The People’s House Carried The Wishes of the People
BAILOUT BILL
Democratic 140 YEAS 95 NAYS
Republican 65 YEAS 133 NAYS
205 YEAS/ 228 NEAS
Today the People’s House defeated Corporate Welfare. House Republicans are being demonized for putting the brakes on the bailout. The House Democrats could have passed the bill on their own. The bill failed 228 to 205 with 95 Democrats voting against it. The demagoguery of the House GOP by for their part in not passing this bill is ridiculous.
Leadership and "straight talk" have been in short supply on this issue. The American people are livid at the thought of bailing out Wall Street AT ALL let alone without fully understanding, or at least better understanding, the ramifications of this bailout. CEO golden parachutes, ownership, return on this investment, etc., are among things that give us pause. Politicians, the Bush Administration, and the media all pushed this thing saying it had to be done today in order to protect the markets. This was the equivalent of telling the terrorists what day we will leave Iraq. They should have sent out a message that a bailout would be worked out and it would take a week or so to put together. I know that sounds simplistic but its equally simplistic to think the American people would swallow this horrific throwing away of our hard earned dollars to bail out scoundrels.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are both despicable and ought to be put out of office. Their behavior in this crisis has been staggering. Chris Dodd was on the Sunday morning shows blathering about how he and Harry had to stay up until 11 p.m. the night before working. Give me a break. Her speech blaming Republicans for this crisis was incomplete, if not inaccurate, and not a good way to garner Republican votes. Barney Frank has criticized House GOP members for not voting for the bailout when 10 Democrats on the banking committee he chairs voted against it. He is a liar and a pig.
President Bush once again has let us down in a crisis. He’s done a poor job of leading and a poor job of communicating.
John McCain exercised good judgement by returning to Washington to be a part of the process but misread what was going on in speaking as though he had helped forge a deal that didn’t exist. McCain did help to get the original bill improved. Personally, I think McCain would have been better off being against the bill. I appreciate the urgency of the matter but he’s Mr. Reformer, Mr. No Ear-Marks and No Pork. That was WAY TOO MUCH loosey-goosey and fast shuffle with this thing. AT LEAST McCAIN SHOWED UP.
Barack Obama, just as when he was in the Illinois Senate, voted "Present." He is staying as far out of the fray as he possibly can. When asked, he wags his finger and lectures us about what he expects to see in a bill.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Tough Times for Americans
& McCain Candidacy
The ProConPundit has been noticeably silent of late mostly because I am disgusted. Unless something changes and changes quick, Barack Obama will be elected–by default–as our next president.
John McCain is swimming upstream to begin with. It’s the end of two terms of a very unpopular President amidst constantly increasing precarious times. The mood of the country is clearly to make a change. If the Democratic nominee were anyone other than Barack Obama, McCain would not stand a chance. Obama’s inexperience, failure to connect with working class Americans, far left record (factually the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate) and skin color put him in a less viable position than any other Democrat.
Still, McCain has done a poor job of late. The perception of his handling of the bailout mess, the ability of the Democrats to tie the crisis to the Bush Administration coupled with McCain’s stupid linking of himself too often to Bush, and the Palin pick, are all crippling McCain among moderates and independents. The Palin pick was a brilliant move to keep conservatives happy. Ultimately, any vice-presidential pick probably doesn’t make that much difference. As of today, such INCREDIBLY reliable Republican states as North Carolina and Indiana are up for grabs. That might suggest having such a conservative as Palin on the ticket is not reassuring enough.
As much as I didn’t like Mitt Romney, he would certainly be a reassuring presence on a McCain ticket given the economic mess.
Check out these articles. The first two are by David Brooks. He and George Will would be my favorite conservatives. They are thoughtful and brilliant and, what I consider, authentic classic conservatives. Brooks first article sheds some light on McCain. The second critiques Sarah Palin.
The third article is by Kathleen Parker. She is a conservative columnist.. She originally favored Palin and now thinks Palin should drop out of the race. That’s crazy. The upheaval and aspersions that would cast would completely kill McCain’s chances. They are interesting articles, nonetheless.
Thinking About McCain
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: September 25, 2008
I’ve been covering John McCain steadily for a decade. A few years ago, I worked on a book, which I foolishly never completed, on the U.S. Senate with McCain as the central character. So when I step back and think of McCain, even in the heat of this campaign, I still think of him first in the real world of governing, not in the show-business world of the election.I think first of the personal qualities. He was an unfailingly candid man. When other politicians described a meeting, they always ended up the heroes of the story. But McCain would always describe the meeting straight, emphasizing his own failings with more vigor than his accomplishments.
He is, for a politician, a humble man. The most important legacy of his prisoner-of-war days is that he witnessed others behaving more heroically than he did. This experience has given him a basic honesty when appraising himself.
His mood darkened as the Iraq war deteriorated, but his accomplishments mounted. I don’t think any senator had as impressive a few years as McCain did during this span of time.
He lobbied relentlessly for a change of strategy in Iraq, holding off the tide that would have had us accept defeat and leave Iraq to its genocide. He negotiated a complicated immigration bill with Ted Kennedy. He helped organize the Gang of 14 and helped save the Senate from polarized Armageddon over judicial nominations.
He voted against opportunist bills like the pork-laden energy package and the prescription drug plan. He led a crusade against Jack Abramoff and the sleaze-meisters in his own party and exposed corrupt Pentagon contracts.
I could fill this column with his accomplishments during this period, and not even mention the insights. At a defense conference in Munich, I saw him diagnose and confront Russian hegemony. Week after week, I saw him dissent from G.O.P. colleagues as their party lost its way.
Some people who cover the campaign seem to have no knowledge of anything but the campaign, but I can’t get these events — which were real and required the constant application of judgment, honor and courage — out of my head.
Do I wish he was running a different campaign? Yes.
It’s not that he has changed his political personality that bothers me. I’ve come to accept that in this media-circus environment, you simply cannot run for president as a candid, normal person.
Nor is it, primarily, the dishonest ads he is running. My friends in the Obama cheering section get huffy about them, while filtering from their consciousness all the dishonest ads Obama has run — the demagogic DHL ad, the insulting computer ad, the cynical Rush Limbaugh ad, the misleading Social Security ad and so on. If one candidate has sunk lower than the other at this point, I’ve lost track.
No, what disappoints me about the McCain campaign is it has no central argument. I had hoped that he would create a grand narrative explaining how the United States is fundamentally unprepared for the 21st century and how McCain’s worldview is different.
McCain has not made that sort of all-encompassing argument, so his proposals don’t add up to more than the sum of their parts. Without a groundbreaking argument about why he is different, he’s had to rely on tactical gimmicks to stay afloat. He has no frame to organize his response when financial and other crises pop up.
He has no overarching argument in part because of his Senate training and the tendency to take issues on one at a time — in part, because of the foolish decision to run a traditional right-left campaign against Obama and, in part, because McCain has never really resolved the contradiction between the Barry Goldwater and Teddy Roosevelt sides of his worldview. One day he’s a small-government Western conservative; the next he’s a Bull Moose progressive. The two don’t add up — as we’ve seen in his uneven reaction to the financial crisis.
Nonetheless, when people try to tell me that the McCain on the campaign trail is the real McCain and the one who came before was fake, I just say, baloney. I saw him. A half-century of evidence is there.
If McCain is elected, he will retain his instinct for the hard challenge. With that Greatest Generation style of his, he will run the least partisan administration in recent times. He is not a sophisticated conceptual thinker, but he is a good judge of character. He is not an organized administrator, but he has become a practiced legislative craftsman. He is, above all — and this is completely impossible to convey in the midst of a campaign — a serious man prone to serious things.
Amid the stupidity of this season, it seemed worth stepping back to recall the fundamentals — about McCain today and Obama on some other day in the near future.
Why Experience Matters
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: September 15, 2008
Philosophical debates arise at the oddest times, and in the heat of this election season, one is now rising in Republican ranks. The narrow question is this: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Most conservatives say yes, on the grounds that something that feels so good could not possibly be wrong. But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready.
The issue starts with an evaluation of Palin, but does not end there. This argument also is over what qualities the country needs in a leader and what are the ultimate sources of wisdom.
There was a time when conservatives did not argue about this. Conservatism was once a frankly elitist movement. Conservatives stood against radical egalitarianism and the destruction of rigorous standards. They stood up for classical education, hard-earned knowledge, experience and prudence. Wisdom was acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said.
But, especially in America, there has always been a separate, populist, strain. For those in this school, book knowledge is suspect but practical knowledge is respected. The city is corrupting and the universities are kindergartens for overeducated fools. The elitists favor sophistication, but the common-sense folk favor simplicity.
The elitists favor deliberation, but the populists favor instinct.
This populist tendency produced the term-limits movement based on the belief that time in government destroys character but contact with grass-roots America gives one grounding in real life. And now it has produced Sarah Palin.
Palin is the ultimate small-town renegade rising from the frontier to do battle with the corrupt establishment. Her followers take pride in the way she has aroused fear, hatred and panic in the minds of the liberal elite. The feminists declare that she’s not a real woman because she doesn’t hew to their rigid categories. People who’ve never been in a Wal-Mart think she is parochial because she has never summered in Tuscany.
Look at the condescension and snobbery oozing from elite quarters, her backers say. Look at the endless string of vicious, one-sided attacks in the news media. This is what elites produce. This is why regular people need to take control.
And there’s a serious argument here. In the current Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward argues that the nation’s founders wanted uncertified citizens to hold the highest offices in the land. They did not believe in a separate class of professional executives. They wanted rough and rooted people like Palin.
I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.
And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired skills. Most of all, it requires prudence.
What is prudence? It is the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a specific situation. It is the ability to absorb the vast flow of information and still discern the essential current of events — the things that go together and the things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which arguments have the most weight.
How is prudence acquired? Through experience. The prudent leader possesses a repertoire of events, through personal involvement or the study of history, and can apply those models to current circumstances to judge what is important and what is not, who can be persuaded and who can’t, what has worked and what hasn’t.
Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without long experience and prudence is not good. As George Will pointed out, the founders used the word "experience" 91 times in the Federalist Papers. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.
Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.
The idea that "the people" will take on and destroy "the establishment" is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.
Palin Problem
She’s out of her league.
By Kathleen Parker
Sept. 24, 2008
If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.
Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.
Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.
As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.
Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)
And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).
Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: "Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?"
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true. What to do?
McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
— Kathleen Parker is a nationally syndicated columnist
& McCain Candidacy
The ProConPundit has been noticeably silent of late mostly because I am disgusted. Unless something changes and changes quick, Barack Obama will be elected–by default–as our next president.
John McCain is swimming upstream to begin with. It’s the end of two terms of a very unpopular President amidst constantly increasing precarious times. The mood of the country is clearly to make a change. If the Democratic nominee were anyone other than Barack Obama, McCain would not stand a chance. Obama’s inexperience, failure to connect with working class Americans, far left record (factually the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate) and skin color put him in a less viable position than any other Democrat.
Still, McCain has done a poor job of late. The perception of his handling of the bailout mess, the ability of the Democrats to tie the crisis to the Bush Administration coupled with McCain’s stupid linking of himself too often to Bush, and the Palin pick, are all crippling McCain among moderates and independents. The Palin pick was a brilliant move to keep conservatives happy. Ultimately, any vice-presidential pick probably doesn’t make that much difference. As of today, such INCREDIBLY reliable Republican states as North Carolina and Indiana are up for grabs. That might suggest having such a conservative as Palin on the ticket is not reassuring enough.
As much as I didn’t like Mitt Romney, he would certainly be a reassuring presence on a McCain ticket given the economic mess.
Check out these articles. The first two are by David Brooks. He and George Will would be my favorite conservatives. They are thoughtful and brilliant and, what I consider, authentic classic conservatives. Brooks first article sheds some light on McCain. The second critiques Sarah Palin.
The third article is by Kathleen Parker. She is a conservative columnist.. She originally favored Palin and now thinks Palin should drop out of the race. That’s crazy. The upheaval and aspersions that would cast would completely kill McCain’s chances. They are interesting articles, nonetheless.
Thinking About McCain
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: September 25, 2008
I’ve been covering John McCain steadily for a decade. A few years ago, I worked on a book, which I foolishly never completed, on the U.S. Senate with McCain as the central character. So when I step back and think of McCain, even in the heat of this campaign, I still think of him first in the real world of governing, not in the show-business world of the election.I think first of the personal qualities. He was an unfailingly candid man. When other politicians described a meeting, they always ended up the heroes of the story. But McCain would always describe the meeting straight, emphasizing his own failings with more vigor than his accomplishments.
He is, for a politician, a humble man. The most important legacy of his prisoner-of-war days is that he witnessed others behaving more heroically than he did. This experience has given him a basic honesty when appraising himself.
His mood darkened as the Iraq war deteriorated, but his accomplishments mounted. I don’t think any senator had as impressive a few years as McCain did during this span of time.
He lobbied relentlessly for a change of strategy in Iraq, holding off the tide that would have had us accept defeat and leave Iraq to its genocide. He negotiated a complicated immigration bill with Ted Kennedy. He helped organize the Gang of 14 and helped save the Senate from polarized Armageddon over judicial nominations.
He voted against opportunist bills like the pork-laden energy package and the prescription drug plan. He led a crusade against Jack Abramoff and the sleaze-meisters in his own party and exposed corrupt Pentagon contracts.
I could fill this column with his accomplishments during this period, and not even mention the insights. At a defense conference in Munich, I saw him diagnose and confront Russian hegemony. Week after week, I saw him dissent from G.O.P. colleagues as their party lost its way.
Some people who cover the campaign seem to have no knowledge of anything but the campaign, but I can’t get these events — which were real and required the constant application of judgment, honor and courage — out of my head.
Do I wish he was running a different campaign? Yes.
It’s not that he has changed his political personality that bothers me. I’ve come to accept that in this media-circus environment, you simply cannot run for president as a candid, normal person.
Nor is it, primarily, the dishonest ads he is running. My friends in the Obama cheering section get huffy about them, while filtering from their consciousness all the dishonest ads Obama has run — the demagogic DHL ad, the insulting computer ad, the cynical Rush Limbaugh ad, the misleading Social Security ad and so on. If one candidate has sunk lower than the other at this point, I’ve lost track.
No, what disappoints me about the McCain campaign is it has no central argument. I had hoped that he would create a grand narrative explaining how the United States is fundamentally unprepared for the 21st century and how McCain’s worldview is different.
McCain has not made that sort of all-encompassing argument, so his proposals don’t add up to more than the sum of their parts. Without a groundbreaking argument about why he is different, he’s had to rely on tactical gimmicks to stay afloat. He has no frame to organize his response when financial and other crises pop up.
He has no overarching argument in part because of his Senate training and the tendency to take issues on one at a time — in part, because of the foolish decision to run a traditional right-left campaign against Obama and, in part, because McCain has never really resolved the contradiction between the Barry Goldwater and Teddy Roosevelt sides of his worldview. One day he’s a small-government Western conservative; the next he’s a Bull Moose progressive. The two don’t add up — as we’ve seen in his uneven reaction to the financial crisis.
Nonetheless, when people try to tell me that the McCain on the campaign trail is the real McCain and the one who came before was fake, I just say, baloney. I saw him. A half-century of evidence is there.
If McCain is elected, he will retain his instinct for the hard challenge. With that Greatest Generation style of his, he will run the least partisan administration in recent times. He is not a sophisticated conceptual thinker, but he is a good judge of character. He is not an organized administrator, but he has become a practiced legislative craftsman. He is, above all — and this is completely impossible to convey in the midst of a campaign — a serious man prone to serious things.
Amid the stupidity of this season, it seemed worth stepping back to recall the fundamentals — about McCain today and Obama on some other day in the near future.
Why Experience Matters
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: September 15, 2008
Philosophical debates arise at the oddest times, and in the heat of this election season, one is now rising in Republican ranks. The narrow question is this: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Most conservatives say yes, on the grounds that something that feels so good could not possibly be wrong. But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready.
The issue starts with an evaluation of Palin, but does not end there. This argument also is over what qualities the country needs in a leader and what are the ultimate sources of wisdom.
There was a time when conservatives did not argue about this. Conservatism was once a frankly elitist movement. Conservatives stood against radical egalitarianism and the destruction of rigorous standards. They stood up for classical education, hard-earned knowledge, experience and prudence. Wisdom was acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said.
But, especially in America, there has always been a separate, populist, strain. For those in this school, book knowledge is suspect but practical knowledge is respected. The city is corrupting and the universities are kindergartens for overeducated fools. The elitists favor sophistication, but the common-sense folk favor simplicity.
The elitists favor deliberation, but the populists favor instinct.
This populist tendency produced the term-limits movement based on the belief that time in government destroys character but contact with grass-roots America gives one grounding in real life. And now it has produced Sarah Palin.
Palin is the ultimate small-town renegade rising from the frontier to do battle with the corrupt establishment. Her followers take pride in the way she has aroused fear, hatred and panic in the minds of the liberal elite. The feminists declare that she’s not a real woman because she doesn’t hew to their rigid categories. People who’ve never been in a Wal-Mart think she is parochial because she has never summered in Tuscany.
Look at the condescension and snobbery oozing from elite quarters, her backers say. Look at the endless string of vicious, one-sided attacks in the news media. This is what elites produce. This is why regular people need to take control.
And there’s a serious argument here. In the current Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward argues that the nation’s founders wanted uncertified citizens to hold the highest offices in the land. They did not believe in a separate class of professional executives. They wanted rough and rooted people like Palin.
I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.
And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired skills. Most of all, it requires prudence.
What is prudence? It is the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a specific situation. It is the ability to absorb the vast flow of information and still discern the essential current of events — the things that go together and the things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which arguments have the most weight.
How is prudence acquired? Through experience. The prudent leader possesses a repertoire of events, through personal involvement or the study of history, and can apply those models to current circumstances to judge what is important and what is not, who can be persuaded and who can’t, what has worked and what hasn’t.
Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without long experience and prudence is not good. As George Will pointed out, the founders used the word "experience" 91 times in the Federalist Papers. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.
Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.
The idea that "the people" will take on and destroy "the establishment" is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.
Palin Problem
She’s out of her league.
By Kathleen Parker
Sept. 24, 2008
If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.
Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.
Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.
As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.
Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)
And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).
Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: "Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?"
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true. What to do?
McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
— Kathleen Parker is a nationally syndicated columnist
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sara, You're the Poet in my Heart
Wait a minute baby...
Stay with me awhile
Said you'd give me light
But you never told be about the fire
Drowning in the sea of love
Where everyone would love to drown
And now it's gone
It doesn't matter anymore
When you build your house
Call me home
Thank you, Fleetwood Mac, for this song, "Sara", which I find helpful in summing up my complex reaction to Sarah Palin. Its about time there was a Fleetwood Mac song for Republicans. I never much cared for "Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow!"
Are you invigorated, excited, confused, befuddled, angry about Sarah Palin? Here’s what I have come up with.
1. It’s the most significant vice-presidential pick since Henry Wallace. FDR picked Henry Wallace in 1940. It was significant because it was the first time the presidential nominee picked his running mate. At the very beginning, the VP was the person who ran for President and came in second. George Washington didn't pick John Adams as his VP, he beat him for President. Imagine: Reagan-Carter, Clinton-Bush or Bush-Gore! Later, the running mate was selected by the party. All right, historical moment over. The selection of Palin by McCain was brilliant strategy in that it:
A. Energizes the GOP base.
B. Sparks enthusiasm and interest in the entire race while reinvigorating (or invigorating) his campaign.
C. Enables GOP to be able to potentially deliver the first woman to the vice-presidency and, possibly, the presidency.
D. Working class voters all over America are looking for someone to identify with. Some of them were among the folks in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania who voted for Hillary, but they are everywhere and don’t feel connected to Obama, they admire McCain but don’t identify with him, either.
E. Perhaps, most significantly, the selection of her has absolutely driven the Obama campaign and liberal media CRAZY. Obama is falling all over himself saying foolish things and giving more credibility to his opponent’s running mate than I have ever seen anyone do. David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager is usually one cool, calm, and sharp communicator. He, too, has been making an ass out of himself raising his voice and flapping his hands perplexed over the moose wrestling hottie from Alaska.
2. I think the media has been unfair to Palin, They, and the Democrats have been "Clarence Thomasing" her–discounting her as a woman because she isn’t a liberal woman. MSNBC has gone completely off the rails but I stopped watching MSNBC before the conventions.
3. I do think Obama intentionally used the lipstick remark as a jab. It was clear by the crowd’s response to his use of the "lipstick on a pig" remark that they thought that’s what he meant. God knows they could not possibly have been smarter than him. Other surrogates of Obama also used the "lipstick on a pig" remark, so it was clearly a co-ordinated effort or talking point.
4. That said, while I guess it makes hey for the McCain camp to grind the Obama camp over the "lipstick on a pig" remark, for the first time ever I find myself agreeing with salon.com’s Joan Walsh. She is a big time, self-described liberal and feminist. She disagrees with most of what Palin believes but admires her as a feminist. Walsh believes that the McCain hoopla over lipstickgate casts Palin as a victim. Sarah Palin is not a weak, pathetic, victim. She is running to be Vice-President of the United States. She doesn’t need defending and if she does, she should do it herself.
5. That brings me to the matter of her not being interviewed. Shit or get off the pot. Let’s not play games, McCain. You picked her. All of your people, including Ridge, Romney, Lieberman and Lindsay Graham have all taken to the air waves to declare how qualified she is to be Vice-President, even as they waited to see if their noses would grow. We shouldn’t have to wait 5 minutes for her to be interviewed. The notion that she can "bypass Meet The Press and go directly to the voters" is bullshit. She keeps repeating her same lines about putting the jet on ebay and voting against the bridge to nowhere (after she voted for it).
The momentum is not going to stay with her unless she can pay her dues and prove herself as a national leader. I am getting tired of all of the hoopla criticizing her and defending her. She needs to stand on her own and the topic needs to change to more important things.
Sara, you're the poet in my heart
Never change, never stop
Wait a minute baby...
Stay with me awhile
Said you'd give me light
But you never told be about the fire
Drowning in the sea of love
Where everyone would love to drown
And now it's gone
It doesn't matter anymore
When you build your house
Call me home
Thank you, Fleetwood Mac, for this song, "Sara", which I find helpful in summing up my complex reaction to Sarah Palin. Its about time there was a Fleetwood Mac song for Republicans. I never much cared for "Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow!"
Are you invigorated, excited, confused, befuddled, angry about Sarah Palin? Here’s what I have come up with.
1. It’s the most significant vice-presidential pick since Henry Wallace. FDR picked Henry Wallace in 1940. It was significant because it was the first time the presidential nominee picked his running mate. At the very beginning, the VP was the person who ran for President and came in second. George Washington didn't pick John Adams as his VP, he beat him for President. Imagine: Reagan-Carter, Clinton-Bush or Bush-Gore! Later, the running mate was selected by the party. All right, historical moment over. The selection of Palin by McCain was brilliant strategy in that it:
A. Energizes the GOP base.
B. Sparks enthusiasm and interest in the entire race while reinvigorating (or invigorating) his campaign.
C. Enables GOP to be able to potentially deliver the first woman to the vice-presidency and, possibly, the presidency.
D. Working class voters all over America are looking for someone to identify with. Some of them were among the folks in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania who voted for Hillary, but they are everywhere and don’t feel connected to Obama, they admire McCain but don’t identify with him, either.
E. Perhaps, most significantly, the selection of her has absolutely driven the Obama campaign and liberal media CRAZY. Obama is falling all over himself saying foolish things and giving more credibility to his opponent’s running mate than I have ever seen anyone do. David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager is usually one cool, calm, and sharp communicator. He, too, has been making an ass out of himself raising his voice and flapping his hands perplexed over the moose wrestling hottie from Alaska.
2. I think the media has been unfair to Palin, They, and the Democrats have been "Clarence Thomasing" her–discounting her as a woman because she isn’t a liberal woman. MSNBC has gone completely off the rails but I stopped watching MSNBC before the conventions.
3. I do think Obama intentionally used the lipstick remark as a jab. It was clear by the crowd’s response to his use of the "lipstick on a pig" remark that they thought that’s what he meant. God knows they could not possibly have been smarter than him. Other surrogates of Obama also used the "lipstick on a pig" remark, so it was clearly a co-ordinated effort or talking point.
4. That said, while I guess it makes hey for the McCain camp to grind the Obama camp over the "lipstick on a pig" remark, for the first time ever I find myself agreeing with salon.com’s Joan Walsh. She is a big time, self-described liberal and feminist. She disagrees with most of what Palin believes but admires her as a feminist. Walsh believes that the McCain hoopla over lipstickgate casts Palin as a victim. Sarah Palin is not a weak, pathetic, victim. She is running to be Vice-President of the United States. She doesn’t need defending and if she does, she should do it herself.
5. That brings me to the matter of her not being interviewed. Shit or get off the pot. Let’s not play games, McCain. You picked her. All of your people, including Ridge, Romney, Lieberman and Lindsay Graham have all taken to the air waves to declare how qualified she is to be Vice-President, even as they waited to see if their noses would grow. We shouldn’t have to wait 5 minutes for her to be interviewed. The notion that she can "bypass Meet The Press and go directly to the voters" is bullshit. She keeps repeating her same lines about putting the jet on ebay and voting against the bridge to nowhere (after she voted for it).
The momentum is not going to stay with her unless she can pay her dues and prove herself as a national leader. I am getting tired of all of the hoopla criticizing her and defending her. She needs to stand on her own and the topic needs to change to more important things.
Sara, you're the poet in my heart
Never change, never stop
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Here is the Question:
What effect will Sarah Palin have upon the Clinton’s support
of Barack Obama in the election?
Here are three theories:
1. Michele Johnson– The Clinton’s will now really and truly work as hard as they can to get Obama elected so that Sarah Palin will not end up becoming the first woman Vice-President or President.
2. Paul Kroeger– We are witnessing the end of the era of the Clinton’s, whether or not they realize it.
3. ProConPundit– The Clinton’s will manage to actively, tacitly, and half-heartedly support Obama while secretly (or not so secretly) hoping he loses. They will campaign for him in a way that will ALWAYS cast doubts over their support which will redound to doubts about Obama. They do not want Sarah Palin to be the first woman President, certainly. However, if Obama is elected, she will never be elected President. He will either serve two terms and a Republican will beat him in 2012. 2016 is too far away. Hillary prefers electing McCain and resurrecting her Methodist prayer warriors to pray for McCain’s good health for four years. McCain would only serve one term and Hillary would face off against Palin in 2012.
1. Michele Johnson– The Clinton’s will now really and truly work as hard as they can to get Obama elected so that Sarah Palin will not end up becoming the first woman Vice-President or President.
2. Paul Kroeger– We are witnessing the end of the era of the Clinton’s, whether or not they realize it.
3. ProConPundit– The Clinton’s will manage to actively, tacitly, and half-heartedly support Obama while secretly (or not so secretly) hoping he loses. They will campaign for him in a way that will ALWAYS cast doubts over their support which will redound to doubts about Obama. They do not want Sarah Palin to be the first woman President, certainly. However, if Obama is elected, she will never be elected President. He will either serve two terms and a Republican will beat him in 2012. 2016 is too far away. Hillary prefers electing McCain and resurrecting her Methodist prayer warriors to pray for McCain’s good health for four years. McCain would only serve one term and Hillary would face off against Palin in 2012.
If Obama loses, you think he’ll run again in 2012? Forget about it. For one thing, no losing Democratic nominee has been nominated again since Stevenson in 1956. Democrats eviscerate their losers. Besides, if he loses, the Clinton’s will do EVERYTHING imaginable to discredit him. Whether he ends up dead like Vince Foster, cocaine planted in his pocket or Terry McAuliffe planted in his bed, this is Obama’s only grab for the brass ring.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Nothing Lackluster About End of Speech
Not so much insomnia but haunting. The end of John McCain’s speech referred to his time in the "Hanoi Hilton." He’s not bragging. He’s talking of something that few of us have gone through and fewer still can imagine.
He is not a great orator of a time. He is, win or lose, an American hero and patriot.
God bless John McCain and God bless America.
Now let’s win one-- not for the Gipper–but for our future.
McCain’s Speech of a Lifetime is Lackluster
GOP Strategist Mike Murphy who managed McCain’s 2000 campaign and the ProConPundit lobbied the McCain camp to have McCain not do a traditional convention speech. He excels at town hall meetings. Our argument, made more credibly by Murphy was that McCain’s acceptance speech needed to be a town hall format and not him giving a speech. The concession was creating a runway where McCain could speak at a more in-the-round environment. It missed the mark.
I love this guy and admire him. His speech was poor. His code references to being against abortion were the things that garnered the most amount of applause. The ProConPundit is unabashedly and unapologetically prolife but it’s a poor impression of the GOP if that is one of few things that excites people.
What a difference a week makes. Thank God for Sarah Palin.
McCain’s Closest Allies Are Horrible Speakers Cindy McCain Should Never,
Ever Speak in Public Again
I think Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Dole inaugurated the stupid notion that Americans need to hear from the nominee’s spouse. Hillary and Liddy did it well. Cindy McCain is DREADFUL. If she is sincere, she has a horrible time expressing it. She comes across as a bleach blonde bimbo and a phoney. She should NEVER, EVER speak again in public. SHE IS SICKENING.
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Tom Ridge, former PA Governor and first Secretary of Homeland Security are great men, great Americans, fine patriots and extremely loyal to John McCain. Their speeches were horrible and redeemed the fact that Mac did not pick them for VP, despite my urging.
I alternately enjoy and depise John Kass but he hates all politicians equally. Since Chicago is largely devoid of any potent GOP presence, he most often hacks away at Democrats.
Palin's small-town ways will play big across U.S.
John Kass - Chicago Tribune
10:37 PM CDT, September 3, 2008
ST. PAUL — Sarah Joan of Arc isn't as catchy as Sarah Barracuda, yet even so, the throng called for her to lead them, an unknown from the edge of nowhere, a woman with no experience in the great city of light.So Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the conservative running mate for Sen. John McCain, hit the necessary themes in the most anticipated speech of the Republican convention: pummeling the high priests of the Washington media establishment, pushing for oil drilling in the wilderness even though the Democrats don't like it, and promising political reform while reveling in her small-town ways."I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment," Palin told the delegates. "And I've learned quickly these last few days, that if you are not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the great people of this country."
Despite the Republican spin, Palin is a political animal, a real human with the capacity for ambition and revenge and all that comes with it, including all the flaws. As I mentioned a few days ago, she is not some plaster saint to be venerated, not a Mother Teresa with a Buck knife. Her record and her background must be fully investigated if she is to be a heartbeat from the presidency, and her conflicts examined, like those of Joe Biden and his son the lobbyist.
But there's been a zeal to the Palin media vetting. Reporters here have acted like perturbed clerks, snippy that established procedure wasn't followed when McCain surprised them with Palin. Perhaps he should have gone to a party at Sally Quinn's house and asked for opinions. Years ago, McCain might have done so, back when he shamelessly sucked up to the press, but they've left him for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and they're not coming back. So McCain had no obligation to go through that ridiculous pantomime expected by some in my business, who think politicians actually give a rat's ears about sitting down and consulting with journalists.
And there's that family issue with Palin. Her 17-year-old daughter is unmarried and pregnant. Palin herself has a 4-month-old infant with special needs. The suggestion has been made that if she's such a good mom, she should stay home with her family rather than run with McCain. If Palin were a Democrat, such talk would be grounds for serious shunning. But Palin is a conservative. She receives no such protection.
She also poses the greatest threat yet to the Obama reform narrative. The cynical epic has become the establishment media bedtime story, with Obama as the young King Arthur riding forth to promise change. In this, the Washington Beltway media colony has been his eager Merlin, hoping to guide him, cleaving desperately to the theme that he's some kind of reformer, even though Obama is a politician backed by Chicago's Daley machine and never once challenged the political corruption in Chicago and Illinois. Not ever.
The contrast with Palin—who actually went after the Republican Party bosses in Alaska on the corruption issue—is profound and challenging for the Obama-friendly media that willfully ignore his lack of leadership on the reform front, yet are consumed to find out if Palin has an overdue library book.In her speech, Palin also pulled an old political trick, publicly reveling in what is considered a deficit—that she's from a tiny town, almost as far as geographically possible from the sophisticated salons of Washington. Electoral vote-rich Pennsylvania and Ohio don't have salons either, but they do have small towns.The Republicans will remind them relentlessly in the weeks ahead that former community organizer Obama—in a foolish display of ego—said that small-town folk deal with an uncertain world by clinging to their guns and their religion."I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA . . . because I wanted to make my kids' public education better," said the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (population 8,471). "And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."
Expect Palin to knock squirrels out of trees across Ohio and Pennsylvania, along with other critters, fur and feathered. Unlike other candidates, she'll probably do her own shooting and skinning, and maybe roast them on sticks, with a pinch of salt, demanding reporters eat some, so they can say it tastes like chicken.St. Joan was a threat to the established order, and Palin is being positioned as a threat.
Unfortunately, the French handed Joan over to the English, and she was burned. I don't think we know yet what happens to Sarah.
Palin's small-town ways will play big across U.S.
John Kass - Chicago Tribune
10:37 PM CDT, September 3, 2008
ST. PAUL — Sarah Joan of Arc isn't as catchy as Sarah Barracuda, yet even so, the throng called for her to lead them, an unknown from the edge of nowhere, a woman with no experience in the great city of light.So Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the conservative running mate for Sen. John McCain, hit the necessary themes in the most anticipated speech of the Republican convention: pummeling the high priests of the Washington media establishment, pushing for oil drilling in the wilderness even though the Democrats don't like it, and promising political reform while reveling in her small-town ways."I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment," Palin told the delegates. "And I've learned quickly these last few days, that if you are not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the great people of this country."
Despite the Republican spin, Palin is a political animal, a real human with the capacity for ambition and revenge and all that comes with it, including all the flaws. As I mentioned a few days ago, she is not some plaster saint to be venerated, not a Mother Teresa with a Buck knife. Her record and her background must be fully investigated if she is to be a heartbeat from the presidency, and her conflicts examined, like those of Joe Biden and his son the lobbyist.
But there's been a zeal to the Palin media vetting. Reporters here have acted like perturbed clerks, snippy that established procedure wasn't followed when McCain surprised them with Palin. Perhaps he should have gone to a party at Sally Quinn's house and asked for opinions. Years ago, McCain might have done so, back when he shamelessly sucked up to the press, but they've left him for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and they're not coming back. So McCain had no obligation to go through that ridiculous pantomime expected by some in my business, who think politicians actually give a rat's ears about sitting down and consulting with journalists.
And there's that family issue with Palin. Her 17-year-old daughter is unmarried and pregnant. Palin herself has a 4-month-old infant with special needs. The suggestion has been made that if she's such a good mom, she should stay home with her family rather than run with McCain. If Palin were a Democrat, such talk would be grounds for serious shunning. But Palin is a conservative. She receives no such protection.
She also poses the greatest threat yet to the Obama reform narrative. The cynical epic has become the establishment media bedtime story, with Obama as the young King Arthur riding forth to promise change. In this, the Washington Beltway media colony has been his eager Merlin, hoping to guide him, cleaving desperately to the theme that he's some kind of reformer, even though Obama is a politician backed by Chicago's Daley machine and never once challenged the political corruption in Chicago and Illinois. Not ever.
The contrast with Palin—who actually went after the Republican Party bosses in Alaska on the corruption issue—is profound and challenging for the Obama-friendly media that willfully ignore his lack of leadership on the reform front, yet are consumed to find out if Palin has an overdue library book.In her speech, Palin also pulled an old political trick, publicly reveling in what is considered a deficit—that she's from a tiny town, almost as far as geographically possible from the sophisticated salons of Washington. Electoral vote-rich Pennsylvania and Ohio don't have salons either, but they do have small towns.The Republicans will remind them relentlessly in the weeks ahead that former community organizer Obama—in a foolish display of ego—said that small-town folk deal with an uncertain world by clinging to their guns and their religion."I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA . . . because I wanted to make my kids' public education better," said the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (population 8,471). "And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."
Expect Palin to knock squirrels out of trees across Ohio and Pennsylvania, along with other critters, fur and feathered. Unlike other candidates, she'll probably do her own shooting and skinning, and maybe roast them on sticks, with a pinch of salt, demanding reporters eat some, so they can say it tastes like chicken.St. Joan was a threat to the established order, and Palin is being positioned as a threat.
Unfortunately, the French handed Joan over to the English, and she was burned. I don't think we know yet what happens to Sarah.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
The ProConPundit Was Wrong
If I were a flip flopper, I would remove my previous harsh posts about Sarah Palin.
I’d rather stand by those remarks and admit I was wrong.
I am not go to rehash her speech. If you didn’t see it, watch it online.
No matter who you support, you should hear what she had to say.
She was strong and sharp and crisp and tough and funny and sarcastic and touching.
I will reflect more later on some points she raised.
For now, let me tell a couple of people said about her:
“The Dems got a buzz saw to deal with.” Marc Jaeger
“We presumed she was
the alternative to Hillary Clinton.
Sarah Palin is not an alternative to Hillary Clinton.
She is a torpedo
aimed directly at Barack & Michelle Obama.”
Chris Matthews
“She is Dick Cheney with a good butt.” Anonymous
Mike Huckabee observed that more people voted for Palin as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than voted for Biden as President. Biden has met his match.
McCain is brilliant.
If I were a flip flopper, I would remove my previous harsh posts about Sarah Palin.
I’d rather stand by those remarks and admit I was wrong.
I am not go to rehash her speech. If you didn’t see it, watch it online.
No matter who you support, you should hear what she had to say.
She was strong and sharp and crisp and tough and funny and sarcastic and touching.
I will reflect more later on some points she raised.
For now, let me tell a couple of people said about her:
“The Dems got a buzz saw to deal with.” Marc Jaeger
“We presumed she was
the alternative to Hillary Clinton.
Sarah Palin is not an alternative to Hillary Clinton.
She is a torpedo
aimed directly at Barack & Michelle Obama.”
Chris Matthews
“She is Dick Cheney with a good butt.” Anonymous
Mike Huckabee observed that more people voted for Palin as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than voted for Biden as President. Biden has met his match.
McCain is brilliant.
Former Opponents Go To Bat for Mac
Redmeat Romney. Mitt Romney gave a good red meat speech tonight. He fancies himself as Ronald Reagan who lost to Gerald Ford in 76, began his campaign the day after Ford lost and became the new face of the GOP and President in 1980. He’s worked hard for McCain and has been a team player. I still don’t see him being presidential timber.
Preacher-In Chief. Mike Huckabee is great. He began by saying he wished he was speaking Thursday night in an acceptance speech. He thanked the liberal media for doing what non one thought could be done: unifying the GOP and America behind McCain. He said the media was tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert in its disgraceful treatment of the Palin Family. Regrettably, I missed most of his speech. He’s a team player with future vice-presidential or presidential aspirations.
America’s Mayor. If Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman burned the barn last night, Rudy Giuliani blew the roof off and sent the place into orbit.
Giuliani stirred them up like no one before in this convention. He was entertaining and adds an ethnic, urban grit that the GOP needs. He also adds the moderate/liberal influence that is ever so rare and needed if the GOP wishes to stay in power.
His remarks about Obama were stinging, cogent, articulate, specific in contrasting a McCain vision and deconstructing the liberal argument of “more of the same.” He was funny and laughed with the building energy and enthusiasm be effected.
Observed that the Democratic National Convention never used the word Islamic terrorism or terrorism.
Here are some of his memorable lines:
“Barack Obama is the least experienced candidate for president in at least 100 years. On his experience, just this once we agree with Joe Biden.”
“He is not ready for that 3 a.m. phone call. And just this once, we agreed with Hillary.”
“Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing. Notta. Notta.”
“Change is not a destination just as hope is not a strategy.”
“Sarah Palin’s been a mayor. I love that.”
“I am sorry that Barack Obama thinks Sarah’s town wasn’t cosmopolitan enough. Wasn’t flash enough. Maybe they cling to religion there.”
“She’s got an 80% approval rating. You’d never get that in new York City.”
“How dare they question whether Governor Palin can be a mother and the Vice-President? When do they ever ask a man that question?”
Carly Fiorina: “I Know John McCain”
The former Hewett-Packard Board Chair and CEO just gave her speech at the RNC. She is a bright, smart, savvy business person. The line she kept peppering her speech with was, “I Know John McCain.”
I couldn’t help but recall Lloyd Bentsen’s lines in his 1988 debate with Dan Quayle that began with “I knew Jack Kennedy” and finally ended with, “You’re no Jack Kennedy.” I intuited, perhaps insanely, that the subliminal message was, “I know John McCain. Barack Obama is no John McCain.”
I’m a mess.
ProConPundit Appalled At Treatment of Palin
Has the media treated Sarah Palin unfairly? You better believe it. She is not my choice. Frankly, I think she is as experienced as a Vice-President would need to be if the President would not be the oldest president ever. That said, Barack Obama’s lack of experience has not been scrutinized in two years as much as Sarah Palin has in the last five days. Not only that, the same media that intentionally kept quiet for over a year the bastard love child of John Edwards, as well as the devious plot of John and Elizabeth Edwards to buy off the bimbo and deceive the American public has disgustingly broadcasted the pregnant teenage daughter of Sarah Palin. By media, I mean the New York Times, NBC and MSNBC. Other media outlets have also cruelly said that Sarah Palin’s four month old son is actually her grandson–that she is pretending it is her son to have kept quiet that her same daughter had a prior teenage pregnancy.
Consequently, Sarah Palin will come out swinging in her speech tonight. She will charm the country tonight, on the one hand, in no small part by declaring war on the media. This hot woman who could strangle a moose with her bare hands is going to let the media know that she is perfectly fine with their wrath and rejection–that she is going to Washington to work for the rest of the people the elites look down on. These are the embittered, religion and gun clinging people, many in Pennsylvania who Obama referenced in the primary. She is also going to proverbially ring the necks of those who have doubted her experience, this would include a “just-kidding, Madame Governor” ProConPundit and slap Obama when she says, "Being a mayor is a lot like being a community organizer except that it has actual responsibilities."
I just finished watching Sally Quinn of the Washington Post skewering McCain and Palin. The far-left Quinn thinks Palin should stay home and raise her kids. She also presumes to have knowledge she, in fact, could not have in saying McCain did not properly vet Palin. Again, she was not my choice but she was McCain’s and it was his right. That he didn’t vert Palin in advance at the altar of the media is not a serious factor to me.
In 1984, then Vice-President George Bush got in a little trouble when saying after debating Geraldine Ferraro, “Well, we kicked a little ass last night.” The presumed referencing of Ferraro’s ass as little was considered sexist. No sexism here, fasten your seat belts, this smart, sexy, moose hunting, giant killing Alaskan is going to kick a lot of ass here on in. Note: she won’t be a victim.
Bill Kristol said something interesting tonight. Kristol, who is Editor of The Weekly Standard, a neo-con, and who, incidentally, was Chief of Staff to Vice-President Dan Quayle. He also worked on the staff of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the seventies as Deputy Issues Director. Kristol has never been a fan of McCain and predicted a couple of months ago that McCain would and should pick Palin. Kristol said that John McCain, in picking Palin, has decided he will not lose this election as a courtly old Republican, like Bob Dole. Dole picked Jack Kemp and lost without surprise and without ever stirring up the race. Maverick McCain has bet the dream of his lifetime on stirring things up. He has done that. Sarah Palin has done that. A week ago, no one thought this convention would be exciting. McCain will probably win. If he loses, he will lose in his own, maverick/maddening way, making a splash and making history.
I must admit, as much as I would have favored Lieberman or Ridge, putting aside any controversy their selection would have brought, the only excitement would have been the criticism by Republicans. A unity ticket of McCain-Lieberman would have had some excitement but not much. McCain and Lieberman are both great patriots and bright leaders, but boring.
The media: NBC and MSNBC, in particular, are furious that McCain picked someone who surprised them. The larger liberal media is Clarence Thomasing her. How dare President Bush (Sr.) name a black supreme court justice who is not a totey for Jesse Jackson and the liberal left. Likewise, the liberal media and the far left is furious and running scared because John McCain had the audacity to name a woman who is not a left winger. This was expressed today on The View by Joy Behar, who said, “You Can’t Exchange One Vagina For Another.” Behar is a pig...Palin is on her way. For the record, I didn’t watch The View.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama has finally agreed to be interviewed by Bill O’Reilly tomorrow night.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Thompson and Lieberman Deliver Barn Burners
President Bush:
"If the Hanoi Hilton couldn’t break him, the angry left never will."
"John McCain is not afraid to tell you when he disagrees with you.
Believe me, I know!"
Fred Thompson:
"God Bless America and God Bless John McCain!"
Joe Lieberman:
"Country Matters More Than Party!"
"God Only Made One John McCain and He is His Own Man."
"If John McCain Is Just Another Republican,
"God Only Made One John McCain and He is His Own Man."
"If John McCain Is Just Another Republican,
Then I am Michael Moore’s Favorite Democrat."
"Barack Obama, in three years in the United States Senate, has never reached across the aisle to accomplish anything significant."
"John McCain will be a President
"Barack Obama, in three years in the United States Senate, has never reached across the aisle to accomplish anything significant."
"John McCain will be a President
our allies will trust and our enemies will fear."
The GOP convention started with some touching tributes to Presidents Reagan and Bush I. Our beloved First Lady graced us with some self-described "Straight Talk" giving touching remarks about John McCain and pointing out her husband’s many and seldom heard, even here, accomplishments these past eight years.
President Bush gave a great speech via satellite from The White House. Our President spoke touching words to his parents and spoke convincingly of John McCain. He went on to say of McCain, President Bush began the process of passing the torch from the Bush Family to the McCain’s–if they win.
The GOP convention started with some touching tributes to Presidents Reagan and Bush I. Our beloved First Lady graced us with some self-described "Straight Talk" giving touching remarks about John McCain and pointing out her husband’s many and seldom heard, even here, accomplishments these past eight years.
President Bush gave a great speech via satellite from The White House. Our President spoke touching words to his parents and spoke convincingly of John McCain. He went on to say of McCain, President Bush began the process of passing the torch from the Bush Family to the McCain’s–if they win.
Fred Thompson gave an inspiring, barn burner of a speech. Thompson said, "We need a President whose doesn’t think protecting the unborn is not above his pay grade." Thompson also got cheers for his defense of Sarah Palin in view of her being ridiculed for not being a Sunday talk show regular and Washington cocktail party hound. I agree with him. My criticisms of her are not about her being a Washington outsider.
Joe Lieberman gave a credibly incredible speech. I don’t think Republicans appreciate the hits he has taken to stand up for President Bush and now John McCain. His speech and Thompson’s, along with President and Mrs. Bush, were candidate based not party based. An ad lib addition to Lieberman’s speech were his subtle remarks that McCain will do better than Bush in dealing with other countries.
It was a great night.
It was a great night.
Jury Out On Palin-Biden Debate
Joe Biden is arguably one of the best debaters in the U.S. Personally, I think Joe Lieberman was uniquely best qualified in this respect as a potential running mate to McCain. Lieberman has ably debated Biden before on the Sunday shows, is in the same league as Biden as a debater, above and beyond him in stature and, as a Democrat would have really dealt a unique punch.
We’ll know more Wednesday after Sarah Palin delivers the speech of her lifetime at the Republican Convention and, frankly, most of America meets her for the first time. My hunch is that she’ll do much better against Biden than we are being led to believe for three reasons:
1. The bar is set low. If she doesn’t have a Quayle moment, "You’re no Jack Kennedy," she’ll be given a passing grade.
2. She’s no patsy. She may kick Biden’s ass.
3. Biden may pull a Rick Lazio and be perceived as bullying her or disrespecting her.
Joe Biden is arguably one of the best debaters in the U.S. Personally, I think Joe Lieberman was uniquely best qualified in this respect as a potential running mate to McCain. Lieberman has ably debated Biden before on the Sunday shows, is in the same league as Biden as a debater, above and beyond him in stature and, as a Democrat would have really dealt a unique punch.
We’ll know more Wednesday after Sarah Palin delivers the speech of her lifetime at the Republican Convention and, frankly, most of America meets her for the first time. My hunch is that she’ll do much better against Biden than we are being led to believe for three reasons:
1. The bar is set low. If she doesn’t have a Quayle moment, "You’re no Jack Kennedy," she’ll be given a passing grade.
2. She’s no patsy. She may kick Biden’s ass.
3. Biden may pull a Rick Lazio and be perceived as bullying her or disrespecting her.
McCain Creates Ironic Empathy
Between Limbaugh and McCain Wings of GOP
In McCain’s naming Palin, an unintended consequence happened in one fell swoop. Rush Limbaugh and all other branches of "real," "true," and "far-right" conservatives understood why people like me have loved John McCain for all these years. At that same moment, I understand precisely why they have hated him. This was a McCain-being- McCain move. Many of you have called, e-mailed and texted me in the last few days to ask what I thought and why I had done something unusual: had an unpublished thought. The simple truth is that I have been too infuriated–and still am. I will speak to the PRO’s and CON’s of the move and will first acknowledge two things:
1. I totally understand the political strategy of the pick and realize it may work.
2. It is a stupid, reckless, mistake.
In the first few hours after the naming of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate, I was delighted with the euphoria expressed by Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson, two people I don’t care for and, in the case of Dobson, someone I don’t respect. Shoring up support among people who have long, vocally and viscerally disdained McCain felt great. Several people whose instincts are solid and whose opinions I respect contacted me to give thumbs up. My response which affirmed their opinion was not hypocritical on my part. Rather, I was impressed by the euphoria even as my own thought were yet unformed.
PROS...
1. Shores up conservatives. The support of Limbaugh and Dobson reflect huge amounts of solid support in every corner of this country.
2. Game changer. This was an infusion of energy, surprise and relative youth into the campaign.
3. Palin’s limited record is impressive as a reformer, a maverick who has bucked her party, most notably beating the incumbent GOP governor and going after corruption among Republicans like Alaska US Senator Ted Stephens.
4. Her family and their *choice* to have a Down’s Syndrome baby are heart warming and a way for the GOP to bring a young family into the national consciousness.
5. There is a sense in which having a red meat conservative like Palin on the ticket "frees McCain to be McCain." The idea is that before and after the election, Palin will be sent out to keep the conservatives happy. Judgement neutral, this was the same rationale President Bush Sr. Used in naming Dan Quayle. Quayle did a good job of that despite his handful of gaffes that landed him relentless criticism.
6. Palin is discounted by the liberal press as being able to court disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters. While this largely and logically true, she only needs to attract a small number of them in a close election to make a difference.
7. If they win, the GOP will deliver the first woman to the Vice-Presidency. Unless she assumes the office, she will never be elected in her own right. Vice-Presidents seldom get elected President. President Bush, Sr., was the first Vice-President in 150 years to become President without assuming the office. She would doubtless face more formidable and credible opponents in Mitt Romney, et al.
CONS...
1. Qualifications. Sarah Palin is woefully inadequate to be the President of the United States. I have memorized the GOP talking point about how she is more qualified than Obama. That is debatable and misses the point.
I agree with Doris Kearns Goodwin who says there are only three days when the Vice-President matters:
--The day they are selected.
--Election Day. Palin may help McCain. I have two doubts. First, conservatives would have voted for McCain any way. Second, no Vice-President has ever been credited with winning the election for the President. JFK believed he needed LBJ in 1960 to win Texas. I think Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley had more to do with Kennedy winning than Johnson.
--The Day they must assume the presidency.
Palin does fine on the first two days but falls short on the third. If the Presidency is not a place for on the job training as every candidate for President, save Obama, declared this year, the same is true for the person a heart beat away from the oldest President. The man who aspires to be the oldest President in American history shows a disdain for the Vice-Presidency and the one in five Americans who believe his age is a reason to vote against him.
2. Ideology. I believe the American people would be better served if the Democratic Party was less controlled by far left liberals and if the GOP was less controlled by far right conservatives. I would prefer a Republican presidency like Eisenhower, Ford or Bush I. The Palin pick over Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman does not help that cause.
McCain should have named Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney or Susan Collins.
PS--My concerns about Sarah Palin's extreme views...
Sarah Palin believes that abortion should be illegal under ALL circumstances, including rape and incest. In this premise, she is far beyond the American mainstream.
Sarah Palin rejects not only gay marriage but supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage something President Bush used as an election wedge issue but never actually believed in or promoted. 60% of Americans oppose gay marriage. However, 66% of Americans support some type of domestic partnership/civil unions for gay couples Sarah Palin does not. Here again, her views are not within mainstream America.
In 1992, Sarah Palin supported the insurgent Republican presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan.
In 2000, rejecting Bush and McCain, she supported Buchanan’s kamikaze run with the Reform Party.
Sarah Palin belongs to a church which believes the world was created in six days, interprets the Bible literally, and believes that Jesus will return via "Rapture." In this premise, which is not supported by credible biblical scholarship, the chosen will rise up into the sky with Jesus while the non-chosen remain. On top of that, the chosen will rise without their clothes and everything else will continue here. So, for instance, if a bus driver is chosen, non-chosen bus passengers would experience a bus that is still running, at least temporarily, with the bus drivers clothes on his or her chair and the bus drivers cap probably on the steering wheel. These beliefs are as far to the right as Obama’s church is to the left without anti-American rhetoric.
Between Limbaugh and McCain Wings of GOP
In McCain’s naming Palin, an unintended consequence happened in one fell swoop. Rush Limbaugh and all other branches of "real," "true," and "far-right" conservatives understood why people like me have loved John McCain for all these years. At that same moment, I understand precisely why they have hated him. This was a McCain-being- McCain move. Many of you have called, e-mailed and texted me in the last few days to ask what I thought and why I had done something unusual: had an unpublished thought. The simple truth is that I have been too infuriated–and still am. I will speak to the PRO’s and CON’s of the move and will first acknowledge two things:
1. I totally understand the political strategy of the pick and realize it may work.
2. It is a stupid, reckless, mistake.
In the first few hours after the naming of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate, I was delighted with the euphoria expressed by Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson, two people I don’t care for and, in the case of Dobson, someone I don’t respect. Shoring up support among people who have long, vocally and viscerally disdained McCain felt great. Several people whose instincts are solid and whose opinions I respect contacted me to give thumbs up. My response which affirmed their opinion was not hypocritical on my part. Rather, I was impressed by the euphoria even as my own thought were yet unformed.
PROS...
1. Shores up conservatives. The support of Limbaugh and Dobson reflect huge amounts of solid support in every corner of this country.
2. Game changer. This was an infusion of energy, surprise and relative youth into the campaign.
3. Palin’s limited record is impressive as a reformer, a maverick who has bucked her party, most notably beating the incumbent GOP governor and going after corruption among Republicans like Alaska US Senator Ted Stephens.
4. Her family and their *choice* to have a Down’s Syndrome baby are heart warming and a way for the GOP to bring a young family into the national consciousness.
5. There is a sense in which having a red meat conservative like Palin on the ticket "frees McCain to be McCain." The idea is that before and after the election, Palin will be sent out to keep the conservatives happy. Judgement neutral, this was the same rationale President Bush Sr. Used in naming Dan Quayle. Quayle did a good job of that despite his handful of gaffes that landed him relentless criticism.
6. Palin is discounted by the liberal press as being able to court disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters. While this largely and logically true, she only needs to attract a small number of them in a close election to make a difference.
7. If they win, the GOP will deliver the first woman to the Vice-Presidency. Unless she assumes the office, she will never be elected in her own right. Vice-Presidents seldom get elected President. President Bush, Sr., was the first Vice-President in 150 years to become President without assuming the office. She would doubtless face more formidable and credible opponents in Mitt Romney, et al.
CONS...
1. Qualifications. Sarah Palin is woefully inadequate to be the President of the United States. I have memorized the GOP talking point about how she is more qualified than Obama. That is debatable and misses the point.
I agree with Doris Kearns Goodwin who says there are only three days when the Vice-President matters:
--The day they are selected.
--Election Day. Palin may help McCain. I have two doubts. First, conservatives would have voted for McCain any way. Second, no Vice-President has ever been credited with winning the election for the President. JFK believed he needed LBJ in 1960 to win Texas. I think Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley had more to do with Kennedy winning than Johnson.
--The Day they must assume the presidency.
Palin does fine on the first two days but falls short on the third. If the Presidency is not a place for on the job training as every candidate for President, save Obama, declared this year, the same is true for the person a heart beat away from the oldest President. The man who aspires to be the oldest President in American history shows a disdain for the Vice-Presidency and the one in five Americans who believe his age is a reason to vote against him.
2. Ideology. I believe the American people would be better served if the Democratic Party was less controlled by far left liberals and if the GOP was less controlled by far right conservatives. I would prefer a Republican presidency like Eisenhower, Ford or Bush I. The Palin pick over Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman does not help that cause.
McCain should have named Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney or Susan Collins.
PS--My concerns about Sarah Palin's extreme views...
Sarah Palin believes that abortion should be illegal under ALL circumstances, including rape and incest. In this premise, she is far beyond the American mainstream.
Sarah Palin rejects not only gay marriage but supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage something President Bush used as an election wedge issue but never actually believed in or promoted. 60% of Americans oppose gay marriage. However, 66% of Americans support some type of domestic partnership/civil unions for gay couples Sarah Palin does not. Here again, her views are not within mainstream America.
In 1992, Sarah Palin supported the insurgent Republican presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan.
In 2000, rejecting Bush and McCain, she supported Buchanan’s kamikaze run with the Reform Party.
Sarah Palin belongs to a church which believes the world was created in six days, interprets the Bible literally, and believes that Jesus will return via "Rapture." In this premise, which is not supported by credible biblical scholarship, the chosen will rise up into the sky with Jesus while the non-chosen remain. On top of that, the chosen will rise without their clothes and everything else will continue here. So, for instance, if a bus driver is chosen, non-chosen bus passengers would experience a bus that is still running, at least temporarily, with the bus drivers clothes on his or her chair and the bus drivers cap probably on the steering wheel. These beliefs are as far to the right as Obama’s church is to the left without anti-American rhetoric.
ProConPundit's Record On Palin
On August 18, 2008, I listed four finalists on McCain's short list. They were:
1. Lindsay Graham
2. Tom Ridge
3. Joe Lieberman
4. Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin. This would be a good pick for McCain to shore up conservatives, on the one hand. On the other hand, McCain would make history by the GOP delivering the first woman VP. I don’t favor symbolism over substance. She is not prepared to assume the presidency.
On August 18, 2008, I listed four finalists on McCain's short list. They were:
1. Lindsay Graham
2. Tom Ridge
3. Joe Lieberman
4. Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin. This would be a good pick for McCain to shore up conservatives, on the one hand. On the other hand, McCain would make history by the GOP delivering the first woman VP. I don’t favor symbolism over substance. She is not prepared to assume the presidency.
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