Not a Serious Campaign Effort

When I look at how the McCain campaign has been run, it seems like a half-hearted effort. Even John McCain seems to be uncomfortable or even embarrassed by it at times. 

So the question is, is McCain the disposable candidate the GOP felt they could sacrifice in a year they felt they didn’t have any hope of winning?

With the President’s approval so low and the country sliding into a deep recession, the chances for any Republican candidate were slim. Conventional wisdom is that an individual only has a few shots at running before they are considered inviable. He lost out in 2000 and at the age of 72 this is his last chance to run.

Perhaps the choice of Palin wasn’t so much a radical choice, as it was the only one left for him.

Hockey Mom No More

I love this one. This is going to dominate for at least 2 news cycles. First $150 mil for Obama. Then Colin Powell. Now this. Bye bye coverage, Johnny!

Or, as Andrew Sullivan says, “$5 grand for hair styling and make-up? As Americans face a depression?”

The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

Sarah Palin wears black during a rally in Reno, Nev., on Tuesday.

He Knew It Would Happen

Yes We Can! H O P E !

Sarah Palin: A Neo-Con’s Dream

Neoconservatives plan Project Sarah Palin to shape future American foreign policy

Sources in the McCain camp, the Republican Party and Washington think tanks say Mrs Palin was identified as a potential future leader of the neoconservative cause in June 2007. That was when the annual summer cruise organised by the right-of-centre Weekly Standard magazine docked in Juneau, the Alaskan state capital, and the pundits on board took tea with Governor Palin.

Her case as John McCain’s running mate was later advanced vociferously by William Kristol, the magazine’s editor, who is widely seen as one of the founding fathers of American neoconservative thought – including the robust approach to foreign policy which spurred American intervention in Iraq.

Help.Us.All.

“Beyond the Palin”

A nice diatribe from a fellow wordpress blogger.

The more attention you pay Sarah Palin, the more emails you forward to your friends about her, the more it becomes a story the MSM is justified in covering (and they LOVE covering it, she’s pretty, she’s quippy, she’s the new Tina Fey!) and the more free advertising you give the GOP and they more of their voters that would have stayed home

will turn out.  Especially women, who will be incensed that the “liberal media” is picking on her.

(Thanks, Evan)

Gotta love the Onion

The thing is, these days this qualifies as real news.

Palin Unveils 9/11 Firefighter Cousin, Reformed Lesbian Niece, Naturalized Mexican Half Brother

(Thanks, Lexi)

Kick them when they’re down: GOP tries to disqualify foreclosed property owners.

Michigan Republicans are working to get people whose homes are in foreclosure disqualified to vote. So much for looking out for the little guy, and helping people hang on to their homes.

(Via Boing Boing)

Read the article here. Lose your house, lose your vote

Boom!

McCain Pre-Palin: Mayors And Governors Can’t Handle National Security

“I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I’ve been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism,” the Senator declared. “I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn’t a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn’t a governor for a short period of time.”

(Thanks, Patrick)

Through The Looking Glass

From NYT. A relatively soft review of a relatively soft interview. I hope people step it up.

At times visibly nervous, at others appearing to hew so closely to prepared answers that she used the exact same phrases repeatedly, Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of “anticipatory self-defense.”

Ms. Palin was clearly caught off guard when Mr. Gibson asked, “Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?” Seeking direction, and perhaps time to formulate an answer, Ms. Palin leaned back, smiled stiffly and said, “In what respect, Charlie?”

This, however, flies in the face of McCain’s previous argument and the theme of his campaign – EXPERIENCE. Now, with Palin on the ticket and changing their theme to “Change”, the are now running an ”anti-experience” campaign. Just like Bush. Folks, it doesn’t get more Through The Looking Glass than this:

Ms. Palin said that before a trip to the Middle East and Germany in 2007, her only foreign travel had been to Mexico and Canada, And, she acknowledged, she had not met any foreign leaders, though she said — in an apparent veiled reference to Mr. Biden — “We’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time. It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big fat résumé that maybe shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.”

“She had me at hello Charlie…”

Norman J. Ornstein:

She had me at hello Charley– had me scared to death….a series of knowledge and logic gaps that ought to shake every foreign policy specialist, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, to his or her roots. More…

(Thanks, Audrey)

Thank you, Sullivan

One of the only commentators who writes about civil liberties and torture.

If you aren’t creeped out by what has been going on these past two weeks in America, you are not paying attention.

GOP Backlash

GOP foreign policy experts cool on Palin

The acclaim for the vice presidential nominee is all but deafening within the GOP, except in one small but influential corner: the party’s foreign policy establishment. Among that mandarin class, the response to Palin’s nomination has been underwhelming, marked by distinctly faint praise or flat-out silence.

Call it what you will

So called “Cone of Silence” as I imagine it.

(click on image to make larger)

Uppity

Georgia GOP Congressman Lynn Westmoreland calls Obama uppity. The long campaign is wearing on them–it’s starting to get real hard for the GOP to remember what they are not supposed to say in public.

What’s up

This is a place for me, my family and a select group of friends to share our thoughts about the election. They are freaking us all out.