arhooley:
“Ever hear of “death panels”? That wasn’t a trivial toss-off to “those ‘heartland’ issues.””
Er – there aren’t any death panels. There never were. It was a beat-up, and she was reading from somebody else’s cue-sheet. More recently she jumped on the “birther” train. Not at all impressive.
“Nor are her statements on energy self-sufficiency”
Economic nationalism is nothing new. Her twist is that she happens to have done well (politically and personally) from the petroleum industry, so that’s what she’s pushing. If she was from a farming state, she’d be talking about supporting domestic agriculture. If she was from detroit, she’d be all about making life easier for the big three.
Just drilling for more gas will not actually make the US more energy independent. It’s a global market – and that gas will go to whoever pays for it. You’d also require protectionist legislation – and the result would be far more harm to the US than good. Most of the US’ energy imports come from mexico and canada – very little of the US petroleum spend sees its way to the bozos in rhiyadh. If you don’t already know that, then … well, I’m sorry.
“or national defense (is that what you mean by “military deterrence”?)”
Pardon? National defense isn’t a “heartland” issue? I’m astonished. And military deterrence is generally a sub-topic of “national defense”.
“Floating exchange rates? Yeah, important, but virtually moot if we’re going to be impoverished by big government”
Not moot at all – look at the effect china’s having by pegging its exchange rate to the dollar at a discount. That’s having a much bigger effect on the US finances than government spending.
“Maybe you spend a lot of time at Kos or Huffpo”
None at kos, and I sometimes check out huffpo for the entertaining videos. I don’t count either as a credible source of information.
