I’m tired of hearing all the Repugs falsely claiming that Barack Obama was referring to Gov. Sarah Palin personally when he decried the lies of John McCain and Palin as lipstick on a pig. It’s a metaphor and is frequently used — even Saint John McSame has used the expression before.
Face it. Obama got it right. What McCain and Palin have been doing is no different than what the cliche implies, so if they didn’t want the criticism, they shouldn’t be telling all the lies. Stop the lies or wear the lipstick proudly.
The Washington Post has a big piece today on Sarah Palin billing Alaska’s taxpayers for “312 nights spent in her home during her first 19 months in office, charging a ‘per diem’ allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.”
In addition to the traveling, while not traveling, expenses, the governor often took her children with her around the state and to conventions in New York, etc. and billed the state for her children’s expenses as well.
One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol [Palin's 17-year-old daughter] accompanied the governor to Newsweek’s third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room.
After George Bush won reelection in 2004, the U.K.’s Daily Mirror ran a cover asking
“How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” I think it’s worth pulling that image out from time to time as a reminder of what happens when the American electorate allows the political spin of the Republicans to take over.
Unbelievable. The McCain campaign needs to revisit Democracy 101 and pay particular attention to sessions on the Fourth Estate. From Marc Ambinder:
A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won’t submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she’s ready — and until she’s comfortable — which might not be for a long while — the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media’s complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: “Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters.”
Looks like McCain might have gotten a bounce in the polls from the convention.
Today’s Rasmussen number: Obama 48%, McCain 46%, within the ±2% margin of error. Yesterday, when all the sampling predated Palin’s speech, Obama was ahead 50%-45%.
Today’s Gallup number: Obama 48%, McCain 44%, with a ±2% margin of error. Yesterday, Obama was up 49%-42%.
I can’t see Bill Maher passing this opportunity up tonight. From The Hill:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose choice as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate is being touted as a hit with social conservatives and supporters of “family values,” has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past. Does it matter?
In a word, yes.
On Aug. 6, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported, “Palin said she has smoked marijuana — remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law — but says she didn’t like it and doesn’t smoke it now. “‘I can’t claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled.’”
The paper quoted Palin as saying she opposed legalization of marijuana because of the “message” that would be sent to her children. Let’s ponder that a bit.
Gov. Palin is one of many millions of Americans who have acknowledged using marijuana and gone on to live productive, wildly successful lives. That list famously includes California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Sen. Barack Obama, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and astronomer Carl Sagan, and many others. That Palin used marijuana is no big deal. What is a big deal is that she thinks that the 100 million Americans who have done so — presumably including herself — deserve arrest, jail, and a criminal record.
Since I’m showing my age, for those that may not know it, “Don’t Bogart That Joint” is a Little Feat song published in 1969.
It’s not getting any better. It’s time to make decisions — four more years of the same economic policies we’ve had for the past eight years?
The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent in August, its highest level in five years, pushing the job troubles of American workers onto the political stage as the presidential campaign enters its final eight weeks.
So far, 605,000 jobs have disappeared since the start of the year, with employers slashing 84,000 jobs in August alone, the Labor Department reported on Friday. And even Americans who are still employed are facing tough times.
Raises have not kept up with the rising cost of living, putting more pressure on workers as high gasoline and food prices curtail their spending power.
Excellent! I can’t think of a better person to prepare Gov. Sarah Palin on foreign policy than Joe Lieberman.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is among several national security experts helping brief Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on foreign policy issues as she prepares to hit the campaign trail while cramming for a debate with her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), in less than a month, according to officials from Sen. John McCain’s campaign.
If Lieberman can’t be McCain’s running mate, then this is a close second.
What a load of crap. McCain vows to end partisan rancor in his speech at the Republican convention last night, but he allowed Lindsey Graham to spew hate, venom, and lies from the podium just minutes before McCain delivered his “post-partisan” vow.
Senator John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday with a pledge to move the nation beyond “partisan rancor” and narrow self-interest in a speech in which he markedly toned down the blistering attacks on Senator Barack Obama that had filled the first nights of his convention.
How can McCain end partisan rancor when he cannot (will not) control some of the most vile rancor from his top surrogate Lindsey Graham, who made these remarks immediately before McCain was introduced by his wife Cindy.
We know the surge has worked. Our men and women in uniform know it has worked.
I promise you — above all others — Al Qaeda knows it has worked.
The only people who deny it are Barack Obama and his buddies at MoveOn.org.
Why won’t they admit it?
Because Barack Obama’s campaign is built around us losing in Iraq. Without John McCain’s courageous leadership there would be no surge.
That’s pretty close to accusing Obama of outright treason. But that must be within the acceptable standards of the proposed rhetoric John McCain will bring to the White House and the rest of Washington, right?
But Graham’s rancor does not end there. To ensure he makes his point, Graham must obfuscate and tell more lies.
Last summer, we came within 2 votes of a congressionally mandated surrender. One Democrat broke with his party to support the surge.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank God for Joe Lieberman.
It was John McCain’s voice and credibility that stopped Congress from losing this war.
The Petraeus plan will be a model for generations to come, and our troops will be heroes for the ages.
Those who predicted failure, voted to cut off funding for our troops, and played politics with our national security will be footnotes in history.
There’s no doubt about it, we are on the road to victory.
America is safer by winning in Iraq - A Muslim nation in the heart of the Arab world that rejects Al Qaeda.
A nation where the rule of law replaces the rule of gun.
A place in the Middle East where a woman can finally have a say about her children’s future.
While Barack Obama expresses appreciation for our troops’ service, he refuses to acknowledge their success.
They have worked too hard and sacrificed too much for a patronizing pat on the back.
Barack Obama went 2 and a half years between visits to Iraq and never once sat down with General Petraeus. If Barack Obama cannot appreciate that our troops are winning in Iraq, he should not be their Commander in Chief.
If anything, John McCain encouraged partisan rancor by allowing Lindsey Graham to speak at the convention.
I can’t really comment on John McCain’s speech at the Republican National Convention last night because I haven’t watched all of it yet. After watching the Rethugs political exploitation of 9/11, listening to Lindsey Graham accuse Barack Obama of treason, and Cindy McCain’s painfully boring speech, I had endured all I could stand about one-third of the way through McSame’s speech.
Although I haven’t watched (or read) all of the speech, based on the critiques I have read and listened to, Michael Gerson, a Washington Post columnist and a former Bush speechwriter, articulated what I found to be a commonly held view by reasonable people. Ann Curry (sic) of NBC News interviewed Gerson on the convention floor immediately after McCain’s speech. (Sorry, link not available - this was taken from my Tivo.)
CURRY: Michael, you were a speechwriter for George Bush, what do you think of the speech you heard tonight.
GERSON: The speech had some strength, particularly towards the end. This telling of his personal story had some power because it talked about his vulnerability and brokenness - not his triumph. I thought that was interesting. It set up the right theme - reform - but the policy was the problem. The policy in the speech was rather typical for a Republican. Pretty disappointing - it didn’t do a lot of outreach to moderates and independents on issues that they care about. He talked about issues like drilling and school choice, which was really speaking to the converted. I think that was a missed opportunity.
You know, many Americans needed to hear from this speech something they’ve never heard from Republicans before, and in reality, a lot of the policy they’d heard from Republicans before.
CURRY: Actually, we were talking earlier about the people who were here at the convention…you made an interesting comment…you were saying that many of the people here at the convention are not McCain people. What did you mean by that?
GERSON: Well, you know, he’s had a checkered past with the Republican Party. There was a lot more spontaneous enthusiasm for Gov. Palin last night than there was for John McCain tonight….
When you look at what he needed to do, he needed to say to Americans, “I’m not a typical Republican.” This is what I’m going to do to bring that reform message - to make it real. Now, he’s probably going to try and do that in the next few days, but tonight was not particularly innovative, interesting, or promising.
CURRY: Was it the speech of a maverick?
GERSON: It was the speech of someone who talked about being a past maverick. The question is, how is he a future reformer, and I think that question is still only partially answered.
Gerson made a brief comment in the Post after the convention.
Full text of John McCain’s speech at the Republican National Convetion is available here. I would have made the video available, but the code provided only allows for it to run non-stop and I don’t know the proper parameter to supply for viewing on demand. The last thing I need on the front page of this blog is John McCain giving a generally poor speech non-stop. You can catch the video here — green background and all.
If someone happens to know the proper flash parameter I should use, I would appreciate it if you would let me know.
I couldn’t believe what I was watching when the Republican National Convention ran the slow-motion video of 9/11 last night. Obviously Sasha Issenberg, a blogger at the Boston Globe, had the same sentiment.
One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.
The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers’ subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.
The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one’s opponents to Hitler.
