Paul Begala was pretty good on CNN this morning and got visibly disgusted discussing Sarah Palin’s “Bridge to Nowhere” crapola (which she repeated again today) and other lies about her record being propagated by her, the Republicans and the media. This clip doesn’t run through to the end, but this morning you could see Begala trying to quickly undo his lapel mike so he could punch a wall or something.
p.s. I saw Michelle Obama’s Chief of Staff Stephanie Cutter on MSNBC this afternoon and she’s an asskicker. More of her, please.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey out Tuesday indicates that 62 percent of men questioned have a favorable opinion of the Alaska governor, nine points higher than women.
In the poll, conducted Friday through Sunday, entirely after the end of the Republican convention, 23 percent of men have an unfavorable view of Sen. John McCain’s running mate, seven points lower than women.
The gender gap is also apparent when it comes to whether Palin is qualified to serve as president. Fifty-seven percent of male respondents said Palin was qualified, 14 points higher than women. A majority of women polled, 55 percent, said Palin is not qualified.
I believe it was Christine Todd Whitman who indicated during the RNC that Palin was going to have a tougher time impressing women than men. Obviously, she was right. Despite initial reports to the contrary, the Palin pick wasn’t a cheap political ploy to lure Hillary’s supporters to vote for McCain, it was a play for the male meathead set. Obviously, for the short-term it worked, but will it hold until early November? I’d like to think not, but the cynical side of me thinks Obama has to do a lot better than just asserting that “the American people aren’t stupid,” because a lot of my fellow countrymen are incredibly stupid when it comes to voting against their self-interest. Keith Olbermann tried his best to get that point across to Obama during his interview with hin last night and rolled out a great quote by Harry Truman as an example of how to knock some sense into the electorate in a very direct and honest way. Here’s an excerpt of Truman’s wonderful speech from 1948 that Olbermann referenced:
I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.
Why is it that the farmer and the worker and the small businessman suffer under Republican administrations and gain under Democratic administrations?
I’ll tell you why. It is the result of a basic difference in the attitude between the Democratic and the Republican parties.
The Democratic Party represents the people. It is pledged to work for agriculture. It is pledged to work for labor. It is pledged to work for the small businessman and the white-collar worker.
The Democratic Party puts human rights and human welfare first.
It’s sad that sixty years later people still need to be reminded of that.
After eight years of a Texas gunslinger with a paranoid sidekick, each of whom has been unconventional in both foreign and domestic policy, some bright person in the McCain campaign thinks the maverick brand is a good one.
Let’s run with that.
It’s in the news that McCain and Palin want to “restructure” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Does that mean they want to ‘maverickize’ it? Palin says she is personally going to Washington to “reform” it. Does that mean she is going to ‘maverickize’ it?
Perhaps anytime the Republicans use a word that begins with “re” we should substitute ‘maverickize’ in its place.
The McCain campaign does Bush and Cheney proud. When you encounter something and you don’t know what to do, blow it up—- maverickize it.
To: Charles Gibson, ABC News From: Rick Davis, McCain Campaign Manager Subject: Upcoming interview with Governor Palin
Charlie, as we discussed, this interview is granted only on the condition that you treat Governor Palin with respect and deference. As a reminder, we’re granting access to the governor over a series of interviews; if you launch into a hatchet job like you and your pal Stephanopolis pulled on Obama during one of the final Clinton-Obama debates (check’s in the mail), you’ll find your access denied. Remember – we’ve always got Fox News.
Anyway, to help acclimate you to your new role as McCain campaign surrogate, here is a list of pre-approved questions for use in your upcoming interview. Please stick to the script:
Governor, the McCain campaign, which has consistently battled the scurrilous sexism of the left-wing media, declined to allow this interview until you were “comfortable.” Are you comfortable now? Would you like a blanket? Can I bring you some lemonade?
Governor, I’m going to ask you a question that’s of utmost importance to all Americans: Is John McCain as heroic and mavericky in person as he is on TV?
There’s a controversy surrounding one of aspect of your life in Alaska, America’s mavericky frontier. Please settle it for us once and for all – do you like A1 Steak Sauce or Heinz 57 on mooseburgers?
Governor, every American man, woman and child was riveted by John McCain’s war stories and account of his life as a POW during the recent Republican National Convention. As we all know, he’s very reluctant to talk about that aspect of his life. In fact, it’s been reported that campaign operatives have to beat President McCain (heh, I mean Presidential Candidate McCain, heh) with bamboo sticks to compel him to talk about his war experiences – he’s that reluctant to discuss them. What is your favorite McCain imprisonment or war story?
Another controversy that has been widely reported in the far-left media concerns your disposal of a state-owned jet when you took office as governor. Can you detail your plan to auction Air Force Two on eBay and wipe out the national debt when you become Vice President?
Governor, the American people are fed up with pork-barrel spending and government waste. As we all know, you heroically told congress to stick those Bridge to Nowhere funds where the sun don’t shine and cleaned up government operations in Alaska. A two-part question on that: How does it feel to co-lead a revolution in government with a mavericky war hero? Secondly, what steps will you and President McCain take to ensure the Democrats don’t once again seize power and run up deficit spending?
As you know, Barack Obama’s baby mama has been a controversial figure, making statements on the campaign trail that some have interpreted as the loony blather of a wild-eyed black nationalist. I’d like a one-word answer to this question: Have you always been proud to be an American?
Possible Black Panther Michelle Obama has some interesting associations in her past life. So does your husband, Todd Palin. Can you tell us about his ties to the snowmobile racing circuit?
Governor, you’ve been subjected to the most base, disgusting speculation in the Marxist media that dominates this country. We’ve witnessed the most indecent invasion of a politician’s private life in the history of the United States. To close our interview, I’d like to make a symbolic gesture of atonement as an American journalist, a gesture that will be familiar to hockey moms – and pit bulls – nationwide. As you see, I’ve brought a special “McCain-Palin” hockey stick with me. As I stand here before you in a Larry Craig wide stance, please take this hockey stick and hit me in the nuts with it as hard as you can. C’mon Governor, give it your best shot.
Charlie, please don’t worry about the last part of the script. As you know, your testicles are safely in the possession of the McCain campaign as a condition of our granting you this exclusive interview, so it won’t hurt a bit. Best of luck with the interview, and as I mentioned, the check’s in the mail.
While the traditional media and many writers in Blogilla (noun: online blogger community at large, also known as Blogistan, Blogosphere, Blogtopia, etc; the online version of the definitive American community, Wasilla, Alaska) undertake the process to deconstruct the enormous bullshit that is Sarah Palin, mecontemplates whether another approach might be worthy of consideration.
What is the worst case scenario that could happen with Sarah Palin as Vice President? I’m not outrageous enough to suggest that John McCain, if elected, will set a record for the shortest presidency ever. But what if he ties the record and croaks one month after taking office, as William Henry Harrison did?
In that case, Sarah Palin will become President of the United States by February. If McCain lasts as long as the second shortest presidency, Palin will be the leader of the free world by June. If the old sack of embalming fluid succumbs as soon after taking office as Zachary Taylor did, Palin will have her finger on the button by summer of 2010.
Cheesus-fucking-velveeta on a whole grain baguette, who fucked America with this impetuous and risky maneuver by putting a self-proclaimed hockey mom on the presidential ticket?
Not Sarah Palin. She’s just a power-drunk fundie being herself in America’s heartland, Wasilla, Alaska. No, this deed is solely owned by John McCain, the man who’s never been the leader of anything in his freaking life.
An idea is that instead of chasing down Sarah Palin to ask her what she would do as President, and instead of trying to get in her dirty panties to debunk all the lies she told at the convention (her peeps don’t even care about the lies anyway), everyone should ask John McCain what Sarah Palin will do as President.
Ask McCain precisely how Palin will handle Ahmadinejad. Ask McCain what specific steps Palin will take if the U.S. experiences spiraling inflation with record job losses—a very real possibility. Ask McCain exactly what Palin will do if Putin has no soul after all. Ask McCain what Sarah Palin will do about Roe v. Wade.
Ask John McCain all the questions.
It was he who fucked America, not Sarah Palin.
Ask him for an interview and hold him accountable for all the unknowns about his running mate.
I’m suffering from post-convention(s) burnout and there’s a beautiful post-Hanna day waiting for me out there, so you guys can take over in the comments if you have anything you feel like highlighting. I wanted to add that John Cole is right, CBS News’ Sunday Morning is a pretty great show (never watched it before except for snippets here and there). I caught a lot of it this morning while sipping coffee in bed and really enjoyed what I saw, particularly the features on architect John Lautner (I would love to own one of his houses) and the Hatch, NM Chile Festival.
p.s. Bob Schieffer sucks. His interview with McCain this morning could not have gobbled more balls and, to make it worse, it looked like it was a clear play to get the first interview with Sarah Palin.
p.s.s. I added code to Rumproast’s software to line-break long URLs and words in the comments because they kept breaking the layout. Let me know via the contact email link (top right) if you encounter any problems with it.
Hardly anyone one can beat Joe Biden when it comes to expressing righteous anger. This Jed Report video has been posted everywhere, but I haven’t seen it picked up widely by the media yet, who are too busy doing reports about how there’s be a run on people wanting to buy Sarah Palin’s shitty eyeglass frames.
Peggy Noonan, who literally called bullshit on McCain for choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate right before The Speech, is now a convert. Why? Palin put Noonan in danger of soiling her granny panties in the same way St. Ronnie did a couple of decades back: Palin is just so gosh darned American:
Much has been said about her speech, but a few points. “The difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick” is pure American and goes straight into Bartlett’s. This is the authentic sound of the American mama, of every mother you know at school who joins the board, reads the books, heads the committee, and gets the show on the road. These women make large portions of America work.
She has the power of the normal. There is something so normal about her, so “You’ve met this person before and you like her.”
Speak for yourself, Pegs. I have met this woman before, but I don’t like her. She’s not the one who reads the books – she’s the one who tries to get them banned, or, failing that, tries to shit-can the librarian who won’t knuckle under.
She’s one of the many power-mad mombies who elbow their way to the top of the trash heap that is most small-town PTA organizations and then go on to intimidate city councils and run roughshod over school boards in an eternal quest to stamp communities with their particular brand of morality.
She’s the braying jackass who insists on giving Genesis equal time with Charles Darwin in biology class and wants to make sure no 3rd grader is ever corrupted by Heather and Her Two Mommies and that no middle-school student takes in the subversive message of The Catcher in the Rye. She’s Beulah from Field of Dreams:
BEULAH: Your husband plowed under his corn and built a baseball field. The weirdo.
ANNIE: At least he is not a book-burner, you Nazi cow.
BEULAH: At least I’m not married to the biggest horse’s ass in three counties.
ANNIE: All right, Beulah, do you want to step outside?
BEULAH: Fine!
ANNIE: All right, I’ve got a better idea. Let’s take a vote. Who’s for Eva Braun? Who wants to burn books? Who wants to spit on the Constitution of the United States of America? Anybody? All right. Now, who’s for the Bill of Rights? Who thinks freedom is a pretty darn good thing? Come on! Let’s see those hands! Who thinks we have to stand up to the kind of censorship they had under Stalin? All right. There you go. America, I love you. I’m proud of you.
Yeah, I’m in the PTA, and I know the Beulah-Palin type alright. True story: each year, my kid’s elementary school takes a yearbook photo in which all of the kids come together on a field wearing shirts of some pre-determined color to form a message or picture, which is photographed from high atop the school. One year it was an American flag (my kid was part of a red stripe). One year it was the school’s initials.
And one year – about three years ago—the principal proposed that the kids form a peace sign. This came up during a PTA meeting, and our own contingent of Sarah Palins flipped out. A slap in the face to our troops! A political message against our glorious leader, George W. Bush! A capitulation to Osama bin Laden himself! It was unbelievable.
The poor principal, backed up by a few moms (including yours truly), tried to explain that peace wasn’t exactly a controversial subject. But the Palins and Beulahs wouldn’t budge. Rather than sit in undersized elementary school cafeteria chairs and argue about it all night, the principal and teachers proposed that the students form the school mascot – a dolphin – instead. In that year’s photo, it looks like an amoeba.
So yeah, I know Palin, alright. And the thought of her being an erratic 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency scares the living shit out of me.
CORRECTION: The Williamsburg Obama fundraiser is TOMORROW NIGHT, Saturday the 6th. I apologize for any confusion.
Don’t like what you saw for the last three days? Cleanse your palette with this video and make a donation. And if you’re an NYC resident, TOMORROW NIGHT’S Obama fundraiser in Williamsburg (featuring one of my favorite new bands La Strada) is worth checking out. I’ll be there, so if you plan on attending, drop me a line at kevin—at—rumproast.com (or use the contact link in the top right sidebar) so we can say “howdy” and stuff.
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.
Lieberman, who was the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee but is now an independent, has helped introduce Palin to officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby. In a meeting Tuesday, the day before she delivered her prime-time address at the Republican National Convention here, Palin assured the group of her strong support for Israel, of her desire to see the United States move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and of her opposition to Iran’s aspirations to become a nuclear power, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The exchange offered a brief glimpse into the views of the one-term governor of Alaska, who has virtually no record on foreign policy and has not traveled extensively outside the United States. As governor, she made two foreign trips last summer, one of which was to Canada. On the second, sponsored by the Pentagon, she traveled to Kuwait and Germany—and made a short stop at a “military outpost” in Iraq—to visit members of the Alaska National Guard deployed there, according to Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella. Comella added that Palin may have visited Mexico on a personal trip.
Campaign officials and McCain foreign policy advisers called Palin a quick study who has sound judgment that will serve her in good stead on national security issues. But privately, some in the GOP foreign policy establishment voiced concern that McCain has turned to a relative neophyte on national security matters at a time when the United States is facing challenges ranging from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea.
“Her speech wowed the pro-family and anti-tax groups, but can she handle complex foreign and defense policy decision-making?” asked one leading conservative foreign policy thinker who is concerned. He spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to be publicly critical of the pick.
Democrats offered a more scathing assessment. “As much as Joe Lieberman might be trying to give her an information dump on what he knows, he can’t infuse her with the expertise that she’s sorely lacking,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) said in an interview, adding that vice presidents often serve as foreign emissaries during international crises. “The problem with her lack of foreign policy experience is she’s running with a man who’s 72 years old and, God forbid something happens to him, it’s frightening because this is someone who would have the tiller of America’s foreign policy.”
Noting that the vice president sits on the National Security Council, Wasserman Schultz added: “What advice could Palin possibly offer McCain? There might as well be an empty seat at the table.”
John McCain / Rosetta Stone ‘08 ... Cramming Our Way Into the 21st Century.
I won’t be watching it live. I don’t even know if I’m going to record it. Here’s a thread for you poor bastards who are going to suffer through the hell that is a John McCain speech. You can also discuss tonight’s Obama interview on The O’Loofah Factor. I will watch that, but not until after I’ve enjoyed a meal at my favorite local dining establishment.
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