One of the more striking aspects of the GOP convention this week was how monotone the crowd scenes were — a sea of white Caucasian faces.
Yes, the networks picked out individual African-American or Hispanic faces here and there, but the broader crowd scans told the story: Diversity isn’t exactly a GOP value.
Contrast that with the Democratic convention crowd, which showed people of every hue and ethnicity. The visuals were telling about the parties’ very different base demographics.
Few of the people with so much to say about Sarah Palin know anything about her. Mike Doogan does, as a Democrat in the Alaska House. He wrote in the Washington Post that she’s likable but not qualified to be vice president: “Palin’s time as governor has been a mixed bag. She deserves high marks for moving the possibility of a gas pipeline forward. But most of the work on oil taxes was done by the legislature. Ditto with ethics reform. And her role in killing the ballyhooed ‘Bridge to Nowhere’? Turns out that she was for it before she was against it, and that, well, she kept the money anyway.
“Add to this a growing sense that the state government isn’t running all that well: commissioners and key staffers jumping or being pushed. The operating budget growing 10 percent a year. Policy problems such as high energy costs being papered over with cash giveaways. The governor and her aides being investigated by the legislature. You can see why it’s not clear she’s a competent governor of Alaska, let alone qualified to take over the reins of the national government.”
