But the crowd are my paid hecklers
--El-P
Heh, courtesy of Andrew, Sarah Palin strains the borders of cynicism:
As she did at in her debut speech in Ohio yesterday, Palin appealed to the women in the crowd here in Pennsylvania with a political shout-out to Geraldine Ferraro, who preceded Palin as the first women to be tapped as a vice presidential candidate.
But in contrast with the mild reception that greeted her comments at the Ohio event, when Palin praised Clinton here for showing "determination and grace in her presidential campaign," the Alaska governor was met with a noisy mix of boos, groans and grumbles around the minor league ballpark where the "Road to the Convention Rally" was held.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Palin will flame out within two weeks. She hasn't been vetted properly. She doesn't know shit about foreign policy. At a time of war. For our *civilization*.
Obama and Biden don't need to do a thing, this VP pick will drag McCain into blowout loss territory.
It's so bad I almost suspect it was deliberate, somehow... for some reason... Or the GOP are really this batshit insane.
LOL. I almost feel bad for her.
Then I remember that I find nearly everything she stands for to be completely ridiculous and/or awful.
By choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain put the interests of his ego ahead of the interests of the country. He picked someone to help him win the election, not someone to help him run the White House if he wins.
By all accounts, McCain barely knows Palin.
A year ago, McCain wouldn't have been able to identify Palin out of a police lineup.
McCain has made a complete mockery out of the VP selection process.
Instead of choosing the best qualified person to be Vice President, McCain simply chose the person with the most compelling personal biography:
Mother of five - oldest child serving in Iraq, youngest child born with Down's Syndrome
Rugged outdoorswoman - hunting and fishing enthusiast
Evangelical Christian
Telegenic - former beauty queen
If McCain truly believed the only way to win was to pander to Hillary supporters by picking a female running mate, he could have at least chosen someone with a better resume like Kay Bailey Hutchison, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, or Christie Todd Whitman.
Was that a Princess Bride reference?! Or did I just out myself as possibly a bigger geek than even you?
Given how enormously pro-Palin Douthat has gone, that alone should confirm that she's fucked.
I'm the ugliest version of passed down toxic capitalist
rapid emcee perversion -- I'm America!
Your bleeding-heart liberal drivel gets squashed
Wash em with sterilized rhyme patriot-guided weaponry bomb
from the makers of the devious hearts -- I'm America!
You bitchy little dogs don't even phase my basic policy
The bomb's smarter, my Ronald Reagan's crush Carter
With Bay of Pig tactics makin young men into martyrs
El-P kilt it! Yes I said "kilt"! Lol.
I guess they think they already have their own 'Hillary', so they don't need Hillary Clinton anymore.
There is a certain segment of Republicans, John McCain among them, who feel a grudging respect for Hillary. But most Republicans don't like Hillary. Independents aren't so fond of her. (See 538's over-unders.) Almost no one (except perhaps the 400 pumas) likes Ferraro. This is tone deaf, and the attempt to get the entire party on board with this "no, we now love Hillary--if she were nominated we wouldn't even bother putting up a candidate against her" stuff is so obviously doomed to fail that I fall back to TDE's position--I spent much of August figuring the McCain camp was attempting to appear so inept that any display of bare competence would be lauded as a dramatic turnaround.
A clip in which radio jocks call the president of the Alaskan Senate (a republican woman) a bitch and a cancer, while Palin giggles, is starting to make the viral rounds. Sit back, express consternation that McCain would pick someone he doesn't know, and keep feeding rope. (On www.jedreport.com there is an excellent clip of Tim Kaine bringing down the house in an interview with Maher by listing what happened in her actual selection--as Maher notes, should a simple recitation of fact be quite this funny?)
"(On www.jedreport.com there is an excellent clip of Tim Kaine bringing down the house in an interview with Maher by listing what happened in her actual selection--as Maher notes, should a simple recitation of fact be quite this funny?)"
If you watched the rest of the show, during the panel discussion, the African American woman reporter pointed out that Tim Kaine had been considered as a potential VP candidate for Obama, and Kaine has been a governor as long as Palin has. She also noted that Palin was in elective office years before Obama was.
Obama has been so expertly packaged and presented (and is such a good speaker) that no one seems to remember how thin his resume is. I'm not saying that Obama is evil or in any way comparing him to Hitler (I know these words will be twisted, but I'm putting that advisory out there anyway), but the skill in selling him reminds me of how Hitler was packaged and presented in Germany. What experience did he have before running for chancellor? Not much. But he was a great speaker (to Germans -- obviously that angry style wouldn't have worked here), and his rallies and speeches were expertly stage-managed.
Palin is a hockey puck, not a hockey mom whatever the hell that demographic phantasm is supposed to be.
I have always thought that McCain does not want to be president. He wants to be a wise-ass at the back of the class, who says "I told you so." He has never led anything and his biography unequivocally demonstrates that fact. The choice of Palin underscores his small mindedness and concern for no one but him self. In a way he's like the ignorant man's Christopher Hitchens. I guarantee you he will continue to sabotage his own campaign. He'll walk away from his resounding defeat with the delusional notion that he'll have infinite opportunities to crow "I told you so." He has been a failure all of his life, depending on his father, grandfather, and second wife for support and bailout.
Adin
. She also noted that Palin was in elective office years before Obama was.
This is, by far, my most favorite of the stupid right wing talking points on Palin. Because they are counting her time on the city council of Wasalia. Not her time as mayor. Her time as a city council person of a town with less than 6000 people. I'm just sorry, this is a joke. Being principal of a high school requires more executive skill than that (not knocking principals, here! just saying, this is game is so ridiculous).
I think Palin will end up backfiring, because aside from the gimmick of picking a woman VP, her policies are not the type that will draw in undecided voters, PUMAS, low information voters, etc.
Though McCain is a fairly conservative republican, Palin is far to the right of most Republicans. Think of Rick Santorum in a dress, but with a more Drill Now!, Drill Tomorrow!, Drill Forever! vibe.
With this pick, McCain showed that he does not take the presidency seriously.
Palin is undoubtedly unqualified to step in as president; everyone knows that.
The key in choosing a vice presidential nominee is that they be qualified to take over for the presidency in a moments notice.
McCain failed his test of making a vice presidential pick; Obama passed with flying colors.
Of course, what Fred forgets that is before his (now four) years in the Senate, Obama was also in the state senate for eight years, making for a full 14 years in Elective Office, in addition to the other portions of his resume which republicans like to conveniently forget about. Obama's *state* level constituency vastly outnumbered Palin's mayorship, as well.
The idea that Palin has more 'experience' than obama, or at least comaprable experience, is absurd on its face.
“If you watched the rest of the show, during the panel discussion, the African American woman reporter pointed out that Tim Kaine had been considered as a potential VP candidate for Obama, and Kaine has been a governor as long as Palin has. She also noted that Palin was in elective office years before Obama was.”
This has already been gone over in other posts but…
#1. Kaine is not Obama’s VP. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades is the old saying I think. Obama’s actual VP has been in the US Senate for about 10 years longer than McCain. Biden’s stint in the Senate is only 8 years shy of the entire time Mrs. Palin has spent…on the planet Earth.
#2. Kaine’s Virginia is far larger in terms of population than Palin’s Alaska, something like 8 million to 700,000.
#3. Before becoming Virginia’s Governor, Kaine was its Lieutenant Governor. Before becoming Alaska’s Governor, Palin was the mayor of a town of 5,000.
#4. Before becoming Lt. Governor, Kaine was the mayor of Richmond, the biggest city in Virginia I believe. Palin was what again, besides a second-place beauty queen?
“Obama has been so expertly packaged and presented (and is such a good speaker) that no one seems to remember how thin his resume is. I'm not saying that Obama is evil or in any way comparing him to Hitler (I know these words will be twisted, but I'm putting that advisory out there anyway), but the skill in selling him reminds me of how Hitler was packaged and presented in Germany. What experience did he have before running for chancellor? Not much. But he was a great speaker (to Germans -- obviously that angry style wouldn't have worked here), and his rallies and speeches were expertly stage-managed.”
Fred…..this isn’t really you, is it? I’d expect this nonsense from old chris ford. I expected better from you, really.
Putting aside Godwin’s Law, you do realize that Hitler never actually won electoral office. The Nazis under the Weimar Republic were always a fringe party nationwide. Hitler was essentially put into power by rich industrialists who thought they could control him and saw how his rhetoric appealed to the common man, especially out-of-work veterans.
Tim Kaine has actually been governor of Virginia for a year longer than Palin has been governor of Alaska. In addition, Obama at least has a history of speaking intelligently and publicly on foreign policy issues. Palin doesn't even seem to have a clear grasp of what McCain's stance on the Surge was. The rest of your comment is a brain fart. There have been plenty of young, well-spoken leaders who didn't have tons of executive experience before governing, yet you choose to talk about Hitler? How stupid do you think we are?
TDE, two weeks? Interesting.
A neighbor who once was a Republican (now independent as he thinks Bush/Cheney/Rove hijacked his party) told me today that he thinks Sarah Palin is a stand-in for McCain's real VP pick.
He thinks that Palin was selected because she allows McCain to drive that Hillary wedge a little deeper into the Dem party's gut, gives the religious right a youngish hero, and shows that the guy still can be a "maverick" - somebody who thinks outside the traditional Washington way. All these things go toward attracting the undecided (normally GOP leaning) folks - really, if you're undecided at this point, you are just looking for a reason NOT to vote for Obama.
Palin's nomination will be a rallying point at the convention, especially if Dems attack her as expected. She'll be the hockey mom hero that America will treasure (at least some of America).
She'll expose the anti-female portions of the media & Dem Party that Hillary & her supporters claim stole the nomination from her. Obama/Biden will have to give her a pass or risk losing female support again.
Then, perhaps some time in late September-early October, she'll back away. Most likely she'll need to spend more time with the baby and she'll return to Alaska as a GOP hero.
This will allow McCain to select a VP who won't have to run the convention gauntlet - Mittens, Connecticut Joe, Guliani or even Cheney himself (just kidding). The new VP choice will be lauded for taking up the battle on short notice and hero Palin will throw her full support behind the new choice. McCain will win points from the MSM for initially being a maverick and then for dealing with a "crisis" in such a strong way.
All this will provide a big distraction for a couple weeks, throwing the Obama campaign off stride and possibly off message, leaving less time to talk about the issues.
At this point, I believe that this could be in the 2008 Rove/McCain playbook. Anything is possible.
By the way, I heard that this guy was the one who started the booing:
http://bullwinkle.net/bullwinkle.jpg
It's not that Obama has been expertly packaged and presented so much as he's been in the national spotlight and made a case for himself in the process of winning the nomination from a deeply entrenched, high-profile candidate.
Sorry, but calling experience as a city councilor and a small-town mayor political experience in the context of Presidential politics just does not cut it. And I'm not even going to touch the Hitler analogy, because you so obviously know it was unworthy of even the slimiest hack that I'm actually concerned that typing those words may have caused you physical pain.
Fred,
You're comparisons are way off base. First, you did compare Obama to Hitler. Saying that Obama reminds you of Hitler with the caveat that you're not really comparing him to Hitler doesn't work.
Second, you completely miss the boat with your point about Tim Kaine. Granted, he's been governor for the same amount of time as Palin, but he was lieutenant governor of Virginia (2001-2005) when Palin was the mayor of a 6500 person town in Alaska. More importantly, Obama didn't pick Kaine. He looked at his choices and picked a person with experience. McCain made a politically expedient decision that I hope will cost him the election.
If you watched the rest of the show....
No tv; I'm limited to clips.
....during the panel discussion, the African American woman reporter pointed out that Tim Kaine had been considered as a potential VP candidate for Obama, and Kaine has been a governor as long as Palin has.
He's been governor 3 years. And Karl Rove said that his "mere" 3 years as governor of a "small" state, preceded by his years as lieutenant governor, preceded by his years as mayor of the "small" city of Richmond, made him an obviously poor choice, so I'm eager to hear his views on Palin. Note I have never said that being governor of Alaska doesn't count. I suspect she'll fail spectacularly because she is going from thinking about Alaska's unique concerns to demonstrating that she's ready to lead us if McCain is shot January 21st.
She also noted that Palin was in elective office years before Obama was.
Without checking her biography I'm unsure if you're referring to her time on the city council of Wasilia or on the PTA. Maybe you should check that before tossing the statistic around too lightly. "When Obama first joined the Illinois state senate, Palin had already been on the PTA board for a year!" may not be the dazzling rallying cry you think.
Obama has been so expertly packaged and presented (and is such a good speaker) that no one seems to remember how thin his resume is.
From the great Hilzoy on his experience working on the little issues that, when they blow up, you look around and say "why wasn't anyone working on this?" And as others have noted, when you compare someone to Hitler, you compare them to Hitler--a lazy debate trope.
I'll give this a few weeks. The Bush loyalists are pretty capable of swallowing anything whole. I'm sure we're going to see a populist campaign ramped to the max with McCain/Palin. Its like a bad Kevin Costner movie sprung to life!