A day or so after John McCain announced his choice of Sarah Palin, sometime over that long weekend, I remarked to someone that her great disadvantage was that she was a blank slate, and the Very First Thing she said — that is, the very first thing anyone focused on — would be blown out of all proportion and define her for the rest of the campaign, if not the rest of her life.
Joe Biden — or Joe Lieberman, or McCain, or anyone we’ve known, or think we’ve known, for years — can say something outrageous, and we’ll set it alongside all the other things we know he’s said or done, and it won’t be a make or break thing (and the reason Joe B. came first to mind is that one of the things we know about ol’ Joe, from long experience, is that he has a penchant for saying things that some regard as outrageous).
Not so with Sarah P. The first thing she says or does that makes an impression — which hasn’t happened yet — will fill up the vacuum in her "conventional wisdom" dossier.
Therefore, the stakes for her speech tonight would be extremely high. And so it should be; we don’t have years to get to know her.
Of course, I reckoned without the idiocy of the 24/7 TV "news" spin machine. It has to have something to masticate EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY, and whatever it’s chewing at a given moment is by its foolish definition THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD, so it couldn’t possibly wait until her speech Wednesday night.
If she had made the mistake of saying sometime since Friday that she doesn’t like the color blue, THAT would be the object of endless, fascinated conjecture, "analysis" and "judgment" by the talking heads: How could she not like blue? What sort of person is this? Everybody likes blue — all Americans, anyway. And what hypocrisy to be running with a Navy man, not liking blue! Or will she now claim, implausibly, that it’s only SKY blue that she dislikes? Watch for campaign releases claiming that she’s always liked NAVY blue…
And so forth. The cable TV talking heads make me think of Ford Prefect’s theory about Earthlings: "If they don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working."
So yesterday — or the day before; I get all confused in weeks that contain holidays — we heard that Sarah Palin’s daughter is pregnant. To which I responded — to myself — Uh-huh. Well, I’m sure that’s been hard for them. And then I continued with my life, waiting for someone to say something that actually had any bearing whatsoever on this young woman’s suitability to be vice president.
But, apparently because her speech wasn’t until tonight, the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter, of all absurd things, was dubbed an "issue" worthy of discussion, and even more implausibly, sufficient grist for snap conclusions as to Sarah Palin’s viability as a candidate. And yet it’s not even anything that I had deemed relevant (OR appropriate) to discuss on the blog, and as y’all know, I don’t have a high standard for such things.
Yes, I know; I should have expected this. Yet I was actually surprised when I picked up newspapers this morning and read that the McCain campaign (which had known about the pregnancy, the husband’s DUI, etc., and didn’t think any more of it than I did) was actually having to COPE with this "issue," that it was causing consternation throughout the GOP convention, yadda-yadda.
Oh, come ON, people! Get a freakin’ life!
Get back to me when you have something of substance to say about this woman…
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> Get back to me when you have something
>of substance to say about this woman…
There’s the best reason why she SHOULDN’T be on the ticket to be Vice President of the United States.
I’ve actually seen some conservative pundits who have compared her to TEDDY ROOSEVELT!
You’re supporting McCain. There isn’t anything he could do in the next two months that would change that. All you do is continue to lower the bar as the campaign moves forward.
McCain starts acting like a typical partisan Republican? Oh, that’s okay. It’s what I expect him to do. He’s REALLY not one of “them”.
McCain selects the least qualified VP nominee in history? Oh, that’s okay. He’s just being a “maverick”.
McCain says he’s for school vouchers. Oh, that’s okay. He can’t REALLY do anything about it.
McCain says there will never be a national healthcare initiative on his watch? Oh, that’s okay. At least he’s going to kill terrorists.
McCain won’t answer a simple question as to whether he would still support the immigration bill he and Lindsey Graham authored? Oh, that’s okay. He’s just doing what he has to do to get elected.
McCain’s VP choice has some major family issues that would normally give a parent some hesitation about entering the national public arena? Oh, that’s okay. Politicians are crazy anyway.
I don’t know, Brad.
It’s certainly dicey territory. But I think it’s only natural for people to wonder — and that means the press is going to get involved — how in the world Sarah Palin is going to deal with having a pregnant TEENAGE daughter while running for VP of the United States (and then maybe serving as VP). I’m not arguing that it should be a disqualifier. But it all just seems a bit crazy to me.
Furthermore, some have said that this situation will just make regular folks identify with Palin more. But would regular folks leave their pregnant teenage daughter back in Alaska and then head for Washington, DC?
It’s certainly sensitive territory. But people are trying to figure out who this woman is, what her core values are (she’s noted as a “family values” candidate, of course), and what life factors may affect her effectiveness as a leader….indeed, someone campaigning to hold the second highest office in the land.
Surely you’ve learned by now, Brad, that anything sex-related becomes an important story instantly in the mainstream media. It’s a real shame in this case because there appear to be legitimate concerns with Palin’s tenures as mayor and governor which are getting zero play.
Don’t forget Sarah Palin has a husband to help out with the family issues; it is no different than any other female executive balancing family and career. Isn’t this what the Woman’s Movement was all about?
As for the assertion that she is the least qualified VP candidate in history, one could make the arguement that the “O” is the least qualified Presidential candidate in history by a simple comaparison of their resumes.
Sarah gives me “hope” and i’m looking forward to the “change” in Washington.
There is no “hope” in enlarging an already burdensome federal government, and there is no “change” when your VP choice has spent most of his life within the Beltway.
“just words”
One would assume that, Gov. Palin and her family should be without sin because she has been chosen as VP on the Republican ticket.
The fault finders have such a narrow window in which to throw their stones is one reason they are so upset. She has not spent 20 or 30 years in politics and does not have a track record for the fault finders to attach their judgement.
According to the news items, there are so pitifully few things that she has done wrong or been accused of to really get those that would appose her satisfied. They want years and generations of mistakes to sink their teeth into.
Gov. Palin has guts and grit. That alone in this world of men that only live for more politics and more power is refreshing.
And to close off my remarks, I read that John Spratt was sitting beside Fowler in the plane when Fowler opened his mouth and put his foot in. Maybe Spratt had him so filled up with all the years that he has been in politics and how he will be re-elected that Fowler lost it. We could only hope that Spratt will “lose it”.
Here’s an interesting development you’ll be hearing nothing about on the national news: Palin had her lawyer file an ethics complaint against herself in an attempt to take control of the Troopergate investigation away from an independent panel and give it to a board whose members she appointed.
Same old Democrat politics of smear and intimidation.
* Attacked Dick Cheney’s daughter.
* Obama campaign manager accused Hillary of “pimping Chelsea”.
* Attacks on the Bush daughters.
—– meanwhile —————–
Democrats are silent or in defense of:
* Kennedy boys sexually assaulting a woman at their beach house
* Al Gore’s son repeatedly arrested for DUI and driving 100 mph.
* endless list…
Slugger says:
“She has not spent 20 or 30 years in politics and does not have a track record for the fault finders to attach their judgement. ”
So what track record are the Palin supporters using then to qualify her to be Vice President?
why be surprised by the attention to Palin’s daughter, look what Karl Rove and Bush’s Christian Conservative supporters did to McCain’s adopted daughter in SC in 2000. In re “unqualified candidates” see A. Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, if you like “resumes” see R. Nixon, Bush 2/Cheney. At least our last “man on horseback” candidate spent a few years between age 18 and the Presidency not on the federal payroll as President of Columbia U.
Doug-
Read Article II of the Constitution; native born Citizen, over 35 years of age. She’s qualified.
same qualifications the “O” is using.
My mother had five daughters, each and every one of which was a teenager and four of us were teenagers at the same time. I guarantee you that not a single one of us robotically obeyed Mama every minute of every day. In fact, although we went to a Catholic girls’ school when Nuns with Guns still ruled, we didn’t even obey the Sisters every minute of every day.
When I went off to university in California I bought a small motorcycle and rode motorcross and once I went to a nude beach with gypsies who had spent most of their formative years in jail. My sister celebrated her independence by shacking up with a Russian Communist and another sister went to Hollywood and became a stunt woman and denied she had ever known any of us.
We all grew out of it, realized our parents and the Sisters were right more often than not, and lived happily ever after.
If you have teenaged children who obey you robotically every minute of every day, you are either a Conehead or you are lying. Get over this and move on.
Mayor of a town of 5,000 – Town debt free when entered office, $22 million in debt when left office. Once her experience is researched extensively, everyone will see the illusion. The secessionist husband ought to excite the southern base as well. No, the daughter shouldn’t be political fodder. She should be allowed to live her life free of intrusion during this difficult time. The decision – let’s bring the boyfriend to Minneapolis! Brad – Palin can’t have it both ways.
Her daughter’s pregnancy is a personal matter. What is not a personal matter is how our society treats young single mothers who are not the daughter of a governor, senator, or president. We might all praise Gov. Palin for supporting her daughter and her choice to keep the baby, but many in Gov. Palin’s party have spent years condemning single / unwed / poor mothers for being “welfare queens” and lacking “family values.” Many in her party — especially in our own state — have resisted workplace family leave laws and decried attempts to extend health insurance to poor children, many of whom are born to unwed mothers, as Socialist policies that will create a “culture of dependence.” So, yes, Palin can invoke “privacy” to protect her daughter, but not to protect herself and her party from discussing how difficult it is these days for real people to meet the obligations of work and parenting.
Brad, beetrave hit the nail on the head. The GOP has made a killing off of attacking the Dems with their smear tactics, especially when it comes to this family values stuff. Heck, it doesn’t matter to me what kind of foolishness her children engage in, we all did some foolish things at that age. But it serves the GOP right for all their smears and lies and ghastly political antics over the years.
As for Sarah Palin: She is just simply not qualified to be President. Her political resume is very flimsy and she would have never gotten anywhere if the VP was selected the same way as the President.
It’s time for you folks on the right to just shut up about all this phony indignation. The GOP has become just a bunch of self-rightious hypocrits that have ruined this country with endless war and shameful tax policies that favor a tiny handful of very wealthy individuals.
If a policy discussion is what you want then bring it on. But first stop all the attacks ads about Obama’s so-called celebrity status and inexperience. Remember it was John McCain who launched into this nonsense comparing Obama to Paris Hilton. Where was Brad when that ad was being aired? Frankly, Paris Hilton probably has more right to be president than Sarah Palin.
Well, Brad, since McCain’s campaign guru told us issues don’t matter, we have to have something to talk about. Besides which, since no one would have ever heard of Sarah Palin if it weren’t for the sanctimonious family values crap she and the right wing spout, I think it’s perfectly legitimate to discuss her failings as a parent, as unfortunate as that is for her daughter.
Michael Moore on Newsmax web page stated that Palin’s son Trig is not her son but the son of her daughter Bristol.
Then he backpeddled when critized for asking for DNA on the baby.
How low are these folks going to go? If Palin tried to cover for her daughter, it would only be explained as the human thing that a mother would participate in to try to protect not only the baby but her daughter.
Twist it (how much dirt did Hillary and Bill have on Obama and did not use against Obama)
to mean anything that you want but the bottom line is this is a Mother being a Mother if that is true.
Maybe it is time that we turn off all the criticism and turn on some plans for what needs to be done to improve all the things that have gone wrong with this country. You cannot change history. You can only learn from it.
Palin is about as far to the right as it gets. If that’s what you like then she’s your gal. But to me she’s an extremists. Her positions include:
1. Banning abortion under virtually all circumstances even some cases where the mother’s life is in jeopardy.
2. She wants to teach creation “science” in schools. Apparently she believes the earth is about 6,000 years old.
3. She opposes the Bush administration’s inclusion of polar bears on the endangered species list.
4. Palin is a strong gun rights advocate even to the point of allowing assault rifles.
5. She has supported legislation that would allow hunting wolves from airplanes and helicopters.
6. She is in opposition to most gay rights legislation.
7. Apparently Palin hasn’t weighed in on Iraq and most other foreign policy issues.
Bud-
please provide some back up for your last posting. #2 has already been discredited.[see today’s littlegreenfootballs.com]
sounds like some specious rumors and smears to me.
as for #3, she’s right, polar bears are not an endangered species.
as for #6, where in the constitution does it provide for ‘special’ rights for certain classifications of people?
#7 she has visited the troops in iraq and afghanistan, which the “O” neglected to do.
if she is such a light weight, why are all you liberals squirming?
PHONY ISSUE: “Assault rifles”
There are 250,000 legally owned civilian machineguns, including some assault rifles in the USA. None have been used in a crime in America since records were kept beginning in 1934. There were no real “assault rifles” until 1940.
REAL ISSUE: Teen pregnancy
Most of the poverty among American citizens (not counting illegal aliens) is caused by unmarried young girls having children they cannot afford to raise in a proper fashion.
Liberals have encouraged this poverty situation by saying sex in any form is good, and by handing out welfare to unwed mothers.
Sarah Palin rejects that message. The GOP rejects that message, and conservatives don’t have to be perfect or have perfect families in order to recognize and promote morality over socialist depravity.
bud said something about discussing Gov. Palin’s qualifications. Yes, please, let’s do. I have a pretty strong column from Tom Friedman coming up in tomorrow’s paper on the subject, and I think George Will raised some good points today.
But the daughter’s reproductive status does not bear in any way, shape or form upon her mother’s qualifications for office. Nor does John Edwards’ private life, ESPECIALLY now that he’s not a factor, and yet we recently had a feeding frenzy over that (which some of our neighbors on the right should remember). This morbid obsession with talking about other people’s personal matters, which simply should not come up in polite company, is repulsive to me. It’s related in my mind to a lot of other things that indicate the degradation of our public life — and of television "journalism." Some of them are things that you would probably see as unrelated — for instance, the convention that’s developed over the last couple of decades that one is expected to shed tears at some point during any extended interview (usually over subjects that are none of the viewers’ damned business).
What’s wrong with people in this country? Did "Dear Abby" take over all the media and the political parties when I wasn’t looking?
Liberals have encouraged this poverty situation by saying sex in any form is good, and by handing out welfare to unwed mothers.
– Lee
Lee did you write that with a straight face? How can you possibly suggest that teen pregnancy is a problem created by socialistic depravity of liberals while we have McCain’s VP’s daughter, a staunch conservative, is expecting? By what twisted warped logic do you reach that conclusion.
Brad I hope you read this. Lee just provided the type of idiotic reasoning conservatives have been shoving down our throat for years. In this case Lee is suggesting, against all the available evidence, that teen pregnancy is caused by liberals. How did liberals cause Bristol Palin’s pregnancy? Please explain that, it should be good for a howl. I know it’s hard for you to connect the dots sometimes but here we have a perfect example of why Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is an important example of the failure of the far right conservative agenda in this country. And still the far-right koolaid drinkers don’t get it.
Yeah, Lee’s bit about liberal “attacks” is pretty way off base. After all, supporters of George W. Bush in 2000 right here in South Carolina treated John McCain and his family FAR, FAR worse than Democrats have treated either McCain or Sarah Palin.
As for keeping this focused non-family issues, Brad, what do you think of the report that Palin was looking toward banning books in the Wasilla library and then fired the librarian who put her foot down?
Socialism IS moral depravity.
It is based on theft of property by brute force.
I don’t see any so-called “liberals”, progressives, or socialists promoting moral behavior, especially when it comes to teen sex and same sex whatever.
Please point us to The Left condeming illegitimate births and taking steps to reduce it and the poverty it causes.
All I see is more how-to-have “sex education”, school nurses to tend the pregnant students, and welfare for their poor, fatherless children.
Sarah Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy is not the issue.
Sarah Palin’s decision to put her pregnant daughter into the media cesspool reflects either poor parenting skills, ignorance, or blind ambition. Or some mix of all three.
And can anyone give me the phone number for the local Republican Party headquarters? I can probably set them up with more than a dozen teenage pregnant girls at my kids’ high school alone. I’m sure Lindsey Graham would love to have the same opportunity as his mentor to have a bunch of unwed mothers on the stage to get THEIR applause. Oh, wait… they might not fit the “demographic”.
The Time magazine reporter failed to name the books which one person claimed that Mayor Palin “wanted to ban”.
A story without basic facts is just a smear.
Removing a book from a library is not “banning” it. Neither is putting it behind the counter, if it is pornography.
Every library cannot have every book.
Most books are not fit to be in any library, because they will not be read, and are a waste of money. Libraries, like museums, must choose, must discriminate in their collections in order to best serve their community.
Americans should be more worried about Obama’s attempts to ban debate of the issues and examination of his sorry resume and friends.
Obama’s campaign manager accused Hillary of “pimping Chelsea”.
This attack on Sarah Palin via her daughter and her baby with Downs Syndrome is the same ugly tactic.
The Democrats are acting like the big bad wolf. They are trying to huff and puff the door down of the Republican party by any means. Maybe the Republican house is not made of brick but it has a foundation based on apple pie and motherhood and I like that along with I Love America. This is not a Rev. Wright thing when it was OK to GD America when Obama was a member of his church.
Once again, let me say that I hope that all the speeches tonight are about love for our country and what a Republican win will do to make our country a even better place to live AND WE ARE GIVEN SPECIFICS.
GOD BLESS AMERICA.
Bud,
I’d like to know where you are getting your information about Palin, because I haven’t been able to substantiate much, if any of your points. I’m keeping an eye out on serious journalism that really tells something about her views, but what you are writing sounds more like James Carville.
What I am reading is that everyone is still pretty puzzled on what her views are, except there is this piece on the Iraq war: http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2008/09/02/palin-said-war-in-iraq-gas-pipeline-are-gods-will/ Which doesn’t say a lot.
Make sure you are saying the truth. For example, there are all sorts of creationists, and not all of them are “young-earth.” Some of us would just be called that for even questioning evolutionary theory. Where has Palin said what she wants to see taught in science classrooms?
Bud, can you please explain to me what this means?
If you are denouncing abstinence programs, then I beg to differ with you. The results on those studied have been definitely skewed. But even apart from that, how on earth do you use the failure of one person to denounce millions of people?
“Obama’s campaign manager accused Hillary of ‘pimping Chelsea.'”
Lee, that was David Shuster, an MSNBC reporter who last I checked had never managed Obama’s campaign.
Brad, I have to agree Doug. If anyone is to blame for putting Bristol Palin in the spotlight, it’s her mother and John McCain. How else do you explain John McCain using the girl and her boyfriend as props in a photo-op this afternoon?
Yes, but the media is supposed to be doing serious work. What is this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102998_pf.html
?? Sounds closer to the National Enquirer to me.
Here’s Repbublican Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy’s comments “off mike” today about Palin.
The video is available here.
“A segment with NBC’s Chuck Todd ended today, Republican consultant Mike Murphy and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan were caught on a live mike ridiculing the choice of Sarah Palin.
“It’s over,” said Noonan, and then responded to a question of whether Palin is the most qualified Republican woman McCain could have chosen.
“The most qualified? No. I think they went for this — excuse me — political bullsh** about narratives,” she said. “Every time Republicans do that — because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at — they blow it.”
Murphy chimed in:
“The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.”
—
Okay, Brad, is THIS something you will talk about? This is top Republicans saying McCain’s pick of Palin was horrible.
Too bad they can’t say it on live TV.
A good thing about Palin from the Wall Street Journal:
“Mr. Palin also has traveled around the state to promote vocational education, which as part Yupik Eskimo he considers a way to help Alaska’s native villages.”
That’s something that I believe would be a great benefit to South Carolina’s education system. Rather than forcing some kids to either learn Shakespeare and Algebra or drop out, we should be providing alternative vocational education opportunities.
Let’s not forget John McSame’s “joke” on youtube in which he asked why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? John McSame’s answer was, “Because Janet Reno is her father.”
John McSame called his present trophy wife, the “c” word.
What else do we need to know about what a jackasss he is?
“A story without basic facts is just a smear.”
That’s right, Lee. Keep that in mind.
What exactly is an “illegitmate birth”?
Breaking news….
The real issue.
Palin “lawyers up”.
Just now, Palin takes the 5th! She says she will not testify in TrooperGate. Obviously, her attorney has explained perjury to her?
Brad, when you said discuss qualifications, I think the basic qualification nowadays is, “yes if she agrees with my ideology, no if she doesn’t.”
Sure, the qualifications issue needs to be mulled over. But I can’t help but wonder if, Palin were a liberal-leaning Democrat with the same amount of executive experience, that 1) Mike Cakora would not defend her; 2) Bud would.
The cracks in the Republican party line are starting to show… and it’s women who are breaking ranks. First Peggy Noonan (who probably IS better qualified than Palin) and now national radio host Dr. Laura Schlesinger who at least sticks with the same family values principles she has put on the air for the past twenty years:
“I’m stunned – couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? I realize his advisors probably didn’t want a “mature” woman, as the Democrats keep harping on his age. But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?
I am haunted by the family pictures of the Palins during political photo-ops, showing the eldest daughter, now pregnant with her own child, cuddling the family’s newborn. When Mom and Dad both work full-time (no matter how many folks get involved with the children), it becomes a somewhat chaotic situation. Certainly, if a child becomes ill and is rushed to the hospital, and you’re on the hotline with both Israel and Iran as nuclear tempers are flaring, where’s your attention going to be? Where should your attention be? Well, once you put your hand on the Bible and make that oath, your attention has to be with the government of the United States of America.”
See, now, some of you are getting the idea. If you think there’s evidence that she abused gubernatorial power, discuss THAT.
Talk about her inexperience. Talk, as Friedman did, about her policies toward the oil industry in Alaska.
But talking about the private lives of people in her family is not only beneath contempt, but stupidly off-point.
Guero is a plant on this blog to try to sway the people against what would be best for the USA. He has a right to his opinion but his comments seem to be to influence the readers of the blog to adopt a socialist form of government. I am not certain that he is not a Mexican without citizenship papers. He will not answer the question that has been put to him.
The fact that he wants the readership of this blog to listen to what he has to say is purely un-american. Or, that is what I take of his opinions.
I will identify myself if he will give his name and background. Guero has an e-mail address of gris66@yahoo.com. I will repeat. I think that he is a plant on this blog. He is certainly not a South Carolina native. No way.
I don’t think it’s a simple matter of Palin’s daughter being pregnant. The question that comes to my mind is that Palin’s family is apparently a huge job to handle, so how is she going to do it if she becomes VP? I understand that Todd Palin will probably care for the children for the most part, but, one has to admit, there are a lot of challenges and if he has been working this whole time and not been in the middle of everything in the family it’s a lot to ask. I’ve been a nanny for 10 years now and I have cared for children with down syndrome. It is A LOT of work. While I applaud her for her ambition, I do think that being VP would be too difficult on her family.
I have to wonder if Palin were a man, would people be bringing this up? Are we really into telling political figures how they ought to raise their children? Would we have castigated Jackie Kennedy in 1960 for running for office, because she has small children at home? Maybe, but nobody would come up with the idea of telling JFK off for the same reason.
Slugger,
Guero is a blog troll who has been around before. He goes by different names, some of which I can’t put in, or Brad’s configuration will reject my comment, but M.R., MikeT, and I forget some of the others, are some of them. He shows up on other blogs as well. Faust I think is the same person, even though the political views expressed are different. Brad can doubtless check the I.P. address.
Herb,
How many days after your children were born did your wife go back to work?
How many nights sleep did you lose when caring for your infant children? I can remember several occasions where I was at less than my best at work due to 2:00a.m. and 4:00 a.m. feedings. Is that what we really want from our Vice President? All I’ve said from day one is that this decision could have been put off until 2012. I stand by that opinion.
You know what is crazy? People are going to decide if Palin is the right choice based on how she reads a speech off a teleprompter tonight. The speech has already been released and it is full of all the usual partisan bull.
Let’s wait for the debates and press conferences before annointing the former TV sports reporter based on her ability to read the teleprompter.
The only people talking about Palin’s family is the McCain campaign who are running to any open microphone to say that the family is out of bounds and then when the media replays the McCain campaign interviews the McCainer’s go “OH THE MEDIA IS AFTER US…UNFAIR!!”
Typical GOP blather and noise to distract the facts of this week.
-GOP attendance at convention is embarassing low and looks pitiful on TV.
-Bush & Cheney were scrubbed from their moments in the sun at the convention in order that McCain put some distance between them.
-More people watched Obama’s speech than the opening night of Olympics coverage and over 70% of undecider voters polled said that they would feel comfortable with Obama as President.
Side question. Is Palin really a conservative if fiscally she doesn’t act like one?
John McCain’s own “Pork-report” has Palin listed seeral times for pet projects that define how pork is done. Not the media, not any campaign, but John McCain HIMSELF.
You can’t blame the liberal game on that one folks.
…and Palin boasted about her landing pork deals.
“FYI This does not include our nearly one million Dollars from the Feds for our Airport Paving Project.
We did well!!!”
http://www.washingtonindependent.com/4346/palin-on-earmarks-we-did-well
Ahhh I can see the Democrats on here are already running scared. Doug with his early morning feedings worry… how may 7-8 month olds need those… that’s how old that child will be in January. I know seveal women who went back to work teaching full time 2 weeks after giving birth. The worry about her political experience, how is it any worse than Obama’s 200 days in the Senate as his only real on the job experience? What committees does he head up again? None???
Face it, if it were her husband selected, not one of these things would even be discussed. I thought Democrats were more open minded than those that appear on this blog.
So Doug… she’s going to read a prepared speech off a teleprompter. Explain to me how this is different than the speeches given last week by Obama and Biden? Did they speak without any aids, were their speeches prewritten and rehearsed? Please Doug, if you’re going to whine, at least do it non-hypcritically. It will all come out in the wash when Obama and McCain start debating… because it’s fairly obvious that Obama can’t speak without being told what to say and having time to rehearse it ahead of time.
Like I said earlier, the Democrats are running scared over Palin because 99% of their stockpiled ammunition can be turned back on them if they ever try to use it.
No. Gov. Palin’s daughter’s love life is none of anyone’s concern. Neither was Bill Clinton’s love life the concern of anyone outside his family. But in these political times you had best believe the MSM will reveal it, and the other political party will spin it till it sounds like demon worship. People should know that and make decisions accordingly.
“So what track record are the Palin supporters using then to qualify her to be Vice President?”
If Sarah Palin’s only political experience was to spend one month as mayor of Blaney–er, sorry; its ELGIN, SC now–she would have more executive experience than McCain, Biden, or Obama combined. They are all senators; lawMAKERS, not leaders.
I just hate that she ain’t at the top of the ticket…
Obama is a pandering idiot, Biden is a loose cannon, and McCain is certainly respectable and the most qualified, but Palin is the future of US government.
> Explain to me how this is different than
>the speeches given last week by Obama and
>Biden?
Because that’s not all the voters had to assess Obama’s qualifications. Remember that whole primary thing and all the debates? It was in all the papers.
Well, Brad, since you encouraged discussion of non-personal issues, what do you think about:
— Firing the librarian back in Alaska after she wouldn’t help ban books?
— This “bridge…” business?
— This “trooper-gate” matter?
— Who’s more likely to push for school vouchers, tax credits, public money going to private schools: John McCain or Barack Obama?
As for the family concerns, again, I appreciate that it’s dicey territory. But we also know the “personal narrative” is a big part of politics, and some GOP types have said this teenage pregnancy matter will help regular folks relate to Sarah Palin. Maybe. But I also think it’s understandable that some people maybe think it’s strange that Palin would put her teenage child into the spotlight and then ask for privacy….and how in the world that family is going to handle the whole situation. I don’t know…maybe I’m really wrong here, but I think it’s understandable in the context of people trying to figure out who Palin is and how effective she may be as VP.
But, anyway, what’s your take on the issues?
Hey Doug, you watching Palin right now… she’s doing a pretty good of ad-libbing and not reading off the teleprompter like one Mr. Obama isn’t she? It must be eating you up watching a real public speaker on stage and not some talking head.
Doug, sorry I forgot to ask you this. You seem to have a problem with Palin’s political experience. So, please explain to me how a US Senator with 143 days in office trumps that of a governor of the largest state in the country? Obama is running for the Commander in Chief position yet has never held the position of CEO of anything. What are his qualifications to lead this country? I’ll give you a day or two to answer this, since I believe it’d take just about anyone that long to figure this one out.
I’m watching Little Miss Sarah lie through her teeth. “I fought the bridge to nowhere”
I guess that was right after she fought for it during her 2006 election campaign?
John McSame doesn’t run with the Washington crowd? I amazed her nose isn’t growing before our very eyes!
Little Miss Sarah must feel at home though in the Convention Hall since she’s presumably familiar with an Alaska weather phenomena known as a “white-out:. There sure ain’t no black folks in her crowd…
On a point of astonishment, she’s comparing herself to Harry Truman? Didn’t Harry get to be President only a few months after a declining old man passed away in the Oval Office? Maybe Little Miss Sarah doesn’t know that?
I said earlier Tom Eagleton in a dress. I’ll revise that. A cross-dressing Dan Quayle is more like it.
Uh, Bill, what exactly is she ad-libbing? I knew the punchlines to most of her “jokes” before she said them. You know, from the speech that someone else wrote for her (I can give you the name of the speechwriter if you’d like)? The speech was released to the press several hours ago… are you really that naive when it comes to politics?
There isn’t a single thing she has said tonight that she hasn’t practiced over and over for the past two days.
Just wait til she has to talk off the cuff. Then we’ll see what she’s made of.
And for about the thousandth time… I don’t CARE what Obama does or did. I have no intention of voting for him. There wasn’t a single Democrat I would have voted for.
I would have voted for Ron Paul and maybe been convinced to vote for Huckabee.
But not McCain. Not now. I voted for him in the SC primary in 2000 and he has disappointed me ever since. The last straws were a) his immigration amnesty bill and b) sucking up to George Bush and Karl Rove — the guys who did to him what he claims the press is doing to Palin. He never defended his daughter. He has become the typical politician who will say or do anything to win. Mr. Integrity – blah!.
A lot of what Sarah Palin said in her speech tonight came from her contemporaneous answers to questions in the interview she did last month.
She didn’t have a speech writer or teleprompter then, and she didn’t need one tonight.
All 4 speakers did a good job of laying out the stark differences between the GOP wanting America to lead the world by freeing people to make their own decisions, and the Democrats wanting to retreat to the failed socialism of the 1960s radicals, Great Society and New Deal.
Here was the ad lib, Doug:
What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?
Lipstick.
The rest of Palin’s speech probably was written by someone else — it seemed an enlargement of the speech she gave when McCain first introduced her.
But it was as good as any speech I’ve heard in years, and she had the hockey mom in her to pull it off. Giuliani and Palin were a great 1-2 punch against Obama, and Palin’s line about Obama using change to promote his candidacy, while McCain uses his candidacy to promote change, that one should stick with anyone who heard it for quite some time.
Yeah, Guero, Harry Truman, that relatively inexperienced pit bull of a guy that wound up becoming president.
Tell me, do you liberals rewrite just recent history to suit your politically correct cookie cutter, or does your cult of irresponsibility reach back past Truman to the Dark Ages?
Based on what I’ve seen so far, Palin will chop Biden into little pieces when they face off, so insincere will the old Washington crony seem.
God speed McCain.
As to the virtue of “executive experience”: Herbert Hoover had considerable executive experience before becoming President. Abraham Lincoln had none. And how has our country fared under those two executive dynamos, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney? I agree that Palin’s family should be off limits; but I also thought that about Chelsea Clinton.
“Talking about the private lives of people in her family is not only beneath contempt, but stupidly off-point.” — Warthen
“Gov. Palin’s daughter’s love life is none of anyone’s concern. Neither was Bill Clinton’s love life the concern of anyone outside his family.” — McLeod
Beneath contempt? Off-point? Not when someone who could be a heartbeat away from the presidency is concerned. Let there be as few secrets public or private as possible.
And, Karen, Bill Clinton’s love life was a worldwide embarrassment. The emperor lives in a glass house. The way he makes his personal choices may well relate to how he makes his public choices. He didn’t get a free pass, he shouldn’t have, and that’s the way things ought to be.
Sorry to intrude into your fantasyland, post menopausal, but the rest of the world laughed at the Republicans’ obsession with sex. Kenneth Starr will live forever as a sex-crazed weird little prosecutor.
I particularly liked Henry Hyde lecturing the US on morals when he had very publicly broken up a marriage and had an extended affair as a “youthful indiscretion” at age 45. Or even better, the group photo Henry Hyde commissioned with his band of merry Inquisitors. His crony prosecuting attorney had not only his wife in the photo but his mistress of many years.
And BTW, have you watched the youtube where your hero John McSame attacks Chelsa Clinton? Give us your comments on that one, pm. I’ll leave the light on.
p.m. says “Here was the ad lib, Doug:
What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”
Sorry to shatter your delusions, but she has used that line before. My son was watching the speech with me and I gave him the punchline before she said it. And for it to be an “ad lib” wouldn’t it have to be something she made up instead of repeating an old joke?
She read a speech written by former longtime Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully. It’s no different than her days as a television sportscaster. As long as the words show up on the teleprompter, half the battle is won.
Doug – So your biggest complaint of the night is to feel the need to blast Palin for reading off a teleprompter. I have not heard you say the first word about every single other speaker who read off the exact same teleprompter. Talk about a hypocrite, now you’re saying you have no intentions of voting for Obama, yet you praise the ground he walks on in your posts. So it sounds like… really you have nothing to say other than to complain. Want my advice on what to do in these situations?
As far as her “ad lib”, repeating a joke that’s not on her teleprompter is “ad libbing”. The way you talk, she’s nothing more than Katie Couric with longer hair.
Bill,
You seem to have a real reading comprehension issue. Where exactly have I written anything that could be considered praise of Obama? Show me one post. Just one.
I won’t vote for Obama because I fear how much he and the Democrat party will raise taxes, increase the size of government, and refuse to do anything about the Social Security crisis that is looming. He is also more likely to try and implement an unworkable national healthcare plan that will only serve to make things worse.
Look up “ad lib” in the dictionary sometime. Saying something you said many times before, especially something you didn’t come up with, is not an ad lib. She knew she was going to use that line before she ever hit the podium.
Unlike you, I will wait to see how she does when she’s not reading off a teleprompter. That’s not what I use to judge the people I vote for. She has very little to go by at this point. I actually tried to watch one of her debates for governor but I’ll have to go back to it later. The first two questions she answered in that debate were about hunting and fishing and something about moose.
A quick Google search shows that all Palin did was take someone else’s joke.
The lipstick joke has been used in 2006 as “What’s the difference between a pit bull and a blonde with PMS?”
And in 2005 as “”What’s the difference between a pit bull and a female lawyer?”
There are 67,800 webpages with the words “lipstick, difference, pitbull, between” that don’t refer to Palin.
So I guess both the VP nominees have an issue with plagiarism.
Doug,
So everytime you tell a joke, do you preface it by relating where you got it from? I thought jokes were, sort of common property?
Doug, are you mentally challenged or just a run of the mill idiot? “ad lib” is an adjective meaning “said or done without having been planned or written in advance”. Does that mean she can’t repeat herself on the spot? Did she know she was going to repeat this quote from an earlier speach? Doug do you know this for a fact, if so please state your findings. Did she cue the women to raise those “Hockey Mom” signs?
As far as your little “plagiarism” complaint… so now, if I understand this correctly, you are expecting everyone who tells a joke to state the source? You must be a ball to be around, about as fun to talk to as to a wet shoe (dear Lord, I hope nobody has written any of this before, because I don’t want to be charged with plagiarism).
You don’t have much to do in your life do you…
Next time when you quote examples of a joke, would you please site the sources.
“Doug, So everytime you tell a joke, do you preface it by relating where you got it from? I thought jokes were, sort of common property?”
So if I repeat a joke that someone else came up with, what should I be credited with? My brilliant ad libbing capability? That’s what p.m. and Bill are trying to say. Re-telling someone else’s joke may be funny if you’re Henny Youngman, but otherwise, it doesn’t exactly amount to a hill of beans when it comes to whether you’re up to the challenge of being Vice President.
Again, using the awesome power of Google, I found a piece by Bill Kristol from TWO DAYS AGO where he related the story that Palin had told McCain staffers that same joke.
Gee, I wonder if anyone from the campaign said “hey, you oughta say that on Wednesday night. It’ll kill with all the Republican robots in the audience.”
You can’t plan an ad lib.
Wait til McCain tells his “ad lib” line about being older than dirt and having more scars than Frankenstein. He’s only pulled that one out a thousand times.
p.m. you got caught. The lipstick joke is really old. Most of the speeches at the GOP convention could have been pulled straight from Ronald Reagan talking points circa 1980.
CNN reported that the teleprompter broke during Giuliani’s speech, and did not work for much of Palin’s speech, either.
There goes yet another trivial criticism of Sarah Palin – that she can read and a deliver a speech better than Obama can.
> , and did not work for much of Palin’s
>speech, either.
That’s a bit of a stretch, Lee. What happened was that halfway through the speech, the teleprompter scrolled forward during one of her laugh lines. All the reports I have read were that she simply recited the speech from memory until the issue was fixed.
I would hope she would have the speech memorized, wouldn’t you?
Let’s wait for a real press conference before annointing her Margaret Thatcher.
The main thing that made Clinton’s infidelities an embarrassment was that the media, and the (republican)congress absolutely rolled in the mess. Eisenhower had a mistress. JFK was not known for marital fidelity. Before that, there were other presidents who were, shall we say, less than monogamous (starting with Jefferson, if not before. It had little to do with their abilities as president. I could wish for the “good old days” when the press allowed the president some personal privacy!
Since when did other politicians having trashy affairs justify Clinton’s sexual abuse of a minor employee in his office?
It was his perjury and witness tampering which brought the fines, impeachment and his plea bargain to avoid criminal prosecution after leaving office.
OK, Doug, I didn’t think it was a new joke. But it seemed off the cuff, like an ad lib. If it was part of the prepared speech, I tip my hat to you. If not, well, then it was a not-so-original ad lib, but entirely relevant to the situation.
Karen, what made Clinton’s infidelities an embarrassment was that he insisted his infidelities weren’t infidelities with such legalese as “I promise you I did not have sext with that woman” and “It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”
Who cared who he had sex with? All that made it an issue was that he was careless enough about it to let it become public knowledge.
Sarah Palin doesn’t have to be the best public speaker in history, or in the world, or even in America.
She is better than Obama or Biden, and that is all that counts.
Hey, mental midgets on both sides of the issue. Where exactly is the Troopergate Hotel? Same with Whitewatergate, Iran-Contragate, Bluedressgate, younameitgate? Watergate is the name of the hotel that ended Nixon’s career. Anyone care to locate one of these other hotels? If the best our media can do to trash our politicians is to relate them to a decades old scandal, then it’s time to turn them off. If you accept that there’s a relationship between Clinton, Palin, Reagan, and Nixon, then I pity you.