Since the announcement of Palin as McCain's running mate, I've been looking for sources of Alaska based intel on her. I'm gratified to have discovered along with many others I'm sure, some Alaskan bloggers. Here's a little link love:
What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective.
"Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President?"....more
Other Alaska Blogs:
Celtic Diva
Alaska Real
The above are all so called progressive bloggers, I have not found anyone interesting on the right side of Alaska politics, but I'm sure I will with a bit more digging.
This was good for a "you have got to be kidding me" moment today:
"So until at which point in time we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment."
She's ready to be a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency on day 1, but not to take questions from the news media almost 2 WEEKS after she was announced as the VP candidate to the American people? And why? Because they might not be nice to the pitbull with lipstick? It does not pass the smell test. The jury is perhaps still out, but this kind of stuff makes it look like McCain made a rash decision here. You're the VP choice, you need to be press and world ready from the get go. This is stage management pure and simple. Anybody who needs this much scripting, there's a problem. Hillary Clinton was not my pick, but you can say this about her. She has been savaged by the press, attacked from every angle in debates and took on all comers from the jump. The McCain campaign is doing everything they can to stage manage the Pitbull with lipstick to a very large degree. The VP candidate should not require that kind of babysitting.
Video ideation on Palin:
I thought this was a great satire. The sequestration of Palin thats going on now tends to cut against this having any resemblance to reality. But it was very amusing.
Some Alaskan local news coverage on Troopergate:
Is this really the group of people you want to tick off?
My wife happens to be, among many good things, a trained and highly skilled community organizer. My work in the development field has put me in this role at many points in my career. Palin's backhanded swipe at Obama on his community organizing background has been taken very personally by many in the organizing community. Gov. Palin, you may come to find on Nov. 4th, that it is NOT a smart idea to tick off thousands of people who organize people all day every day. Not smart at all.
Exit bit for the scandal mongers among us:
The brother delivers the tale brilliantly with a great deal of earnestness. I don't live in Alaska, so I have no way of judging if the little narrative details he throws in make any sense at all. An Alaskan might be able to judge from that alone if there was any possibility. I assume out the gate that he is lying because it would just be too much fun than is politically and morally acceptable to have if it were. The brother has a little rap career he is trying to promote, so he's using bottomfeeder smarts to use the Palin pregnancy for a few thousand extra eyeballs. I watched, and now so have you. Assuming he's lying, I hope he is prepared for the heat that will fall on him when the McCain campaign gets wind of it.
All the organizers were already organizing for Obama. No lost votes there.
ReplyDeletePalin/McCain are playing the media, and the media are walking right into the trap. It makes the media (and the left side of the aisle by extension) look whiny. BTW, she's only been the nominee for 10 days, which isn't even two weeks.
The media's name is mud, and Palin's approval rating is in the 55-60% range. And of course this last guy is lying, because they aren't stupid enough to think that no one will notice if Palin has a mixed baby.
Now that it has been built up, if she interviews badly, it looks like it is because the media is out to get her for not listening to their demands for interviews. (This is pretty unlikely given how she performed in her 26 debates on the way to governor of Alaska.)
On the other hand, if she does the interviews well, then the media looks whiny for complaining, AND they look like idiots because someone who does well has no reason to "hide". It's a win-win for Palin.
Oh, and I sincerely hope that the media picks up this loon's story. The more sexually-tinged lies they spread, the less credibility they have. (And the more she has.)
ReplyDeletePhelps, old pal, you make some good points.
ReplyDeleteClearly no lost votes, but like I said, ticking off a large group of people who spend their days organizing people is not maybe such a good thing. Great red meat for the base, but its red meat to the Left's base too.
As for the lying rapper, well, the baby won't be here for a bit yet, so if nothing else, there is several months of ambiguity there unless somebody definitively knocks the story down with some facts that show the guy is lying. 35,000 views last time I checked. Bottomfeeder marketing.
Obama, the Left and the media are on the edge of losing this thing. The media seems to be panicking. Obama seems collected to me, but his messaging is all over the place, while McCain is hammering away at his kidneys with laser like focus. His new people got his campaign messaging on track and they are about to steal the change mantra if you can believe it. McCain made a brilliant, cynical pick that has left the democrats in some confusion, with just 58 days to go.
You've already seen my debate prediction. She'll be prepped and ready to go come October and I think in general, a smart woman is a better debater (I am married to one, I speak from experience). Unless Biden destroys her (unlikely in the extreme) she wins the debate if she simply holds her own. Its a non-winnable suicide mission for Biden. Obama can deal with McCain, but the VP undercard is going to be a hot ticket.
I'm mad. This election has become all about bio and personality and created narrative. McCain is good for at least half of his billing. I don't believe Palin is half the narrative they are spinning and the bigger issue is that McCain-Palin is running on a promise to be better republicans, but they are not saying what they will do that is different.
McCain is trying to assume the mantle of change while he uses the same old tactics of smear, mockery, disrespect and ridicule for his campaign weapons of war. Republican values and principles and the ideas based on them are generally superior to that of democrats, but thats not the campaign we're getting from McCain.
Palin's record does not support the hype in terms of her stewardship of Wasilla and she's got a state government swimming in enough oil tax revenue to pay Alaska's 600,000 odd voters a dividend. I'm not sure she is facing a real management test there comparable with many governors in the lower 48. I would argue she is still untested in important ways.
I don't think she'll be particularly responsive to minority communities either on policy because I see little evidence she pays attention to native issues in the AK.
They are preaching trickle down economics. That was Bush's approach too. I voted for him twice and today, we're bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that happened on the GOP's watch. I am not convinced and the politics being played is the same old same.
I'm angry about it. We deserve a better campaign than we are getting.
My main quibble is that I think ridicule and mockery have a very important and legitimate role to play in our process. Frankly, if your ideas are ridiculous, they should be ridiculed. Community organizer is a worthwhile endeavor, but it in no way is a preparation for CinC.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, since McCain is completely inside Obama's OODA loop, I'm betting that this is the next move. Once Obama has convinced people that community organizer is important, he'll hammer him on it (just like he did with the inexperience issue)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122075869303807633.html?mod=Best+of+the+Web+Today
McCain has to have known about all of this for months in his oppo research. If we see any more commercials about Obama from McCain (and we probably won't, unless the shine wears off Palin) then they will feature Altgeld Gardens and CHA prominently.
(I'm feeling froggy about predictions since I nailed the Palin one four days in advance.)
It looks like I'm not the only one thinking that the hiding is strategic, BTW:
ReplyDeletehttp://minx.cc/?post=272864
I could agree with you that ridicule and mockery have a place in our political discourse. The problem is that that ridicule and mockery have BECOME the discourse, along with the politics of personal destruction.
ReplyDeleteTo your point that being a community organizer is not a legit qualification for CIC, I don't think anyone reasonable suggests that is Obama's primary qualification. Like McCain's POW experience, its the part of the Obama narrative they talk about a lot. Voters are certainly entitled to discount it, or conversly, weigh it heavily in their decision making, but its only one component of the qualification/experience and skill set of Obama, as the POW experience is for McCain.