Obama, Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen

I just got this invite: Obama will be in NYC in a couple of weeks and will be at a concert to raise money for his campaign by Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen (!) at 8:30pm on Thursday, Oct. 16th.  Balcony seats are only $500 -- heck, I'd pay that even if it WASN'T for a good cause!  My wife and I just bought 2 tickets.  They will go fast, so book your seat now at: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Oct16Concert.  Further details about this event and other Obama events are at the end of this email.

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Good morning!

We wish everyone celebrating the Jewish New Year a very happy one.  Please forgive us for sending out notice of this special event.  With only 17 days until this event, we had to spread the word.  Besides, who can keep this big of a secret?!!! 

We’re very excited to announce Senator Obama’s last event in the Tri-State region before the election!  Please join us the evening of Thursday, October 16^th for a very special concert with Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and other exciting guests!  This is the first time that Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen will play the same concert!  Please see the attached invitation for more information and please read all of the important points below.

Concert with Senator Obama, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Friends

Thursday, October 16^th

8:30pm

Hammerstein Ballroom

Lounge Ticket: $10,000 per person

Premiere Seat: $2,500 per person

Balcony Seat: $500 per person

Get Tickets TODAY: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Oct16Concert

• We are forming a Host Committee for this event.  You must raise $25,000 before the event to attend as a Host and receive one Lounge Ticket.  The deadline to sign up for the Host Committee is THIS FRIDAY at 6pm. To sign-up, please email Jennifer at jgerst@barackobama.com, with this information: full name, home address, employer, occupation, email, phone number.

• We expect tickets (especially the $500 tickets) to sell out quickly.  Once they are sold out, they are sold out, no exceptions even for Host Committee members.

• Only a contribution will secure your spot.  We will not accept any RSVP’s without contributions.

• Balcony Seats ($500 per seat) can ONLY be purchased online: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Oct16Concert.  We will not accept $500 seats by fax, mail or phone.

• There will not be paper tickets or assigned seats within the sections of the venue.  We will be communicating with everyone who purchases tickets by email.

This is the last big push, and we need your help.  Between now and October 16^th, we have a few fantastic events.  The time to give and attend an event is NOW.  Events coming up in the next few weeks include:

10/5/08 – New York, NY

Special Evening with America’s most important artists and admired chefs

5:30pm- Reception: PaceWildenstein Gallery

7:30pm- Dinners: homes in New York City

Host/Reception & Dinner/Reception Only: $10,000, $2,300, $1,000

Contact: Lee Dugger, (212)763-4850, ldugger@barackobama.com

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Oct5NYC

 

10/6/08 – New York, NY

Lunch with Senior Middle East Policy Advisor Dennis Ross

Office of Schulte Roth & Zabel

12:00pm- Luncheon with Dennis Ross

Co-Chair/Vice-Chair/Co-Host/Supporter: $10,000, $5,000, $2,500, $1,000

Contact: Hildy Kuryk, (212)763-4850, hkuryk@barackobama.com

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Oct6Ross

 

10/6/08 – New York, NY

RECEPTION with Vice Presidential Nominee SENATOR JOE BIDEN

Home of Judy and Steven Gluckstern

7:30pm- National LGBT Finance Committee Reception with Senator Joe Biden

Attend: $10,000 per person

Contact: Jenny Yeager, (212)763-4850, jyeager@barackobama.com

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Oct6Biden

 

10/10/08-10/11/08- Chicago, IL

National Women’s Leadership Initiative National Issues Conference

Featuring Senator Barack Obama and Michelle Obama

Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Chicago, IL

Leadership Committee/Premium Ticket/General: $10,000, $5,000, $1,000

Contact: Annie Lieberman or Natalie Jones (202) 863-8000

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/OVFWLF

 

And don’t forget that on the morning of October 16^th, we will have a breakfast event at $30,800 per person with Senator Obama.

 

10/16/08 – New York, NY

BREAKFAST with SENATOR BARACK OBAMA

The Metropolitan Club

8:00am (Doors Open at 7:15am)

$30,800 per person to attend

Contact: Hildy Kuryk, (212)763-4850, hkuryk@barackobama.com

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/Oct16BO

Obama surging on Intrade & IEM

Obama surged 5.1 on Intrade yesterday and is up another 2.9 to 63.9 today (meaning real money bettors think he has a 63.9% chance of winning) and the Electoral count now has him winning 338-200 (270 needed to win) (see www.intrade.com).  The Iowa Electronic Markets are similarly favorable: http://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_Pres08_WTA.cfm

Humor

Before moving on to serious articles, I gotta share some great humor:

A) This 1-minute video is HILARIOUS!  McCain and Ms. South Carolina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcdLO3jKkPo

This mashup explores the similarities between McCain's answer to an economics question at the Florida Republican Debate and Miss Teen South Carolina.

B) Here is a link to side by side comparisons of the SNL skit with Katie Couric and Sarah Palin and the original.  What is staggering is the degree to which Palin DOES NOT need to be rewritten to be parody: http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/8839

 

C) Hilarious!

First Palin, Then Campaign Suspension. What Now? Slate predicts McCain's next 10 Hail Mary stunts.
Posted Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, at 1:39 PM

http://slate.msn.com/id/2200927

1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.
2. Offers the post of "vice vice president" to Warren Buffett.
3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.
4. Learns to use computer.
5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.
6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.
7. Sex-change operation.
8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.
9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.
10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

Do you have an idea for McCain's next campaign stunt? Send it to us at NextMcCainStunt@gmail.com , and we will publish the best ideas. E-mails may be quoted by name unless you indicate otherwise.

D) A video of Palin (then Sarah Heath) in the 1984 Miss Alaska Contest -- she's HOT!: http://www.nypost.com/seven/09282008/news/nationalnews/new_pictures_and_video_reveal_sarah_pali_131150.htm

NEW PICTURES AND VIDEO REVEAL SARAH PALIN IN 1984 MISS ALASKA CONTEST

By Georgina Dickinson, News Of The World

Last updated: 4:14 pm
September 28, 2008
Posted: 3:33 pm
September 28, 2008

Here is John McCain's Republican running mate showing off her curves in a saucy red Baywatch-style swimsuit.

She was just 20 and known by maiden name Sarah Heath when she did her Pamela Anderson impression during the 1984 Miss Alaska contest.

One spectator at the show recalled: "Sarah had a figure to die for and when she came out in that swimsuit nobody could take their eyes off her.

"It's no wonder that John McCain picked her as his deputy. Who wouldn't want Sarah working alongside them looking like that?"

Even the WSJ editorial page is blasting House Republicans for the failure to pass to bailout bill yesterday:

House Republicans share the blame, and not only because they opposed the bill by about two-to-one, 133-65. Their immediate response was to say that many of their Members turned against the bill at the last minute because Ms. Pelosi gave her nasty speech. So they are saying that Republicans chose to oppose something they think is in the national interest merely because of a partisan slight. Thank heaven these guys weren't at Valley Forge.

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The Beltway Crash

Congress lives up to its 10% approval rating.

WSJ editorial, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122273257698488295.html

America has survived a feckless political class in the past, and it will again after this week. But Monday's crash and burn of the Paulson plan on Capitol Hill reveals a Washington elite that has earned every bit of the disdain that Americans have for it. This crowd can't even make sausage.

Bob Herbert with a rant on how the current mess is the logical, inevitable outcome of the policies being pursued over the past 8 years -- and how McCain has no answers other than more of the same.

Toadying to the rich while sabotaging the interests of working people was always Mr. Gramm’s specialty. He was considered a likely choice to be treasury secretary in a McCain administration until he made his impolitic “mental recession” comment. He also said the U.S. was a “nation of whiners.”

The tone-deaf remarks in the midst of severe economic hard times undermined Senator McCain’s convoluted efforts to reinvent himself as some kind of populist. But they were wholly in keeping with the economic worldview of conservative Republicans.

The inescapable disconnect between rhetoric and reality is often stark. Senator McCain has been ranting recently about the excessive pay and “bloated golden parachutes” of failed corporate executives. And yet one of his closest advisers on economic matters is Carly Fiorina, who was forced out as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. Her golden parachute was an estimated $42 million.

Voters have to shoulder a great deal of the blame for the economic mess the country is in. Too many were willing, for whatever reasons, to support politicians who spat in the eye of economic common sense. Now the voodoo that permeated conservative economic policies for so many years has come back to haunt us big-time.

The question voters should be asking John McCain is whether he has stopped serving his party’s economic Kool-Aid, which has taken such a toll on working families, and is ready to change his ways. Is his sudden populist transformation the real thing or just a mirage?

In the gale force winds of a full-fledged economic hurricane, it’s fair to ask Senator McCain whether he still considers himself a conservative, small government, anti-regulation, free-market zealot. Or whether he’s seen the light.

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September 30, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

When Madmen Reign

By BOB HERBERT

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30herbert.html

Madness.

I’m not holding my breath, but I would like to see the self-proclaimed conservative, small government, anti-regulation, free-market zealots step up and take responsibility for wrecking the American economy and bringing about the worst financial crisis since the Depression.

Even now, with the house on fire, the most extreme among them won’t pick up the fire hoses and try to put it out.

With the fate of the Bush administration’s desperate $700 billion bailout of the financial industry hanging in the balance, Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, stuck to his political playbook like a man covered in Krazy Glue. He pronounced himself “resolute” in his opposition to the bailout because to be otherwise would amount to a betrayal of party principles.

To deviate from those principles, in Mr. Issa’s view, would be like placing “a coffin on top of Ronald Reagan’s coffin.”

We are in very strange territory here.

David Brooks is more tempered in his remarks -- but comes to the same conclusion:

And let us recognize above all the 228 who voted no — the authors of this revolt of the nihilists. They showed the world how much they detest their own leaders and the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed. They did the momentarily popular thing, and if the country slides into a deep recession, they will have the time and leisure to watch public opinion shift against them.

House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.

I’ve spoken with several House Republicans over the past few days and most admirably believe in free-market principles. What’s sad is that they still think it’s 1984. They still think the biggest threat comes from socialism and Walter Mondale liberalism. They seem not to have noticed how global capital flows have transformed our political economy.

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September 30, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Revolt of the Nihilists

By DAVID BROOKS

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?

In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt inherited an economic crisis. He understood that his first job was to restore confidence, to give people a sense that somebody was in charge, that something was going to be done.

This generation of political leaders is confronting a similar situation, and, so far, they have failed utterly and catastrophically to project any sense of authority, to give the world any reason to believe that this country is being governed. Instead, by rejecting the rescue package on Monday, they have made the psychological climate much worse.

George W. Bush is completely out of juice, having squandered his influence with Republicans as well as Democrats. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a smart moneyman, but an inept legislator. He was told time and time again that House Republicans would not support his bill, and his response was to get down on bended knee before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

House leaders of both parties got wrapped up in their own negotiations, but did it occur to any of them that it might be hard to pass a bill fairly described as a bailout to Wall Street? Was the media darling Barney Frank too busy to notice the 95 Democrats who opposed his bill? Pelosi’s fiery speech at the crucial moment didn’t actually kill this bill, but did she have to act like a Democratic fund-raiser at the most important moment of her career?

With Deal's Collapse, the McCain Camp Attacks

To absolutely nobody's surprise, the McCain campaign is trying to blame Obama for the failure to pass the bailout bill yesterday:

So when the deal fell apart on the House floor Monday, in no small measure because most of the chamber’s Republicans balked at voting for it, the McCain campaign worked to contain the potential for damage. The first defense was to go on offense.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior McCain adviser, said “partisan attacks” by Senator Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress had caused some Republicans uncertain about the legislation to turn against it and so had “put at risk the homes, livelihoods and savings of millions of American families.” The Obama campaign immediately dismissed that response as “angry and hyperpartisan.”

Then, after Mr. Obama had urged Americans and the financial markets to “stay calm” in the wake of the rescue plan’s collapse, while prodding Congress to “get this done,” Mr. McCain hastily called a news conference here in which he, too, seemed to place some blame on Mr. Obama.

“Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process,” Mr. McCain said, before adding in almost the same breath: “Now is not the time to fix the blame. It’s time to fix the problem.”

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With Deal’s Collapse, the McCain Camp Attacks

By MICHAEL COOPER and JEFF ZELENY

Published: September 29, 2008

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/us/politics/30campaign.html

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Besides stockholders whose portfolios were ravaged Monday afternoon, the one person with the most riding on the bailout bill that collapsed in Congress may have been Senator John McCain.

The Twelve Lies Of Sarah Palin

Andrew Sullivan documents the 12 Lies of Sarah Palin:

Just for the record, I asked an intern to go back and double fact-check the twelve documented lies that Sarah Palin has told on the public record. These are not hyperbolic claims or rhetorical excess. They are assertions of fact that are demonstrably untrue and remain uncorrected. Every single one of the lies I documented holds up after several news cycles have had a chance to vet them even further.

I know the MSM demands that we move on from the fact that someone who could be president next January has a list of public lies so extensive and indisputable that the McCain campaign has still not been able to rebut or even address any one of them, while fencing her off from the press and refusing to hold a press conference to clear the air on so many murky questions of fact that get to the core of whether this person is fit to be vice-president or president.

So for the record, let it be known that the candidate for vice-president for the GOP is a compulsive, repetitive, demonstrable liar. If you follow the links, here is the proof. I repeat: proof:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-twelve-odd.html

Mad Dog Palin

I think this attack on Palin (and Republicans and the American people) goes WAY too far.  Too bad the author isn't higher profile -- this would be perfect for Obama to have a Sister Soulja moment:

And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed middle-American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin' Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning.

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.

Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV -and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.

...But it does make some good points in a few places:

Palin's charge that "government is too big" and that Obama "wants to grow it" was similarly preposterous. Not only did her party just preside over the largest government expansion since LBJ, but Palin herself has been a typical Bush-era Republican, borrowing and spending beyond her means. Her great legacy as mayor of Wasilla was the construction of a $14.7 million hockey arena in a city with an annual budget of $20 million; Palin OK'd a bond issue for the project before the land had been secured, leading to a protracted legal mess that ultimately forced taxpayers to pay more than six times the original market price for property the city ended up having to seize from a private citizen using eminent domain. Better yet, Palin ended up paying for the fucking thing with a 25 percent increase in the city sales tax. But in her speech, of course, Palin presented herself as the enemy of tax increases, righteously bemoaning that "taxes are too high," and Obama "wants to raise them."

Palin hasn't been too worried about federal taxes as governor of a state that ranks number one in the nation in federal spending per resident ($13,950), even as it sits just 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434). That means all us taxpaying non-Alaskans spend $8,500 a year on each and every resident of Palin's paradise of rugged self-sufficiency. Not that this sworn enemy of taxes doesn't collect from her own: Alaska currently collects the most taxes per resident of any state in the nation.

The rest of Palin's speech was the same dog-whistle crap Republicans have been running on for decades. Palin's crack about a mayor being "like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities" testified to the Republicans' apparent belief that they can win elections till the end of time running against the Sixties. (They're probably right.) The incessant grousing about the media was likewise par for the course, red meat for those tens of millions of patriotic flag-waving Americans whose first instinct when things get rough is to whine like bitches and blame other people --reporters, the French, those ungrateful blacks soaking up tax money eating big prison meals, whomever -- for their failures.

Add to this the usual lies about Democrats wanting to "forfeit" to our enemies abroad and coddle terrorists, and you had a very run-of-the-mill, almost boring Republican speech from a substance standpoint. What made it exceptional was its utter hypocrisy, its total disregard for reality, its absolute unrelation to the facts of our current political situation. After eight years of unprecedented corruption, incompetence, waste and greed, the party of Karl Rove understood that 50 million Americans would not demand solutions to any of these problems so long as they were given a new, new thing to beat their meat over.

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Mad Dog Palin

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com
Posted on September 27, 2008, Printed on September 27, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/100551/

I'm standing outside the XCEL ENERGY CENTER in St. Paul Minnesota Sarah Palin has just finished her speech to the Republican National Convention, accepting the party's nomination for vice president. If I hadn't quit my two-packs-a-day habit earlier this year, I'd be chain-smoking now. So the only thing left is to stand mute against the fit-for-a-cheap-dog-kennel crowd-control fencing you see everywhere at these idiotic conventions and gnaw on weird new feelings of shock and anarchist rage as one would a rawhide chew toy.

All around me, a million cops in their absurd post-9/11 space-combat get-ups stand guard as assholes in papier-mache puppet heads scramble around for one last moment of network face time before the coverage goes dark. Four-chinned delegates from places like Arkansas and Georgia are pouring joyously out the gates in search of bars where they can load up on Zombies and Scorpion Bowls and other "wild" drinks and extramaritally grope their turkey-necked female companions in bathroom stalls as part of the "unbelievable time" they will inevitably report to their pals back home. Only 21st-century Americans can pass through a metal detector six times in an hour and still think they're at a party.

The defining moment for me came shortly after Palin and her family stepped down from the stage to uproarious applause, looking happy enough to throw a whole library full of books into a sewer. In the crush to exit the stadium, a middle-aged woman wearing a cowboy hat, a red-white-and-blue shirt and an obvious eye job gushed to a male colleague they were both wearing badges identifying them as members of the Colorado delegation at the Xcel gates.

"She totally reminds me of my cousin!" the delegate screeched. "She's a real woman! The real thing!"

I stared at her open-mouthed. In that moment, the rank cynicism of the whole sorry deal was laid bare. Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

My take on the debate

My take on the debate: Given my low expectations, McCain did better than I thought, but Obama was clearly stronger overall.  Obama was MUCH stronger on economic issues, pointing out how the Bush/McCain policies have screwed average Americans and McCain is simply offering more of the same. McCain had no response to Obama's shredding of his crazy healthcare plan (TAXING benefits?!) and his plan to cut taxes only on the very rich.

On foreign affairs, McCain said all the things he was scripted to say about Obama being naive, etc., but Obama deftly parried these attacks.  Every time McCain blasted Obama being being wrong on the surge, Obama blasted him right back for being wrong on the ENTIRE WAR!

In sum, a big win for Obama on the domestic issues and a draw on the foreign issues.  McCain needed a knockout blow to reverse the course of this race and didn't even come close.

I suspect the polls won't budge an inch on this and that Obama's momentum will continue.

Tina Fey As Sarah Palin: Katie Couric SNL Skit

Saturday Night Live's Tina Fay with another scathing, hilarious, spot-on impersonation of Palin, who even Republicans now realize is a total disaster: www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/27/tina-fey-as-sarah-palin-k_n_129956.html.  What's especially funny is that the SNL writers didn't have to come up with much new material: Palin actually said most of this foolishness -- just watch the SNL video and then the real video!  This is very close to the ACTUAL quote -- I kid you not:

"Like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this. We're saying, 'Hey, why bail out Fanny and Freddie and not me?' But ultimately what the bailout does is, help those that are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy to help...uh...it's gotta be all about job creation, too. Also, too, shoring up our economy and putting Fannie and Freddy back on the right track and so healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending...'cause Barack Obama, y'know...has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans, also, having a dollar value meal at restaurants. That's gonna help. But one in five jobs being created today under the umbrella of job creation. That, you know...Also..."

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Tina Fey As Sarah Palin: Katie Couric SNL Skit

Huffington Post   |   September 27, 2008 11:49 PM

 

Tina Fey returned to Saturday Night Live to reprise her widely hailed impersonation of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

The sketch mocks Palin's recent interview with CBS News' Katie Couric (played on SNL by Amy Poehler), touching on Palin's trip to New York and her comments about Russia and the financial bailout.

Gail Collins on the debate and a hilarious spoof of McCain's bizarre behavior (and the contrast with Obama's calm, effective approach):

He raced there in answer to the crisis call, after a brief detour to New York to deliver a desperately needed speech on fossil fuels at the Clinton Global Initiative. He could not have sounded more filled with passion about service and country and the need for his leadership. Then he joined President Bush, Obama and members of Congress in a White House meeting that his campaign had orchestrated, where he sat in near-silence as a bipartisan consensus fell apart.

One thing we now know for sure. Electing John McCain would be God’s gift to the profession of journalism. A story a minute.

Imagine what would happen if a new beetle infested the Iowa corn crop during the first year of a McCain administration. On Monday, we spray. On Tuesday, we firebomb. On Wednesday, the president marches barefoot through the prairie in a show of support for Iowa farmers. On Thursday, the White House reveals that Wiley Flum, a postal worker from Willimantic, Conn., has been named the new beetle eradication czar. McCain says that Flum had shown “the instincts of a maverick reformer” in personally buying a box of roach motels and scattering them around the post office locker room. “I can’t wait to introduce Wiley to those beetles in Iowa,” the president adds.

On Friday, McCain announces he’s canceling the weekend until Congress makes the beetles go away.

Barack Obama would just round up a whole roomful of experts and come up with a plan. Yawn.

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September 27, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

McCain: Bearish on Debates

By GAIL COLLINS

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/opinion/27collins.html

John McCain looked a bit off his game during the big presidential debate. Maybe he was exhausted from parachuting into Washington to resolve the financial crisis. Really, there are only so many hills a man can charge up in the course of a single week.

The debate had barely begun, the financial crisis barely addressed, when McCain started off on government spending. “You know, we spent $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana ...”

Oh, no! Not the bear study. Congress is working feverishly on the $700 billion rescue of the national financial system and McCain is complaining again about the $3 million the Senate blew to help determine whether the grizzlies are still an endangered species.

It's not surprising that Bob Herbert would call for her head...

It was surreal, the kind of performance that would generate a hearty laugh if it were part of a Monty Python sketch. But this is real life, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. As Ms. Palin was fumbling her way through the Couric interview, the largest bank failure in the history of the United States, the collapse of Washington Mutual, was occurring.

The press has an obligation to hammer away at Ms. Palin’s qualifications. If it turns out that she has just had a few bad interviews because she was nervous or whatever, additional scrutiny will serve her well.

If, on the other hand, it becomes clear that her performance, so far, is an accurate reflection of her qualifications, it would behoove John McCain and the Republican Party to put the country first — as Mr. McCain loves to say — and find a replacement for Ms. Palin on the ticket.

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September 27, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Palin’s Words Raise Red Flags

By BOB HERBERT

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/opinion/27herbert.html

The country is understandably focused on the financial crisis. But there is another serious issue in front of us that is not getting nearly enough attention, and that’s whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president — or, if the situation were to arise, president of the United States.

History has shown again and again that a vice president must be ready to assume command of the ship of state on a moment’s notice. But Ms. Palin has given no indication yet that she is capable of handling the monumental responsibilities of the presidency if she were called upon to do so.

In fact, the opposite is the case. We know that there are some parts of Alaska from which, if the day is clear and your eyesight is good, you can actually see Russia. But the infantile repetition of this bit of trivia as some kind of foreign policy bona fide for a vice presidential candidate should give us pause.

The McCain campaign has done its bizarre best to shield Ms. Palin from any sustained media examination of her readiness for the highest offices in the land, and no wonder. She has been an embarrassment in interviews.

Palin Problem

...but it's not just Herbert.  Here's a Republican columnist who's finally seen the light on Palin, calling on her to withdraw:

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted...

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

------------------------

Palin Problem
She’s out of her league.

By Kathleen Parker

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE=

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin. To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman. Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman. Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged. As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

 

Some good questions about Palin's role in Wasilla's unconscionable policy of making rape victims pay for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams:

Even in tough budget times, there are lines that cannot be crossed. So I was startled by this tidbit reported recently by The Associated Press: When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the small town began billing sexual-assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams.

Ms. Palin owes voters an explanation. What was the thinking behind cutting the measly few thousand dollars needed to cover the yearly cost of swabs, specimen containers and medical tests? Whose dumb idea was it to make assault victims and their insurance companies pay instead? Unfortunately, her campaign is shielding the candidate from the press, so Americans may still be waiting for answers on Election Day.

The rape-kit controversy is a troubling matter. The insult to rape victims is obvious. So is the sexism inherent in singling them out to foot the bill for investigating their own case. And the main result of billing rape victims is to protect their attackers by discouraging women from reporting sexual assaults.

------------------------

September 26, 2008

Editorial Observer

Wasilla Watch: Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits

By DOROTHY SAMUELS

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/opinion/26fri4.html

Dubious Claims in Obama's Ads Against McCain, Despite Vow of Truth

The Obama campaign needs to be careful to not cross the line between hard-hitting politcal ads vs. getting in the mud with McCain.  Maintaining the moral high ground is important (esp. when you're winning and have momentum):

Two weeks ago, Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign gleefully publicized a spate of news reports about misleading and untruthful statements in the advertisements of his rival, Senator John McCain. Asked by a voter in New Hampshire if he would respond in kind, Mr. Obama said, “I just have a different philosophy, I’m going to respond with the truth,” adding, “I’m not going to start making up lies about John McCain.” 

Yet as Mr. McCain’s misleading advertisements became fodder on shows like “The View” and “Saturday Night Live,” Mr. Obama began his own run of advertisements on radio and television that have matched the dubious nature of Mr. McCain’s more questionable spots.

------------------------

Dubious Claims in Obama’s Ads Against McCain, Despite Vow of Truth

By JIM RUTENBERG and JULIE BOSMAN

Published: September 25, 2008

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/us/politics/26ads.html

 

Results from an "Education Minute for Obama"

45 people donated $25,484 yesterday as part of the "Education Minute for Obama" (http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/DFER).  Thank you!

McCain's absurd behavior

As usual, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show perfectly captures McCain's absurd behavior regarding the bailout bill: declaring a crisis (as Stewart notes: "John McCain is the only man who can impulsively overreact to something 10 days old!"), then taking 22 HOURS to go from NYC to DC, and then sitting there like a potted plant (senile elderly citizen?) while the deal falls apart around him: http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=186055&title=mccain-returns-to-washington

 

A friend echos my views:

McCain’s behavior of the past 48 hours have resembled that of a petulant child more than a presidential candidate, there was a line I read last night from the republican minority leader’s chief of staff saying “Dodd and the Democrats put the deal together too quickly, before McCain could arrive back in Washington”….let me break this down for you…

First on John McCain’s return to Washington…

Following his heroic announcement that he would be suspending his campaign and going to Washington he….

1 – Went and got his make-up done for a sit down with Katie Couric that he filmed that evening

2 – Had dinner with his wife in NYC

3 – Spent the night in a hotel in NYC

4 – Spent the morning preparing and delivering his remarks to a global initiative conference

5 – Finally got into D.C. at about 3:30 PM the next day

Next on this staffer’s assertion…

1 – The fact that Dodd got a deal together quickly is bad?

2 – Before the chairman of the banking committee works on emergency legislation he needs to consult John McCain?

3 – The same John McCain who hasn’t voted since April?

4 – The same John McCain who has the lowest amount of recorded votes in the senate, even lower than Sen. Tim Johnson, who missed 8 months with a stroke

5 – The same John McCain whose membership duties don’t touch the banking committee?

I can only make two assertions about the facts above and what they mean about John McCain.  He is either…

1 – Completely self-absorbed, so indoctrinated with his own self-righteousness that he really thinks he’s the only one who can do this…if that’s how he feels why bothering debating or even having an election?  There’s no way this country functions unless John McCain gives it the okay.

2 – Playing politics and throwing a Hail Mary with something that really should be untouchable.  The very idea that he has injected the presidential race into something as important as this should be horrifying to any sane observer.  Bush, the Republicans and the Democrats were working on getting a deal together all day yesterday and they had to stop, move to the White House, and hold a symbolic meeting all because John McCain wanted a photo-op?  

At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.- NY Times

At this bi-partisan ‘commission’ he forced Bush to call he didn’t even speak, he sat on the end of the table opposite Obama and just sat there….we had to wait for him so he could get in front of the camera and not contribute any substance?  Now the Republicans, who were at least working with the Democrats have suddenly stalled completely and are re-positioning themselves behind McCain?  It is no coincidence that at 3 o’clock yesterday there was an agreed on deal, but that it suddenly fell apart as McCain arrived and he wanted to make sure there was still a reason to have his little commission with Bush.

My feelings are that this particular instance is another example of a politician who is a serial over-reactor, and one who is wholly unprepared, in substance and understanding, to take on these issues.  While I do think this particular move is over-whelmingly a political one, designed to paint McCain as a moderate patriot who puts his country first, the way he went about it so indicative of the type of person he is.  He jumped head-first into a campaign suspension without seeming to comprehend what a suspension entails.  A suspension means you don’t give interviews, you do not continue to run ads in battlegrounds attacking your opponent (See http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/what-suspensi-1.html) and you certainly don’t allow your VP (who I will be happy to write an e-mail about) continue to be your attack dog (or Pitt Bull with lipstick as she likes to say).

What this shows is McCain’s penchant for over-reacting without thinking of the consequences, and more importantly, without having a clear understanding of where he stands on the particular issue.  What does this say about McCain’s ability to deal with a nuclear Iran?  To be president there has to be a certain calmness and an ability to step away from the situation and constantly re-evaluate…McCain’s approach of shoot first ask questions last is a terrifying scenario considering the shape we are in.

As the days go on I have become more and more convinced that a McCain presidency would be so intensely disastrous to what we have built as a nation.

McCain/Palin…Shameful.

Here's a NYT article on McCain's antics:

Senator John McCain had intended to ride back into Washington on Thursday as a leader who had put aside presidential politics to help broker a solution to the financial crisis. Instead he found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown, lacking a clear public message for how to bring it to an end. 

At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, according to people in the meeting.

In subsequent television interviews, Mr. McCain suggested that he saw the bipartisan plan that came apart at the White House meeting as the proper basis for an eventual agreement, but he did not tip his hand as to whether he would give any support to the alternative put on the table by angry House Republicans, with whom he had met before going to the White House.

He said he was hopeful that a deal could be struck quickly, and that he could then show up for his scheduled debate on Friday night against his Democratic rival in the presidential race, Senator Barack Obama. But there was no evidence that he was playing a major role in the frantic efforts on Thursday night on Capitol Hill to put a deal back together again.

--------------------------------------

McCain’s Peril in Wading In

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: September 25, 2008

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/us/politics/26campaign.html

Senator John McCain had intended to ride back into Washington on Thursday as a leader who had put aside presidential politics to help broker a solution to the financial crisis. Instead he found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown, lacking a clear public message for how to bring it to an end. 

I hate to keep bringing up Sarah Palin (and, yes, I know about Biden's gaffe about FDR going on TV at the time of the 1929 stock market crash -- it was Hoover and TVs hadn't been invented yet), but she keeps wetting the bed, over and over again. 

 

Here are James Forman's thoughts:

I have basically avoided writing about Palin, because I have accepted the view that Obama should focus on McCain, not her.  That said, there is no other way to say it: this individual is a total embarrassment, in over her head.  It is not just her hard-right views, or just her lack of experience.  It is her absolute lack of intellect and coherence on critical matters.  

If you need any more proof, check out these clips from her Katie Couric interview, especially the 2nd one where Couric asks her about her claim that she is qualified on foreign affairs because she can see Russia.  And note that at least this conservative blogger (see below), who was loving Palin after her appointment, has given up on her after seeing the train wreck of these interviews.

i still agree with the view that obama should stay away from this.  palin is destroying herself on her own, with her own words, and he should not pile on and risk charges of sexism or elitism.

Here's the conservative blogger Forman refers to:

Palin debacle on CBS Evening News

Thursday September 25, 2008

posted by Rod Dreher

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/09/palin-debacle-on-cbs-evening-n.html

Watch the Couric interview here. Couric's questions are straightforward and responsible. Palin is mediocre, again, regurgitating talking points mechanically, not thinking. Palin's just babbling. She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero. This is one of the more coherent passages:

Couric: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?

Palin: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie - that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.

Couric: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

Palin: He's also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about - the need to reform government.

Couric: But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you've said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?

Palin: I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.

Couric: I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.

Palin: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

I remember the morning I woke up in my college dorm room and went in to take my final exam in my Formal Logic class. I knew I was unready. Massively unready. And now I was going to be put to the ultimate test. I sat down in Dr. Sarkar's class and resolved to wing it. Of course I failed the exam and failed the class, because I had no idea what I was talking about. I wasn't a bad kid, or even a stupid kid. I was just badly unprepared, and in way over my head. Seeing the Palin interview on CBS, I thought of myself in Dr. Sarkar's exam. But see, I was a college undergraduate who had the chance to take the class again, which I did, and passed (barely). I wasn't running for vice president of the United States.

UPDATE: New Palin excerpt up, in which she discusses why having Russia next to Alaska gives her relevant foreign policy experience. I am well and truly embarrassed for her. I think she's a good woman who might well be a great governor of Alaska. But good grief, just watch this train wreck:

Here's part 2 of the interview, with comments below from another blogger: http://gawker.com/5054861/palin-stop-making-fun-of-me

Palin: Stop Making Fun Of Me

Honestly it's just sad now. Sarah Palin looks genuinely upset that everyone mocked her for saying she has foreign policy experience because of her state's proximity to Russia. Asked to explain what sort of foreign policy experience that proximity lends her, she says her state is very close to Russia. Katie Couric just smiles politely. The new exclusive clip from the CBS interview with America's Saddest Joke is attached below.

Here's the transcript:

COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

The Ugly New McCain

Speaking of conservatives turning against the McCain/Palin ticket, from a friend:

This is a piece in the Washington Post written by a CONSERVATIVE journalist who has always been pro-McCain. I personally LOVE to see The Other Side telling the truth about John McCain. These folks have credibility in that no one can accuse them of partisanship. 

Excerpt:

The precise moment of McCain's abasement came, would you believe, not at some news conference or on one of the Sunday shows but on "The View," the daytime TV show created by Barbara Walters. Last week, one of the co-hosts, Joy Behar, took McCain to task for some of the ads his campaign has been running. One deliberately mischaracterized what Barack Obama had said about putting lipstick on a pig -- an Americanism that McCain himself has used. The other asserted that Obama supported teaching sex education to kindergarteners.

"We know that those two ads are untrue," Behar said. "They are lies."

Freeze. Close in on McCain. This was the moment. He has largely been avoiding the press. The Straight Talk Express is now just a brand, an ad slogan like "Home Cooking" or "We Will Not Be Undersold." Until then, it was possible for McCain to say that he had not really known about the ads, that the formulation "I approve this message" was just boilerplate. But he didn't.

"Actually, they are not lies," he said.

Actually, they are.

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.

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The Ugly New McCain

By Richard Cohen
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091502406_pf.html

Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred. "I broke my promise to always tell the truth," McCain said. Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.