

This means the charge that McCain “can’t send an email” isn’t just offensive, it’s categorically untrue.

So bring on the next smear, team Obama. The right side of the blogosphere has a Google and they’re not afraid to use it.

September 12, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Election 2008, John McCain

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