Unpopular political opinion time:

You know, after what happened to Hillary Clinton during primaries, I kind of guessed what would happen when Sarah Palin was put up for the Republican VP candidate. I am very unsurprised to note the first things that occurred were mentions of the following things that apparently, are reasons she cannot possibly be a good president and/or comments on her:

1.) A beauty queen.

2.) References to her vagina.

3.) Hockey mom*. (not a quote from someone, but a quote of a quote made elsewhere)

4.) Number of children.

The really weird part? These were all from my flist.

I think this is great. Why discuss her anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, iffy environmental stance, or her ideology? Why discuss her own maverick status in Alaska when she opened ethics investigations? Why on earth would we be vaguely interested in the decisions she's made as Alaskan governor or anything she's done?

Yes, she's unknown. And Biden is not a household name. Shocker. Yes, she doesn't have a lot of experience. I swear I've heard this argument before. Yes, she could end up being the first female vice president, because the democrats chose another white male for the VP slot despite numerous very qualified female candidates, among which was Hillary Clinton. We can't complain about that. We had our chance and we missed it.

Yes, she's a conservative. A conservative with views and an ideology that is radically against what most of us believe. That is what we should be looking at, studying, what we should be discussing.

The blogosphere is a cesspool already with this, and the primaries were, for me, so offensive I couldn't talk about it and honestly, I still can't. I'm a democrat, and my party chose the candidates that will act, with any kind of luck, closest to the beliefs I hold dear. But I'm also a woman, and this is--I have no idea. Something is wrong with this, when we, who are many of us liberal women, choose this path twice against opponents.

I'm kind of expecting an unfriending for this one.

*clarification - this was not said by an ljer or used in a derogatory way by an ljer. it was quoted by an ljer about what the candidate said about herself and then I saw it elsewhere on the net used in a derogatory way. My apologies on not being clear.

What madelyn said..

This would probably be a good time to be snotty or passive aggressive, but honestly, I don't see the point. God will not, and Hillary will not, give me a pony or a dozen virgins if I sit around snarking at the other candidate or my fellow Ljers who support them. Politicians are perfectly capable of running their own negative campaigns without my assistance.

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. -- CNN

( hmmm )

So I'm sitting here, controlling the urge to go re-read cnn and yahoo for more poll data, which is so out of character I feel like someone wrote me wrong.

Which really says I have been immersing in nano too long.

It's just--when we dangled last on this kind of precipice, this kind of change, with each party poised to win, I really didn't know how much we had to lose. There were some things I didn't think would, could be done, and they have been. So we gave up habeas corpus, and we gave up the fucking Geneva Convention and we gave up privacy. There isn't anything that's safe from loss. There's nothing unthinkable, because all of these things were unthinkable, and they've been done.

I think we could survive four more years of this. I know we can. I just don't want to. I don't want to see what we'll become. I don't want to see what we'll have to fight back from. I don't want so large a mess that we need a great person called to fix it, because Christ, can't we just *not* need one for a while? I want--I think it's not even peace really, because I don't think it's possible in our lifetime, with what people are. I just want time to breathe. And I think we deserve that.

It says so much that as a Christian, my own religion scares me as much as any outside enemies. That's what this administration has taught me. I don't know if I ever believed in separation of Church and state before, but I do now, because I can see where we could go, I see where we *are*, and I want out of this place, and I never want to be here again.

I'm not going to read more poll data, or more speculation by analysts, or more propaganda, or more things that make me tense up. No msn, yahoo, cnn, bloggers, hell, I may just curl up and avoid *thinking*. I'm going to vote, and breathe, and hope.

Let the dice fly high.