Blogging on Meds

Where were you when Barack Obama was elected president?

On a day called historic by all and which inspired spontaneous joy across the country and world, I spent Election day and night with the Obama group in my hometown San Diego, first at their headquarters in a closed business on Euclid Ave. then downtown in the San Diego Concourse Center’s Golden Hall. People have gathered there every year since I was a kid to watch local results come in.

I was interviewing an Obama volunteer a few seconds before it was announced. After the room of volunteers and their families exchanged hugs and shows of jubilation, they grabbed a banner and hit the Golden Hall floor with TV news crews and thousands of people.

As soon as they reached the floor, the group of about 30 people’s chants of “O-ba-ma!” was mum over the crowd’s murmur. But almost immediately the crowd would echo them then ratchet up the whistles and clapping.

Here also are interviews with Idris “Chad” Hameed, Abdirahim Abdirahman and Levi Thomas, three black men I asked about their involvement in the Barack Obama campaign.

Levi Thomas is a truck driver and church deacon who spent his Nov. 4 morning making phone calls to prospective voters and encourage them to vote.

“How am I going to stay involved? By becoming a better citizen. By becoming a better steward of what God has left us with.”

Idris goes as Chad and is 14-years-old. His parents run the San Diego regional field office. He wants to be a journalist covering war and international conflict.

“We came from shackles and all that stuff to running for the president and everything.”

Abdirahim grew up in San Diego’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and is a 20-year-old student at City College of San Diego. He was born in Somalia and came here when he was five. He is very proud of Obama’s accomplishment especially but not only because they are from the same part of east Africa. Both Chad and Abdirahim made trips to knock on doors in Las Vegas last month.

“It means a dream come true making it happen, making the dream of Martin Luther King happen.”

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God, Dick Morris is annoying.  I know, I know, he’s supposed to be — that’s just his way of getting attention, I get it.  But that’s like knowing a migraine hurts — sure, you’re aware it will…and it still does.

Here, you’ll see.  This will be annoying:

If ever there was an election that was not worth winning, it was the contest of 2008. While it was hard-fought on both sides, had McCain won, it might have spelled the end of the Republican Party. As it is, the party is well-situated to come back in 2010 and in 2012, if it learns the lessons of this year.

Simply put, all hell is about to break loose in the markets and the economy. The mortgage crisis will likely be followed by defaults in credit card debt, student loans and car loans. We will probably be set for two years of zero growth, according to economists with whom I talk. And the federal efforts to protect the nation from the worst of the recession will probably lead to huge budget deficits and resulting inflation. We are in for stagflation that could last for years.

Had McCain won, he would be the latter-day Hoover, blamed for the disaster that unfolded on his watch. Now it is Obama’s problem. With the Republicans suffering a wipeout in congressional elections (although not as bad as they feared), the ball is now squarely in the Democratic court. Good luck!

Want more? (author’s note: I don’t recommend it, and would rather you didn’t give the guy the satisfaction of a unique visit on his traffic statistics)

Let’s translate what snarky Dick Morris is basically insinuating (and many others will soon claim) here:

I’m glad we didn’t win because what’s been set in motion is so bad, we’re going to need someone else to take responsibility for it.  Lucky us, we just handed our disaster off to Obama and Company rather than go through taking responsibility for it ourselves (if McCain had won, we’d have been blamed for it unfolding “on (our) watch”).  So good luck — we didn’t want this job right now anyway!

Now, let’s blame Obama for everything so we can resume disaster creation in 2012.

We’d better get used to arguing against this failed logic, because it’s going to be the NeoCon Anthem for the next four years.  Obama is months away from office, and we’ve got windbags like Dick Morris breathing big sighs of faux-relief over this nonsense already.

Somehow, whether it’s the economy, the botched wars, the massive national debt, the failed education system, or any other of a number of things that went to hell or were sent off course during the Republicans’ years of total control, it’s going to be Obama’s fault.

Unless, of course, Obama’s plan for something like the conflict in Iraq goes well.  Then I’m sure good ol’ Morris will be out there parroting some talking point tripe about the groundwork laid during the Bush years.

Way to go, Dick.

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So, I’m all for respectful disagreements, civil clashes of ideas, and heated intellectual arguments on policy, good government, and where we should run with this Democracy.  In keeping with that spirit, I’ve been a proponent of the notion that Republicans and their supporters are respectable, intelligent people who vote for politicians like George W Bush for sound ideological reasons — whatever those may be, and however strongly I may disagree with them (I sure hope they aren’t “conservative” ideological reasons…cause that would be confusing).

I like to think that the 50,000,000 or so people that voted for the (Old-and-Rather-Tarnished) John McCain and Sidekick Palin this past week are all doing it for that same thing — reasoned principle — and that it couldn’t possibly be that nearly half the active voting body in this country is flipping bananas (and needs to a) take a civics course, and b) better understand the gravity of what it means to lead the free world).

Then I go and read something like this, and it kinda sets me back.

Yeah, it’s confusing that 69% of Republicans think Palin helped the ticket, but that’s not what slays me.  Read on, read on.  That’s right — 91% of Republicans still have an overall favorable view of Sarah Palin, and 65% call it very favorable.  Sure, maybe at the beginning, right?  Like right after that convention speech, maybe.  THEN it would make some sense.  But this statistic is from the past couple days.  So, the same woman we’ve come to know as “Couric Interview” Palin, “Didn’t know Africa was a continent” Palin, and “Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of RNC money on her (and her family’s) wardrobes/etc ($40,000 for the First Dude!)” Palin…wow…91% of Republicans still say “thumbs up”?

And there’s more.  Rasmussen:

When asked to choose among some of the GOP’s top names for their choice for the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, 64% say Palin.

Gag.

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Well, let it never be said that Sarah Palin didn’t ever give us anything — by the end, she had added just enough craziness and uncertainty to the McCain ticket to give Obama even more of a boost (not to mention highlight McCain’s serious judgment deficit).  So, hey — thanks for that, Sarah.

That said, thank the cosmos you’re being sent back to Alaska (sorry, Alaska).  And, if this post-election snippet (on Fox, of all places) is any indication, I think that my newfound reverence for the goodness in the universe will only become more fervent:

Really, Sarah?  You can’t name the countries in NAFTA?  Africa is a country?  Really?

My mom was always right…ANYBODY can become president.  Or at least get uncomfortably close.

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by Kirk Shelton he just keeps them coming!

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Tums are delicious.

Exit polls just started coming in.  Forecast (given the issues people say they’re most considering when voting): awesome.  Though, after 2004, I’m not banking a damned thing on those buggers.

Also, piggybacking on my early voting post from a couple days back — Maddow on MSNBC just commented that the number of early voters in this election is over 50% of the number of total voters in 2004.

Back to waiting.  And a constant reload loop here.

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So, it’s happening all over again, apparently.  DailyKos has put together a collection of reports of early vote flipping and Salon is reporting it too — all involve assorted “issues” with electronic voting machines.

We can’t let this one get taken out from under us — not this time.  This can’t be another 2000 or another 2004.  There’s an open call out to get the Obama campaign directly involved right now on these issues, and that’s absolutely what needs to happen.  Before results are in, before any outcry becomes a challenge to finalized results, we need a major candidate to legitimize this issue by shining a spotlight on it in the national media.

Whether or not Obama wins, we need him to speak up now.  For, if he loses, jumping on this issue at this point makes it about the process — makes it about defending voters’ rights — not about being a sore loser (which is, horribly, the chant they used to push Gore out in 2000).  And if Obama wins, we’ll all breathe a collective sigh of relief and forget this issue for now…which means we’ll be back in the same spot in 2012.  We need to cut the crap, right now — and Obama and his campaign are in the right position to bring it to the forefront.

America is better than this.  Things have been pretty fucked up over the last 8 years — and there’s not all that much I’m sure of in American politics these days — but there are some untouchable fundamentals in this country that should never be tarnished, that are so intrinsic to the American ideal that the country’s values become hollowed in their absence or through their being abused.  The right to a vote in our democratic process — without fear of bullying, abuse, or being cheated — is one of them.  And the very fact that there’s any question at all — any minorly-substantiated doubt — as to what’s happening with our votes should be too much for any citizen, regardless of party affiliation or political slant, to take sitting down.

Proper attention and investigations, please.  If it’s untrue — or truly overblown — let’s drag it out into the spotlight and find out for sure.  But if it’s not — and there are actually forces conspiring at the edges to effect the outcome of elections in this country (which, given history, wouldn’t necessarily be out of left field — and for some recent stuff, see the videos in the DailyKos collection) — we need to nip it in the bud.

And, for the record, these are not all glitches — not at this scale.  The code behind a user interface for an operation like voting (choose A or choose B, confirm choice, all done!) is probably one of the simplest programs imaginable (I’m leaving out the encryption/data transfer side — that’s more complicated, but isn’t what’s flipping the vote for the person in the booth).  Seriously, it’s like Programming 101.  Hell, the PHP/MySQL/HTML/CSS behind this site is multiple times more complicated, and the very fact that you’re viewing this web page (and that it comes back consistently when you hit reload — save a server failure…the parallel there would be a voting machine failure that resulted in complete inoperability) is a testament to the fact that we should be able to get fucking multiple choice programs to run correctly 100% of the time.  Based on the reports, you’d think these things were 1987 Nintendos running Legend of Zelda catridges that you found in the musty corner of your parents’ basement…you know, the ones that freeze, fail, and require blowing every time I get to Ganon (God. Damn. It.).

If we let this one go, there’s no telling what comes next.

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In a 228-205 vote, the House defeated Paulson’s bailout bill. Let’s be clear about why this bill failed: House Republicans, already facing difficult election prospects, decided that they couldn’t afford another noose around their necks in November. 140 Democrats voted to pass the bill, and 133 Republicans voted against it.

The House GOP held up the initial bill a few days ago because they wanted some sort of insurance program in the language, as well as greater oversight. Well, they negotiated with the Democrats and got the insurance language in the bill, but apparently that still wasn’t enough to sway them.

The Democrats delivered 60% of their caucus for the votes, while the House GOP managed a paltry 33%. And that’s why the bill was defeated, because of House Republicans. Their canard about how Pelosi’s “partisan” speech before the vote was the reason why more Republicans didn’t vote for the bill is a pathetic attempt to steer the blame. Are they really arguing that they were insulted by Pelosi’s speech and decided to put their pride above the needs of the country? That’s not “country first,” my friends. That’s “Republicans first.” It’s as simple as that.

Oh, and good work John McCain. I’m glad you “suspended” your campaign to head back to DC to bring the House GOP along. As McCain’s chief campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, said on Meet The Press:

What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the
parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were
needed to pass this.

I think you spoke too soon, Steve. Your guy “phoned it in.”

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So this is the caliber of discourse that we’ve come to expect from our Vice Presidential candidate, huh?  Yikes.

Watch that and tell me that you don’t experience all of the following:

a) Shock and awe that that woman might soon represent you to the world.

b) A curiosity as to when Couric hosted SNL, and how they made Fey look so convincing.

c) A strange new appreciation of George W’s eloquence.

But hey, hats off to McCain for managing to make her seem a viable candidate.  Of course, he’s had to shield her from the media almost entirely (3 interviews — if you include the new CBS interview — to Biden’s ~80 since being named VP candidate)…and they certainly fought hard and won to change the format of the VP debates so she can stick to the script.

But whatever, McCain’s been able to play the media effectively for years.  More recently, think back to how effortlessly he pandered and parlayed the impending disaster of Gustav into a non-photo op with George W at the opening of the Republican National Convention. Think I’m being too harsh?  Consider his relative non-response to the far more devastating Ike (sure, we got a couple press releases, but I didn’t see/hear of any preparation-assessment roadtrips before ol’ Ike came to Texas…).

Or how he half-succeeded this week in attempting to cancel the first presidential debate to “Put Country First” and fix the economy (nevermind that it wasn’t close to broken as far as McCain was concerned as recently as last week).

Oh, right — but he did it so he could rush back to help “break the deadlock” in Congress.  Except there wasn’t any deadlock…and no one asked for/wanted/needed his help.  I mean, what could they need from the guy who’s missed so many damn senate votes anyway?

Or wait…maybe he’s just not ready for the debate itself?

What’s important here is that McCain has taken a time out.  Kinda.  Sure, his surrogates are still out there bashing Obama (…time out?).  But this move attempts three things:

1) McCain “looks” like a leader.  Sort of.  Actually, as far as I’m concerned, he looks like a confused old man taking orders from his handlers.  But, hey, that’s just me.

2) McCain further shields Palin.  As David Letterman ranted about last night (brilliant video below), the campaign shouldn’t just stop…administrations can’t just call time out.  What should be happening here is that Palin should be out pounding the trail while McCain attends to business.  But nope — this distraction even lessens the amount of time they’ll have to keep her away from the press between now and the election.

3) McCain saves the “Foreign Policy” debate for later.  It’s clear at this point that McCain is perceived (however incorrectly) as the foreign policy guy, and Obama is the economy guy — at least according to the polls.  So, what’s bad for the foreign policy guy?  Having the foreign policy debate during an economic crisis so massive that no one cares about much else at the moment.  So, this move saves that point for later.

But, whatever — it’s all nonsense.  What Americans need right now are two things: the democratic process and leaders.

The debates are part of the democratic process.  That’s something we don’t suspend, and we don’t cancel.  Democracy first.  If not, what’s next?  Suspend the election?  Just push it back a bit?  Nope.  Remember when “not shopping” was “letting the terrorists win”…?  Right…so who wins if we “suspend our democratic process”…?

And leaders.  Not figureheads — leaders. We need people we can believe in and trust to go out and offset a national crisis like this.  Not with band aids or promises to be broken at a later date, but with real solutions that come from honest — even sometimes unattractive — answers.  That’s why Obama’s push to debate is not only the right move, it’s the patriotic one too.  In times of trouble, we need our government to stand before us and take the heat — to present solutions and to take action, but all within the context of openness and transparency.  Even if it means taking a couple hours away from the closed-door sessions.  Now more than ever, accountability matters — McCain wants none of it…and Obama, on the other hand, is ready to deliver.

Consider this: McCain’s attitude towards the debates is clear…he finds them superfluous.  He cast aside national discourse — the two candidates first chance to spar on the most important issues of our day — as though it were the finale of American Idol.  Fitting, given his American Idol running mate, but nonetheless insulting, and cynical.

In fact, McCain’s posturing proves him to be exactly what he so desperately tries to convince everyone he hasn’t become — a power-hungry figurehead who considers an active, participatory democracy just a cheap popularity contest.

That’s un-American, my friends.

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      A good portion of the Left has been begging Obama to satisfy their hunger for “red meat” by bringing up the Keating 5. While it would be gratifying to watch McCain relive his biggest political embarrassment, next to getting punked by George W. in 2000, until recently it could have been extremely dangerous for Obama to invoke it.

     Democrats want to use the Keating 5 scandal to attack McCain’s character and call into question his ethical center. In any other election, this would be fair and reasonable, but McCain is probably immune to the Keating virus. He has already survived by being re-elected to the senate three times (!) since the scandal broke. He only received a slap on the wrist from the Senate Ethics Committee, he confessed his mistakes and begged the voters of Arizona for their forgiveness, and they forgave him three times over.

     As a character assault, the Keating 5 provides little traction for Democrats. McCain knows this. He is at his best when the political climate allows him to be pugnacious and confrontational, and bringing up the K5 would give McCain the freedom to dominate the news cycle with Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko, and William Ayers, rather than addressing our current economic crisis.

     McCain would win the game of character assassination because these attacks play off the racial stereotypes that blacks are militant, untrustworthy, and violent. Wright and Ayers are especially damaging because they allow Obama to be seen as a radical. And, in Middle America, radicals with black skin are far more frightening than criminals with white collars.

    That is why McCain has recently been trying to bait Obama, daring him to bring up the Keating mess. When Obama briefly mentioned the Savings and Loan crisis of the 80’s in his comments about the current crisis, McCain released an ad, basically a warning shot, that tries to connect Obama to the disgraced former CEO of Fannie Mae, Frank Raines. There is no connection between Obama and Raines other than their skin color (well, Raines is more amber hued, while Obama is a burnt cedar). McCain most recent ad features Rezko and Daley, Jones, and Blagojevich (three dudes no one has heard of outside of Illinois). Count them up; that’s five, The Obama 5.

     Race.

     Race is what ended McCain’s 2000 presidential bid, not the Keating 5. The Rove rumor that McCain fathered a child with a black prostitute didn’t sit well with the voters of South Carolina. Race is why Keating was potentially off limits for Obama.

     I say ‘was’ because the current meltdown has given the Keating 5 a new relevance, and made market regulation sexy again. Democrats want to show McCain looking scared for his life during those senate hearings, with his bad comb-over flopping around, but they need to forget about the sensational aspects of the scandal and focus on the fact that John McCain is a puppet of deregulators. Aggressive deregulation led to the S&L crisis and John McCain’s Keating problem, and it has led to the mortgage crisis and John McCain’s Phil Gramm problem. Why is it that whenever our economy is driven over a cliff John McCain is in the passenger’s seat?

     Wisely, Obama has resisted the Left’s cravings for the red meat of personal attacks, and has given them the tofu of regulation instead. Eat it. Tofu is good for you. 

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What a day for John McCain, and by that I mean what a terrible, terrible day for John McCain. Here are some of the highlights:

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, one of McCain’s top economic advisers, had this to say when asked about how McCain’s experience on the Commerce committee would help him deal with the current financial crisis:

He didn’t have jurisdiction over financial markets, first and foremost.

That’s interesting, because McCain himself seemed to think otherwise on an appearance earlier today on CNBC’s Squawk Box:

I understand the economy. I was chairman of the Commerce Committee that oversights every part of our economy.

McCain is clearly pretty confused about what the Commerce Committee does, because it most definitely does not oversee the financial markets.

Referring to McCain’s economic experience, Holtz-Eakin went on:

“But he did this,’’ he said, holding up what looked like a BlackBerry. “The telecommunications of the United States, the premier innovation of the past 15 years, comes right through the commerce committee. So you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create. And that’s what he did.’’

I guess it doesn’t matter that the blackberry was invented by Research in Motion, a Canadian company, over which the Commerce Committee has no jurisdiction. This is, of course, reminiscent of Al Gore’s suggestion that he helped pass legislation that created the internet, but it remains to be seen if it will be as widely ridiculed in the press. Holtz-Eakin did make a number of suggestions about how to prevent future financial crises, including “better consumer protections,” an ability to look into companies’ books, and “improvement in corporate governance,” all of which sound like more regulations, something McCain has repeatedly claimed he is against. I think Holtz-Eakin and McCain should sit down so that Holtz-Eakin can explain John McCain’s economic plan to John McCain.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Carly Fiorina, a top McCain surrogate and someone touted as a possible VP selection, said that Sarah Palin couldn’t run a Fortune 500 firm, but she could run the country.

QUESTION: Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?

FIORINA: No, I don’t. But you know what? That’s not what she’s running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things.

Yes, because running a company is sooooo much easier than running the nation’s affairs. Fiorina tried to clarify later on that, in her opinion, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden also couldn’t run a company. I guess that was supposed to make McCain feel better.

Fiorina: Well I don’t think John McCain could run a major corporation. I don’t think Barack Obama could run a major corporation. I don’t think Joe Biden could run a major corporation. But on the other hand, a major corporation is not the same as being the president or vice president of the United States. It is a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company. So of course, to run a business, you have to have a lifetime of experience in business. But that’s not what Sarah Palin, John McCain, Joe Biden or Barack Obama are doing.

When pressed about what he would do about the current crisis on Wall Street, McCain started ranting about greed and corruption, and his signature idea of the day seemed to be to create a 9/11-style commission. That’s rich. I’m sure the commission will come up with a great set of suggestions by sometime next summer, which should help solve the problems we’re facing right now.

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I know we’re all trying to avert our eyes from the horrifying debacle that is Sarah Palin, but news isn’t good.  Bounces come and go, and one day’s brand new thing can turn into yesterday’s news pretty quick — just ask Barack Obama.  But if Obama-Biden are going to get back in this thing and offset the tremendous enthusiasm for the Palin (and McCain) ticket, they need to watch their mouths.  Obama’s playing a hard offense – a good thing, since McCain didn’t get his lead in the polls by playing nice – but what Obama’s saying makes you think Palin is seriously getting under his skin.

Today, to back up his back-handed compliment of Palin’s “compelling” story, he said:

I mean that sincerely. Mother, governor, moose shooter.

It doesn’t take a Frank Luntz to tell you that “moose hunter” = good, while “moose shooter” = baaaaad.  If Obama wants to convince small town voters that he really believes there’s a constitutional right to bear arms, he might want to avoid hinting that they cling to their guns to shoot defenseless animals.

Better yet, Michelle Obama was quoted last week at a gay fundraiser saying of Joe Biden:

“What you learn about Barack from his choice is that he’s not afraid of smart people.” The crowd softly chuckled.

There’s nothing like Ivy League-educated uppity sisters mocking the intelligence of the small town mayor in front of west coast homosexuals that appeals to middle America.

The Obama campaign’s line of defense against Sarah Palin has been a fiasco from the beginning.  They started by questioning her experience — a real winning argument from the guy who’s four years removed from being a state senator — and haven’t had anything stick yet.  They’re running ads highlighting Palin-McCain’s opposition to abortion rights, but that can only go so far: a recent Gallup poll found a narrow margin of women — 50% to 43% — identify as pro-choice, and only 13% of Americans say a “candidate must share their views on abortion.”

A Republican strategist I spoke to said that from the go, Obama should have made clear he wasn’t even concerned with Sarah Palin, that he was running against John McCain.  This guy was right.  McCain threw the kitchen sink at Obama for months, and he was never able to overtake him in the polls.  Now that Palin’s in the picture, Obama is suddenly desperate for relevance.

Anything can happen from here till November, but if the Obama camp thinks it can tackle this girl, it might be playing to forfeit.

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McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, had this to say earlier today:

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

What Rick Davis is basically admitting is that if this was an election about issues — energy, the economy, foreign policy, abortion rights, gay marriage, etc. — McCain would lose. So, the best thing the McCain campaign can do is package and sell their guy to the public without focusing too much on the issues. Who knows, maybe it’ll work, but it’s an incredibly cynical, not to mention insulting, way to run a campaign for the highest office in the land.

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This is from an interview that McCain did with a reporter in St. Louis. I think we’ll just let John McCain himself tell us why Sarah Palin is so qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency:

Quinn asked, “The tag line to one of your commercials is ‘Obama: is he ready to lead?’ Is Governor Palin ready to lead?”

[McCain] Oh, I think when you look at the fact that she has been in office for many years, she was a member of the PTA, a city council member, mayor, governor of the state that produces 20 percent of America’s energy, and look at Senator Obama. He was a community organizer when she was in elected office. He was in the state senate and voted 130 times present, he never took on his party on anything. She took on her party and the old bulls and the old-boy network and she succeeded. It’s not an accident that she enjoys 80 percent approval ratings in her home state…”

Really? Being a member of the PTA qualifies as experience to run the most powerful nation on earth? Being on the city council is enough experience to be commander-in-chief? Being a mayor of a town of fewer than 10,000 is the kind of experience need to run a nation of more than 300 million? Being a 20-month governor of one of the smallest states in the country, by population size, shows that she’s got what it takes to lead this country?

Ok, so being on the PTA gives you plenty of experience organizing bake sales, which we could totally use to help shore up the budget deficit. But what about her lack of foreign policy experience? According to Charlie Black (via Washington Monthly), one of McCain’s top advisers, she’ll be fine:

She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long.

McCain is right that a candidate’s judgment is going to be a deciding factor in this election. Unfortunately for him, it’s his judgment that’s in question.

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Good lord, the hits just keep on coming.

*edit: wow.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

Then there’s this little video spot that was just scrubbed from Palin’s website, featuring a recently quite humbled Ted Stevens (aka: Master of the Tubes) giving her a ringing endorsement during her campaign for Governor.

And then there’s hilarious shit like this — Palin on the VP spot last month:

“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…”

Nice.

Read the article here.

This is the sort of stuff that keeps me up at night:

“She wouldn’t have articulated one coherent policy, and people would just be fawning all over her,” said Andrew Halcro, a Republican turned independent, who along with Tony Knowles, a Democrat, ran against Palin for governor in 2006.”

More on that here.

And, hey, McCain really put a lot of time and energy into his careful selection of a running mate and potential replacement (a “heartbeat” away) — afterall, he met Palin ONE TIME before choosing her.

Ultimately, I agree with both Elisberg and Jones over at HuffPo.

I’m off to enjoy my holiday weekend upstate.  See you next week.

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Hot on the heels of Obama’s brilliant speech last night:  Sarah Palin is John McCain’s running mate (CNN reports).

Seriously?  Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin?  You mean the same Sarah Palin that is currently under “a $100,000 investigation to determine if Palin dismissed Alaska’s public safety commissioner because he would not fire” State Trooper Mike Wooten, Palin’s ex-brother-in-law?

Nice.

I get it — use a female candidate to sop up whatever remaining bitter, diehard Clinton stragglers there are (I’m willing to bet that number is in the ballpark of 10 to 15 post DNC).  I suppose the GOP bonus here is that the woman in question is already ahead of the curve as far as questionable practices and cronyism goes.  Nice to see that they’re really going for that Bush/Cheney ‘08 feel even at the VP level.

For more on the investigation, here’s former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on KUDO-AM 1080 (the guy she fired).

(Photo Credit:Win Mcnamee, Getty Images)

*edit: The Dems are out in full force on this (phew), and — in an ironic turn of events — are highlighting her inexperience (for example: up until last year all she’d ever been, politically-speaking, was mayor of a town of 9,000, and now she’s ready to be a “heartbeat away” from the Presidency?) — HuffPo has lots more.  This is really going to put a damper on McCain’s ability to call out that “ready to lead?” crap, as she’s both younger and far less experienced than Barry.

It may be premature, but I’m already seeing some compare this to the Dan Quayle selection.  All I can say at the moment is that I agree with Schumer…I can’t wait for the Biden-Palin debate.

Also, god bless wikipedia (in fairness, this is definitely cropped out of context, but that in no way mars its entertainment value):

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The talkingheads thought that Hillary wasn’t effusive enough in her praise of Obama last night, but she came through brilliantly for Barack. She had a tough hurdle to overcome, with everyone looking to her to unify the party despite the fact that she’s undoubtedly still upset about how the primary went. She rose to the challenge, telling her diehard supporters to look into the mirror and ask themselves whether they just supported her or the policies and the ideals that she stood for. The message was clear: Obama is her candidate, and if you supported her in the primary, you should get behind Obama.

Tonight, her husband had a similar challenge. Some in Hillary’s camp claimed that there was a rift between Bill Clinton and Obama, but the former president left no doubt that Obama would be getting his vote in November. Although the Clintons themselves questioned Obama’s experience and readiness to lead during the primary, Bill delivered for Obama. Talking about his bid for the White House in 1992, he said:

Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief. Sound familiar? It didn’t work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won’t work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.

Again, more on the readiness issue:

Everything I’ve learned in eight years as president and the work I’ve done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.

The bottom line is that the Clintons came through for Obama, setting aside whatever personal animosity arose during the primary to do their part (some would say it came a little late, and it’s a fair point, but they stepped up at the most important time). 

Joe Biden’s son, Beau, delivered a heart-warming and emotional introduction for his dad, who did a good job with his speech. Joe’s speech wasn’t as good as Hillary’s or Bill’s, but that’s asking a lot. Still, after praising McCain’s heroism, he got down to attacking McCain’s policies. His personal story about growing up as a kid and being taught important life lessons was also well done. Overall, it’s what you’d hope a VP would do.

At the end of Biden’s speech, Obama made a surprise appearance at the Pepsi Center, driving the crowd into a frenzy.

Tomorrow night: The Main Event.

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Stephan Savoia/Associated Press; (AFP)

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Geoff started with the one-name headers below so I’ll keep it alive…

Pics By Chip Somedevilla
Joe Biden hits Denver to meet with Delaware delegates and shows why he’s the real deal:

“I just want you to know that this is a great honor, this is a great honor being nominated vice president of the United States and I’m proud of it,” Mr. Biden told the small breakfast gathering. “But it pales in comparison to the honor I’ve had representing you.”

At this point, the extraordinarily loquacious senator paused, speechless and lost in his thoughts. He wiped away a tear with his handkerchief and went on.

“My private life has been lived in the public arena because you all got me started so young,” he said, alluding to his election to the Senate at age 29 and the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident before he was sworn in.

For any other pol, I’d say the tears were manufactured. But Joe Biden knows too much pain to fake the funk. I love this guy.

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Denver!!!

I love the Obama font. And Michelle’s looking good…

OMG He’s Black!!!
Slate noticed Obama is black. In a story sub-headed “RACISM IS THE ONLY REASON MCCAIN MIGHT BEAT HIM,” Jacob Wesiberg, Slate’s eic, states the obvious. Duh. A black dude with a middle name of Hussein is running against an Irish John and it took Slate 19-months to write the obligatory Holy Shit This Guy is Black story? I love Slate. But they’ve sucked lately. Georgia’s war didn’t get any coverage. They haven’t run much from Afghanistan. And they’re election stuff has been 2nd tier. Where’s Meghan O’Rourke? Hopefully at the DNC.

Bubba Factor
Are the Clintons trying to steal the DNC? Politico thinks so (and Drudge leads with it). Tensions Boil, reads the headline:

One flashpoint is the assigned speech topic for former president Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, when the convention theme is “Securing America’s Future.” The night’s speakers will argue that Obama would be a more effective commander in chief than his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas —emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s.

The Clintons are the non-story of the week…

All About Joe
Everyone in America is eager to learn about Joe Biden, O’s veep. His book, Promises to Keep (Random House 2007), is now a bestseller:

As of Sunday afternoon, the book was at No. 31 on the amazon.com bestseller list, and No. 11 on Barnes & Noble’s list.

It’s 24 on the Amazon list right now.

I’ve seen Biden speak on a hand-full of occasions. Most notably, I saw him at a foreign policy luncheon at the Kennedy Museum during the 2004 Boston DNC. Biden sat on a panel with Madeline Albright and Iraq’s deputy PM, among others. This was when Iraq was in the midst of a two-front uprising. On Iraq, Biden was fluid though a little over state-y.

At the time, rumblings of an 08 Biden run were abuzz, but the two foreign affairs junkies with me were convinced he’d be a great Sec State but not Prez material. I never considered him for VP. But what a great choice. Biden’s funny, can be a dick, and knows his stuff. Considering he lost his wife and child at 29, ascending to the second highest office in the land to serve in their honor makes me happy as a little girl who got a pony for her b day.

TNR Kisses Lizza’s Ass
The New Republic says 2008’s best political profile was Making It: How Chicago Shaped Obama by The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza. Of course, Lizza used to work for TNR. Unfortunately, his piece, while long and in-depth, glossed over much of Obama’s Chicago rise. For a better portrait of O’s Chicago days, buy David Mendell’s Promise to Power.

Reading Lizza’s piece, you could tell he was practicing access journalism. I felt like Axelrod was living in his brain, revising history. Most specifically, Lizza glosses over O and Michelle’s ties to real estate developers like Valerie Jarrett, Allsyon Davis, and Tony Rezko. Jarrett is who got the Obamas into politics (luring Michelle to city hall in the 80s). It was Jarrett, Rezko, and Davis who gave O his initial $$$ for his state senate run.

These folks are also (in)famous in Chicago for pushing private-public housing partnerships. Yes: in the early-90s, Chicago’s public housing authority was a mess. And these Jarrett-Rezko-Obama private-public policies made sense, at the time. What doesn’t make sense is why so many of the public units Jarrett ran (as CEO of Habitat INC, a title she holds today) went to shit under her watch. Or how Rezko took $40 million plus in federal tax credits, ran complexes into the ground, then moved into condo development with the dough he earned. A high number of the units owned by these folks are now back in public hands. Weirder still, Obama continues to support these policies without modifications even though they failed.

For all the right wing media’s attacks, Obama’s housing policy—which has left thousands of poor blacks negatively affected—has been left largely untouched. Valerie Jarrett is hated by blacks on the South Side. She’s #3 or 4 in the Obama campaign. Yet she’s only received minimal—and glowing—coverage. Why? You can’t Swift Boat a guy for fucking over the very poor blacks that white GOP assholes love fucking over. If anything, Obama’s questionable South Side housing record would help him with the Swift crowd.

Happy DNC viewing everyone…