Something else about the Palin pick that is not being discussed, but should be. Remember this:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton threw up a roadblock on Sen. Barack Obama’s path to the Democratic presidential nomination by winning the giant Ohio and Texas primaries, NBC News projected Wednesday morning.
“For everyone here in Ohio and across America who’s been counted out and refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you,” Clinton said at a raucous rally in Columbus on a night when she took both of the two major prizes on offer.
Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama, D-Ill., split the smaller Rhode Island and Vermont primaries, according to NBC News .
Delegates to the Democratic National Convention are awarded proportionally, and those numbers will not be available until all returns are in. Going into Tuesday’s balloting, Obama led Clinton by 1,194-1,037, according to NBC News’ count.
Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain of Arizona wrapped up the Republican nomination after he won all four contests, NBC News projected. His only remaining serious rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, withdrew from the race Tuesday night.
That was on March 5th. If you remember at the time, part of the animus at the Clinton folks, on top of the fact that they had decided to go sleazy with their kitchen-sink strategy, was that it was pretty clear that Hillary would not overcome the delegate deficit and that all she was going to do was savage Obama while McCain had three months free to do whatever- to fund raise, to campaign, to make the case for himself, to shore up the base, to work on the platform, and, presumably, to begin vetting his running partner.
And the next three entire months did, in fact, see a brutal nomination contest with lots of acrimony between the Obama and Clinton factions, and Obama finally was able to get around to putting together his team to vet candidates, with a minor hiccup around June 10th-1tth regarding the Jim Johnson resignation. His team then had two months to do their work, and from what I can tell, did a great job. So far, there have been no surprises with Biden. Hell, there have been no surprises with any of the front runners.
What, then, did the McCain team do with the extra three months they had to choose their candidate? Beats me, but it sure as hell was not a careful examination of Sarah Palin:
I just got off the phone with the very helpful city clerk at the Wasilla City Clerk’s office, Kristie Smithers, who is pulling some documents for me from when Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor.
I told her I appreciated her help, since I’m sure she’s been bombarded with requests these last few weeks. The clerk’s office keeps all City Council meeting agendas, minutes, legislation, ordinances, etc. She chuckled. Then she told me that I’m the first person who has asked her office for anything.
The evidence is so strong that this was a haphazard, rushed, and incomplete vetting that I don’t even need to argue the case. They can swear up and down that they did a thorough vetting of Palin, but when they had to release the bit about the pregnant daughter because they were about to get the Edwards treatment by the National Enquirer, and when they are just now flying lawyers in a panic to Alaska, and when the close-knit political establishment of Alaska, to a person, state that they were asked nothing about Sarah Palin, you have to realize that we have been down this road before. We have seen this type of reckless nonsense from these clowns before.
This behavior is no different from the reckless abandon with which a certain administration rushed into a war in Iraq, with no plan, with no forethought- shooting from the hip, going with the gut. John McCain had five months to choose and vet his nominee, and he failed to do so. It doesn’t matter if Sarah Palin turns out to be the best person on the planet, this sort of rash and ill-conceived behavior on McCain’s part is not only reckless, it is dangerous.
This country can not survive four more years of this kind of terrible judgment. Compare the behavior and judgment demonstrated by Barack Obama with his choice and John McCain’s choice of an unknown who at this point should be adding extra closets to the Alaska governor’s mansion to hide all the skeletons. Obama spent months getting to know his running mate, McCain talked to his on a phone for 15 minutes, met her maybe another time, and then went on Fox and declared her a soul mate.
Who do you want as Commander In Chief? An intemperate flyboy, or a cautious thinker?
*** Update ***
By the way, I keep hearing and reading the media types tell us that McCain gambled with Palin, but without seeming to internalize what that means. It isn’t just that he gambled the election with his choice, it is that he gambled with the future and the economic and military security of this nation. He didn’t just gamble an election. He gambled your future. Thanks for playing.
Mario
The flyboy, the flyboy! I’ve always wondered what WW3 would look like.
bushworstpresidentever
John McCain has neither the judgment nor temperment to be President of the United States.
SpotWeld
Who do you want as Commander In Chief? An intemperate flyboy, or a cautious thinker?
Wow… like total deja vu here.
Clio
Now mcshame has cancelled an interview with larry king to punish cnn for the campbell brown interview last night. I swear, he gets more and more like bush every day.
The Dangerman
I’m beginning to fear this isn’t gambling at all; it’s a sign of complete laziness because he knows the fix is in. All he has to do is get the base out…
…and after that, if he can keep it “cheating close”, all you have to do is flip 1 state (see Florida, 2000, and Ohio, 2004).
Can you imagine that in 6 months, we’ll be nostalgic for Dick Cheney?
Noah
The Republican Party is about to self destruct. They even just fired Rudy Giuliani from his keynoting role tonight!
DougJ
I can’t be the first to ask this, but…
If the AIP had succeeded in granting Alaska secession, would Palin’s time as governor count as foreign policy experience?
BudP
McCain has known since at the latest 1998 that he’s wanted to be President. He’s had TEN years to make his VP pick.
Bush = shoot from the hip
McCain = shoot from the hip replacement
ethan salto
When Barack Obama declared his candidacy for President of the United States in February 2007, Sarah Palin, former mayor of a town of 6,500, had been Governor of Alaska for …
Less than three months.
Wall-to-wall Palinalia here. Revel in the circus while it lasts.
Notorious P.A.T.
Why, they cleaned out the old grill and stocked up on barbecue sauce. You know, important stuff.
I understand your point, but let’s not go crazy )
Stuck in the Fun House (nj)
TODAY WE ARE ALL JOHN MCCAIN!
Cris
Maybe McCain didn’t want to assume as early as March that he would actually make it to the convention. After all, we all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.
aimai
Hey John, long time lurker, short time poster here. I couldn’t agree more about your “they haven’t internalized it” observation. If it ever sinks in just how contemptuous of america’s real interests these guys are the press will have to commit mass seppukku. I think the press may reach a tipping point with Palin and McCain where they shift the narrative to “gambling, erratic, ex fly boy once known primarily as a maverick and ex POW” but they will never tie McCain and Palin’s *actual policies* with the Republican party because that would force the press to hammer the republicans as a party. They may throw him over and sigh and start giving Obama the reflexively good, presidential coverage that they gave bush all these years. But they will never grasp the full horror of the party that exalted John McCain and Palin as good enough for America’s top jobs.
aimai
Punchy
Cole, you insensitive prick. For 5.5 years, McCain couldn’t vet his captors. He couldn’t vet the vat he was fed from. He couldn’t vet the other vets, nor could these other vets vet him. He was simultaneously unvetted, unvettable; and as a vet with other vets vettable only to those whose vetting was vetastic, it was a situation that was, as vets would know, hard to vetify.
Jesus Christ, the man was a POW, for chrissakes.
Xenos
McCain is not just a gambler, he is a dice-thrower. No strategy, no consideration of odds, no counting cards, just rolling the bones at the craps table for a thrill. With his wife’s money.
Gambling with this pick is entirely within character for the guy.
He seems to have crapped out, in any case. TPM reports the tracking polls show undecideds breaking sharply for Obama. McCain may have the world’s first negative bounce out of this convention.
The Moar You Know
Mavericks(R) take chances. And if it doesn’t work, they double down. And by God they’ll double down again if the going gets rough! THEY WILL DOUBLE DOWN UNTIL THEY WIN. THAT’S WHAT MAVERICKS(R) DO !ONE!ELEVEN
And if it all goes to shit, well, at least you know that the smoking pile of ruin and fail you used to call your life was brought to you by a Maverick(R) and not some servile toady of mainstream political thought.
Takin’ chances.
Takin’ risks.
Throwing away the manual.
That’s the Maverick(R) way.
zzyzx
“I can’t be the first to ask this, but…
If the AIP had succeeded in granting Alaska secession, would Palin’s time as governor count as foreign policy experience?”
If the AIP had succeeded in seceding, would Palin be a natural born citizen?
Dreggas
McCain Snubbs CNN because they questioned his people on Palin
Conservatively Liberal
McCain loves to gamble at the casinos and from what we know he leaves more there than he takes home. Now he wants to be able to gamble from the highest office in the nation.
I too have been listening to the talking heads in the press and they put this ‘he’s gambling’ on this out there and they are not connecting it to his possible future actions.
Careless, mindlessly careless.
PeterJ
They didn’t drop him because of Bush, they drop him because of Palin.
Two beauty queens at the convention? That might have lead to a broken pageantry.
And that’s no way to show unity, so Giuliani had to go.
SGEW
I’m gonna keep harpin’ on this one . . .
Stop smearing the perfectly respectable American Institute of Physics (AIP)!
Their online Einstein exhibit is simply marvelous, as is everything else in the Niels Bohr library that’s available through their admirable website.
JGabriel
I just want to know:
How did the GOP find a power-abusing, cop-harrassing, Alaska secessionist, creationist, global warming denying, book-banning, earmark-seeking, anti-choice, anti-birth control, stem-cell research opposing, homophobic, pentecostal, abstinence promoting governor who’s suing the US to have polar bears removed from the endangered species list, and has with an unwed pregnant teenage daughter dating a guy named after the inventor of blue-jeans?
It’s like she was made for them. If Palin didn’t exist, Jon Stewart would have had to invent her.
And what does it say about John McCain that he looked at a batshit insane, white trash authoritarian and thought, “Soul-mate”?
.
JGabriel
With respect to McCain’s temper tantrum about CNN, does he realize he’s not doing himself any favors? Specifically, McCain needs CNN at this point more than they need him.
Sure, it kind of sucks for a network when they can’t get interviews with the presidential nominee of a major party, BUT once that candidate has become a clear loser, it’s also not something they need to worry about. After all, it’s not like McCain is going to have any say over their broadcasting license when he loses the election.
.
dewberry
Am watching Biden on C-Span address seniors in Florida. His thoughtful and knowledgeable answers to their questions are just a joy to watch.
I’ll say it again, I want the smartest, thinkingest, wonkiest people running this country. I don’t understand how we got to the spot where it’s great to be dumb because it makes you a reg’lar Americun.
Mary
Palin won’t be speaking at the convention tonight. She also she cancelled her appearance at an antiabortion event today. And boy, is Phyllis Schlafly pissed.
But I don’t think they’re dropping her (yet), as the last story mentions that she snubbed Schlafly in order to work on her speech.
SGEW
Whoops. Watch yer language there, buddy.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hooboy, yer on fire dawg!
r€nato
near-native Zonie here who would like to point out that McCain has not had to run anything like a close race since his very first election EVER in 1982, when he ran in a GOP primary for the retiring John Rhodes’ House seat.
And in that race, McCain was the GOP establishment’s pick so he really had a head start on all the other candidates.
Since then, McCain has had one cakewalk after another.
Now he’s running for the most important job in the world, and he’s anything but the favored candidate.
Little wonder he didn’t make any use of the three months’ head start he had on the Democratic nominee. He’s just not used to earning success, instead of having it handed to him.
BH-Buck
Gamble? You think she’s a gamble to the “Focus on the Family” party? Really?
r€nato
LOL! The National Enquirer went from The Only Trusted News Source to Lie-beral Rag so quickly that it probably caused whiplash for wingtards.
Jeff
The question is does CNN softball him as a way to apologize and stay on the BBQ list or do they go after him and Palin with both barrels.
Cris
This also sounds familiar.
Cain
One of the most devestating posts evah, John. Keep er comin, good stuff! Where the hell is Tim F? Guy gets a degree and then disappears!
cain
ps yeah, I know he’s busy. j/k
Jeff
The question is does CNN softball him as a way to apologize and stay on the BBQ list or do they go after him and Palin with both barrels.
qwerty42
I can’t say anything about Gov Palin, I thought she was someone the GOP was looking at for the future. However, the VP selection process as practiced by McCain was absurd. I was irritated by the secrecy that surrounded the Biden pick, but the guy himself was a good choice — I tended to think most of the names floated were quite good. This is wild. and odd.
r€nato
This also sounds familiar…
Jay C
Gee, sound like any other Republican politicians we know???
Splitting Image
Extremely true. Next to Palin, it would be hard to find a so poorly-qualified, yet seriously considered, candidate for the White House as Rudy Giuliani.
Putting him front and centre at the convention was the surest way to prove that Palin is a Republican fault, not a McCain one.
JayMi
Renato, thanks for the ‘Zonie history. Here’s a bit of Illini history. Obama’s previous elections are interesting too. With the exception of the congressional primary he lost (I think it was to Bobby Rush, ex-Black Panther-or something like that), he has won all of them. Moreover, his opponents ‘spontaneously combusted’ politically during the race. See Alan Keyes and that other Republican who ran on family values issues only to get busted at European sex clubs. Hmmm…
Some Guy
Clio wrote: “Now mcshame has cancelled an interview with larry king to punish cnn for the campbell brown interview last night. I swear, he gets more and more like bush every day.”
Absolutely. The play was to shore up the base and re-gain his McMaverickyness but if you stand back a step, the former completely obliterates the latter.
Looking over the last month and a half of campaigning, most especially his pick of Palin and its recklessness, McCain has enacted Obama’s 3rd term attack perfectly. McCain has pursued a more inept version of Rovian taunts about the opponent’s supposed strength, he has completely given over major decisions to theo-cons, and he has upped the ante on promoting incompetence.
McCain is acting out the trajectory of the last 8 years in all its blazing glory, not breaking from it at all.
Jon H
“Now mcshame has cancelled an interview with larry king to punish cnn for the campbell brown interview last night.”
And that’s Campbell Brown, wife of Dan Senor: the hetero Jeff Gannon.
r€nato
Well, JayMi, perhaps on the surface Obama and McCain’s electoral histories look similar…
but Obama came from nowhere to defeat a woman who was all but the anointed candidate in the Democratic primary. A woman who had the money, the best political consultants, everything pointed to inevitability.
And Obama beat her.
McCain had a comeback too… but it’s kind of hard to compare the two races. McCain’s comeback was a lot more a case of attrition than his campaigning skill. The GOP simply had nobody else (credible) to turn to after Rudy9/11 self-destructed, Fred Thompson was a bust, and Mitt Romney’s magic underwear scared off the fundie vote.
But, please, go ahead with the comparisons and talk yourself into thinking that Obama can’t possibly beat McCain this fall. In one fell swoop McCain has proven that he is the wrong guy for this job. But that’s OK, he will still have Cindy’s seven houses to retire to.
At least, so long as she doesn’t kick him out. I hear she had a pretty ironclad prenup…
SamFromUtah
See Alan Keyes and that other Republican who ran on family values issues only to get busted at European sex clubs.
Because absolutely nothing about Alan Keyes would have made him unpalatable to voters unless Obama had sabotaged him somehow.
Just Some Fuckhead
No, it’s really not. The story getting around now is that influential and powerful evangelical political leaders and Washington insiders (google, “the family” “jeff sharlett”) have been calling senior McCain aides – and McCain – making the case for her. It was a major behind-the-scenes push from the far right-wing of the party. Brownback from Kansas, a walking-talking monkey of an evangelical-turned-Catholic-but-still-attends-Evangelical-Church nutter of the first degree will offer her name up in nomination.
If it was a wild and odd thing, that would be almost serendipitous with the potential for lots of upside. This isn’t even close. It’s more akin to a conspiracy with the typically dire results that generally result from conspiracies. McCain didn’t pick her. She was chosen for McCain.
zzyzx
Palin was never supposed to speak tonight. She comes out tomorrow.
BC
I know it’s ancient history, but does anyone remember what the right said about the surge in January 2007? That it was a gamble? Seems like the Republicans have gotten very accustomed to gambling – the surge, McCain’s VP pick, etc. Almost like we should have an intervention to keep them from putting the house up.
r€nato
Now THAT is mavericky!
No, wait… having other people make your most important decisions for you, that’s exactly like the last 8 years.
Cain
The opening song for the republican convention should be “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N Roses. :-)
cain
Tim Fuller
I can’t believe she hasn’t yet withdrawn. Baby Trig is her daughter’s baby too. No record of his birth at the hospital she supposedly had the baby. No announcement from the hospital on the day of birth (two other births were noted that day). Totally vetted by Jerry Springer.
Enjoy.
P.S. (The OTHER Tim F)
r€nato
The intervention is this November.
Ted
You’d think Schlafly would be pissed that Palin is even on the ticket. But that would be, you know, consistent.
zzyzx
Palin slashed funds to help out young, unwed mothers.
Mmmmm pro-life
JGabriel
zzyzx:
Palin was supposed to speak at some National Right to Life forum tonight hosted by Phyllis Schlafly.
It got cancelled and now Schafly is pissed and going public with it.
.
zzyzx
Palin slashed funds to help out young mothers.
Mmmmm pro-life
Conservatively Liberal
Do a search for “Sarah Palin” + “Valley Trash”. The people in the area she lives proudly refer to themselves as Valley Trash and there is reputed to have been a picture of Palin online where she is wearing a shirt that says Valley-Trash on it.
So if you are going to call her white trash, you better make it White Valley Trash. Or is that Valley White Trash?
;)
t jasper parnell
Why did Palin skip the Schlafly affair? Aren’t the anti-choice nuts her natural constituency? What can this mean? Time to take time with the growing family?
zzyzx
JGab – I mean at the convention. That was never her plan for tonight.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Am I the only one who finds it strange that the McCain campaign would use Fred “Law & Order” Thompson to attack Obama? You know, since McCain claims Obama is nothing more than a celebrity?
I realize that Thompson is an actor and a natural for public speaking and possesses the stern daddy persona that makes people take him seriously.
But, seriously? Fred “The Hunt for Red October” Thompson?
Jill Howell
Okay, so let’s give them that they vetted Palin. The question then is how do they reconcile Palin’s positions, as they are in direct opposition to McCain’s?
Palin worked for Ted Steven’s 527 group for 2 years
Alaska, despite being one of the richest states in the country receives, per capita, the highest amount of federal funding, AKA earmarks
Andres Sullivan has a post A Wassilian on Palin that provides some great facts on Palin’s experience; the breadth and depth of her “executive experience”, how many people she has had fired during her career (who didn’t agree with her) and how much federal funding she has managed to get over the years
chopper
obama likes poker, and is apparently quite good at it. mccain likes to throw dice and hope for the best.
tballou
If all these dopes are is impulsive I could probably live with it. But the real problem is they put Republican doctrinal purity over everything. Maybe Monaca Goodling was in charge of vetting her!
Just Some Fuckhead
Baby needs a new pair of shoes!
DougJ
See Alan Keyes and that other Republican who ran on family values issues only to get busted at European sex clubs.
That guy (Jack Ryan) just wanted to have public sex with his own wife in Europe. It’s shameful that he was forced out of politics for it. Jesus, who cares, it was his own fucking wife (Jeri Ryan from Star Trek)?
Soylent Green
So McCain’s VP pick was a “Hail Mary” pass:
Hail Mary, full of focus-group testing,
The polls are with thee;
Blessed art thou among voters,
And blessed are the wombs of thy disaffected Hillary supporters.
Holy Mary, mother of Rove, pray for us reckless, untrustworthy candidates,
Now, and at the hour of our crushing defeat in the Electoral College.
Amen.
flyerhawk
Maybe John McCain is trying to win the crown of Worst Vice-Presidential pick of all time? Spire Agnew, Tom Eagleton, , Dan Quayle, John Tyler? Can Sarah Palin break into those ranks?
w vincentz
I expect that after the RNC, Hillary will come out with both fists swinging at Caribou Barbi for trying to grab the support of those that supported her.
Also, her pastor and the “family values gal of the North” claiming the involvement in Iraq is a war the Jesus approves makes this soap opera all the nuttier.
An aside to Ethan Salto…I like the pick of her in that star-spangled bikini holding the rifle. I’m guessin’ double d barrels.
Stuck in the Fun House (nj)
I can see it now. MCcain sits down in lotus position shakes the dice, maybe a little spit for good luck, and lets her fly. Mullah Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yelps with glee.
“Snake Eyes”
gex
Makes perfect sense. The reason card rooms have sprung up around the country is that poker is a game of skill. Craps is a game of chance. I’ll vote for the guy who plays the game where shrewd decision-making gives you an advantage to the guy who literally prefers to roll the dice.
Xenos
Since Schlafley insisted on having a career, thereby neglecting her son and making him all neurotic and gay, you would think she would shut up once in a while.
Instead, she still does the college speaking tour, where old hacks get modest speaking fees in return for hooking up odious college republicans with job interviews.
Conservatively Liberal
Poker is a game for smart people since it requires careful thought and strategy to win. Dice is a game of chance, period. If anything, this distinctly shows how different Obama and McCain are in their approach to gambling (and I would argue, everything else in their life). McCain has no problems putting it all on a toss of the dice while Obama would weigh the current position to determine his best move.
I love poker, but for fun only. I am not a gambler, and I really don’t care to ever be one. A dollar in the hand and all that. But I am a good poker player and I clean up the chips among our friends enough that I choose at times to lose so that they don’t get tired of playing…lol
I watched our son play poker on his computer (I installed an old Bicycle Poker game for him), and he constantly lost. I let him thrash away at it for months, even offering small tips on strategy but he just could not win. He got to the point that he would quit the game and restart it because he knew he lost. So one day I sat down with him and explained the mechanics of the game and how to apply it to betting to be effective. Then I played the game and explained why I was taking the position I was with each hand. He watched me clean up shop and he was sold on it.
Now he beats the game every time and he absolutely delights in bankrupting the other ‘players’ in the game. When we sit down with a deck and chips, it is 50/50 as to who will win. We have played for six hours with barely any movement on either side. He learned how to apply what he knows about a situation to dealing with that situation, and it was a valuable lesson to him.
If Obama is a good poker player then I know he is a guy who loves to think and he is a true strategist.
Jon H
The wages of sin is debt.
It’s in the Bible.
Conservatively Liberal
The BJ mod god held up my post on poker? Maybe it thought I was writing about poke her?
;)
Conservatively Liberal
2nd attempt:
The BJ mod god held up my post on p o k e r? Maybe it thought I was writing about poke her?
;)
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Seems to me somebody should get Bill Bennett on camera and ask him if McCain has a gambling problem.
HRA
Check out Chris Cilizza’s blog The Fix. Rick Davis says this campaign/election is not about the issues.
OriGuy
Susan at Kiss My Big Blue Butt got ahold of the opposition research from Palin’s 2006 run for governor. (PDF)