One of the weird aspects of McCain’s veep pick is that Sarah Palin is right in the middle of a potential scandal that hasn’t come close to working itself out.
This month, a bipartisan panel of state legislators appointed an independent investigator to look into whether Ms. Palin had fired a top law enforcement official in her administration because he had failed to dismiss a state trooper who was involved in a divorce with Ms. Palin’s sister.
The Anchorage Daily News has more. Walt Monegan, the Alaska official who Palin fired, has already disclosed that Palin repeatedly harassed him about her ex-brother in law, and he has a sheaf of emails that he plans to show to investigators. The guy who Palin appointed to replace Monegan, Chuck Kopp, had a touching the wimmen problem that Palin knew about when she hired him.
If I had to guess I would say that the investigator’s report will be embarrassing but not fatal. Even granting the worst possible interpretation Palin’s troopergate doesn’t get close to the kind of deep corruption that we expect from the GOP’s DC delegation. It’s the sort of thing that bubbles up during local politics in a small state, especially an isolated petrostate like Alaska. The guy she picked is a little shady but, look, with the population of Austin, Texas Alaska doesn’t have a very deep bench. Compare Kopp with Harriet Miers. Michael Brown. Bernie fucking Kerik.
At the most Palin comes across as flighty, careless with power and shows moderately bad character judgment. By itself that wouldn’t threaten, say, a popular sitting governor who would need to commit a murder to lose her seat. The problem is that Sarah Palin is now running for the Vice President of the United States. Given that she’s a political naif with no relevant experience to call on, those defects are fatal.
Conservatively Liberal
I have been reading about this overnight, and it sure makes her look petty and vindictive. Poor judgment in the execution of her duties too.
From what I found out, the guy she picked also had a prior sexual harassment issue that she knew about and still plicked him.
Not a smart cookie, that is for sure.
Conservatively Liberal
plicked = picked
lol
myiq2xu
Given that Obama’s a political naif with no relevant experience to call on, Ayers, Wright and Rezko are fatal defects
Y’all really don’t want to criticize her lack of experience.
That would be as dumb as Obama criticizing McCain’s real estate holdings.
Oh, wait, he already did.
I’ll bet Palin has good judgment to make up for her lack of experience. Besides, she won’t be the one in charge.
Vice President is a good place for on-the-job training.
President is not.
Tim F.
I see that someone’s still bitter.
searp
What does this say about McCain’s judgment?
We have had enough incompetence in the White House. Why does the American public persist in the belief that anybody born here over the minimum age not only could be president but should be president?
If there is any sense in the voting public, this choice ought to occasion a tidal wave towards Obama.
Vignette: I was walking my dog this morning with a friend who runs a commercial real estate company. He is the oldest person in the company, most of whom are 30’s-40’s business types that were either McCain supporters or on the fence. He told me that after the Palin news was out everybody in the office started talking about how they were going to vote for Obama.
McCain really “sealed the deal” there.
Redhand
To me the choice is just idiotic. Oldest man ever to run for prez. picks most inexperienced rookie (who happens to be female) as his running mate?! What was he thinking?! He can write off the “Obama = inexperience” issue completely. The choice raises huge questments about McCain’s judgment, as in, “Does he have any at all?”
JL
I certainly don’t want to criticize her experience, but I do wonder about her apparent abuse of power. btw, Do you think it’s fair to criticize her depth of knowledge. She does not believe that evolution should be taught. She does not believe that global warming is man-made. Her scientific theories seem lacking. I wonder how she feels about Fannie and Freddie.
Redhand
“questments” = Gawd Almighty. D’Oh, “questions.”
dmsilev
I read somewhere that investigators from the McCain campaign flew to Alaska yesterday to start looking into the Troopergate story, to see if there’s any there there.
Primo vetting job, boys!
-dms
John S.
I think it’s adorable that for the longest time he pretended to be a serious Democrat who vote for the party nominee.
Nice to see the jig is up.
dmsilev
Oh, and via Salon, it’s clear that she’s a deep thinker who has given careful consideration to the great problems of our time:
-dms
grandpajohn
Exactly and it also writes off the “Country First” crap that he has been piously spouting athough those who have been following the progress of the process already knew that is was a lie.
DougJ
A couple points about this:
(1) It’s worse than I thought at first blush. Because her office really did pressure Monegan to fire Wooten and then she did fire Monegan after he wouldn’t. Those are established facts.
(2) She has a history of this kind of thing. From her Wiki:
In other words, this is Monica Goodling all over again.
(3) None of this makes a whit of difference because the punditocracy (a) doesn’t care and (b) is still trying to make this into a race. Case in point: Broder spent his entire Sunday column trashing Obama’s speech.
In sum: expect little to no coverage of the probe from the media. Instead, expect a lot of fluff about “Sarah Barracuda”, the kid with Down syndrome, and her past as a beauty queen. You can take that to the bank.
mellowjohn
stop picking on her. she’s a mother of 5. and her baby has down syndrome.
and did you know that mcsame was a pow?
JGabriel
MyIQ2xU:
I agree. It’s Palin’s poor judgement and ignorance that concern us more so than the inexperience. Especially her ignorance with respect to foreign policy, federal governance, and national politics.
Also, when one looks over Palin’s political history in Alaska, she comes across as self-righteous and autocratic. We’ve seen enough of that over the last eight years.
.
KT
Naif? Riiiight. The “naif” defeated a popular team consisting of a former president, his brilliant first lady and their entire political machine. Pretty damn impressive for a “naif.”
Why not? As the above defeat illustrates, rather dramatically, this particular “naif” is a force to be reckoned with. There is also the little matter that he has been on the national stage for 4 years and has built up an extensive political machine in its own right. This machine has now merged with the Clinton machine making it doubly powerful. And Sarah Palin has dine what?
Hmmm you may have a point. Let’s do a comparison: Omamas 1 house, McCains 7 + N houses. Damn we’re pwned! Well played!
nightjar
Bitter and stupid. “Fatal defects” fer sure.
John Q.
Favorite Palin Talking Point: As head of the Alaskan National Guard, she has more military experience than Obama and Biden combined!
By that standard, Bill Clinton had more military experience than George H. W. Bush!! You gotta love the Republicons!
nightjar
Or Karl Rove’s evil twin.
Eural Joiner
DougJ,
Look at the bright side – David “Bush Bounce” Broder’s column just confirms that Obama gave a great, memorable and politically astute speech!
It’s been interesting watching the two campaigns shift into gear for the final run-up to November. The D’s are looking more and more presidential, effective and serious. The R’s are looking more like caricature’s off some poorly made right-wing propaganda movie.
As others have pointed out I think the Palin/McCain thing gets a “honeymoon” for about a week and when the real post-convention campaiging starts the wheels are going to start coming off. The debates should be very interesting to say the least!
Dennis - SGMM
Palin heads the AK national guard, as all governors “head” the NG’s of their respective states. She does not command the National Guard. There’s a huge difference. Military experience = 0.
jrg
myiq2xu, you do realize that you’re helping to elect a creationist and someone that voted with bush 90+% of the time, right?
Do the people that are most capable at your workplace get promoted, or do your bosses promote the people that have been there the longest?
Do you think it’s preferable to promote someone that makes terrible decisions because they are old?
And speaking of experience, you do realize that Barack has a long history of public service, including a careers in constitutional law, civil rights, community organizing, the Illinois state legislature, and the U.S. Senate, right? You do realize that Barack is in good physical shape, and has an very experienced running mate, also in good physical shape?
You are helping put a religious fundamentalist with two years of experience in government one heartbeat away from the presidency. Good for you.
Faux News
I guess douchebags like you must have been in a coma for the past 7 1/2 years
Look, I’m sure there is a PUMA/Redstate circle jerk waiting for you somewhere online.
Paul L. is a better Troll than you.
Zifnab
Bottom line, if he wanted to appeal to the women’s vote right, he should have tapped Kay Baily Hutchinson or Elizabeth Dole. They’ve got long Senate careers, Dole has administrative experience in the RSCC, and both would be competent fund raisers – which is, ultimately, the biggest job of a VP Nominee.
So while I won’t deny that nominating a woman was “clever”, I don’t think I’ll start declaring it “smart”.
And myiq404 is as wingnutty as ever, I see. Had Obama selected Hillary or Sebilius, Palin’s named would have dropped straight off the GOP VP short list. This is a blatant pander on McCain’s part to try and wrangle a faction of voters – the mythical PUMAs – that only the MSM and the GOP seem to think exist.
I’ll admit that Obama doesn’t have extensive executive experience, but than neither does Palin or Biden or – for that matter McCain. So that ship sailed a while ago. But Obama is selling a bill of goods, an economic and environmental and energy and war time policy platform that will be implemented by an army of experts and specialists. People aren’t voting for Barack Obama the Head of the EPA or Barack Obama the General of Allied Forces In The Middle East, they’re voting for Barack Obama the Chief Executive Officer of the United States. Barack and Biden embody a set of policies that the majority of Americans support. McCain and Palin don’t. At the end of the day, all the POWs and VPILFs in the world won’t change the fact that Americans, by and large, despise the McCain / Palin policy positions. The End.
georgia pig
I stand by my earlier prediction that this will be a trainwreck for the Republicans. Palin will have a shelf life of a week or two, then she’ll say something or something will come out that will show her to be twit, sleazeball and/or nutcase. Obama should play it cool, saying something along the lines of “We look forward to hearing Gov. Palin’s views on the challenges facing the country, because we are unaware of her positions on these issues. As I said in my acceptance speech, we want to debate the issues, not quibble over Gov. Palin’s credentials, and we’re sure Sen. McCain has fully vetted her. However, as I also pointed out in my address to the the Democratic National Convention, we question whether Sen. McCain really understands the issues facing the average american, which, of course, entails that the country also needs to be assured that the person a heartbeat away from the presidency has a grasp of these issues. We anticipate that will be a lively and informative debate.”
Stimpy
I don’t have as good a feeling about this decision as some democrats seem to have.
I’m afraid that if she comes across as articulate and intelligent this could be a win for McCain. In the short term anyway Palin will energize the rightwing and give them a narrative that they have been missing for a while.
Don’t forget that we elected a president with Dan Quayle as a running mate.
gbear
Jed’s got a great video up that makes it pretty clear why Palin got the job. Funny stuff.
John S.
Don’t forget that we elected a president who had just been vice-president for 8 years with Dan Quayle as a running mate who were opposed by Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen.
Not a very good comparison to the present-day situation.
JGabriel
Stimpy:
Well, she pronounces “about” as “a-bote”, and “nuclear” as “nucular”. That will play fine among some people, but she can hardly be said to be passing the “articluate” test.
Granted, some of that is merely a minor accent issue that a lot of people will overlook. But I’m sure there are also plenty of people who will think, “Do we really want a Vice-President who sounds like the lady that brings marshmellow jello salad to the office reception?”
.
Brian
Wasn’t there a domestic violence angle that so many seem to be leaving out?
nightjar
What is Mccain thinking, one Alaskan’s perspective?
Although there is no evidence Palin has anything to do with the “Corrupt Bastards Club” there doesn’t have to be for this to be a problem for Mccain. As the media digs into Palin’s life in Alaska politics, they will be reminding the rest of us that something is rotten with Republicans way up there. Questions like, does Palin know Ted Stepehns very well, or his son, or Don Young. Masterful choice there Johnnie.
gbear
MooseIQ says:
Let’s send her on a trip to Europe and the Middle East to find out. Let her charm and intelligence shine for the world to see.
KT
I wouldn’t be too nervous yet. Her stance on abortion is extreme (no abortions, ever, even in cases of rape or incest) and so out of step with the mainstream that she will only appeal to extremist fundies.
No matter how smart she comes across, it is absolutely impossible for her to acquire anything like depth in the hundreds of issues a president needs to be familiar with. It took Bill Clinton a truly brilliant politician, years to amass the knowledge he had when he entered office and no matter how smart you are, you can’t just fake that.
McCain’s age makes her readiness much more important than it would normally be.
Davis X. Machina
I think it’s adorable that for the longest time he pretended to be a serious Democrat who vote for the party nominee.
The Code of the Hack is a harsh and unforgiving one.
gbear
Shorter Broder: Who are you 38 million people going to believe, me or you own lying eyes?
Suicidal Zebra
myiq2xu said
Are you serious? The VP position isn’t like working for bloody McDonalds, especially with the amount of power Dick Cheney has appropriated unto the office.
Bonkers. I know you guys hate that Obama beat poor, martyred Hillary but put down the bottle of Gin and start being honest by admitting that you want to screw up America because he hurt your feelings.
Stimpy
Yes. Obama is a far more formidable candidate than either of those two.
But, there is the expectations game too, and if she comes across as charming and articulate then that may be enough to convince some fence sitters.
I mean, most readers of this site won’t be convinced or reassured by Tina Fey as VP, but we aren’t the target McCain is shooting for here either.
Personally, I think this shows a huge lack of judgment on McCains part. Obama picked a VP to help him govern and his campaign strategy is all about putting an organization in place to help pass his agenda after he is elected. This is one of the reasons I support him. Contrast that with McCain who is thinking very short term and just want to get elected president at least ONCE before he dies.
How many “swing” voters will see this pick the same way? And how many will see this as a reason to vote for McCain? I am afraid to find out…
Bob In Pacifica
1. myiq2xu is clearly a plant. All the posts written on behalf of H. Clinton were BS. Not pro-Clinton. Pro-Republican, which would be fine if he/she admitted it. Disingenuity.
2. Could it be that the Republicans, aside from the unit that sends myiq2xu his check, is actually trying to lose the election, knowing how badly the economy is gonna collapse in the next six months.
LA Confidential Pantload
Why’d he pick her? He was probably having one of those erections that last more than four hours.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Yes, the Republican ratfucker does now. Not so SATSQ.
Buck up little camper, nobody said getting elected President was going to be easy.
John S.
Oh, I realize we’re not the target.
But several people I have spoken with who were 100% the target (disaffected Hillary supporters or conservative ‘Reagan’ Democrats) and who I was fairly convinced were going to vote for McCain (much to my chagrin) are not happy at all. McCain put needlessly put their backs to the wall.
Ironically, all the people we mocked and hoped to be his VP like Mittens would have been a far safer choice for these people. They have said as much. Here in Florida, most that I spoke with would have not thought twice to vote GOP for the first time in their lives if Crist was on the ticket.
Now thanks to Palin, they are going to hold their noses and vote for Obama.
Notorious P.A.T.
And he seems to think this election should be decided upon the basis of that bitterness, rather than whether or not our soldiers should keep dying in Iraq for no good reason or whether or not we should keep buying oil from Arab sheiks who will use the money for terror attacks against our country.
nightjar
Not many. Most swing voters are socially liberal and support abortion rights. They also disdain ideologues left or right, and Palin is quite clearly a RW ideologue on a number of issues. This choice was to rally the base and throw in a wild card aimed at disaffected Hilary voters, most of which are fervent pro choice and would never vote for Palin a pro-lifer with no exceptions for rape or incest. The handful of PUMAS were going to vote Mccain or stay home anyway.
As far as rallying the base, reactions are split between the social conservatives who like it, and national security ones who don’t. He might gain a few social cons but will lose some independents. A wash at best.
Beth in VA
“Bernie fucking Kerik” — that’s a new analogy, and kind of apt in that it’s a low-level, petty government equivaliency, I don’t see where Palin demonstrated that level of power-abuse, she clearly was headed that way!
Mike
Palin is younger than McCain was when the Keating hijinx went down, so I say we just chalk this up to youthful indiscretion and move on.
forked tongue
Somehow this strangely reminded me of a joke by Emo Phillips: “I’m a great lover, I bet.”
Let us not forget that in the 2004 debate, Bush and Kerry were asked what they saw as the biggest security threat facing the US. Kerry went first and said “loose nukes.” Bush went second and said “Yeah, I agree, loose nukes.”
In the next four years, from his seat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Obama accomplished more than the President did toward reigning in what Bush himself identified as the greatest security threat facing the United States.
Meanwhile, I just love the idea of President Palin bringing her demonstrated experience and gravitas to bear on some global hotspot, don’t you?
“I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy.”
Notorious P.A.T.
Personally I think McCain was looking at the teleprompter so he would know when to smile.
Of course she does. Nothing says “good judgment” like believing in creationism, advocating more oil-drilling to lower gas prices, and flying across the continent while 9 months pregnant.
Ed in NJ
The spin from the right on this issue is going to be that the brother-in-law was a bad guy. Mistreated Palin’s sister, tased his 11 year-old son. But this misses the bigger picture. While it’s possible the brother-in-law needed firing, it wasn’t Palin’s decision to make. It’s similar to the after-the-fact spin on Iraq, where you hear war supporters to this day claim that it was the right decision to go into Iraq because Saddam Hussein was a bad guy. Imperialism masked as righteousness.
Avi
So Palin has a firing scandal, but it’s personal, not partisan. I feel so much better now.
Stimpy
John S:
I hope so. We’ll see how this plays out, but if someone is a reluctant Obama voter, how easy would it be for them to flip back if McCain and Palin are able to reassure them? That is what I am afraid of, a positive MSM narrative + one or two positive “performances” by Palin may flip the whole thing for some of these folks.
I have completely lost any faith in the majority of the voters in this country after 2004, apparently!
Notorious P.A.T.
True story: I just asked my mom, a nurse for 40-some years who used to teach Lamaze, if she would fly across the country while 9 months pregnant. Her response was “holy s**t, no!”
Rosali
I’m hoping Palin shows up for the debate with Biden and has an Admiral Stockdale moment.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
I remain worry-free. McCain’s an SNL punchline and a public incident away from Palin turning into a major issue. And she’s not convincing anyone but the base and the ratfuckers.
Notorious P.A.T.
You are not alone.
zzyzx
This is the sort of ad I want. No condescension. No talking about troopergate even. Just opening the window to her beliefs that she’s trying to pretend she doesn’t have.
4tehlulz
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
-Creationist
-“I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.”
-Global warming denier
-“What does the VP do anyway?” protip: Never take a job if you don’t what the position is.
Need I go on? I could.
PeterJ
OT, and I doubt that something won’t be done about it, but…
Both the Republican party and the Democratic party failed to certify their presidential and vice-presidential candidates in Texas before the deadline.
Bob Barr wins by walkover.
And it’s now obvious that no major party has even one clue about Texas and elections… ;)
wasabi gasp
Anybody check in on Joe Lieberman recently? Someone really should bring that fella a casserole.
Dennis - SGMM
Here’s Karl (Rove):
With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?
MJ
George H.W. Bush was in the US Navy. He was Aviator in the Pacific during WWII. You gotta love the Dimocrats!
I’m surprised that idiot has the brains to work a PC to even make that post.
Notorious P.A.T.
Considering Stockdale had more qualification in his little finger than Palin has, that’s a good possibility.
Dan
A thought:
I’ve lived in red states and rural areas of the blue for a long time. I know there are plenty of fair-minded people there who will judge the candidates on their merits.
Still, I think there may be a portion of the Republican base that looks at the candidates, sees a black man on one side and a woman on the other, and decides to sit this one out. I don’t think that percentage will be large, but it might be enough to tip some states to Obama.
Thoughts?
Digital Amish
It’s obvious what McCain is doing with this pick. Flanked by Cindy and Sarah he’s trying to decide that age old question — “MaryAnn or Ginger?”
tBone
HW was in the Navy for 4 years. Clinton was Arkansas governor for 12. If the standard is that heading a state National Guard counts as military experience (as some are suggesting in Palin’s case) then Clinton did indeed have more military experience than Bush.
Why am I bothering to talk to you anyway? You’re clearly a spoof.
dr. bloor
I’m sure Joe and his oppo team are too busy digging the dirt on Governor Falin’ to eat at the moment. Given the degree to which Pawlenty, Mittster and the other dwarves are pissed off by McCain’s gambit, Joey figures to be the only potential replacement around to say “yes” when Sarah has to pull out of the race.
GSD
John McCain is the man who has made “lack of experience” a referendum on a persons’ judgement.
Welcome to the jungle Johnny.
Sarah Palin, if you liked the mindset that brought you the Terri Schaivo debacle, you’ll love Sarah Falwell-Palin.
-GSD
cleek
Obama was president of the Havard Law Review.
Executive Experience!
KT
I was actually kind of impressed. I’ve never seen a bag of hammers type before.
jdrhoades
Much as I hate to even come close to agreeing with an obvious Rethuglican plant like myiq2xu, there’s this about the whole “experience issue: it needs to be a shield not a sword. It only needs to be brought up every time, and I mean EVERY time, that whole “Obama’s not ready to lead” meme pops up. The immediate comeback should be “And Palin is?”
hillcountry
John McCain is a hypocrite. He made all this fuss over Obama passing over the runner-up in his primary campaign, who by all accounts was the most qualified for the veep slot. And then he goes and does the same thing!!! I’m a Democrat, but I actually feel sorry for Mitt Romney (I never thought I would say that). He went to Denver, appeared on numerous shows, stumped for McCain all over the country, a man he didn’t even like all that much. You could tell he wanted it real bad. And he was by far the most qualified: successful businessman and governor, savior of the Salt Lake Olympics, and conservative talk radio’s favorite choice. Now he’s back in Boston, seething. He knows now he was used as a decoy, and the rest of us know it now too. For all of McCain’s talk of putting country first, when it came to his first major decision he put his party first, not his country. McCain’s decision to put an untested novice a 72-year-old’s heartbeat away—all while he was lambasting his opponent for not being ready—is hypocritical, and reckless. And a lot of people are saying so. (It’s also laughable that he would pick someone who is as we speak under state investigation. The details are even now coming out.)
KT
Maybe he can do an independent run for VP, sort of like he did when he lost to Lamont.
JGabriel
Dan:
The only states close enough for that scenario to be a possibility would be: Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, and Nevada.
Palin’s right wing fundamentalism might help in NV, where it could encourage turnout amongst the fundie and Mormon vote.
I don’t see the scenario you’ve outlined having much impact in CO or OH.
VA might be a possibility. I know the distribution of sexism and racism is a lot less correlated in some places than most people would suspect, but southern and western VA seem to be places where they might be highly correlated, which would lead to the dynamic of people sitting it out because they can’t bring themselves to vote for a black or a woman.
I’m not certain that’s the case for VA, though. Perhaps someone from that area, or who know it well, can weigh in?
.
grandpajohn
Well maybe this will be a sobering question to ask here, can someone name me the last president to be elected because of his VP pick?
stb
The Obama camp is all about change, yet they pick a guy, Biden, who has been Senator since the Civil War… a guy who was thoroughly impressed by Obama, an African American he considered “articulate” and “clean” What hypocrisy…
There are deep rooted problems with all politicians, Republicans and Democrats. They seem much more concerned with fighting against each other than with solving some of the problems facing our country. McCain brings in the one person who has not been corrupted by Washington politics, one person who truly could bring some much needed change, someone who actually is real, and all you guys can do is criticize because she doesn’t have Washington experience. I, for one, am THRILLED she doesn’t have Washington experience. I hope she will bring some much needed reality and sanity back into that dreadful city.
NewUnansweredQuestions
When John McCain announced his candidacy for president in April, 2007, Palin had been a governor for four months. Her prior job was mayor of a little gravel mine town in Alaska. As mayor, she apparently left the town saddled with debt incurred for things like overblown sports facilities that the town didn’t need.
She’s a disaster, and an insult to the independent women voters McCain probably thinks he can attract with this choice. She’ll probably be deposed as part of an ongoing scandal investigation that could threaten her hold on the governor’s office.
Like we said yesterday, this is the most staggeringly inept and irresponsible VP choice anyone has seen in modern times. It’s a panic move and it calls into question not just the judgment of McCain, but also his mental stability.
El
18 million cracks and 1 crackpot.
And when did wimmin stop object to being called ‘cracks’?
w vincentz
Can’t you see that McIdiot is distracting the voters from the REAL issues and putting the focus on ABORTION (Roe v Wade)?
Nice try Johnnie (R-Insane), but there are more urgent concerns.
NewUnansweredQuestions
Wikipedia
I look forward to her explanation of how Intelligent Design is responsible for smallpox, and polycthemia vera and the other myeloproliferative disorders, a couple of awful modes of death, one relaitvely fast and the others cruelly slow.
Praise God.
gex
Then you remember that back in the day, white men deemed black men to count as 3/5 of a person. And still, black men got the vote before women. As the phrase goes, “Bros before …”
Losing the votes of idiots who wouldn’t vote for a black man or a woman counts as a bonus to me, whichever way it pushes the election. Still, I think that this is more likely to help Obama than hurt. He’ll pick up some of the sexist vote and those who drop out were never likely to vote Dem in the first place.
dr. bloor
You would be thinking of JFK.
Even while they don’t often get Presidents elected, they can contribute to getting them unelected, and Palin appears to be a glowing example of this principle.
grumpy realist
I remember reading a comment somewhere about how although no one ever WON the presidency because his VP pick, many people have trashed their chances because of their VP pick….
What I’m surprised is that more people aren’t picking up on the fact that this is a Hail Mary pass. Hail Mary passes, by their definition, are gambles. They are also gambles that fail more times than not.
So the very first action that McCain takes as a Responsible & Prudent candidate for the POTUS is….an act which is a gamble. Is this sort of activity indicative of how he would act as president? Will he do Hail Mary passes when dealing with players like Russia? China? Iran?
The Dude Abides
It also appears that Todd Palin, Sarah’s husband, has a fair amount of power. One of her campaign workers, who then got a job as part of her gubernatorial staff, apparently was fired because he was dating the ex-wife of one of Todd’s friends, and refused to break up with her after Todd pressured him.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/29/155145/681/530/579154
Davis X. Machina
The GOP has long since abandoned the notion of ‘governing’.
The question they now ask when they come to a fork in the road is not ‘What’s the right thing to do?’. It’s not ‘What course do conservative principles suggest?’ By this point, it’s not even ‘What do we do to win?’
It’s down to ‘What will piss the liberals off?’ and/or ‘What will amuse the press?’
This is how a booker for a talk-show approaches his task. You don’t choose even an assistant secretary of Transportation that way, certainly not a presidential candidate, or god help us, a president.
A party whose only detectable core principle is the endless provision of bright shiny things and middle fingers.
Deeply unserious. Deeply insulting.
Rob
When you say “fatal”, do you mean in political terms? Or do you mean fatal, as in really bad for our nation’s governance? I fear that nowadays we place all emphasis on the former at great expense to the latter.
NewUnansweredQuestions
Via Kevin Drum in his new digs at Mother Jones.
Another VP who loves big oil? Just what we need.
NewUnansweredQuestions
Sarah Palin, again via Drum.
Off to the store, there’s going to be a run on popcorn.
w vincentz
Funny…Rethugs don’t learn.
Remember the Illinois Senate race? Alan Keyes???
Two “issues” raised by Keyes:
1) Obama doesn’t support Bush’s war (Iraq).
2) Obama is “pro choice” (anti-life). Please note, this is why Palin was selected.
Obama won the Senate seat by the largest magin recorded in state history, 70+%.
Johnnie McIdiot sure knows issues, and how to not learn from previous debacles.
Thsi race will be all about “ABORTION”, doncha know?
dbrown
The only thing Gov. Palin has learned in her political life is how to give hand jobs to the fundamentalist – as for intelligence, didn’t anyone tell her about birth control or at least, hand jobs for her spouse? A woman age 43 does not have the best odds in conceiving a child without risks. Obviously, in judgment, she is lacking relative to her own health – flying around in the last stages of her pregnancy. As for traveling around the country now and her baby with Down syndrome, I am sure that money is all that truly buys happiness – the child would never need her biological mother; I mean, that is why she brought the child into the world even knowing the issue of Down syndrome – she never intended to deal with her baby. That is family value (yes, she said this when she pointed out that she only preferred to work rather than have home time and after just five days, returned to her real duties.)
AS for eye candy, I saw her cover for Vogue, and she was in lingerie! Now that is a woman who is professional but not when it comes to being VP.
She is irrelevant and should be ignored. She gives nothing to McInsane and that is all that matters. The hand job Christians were his anyway and no thinking woman would support her just because she is a woman (that type of stupidity is mainly a male thing.)
NewUnansweredQuestions
Um, what?
A google for “palin hail mary” returns 6200 articles on a news search.
pen
It’s official……team Balloon Juice are complete idiots in reporting something as insignificant as this.
Have you read or understood why she might have wanted this trooper to be fired? He tasered his 11 year old son to show him what it was like. He drove, in uniform and in a trooper car, while he was drunk. And he illegally killed a moose, which sounds stupidly petty to those who hide behind a computer and blast away at “Them there hicks in hickville” but that’s a pretty big nono for an officer of the law. Oh, and death threats to Palin’s father?
Non-issue that, quite frankly, is very old news. Extremely embarrassing……
Seriously guys, I understand how you guys are biased beyond belief……but at least attempt…..attempt to be objective and consider both sides.
Or continue to be the spineless dicks that you have been for the last God knows how long. (yes, capital G)
And please do not delete this comment as you have my others, because that’s a form of censorship that is worthy of criticism for everyone
dbrown
I’m more impressed – a brick calling someone a box of hammers.
Notorious P.A.T.
Ohio is redneck country. For some reason the people of that state have decided they want to be the spiritual neighbors of Mississippii and Arksansas.
Zifnab
Yeah, that is the other thing that gets me. McCain’s pick seems to revolve around three key issues: Abortion, Abortion, Abortion.
Remind me again – with two wars, a housing crisis, $4 / gallon gas, and people dropping off the health insurance rolls, where is this massive constituency of pro-life voters that is going to sweep McCain to the Presidency?
Svensker
Unintentional hilarity POTD.
GSD
Charlie Black, McCain’s chief political adviser says Gov. Palin will learn foreign policy “at the feet of the master”.
The Fundies are, ba, da, da, da, daaaa….McLovin’ it.
-GSD
Jake
There seem to be a number of folks suggesting that Palin won’t survive the next couple of weeks. Not that she won’t hold up, but rather that the idiocy of the pick will force McCain’s hand.
I don’t see that happening, because McCain’s just not the type of guy to admit he was reckless. But this does provide insight into just how bad this pick was.
McCain thinks a great deal of himself, and very little of Obama. I think he jumped the shark here, big time.
liberal
grumpy realist wrote,
Agreed—given McCain’s “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran…” comment and his history in the armed forces and college, this is more evidence that he shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the White House.
dbrown
Since this
Eye-candy, I mean Gov is a creationist, can we have a thread on that?liberal
dbrown wrote,
Agreed.
Many people (including many pro-choice people) wouldn’t about a fetus because it has Down’s syndrome.
But conceiving a child so late in life, especially when you’re already blessed with plenty of other children, appears irresponsible.
capelza
myiq2xu,
I was watching “The Daily Show” last night and Samantha Bee nailed you and any of the bitter, insane..did I say insane?, people who would send McCain to the White House because you pissed off about HRC not getting the nomination.
In a fit of pique, because you want to teach the DNC a lesson, you’ll go against everything HRC stands for…
Because as Samantha said, Palin has a vagina and tits. Take that DNC!
But in the meantime, my children, my grandchildren and any other rational person with children and grandchildren will know that another 4 years of this crap will be more debt, carnage and decline of America. So yeah..get on with your bad self. You don’t give a fuck about this country. It’s all about you. These 4 years you want to give McCain to teach the DNC a lesson will fuck everyone over, not just the DNC.
I voted for Hillary. I’ll vote for Obama. And I’ll do it happily and proudly.
Really, you suck..
JGabriel
DBrown:
Dude, you got pwn’d. That’s actually a photoshopped parody.
The actual Vogue photos are at HuffPo, if you want to look for them. They’re mainly mid-long range shots of Palin walking around a wintry landscape while wearing a winter coat.
.
boonagain
When Palin withdraws after the convention (for any of a myriad of reasons), she will leave the field open for Joe LIEberman to step in at the last minute.
Tha gives McCain the covention to rally his RW nutjobs w/Palin and then clears the way for his real first choice.
Kirk
er, dbrown? The lingerie cover of Vogue is a photoshop.
MJ
tBone your command of analogies is so poor that if given a SAT test you’d score as if English was your second language.
A trooper that tasers an 11 year old boy should lose his job.
JGabriel
Notorious P.A.T.:
True, but Appalachian rednecks tend to be more racist than sexist (lots of strong women in Appalchia), so the dynamic that Dan was asking about – of people who wouldn’t vote at all, given the choice of a ticket with a woman or a ticket with a black – wouldn’t apply. They won’t have much problem voting for a McCain/Palin ticket, which would be the default choice for them anyway.
So, not much effect there.
I’m still hoping someone knowledgable will weigh in on the situation in VA.
.
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m in Virginia. Maybe I can help. To what situation are you referring?
JGabriel
MJ:
I haven’t seen that reported anywhere but blogs. Can you give a cite from a legitimate reporting organization, an Alaskan newspaper of television report, for instance?
From what I’ve seen, that accusation looks to be a spurious rumor started by someone in the Palin/Heath clan to harass Wooten – and there doesn’t seem to be any serious dispute (despite Palin’s denials) that Wooten was/is being harassed by them due to the ongoing child custody dispute he has with Palin’s sister.
Now, I don’t have a dog in that fight. So, if the accusation is true, I’d like to know. But without a legitimate report, I’d say it has to be relegated to the dustbin of vindictive rumor. It’s just a little too extreme for belief.
.
dbrown
Go to show what happens when you trust a Republican site that directed me to those shots – damn, can’t even count on Repubics for information on their own people!
w vincentz
@MJ, Not to question your pretrial conviction of the trooper, but what about a Governor that fires the Public Safety Commissioner (who didn’t taser anyone) for not doing her bidding…24 phone calls (on tape, as well as lots of emails)? Huh?
And, if NoIQ is around, answer your own GD question that you posted in a different thread…”how many goats were in the herd that took your cherry?”
NewUnansweredQuestions
And would, without the inappropriate intervention of a governor. If your state trooper organization can’t handle this problem without the governor playing games, then you have a bigger problem than tasering kids. Your whole system is fucked.
JGabriel
Just Some Fuckhead:
An earlier commenter, Dan, asked if there would be any state in which enough people would sit out the election – because they’d refuse to vote for a ticket with an African American or a woman on it – that it could swing the state.
I speculated that there were only four states close enough where it could even possibly come into play: NV, VA, CO, and OH. In NV, Palin might actually help with the fundies and Mormons. Probably no effect in CO or OH.
But I didn’t know enough about the dynamics of sexism v. racism among the conservatives in VA to say how it would play out there. My guess is that there might actually be enough such people in southern or western VA that might sit out the election for that reason, such that Obama might benefit, but was looking for confirmation or denial from someone who knows the area better.
Your thoughts?
.
John
By that standard, Bill Clinton had more military experience than George H. W. Bush!! You gotta love the Republicons!
Er…H.W. was a WWII vet.
PC
This keeps getting better. Palin left her mayoral term and saddled the town of 6,000 with $20 million in debt. What a maverick! As governor she implemented windfall profit taxes on oil companies to increase state coffers. What a conservative!
boonagain
About the taser incident: from what I have read, the boy asked the guy to be tasered because he wanted to see what it felt like. While I agree that it was incredibly poor judgment of the cop to do this, it doesn’t seem to be abusive punishment as much as abusive stupidity.
Also, this was another incident that was reported well after the fact, not ehrn it occurred.
(I am not defending the guy’s actions, but putting those actions in context)
dbrown
This looks good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgVUxmjf0G8
Just Some Fuckhead
Teh Stoopid hurts.
SmilingPolitely
What’s this about Palin’s baby actually being her High School daughter’s and not her own?
God, wont this make for some kind of spectacle if there turns out to be some truth to these rumors. Surely Camp McCain is not that careless, right?
w vincentz
@NoIQ,
I’ll start the guessing at 683 goats, and the 684th gottcha.
All that great smell in the mornin’ doncha know?
Follow-up question: If you became pregnant from that memorable experience, would you fly from Dallas to Anchorage
to give birth to something that is 1/2 goat and 1/2 Sasquatch..after your water broke in Dallas?
Or would you drive there on the back of a snowmobile?
Just askin’…
AkaDad
It really does take a maverick to pick your VP after meeting her only once.
I had more vetting when I applied to McDonalds.
john b
someone who knows more about craps than i do should make an appropriate craps:sarah palin pick metaphor — in honor of mccain’s favorite out-of-touch reckless pass-time
rawshark
Only reality based sentient beings are seeing this as a bad choice for McCain. Don’t forget reality has nothing to do with a wingnuts perception of the world.
Dennis - SGMM
We’re just lucky that Scarlett Johansson is too young for the office.
PanAmerican
Lucky for the GOP that Obama is a political naif. Otherwise one might get the impression Hothead John got fed bad intel that goaded him into making a stupid VP decision.
w vincentz
@john b,
McCraps knows crap.
“Reckless”? Do you know how many taxpayer paid planes he crashed?
Joshua Norton
Oh brother. More wingnut over-the-top hysterics. Kind of hearkens back to a simpler time when they were shrieking that Elian Gonzalez’ grandparents sexually abused him so we had to keep him here. Or that Terry Schaivo always talked and laughed with her parents when no one else was around. Or that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Twin Towers falling.
Ratfucker Theorem Number One:
Child or Penis or Terrorist + anything horrible you can make up = STFU
rikyrah
If the Sarah Palin choice says anything about John McCain, outside of his utter contempt for the American people, it is that he has become a WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT.
This choice means that he has become ‘ their boy’ without hesitation.
If this were about choosing a Republican WOMAN, there were plenty other choices of GOP women.
But, this wasn’t about that.
This was about selling out to the Religious Right, because Palin is THEIR GIRL.
Intro
You must enter an Intro for your Diary Entry between 300 and 1150 characters long.
If the Sarah Palin choice says anything about John McCain, outside of his utter contempt for the American people, it is that he has become a WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT.
This choice means that he has become ‘ their boy’ without hesitation.
If this were about choosing a Republican WOMAN, there were plenty other choices of GOP women.
But, this wasn’t about that.
This was about selling out to the Religious Right, because Palin is THEIR GIRL.
John McCain does not have the money of Barack Obama.
Barack Obama has been out organizing McCain in every state that will be fought over in this election. It was announced only a couple of weeks ago that the McCain Campaign was BEGINNING to form a ground game. But, ground games take money. Money McCain doesn’t have.
The ground game for the GOP, in the last 2 election cycles, has been done through The Religious Right. He had no way of getting them to come out and work for him.
UNLESS HE CHOSE ONE OF THEIR FOOT SOLDIERS.
In choosing Palin, he is once again, giving into the GOP base.
In choosing Palin, he is in bed, up to his neck, with the Dobsons, the Pat Robertsons, and all the rest of them.
Maverick my ass.
He’s even more of a pawn of the Religious Right than Dubya, and I didn’t think that was possible.
The way to attack Palin is to attack MCCAIN.
This is about:
a) HIS Judgement. THIS was his first decision as a Presidential Nominee.
b) The crock of his slogan – Country First
c) His COMPLETE SELLOUT to the Religious Right
Don’t let the media spin this as some ‘John McCain the Maverick is Back’.
HELL NO.
KT
:)
Bricks are to hammers as genius is to _____________
lilysmom
And what about the possibility that her newborn actually belongs to her teenage daughter?
Honey, please. Questions need to be answered.
Just Some Fuckhead
The Palin pick was specifically intended to shore up support in purple states with large evangelical voting blocs, like Colorado and Virginia. So any negative impact has to be viewed in the context of an overall positive impact.
Joshua Norton
Hey, the old dude was horny. And it IS the ultimate pick up line.
w vincentz
@Dennis,
Lucky that Paris Hilton got back to him and said she was “busy”.
Sarah J…to young (unless you’re from WV).
MJ
May be that explains why she fired the Public Safety Commissioner.
MJ
That will keep the tinfoil hat crowd busy for weeks.
w vincentz
I love analogies (reminds me of the Sat’s).
Sarah is to unaborted Down’s syndrome babies as McCain is to bombed Iraqi babies.
Or…Try your own.
Sarah is to ANWR drilling and Johnnie is to ___________.
Dennis - SGMM
Nope. They’re too busy with “Obama is a Muslim.”
lilysmom
They had no problems with demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate.
Bugger them.
PaulB
Minor nit: he met her twice, once last March and once on Thursday. He also spent a few minutes on the phone with her last Sunday.
KT
Heiress drilling?
Bey
JSFH – agreed. This is a play for the fundies. And misguided bait for the (largly imaginary) PUMAs. McCain feels he can capitalize on the vajayjay cred and well, any will do, right? Interchangeable vessels and all that. Kind of like tupperware that way.
This is an epic disaster for his candidacy.
Happy anniversary btw.
w vincentz
@ PaulB,
So…if those chance encounters resulted in an unwanted pregnancy, do you think it will be carried to term?
AkaDad
Fair enough. She was vetted just as much as I was when I applied to McDonalds. ;-)
w vincentz
@KT,
I like it, but there have to be more options from other BJer’s before I grant the prize.
Dennis - SGMM
So there’s a strong possibility that McCain has never actually seen her face.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
The Moderate Voice(!) is repeating rumors that Palin’s newborn child is actually her daughter’s. There’s also talk that Palin was about as fully vetted as a McDonald’s fry cook.
Break out the popcorn, this is going to be a fun couple of weeks.
Martin
Here’s my take on Palin:
She’s governor of a state with a population about the same as the city of Des Moines, Iowa. That doesn’t take away from her executive experience, but it does put it into a somewhat different context. Alaska state politics are strongly centered around oil and environment. It’s the most libertarian state in the nation. It’s the only state where it can be successfully argued that firearms are a necessity.
As governor, she has no experience with urban crime, very little with race issues, immigration, dealing with neighboring states with population, transportation, commerce issues. She also has little experience with actual state budget issues. Alaska has run a budget surplus due to oil lease revenues since she came into office so there’s no experience trying to find the funds the state needs – raising taxes, cutting services, etc.
She also has no experience running a large government. Alaska’s governors office is about the size of a large city council’s office, and the political players are all pretty well known because they are fairly static and aren’t terribly many of them. She has had to deal with Canada which is a plus, and the size of Alaska means that there’s a pretty big land management/resource plus in her column.
The comparison to Obama, even leaving out all that we know of him since he entered the race, isn’t a good one. Chicago and Illinois are pretty representative of the nation as a whole. There isn’t too much missing there. Politics in the state are larger and more representative of what happens nationally. They have to balance urban, suburban, and rural/agricultural issues in a way that is pretty common nationally.
But ultimately, we’ve had 18 months to see Obama in action – to deal with national politics in a major way, to run a campaign that is larger than the Alaska state government, and to be challenged on all the things that people thought he’d be weak at and to see his judgement. Palin simply won’t be afforded that experience. She’ll be challenged in the next 2 months, but we’ll never know if she can pull the whole thing together since it’ll be assumed that McCain is running the campaign and not her. Had she been in the race, we’d know a lot more about her (as we do about Huckabee, for example) and there wouldn’t be so many unknowns to attack against.
She might be a great executive on a large stage – but we’ll never know until she is elected. Clinton has lots of national experience, but she appeared to be a weak executive – her campaign was a mess. Obama came into the race with little executive experience but he’s run a masterful campaign and there’s no reason to assume that the WH won’t run similarly.
People here are being too harsh on Palin. It’s not that she’s a bad VP. It’s that we don’t know if she’s a good VP on the issue that she’s strongest – executive experience – and I’m not sure how we’ll learn that in the next 2 months.
Jake
Nonetheless, this once again points out the obvious: how could McCain have possibly known she’s qualified for the job or adds a damn thing to the ticket? One can’t get around that his judgment here is, first and foremost, reckless.
Martin
Nobody is arguing that. But we have something called ‘due process’ in this country, and she violated his right to it. That’s criminal.
And she can’t just off and fire the guy because of her family situation even if he was guilty of that. That’s not an authority that the rest of us possess. Because it was her family, her judgement is suspect and she needed to recuse herself and let an impartial body handle it.
wvng
Greenwald is reporting preemptive police raids with SWAT teams in Minneapolis.
Michael G
Just so that I can be on the record for the first one to see this: In a week or two, Palin is going to drop out “to spend more time to be with her special-needs son whose demands are more intense than I originally thought”.
McCain gets credit with the PUMAs and fundies for picking a holy roller woman, but the second time round picks a more conventional choice, and the pundits/media give him credit for finally listening to them.
AkaDad
I might be having too much fun with this, but after the past 8 years, I deserve it.
nightjar
Being hard on republicans is what we do here. What little experience she has doesn’t look good. Although we don’t know all the facts about the trooper thing, her actions we know about speak poorly of her judgment and restraint. Governors or presidents don’t interfere with civil service procedures and laws unless they have solid evidence of malfeasance to back it up. Being in a contentious divorce with the Gov’s sister doesn’t qualify. This was what the commissioner she fired tried to tell her, and by all appearances, presently it appears she and her staff committed misconduct in office and maybe a crime. If true, it is an impeachable offense. Plus her denials of involvement in the firing have been proven false and she has admitted to this. Smells of attempted coverup. Not at all being too hard on her IMHO.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
I just saw you beat me to the McDonald’s reset. Curses!
jdrhoades
Could be..check out this photo.
Baby bump there on the daughter? Or baby fat?
Seriously, though, this will probably end up being Palin’s version of the madrassa story…scurrilous, easily disproved, but endlessly repeated.
Conservatively Liberal
I don’t know about ‘adorable’. Maybe in the same way a KKK member owning a kitty is adorable, but that is about it. Yes, it is good to see the real myiq2lo4u after pulling his mask off (but keeping his robe on).
For McCain? Yes, as long as she brings lime Jello!
Glad to see that I am not the only one who has wondered about that. ;)
There is nothing I can add to that statement that would improve it.
nightjar
You wrote this while I was typing pretty much the same thing. So we agree. :}
elf
I would like to ask her how Intelligent Design is responsible for Downs Syndrome
TR
Agreed.
If the facts are as presented here and he did taser an 11-year-old, then he should’ve lost custody and likely lost his job. There was no need to send the Alaskan equivalents of Ehrlichmann and Haldeman after the guy when due process would’ve solved it all.
Ask yourself: Do you really want someone like that inheriting Cheney’s powers?
JL
. Palin has set up a office to prepare Alaska for global warming. The problem with this is you have to understand global warming in order to deal with it. She does not think man is responsible for adding to global warming. She does not believe evolution should be taught. We should fight to improve science classes so our students will be better prepared.
She is already handing out cookies to the reporters, so let’s hope the reporters will do more than ask for her cookie recipe.
DougJ
Those who have nothing wrong have nothing to fear. Not to have tasered that kid would make us look weak to our enemies. That’s something we can’t afford in a post 9/11 world.
Sloegin
Congrats to the McCain for picking a female candidate for VP. I’m inclined to believe real vetting will happen (via the press), and she may turn out to be a more disasterous choice than Stockdale, but kudos in any case for the Republicans crossing that gender gap.
Conservatively Liberal
Arrgh! The BJ ModGod is holding onto my post! And not one mention of V i a g r a or p e n i s! ;)
JL
A repub yesterday said that the brother-in-law was abusive to his ex-wife and his children. If that is the case, wouldn’t you get a restraining order. She did not need to abuse her power of office, she did need to encourage her sister to visit a judge and get a restraining order.
JGabriel
Well, in the Troopergate investigation, Palin has already refused to provide e-mails, claiming that they’re covered by ‘Executive Privilege’.
Sounds like she’ll fit right in with the rest of the Republican party.
.
NR
Well, here’s Obama’s response ad to the Palin pick.
I think they took the right tack. Ignore Palin completely and keep the focus on McCain. I hope that’s what Biden does in the VP debate.
Tsulagi
Yeah, that’s what we need.
A President McCain, overstimulated from dancing to his favorite group, ABBA, face plants. Then we have a Monica Goodling with all universe wide unitary executive powers. To help out, creationist Palin picks Brownback to be her VP. Maybe Aw Shucks Huck for Secretary of Education. The Rapture Seekers would faint from orgasm. The boys of RedState would weep tears of joy.
Speaking of jokes, saw something funny on RedState yesterday. During the primaries when the Pub nomination was up for grabs, you’d see posts and especially comments on RS where they’d compete proclaiming how many body parts they would cut off before they’d pull a lever for McCain. Stalwarts all.
Of course that’s all changed now; they’ve found love. In fact yesterday, head RSer Erick, full of the Palin spirit had a post that began “Awesome is made of McCain.” These guys never fail to crack me up. They’re like Baghdad Bob with a lapel pin.
TR
Don’t even touch that. Seriously, don’t go there.
oh really
Because this is the United States and nothing is more important than substance, I suggest we forgo the election and decide the presidency in a way the American electorate can really relate to — Obama versus Sarah Barracuda in a one-on-one half-court basketball match-up.
The advantages are obvious:
1) the MSM can quit pretending they have a job to do since no investigative reporting will be necessary;
2) to make it fair (and because Republicans can’t win an honest contest no matter what the venue) Obama can spot her 15 points to 21 — but he gets to play aggressive defense;
3) the sportscasters/journalists of America can compete to see which among them can spew the most cliches in the least time;
4) American voters won’t have to tax their brains at all; they can just tune in, drink a few beers, and enjoy the “election”;
5) John McPOW can sit this one out — a good deal for someone his age and in the throes of mid-stage Oldtimer’s disease — bonus…Cindy McPOW gets to wear her cheerleader outfit;
6) Palin’s appeals can go directly to the Supreme Court where the case of a scary black man of unknown citizenship bullying a hockey mom can be ruled unconstitutional and the election can be awarded to McPOW — of course Anton Scalia will make it clear that this is a one time only decision and no precedents are being set.
Cheap, fast, and in the end we get David Broder’s desired outcome. What’s not to like?
JGabriel
Gustav Upgraded To Dangerous Category 4 Storm
And it’s still two days away from landfall on the US coast – two days travel over warm loop eddy that will probably strengthen it even further.
This is gonna be a doozy. The projected track has it hitting LA about 100-150 west of New Orleans, but it’s still far enough out that there’s probably still a significant amount of uncertainty.
.
Marshall
There is dirt on her. It will come out. Start digging.
nightjar
I lived in Biloxi MS for years and those things almost always turn some to the right before landfall. It would be good, for most, if it stayed on it’s predicted path though, as NO doesn’t need another hit.
LiberalTarian
Troopergate discussion, ht TBogg.
Great. Let’s put a stalker one elderly-history-of-cancer-man’s-sudden-death from the Presidency.
Palin’s lack of experience? Not nearly the stone around her neck that her readily apparent poor judgment is. If McCain wanted to pick a woman for her gender, he should have gone with Kay Bailey Hutchison (no, I don’t like her politics much, but she has had a long history as a reasonably thoughtful politician). Of course, like the man said, for most politicians, running as McCain’s VP this cycle would probably be a death knell to their careers. (Sorry, can’t find the site or the speaker, but it was an astute point.)
dbrown
Damn, need a new thread. Palin is old hat and besides, it hard kepting track of all these comments when I come back to see what’s happen. By the way, looks like a Cat III and the Gulf coast could be in for hell come repubic day.
Notorious P.A.T.
Hahaha! A creationist global warming-denier who flew across the continent and back while 9 months pregnant? Brother we haven’t given here 1/20 what she deserves.
gbear
Holy Shit. Dave Thune is my councilman and he’s PISSED. Sheriff Bob Fletcher is an absolute total fucking dickheaded douchebag. Always has been.
Here’s the story in the Mpls StarTribune.
dbrown
Oops, Cat IV already? Damn, that monster is growing fast – maybe those christian loonies are on to something after all and God is after the US … of course, they need to realize that it is bush/cheney that are the cause of god’s wrath.
Martin
No, I agree with the troopergate concern 100%. And that’s not a post-pick issue as TPM has been covering it for a month or two now and felt that it was real enough to disqualify her from VP.
But there’s a lot of attacking her over the beauty pageant thing and other issues that I don’t see as being relevant. Sure, we’ve never had a Vogue model running for office, but let’s not forget that Hedy Lamarr co-invented frequency-hopped spread spectrum communication. Palin’s views on intelligent design disqualify her for office in my view, but not her time as a model.
Attacking her on irrelevant issues makes it impossible to attack on relevant ones because the well gets poisoned. Palin is a poor pick for the voters. I think it’s a good pick for McCain because he’s going to lose without a dramatic move and so far half the people seem to be distracted away from discussing why she’s bad for the voters, and there’s a real chance that we’ll make the run to the election with the important stuff not having been discussed.
SGEW
That is awesome. I do not know what it means, but it is awesome.
nightjar
Attacking is one thing and shouldn’t be done. However, light hearted mocking is acceptable IMHO. You can bet Leno, Letterman and crowd will be all over the beauty pageant thing.
LiberalTarian
“The rain falls on the just and unjust.” (Matt 5:45). The Talibaptists just like their Old Testament version better, where a wrathful God swoops in and punishes the evil doers and lets the folks performing the appropriate rituals go free.
dbrown
So will all the Baptist please go to the gulf coast and prove their faith?
w vincentz
@Marshall,
I’ve been digging about her firing the AK Commissioner of Agriculture ( a “hands-on farmer”).
I’ll let you know what I find out, especially why she did it.
As someone said above, this VP pick is all about pandering to the rightwing-nutjob-evangelicals. Proof..Dobson now backs McInsane. Waiting for Ken Copeland and Benny Hinn to jump aboard.
jbarntt
You’re comment re: Gov. Palin:
Given that she’s a political naif with no relevant experience to call on, those defects are fatal.
You seem to be trying to make her sound like Obama. You know, Rezko, no foreign policy experience, etc. At least Palin will be a heartbeat away, whereas your guy will be the heartbeat.
Probably not to worry I suppose, he’ll have Bill Ayers to advise him on national security and foreign policy issues.
dbrown
Besides Gustav (land falls don’t seem to be hurting this monster much), there is Hanna and her sisters out in the Atlantic (two low pressure waves that might spawn storms)- looks like a hot time (AGW starting to bite?) in the old ocean tonight.
Could we have Bush/Cheney fly to the Gulf before land fall?
nightjar
No there there. Except a wingnut talking point.
False, as is the ETC..
Funny bullshit. But bullshit just the same.
DougJ
Did you guys see Palin chuckling along with a radio host calling a colleague a bitch?
(link)
JGabriel
I do think it’s ironic that the same people who prayed for rain to interrupt Obama’s acceptance speech will instead see their own convention postponed due to hurricane.
It’s almost enough to make one believe in a just god.
.
capelza
jbarntt..your GOP talking points generator is broken, you left out Wright and Mooooooslim!
Fern
I like that Obama response ad – treats her like she is irrelevant. Which she largely is.
LiberalTarian
Heh. Instant Karma gonna get you.
Bubblegum Tate
The Palin nomination and the wingnut response to Troopergate II: Corruption Boogaloo summed up in 33 seconds
Martin
It was developed for torpedo targeting by having the signal bounce around among different frequencies to make it harder to detect. The real utility came later – it’s now the basis for pretty much all of our wireless communications – cellular and wifi.
Basically, you have the transmitter and receiver both rapidly jump around the spectrum on a known almost random pattern. It makes it hard to detect and track the signal and hard to jam. That’s why it was developed for torpedos. For cellular, because the signal jumps around almost at random, having a large number of users gives something close to a uniform distribution of frequency use which is quite efficient.
Lamarrs invention was mostly forgotten until CDMA was about to be patented and they rediscovered it during a patent search. So, not only was her invention rediscovered, but the fact that she was technically knowledgeable enough to co-invent it was as well.
Steve
Lamarrs invention was mostly forgotten until CDMA was about to be patented and they rediscovered it during a patent search. So, not only was her invention rediscovered, but the fact that she was technically knowledgeable enough to co-invent it was as well.
Her ex-husband was a Nazi-sympathizing arms merchant, which may be where she initially got onto the idea. IIRC, most of the practical work was done by her friend and neighbor, the composer George Antheil (using player piano rolls!), who shared the patent credit, but the theory of frequency-hopping is due to Lamarr.
Jon H
Ed in NJ wrote: “But this misses the bigger picture. While it’s possible the brother-in-law needed firing, it wasn’t Palin’s decision to make.”
Right, but if it’s blatantly clear that he needs firing, and that it’s in the best interest of Alaskans that this guy not be a cop, then why is someone standing in the way of his firing?
Okay, it was Monegan’s decision to fire the cop. But why didn’t he? Was it a defensible position, or was it the usual ass-covering bullshit that shields bad cops? What’s *his* rationale for not firing a cop who tased his own 11-year old stepson?
I have no particular brief for Palin, but there are all too many cases of state public safety officers abusing their office, shielding bad cops, and generally shafting the public.
I’d really like to know why Monegan didn’t want to fire the guy.
Gus
You gotta read the comments on the local rags from the knuckle draggers who are all for unconstitutional police action. Typical comment: “This is a very good thing. The police are protecting us from these idiots.”
JGabriel
Jon H.:
Without due process, it’s not blatantly clear. Given the ugly custody battle between Wooten and Palin’s sister, there’s certainly reason to believe that the accusation itself may be false and another abuse of power by Palin, whose family has allegedly generated a dozen or two false complaints against Wooten.
.
Soylent Green
Nobody outside of Greater Blogistan is going to care about any of this shit about Palin.
Bush won re-election because the fundies believed him to be God’s Chosen Candidate. Palin, same thing. Without them McCain is toast. If they turn out because one of their own will be an old man’s heartbeat away, that might just be enough to put Colorado and a few other essential battlegrounds in his column.
Second, for the so-called independents and assorted nitwits who are undecided, she is cute and cheerful and smiles real nice and has a nice family. She’s someone you could share brownies and mooseburgers with at the PTA meeting. That’s good enough for lots of people. They don’t vote for qualifications. They vote for whether they like you.
As for the upcoming debates, if they could coach the stupidest man in the history of the world to hold his own in the debates four years ago, they can teach her even better.
Finally, she plainly possesses skill as a politician.
The election will be close. Most Americans know who they are going to vote for. Those who don’t can be fooled by bullshit. It’s the American way.
grandpajohn
Maybe the legal concept that both sides needed to be heard and that the alleged by one side of the dispute events actually happened as claimed, you know actual evidence of guilt?
Kirk
Jon H,
You pegged the magic word. Due process is meant to resolve that “if”. There were conflicting claims in a nasty divorce (with custody) case, and it was under investigation and judication.
As it happens, at this time all the claims but two have been either unproven or disproven. Yes, that last means Palin’s sister was caught lying. The two things relate to the killing and butchering of a moose while using someone else’s license. That license was his then-wife’s license, and it was done two years before the divorce.
We require due process because “IF” isn’t enough.
Rome Again
A 72 year old man with a history of four bouts of melanoma gets elected to be the POTUS and hands the VP slot to a 2 year governor of an oil state, aka Palin. Within 6 months he is diagnosed again and dies a year later, leaving Palin in the position she was not supposed to be attaining to. Meanwhile we have a cold war with Russia resurrected and Iran decides this is the perfect time to take aim at Israel. Russia takes the side of Iran and starts threatening to start WWIII. What does Palin do? Please, tell me how confident you are in her judgment under this hypothetical situation.
gex
Actually it is estimated that over 90% of fetuses with Down’s Syndrome are aborted which more or less indicates that even pro-lifers are doing their portion of this. This actually makes Palin more hard core on this issue than the base.
Rome Again
I’m sure she’s very happy that they’re still being displayed and purchased from Kay-bee toy store shelves!
ThymeZone
$56.83 each?
Rome Again
As a 46 year old woman, I stand a very good chance of bearing a Down Syndrome child if I were to get pregnant. I would never choose to force a child to deal with that kind of disability, therefore I take precautions so I don’t get pregnant. The fact that she chose to have unprotected sex at her age was irresponsible knowing that a woman in her 40’s stands a good chance of producing a Down Syndrome child. This is not a novel idea, the connection between a woman’s age and producing a child with this debilitating disability has been known for over three decades.
Rome Again
If you purchase them together, you get a $4.59 discount.
Pelikan
Soylent Green is right,
As usual, you guys are venting about a lot of details that only democrats will pay attention to. The jesus freaks are going to get on board now and that could mean disaster. Don’t believe me? Go check out FreeRepublic or somesuch, I’ll bet they’re finally getting excited about this year.
If Obama’s camp has half a brain they’re going to have to put Palin in a situation where she discredits herself to the fundies, or better yet, shows herself as so toxicly, nuttily pentecostal that it turns of those precious, idiotic, independents.
Ask her what she thought of Schiavo, and broadcast her answer for the world to see.
Ask her what she thinks of Isreal.
Criminy, just get some surrogate reporter (and we do have a few this year) to pick her brains and expose that crazy to the mainstream!
Or, the dems could complain about her qualifications, as if Americans cared about anything besides winning.
Rome Again
Are you really worried about the 28%ers?
There are stories popping up all the time of true conservative Republicans stating they are going to vote for Obama. You can’t seriously be concerned about this.
Freepi have always been the exception, not the rule. Heck, I go to their site now and I have trouble finding threads that have more than one or two pages of comments. It didn’t used to be that way.
TenguPhule
Does pen understand that Palin broke the law by firing someone who wouldn’t bow to illegal political pressure?
Probably not.
TenguPhule
And who appointed Palin as Judge and Jury?
Face it, she’s a hack in the mold of Bush and Delay.
Her word is worth less then the paper it’s not printed on.
Ella in NM
We had a magistrate judge in our town who was like this chick. She was always waving her untouchable superiority on her staff, abusing her position to make them her personal slaves, firing them for talking to her old boyfriends. Stuff like that.
She got canned by the state Judicial Ethics committee. Then she married the mayor and is now running his insurance agency.
Shade Tail
You McCain trolls know the real problem with Palin’s utter lack of useful experience? It isn’t the lack in and of itself, it is that it completely kills your own point about Obama’s alleged lack of experience. That particular smear was always pretty stupid, but it was still the best anti-Obama lie you had. And now you don’t have it anymore, because your hero has chosen as his potential ‘next-in-line to the Presidency’ someone with even less experience than you claim Obama has.
From now on, if you claim that Obama isn’t ready to be President, all we have to do is reply, “And Palin is?” And it was your candidate who gave us that ammunition. Congratulations, your non-bigoted smearing is officially dead. Racist and sexist attacks against Barack and Michelle is all you have left.
Keltin
There is a lot of bitterness and propaganda running through the comments here.
1. Palin didn’t say she didn’t believe evolution should be taught in schools. What she did was very admirable, by saying intelligent design and evolution should be equally debated in school. Huge difference knit-wits.
2. There are absolutely tons of research data that completely contradicts the idea of anthropogenic origins of climate change. Those of you that can’t think beyond what the NY Times or WPost tells you, read just a little bit and you’ll find that we’ve been getting warmer and colder for a few billion years now.
3. She is the only one of the four nominated (or soon to be nominated) who has actual executive experience, and is, therefore, the most qualified of the four to hold an executive position.
4. She has visited Iraq as often as Obama, and spent quite a bit of time with the common soldier and those wounded…very unlike BO.
5. She has fought corruption very ably in Alaska, even those in her own party. That is a good thing, unlike BO who has been Married to the Corruption in Chicago for decades.
JGabriel
Keltin:
Keltin, Palin very clearly said she wanted Creationism, not ID, taught alonside evolution in public schools. Even if one were to grant the spurious notion that ID is religiously neutral, and I don’t, Creationism clearly is not – and that’s what Palin was pushing.
TenguPhule
There is no debate, dipshit. Intelligent Design is an oxymoron. Those who support teaching it are morons.
Commit suicide on your own time. Global Climate Instability is here and it’s not going away.
She fucked up her town, she fucked up as governor, why do you want her to fuck up the country? She’s a poorer version of Bush.
She has said it herself, she doesn’t know shit about what’s going on in Iraq. And FYI, that lie about Obama is getting old and stale. Peddle your bullshit elsewhere, Fuckstain fan.
Which is why she’s under investigation for abusing her own governmental authority and backed by those same corrupt assholes like Stevens…..OOPS!
TenguPhule
But in all fairness to Republican Alaskans, they probably are just learning about it today. Remember, they’re still trying figure out the tubes….
JGabriel
Palin’s response when asked whether ID should be taught in public schools:
grumpy realist
Considering we have lunatics running around claiming a) the Holocaust never happened, and b) the Moon landings were faked, is Palin going to want schools to teach those “controversies” as well?
And for those of you who don’t believe in evolution, stop getting updates on your flu shots and similar, mmkay? Guess you don’t have to worry about antibiotic resistance, either…..
rosey
A recent interview with Monegan’s ex-wife (San Francisco Chronicle, 9-15-08) revealed that she fled Alaska in 1994 for fear of her life, and filed for a restraining order in California. Her fears included death threats, being threatened that he (Monegan) would dump her body in an AK river, having a gun waved in her face, and suffering a dislocated shoulder (Monegan admitted to the dislocated shoulder, but from “wrestling and tickling”). He calls these half-truths due to a custody battle. I’m sorry, the woman is an emergency room doctor and taught at Stanford. Seems like Monegan did nothing about Wooten because he is a spouse abuser too! I’m grateful to the Sarah Palin’s in the world that are willing to stick their neck out to get rid of “good ol boy” spousal abusers (these 2 hiding behind a badge) that cover for each other! Shame on the witch-hunting legislators!!! Read the interview for yourself!!