Dispatches from the Flying M

Sunday Palin wrap-up

This morning on "This Week," Stephanopolous and his panel were all raving about what a great political move picking Sarah Palin was for John McCain.  And maybe it was, although in the long run I don't think the impact will amount to much more than boosting voter turnout in places he'll win anyway.

But what none of them were talking about was the fact that the job of the presidency involves more than just the campaign.  If McCain were interested in governing rather than simply in winning, he would have picked someone who could actually do the job of VP and step in as president if needed.  Instead, he picked one of the least-prepared politicians in the country, to be a heartbeat away from replacing the oldest president ever.

Frank Rich has a good piece in today's New York Times describing what this pick tells us about how McCain would govern. His key point is this: "His speed-dating of Palin reaffirmed a more dangerous personality tic that has dogged his entire career. His decision-making process is impetuous and, in its Bush-like preference for gut instinct over facts, potentially reckless."  The whole piece is worth a read.

There are also more twists and turns in the ongoing Troopergate scandal, including the apparent fact that the McCain campaign is interfering with the investigation.  Since the Palin announcement (and the team of McCain lawyers hit the state) seven people have inexplicably changed their minds about their willingness to testify before the investigators.  Palin has also said she won't testify, unless the investigation is taken over by a political board appointed by--wait for it--the Governor of Alaska!   No conflict of interest there.  In other words, she's perfectly happy to abuse her power in order to prevent a serious investigation of her abuse of power.  Who knew they could find such a perfect replacement for Cheney?

Here are Newsweek and the NYT on the continuing saga.  This is important stuff.  Lying about not supporting the bridge to nowhere, about Obama's qualifications, about selling her jet on eBay--that stuff speaks to her character (and it doesn't paint a very savory picture).  The fact that she's afraid to be interviewed (or the McCain campaign is afraid to let her) tells us all we need to know about her real job qualifications and her personal courage--she's not even brave enough or informed enough to go on Fox News.  Troopergate, though, speaks to how she governs.

The fact that McCain picked her in spite of all this baggage just underscores Frank Rich's point.  This is a dangerous man who only considers his own short-term political advantage.  "Country First" is no more than a slogan to him.

McCain speech wrap-up

Overall, probably the best speech he's ever given.  It'll probably even bump him up in the polls, if only because of the long part near the end about his POW days.

But will it be enough in the long run?  I don't see how.  In the end, history is against him.  He is against himself--having given up the very things that propelled his run, he has no reason for being anymore.  Had he retained his maverick status--not, for instance, turning against his own final "maverick" act when he disowned his own immigration bill, he might have had a chance.  Instead, he's a company man now.  Instead of picking Joe Lieberman, he picked Sarah Palin, because Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh said no to Joe.

He shot his own campaign in the foot, and he's not going to recover from that.

McCain reaches up to a new low...

"ST. PAUL -- One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.

The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers' subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.

The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one's opponents to Hitler."

--Boston Globe

McCain speech 4

For a guy who wants to "shake up" Washington, the policy part of the speech could have been given by Bush 4 (or 8) years ago.  There's not a new idea in it.

And what was up with that introductory video?  I've never seen one that was so much an ad and so little a biography.  For a guy whose biography is supposd to be his selling point, they really hammered home the sales pitch.

"We'll drill new wells offshore and we'll drill them now!"  Followed within seconds by "restore the health of our planet."  No discussion of how those two ideas go together.  Or of how new offshore wells help anybody for the next decade.

McCain speech 3

Okay, the lies are coming faster than I can keep up with now.  McCain keeps claiming that Obama will increase taxes on most Americans.  The truth is Obama's plan cuts taxes on 98% of Americans--McCain's cuts taxes on the rich and on corporations.  He misrepresents Obama's insurance plan, too.

And between them, McCain and Palin have 12 kids?  Have they never heard that the world's greatest single problem is overpopulation?  And, slightly off topic, but why is it supposed to be cute or charming that Cindy didn't want anybody to tell John she was bringing an orphan back from Bangladesh?  Is there some sort of communication issue in that marriage?

McCain speech 2

Genuinely gracious words for Obama.  A nice touch.  Let's hope he means them, and can keep away from impugning Obama's patriotism for the rest of the campaign. 

There's a sign in the crowd that says "Sarah's tough on terrorists.  Ask Obama!" or something to that effect.  What the hell does that mean?  Obama's a terrorist?  When did the governor of Alaska fight terrorists?

McCain speech

A little liveblogging during McCain's acceptance speech, just because I can.  And because if I'm in front of the computer I don't have to see the way he fires off a ghastly grin every now and then, as if it's written on his teleprompter.

Novelists are expected to make up characters who can capture the public's imagination.  It's one of the hardest parts of the job.  But it would take a skilled novelist indeed to make up someone afflicted with the central tragedy of John McCain's life.  He just did it himself--called himself a "maverick."  The crowd in the hall keeps holding up signs that say "Maverick" or "Straight Talk."  McCain has spent decades creating the myth that he's a straight-talking maverick--yes, sometimes by acting like one.  But for the most part, it's been a myth--a maverick doesn't vote with his party 90% of the time.

But to win the adulation of that crowd--to win the nomination he's accepting tonight--he had to turn his back on everything that made him a maverick or a straight talker.  There's nothing left of the maverick now, there's only the hollow shell of one, and no indication that he'll ever recapture that spirit.  The strategy of falling in line has taken him higher than he's ever been.  His overweening ambition, for years, has been the presidency--and for all his talk about "country first," the plain fact, the straight talk, is that he wants to be president because he is an ambitious man who believes it's owed to him. 

Because a person who wanted to be president in order to improve people's lives wouldn't offer up the same failed policies that made the last 8 years so disastrous for most Americans.  McCain talks about "changing" America, but his prescriptions are more of the same.

So the McCain on that stage no longer embodies anything of the myth that the people on the floor claim to be celebrating.  A tragic American figure...to be made more tragic still when he loses his late-life bid for the White House.

McCain/Palin 451

No, they haven't advocated burning books--yet.

But putting aside all the other reasons McCain's pick of Sarah Palin for VP is further evidence of his inability to handle the job of president (the lack of vetting that went into the pick, the fact that she's facing serious abuse of power accusations, the fact that she lied in her very first national speech about her opposition to earmarks and to the "bridge to nowhere," the fact that living in the state closest to Russia does not make one a foreign policy expert and overseeing the Alaska National guard does not make one a military expert, etc.), here is all the reason I need to oppose the idea of Sarah Palin coming anywhere near the White House (emphasis mine).

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

The full story is at Time.com.

Apparently Ms. Palin not only doesn't know what the vice president does all day, but she doesn't understand that the First Amendment says the government doesn't have get to decide what my family and I get to read, write, say, think, or believe.

And her abuse of power habit seems to go back to her mayoral days.

Poor word choice

This morning on "This Week," former Democrat George Stephanopolous was interviewing Sen. John Kerry about McCain's Palin pick.  Kerry rightly pointed out that McCain seemed to want to pick someone with more experience and national recognition, but more important, someone with whom he was personally comfortable.  Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman were both names that were tossed around a lot, and both men would be more useful in the VP's chair (and in the Oval Office, just in case) than Palin.  But the right wing went nuts, with the Rush Limbaughs of the world declaring, quite literally, that such a pick would "destroy" the Republican party.  In the end, McCain kowtowed to the bigmouths and chose a staunch anti-choice conservative who he has only met or spoken with a couple of times in his life.

The word Kerry used was that McCain's choice demonstrated that he was a "prisoner" of the far right.

I don't think McCain's POW experience inoculates him from all criticism.  He has plenty of life experience after that, and he shouldn't hide behind that shield at all times, as he's been doing lately.

But it should protect him from "prisoner" references used hyperbolically.  The meaning of Kerry's comment was true, but the phrasing was very unfortunate.  George cut Kerry off right after that, so even if he'd realized his error and tried to correct it, he didn't have a chance. 

Troopergate

So far, the talking heads in the media seem content to give Sarah Palin a pass on Troopergate.  Yes, her sister's ex-husband sounds like a jerk.  But does that excuse abuse of power on the governor's part?  Haven't we had enough abuse of power these last 8 years?

These are serious charges, and it's almost impossible to believe that McCain's campaign would choose a VP candidate with this hanging over her head.  Unless they know the fix is already in, of course...

For a thorough analysis from someone who's been covering the story since well before she was named as the VP choice, check this post from Talking Points Memo.