Hey Mom, former OB-GYN, can you take a look at this post and chime in with what you think in the comments? It makes a pretty compelling case that Sarah Palin isn’t actually the mother of her fifth child, but I’ll defer to you on this one.
As Ezra put it :
She has no foreign policy experience. She has no experience making national policy. She has spent fewer than 700 days crafting statewide policy for Alaska. None of this is a moral flaw or personal failing. It just makes it hard to imagine her fit for the vice presidency.This was, for McCain, a major decision. And we can learn from it. And here’s what even his supporters must admit: Country did not come first. Polls did.
Amen. This is Harriet Miers redux. The only difference is that the base is pretending to love it.
Also, can we stop talking about the predictive power of the free market now?
In the original title for my previous post, I used a plural form of the verb which may have been more correct (since I was referring to more than one thing), actually changed the meaning of the title significantly. While that version of the title might have been noteworthy given John McCain’s advancing age, it’s not the sort of thing that I’m particularly interested in commenting upon.
I don’t know if the John McCain we’ve been seeing lately is the real McCain or “Candidate McCain“, but either way, John McCain is turning out to be a real jerk. For the candidate whose earlier promise to run a “respectful campaign” has already become a running joke, John McCain has spent the last few weeks being inexcusably disrespectful towards his opponent.
There was a time when candidates wouldn’t run negative ads during the Olympics out of respect for the Olympic spirit of unity. John McCain eschewed that trend and spent $5 million in ad time during the games to bash Obama.
There was a time when candidates would welcome their opponents to the campaign and looking forward to a spirited debate. When John Kerry announced his VP in 2004, the Bush campaign said “I welcome Senator Edwards on the ticket … I look forward to a good spirited debate.” When Barack Obama announced his VP, McCain first response was to attack, saying “There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama’s lack of experience than Joe Biden”.
There was a time when presidential candidates held their fire during their opponent’s conventions, knowing that their respect for their opponent would be matched in kind during their convention. John McCain broke that tradition, opting to run negative ads during the Democratic convention, lest a day go by in which his pledge to run a positive campaign isn’t once again shown to be a lie.
On the eve of Obama’s historic speech, John McCain’s campaign is hinting that they may interrupt the acceptance speech too announce their pick for VP. (When I grew up, I was told that it was rude to interrupt people while they’re talking.)
And finally, in an attempt to distract people from the ugly, dishonest turn his campaign has taken, John McCain is buying his way into Obama’s spotlight with a single positive ad.
Fantastic. She hit every note she needed to. If she was this good in the primaries, things might have turned out differently. Not only did she put to rest the silly media-fueled Clinton drama, but she really established herself as a Democratic leader for years to come. As someone who never supported her candidacy for a variety of reasons, I can say that I finally get what people saw in her.
That said, it’s sad to think that she even had to include her “I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?” line. It’s remarkable that the people who ostensibly share Hillary Clinton’s ideals need to be reminded again and again and again that she’s a Democrat who supports Barack Obama. Even more bizarre was hearing a teary-eyes Clinton supporter on CNN tonight grudgingly concede that she “did what she needed to do” (or something along those lines) as if to imply that Hillary was insincere in her ringing endorsement of Obama. The PUMA brand of zealotry, which mixes equal parts self-righteous promotion of and bewildering disrespect for a candidate, is one I’ll never understand.
The primary is over, guys. It’s time to unite for a common purpose. Universal healthcare. End the war. Fix the economy. Stop McCain. Y’know, the stuff that Hillary has been saying all along?
I’m not looking forward to tonight’s Clinton encore. After the rancor of the primary, I found it incredibly galling that Hillary’s narrow loss somehow meant it was Barack Obama’s responsibility to help pay off the debt she accumulated while bashing him for months on end, to give her the VP slot ignoring his own judgment and any electoral concerns, and to remind her emotionally-scarred supporters that they’re Democrats. Granted, these expectations came more from the media and Clinton’s supporters than the candidate herself, the last few month’s worth of Clinton drama has been been exasperating.
But like everyone else, I’m hoping tonight’s Clinton love fest will do the trick. At the risk of adding more uninformed advice about “What Hillary needs to do”, lemme just hearken back to something I wrote back in April in response to one of her negative ads :
The thing I find depressing about this ad isn’t the tacky fear-mongering (I’ve come to expect that from the Clinton campaign), but my concern that these last few weeks are the toughest I’ve ever seen the Clintons work for something. If Hillary Clinton applied the same take-no-prisoners attitude she brings to the primary to her role as a Sentor, she’d be mounting filibusters and demanding impeachment hearings. Where was this toughness when the Patriot Act sailed through Congress or when we rushed to war in Iraq or on telecom immunity, net neutrality, torture, or any one of dozens of other issues in which Clinton has failed to take the lead?Moreover, why should we expect Hillary Clinton to bring her “kitchen sink” strategy to the general election and aim it at her BFF, John McCain?
Tonight’s the night when we’ll find out whether Hillary Clinton will be as tough against the GOP as she was against Barack Obama. Here’s the baseline against which I will be viewing tonight’s speech :
Hehe. Well, I blew another prediction :
Sen. Barack Obama has picked Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, multiple Democratic sources tell CNN.
Score one for beltway conventional wisdom. Biden wasn’t my favorite pick, but the campaign will get a whole lot more entertaining with the guy who gave us the classic “A noun, a verb, and 9/11″ line on the stump.
One funny thing to about Biden is that his personality is very similar to the way McCain used to act before he became another humorless, mud-slinging, charisma-free, dishonest, Republican presidential robot (see: Dole, Bob). Biden’s laid-back charm will serve as a subtle reminder (to me at least) that the John McCain of 2008 isn’t the same guy who the press fell in love with on the Straight Talk Express eight years ago.
Here’s my last chance to look foolish or prescient. All week I’ve been predicting Kaine would get the nod, but with reports that he and Bayh have been told they weren’t picked, it’s time to update my guess. As much as the media wants to stalk Joe Biden, I’m gonna go with Kathleen Sebelius. Here’s what I think of what I consider the top three candidates :
Chet Edwards - Oh god please, no. He would be the absolute worst. From his National Journal profile :
On several measures, he has worked with the Democratic leadership, supporting a waiting period for sales at gun shows and opposing repeal of the estate tax. He has voted for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and for the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
. . .
In 2002 Farley ran again and national Republicans ran ads against Edwards arguing that he had the voting record of a Northeastern liberal. Edwards argued that he supported Bush on terrorism, education, welfare, energy and the Iraq war resolution.
I’m really hoping the only reason he was vetted was because Obama knows that if he wants to get anything through Congress, that he’ll need to keep its leaders on his good side (Pelosi was reportedly the one who pushed for Edwards).
Joe Biden - Meh. Not a huge fan, but I prefer him to Bayh or Kaine. I still stand by my earlier arguments that the Obama campaign is way too disciplined to want a blowhard like Biden on the campaign trail. The more I think about it and watch the coverage of Biden, the more I think he’s probably a willing participant in the Obama campaign’s toying with the media. I’m really going out on a limb at this point, but considering how leakproof the Obama campaign has been thus far, all of the “leaks” and clues pointing to Biden over the last few hours seem suspicious. Why would official sources let it be known that Obama hadn’t chosen Kaine or Bayh? They’ve been building suspense so well over the last week, it seems odd to deflate the tension a few hours before the announcement by preemptively eliminating two of the top three picks mentioned. If Biden is the pick, then the past day or so will make tomorrow morning’s text message pretty anticlimactic.
Kathleen Sebelius - She’s awesome. She’s a red state Democrat who’s got a lot more progressive bona fides than the standard “Liberal who loves the war and thinks abortion is murder” red state Dem. She’s got a reputation for getting things done in Kansas by taking advantage of divisions within the GOP rather than selling out and hoping for the best (see: Reid, Harry). I think she’d compliment Obama perfectly.
What I find so amusing about the CNN coverage is that they seem to be covering every. little. thing. that’s happening with Joe Biden, but nobody seems to be providing the same coverage of anyone else still left on the short list. There’s no live feed outside Chet Edwards’ home. They haven’t asked whether or not Sebelius was asked to provide a list of aides or friends. Their singular focus on Biden has them all but ignoring any other candidates. Obama has done such an incredible job playing the press so far, I doubt they’d tip their hand like this.
Or maybe CNN is right about Biden. We’ll find out soon.
I know the veepstakes anticipation is feverish, but there’s no way this is real :
Now keep all of that in mind as you take a look at the monstrosity of a sticker that’s making the rounds purporting to be proof that Obama is picking Evan Bayh. It uses the most boring and basic shades of blue and red imaginable, a silly wave of a white line that looks like it was borrowed from a Pepsi can, and truly bizarre choice of font for the “08″ in the corner. The star in the “0″ finishes it off as if to imply that this sticker was a class project from a Learning Annex Photoshop class rather than the work of design professionals.
If this is real, then it would mean that despite all of the perfectly executed planning and coordination by the Obama team, they handed over the design of their campaign merch to amateurs who shouldn’t even be in the same room as those who have been so successful in the campaign branding so far. Personally, I don’t buy it.
