I'm not much of a strict nitpicker who considers any gaffe by a political campaign to be a huge black mark against them, but I am easily amused. So even though I don't consider these really much of an issue politically, I was just too amused by two gaffes made by the McCain-Palin campaign that I just need to mention them.
Hope for the Republican Party
The news is abuzz about Colin Powell endorsing Barack Obama. The buzz might be mostly focused on a prominent Republican endorsing a Democratic candidate, but to me the important thing about this news is that the Republican Party is not a total lost cause yet.
Incoherent Republican campaigning
What has happened to the Republican political savvy? Has the departure of Karl Rove from the political shadows to the media been a tremendous blow to their political machine? It seems that the Republican Party has been incredibly incoherent in their messages recently. At least with Karl Rove and the Bush administration, they were pretty much consistent about their "give us all the power we want, you don't need any rights" message, and dramatically contrary statements were spaced years apart. Now they seem to be vacillating between opposing positions within days.
Incredible Republican pettiness
It's one thing to vote against an important bill and being honest about thinking it's a bad bill. It's another thing entirely when the bailout bill is rejected out of pure pettiness. Or at least a pretense of pure pettiness; I'm not sure which is worst. The bailout bill is incredibly important, no matter whether it would be the economy's salvation or its downfall, so it's extraordinarily inane that House Republicans would claim that they voted against it purely because the House speaker was critical of the Republican Party.
The critical speech by House speaker Nancy Pelosi may have been inappropriate (I don't think so, but I can see their point), but I can't believe anyone would cite this as a reason to vote against the bailout bill. If they thought it was a disastrous bill, then they should have said so, not try to use a ridiculous excuse that puts the House Republicans in an extremely bad light.
Why I am not a Republican
I'm a rather conservative person. I believe in a fiscally conservative government. I have a conservative lifestyle, where I avoid vices such as gambling or drinking. I'm sexually conservative, with cheating on a sexual partner being unthinkable, and in fact I don't make sexual partners easily in the first place. (Some think that I'm too conservative on this point.) I strongly believe that a stable family environment is important. Given all this, why am I not a Republican?