Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Is McCain Getting Set to Dump Palin?


I love the 2008 presidential campaign. It's not only the most exciting, most historic and one of the most hotly contested races ever, it's starting to become fun too. That is, if you're a Democrat. If you're a Republican, I suspect you're not having such a great time.

The Democrats are coming off a kick-ass convention week where their rock-star nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, has jumped about 9 points in the polls following his brilliant acceptance speech. To the contrary, this week began with a postponement of the much-hyped RNC convention amid controversy, scandal and humiliation. The public reason was Hurricane Gustav. The real reason is more likely the continuing shitstorm created by Sen. John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. That and the embarrassment President Bush, McCain and the Republican party still face over the government's abysmal reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In fact, the anniversary of the mega-storm which hit the Gulf is almost three years to the day of the RNC's first convention day. Embarassingly, on that day, Bush and McCain were in Phoenix celebrating Grandpa John's 69th birthday. Yeah, I'd say this week's delay is to give pause so the party can regroup and figure out just what its next steps are, in particular in dealing with the Palin controversy.

And the Palin mess is getting uglier by the minute. The NY Times Tuesday reports that, in addition to Palin's daughter being five months pregnant, she's hired a private lawyer to defend her in her abuse-of-power investigation; was a member of a political party seeking Alaska's secession from the Union; and that her husband Todd was arrested 22 years ago for drunken driving. Jeez, the Republicans sure have a distorted view of "family values," huh? With McCain's temper, we can only imagine how much yelling and screaming must be going on behind the scenes right now.

But McCain likely has only himself to blame. Word on the street is that no one in his vice presidential selection committee but him wanted Palin. He wanted his pal Sen. Joe Lieberman, but hastily switched plans last-minute in a likely act of desperation following Obama and the Dems Denver blowout. His move, purely political to seduce Sen. Hillary Clinton's disaffected women supporters, hardly is a "country first" strategy. If McCain was/is so concerned about country, he wouldn't be pushing to put it in the hands of the very inexperienced Palin in the event something were to happen to him. He'd give us someone like Sen. Joe Biden, the Dems' VP nominee.

So what is McCain and the party to do? Don't be shocked if there's a surprise announcement early this week from Palin, something to the tune of:

"It is with deep regret that I am withdrawing my name from consideration as the party's nominee for vice president of the United States of America. Given my daughter's pregnancy, the difficulty in raising a Down syndrome child, and the ongoing personal investigation in Alaska, I feel there are too many distractions right now that would not allow me to effectively fill my role as vice president, both over the next 2 months as Sen. John McCain's running mate, and after he is elected president. It is my duty therefore to step aside so that Sen. McCain and the party can replace me with someone who can and will be able to devote 100% of his or her time to this extremely important position. Americans deserve that. Thank you."

Deja vu all over again. Sarah Palin/Harriet Miers. The names are interchangeable. And just like Bush did in replacing Miers with Samuel Alito Jr., Grandpa John will quickly replace her with someone who'll really get conservatives excited. Someone like Gen. David Petraeus, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Gov. Bobby Jindal or, yes, even Lieberman. All in time for the RNC convention to remain a right-winger's dream event. But, while he'll be getting rid of one problem, he'll be creating another: the judgement issue. Either way, he' a loser.

Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having?


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80 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Given my daughter's pregnancy, the difficulty in raising a Down syndrome child, ..."

Can you be any more sexist to assume that the husband can't take care of the family while Palin assumes the role of Vice President ?

Do YOU take care of your children and work ?

Anonymous said...

liberals are upset because they can't use all those romney/guiliani/huckabee jokes they worked all summer to put together.

Anonymous said...

Oh no! Her husband was drunk driving ??

YOUR Presidential candidate has admitted using drugs for years!

Anonymous said...

Hey where's Sidney!?!

There's a women getting beat up on. Someone find Sidney quick!

Anonymous said...

I'm not "shaking in my boots". I'm more enthused about Obama's chances.

More and more die-hard Clinton fans and independent women are showing up at local Dem Party HQ every day since the announcement of Palin's choice as VP. They're pissed at how McCain is openly and condescendingly pandering to them and they are being welcomed by the Obama camp with open arms.

Anonymous said...

Andy,

It is now official: both your feet have left reality. Now you are beginning to make up fantasies in your head. I'm noticing a shortage of your friends commenting here. Sure there are a few that also have foam on their chin, but I would suspect some of your true friends are beginning to worry about you.

If anybody were to take you seriously, your sexist comments since Friday would set the feminist movement back a few years.

I have seen more hypocrisy on this blog than in all of the GOP combined. You are either blind to it or so arrogant you don't care.

As for your wild LSD trip that McCain is going dump Palin like Bush dumped Harriet - the situations are not even in the same universe. Conservatives blocked Harriet because she was not a conservative.

You are in full PANIC mode over this excellent pick - and it shows. If you are having fun, it is certainly chemically assisted.

The Ostroy Report said...

You can say whatever you want, but in very due time we shall all see what's what.

As for my "sexism," I love it! When I faithfully support Hillary for months, I'm not a sexist. Only when I don't support your gal. You guys crack me up. Like I said, the same folks who give us "Why can't we attack Obama without being called racists?" is the same bunch that screams "sexist!" when Dems go after Palin. Stop embarrassing yourselves, for Pete's sake.

Unknown said...

This is a soap opera joke on the electorate. McCain made a move of desperation, hoping to lure the Hillary hold-outs and other woken disaffected by Hillary's loss to Obama. What a dumb move.

Here's Why: Sarah Palin, Lemming Hunter
http://tinyurl.com/5nbxbc

Anonymous said...

Due to conflicts of interest with the AG's office in Alaska, the state is now having to hire outside counsel to defend Sarah Palin. This will cost the taxpayer of Alaska an additional $95,000.

Mrs. Palin's new attorney, Thomas Van Flein, is quoted as saying in the Anchorage Daily News, "(o)ur concern is that Hollis French turns into Ken Starr and uses public money to pursue a political vendetta rather than truly pursue an honest inquiry into an alleged ethics issue."

Uh, it was a REPUBLICAN committee that authorized the launch of the investigation and to label it a "political vendetta" akin to that of Ken Starr's investigation of the Clintons is just too much delicious irony.

Unknown said...

Anon 9:16: Andy Ostroy takes care of his children and work.

Anonymous said...

More evidence of "boot shaking", NOT!

Republican Scott Rasmussen's latest tracking poll is the first that I recall putting Obama at over 50% of the vote:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/general_election_match_up_history

The Palin choice is not polling as well as hoped with women and all post-convention indications are that the event in Denver did its job in bringing unity to the party.

Anonymous said...

Rudy Giuliani is dropped at the last minute as keynote speaker at the Republican convention and I wonder how many "boos" are going to come from the crowd when Joe Lieberman speaks (if he's not booted from the speaker's list, too).

Yep, the anti-choice zealots are still firmly in charge.

Anonymous said...

Andy, continue in your denial if you wish. Many conservatives criticize Obama for his positions, associations, lack of judgment, arrogance and sense of entitlement.

You have been attacking Palin on a low level that in most cases are clearly associated with her gender. You attack on reproductive issues in her family, you think a woman cannot have responsibilities outside the home and be a mother, and your attacks on her inexperience have smacked of trying to brand her as a 'dumb broad'.

It is amazing how racist and sexist liberals get when a woman or person of color is a conservative. Your blindness to your bigotry and hypocrisy is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Our cirrent President had DUI charges and he was elected for two terms. Bush had a Confederate flag hanging his in his dorm room. And there were more stories about his military service, grades, etc. These stories were mostly ignored by the Democrats. Only CBS got into trouble with one attempt to report Bush's service story. Bush is a man and not a target of gender hatred.

But now, the mysogynistic Democratic men are screaming their outrage that a teen aged daughter of THE VP nominee is pregnant and not yet married. That should send every Democratic woman to McCain's side this year.

Anonymous said...

10:13

I can't recall the last time a DEM presidential contender was NOT ahead by double digits at this time. It has taken Obama 4 days since his "great speech" to achieve this 6 point lead.

It will take a few weeks for the following to take full effect:

- the Palin selection
- the backlash of the lefty blogs attacks
- the backlash of the MSM giving airtime to lefty attacks
- the GOP convention
- more Obama gaffe machine moments
- Obama in the debates, where his main theme will be 'uh, uh, uh, uh'
- Palin kicking Biden's ass in the VP debates

Thank you Andy, MSM and others for doing your part to energize the GOP base. Better blow the dust off your 'Diebold" mantras.

Anonymous said...

10:39,

Your memory is about as faulty as your prognostications are likely to be.

In 2000, Al Gore was down by as many as 17 points prior to the DNC convention and at the end of August the race was a dead heat.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/28/cnn.poll/index.html

In 2004, John Kerry's small lead in August was gone even before the RNC convention.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/aug/26/nation/na-poll26

Anonymous said...

A, Palin is running as the vice president nominee.

Ovama is running for Presdient.

Palin gave birth to a Down's Syndrome child.

Obama by his legistlative stand is responsible for the death of at least one Down's Symdrome baby who survived abortion.

B. The association is McCain is old and could die in office. His mother is still alive and in her 90s.

Not wishing to be morbid, but realistic -- look at the early deaths in Obama's family.

There is no way to predict events beyond our control. We can only choose our President based on the known facts.

Anonymous said...

Palin is truly "the gift that keeps on giving" to the Dems! It's been reported that she used clout to bring many earmarks--which John McCain vehemently opposes--to her small town of Wasilla while she was mayor; she supposedly opposed the "Bridge to Nowhere" as governor, but diverted monies from its construction to pet projects; and she argued that polar bears in the ANWR shouldn't be considered as endangered, against all scientific opinion. Her political positions clearly and unmistakably indicate that she's just another dogmatic right-winger in the time-dishonored mold of Dick Cheney. Does this country really need another ideologue of that ilk?

Anonymous said...

10:59,

Here are a few other "known" facts you selectively choose not to acknowledge:

1. Obama, by his legislative stand, is no more responsible for the death of a Down's Syndrome baby than anyone else who voted against or advocated against the BAIPA legislation in Illinois (such as the Illinois Medical Society). When the anti-abortion zealots matched the Illinois language of the bill with that of the federal government's, the bill passed quite easily - which was Obama's stance as well as that of the Illinois Medical Society (those asshole doctors who may know a thing or two about medicine and how legislation may impact them and their ability to practice).

2. Barack Obama's medical records are available and he's in great shape. John McCain's medical records were made available for a limited amount of time, to selected reporters and no copies of the jillions of pages were allowed. McCain is a three or four-time cancer survivor and the rate of early deaths among Vietnam POW survivors is higher than that of those who served in Vietnam and were not POWs.

No reasonable person is going to argue that the probability of Barack Obama dying in office is higher than that of John McCain, and it is a legitimate concern to ponder the probability of dire health concerns for a 72-year old man who has often suffered from bouts with cancer.

If possible it makes the selection of a VP "ready to take over at a moment's notice" (McCain's words) all the more crucial.

Anonymous said...

11:12,

Palin was also affiliated with an Alaska secessionist movement.

Why does she hate America?

Sidney Condorcet said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey where's Sidney!?!

There's a women getting beat up on. Someone find Sidney quick!

9:23 AM

I'm here to apologize. I've realized thanks to Mr./Mrs. Anonymous that I should never be critical of any female politician. To do so is tantamount to sexism. I've seen the error of my ways. Thank you. I will never again comment on a blog or say an unkind, skeptical word with regard to any female political or business leader. I'll return to this blog only to comment about male authority figures.

Oh, wait, you're a damn fool anonymous. And your tyranny of the gynocracy will be resisted. To criticize is a patriotic obligation. I will not be cowed into submitting to a political candidate's agenda solely because that candidate happens to have a vagina. McCain is a flip-flopping, risk-taking, temper-flashing, old warmonger. Palin is an empty suit, who has neither experience nor sophistication nor has she shown a lifelong interest in national and international issues. She's a bantomweight. They will go down in defeat on November 4th.

Anonymous said...

oh but we should vote for Obama or else we are racist right ?

Sidney Condorcet said...

Umm, no. You're not a racist if you vote for McCain unless of course if you're voting for him solely because Obama happens to be black. I've never said that someone's racist merely because they don't support Obama. Not sure where you're getting that one from.

Oh and check out this report from a resident of Wasilla when Palin was mayor there:


" Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents. During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign. Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%.

This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents. The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing. While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state. In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs. She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day. Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness. Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to. As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”. She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her. As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species. McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she. However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it."

You can view the rest here:

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/3671/the-reform-candidate

Anonymous said...

Aren't all you Palin bashers glad she's not running for President? Of course neither is Biden, who stupidly and vehemently recommended splitting Iraq into three territories with occupancy depending on identity. He has been been seriously rediculed for that foolishness. He's getting away with his plagerism, though. Lucky he's not running for the presidency.

Of course, as one commentor has said, Obama was not alone in his responsibility for the Down's Symdrome baby's death. That is so comforting to know he belongs to a group of people who support killing babies who survive abortion and he is not alone in that atrocity. Although we must remember he is the one running for President.

Anonymous said...

Sidney has spent more time trying to expose Palin as inadequate than anybody on the other side has spent pointing out Obama's weaknesses.

Palin is not running for President. McCain is running for President and as has been pointed out, his genetic disposition to a long life is better than Obama's.

All of that is moot since there is no way to know We have to go on the character of the candidates.

Sidney Condorcet said...

Anonymous said...
Sidney has spent more time trying to expose Palin as inadequate than anybody on the other side has spent pointing out Obama's weaknesses.

Palin is not running for President. McCain is running for President and as has been pointed out, his genetic disposition to a long life is better than Obama's.

All of that is moot since there is no way to know We have to go on the character of the candidates.
.......

Man, people are really idiotic.
1) Genetic disposition? Though McCain's mother is still alive and well, his grandfather, John McCain, Sr. died at the age of 61. His father, John McCain, Jr., died at the age of 70. When you factor in that both of those valiant men led very stressful lives, as McCain does and will undoubtedly as President, the genetic predisposition is not toward longevity. Also, McCain has had multiple bouts with skin cancer, whereas Obama is fit as a fiddle.

2) Despite the fact that there are undoubtedly millions of Americans more qualified than Sarah Palin for the Presidency, the real issue here is not her inadequacies but what the choice of Palin says about John McCain's character. HE'S COMPLETELY RECKLESS. He had only met his Vice President, a woman with a non-existent record on national issues and a minimal national reputation, ONE FREAKIN TIME before he chose her as his VP. HE NEVER FULLY VETTED HER. WILL HE BOTHER TO PUT CABINET OFFICIALS AND AMBASSADORS THROUGH A VETTING PROCESS? Apparently, no advance teams and research teams from the McCain campaign even made the trip up to Alaska to ask questions and scour the local archives for information about her past. The McCain campaign is flying blind in the wake of McCain's "W"-like "gut decision. This shows a dangerous and reckless would-be President who would make decisions on the fly without getting all of the information first. Contrast Palin's vetting with the lengthy, involved, and deliberate vetting process Obama put into place.

Once again, Obama shows his better temperment and judgment than McCain. It's worrying thinking about what McCain would do as President.

Anonymous said...

Oh how the pigs squeal when you step on their feet! Actually, this time the pigs have stepped on their own feet. I wonder how many of these same bloggers aka chicken hawks.. will tell us what a man of principle and courage McCain is by standing my Palin and then will tell us what a man of great flexibility he is when the dumps her?
Face if folks, these are the same shitheads that think the war in Iraq was really for WMDs, that Bush told us the full truth as he knew it, that someday real soon they will find Iraqi links to Al Quida, that Democracy will soon break out in Iraq and that Sheites will love us, the infidels, more then their brothers in Iran.

And manna will fall from heaven and water will spring forth from the rocks when the apparent ignorance and arrogance of Bush, Cheney, McCain and others is finally seen to be the brilliant strategic move it is!!

Bush/ Cheney and McCain/Palin Poster kids for the dumbing down of America!

Anonymous said...

Genetic research indicates that the mother is the most reliable information about genetic predispostion. Tony Snow's cancer is the latest and most obvious illustration of this resarch.

There can be no comparison injudgment between Onama and McCain that favors Obama.

Obama seems to be unable to make a decision at all, hence his countless "present" votes. He just couldn't make up his mind.

Then he shoud have seriously thought trhough:

1. Being amember of Wright's church for 21 years; (Oprah got out after three)
2. Rezko and Ayres;
3. The vote to kill babies who survive abortion;
5.Dissing Hillary to the extent of alienating 18,000 voters;
6. Trying to make racism work for him;
7. Dumping primary promises to instead vote Republican with Bush on spying on Americans; separation of church and state and drilling.
8. Switching on his stand about Iraq;
9. Lying about his abortion vote when he has been seen on camera on TV saying to allow the surviving baby of an abortion to live would weaken Roe V. Wade.
10. Lying about his expensive education in his speecn at the Convention He said his mother struggled to educate him.
11. His not having the sense to put Hillary on the ticket as v.p.
12. His thoughtless "bitter" comments about working people
13. Assuming an "I am the one/Messiah" personna.

Sidney Condorcet said...

Anonymous said...

Genetic research indicates that the mother is the most reliable information about genetic predispostion. Tony Snow's cancer is the latest and most obvious illustration of this resarch.
___________

HAHAHA...Tony Snow is the latest and most obvious of this research? So Clear! So Obvious! Glad you linked to a study to back this up. People named John McCain tend to die around the age of 70. There's no reason to expect that John III will survive four, let alone eight, years in an office that has the tendency to put such a strain on its occupant that they visibly age much faster than those of a similar age in a different job. There's a legit concern that McCain's health may not hold up. He would have done much to assuage the worries of concerned citizens by picking a GOP'er with at least some demonstrated abilities: Rob Portman, Tom Ridge, even Mitt Romney would have sufficed.

1:29pm, hate on Obama all you want. But get prepared, he's going to be your next President for the next eight years. Oh, and I strongly feel that your parents would have best served the interests of this great nation if they had aborted you.

Anonymous said...

“They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,” said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.

Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.

“I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. “I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.”


"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

Anonymous said...

Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com makes a great point:

This picture [of LBJ being sworn in aboard Air Force One in Dallas]embodies what is perhaps the essential difference between the qualifications for the presidency and the qualifications for the vice presidency. In a perfect world, we would all like a president who is Ready on Day One (TM); it is not uncommon for a newly-elected president to face a major crisis almost immediately upon taking office. But more commonly, a president takes the Oath of Office under relatively calm waters, allowing them something of a learning curve.

On the other hand, when a vice president takes over for a president, the nation is necessarily undergoing a crisis, because the death (or resignation) of a president is perhaps as traumatic an event as can reasonably be imagined (in the "best" case resulting from a slowly-developing illness, and the worst, an attack by terrorists or foreign adversaries).

From Lincoln though Clinton, Americans have frequently been willing to gamble on a relatively inexperienced President, exchanging some assurances of near-term readiness for longer-term upside (what might be described as "vision"). But the optimal skill set for a vice president is somewhat different. "Vision" hardly matters; a vice president taking over for a president will not get to name his own cabinet, and will initially at least be left to execute upon somebody else's agenda. Instead, the readiness component is rendered more important.

I suspect most Americans grasp this on a gut level, even if they aren't quite able to articulate it. Which is why, to my gut instinct, I think Americans can feel sympathy for Sarah Palin, can believe she's the sort of person they'd want to have a beer with -- and still find her a detriment to McCain's case for the White House.

Anonymous said...

I a Democrat would rather have Palin on day --say 365, 540 or whatever than Obama as President on Day 1.

Anonymous said...

Well, 3:42pm, I'm a Republican. I once worked for Rick Lazio in Congress and John McCain's campaign for president in 2000, and I'd much rather have Barack Obama today than John McCain any day.


John McCain is another politician who acts on instinct alone rather than facts. We've had about enough of Cowboy Presidents. McCain is nothing but Slim Pickens riding the nuke in Dr. Strangelove.

Anonymous said...

Liberals only care about the privacy of a pregnant minor when the pregnant minor is a liberal that wants to kill the baby.

Do you think we'll know when one of the Obama girls gets her first period?

Anonymous said...

Sidney, thanks for sharing your research om the destiny of men named John McCain and your gleanings from your powers of foreseeing the future. Altough it really sounds more like wishful thinking concerning McCain's longevity in which case you should consider the universal Law of Retribution.

My mystical abilities tell me you were aborted but was one who survived; and, despite your brain damage, and because it was pre-Obama's legislation, you lived to enlighted the readers Ostroy's blog and to bash every woman mentioned who might become powerful. We are so blessed.

Anonymous said...

Bush didn't act on instinct. He asked Cheney what do to.

Anonymous said...

The country won't be able to wait for Obama to look down and contemplate at great length what he thinks should be done in the emergency at hand, so Biden will have to forcefully step in. By then Biden will be in a rage -- isn't that promising for the world?

Sidney Condorcet said...

Troll alert: "to bash every woman mentioned who might become powerful"...

This troll consistently has failed to back up his/her unsubstantiated claim that I "bash every woman" who may become powerful. What does bash mean, anyway, oh wise one? Think of how small the sample size is? Hillary and Palin. Have I bashed them because they were women? No. Have I made disparaging gender-related remarks w/r/t them? No. I thought Obama would be a better president than Hillary and I feel that Palin's policies are extremist and she is not prepared to assume the Vice Presidency. That's all folks. Yet, you still carry out the old "bashing woman" lie in order to get a rise out of me. So, here we are. This is the final time I'm going to comment with regard to your absurd and baseless claim. I will no longer feed the troll.

And no one will pay you any heed. Farewell loser...

And, idiot, I'm not foreseeing the future when I say that John McCain is 72, has a history of melanoma, and both his father and grandfather died before the age of 71. Those are all incontrovertible facts. Oh, wait, you're a republican, so FACTS DONT MEAN MUCH TO YOUR SORT. Why don't you go teach creationism or an abstenance-only class, you vacuous slug.

Anonymous said...

4:06 Your willing to call another an idiot indicates you've read so many of his entries that you now emulate him.

Anonymous said...

"Sen. Barack Obama, has jumped about 9 points in the polls following his brilliant acceptance speech." Huh??? Latest polls have him up 3 and he is falling fast from there.

Get your facts straight.

Sidney Condorcet said...

When Sarah Palin ran for Mayor of Wassilla, she won in a landslide: 616-413...

Oh, she's so darn impressive. She's commanded broad support among the masses. In fact, rumor has it that when she ran for office she once spoke in front of 20 people at one time. She's also celebrated for instituting programs for disposing of roadkill and for fixing that pot hole on the corner Orchard and 12th Street.

Oh, and don't forget her having reached the pinnacle of educational achievement: a graduate of the University of Idaho!! Go Fighting Spuds!!

Sidney Condorcet said...

4:15pm, let me help you get your own facts straight about the polls:

(check out realclearpolitics.com for the following)

The following five national polls came out today:
Gallup Tracking-Obama up 8 points
Rasmussen Tracking-Obama up 6 points
USA Today/Gallup: Obama up 7 points
Hotline/FD: Obama up 9 points
CBS News: Obama up 8 points

Put those polls in your pipe and smoke it...

Anonymous said...

Sidney Obama's mother died in her early fifties and some strains of cancer are inherited and they move quickly.

Anonymous said...

Palin didn't qualify for affirmative action to get into Yale or Harvard, Sidney.

Sidney Condorcet said...

Knuckle-Dragger Alert:

4:22pm is a racist as he/she evidently thinks that every black person who gets into an ivy league school is a product of affirmative action.

Anonymous said...

Sidney,
I bet you are a joy in the workplace. What kind of lawyer ignores the presumption of innocence ? Are you an ambulance chasing John Edwards type of lawyer ?

Anonymous said...

Methinks Sidney lied about being a lawyer. If he is, he is unemployed because he is at his computer all day to answer each response almost as it comes in. He just doesn't seem bright enough to be a well-educated laywer either.

For one thing, he doesn't deal in facts or evidence.

Sidney Condorcet said...

I never stated that someone is in fact a criminal despite the absence of a conviction. The presumption of innocence has no place here. Your comment was unequivocally racist. Now, I'm sure you don't go around lynching people of color, but you have the stain of racism on your fingers as you typed that outrageous statement (probably just to get a rise out of the people on these boards...YIPEE, what fun it is to make racist comments!! AWESOME DUDE!)

And I am not a malpractice or personal injury attorney as Edwards was. I investigate deviant sexual behavior, and I figure I might suggest that your IP address has been linked to numerous bestiality websites. It seems you have a particular fondness for donkeys. You may want to leave your home or cubicle immediately, dash to the airport, and leave this country immediately.

Anonymous said...

actually, anon 441pm, i dnt think I saw sidney post here for a few months.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately it doesn't matter who is elected. The decks are still awash and we will plow onward thru the fof.

Anonymous said...

"Al Qaeda" is supposed to mean the "Base", so isn't the term "Republican Base" the same as saying "Republican Al Qaeda"?

Anonymous said...

4:56 PM,
Since you want to talk about the meaning of words, did you know that the term "democrat" originated as an epithet and referred to 'one who panders to the crude and mindless whims of the masses.'

Anonymous said...

And now the eyeballs of the nation turn to this quintessentially Middle American or possibly southern Canadian city, where in the next few days, weather permitting, the Republicans will answer the Democratic Party's call for change by sounding, loud and clear, their own bold campaign theme for 2008: 'What, YOU Never Made a Mistake?

Anonymous said...

Sarah Palin is a Dominionist - i.e. someone who believes that the United States should become a theocratic state - a Christian version of Iran. Ever see the Dominionist flag - a white cross in a blue field, surrounded by red and white stripes? That's what evangelical Christians fervently want: an end to freedom as we know it. A Biblical Republic would be at war 100% of the time. "Heretics", "adulterers", and "witches" (i.e. feminists) would be publicly stoned to death. Imagine the Dark Ages, but with 21st century weapons. This is why Dobson, Robertson, et al support her so fervently. McCain is old and has had recurrent cancer and other ailments. His death in office would allow the evangelicals to pull off the coup they so desperately desire. All of the "emergency" rules they need to suspend the Constitution and arrest dissidents are already in place. All that is needed is a catalyst, i.e. another "terrorist" attack. These are the stakes in this election. Secular government or religious tyranny. Freedom or slavery. Forget about Palin’s sordid personal life. It’s what she believes that should worry us.

Anonymous said...

5:05,

What makes you think I'm a Democrat? I hate Democrats as much as I hate Republicans. As far as I'm concerned, what this country needs is a Democrat and a Republican hanging side-by-side from every lamp post, then buried in the same mass grave before they start to stink more than did when they were alive.

KingAdmin said...

Yo Ostroy Report.

Your the man. This blog is great.

I respect everyone's opinion on here, don't get me wrong but: OBAMA 08!!!

In the words of the great Phil Collins "I can feel it coming in the air tonight..."

Hellzyeah.

Anonymous said...

McCain is NOT going to dump Palin. They are going to
play their same old playbook: image, image, image.
They are appealing to the ignorant.
This, of course, is a huge mistake, but McCain has no choice. The right wing threatened him with a walkout should he nominate Joe Lieberman, so he caved.
Trouble for him, of course, is that he is only preaching to the choir, the already converted. The millions and millions of "moderate" Republicans and Independents who have been shoved out of the Repubican Party through these last eight years are NOT going to go for a radical Christian woman who
is the least qualified of all the many, really, very qualified OTHER Republican women.
The religious right love Palin. All the other
Republicans will support her holding their noses.
As they should. This is a total insult to all those
Republican women who have worked in the trenches for years and years and years.

Steve said...

National Enquirer is on the beat "We did a pretty nice investigation for what we call Week One"

John Nail "nails it"

Drip, drip, drip. She canceled an appearance tonight with Phyllis Schlafly's Conservative group. She has not appeared on any talk shows. Why not on the Sunday talk shows? She is being sequestered. Why? I think she is about to be withdrawn as a candidate. Which will be a disaster. But they have no choice.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha, you missed the whole point: Andy wasn't saying that only Mrs. Palin, a woman, was capable of raising the children, but that that would be the weasling cover, a slight tweak of the time-honored ....resigning to spend more time with my family....

Also, the complaints aren't about the Palin girl's pregnancy per se, but about those who have moralized and condemned countless other out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancies, invariably blaming so-called liberal immorality and bad parenting, yet many of those same people are now singing Hosannas to the VP candidate and failing to hold the Palins' parenting to the same standards. It's an invalid judgment anyway, but at least apply it consistently. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing if Hillary was the nominee and an unmarried Chelsea turned up preggers, it wouldn't merely be sloughed off as a private family matter but would be trumpeted all across the fruited plain as yet more evidence of the Clintons' (thus all liberals')wickedness and yet more "proof" that Bill wasn't and Hillary wouldn't be fit to be president.

Steve said...

More from a Wasilla resident. http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/9/2/12284/85430

Anonymous said...

Gallup Daily: McCain, Obama Tied at 45%
Candidates begin convention period even
August 24, 2008

Gallup Daily: Obama Hits 50% for First Time
Leads McCain by eight percentage points, 50% to 42%
September 2, 2008

Rasmussen Daily General Election Tracking (8/26)

John McCain 44%
Barack Obama 44%

Rasmussen Daily General Election Tracking (9/2)

Barack Obama 51%
John McCain 45%

I bet she jumps from the ticket.

Anonymous said...

Gallup: Obama + 8
Rasmussen: Obama + 6
Hotline FD: Obama + 9
CNN Obama: + 1
CBS: Obama + 8

The average: Obama + 6.4


www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election

Anonymous said...

I love reading comments from the right wingnut crowd. It's truly fascinating to see the view from a parallel universe. "Reality check" has absolutely no meaning to these folks.

Anonymous said...

McCain is going to lose, barring rampant voter disenfranchisement and fraud.
Having Caribou Barbie on the ticket will not help one iota.
Having Joe Lieberman on the ticket would actually do even more harm.

Anonymous said...

None of the information about Sarah Palin has concerned me so far. She was in favor of the bridge because she hadn't been given the full facts about it. She has every right to fire a guy who hurt her sister -- she's the head of the state and can do whatever she feels like. Her daughter is pregnant, and parents can't be held accountable for everything that their children do, particularly when it goes against the values that they tried to instill into them. When all these truthes come out she comes across as a human being, someone who is far less corrupt that the typical politicians we're familiar with who hide all their secrets. These issues would be completely irrelivant if she wasn't a celebrity. It's only because the mass media wants to sell newspapers that it's so ubiquitous right now. Obama and co have plenty of negative points that could be discussed, but we all know the media wouldn't dare say anything bad about a liberal.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the repug trolls are in panic mode. GoBama!!!!!

Anonymous said...

It's over. Obama's bump is back. Once polls have all the Palin trash added to them, his bounce will be over the friggin' moon. Dems and Independents on the fence, (smart ones, not idiot evengelicals) will now realize that McCain is not just worse than Obama. HE'S WORSE THAN BUSH!!!

1. Doesn't know the difference between Shia & Sunni
2. Doesn't know how many houses he has.
3. Doesn't know that his VP pick is a CRAZY WHITE TRASH NUT JOB FROM THE BOONIES!!!!

I know that's a low blow, but 8 years of Fox/Bush is enough. "F--- with me and I'll kick your A--" as Bristol's baby's papa says.

Bye bye right wing!!!

Sidney Condorcet said...

Nearly forty million televisions were tuned to Obama's speech last thursday (lord knows how many people actually saw it...50? 60 million?)

How many do you all think will tune in to watch McCain's speech on Thursday? I'll bet it's only half, no more than 20 million...The Palin pick was partially geared toward closing the palpable "enthusiasm gap" among the two tickets' supporters. Let's see if it does the job on thursday.

Anonymous said...

Now Sidney thinks this is the American Idol Election!

Sidney,
You are laughable, like your Presidential candidate.

Anonymous said...

I was one of those who did not watch any of the DNC for a simple reason ... I did not want to see all of the big wigs among the Democrats brag about how great Obama was and that he was the most capable person to be President so soon after spending all of the money to tell of his inexperience and lack of accomplishments. I will vote for McCain, however I concede that the Dems have a good chance at winning this (of course, we have not heard allof the gaffs that Biden, Clinton, Jackson, etc. are still likely to make). If Obama wins it would be fun to watch how inept he is and what a lier he will become (regarding the promises he has made), if it were not so werious for our country.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Democrat and I watched the Democratic convention and the Repulicalns' last night. I preferred the Repbulicans'. I got a thrill at all the reminders of the extremely good fortune of being an American I loved the flag displays, the march of the flag bearers and the beautiful sound of our National Anthem.

I was deeply moved by the complete story of McCain's life/ Obama's just cannot measure up. He was born, he went to school, he did community service, he is a senator and a Presidential candidate. What has he done???? What will he do????

Anonymous said...

Michelle O. has worked at her 350,000 a year job since the birth of her children. And, when Obama becamse a senator,hemoved to DC and his family remained in Chicago, without a father in the house. How's that for family values? Michelle is a single mom.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Republican and I watched the Democratic convention and what has happened at the Republican convention so far. I prefered the Democratic convention. It was a thrill to watch and listen to speakers who were grounded in reality instead of those appealing to platitudes.

Jingositic appeals to American exceptionalism make one feel better but let's look at the record. My party has been in total control for 6 of the last 8 years. The deficit is out of control. Government spending is out of control. Government is growing, not shrinking. We're in two wars that we've financed via China and made no appeals to national service, fundraising or conservation on behalf of our military men and women for the first time in our nation's history while at war. On top of that, the VA system is near breaking due to underfunding and lack of preparation for the caseload that has exploded due to the wars.

This is NOT the Republican Party I've supported for decades. I'm not thrilled with the idea of switching parties but accountability is important and since John McCain is in no substantial way campaigning as anything other that a continuation of George Bush's policies, I've looked at a Democrat for the first time since Jimmy Carter (another accountability moment, but I did not vote for Carter).

I like Obama and will gladly vote for him.

Anonymous said...

9:53,

I'd venture to guess most people feel there is nothing wrong with being a working mom or having a father who works hard for a living and so is not as available to or for his family as he'd like. It's a rather common situation, actually.

The issue, as I see it, is that Southern Baptists and right-wing evangelicals have railed forever in public forums about the importance of the wife being subservient to her husband and putting her kids before her career. That's all fine and good if you wish to accept this as a core belief for yourself and your family. However you know as well as I do that these "values voters" have insisted that the decline of the American family is due in part to the women's movement.

Southern Baptists and right-wing evangelicals OVERWHELMINGLY support the Republican Party. Yet now that the party is going to nominate a woman who is not subservient to her husband and does not put her kids before her career suddenly religious ideology or dogma no longer need apply.

It's rank hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

It's not religious dogma so much as sexism. As soon as Palin was announced as v.p. Democrats for Obama appeared on this blog saying she should stay home and take care of her new infant. Now they're blaming her for the girl's pregnancy.

Sexism in both parties it rampant. The Republicans call it relgiion and the Democrats make no excuses.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the issue is religious dogma.

An honest assessment of those who poked at Sarah Palin clearly shows them to be doing so specifically due to her own hypocrisy as well as that of the evangelical right.

Replace the names Sarah and Bristol Palin with Michelle and Melia Obama (assuming she was also 17 years old) or Hillary and Chelsea Clinton (were she 17 years old). Can't you just hear James Dobson's rant???

Anonymous said...

No, it's not sexism. It's religious dogma.

Your ignorance regarding the boy's name is immaterial. The father of the child is named Levi Johnson and his name is irrelevant to whether this is about religious hypocrisy or sexism.

He's just as irresponsible/responsible for the child but his mother is not running for VP. Bristol's mother is on record as being against sex education that discusses contraception and is for abstinence-only education for teens. This has proven to be a disastrous public policy as well as ineffective in the Palin's own home.

The preconceived notion that all teenagers who get pregnant and are from the homes of Democratic parents end up getting abortions is not only ludicrously insulting, it goes to show a mind that is lacking in practical experience.

Lastly, I did not claim that Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson sinned. However if James Dobson were not wearing his political hat and put on his preacher's robes he would say they have sinned and are contributing to the moral decline of America. He's not doing that and neither are the vast majority of other self-appointed keepers of the public morality meter. That's the branch of the Republican Party from whence Sarah Palin comes and their rank hypocrisy has given Democrats the opportunity for much sport at the expense of the hypocrites.

Anonymous said...

"I actually think it's completely fair for the media to vet Sarah Palin," Whitman said, adding that it was "the right thing to do" for the media to dig into the background of someone who is "running for the highest office in the land."

Asked directly whether there had been any media sexism, she replied: "I wouldn't say there really has." - Meg Whitman, former ebay CEO and McCain national campaign co-chair.

Anonymous said...

Does the constitution prevent Dick Cheney from being VP for sixteen years? Palin announces that she can't run and then uncle Dick steps in to save the day.

Anonymous said...

Forget the Harriet Miers comparison -- I'm thinking Tom Eagleton, here. I wonder if Sargent Shriver is still available!

And can you imagine what the fascist media blowhards would be spewing if Obama had a disabled infant and a teenage pregnancy? Rush "Oxycontin" Limbaugh would be SCREAMING that Obama has no family values, puts his career first, his kids want welfare, etc., etc.

I'm having so much fun watching the trailer trash and high school dropouts flipping out over Gov. Barracuda, I might go watch a tractor pull. Yeeee-haaa!