I’m certain that most people are smart enough to realize that making a reference to Obama and his voodoo persuasion over our pop culture is not racist. The comment made in regards to Sarah Palin on the other hand is sexist because making jabs to her being a woman is irrelevent to her political views. The article on Obama however is being objective. Unless you are sympathetic to the liberal left there’s no way you cannot see that Obama has a hypnotic effect on the American media that has little to do with his qualifications to be president. And thus supporters of John McCain and Sarah Palin such as myself are often angered when Obama is let off the hook in areas where he should be properly scrutinized such as his relationship with unrepentent terrorist William Ayres, yet there is very little if any discussion of this by the mass media. But any so called “controversies” surrounding anyone in the Republican ticket is always ripe for picking by the media, the horrid efforts by the press to smear and besmirch Sarah Palin unfairly just in the past two weeks attests to this fact.

By the way, voodoo is just another synonym for magic in the popular culture it is not a word that is made in exclusive reference to black people or to demean them by any means. Anyone, whether black, white, hispanic or Asian who has the ability to induce a hypnotic charm like effect amongst people can have the word casually attributed to them. As a Filipino, I have heard the term used in conversations among my family and friends and let me tell you, it was never in reference to black people or anyone who was black.

Sadly, your extreme sensitivity to any word that may be miscontrued as racist is reflective of the kind of white guilt political correctness that seems to be plaguing the Western world today. Strange that you decided to be the first Filipino I know of back home that chooses to be a voice for the white liberal left.

Thank God that there are still many Americans choosing to follow the Republican mantra that straight talk is always better than political correctness.

Honestly, I’m not impressed with Palin’s credentials. The way McCain magnifies her Kuwait trip as a “major foreign policy experience” is outrageous. If that was the case, why wasn’t I vetted then? I’ve been to ten countries. Shouldn’t I be more qualified than her?

I also don’t buy that because she has two years of experience as Governor of Alaska makes her more qualified than all the other candidates. Wasn’t Dubya Governor of Texas for eight years? Yet he still managed to screw up the US economy.

BTW Bencard, if you were watching the RNC Convention, I saw some pins with the words “Hottest VP”. I guess you’re right, Americans don’t use “hot”. They use “hottest”.

If it’s just the base then that creationist guy Huckabee would have fit the bill.

I do know demographics and about activitating the base. That’s the reason why Palin was chosen over Huckabee and the funny named governor from florida or something.

By the way “the base” in arabic is “al qaeda”.

Winning a nationwide election in America is about getting out the base (left or right) and then convincing enough people in the middle to come to your side. Fail on either one of those, and a candidate loses.

Look at the map of red states/blue states. Look at the vast difference in area. Actually, take a state like California and look at red counties and blue counties. California has 58 counties. In 2004, the sum of votes of 55 of those counties would have gone for George Bush. Even the bluest state is quite red.

McCain has long been known as too moderate for many Republicans. His positions on limiting free speech and promoting a legalization path for illegal aliens are not conservative positions. McCain can win the middle on his own.

Palin was chosen because she can win over the right base with her conservative social positions based on her faith, quite consistent with the majority of Filipinos, and the rugged independent streak that America was founded on to give them a reason to get out to vote. She also brings credentials of knowing something about oil and gas, actually, she knows a lot about oil and gas, cutting taxes, reducing government waste, and shaking up the establishment.

Get in an airplane and fly from LA to New York. What do you see? Not much of anything. The vast majority of America is not terribly populated. The voters that live there care about family, gas prices, faith, hard work, educational choice for their children, and are intensely patriotic. They have family reunions, they go to church, they hunt, they fish, they mine, they forge, they farm, and they enlist in the military. Palin may turn out to be an excellent choice.