Stephen Colbert on John McCain

Back on September 4, I posted a video from Jon Stewart talking about the change in heart of conservative commentators on women running for President. With Hillary Clinton, these commentators were critical of her (saying stuff like she should act like a man, etc.); with Sarah Palin, they were accusing the media of being extremely sexist.

If I may borrow from Dick Morris and some comments he made on Fox News (Hannity & Colmes, 5 November 2007) about Hillary Clinton: "When a woman wants to be President, she shouldn't complain based on gender. ... I'm going to take my toys and go home because the big boys are picking on me." Right, so it's true about the Democrats and their candidates, but it's not true about Sarah Palin? If she is a heartbeat away from being the 45th President (McCain would be the 44th), then she should be able to take the media and the McCain campaign leaders should not be protective of her.

On the 23 September 2008 edition of her namesake show, Campbell Brown touched on these same sentiments.


if you cannot see the video, click here

On 15 September 2008, Stephen Colbert, on his nightly show The Colbert Report, talked about something that's also been bothering me. The McCain campaign has been very protective of Sarah Palin and limiting her appearances on various national media. And also, in lieu of providing us with factual arguments and principled reasons why we should vote for him, they (the McCain campaign) are playing the POW card in the same way that they accused Barack Obama of playing the race card or Hillary Clinton of playing the gender card.


if you cannot see the video, click here

On the same day as I posted my video of Jon Stewart, I was critical of the Republicans for using their Convention in Saint Paul for attacking the Democrats and not offering any of their policy positions.

What are your stances on policy issues, Republicans? I know I can go to your various campaign websites and see for myself, but I want a principled argument from your side why I should vote for you. To say that Obama is inexperienced - even if he might be - is not the basis for an academic argument. (from "On the Conventions and Academic Arguments", 4 September 2008)

The first Presidential debate is this evening across most of the major networks. I'm interested to see if we can get a principled argument out of the McCain campaign.

Not just more "lipstick on a pig".

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

(In full disclosure, I am a supporter of Barack Obama and his candidacy to be President. I have been opposed to the Iraq War from the beginning and I believe that a preemptive war with Iran is simply unacceptable. I believe that we should support our troops who have so valiantly fought in all American wars by giving them proper armor, medical treatment, educational opportunities, housing assistance, etc. I believe that energy independence comes through reducing demand for oil and through investing in mass transportation projects. I believe the present urban policy is wrong and favors the suburban cities. Our national infrastructure is crumbling and does not look like infrastructure of one of the richest countries in the world.)