Zandar's Thought Of the Day

Saved on the PCs of most of America's political pundits is a partially started column for the week of Wednesday, November 5th, 2008. It reads:

But let's look at the judgment of the man who lost this election, for both sides tried mightily to do so. "How could he have lost?" is not the question, but "How could he have possibly won?" It's simple, really, for it goes back to that fateful day in August. In hindsight, the (failure to select/selection of) (Hillary Clinton/Sarah Palin) was the worst Vice-Presidential decision since Eagleton, if not the worst in modern American history. It not only lost the election for him, but may have very well driven a stake into the heart of his party and put them in the wilderness for a generation, the (Democrats/Republicans) are now mired in a morass of recriminations and have already picked sides against each other for 2012, leaving them hopelessly fractured for a very long time...that's how bad the damage from that one monumentally horrific decision was.

See, I can do this Village job.

Who Picked Palin?

People are beginning to ask the right questions about Sarah Palin...not why she was picked, but who picked her. Steve Clemons has more at the Washington Note:

Rumors are swirling that Tim Pawlenty is furious - that he was on the edge of McCain announcing he was the GOP VP running mate - but that at the last moment, that course was rejected in favor of a person McCain met once, six months ago, and did not interview again.

Huckabee is not pleased that he wasn't even vetted - and he's letting his followers know.

But it may be that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin wasn't vetted either!

Tristan Snell at Open Left discusses what this means for the Dems and their plan of attack:

This should be our refrain, our only talking point about the selection:

Who chose Palin?

Well, it certainly wasn't John McCain.

McCain only met Palin once, six months ago. Unlike every other major party VP nominee in recent memory, Palin did not meet McCain for a final interview before her selection. A few weeks ago, she wasn't in the running at all. The scandals and unorthodoxies involving Palin -- she flip-flopped on the Bridge to Nowhere and even raised sales taxes on her small town to pay for an overpriced boondoggle -- show that the McCain campaign didn't vet her. The McCains and Palins looked visibly awkward together, not even speaking as they went their separate ways on a brief shopping trip in Ohio yesterday. McCain is on record as saying he wanted a running mate with whom he had a strong personal relationship -- and who was ready to be president.

This was clearly not his pick. So again: Who chose Palin?

Was it Dick Cheney? Or Karl Rove? Or maybe James Dobson?

That's a damn good question. What it means is John McSame is not only not a maverick and now fully under control of the fundie wingnut arm of the GOP, but that he no longer has control over his own Presidential campaign. Tim Pawlenty canceled all his appearances for Friday late on Thursday, with the understanding from the press that he was McSame's choice. All of a sudden, first thing Friday morning, Pawlenty is on the radio saying he's "not going to be in Dayton" and that he was now not the pick.

Something happened on Thursday the 28th. That something is somebody in the GOP gave marching orders to McSame, gave orders to somebody running for President, and said "You will take Sarah Palin." If John McSame is going to be President, we need to know who is giving him orders. John McSame isn't ready to be President if he can't stop the extremist neo-con arm of his own party from making his Presidential decisions for him...period. He's no maverick, he's one of them and always has been.

This is going to backfire miserably for the GOP. It will get out who made the choice. And then McSame's run at the White House is over. As the Open Left article concludes:

The new Time piece on McCain already suggests that he's being increasingly controlled by his advisors and consultants, no longer allowed to speak off the cuff or be open with reporters -- leading him to be prickly and gruff. So raising these questions could lead to a wave of media stories on McCain's weakness and frustration at being controlled. Similar stories about Kerry and Gore were devastating to their images and thus to their campaigns.

The Palin pick won McCain some initial good press, and it has raised some concerns among progressives. But it has revealed a huge weakness in McCain's candidacy -- and if we take advantage of it, intelligently, it could be a tremendous gift.

Karl Rove is running for a third term. It's time to attack McSame on that point.

The Politicization of Gustav Begins

Bush and Cheney are skipping the Republican convention due to Gustav. They have to appear Presidential.

This has nothing to do with the fact their combined approval ratings are under 50%, I assure you.

The Village Is Pissed At Palin

As I've mentioned before, the key to Palin is getting the Village women to like her.

They do not. They despise her. First up, Gail Collins from the NY Times:

However, I do feel kind of ticked off at the assumptions that the Republicans seem to be making about female voters. It’s a tad reminiscent of the Dan Quayle selection, when the first George Bush’s advisers decided they could close the gender gap with a cute running mate.

The idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong. When the sexes have parted company in modern elections, it’s generally been because women are more likely to be Democrats, and more concerned about protecting the social safety net. “The gender gap traditionally has been determined by party preference, not by the gender of the candidate,” said Ruth Mandel of the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

Ruth Marcus at the Washington Post:

The spin on McCain's choice of the Alaska governor is that it reinforces his maverick credentials. I see it the opposite way: It undermines them. McCain looks like any other calculating politician, willing to do whatever it takes to win.

The maverick argument is that Palin is an outsider -- the only one of four on the November ballot. "She's not from these parts and she's not from Washington," McCain said in Dayton, Ohio. Palin complements McCain's reformer credentials, having spoken out against corruption and earmarks in a state that has an oversize share of both. She is a young, fresh and, yes, female face. "A running mate who can best help me shake up Washington," McCain said.

But I can't believe that McCain truly thinks Palin is the best choice to be a heartbeat away -- especially in a White House that would be occupied by the oldest man ever to be elected to a first term in the office.

McCain runs the risk that Palin will turn out to be Dan Quayle with an up-do -- except with less experience. By the time he was selected as George H.W. Bush's running mate, Quayle had served in the House and Senate for a dozen years. Palin has been governor for less than two.

And of course MoDo the Red goes on a complete bender:

The guilty pleasure I miss most when I’m out slogging on the campaign trail is the chance to sprawl on the chaise and watch a vacuously spunky and generically sassy chick flick.

So imagine my delight, my absolute astonishment, when the hokey chick flick came out on the trail, a Cinderella story so preposterous it’s hard to believe it’s not premiering on Lifetime. Instead of going home and watching “Miss Congeniality” with Sandra Bullock, I get to stay here and watch “Miss Congeniality” with Sarah Palin.

Sheer heaven.

Palin is DOA, folks, she's Dan Quayle in a dress, and that's an insult to Dan Quayle...he at least was a sitting US Senator.

Sure McSame Vetted Her, Right?

Over at TPM, Josh Marshall does some investigative reporting (remember that, America?) and calls shenanigans on today's WaPo story that has the McSame camp insisting Sarah Palin's been vetted "extensively".

But leafing through articles out of Alaska, there's good reason to doubt these claims that Palin received an extensive vetting.

One bit of info from the Anchorage Daily News ...

Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican political leader who has clashed with Palin in the past, was shocked when she heard the news Friday morning with her husband, Walt.

"I said to Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.

Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate.

"We're not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something."

Perhaps she's just a hostile or isn't as plugged in as she thinks. But there's also this.

The big bogey for Palin is the ethics investigation into possible abuse of power in her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. I can see possible reasons why the McCain camp would hesitate to make contact with Monegan. But with credible claims that she abused her office and subsequently lied about her actions, I would think the McCain camp would want to understand that case inside and out. But according to an article in today's ADN, Monegan says that no one from the McCain campaign ever contacted him about Palin.

Impulsive, rash, panicky, too quick, risky. That's been John McSame for his entire political career. Why should this be any different? That is the level of judgment he brings to the White House.

This is going to backfire in a huge manner. Sarah Palin will be pressured to turn down McSame's offer by a large part of the party. I hope she stays. She's not a disastrous candidate because she's a woman and the Democrats absolutely must avoid backhanded misogyny on dealing with Palin. She is a disatrous candidate because she is unqualified on the issues and is under investigation. Attack McSame's judgment for selecting her instead.

NOLA And America Are Tested Again

Gustav has weakened a bit to a strong Category 3 storm at 125 MPH, but he's expected to pick up steam over the next 24-36 hours back into Category 4 or even 5 status. NOLA is almost certainly in the storm's path now. Three years ago the worst hurricane to hit that part of the country in a hundred years came ashore and changed America forever when Katrina hit.

Gustav is expected to be worse. Already we're seeing the same problems with Katrina's evacuation...there are those who cannot leave the city. Should they stay behind, they will have even fewer options for help than under Katrina's assault.

The storm called up uneasy memories of the deadly 2005 hurricane season, particularly of Katrina. When Katrina hit, more than 1,800 people died in five states, 1,577 of them in Louisiana.

Unlike the situation during Katrina, there will be no "shelter of last resort," the city said. In 2005, the city's Louisiana Superdome housed thousands of New Orleanians who couldn't, or didn't, heed the mandatory evacuation order.

Nagin warned that all but a "skeleton crew" of city workers would be leaving the city and said local authorities could not promise help for those who choose to stay behind.

"This is very, very serious, and we need you to heed this warning," he said. "We really don't have the resources to rescue you after this."

The FEMA trailer towns will certainly be annihilated. Should the worst happen and the levees fail a second time, I don't think New Orleans will survive. It was already on life support. A second, even worse hurricane could kill the city.

And just like last time, the poor are unable to leave.

"It's the storm of the century," he said.

But Kennedy can't and others just won't leave. They are the few residents who did not make the tortoise crawl down Interstate 10 on Saturday.

"If I left, I'll probably lose my job," said Jeremiah O'Farrell, another dishwasher who is staying put. "I really don't have anywhere to go if I could leave. I could go home, but that doesn't seem like the thing to try. Too far, I guess."

These are the folks you're going to see on rooftops again...or their bodies are not going to be found for weeks until the water recedes.

Across town in the 9th Ward, a neighborhood decimated by Katrina, Sidney William climbs slowly out of his truck. He's 49 but moves like he's 20 years older.

"My legs hurt; my feet hurt a lot," he said. "It's not easy."

William wants desperately to leave his native New Orleans to avoid Gustav. He didn't leave for Katrina because he didn't have the money. He won't talk about what happened to him during that storm.

"I wish I had the money to go." Rejected for disability subsidies, he depends on his 23-year-old daughter, Gloria, to support the family.

"Lot of folks around here are gonna make do with what they have, and you won't hear a terrible amount of complaining," he said. "You can't just come in here and expect to hear people fussing about how they don't have nothing. People just be used to not having much, and so you don't even think too hard about it until someone starts asking you questions."

A neighbor, Victoria, says she has two Rottweilers who she's not willing to leave behind.

"Now, what do you think that would look like, me and my little car sitting there in traffic with two big old Rottweilers," she said, laughing.

Money is tight for her, too.

"Guess I'm just gonna wait. I just don't know. It's all stressful."

The city's underclass will suffer the most, and after Katrina there's a lot more underclass, driven under by three years of post-Katrina, "compassionate conservative" neglect. It was their fault for letting the hurricanes kill them. The government was free of all responsibility to its people for this, we're told by Republicans. Then the same government provided millions to the weathiest developers and corporations and ignored the most vulnerable. Three years of dragging their feet has left the city open to another disaster like Gustav. It's too expensive to make the levees safe against another Katrina, what are the odds of another Category 3+ hurricane hitting NOLA again anytime soon?

Now in less than 48 hours we'll see if the bill for that comes due. What is happening to NOLA is what the GOP has planned for all of America: you're on your own...we're helping the top 1%. Saving the lives of people trapped by Gustav and Katrina isn't cost-effective, but a six-year war in the middle east is vital to America's very existence.

Remember Katrina and Gustav this November. We've already failed part of the test. Now we'll see just how much it's going to cost us all.

Also at the Frog Pond

Unending War In The Police State Of America

Bush wants Congress to authorize an open-ended, permanent state of war.

Tucked deep into a recent proposal from the Bush administration is a provision that has received almost no public attention, yet in many ways captures one of President Bush’s defining legacies: an affirmation that the United States is still at war with Al Qaeda.

Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush’s advisers assert that many Americans may have forgotten that. So they want Congress to say so and “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”

The language, part of a proposal for hearing legal appeals from detainees at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, goes beyond political symbolism. Echoing a measure that Congress passed just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, it carries significant legal and public policy implications for Mr. Bush, and potentially his successor, to claim the imprimatur of Congress to use the tools of war, including detention, interrogation and surveillance, against the enemy, legal and political analysts say.

Some lawmakers are concerned that the administration’s effort to declare anew a war footing is an 11th-hour maneuver to re-establish its broad interpretation of the president’s wartime powers, even in the face of challenges from the Supreme Court and Congress.

The proposal is also the latest step that the administration, in its waning months, has taken to make permanent important aspects of its “long war” against terrorism. From a new wiretapping law approved by Congress to a rewriting of intelligence procedures and F.B.I. investigative techniques, the administration is moving to institutionalize by law, regulation or order a wide variety of antiterrorism tactics.

“This seems like a final push by the administration before they go out the door,” said Suzanne Spaulding, a former lawyer for the Central Intelligence Agency and an expert on national security law. The cumulative effect of the actions, Ms. Spaulding said, is to “put the onus on the next administration” — particularly a Barack Obama administration — to justify undoing what Mr. Bush has done.

And Obama would be seen as weak on terrorism if he did so...and so would the already-proven spineless Dems in Congress. They would never un-authorize it. Besides, Obama's already said on multiple occasions that he wishes out of Iraq, only to focus on Afghanistan and possibly even Pakistan.

But the permanent state of war primarily would allow continuing abuses of power by Bush and his friends. These abuses would be permanently codified into law if McSame and Palin got control of the White House and even one more Supreme Court justice was installed along the lines of Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Roberts.

Bush's police state legacy must be dismantled by the next President, or it will become law for our children and possibly our grandchildren as well.

Explain this to your friends out there that tell you "Obama, McSame, it doesn't matter who I vote for." Don't believe me about the police state?

Look what the GOP is doing in the Twin Cities this weekend to keep the Republican National Convention free of dissent: raiding, arresting, and detaining suspected protesters who have yet to break any law, commit any crimes, or threaten anyone.

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.

Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10 college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically active but entirely unthreatening and friendly. Posted below is the video of the scene, including various interviews, which convey a very clear sense of what is actually going on here.

In the house that had just been raided, those inside described how a team of roughly 25 officers had barged into their homes with masks and black swat gear, holding large semi-automatic rifles, and ordered them to lie on the floor, where they were handcuffed and ordered not to move. The officers refused to state why they were there and, until the very end, refused to show whether they had a search warrant. They were forced to remain on the floor for 45 minutes while the officers took away the laptops, computers, individual journals, and political materials kept in the house. One of the individuals renting the house, an 18-year-old woman, was extremely shaken as she and others described how the officers were deliberately making intimidating statements such as "Do you have Terminator ready?" as they lay on the floor in handcuffs. The 10 or so individuals in the house all said that though they found the experience very jarring, they still intended to protest against the GOP Convention, and several said that being subjected to raids of that sort made them more emboldened than ever to do so.

This is what the police state is doing already in this country. Give it four more years of McSame and Palin, and this will be the new face of "law enforcement" in your hometown.

Gustav Goes Prime Time

It's now a Category 5 storm as of this afternoon. Once again, NOLA is being evacuated.

Forecasters said there is a better-than-even chance that New Orleans will get slammed by the storm. That raised the likelihood people will have to flee, and the city suggested a full-scale mandatory evacuation call could come as soon as Sunday.

Having just yesterday marked the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is not waiting for the storm (which has already killed 78 people in the Caribbean) to make landfall.

Cars packed with clothes, boxes and pet carriers drove north among heavy traffic on Interstate 55, a major route out of the city. Gas stations around the city hummed. And nursing homes and hospitals began sending patients farther inland.

"I'm getting out of here. I can't take another hurricane," said Ramona Summers, 59, whose house flooded during Hurricane Katrina three years ago. She hurried to help friends gather their belongings. Her car was already packed for Gonzales, nearly 60 miles away to the west of New Orleans.

A line of people well over a mile long stretched in six loops through the parking lot at Union Passenger Terminal waiting for buses out of the city. Under a blazing sun, many led children or pushed strollers with one hand and pulled luggage with the other. Volunteers handed out bottled water, and medics were nearby in case people became heatsick.

Once again, America is going to be tested. Jesus, Mary, Mother and Joseph it's happening all over again.

A Light(weight) Shade Of Palin

BooMan notes a number of national newspaper editorials (as well as those in Palin's home state of Alaska) have opinions this morning on McSame's VPILF ranging from polite shock to outright hostility. McCain's age just became the albatross around his neck.

I have a sampling of media reaction to the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. It starts with the reaction from Alaskan newspapers. They HATE the choice. Then it moves on to lower-48 papers, large and small. They also HATE it. In fact, I don't remember anything approaching this level of disdain for Dan Quayle. Dan Quayle ruined his reputation over time by his performance on the national stage. But, as a sitting U.S. Senator, he was accorded some initial respect. Sarah Palin is getting no respect. Or, to be more accurate, no one is pretending for one moment that she is qualified to be president of the United States or is accepting any of McCain's talking points as anything but rubbish. You can walk back a nomination to the Supreme Court, like Harriet Miers. But you can't walk back a vice-presidential pick. Just ask George McGovern.

Do check them out, especially the ones from Alaska:

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (EDITORIAL): She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?…Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation's when he created the possibility that she might fill it. It's clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance. LINK

Anchorage Daily News: "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said [State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla]. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?" LINK

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Lately her reputation within the state has been bit by allegations of mixing political and family business, and by mistreating one of the state's premier marine mammals. Palin's catch-phrase of "openness and transparency" has been tarnished by revelations that staff members tried to have Palin's former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper. Also, the governor of the only state with polar bears has adamantly opposed listing the animals as a threatened species, despite strong evidence that global warming has devastated their sea ice environment off Alaska's coast. Dermot Cole, a longtime columnist for Alaska's second largest newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, called McCain's choice of Palin "reckless" and questioned her credentials. "Sarah Palin's chief qualification for being elected governor was that she was not Frank Murkowski," Cole said of her enormously unpopular predecessor, who lost favor with Alaskans in part because of unpopular budget cuts. "She was not elected because she was a conservative. She was not elected because of her grasp of issues or because of her track record as the mayor of Wasilla." LINK

Juneau Empire (Kate Golden) "Some in Ketchikan react to nomination with concern, ire": In her acceptance speech as McCain's running mate Friday morning, Palin held up her opposition to the bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina - the "bridge to nowhere" - as an example of "the abuses of earmark spending."…When campaigning in Ketchikan in September 2006, Palin promised Ketchikan residents the bridge LINK

When's the last time you can honestly say a VP pick actually helped a Presidential candidate LOSE that VP's state? I think she's so bad she might help McSame lose Alaska!

Lowest Common Duh-Nominate-Her

I've decided that all of yesterday's analysis of Sarah Palin, and yes, even my own, is missing the point of why Sarah Palin was selected.

It all boils down to this: She's a pretty face to excite the base.

In a country where a quarter of us think Obama is a Muslim, a third to 40% of us still think Saddam Hussein was personally behind 9/11, and over half of us don't believe in evolution of humans at all, Sarah Palin is the perfect VP choice for an ignorant, 21st century populace.

The GOP believes it doesn't matter what she has to say about foreign policy, or tax burdens, or balancing the budget. She's a former beauty queen who still looks like one. With the sound off, McSame and Palin look like they're ready to run this country. The pretty nastyVPILF meme is off and running. "She's pretty damn hot." That's the whole point of the cynical exercise.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Karl Rove's brilliant plan is to assure that presidential politics in this great country after 232 years has been reduced to "I would vote for McSame because I would so bang Sarah Palin until she couldn't walk."

Yes, it's misogynist, sexist, insulting, rude, disturbing, infuriating, disgusting, and in every possible aspect, completely 100% wrong. But you know what? Republicans think they'll win anyhow, because we've proven how stupid, easily mislead, gullible, vulnerable to fear, bigoted, irrational, moronic and downright ignorant WE are as a populace, because we voted in George W. Bush. TWICE.

Sarah Palin is there to get McSame close enough so that Karl Rove is able to steal the election a third time. Nothing more. Nothing less. They figure with the Bradley Effect, two months of vicious sliming, McSame acting like your kindly old grandpa and Sarah Palin's rack, enough of you will vote for them even though a massive majority of us are sick of the Bush policies that have wrecked this country.

You'll vote yourself right out of affordable health care, civil rights, civil liberties, and whatever respect the US has left for a team of folks who will keep you ignorant enough to get away with pillaging every last dime and sending us into a deep depression where they can rule us by fear and by rifle, if necessary. It'll be a land of unending war, bigotry and anger, where we exist only to serve the richest Americans and their interests.

Americans are a great people when motivated. When we're not motivated, we're lazy f'ckin bastards.

Karl Rove hopes you're not motivated. He doesn't think you give a shit about this country anymore. He's counting on it.

That's why Sarah Palin. Because the GOP doesn't give a shit about anything other than power. The Politics of Against in action.

I'd say "Remember that in November" but millions of us won't and will vote for McSame/VPILF anyway. Pray Obama wins.

McSame's only chance to win is if Sarah Palin can charm the media. But she'll have to charm Washington's powerful media women too: Village matrons like Maureen Dowd, Cokie Roberts, Katie Couric, Linda Wertheimer, and so on.

I don't think McSame's Operation VPILF will find a very receptive audience on that, and I honestly don't know if GOP luminaries like Kay Baliey Hutchinson and Liddy Dole are going to go along with this, especially the pro-choice moderates like Olympia Snowe and Christie Todd Whitman. They may revolt.

But if the Village goes along with Palin...especially the Village women, then Obama is in serious, serious danger. America's got two months to fall in love with Sarah Palin. She just may be able to pull it off...or get it close enough so that Karl Rove and Diebold can steal it.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition

• Gustav is now a Category 3 Hurricane with winds at 115 MPH as it rounds Cuba and heads for the Gulf...and NOLA.
• The strategic key to Georgia these days is the modern port city of Poti.
• General Petraeus is expected to announce plans for more troop cuts in Iraq due to the "success" the US continues to have.
• Michael Phelps is taking the endorsement world by storm.
• The Dalai Lama remains hospitalized as his fellow Tibetans fast and pray.

Karl Rove Is A Douchebag

Karl Rove, three weeks ago on Obama considering picking Tim Kaine: (h/t C&L)

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?

Screw you Karl, you just wrote McSame's political obituary.

You lose, sir. Good day.

Action/Reaction

The response to Palin has been...not good. The pro-McSame contingent at HuffPo is f'ckin depressed. Here's some highlights:

In the end, the only case she herself made for being on the ticket was praising Hillary Clinton! That's it, period. Now, it might be enough to attract some women -- but it doesn't make a case for the ticket. Why? Hint: some women did vote for Hillary Clinton solely because she was a woman. But most women voted for Hillary Clinton because she was a Democrat, as well as a woman, who stood for important Democratic values they seriously believed in. If Sarah Palin wants to praise Hillary Clinton, go for it. But at least understand what you're praising. Because it will likely come back and bite you.

It was a thin, nothing, empty speech. It was a speech to be head of the Chamber of Commerce. Compare that to the speech by Joe Biden when Barack Obama introduced him. Eloquent, soaring and explaining in blunt detail why John McCain should not be president. Joe Biden must have been watching Sarah Palin's speech, in order to take notes in preparation for his debate with Sarah Palin and thought, "This isn't fair."

And all that's not even the reason the decision is so terrible.

We're talking "truly despondent" here, folks.

When Republicans and independents go into the voting booth, will they have the confidence to vote for a McCain-Palin ticket, knowing that John McCain has had several recurrences of his skin cancer, and will be the oldest President ever? Can they imagine Sarah Palin stepping into the Oval Office and dealing with all the problems we face right now? The Russians and the terrorists must be quaking in their boots.

It's a slap in the face of other Republican women like Kay Bailey Hutchison, bless her heart, who was forced to stumble through an interview on TV trying to make the case for Palin whom she has never met. There are certainly women in the Republican party who were "in line" for this before Palin. Did the Rovian type advisors to McCain just cynically think that throwing a young attractive inexperienced woman into the mix would satisfy women who long to see a woman president? Women, and Republican women, are not so stupid as to fall for that! It is reminiscent of the Republicans putting up Alan Keyes to run against Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate just because he was black. Voters saw through that pretty quickly.

Over at National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru is warning anyone who'll listen that she's a bad, bad idea.

Inexperience. Palin has been governor for about two minutes. Thanks to McCain’s decision, Palin could be commander-in-chief next year. That may strike people as a reckless choice; it strikes me that way. And McCain's age raised the stakes on this issue.

As a political matter, it undercuts the case against Obama. Conservatives are pointing out that it is tricky for the Obama campaign to raise the issue of her inexperience given his own, and note that the presidency matters more than the vice-presidency. But that gets things backward. To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins.

And it’s not just foreign policy. Palin has no experience dealing with national domestic issues, either. (On the other hand, as Kate O’Beirne just told me, we know that Palin will be ready for that 3 a.m. phone call: She’ll already be up with her baby.)

Tokenism. Can anyone say with a straight face that Palin would have gotten picked if she were a man?

Compatibility. It doesn’t seem as though McCain knows Palin well. Do we have much reason to think they would work well together?

Debates. Maybe, as Jonah said the other day, Biden will look like a bully going up against her—and maybe she’ll shine. But I can think of a lot of other picks who would have been lower-risk.

I am not even sure that the pick will have quite the galvanizing effect on conservatives that it seems to be having now as it sinks in. The concerns I’ve mentioned here—about her readiness and her credentials—are the kind of thing that many conservative voters take seriously.

Mike Allen at the Politico:

Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.” asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain's ticket mate.

Palin replied: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

Her evident distaste for the office would be part of her appeal: It would show McCain is running an anti-Washington, reformist campaign.

But it also points to a huge negative for her: It robs Republicans of their most effective argument against Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) — that he lacks experience.

And on, and on, and on.

All I can say is the Republicans have these crazy fantasies where women abandon the Democrats forever because of Palin and then the African-Americans turn on the Dems after Obama's historic defeat and leave the Democrats as the New England Regional Party, giving the GOP control of the country for another generation.

Zandar's Thought Of the Day

Sarah Palin makes no sense.

This is the conclusion the Zandardad (active in Democratic politics back home in NC for a couple decades now, ask him about his picture with Jimmy Carter in Bermuda sometime) and I have come to after talking to him today on the phone. No sense whatsoever. We cannot between the two of us come up with why John McSame chose Sarah Palin over Joe F'ckin Lieberman, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Olympia Snowe, Christie Todd Whitman, Jodi Rell, Bobby Jindal, or even Elizabeth Dole and Mike Huckabee.

Even Rick Santorum would have been a better choice. I mean that. Rick Santorum makes sense compared to Sarah Palin.

There are better choices to excite the base. There are better choices to attract moderate female voters. There are better choices in experience and record that would fit one or both of the preceding criteria.

I can honestly say that if both I'm stumped and my father is stumped by the political calculus here with close to four decades between us as political junkies, there's a problem. Neither one of us can determine the process here for taking Sarah Palin.

She's an extremist fundie garbage-spouting, ANWR-drilling, polar-bear shooing, gay-bashing, nookular-loving, climate-change denying, former Miss Alaska runner-up, that's a creationism-teaching, neo-feminist from a small population state that was never in play, on the campaign trail with a 3-month old baby, zero foreign policy experience, zero legislative experience, and she will be President if anything happens to the 72-year old guy with the explosive temper and the skin cancer.

I mean honestly, four years from now you're seeing what, a Palin-Jindal "bamboozle the women and minorities" ticket?

What. The Hell. Was McSame Thinking.

Oh, and here's Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) kicking Sarah Palin's ass.

The Pick

So, if you're McSame, let's weigh the pros and cons of Sarah Palin from a cynical GOP operative POV:

Pros:

• Young (44) and female.
• Hard-line conservative: pro-life, pro-gun, pro-intelligent design.
• Has 5 kids, including one on his war to Iraq.
• Has about 2 years executive experience.
• Some decent reformer and fiscal conservative cred.

Cons:

• Young (44) and female.
• Under ethics investigation ALREADY.
• Has 5 kids, including a 3 month old baby.
• Has only about 2 years executive experience.
• Has even less foreign policy cred than Obama.
• Would be one McCain health problem away from the Presidency.

I'm thinking that short-term it's a terrible idea. Once she's IN however, she would be the pretty face to sell the GOP's craziest policies: ending women's choice, ending gay rights, intelligent design being taught in public schools, selling the next war with Russia/China/Iran, selling the police state and the end of Posse Comitatus, etc.

The wingnuts are ecstatic about Sarah Palin...isn't that enough to suspect she's the ultimate Trojan Horse? (I mean, you know, besides Clarence Thomas?)

She's there to help McSame sell the end. BooMan points out eight other GOP women who are more qualified with Christie Todd Whitman at the top of his list.

It was a pick based on selling a woman to his base and to low information voters, a cynical, insulting pick who believes firmly in finishing the GOP social engineering job the Bushies started in 2001, which is putting women, gays, and minorities back in their "rightful place" as second-class citizens and keeping the rest of the population ignorant and compliant enough to agree with the measures necessary to enforce that.

And yes, those are strong words. But I cannot see the choice of Palin taken any other way. She is the pretty face used to sell feminism the rope to hang itself with.

And if you think I'm cynical now, allow me to toss in the thought that Palin was selected because John McSame and his crew already believe themselves to have won, and that Palin is just there as the new face of the police state after the vote-stealing is done.

Now that's quality cynicism.

Oh Hell Yes

Dee Dee Myers just kicked Sarah Palin's ass.

But is she ready to be commander-in-chief?

Unlike Barack Obama, whom McCain has so emphatically condemned as not-ready, Palin hasn’t run for or served in the Senate. Nor has she run for president, which would have required her to think through and take positions on critical issues from the war in Iraq to the war on terror, from Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the Russian incursion into Georgia, from the emerging power of China to the march of globalization. She hasn’t debated tough opponents a dozen or so times or faced aggressive, often downright hostile reporters on a daily basis. Talk about untested. Her slim record undermines one of McCain’s most effective arguments against Obama.

Clearly, McCain thinks Palin will help him among women, particularly those disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who are having so much trouble “getting over it.” It just shows how clueless the McCain camp actually is. Unlike Clinton and Ferraro, Palin hasn’t been a strong national voice on women’s issues. She hasn’t been at the barricades, fighting for women’s health, equal pay, economic security. And she certainly hasn’t had anything to say about the national-security issues that are also important to women across the political spectrum. Does the McCain camp really expect pro-choice Democratic and independent women to be swayed by a sleight-of-gender?

It’s such a transparently political decision, a double-X Dan Quayle. McCain made the decision to double down on his credentials as a take-no-prisoners reformer. But he did so at the expense of the more important qualifications for a running mate.

It’s not political to say that John McCain turns 72 today. That he’s a cancer survivor. That he spent six years being tortured and abused in a Vietnamese prison camp. Those are the physical realities of his life, and pure and simple, they demanded that he chose a running mate who is ready, really ready. That he put country first. Today, he failed that test.

Worse, when Sarah Palin falls short—and I hope I’m wrong but I think in important ways, such as her debate with Joe Biden, she will—some people will conclude that women can’t cut it. That’s unfair to Sarah Palin—and it’s certainly unfair to the rest of us.

Nobody's buying this, folks. Not on either side.

Keep In The Back Of Your Mind

...that the GOP's codified policies towards women and minorities are so atrocious that the worst attacks on Sarah Palin are going to probably come from her own party.

The base won't take her. They will go nuts. McSame is bad enough for them to swallow but a woman with less experience than Obama? Nope. They'll sit at home. McSame's experience argument just died.

50-50 she's asked to withdraw during the convention.

And I Said To Myself, Self...

...what do Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan think about Sarah Palin?

The pick of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate tells me that reproductive rights are a massive issue for him. I’ve been saying from the get-go that McCain has been screwed insofar as he has to appear strongly anti-woman for the base, but pro-woman for the low information swing voters. Lieberman, I think, could have pulled that off. But this is simpler---a female anti-choicer, a straight-up sexist colluder. The base will be appeased that she shares their anti-woman sympathies, but the swing voter will simply see that she’s a woman and assume that she can’t be anti-woman. Sadly, as we feminists know all too well dealing with those women who collude with sexism, it isn’t at all true or inevitable that a woman will be a feminist.

This is also a sign that the Republicans are taking all their cues from the Democrats this election. The Democratic convention is a non-stop discussion of women’s rights to reproductive health care, equal pay, and freedom from violence. Republicans grab their asses and pick a female V.P., hoping that they can get in on some of that action.

And Melissa?

Well, that took—what?—an hour? Petulant just emailed me to say he heard someone on the Stephanie Miller Show calling Palin a "bimbo." (Presumably because she's a former beauty queen.) And I'm already reading indictments of "her" that include information like "her husband works for an oil company."

Fuck.

Says Pet: "The slaughter of your gender begins anew!" Sob.

For the record, there is plenty about which to criticize Palin that has absolutely fuck-all to do with her sex. She's anti-choice, against marriage equality, pro-death penalty, pro-guns, and loves Big Business. (In other words, she's a Republican.) There's no goddamned reason to criticize her for anything but her policies.

And I'll go ahead and put it right in the fucking inaugural post in this series: I will defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because I like or support her, but because that's how feminism works.

Cheesus. I'm exhausted already.

Both of them have 100% completely valid points, as usual.

UPDATE: and Taylor Marsh nails it.

This is a desperation play. McCain's trying to mute his geezer quotient with Palin's babe vibe. On that, well done, John. With McCain turning 72 today, this is beyond obvious.

However, so much for the "war on terror" being the transcendent issue of our time. The thought of Palin as commander in chief is frightening.

Women voters, especially HRC voters, were pro Hillary because she was very experienced and qualified. Palin's abuse of power problems is not a plus.

As for Palin, not even Kay Bailey Hutchison knew anything about her when she appeared on CNN today. McCain and his team didn't even bother to get her a fact sheet on his veep pick. That says it all.

99% Sure It's Romney...

...but that other one percent is apparently Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Palin, 44, who's in her first term as governor, is a pioneering figure in Alaska, the first woman and the youngest person to hold the state's top political job.

She catapulted to the post with a strong reputation as a political outsider, forged during her stint in local politics. She was mayor and a council member of the small town of Wasila and was chairman of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates Alaska's oil and gas resources, in 2003 and 2004.

The conservative Palin defeated two so-called political insiders to win the governor's job -- incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the GOP primary and former two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles in the 2006 general election.

Palin made her name in part by backing tough ethical standards for politicians. During the first legislative session after her election, her administration passed a state ethics law overhaul.

Palin's term has not been without controversy. A legislative investigation is looking into allegations that Palin fired Alaska's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Palin acknowledged that a call was made by a member of her staff to a trooper in which the staffer suggested he was speaking for the governor.

That's a minor one, but Senator Series Of Toobs is gonna hurt her. It's Karl Rove going after the Hillary vote.

Damn clever of them.

Moving On

Amazingly enough, the guilt by association trap that the Village has set for Obama relating him to Weatherman Bill Ayers through their mutual work on the Annenberg Foundation has failed due to the fact it will catch far more Republicans. (h/t Sadly, No!)

The basis for this nonsense is the Obama was on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Bill Ayers was involved in a group that organized the Chicago Challenge and that provided advice and recommendations to the Challenge. So, since being on the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge makes you a terrorist, let’s see who some of the other terrorists on that Board were. Here’s a list of the Board members from the group’s 1998 IRS Form 990.

First we have Edward Bottum, who was head of a Chase Franklin, a venture capital firm, as well as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Underwriters Laboratories. And, probably to throw the FBI off the track of his terrorist leanings, he made all of his political contributions to Republicans.

Then there is John W. McCarter, Jr., who is President of a noted terrorist front organization, The Field Museum of Chicago.

And don’t forget the philanthropist Nancy Searle, who also has cleverly concealed her terrorist leanings by contributing to Republicans.

Best of all, another Board member is Scott C. Smith, President and Publisher of the Chicago Tribune, which still openly advocates blowing up public monuments and gives recipes for Molotov cocktails in its “Food and Drink” section. Scott gives money to Republican candidates hoping to embarrass them by his connections with Bill Ayers.

Finally, Kurtz and all the other wingnuts screaming about this seem to have forgotten who Walter Annenberg, the guy who started this whole thing, was. To call him a fervent Republican and best buddies with Tricky Dick Nixon and St. Ronnie Reagan is an understatement. Actually, the most damning thing about Obama’s connection to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge is, well, Annenberg himself, but we aren’t going to hear that from Big Gay Stanley and friends.

The smears aren't going to work this time, guys. Just not gonna work.

The Definition Of Village Stupidity:

The AP Charles Babington saying about Barack Obama's speech last night:

Even if Obama had talked for three hours, of course, he could not have detailed enough proposals to quiet all his critics.

Which is true. But it makes you look like an asshole when you put that line at the end of a story that STARTS with:

Barack Obama, whose campaign theme is "change we can believe in," promised Thursday to "spell out exactly what that change would mean."

But instead of dwelling on specifics, he laced the crowning speech of his long campaign with the type of rhetorical flourishes that Republicans mock and the attacks on John McCain that Democrats cheer. The country saw a candidate confident in his existing campaign formula: tie McCain tightly to President Bush, and remind voters why they are unhappy with the incumbent.

The AP has decided to declare war on Barack Obama's candidacy and join the ranks of the Village. The problem is with AP's "political analysis" passing as news wire releases, it's a massive smear job. The GOP is only part of the problem with the country. Some Democrats comprise a large part of it too. But the Village? The Village sucks all the way around.

Jesus, even Pat Buchanan said that speech kicked ass last night.

McSame's Veep

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the compromise choice, says he won't be in Dayton today (where McSame is making his announcement) according to NPR. With Karl Rove categorically rejecting Lieberman, I'm 99% sure it's gonna be the Mittster.

Biden will consume him like an overpriced confectionery delight.

Remember Katrina today. Remember the last eight years.

Uhhhhhh St. Paul, We Have A Problem

It seems the GOP is considering postponing their convention should Gustav threaten the Gulf Coast.

As the political spotlight shifts to the upcoming Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, GOP leaders are closely monitoring the movements of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is approaching hurricane strength as it heads toward the Gulf Coast.

Party officials are discussing the possibility of postponing convention proceedings if the threat to New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas grows. If there is serious damage in the Gulf Coast, images of Republicans partying in Minneapolis-St. Paul could be an embarrassing reminder of the Bush administration's delayed response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

Forecasters predicted that the storm could come ashore Tuesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane, with winds in the 113- to 130-mph range. That would be in the middle of the Republican convention, which runs from Monday through Thursday.

If they postpone the convention, it's an admission that the GOP has dropped the ball on Katrina and failed New Orleans. If they DON'T postpone the convention, it's an admission that the behavior the GOP showed to a majority African-American city like New Orleans during Katrina is perfectly acceptable to the GOP party leaders while the rest of America goes "What the hell is your problem up there?"

Of course the reason this is a lose-lose situation is because both outcomes highlight the fact that the federal response to Katrina was totally screwed from the beginning, and it was ignored on purpose. If Gustav follows Katrina's track and goes right for NOLA, you'll see the GOP fall all over themselves trying to help.

Remember this when McSame pulls the maverick card on Gustav. When Katrina hit, he was sharing a goddamn cake three years ago with Bush...for you see, August 29, the day Katrina destroyed NOLA, is John McSame's birthday.

Happy 72nd birthday. Asshole.

As Promised, More Big O

The speech last night was wonderful. It was a glowing moment.

But even I have to admit some of the policy statements bothered me greatly. Cutting taxes on 95% of working families and our END of dependence on foreign oil in 10 years? Outstanding. Health care for all Americans? About damn time. Equal work for equal pay? Yes, a thousand times yes.

But is it America's job to pledge our troops towards "Protecting Israel" and "rebuilding our military for future conflicts"? It's that foreign policy mindset that got us into Iraq. Not so thrilled about that. When he said "more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11" it means the war shifts from Iraq to Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan for however many more years. When he says "I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power" he does not have the answer to the climate crisis or the energy crisis. More nuclear plants and coal plants are not going to do it. He doesn't differ an iota from McSame on those fronts.

There are some things we're not going to like about President Obama's policies. But having said that...he's still better than McSame. It's the stuff two paragraphs up that make me want to vote for him.

It's a start. But there's lots of work to do still.

StupidiNews!

• Barack Obama made history last night as he accepted the challenge to run for President.
• Russia's continued aggression is uniting Georgia behind their own President, Mikhail Saakashvili.
• Tropical Storm Hanna is now taking aim at the US East Coast, while Gustav strengthens after causing chaos in Jamaica.
• Golf's top foreign pros, both male and female, are taking aim at the LPGA's English only language rule.
• Reports of Steve Jobs's demise are greatly exaggerated as a routine update of his obituary was accidentally published.

The Big O

He did it.

He laid out who he was and why he should be President. It was specific, it was powerful, it was masterful.

And God help me but I believe what he had to say and I believe we can get it done.

Text is here.

More tomorrow.

You Get The Feeling People Don't Respect America Anymore?

I wonder why that is.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

Putin told CNN his defense officials had told him it was done to benefit a presidential candidate -- Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are competing to succeed George W. Bush -- although he presented no evidence to back it up.

"U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict," Putin said. "They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader."

The White House is pissed.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino blasted Putin's statements, saying they were "patently false."

"To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a political candidate just sounds not rational," she said.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood concurred, and labeled Putin's statements as "ludicrous."

Now, here's the wacky part: Putin said this specifically because there are people out there across the world that will completely buy into this, even if it's complete bullshit. Why? Because if you honestly look at what this White House HAS done in the name of purely political gain, this accusation is just crazy enough to be true.

I mean if you told me in 2001 that the Bush White House would out a CIA agent's cover just to get back at the operative's husband politically, I would have said "You're crazy, nobody would do that."

I mean hell, we invaded Iraq for completely crazy ass made up political reasons and then lied about it and covered it up, and killed several hundred thousand people in the process. What's so hard about starting a war between Georgia and Russia by giving Mikhail Saakashvili the secret green light signal and then going "What, WE never told you to attack South Ossetia. You're hearing stuff!" so that John McSame gets to be all war hero and stuff and then we get four more years of no accountability. Plausible deniability for the muthafuggin win.

I mean hell, even if it's crap, given what these douchebags have done that we KNOW ABOUT, this seems totally believeable.

Ten rubles that the wingnuts go batshit and accuse Putin of trying to elect Barack Obama so that the Russians can invade America and take over. WOLVEREEEEEEEENS!

Ignore The Obamessiah, For McSame Is Leaking!

And because McSame is a vindictive, petty shithead, the wires are buzzing this afternoon with his latest desperate attempt to take the spotlight away from Barry.(h/t Atrios)

If security sweeps are the giveaway, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may be on the brink of being selected as Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) vice presidential running mate.

According to sources with strong Michigan ties, the Secret Service has conducted a security sweep of the home of Romney’s sister. Romney was raised in Michigan, where his father served as governor.

Mitt is actually even better than Joe F'ckin Lieberman for our side. The base will HATE HIM, because when your entire campaign is built around prejudice, Mitt Romney is a nice man with lots of money but secretly they are thinking MORMON WEIRDO BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA STEAL YOUR KIDS' SOULS WITH HIS LATTER DAY LASER RAYS DOESN'T DRINK BEER OR SOMETHING WITH HIS FAKE JESUS AND HE SECRETLY HATES AMERICA!!one!!11!!1

What goes around, comes around. The karma, it is delicious and has a piquant but oaky flavor and goes well with this big glass of LOL.

Dick Morris Is Still An Idiot

Dick Morris says that comparing McSame to Bush is stupid because McSame's not Bush, and all McSame has to do to win is go "lalalalala I can't hear you".

The truth is, of course, that McCain is the most unlike Bush of any of the Republican senators. (When Obama's people claim that Bush and McCain voted the same 94 percent of the time, they forget that most of the votes in the Senate are unanimous.) The fact that McCain backs commending a basketball team on its victory doesn't mean that he is in lockstep ideologically with the president.

The issues on which McCain and Bush differ are legion:

• McCain fought for campaign finance reform — McCain-Feingold — that Bush fought and ultimately signed because he had no choice.

• McCain led the battle to restrict interrogation techniques of terror suspects and to ban torture.

• McCain went with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a tough measure to curb climate change, something Bush denies is going on.

• McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts when they passed.

• McCain urged the Iraq surge, a posture Bush rejected for years before conceding its wisdom.

• McCain favors FDA regulation of tobacco and sponsored legislation to that effect, a position all but a handful of Republican Senators oppose.

• McCain's energy bill, also with Lieberman, is a virtual blueprint for energy independence and development of alternate sources.

• After the Enron scandal, McCain introduced sweeping reforms in corporate governance and legislation to guarantee pensions and prohibit golden parachutes for executives. Bush opposed McCain's changes and the watered-down Sarbanes-Oxley bill eventuated.

• McCain has been harshly critical of congressional overspending, particularly of budgetary earmarks, a position Bush only lately adopted (after the Democrats took over Congress).

Remember that McCain ran against Bush in 2000. McCain's Republican advisers need to realize that they won the primary and that they do not need to cotton to the delegates at their convention or to appease the Bush White House. The more they respond to Obama's and Biden's attacks on Bush by saying "It ain't me, babe," the more he will moot the entire purpose of the Democratic convention. It is a rare opportunity to nullify the entire Democratic line of attack and McCain should seize on it.

You want me to handle this? "Why sure, Zandar."

John McCain has reversed his current position on nearly every single one of those issues to cynically appeal to Republican primary voters and continues to maintain those new, reversed positions. Each one of the attempts to reverse to change these positions was made specifically to bring him in ideological lockstep with Bush.

Thanks for playing, Dick.

PS, thanks for nullifying the signifigance of Senate voting records for both candidates with that 94% of Bush is not the same as Bush crap.

Vigorously Interrogated Logic

Michael Medved at Townhall argues that the American dream can't be in trouble because a black guy has been nominated as President and a woman very nearly became that nominee, so the Democrats are pretty much lying when they say America might be on the wrong track.

On the one hand, they want Americans to believe that we live in a dark, destitute moment in our history, with no chance for prosperity or progress unless a Democrat captures the White House.

On the other hand, they celebrate dozens of inspiring rags-to-riches stories (like those of the party’s sweethearts, Barack and Michelle Obama) proving that traditional American values still bring spectacular and gratifying results.

First, they suggest that ordinary Americans can’t possibly achieve their dreams without government help.

But then, sometimes in the very same speeches, they brag about their own classic American stories in which family and faith conquer every obstacle.

Consider the way the convention celebrated Michelle Obama’s story on its opening night. Her brother, Craig Robinson, emphasized the way their parents’ values brought about their success, saying “I can see how the person she is today, was formed in the experiences we shared growing up: working hard, studying hard, having parents who wanted more for us than what they had. And always being reminded that in this country of all countries—those things are possible.”

Somebody from the Right always drags this idiotic argument out whenever a minority, woman, or gay/lesbian politician makes it in America: they are the proof that the rest of America's minorities, women, or gays/lesbians harping about equal treatment under the law are just too lazy and that the Democrats' silly insistence that the government should help people is just holding them back, making them lazier and dragging the people who work hard down.

After all, the GOP went out of its way to assure they didn't help anyone like that over the last eight years, ostensibly to forge Persons Of Character in the crucible of history and let the cream rise to the top. Compassionate Conservatism in action.

The billions in corporate tax breaks, weakening of goverment regulation and oversight to the point of neglect, and rampant cronyism in the Bush executive are in fact simply there to make it harder on the rest of us out of tough love.

Sarcasm aside, the basic difference between Liberals and Conservatives in 2008 is that Liberals believe everyone else is basically good and will probably end up better if you help them, and that government should be in the business of helping people, and Conservatives believe everyone else is basically flawed and will probably end up worse, so government should be in the business of punishing people.

You feel like the government should be helping people or punishing people?

Cartoon Of The Moment

From Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant. More 'toons at Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoon site.

Why Don't You Go Be Helpful Over There, George

Because apparently, Hurricane Gustav is a good excuse for President Dipstick Q. Destroywhateverhetouches to NOT be in St. Paul on Labor Day.

The president is, of course, scheduled to speak on Monday (Labor Day) at the convention, right around the time Tropical Storm Gustav, which is expected to become a hurricane, hits the Gulf Coast. Fox News' Bret Baier reported this morning, "We're told, by the White House, there are conversations underway about [the] schedule, and whether [Bush] will, in fact, speak on Monday. They are meeting behind closed doors about the response, first of all -- they have FEMA Director David Paulison already active down there -- and the administration obviously very sensitive to this. But if this hurricane rolls in, and the timing is the same, you could see the president possibly not speak on Monday night. It's something that both the White House and the RNC are working on right now."

What's going though Karl Rove's mind right now is "Hell yeah, a hurricane will give us an opportunity to totally show America that Republicans can help people on the Gulf Coast we've been mostly ignoring for the last three years! Send in Dubya!"

Once again, pray that nobody gets hurt. But the path of the storm seems to be going right for Texas/Louisiana.

And it'll be yet another chance to remind America how, when faced with people who have been flooded out of their homes, neglected by the government, lost everything they had a SECOND TIME and have no way to get out of the path of the storm that the lesson you'll need to be drawing in 2008 is "angry black people are scary!"

Count on it.

Epic Solution To Health Care For The Uninsured Fail

This one's been making the rounds of Left Blogistan this morning, so I thought I'd play along. First, the problem: Uninsured Americans...

Texas once again led the nation with the highest percentage of residents without health insurance, a U.S. Census Bureau report showed Tuesday, although the same study also reports a slight dip last year in the percentage without coverage across the nation.

Almost one of every four Texas residents – 24.8 percent – were uninsured in 2006 and 2007, based on an average of the rates for those two years. That's up from 23.9 percent for 2004 and 2005.

The national number also increased a bit for the two-year period to 15.5 percent. However, looking at 2007 by itself, the percentage of uninsured in the country fell from 15.8 percent in 2006 to 15.3 percent in 2007. (State percentages were given only for two-year periods.)

California still has the highest number – not percentage – of uninsured residents at 6.7 million, compared with 5.7 million Texans. The Texas number is up from 5.5 million in 2006.

...Now, the solution, courtesy of McSame's main health care policy adviser, John Goodman.

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

Yes, he was serious when he said this. That is his solution to the health care crisis, recategorize the problem and it vanishes. This is the man giving John McSame health care advice. This is what John McSame has planned for your family should you lose health care. The one out of six of us who are uninsured are "categorized according to likely source of payment."

Just like Iraq became "mission accomplished", just like Afghanistan became "a success in the War On Terror", just like Katrina became "a growth opportunity for the Gulf Coast", just like Gitmo became "the first line of protection for America from terrorists", just like torture became "vigorous, robust, and effective interrogation methods", just like the police state became "guarding the homeland while respecting your rights", just like John McSame is "a maverick".

Just like four more years of this is "a good idea for all Americans".

I do believe this one deserves an EPIC FAIL.

While They're In St. Paul...

...the GOP might want to keep one eye on the Weather Channel or something.

Nearly three years to the day after hurricane Katrina plowed into the Louisiana coast on August 29, 2005, Port Fourchon is still a glaring Achilles heel in the vulnerable U.S. energy supply chain.

Now Port Fourchon and coastal cities like New Orleans are staring down the barrel of Tropical Storm Gustav, which could come ashore next week as the worst hurricane since 2005.

The 1,600-acre (647-hectare) complex is the support nerve center for over half of all offshore drilling operations, and serves 90 percent of the Gulf's deepwater oil installations.

Hundreds of large workboats chug between Port Fourchon and the rigs every day, carrying workers, heavy equipment and necessities that range from pipe, drilling mud and diesel fuel to groceries and drinking water.

All those supplies come to Port Fourchon by truck or barge via Louisiana Highway 1 and a waterway called Bayou Lafourche.

Nobody should ever have to go through Katrina again. But you know what? Hurricanes happen. The government needs to be there when there's a disaster. Oh, and PS:

"We play a critical role in 15 to 18 percent of the entire nation's oil supply," Falgout said. "If the Lafourche corridor takes a severe hit, everyone in this country will feel the impact."

Yeah, think about that for a second with gas prices about $3.70 and oil having risen about 8 bucks a barrel to $120 in the last couple days. Gustav gets anywhere near Louisiana and it'll be $4.99 a gallon overnight.

Hurricane in the Gulf was going to happen eventually. During the RNC? Well maybe somebody up there is trying to tell us something.

Novakula: Thou Shalt Not Take VP Joe

Robert Novak once again reminds the universe that he's still in charge of the GOP dammit, and the GOP will not tolerate Joe F'ckin Lieberman.

At the heart of the desire for Lieberman as running mate is a basic strategic disagreement between the Bush and McCain high commands.

McCain's top strategists argue that the Bush coalition that won the last two presidential elections is dead and must be replaced by a new one that extends to the left, as Lieberman would. Bush strategists disagree, asserting that McCain is getting around 90 percent of the old Bush vote and can win the election with a few moderates added in.

The Republican operative who urged Lieberman to dissuade McCain from picking him believes that there is still a very useful role for the maverick Democrat in this campaign: as McCain's secretary of state. While an announcement in St. Paul of Lieberman as vice president would bring groans from the assembled Republicans, placing him at the State Department would evoke a standing ovation.

At this writing, nobody knows McCain's choice. He is keeping the selection process secret, and his closest aides are in the dark. Could he still name Lieberman after being told by Lieberman himself that it is not a good idea? Nobody absolutely rules it out.

Selecting a vice presidential nominee from the opposite party has not fared well, partly because the two most prominent such selections quickly succeeded to a vacant presidency.

We do want to thank you for stopping us from winning with Joe F'ckin Lieberman as Gore's VP, because now, eight years later, we'd be nominating the asshole and be about 35 seconds from declaring war on the universe.

UPDATE: It seems there's now a concerted effort to end this Joe F'ckin Lieberman nonsense once and for all, and the man behind it is Karl Rove.

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) late last week and urged him to contact John McCain to withdraw his name from vice presidential consideration, according to three sources familiar with the conversation.

Lieberman dismissed the request, these sources agreed.

Lieberman “laughed at the suggestion and certainly did not call [McCain] on it,” said one source familiar with the details.

“Rove called Lieberman,” recounted a second source. “Lieberman told him he would not make that call.”

Rove did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rove, President Bush’s former top campaign adviser and arguably the most prominent political operative of the past generation, has no formal role in McCain’s campaign. But he knows much of the Arizona senator’s high command and has been offering informal advice, both over the phone and in his position as a Fox News analyst, since McCain wrapped up the GOP nomination.

His decision to wade into the vice presidential selection process could provide Democrats fresh ammunition to tie McCain to the polarizing Bush.It is also chafing some Lieberman allies and others wary of the selection of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

“Rove is pushing Romney so aggressively some folks are beginning to wonder what's going on,” grumbled one veteran Republican strategist.

Oh man, this gets better and better. The Rove Chamber of Commerce wants to give McSame Mitt Romney as his wingman, but McSame wants Lieberman. Either one of those two picks will sink that ticket like a stone. The others on his list, Kay Baliey Hutchinson (killed from the short list even faster than Lieberman) and Tim Pawlenty (out pushing the uppity negro meme) are no match for Joe Biden. None of them are.

The only option they have is to try to tear Obama down. They have nothing.

John Judis Is Helpful

His brilliant advice: Obama's black, liberal and he didn't take Hillary, so he'd better give one hell of a speech tonight or he's toast.

I want to say one final thing; it's about Obama's oratorical style. In response to the criticisms of his Berlin speech, some Democrats suggested that Obama should tone down his high style and seek a more direct conversational approach, even at the risk of being dull. That would be a tragic error. Obama's mistake was giving an uplifting speech to a huge crowd in Berlin; not giving an uplifting speech. High-flown oratory has always played a very large role in American politics--going back to Daniel Webster and Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson--and Obama's ability to perform in that manner is one of his greatest strengths. Obama's presentation isn't the problem; it is his message. And his first and best opportunity to fix it will come tonight.

Now, maybe I'm being unfair, but this goes back to the argument that a lot of folks on the netroots side of the fence seem to be convinced that the combination of the Bradley Effect and good old' GOP cheating means that the 2-5 point lead Obama seems to have is in reality McSame up by 15-20.

I don't buy it. Oh yes, the racism is there, but I explained my thoughts on that theory earlier, which basically boils down to "The Bradley Effect's already been factored in because the GOP has already given out so many other bullshit lies about Obama that people are glad to use them instead of lying about supporting a guy they're not going to vote for, a.k.a. "But Ain't He A Muslim?"

Apparently it's a more proper show of ignorance to not vote for the guy because of a lie that he's a Muslim (despite the whole REVEREND PASTOR JEREMIAH WRIGHT flap) then to lie to pollsters and secretly vote against the guy for being black. The GOP likes to give folks all sorts of excuses to be ignorantly bigoted overtly against Muslims than secretly racist against blacks, and so people can be proudly prejudicial against Barack Obama because he's a Muslim, explaining why he's dead even with McSame rather than 15 points up on the guy.

And you thought the GOP served no actual purpose.

So, I think Obama's just fine. Basically the people who aren't going to vote for him anyhow don't have to lie about it because they think he's a Muslim so the polls are pretty accurate where they are. Should the Muslim myth be dispelled, they'll simply find another ignorantly stupid lie to justify why they won't vote for a black man, and won't lie to pollsters about wanting to do so.

Relax, guys.

Gentlemen! Behold! Unleash John Kerry!

Despite my serious misgivings about the Big Dog last night and my decidedly mixed reaction to the selection of Joe Biden as Obama's Veep, both men came through with guns a-blazin' for the Big O. Bill's speech especially was a strong endorsement of Obama.

Bill Clinton was one of Barack Obama's fiercest critics during the primary campaign, but Wednesday night the former president delivered an enthusiastic endorsement of the Democratic presidential nominee.

"Barack Obama is ready to lead America and to restore American leadership in the world," Clinton told the crowd of cheering delegates. "Barack Obama is ready to be president."

Clinton pushed back on attacks initiated by himself and his wife during the bitter primary campaign, and later taken up by Republican John McCain, that Obama is ill prepared for the White House, especially on matters of national defense.

"With Joe Biden's experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama's proven understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national security leadership we need," Clinton said.

He really put the issue of Hillary 2012 to bed: they are behind Obama 100% (or at least in the high 99% range.) Is it enough to forgive and forget all the nasty things they said? Hell, it's too important NOT to at this point. They've chosen live and let live, and we even saw a bit of the old Clinton magic. It's honestly more than I expected, doing the right thing at the eleventh hour is still doing the right thing.

Joe Biden also crushed one out of the park. Yeah, he made a couple of gaffes, but the guy hit McSame like a prizefighter when he connected...and he connected a lot.

Biden rattled off a list of McCain's positions on issues ranging from taxes to alternative energy, repeatedly saying, "That's not change; that's more of the same."

Sen. Barack Obama joined Biden onstage at the end of his speech, the campaign announced, marking his first appearance in person at the convention that nominated him to be the first African-American to lead a major party ticket for the White House.

Biden praised Obama as a leader who had been right on a wide range of issues, including Afghanistan.

"On the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama has been proven right," he said.

But in all honesty, the best speech of the night was the one you didn't see John Kerry make. You can watch it here, courtesy of Talking Points Memo.

Kerry had some of the best lines of the entire convention.

Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you're against it.

Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself. And what's more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same "Rove" tactics and the same "Rove" staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.

So remember, when we choose a commander-in-chief this November, we are electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate or years on this earth. Time and again, Barack Obama has seen farther, thought harder, and listened better. And time and again, Barack Obama has been proven right.

When John McCain stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier just three months after 9/11 and proclaimed, "Next up, Baghdad!", Barack Obama saw, even then, "an occupation of "undetermined length, undetermined cost, undetermined consequences" that would "only fan the flames of the Middle East." Well, guess what? Mission accomplished.

So who can we trust to keep America safe? When Barack Obama promised to honor the best traditions of both parties and talk to our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it "the soft comfort of appeasement." But today, Bush's diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said: talking with Iran.

So who can we trust to keep America safe? When democracy rolled out of Russia, and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain respond immediately with the outdated thinking of the Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a statesman of the 21st century.

So who can we trust to keep America safe? When we called for a timetable to make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, John McCain called it "cut and run." But today, even President Bush has seen the light. He and Prime Minister Maliki agree on guess what? a timetable.

Kerry made a beautiful case, as did Biden later in the evening, powered by the Big Dog earlier. Clinton got a three minute plus ovation from the crowd. They loved him, and he really set the table. Biden cleared that table and despite his classic "George, I mean John McCain" gaffe really showed his passion and fire, but it was John Kerry who really laid out the most powerful argument yet that Barack Obama is far more ready to be President than John McSame, on the basis of the judgement displayed just in the last several months alone.

That is the message Obama's camp has to get across. Obama has been proven right, McSame has been proven wrong. He's already shown himself to be a more capable and much wiser leader than McSame.

Last night was pretty amazing stuff. Let's see what tonight holds when Barry speaks.