Let me start off by saying its been about 6 months or so since I wrote a diary here. I was part of the hillary writers strike and I just couldnt stand you guys over here at kos. I hated it.
Then Obama won the nod and yeap, I supported him. He was always a good man and a great campaigner. But I couldn't get myself back into things. I just didn't have that extra push. I barely came to dailykos and I still felt on the outside of the whole Obama miracle.
And then came Sarah Palin.
I never liked Sarah Palin. I thought Knowles should have won that race and it was one of the few 2006 races I couldnt understand why we lost. I knew she was anti-choice, pro-oil, anti-environment. But I didn't KNOW Sarah Palin.
Then came the VP nod. And the return of far right conservatism. The whole abortion thing, not even for rape/incest. The PR around teenage pregnancy, like its some heroic thing. The desire to pit small town v. the rest of America. That the rest of us suck. And that America is REALLY in small towns. And really religious. And you know, a specific type of religious. Your John Kerry and Bill Clinton need not apply.
And then suddenly I was back at it. It's like Palin reminded me of the sheer load of bullshit that we had experienced in the last eight years. Lets face it, whether because he is a poor communicator or whatever, Mccain is hard to hate. I know, I know, he's with Bush 90% of the time. But he's just so pathetic out there trying to pretend he cares in those speeches its hard to get too worked up.
But Palin, she's another story. The lies come easy, and the distortion matches with her like her brick red lipstick to her brown blouse. The whole bridge to nowhere. The lies about the money. The lies about earmarks and how she's not into lobbying. And then her hand writing saying "we did well!!!" She's a liar. A hardcore right wing liar. So I got motivated again.
I also realized something else. It is a really bad idea to think of a candidate based on gender. Maybe I got carried away with it with the Hillary campaign. It seems so silly now. I still want a woman president, and I want her to be someone who we like even if her brick red lipstick doesn't match ANYTHING.
As a former hardcore hil supporter, not only does Palin not sway me one bit to Mccain, it sways me even harder to Obama. I'm back to my former all out for the dems self. Even more so, Palin reminds me that I may have got too into the whole gender issue with Hillary. Palin reminds me that not only should I support Obama in the general, I probably should have supported him in the primary.
UPDATE** I can't believe I left this out: (too busy lamenting my primary vote)
YES WE CAN!