Stu Blog

I have a strong case of SPS. Sarah Palin syndrome.

The main side effect is an immediate –and borderline irrational —anger when she's attacked. I'm not sure why its happening exactly, but as a long time fan (since like February) I am getting very annoyed by the coverage of her.

Most of the attacks are just stupid. “She's formerly the mayor of a town of 9,000.” —- Well, Barack Obama was formerly an infant. Who cares? She's currently running a state. A state that happens to supply a lot of our energy. She's more knowledgeable on oil and energy than 125,000 Obama/Biden tickets. And I love how we're supposed to believe that running a state of 600,000 people is nothing, but being 1 of 2 votes in a 100 vote senate, from a state with 700,000 people is impressive.

“She's the most inexperienced vp ever.” Well, Obama is the least experienced presidential candidate ever. She's been a governor for 2 years, he's been senator for 4 years. I suppose we're supposed to believe that its those 2 extra years is what makes you fully qualified? Besides, almost all of those extra 2 years Obama was running for president, not being a senator. Plus, she has executive experience, he has none. And–she's actually run a business.

Does she have big foreign policy chops? Other than some foreign trade experience, no. But neither does Obama. It's amazing to me how you can complain about Palin being a heartbeat away from the presidency, when Obama would be ZERO heartbeats away from the presidency.

Finally—the media is pissing me off. They continually paint Palin as this giant “surprise pick” and a “political unknown.” This is complete nonsense. Sarah Palin has been mentioned as one of McCain's possibilities for VP for MONTHS. They ALL knew about her. Yes, she was seen as more of a darkhorse, but there was a list of about 10 people, and she was on it every time. The media is just annoyed McCain didn't tip his hand enough.

Think about it. Palin is a governor of a state. There's only 50 of them. How many are republicans? 22 I think? How many of them are attractive (respectful way of saying hot) females with 80% approval ratings. ONE. Doesn't sound like a huge surprise or a political unknown to me—YOU BASTARDS!!!! (sorry, my SPS is kicking in again.)

Update: Pawlenty out. Someone moving those markets, my guess –intentionally. The media was too excited about Obama's speech to notice though.

If you believe Intrade markets tonight, Tim Pawlenty will be the VP nominee for McCain. Romney, who was hovering around 60 for a while, has dropped to 6. Pawlenty has skyrocketed to 80 (meaning the markets believe there's an 80% chance its Pawlenty.)

This means one of two things.

1) Pawlenty is the guy.

2) McCain doesn't want to overtly interrupt Obama's big night, but if people friendly with McCain drive these markets crazy right before his speech—it will create enough speculation to distract the news networks into talking about him. You can move these markets with a few thousand dollars, so it wouldn't be shocking–and if someone notices, it would be well worth the cash.

The pitch we've been hearing since Barack's VP pick is that Joe Biden is a man of the people who can relate to blue collar workers. Obama might be elitist, but Biden can understand the little man. Right?

While Biden might not have had the huge book paydays of Obama or the brilliant marriage skills of McCain, the idea that he's any more in touch with the average person than any other candidate in this race is laughable.

Obviously, he has had the unending perks of a senator-which undoubtedly make you have a completely twisted idea of what real life is like-especially when you've been there since 1973.

But based purely on cash intake-(everything adjusted for inflation)—Biden has made no less than $136K every year since Watergate. It's one thing to earn six figures for a year or two–but Joe has been doing it since Spiro Agnew had the job he's now going for.

He actually took in over $208K his first year, and has averaged over $173K for his entire senate career.

All told, our 'average Joe' has taken over 6.2 million taxpayer dollars to produce all that experience Barack found so impressive. Hey citizen—do you feel like you got your money's worth?

None of that includes whatever money he made on the side. I've noticed politicians have been able to find additional streams of revenue fairly easily.

It's of course important to note that I have no problem at all with people making money. In fact, I do realize that we need a few government officials, and I have no problem paying them well (if they do their jobs). I also don't want a failure (financial or otherwise) as our president or VP.

But, I'm not the one who is painting rich people as the enemy. I'm not the one attempting to constantly engage in class warfare (the one type of war the left seems to deem necessary). And I'm not the one constantly whining about how things were better when my great grandfather was working in a mill. (It's always a mill.)

Anyway, if the last democratic VP candidate, John Edwards, has taught us anything, it's to always remember there are two Americas. The one Joe Biden is in, and the other one –apparently where people are poor and don't cheat on their sick wives.