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.
TAGS: election, mccain, obama, VotingBetween the biggest paper in Palin’s home state coming out for Obama (you can read the actual endorsement here – and Obama also just had the Financial Times endorse him as well), the press beginning to cover the disorder/blame-gaming going on within the McCain campaign as it falls apart (yes, even Fox is talking about it), and the stuff coming out about Palin “going rogue” (THAT should keep things interesting), there’s certainly been no shortage of bad news for Team McCain.
And the whole weekend culminated in John McCain’s lengthy appearance on Meet the Press, during which he sounds snappy on Palin issues, claims the polls mean nothing (and his senses tell him that he’s winning…which is kinda nuts, really), and then gets punked on his “not since Herbert Hoover” line about “no president should raise taxes in a recession”…for Brokaw points out that Reagan (McCain’s idol) actually raised taxes right after he took office (during a recession).
These are interesting times, and while I’m beginning to feel that November 4th can’t come fast enough (epic landslide, please), I’m also becoming more and more afraid at the prospect of a McCain presidency. Every gaffe, strategic blunder, and outright lie that now contributes to my overwhelming sense that he’ll lose (alongside those pesky polls, of course) brings joy, but each also stokes the fear of the man actually becoming president.
For the record, other things I find frightening (and/or hilarious):
I get a big kick out of this – but it also kinda freaks me out that this guy was Gore’s choice for VP. What a difference eight years make.
Also, this:
Seriously, WTF is that? Oh, it’s part of a television tower in Prague…of course (see link for more pictures and attribution).
TAGS: Anchorage Daily News, Brokaw, Endorsements, Financial Times, Fox News, Lieberman, mccain, Meet the Press, obama, PalinSarah Palin, everyone’s favorite Wal-Mart hockey mom, and her family were outfitted with threads worth $150,000, thanks to a shopping spree courtesy of the RNC. Here’s the list from Politico:
According to Politico,
The cash expenditures immediately raised questions among campaign finance experts about their legality under the Federal Election Commission’s long-standing advisory opinions on using campaign cash to purchase items for personal use.
Nevertheless, because the goodies were purchased by the RNC and not the McCain campaign, they probably don’t break any campaign finance laws, but Palin may have to declare the gifts as taxable income. The McCain camp, after initially dodging the questions, responded predictably:
“With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses,” said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. “It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.”
Indeed. The McCain camp has carefully crafted Palin’s image as an everyday mom who works hard to juggle work and family. I bet an everyday mom would love to have $150,000 worth of clothing and accessories.
Meanwhile, some of McCain’s donors were not pleased at all with the news:
“As a Republican Eagle and a maxed-out contributor to McCain’s general campaign, I’d like my money back – he can still have my vote,” complained one irate donor on Tuesday.
Look, McCain’s camp probably had to get her properly outfitted since they decided on her a day or two before having her appear as the VP candidate. She had to hit the trail and probably didn’t have time to head back to Wasilla to grab her things. Still, $150,000? Doesn’t that go against the image of Palin as a regular, old hockey mom? Someone in the campaign didn’t think that maybe they should tone down the spending a bit lest it becomes public and they ruin her carefully crafted image (of course, she’s done a fine job destroying that image on her own)? Remember how the media mocked Edwards for his $400 haircut because he’d positioned himself as a champion of the poor? It’s no surprise that Palin’s now getting the same treatment.
In response to my post about John McCain’s strange “performance” at the debate, a commenter here suggested that I try to counter an “exposing” article about Obama. That’s a great idea, “Dude”, I’ve actually been training for this.
Here is my regimen:
On my morning commute, I listen to a combination of Thom Hartman, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck (I’m a chronic channel flipper). To be honest, I know Hartman makes me a smarter, more informed semi-Democrat but Rush and Beck bring some of the most absurd commentary in the business. It’s pure comedy and it wakes me up, but prolonged exposure to such idiocy makes me angry, so while in the office, I just listen to Air America on the Internets when I’m not in meetings or editing. Then my evening commute is the best! Seriously. Depending on how early or late I leave the office… I might get to catch the end of Sean Hannity but I’ll usually get to hear most of Brian Sussman with sprinkles of Michael Weiner “Savage” and lately I’ve been loving Laura Ingram. On the weekends, I listen to re-runs and if I’m lucky, I get to hear “the babe in the bunker” Barbra Simpson! While all these talking meatballs are great entertainment, they usually offer the same rehashed talking points, the same fake rage, the same hate and the same negativity when it comes to American politics.
But I also love right wing websites. A few of them really get my goat: Conservapedia, NewsMax, NewsBusters, Drudge and of course Human Events (I’m even on their mailing list). I read many sites daily. I also watch Fox News. The point I’m trying to make is that I have a steady stream of anti-Obama plugged directly into my dome.
So “Dude”, I’ve read the “exposing” article you mentioned and I found it quite boring actually. First of all, for an article to be some sort of ex-pose-eh it needs to actually expose something new. With a title like “The Case Against Barack Obama: Part 1″ published by Human Events, I’d at least expect to hear an some outlandish claims about terrorists and dead babies. This article makes no damning claims, and presents no strong case against Obama. It’s a whole lot of incomplete parsing, spinning and cherry picking. The writer, Larry Elder, makes two weak points:
1. Obama’s tax plan is bad for rich people and therefore bad everybody that the money supposedly trickles down to.
2. Obama wasn’t appalled by Rev. Wright using Sharpeville and Hiroshima as two examples of injustice and that means he’s bad.
Larry begins his article like this:
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama promises to “cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers.” That’s not possible.Why? More than 30 percent pay nothing in federal income taxes.
Larry knows that federal income taxes are not the only kind of tax. While he’s right that a large chunk of people (usually poor people and single mothers) don’t pay income taxes, that does not mean they’re off the hook from payroll taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, etc, etc, etc. His next paragraph argues that “tax credits” are not “tax cuts” but let’s be honest here, if we pay less taxes, nobody gives a shit what Larry calls it.
Larry goes on:
Republican candidate John McCain should tell people in real, human terms how hiking taxes on the so-called rich affects us all. My friend Nina is a self-employed interior decorator. She just met a prospective married client, whose husband works in the entertainment industry. The client may pull the job because of Obama’s impending tax cuts. Nina makes well under $250,000, lives in an apartment, has no maid, and drives a midsize non-luxury car.
But the couple she hopes to get the job from face a tax rate of 39.5 percent plus increased Social Security taxes, on top of higher taxes for capital gains and dividends.
How can Larry expect McCain to communicate something that he has failed to communicate himself? This hypothetical is vague but what he’s trying to say is that a modest increase on taxes the apparently rich “client” from the entertainment industry will endure on their stock market investments (non-existent in this economy) is so crushing that they will no longer be able afford Nina’s services.
BULLSHIT.
Larry doesn’t tell you that most corporations (including small businesses) don’t pay any Federal income taxes at all either but that doesn’t bother him, Larry thinks corporations and the ultra rich need more tax breaks so he quotes people who feel the same as him but never cites any sources and he never mentions how this flawed ideology has worked out so far.
Trickle-down economics don’t work! The “redistributing the wealth” argument is as lame as shouting “communist!” in an old-folks home. Libertarians say Democrats are punishing the rich for being successful and giving the money to the poor. They also claim enriching the rich is good for the small business. After 30+ years of the rich getting richer, the poor have only gotten poorer. Smarter people call this “wealth condensation”.
As for the Rev. Wright portion of Larry Elder’s article. It’s a tired, old waste of my time. Don’t give me guilty by association claims, give me something of substance. And look who Human Events has as writers:
Oliver North - convicted criminal behind the Iran Contra affair and drug trafficking in the U.S.
Monica Crowley - plagiarist
Ted Nugent - washed up rock n roll psychopath
Chuck Norris - a bad actor, worse writer, not bad at Karate, has a pretty funny infomercial
Ann Coulter - the worst deadhead of all time, a racist, offensive cunt
Pat Buchanan - Racist anti-semite
(my mailbox)
TAGS: air america, Barack Obama, debate, drudge, ep, Fox News, John McCain, Laura Ingram, limbaugh, mccain, obama, ploy, Politics, right wing, sean hannity, spin, Sussman, talking points, thom hartman, websiteMan, Jeffrey Toobin was so not into the debate last night.
Here he is checking Facebook, and also the MLB playoffs.
Facebook shot: David Cho
MLB.com pic: Ben Saitz
TAGS: CNN, mccain, News & Politics, obama, presidential debate, ToobinSpencer Ackerman attended a talk by General Petraeus at the Heritage Foundation today, and he reports the following:
Petraeus also came out unambiguously in his talk at Heritage for opening communications with America’s adversaries, a position McCain is attacking Obama for endorsing. Citing his Iraq experience, Petraeus said, “You have to talk to enemies.” He added that it was necessary to have a particular goal for discussion and to perform advance work to understand the motivations of his interlocutors.
McCain has been hammering Obama on his position that he’d talk to the leaders of Iran, Syria, Cuba, and North Korea without “preconditions”. Obama has noted that it’s not like he’d invite Castro over for tea, but fundamentally, he thinks that you have to talk to your enemies. He also noted in the 2nd debate that his approach might not work, but that it’s worth trying because it has the potential for a far better outcome. Although Petraeus never came out and said he supported Obama’s plan, it’s hard to read it differently. I wonder if McCain will start calling Petraeus an appeaser.
TAGS: attack, Cuba, debate, ep, Iran, Iraq, mccain, motivation, obamaThe McCain campaign has decided to go all out with a negative campaign down the home stretch. Palin was quoted as saying that Obama was “palling around with terrorists.” Cindy McCain wrongly accused Obama of cutting off funding for the troops. A GOP leader, William Platt, twice referred to Obama as “Barrack Hussein Obama,” an obvious attempt to paint Obama as a Muslim terrorist, while introducing McCain and Palin at a rally. That’s something that McCain himself has condemned in the past. Other McCain surrogates have also leveled disgusting attacks at Obama, and it’s clearly the campaign’s strategy at this point.
Not surprisingly, these wrongful and vile accusations have riled up McCain’s crowds, with some in the audience yelling things like “traitor,” and “kill him!” Others have turned on the press, thanks to Palin constantly putting down the “mainstream media” (I guess she wasn’t too happy with her performance on Gibson’s or Couric’s show), and one guy yelled “Sit down, boy!” at a black sound man working for a network. Lovely.
Obviously, McCain’s camp will say that they don’t condone these sorts of things, but they’re the ones inciting these people. They’re giving them the cover they need to yell these things out at their rallies, and they certainly aren’t doing anything to stop them. Why didn’t Palin or McCain pause and point out that the sort of comments these people made were unacceptable? Because they’re thriving in this kind of environment, and they see it as a way to stoke up their base.
Unfortunately, the way that McCain is running his campaign now reminds me of the horrible murders in July, when Jim Adkisson killed two people and wounded six others in a Tennessee church. He said he targeted the church
because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country’s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets. Inside the house, officers found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly.
As I said back in July, Hannity, O’Reilly, and Savage did not kill those people. Adkisson was responsible for killing those people. But, at what point does their hatred for liberals, comparing them to terrorists and nazis who are destroying America, and their ability to espouse those views on air go from free speech to hate speech? While Hannity and Co. weren’t directly responsible, their extreme views incited even more hatred in a man who was willing to kill for those views. McCain and Palin are inciting their crowds now, and what we’re seeing in terms of the reactions of some in the crowd are directly related to the hate they’re preaching.
So, most pundits think that Obama beat McCain in last night’s debate. That clearly didn’t sit well with the McCain campaign, so they unleashed Cindy McCain, who could be the future First Lady. Here’s a gem from her speech today:
I’m proud of my sons, but let me tell you, the day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body.
I’m curious to know if Cindy felt that same chill when her husband also voted not to fund the troops. From CNN:
The vote Mrs. McCain is referencing came in May of 2007, when Obama was one of 14 senators who voted against a war-spending plan that would have provided emergency funds for American troops overseas. He, like many Democrats, was pushing for an end to the war in Iraq, and the legislation included no provisions for that. Before that vote, Obama did support and vote for a funding proposal that included a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq — a troop funding bill McCain opposed.
This line of attack from the McCain campaign is getting ridiculous, mostly because they’ve been called out on it so many times. The point is a simple one: Obama voted against one funding bill that didn’t have a timeline, and McCain voted against one that had a timeline. Period. Neither guy opposes funding the troops. Their disagreement was over the timeline. Of course, with Obama surging in the polls, don’t expect to hear McCain ditch his dishonest statements on this topic.
McCain loves to talk about how he’s going to take care of veterans and he knows how to do that because of his service. Well, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America released a report yesterday grading members of Congress, including McCain and Obama, on how they voted on 22 key Veterans issues that the IAVA supported. McCain got a “D,” while Obama and Biden both got a “B.”
TAGS: attack, bill, Boston, Campaign, Congress, debate, dog, ep, Iraq, mccain, NATO, obama, political, Politics, Poll, polls, pundits, timeline, Vice, warThe snap polls are out: The CNN poll has Obama winning 54%-30%, and the CBS poll gives it to Obama 40%-26%.
Overall, I think both McCain and Obama did fine, but I’d give it to Obama because McCain needed a convincing win after falling behind noticeably in the polls in recent weeks, including in many of the swing states. McCain’s campaign has turned decidedly negative, and it’ll stay that way for the next four weeks, as he tries to question Obama’s patriotism and character. I’m not sure McCain can go back to the well a second time on this stuff, and it makes him look even smaller when people are worried about the economy and their retirement savings. Tonight, though, McCain didn’t delve into character attacks, but he did have a weird moment when he referred to Obama as “that one.” Is that a continuation of the contempt he showed for Obama in the first debate?
McCain was clearly more comfortable on foreign policy than on the domestic issues, and he continued to lie about Obama’s tax and health care plans. McCain rambled and was all over the map on the domestic portion, and that’s not a good thing when most people rate the economy as their number one issue. McCain also needs to cut out the jokes. He’s just not funny, as evidenced by this exchange with Brokaw:
Brokaw asks who could be the next Hank Paulson. Who would the candidates choose as Treasury Secretary? McCain takes a weird swipe: “Not you, Tom.” Awkward, uncomprehending laughter.
Obama had one big gaffe tonight, and that was when he talked about health care. He was explaining how McCain’s plan of letting people cross state lines to get the cheapest plan wasn’t a solution, because insurance companies would just move to the state that had the fewest regulations and consumer protections. Then, he said this:
That’s how in banking it works. Everybody goes to Delaware, because they’ve got very — pretty loose laws when it comes to things like credit cards. And in that situation, what happens is, is that the protections you have, the consumer protections that you need, you’re not going to have available to you.
Whoops. Did he forget that Biden’s his running mate?
Other than that, I thought Obama was calm, cool, and collected, similar to the first debate. McCain was better than in the first debate, but he needed a win to turn the tide of opinion, and he wasn’t able to do that tonight.
There’s still plenty of time left, of course, so expect McCain to ratchet up the negative attacks. Oh, and McCain’s plan to buy up mortgages? Well, the FHA has a $300 billion program to refinance troubled mortgages, although it’s an option for the lender and not the borrower, and something very similar is in the TARP legislation that just passed Congress, so this isn’t really anything new…unless McCain is saying that he’d order the Treasury Secretary to buy up bad mortgages, in which case I can’t imagine his base will like it.
Mark Humphrey/AP
TAGS: attack, bill, Campaign, Congress, debate, economy, mccain, obama, Poll, polls, President, war…shouldn’t throw stones. Especially when those stones are — at best — a strange mix of quotes-out-of-context and outright lies.
So, Obama’s economic policies are “bad for America?” He “doesn’t know how to reinvigorate our economy”…but “McCain does?” Weird…want to know more about McCain’s proven lack of judgment on economics, sell-out politics, hypocritical exploitation of government (for big business), and flat-out dishonesty (how’s that for a mouthful)? Watch here:
And, how about “Obama’s palling around with terrorists” (…gag…)? Well, that comes from the mouth of one Sarah Palin, whose husband was a member of a secessionist party in Alaska until 2002 (long after they met, married, had children, probably talked politics, etc). That’s right — Sarah Palin’s married to a man who spent years in a political party that wants Alaska to break away from America (…”Country First”?) and whose founder said CRAZY shit like this:
“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won’t be buried under their damn flag.”
Nice.
But it doesn’t stop there. Looks like Sarah herself has A LOT to do with those folks too. In fact, they cite her getting elected Governor as an “infilitration” into Alaskan politics. Wow. Imagine what they’ll say if she becomes VP.
Don’t believe me? Watch the meeting (and other clips) here:
I dare any supporter of Liar/Wackjob to watch those two clips and tell me that McCain/Palin is the “patriotic” ticket.
TAGS: economy, mccain, obama, political, Politics, Sarah Palin, youtubeJohn McCain’s brother, Joe McCain, made some news during an event in Virginia today, where he said this:
I’ve lived here for at least 10 years and before that about every third duty I was in either Arlington or Alexandria, up in communist country.
The McCain campaign said that he just made a bad joke, and Joe McCain later apologized. Campaign staffers and surrogates will sometimes make off the cuff remarks that aren’t exactly helpful (see Holtz-Eakin, Douglas), but this one was especially stupid. McCain needs Virginia, and the last thing his campaign wants to do is alienate his supporters or get Obama’s supporters in the state fired up. Tim Craig pointed out the funniest thing about Joe McCain’s comment:
John McCain owns a condominium in Arlington County. The McCain campaign’s national and Virginia headquarters are also located in Arlington County.
Oops.
TAGS: blackberry, Campaign, John McCain, mccain, obama, PoliticsIt’s amazing that after all the smears and negative campaigning from the McCainiacs have proven to only hurt them in the polls - they still keep them coming. Now that Sarah “painful-to-listen-to” Palin is out there reciting Sean Hannity’s long disproven unsubstantiated character attacks on Barack Obama - the same attacks about Bill Ayers and other loose aquantineces of the Obama’s that most of us stopped even noticing - the media is bored with Ayers so now we should start talking about Gordon Liddy and Charles Keating.
We’ve been sitting here on a gem. THE KEATING FIVE. A giant scandal that involves Washington corruption, banks, deregulation and one slightly younger John McCain right in the middle of it all. Bill Ayers is a nobody for Obama’s past, compared with that of Charles Keating to the McCain family. Keating cost the taxpayers $160 billion and caused a recession. It was the influence that Keating bought from John McCain to get the deregulation to that allowed him to do it and though he actually went to jail for what he did. But Keating lined John McCain’s pockets with campaign contributions, lavish vacations, formed lucrative business partnerships with them and John McCain got away with it all. This was corrpution at it’s finest and I guess, finally, we can talk about it.
TAGS: banks, Barack Obama, bill ayers, business partnerships, campaign contributions, charles keating, corruption, deregulation, gordon liddy, keating five, mccain, negative campaigning, recession, scandal, sean hannity, taxpayers“First McClellan did not say definitively that the surge principles would not work in Afghanistan. Certain accounting for different conditions in that country and conditions are certainly different.” [Sarah Palin, Vice Presidential Debate, 10/2/08]
If you’re going to cite someone as your definitive source for your stance on a subject as important as war, you probably should know who they are. All the more so when you’re smack in the middle of a VP debate attempting to prove your readiness for the second highest office in the land (by way of a 3-day cram session, ala finals week at college…nice).
Imagine Scott McClellan’s — the former White House Press Secretary (who just wrote a book slamming the administration) — surprise when he was referred to as the top US General in Afghanistan. And then imagine General McKiernan’s surprise when a) he realizes she’s talking about him and b) she contradicts his position (again).
TAGS: debate, mccain, President, Sarah Palin, Slam, Vice, warThe Palinator (an author published in a couple dozen countries whose agent would hang him for revealing his name) takes you with him on his train-of-thought ride through last night’s debate (complete with brief detours into tales of fatherhood and beach balls).
Enjoy:
(Author’s note: I got home late and watched the debate delayed, so all times are local, as recorded in my living room.)
9:38 – Ooh. Bad color on Gwen…an emerald green muumuu? She looks like she was just kicked out of Oz.
9:39 – Sarah Palin asks Biden: “Can I call you Joe?” Are you fucking serious? How about, “No, just call me VP.”
9:40 – Coin toss? It’s like football?
9:41 – I hate the requisite “Thank you’s.” So stupid. No doubt Palin will thank and thank and thank and thank St. Louis trying to run out the clock.
9:42 – Shit, I’m already bored by Biden. Gimme Palin. I want blood.
9:42 – Joe got me back. He seems relaxed and coherent. Someone must’ve slipped him a valium.
9:43 – Here’s Sarah. Holy shit, one minute in and she already mentioned “soccer” and said “betcha.” Okay, first impressions – she seems coherent, but robotic. Maybe she is a robot. No, a fembot, like in Austin Powers. I think she’s gonnna shoot Biden w/ her breasts.
9:44 – Biden’s hair is really weird. Not just now, but always. A woman I know took a train w/ “Amtrak Joe” during what she described “the plugging years.” Hair plugs = bad.
9:45 – Weird; when Biden talks, he doesn’t move his body. Just his head. Weird.
9:46 – My god, Palin just winked at me. Shit, she said “mavericks.” So fucking lame. She’s looking right at the camera like a deer in the headlights. Maverick count = 2.
9:47 – HA! Gwen called them on not answering the question. But then didn’t press them on it. Why?
9:47 – Palin: “Darn right, it was the predator lenders.” Yeah, wouldn’t expect any Americans to do simple math on what they could afford. Sure, American’s have got ingenuity, but don’t expect them to add. That’s just wrong.
9:48 – Fuck. She used “hockey moms” AND “Joe Six-pack” in the same sentence. Double fuck – she’s not blazingly incoherent. But she doesn’t believe in using the “g”s God put at the end of words. Everythin’s hurtin’.
9:49 – This format sucks. It’s too fast, all bullet-points, not enough follow up by Gwen. I don’t see this getting contentious at all like Obama vs. McCain got. That’s good for Palin.
9:50 – Boorrrrrrring. Talkng points, talking points, talking points. I think Biden is actually talking, Palin is just spewing. But she’s doing well. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I hate her.
9:51 – Nice rebuttal, Joe. Ooooooooh, McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes. AND the governor didn’t answer the question! Yeah, you go Joe!
9:52 – Palin: “I’m still on the tax thing.” And then: “I may not answer the questions like the moderator wants”?? WTF? Why not just go Faulkner on our ass and do the stream of consciousness “thing.”
9:53 – SNAP! Gwen cuts Sarah off for time. HA!
9:53 – Joe seems empathetic. Nice, I feel like he’s talking to me. I like the “value set” comment. Joe seems to be better at timing his answers.
9:55 – Oh, here it comes. Lambasting Biden for the “patriotic” paying taxes comment. Oh right, McCain’s always been in the middle class. Son of an admiral. Right.
9:56 – I hate this smiling bitch. And I think that’s the biggest flag pin I’ve ever seen. I’m surprised she can stand.
9:58 – “ULTIMATE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE!” Biden gets the first laugh and first “moment.”
9:59 – Biden wants to slow down doubling foreign assistance. Good answer. Americans hate foreigners. I think Biden’s hitting his stride. Or as Palin would say “hittin’ his stride, you betcha.”
10:00 – My wife is yelling at me. She wants me to stop blogging. I have to blow up an insanely large beach ball for my son’s second birthday.
10:01 – Oh fuck, Palin’s referencing the stupid “telling one thing to one group and another thing to another group.” Right out of her stump speech. Bitter, ain’t she?
10:02 – Oh, if Biden doesn’t go after her for the—
I stopped blogging for five minutes to blow up the beach ball. It’s enormous. I’m not sure if I made any progress.
10:07 – Palin: “Your ticket’s energy ticket.” Nice quote, Sarah. Shit, “East coast politicians”? You know what she means, don’t you, middle America? Jews! She means Jews!
10:09 – Ooooh, she’s the governor of the “nation’s only Arctic state.” Is that good? Maybe she should be president of Canada. Though I todn’t think they have presidents. I don’t know, I hate Canada. Blah, blah, blah. Palin doesn’t want to argue about the causes of global warming. Right. Okay, so far, absolutely no answer.
10:10 – Biden: “[Climate change] is man made.” Nice answer, Joe. Simple, makes Palin’s answer look like what it was – a non-answer.
10:12 – “Drill, baby, drill!”
10:13 – Did Palin just call him “Senator O’Biden?”
10:13 – What is this “All of the above” bullshit? Do you lead the country by taking a multiple-choice exam? If so, I think I’d do really well. I’m great at multiple-choice tests. I’d kill to find out Palin’s SAT scores. Do they even have SATs in the “Arctic”?
10:15 – Fuck, going into gay rights. I’m pro-gay marriage, but it’s a loser from an electoral standpoint on the Democratic side. Can’t wait to see what Sarah says. Okay, nice gay-bashing, Sarah. Ooooh, she’s “tolerant.” Wow, she has friends that DON’T EVEN AGREE WITH HER! Amazing. No, she doesn’t know any gay people, but she does know non-gay-haters! How tolerant.
10:17 – Fuck, could Gwen press Sarah on her answers? So far, I give Gwen a C-minus.
10:18 – My wife’s still blowing up the beach ball. It’s insane. Christ, now it’s my turn.
10:25 – Okay, I’ve been blowing up the ball for seven minutes, mostly w/ this pump we have. We’re not sure it’s working. Okay, I’ve checked and it IS working, but slowly. Jesus, this is ridiculous. It shouldn’t be this hard to prepare for a two-year-old’s birthday party.
10:26 – Oh crap, the stupid “preconditions” comment. So tired.
10:27 – Right, Sarah. B/c who’s more passionate about diplomacy than Kissinger?
10:29 – Ah, the stupid McCain won’t meet w/ Spain comment.
10:31 – Ooh, Joe Biden’s referring to himself in the third-person, Bob Dole-style. He’s goin’ old school, bitch! Remember Norm MacDonald’s Bob Dole impression? Fucking priceless.
10:32 – I don’t think ANYONE has mentioned Bush yet. Why not? Gwen, Joe, wake the fuck up.
10:33 – Palin: “Finger-pointing backwards”? How the hell do you finger-point forward? Christ, another maverick comment. Maverick count = 3.
10:34 – Biden’s saying “George Bush’s” every other word. It’s like he read my mind. Jeez, Joe’s goin’ to town. Never noticed this, but it sounds funny when you say “George Bush’s” again and again and again. Try it, you’ll see.
10:35 – Palin: Nuclear weapons would kill “too many” people? So, other weapons would kill “just enough” people?
10:37 – Joe’s doing a nice job making McCain seem extreme.
10:38 – Okay, I know I’m biased, but Palin just sounds like she’s reading off cards.
10:42 – I hate the way Palin says “Americans”. Sounds like “Amerhikens.” And I hate her smile. Goddammit I hate her smile.
10:43 – Biden does a nice job of conflating McCain-Cheney.
10:45 – Shit, Palin is doing well. Oh Christ – McCain “knows what evil is.” What the fuck does that mean? Oh, and McCain “knows how to win a war.” How? Did he win in Vietnam? Or is he just really good at World of Warcraft?
10:47 – Palin on whether she & McCain agree on everything: “What do expect? We’re two mavericks!” Maverick count = 4. Oh, and Palin’s gonna get rid of greed on Wall Street. That’ll be easy. We can just replace all those greedy people that work in banks with money-hating socialists.
10:49 – Yeah! Evidently Joe spends TONS OF TIME in Home Depot! He practically lives there. Ask Joe where the nail guns are, he’ll tell ya. He knows Home Depot.
10:50 – Palin says “Doggonit.” Makes me wonder if she ever saw Deadwood. Cocksuckers. Okay, so Biden’s wife’s reward for being a teacher is in heaven. Cuz she ain’t getting’ a raise! That should be the new recruitment policy – become a teacher, go to heaven. Oh, and a shout out to 3rd graders. Awesome. And here’s to my dead homies.
10:51 – My wife just finished blowing up the beach ball. Halle-fuckin-lujah.
10:52 – Shit, Palin’s hit her stride. She’s in the home stretch.
10:53 – Oh no. There are 10 small beach balls that also need to be blown up. We’re fucked.
10:57 – Palin references Reagan’s “Shining city on a hill.” My wife says Reagan didn’t say it first, that John Winthrop said it on some boat. I just Wikipedia’d it – my wife’s right. Winthrop said it in 1630 on the Arbella. Learn something new every day.
10:59 – Shit, real human moment from Biden about his dead wife and daughter. Joe just won.
11:00 – Oh god, Palin response to Joe’s human moment was to call McCain a maverick. Great response. Maverick count = 5. Whoa, there’s another maverick. Maverick count = 6. Oh, wow, McCain’s even got the support of the biggest fascist in the world—Rudy Guiliani! Awesome! What a maverick!
11:01 – Whoa, Biden just countered Palin and personally threw out FOUR MAVERICKS IN A ROW (as in “John McCain’s not a maverick”)! There’s another maverick! Biden’s on a tear! Another one! That’s six! And another one! And another! We’re at eight mavericks, folks, do I hear nine? YES! A NINTH MAVERICK! In one fell swoop, Biden exceeded Palin’s maverick count by a stunning 50%!
11:02 – My wife has officially declared Biden the winner (and last debate she said McCain won, so she’s not as crazy-biased as me).
11:04 – Sarah Palin claims she’s never compromised. Well, except for that time Todd convinced her to do anal. But that was the only time.
11:08 – Nice shot across the bow at the mainstream media from Sarah Palin. Yeah! Fuck you, Katie Couric! You… you… mainstreamer!
11:09 – Another Reagan shout out by Palin. That’s two Reagan’s and six mavericks. Ooh, in the future, “we’ll tell our children how once we were free” before the robots took over. But John Connor will save us. I know he will, b/c I’ve seen all three Terminator movies (T3 sucked) AND I watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Seriously, though, are we really heading to a time when we’re not free? Is someone going to enslave us (besides the robots, I mean)? And what IS Sarah’s Robot-policy.
11:11 – Nice ending monologue by Joe.
11:12 – Sarah’s thanking everyone. Thank you, thank you, thank you… she’s so fucking thankful that she didn’t fuck up. Holy shit, looks like she’s going to kiss Biden. What is wrong with this woman? Oh look, there’s little baby Trig. They really love trotting out that kid. I’ve got to say, as a father of two, if I know one thing it’s that babies love debates.
11:13 – Commentary: David Brooks is “amazed” at Palin’s performance and thought she came across as Joe’s equal. I hate to say it, but I agree. She didn’t win, but she held her own. Bitch. Mark Shields says that he bets Democrats are disappointed that Palin didn’t “implode.” True dat. True dat.
Okay, I’ve got to go. I’ve got beach balls to blow up.
TAGS: Babies, banks, bullshit, Bush, climate change, David Brooks, debate, dog, ep, fascist, free, George Bush, global warming, god, Jesus, Joe Biden, John McCain, mccain, Movie, NATO, NSA, obama, President, Rap, Sarah Palin, warI guess John McCain’s contempt for Barack Obama during the first Presidential debate is carrying over to the media. In an interview session with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board, McCain was often testy and sarcastic, i.e. not very Presidential, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. It brings the issue of his famous temperament back into play, although I doubt that the Obama camp will start running ads about it. The damage has been done given the amount of press McCain’s interview has gotten, so my guess is that they’ll laugh to themselves and move on.
Meanwhile, the Register’s board thought that McCain was “deliberate and crisp.” Weird, but I guess they must be in the tank for McCain (that was a joke).
Conservative bloggers are up in arms about the fact that Gwen Ifill, who will be moderating tomorrow night’s VP debate, has a book coming out on January 20th, 2009 called The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.
Considering that the book was mentioned in an article on July 23, 2008 in the conservative Washington Times (the article dealt with Tavis Smiley, the PBS host), and that McCain’s campaign agreed to having Ifill as the moderator a couple of weeks after that Washington Times article, conservatives’ uproar seems misplaced. According to the Washington Times:
However, the book’s release was publicized in a Washington Post profile of Miss Ifill, along with an Associated Press article published in hundreds of newspapers nationwide, including The Washington Times and Mr. McCain’s hometown paper in Arizona. The AP article came out long before the debate negotiations were finalized and moderators approved.
Moreover, Ifill says that she hasn’t even written the chapter on Obama yet, and the book is described this way by the publisher:
Doubleday says that Ifill “surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.” [...]
Ifill said Obama’s story, which she has yet to write, is only a small part of the book, which discusses how politics in the black community have changed since the civil rights era. Among those subjects is Colin Powell, secretary of state in the Bush administration.
So, what did the McCain camp have to say:
The McCain campaign found out about Ifill’s book in the last day or so, a spokesman said.
I guess it’s better to basically say that your research team is absolutely shit than to admit that Ifill has a long track record as an impartial journalist, with no evidence that she’ll treat Palin unfairly. You could argue that conservatives are coming up for a defense for Palin, in case she flops tomorrow night (personally, I think she’ll be fine). Meanwhile, McCain had this to say:
“I think that Gwen Ifill is a professional, and I think she will do a totally objective job because she is a highly-respected professional,” McCain said. “Does this help that if she has written a book that’s favorable to Sen. Obama?” McCain asked. “Probably not.”
Needless to say, the McCain campaign, with an assist from conservative bloggers, is trying to “work the ref.” Once again, the McCain campaign prefers a sideshow to discussing actual issues.
We’ve hopefully all heard George Bush day dream aloud about the ease of governing as a dictator. But yesterday in a disastrous interview with Des Moines Register editorial board, John McCain stated (on the bailout):
This is just a not acceptable situation. I’m not saying this is the perfect answer. If I were dictator, which I always aspire to be, I would write it a little bit differently.
Can any of our self-respecting conservative readers now honestly tell me that the modern Republican party isn’t pushing on openly fascist ideology?
TAGS: aspirations, bailout, Des Moines Register, dictator, fascist, fascist ideology, George Bush, George W. Bush, Interview, John McCain, mccain, republican party, RepublicansBy now, you’ve probably heard or read about Sarah Palin’s disastrous CBS interview, where she gave a rambling answer as to how Alaska’s being next to Russia gives her foreign policy experience. Well, it turns out that there might be another gaffe on the way from that series of CBS interviews with Katie Couric:
Of concern to McCain’s campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin’s interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.
The Palin aide, after first noting how “infuriating” it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.
After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.
There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.
You’d expect Palin to know Roe vs. Wade given that she’s an ardent pro-lifer, but she can’t name another single Supreme Court case in recent memory? Does Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld ring a bell? No? Ok, that was two years ago. It was kind of important, but whatever. How about Boumediene vs. Bush, which was decided this year? Still nothing? Well, I figured that maybe she’d know about D.C. vs. Heller, since the Court held that the 2nd amendment protects an individual’s right to own a gun, and she’s a long-time member of the NRA. I guess not.
But hey, she knows about Roe vs. Wade, which means that she’s probably qualified to be on the Supreme Court.
TAGS: Bush, Campaign, Interview, leak, mccain, political, russia, Sarah Palin, Supreme Court