I Like Her!

My brain is really too fragmented right now and has been all day. Having spent yesterday digesting info on Palin, I spent the better part of today digesting commentary and reaction to McCain's new running mate, as well as keep a running command central infodesk concerning Missy and her continually-changing hurricane plans.

Let me just dispense with Missy's story. She is off at school about 70 miles away, at Lamar University in Beaumont, on Interstate 10 at the Tex-La border. For the last two days, we've been getting the connect-ed automated phone calls detailing any changes made on account of the storm. First, they cancelled classes thru Tuesday for a tentative Wednesday re-opening. Then as Gustav crossed Cuba and the Cone of Uncertainty shifted east, a county-wide mandatory evac was ordered as of 6pm today. Meanwhile, Missy is working a double shift at her restaurant job, and the owner is shuffling his feet about deciding to close. Finally he decides to close thru Tuesday too, and Missy is allowed to leave and make her own plans. But she crosses over I-10 on her drive back to her dorm and it's super-clogged. So now she is waiting til tonight when it hopefully will have finally tapered off. She only has about an hour drive to get home to us, but during Rita an hour drive turned into 10 hours, and she would rather stay put given that chance. I don't blame her, so we are watching and waiting. She'll get here, we just don't know when yet.

Now for the fun:



Just some thought fragments of my reaction to McCain choosing Palin, which was very positive initially, then grew once I began reading more about her. She's not unblemished and not perfect, but to me her positives outweigh her negatives.

You or someone else might ask, how does a pro-choice Democrat embrace Sarah Palin? The entire crux of why and how for me is that as I got older I recognized that culturally, abortion has become a legal taboo compared to my heyday feminist years (yes, it really has), and then I realized that the only solution to this is compromise.

So, comprising on the Supreme Court declaring the federal guarantee of right to abortion in the matter of Roe v Wade is the worst that can happen, right?

So I think about it, definitely not for me, but for my daughter, should she ever want that choice. A conservative majority declaring Roe unconstitutional kicks the legality of abortion back to the states. Period. And I think it's safe to say that NY and CA will be tripping over each other to enact legalization laws if that were to happen. And, hey, it's now a plane trip away. So, to me, the compromise is just that. Worst case scenario.

Poof! Not that big a deal to me. And this is after polling Missy and her friends. Newsflash: the Millienial Gen is conflicted over it and is not ga-ga passionate about it like feminists of my generation were.

Here's the other thing. I've already posted about how dear fiscal conservatism is to me. So, this really explains my embrace. If I have learned anything from being a voter for 34 years and this one will make 9 presidential elections I've voted in, it's this: you have to learn to vote in compromise, and sometimes vote against as much as vote for. You have to vote no matter how much your choices might disgust you. And you have to realize you are voting for 4 years, not forever. What is needed now that can realistically be done in that time frame and who can deliver it best?

So, cultural issue difference pale in comparison to me right now. We are on the verge of economic disaster unless we reign in spending. Game over. For me, anyway.

I think that represents one interpretation of "politics makes strange bed fellows."

More later. Missy's on her way...