MOG

Take your pick lak.

crazy like grabbing at straws in order to get more votes. Not sure why he chose her, but I really think he did not get enough advice before doing so.

Certainly not crazy or genius like Bjork...

I still trying to figure out if you called me stupid.

damn, dude we must be on the same thought pattern,,, i just posted about this.  I think it will hurt Obama.

http://mog.com/dharmachris/blog/187772

Who called who what?

The whole affair is quite mystifying, eh?Does the GOP find assess itself so far behind that this last ditch, high stakes move is their only shot? That selecting someone so "normal" is the only way to attract enough independents? How is it this high stakes, high powered party could choose one so far out of their club? Is the selection, which appears sheer idiocy on the surface, really hold much more cunning calculation?
I certainly don't see how, yet I have already heard those who are already sworn GOP supporters say "they like her".
Well, she is kinda cute and fiesty, and we haven't seen much domestic drama on Pennsylvania Ave. for some time....  

I'm kind of in the same process here.  My first thought was that it was a stroke of genius, but the more we here, you have to wonder how much thought was actually put into some of this.  I will say this:  most of the things you mentioned don't bother me.  Her daughter is pregnant.  so what?  I think it's irrelevant.  My parents taught me a lot of right-from-wrong stuff, but that doesn't mean I always listened.  And it doesn't mean my mistakes are their fault, or that they should be held accountable for them.  The fact that she wants to drill to me actually lends more credibility to the position--Maybe it's just me, but I doubt someone in Alaska would willingly want to do something to damage their own backyard.  Everything I've seen about her shows she has a commitment to the outdoor lifestyle, and she has already weighed in on this issue, citing that it can be done "right".  I'm willing to listen on that end. 

The only things that make me wonder if McCain really thought this through are her lack of experience, and the firing of her ex-whatever he was.  Considering how much he touted Obama's lack of experience and how terrible that was, this seems like a bonehead move, start to finish.  and the firing?  Well, I'll admit I don't know a lot about it, but it just seems like a bad idea for McCain to choose someone who already comes with baggage that could haunt him.  Even if she did nothing wrong, it's not something he needs right now.

Wow this is what happens when you go for a glass of lemonade.

Annie, you can't be serious. There is no way I would ever call you stupid. Seriously, where does that come from. Your golden in my book no matter what. If your hurt chalk it up to a gross misunderstanding.

Coop, do you think it's a gambit? I certainly do. A bad one at that.

Mike, Word.

Scotty, see my reply to Coop. I am now officially baffled.

Chuck, I agree with you. For me most of the things I wrote is a non issue.

Basically I am looking for a response.

The thing that bothers me the most is her lack of experience. She is just a heart palpitation away from becoming Prez. That is the deal breaker right there.

Obama can't bring up her lack of experience without opening himself up to the same question.

She wins the populist 'working class' blue collar nascar scranton hometown vote by sheer dint of who she is.  Joe Biden has cuff links for petes sake.

This was a total calculated political move to energize the social conservatives and the populist working class/blue collar/old Reagan Democrats.

Any media attention will be spun by Rove et al as the work of an out of touch elite liberal media, and will be successful in getting the populist voter.  She will be portrayed as the underdog with a compelling family story that shows she is just like all the voters they need, the old Reagan Democrats.

The Republicans have been somewhat successful in portraying an African American, raised by a single mom, scholarship earning, up from the bootstraps guy, as an out of touch arugula-eating, latte chugging, Whole Food shopping elitist.

baggage?  as if McCain himself doesn't have baggage (keating 5 anyone?)... all politicians have baggage .... here's an interesting opinion .... I think his highlighting the ambition angle is cogent.

McCain/Palin ... yeah it scares me.

Gambit?  For sure.  Every move they make is totally calculated, for better or for worse, on both sides.  I agree with Groon on some of the issues here.  In a nutshell, McCain has more experience than everyone else combined, so he injected some vitality in to his campaign, some youth and inexperience - to try and look more like Obama to pull in the indies, thought being: if you're leaning towards this candidate for this reason, then hey - you can consider us for the same reasons... I mean, it's a pretty predictable move actually, since the book is still out if Hillary united the party, and the real genius move would have been for Obama to set up the dream ticket of Obama/Clinton, IMHO.

Having said all that, I'm still for Obama in '08 - but am looking forward to the debates, and hearing "How" each candidate are going to get things done.  I also am interested in seeing Obama's cabinet picks, because really, every four years you hear the same rhetoric in speeches over and over agian.

Hokey Smokes, where did you come from Nick?

Polarization! Gets the votes out there doesn't it?

We see this stuff all of the time. Issues brought up to divide and polarize.

Oh yeah Van. I think Biden will spank Palin in debate.

That is if he gets the chance to do so.

and do you really think Palin would be running things if McCain croaks? .... is Bush running things right now?

oh and another thing ... Good Night ... and according to the stats I will be the first person to listen to your track tonight.

Nice one!

So your right. Night man. Good to see you even if it was briefly.

Constitutionally speaking she will have the power, but who controls that power is anybody's guess.

Choice Max Romeo. "You take my kindness for weakness, my weakness for granted...."

What is, at the very least, her friendliness to the Alaskan secessionists is what really rings the alarm bells for me. For all the bullshit that has been spouted about Obama's "really being a Muslim" who hates this country (right, people who loathe our ideals run for the highest office in the land every day), these secessionists truly don't get what democracy means. To me, the doctrinaires who believe that government is always the problem and never the solution are the ones who really have a problem with our system of government. But I think that is a part of her appeal to a part of the electorate - clearly the part that McCain wants to court. These are, I am sorry to say, what I think of as the Bush Republicans; in some ways, she is the true Bush surrogate, not McCain himself. Bush's bad decisions over the past eight years, it seems to me, are the result of a profound lack of respect for our system. Why not have someone profoundly unqualified named to a position like vice president or head of FEMA? It's not like it matters....May as well give it to somebody who can win you a vote or two, or someone to whom you owe a favor, or somebody who agrees with your ideology. These are the true wages of cynicism about America. Yeah, I know I'm babbling.... 

My God Chris,  is there a rumor you won't repeat?  But I guess that's Par for this course.

And of course your hatred/fear of Carl Rove, the most sucessful political strategist of our generation,  is very telling.

Maybe you can get Ivylander to explain all the allegations made against the man over the years,  he believes them all.

There is no rumor there Jeff. Verifiable fact. I can back up what I say.

Yes it is fear. Fear of Carl Rove and another 4 years of a Bush-like administration.

Don't take your eye off the ball..This is the Republicans vs. The Democrats!  The same math remains true of this presidential race as in any other.  Whichever candidate can turn out their voters will win.  For years at the presidential level, Republicans have turned out better and won.  If Obama can energize his base he wins and wins big because there are a lot more Democrats. It seems to me that Republicans have done a better job over the years of turning out voters..maybe Obama is the Democrats wake up call.

Don't take your eye off the ball..It's McCain vs. Obama. Republicans vs. Democrats. Whether either candidate delivers "change", the change will not be that large.

Don't take your eye off the ball..Republicans have had an incredibly rough 8 years in office and folks need to blame somebody and penalize the party that got us into the mess we're in. I think the best thing said at the Dem convention was this: How can you reward their party (the repubs) four more years heading the executive branch after what they did for the last 8?  People may answer this question differently, but I bet its not "a nation divided" on this question.

Don't take your eye off the ball...Each party will present its narrative.  Clearly the Republican narrative is reaching back to its underdog, silent majority days.  How you can paint yourself as an underdog when you have all the money is beyond me, but evidently it plays in Peoria.  The twist this year is that they are gonna "change Washington"...oh wait a minute, its not a twist, it gets said every time.

I just hope we get the largest turn out ever..

I don't, actually. And there are a lot more I don't find particularly meaningful or interesting. Is he drinking again? Did he worm out of military duty? Who gives a rat's ass? Has nothing to do with anything. Believing that a president's decisions are bad - and the condition our country is in after eight years of Mr. Bush's rule convince me that many, if not all, of them have been - is not the same as hating the president unequivocally and unreasonably. Or disrespecting the office. Or hating our country. But I have grown tired of trying to explain my positions - which I do not insist that you share - in response to your comments or posts. To you I am simply "one of them." And it's that us versus them mentality that, to me, is the poison that's killing political discourse in this country. You see everyone as an ideologue. I reject that label. It ain't me. And what you have said above is just crapping on people who don't see things as you do. Which, to me, is profoundly un-American. I'm finished with this shit. 

Oh wait...

FACT: Palin has more executive experience than Obama, Biden, and McCain combined.

I think that disqualifies them all and Sarah Palin should be President today. It's about time Hockey became America's sport.  Oh wait, this just in, I think she's secretly Canadian.

You see everyone as an ideologue. I reject that label. It ain't me. And what you have said above is just crapping on people who don't see things as you do. Which, to me, is profoundly un-American. I'm finished with this shit.

That's why you will never ever win an argument with 'those' people Bill.

Like I said, the facts above are facts, verifiable facts. It not rumor, I not blowing wind up someone's ass. The fact intelligent discourse deteriorates in a 'your lying, no your lying' argument is a real problem as well.

Show me the lie I wrote and i will take it off the post immediately.

Cody, you need a church brother. Your talents are wasted on us sycophants.

Oh hey Chris ... I'm still around, just that my life has become quite busy so I'm having to cut some things out for the time being.

Pastor CB ... show us the way.

I can't agree with the people who say the daughter's pregnancy is a non-issue.  As you said, this is a woman who supports abstinence only education.  Okay, well that didn't work.  Yet, you're not re-thinking your strategy.  Not a person I want in the white house.  How does it go?  Insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results?  I'm sorry, if you don't have your own house straight, I sure don't want you running my country.

And, sure, it was a gambit.  Soon as the media told us who the top 4 people in the running for his running mate were, I think most of us knew he would choose the woman.  It was kind of a "Hey, we've got some of that 'CHANGE' thing going on over here to!" move.  And it could have been a smart move.  I'm an Obama supporter, and the Palin thing had me shook for a moment.  Then, the dirty laundry started being aired.  So, now McCain looks like the guy who chose a woman as a running mate just to get a few votes while not knowing anything about her.  Rash decision.  Someone you want in the White House?  Not smart.  A knee-jerk reaction that's going to bite him in the ass.

Now he has to decide either to keep her as running mate and weather the shit storm, or drop her and admit he fucked up and didn't do his research on the potential VP, just for the sake of appearing to bring some "change."

What do you think he'll do?

Get out the umbrella, I smell poo because we all know,"When John makes a decision he sticks with it to the end, he's that kind of American."

For better or worse, I think that's his best bet.  I think admitting that he fucked up on this scale would do him in.

They're actually taking bets on it in the UK. http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080902/pl_bloomberg/azjwbcginwsg

You are totally right...I can't be serious.

Whoa, I can't even comment on half the shit said.  I think McCain made a knee jerk decision that will bite him in the ass.  He chose a running mate, who like Obama, has very little experience which equals less dirt to dig up.  He shot himself in the foot.  If the Repubs think they can get past the Abstinence Only promoting governor with a pregnant teenager, they are so wrong.  This is the same group of people who talked for the longest time about a blow job.  You think this will just die into the back ground?  These are the non-issues that the Rove's of this world thrive on.  Swift boats, confederate flags, gay marriage - non issues on the national level, but devisive enough to disenfranchise enough people.

McCain is the candidate of reluctant compromise.  Ever since he rolled over for bush after the S.C. "black child" incident, his career has been traced by the ugliest form of ambition.  It's the Daffy Duck style of promotion - "I don't care who the maroons I step on to get up where I need to be, cuz I'm not coming back down!"

I guess the idea that you should make a decision and stick to it no matter what troubles me.  Things change and there is also a chance that you are wrong.  Major "thinkers", of say, the eugenics movement  at the turn of the 20th century believed that northern Italians were superior to southern Italians, by nature of their birth.  Millions of people supported this pseudo science! Eugenics cat Kenneth Roberts said:

The south Italians of to-day [are a] people almost as different from the north Italians of Nordic descent as an alligator pear is different from an alligator.  People incapable of self-government and totally devoid of initiative and creative ability. Unrestricted immigration made a mongrel race of the south Italians…Unrestricted immigration will inevitably and absolutely do the same thing to Americans.

This hooey was offered to support immigration reform that led to a quota system that screened out Jews, Italians,Poles and other non-Nordic people from coming to the US...The "all men are created" congress of the United States passed the legislation.

We didn't change this policy until 1965! But thank God we changed our minds.  If you think the policy of the United States government is wrong, it is your duty as a citizen to change it! If you think our policies are always right, then you are expecting too much from our human leaders.

There is no honor in sticking with a decision when you are wrong. 

Also, it  troubles me that Mr McCain seems to believe his own hype. He seems to be putting himself in a position that forces him (by virtue of being a maverick) to act unilaterally...That just doen't seem to be (Big D)Democratic.

It seems McCain looks to be more controlled by his handlers than even G.W. was.  Do you really think he woud've mentioned Paris Hilton in a speech without their help?  Palin looks like a decision by his comitee that he took their word on.  The man is out of touch how news works via the internet.  Non issues are the new issues.  That Obama/Muslim email still gets traction, despite being completely false.

I'm more talking about the way I think he would govern, CBW.  Both McCain and Obama (and their handlers) are gonna do whatever it takes to be elected. Apologies to Apocylpse Now: The bullshit is gonna be piled up so high by November, you're gonna need wings to step in it.  I don't believe Obama is going on O'Reilly for credibility, fer instance.

Oh well, everyime I get a little idealistic, realiy steps in and squahes it.  sigh.

Am I wrong, or does the narrative of the loner/maverick kinda make it hard to be bipartisan?  If he's a man who sticks to his "core" values how does he compromise with somebody, without compromising his values? Or, is it his way or nothing gets done?

He's as much a loner/maverick as Bush was a "beltway Outsider" or "One of Us". 

Agreed.  It's time to stop all this "faliure is not an option" shit, the hubris and arrogance is detrimental to our national security.

Would not an olive branch do more nowadays than more saber rattling?

Well now that he's leaving W is saying something truthful..it's hard to be President of the United States. Its also hard to make new laws that are acceptable to a majority of 300,000,000 people.  It simply isn't sticking to your "core" beliefs that gets things done.  I know hardly anyone wants to do it, but we have to stop lying to each other..It ain't that easy to run this country and its even harder to change it.  Too bad most of everyones interest in governing shows up now, when there's a horse race.  But will our ideas and values be in play when the next prez (whoever it is) closes the door to his first oval office meeting?

I am with Mr. Cutlery...  Certainly not crazy or genius like Bjork...

I think he's a wimp who gets pushed around. I kinda feel sorry for the guy, and I think he seems like a nice guy IMHO.

I also think Palin is a ploy. That's about it, the rest is obvious. IMHO they all suck, now I gotta go and play my bass...

Am I wrong, or does the narrative of the loner/maverick kinda make it hard to be bipartisan?   >>>>He's got a record of crossing the aisle to get things done.

But Chris,  This is addressed to you.  I should not have posted such a curt comment in my haste to finish and get to work.  What I wanted to ask was how to you complie such a compendium of factoids so quickly?  Did you do any research to verify any of these things.  It seems some of them have been debunked in the time I was at work.  Whatever.  I think before you assert that something is a fact you should be sure it is.  I'm not saying any of the above is or isn't fact,  I don't know, and neither do you.  So why repeat it?  Indeed,  why report it?

I fully understand the left's rabid fear of this woman.  Its not at all sure that she'll be able to hang on in the face of such bitter opposition.  But if she does,  watch out.  Do you understand why she is not the Feminist's poster child?  She's evrything they espouse, no?  Sucessful in her career?  A homemaker?  Powerful?  Oh,  she's conservative. 

I remember when G. W. Bush assembled his first cabinet.  He had more Women & people of color than any adminsitration in history.  Did he get props from the diversity crowd?  Hell no,  they were all conservative.

When he toured Africa he drew Obama-like crowds,  they love him.  His administration has done more to combat AIDS in Africa than any two administrations.  The networks didn't see fit to cover it though.

Whatever,  It is interesting that you are so quick to jump on this (totally irrelevent) shit.  Your protests of objectivity are suspect.

Concerning your factoids......stay tuned.

PS>>>>I wish I didn't piss Bill off so often.

Yeah DM, but when he's in the executive is he gonna cut loose the far right that might get him elected?  W didn't despite his claims of being a uniter.

I'm just sayin' maverick means doing what you think is right despite what others might say and that doesn't jibe with compromise and bi-partisanship.

Oh yeah, who's afraid of Sarah Palin?  The majority of what I hear is laughter..

Jeff you tell me which 'factoid' has been debunked.

I can find a source for all of them. Just let me know which one's you think are wrong and I will get you the sources you need.

Well,  the "seperatist movement"?

And to add just a little more information on another point,  The state trooper she wanted fired was found to have tasered his 10 yr old stepson. Yeah,  I'd fire him.  The only reason it became an issue was that the commisioner who refused to fire him was part of the largely discredited "old School" political machine. (which spanned both parties).  He chose to make an issue of it and did so by cherry picking facts to release to the press.  Whatever.  She has an 80% approval rating with the voters in Alaska.  She got that approval rating because she has cleaned up a notoriously corrupt political machine and has helped the working people and the businesses in her state. Its interesting to note that when the current spin is her pork spending,  they talk dollar amount per capita  because the actual dollar amounts are small compared to some others in the current election. 

I cannot trust the good Senator from ill. when it comes to national security. this is not based on his experience or lack thereof in the field of national security.  Its based on whom he has chosen as his advisers in this area.

The last few days have been dominated by the netroots pushing a stream of unsubstantiated smears into the mainstream media. After years of complaining that the right feeds propaganda into the media stream (via right-wing radio and the Drudge Report), the left has mastered this art as well. (Great news, America: Now everyone does it.) and those who need to believe, believe.