Sarah and John, Together At Last

Journalism

jumps the shark, surrenders public responsibility to The Daily Show.
Experienced script writers needed.

Hmmm

The motion requesting sealing the divorce case of Scott Richter, Todd Palin's former business partner and Sarah's alleged love interest, was denied.
Stay tuned at your supermarket checkout line as the National Enquirer's crack scandal team continues.
By the way, I have it on good authority that John Edwards has cancelled all public appearances between now and Nov. 4.

How soon will she withdraw? Money?

UPDATE: 8/07/08 Debunked. But there's always that other business partner.

Stay Calm

Ignore the broadcast media. Remember there's a lot more going on out there than anyone (except contrarienne) is telling you about. Courage.
I'm pondering. Should we start a pool naming the date Palin withdraws?

Samantha Bee!

Chhhoice? Sayit!

Calm Down

This is all before the Palin speech but, seriously, don't panic. She was aiming it all to the base. Focus groups show Indies turned off.

Next couple days, we'll know for sure. Hillary's in Florida a tomorrow, heh.

CORREX: Hillary's in Florida on Monday.

September 4, 2008

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama continues to hold a lead over John McCain, 49% to 42%, in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update.

Just In Case You Missed the Main Theme

of the Obama's campaign against McSame.

Barack!

Today's post-Sarah news conference.
 
The campaign has received $8 million in donations since Palin was named.
They expect it to top $10 million by the time McCain is done speaking tonight.
Kick 'em some love.

Sarah!

I wasn't going to post this bio video of Palin that the R's had to drop last night because Rudy ran long. (I turned him down, I just couldn't watch or listen to Rudy. They all pretty much strike me that way now.)
But I wanted to post my favorite comment about it so thought I'd give it to you in case you're interested. No, I'm not planning on watching.





Comment O' Teh Day:
I keep feeling sorry for the fucking moose! Anyone who's ever seen one in the wild knows how awesome a moose is. The thought of this Hooters waitress blowing one away so she can feed her wretched little tribe of hillbillies infuriates me.
Posted by silver heron

Just drips, doesn't it. Yum, yup, yup. Palinesque, I swould say.. 

Cindy Fashionista

Vanity Fair examines the outfits so you don't have to:

One of the persistent memes in the Republican line of attack against Barack Obama is the notion that he is an elitist, whereas the G.O.P. represent real working Americans like Levi “F-in’ Redneck” Johnston.

Figures Cindy's Monday night show-up ensemble was worth about $299,000, slightly above the market price of the average American home. This Bud's for you, hon.


Umm, no, not that one.

Nah-no.

This one from Monday night at the RNC.

TDS

Once again, the Daily Show does what no one in the mainstream media can accomplish. Research!
Oh, the horror  hypocrisy.

They Dinn't, Tell Me They Dinn't

John McCain's campaign says it might sue National Enquirer for its story alleging Sarah Palin had affair with husband's business partner.

From CBS News' John Bentley:

(ST. PAUL, MINN.) – John McCain’s campaign threatened legal action against the National Enquirer today for running a story about McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, allegedly having an affair with her husband’s business partner.

“The smearing of the Palin family must end. The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Gov. Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie,” said McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt.

Comment O' Teh Day: John McCaine reads the National Enquirer so you don't have to.

Contrarienne is not amused.


They've got a theme song, too.

Oh, Noes, More Sarah!

Palin Went to See Ivana Trump at Costco, Saying Alaska was So Desperate for “Any Semblance of Glamour and Culture”. “Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana. And there, at J.C. Penney’s cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist. ‘We want to see Ivana,’ said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, ‘because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.’” [Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), 4/3/96]

It's all here.

What time is that speech tonight? I have to watch.

Ahh, At Last, Some New State Polls

Check out Elizabeth Dole, too. Heh.

If Obama's leads in Iowa and Ohio were to hold through November, it would be impossible for John McCain to win unless he could pick up some Kerry states.

Reasons Why V.P. Palin Doomed

She's a liar. She was never vetted and now that it's happening, it's not working out. She uses her political power for personal gain. (One of her aides just backed down from testifying on Troopergate, a day after the McCain team landed in Alaska.) Whew!

Oh, and Peggy Noonan said, "It's over."

And she supported the Alaska First secessionist movement that her husband was a member of. (The 80-year-old founder was killed in 1993 in a "plastic explosives deal gone bad!") And she headed up corrupt Sen. Ted Stevens' 527, a job she took after leaving a state-appointed position because it was too hard and took up too much time.

Soap opera? No, Jerry Springer.

McCain, Cynical?

Mike Murphy on the Palin pick.
" You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical."

Where was McCain today? Why at the airport,, greeting the Baby Daddy. My money's on an onstage wedding tomorrow night right before McCain's speech. Why else would he be there?

What They Really Think of Palin

McCain supporters Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan don't know their mics are on. Heh.

Why McCain Must Win

From ABC News:

Looking to the future but with one eye on the past, Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with "a fine-toothed comb" and pursue criminal charges if necessary.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation," he said, "they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution - out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no one, no attorney general, no president, no one is above the law."

OMG! Bristol's Preggers?

Bristol who?

Sarah!

Panderer Palin: For the Bridge to Nowhere before she was agin' it. Yup, yup.

McCain/Palin = Bush

Sarah won't testify about Troopergate unless the present legislative investigation is shut down and turned over to a board made up of people she appointed.
Does this sound familiar?

NAMECALLING 101: Stonewall Sarah

Why McCain's Campaign Is the Way It Is

Two words. Steve Schmidt.
He's a Karl Rove protege with a long history of bottom feeding politics. Basic tactic is attack your opponent's strengths, run on your weaknesses by turning them into strengths.
So make it look like the parenthood of Palin's baby is being questioned by others and use it, use it, use it.
Josh Marshall got the inside scoop of what's going on from someone he knows and trusts, and I pass it along to you.
Nugget:

First of all, that's the first time I've heard anyone in the campaign/political press throw out the notion of paternity tests. So Schmidt is to blame for bringing that issue into the mainstream. If anyone is smearing the candidate, it's Schmidt. This is as cynical a tactic as I've ever seen in politics.
Secondly, how can it be a "smear" if it was during an off the record lunch with McCain campaign aides?
Thirdly, hey, colleagues, you're on notice: Steve Schmidt does not respect "off the record." Watch your backs, my friends.

I'm Not Watching This Convention

And you don't have to either. Just go here.

It's early yet, I know, but thus far it seems the overwhelming tone of the Republican Convention is nostalgia. Shot after shot of a room full of white people cheering shout-outs to Theodore Roosevelt, applauding commemorations of aging Medal of Honor winners, misting up at video footage of Ronald Reagan.  Every image up on that giant screen painted in sepia. And the grouchy tone--here's somnolent Fred Thompson lambasting the "Georgetown cocktail party circuit"--evokes Abe Simpson more than Abe Lincoln.
The most telling sign of a party stuck somewhere in the past was likely unintentional. During the Reagan tribute, the familiar litany of the 40th president's triumps concluded with a remark that Reagan had "saved our century." Indeed. But what about this century?
-Michael Schaffer

The Third Rail. Obama Goes There.

If you watched Obama's acceptance speech, as I did, you might also have noticed he barely approached the right to choose. I was disappointed because I remain convinced that many women considering voting for McCain don't know how anti-abortion he is.
Apparently Obama has decided to tell them.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Barack Obama has launched a broadside against John McCain’s opposition to abortion rights and moved one of the most divisive issues in modern American politics to the airwaves on a large scale for the first time in this presidential campaign.

Obama’s new radio ad, airing widely in at least seven swing states, tells voters McCain “will make abortion illegal.” It’s airing as McCain courts female voters with the addition of the staunchly anti-abortion governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, to his ticket.

Palingate

Okay, today is nothing like yesterday, but I'll try to give you the high points:
*Bristol's Baby Daddy left Tues. a.m. to attend the RNC (you word on a wedding date, but presumably that could be the purpose, otherwise WTF?)
*Todd Palin, Sarah's husband, has been a member of an Alaskan nativist/secessionist group since 2002, although he dropped it when she started running for statewide office in 2006.
Oh, hell, this makes me tired. Just go here, read the headlines.

Meg Ryan's Back

and apparently has been able to repair whatever damage the tabs claim her plastic surgeon caused. Great cast in this movie. Did you know that Claire Booth Luce, who wrote The Women, had a fling with Raold Dahl, the British children's author who later married Patricia Neal, who had an affair with Gary Cooper?
Clearly, you were never a movie buff. Quick, what was Cary Grant's real name.* Okay, how about Bob Hope.*

* Archie Leach
* Leslie (something)



And oh, my dear, you should see the hats.

Bingo!

The McCain camp today disputed rumors that presumptive vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was ever registered with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party by releasing years of voter registration history . . . but it looks like that doesn't apply to her husband.

This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.

UPDATE:

But wait, spouses are off limits, unless of course they happen to be married to a Democrat.

Polls

Couldn't decide whether to post about this touchy subject again, but what the hey, it's all good, baby. Landslide, I tells ya, landslide! Thanks, Sarah-pooh.
Caveat: National polls mean nothing. Daily rolling polls mean nothing. Wait for the state polls. But we can dream.
From Josh Marshall:

Obama's bounce appears to be continuing and expanding during the RNC. And if you look closer at the numbers, the trend is not so much McCain losing support as a clear movement of hitherto undecideds into Obama's column.

• Pres '08
  Sep 2 Gallup
  Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 42%
• Pres '08
  Sep 2 Rasmussen
  Obama (D) 51%, McCain (R) 45%
• Pres '08
  Sep 2 Hotline/Diageo
  Obama (D) 48%, McCain (R) 39%
• Pres '08
  Sep 2 ARG
  Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 43%

It's a Gamble, But Hey, What Isn't?

Intrade, the online prediction market (Yes, Virginia, you can bet on the future, that's what gambling is) is selling the chance that Sarah Palin will drop out at 13.9 a share.
Trading opened on Tuesday at 18, meaning 18 percent of traders believed she'd drop out before the election.
It's tempting.

First, Ignore All Polls

Especially daily rolling polls, and national polls.

Second, take a look at the first big post-convention bounce. It's the first 50 percent mark Obama has received, and it's among registered voters, better than voters with a record of voting in previous presidential elections given the registration success this year.
Anyway, for what it's worth:

In the head-to-head race between the candidates, Obama now leads 50%-43% among registered voters. In the USA TODAY poll taken Aug. 21-23, the Illinois senator held a four-point lead.

Sarah!

Erm, let's see:

--Reformer Palin is revealed to have been director of indicted Sen. Ted Stevens' 527 for a couple years
--Palin has lawyered up for the Legislature's Troopergate investigation, in which she is supposedly going to be deposed within weeks
--The R's have sent lawyers north to vet her
---and, oh yeah, her 17 year old daughter is pregnant (some blogs say by 26-year-old, stat. rape anybody?)

all in one day. Who needs a hurricane?
My money is she won't last the week. The R's just can't afford it, they have to have a v.p. nominee by Thursday.

UPDATE: Turns out the baby daddy is 18.

Caribou Barbie

Oh, it's probably Photoshopped like the Vogue cover, but it just goes to show you what some of us are willing to waste our time on.

Sawdust, Lawn Clippings, Old Magazines

We should be more like termites.
Or something.

If we could turn wood waste into fuel with even a fraction of the termite’s efficiency, we could run our economy on sawdust, lawn clippings, and old magazines.

'As a Proud Vaginal-American...'

I love Samantha Bee.

OMG!

From Josh Marshall at TPM:

Just Really Odd

We haven't touched it. But you probably know there have been internet-based rumors claiming that Sarah Palin's newborn son Trig is actually the son of her 17 year old daughter, Bristol. In an effort to knock down these rumors, Palin and the McCain camp have now put out a statement claiming that Bristol Palin is currently five months pregnant with another child, which she plans to keep and that she will soon marry the father.

I really do not know what to make of this story. But we wanted to keep you up on the latest and particularly the McCain/Palin statement.

Sarah!

Pre-Palin, but it's the 80s hair, honey!