Swinging Grandma 2: The Revenge

Oct 5th, 2008 | By benwyskida | Category: Politics
We got a lot of thoughtful comments and ideas about Claire's challenge turning her 94-year old Republican-leaning grandmother blue, politically speaking. Pinko reader and sometimes contributor Sandy wrote me with a decidedly different approach to swinging his fence-sitting friends and relatives, eschewing the issues in favor of a more Republican approach -- fear. 
Ok, here's my approach to an unnamed mid-western friend who thinks McCain has been an honest reformer and is better on national security. She also loves Sarah Palin's sassiness. I won't be able to disabuse her of her ideas about McCain, so this thought experiment gets to the point. Imagine it's sometime late next year. The President is traveling the country promoting his new energy plan and in the air on the way back to Washington. Russia is working with Venezuela on naval exercises in the Caribbean, and units from our own Navy are nearby, watching and making a show of force. They are on edge.  On the other side of the world, Pakistan has become more destabilized and, thanks to the US deal Nuclear deal with India, less friendly. Things in Iraq are improving, luckily, but in advance of the elections in Iran, Ahmadinejad has increased his anti-US and anti-Israeli rhetoric. Hamas is the midst of a violent campaign to take over the West Bank.  And suddenly, there is a series of suicide bombings targeting US interests in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. And then a bomb goes off at train station in DC.  We are under attack and, as on 9/11, Air Force One will remain airborne until the situation can be assessed. The Vice President is in a secure room, and, as happened on 9/11, is being asked by several different agencies what to do, and cannot reach the president.  Who do you want in that room? Biden or Palin?
Well done! Thoughts? Will it work? You betcha doggone it?
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6 comments
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  1. Claire October 5th, 2008 5:21 pm

    Holy shit!! Now I’m too afraid to sleep tonight. Thanks a lot, Sandy.

    P.S. — I wouldn’t describe my grandma as “Republican-leaning” — I genuinely don’t know her politics. She’s a reasonable, sane, not hateful person, though, so I can assume she’s voted Democratic before.

  2. Stirling McLaughlin October 6th, 2008 4:02 am

    I just threw up a little. Thanks Sandy…

  3. Charles London October 6th, 2008 11:08 am

    you should have seen the links I found and didn’t use! I mean, the bee crisis isn’t even in there!

  4. benwyskida October 6th, 2008 11:25 am

    Sandy is SO obsessed with those bees

  5. Charles London October 6th, 2008 11:53 am

    the bees scare me. that’s what’s gonna do it.

    anyway, my last two links were wrong. They should be:
    Biden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fak_yyBsYiQ
    Palin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nokTjEdaUGg

  6. Pinko Magazine » Swinging Grandma: Readers Respond (with great ideas!) October 23rd, 2008 2:06 pm

    [...] for Bush. Can they work for beleaguered lefties trying to swing their relatives?  * Here at Pinko our friend Sandy went after a friend in Ohio hard, invoking a doomsday scenario with suicide bombings in the Middle East, the president stuck [...]

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