Of late my blog appears to have been less about technology and VC and more about politics. Oh well, ’tis the season, and this is my soapbox. I’m voting for Obama, and being in a battleground state, I’m sincerely hoping I’ll be able to convince some McCain supporters to change their vote, or, if they can’t bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, abstain from voting. There are many ways in which I disagree with McCain’s platform, but perhaps the most troubling to me of all is his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. I just read the New Yorker’s excellent endorsement of Obama, and I couldn’t agree more. One of the points that really stood out was their trenchant observation about McCain’s VP choice:
Perhaps nothing revealed McCain’s cynicism more than his choice of Sarah Palin, the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, who had been governor of that state for twenty-one months, as the Republican nominee for Vice-President. In the interviews she has given since her nomination, she has had difficulty uttering coherent unscripted responses about the most basic issues of the day. We are watching a candidate for Vice-President cram for her ongoing exam in elementary domestic and foreign policy. This is funny as a Tina Fey routine on “Saturday Night Live,” but as a vision of the political future it’s deeply unsettling. Palin has no business being the backup to a President of any age, much less to one who is seventy-two and in imperfect health. In choosing her, McCain committed an act of breathtaking heedlessness and irresponsibility.
Remember folks, this guy is 72 years old with a history of cancer, and there are fairly strong odds (some actuarial tables put them as high as 30%) that McCain could die in the next four years. As damaging as I believe a McCain administration would be for my country, the prospect of a Palin presidency is truly disturbing to me, given how profoundly unqualified she is. She represents everything that is rotten in the Republican party, which is now dangerously close to promoting ignorance and disdain for facts and reason as virtue. This was McCain’s first presidential-scale decision and he blew it. His irresponsible and cyncial choice of her as his running mate should make anyone question his motives and decision-making abilities, and should lay out in black and white the disastrous consequences of the Republican party’s unholy alliance with the Christian right.
McCain’s generation and party have had their run, and look where we are now. I’ve had enough of the old white guys – it is time for someone with the intellect and even-handed disposition necessary to take on the presidency in a time of remarkable upheaval. The old tactics are simply not going to work any more. Vote Obama.