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21
Downsides of Palin from David Frum of the National Review
tcbishop12This is an amazing confession. David Frum is, of course, a Canadian-born neoconservative and journalist active in the both US and Canadian political arenas. I know him from his work several years ago as a former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
Here's what he says:
FTA: 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?
26
A Woman on the Ballot? Is that all it takes?
Excerpts FTA: "Put a woman on the ticket and the sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits is going to hop on the dogsled and mush for McCain all the way to Washington -- where Palin has never been before in her life by the way."
"I don't presume to speak for all women, but I'm more interested in having a vice president the rest of the world takes seriously, someone who is prepared to take the wheel if the boss dozes off -- not Miss Congeniality."
"while gender was a factor in women's passionate support for Clinton, it wasn't everything. They supported her because she's strong, experienced, mature. She paid her dues, in the U.S. Senate, not on the Wasilla city council, population 6,700".
"But if Clinton's supporters were paying attention to their candidate on the campaign trail, if they share her passion for providing universal health care, ending the war and preserving the rights that women have fought so long and hard to secure, then there's no way they'll be able to substitute McCain's woman candidate for their woman candidate."
I"Are you kidding?" she said. "She's anti-abortion. Can we start there?"
79
Sarah Seltzer: A Feminist Appalled by Palin
A lot of feminists out there are appalled by the cynicism and condescension inherent in this choice. It's as though the McCain camp believes our irrational she-hormones will lead us, like sheep, to pull the lever for any candidate who looks like us--even if she has a strong record, as Palin does, of standing against women's interests.
He hopes to court Hillary Clinton supporters with a woman VP who said on camera that she didn't like Hillary's "whining" about gender issues, a woman with unpopular, far-right positions on reproductive justice issues and LGBT rights.
5
Hillary supporters thinking Sarah Palin
(Don't Digg Up Story, this is Rebuttal)No they're not.
McCain clearly sees the power of women voters in this election but has just as clearly failed to support any of the issues that they care about. His choice for vice president only reinforces that failure.
This is about the most insulting decision John McCain could have made, if he somehow thinks this is the way he can lure Hillary Clinton supporters to vote for him. Do they think that, just because their candidate has ovaries, women will vote for McCain?
It takes about two nanoseconds to examine Sarah Palin's record to see that she doesn't share an iota of the core values that motivate Hillary supporters. This is like when my mother sees an interesting article in the newspaper about a musician. She cuts it out and sends it to me with a post-it note saying, "Since you're a musician, I thought this would interest you."
McCain is saying with this decision: Look! She's a woman, just like you! So vote for me.
Hillary supporters were looking for him to choose a moderate, centrist Republican who isn't a hothead on abortion rights. Instead, he chose a hothead from the far conservative side of the party that is a hothead on abortion rights, and has worked against equal pay for equal work (Alaska ranks dead last in the disparity between men and women).
Not only will McCain lose centrist Democrats with this decision, he's probably going to lose the Republican center as well.
preneel
41
Sarah Who? Proud Mayor of Wasilla, Pop. 5,500
There are street signs in Wasilla with bullet holes in them. And quite a few holes in Pallin's "squeaky clean" resume as well.
57
Obama campaign should ram Rove's quote down McCain's throat
I was thinking the very same thing this morning. Shameful pandering for women's votes for a woman who is anti-feminist. How stupid does McCain think we are?
Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five, Madame Mayor of a town of 9,000. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. She is also facing a formal ethics investigation calling for her impeachment. Nice.
Who vetted this person?
What's that? Oh. Oh, yes. Perfectly clear. Now I see. If you haven't spent 5 1/2 years in a hellhole for your country like John McCain, how can you dare question this choice.
For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.
58
Mittens Romney and Tim Pawlenty ENRAGED by McCain's VP pick
For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.
130
Carter: McCain 'milking' POW time
We obviously honor and respect McCain's service and the five-and-a-half years of horror that he went through at the hands of the North Vietnamese; but it's not an excuse for everything. He has already used it to explain away his infidelities in his first marriage. He's used it to defend his healthcare plan. He used it to deflect accusations of having skirted the rules of the Saddleback forum. He uses it to deflect criticism that he's out of touch and can't remember how many houses he owns.
He uses it for everything. And by itself, it doesn't qualify him for Jack.
It's time for the Senator to stop cheapening the war experiences of thousands of vets and his fellow POWs, and his own as well, by stretching the boundaries of logic to make his POW status a wild-card rebuttal to all accusations or an answer to all difficult questions.
I'm tired of having my intelligence insulted by McCain, Rove, Schmidt. Enough already.
40
Good article on Palin-gate
Sarah who? is still under investigation
Here are excepts of the phone call from longtime Palin aide Frank Bailey to Alaska State Troopers Lt. Rodney Dial on Feb. 29 of this year.
http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/493360.html
Evidence of what has been called a "smoking gun" conversation, and other calls made by Palin's aides only recently surfaced as the attorney general started an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding her firing of Monegan, her brother in law embroiled in a custody battle with her sister.
A special investigator hired by the Legislature is about to investigate the firing and a legislator has been quoted in a newspaper story talking about impeachment.
God, McCain! Are you that desperate or what?
37
AP Writer Pans Obama speech, used to work for Bush.
AP says: We welcome your feedback.
Please review the frequently asked questions and consult the options below to ensure your message is directed to the most appropriate address.
When sending e-mail messages to The Associated Press, do not send attachments. As a result of the huge volume of e-mail received daily, we may be unable to provide a response. However, all comments are read and taken into consideration.
For general questions and comments;or to contact a specific employee: info@ap.org
Letter sent drafted - in part - from the article:
Dear Associated Press: (info@ap.org)
In May 2008, Ron Fournier was named the acting Washington bureau chief, replacing his "mentor" Sandy Johnson. Since taking over the position, Fournier has led a dramatic shift in the AP's policy, moving it away from the neutral and objective tone it had become known for and toward a more opinionated style that would make judgments when conflicting opinions were presented in a story.
On August 23, 2008, following U.S. Senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's announcement of his selection of Senator Joe Biden as a running mate, Fournier wrote a widely circulated piece entitled "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence". A Washington monthly columnist described the piece as "mirror[ing] the Republican line with minimal variation".
Tonight, AP's reporter, Charles Babington, slammed Barack Obama’s great speech at Denver’s Invesco Field. He deserves to be fired for his grossly inaccurate reporting. AP should be ashamed and issue an apology for allowing him to write this story and publishing it.
Keith Olbermann called it out immediately following Obama’s Speech live on MSNBC:
"[Babington's AP story] is analysis that strikes me as having born no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched. None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and websites is a remarkable failure of that news organization. Charles Babington. Find new work."
Charles Babington has been exposed as a former Bush adviser by Mercury Rising. I find it odd that the story was supposedly written, edited and published within only 26 minutes of Obama’s speech.
In the first place, it was grossly irresponsible for the AP to assign an ex-Bush advisor to write the "lead story" on the biggest speech of the Democratic National Convention.
Here’s part of what Charles Babington actually wrote, from his AP story:
Barack Obama, whose campaign theme is “change we can believe in,” promised Thursday to “spell out exactly what that change would mean.” But instead of dwelling on specifics, he laced the crowning speech of his long campaign with the type of rhetorical flourishes that Republicans mock and the attacks on John McCain that Democrats cheer. The country saw a candidate confident in his existing campaign formula: tie McCain tightly to President Bush, and remind voters why they are unhappy with the incumbent.
That’s more than an opinion, more than bias. It is, simply, false.
Is Associated Press now consistently stooping to deceit?
Babington further ignores the universal praise the speech received for its attention to detail in outlining specifics, even from many conservative commentators.
Fire or reassign Charles Babington. And issue a retraction.
T. Bishop
Los Angeles
83
Obama reaches next milestone on symbolic anniversary
King's dream for a land where his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" has been meditated upon for generations.
Now on the threshhold of the realization of King's dream, we come to it: I believe that Obama will be our next president because his support comes from a widely diverse group of people, from some like me -- a white middle class 54-year-old lifelong Republican -- to traditional Democrats, blacks, young people, women and men of all races and beliefs.
We are united in our hope for a better future.
I believe that our disparate group of individuals outnumber those firmly stuck in the past.
We will win if we hang tough together and tell the truth.
At the core of the Obama candidacy is the belief that freethinking openhearted people in America outnumber cretins, racists, the willfully ignorant, the gleefully hate-filled, the small minded, the backward looking, jingoistic morons, the frightened, the addicts of brain-wrecking soundbites, and above all those stuck in a pattern of thinking that leads inevitably to shrunken horizons.
In Obama we have a choice that will set the stage for the foreseeable American future. On the one hand Obama faces McCain; the badly confused and aging war making enthusiast, the next "prophet" of American exceptionalism, a true believer in military sacrifice as the highest value, a candidate lacking moral or ethical values, bought and paid for by special interests and Big Oil.
Without the support of the racists, the stupid, the undereducated and the perpetually paranoid r McCain would not stand a chance. McCain- Rove-Schmidt-Fox-Corsi count on the worst in our national character in the same way that oncologists count on new cases of cancer -- pay lip service is to the cure, but thank God for the sickness!
This election is a moral test of our national character.
If we fail this test, if we allow the mainstream media to derail the process with their insanely tawdry, lowest common denominator soundbites, if we allow the McCain's thinly veiled racism to triumph, we will have not only turned the clock back but slammed the door on the best chance our country has been given in generations.
It is no accident that the rest of the world is so incredibly interested in this year's American election.
Obama is liked (actually loved) all over the world. And that, John McCain, is "popularity", not mere "celebrity" - and there is a difference. Look up the definitions while you're also looking up honor.
What an incredible opportunity for us to elect someone who brings such a favorable worldwide standing with him to day one of his presidency.
How do we really make America safer? For a start, put a president in charge who is liked and respected and who changes the way others see us for the better.
It is up to those of us who support Obama to fight like hell and make sure that we do not become infected by the insidious despair inherent in the arguments made by those whose bellicose rhetoric presupposes that America will be hated forever.
Which line would you rather be standing in; a line leading to a future where America is liked and respected again, where our president represents the best about us, or the line back to a world where we are disrespected hated and, moreover, hate ourselves?
Let us state our case openly. Let us trust most of our fellow Americans to rise to the occasion. The choice is clear. The time for euphemisms is past. Let's confront our worst national faults head on. This year's contest for the presidency is between all that is worst about America and all that is greatest.
Now is the time for each of us to stand tall. We are here to enlarge hope, to add to the sum of human goodness.To prove the thing exists.And however futile each individual act of courage or generosity, self-sacrifice or grace may seem - it still proves that goodness exists.
Each act adds to the fund.
4341
Incredible! - McCain's Prickly TIME Interview
Want an example of the media handicapping this election and the extra work we have to do to elect Senator Obama (and we *will* elect Senator Obama as our next President, make no mistake about that)?
To get a clear picture of the media handicapping this election, just reverse the situation, and imagine of Sen. Obama had given an interview just like this.
It would be all over the airwaves, on all the talk shows, and every pundit would be talking about how Obama had just self-destructed and had no chance for the Presidency. The fall-out would last from now through the election.
That's viewing things clearly. Because - and most regrettably --this will pass into obscurity for McCain, like most of his other snits and gaffes. But -- I am beginning to get the sense from journalists as we gear up for the final two intense months of this campaign -- that they are sick and tired of pimping for BS -- having candidates pee on their faces and tell them it's only raining. I believe karma works (although never on my schedule), and I think McCain is just beginning to feel its effect.
Finally -- journalists like to believe they are a part of writing history -- and which history would they like to write? The election of an inspiring, intelligent, savvy, and principled young leader as the first African American President of the United States? Or the election of the oldest fart to ever seek the office?
25
View All ShoutsBush's 2004 temple
check out the columns...Why don't people get the symbolism of the anniversary of today? Obama is speaking on the 45th anniversary of the "I have a dream" speech, he's from the Land of Lincoln and Lincoln was the President that freed the slaves....
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