Convince Bricker that not every Obama supporter is a tool

Great Debates
1

Bricker posted an incensed thread in the Pit, where he now states he will not vote for Obama after all, because of the low-brow, slimy, sexist attacks some people have made on Palin because of her daughter’s pregnancy, or because of her youngest, Down’s syndrome-afflicted child.

I will take a stand here and state that as an Obama supporter, I repudiate those bloggers and SDMB members who have decided that Palin familial issues are ammunition for attacking her candidacy as VP.

Who’s with me?

I submit that the majority of Obama supporters here are.

This is not merely a poll, I’d like to see some convincing arguments about why the familial attacks are unjustified, counterproductive, and fly in the face of what is great about Obama the candidate.

Bricker’s thread is just an excuse. He can vote for McCain. I just want a showing that Obama’s people are better than those slime-ball politics we see too much of. (Note, please keep Bricker-bashing in the Pit. We want to hold the high ground here.)

2

What is so special about** Bricker **that this must be done?

3

First off, I don’t give a damn who Bricker votes for and have generally assumed it’ll be a Republican.

Second off, It depends on what your meaning of “is a tool” is.

I personally think it is newsworthy she has a pregnant teen daughter. I also think, as I said- I think in Sarah Palin Thread 121.A, page 29, post 923 the

BRISTOL-MANIA!

is due to the fact that one day 1 in 50 people outside Alaska could have picked Sarah Palin out of a line up (and that’s a, ahem, liberal estimate) and the next day she was the most famous woman in America and a heartbeat from the presidency if elected- people wanted a crash course, and it happened to come about the time her daughter’s pregnancy became known, and the “abstinence only” “no abortions for any reasons” thing made it all the more interesting. (If Joe Biden’s had a teenaged daughter who was pregnant, I doubt anyone would have much cared- they already know who Biden is generally [unlike Palin, who’s a total “where the hell did she come from?” personality] and he’s never made abstinence only a part of his platform.)

Palin’s given no interviews since being picked as VP, there’s not enough of a record to much go on, her speeches haven’t been exactly on par with Bryan’s “Cross of Gold”, and a pregnant teenaged daughter and a really weird story about her Down’s Syndrome child (which was, remember, ALREADY a rumor in Alaska) of course caught everybody’s attention and became water cooler talk for Pubs and Dems the next day. Now that she’s got a couple of big speeches under her belt and other political stories about her are surfacing and presumably she’ll be interviewed, Bristol’s already receding into the background. (And again- people act like “the media” and Obamaphiles have been harping on this forever- is there one person here that’s not from Alaska who had ever heard the name Bristol Palin before last weekend? Or much cared?)

Now we can focus on the real issues and the hubbub will die down.

Now then, not to bash Bricker, but if he chooses who to vote for over a flash-in-the-pan media and public gossip orgy, then he’ll no doubt have to jump from candidate to candidate like a kangaroo with Tourettes from now til November. Jeremiah Wright and Michelle’s “proud to be an American” affair and all that caught just as much fire with the media and the opposing side as this did, and for a much longer period of time. And with his defense of her firing a librarian for not supporting the banning of books by pulling “NAMBLA how to guides” out of the air, I’m sorry- I’m just not buying that he’s not already stocked up on her Flavor Aide anyway, cause that was some contortioning worthy of Bambina the Boneless Babe from Borneo to justify Palin’s moves there.

But anyway, yes, I’ll pledge to be a lot less sensational now that we’re getting to actually know Palin. This was the honeymoon week in which the Bristol issue had to be fill in for anything that actually matters. Now as we learn about the political creature (which we had NOTHING to go on until this week) the real issues can come to the center.

4

I wonder why Bricker isn’t bothered by the right wing blogs that accuse Obama of being a Muslim, of literally being the Antichrist, of not really being an American, of being gay, of being a murderer, of being a crackhead,and , of course, of being a “nigger.”

Not only that but his wife has been slimed as an America hating, racist, black militant (not just on blogs but by mainstream commentators like Sean Hannity). Ive seen a blog accusing Obama’s mother of “showing her hatred for America by practicing miscegenation.”

And that’s without even getting into the REALLY nasty fringe stuff.

Sarah Palin has not gotten a fraction of what Obama’s gotten, and she’s gotten a totally fee ride from a mainstream media which is falling all over itself to decry all those non-existent attacks in the mainstream media.

If Bricker is really going to make his decision based on who has the meanest supporters, I have to say, the SDMB Obama supporters ae a bunch of candy asses. I don’t give a damn about Sarah Palin’s family dramas. I want somebody to ask her about her extremist social positions, her ethics investigation, her anti-environmentalism, and any number of other sheer policy issues.

5

Bricker’s rationale is not worthy of consideration. He certainly knows that not every Obama supporter is a tool. But apparently it is too much for him that ANY Obama supporter is a tool.

6

Bricker’s tirade is just an excuse.

I’d like Obama supporters to show that many of us are trying to follow his example in raising the level of political discourse during this campaign. Palin’s family pregnancies are not acceptable topics for criticizing her appropriateness as a VP candidate.

Prove them wrong! Bricker, et al.

Obama is different, and so are his supporters. I’m counting on you guys to back me, here. Do we repudiate sleaze-ball politics or not?

7

I really don’t want to judge someone based on a story told about her by someone trying to smear her. I :rolleyes: at people who obstreperously denounce Palin for taking a plane when she was eight months pregnant.

I have some real anger at the GOP due to them putting Bush (who lacked respect for the rule of law) & DeLay (who was just plain corrupt) into positions of authority. I consider a theoretical McCain victory as prelude to collapse & realignment.

Since the judgement of the GOP entire is now suspect in my mind, I plan to vote for Obama. But I hate the thin-skinned-ness of the Obama campaign, & the pathetic attempt to paint him as the great sage of reliable wisdom. I just don’t want to make the mistake of a useless vote for Nader again. (Unless I can get 50,000,000 of y’all to join me. C’mon! We can do it! … :crickets: No? Oh, well.)

I reserve the right to quietly make snarky comments about politician’s kids of either party, but I don’t actually wish the poor kids ill for being born to grasping power-seeking social climbers.

8

Oh, NO!!!

Sure, the the all-important Bricker vote has never been in the bag, but we’ve been so close…the thought of losing it now is unbearable.

Since the election hangs in the balance, I willingly repudiate every bad thing done or even thought of by anyone supporting or claiming to support Obama. It’s chilling to think that no matter what Obama does personally, it could be wiped out in a heartbeat by what some unknown says on a message board or blog!!

All of you, SHADDUP! RIGHT NOW!!!

Come back, Bricker! DON’T LEAVE US!!! :frowning:

9

Great sage? Personally I just see him as intelligent, rational and sane. Which admittedly is just as rare as a great sage in U.S. politics.

And other times I see him in whirlwinds, when his voice calms my fears.

10

I’ll agree with this much: Sarah Palin can easily be criticized for her shitty policies, her awful mayoral tenure, and her undistinguished record as governor. Adding the needless crap about her personal life is just sprinkling dried turds on the cake.

That said, Bricker never had a molecule of sincere intent to vote for Obama, and the general premise of the thread is not worth another moment of my time.

11

People, could you try to read the OP?

Bricker’s tirade is an excuse. Get it?

He’s one guy, but there are (potentially) many guys like him. If Obama’s example isn’t good enough reason, than how about trying to minimize the number of people who are like Bricker and about to bail on voting for Obama? This election is too close to take anyone’s vote for granted. That’s a sure way to lose.

12

The hell of it is, I don’t feel like Bricker (or anyone else) has to justify his vote to me. He has every right to vote for whoever he damn well feels like, for whatever reason he wants, and tell us to piss up a rope. He doesn’t need to go through a Hamlet routine.

13

One last plea: could we also keep Bricker-bashing in the pit?

This is about whether Obama’s supporters can follow Obama’s lead.

Can we? Or not?

14

How’s this a debate again? (And sorry, but this thread might as well be called “Bash Bricker Pissypants for his political posturing in the Pit”; asking for no bashing is just an unrealistic expectation. He’s an intelligent person, he really doesn’t think this is an issue worthy of a presidential election or that there aren’t obnoxious people in all forums.)

15

You can’t wake a man who is pretending to be asleep.

16

Sure you can. Just set fire to the sheets.

17

I’ll have you know he cured my herpes.

I’m going to say once and only once, right here, right now, that I think it’s slimy of any politician to trot their children out as political tools. I think bringing her sons and daughters onto the stage of the RNC was just the same damn thing I’ve seen for years, and I’ve never ever liked it. I didn’t like dragging Chelsea out or Barbara and Jenna or any other candidates’ kids. I think it’s especially disingenuous to wave them in front of the nation and then scream when anyone says something less than complimentary.

That said, they’re children. The fact that they are children is the reason I find it detestable when she does it, and they do not deserve nasty treatment. Most rational people, I find, agree with me (when they don’t, I can argue that they are irrational, which is very tidy and gives me my afternoons off).

18

Or as Bob Simon said it in his excellent apology:

19

I’m conservative and usually have voted Republican in the past. But that changed once and for all with Bush’s cynical nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. I see Sarah Palin as an equally cynical echo of that gambit. I don’t usually care for the Democrats’ policies, but I’ll vote for Obama this time on the off chance that he might not be lying through his teeth about everything he supposedly stands for. With the Republicans, I’ve discovered that to be a certainty.

20

Missed edit window, but wanted to add: lest I be accused of frivolity, the Miers nomination, though bad enough in itself, just topped off everything else that had building for the previous six years. Kind of like that one last time DH leaves his dirty socks lying on the living room floor. It’s not just about the socks, its about realizing who it really is you’re stuck with, and how he’s never going to change