Last night was quite a performance the GOP, capped off by the debut of Rookie Governor Palin as John McCain's VP pick.
The Goppers certainly had a lot of laughs at the expense of Barack Obama and fired off more than a few gut shots at his qualifications to become the Next President of the United States.
Giuliani quipped.
"He’s never run a city, he’s never run a state, he’s never run a business, he’s never run a military unit," Giuliani said. "He’s never had to lead people in crisis.
"This is not a personal attack. It’s a statement of fact," he said. "Barack Obama has never led anything. Nothing. Nada. Nada. Nothing."
It's not a "statement of fact" - Barack Obama has led the most impressive largely independently funded Presidential Campaign in history, one that employs far more people than the city of Wasilla, and likely has far more volunteers working for it than the entire state of Alaska, one that defeated the vaunted "Clinton Machine", one that has raised over $390 Million so far and still has $65 million available to spend.
That's $390 Million worth of "Nothing" to you Mr. Giuliani.
More than just running his campaign Obama has "led people in crisis" - because being in crisis is exactly what has happened to so many people and communities across this nation which have had vital plants close down, and have their jobs and oppurtunities shipped overseas. Trying to keep your home from being foreclosed is a crisis. Trying to find work in the midst of a devastated commnity is a crisis, and far from being an typical "Ivy League Elitist" Barack Obama walked away from a high paying job in New York to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty trying to help people who NEEDED IT THE MOST.
Community Organizers, people who are willing to do the hard thankless work to make people lives more livable, are a national blessing - not a punchline.
He's spent his entire career in service of the public, but service is something that Republicans don't respect unless it comes with carrying a weapon and ending the lives of your "enemies".
Giulliani also claimed that Obama has been a "do-nothing celebrity Senator".
Giuliani cast Obama as "a gifted man with an Ivy League education" who was "immersed ... in Chicago machine politics." He described Obama as a no-show during his tenure in the Illinois state Senate and a man who, once he got to Washington, was a "celebrity senator [with] no leadership, no legislation to really speak of."
Some of the legislation that Giuliani would rather the GOP not speak of.
- The Lugar-Obama Anti-Terrorist and Nuclear Poliferation Bill Because keeping Russia's decomissione nuclear materials out of the hands terrorist is "nothing to speak of.."
- The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 which was implemented along with Republican Senator Tom Coburn (and original co-sponsored by John McCain) to establish an online searchable database of federal grants and contracts to help prevent the abuse of federal funds.
- Obama and Coburn also combined forces to create a bill prohibiting the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA from signing open-ended no-bid contracts
- The Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act which among other things created strict bans on receiving gifts and meals from lobbyists; new rules to slow the revolving door between public and private sector service; and an end to the subsidized use of corporate jets.
- The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act which prohibited former law makers from joining lobbying firms until two years after they have left office.
- Obama wrote and introduced The Iraq War De-escalation Act which would have implemented the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and begin a phased withdrawal of our troops from Iraq in 2007, with all brigades removed by the middle of this year - the threat of which according to the 2007 NIE was one of the chief reasons for the reduction in violence in Iraq and the beginning of the Anbar Awakening - not the "Surge".
Call me "weird" if you like but I think that's a whole lot of "nothing" for just a few of years in the Senate, half of which was under Republican control.
Giuliani also touted the experience of Vp Nominee Sarah Palan.
"She’s led a city and a state. She’s reduced taxes and government spending," Giuliani said. "And she’s actually done something about moving America toward energy independence — taking on the oil companies while encouraging more energy exploration here at home.
As Thinkprogress has documented, Sarah Palin is Big Oil's best fiend in Alaska.
"No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governor Palin," the Sierra Club's Carl Pope said. Palin told Roll Call last week, "When I look every day, the big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry." As a champion for Big Oil, Palin is a vociferous proponent of domestic drilling. "I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she said. She also dismisses alternative energy solutions as "are far from imminent" focusing instead on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. During her race for lieutenant governor, she received a full 10 percent of her campaign donations from executives and their families at the disgraced oil services company Veco.
As Mayor of Wasilla Palin sought and received over $27 Million in Federal Earmarks and while inheriting the office with zero debt still managed to leave office with a deficit fo over $22 Million.
What Palin actual did to "Stand up" to oil companies was to implement a Wind-Fall Profits Tax, exactly like the one that Barack Obama has proposed. That tax raised...
$1.5 billion a year, enabling Alaska to double its oil revenue. However, in 2008 she said, "Windfall profits taxes alone prevent additional investment in domestic production."
Moving away from Rudy, there was also Huckebee who claimed during his RNC speech, that Sarah Palin "got more votes running for Mayor of Wasilla than Joe Biden got running for President of the United States."
In their own tendency for grandious bullcrap, they've managed to ignore the fact that Palin received a total of 616 votes for Mayor of Wassila. Joe Biden did far better than that. according to Keith Olbermann.
OLBERMANN: Biden got 15,000 votes in Florida, 18,000 votes in California, in the primaries there — more than could have been gotten in two elections for the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska for Sarah Palin.
It looks like The Math still isn't the GOP's strong suit.
And then of course there was the Performance of Sarah Palin, a profile in one-liners - funny, but without substance or a clear vision of where the Republicans would take the country except far away from those Arugala eating elitists.
"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change,"
Would that "change" be the immigration bill that McCain authored and now wouldn't even vote for? Or perhaps it would be the McCain-Feingold Lobbying Reform bill that was so sloppyly written it allowed for an explosion in 527 groups, and contains a convenient loophole that allows John McCain to enjoy $Millions in free air travel as long as the private jet that escorts him around the country is owned by a family member (such as Trophy Wife Cindy, the Beer Heiress)? Or maybe the change would be McCain's opposition to torture, which he himself turned his back on when a bill to make the CIA abide by the Army Field Manual - which specifically prohibits waterboarding - was proposed?
Is that the "change" we need? I don't think so.
"What exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make the government bigger and take more of your money."
After you get past the snide school-marm tone, you have to remember that this statement comes from someoone who increased the size of government in Wasilla, while increasing sales taxes and still left the city in debt. She raised taxes on Oil Companies, while Barack Obama has proposed a tax cut that will put more money in the hands of nearly 90% of working people in this nation.
THIS is what the Republican Party wants to rally around, Bullshit and LIES about their opponent in order to cover up their own sad records of abysmal public service, neglect, cronyism, arrogance and gingoism. Yet again it's Hate and Fear the Dreaded Liberal whose going to raise your taxes (to pay the THEIR pointless, wasteful spending on Wars of choice and thier Corporate Masters).
Hopefully, America is too smart to fall for the Republican bait and switch, smoke and mirrors act yet another time. Hopefully, America won't get fooled again!
Hopefully...
Vyan
No comments:
Post a Comment