Breaking opinion – McCain picks Sarah Palin as VP candidate

John McCain has selected Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential candidate. Palin (Wikipedia bio) has gone from mayor of a town of 8,000 people to vice-presidential candidate in just six years. Palin was extremely popular as Alaska governor and was known as a reformer, firing several long-standing Republican politicians. She killed the Gravina Island Bridge project (known as the “Bridge to Nowhere,” though it actually led to the Ketchikan airport). On one hand Palin supported reducing the state’s carbon emissions; on the other hand, she also supports teaching creationism in Alaska’s public schools.

Strategically, Palin’s strengths seem to be her youth and appeal to female voters. I bet someone a beer or two that someone on the far right is going to point out that McCain named a female VP candidate and Obama didn’t. But I just can’t see the appointment of an relatively unknown governor of a small (in population) state generating much excitement for the campaign.

The other thing that amazes me is reading McCain’s press release on her appointment. A sampling: challenged the influence of big oil companies… passed a landmark ethics reform bill… record of reform and bipartisanship. It reads like an Obama press release! I’ve never seen Republicans appealing to centrist voters in the language of the progressives. We’ll have to watch the positions of the McCain-Palin campaign carefully to see how much of this is just talk, and how much will lead to real change if they are elected.

Obamarama – the speech

Amazing speech last night by Barack Obama. The New York Times has posted a transcript. If you weren’t able to catch the speech last night, definitely take a look now.

Obamarama – pregame coverage

As of right now, I am about to watch Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, which I’ve been affectionately calling “Obamarama.” The mood of Obama supporters about now is simply amazing. I’ve never seen so much excitement about a political candidate in my lifetime. The only thing that might match it is 1980, when conservatives rallied around Ronald Reagan, who went on to change the country immeasurably during his eight years in office.

Could Obama do the same thing? Well, first he would have to win. The 1980 election turned out to be a landslide, but the current 2008 polls are quite close. According to electoral-vote.com (a great site that I will constantly follow, if the election were held today Obama would win – but by only a small amount.

Al Gore is speaking now, so I’m switching over to the Twitter feed. Enjoy the speeches – I’ll be back to comment on the speech when it’s done.

Live DNC coverage tonight

I’ll be reporting on the Democratic National Convention tonight, from Al Gore’s speech at 8:45-ish through to the end of Obama’s acceptance speech at 10 PM. See the Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/agoodvoter .

Of the Voters, by the voters, and for the voters

Welcome to the blog! I’m glad to have you as a reader, and I hope to talk with you more in the future. Let me say a little about what this blog is, and why I think it’s important, and what I hope to accomplish with it.

As I’m sure you know if you’re reading this, the United States is in the midst of the most closely watched election in our history. Media coverage has been nonstop for almost two years. The media is a blessing and a curse of the modern age. It’s a blessing because of the instant access it offers to events around the world, and a curse because the need to fill a 24 hour news cycle leads to events and opinions being manufactured as news. There has been a lot of shouting about the “liberal media” and the “conservative media,” but both sides are missing the point. We should not rely on the media to provide opinions for us; we should use their instant access to keep ourselves informed with facts, and form our own opinions. That’s what I’ll do here.

That’s why I’ve called this post “Of the Voters, By the Voters, and For the Voters.” That’s all that I am – a voter – the most powerful force in a democratic society. I don’t have any special knowledge or special status. I don’t get invited to the conventions – and even if I were, I wouldn’t have the time or money to go. I won’t be interviewing Obama or McCain.

All I will do is read the news, stay informed, and make up my own mind. Sometimes I’ll be wrong, and I hope that when I am, you’ll tell me in the spirit of cooperation. Because we’re all in this together. The wonderful thing about today’s Internet is that it allows us to communicate, share, and think together. All of us, thinking together, can accomplish so much more than each of us thinking by ourselves.

On November 4th, American voters will all be in the same place – in a voting booth, deciding the course of our country for the next four years and beyond. All of us need to work together to make an informed choice. Let’s begin that work!

Here are answers to some questions you might have about the A Good Voter project:

What is “A Good Voter“?

It’s an online project headquartered at this blog (http://agoodvoter.blogspot.com). It’s the perspective of one American voter learning and thinking about the 2008 elections. The blog will be updated every Tuesday and Friday, and more often during major events like conventions, debates, and the weeks before the election.

Please comment here or E-mail me at agoodvoter@gmail.com .

There is also a Twitter feed that I will use to cover live events like speeches and debates:
http://twitter.com/agoodvoter

There may be A Good Voter projects in other places on the web soon. Stay tuned here. If you are in the Baltimore area and would like to help, send me an E-mail.

Why the name?

Because that’s what I want to be: a good voter. My hope is that by staying informed between now and November 4th, I can make the most thoughtful choice then, and help other people make thoughtful choices too.

What is the goal of this project?

Quite simply: To get other people to think about the election from the only perspective that matters: their own, as an American voter. (Or for international readers, an observer of an American election.) My dream is that by Election Day, there will be 20 similar sites – maybe there are already – and by Election Day 2012, there will be 1,000.

Stay tuned from now until Election Day – it will be a wild ride!