An excerpt from an article Sarah Palin wrote back in 2006, which was posted on her gubernatorial campaign web-site. The piece was called ... ahem ... "Who's your daddy?"
Sometimes I haven’t a clue, coming from non-political Chuck Heath, why l remain passionate about wanting to change the world through Alaskan politics. But I know without a doubt that my Dad’s love for this state, his Independence, his strong work ethic and right priorities are my foundation and influence for every decision I make. He’s my most loyal supporter. Me, the media-stamped ‘bard core conservative Republican”! He’s also the number one fan of one of his best buddies and hunting partners, Dr. Curt Menard, the well known democrat. See, he’s much too smart and way too nice to base relationships on politics.
I think she meant "hard core" ... I guess the "h" is kind of near the "b" on the keyboard... Another glimpse of our first lady in waiting (mind the spelling errors. I swear this is unedited...)
I’m thankful for all my dad taught me and allowed me to do. I’m glad he dragged my butt out of bed early, early autumn mornings to hunt ducks with him before cross-country running practice. He taught me to bag a caribou, fillet a fish, dig buckets of darns, and find the plumpest blueberries. He wouldn’t put up with my wimpy reasons why I couldn’t thaw frozen fish egg bait in my mouth, like he does, when ice fishing. But he did understand when I looked up at him quizzically once upon his request to “please hold those” while he searched for something to put our freshly butchered moose’s eyeballs in so his students could observe them later that day. He graciously understood, and I didn’t have to hold those ungulate’s warm parts that morning in the alders.
My dad gave me two of the greatest gifts in my life: an upbringing in Alaska and an appreciation for all one can gain from athletics. He was Wasilla High School’s track, cross-country and freshman basketball coach. He never let me quit, no matter how bad it hurt or how the odds ware stacked against his athletes. He taught “no pain, no gain.., and you reap what you sow,.. and there ain’t no such thing as a flee lunch.., and dig deep, push hard and fully rely on your ROCK!”
(In our case, that ROCK would be God.) These are lessons I draw on everyday.
This stuff may have great appeal for so-called "middle America," but I wonder how the Clinton faithful feel, being told that Sarah the Moose Hunter is the equivalent of Hillary...
John McCain may consider her a "soulmate" after only meeting her once (watch out, Cindy...) and the flat earth crowd is over the moon at the prospect of Sarah embarking on her four (?) year apprenticeship and then taking the throne, to rule over us through the mighty hand of God ... but not everyone is as high on Sarah.
"I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative. Well, she's a better speaker than McCain," Faye Palin said with a laugh. "People will say she hasn't been on the national scene long enough. But I believe she's a quick study."
Early this year, an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News ripped into Gov. Sarah Palin's appearance on a morning "shock jock" radio show as "plain and simple one of the most unprofessional, childish and inexcusable performances I've ever seen from a politician."
So what happened? Palin has repeatedly feuded with the state's Senate president, Lyda Green, over a wide range of legislation. Last January, Palin appeared on "The Bob and Mark Show," whose host Bob Lester despises Green. That's when the trouble started...
State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to tell her the news.
"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"
Green, who has feuded with Palin, brought up the big oil tax increase Palin pushed through last year. She also pointed to the award of a $500 million state subsidy to a Canadian firm to pursue a natural gas pipeline that's far from guaranteed.
House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was also astonished at the news. He didn't want to get into the issue of her qualifications.
"She's old enough," Harris said. "She's a U.S. citizen."
For more Sarah background, a plucky Politico commentator found her old campaign website in the Wayback machine. Here it is. Enjoy the "who's your daddy" file. Fascinating.
Be prepred, Democrats: much of the mainstream media appears to be going directly into the tank for Sarah Palin, judging by the opening remarks from "neutral" reporters including David Gregory (who today called the pick "cool" ... Andrea Mitchell and Maria Bartoromo, who spent her morning on "Meet the Press" hawking Palin as if she were a hot stock. Here's David Gregory on MTP:
MR. GREGORY: She went into labor and got on an airplane to go back to Alaska. That's pretty cool. I think there's a lot of people, men and women, who are going to look at this story and say, "This is a compelling person. I want to take a new look at this ticket."
Ironically, it fell to GOP strategist Mike Murphy to throw cold water on the MTP love fest for Palin:
MR. BROKAW: Mike, as you heard, I asked Governor Pawlenty about creationism vs. evolution. He said they ought to be taught side by side in schools, local school districts should decide. How does that cut with the independents?
MR. MURPHY: It's trouble. Again, if we get into a social issues debate with those particular swing voters, we're in big trouble. I believe that McCain cannot win in this environment without ticket splitters, people who vote for him for president but vote Democrat down the ticket. He may need as many as one out of five of his ultimate voters to be a ticket splitter. So the question is in a bad base year for Republicans, if we get caught on pure base issues--I agree, the evangelical vote loves her, but I, to the point I said earlier, I'd rather have lukewarm evangelicals and a whole lot of voters...
MR. BROKAW: Right.
MR. MURPHY: ...than delighted Goldwater-sized crowds and a completely delighted 45 percent of the vote. So if Sarah Palin the reformer, corruption fighter becomes who she is, she can help. If she gets trapped in the other stuff, I think she's an anchor. And we don't know yet how it's going to play.
But on the next question, Gregory went back to making the Palin sale, with a little help in the Amen chorus from Andrea Mitchell:
MR. BROKAW: "Even before McCain picked [Palin], people outside Alaska were beginning to notice the young governor with the bright smile" - the "runnerup in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest--whose good looks spawned a bumper sticker that read: `Coldest State. Hottest Governor.'"
Is that going to work in the West?
MR. GREGORY: Well, I think a lot of it does. And as you know better than anybody, you talk to people like Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, who--and he will attribute his success as a Democrat in Colorado not to social issues, but to issues like the economy that began to turn more Republican-leaning independents and even some Republicans in the state his way. I think the economy is a huge part of this. A lot of the working-class voters in states like West Virginia or Ohio, where she was debuted, or Pennsylvania were Democrats primarily for economic issues if not social issues. Obama still has an advantage there, even if he hasn't grabbed the issue completely. I think Sarah Palin helps John McCain get it.
MS. MITCHELL: Yes, I agree with that.
MR. GREGORY: That's the attack line from Obama that he's out of touch. She's got some working class roots, the hockey mom thing.
MS. MITCHELL: Yeah.
MR. GREGORY: A union husband, a husband who's in the union. So I think she may help deliver that to independent voters in the West and elsewhere for whom this is going to be a big issue, the economy.
MS. MITCHELL: I...
Likewise, George Will went from calling Barack Obama "the most thinly qualified presidential candidate in memory," last week, to stating this week on Stephanopoulos' show that it's not experience that matters after all, but rather judgment (where have we heard that before?) and good instincts about how to keep the federal government out of people's lives Will didn't even bring up Ms. Palin's experience on his own, and as of this morning, has completely abandoned it as an issue. George answered Stephanolpoulos' question of whether Palin was a good pick with an enthusiastic "yes." He went on to say:
"It certainly solved his enthusiasm deficit with regard to Mr. Obama. ... I suspect that now, the Republican base is more united and enthusiastic behind McCain then I suspect the Democratic base is behind Mr. Obama..."
And on the question of qualifications, Will adds:
"There is more to the qualification to high executive branch office than experience. There is understanding the constitutional principle of limited government and the culture of corruption that inevitably develops in a capitol that abandones limited government; that regulates everything and subsidizes everybody. She understands that."
Will later disclosed that his wife is an unpaid staffer helping to formulate Cindy McCain's convention speech.
Poor Sam Donaldson literally laughed out loud later in the roundtable, when Cokie Roberts actually claimed that Palin wasn't picked for women, or for the purposes of poaching female Hillary Clinton supporters, but rather to attract blue collar voters. Stunning.
If this first Palin Sunday was any indication, and judging by the equally enthusiastic reception Palin has received on CNN and MSNBC, where Chrystia Freeland (who was pushing Hillary as Obama's vice presidential pick before Biden was selected,) literally gushed about Palin on Friday, it's clear to me that much of the mainstream media, stung by the accusations of gender bias by the Hillary Clinton campaign during the primaries, is going to tread lightly when it comes to Palin, and many reporters, who at their core, are still fans of John McCain, will actually enthusiastically boost the ticket. That sounds like an incredible contrast to complaints by the right that the media is trying to help Obama, but I think it's reality. Democrats should pre-pare for a Palin love-fest, for at least a couple of weeks, as she receives her honeymoon.
The latest, laugh out loud justification for putting Flat Earth Society queen Sarah "the Barracuda" Palin a skin cancer attack away from the red button is that she is ... wait for it ... commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard. Poor Tim Pawlenty had to sell that turkey on "Meet the Press" this morning (an episode in which David Gregory proved himself to be absolutely SOLD on the McCain ticket ... surprise, surprise...) and it will be part of the excuse narrative the Republicans will be selling over the next 67 days. So let's take a look at how many people Sarah is commanding:
The Alaska National Guard consists of approximately 1,850 soldiers in the Alaska Army National Guard, plus the civilian and military members of the Alaska Air National Guard, including 5,400 personnel at Eielson Air Force Base.
It had a budget in 2007 of $62,145,474 for the Alaska National Guard and $167,531,600 for the Air National Guard from the federal government, and the State of Alaska has an annual budget of around $83,255,260, according to the most recent annual report from the Alaska office of Military Affairs.
By contrast, according to the U.S. Air National Guard website:
The authorized strength for the Air National Guard for the current fiscal year is 106,678 compared to active force strength of 359,300. The operating budget for this fiscal year is $2,724.5 million for personnel, $4, 724.1 million for operation and maintenance and $165.3 million for military construction for a total of $7, 613.9 million.
In case you missed it, that's $2.7 BILLION for personnel and $4.7 BILLION for operations.
By the way, if that argument doesn't work for you, Cindy McCain says Sarah's qualified to be CIC because Alaska is physically close to Russia! Peaches!
Having laid it out so brilliantly in his nomination acceptance speech on Thursday, it's time for Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, to begin a daily conversation with the American people about judgment, and specifically, about the judgment of John McCain. In fact, McCain has made it easy for them by choosing a woman so meagerly qualified for the presidency, it would be funny (if McCain's age and health concerns weren't so serious.)
Team Obama can and should go after McCain hard on his veep choice, and they can do so without personally attacking or demonizing Ms. Palin. For example, they could run an ad like this:
(FEMALE) ANNCR:
It was his first major decision as the Republican nominee...
And John McCain chose to play politics ...
instead of picking the most qualified commander in chief.
He thinks women voters don't care about issues ...
Just gender ...
(SHOW PIC OF HILLARY) That's not the respect we deserve ...
Or the judgment ... we need in the next president.
Would the McCain camp try to push back on Obama's experience? Sure. That's why they felt safe in selecting Palin. But as even the AP's Ron Fournier has pointed out, Obama's 11 years in the Illinois legislature and longer tenure in the Senate compared to Palin's 600 days of legislative experience, plus the mayoralty of a tiny town in Alaska, aren't close to comparable.
I posted yesterday on TPM that McCain has, in effect, given up his "country first" theme. Republican strategist David Frum agrees:
The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing.
John McCain wanted a woman: good.
He wanted to keep conservatives and pro-lifers happy: naturally.
He wanted someone who looked young and dynamic: smart.
And he discovered that he could not reconcile all these imperatives with the stated goal of finding a running mate qualified to assume the duties of the presidency "on day one."
... Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.
... question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?
More from Frum here, including this important closing argument:
Should John McCain lose in November, Sarah Palin has just pole-vaulted into front-runner status for 2012. Should Mr. McCain win, her grip on the next Republican nomination will become a lock.
So this is the future of the Republican party you are looking at: a future in which national security has bumped down the list of priorities behind abortion politics, gender politics, and energy politics. Ms. Palin is a bold pick, and probably a shrewd one. It's not nearly so clear that she is a responsible pick, or a wise one.
Add to the chorus of boos Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune:
The first and last question to be asked about a potential vice president is: Is he or she prepared to take over immediately as president? Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden gave that matter the priority it deserves.
The question is even more important for McCain because he's 72 years old and has had serious health problems. The chances are considerably higher than usual that his vice president would have to step into the Oval Office without notice.
Sarah Palin may be a politically brilliant choice. She may also be a fine governor. But it's going to be pretty hard for McCain to disparage Obama's experience on national security and foreign relations while running with someone who has much less.
But worse, this decision mocks McCain's seriousness on the issues that are supposed to be his strength. It tells us that he puts his own political fortunes above the safety of the nation.
McCain had been steadily gaining on Obama (before the inevitable convention bounce) and had the race in a dead heat in a year in which the generic Democrat is running ten points ahead of the generic Republican. He had succeeded in making this a referendum on Obama. The devastating line of attack was, "Is he ready to lead?"
The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead -- on the theory that because Palin is a maverick and a corruption fighter, she bolsters McCain's claim to be the reformer in this campaign. In her rollout today, Palin spoke a lot about change. McCain is now trying to steal "change" from Obama, a contest McCain will lose in an overwhelmingly Democratic year with an overwhelmingly unpopular incumbent Republican administration. At the same time, he's weakening his strong suit -- readiness vs. unreadiness.
Not surprising that the neocons aren't thrilled. Anything that takes the global war on Islam off the table and puts abortion back on center stage can't be good for them. And it seems that McCain's envy over losing the attention of the media, along with his year 2000 "change", "maverick", "reformer" and celebrity labels made him throw away his best card... Now, he's got the media to talk about him the way they used to ... but he's also made the race more about him; and his judgment, than about Barack. That doesn't strike me as smart. And it will be interesting to see if Democrats begin to laugh out loud every time McCain talks about national security, given that he apparently no longer cares about it as much as he does getting anti-abortion activists to phonebank for him...
First, how remarkable is it that with the first African-American on a major party ticket, this election turns out to be more about gender in the end, than about race? Hopefully, this election will prove that despite what the McCain team apparently thinks, women just aren't that gullible.
Second, John McCain's last-minute, hurried selection of Sarah Palin, after just one meeting and a single phone call, and without even bothering to conduct the thorough vetting he gave to more serious choices like Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman or even Tim Pawlenty, says a lot about the role of age in this election. Clearly, McCain comes from a generation (and an ideology) that dismisses women as serious people. He seems to have decided that Palin fit the bullet points ("maverick + pro-life + female,) so it doesn't matter what she actually thinks about "big things" like Iraq (which turns out to be not much); the war on terror (who knows?), Russia, Georgia, Pakistan... or whether she even understands the job being offered to her. (Sounds a lot like the way he chose Cindy McCain: rich+prettier than current wife+lives where he could win a congressional seat...) Yesterday, as the roll-out was taking place, right wing radio hack Glenn Beck was actually gushing that one of Palin's qualifications is that "she's HOT!" I can almost hear McCain, disappointed that he couldn't get Lieberman on the ticket, saying, "Ok go with that Palin broad. She's a dame, just like Hillary's a dame, and the chicks will dig that."
Third, the Republican Party can never again accuse Democrats of playing identity politics. While the Democrats held a contest, and the African-American candidate won it fair and square by getting more votes than the other candidates and conducting a better campaign, Republicans have once again thrown a scantily qualified "demographic appointment" at the wall, hoping to curry favor with the associated group . George I did it (to disastrous effect) with Clarence Thomas, and here we go again with Sarah Palin. [Ironically, the one politician who at least had the decency to appoint qualified demographic candidates was George W. Bush, who appointed Collin Powell and Condi Rice for top jobs, though both have been disappointing. (Bush later tried to put Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court, but that was more of a Texas buddy thing than a pander...)]
Fourth: There's no longer a question of which presidential candidate makes careful judgments that put the country before political expediency. Barack Obama passed on the chance to make headlines by choosing Hilary Clinton, instead picking a man he thought would better help him govern, and who, like Hillary, could very much step in and become president if need be. As for McCain, by making such an unserious, pandering choice, who couldn't possibly be the person he feels is most qualified to step in should anything happen to him as a septugenarian, four-time cancer survivor president, John McCain has closed the door on the notion that he's fit to be president.
The Obama team should hit that theme every day between now and November.
While you were hunting wolf pups from an airplane ... Sarah Palin ... the Bush administration was seeking to recertify the "unitary executive"...
WASHINGTON — Tucked deep into a recent proposal from the Bush administration is a provision that has received almost no public attention, yet in many ways captures one of President Bush’s defining legacies: an affirmation that the United States is still at war with Al Qaeda.
Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush’s advisers assert that many Americans may have forgotten that. So they want Congress to say so and “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”
The language, part of a proposal for hearing legal appeals from detainees at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, goes beyond political symbolism. Echoing a measure that Congress passed just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, it carries significant legal and public policy implications for Mr. Bush, and potentially his successor, to claim the imprimatur of Congress to use the tools of war, including detention, interrogation and surveillance, against the enemy, legal and political analysts say.
Some lawmakers are concerned that the administration’s effort to declare anew a war footing is an 11th-hour maneuver to re-establish its broad interpretation of the president’s wartime powers, even in the face of challenges from the Supreme Court and Congress.
The proposal is also the latest step that the administration, in its waning months, has taken to make permanent important aspects of its “long war” against terrorism. From a new wiretapping law approved by Congress to a rewriting of intelligence procedures and F.B.I. investigative techniques, the administration is moving to institutionalize by law, regulation or order a wide variety of antiterrorism tactics.
“This seems like a final push by the administration before they go out the door,” said Suzanne Spaulding, a former lawyer for the Central Intelligence Agency and an expert on national security law. The cumulative effect of the actions, Ms. Spaulding said, is to “put the onus on the next administration” — particularly a Barack Obama administration — to justify undoing what Mr. Bush has done. ..
So what would the new language mean, precisely?
Mr. Mukasey laid out the administration’s thinking in a July 21 speech to a conservative Washington policy institute in response to yet another rebuke on presidential powers by the Supreme Court: its ruling that prisoners at Guantánamo Bay , were entitled to habeas corpus rights to contest their detentions in court.
The administration wants Congress to set out a narrow framework for those prisoner appeals. But the administration’s six-point proposal goes further. It includes not only the broad proclamation of a continued “armed conflict with Al Qaeda,” but also the desire for Congress to “reaffirm that for the duration of the conflict the United States may detain as enemy combatants those who have engaged in hostilities or purposefully supported Al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations.”
That broad language hints at why Democrats, and some Republicans, worry about the consequences. It could, they say, provide the legal framework for Mr. Bush and his successor to assert once again the president’s broad interpretation of the commander in chief’s wartime powers, powers that Justice Department lawyers secretly used to justify the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects and the National Security Agency’s wiretapping of Americans without court orders. ...
Hopefully, even Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid's accommodating Congress won't fall for it. Fool me once ...
And by the way, in case you missed this in the Times on June 8th:
WASHINGTON — A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.
Mr. McCain believes that “neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin wrote.
And if Mr. McCain is elected president, Mr. Holtz-Eakin added, he would do everything he could to prevent terrorist attacks, “including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution.”
Although a spokesman for Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, denied that the senator’s views on surveillance and executive power had shifted, legal specialists said the letter contrasted with statements Mr. McCain previously made about the limits of presidential power. ...
A question that should be put to McCain in the debates: do you believe the president of the United States has the authority to supersede the law and wiretap Americans on U.S. soil? I'd love to hear his answer to that.
Obama Main Man Robert Wexler has called Palin a "far right, pro-life zealot," and he's hitting her hard for her past support of Pat Buchanan, which could spell trouble with Jewish voters, and that means trouble in Florida...
John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for President in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans. Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hilter for his "great courage."
At a time when standing up for Israel's right to self-defense has never been more critical, John McCain has failed his first test of leadership and judgment by selecting a running mate who has aligned herself with a leading anti-Israel voice in American politics. It is frightening that John McCain would select someone one heartbeat away from the presidency who supported a man who embodies vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments.
Palin has tried to clarify, saying she wasn't actually a Buchananite. But nobody told the lovable (and I mean that) Pat, who lauded Palin as a fellow traveler on "Hardball" today:
Robert Wexler just got a major shot in the arm in rallying Palm Beach Jewish voters who may have been wavering on Barack. |
By picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has officially abandoned the Independent vote in favor of rallying George W. Bush's old base: evangelical Christians, pro-drilling oil company shills and Rush Limbaugh listeners. Ten reasons why they love her:
6. Wants to ban abortion, even in cases of rape or incest (something that will energize the NARAL and Emily's List volunteers to defeat her and McCain in key states in November.)
7. Has a disabled child (downs syndrome) which is one of the ways pro-lifers sell her pro-life credentials (although there is some scuttle that it may not be her baby...)
8. She's old fashioned and traditional. As McCain's "apprentice," she'll stay in her place and not try to shine the way a Mitt Romney might have.
9. She's young, which gives the impression that there are people under age 60 still in the conservative movement, and that the movement still has the youthful vigor the Democratic Party clearly has these days. (And she allows the GOP to claim that see, they can make history, too...)
10. She is a blank slate on Iraq, which allows her to pivot to whatever message the right is selling day by day (but which is also really strange since she has a son about to be deployed there...)
From a media standpoint, Palin could also soften the media on McCain, especially female reporters. If you saw Campbell Brown take umbrage at Paul Begala's mention of Palin being a beauty queen tonight, or Andrea Mitchell's cautiously defensive coverage of her nomination, you know what I mean. And the McCain team clearly hopes Palin's female charm will prevent Joe Biden from going all out to attack her during their lone debate next month. He won't want to pull a Rick Lazio, and Team McCain hopes she's stymie him and the Obama communications team.
That said, none of the above qualities is going to help her close the gender gap, since most of her issue positions are an anathema to women. In fact, Palin looks to me like a time traveler from the 1950s, a woman so out of step with modern womanhood that I can't imagine anyone but the most wacked out PUMAs drifting to McCain because of her.
ABC News has the inside story on the Palin pick, and it seems she became the default choice after John McCain finally accepted that he could not push Lieberman through. (Apparently that's what was behind those Karl Rove calls, which now seem logically to have been orchestrated by his former lieutenant, Steve Schmidt.) From ABC's Political Radar:
ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg reports: It wasn't until Sunday night that John McCain, after meeting with his four top advisers, finally decided he could not tap independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to be his running mate. One adviser, tasked with taking the temperature of the conservative base, had strongly made the case to McCain that it would be a disaster for the party and that the base would revolt. McCain concluded he could not go that route.
The next day, McCain studied the three men at the top of his shortlist: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. All had different strengths and negatives, but McCain was not satisfied. None of them had what McCain believed he needed to do -- and would have done -- with Lieberman.
McCain wanted to shake up the ticket.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's name was in the mix as an unconventional choice for months, but she had not been considered a front-runner. So, over the next few days, with McCain continuing to believe he needed someone who had more of a maverick streak than his other choices, lawyers reviewed her vetting information. They kept their activities from even some in McCain's most senior inner circle.
Apparently, Pawlenty was seen as young enough, but too "safe." And Romney appears not to have been a serious contender in the end. No wonder both men's people are miffed. So after flying Palin in for a single, secret meeting, McCain apprently decided he was comfortable, she was maverick enough, and damnit, he liked her. And there she goes.
The Moderate Voice asks, who exactly vetted Sarah Palin? And uncovers some oddities in her pro-life pregnancy story that are worthy of "Desperate Housewives..."
…the oldest girl is rumored to have actually been the one who had the last baby, the one with Down’s Syndrome. She was taken out of school the last 4 or 5 months of her mother’s pregnancy.
On March 5th, 2008 Alaska’s Republican Governor, Sarah Palin, announced to the media that she was 7 months pregnant with her 5th child. She is currently 44.
Palin’s daughter Bristol is 16 and attends an Anchorage high school. Students who have attended class with her report that she has been out of school for months, claiming a prolonged case of mono.
Palin does not appear pregnant in any recent photographs. The announcement came as quite a shock to people who had worked closely with her, and have been quoted as saying that she did not appear pregnant whatsoever during the prior 7 months.
Those kinds of questions about Palin will likely be more interesting to the blogosphere than to voters, especially women voters, who won't cotton to personal attacks on the Alaska governor. But women will be interested in knowing more about Palin's beliefs, which are far to the right of most women Independents, whom McCain needs in November. Two from Tapped:
Very quickly. Remember when Pat Buchanan ran a number of hard-right, fringe campaigns for president in the late 1980s, 1990s and 2000? Well, guess who was supporting him:
From an AP report in 1999:
"Pat Buchanan brought his conservative message of a smaller government and an America First foreign policy to Fairbanks and Wasilla on Friday as he continued a campaign swing through Alaska. Buchanan's strong message championing states rights resonated with the roughly 85 people gathered for an Interior Republican luncheon in Fairbanks. … Among those sporting Buchanan buttons were Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and state Sen. Jerry Ward, R-Anchorage."
And Palin's story about rejecting the "bridge to nowhere?" Not so much:
It seems to be totally untrue that, as Sarah Palin claimed in her speech in Dayton earlier today, she opposed the "Bridge to Nowhere." Rather, after federal funding was cut off, she decided not to replace it with state funds. There's no indication that she opposed the federal earmark.
In fact, Palin supported the bridge, and pushed for Alaska's congressional delegation to get it done. From the New Republic:
Republicans have been heavily touting Sarah Palin's reformist credentials, with her supposed opposition to Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" as Exhibit A. But how hard did she really fight the project? Not very, it seems. Here's what she told the Anchorage Daily News on October 22, 2006, during the race for the governor's seat (via Nexis):
5. Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?
Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.
So she was very much for the bridge and insisted that Alaska had to act quickly—the party of Ted Stevens and Don Young might soon lose its majority, after all. By that point, the project was endangered for reasons that had nothing to do with Palin—the bridge had become a national laughingstock, Congress had stripped away the offending earmark, shifting the money back to the state's general fund, and future federal support seemed unlikely.
And as for the quote that headlines this post? Politico explains (hat tip to The Moderate Voice):
In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.”
In fact, she said she didn’t know what the vice president does.
Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.” asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain's ticket mate. Palin replied: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?
In this campaign? She babysits the evangelical right. That's the principal reason for the Palin pick -- she'll pump up the old evangelical Bush base to work for McCain, something they wouldn't otherwise do. And she'll make die-hard PUMAs feel comfortable voting for McCain (despite both of their views.) The question is, do those constituencies add up to 50 percent. Signs point to no, but we'll see.
McCain's celebrity hunt ... Sarah hearts Jesus ... and Mitt's feeling used
It strikes me that John McCain wants so badly to bask in the glow of celebrity and popularity, he went out and got himself a beauty queen.
See Sarah's childhood and beauty queen pictures! Peep her Vogue spread ... doesn't that mean Sarah is ... a celebrity...? And by proximity, I think John McCain hopes to become one, too. His jealousy of the adulation Obama receives couldn't be more evident than it is today.
But what might really be behind the McCain choice, in addition to a push for disgruntled Hillary women, is a last ditch effort to ignite the evangelical base who helped George W. Bush on the ground, and who wouldn't have warmed much to Mormon Mitt Romney. McCain currently has no ground game, and needs their help. Pro-life zealot, PTA mom, one step behind McCain Sarah fits the bill. On this front, his pick may pay off.
Meanwhile, the Pawlenty and Romney camps are feeling a lot like John McCain's first wife: used up and thrown away for a prettier girl.
A bit more about Sarah Palin, who by the way appears to have Mitt Romney's hair but Dan Quayle's qualifications. GOPers like to tag Obama as inexperienced, and "just a community organizer." But Palin was the mayor of a small city in Alaska, and she's only been governor since 2006. This is experience that belongs a heartbeat away from the red phone, when the president ... dare I say ... is close enough to death to smell it's nostril hairs?
From the in-box, the Obama camp had this to say:
"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same," said Adrianne Marsh, Obama Campaign Spokeswoman.
"We send our congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the republican nominee for Vice President. It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign."
While veteran political strategist Jim Jordan had this to say to Politico:
"After his attacks on Obama's readiness for the job, it'll be amusing to hear a 71-year-old with a history of health problems justify this decision."
"She's a talent, but that's the end of the experience message from John McCain."
But it's just the beginning of a long, uncomfortable story about Palin. Even the right wing Associated Press wrote the following about her earlier this month:
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin, a rising young GOP star mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain, could see her clean-hands reputation damaged by a growing furor over whether she tried to get her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.
A legislative panel has launched a $100,000 investigation to determine if Palin dismissed Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire the trooper, Mike Wooten. Wooten went through a messy divorce from Palin's sister.
Palin has denied the commissioner's dismissal had anything to do with her former brother-in-law. And she denied orchestrating the dozens of telephone calls made by her husband and members of her administration to Wooten's bosses.
Palin said she welcomes the investigation: "Hold me accountable."
Still, the allegations she abused her office could prove embarrassing for Palin, who got elected in 2006 on an ethics reform platform.
So what is it that the former beauty queen was mixed up in? Office politics run amok:
Palin's problems started a month ago when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, saying she wanted the department to go in a new direction.
Monegan has said he does not know why he was fired. But he said pressure to get rid of Wooten had come from those around Palin, including her husband, Todd; her former chief of staff; and other top officials.
In 2005, before Palin ran for office, the Palin family accused Wooten of drinking a beer while in his patrol car, illegal hunting and firing a Taser at his 11-year-old stepson. The Palins also claimed Wooten threatened to kill Sarah Palin's father.
Wooten was suspended over the allegations for five days in 2006 but is still on the job. Monegan refused to comment on Wooten's situation, saying he could not discuss personnel matters.
More recently, Todd Palin said, he took his concerns over the governor's safety directly to Monegan. But he said he never told anyone to fire Wooten.
Wooten has refused to comment.
Attorney General Talis Colberg's conducted an investigation and found that 14 members of the Palin administration — including Colberg himself — made calls to Department of Public Safety officials about Wooten.
In one of those calls, Frank Bailey, director boards and commissions, was tape-recorded as saying: "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, why on earth hasn't, why is this guy still representing the department?"
On Wednesday, Palin said none of the two dozen or so calls were made at her direction.
It's not exactly Ted Stevens, but it isn't the way you want to start off your bus tour.
MSNBC's political operation sums up the Palin pros and cons:
This was a bold move in this historic election, and a play for those Clinton supporters. Palin is a social conservative, and her views on abortion won't play well with most Democratic women. But this election has been a case study in identity politics. We'll see if she peels away some women.
The potential to grab some of those women voters is perhaps the best asset Palin brings to a McCain ticket. She also reinforces McCain's maverick image. She bucked her own party, launching an ethics investigation into the state party chairman with regard to his dealings with oil companies in the state. And being from Alaska, she's the ultimate outsider. She also also reinforces McCain's drilling message -- though she's for drilling in ANWR; McCain is not. She also represents the next generation of Republican leaders -- she's a fresh face.
... Although she's not linked to them, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young are facing legal/ethical troubles. In fact, Stevens' trial will start in late September, so the Alaska Republican Party is a mess. And Palin's trooper trouble could play into that.
It will be interesting to see which story line catches on: "Palin, the reformer/maverick", or "Palin, under investigation?"
Scroll down past the profile to read an interesting back and forth on the Palin pick here. It's hard to tell whether the women cheering her were going to vote for McCain regardless, though I suspect so. The challenge for Obama will be to keep women over 50 in the fold. Check it out.
John McCain says "damn the torpedoes!" He torpedoes the Mittster and picks this lady:
Well, who the hell is that, you say? Why, it's just hinted at for the first time this week, one-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin! Oh just call Ted Stevens. He'll explain...
Is it just me, or does it seem like the McCain team simply wandered through the halls of the Pepsi Center looking for the first PUMA who looked halfway put together to offer the veep spot to?
Meanwhile,
The right wing radio hacks are right on board. Glenn Beck got his talking points bright and early this morning and began shilling for the ticket in exhuberant fashion. He even went so far as to call Palin "hot." Now that'll close the gender gap... Rush is holding forth now, extolling Palin and daring Democrats to attack her. Ditto O'Reilly, who just had a Hillary delegate on, who first told the Factor she "leaned Obama" and then announced that she's "McCain all the way..." uh-huh...
You've got to figure that this happened because the McCain team pannicked, and decided they needed drama more than they needed Romney's 3-Ms (Money, Mormons (in swing state Colorado) and Michigan, where his father was a popular governor.) Romney would have been the expected pick, but not at all sexy. And then there's his fourth "M" -- Mansions. After McCain's 8-10 houses gaffe, that boat had a significant leak in it. Either way, the Mittster got bumped, as did the seminally dull Tim Pawlenty (sorry RedState.)
And there you go. McCain will shift his campaign theme on a dime, "Obama hates America," to "hey ladies, look over here!" The McCain camp is banking on their being literally millions of female Hillary supporters who were in it only to see a woman in the White House, not specifically Hillary. That's a risky gamble. And Palin doesn't exactly cut the profile most women voters tend to gravitate to. She's hardcore anti-choice, and she's into ... um ... the aerial hunting of wolves and bears. How to sell that to Jane America? Actually, with that voice and bun in her hair, she kind of reminds me of that supervisor in my past jobs that I just freaking hated, you know what I mean?
Bottom line: the McCain pick was made from a weak position. They were clearly spooked by the McMansions thing, and by the convention, Democratic unity, and the Obama speech. The decision to throw Mitt overboard for a woman nobody knows, who has a scandal bag to uncover, and who undercuts McCain's "experience" argument seems like a hell of a chance to take just to score some PUMAs.
Let it not be lost in the short attention span news cycle. America just nominated a black man to lead one of its parties in the presidential election, fulfilling King's and Bobby Kennedy's dreams. As Chris Matthews so rightly said last night, damn the critics, this was a great week for America. A great week for our history, and for all of us, in both parties. It's not about Barack. It's about us.
MSNBC is reporting that Pawlenty is not the one. And Pawlenty told a radio station he won't even be in Dayton.
Chuck Todd is reporting that Mitt Romney won't be in Dayton (not even as a seat filler...) By the way, I think that if it isn't Romney, then THAT is political malpractice on McCain's part. Maybe the combined 13 houses pushed Romney into "risk" territory for McCain's message, but you've got to wonder why the GOPer would pick an unkonwn governor with no national profile and no "wow" factor (and a very recent mullet) as his veep rather than the Mittster, who brings a high profile (Olympics), executive experience (even if in Massachusetts), good debating skills, and as close as you're going to get to national star power for the moribund GOP. Romney brings the Mormon cash, and help in Michigan and Colorado. Hello? Maybe Mac was scared of the Youtubes of Mitt bashing him during the primary...
Well since I have been predicting Romney for months, why not just RedState myself into an even tighter corner, by predicting who it won't be:
It won't be Charlie Crist. He's gay, you know. Don't let the "fiancee" fool you. And how would THAT look during a convention in the land of Wide Stance?
It won't be Bobby Jindal. The GOP convention is being held on the anniversary week of Hurricane Katrina's devastating aftermath. And Jindal has other things to do, with Gustav bearing down.
It won't be Kay Bailey Hutchinson. She just about ruled herself out on MSNBC yesterday, and word on the street is that she and McCain don't get along (yeah, you and everybody else in the Senate except Joementum and Miss Lindsay...)
It won't be Sarah Palin. Like most of the women on the list, she comes off as a straight pander to Hillaryites. But here's the problem: there aren't enough PUMAs out there to make a difference. Their numbers have been inflated by the media, who love the storyline. And the ones who do exist are for the most part, already Republicans (or in New York and California, where they won't make a difference.) And Palin is that one-term governor from a state McCain is already carrying that I spoke of earlier. Her lack of experience makes Obama look like FDR in his third term...
It won't be Carly Fiorina. One word: Viagra.
That leaves Pawlenty, Tom Ridge, Joe Lieberman, Meg Whitman and the Mittster. And of these, MSNBC claims they've ruled out Pawlenty and Romney.
Meg has money galore, but she's untested in debates and has zilch to offer on national security. She doesn't pass the "ready to step in and be president if the geezer croaks" test. If McCain picks her, it's a straight up pander and gamble for national attention. (And there's that Ted Stevens problem.)
Ridge could help in PA, and McCain would probably just as soon pick him, but I find it hard to imagine McCain being able to sell pro-choice Ridge to this particular GOP. And his ties to the Bush administration would strengthen Obama's message about McCain being more of the same.
That means Lieberman won't fly either. Can you imagine McCain trying to get Lieberman nominated at a convention that's already going to be testy and boring? We're talking bourgeois riot, here.
McCain could pull a rabbit out of his hat, if he somehow convinced David Petraeus to run with him. But somehow I doubt it. Why would he risk a sure thing at CENTCOM to roll the dice with 2008's Bob Dole?
Which brings us back to the Hair. And if not the Hair, then who? I still think there's an outside chance they're pulling subterfuge with the Romney travel schedule, and that he will still be the guy.
Whatever the answer, it's clear that McCain's team has succeeded in its real aim: turning attention abruptly away from the Obama speech last night, and from the Democratic convention generally, onto the One Who Will Not Be Ignored: John McCain.
