Sarah Palin joked about her boobs in college.
My God. The more I see of this woman the more I like her. I’m still concerned about her lack of experience, but on the whole I like the hell out of her. It’s also very interesting to me that she’s the first Republican politician of my generation to ascend to a national ticket; having seen our politics so dominated by the Baby Boom generation for most of my life, I find it refreshing, and somewhat to my surprise I relate to her in ways I didn’t expect to.
(Obama supporters of my age can, naturally, say the same thing about him. There’s nothing wrong with that.)
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I’m calling "nutpicking" on this. Â
There are countless real and substantive matters with Palin, all of which are being legitimately raised in the media. But what are you and now the McCain campaign focusing on almost exclusively? Â Smears and rumors and posts on blogs, often even nobody-level blogs like kos diaries (something that any person alive could sign up and write, but which have somehow become elevated to the status major media outlets whenever convienient).
Palin is now demanding that investigation of her conduct be taken out of the hands of an independent investigator (the one she originally agreed to) and put in the hands of three of her own appointees. Â
She tried to ban library books as mayor. Â
Despite claiming to be a small-gov reformer, it’s now come out that she engaged in a massive pork retrieval effort using an Abramoff-associated lobbyist, while spending her tiny town into debt.  Her distance from Ted Stevens turns out to be wildly exaggerated, and the claim that she rebuffed the Bridge to Nowhere on principle a flat out lie.
Her husband was a member of, and she courted, a party that cursed America, its flag, and demanded independence (and unlike Wright, it wasn’t merely as a rhetorical device).
Her church just two weeks ago told her that God himself had decided that she needed to hear a sermon from the Jews for Jesus founder, and he proceeded to declare that death in Israel was God’s judgment on unbelieving Jews.
All of these are issues are relevant to what sort of views and politics she has. Â
But what do we hear about? That Huffington post is touting a boob T-shirt. Â
And, now, from the McCain campaign that any and all critical questions about, let alone criticism of Palin, is premised on vast media conspiracy of sexism.Â
Somehow the same cry from some leftists about criticism of Obama being inherently racism that got rightly scoffed at is back with a vengeance…
Wow, McCain’s vetting staff missed that one too?  It’s like they’re completely incompetent or something….
And keep flinging, Bad. Maybe someday you’ll say something that matters to someone outside your echo chamber.
I’m a blogger and I notice what other bloggers are doing and saying, and that means I’m now focused on nothing else? Whatever dude.
In the meantime, that’s a lot of allegations you’re throwing out, without much in the way of references. That looks a lot like what we call "spin" to me. But if there are stories you’d like to link that aren’t from hyper-partisan press (like The Nation or Huffington Post), and which are rationally critical of the Governor, go ahead and share.
Bad, Congressman Wexler called her a nazi-sympathizer based on the fact that she wore a Buchanan button when, as mayor, she welcomed Buchanan to her town. Apparently, Wexler’s been reading the same websites as you have. You know, the ones who consult only her political enemies as their "Alaska experts".
She didn’t try to ban library books, she didn’t "court" the AIP, and her baby wasn’t sired by Bigfoot, either.
Dean, interesting point about her generation. I’m a few years older than she is, but still a little young to be a true baby boomer. This will sound silly, but HuffPo’s headline for two days featured an old photo of her playing high school basketball. Obviously, they must have thought the photo made her look silly, but in that picture, she looked just like I did back when I played girls’ basketball–the hairstyles, the uniform styles, everything. I almost burst into tears. She reminded me of a 20X more accomplished version of myself. I felt the same way when she spoke at her nomination announcement rally.
A lot of people relate to her in ways they didn’t expect to.
Dean: none of those issues are confined to whatever you consider evil or unreliable publications. Â
It’s not a mere accident that everyone from the McCain campaign to the righty blogosphere would like to imagine that the only criticisms being made of Palin are about her family. Â It’s a strategy. Â
They’re embracing personal attacks with open, happy arms, as a means to draw attention from everything else.For instance: not only was Palin a porkhound as mayor, but McCain is on record as specifically having criticized pork items that were going to her town under her term.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,6851593.story
That’s the sort of thing you’d want the campaign to explain. Â So far, all they’ve offered is that the town was already dependent on earmarks when she took office and she was against them, which is simply false. Â You don’t hire a Ted Stevens-tied lobbyist, a somewhat unprecedented move for a tiny town, as a means to so as to shoo away earmarks. Â And if you’re really an opponent of Ted Stevens and his brand of politics as you claim to be, then maybe you shouldn’t wait until after he’s raided by the FBI to declare him a political liability as an ally.
stace: no, no bigfoot. Â But she did try to fire a librarian who refused to consider banning books (public outcry got the woman back), and her husband was a registered member of the AIP for years, with her attending at least one party meeting herself. Â The AIP says that she was courting them. Â That’s more than enough to at least make it an issue worth demanding some explanation about, as opposed to your total denials and the McCain campaign’s deflected distractions.
Bad: I do not much trust any site that is known to be hyper-partisan, and honestly, I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t provide documentation that can be reviewed easily.
It looks like the New York Times itself has already retracted its claim that Palin was ever a member of the Alaskan Independence Party–a party that is non-violent, I might add in its defense–so we have that story already shot down by those who first put it out there, although in all likelihood it won’t go away given how they buried their retraction.
As for the rest, I’m quite certain all the issues you’ve raised will be addressed sooner or later. In any case, all I see irrational attacks like this as is proof that the left is not and never has been any better than the right when it comes to this stuff–and I’ll remind you that I was all over the chuckleheads on the right who were pushing the ridiculous “Obama is not a natural-born citizen” silliness.
As I’ve said many times, experience matters to me, but also, no candidate is ever perfect. If McCain’s ticket-balancing with Palin somewhat contradicts his "experience" mantra, it’s no worse than Obama’s ticket-balancing with Biden being somewhat in contradiction of his claim to represent "change."
Was she really a pork queen? I guess we’ll see, but it seems questionable on its face; it is entirely possible to think pork in general is bad but to be reluctant to turn it down when you have the opportunity to get some, which is why pork barrel spending will almost certainly never go away. If Alaska’s most powerful Senator has money your town stands to benefit from, how easy will it be for you as a lowly mayor to tell your citizens they can’t have it? If nothing else, the reformers generally have to admit that it will take a complete overhaul of congressional spending practices to make pork ever go away.
If it means anything to you, I have been a skeptic for years now of any politician claiming that they’re going to clean up and reform Washington. That includes McCain as much as Obama; indeed, I’m very critical of the biggest "reform" McCain has his name associated with.
Wiki on "bridge to nowhere:"The Gravina Island Bridge (also known as The Bridge to Nowhere) was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island. Ketchikan International Airport:For the 12-month period ending January 1, 2006, the airport had 16,208 aircraft operations, an average of 44 per day: 60% air taxi, 33% scheduled commercial, 6% general aviation and 1% military. At that time there were 13 aircraft based at this airport: 77% single-engine, 8% multi-engine and 15% helicopter.[1]There is no road access to the airport, only a ferry.Â
I didn’t know this prior to hearing it this morning, and it certainly is different than my previous perception.  My local givenment has spent a lot of time and effort scoring federal funds to expand our airport, and it has maybe 8 flights a day, and virtually no freight traffic.Â
Yes, the NYT retracted their story in the AIP, which apparently was based on one source, who turned out to be wrong.
That’s the problem with many of these stories going around. Many of them rely on quotes from the same of small handful of people, like Halcro or Lyda Green, or some Dem blogger called mudflats. Some of the stories have a kernel of truth, but when you really look into them, you find either that there’s no documentation for it-it’s hearsay, or the facts are being spun in the most negative way possible.
I’m always skeptical of media reports on anything, but I usually give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume accuracy until proven otherwise. But now on Palin stories, especially the ones carried on HuffPo, I’ve learned to just assume the person quoted in the story is leaving out facts in order to mislead, and in fact, that turns out to be the case in most of the stories. It’s appalling.
I’m very critical of the biggest "reform" McCain has his name associated with.
The only "reforms" McCain has promised in this campaign and will continue to do as president are the "reforms" he made to his own ideals. He has transformed himself from a Maverick Republican who will take out the trash and work on a bi-partisan level to a man who, like his predecessor, wishes to turn this country into a corporate gulag. I was under the impression that he was going to be a different kind of Republican, but instead he has turned into another lying politician. God damn him and his party.
Well that seems rather overheated, JRogge. I’m not seeing that sort of transformation in him at all. He seems to be pretty much the same guy I voted for in the primaries in 2000–warts and all. He seems pretty consistent to me, which is part of why I’m willing to support him despite the areas where I’m unhappy with him.
Where has he changed so much, to your way of thinking?
Well first of all he has abandoned his "green" stances, secondly, where he decided to vote against the Bush tax cuts, now he wishes to increase them. The Bush tax cuts have only made the burden more focused on the middle class. Where he criticized religious fanatics that frankly caused more harm than good in American he now lies in bed with them ( Jesus will forgive them I am sure). His tax cuts seem aimed more for big corporations than the middle class. The problem here is "trickle down" economics only had roots in soft soil almost three decades ago. With the new global economy the money just doesn’t "trickle down" to Americans like it used to. Also, he hasn’t addressed Federal Spending which is through the roof, he used to be a balanced budget kind of guy now he’s all "neo-con" on his approach to economics. "Neo-Con" meaning tax less and spend a high percentage of the GDP to no effect. Also with earmarking being a concern the last thing he needed IMO is a pork queen who’s state has more pork than a eating a pork sandwich while watching Porky’s at Porky Pig’s house. I know one thing though, Muslims will fear her as she is ritually unclean from all of the pork.
He has been incredibly unconsistant. Perhaps this is due to the fact that he is just saying what he needs to say to appeal to who he needs to appeal to to get into office and he’ll go back to the way he was. Otherwise he’s just another lying politician and like Obama has no plan for America other than the occasional blow-job to let us all know we still like having our cocks sucked while our mistress takes everything we have out from under us.
Dean, I can only imagine how exciting this is for you. Both Palin and Obama are sure in your age group and it must be so interesting to you.
I think she will do well tonight and I also think her experience is alot better than Obama. If I am right, Obama has only been a Senator in Washington actually working something like sixteen months. If I just take Palin on sixteen months, she has more experience. Obama brought in Biden and there will be plenty of experienced people around Palin.
Just my simple thoughts but I am very glad to see your age group in such outstanding positions this election year. I’m excited to hear Palin tonight
jrogge,
Ain’t my place to tell you (or anyone) what to do, but pretty much the only reason that I come to Dean’s World is to avoid the goofy self-mutilating diatribe that you have felt necessary to grace us with.
Calm thyself.
You are right about McCain, though. His (slight) shift to the right is aimed to attract the party base.Â
Sure.
Congruently, the Dems who once championed him as a shining example of what a Republican should be, hated him the moment he became the presumptive Republican nominee (enemy). I believe this to be the true source of angst for the left.
"It looks like the New York Times itself has already retracted its claim that Palin was ever a member of the Alaskan Independence Party"I didn’t say she was: I said what the truth is: her husband was a registered member, and she courted them (according to their leaders and members).  It’s well beyond plausible to think that if Obama had a connection to some radical African-American group that used the same rhetoric, that he wouldn’t be pilloried up and down for it.  What the times retracted was the claim that she was a member of the party, which was taken by most to mean that she was a registered member of it, rather than just a friend."Was she really a pork queen? "I guess we’ll see, but it seems questionable on its face.  Is there really any doubt on this?  She didn’t just receive some pork, offered to her by a devilish Ted Stevens.  She hired a lobbyist for the purpose, a move that was at the time almost unprecedented for such a tiny town.  They’ve even uncovered notes from planning sessions in which she basically writes "yay!  look how much pork we got!  And this number doesn’t even include some other pork we got before!"It’s not really a matter of whether you accept pork as good or not.  Myself, I’m sort of indifferent, especially given that the "reform" replacement is basically just pork without direct allocation (i.e. without specific earmarks).  It’s a matter of here she is claiming to be god’s warrior against pork, McCain’s soulmate, when in fact she was so bad that McCain himself singled out her tiny town for criticism specifically.  And her claim to have opposed the "bridge to nowhere" has utterly collapsed: which didn’t stop her from repeating the same nonsense last night.  The people who live in "nowhere" are sort of pissed, by the way, by her newfound rhetoric.
Bad:
You have no idea how much your partisan attacks on Sarah Palin vindicate McCain’s choice of her.
Keep it up, with every sentence you write, you provide another powerful reason for me, and the mainstream of America, to support this young woman.
In my entire lifetime the single most profound political fact that I have learned is that the more the hard Left hates a Republican, the more America loves them.
Hate her hard, Bad, hate her with all your might. The more you hate her, the more powerful she will become.
It’s almost jedi in that way….
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..The DOWNside of Palin’s speech
Good grief you’re on message CC: and as content free as ever! Â But don’t you ever get tired of toeing the party line instead of actually confronting the issues?
Bad:
Man, to hear that coming from you is just priceless…
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..The DOWNside of Palin’s speech
I guess you don’t know what "content free" is, or why it’s a problem.
Congruently, the Dems who once championed him as a shining example of what a Republican should be, hated him the moment he became the presumptive Republican nominee (enemy). I believe this to be the true source of angst for the left.
I’m not in the left I am in the middle. Sadly no candidate ever represents the values I believe most of America stands for. We always have two poles we get to vote for. Is this because it makes great drama? Like the, "I respectfully pass" B.S. last night? Seriously he’s the nominee say it and end the convention.
My source of angst is that no candidate ever talks about how we need to seriously address the problem with education here. Our government goes to other countries and exterminates people because they are nasty dictators and they "liberate" these people. These little dictatorships form in our own backyard. There are neighborhoods that are terrorized by "junta" law every day in America and no one cares. Neighborhoods that have no law and order from the police or any other group set in place with our tax dollars and instead have to answer to thugs for what’s right and wrong.
"Self-Mutilating" diatribe. I was almost insulted until I realized that your subconscious had some inner wisdom there picking that label. I’d say conscious but you obviously live in a vapid place where knowledge has to escape. Yes, our country is self-mutilating itself with polemic dramas, slim-fast, and sex in every ad you see. You have major corperations invading our homes with "Sleepover Kits" and buy off our schools. We are slowly getting to the point where people are getting just smart enough to operate the machines, and just dumb enough to believe whatever they’re told.
Yes this country has some real issues and instead of addressing them we spend time in Iraq and pander to religious fanatics, oil barons, gay-rights activists, and NOW while allowing our schools to get to the point where they have to whore themselves out to corporations to get extra money. Better not wear a "Coke" shirt to "Pepsi" day or you’ll be expelled! Great values for a school to teach I guess math and science require independent thinking and are not for the drooling and groveling idiot we’re trying to produce today. "Drink Pepsi", that’s the lesson for today.
Maybe I’m pissed because every election they say it’s going to be the most important election ever, and every election you have the same candidates with the same B.S. You know that our real problems will never be addressed and they will still continue to hand out placebos to the mindless public.
Go ahead though and enjoy your American Gladiators and Soap Opera elections. I’ll demand a real candidate, thanks. It wouldn’t matter anyway because at this stage he wouldn’t get elected. Why am I so vitriolic? Because, I thought that we had a guy that was going to stamp out government corruption, put fanatics in their place, and try and restore a normal flow to America, but now I know we’ll just have another 8 years of nothing. How foolish I was to believe this election would be any different.
Now go watch some NASCAR or something, the adults are talking.
Bad: Believe it or not, I’ve known about the Alaskan Independence Party for many years now. There are similar groups in states like Texas and Hawaii and, I think, Montana.
The AIP has the support of many Alaskans, and both Democratic and Republican candidates generally have to deal with them because they represent enough of the mainstream electorate that they have the power to change and even occasionally win elections. It will be hard to win a statewide election without their support (or at least their non-hostility).
What strikes me as most odd is that you and others are making a moral comparison between this completely above-board and legal non-violent, non-racist political party, one that has actually elected one Governor, to terrorist groups like the Weather Underground or to rhetorical and arguably racist persons like Jeremiah Wright. The comparison strikes me as just plain weird. “God damn the United States” isn’t a slogan of the AIP last I heard, although maybe I’ve missed something.
As for the rest of your allegations: I continue to await the referencing links, hopefully from reliable sources.
Hate her hard, Bad, hate her with all your might. The more you hate her, the more powerful she will become. It’s almost jedi in that way…. Since we’re all living in fantasy land here that makes her a Sith, which is one of the bad guys. Thanks for confirming that.
Well, his speech is tonight. let’s see if he pisses off his party… if he’s a REAL maverick I expect to hear some grumbling in the audience tonight.
jrogge,
I am sorry if you believed that I was implying that you were to the left. I wasn’t. You make it entirely clear that you are a tad pissed at the whole pile.
That’s ok. That’s good.
Do not make the mistake that you know me, though.
NASCAR…..for Chrissakes?!!
jrogge, I am sorry if you believed that I was implying that you were to the left. I wasn’t. You make it entirely clear that you are a tad pissed at the whole pile. That’s ok. That’s good. Do not make the mistake that you know me, though.
NASCAR…..for Chrissakes?!!
Sorry about that I am on my period. My next period hits when the pointless attack ads hit after the first debate.
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