September 13th, 2008
Over at TPM Reed Hundt writes about the many lies that John McCain has been telling the American public, and wonders about something I’ve been thinking about recently:
In 2000 Al Gore was pilloried by the mainstream media (“MSM”) for his alleged untruths or exaggerations — Love Canal, Love Story, Internet, Who he visited in Texas. In every instance, at the very most he had chosen the wrong word or failed to clarify the misunderstandings of others.
Now in 2008 the McCain-Palin ticket revels in inaccuracy, wallows in whoppers, lies like a pair of rugs, buys ad time to tell still more lies. So tell me why the MSM doesn’t talk about their dishonesty endlessly, turning them from celebrity stars into pathological figures?
The contrast is absolutely clear. What’s the explanation?
September 5th, 2008
Krugman, once more, insightfully describes what may very well be at play in the minds of the uber-conservatives that we saw in display at the republican convention this week:
What the G.O.P. is selling, in other words, is the pure politics of resentment; you’re supposed to vote Republican to stick it to an elite that thinks it’s better than you. Or to put it another way, the G.O.P. is still the party of Nixon.
One of the key insights in “Nixonland,” the new book by the historian Rick Perlstein, is that Nixon’s political strategy throughout his career was inspired by his college experience, in which he got himself elected student body president by exploiting his classmates’ resentment against the Franklins, the school’s elite social club. There’s a direct line from that student election to Spiro Agnew’s attacks on the “nattering nabobs of negativism” as “an effete corps of impudent snobs,” and from there to the peculiar cult of personality that not long ago surrounded George W. Bush — a cult that celebrated his anti-intellectualism and made much of the supposed fact that the “misunderestimated” C-average student had proved himself smarter than all the fancy-pants experts.
And when Mr. Bush turned out not to be that smart after all, and his presidency crashed and burned, the angry right — the raging rajas of resentment? — became, if anything, even angrier.
And, again, Krugman poignantly asks the bottom line question:
Can Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin really ride Nixonian resentment into an upset election victory in what should be an overwhelmingly Democratic year? The answer is a definite maybe.
Yeah, I know, I didn’t want to hear that either. It’s going to be a bumpy ride from here until election day.
August 31st, 2008
Don’t know what to make of this rumor. However, if the traditional media (or the National Enquirer — think John Edwards) picks it up, it could be devastating to McCain’s VP pick. Various sources around the blogsphere are asking, Is Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s VP pick, the mother of the Palin’s fifth child or her grandmother?
What!? Yes, I had the same reaction you’re probably having right about now, so let’s get to the nut-and-bolts of the rumor.
Via Comments from Left Field:
On March 5th, 2008 Alaska’s Republican Governor, Sarah Palin, announced to the media that she was 7 months pregnant with her 5th child. She is currently 44.
Palin’s daughter Bristol is 16 and attends an Anchorage high school. Students who have attended class with her report that she has been out of school for months, claiming a prolonged case of mono.
Palin does not appear pregnant in any recent photographs. The announcement came as quite a shock to people who had worked closely with her, and have been quoted as saying that she did not appear pregnant whatsoever during the prior 7 months.
From a DailyKos.com diary, quoting an article from The Anchorage Daily News:
Palin said she’s already about seven months along, with the baby due to arrive in mid-May.
That the pregnancy is so advanced astonished all who heard the news. The governor, a runner who’s always been trim, simply doesn’t look pregnant.
Even close members of her staff said they only learned this week their boss was expecting.
“I thought it was becoming obvious,” Palin said. “You know, clothes getting snugger and snugger.”
But people just couldn’t believe the news.
“Really? No!” said Bethel state Rep. Mary Nelson, who is close to giving birth herself.
“It’s wonderful. She’s very well-disguised,” said Senate President Lyda Green, a mother of three who has sometimes sparred with Palin politically. “When I was five months pregnant, there was absolutely no question that I was with child.”
That DailyKos diarist has some videos and pictures, too, in his diary.
Granted, this is all just a rumor; however, the 236.com website asks the question that many are asking:
Would a 44-year-old woman with four kids out of diapers, embarking on her first governorship, really get pregnant? Or would a 17-year-old, living in a small Alaska town with conservative parents who didn’t tell her about condoms, starting fooling around and accidentally get knocked up?
It was at this point in the then rumored Edwards’ affair that I thought, Oh, that can’t be true. Well, now we know… may be the National Enquirer will shock us again.
UPDATE (9/2): The DailyKos.com diary has been deleted from the website, but you can still find the story via Google cache.
August 19th, 2008
The AP tells truth, if only by mistake, er, typo, and gives us one of the funnier lines of the campaign cycle. Writing about John McCain’s potential VP choices, the AP writes:
His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.
August 11th, 2008
There’s been a bit of chatter after John McCain’s saber-rattling in response to Russia’s invasion of neighboring Georgia; which prompted Josh Marshall, of Talking Points Memo, to underscore what this election is about:
Andrew Sullivan is right about this. This is something that transcends whatever immediate campaign tactics or even strategy Barack Obama may be pursuing. It goes beyond him. It goes beyond the Democrats. The whole country needs to wake up.
The foreign policy of the last seven-plus years has been an unmitigated disaster for the United States by virtually every measure. And John McCain would ramp up all the worst traits of the current administration. His instincts are always toward force and the people advising him come squarely from the Cheney wing of the current administration. In comparison to Bush he’s not just more of the same. There’s every reason to believe he’d be much worse.
The current situation in Georgia and his response should make clear to everyone how dangerous a president John McCain would be.
