My Give-A-Damn's Busted!

Or so I thought. I didn't think I had a blog entry in me, but I've gotten a little second wind today. Lucky you.

August was a busy month at Casa Garcia. LittleG has been in swim lessons, which has thrown a royal wrench in our evenings for the past month. I'm happy to report that she is finished with her lessons, and we all survived. Regretfully, in the water she still has more confidence than skill, but hopefully we've gotten a good foundation started for a nice strong swimmer someday.

I haven't posted anything lately because I've been busy. And tired. And I've had some damn cold for a week now that's really mucking up the works. So, I've been cranky, and admittedly, that's not the best for blog writing. Would that I could come up with 1,000 or so words of total humor or poetry. But lately, not so much.

I spent a long weekend at home thanks to a free day off on Friday (thank you very much, Frank Anton) and spent some quality time with MrG and LittleG. That was nice. I also spent some time on CNN.com. Which, regretfully, was not so nice.

I have to preface this with the statement that I usually vote Democratic. Not always, but usually, and that's what I was sort of kind of considering planning to do this time around. Now, for sure, it will happen.

You staunch Republicans can just skitter away now. I acknowledge and validate your right to your opinion, and I expect the same from you. If you don't want to read bad stuff about your Republican superhero, it's time for you to click someplace else. Try www.johnmccain.com.

For the rest of you, thanks for sticking around. First, I am absolutely astonished at the choices John McCain has made in the past week. I totally get that he would chose a woman as a running mate.

Makes perfect sense, hits that white female demographic, avoids the "one of the good ole Republican Boys club," the whole nine yards. Reach out to those Hillary supporters and at the same time hit the right wing nutjobs with an ultraconservative. Two birds, one stone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.

But a woman with a special needs child at home? Call me whatever sexist name you will, but as a mom myself, if I had to choose between being there for my child or for my job, my child would win. Hands Down. 100% of the time. Maybe that's why I'm not in politics.

Why in the world would an old guy teetering on the brink of Aged One choose a mom with a special needs child to be his backup? If the Republicans want to win this thing, they better exude some confidence in the people that they choose to run on the ticket. And frankly, I suspect moms all over the nation feel the same way I do. You're a mom, first, before you're a political figure. And if you think for a minute that you could put the needs of your child behind your job, then you're not the kind of person I want leading our country anyway. And why in the hell would you want to work for a guy who might ask you to make that choice sometime?

Is that sexist? Well, yes. Is it reality? Yes to that, too. The same argument could be made for fathers of special needs kids. But you know what? I'm not a dad. I don't have that frame of reference, so I can only speak personally of being a mom. And for me, my kid wins over my job. Every. Single. Time.

My second gripe is that he has been all over Barak's ass about his lack of experience. Apparently, experience doesn't really matter since McCain's backup guy (I use the term loosely) has only been a mayor of a small town, and a governor for less time than Obama has served in the senate. If experience is really important, than McCain should damn sure pick someone with some experience in the event he or she needs to take over someday. If it's not, he needs to shut his piehole on the experience issue.

And the final nail in the coffin for me is the pregnancy of Palin's 17 year old daughter. I absolutely do not believe that the American public has any right to go after her daughter. No holds barred, it's a line we should NOT cross. But for a staunch conservative to stand on her soap box and preach abstinence to the world while her teenage daughter is out getting herself knocked up just seems hypocritical and sanctimonious to me. It's clear that teaching abstinence alone just doesn't work. And you need to look no further than Palin's own family to prove that point.

If she's really that strong a leader, you would think she could control what's going on in her own family. And the argument could be made that if her own daughter doesn't respect her authority, how in the world can she expect millions of total strangers to do so?

Back to this being a mom thing... if she thinks her daughter is going to marry this boy and live happily ever after without any help from her, she's nuts. I was 36 years old when LittleG was born, and I was on the phone with my mom MANY times a day during my pregnancy and LittleG's infancy (thanks, Mom, unless I chased you off earlier).

If Sarah Palin thinks her parental job ends because her teenaged daughter gets married, she needs a serious reality slap upside the face. She's either going to sell her daughter short by not being there when she's needed, or she'll sell her job short. She can't be both places at one time, and God forbid, her kid need her at a time when she's called on to step up and play the lead role on her own. Somebody's gonna lose that fight. Will it be us or her family? It's hard to say which would be worse.

Say what you will about the Palin's making the decision not to terminate either pregnancy - what you feel about abortion is yours to own - the conservatives who embrace this family and hold them up as examples are falling far short. The best example Palin could have shared with the world is a teenage daughter who didn't get herself pregnant to start with. And in the absence of the best example, the second best example would be for a mom to be there when her kid needs her, not off playing politics with the good ole boys.

Overall, I can't decide what is worse - that John McCain might have failed to vet his candidate and was blindsided by the news, or if he knew before he settled on her and he chose her anyway. Either situation shows an astounding lack of political acumen on his part. I. Just. Don't. Get. It.

My favorite quote about McCain came from Jack Cafferty, who called him "a feeble looking 72-year-old white guy who doesn't know how many homes he owns." Read it here: The Land of Make Believe

I guess that pretty much sums it up for me.