atotaltotalfan2001
October 30th, 2008, 05:41 PM
From the Bee Newspapers
(the bottom line for anyone who doesn't want to read the whole thing...)
"Palin is out of her league. Keeping her out of the White House is essential for the sake of our nation. "
Palin's presence is deciding factor
Dan Meyer's endorsement
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
After months and months of back-and-forth debate and hundreds of millions of dollars having been spent, voters all across the country will head to the polls next week to exercise their right to vote.
I was asked about two weeks ago if I was going to do an endorsement of the presidential race in this column, and my immediate reaction to that question was that I was going to pass. After all, who really cares what a 32-year-old weekly newspaper columnist who lives in the Village of Hamburg thinks about the national political scene?
Well, apparently it seems that some of you do care since I've received a half-dozen or so e-mails from readers of this space asking me to express my thoughts and feelings about the race that will decide who will become our nation's next commander-in-chief.
To summarize my views on the two candidates, I agree with some of Mc- Cain's proposed policies, and I also am pleased with some of the campaign promises that Obama is making. At the same time, some of McCain's views have me a bit concerned, and a few of Obama's ideas cause me to question his candidacy.
But when it's all said and done, the fact that Sarah Palin is McCain's running mate has proved to be the deciding factor for me. Simply put, her presence on the ballot has caused me to decide that I will vote for Obama when I step behind the curtain Nov. 4.
Joe Biden works for me as Obama's candidate for a number of reasons, many of which I will not detail here for fear I will run out of space to critique Palin as the GOP's candidate for vice president.
Before any of you diehard Republicans torch this page and then immediately fire off a passionate "you should fire that Dan Meyer guy" letter to the publisher/editor/owner of this publication, please hear me out when it comes to my reasoning as to why McCain's decision to allow Palin to be on the GOP ticket with him is an example of how we can analyze and assess his decision-making skills and abilities.
As voters, we need to try and figure out if each candidate is able to use good judgment and, perhaps more importantly, if they possess the knowledge and high character needed to use that judgment skill set at the appropriate time and place. No matter what you say, you can't convince me that McCain used good judgment in picking his running mate. I firmly believe it was the Republican National Committee that came up with the idea of putting Palin on the ticket as a way to somehow pull in women voters. It was totally an out-of-left-field choice that somehow is tied into the 19th Amendment and the concept of a glass ceiling that led the GOP's strategists to select Palin, a decision that's perhaps McCain's biggest albatross since he won the GOP primary.
Oh sure, Palin gives people someone to talk about and created a buzz because she is a gun-toting hockey mom who is against abortion and enjoys riding on snowmobiles and eating the occasional moose burger.
Of course most of America is smart enough to realize that simply putting a woman on the ballot won't energize women voters when Palin as a candidate is opposed to much of what the women's movement has struggled to achieve for so many years.
The actual pick of Palin still baffles me. It seemed then and still appears to me now to be a desperation type of play, almost like Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron deciding to go for it on 4th and 4 from his own 20-yard line instead of punting the ball away. McCain didn't punt, he decided to go for it, whether he was told to do so or not. When it's all said and done, it will say "McCain and Palin" on the ballot, not the names of some Republican pollsters sitting in some smoky room trying to model themselves after the master political operative, Karl "I just told Bush what to do and he listened" Rove.
I'm going to vote for Obama because I have respected his display of character and judgment throughout his campaign. McCain failed because of his lack of judgment and inability to separate the opinions of strategists, pollsters and other political operatives from making the right decision.
Palin is out of her league. Keeping her out of the White House is essential for the sake of our nation.
(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. Opinions expressed are those of the author.)
(the bottom line for anyone who doesn't want to read the whole thing...)
"Palin is out of her league. Keeping her out of the White House is essential for the sake of our nation. "
Palin's presence is deciding factor
Dan Meyer's endorsement
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
After months and months of back-and-forth debate and hundreds of millions of dollars having been spent, voters all across the country will head to the polls next week to exercise their right to vote.
I was asked about two weeks ago if I was going to do an endorsement of the presidential race in this column, and my immediate reaction to that question was that I was going to pass. After all, who really cares what a 32-year-old weekly newspaper columnist who lives in the Village of Hamburg thinks about the national political scene?
Well, apparently it seems that some of you do care since I've received a half-dozen or so e-mails from readers of this space asking me to express my thoughts and feelings about the race that will decide who will become our nation's next commander-in-chief.
To summarize my views on the two candidates, I agree with some of Mc- Cain's proposed policies, and I also am pleased with some of the campaign promises that Obama is making. At the same time, some of McCain's views have me a bit concerned, and a few of Obama's ideas cause me to question his candidacy.
But when it's all said and done, the fact that Sarah Palin is McCain's running mate has proved to be the deciding factor for me. Simply put, her presence on the ballot has caused me to decide that I will vote for Obama when I step behind the curtain Nov. 4.
Joe Biden works for me as Obama's candidate for a number of reasons, many of which I will not detail here for fear I will run out of space to critique Palin as the GOP's candidate for vice president.
Before any of you diehard Republicans torch this page and then immediately fire off a passionate "you should fire that Dan Meyer guy" letter to the publisher/editor/owner of this publication, please hear me out when it comes to my reasoning as to why McCain's decision to allow Palin to be on the GOP ticket with him is an example of how we can analyze and assess his decision-making skills and abilities.
As voters, we need to try and figure out if each candidate is able to use good judgment and, perhaps more importantly, if they possess the knowledge and high character needed to use that judgment skill set at the appropriate time and place. No matter what you say, you can't convince me that McCain used good judgment in picking his running mate. I firmly believe it was the Republican National Committee that came up with the idea of putting Palin on the ticket as a way to somehow pull in women voters. It was totally an out-of-left-field choice that somehow is tied into the 19th Amendment and the concept of a glass ceiling that led the GOP's strategists to select Palin, a decision that's perhaps McCain's biggest albatross since he won the GOP primary.
Oh sure, Palin gives people someone to talk about and created a buzz because she is a gun-toting hockey mom who is against abortion and enjoys riding on snowmobiles and eating the occasional moose burger.
Of course most of America is smart enough to realize that simply putting a woman on the ballot won't energize women voters when Palin as a candidate is opposed to much of what the women's movement has struggled to achieve for so many years.
The actual pick of Palin still baffles me. It seemed then and still appears to me now to be a desperation type of play, almost like Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron deciding to go for it on 4th and 4 from his own 20-yard line instead of punting the ball away. McCain didn't punt, he decided to go for it, whether he was told to do so or not. When it's all said and done, it will say "McCain and Palin" on the ballot, not the names of some Republican pollsters sitting in some smoky room trying to model themselves after the master political operative, Karl "I just told Bush what to do and he listened" Rove.
I'm going to vote for Obama because I have respected his display of character and judgment throughout his campaign. McCain failed because of his lack of judgment and inability to separate the opinions of strategists, pollsters and other political operatives from making the right decision.
Palin is out of her league. Keeping her out of the White House is essential for the sake of our nation.
(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. Opinions expressed are those of the author.)