The Democrat Thread

[Rex Kickass]

Well, if she's really into "fighting corruption" and "small government", I'd say she's a good choice.

 

I still don't know enough about her to make a good comment yet.

I believe she raised corporate taxes actually.

[kapkomet]

I believe she raised corporate taxes actually.

Yea, I just haven't had time to read ANYTHING about her other then what's been posted here, and frankly a lot of it is Democrat attack points from AHB.

 

[bmags]

Yea, I just haven't had time to read ANYTHING about her other then what's been posted here, and frankly a lot of it is Democrat attack points from AHB.

 

Wikipedia has been going crazy with updates on her. I think that would honestly be a great place to start. I like to check wikipedia and then follow their links on the reference section.

[Balta1701]

John McCain is 23 years older than the state of Alaska. (H/t)

[Nokona]

http://sarahpalin.typepad.com/

[HuskyCaucasian]

This has to be a Photoshop job. (NSFW)

Edited August 30, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000

[lostfan]

This has to be a Photoshop job.

Yeah, that looks like a giraffe's neck.

[KipWellsFan]

This has to be a Photoshop job.

 

Obviously.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Obviously.

no one in Alaska can wear that little clothing

[DABearSoX]

http://sarahpalin.typepad.com/

 

there is no way that can be her blog

[Heads22]

To be fair, Palin would be ready to answer the phone at 3 AM, cause it'd be like what, 10 PM in Juneau?

[Balta1701]

You want to know the scary thing?

 

This is the defense of the McCain camp.

Mr. McCain’s advisers said Friday that Mr. McCain was well aware that Ms. Palin would be criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, but that he viewed her as exceptionally talented and intelligent and that he felt she would be able to be educated quickly.

 

“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,” said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain’s top advisers, making light of concerns about Mr. McCain’s health, which Mr. McCain’s doctors reported as excellent in May.

[KipWellsFan]

You want to know the scary thing?

 

This is the defense of the McCain camp.

 

Well then I really hope he met her more than once before this occasion.

[kapkomet]

Well then I really hope he met her more than once before this occasion.

What do you know that the rest of us don't?

[BigSqwert]

The Worst Vice-Presidential Nominee in U.S. History

 

There was a TV ad for deodorant that said, "Never let them see you sweat." The John McCain campaign has just showed the world that it is drenched.

 

Selecting Sarah Palin as its choice for a vice presidential candidate is perhaps the worst such choice in American History. To be fair, maybe there are worse choices, but I don't know how bad William O. Butler was when he ran with Lewis Cass against Zachary Taylor.

 

But it's far worse than Dan Quayle, who was a sitting senator. Worse even than Geraldine Ferraro, who at least served in Congress for three-terms. And far worse than William Miller, a choice so obscure when selected by Barry Goldwater that he (honestly) later did an American Express commercial asking, "Do you know me?" And that ad was after the election. But even Miller had been a Congressman for 12 years. And been a prosecutor during the Nuremberg War trials against Nazis. Sarah Palin lists her credits as a hockey mom.

 

There was a point during the Republican primaries when I was trying to figure out who I hoped got the presidential nomination. Someone so weak he'd be easy for the Democrats to beat, or someone more challenging who at least wouldn't be a disaster for America. I decided on the latter because America has to resolve its serious problems and can't afford risking some glitch where another George Bush got elected. And so I felt that John McCain, for all his weaknesses, was the lesser of all evils and was glad he got the nomination. Throw that out the window. McCain-Palin is an unthinkable disaster.

 

I completely understand the reasoning behind the decision for John McCain to select Sarah Palin. Absolutely. It's the thinking that settled on Sarah Palin that's missing.

 

No doubt John McCain will get some women to vote for him who wouldn't have otherwise, and even some independents. But he will also probably lose as many Republicans uncomfortable with a woman on the ticket - let alone a woman with so little experience as Sarah Palin. Not to mention that the choice will cause many undecided Democratic women to be aghast and push them back to following their Democratic beliefs. And further, it will lose all the independents who look at the GOP ticket and say "This is who I'm supposed to give my vote for the next four years to lead and protect America??" It may even appeal to right-wing evangelicals for her strong pro-life stance and get some to vote - but that position and others related to it are specifically what loses even more women voters. And men. Ultimately, the nomination will lose far, far more votes than it gains.

 

But this is not the reason the decision is so terrible.

 

It's always said that the most important decision a presidential candidate makes is their pick for vice president. It shows their thinking and judgment. John McCain, in his first decision, has just told the world that he believes Sarah Palin is the most qualified person to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Forgetting all the available men for a moment, if John McCain felt it critical to select a woman in an effort to somehow grab the Hillary Clinton supporters, look at his choice of women he had available: Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Elizabeth Dole, Susan Collins, even - for goodness sake - Condoleezza Rice. Or Carly Fiorina. Each of these have marks against them, and perhaps some might not have wanted to run, but it's near-impossible to look at the list and suggest to the American public that Sarah Palin is the best choice of Republican women to be vice president. And again, this is ignoring the men he who could have been chosen.

 

It's not that Sarah Palin is inexperienced. It's that this is gross political misconduct.

 

Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska for just a bit over 18 months. Alaska has a population of 683,000. (Though that doesn't include moose.) This would only make it the 17th most populous city in the United States. Just ahead of Fort Worth.

 

Before that, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Population 9,000. I know Republicans like to promote "small town values," but this is taking things to ridiculous extremes, don't you think? I'm from Glencoe, Illinois, population 8,762. It's so small it doesn't even have a mayor, it has an appointed village manager. I'm sure that Paul Harlow is doing wonderfully at his job in the village - but I don't expect that he sees himself as even wanting to be a heartbeat from the U.S. President in 18 months. You know what the top news story is on the Glencoe website? "Fire Hydrant Painting Underway." (To be fair, it's the #2 story. The top news is a clarification about displaying political signage.)

 

Do you know what the first two "powers and duties" are for the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska? Check their municipal code:

1. Pre

s

ide at council meeting

s

. The mayor may ta

k

e part in the di

s

cu

s

s

ion of matter

s

before the council, but may not vote, except that the mayor may vote in the ca

s

e of a tie;

 

 

2. Act a

s

ceremonial head of the city;

Swell.

 

If you live in small town America (and I mean really, really small), look around you and be honest - do you see your mayor (or village manager) as a heartbeat from the presidency in 18 months?

 

But that's not the reason either that the decision to make Sarah Palin the VP nominee is so terrible.

 

It's one thing to discuss how unqualified Sarah Palin is. That's a national matter and huge. But on a grassroots political level, her nomination takes away the Republicans' ONLY weapon in the campaign - calling Barack Obama inexperienced. They haven't even been trying to run on the issues, or on the eight-year record of George Bush, which John McCain has supported almost 95% of the time. They've only been running on the faux-issue of Barack Obama's experience of 14 years in federal and state government. Yes, Sarah Palin is merely running for VP, not president, but with a 72 year-old candidate with a history of serious medical issues, this is who they're saying is able to step in as president in a heart-beat. She has so little experience that she makes Sen. Obama look like FDR, Winston Churchill and Julius Caesar combined. So, the Republicans pulled the rug out from under themselves. They have no issues. The economy? Housing? The national debt? Education? The Environment? Iraq? Afghanistan? Nothing. All they have is "Dear Democratic women: please pretend our VP candidate is Hillary Clinton. Just forget that she's pro-life. And against most things Democrats stand for."

 

But that's not the reason the decision is so terrible.

 

Because if the hope for John McCain is to get women to vote for him who otherwise supported Hillary Clinton - if anything could get Hillary Clinton campaigning in full force and fury...this is it. She likely would have campaigned hard, but it's in Hillary Clinton's best interest to be the leading voice for women, and the leading woman candidate for president in the future, so having another woman as the potential Vice President (and potential President) is a significant challenge to that. The Republicans just opened Pandora's Box and brought Hillary Clinton roaring to Barack Obama's side on the Democratic train. And Bill Clinton, too.

 

Yet even that's not the reason the decision is so terrible.

 

What this does in the most profound and grandiose way possible is give lie to John McCain's pompous posturing that he Always Puts America First. And that undercuts the most prominent campaign issue of his entire career, that everything he does is for reasons of honor. There is nothing honorable about making Sarah Palin your vice presidential nominee. Nothing. Unless you define honor as "blatantly pandering."

 

But that's not the reason either that this decision is so terrible.

 

But before we get to that, let's look at the actual announcement to make Gov. Sarah Palin (AK - pop. 683,000) the Republican nominee for president, and put the horrible decision in perspective.

 

First, John McCain stood at the podium, looking up-and-down reading his speech. It's impossible not to compare that to Barack Obama giving his majestic speech the night before that even conservative analysts were admiring in awe.

 

Second, the cameras were polite enough to avoid it, but there were empty seats in the gym. It's impossible not to compare that to a stadium of 75,000 people that Barack Obama spoke to the night before.

 

Third, when people around the nation were waiting to hear about Sarah Palin's qualifications and gravitas to be Vice President of the United States, the first five minutes of her speech were spent talking about her husband being a champion snowmobiler.

 

Fourth, when she finally got around to her qualifications, pretty much all we discovered was that she fought to cut property taxes. And then, she basically stopped there.

 

She did, however, mention becoming energy self-sufficient - by talking about how she supported drilling in Alaska!!! Perhaps to Republicans this is being an environmentalist, but to most of America, not so much. Then again, she's also against putting polar bears on the endangered species list (which the government did), so maybe her environmental qualifications are more lax than she thinks.

 

And then, finally, she spent the rest of her time praising John McCain. Fine, that's very supportive of her...except that the one question on everyone's mind was not -- "can you say John McCain is a swell guy and tell us that he was a POW", the question on everyone's mind was - "Who in God's name are you, and please tell us why you should be a heart-beat from the presidency?"

 

In the end, the only case she herself made for being on the ticket was praising Hillary Clinton! That's it, period. Now, it might be enough to attract some women -- but it doesn't make a case for the ticket. Why? Hint: some women did vote for Hillary Clinton solely because she was a woman. But most women voted for Hillary Clinton because she was a Democrat, as well as a woman, who stood for important Democratic values they seriously believed in. If Sarah Palin wants to praise Hillary Clinton, go for it. But at least understand what you're praising. Because it will likely come back and bite you.

 

It was a thin, nothing, empty speech. It was a speech to be head of the Chamber of Commerce. Compare that to the speech by Joe Biden when Barack Obama introduced him. Eloquent, soaring and explaining in blunt detail why John McCain should not be president. Joe Biden must have been watching Sarah Palin's speech, in order to take notes in preparation for his debate with her and thought, "This isn't fair."

 

And all that's not even the reason the decision is so terrible.

 

The reason is because the election is not about Sarah Palin. Or about Joe Biden. As much as TV analysts want to be excited by the balloons and hoopla, tomorrow the air will be let out, and there are still over two months to go for the campaign.

 

The campaign is about Barack Obama and John McCain.

 

Sarah Palin's nomination doesn't change that. In fact, it reinforces it. Nothing about putting Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket changes a word that Barack Obama said in his vibrant acceptance speech - about himself, about his issues, and about John McCain's repeatedly faulty judgment on the critical issues facing America.

 

What Sarah Palin's nomination does do is focus attention on John McCain's age. Indeed, the nomination was made on his birthday, when he turned 72, the oldest man ever to run for president. As the crowd sang "Happy Birthday to You," you almost sensed that through John McCain's clenched smile, saying, "Thanks for reminding me," that what he was thinking underneath was "Please, oh, please, don't sing the 'How old are you now?' part." And how good a message was it that he's saying he supposedly forgot it was his birthday?

 

Vice presidents are usually selected as people who are adept at blasting the other side's presidential candidate, because it's only the presidential candidate that matters. Joe Biden has already done that - twice - at length, spoken as someone who knows John McCain well and likes him. Sarah Palin had her first chance...and whiffed. Didn't even try. And it's hard to imagine what she has in her arsenal that will remotely allow her to do so in the future.

 

The election is about the presidential candidates. And the selection of Sarah Palin now allows Barack Obama to campaign untouched by the Republican ticket. John McCain's only other option is for himself to personally become negative for two months - which is disaster in presidential politics.

 

Now add on all the problems expressed above. Sarah Palin's inexplicably laughable lack of substance, most-especially on the foreign policy stage. Her taking away the one issue, experience, Republicans were even attempting. Her pushing away voters who might otherwise be willing to vote for a senator with 26 years in the Senate. Her bringing Hillary Clinton aggressively back into the campaign. Her inability to offer anything to off-set Joe Biden. Her standing as supposedly the most-qualified Republican woman as John McCain's first decision.

 

And, in the end, it all focuses back on Barack Obama, with his indictment of eight years of the Bush Administration and of John McCain's flawed judgment - and John McCain's defense of all that.

 

Republicans might be dancing earlier today, because there was a lot of fun music playing. But the music has stopped. The actual campaign has now started. For Republicans, it might have ended.

 

LINK

Edited August 30, 2008 by BigSqwert

[Rex Kickass]

What do you know that the rest of us don't?

I believe they spoke on the phone a couple times and literally only met once.

[Balta1701]

Well then I really hope he met her more than once before this occasion.

I believe it was 2-3 times.

[HuskyCaucasian]

To be fair, Palin would be ready to answer the phone at 3 AM, cause it'd be like what, 10 PM in Juneau?

 

GOP Tagline TO be Reexamined

The risks of a backlash from choosing someone so unknown and so untested are obvious. In one swift stroke, McCain demolished what had been one of his main arguments against Obama.

 

“I think we’re going to have to examine our tag line, ‘dangerously inexperienced,’” a top McCain official said wryly.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Advisers Say Conservative Ire Pushed McCain Away From Picking Lieberman

For weeks, advisers close to the campaign said, McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joe Lieberman. But by the end of last weekend, the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that McCain would fill out the Republican ticket with Lieberman had become too intense to be ignored.

 

"The Maverick" buckled to partisan political pressure.

Edited August 31, 2008 by Athomeboy_2000

[Balta1701]

So, there are starting to be some serious suggestions out there that Governor Palin wound up being picked basically by default once McCain hit the end of his list, and she really didn't get a full vetting like a normal VP pick would be.

The McCain campaign has gone to great lengths to present the selection of Sarah Palin as one made after a careful, meticulous vetting process. But evidence continues to suggest that the Arizona Republican made his VP choice with surprising haste.

 

On Saturday, a Democrat tasked with opposition research contacted the Huffington Post with this piece of information: as of this weekend, the McCain campaign had not gone through old newspaper articles from the Valley Frontiersman, Palin's hometown newspaper.

 

How does he know? The paper's (massive) archives are not online. And when he went to research past content, he was told he was the first to inquire.

 

"No one else had requested access before," said the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which means the McCain camp didn't."

 

The Frontiersman did not immediately confirm the revelation. And there is no indication from the Democratic source that anything nefarious or problematic will be found in the archives. But officials with the paper did not recall inquiries by the McCain campaign.

[Balta1701]

Here's MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell reporting that there are now Republican lawyers up in Alaska working on doing a catch-up vet on Governor Palin and her record.

 

 

Palin has also lawyered up in the trooper firing case.

[BigSqwert]

LMAO

 

McCain Should Appoint Me Secretary of State

 

I just want to put my hat in the ring for secretary of state in the McCain administration. I'm married. A family man. Have a daughter. Believe in God. Love baseball, ice cream, and I've been active in my daughter's car pool for over ten years. I love how Mrs. McCain so articulated Sarah's Palin's qualifications by saying that she knows national security because she lives so close to Russia. Good point.

 

I too know national security having visited Russia twice -- once to St. Petersburg as part of our extremely amorous honeymoon and another time to Moscow where I was writing an article on the World's Best Borsht. I have executive experience having overseen my neighborhood's annual block party for the past sixteen years -- dealing in areas where some of my neighbors have been unruly and uncooperative. On my street, I always have opted for diplomacy, rather than take out my gun and force some of my neighbors to participate. There was one incident and that was years ago -- where I got ahead of myself, and punched out a neighbor who was coming on to my wife. That was stupid. I should have shot his ass.

 

I welcome the vetting.

 

LINK

[kapkomet]

LMAO

 

 

 

LINK

Again, do the Democrats really want to go there?

 

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

DOH!

 

McCain Memo Accidentally Leaked on FoxNews.com

 

ON BACKGROUND: McCain cmpn version of trooper story

 

NOT FOR INTERNET

This is offered on BACKGROUND. Feel free to use it as a reference, a starting point for further research, and when citing it say "the McCain campaign argues..." Please try not to say "A McCain campaign document sent to Fox News Monday night said...." Not too hard I don't think.

 

McCAIN RELEASE

All: On background, due to the frequently inaccurate reports today, please read the below before reporting on this subject. If you have any further questions on this, please contact the campaign.

[kapkomet]

DOH!

 

McCain Memo Accidentally Leaked on FoxNews.com

DOH! What? RSO campaign does this on a daily basis as well. So what?