Observations of Taiwan and Palin

First, some things I’ve noticed here. Mullets and rat tails are still cool, I approve. It’s totally ok for a guy to tell another guy they are handsome in Chinese culture as several people at work have told me this. Taiwanese people cannot be in a conversation with me for more than a few minutes before asking if I have a girlfriend and are shocked when I say no. They also ask if I really like Taiwanese women (the GM and the boss of my company have both asked me this). I’ve noticed that even tough most Taiwanese people speak English, they are very hesitant to talk with me or approach me but once they hear me speak Chinese they can’t talk to me enough.

For those of you back at ND, please go to the Backer. I miss that place. So to compensate I’ve been listening to lots of Backer music, especially “How Can We be Lovers” by Michael Bolton and “I’m Going Down” by the Boss.

Now that I’ve had some time to think it over, here are my thoughts on Sarah Palin. The most important thing about this is how it is precieved. To my eyes, it’s pandering to women and trying to break off female Clinton voters and make McCain look younger. If Americans see it that way McCain could be in trouble. What is clear is this is a gamble on his part. He chose someone who is pretty unknown (I had no idea who she was when it was announced) and has no real foreign policy experience. McCain is taking a gamble that Americans are confident enough in his foreign policy experience and know him well enough that they will overlook those qualities in his VP.

As a result, Palin is to balance the ticket as an agent of “change.” This means McCain has effectively ceded the election hinges on who is more capable of bringing change to D.C. This is dangerous for McCain since his VP is not seen as experienced (the thing he hammers Obama on) and it’s not clear she is an agent of change. Hence, McCain is doing battle over an area that is going to be hard for him to defeat Obama because Obama has staked himself as the change candidate. I’m not convinced Americans will view his ticket as an agent of change.

On the experience card, the Dems and the Daily Show will have fun with the fact that in recent interview Palin didn’t know McCain policies and was unsure of the responsibilities of a VP. It will be interesting to see how hard the Dems attack because attacking a mother could easily backfire on them.

The choice of Palin also makes Hilary Clinton a major key to the election. She says she supports Obama so now she needs to back it up with concrete action. If she campaigns for Obama and truly backs him, Obama will win the women’s vote. If she still hasn’t made amends with Obama then Palin will potentially split the women’s vote.

McCain needs to have a good convention and run a barrage of ads to introduce Palin to America and make her less of an unknown.