Pales In Comparison

Pot Meetin' Kettle, Ya youbetcha

I know that the American people don't look past the face value of most statements uttered in a campaign, but I think it's really risky territory for Palin to start pointing out Biden's age and length of service in the Senate. Katie Couric thinks so too...but maybe Sarah's not troubled by the fact that her running mate is 72 years old and has 26 years of Congressional service (McCain was first elected to Congress in 1982) and is to most of us part of the establishment in Washington that is so horribly broken. We are voting for the top of the ticket, aren't we?

Let Me Get This Straight

John Boehner and the House Republicans are blaming Nancy Pelosi's "partisan speech" for the bailout bill failing, claiming that they had the votes that they needed before she spoke....so are we to understand that the Republicans are willing to plunge the economy into a depression because Nancy stepped on their toes or hurt their feelings?  Are they 12 years old?

UPDATE: A Pelosi spokesman shoots back "You don't vote on a speech--you vote on a bill."

Taxi To Darkside

The Academy Award Winning Documentary Taxi to the Darkside airs tonight on HBO at 9 pm est.
It is "An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002"....

I don't know if you caught it during the debate on Thursday night, but John McCain actually said that he disagreed with this administration on "torture."  It was buried in a list of other notable issues where McCain has broken with the Bush Administration (such as global warming) but it exceptional that any public figure, most especially a Republican,  would utter the word torture about what's happened in to our adherence to the Geneva Convention. 

Yes, I know we have engaged in torture and yes, I believe that the President knew about it and approved of it, however tacitly.  But the Bush Administration has been relentless in shouting down and ostracizing anyone who would dare call their "interrogation techniques" torture.  For John McCain to do it was commendable.  On this, I agree with Senator McCain.  Unfortunately, I think that he should have been far more vocal, far sooner on this point. 

A Common Refrain

Like I said last Thursday, John McCain is willing to squander the future of our country on a Vice Presidential nominee who is unprepared, unqualified and due to her lack of understanding of the issues, dangerous to our country.  I guess a lot of smart people were reading the blog, because there was a common theme to yesterday's columns and articles (I linked to many of these articles in Sunday's linkfest, but thought it was interesting to put the money quotes back to back to back):

Frank Rich

What we learned last week is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down with him if that’s what it takes to get to the White House.

Fareed Zakaria

In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true.

Hendrick Hertzberg

For a seventy-two-year-old cancer survivor to have placed this person directly behind himself in line for the Presidency was an act of almost incomprehensible cynicism and irresponsibility. It makes a cruel—what’s the word?—mockery of his slogan. “Country First” indeed.

Bob Bernstein

"I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war," he has said throughout this campaign. Yet, in choosing Palin, he has demonstrated -- whatever his words -- it may be permissible to imperil the country, conceivably even to "lose" it, in order to win the presidency. That would seem the deeper meaning of his choice of Palin.

Kathleen Parker:

McCain can't repudiate his choice of running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP's unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first

Despite the rising chorus calling for Palin to head back to Alaska, it's not going to happen. John McCain threw a hail mary when he tapped her.  He energized a base so ideologically skewed that Palin's lack of experience is a non-issue.  It's in fact, a bonus.  He's jumped into the bag with that cat and freed them from their lethargy and he can't stuff the cat back into the bag.  So now he's left to see if that polarized, narrow-thinking, theocratic wing of the party speaks for the majority of Americans.  If recent polls are any indication, the answer is no. 

Aw, jeez

Need further proof that Sarah Palin is more Bush than Bush?  Click the link.  I dare you.  Go on. It's scary, but it won't kill you.

Shocking.

Michelle Malkin misrepresents a story.  Don't you find that shocking?
Here's her post, which she titles "Uhhhhh: Family doesn’t want Obama wearing troop bracelet" and in which she links to other Right Wing Nut Job Bloggers, who at least have the common sense to say that they want to know if it's true or not.

Happily for them, a real journalistic organization picked up on the story and provides the answers that Ed Morrissey was wanting:

The mother of a Wisconsin soldier who died in Iraq says she was "ecstatic" when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned during Friday's debate the bracelet she gave him in honor of her son.

 

Tracy Jopek of Merrill told The Associated Press on Sunday she was honored that Obama remembered Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb.

Jopek criticized Internet reports suggesting Obama, D-Ill., exploited her son for political purposes.

"I don't understand how people can take that and turn it into some garbage on the Internet," she said.

She clearly doesn't read Michelle Malkin, CEO of the Internet Waste Management firm, michellemalkin.com. Don't expect an update of the post with the lastest information anytime soon. That would be far too fair and balanced for Michelle.

The Stockton Record Endorses Obama

The Stockton Record hasn't endorsed a Democratic nominee since 1936 when they endorsed FDR....but today, they announced that their editorial board had unanimously chosen to endorse Obama. 

In their announcement they say:

Obama is a gifted speaker. But in addition to his smarts and energy, possibly his greatest gift is his ability to inspire. For eight years, American politics has been marked by smears, fears and greed. For too long, we've practiced partisanship in Washington, not politics. The result is a cynicism every bit as deep as that which infected the nation when Richard Nixon was shamed from office and when Bill Clinton brought shame to the office.

Here, here.  We can't agree more.

Sunday Reading Round Up

A linkfest of stuff you might want to read (if you haven't already):

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, a very smart and rational man, joins in and asks McCain to put Sarah Palin out of her misery.

Carl Bernstein (the other half of the Deep Throat team) covers the downward spiral of John McCain. The post is all the more compelling, because it's clear that Bernstein witnessed and liked the old John McCain, the real Maverick.

Frank Rich heaps on.

Hendrick Hertzberg continues hammering the irrationality of the Palin pick, picking up an interesting anecdote about those (not THOSE, those) trade missions.

The Times Online reports that the McCain campaign has suddenly found religion and is praying for a Bristol Palin wedding to distract Americans from the real campaign issues.  (Let me interrupt the linkfest to say that if this happens, just when you think they've hit rock bottom, they can sink even lower. Country First, my behind).

To counter the rising anti-Palin chorus, the McCain campaign counters. Somehow Joe Biden's foot in mouth disease is not anything like Palin's total cluelessness.

If you'd like to step out of the political, how about a very well considered review of an Intelligent Design textbook....and if you think this issue has died down, just elect McCain/Palin and see what happens.

And if you want some plain old entertainment (albeit of the rather elite ilk) how about an essay by Tom Wolfe?

And if that's not entertaining enough for you, how about a video?

Every Story Has Two Sides...

While John McCain and Barack Obama were debating the serious issues that face our country and Joe Biden was watching that debate, preparing for post-debate interviews, Sarah Palin was at the Irish Pub in Philadelphia, holding a pep rally--and her appearance had two decidedly different receptions.  Rumor also has it that she was wearing a Saracuda t-shirt--tacky, much?  (but since that comes from Michelle Malkin, we must question the source).

Here we have inside the pub

And we have outside the pub

The Votes Are In....

.....and I'm shocked. (Alternate Title: Sarah Palin Matters Now More Than Ever)

Who won the debate depends on whether you lean conservative or progressive. 

In the absence of McCain tap dancing out of the building on his way to save the Grand Canyon from a hostile take over by Utah, there wasn't a clear, absolute winner.  90% of Republicans believe that McCain won the debate, 93% of Democrats believe that Obama won the debate.  The good news for Obama is that in almost every poll of undecided or independent voters, Obama was a winner, and often a decisive one. 

Given that this was to be McCain's forte', his strength, his clear advantage, Obama more than held his own and that, in many ways signals a win for me. But I'm a bit biased at this point.

And who won the debate really doesn't matter--or at least it shouldn't.  Right now all of this 'who will bring change, who will reform earmarks, who is best suited to see us through the economic recession best, who will manage the middle east (Iran and Iraq) more effectively' has become irrelevant.

Totally, completely irrelevant.  The only question that matters at this point is: Is John McCain temperamentally suited to be President? Does he have the judgment and emotional balance to sit in the Oval Office? Can we elect a man who has chosen such a spectacularly unqualified person to serve with him.

There's all the malarky we've endured the past month (Sarah Palin, the pathological lying by the campaign, the suspension of the campaign) coupled with the debate performance last night:  John McCain's inability to look at Barack Obama, his strange Mr. Grinch grin, and his under-the-breath, "heh, heh, heh" giggles.  He was a man who looked (to me, at least) like he was struggling to keep his anger under control.  When he didn't look like he was ready to sprint across the stage and poke Obama in the eye, he looked pouty and spoiled.

If the behavior at the debate was an isolated incident, it would be a non-starter.  But it's not.  John McCain has picked someone fundamentally, completely, totally, beyond unready to be Vice President, let alone President, as his running mate.  Then he and his campaign have played hide the candidate for almost one month.  And now we know why. 

The Katie Couric interviews are a disaster.  They aren't spinable, they aren't ignorable and if they don't scare the holy hell out of you then you need to lower your medication intake, because they should.  Sarah Palin is in way, way over her head.  

Last night, after the debate, Joe Biden was all over the air waves, serving as a more than able second in command to Barack Obama:

Where was Sarah Palin?  She wasn't on the air, backing up John McCain's performance.  I'm guessing that she was eating a Philly Cheesesteak and staring blankly as a staffer tried to deconstruct the debate for her.  No matter where she was, her absence again casts doubt on her readiness.   

In the wake of the Couric interviews, even conservatives have started to question Palin's ability.  Reliably conservative columnist Kathleen Parker has openly called for Sarah Palin to step down, penning one of yesterday's most quoted lines:

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

   

Liberal bloggers are reporting that Palin's debate preparation is a disaster

Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”

After the Couric interviews, don't you find this to be possibly the most honest thing that the McCain campaign has said in weeks? Don't you agree with Jack Cafferty?

Bob Herbert got right to the heart of it and got it right:

The press has an obligation to hammer away at Ms. Palin’s qualifications. If it turns out that she has just had a few bad interviews because she was nervous or whatever, additional scrutiny will serve her well.

If, on the other hand, it becomes clear that her performance, so far, is an accurate reflection of her qualifications, it would behoove John McCain and the Republican Party to put the country first — as Mr. McCain loves to say — and find a replacement for Ms. Palin on the ticket.