Now that the respective vice presidential candidates have been chosen, extreme partisans on both sides of the political aisle have turned up their rhetoric, spewing even more venom at each other. Republicans claim that Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden takes some of his arguments against John McCain off the table. At the same time, Democrats insist that McCain's selection of Sarah Palin takes away some of his arguments against Obama. They are both right. Each party can rightfully claim that the vice presidential selection of the other limits its presidential nominee's freedom to throw rocks. The problem is that party extremists recognize the validity of that claim in regard to their own side only, while summarily dismissing that of the other. They want to have it both ways.
Republican extremists say that Biden's presence on the Democratic ticket neutralizes Obama's claim that he will be a president of change. They claim that Biden's age and years in Washington offset anything Obama could say about McCain's age and years as a Washington insider. However, they vehemently deny that McCain's selection of Palin takes away McCain's argument that Obama lacks experience. They point to the fact that Palin has more executive experience than Obama or Biden, who have none. What they fail to point out is that McCain doesn't have any either.
Conversely, Democratic extremists argue that Palin's presence on the GOP ticket gets Obama off the hook on his inexperience – all the while nitpicking Palin's lack of experience. However, they deny that Obama's selection of Biden takes McCain's age and years in Washington off the table as campaign issues. And they certainly don't see how it could possibly contradict Obama's assertion that he is an agent of change.
Try as they might (and they obviously do), they can't have it both ways. If one party's selection of a vice presidential nominee removes some plays from its presidential nominee's playbook, then the same is true of the other party's vice presidential choice. Denying something doesn't make it any less true.
Hi Terry, very well put. I feel blessed to live in this country and would not change our corrupted government for any other. However, I truly am ready for all of this to be over. God be with the one who leads, more iimportantly, may the one who leads, be with God. Thanks for a well balanced article.
It is certainly going to be a by far and away tighter race then one might have expected just a few months ago. In a large way, I'm very confused about both parties allegiances and commitment to a presidential win. It's as if the main issues that have been debated over the course of both campaigns, are now somewhat de- emphasized. I don't know what to think now, other than it may be just a matter of who draws the shorter straw.
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