Hmm

Has Sarah Palin been secretly moonlighting as a journalist in Argentina? Is that what this is about?

Update:

I would guess there are a few things going on here.

1. She's being investigated by the feds on a couple of fronts including how she built her home and absue of power due to Todd Palin's involvement in decision-making.

2. She's decided that she'd rather be a millionaire talk show host on Fox than a failed candidate for President.

These don't have to be mutually exclusive.

To point 2, wouldn't she be pretty successful as a fox news hack? She always wanted to be a tv newslady anyway.

Jindal begins to court Texas elite

You don't get to be the Republican nominee for President until you kiss the ring of the Texas GOP elite. If they're not bankrolling your campaign, they're bankrolling one of your rivals. There's some evidence that the wealthiest GOPers in Texas were not and are not particularly enthused about Sarah Palin. They could be looking to stunt her 2012 aspirations early. A good way to do that would be to kiss on the wonderboy from Louisiana and help him build up a massive "reelection" bank account.

The Governor is heading to Houston and San Antonio.

One of the things that's going on here is that the GOP masses love Sarah Palin but the GOP money does not, or at least a significant proportion of GOP elders recognize her various liabilities. During the primary, I thought that the early Huckaboom in Iowa reflected an insurgent streak amongst younger GOP activists. At the time, I thought that it would be powerful enough to drive candidate Huckabee a little bit further that it ultimately did, but the phenomenon is still important to remember. Palin will have better name recognition, more money, and more volunteers than Huckabee did when he started out. I do believe that his success had a lot to do with his policy menu and ability to articulate a vision, things Palin does not have, but the point stands.

The guards and inmates are battling it out for control of the asylum. Political operatives are doing their damnest to dissipate Palin's popularity without burying her or alienating her loyal supporters. Bobby Jindal is uniquely positioned because the establishment will support him and because he passes the evangelical litmus tests needed to be palatable to the a critical mass of the disaffected grassroots.

Our Country Deserves Better

That's the name of the PAC airing this ad. Be warned, you might want to gauge your eyes out after this.



I mean, wow.

"And articulate." He means it. Take that, liberals.

Jindal v. Palin I

Jindal's overarching ambition is to get on the GOP ticket one day.

Palin's overarching ambition is to get out of Alaska one day.

Jindal will one day run for President.

Palin will one day have a talk show.

Palin, Scheunemann Go Rogue Together

Think they were doin' it?

Hawt.

Why even bother nailing the coffin?

The GOP is already looking toward 2012.

Oyster long anticipated Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's tiptoe to the Iowa Caucuses. He is now the confirmed keynote speaker for a prominent Christian conservative fundraising dinner, as reported by the Politico's Jonathan Martin.

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza reads into Governor Jindal's last-minute endorsement of dead horse Senate candidate John N. Kennedy, characterizing it as rare partisan foray designed as a test of his power as a kingmaker. Cillizza speculates that if Kennedy somehow wins or loses by a slight margin, Jindal will greatly bolster his reputation on the national level.

The Reduct Box also reported recently that Supriya Jindal has joined John McCain on the campaign trail. I'll add that Cindy McCain indeed gave her a special hat tip during her warm up speech in suburban Philly on Tuesday morning.

But Governor Jindal certainly won't be alone on the campaign trail.

Habitual boogieman Rudolph Giuliani has already opened up JoinRudy2012.com, according to Pandagon. Maybe he'll actually campaign this time.

One could argue that Sarah Palin is only on the ticket as a test-run for 2012 anyway, since she's clearly worthless to McCain this time around. It really is amazing that she finds time to explicitly criticize her running mate's political tactics amidst such a busy schedule of unintentional and embarassing incompetence.

I Love My Home Town

Palin subjected to 90 seconds or more of sustained booing at Flyers game.





I was more than annoyed when I'd heard that Sarah Puppet would be given free hockey mom publicity by my hometown ice team. In fact, I said some mean things about the sport of hockey.

How about my Philadelphia brothers and sisters, eh?

From the CNN recap:

"Flyers fans, show Philadelphia's class and welcome America's #1 hockey mom, Sarah Palin," the massive electronic message board pleaded, to little effect. Booing quickly erupted when the smiling candidate emerged from a tunnel leading onto the ice, muffling the applause of any Palin supporters in the crowd.

Some in the audience simply gave her a thumbs down gesture. Others called her names.

But alas, the new Wachovia First Union Corestates Center attracts a corporate crowd compared to the vrai Philadelphians that used to populate the Wachovia First Union Corestates Spectrum. Had the game been at the Spectrum, some crazed fans would have dropped the gloves on Governor Palin at mid-ice, ran the Zamboni over her highlighted hair and sequestered her in the penalty box with that garsh darn mainstream media for the duration of the campaign. Meanwhile, the remaining crazed fans would just go for the beer supplies and end up passed out in the parking lot.

Woohoo!

UPDATE: Seems like Palin got the Philly treatment all day:

Outside the Bellevue, Palin, sitting in her car, gave a little back and forth wave to the protesters, who in return gave her thumbs down and rounds of boos.

"Back to Alaska, They shouldn't have Asked ya!" read one poster on the median.

Police said about 400 protesters lined the streets outside the hotel, the same number that organizers expected at the fundraiser, chanting to each other and to passing motorists. Inside, Palin got her hair and makeup done at Pierre and Carlo salon.

At times, Republicans attending the event and protesters confronted one another.

"They are hooligans," said Bucks County restauranteur and McCain supporter Andrew Abruzzese, after he flashed a peace sign at protesters, who responded with raised middle fingers. Another Republican complained of being jostled.

Er, I suppose she only had the opportunity to blow kisses to protesters when she wasn't getting her hair done at an exclusive salon and shelling out "varying levels of interaction" at $25,000 a fundraiser for a bunch of wealthy hot-and-jostled bigots:

Wally Nunn, a prominent Republican fundraiser who contributed $25,000 to be able to mingle with Palin, said he was disappointed that McCain had come to Obama's defense.

Nunn said he did not believe Obama to be a decent man. Attending the event with former 60s radical turned GOP activist David Horowitz, he said, "This guy Obama scares me."

--

Tickets to the Bellevue fundraiser, organized by local businessmen Craig Drake and Frank Giordano ranged from $1,000 to $25,0000, for varying levels of interaction with Palin. Leslie Gromis Baker, a state McCain official would not reveal the amount raised. She said 25 people paid the highest level or more.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama made himself right at home:

By contrast, Obama told supporters in Philadelphia today that with the his Chicago White Sox eliminated, he was rooting for the Phillies in the baseball playoffs.

Let's go Phillies!

For those of you who don't know, Obama's "Yes We Can" slogan was originally coined by Dave Cash, the 2nd basemen for the 1974 Philllies.

One Reason Why Black People Don't Get Into Hockey So Much

I'm embarrassed to call myself a Flyers fan when I have to link to something like this.

Your second favorite Philadelphian after yours truly does a great job explaining who the owner of the Flyers is and why he might be interested in helping Sarah Palin.

You know what? Screw hockey anyway, alls I care about is my fightin' Phils.

Baseball is the true American pastime, please recall the reaction when George W. tossed out the first pitch for the Nationals this year:

It's Official: McCain Rolls A Pair of Ones

TPM calls it 'indescribable.' It does kinda speak for itself:



Watch CBS Videos Online

My lord is this Palin dangerous.

McCain-Puppet '08: The Snake Eyes Ticket

Scary

In case you hadn't read through yesterday's incredible look at Sarah Palin's administrative experience.

Turning Point?

Palin's answers to Charlie Gibson's softballs were not vague in any cute or folksy kind of way. Instead, she came off as woefully unprepared and uninformed. There's really no silver lining; the McCain camp squandered a great deal of political capital in setting preconditions for this interview and isolated Palin for days from the media to help her prepare but she performed miserably.

Obama is out with two very strong new ads, one raises touches on how out of touch John McCain is with modern times and the other is an extremely positive ad that confronts the GOP's claim that they can be change too.

Meanwhile, McCain's latest ad is another grotesque race-baiter, inaccurately portraying Sarah Palin as a victim of fabricated viciousness on the part of Obama and Biden, using a female voice over to derisively call Senator Obama "disrespectful," you know in an uppity kind of way. Uppity meaning presumptuous or something. They've crossed some lines this week with this ad and with the one about teaching sex to kindergartners.

(See all three ads together here)

Elsewhere, John McCain is finally being forced to defend his choice by reporters in unlikely places. A local Maine TV reporter asked John McCain if Sarah Palin has any experience in the field of national security. Senator McCain paused awkwardly and then said "energy."

Then this morning on the VIEW of all places, John McCain was put on the spot repeatedly and did not fair well at all. I especially recommend McCain's dance around pointed questioning of what exactly Sarah Palin was going to reform in Washington, given who has been in power. In his answer, McCain LIES, falsely claiming that Sarah Palin has not requested earmarks as Governor of Alaska. In another critical segment, the girls confront John McCain on his campaign's recent attack ads, bringing up the ridiculous pigstick controversy and the lies about Obama's sex-ed legislation. They questioned whether or not McCain really approved of these things and he indeed does. This is a critical development because so many pundits this week have expressed their disbelief that John McCain actually approves of the negativity coming out of his own campaign. If you watch the clip, John McCain clearly stands by the ads even after the Walters and Co. reminded him that his campaign's claims are patently false in many instances.

Thus, a very encouraging day so far. The McCain camp's inappropriate and unjustifiable demands for deference from the press may have paid off earlier in the week but the viciousness and blatancy of the lies put forth and the refusal to address them when called out ultimately seems to have pushed the media to a relative breaking point. No more free passes on Palin's qualifications for office and no more free passes on the repetition of blatant falsehoods on the stump and in attack ads.

I still think the best course of action for the Obama campaign is to continue to avoid addressing Sarah Palin directly. She is still going to evoke the strong sympathies many and will still be put forth by the McCain camp as a victim of the media and of viciousness from Obama in manner that will create some wiggle room for McCain to dishonorably continue to push the envelope with racial imagery. Besides, it is John McCain that should be forced to answer for his own judgment, policies, and platform. And because it is impossible to ignore Sarah Palin's increasingly apparent unfitness, it is John McCain that should be forced to answer for his decision to bring her on the ticket and for the lies and character smears his campaign continues to propagate.

McCain Campaign Strategy Is Crystal Clear

For Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, and John McCain, it's only tangentially about swinging different demographic groups with divisive smears and distortions that feed divisions related to identity.

What we're seeing intensified this week, this typical GOP lie and deny, is a tactic that enhances the McCain camp's larger road map to victory.

"This election is not about issues."

That's what McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told the WaPo's Chris Cillizza last week. (emphasis his)

Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Davis added that issues will no doubt play a major role in the decisions undecided voters will make but that they won't ultimately be conclusive. He added that the campaign has "ultimate faith" in the idea that the more voters get to know McCain and Barack Obama, the better the Republican nominee will do.

And yesterday, in the thick of all that pigstick, Cillizza pointed to some data from the most recent WaPo-ABC polls that truly illustrates where the McCain camp thinks it wins this election.

Which is more important to you in choosing a candidate for president: their personal qualities such as experience and leadership ability, or their positions on specific issues?

Presidential Preference Among "Issue" Voters

Presidential Preference Among "Personal Qualities" Voters

NOTE: Results among registered voters.
SOURCE: This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone September 5-7, 2008, among a random national sample of 1,133 adults and 961 registered voters.

The graphic on the side should help drive this home. Essentially, the Republicans believe that they can change the numbers on the first pie chart there. The McCain campaign thinks they can whip the media into a personality-based narrative in the final weeks of the campaign and that coverage of personality scandals, regardless of the tone of the reporting, will ultimately influence people to vote based on personal qualities.

Of course, by extension, the McCain camp believes that the more people do that, the more likely they will be to choose "maverick" McCain and "hockey mom" Palin over "arrogant" Obama.

This is partially why I believe that the continued focus on Palin, even when progressives point out that she's been lying about her record, is ultimately detrimental and feeds into the McCain camps overall strategy. Because the lies are relatively banal, the media will not use that term and will not really press the McCain camp to stop repeating them. GOP surrogates are very deft at pivoting away from questions related to Governor Palin's record toward a discussion of her background as a small town mom or traits like her feistiness, etc.

This is also why the McCain camp has decided to keep Palin by McCain's side for pretty much the rest of the campaign. They welcome the Left's objection that she's hiding from the media and will only agree to puff interviews because it allows for them to continue to distract voters and the media with charges of sexism or the imagery of ruthless packs of wolves. Never mind that one could allege that the McCain camp is being sexist for claiming that Palin cannot handle herself in the media because I'm sure the McCain camp would love to talk about that. Anything to avoid substantive debate based on policies and issues - because they understand that they lose overwhelmingly if voters are focused.

The media is content to go along with this game, even though responsible journalists are beginning to call out the McCain camp for deceptions and even though many deemed pigstick to be irrelevant at best and fabricated at worst. The fact is that the media still covered it ad nauseum because it generated ratings. Palin was able to get her way in terms of "deference," able to force the media (Charlie Gibson has no integrity) to accept her fluff-only interview preconditions because she draws high ratings.

But Obama can cut the bull here. He draws high ratings too and he can leverage some of his influence over the media when really bs stories like this one are being force-fed on the country by the McCain camp. He should have issued a statement calling out pigstick for being what it was but also simply stated that the matter was closed and that his campaign staff and supporters had been encouraged to move on to contrasting the two campaign's education agendas. And I think the media would generally have accepted this from the Obama campaign as reasonable, at least to the point where we might have had a more balanced news day yesterday.

-

Stop spotlighting Palin. The McCain campaign is juiced to use her as a ratings draw and as a distraction from the repulsive agenda of the GOP and of the McCain-Palin ticket. The left should be working to make her a boring non-factor instead of a polarizing focal point.

When Americans are thinking about issues, we win. We lose when we play on GOP turf like this. We actually have moral high ground in this election because what's gone on the last eight years and because of the lies being put forth by the McCain campaign. We can leverage it to get back to discussing issues and back to dominating news cycles.

--

On Monday morning, Obama and Biden should talk about the housing crisis and the free falling economy from near one of McCain's several properties in Arizona, kicking off a tour of Western swing states. Especially since McCain's lead in Arizona is much smaller than one might imagine.

All Pigstick All Day

I worked my service industry job during the day today and it was slow so I got to watch a whole lot of MSNBC. I was treated to an entire day of this stupid back and forth over the lipstick pig comment. It's a funny thing, this controversy, because the media actually seems to be accurately portraying the fracas as an intentional misinterpretation of the remarks on the part of the McCain campaign to avoid discussing policy. But the media kept on leading every hour with 'lipstick politics.' Chris Mathews, who absolutely demolished the McCain camp on this and expressed utter frustration that it's even being covered nonetheless still devoted two whole segments to it. Even NPR talked about it.

So even though the media fairly vetted both sides in the controversy, they were still doing the bidding of the McCain campaign by making this thing the top story all day long. The McCain camp didn't much care that the media was largely debunking their claims because the focus stayed on the Palin personality and off of the repulsive policies of the GOP.

And unfortunately, the Obama campaign chose to play defense on this controversy all day. Barack Obama even responded personally. He did so effectively, tying this distraction to all the failed discourses of past election years, but he was still in response-mode.



Playing armchair campaign consultant, I would have recommended, once it became clear during the mid-morning that the McCain camp was effectively making this pigstick comment an all-day affair, that the Obama campaign craft a simple press release. In it, I would have spelled out all the criticisms that Senator Obama outlined in the video above but also that the campaign considered the matter closed and would not be issuing any more statements on the matter. Campaign representatives and talking heads would then have grounds to completely pivot away from responding to this bullsh*t to remind viewers about the detailed policy proposals that Senator Obama outlined in Denver.

Let's Stop Talking About Palin

I've been mulling over lots of different thoughts since John McCain's announced his VP choice.

I thought at the time that it reflected a desperate lack of judgment on the part of Senator McCain and exposed some real control issues within his campaign. How, I asked myself, could they not even vet her? Why would they undercut the 'experience' theme they've been building for months? How could McCain choose someone he'd only spoken to once or twice?

And then when the details began to emerge, from her daughter's pregnancy to the state trooper firing scandal to the bridge to nowhere lies, I thought to myself that McCain's gambit had totally backfired. Here he's elevated this total political novice without fully vetting and it's backfiring right in his face.

And maybe it did sort of happen like that. McCain's advisers and GOP stakeholders knew he needed to shore up the evangelical base not just if he was going to have a chance at bridging the so-called 'enthusiasm gap' but also because there would be no grassroots basis for 2010 or 2012 if McCain had had his way and picked Joe Lieberman. They convinced John McCain to go with Palin, assuring him that the positive aspects of a ratings draw for the ticket would far outweigh whatever gaffes she may commit or bad positions she'd previously taken.

Democrats and especially a lot of online progressive news sites walked into the unintentional trap. Immediately there were many questions about Sarah Palin's ultraconservative ideology, her poor performance as Mayor of Wasilla, and the trooper scandal. There were even more questions about what the selection said about McCain's judgment, whether or not he himself had a basic familiarity with Governor Palin, whether or not he'd known about the family preganancy. I'm not sure that I 100% buy the argument that the 'unintentional trap' was the typical GOP wagon-circling and push back against the elite media though certainly this was the party response. I don't think that the left is entirely caught off guard by that tactic anymore, as it had certainly been employed at various junctures by the McCain camp already.

Rather, the 'unintetional trap' that Democrats stepped into was Palin's personality.

The GOP push back against the 'liberal media' was in full swing in the days before Palin's acceptance speech but it did not necessarily yield any kind of response from the public. I anecdotally remember seeing many numbers indicating fairly disparate national favorability numbers for Palin, shockingly low considering that VP picks are supposed to poll positively right after their selection. As I recall, roughly 38% of respondents indicated that Palin had made them more likely to vote for McCain and pretty much the same number indicated that Palin made them less likely to vote for McCain.

Once Palin flashed that smile on stage in St. Paul and told her story, her place on the ticket was solidified beyond a doubt. The two most often quoted lines from that speech illustrate what her selection was really all about. Can you remember anything she said she'd do politically? No. You remember the line about hockey moms and lipstick, you remember the brilliantly delivered cutesy line about putting the state jet on EBay, you remember all the small town America nonsense. The whole speech was about imagery, identity, personality, and relate-ability.

Then, when it was kicked back to the Left's pool of tv pundit talent or to the progressive blogosphere, the pointed questions kept being asked - and it looked like this 'everywoman' was being bullied around on her first day at school - never mind that she's been lying about her record.

And since the convention wrapped, criticism of Palin continues dominate the headlines, even on progressive blogs. I know she's being isolated from the press and being briefed over and over again because she has little command of the issues Americans face in this election. I know she's lying about the bridge to nowhere.

But who cares?

Is it really more important to highlight Palin's lies than it is to contrast McCain's blank speech to Obama's extremely detailed agenda? Shouldn't we be highlighting the ridiculousness of McCain's calls for change?

Palin brings ratings. And she brings them to a Republican ticket that was really struggling to generate any kind of interest or excitement.

This Dick Polman piece, which is excellent, examines this theme by critiquing the poor political sense of those clamoring for the use of Hillary Clinton as a foil to Palin:

The Clintons may be exasperating figures to roughly half the Democratic electorate, but they do know a few things about politics and how to play the game. The McCain people have made a politically smart move by picking Palin - her lack of preparedness is another matter entirely - because they have created buzz for the Republican ticket, allowing the GOP to focus on personality and thus distract voters from the Republican policy record of the past eight years. If Hillary was to take on Palin directly, in a battle for the sisterhood, she would be fighting dumb, on the new Republican turf - personality versus personality - while failing to focus voters on the Republican policy record of the past eight years.

And consider this: If Hillary went mano a mano with Palin, how long would it take for this kind of imagery - courtesy of James Bond cinema - to be the talk of the nation?

Wolfson, wise to the imperatives of popular culture, and the allure of so-called "cat fights," put it this way: "For whatever reasons, editors and news executives are convinced that two women fighting sells magazines and attracts eyeballs. You can imagine the thinking. If Angelina Jolie vs Jennifer Aniston, and Britney Spears vs Christina Aguilera sell copies, what could be better than Hillary Clinton vs Sarak Palin...(That) might drive ratings and sell magazines, but it wouldn't be good for the Democratic party or the cause of women's rights."

You see, the McCain camp became wise to the fact that Americans are really bored by John McCain. They realized that McCain's understated public persona, awkward mannerisms, inability to fluidly read a teleprompter, and increasingly common 'senior moments' really exacerbated the age issue and turned off voters on the right and in the middle. The McCain camp is happy to have Palin bump McCain's TV time. Her appearance alone makes her inherently better able to connect with average Americans than John McCain. Notice that Palin and McCain continue to stump in tandem. It may be, as many on the Left snicker, because Palin needs more prepping before she's allowed to do her own photo ops recite her own talking points. However, it is much more probable that the McCain campaign strategists are purposefully working to obscure Americans' views of the ticket by putting Palin out front. It ensures that media coverage of any McCain campaign speech is as much coverage of Palin's barbs as it is anything the actual nominee says. It ensures that Biden and Obama will continue to be pressed to respond to this Palin quote or that Palin quote. It ensures that the progressive blogosphere continues to rip apart all of her misstatements and distortions.

She sells ad shares, she drives web traffic. Palin is getting pretty good mileage out of the same one-liners written for her convention speech whereas Barack Obama's extremely detailed, persuasive, and historic argument for progressive change has generally failed to generate residual coverage.

It's what the McCain camp is banking on.

I actually think the Obama campaign has really played this pretty good. Neither Biden nor Obama have really mentioned Palin by name and continue to hammer away at McCain's proposals that expand upon the Bush administration's disastrous policies.

Unfortunately, however, the progressive netroots is being called to action to clamor on and on about the media's refusal to report accurately on Palin. That's a mistake, it's not something worth leveraging progressive muscle for.

Call out her lies, highlight her distortions, and continue to uncover her insufficient qualifications but stop making her the focal point of the response to the McCain campaign. She should be treated as though she is completely irrelevant because she's essentially being put forth to distract Americans from the actual proposals of the GOP platform and of the McCain campaign.

It's also extremely frustrating as a resident of New Orleans. So much energy went into going after Sarah Palin, who is still essentially a NOBODY, that few bothered to question the 'gee Louisiana really dodged a bullet with Gustav' narrative that allowed the GOP to go back to partying in Minnesota while a huge swath of America barely hangs on.

Sarah Palin & Glen Beck Hate Polar Bears

I'm sorry that this is a ten minute video. Governor Palin shows up at around the 4 minute mark but you might want to watch Glenn's monologue, for which Mrs. Palin expresses her appreciation.




And here she is defending herself for getting her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.




Village alcoholism, sure. But is she ready to lead?


--

Below is a more substantive report on the abuse of power investigation and here is a the backup article.



Those are fairly serious allegations and quite a two-step out of the gate for Governor Palin. It would be one thing if the investigation had been unable to find anything but this story just broke last month. It's brand spanking new and will remain in the news as more information comes forward. McCain's demonstrating some fine judgment with this pick. Another panicked response out of the McCain camp.

Whether he's talking up war with Russia or Iran or picking our possible next vice president, John McCain just can't seem to take a deep breath and evaluate things clearly. There is no steady hand at his campaign and a rapidly diminishing judgement within the candidate himself.

Did they even vet Sarah Palin? Did they run any polls on her?

Do they really think that a first term governor from a state of 700,000 people in the Arctic that was previously the Mayor of a town of 8,00o has comprehensive knowledge of the complicated foreign policy matters of the day? Do they think she could possibly understand the national economy?

Do they really think Americans are going to be confident enough to count on her as insurance for McCain's age?

--

Bad judgment update:

From CNN

John McCain first met Sarah Palin only six months ago and had just one conversation with the Alaska governor before offering her the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket, the Arizona senator's campaign said Friday.

Really? You just picked someone to be your replacement, a potential commander-in-chief during a crisis, based off of one conversation?