howieinseattle

Milking the Cash....Moose

2008-09-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

I find this rather depressing.

McCain camp manager Rick Davis on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” spent most of the segment arguing about press coverage of Palin, downplayed Palin’s need to do interviews with the press. Dismissed reports that people within the campaign told McCain he couldn’t pick Lieberman for veep.
The McCain campaign is literally going to try to sell Sarah Palin as a credible president without letting the press talk to her. For example, this Sunday, Barack Obama will appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, John McCain with be on Face the Nation, and Joe Biden will be on Meet the Press. Sarah Palin will be reading briefing papers in Alaska. Her only appearance on television?
Fox News will air one-hour special documentary Saturday on Palin, interviewing her family, friends, colleagues.
Even Mark Halperin is mocking this campaign strategy. Ali has more.
It looks like Sarah Palin is going to be used more as a way to save congressional seats than any serious effort to win the presidency. Want evidence for that? John McCain cannot raise any more money for his presidential campaign because he is accepting public funding. So, why is Palin doing this?

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will appear at around 30 fund-raising events in the next two months leading up to Election Day – about one every two days on average, officials with Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign said today.
Where is that money going to go?

The money raised between now and Nov. 4 will go to the Republican National Committee and state parties, which can buy advertising and conduct get-out-the-vote activities to support the ticket.
Because McCain is accepting a public grant of $84.2 million to finance his general election bid, he is no longer allowed to raise funds for his campaign directly.
Money for the RNC and state parties will have a tangential beneficial effect for the top of the ticket, but the real beneficiaries are going to be politicians further down the ticket. A weak McCain-Romney ticket threatened to cause a wipe-out of Republicans in Congress and in state government. Palin will turn out the base in key Republican areas and she'll raise a lot of dough. What she won't do is run a normal campaign. She won't be doing any media appearances except for fluff pieces. She'll be doing a straight sprint...'30 fundraisers in 60 days'...to raise cash. That's it. That's what she's for. There is a significant risk that this charade will collapse into an Epic Fail.

The strategy is an insult to every American. And then there are those scandals up in Alaska. Trust me on this...Alaska will supply bad news for Palin every single day of this campaign.

Howie P.S.: The only moose photo I could find online that didn't have copyright and royalty issues was this one of a "baby moose." Too weird.

"Joe Biden On Fire" (with video)

2008-09-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

Jed Report, with video (03:13):

This is awesome -- Joe Biden just tears John McCain and Sarah Palin apart for completely ignoring every single major economic issue facing America and for offering nothing but sarcastic personal attacks.

Fox Factor Event: Barack Visits O'Reilly (video)

2008-09-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

FOX, video (07:40). H/t to Michael Hood (BlatherWatch).

Barack Obama

"Obama: Enough About Me, What About You?" (with video)

2008-09-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

The Caucus--NY Times political blog, with video (05:37):

Updated YORK, Pa. – The political world may have been abuzz with talk of Gov. Sarah Palin in the wake of her prime-time introduction at the Republican convention, but Senator Barack Obama on Thursday worked to change the subject back to Senator John McCain, all but ignoring the newest figure in the presidential race.
“John McCain’s running for president. I’m running against John McCain,” Mr. Obama told reporters here. “As far as I can tell, I don’t get a sense that Governor Palin has ideas that are different from John McCain’s. That speech that she delivered was on behalf of John McCain.”

The answer, though, belied conversations going on among Democrats across the country on Thursday about how the party should treat Ms. Palin in the final two months of the general election campaign. Asked about the intense criticism of his biography and political record, Mr. Obama brushed aside any sense of worry, saying: “I’ve been called worse on the basketball court, so it’s not that big of a deal.”

Yet Democrats were urging Mr. Obama’s campaign not to underestimate the potential power of Ms. Palin’s speech and the fresh boost of energy that she has injected into the Republican ticket. The sharpest comment from Mr. Obama was to a question about whether Democrats or the media have treated Ms. Palin in a sexist manner in their coverage or conversations about her.

“The notion that any questions about her work in Alaska is somehow not relevant to her potentially being vice president of the United States doesn’t make too much sense to me,” Mr. Obama said. “I think she’s got a compelling story, but I assume that she wants to be treated the same way guys want to be treated, which means their records are under scrutiny.”

Senator Bob Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, said it was too early to tell whether Ms. Palin’s candidacy would erode some suburban voters whom Democrats were hoping to draw this year given the state of the economy. He, too, said the party should keep its focus on Mr. McCain and his policies, not on the curiosity surrounding the sudden introduction of Ms. Palin on the national scene.

“One speech does not a candidacy or a campaign make,” Mr. Casey said in an interview. “We still have to see when she’s exposed to questions about Senator McCain’s ideas for the country and about her own record, so we don’t know how that will transpire.”

Earlier today, Mr. Obama said that he had been hearing more about himself at the Republican National Convention this week than about how his rivals intended to tackle the litany of domestic and foreign challenges facing the nation.

“You haven’t heard a word about how they’re going to deal with any aspect of the economy that is affecting you day to day,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to voters outside a hydropower plant here. “They’ve had a lot to say about me, but they haven’t had a word to say about you.”

Of all the millions of people tuning into the Republican gathering in Minnesota for the past two nights, one has been Mr. Obama. He watched portions of Gov. Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech from his Pittsburgh hotel room. He intends to watch Senator John McCain’s address on Thursday evening from Harrisburg.

Mr. Obama settled a question that has been circulating since the moment Ms. Palin’s speech ended: How would he respond to the filleting of his biography and political record? Would he aggressively respond or let others respond to an evening of blistering criticism?

In his opening remarks here, he barely mentioned her, instead accusing Republicans of failing to focus on the economy at their convention. So it was left to a voter here to raise the question about the experience argument between Ms. Palin and Mr. Obama.

“I’ll let Governor Palin talk about her experience and I’ll talk about mine,” Mr. Obama said, ticking through his accomplishments in the Illinois state senate and the U.S. Senate. As he criticized Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama said voters should focus instead on the proposals being put forward by both parties.

“The question you’ve got to ask yourself is: What’s our plans? What’s our agenda?” Mr. Obama said. Later, he added: “I don’t think that anybody here can name four specific things that John McCain would do to help your pocketbook. They’ve had a bunch of speakers. If they would have had any ideas, they would have put them out there by now.”

With that, Mr. Obama concluded his town meeting with voters and went to prepare for a first in his political career: Sitting down for an interview on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel.

Howie P.S.: Jed Lewison (Jed Report) wrote this headline for some video (03:05)from CNN: "CNN Documents Sarah Palin's Truthiness Problem." Jon Stewart is less charitable: "Jon Stewart Hits Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Morris On Sarah Palin Hypocrisy" video, (05:43). This morning's WaPo has "Obama Rails Against Attacks From Palin, GOP":

For the first two days of the Republican convention, Sen. Barack Obama resisted pushing back against the attacks emanating from St. Paul, Minn. But on Thursday, the fouth and final day, his patience gave out, as he dismissed the barrage of criticism from the convention floor as "the same old vitriol and slash-and-burn politics."

Barack Obama

Palin Speech: Mid-Morning Excerpts Roundup

2008-09-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

"McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin" (LA Times):

WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.

Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.

"The Palin Speech" (Al Giordano):

The McCain team made one big mistake tonight: they put Palin on the attack at the same time that she was introducing herself to the nation. Stupid, stupid, stupid. That solidified the base. But the GOP base won't be enough in 2008.

"Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention" (AP):

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

"Palin’s True North" (Timothy Egan-NY Times):

But what many of us find, um, memorable, the rest of America may see as alarming, or at least strange. The CBS news survey on Tuesday, taking into account the Palin nomination, showed Obama with a 14-point lead among women. And a fresh Gallup poll suggests that the Palin pick has not helped McCain with Democratic or independent women, to date. It’s hurt.

Shooting wolves out of airplanes is something Palin backs with zest. But most Americans have never seen a wolf, let alone considered shooting one from a Piper Cub.

Palin may be the only nominee on a national ticket since Teddy Roosevelt who knows how to field dress a moose, as Fred Thompson said on Tuesday. But most Americans have never killed a moose, let alone gutted one.

"Why the media should apologize" (Roger Simon-Politico):

On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry.

On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.

We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?

Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.

"The Morning After Palin" (Political Wire):

The Detroit Free Press put together a panel of voters to listen to last night's Republican convention speeches and, much as I predicted last night, the independents were universally negative on Palin. In fact, they were more negative than the Democratic voters. The speech was clearly designed to help close the "enthusiasm gap" that has dogged the McCain campaign all summer.

Howie P.S.: The Political Wire post also links to comments by Howard Wolfson, Ezra Klein, James Fallows, Jonathan Martin and Bill Kristol.

Barack Obama

Palin Speech: Early Morning Roundup

2008-09-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

"Howard Dean's Net strategist warns "Don't LOL" at Sarah Palin" (Joe Trippi):

I have seen a lot of commentary on why John McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a cynical and transparent ploy to bring disaffected women who supported Hillary Clinton to his cause.

But I don’t think John McCain and the people around him are that stupid.

The McCain campaign plans on making an assault on Barack Obama’s strength as a change agent. And challenge, what the McCain campaign will describe as, Obama’s weak or non-existent attacks on corruption within the Democratic Party and other institutions throughout his career.

To make this assault, McCain picked in Palin someone who has taken on the corruption in the GOP in Alaska, turned against her own party’s establishment, and fought for reform.

Palin could thrive and strongly help McCain make his case, or she could crumble and damage his candidacy. My first impression is that she is not going to crumble.

She isn’t Dan Quayle, and besides, Dan Quayle was elected vice president.

Don’t LOL. Take the McCain/Palin ticket seriously.

"Palin's Big Strikeout" (Ari Melber--The Nation):

Sarah Palin gave a riveting and devastating nomination speech on Wednesday night. She shared her inspiring story and brave family, while savaging and ridiculing the celebrated life story of Barack Obama, a fellow barrier-breaking candidate, with whithering attacks on his work as a community organizer, senator, and author. She misrepresented his record and simply lied about her own, claiming to oppose earmarks that she supported, and dissembling on her $1.5 billion tax hike and record of raising sales taxes by 25 percent in Wasilla. Reviewing the McCain Campaign's bullying, "unprofessional" onslaught against anyone who notes Palin's extreme positions and dishonest claims, Time's Joe Klein urged reporters to face facts:

I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God."

By all accounts, Palin faced a huge task in St Paul. She had to prove she was up to the job of commander in chief.

She struck out big-time -- in a biting speech that showed the only job she was ready for is RNC Chair, another ruthless soldier in Karl Rove's army.

Barack Obama

"McCain's Last Ally"

2008-09-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

Booman:

It isn't much of a secret that John McCain has always enjoyed excellent relations with the national media. McCain once referred to the media as 'My base', and he wasn't joking.
It was important that McCain nurture a good relationship with the media because he is hated by most of his senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle. He's also hated by most members of the Bush administration. And he's hated by the Republican base of volunteers and activists. No politician can be very effective if everyone they have to work with actively hates their guts. But John McCain found a way to work around that by making sure that he got glowing media coverage. It wasn't enough to win him the nomination in 2000, but it was enough for him to win a few primaries and make himself into a household name. John McCain, the Maverick.
Now, I see that McCain and Palin are going to make war on the national media a central part of tonight's speech and of the fall campaign. And I see that Al Giordano is wringing his hands about the potential effectiveness of this strategy. For once I get to tell Al that he is being a chicken little. Giordano makes many excellent points in his post, but what he is neglecting to consider is that John McCain is literally nothing without his entourage of sycophants in the national media.
With even party loyalists and personal friends like Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy blasting his choice of vice-president, McCain can forget about a message advantage (or even parity). And making war on the press will turn them into even harsher critics. Giordano is correct that people hate and distrust the media, but they are nonetheless heavily influenced by them. Republicans are masters at gaming the national dialogue in their favor. But, in order to do that, they rely on the media to parrot their talking points and repeat their lies and distortions without correction or skepticism.
John McCain has ceded his two biggest advantages in this race in two short weeks.

First he tossed aside the experience argument when he selected a running mate with no experience. Then he declared war on the only institution in the country that doesn't hate his guts. There is nothing to worry about, Al. McCain just shot his last ally.

"Women Voters and Sarah Palin" (Updated)

2008-09-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Here's the link to the full survey results.

EMILY's List and Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group:

On behalf of EMILY's List, Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group conducted a national survey of 800 women voters to assess their reactions to and perceptions of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. Interviewing was conducted on August 31st and September 1st, 2008. The margin of error for the findings is +/- 3.5 percentage points.

Independently of any late breaking news regarding Sarah Palin's family situation, the results of this poll for EMILY's List among women voters clearly clearly demonstrates that John McCain's selection of Governor Palin as his running mate will create more of a drag than a lift on the Republican ticket.

Howie P.S.: Since this is an Acrobat document, I can't cut and paste the results as is my custom. So here is a list of the conclusions that are presented:

First, this selection puts John McCain squarely in the realm of politics over principle in women voters' eyes.

Second, Sarah Palin's background and personal narrative are not particularly appealing to women voters, and she matches up poorly against Joe Biden in terms of the potential to establish a compelling narrative.

Third, Governor Palin's inclusion on the ticket squanders John McCain's previous advantage over Barack Obama with regard to experience and readiness to lead.

Fourth, several of Governor Palin's positions on issues, including her position on abortion, alienate large segments of the women's electorate and add to the perception that the GOP ticket is out of step with women voters' views and priorities.

Fifth, even with the historic inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket, women voters conclude that the Obama-Biden ticket is more in step with the issues and concerns that are important to women than is the McCain-Palin ticket.

Finally, as these survey findings confirm, the Democratic presidential ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden continues to benefit from the strong support of women voters.

Barack Obama

"The Palin Convention and the Culture War Option"

2008-09-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

Jay Rosen does his own "Palin Roundup" (so I can go offline for a spell):

John McCain’s convention gambit calls for culture war around the Sarah Palin pick.
And now the Politico is reporting just that: Palin reignites culture wars. An option is forming. This is my attempt to describe it before her big speech in St. Paul.

John McCain’s convention gambit is a culture war strategy. It depends for its execution on conflict with journalists, and with bloggers (the “angry left,” Bush called them) along with confusion between and among the press, the blogosphere, and the Democratic party. It revives cultural memory: the resentment narrative after Chicago ‘68 but with the angry left more distributed. It dispenses with issues and seeks a trial of personalities. It bets big time on backlash.

At the center of the strategy is the flashpoint candidacy of Sarah Palin, a charismatic figure around whom the war can be fought to scale, as it were. The Politico is reporting just that: Palin reignites culture wars.

I have no idea if the ignition system will work; nor do I claim that “this is what they were thinking” when they made the decision to nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Other interpretations may turn out to be truer than mine. This is my look at the bets McCain and company seem to be placing. I am not recommending the strategy. I am not predicting it will succeed. I think it was improvised, like my description here….

The storm around Sarah Pailn overtakes the story of the Republican convention and merges with it, like a smaller but stronger company taking over a larger but troubled enterprise. Behind the storm a “wave narrative” builds as her appointment generates headlines on multiple fronts. The irresistible force of fact-fed controversy meets the immovable enthusiasm for Palin as cultural object: charismatic every woman straight from the imaginary of conservative America.

The basic strategy is: don’t fight the “crisis” narrative. Rather, do things that bring it on; and in that crisis re-divide the electorate hoping to grab the bigger half.

The evangelical wing, and other social conservatives are strongly moved by her candidacy. More and more of their commitment to McCain is vested in him through her. As Andrew Sullivan writes: “The emotions involved - especially among the Christianist base who have immediately bonded on purely religious and cultural terms with Palin - are epic.”

The strategy: sell the epic version of her candidacy. Allow her to become bigger than McCain in narrative terms. And let the two mavericks together overawe the Republican party, a damaged brand.

Continued bad news on the investigation front adds further drama, new fact streams and more protagonists to the Sarah Palin story. As more comes out about the decision to name Sarah Palin to the ticket, it’s harder to see how anyone on the inside thought it McCain’s best choice for president-in-waiting.

Strategy: Give no ground, pile on the praise for her performance in Alaska, pump up her governor’s experience to death-defying extremes, hope for theatrical confrontation with characters in the mainstream media who can star as the cosmopolitan elites in the sudden politics of resentment the convention has been driven to.

Bloggers and open platforms continue to publish riskier—and risque—material, some of it unfit for family consumption, some of it false, salacious and reckless, some of it true, relevant and damaging, a portion of which is picked up by the traditional press.

Strategy: confound and collapse all distinctions between closed editorial systems (like the newsroom of the New York Times), open systems (like the blogging community DailyKos.com) and political systems, like the Democratic party and its activist wing. Whenever possible mix these up. Conflate constantly. Attack them all. Jump from one to the other without warning or thread. Sow confusion among streams and let that confusion mix with the resentment in a culture war atmosphere.

As more emerges about how the McCain camp made the decision, the appointment looks more and reckless, the decision rushed, the vetting inadequate. This leads to advanced jeering from the left, intense criticism in the press, damaging leaks from within the Republican party, fueling calls from within and without for Sarah Palin to remove herself.

Strategy: stick with “she was fully vetted” no matter what comes out. People who don’t believe it are trying to bring down Palin’s historic candidacy; or they don’t accept that a conservative women can be the one to break the glass ceiling. If some establishment Republicans are skeptical or trying to stop her, that’s good for the crisis narrative, and good for two maverick candidates.

Sarah Palin under intense pressure then gives a charismatic performance on Wednesday of convention week and wows much of America, outdrawing Obama in the ratings and sending a flood of cash to McCain and the GOP.

Strategy: bingo, that’s your big break. A wave effect is unleashed by a stunning televised performance. It is shock and awe in the theater of the post-modern presidency.

Journalists watching all this keep saying to themselves: wait until she gets out on the campaign trail. Wait until she sits for those interviews with experienced reporters and faces a real press conference.

Strategy: double down on defiance by never letting her answer questions, except from friendly media figures who have joined your narrative; like Cheney with Fox. No meet the press at all. No interviews of Palin with the DC media elite— at all. De-legitimate the ask. Break with all “access” expectations. Use surrogates and spokesman, let them get mauled, then whip up resentment at their mistreatment. Answer questions at town halls and call that adequate enough.

Meanwhile, the investigation of her performance in Alaska puts more and more pressure on the Palin appointment as things come out that would ordinarily disqualify a candidate from consideration or cast doubt on her truthfulness in a grave way.
Strategy: Comes from Bush, the younger. When realities uncovered are directly in conflict with prior claims, consider the option of keeping the claims and breaking with reality. Done the right way, it’s a demonstration of strength. It dismays and weakens the press. And it can be great theatre.

Howie P.S.: Shorthand version of the strategy: "Make lemonade out of lemons" and sell it as the best beverage ever!! More about Jay Rosen here.

Today's Palin Roundup: MID-Morning Excerpts Edition

2008-09-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

"GOP Cites Palin's Skill, But How Relevant Is It?"(CBS NEWS-AP):
Wait, now, say the Republicans. You think that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lacks experience? You think that at 44, with less than two years running the nation's northernmost state, she doesn't have what it takes yet to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Pshaw.

"Campaign money hurts Palin's outsider image" (AP, with video):
GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin accepted at least $4,500 in campaign contributions in the same fundraising scheme at the center of a public corruption scandal that led to the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens.

Michael Savage: "they ran this gal up the flagpole and the pole broke from shock." (BlatherWatch):
"Is it over for McCain?" Michael Savage (KTTH m-f, 6-9p) asks. He answers his own question with an emphatic 'yes'. "He's split conservatives right down the middle... again."

Another high-rated conservative talk host is trashing Sarah Palin and McCain's chances in November.

"McCain's New Palin Strategy: Blame The Media" (AP-Liz "donuts" Sidoti):
John McCain's campaign on Wednesday angrily called for an end to questions about its review of Sarah Palin's background, deriding a "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee" for vice president.

"This nonsense is over," declared senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt in a written statement.

The statement stood out for its admission that Palin is under siege _ it condemns "this vetting controversy" _ and for its attempt to blunt questions about how rigorously McCain and his campaign explored the background of a candidate who may get the nation's second most powerful job. It also suggested that Palin is a victim of gender bias in the media.

"The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process," Schmidt said, lashing out at "the old boys' network" that he says runs media organizations.

"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' ..." (Josh Marshall, with video--reposted due to software issues):

I think TPM Reader JL may be on to something ...

Just a thought, and I doubt I'm the first to think it. Watching that surprising video of Cambell Brown taking Tucker Bounds to the cleaners', I wondered if perhaps what I was really seeing was a mainstream press that is furious with McCain for having embarrassed them. Even if Palin drops out by the end of the week, and Pawlenty or Romney or whomever gets on board and we begin take two of the entire thing, I can't imagine that the press will have retained their abiding love of McCain. After all, they're the ones who nurtured his straight-talkin'-maverick image, and now he has appeared to throw it in their faces. They probably had reporting packages ready to go for all of the other VP possibilities, and nothing for Palin. So it wasn't just the GOP brass McCain was flipping off with this pick--it was his "base," the media. My overall sense of yesterday's coverage was that covering him just wasn't any fun anymore. And those feelings might well last into November.

Today's Palin Roundup: Morning Excerpts Edition

2008-09-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

"Before Speech, Running Mate Gets Some Coaching"(WaPo):
ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 3 -- Since Sunday night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been holed up in her suite in the Hilton Minneapolis while a parade of Sen. John McCain's top advisers have briefed her on the nuances of his policy positions, national politics and, above all, how to introduce herself to the national audience she will address Wednesday night at the Republican convention.

"The Rovian Politics of Choosing Sarah Palin" (Paul Loeb):
What does it say about John McCain that he not only picked the least experienced Vice Presidential nominee in America's history, but picked someone he really didn't know? Departing so far from any normal concept of appropriate background, he should at least have had a sense of why this individual is so special. Meeting Palin once at a Republican governors' conference and having a single phone conversation on the eve of her selection just doesn't pass muster -- particularly for the oldest presidential candidate ever, who's had four malignant melanomas.

"GOP Tightens Image Control As Palin Prepares for Debut" (Wall Street Journal, Page One):
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The McCain campaign scrambled to take control of the public debate over vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin, canceling her public appearances and teaming her with high-powered Republican operatives as she prepared for a speech Wednesday night that will be her first, and perhaps most important, chance to define herself to the American public.

"Is McCain Palin's Bitch?," video, (03:00)--over 210,000 views after just one day.

"A Risk Neither Candidate Seemed Willing to Take"

2008-09-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Reader Advisory: I have reposted this here because of software issues on the original post.

John Harwood (The Caucus--NY Times political blog):

ST. PAUL — Up against the popularity of Senator Barack Obama and the unpopularity of President Bush, Senator John McCain faced pressure to roll the dice with his choice of a running mate. The political world should not have been so surprised, then, that he tapped Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska.
Yet more than just Mr. McCain’s need to gamble, Ms. Palin’s selection showed which kinds of risks 21st century political strategists deem acceptable, and which they do not.

In particular, it showed that the divide on abortion is so deep that even a candidate trying to reinforce his maverick image dare not cross it.

And so Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, which came nearly two months before Mr. McCain’s release from a North Vietnamese prison camp on March 14, 1973, set him on a path into politics, continues to bind Democrats and Republicans and keep the parties in separate spheres.

Against the Odds

Tagged with an unpopular war, a weak economy and a widely disparaged incumbent, the Republican Party has not felt more beleaguered than at any time since Watergate. That is the daunting environment that Mr. McCain faces as he claims the party’s nomination this week.

On Election Day 2004, exit polls showed there were as many voters claiming allegiance to the Republican Party as there were self-identified Democrats. Nearly four years later, surveys show Democrats with an edge of nearly 10 percentage points in party self-identification.

To win under those circumstances, McCain strategists calculate that he must draw roughly 55 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats, besting the 48 percent and 11 percent that Mr. Bush drew four years ago. If Mr. Obama’s mobilization drive succeeds in enlarging the Democratic electorate, Mr. McCain’s hill would grow even steeper.

One high-risk response for Mr. McCain would have been to select Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, above, as his running mate. As a former congressman, governor and Homeland Security secretary, Mr. Ridge would have met anyone’s definition of readiness to step in as president. He could have improved Mr. McCain’s odds of snatching Pennsylvania’s 21 electoral votes, disrupting Mr. Obama’s electoral math.

Because he favors abortion rights, Mr. Ridge also could have enhanced the party’s appeal to affluent suburbanites with moderate social views. But for the same reason, choosing him would have risked eroding the support of the religious right, as well as the ticket’s appeal to culturally conservative blue-collar swing voters.

Ms. Palin presented a different set of calculations. As a young, charismatic politician with a reformer’s image, she could add spark and the stamp of history to the campaign of Mr. McCain, 72, who trails Mr. Obama by more than 10 percentage points among women. As a social conservative who is staunchly anti-abortion, she could energize the party’s base.

But Ms. Palin brought one huge risk: that voters would judge her two years in statewide elected office inadequate to meet the presidential readiness test that every nominee invokes as a paramount consideration. And that could undercut Mr. McCain’s argument that Mr. Obama is not “ready to lead.”

Both choices offered the opportunity to reinforce Mr. McCain’s image as a free-wheeling maverick. But in the calculus of contemporary Republican politics, the dangers associated with Mr. Ridge appeared greater.

A History Lesson

Mr. Obama faced a similar cost-benefit calculation in his running mate deliberations. He has campaigned as a post-partisan leader eager to bridge the nation’s deepest differences, and to underscore that credential some Democrats urged him to choose Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, below.

Mr. Hagel’s sharp criticism of the Iraq war lent plausibility to the idea. But Mr. Hagel’s solid anti-abortion voting record drew strong opposition from the party’s liberal base; he didn’t make Mr. Obama’s short list.

The values divide on the issue has proved inviolable since 1980. Seven years after Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party platform backed an anti-abortion constitutional amendment, and the elder George Bush, placed on the ticket by Ronald Reagan, reversed his previous support for abortion rights.

Since then, Republicans have not nominated a candidate who favors abortion rights; Democrats have not nominated one who opposes them.

The 2004 exit polls show why: Three-fourths of those who said abortion should be legal voted for John Kerry, while three-fourths of those who said abortion should be outlawed voted for President Bush. Neither 2008 candidate was willing to challenge that pattern.

Howie P.S.: H/t to Ari Melber who draws heavily on Harwood in his article, "Everything You Need to Understand Palin: BOA."

Barack Obama

Jon Stewart's "Palin Humor": Too funny to ignore (Updated)

2008-09-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: On the critical issue of "experience," I failed to note that Jon Stewart completely overlooked the fact that Palin is undoubtedly a better sharpshooter than either the incumbent Vice-President or Senator Biden.

Andrew Sullivan,with video (04:42):

Sarah Palin seems to have been invented by Stephen Colbert - true believer, gun-lover, relentless foe of polar bears, sister with nine kids and no father in the house, caribou killer - but this Stewart clip is a pretty good kick-off to what will be a rich late-night comedy political season:

"Obama Explains His Choice, Reacts To Palin" (with video)

2008-09-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

60 Minutes (CBS News) with video (14:37):

Sen. Obama went into the Democratic convention locked in a dead heat with Republican rival John McCain and needed to do three things: introduce his running mate to the country, draw sharp distinctions between himself and his Republican opponent, and unify a Democratic party badly split by a bruising primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. By most accounts he accomplished all three.
He attracted 84,000 people to Invesco Field in Denver and another 40 million to their television sets all across America - more American saw his speech than watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

We began our conversation with the new Democratic candidates backstage just moments after the most improbable nominee had given the most important speech of his young career.

Asked if he ever doubted it was going to happen, Sen. Obama told Kroft, "Of course."

When?

"Well, let's see. About a year ago we were down 30 in Iowa. But I never doubted that it could happen. I never doubted that if we were able to mobilize the energy that you saw in that stadium," Obama said. "All across the country."

"I knew it was gonna happen before he did. I was running like the devil. I watched. I thought I was pretty good, but I watched. I watched. This guy just sort of grabbed the lightening, ya know, just grabbed it. And you could tell, Barack, I tell ya, my team knew, I knew in August," Sen. Biden told Kroft.

"We were doing okay. But this is exciting," Obama remarked.

"Were you surprised to be up here?" Kroft asked Biden.

"I was surprised, I'm truly honored to be up here. I'm a great admirer, we're friends and we fit," Biden said.

By the time Kroft continued the conversation with them the next day in Pittsburgh, the landscape had already changed: Senator McCain tried to steal the Democrat's thunder by announcing that Alaska’s conservative first-term governor, 44-year-old Sarah Palin, would be his running mate - a move widely seen as an attempt to try and siphon disaffected supporters of Senator Clinton and blue collar voters in battleground states where Obama has been the weakest.

And a few hours after McCain's announcement, Senators Obama and Biden seemed as surprised as everyone else.

Asked what he thinks of McCain's vice presidential choice, Obama told Kroft, "She seems to have a compelling life story. Obviously, she's a fine mother and an up-and-coming public servant. My sense is that she subscribes to John McCain's agenda."

"Does the fact that he chose as his vice president someone what has less experience than you take that weapon out of his arsenal?" Kroft asked.

"Well, you know, I think that's a good question to address to Senator McCain," Obama replied. "Of course, the issue of experience is going to be relevant. And if I were running against me, that's something that I would try to make an issue of as well. Particularly if I had been in Washington as long as John McCain had."

"She's a life-long member of the NRA. She's a hunter. Her husband's a member of the United Steel Worker Union. Blue collar guy. Got a son on the way to Iraq. It seems like just the kind of person who would appeal to voters in states that you absolutely have to win," Kroft remarked. "And they have to win."

"Well, look, I am happy if this ends up being a referendum on what's going to be good for blue collar workers," Obama said. "I'll put my guy, Joe Biden, up against anybody when it comes to fighting on behalf of those families, because he's been there. He comes out of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He's been fightin' for those folks ever since he got into the Senate. And he hasn't stopped. And he hasn't forgotten where he's come from."

"You know, I think we really underestimate people in the neighborhood. In the neighborhoods I came from, you came from. I really think we underestimate them," Biden remarked. "People get it. I think they're looking for more than whether or not Joe Biden's from Scranton and she hunts. I think that's you know, 'What ya gonna do about it?'"

"But you tried really hard to reach these people. You went and sipped beer, which I know you don't particularly like - I mean you even…," Kroft remarked.

"Steve, I had a beer last night. I mean, where do these stories come from, man?" Obama asked.

"I'm the one… [that] doesn't drink," Biden pointed out.

"Where does the story come from that…I don't like beer? …C'mon, man," Obama said.

"You even tried bowling," Kroft remarked.

"Time out there," Obama said.

"I've got to defend my bowling honor here," Obama said, laughing. "It is true that my bowling score left something to be desired. The reason I bowled though, wasn't to try to get votes. If I had been tryin' to get votes, I promise you I would have been avoiding a bowling alley. The reason I was there was to campaign. And we had great fun. But here’s the bottom line: I wouldn't have been elected to the United States Senate out of Illinois, which is 12 percent African American if I didn't have some broad appeal. So, the mythology that's developed that somehow I can't get those votes is refuted by the very fact that I'm sittin' in this chair."

"Is that one of the reasons you picked Senator Biden?" Kroft asked.

"What reason is that, Steve?" Obama asked.

"You said you've got Joe Biden working for you in Pennsylvania. …States like Pennsylvania," Kroft explained.

"Let me tell you the reason I picked Joe Biden. Number one, he can step in and become president. And I don't think anybody has any doubt about that," Obama said.

"Number two is that if I'm in the room making the kinds of tough decisions that the next president's gonna have to make, both on domestic policy and on international policy, then I want the counsel and advice of somebody who's not gonna agree with me a 100 percent of [the] time. In fact, somebody who's independent enough that can push back and give me different perspectives and make sure that I'm catching any blind spots that I have. And Joe Biden doesn't bite his tongue," he continued.

"You've had some differences over pretty substantial issues. Iraq for one," Kroft pointed out.

"Actually, we haven't," Biden said. "Look, Barack was right. He not only got it right about bein' against the war, I got it wrong about underestimating the incompetence of this administration when we gave the president the power we gave him at the time. He knew accurately that even, not even being outside. Maybe it gave you a better perspective. That that meant he was going to war. Bush told me he wasn't going to war. I thought they meant it. You're standing outside. You knew they didn't mean it."

"Well, one of the reasons that I love Joe and one of the reasons I think he's gonna be such an effective vice president is he's blunt when he's right, and he's blunt when he's wrong. And that means that I can trust his counsel. And that's what, I think, a president needs from a vice president," Obama explained. "Look there is no choice I could have made where the person's gonna agree with me a 100 percent of the time. And I wouldn't want that person. Michelle doesn't agree with me a 100 percent of the time. You know, in fact with Michelle, if I can get to 50 percent, I'm feeling pretty good. What you want is somebody whose core values you believe in, who you trust, who you think is a straight shooter."

Biden acknowledged that from time to time, he had put his foot in his mouth.

"There was an issue in 1988 involving plagiarism which I'm sure the Republicans are working on a campaign commercial now about it," Kroft pointed out.

"I'm sure that's probably true," Biden acknowledged.

Asked what he's learned about politics and running for office in those 20 years, Biden said, "I made a mistake. I made a mistake 20, 21, 22 years ago. I was arrogant. I didn't think I had to prepare. I showed up at the debate and I failed to quote somebody. A guy named Neil Kinnock. And I just ask people and everyone else, look at the last 20 years of my career since that allegation occurred."

"But, I think that I have a record that people can go back and examine and decide whether or not I mean what I say. No matter how I say it whether I'm consistent with what I've asserted I care about. That's all I care about. But, you know, there's gonna be a lot, I'm sure a lot of things said about it," he added.

"I like who he is. And I think the American people will. And I think, together we're gonna win this election. And Joe's gonna end up being one of the finest vice presidents we've ever had," Obama said.

"Have you talked? Have you spoken specifically about what your role would be in an Obama administration?" Kroft asked.

"Yes, he had just a few questions that were important to him, but were threshold questions. If we didn't pass that threshold, he wasn't interested," Obama said.

"I don't want to go and just hang out. I can help Barack a lot more from chairman from the Foreign Relations Committee or from the United States Senate," Biden explained. "But, when he indicated to me he was lookin' for me to give my best judgment and for him to consider it, that's good enough for me. I'm not lookin' for a portfolio. I'm not lookin' for anything other than to be able to be part of the change this guy's been talkin' about. And I very bluntly, I've been talkin' about."

"What's your role in the campaign? Can you make a difference in this race? And how do you do that?" Kroft asked Biden.

"The thing I can do is hopefully go into Scranton and Wilmington and Sacramento and other places and say, 'I know the guy,'" Biden replied. "Politicians know quality when they see it in other politicians."

Biden said he meant that as a compliment.

"'Cause he's spent most of his campaign trying to separate himself," Kroft pointed out.

"He is separate. But here's the bottom line: the thing about him that everybody misunderstands and this boss, here we go. We may have our first difference here. But, all kidding aside, here's the deal: everybody knows the way he's caught on to this yearning in the American public. But, the second piece of that is it's not only the idealism - you gotta be tough. You got to be tough to be the president of the United States of America. And if you don't have political good sense, if you're not politically tough, let me tell you something, I don't want you being my president," Biden said.

"And you think he is?" Kroft asked.

"Absolutely," Biden said.

"One of the weaknesses in terms of this campaign is that there are people out there who don't think that you have a punch," Kroft remarked. "A killer instinct. That you are a very deliberative, judicious person who prides himself on building consensus, but it's not in your DNA to be confrontational."

"The fact [is] that I don't go out of my way to call people names, or try to take cheap shots, and that I try not to throw the first punch. But, to see if I can find a way to work together with people, sometimes leads people to underestimate what I've got," Obama said. "I think it's fair to say that if I couldn't not only take a punch, but occasionally throw one, I wouldn't be sittin' here."

"You've just come through a very historic week. I mean, politically, this is a real milestone in American history. But, yet, there was also no mention made of it. You made no mention of it and the Democratic Party made almost no mention of it. Why is that?" Kroft asked. "I mean, you're the first black person ever to be nominated by a major party."

"Yeah, I think people notice that," Obama replied, laughing.

Asked if he didn't think he needed to bring it to people's attention, Obama told Kroft, "I think people understood the significance of it."

"Is part of the fact that you don't wanna be considered as a black candidate?" Kroft asked.

"Well, I look it is absolutely true that I wanna be the president for all America. You know, this is not a symbolic exercise on my part. I intend to win this race so that I can work on behalf of all families in America. If I can get healthcare for every American, if I can make sure that the economy is providing jobs that pay a decent wage. If I can solve this energy problem so that we're more secure, if I can make an education system work for every child, then that's gonna be good for black Americans, that's gonna be good for Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, white Americans. That's gonna be good for everybody," Obama explained.

"One last question. You are running against the record of an administration that is one of the most unpopular in the history of the country," Kroft said.

"Good reason," Biden remarked.

"…And there are people that believe you should be much further ahead in the polls than you are. What do you say to that? And are you comfortable with the way this race is going and where you are right now?" Kroft asked.

"This is gonna be a rough, tough battle," Obama said. "The Republicans don't govern very well. But, they know how to campaign. And, you know, what I would expect is that it's gonna take-mid-October before a whole lot of people start making up their minds. And there's nothing wrong with that. This notion that somehow this should be a cakewalk and I should just walk into the election with, you know, a 10, 15 point lead, I think doesn't give the American people enough credit. They wanna get this thing right."

H/t to Alayna Setter.

Barack Obama

WORD: "Diddy to McCain: "You Are Buggin" with Palin" (with video)

2008-09-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

Ari Melber (The Nation), with video (04:07):

Forget Paris Hilton, rapper and music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is now taking on John McCain.
Combs posted an extended YouTube blog this weekend, part of his "Diddy Obama blog" series, blasting McCain for making a reckless running mate selection. "No disrespect, I love you, I want you to live to be 110," he says into a rotating camera. "If you really think we are going to let you win this election with these decisions that you're making, you're buggin!" he adds.

The video, which is laced with f-bombs, calls on youth voters to "protect our future" and stop McCain. After just two days, Combs' address is already one of the top viewed and most favorited videos in YouTube's News and Politics section, with over 50,000 views. It still trailed Obama's convention speech and a handful of other Palin clips.

Again, the video contains swearing:

Howie P.S.: For a companion message pitched to the Lexus/Flomax demographic, check out "Obama versus John F. Kennedy" in The New Yorker. And the Diddy video now has over 135,000 views and is #3 on "Today's Top Ten Viral Videos."

"Getting Real About Palin"

2008-08-31T18:47:00.000-07:00

Josh Marshall:

I've noticed some people who should know better claiming that bringing up Gov. Palin's troopergate scandal is tantamount to making a victim of or defending her slimeball ex-brother-in-law who allegedly once used a taser on his stepson.
That's awfully foolish. So I thought I'd put together a post explaining why.

The person in question is state trooper Mike Wooten -- Palin's ex-brother-in-law who's embroiled in a bitter custody and divorce battle with Palin's sister. Back in the second week of August, well before Palin became a national political figure, TPMMuckraker was reporting on this story. And as part of the reporting we tried to get a handle on just how bad a guy Wooten was. Most people who are familiar with the ugliness that often spills out of custody and divorce cases know to take accusations arising out of the course of them with a grain of salt unless you know a lot about the people involved. And if you look closely at the case there are numerous reasons to question the picture drawn by the Palin family. Regardless, we proceeded on the assumption that Wooten really was a rotten guy because the truth is that it wasn't relevant to the investigation of Palin.

Let's review what happened.

The Palin family had a feud with Wooten prior to her becoming governor. They put together a list of 14 accusations which they took to the state police to investigate -- a list that ranged from the quite serious to the truly absurd. The state police did an investigation, decided that 5 of the charges had some merit and suspended Wooten for ten days -- a suspension later reduced to five days. The Palin's weren't satisfied but there wasn't much they could do.

When Palin became governor they went for another bite at the apple. Palin, her husband and several members of her staff began pressuring Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan -- a respected former Chief of the Anchorage police department -- to can Wooten. Monegan resisted, arguing that the official process regarding Wooten was closed. And there was nothing more that could be done. In fact, during one of the conversations in which Palin's husband Todd was putting on the squeeze, Monegan told Todd Palin, "You can't head hunt like this. What you need to do is back off, because if the trooper does make a mistake, and it is a terminable offense, it can look like political interference."

Eventually, Palin got fed up and fired Monegan from his job. (Palin claims, not credibly, that she fired Monegan over general differences in law enforcement priorities.) This is an important point. Wooten never got fired. To the best of my knowledge, he's is still on the job. The central bad act was firing the state's top police official because he refused to bend to political pressure from the governor and her family to fire a public employee against whom the governor was pursuing a vendetta -- whether the vendetta was justified or not.

Soon after this, questions were raised in the state about Monegan's firing and he eventually came forward and said he believed he'd been fired for not giving in to pressure to fire Wooten.

After Monegan made his accusations, Palin insisted there was no truth whatsoever to his claims. Nonetheless, a bipartisan committee of the state legislature approved an investigation. In response, Palin asked the Attorney General to start his own investigation which many in the state interpreted as an effort to either keep tabs on or tamper with the legislature's investigation. Again, very questionable judgment in someone who aspires to be first in line to the presidency.

The Attorney General's investigation quickly turned up evidence that Palin's initial denials were false. Multiple members of her staff had raised Wooten's employment with Monegan. Indeed, the state police had a recording of one of her deputies pushing Monegan to fire Wooten. That evidence forced Palin to change her story. Palin said that this was the first she'd heard of it and insisted the deputy wasn't acting at her behest, even though the trascript of the recorded call clearly suggested that he was. (Hear the audio here.)

Just yesterday, Monegan gave an interview to the Washington Post in which he said that not only Palin's aides, but Palin's husband and Palin herself had repeatedly raised the Wooten issue with him and pressured him to fire him. And now he says he has emails that Palin sent him about the matter. (In an interesting sidelight, that may end up telling us a lot, Monegan says no one from the McCain campaign ever contacted him in the vetting process.)

The investigator appointed by the state legislature began trying to arrange a time to depose Gov. Palin last week -- in other words, in the final days before her selection.

So let's put this all together.

We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. It's called an abuse of power. There is ample evidence that Palin used her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. When his boss refused to fire him, she fired his boss. She first denied Monegan's claims of pressure to fire Wooten and then had to amend her story when evidence proved otherwise. The available evidence now suggests that she 1) tried to have an ex-relative fired from his job for personal reasons, something that was clearly inappropriate, and perhaps illegal, though possibly understandable in human terms, 2) fired a state official for not himself acting inappropriately by firing the relative, 3) lied to the public about what happened and 4) continues to lie about what happened.
These are, to put it mildly, not the traits or temperament you want in someone who could hold the executive power of the federal government.

Howie P.S.: USA Today says "Palin backed 'bridge to nowhere' in 2006" even though she claimed on Friday in Ohio that

"I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere."

Oops.

"Palin"

2008-08-31T05:48:00.000-07:00

David Frum (National Review) (former George W. Bush speech writer):

The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing.

John McCain wanted a woman: good.

He wanted to keep conservatives and pro-lifers happy: naturally.

He wanted someone who looked young and dynamic: smart.

And he discovered that he could not reconcile all these imperatives with the stated goal of finding a running mate qualified to assume the duties of the presidency "on day one."

Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I'd guess that John McCain does not have a much better sense of who she is, what she believes, and the extent of her abilities than my enthusiastic friends over at the Corner. It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.

Here's I fear the worst harm that may be done by this selection. The McCain campaign's slogan is "country first." It's a good slogan, and it aptly describes John McCain, one of the most self-sacrificing, gallant, and honorable men ever to seek the presidency.

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Sarah Shakes It Up

2008-08-30T04:44:00.001-07:00

"The choosing of a vice president"--The Jed Report.

"Vetting Palin: An Easy Guide to What's Smart and What's Not"--Al Giordano.

"Defining Sarah Palin"--The Caucus (NY Times political blog).

"Sarah Heath Palin, an Outsider Who Charms"--NY Times.

"A dissenting opinion on Palin"--Geov Parrish (HA).

Howie P.S.: While they are "unpackaging" Palin they can continue doing the same with McCain.

"Sarah Palin: Dick Cheney In A Dress"

2008-08-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

Reality Catcher (H/t to Steve Elliott):

Sarah Palin, bear slayer. Photo credit: GrizzlyBay.org

In his latest move, with his trademark blend of panicked desperation and political calculation, John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
McCain's anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-environment right wing extremist pick for vice president -- particularly important in view of Sen. McCain's advanced years and failing health -- reveals the depth of his cynicism and condescension towards American voters, women in particular.

Palin has signed on the Bush administration's economic policies, opposes increasing the minimum wage, and opposes equal pay for equal work regardless of gender. And this is McCain's way of reaching out to women and the working class?

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," said Bill Burton of the Obama campaign. "Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same.''

Gov. Sarah Palin
Palin, a former small-town mayor with a taste for mooseburgers, has more experience catching fish than dealing with foreign policy or national affairs. I hate to mention the Peter Principle, but this lady is in way over her head. Her level of expertise is more appropriate at a city council meeting than on the Council of Foreign Relations. Even now, the Alaska governor is under an ethical cloud.

McCain passed over many other better qualified prospects, simply because in his insulting attempt to pander to the female vote, it seems that the most important qualification to be his running mate is possessing a vagina.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Even in that regard, the depth of McCain's cynicism is revealed by the fact that he picked the distinctly under-qualified -- but very photogenic -- Palin and passed over Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator who is very knowledgeable about the military, but is, unlike Palin, not a former beauty queen. (Palin was a runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant.)

Palin brings a strong anti-abortion stance to the ticket and opposes gay marriage - constitutionally banned in Alaska before her time. As governor, Palin vetoed a bill that would have granted benefits to gay state employees and their partners.

Palin with her kill. Photo credit: The Weekly Standard
Palin lives in Wasilla, a town of 6,500 about 30 miles north of Anchorage, with her husband, Todd, a blue-collar North Slope oil worker who won the 2007 Iron Dog, a 1,900-mile snowmobile race. He is part Yup'ik Eskimo.

She is often seen walking the Alaska Capitol halls in black or red power suits while reading text messages on Blackberry screens in each hand. She made a recent appearance in a photo layout in fashion magazine Vogue -- I kid you not. (Full disclosure: the following image was Photoshopped, but the Vogue appearance is real.)

Take me seriously. I wear glasses.

Palin's reputation has come into question with an investigation recently launched by a legislative panel into whether she sacked Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper. Trooper Mike Wooten went through an ugly divorce from Palin's sister.

Former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan says that since Gov. Sarah Palin took office, members of her administration and family pressured him to fire a Palmer Alaska State Trooper to whom her sister was involved in a bitter child custody battle.

The governor denied orchestrating the dozens of telephone calls made by her husband and members of her administration to Wooten's bosses.

Palin is an avid proponent of petroleum development, in tune with McCain. In fact, she's even more "drill here, drill now" crazy than McCain, favoring drilling in Alaska's protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. McCain opposes it.

“Senator McCain’s choice for a running mate is beyond belief," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. "By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies.

“Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment," Schlickeisen continued. "In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration."

As governor, Palin also opposed designating polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, fearing that step would get in the way of a proposed natural gas pipeline tapping the North Slope's vast reserves.

Before becoming governor, her entire political experience consisted of terms as Wasilla's mayor and councilwoman and a stint as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Howie P.S.: More on Palin from Electoral Vote.com:

However, the conventional wisdom dismissed her for a variety of reasons that are still true. First, some reporter is going to ask him: "Of the hundreds of governors, senators, congressmen, and business leaders available to you, do you really think that a 44-year old person who has two years' experience as governor of a thinly populated state is the best person in the country to be President of the United States after yourself?" After all, she knows nothing of foreign policy and not even that much about domestic policy except that drilling for oil is a good thing.

Second, picking her destroys McCain's strongest argument against Obama: he has no experience. Little as he has (8 years in the Illinois state senate and 3 years in the U.S. Senate) it is more than she has (4 years as mayor of Wasilla, a town then of 5,000 people, and 2 years as governor). How is he going to argue that she is qualified to be President and Obama isn't. He can say experience doesn't matter (and a case can be made that it doesn't) but there goes his whole argument against Obama--lack of experience.

Third, like many Alaska politicians these days, Palin is involved in an ethics scandal. Her sister was married to a state trooper named Mike Wooten. The two of them got divorced and were involved in a bitter child custody battle. Sarah wanted to help her sister so she asked the state commissioner of public safety, Walt Monegan, to fire Wooten. He refused, so she fired him. He protested so loudly that the Republican-controlled state legislature appointed a retired prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, to investigate whether she abused her power as governor. Needless to say, Monegan is about to get a small army of reporters camped on his doorstep. It seems very strange indeed that McCain wants to be associated with someone under investigation for an ethics violation. The Democrats are going to say: "More of the same." Time will tell how this will play out. One can already envision the Vice Presidential TV debate featuring the long-time member and now chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee facing someone has has been governor for 2 years. Romney or Ridge could have held their own against Biden, but Palin is going to have a tough time.

In short, McCain is gambling that Palin's support among conservatives (where he needs help) and disgruntled Clinton supporters will offset voters who don't see her as qualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Despite the closeness of the national polls, McCain probably realized that he is behind (see the second graph on the Electoral coll. graph page) and needed something to shake things up. This might just do it.

Ari Melber (The Nation) takes a more balanced view: "Palin as McCain's Greatest Move."

"Crowd bubbles over with enthusiasm on a glorious night"

2008-08-29T03:07:00.001-07:00

From left to right: Erik Wright, Kay Keovongphet, Ashley Thomas, and Jake Hernandez cheer at the conclusion of Barack Obama's speech. (not sure of the ID of the man on the (right). Senator Obama's Campaign for Change hosts a party at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle for supporters to watch his speech on TV, broadcast from the National Democratic Convention in Denver, CO.

Joel Connelly (Seattle P-I):

DENVER -- No lobbyist party at this week's Democratic convention approached the mood of celebration and good cheer among ordinary folk riding home from Barack Obama's acceptance speech on the F line of Denver's light rail system.
"I feel, like, connected to this politics campaign like I haven't ever been before," said a young woman named Sierra Velasquez, joking of her close encounter with a confetti gun.

It was a cool, glorious night. Passengers bid goodnight to strangers as they decamped at the Arapahoe and Belleview stations. "Obama! All right!" shouted one group of teenagers.

The F-line crowd had no idea what cable TV pundits were saying, but several were pleased at the toughness of Obama's words.

"He's not going to take the usual (bleep) the other guys hand out," Gene Russell said. "My neighbor is involved in politics. He got me a ticket. I almost didn't go. I went when I heard Stevie Wonder was going to be there. But Obama, man, he's tough."

The western suburbs of Denver are generally considered the key battleground for Colorado's nine electoral votes. It's an upper-middle-class land of soccer moms and minivans. The F line, by contrast, goes south beside a freeway as jammed as our Interstate 405 at rush hour.

Some teens and 20-somethings on the train confessed to being, at best, irregular voters until Obama came along. Colorado still has more registered Republicans than Democrats, but the Democrats have dramatically narrowed the gap.

"I heard him earlier this year -- he moved my heart," said Bill, 19, a college student who would not give his last name. Bill grabbed his heart, got a laugh from his girlfriend, and joked, "She cried during tonight's speech."

It's likely that the locals on the F-line will soon be contacted by Obama's campaign. The acceptance speech has been treated as a recruiting tool by a campaign that has built the largest grass-roots donor base in American history.

Asked about John McCain, a teenager named Christy gave a one-word answer: "Old!" She was prompted to go to the speech by her mother, and welcomed Obama's promise to make college more affordable.

And, despite Obama's reference to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech 45 years ago, the F line crew had only the vaguest knowledge of the 1963 March on Washington.

The fans on F line had to show ruggedness during the day. They waited endlessly to go through security perimeters, were in Invesco Field far longer than for a football game. The choreography was great, but still they were looking at just one guy far below.

"Doesn't matter," another 20-something said. "What

he said made us feel close to him."

Oh yes, and one more point. The recently minted Obama fans were happy the convention was over. Part of the light rail line was shut down all week as part of the security blanket around the Pepsi Center, where Democratic delegates convened to make history.

It was Denver's first national convention since the Democrats nominated the great populist orator William Jennings Bryan here exactly a century ago.
Party politics

If Democrats clean up in November, Gov. Chris Gregoire will ask Obama if he will let her "vet some names" for the often-overlooked and often-incompetently filled Cabinet job of U.S. secretary of energy.

The reason is the long-behind-schedule cleanup of radioactive waste on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation along the Columbia River in Eastern Washington. "Every new administration starts over at Hanford. We can't afford that anymore," Gregoire said.

The governor also suggested her 2004 Democratic primary rival -- King County Executive Ron Sims -- as talent for an Obama administration ... "if Ron is interested in anything having to do with housing."

New administrations must fill thousands of jobs. Appointees can reflect favorably or disastrously on a president. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had a successful director, James Lee Witt, in the Clinton years. It was filled with political hacks under President Bush.

Leading Democrats from this state say they will use chits with Obama not to put friends in high places, but to wash corners of the federal government clean of cronyism.

Washington has a history of influential congressional delegations. It has, however, been 29 years since the last Cabinet secretary from the state -- Transportation Secretary Brock Adams -- was fired by President Carter.

Despite loads of name-dropping by Seattle newspapers, prominent Republicans were bypassed during selection of both Bush Cabinets.

Whom will Obama owe?

Gregoire gave him a well-timed endorsement -- as the state's leading feminists were supporting Hillary Clinton -- and has worked his cause at this week's Democratic National Convention.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., was an early Obama backer. Smith was warned that he was putting his political career on the line.

Barack Obama