Purple Girl has good questions...and they should be answered.
WHY INDEED does someone continue ANYTHING if the water has broken. That, in itself, is an immediate go-to-the-hospital sign.

Why of earth would she have continued business-as-usual with a SPEECH, no less???

And then, to take not one, but two, airplane rides home before seeking medical attention?

I can’t even imagine that the airlines would have allowed her on the plane had they known her condition. Did they?

Someone should be asking more about this and getting answers. There were obviously A LOT of people who witnessed her speech that day and who were on the planes on her way back to Alaska.

And now that she has given birth to a Down’s syndrome child, who has she passed off the responsibility for care to? I watched as that poor little infant endured the noise and buffoonery of the Republican convention...with the mother who didn’t care enough to get to a hospital in Texas blowing him a kiss for the cameras!!! I’m sorry, but this IS RELEVANT!!!

I’m a mother. And I had a career in politics, that I gladly put on pause to RAISE my two daughters. And I am part of the so-called liberated generation. It is a matter of your priorities and how much you love your babies. Palin has crassly shown where her priories lie. Yes, her choices SHOULD BE CONSIDERED a part of this campaign. ###

Why is the Media refusing to talk about the Birth of Trig???
That story alone tells volumes about this woman and her TRUE priorities!
Let me refresh your memories-
When her Water broke a MONTH early while carrying her ‘Down Syndrome’ baby at the age of 44, she decided to give a speech, then by pass TX hospitals, get on a 6 hour plane ride back to AK, bypassed Anchorage Hospitals to end up in a Wassilia Hospital with No Neo natal ICU!
this tells me this woman has no clue about priorities, Nor common sense. This baby could have been indicating it was in Fetal distress and that is why it was coming a month early- but how could she have known since she did not seek Medical attention for about 8 hours- No fetal monitors No ultrasound! No matter if it was her 1st or her 10th, under these conditions ANY caring mother would have gotten to ANY hospital!
It is quite apparent this woman is not only more concerned about her Political aspirations, but also her personal wishes then the needs of her unborn child’s!
This story begs the question WHY???
When was Plain told she was on the VP list?
Is there an amnio which proves Trig had ‘Downs’ prior to birth- could her actions have actually caused his disability?
Wouldn’t have Pain realized that such a child would require Immediate medical attention?And would require an Entire “All hands on deck” by the family after birth-esp From HER ?So taking such High demand Job ( 2nd in command of the US) would negate her ability to attend to this special childs needs- now and far into the future?
Seems to me Plain took a Very CALCULATED RISK with the safety and Welfare of this Child.
Whether a ‘pro Choicer’ Or a ‘Pro lifer’ this rendition of Trigs Birth should Outrage Any Woman.
Honestly, IMO- she was trying for a Still born, attempting her Own Late term Abortion!
She did not act as a concerned, loving Mother.She acted as a Power hungry, self absorbed Bitch to her own child!
If she is unable to put such things aside for her own child- How can we expect her to do what is in the best interest Of OURS!?!
That ONE story ALONE Tells Me everything I need to Know about Palin.

Rus7355, the stories you mentioned of past Obama associations are old news.  He long ago disowned Wright, and the public has moved on. Sarah Palin’s old ministers said some highly inflammatory things too, which she never raised objections to at the time. The Republicans will not go there, unless they want to risk losing the jewish vote over some of the anti-semitic skeletons in her church’s closet. They also had better hope there are no old videos of Palin rolling on the church floor speaking in tongues, if they want to play dirty.

By the way, Obama still holds a steady lead over McCain in electoral college estimates. According to CNN, Obama currently has an estimated 243 electoral votes. McCain has 189. National polls do not determine elections, electoral votes do.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/10/electoral.map/i ndex.html

Rus,

From what you said, you watch a lot of MSM on the Telie. So my question is how do you assimilate new and different growing, and changing opinions.  My point is getting ones ideas from sound bites on the MSM, which is really propaganda and not objective news does not really induce thought or reason.  Ignore the issues and keep on attacking the people.

This article is about wolf killer Palin and her great abilities and experiences, who I gather you support with from your post, so gather those sound bites and vote with them.  What war?

Rus:

I don’t doubt for one moment that the first of those two ads will appear; I was predicting it before you were.

However, there are so many MORE, similar ads that Obama’s camp can run re McCain and Palin that it will either cancel out, or the Obama camp will “win” the ad wars.  Watch and learn.

Peace.

The Obama camp should be buying time on every network, cable and independent station to run the following video on a constantly rotating basis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpniuotfpR8

If anyone knows how to get this to the Obama people, please do.

Peace.

Rus7335,

If you watch so much propaganda, how do you assimilate information to form an opinion of your own? 

What war?

Frank, September 7 at 2:03 pm #

Remember, the Enquirer turned out to be right about Clinton/Lewinskiy and John Edwards.
***************************************

Nah...I don’t think it’s true.  It’s mostly Dems who can’t keep their clothes on and GOPs who can’t keep their hands out of the till.

Unless, of course, it involves that “sinful” gay or lesbian stuff...then the GOPers zoom way out in front of the Dems.

So, if the N.E. came up with a LESBIAN affair, I’d be more inclined to believe it.

Normally, I wouldn’t care and would say it’s nobody’s biz who anybody sleeps with as long as it’s not an agent of a foreign govt or someone who therefore creates a conflict of interest.

But Fox Noise/Pravda spent something like 10 days 24/7 on John Edwards’s affair despite the fact that he holds no public office, isn’t running for any office, and isn’t an official of a religious organization.  And we know if Obama’s daughter was an unmarried pregnant teen, Fox and all the reactionary vultures would be on him like stink on a skunk.

So, since this is a street fight, if Sarah Palin’s been out “steppin’” then that’s fair grist for the meat-grinder that today’s politics have become.

Still, unless she’s crossed to the “other” side, I think they are more likely to find her hand in the till.  Because Sarah Palin is Republican.

Anyone want to place bets on whether the National Enquirer story that just broke about Sarah Palin’s alleged extramarital affair with her husbands old business partner is true? 

Remember, the Enquirer turned out to be right about Clinton/Lewinskiy and John Edwards.

Rus7355:

do you realize that your ‘rus7355’ screen name leads to:

“KGB USSR-Quartz Pocket Watch By MOLNIJA MODEL” # rus7355

DEWDE..... yer a KGB watch peddler ?

troublesum:

You say, “There are many younger voters like Russ7355 who have gotten it into their heads that the republican party is the party of individual freedom and civil liberties while the democratic party is a party of ‘elitists.’”

I would be pleased to show him otherwise.

Re “elitist,” the McCains are over 300 TIMES wealthier than Barack and Michelle Obama (and, yes, wealth is a measure of “elitism").  The Obamas have one house; the McCains have seven (or eight, or nine - of course, John doesn’t know...LOL).  The Obamas’ wealth comes from their own efforts (work, books, etc.); the McCains wealth comes mostly from Cindy’s hundreds-of-millions of dollars inheritance (and the near-zero taxes she pays on it...).

Re “civil liberties,” George Bush has done more to shred the Constitution than any president before him: eviscerating habeus corpus and posse comitatus, illegal surveillance (of citizens), unilateral right to determine “enemy combatants” and hold them indefinitely without the right to a lawyer or even to see family; “extraordinary rendition”; and the list goes on.  (Including, of course, those he appoints to create and adjudicate the laws of the land: Ashcroft, Gonzales et al.)

Many of these were accomplished through quasi-legal “signing statements,” and some through “executive orders.” But for those that were done through legislative channels, McCain voted TO SUPPORT EVERY SINGLE BILL that robbed Americans of their freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. (Tthis is easily found on Project Vote Smart, a non-partisan site that keeps track of votes on Senate and House bills.)

With the admittedly sad exceptions of the renewal of the Patriot Act and the telecom immunity bill, Obama has voted AGAINST EVERY BILL that limited or curtailed freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties.

Finally, from a historical standpoint, it has always been Democratic presidents and Congresses that have done the most for the “average person,” particularly the middle and lower classes.

I’m not suggesting that the Democrats are angels and the Republicans are devils; there have certainly been “bad” Democratic presidents and Congresses and “good” Republican presidents and Congresses.  But when weighed in the balance, there is absolutely no argument that the Democratic Party has ALWAYS been the party of “the people,” while the Republican party has always been the party of the “elites.”

Peace.

Our lurking Repug,..... Rus has a curious frame of reference.

As Rus posted on another thread:
“Some here refer to “Repugs”. And you either use the term yourselves or you fully condone it. To many the “N’ word is repugnant. So too with the other degrading terms I wrote”

Rus likes to equate usage of ‘Repug’ & neo-con with the infamous ‘n-word’ and other racial and ethnic slurs. Everyone can make their own decision on the merits of his claim. His lack of knowledge and history is truly neo-con/Repug in nature.

BTW:  re: “cherry picking facts”
hmmmmm, Bush, Cheney et al. and the Iraq war..... no cherry picking there..

re: “You seem clue less to the harm to do.”
I am clue more to the harm I don’t to do…

re: Rus
“ is like calling latinos “wetbacks”.
“Try and put away your debilitating bigotry”

•-> everyone,… Rus, is BIG on racial and ethnic slurs, he’s a ‘good christian’ at heart.... he,… like the rest of the Repugs just say no to facts when you present them…
it’s sort of like McCain & Co. railing against the politics of the last 8 years when he and his GOP buddies were running the show… Repugs own the war,.. the economy,..etc.......  and BTW: that whole thing about Palin wanting to creationism in the schools.... that was defeated by trial by a Republican appointed judge in PA a few years ago… when will you fundamentalists ever learn?

re: “facts you write here”
•-> yer getting better Rus, at least your beginning to get to point where you can admit that what I posted was fact..
Rus,.. are you related to McCain’s ‘spokewoman’, Nancy Pfotenhauer:
known for Citizens for a Sound Economy a powerful industry-funded think tank, promoting deregulation, Citizens for a Sound Economy is a powerful industry-funded think tank, promoting deregulation…
AND:
Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) is an anti-feminist organization predominately funded by conservative U.S. foundations.

hmmmm, deregulation and anti women.. well that’s McCain, Palin & the Repugs for ya..

There are many younger voters like Russ7355 who have gotten it into their heads that the republican party is the party of individual freedom and civil liberties while the democratic party is a party of “elitists.” Listening to some of the interviews which various news programs did with delegates at the republican convention it was clear to me that many of those people don’t have the foggiest notion of what their party stands for.  Their heads are full of illusions, catch phrases, and outright lies.

Russ 7355:

Try this: http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&ie= UTF-8&rls=GGIH,GGIH:2006-50,GGIH:en&q=mccain+palin+ bounce&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&oi=news_group&re snum=1&ct=title

In any event, I guess what I’m hearing from you is that the McCain organization got what they wanted and expected from the convention and everything is hunky-dory in the McCain/Palin Campaign. 

The bottom line is that Bush has ruined what was left (and what was right, for that matter) of the Republican party and McCain, despite his failing efforts to distance himself from that disaster is not winning support from any faction of his party or independents. 

True republican conservatives are DISILLUSIONED. 

Come on over to the Dark Side, Russ, you might just like it here.  We’re good people and we’ll welcome you and your relatives and friends with open arms.  We’re people people.

A new day is dawning in America, Russ 7355.  We will soon, very very soon, have a president and a government we can again be proud of and Americans who once again will take up the mantle of true citizenship and stewardship with zeal and pride.  I am so excited!!  God Bless Barack Obama and Joe Biden and God Bless these United States of America.  And God Bless McCain and Palin and Rove and Bush and Condi and Cheney and Rummy and Ahmadinijad and Putin and Waldo.

C’mon, Russ 7355, We need you!

American voters desperately need to remember that, as Vice President, Sarah Palin will have only an ailing, 72-year-old between her and the Oval office.

Now THAT ought to scare hell out of even a Republican.

ciao boys and girls
SG

The Bottom line is that overall the Republicans like what’s going on the in the coutry, not only do they like it they love it.

Their only concern is that those Dam pinko liberals will ruin it for them.

And they will do what they have always done, lie cheat and steal...and ride on half truths to keep on taking from America...they could care less what happens, because they believe they are insulated by their money and power.

Walter Hickel whom Palin says was her mentor, is head of the Alaska Independence Party.  Her husband, if he is not a member of the AIP now, has been in the past.  I think they have some explaining to do about where they stand on that issue.  Imagine if Michelle Obama belonged to a political party which advocated a separate state for black people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the McCain campaign was well aware of a lot of the things that have been revealed about her.  They deliberately witheld informtion about her knowing that the press would find it out in no time so that they could then bash the press for trying to destroy her.  We forget how long the republicans have been at this.  We always underestimate their ruthlessness and underhandedness.  I think they have got it all figured out.  Sarah Palin is just a pawn in their hands.

Re: Rus7355

Your comment: “You are a deceitful liar, Miss.”

>> No need to be nasty, rus.  What’s the matter ...don’t you know the “little people” like you’re claiming.

Russ,

Isn’t it you who follows people around these boards and complains that they never answer your questions?  So how come no answers to my questions?

And you’re going to give lectures about not regurgitating talking points after your post was nothing but?

My mind is quite open.  See, i haven’t owned a TV in 10 years so i’m pretty immune to what the MSM is saying.  I don’t fit into the neat little categories of “left” and “right” that appear to be necessary for your world view.

And my information on Palin has come mostly from reading what Alaskans have (or have had) to say about her.

By the way, i listen to what politicians say about their own accomplishments with nothing but jaded cynicism (be they of the left or the right), because “politician” is simply a euphemism for self-serving, compulsive liar.

Since you seem unwilling (or unable) to actually answer my list of questions, i’ll pare it down to one:  please explain the difference between a tax and spend “liberal” and a borrow and spend “conservative”.

P.S. hell will freeze over before i vote for someone who tried to remove books that they find offensive from a public library. (Especially if said person tried to fire the librarian who resisted.) Would you care to refute that tidbit from Ms. Palin’s past?

It is well known that facts have a liberal bias.

We are getting our lunch eaten by other countries.  They are ahead of us in science, technology, reproductive education--all sorts of things that take intellect and actual thinking.

I think we need to have a serious discussion about how this anti-intellectual strain that runs deep in the republican party is going to affect all of us.  Creationism equal to science, banning books, abstinence only, these are issues that impact each of us individually.  How long do we have to run behind these idealougues filling the holes behind them?

Is it in our national best interest to deny global climate change?  If both the Army War College and the Pentagon in 2003 produce reports that state the greatest challenge confronting the US is Global Climate Change, even post September 11 2001, why are we all about terrorism and wars.  Does it make any sense to ignore something that 99% of scientists say is happening to go after the 1% doctrine that states if there is an even 1% chance of a terrorist attack.  I’m tired of us not taking on the real issues.

Rus:

Re the “bridge to nowhere”:

Reuters:

Palin “bridge to nowhere” line angers many Alaskans
Mon Sep 1, 2008, By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - It garnered big applause in her first speech as Republican John McCain’s vice presidential pick, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s assertion that she rejected Congressional funds for the so-called “bridge to nowhere” has upset many Alaskans.  During her first speech after being named as McCain’s surprise pick as a running mate, Palin said she had told Congress “‘thanks but no thanks’ on that bridge to nowhere.” In the city Ketchikan, the planned site of the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere,” political leaders of both parties said the claim was false and a betrayal of their community, because she had supported the bridge and the earmark for it secured by Alaska’s Congressional delegation during her run for governor.”

Anchorage Daily News:

Palin touts stance on ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ doesn’t note flip-flop, By TOM KIZZIA (08/31/08 02:29:08)

When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center. “I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere,” Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan’s Gravina Island bridge. But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.”

USA Today:

Palin backed ‘bridge to nowhere’ in 2006
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY

ST.PAUL — In her nationally televised speech accepting the job as John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she “championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress” and opposed federal funding for a controversial bridge to a sparsely populated island. “I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that bridge to nowhere,” Palin said Friday in Ohio, using the critics’ dismissive name of the project. “‘If our state wanted a bridge,’ I said, ‘we’d build it ourselves.’” While running for governor in 2006, though, Palin backed federal funding for the infamous bridge, which McCain helped make a symbol of pork barrel excess.  And as mayor of the small town of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002, Palin also hired a Washington lobbying firm that helped secure $8 million in congressionally directed spending projects, known as earmarks, according to public spending records compiled by the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste and lobbying documents.  Wasilla’s lobbying firm was headed by Steven Silver — a former chief of staff to Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, a key proponent of the bridge project.”

I could go on.  There are hundreds of these.

Peace.

Re: Rus7355

Your comment: “With a smile on her face, Mrs. Palin sliced and diced Barack Obama with the skill she dresses a moose she just shot. There were a host of good lines which I’m sure we’ll see in McCain commercials in the near future. But ultimately the most effective may be this one: “In small towns, we don’t know quite what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.”

What gives this line its power is that Mrs. Palin is definitely part of the “we” — the small town, blue-collar Americans who will decide this election.”

>> Well...rus...that first sentence is quite the doozy...LOL.  But, rus… I’m curious as to the “we” small town, blue collar Americans that you are implying will find a connection to Palin....

Can you elaborate?  I’ve lived in several small towns and I don’t see “small town America” ESPECIALLY blue collar, identifying with a political “beauty queen” ex-sportscaster.  What are you basing your conjecture upon?  It seems more likely that small town America would see Ms. Palin as a yuppity-yup.  I can just imagine the scuttlebutt in Wasilla between working class folk....LOL.  I’ll forgo the blatant descriptives of my take on that here in “print"(that’s not nice), but I can imagine......LOL.

Seriously rus, ....working class?  LOL.

Maani, I enjoyed the links. Thanks!

Reply to Russ 7355:

Here’s just one:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/30/polls-voters-d oubt-palins-qualifications-while-obama-expands-lead/

What I find most interesting about this is that it is a Gallup poll cited in Faux News, no less.

I don’t think you read my comment carefully, in which I said, “...get the bounce they had hoped for.”

This clearly demonstrates how nuance can impact one’s perception of fact or truth. 

It has been my understanding that a hoped-for bounce might be in the double digits.  I know that, were I John McCain and had nothing at all to recommend me to the electorate but my war heroism and a good-looking Alaskan Babe with a rather checkered political past as my running mate, I would be disappointed in my post-convention bounce. 

BTW, I like your presence on this site because I’m wanting someone to provide me with a good rason to convert to neoconism.  I’d love to be able to accept propaganda at face value so I could get on with my care-free life.

Nobozos:  LOL!!  Your post was precious.

Big E: Bravo!

All:

Some interesting stuff from today’s Times (yes, I know it’s MSM, but even THEY have good stuff sometimes...LOL).

Clark Hoyt (public editor) on vetting Palin:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07pubed.html ?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Frank Rich on the Palin-McCain “shotgun marriage”:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07rich.html? ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Judith Warner on the “mirrored ceiling”:

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/the-mirrore d-ceiling/index.html?ref=opinion

Maureen Dowd on a hypotethical Palin-Clinton debate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07dowd.html? ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

And, finally, for the feeble-minded Rus and MacPalinFan, here’s the feeble-minded Bill Safire:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07safire.htm l?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Peace.

re: Rus
“dresses a moose’

geeeeze Rus, ...yer back with that same endless litany of dumb…
BTW, everyone… Rus is a ‘1 trick moose’ ...

yeah, a V.P. who can shoot a moose.... pretty damn impressive ! Too bad she lied about selling the airpane on ebay, too bad she was for earmarks before she was against them, too bad she was for the ‘bridge to nowhere’ before she was against it, too bad she left her town 20 million in the hole and didn’t have enough common sense to make sure the land deeds were secured before she started her big local project.., ( very repug ), too bad she’s under investigation, too bad she’s a nutcase fundamentalist who thinks the Iraq War is a mission from god, too bad she has a ton of ‘GOP’ers going to Alaska to interfere and delay the investigation, [just like Bush & Cheney..] ...and she has ‘foreign policy experience’ because Alaska is next to Russia.....  I could go on..

Russ . . . get your facts straight, Michael Jordon didn’t make his 9th grade basketball team . .. he practiced and practiced and practiced to reach his level of excellence on the court.  He wasn’t a “natural,” he ultimately achieved at the highest level because of intention, vision and goal setting and then putting that into practice. 

I believe that Obama has that same level of intention, vision and goal setting.

It will be most unfortunate if Sarah Pallin becomes our vice president.  It will demonstrate that the United States has left behind enlightenment, reason and science.  It will be a very sad day for the entire world and signal the true demise of our nation as a forward moving/thinking leader.

In our country 1 in 4 teen girls has an STD/STI, that number is 2/4 in the black and native american communities and rapidly rising in the latino and asian communities.  In the rest of the developed world that number is 1/200 to 1/400.  Our number is due to two interlocking reasons:  1.  in the rest of the developed world there is universal healthcare and 2. in the rest of the developed world, science based age appropriate sex ed is the norm.

So, if we elect a leader who stands for abstinence only education when it has been definitely proven to be a failure--in fact such a failure that it doesn’t even work in her own home.  What does that say about us?

Next we’ll be wishing on tinkerbell.

I am disheartened . . . not because she is right and should win, but because what it will say about us, how very short sighted and backward we are if they do.  It says everything about us as a nation.

Now, why don’t you suppose we see Pallin’s pastor on continuous loop or why isn’t Pallin’s membership in the Independence party and the GD the Flag comments from the leader on continuous loop?

My heart breaks.

...between a ticket that’s actually delivered reform, and a ticket that just talks about it. ~Rus7355

That’s the biggest crock of shit i’ve ever read in my life.  Neither ticket has ever delivered real reform and neither intends on delivering real reform.

Please provide us with actual examples of Palin’s “reforms” in Alaska.  And i do not mean the talking points about being against the bridge to nowhere (wasn’t, according to Alaskans); cutting taxes (which Alaska doesn’t have); or selling the jet on eBay (which she didn’t actually do nor did she come up with idea...Alaska had done it before).

And considering her issues with abuse of power allegations, suggesting that she cleaned up the sleaziness of Alaskan politics is laughable too. 

Yes, the left is/should be scared of Palin on the ticket.  Once again, the Republican Party has made an election about the icing on the cake rather than the quality of the batter inside.  It will be just great when we elect a wonderfully decorated cake again, only to bite into it and find out that it’s made of shit...again.

We’re going to end up with another neo-liberal, Republican administration.  I’m pretty conservative.  Which is why i can’t vote for the Republicans.  Forced to chose between tax and spend and borrow and spend...i’ll go with the former every time.

(Perhaps an explanation of conservatism is in order for RightWing and Rus: it is not about USA #1, oil, and abortion.  There is a big difference between being conservative and Republican.  And it is clear that the modern Republican party cares nothing for being conservative.  Hell, last time they nominated the second coming of Woodrow Wilson...with a little bit of LBJ thrown in for good measure.  If G.W. Bush is a “conservative” then i’m blacker than Obama.)

Palin “riven with contradictions”, says that Walter Hickel was her mentor.  To anyone who remembers Nixon’s pro-environmental interior secretary she sure doesn’t seem much like him.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/157696

The repugs didn’t get the convention bounce they had hoped for.

It might make for an interesting exercise to speculate on all the possibilities the mind of Rove might put before the voters to yank a certain victory out of the hapless democratic hands.

Personally, I predict it will get ugly, very ugly.

“A Rovin’ we will go”

The msm loves this contrast between hard scrabble living and harvard law because they are better at dealing with imagery than they are with substance.  Obama was asked recently why he didn’t attack Palin more.  He had to remind them that he was running for president and she was running for vp.  They are going to keep trying to put this contrast before the voters because that’s how they see the election.

You have to hand it to the republicans for their political smarts.  For the past 20 years they have been promoting themselves as the party of the people as the democrats have become another party answering to corporate interests.  With Palin’s nomination they have a candidate whose husband is a union member and they have completely turned the tables making it look like they are the party of the working class.  Of course they have no interest in helping people who actually work for a living but perception is everything, and love them or hate them you have to admit the Palins make quite an image in the msm.  It’s a mistake to think that most people automatically think that a great intellect and a harvard degree make a better leader.  Most people don’t think that and that’s why Palin isn’t going to walk away.  She would be difficult to deal with even if the republicans hadn’t already painted Obama as an elitist.  He’d be better off to ignore her and attack what the republicans - with a lot of help from John McCain - have done to this country at home and abroad for the past eight years.  The highest unemployment in 17 years, the highest inflation in 30 years - everyday the headlines give him more ammunition.

I have another idea; the democrats should buy Rove...nah, that’d never work...would it?

You know what scares me?  The democrats don’t know how to deal with Palin.  The question they need to ask is; if the democrats had chosen Palin, what would the republicans do?

McPalinFan........REALITY CHECK

Obama IS smarter than you........
and me, your cousin Bubba and certainly Sarah (someone-people-can-identify-with) Palin. Very few among us graduate magna cum laude from Harvard, with the additional distinction of being president of the Harvard Law Review.

By the way, “My Gosh”....he DID NOT re-do the presidential seal with his name on it, and he DID NOT have his plane seats embroidered to say “President”.

Honestly, you remind me of the Betty White character on ‘Golden Girls’.

Do you even LISTEN to yourself?

- “Not many people identify with Obama” (I was among the 84,000 that walked miles to do just that, and like you, just a stab in the dark, I’m a white female.....oh, and a mother)

- “community organizer”....like that is a BAD thing? WHEN did helping others less fortunate than you become a bad thing?

- “giving my money to others who stay on disability for the rest of their lives”? (what left field did those few poor souls come from?)
(and as if giving YOUR hard-earned money to Haliburton is more noble?)

- we relate to Sarah because...fiscal responsibility” DO YOUR HOMEWORK as a voter, google ‘bridge to nowhere’ ‘$19 million Palin debt left in Wasilla’ and ‘Wasilla lobby firm’.

I’ve never heard so many re-hashed political talking points from someone pretending they actually know what’s going on. Which you do not.

P.S. If it appears Obama is condescending to his audience, it probably means you should be learning to field-dress a moose.

re:  MacPalinFan
“I can’t relate giving away my money as a small business-owner to others who prefer to stay on disability for the rest of their lives.”

•-> does your statement include Vets?… too many of them are going to be on disability because of Bush, Cheney & yer boy McCain and his new best buddy Palin who thinks Iraq is a ‘holy crusade’.....

besides… it’s not very ‘christian’, ya know, the hippie guy with the long hair 2000 years ago was all about helping the poor.....

MacPalinFan writes:
“I can’t relate giving away my money as a small business-owner to others who prefer to stay on disability for the rest of their lives.”

I am deeply saddened and sickened by the malice, ignorance, and lack of humanity in your comment.  This complete disregard for the immensity and complexity of human suffering is precisely why this country is in so much trouble ... the pain and destruction we cause to ourselves and the rest of the world will only continue down the same path as long as people are as unaware and out of touch as you have demonstrated here.

Maani,

That picture is definitely a fake.  The interesting photos are all of her pregnancy (Trig)...ahem, if you can still find them.  There was a great deal of internet scrubbing going on over Labor Day Weekend.  I happened to find an Alaskan blog where - in some cases - pictures were found/posted and then scrubbed shortly there after.  There were also cases of the code embedded into jpegs being rewritten to change dates.

She’s fishy, wasn’t vetted beforehand at all, and her community was not prepared (MySpace/Facebook profiles of friends not set to “private” and the like).

She’s not ready for the press.  And if Alaskans are to be believed, not very good with the spontaneous spoken word in any case.  While she’s being groomed it would be best for her not choke on her foot, no? (or maybe not, depending on who you’re rooting for)

ElitestFarmer has a frightening point.  McCain fucked this up royally.  Until she entered stage Up North i was pleased to be able to return to voting minor party for president this year.  But all that i can imagine is ole John having a stroke like 90 days in..."President Palin” makes me shudder.  Obama now has my vote, without condition.

Andrew Sullivan says it best:

This [VP] decision is not worthy of a great power. Whatever skills Palin may turn out to have, however fabulous a person she may turn out to be, even if she becomes the Eva Peron of Christianism, McCain had no idea when he picked her.

He winged this. That’s the critical, unavoidable, devastating point.

John McCain has demonstrated with this insane decision that he is unfit to be president of the United States. This was an act of near-criminal negligence. If he can behave this recklessly and impulsively with this decision, the idea of allowing him to become president of the United States is only a smidgen less terrifying than thinking of Palin in that position.

Whatever few doubts I may once have still had about this election, they are resolved now.

Obama has to win. The alternative is unthinkable.

How Palin is being “groomed” by Rove’s protege: stay away from the press!  (Video and transcript)

http://thinkprogress.org:80/2008/09/05/mccain-campaign -plans-to-keep-palin-away-from-the-press/

reply to Maani “Check this out”

This looks like this could be fake, according to any number of sites I looked at, which, if it is fake, reminds me yet again that we should all be suspect of anything on the internet, especially photos.

The reason, I guess, that “We can’t handle the truth” (according to square mouthed Jack Nicholsen) is that we seldom get it. How are you supposed to handle something you have so little experience with?  More than that, how the hell do you know if you got the truth?  So, not only can’t we handle it, we don’t even know if we have it to handle. 

That’s what’s so great about being an evangelical neocon.  “It’s true because they said it was and I believe them with all my heart. Take’s a big load off my shoulders.”

I’m switching right now, if they’ll have me.

Palin may have been a star on Wed. night, but one that is soon to diminish.  Too much deception, lies, and half truth’s.  Can she read a good speech?  Yes, she did a much better job than McCain did reading, however, she and McCain cannot compare to the integrity, enthusiasm and honest attempt made by the Obama campaign to make this country great.

Time for the old fuddy duddies (not age, but ideas) to realize we need a change—not a skirt—but a real change—a new Washington with little or no ties to the Bush administration.

Palin will screw up . . . I am not afraid nor intimidated by the Republican choice!  She was a great choice . . . a great choice for the Democrat’s . . . and when Obama win’s I will be sure to send the McCain campaign a lovely letter telling them Thank You for handing this election over to Obama!

The only way a President Palin (shudder, shudder) would succeed in its ambition to “...take this country to wherever God says: invade Iran; remove evolution from the schools; execute women and their doctors for their refusal to obey her God,” would be if what George Bush has started is allowed to continue—i.e. the concentration of power in the presidency.  If Congress ever grows a pair of balls and stands up to the Executive Branch—I mean, the preznit is not a dictator, not yet, anyway.  Congress has a say in whether we go to war, who becomes a Supreme Court Justice, how our taxes are spent, what becomes law and what doesn’t become law.  If a strongly Democratic congress starting actually acting like a strong Democratic congress, even Sarah Palin couldn’t ruin the country.

Just read that the folks behind Palin have already developed a plan to ensure that McCain does not live out his first term.  They know she could not get “elected;” but she can get in through the back door of being “selected.”

They steal the road to the White House from Hillary and, with Palin serving 8-plus years, guarantee she will never get there. 

They put Hillary to rest, make sure the White House stays white, and remain in power for at least 12 more years.  It is actually brilliant while being sinister.  Long live Karl Rove!

If you doubt the veracity or the probability of this, you already forgot what happened in 2000.

Maani,
As soon as I saw the photo of City Hall in Wasilla I understood what “troopergate” is about.  Petty bickering amoung family and other townspeople probably makes up 90% of what goes on there.  She’s bringing that small town mudslingging to Washington.
The claim by the McCain campaign that she has foreign affairs experience because Alaska is right next to Russia reminded me of the movie “The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming.” Does anyone remember that movie from the late 60’s?

As soon as Obama made that statement about angry people clinging to guns and religion, the republicans went looking for one for VP.

MacPalinfan
You will not convince these so called self proclaimed political geniuses, that they are wrong. The only difference between the progressive left, that hang here, and the folks that got clubbed at the convention wearing black mask, is the people here hide behind a monitor. Myself I back you all the way....... Go McCain/Palin

There’s a Republican shadow government, powerful, wealthy mainly invisible behind-the-scenes operators who choose their front-men, or women, most likely to follow their orders. They chose George Bush and other than failing to privatize social security, he has fulfilled all their expectations.  The country is exactly where they want it. (Read Kevin Phillips’ book “American Dynasty” to get some insight on the subject.)

McCain is the Repub nominee for a reason as is Palin’s as his back-up.  It may be that McCain’s nomination only makes sense - I’ve never made sense of it - if a Palin IS waiting in the wings. Whatever the case, unless we destroy the citadel of who really runs America today, we can expect the ‘shadow’ government to continue to manipulate us and this country to their advantage - and only their advantage.

Rove recently said that whether the person who is elected will govern well or not is beside the point.  The point is to get him elected. That’s a wake-up call that we should all heed.

Check THIS out!

http://pictures.aol.com:80/ap/singleImage.do?pid=98c0R 25WtGCY9SEB0LiLkgqgB3iVmhbUG17Gv4xQp5Fd3Ig=

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djcn0te/319098225/

No, the above is NOT a doctored photo!  This was her “seat of power.” Neat, huh?

Also, some “cost of living” figures for Wasilla vis-a-vis other cities (from the Wasilla municipal website):

http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?page=47

And finally, from a Daily Kos regular:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/6/12251/86155 /90/587746

Peace.

Oh great we are going from Uncle Fester Cheney to Cruella de Palin.  Just sit back and watch the carnage.......Imagine Obama/Biden being associated with a secessionist group (don’t want to be Americans) like Palin is.  The right wing would go crazy......Cruella de Palin chases wolves down with helicopters then shoots them.  How stinking decent.

It is obvious to us that Palin is a fraud.  I just read that her first child was born less than 8 months after she got married, but, being one who speaks to God, she did not need to come clean and explain why she and Todd (“first dude!”) eloped.  It is said that the apple does not fall far from the tree for a good reason.  She has misrepresented nearly every aspect of her record but if you lie for God it is ok.  Jesus preached tolerance but we know she is anything but. 

Despite all of these truths, this mad-woman may actually be president prior to 2012.  She could tip the balance in those few states where we need the electoral votes.  And why?  Paul Krugman posted an editorial that hits the point.  This election is not about a comparison of policies and it is certainly not about programmatic details.  It is about the irrational, emotional anger of those who feel like the world always looks down at them.  Everyday, the Republicans are fanning these flames with their rhetoric – elitism, uppity, small town people, hard-working, just a hockey mom, etc., etc., etc.

Palin was obviously not a good student by any measure of that term.  She even came in second for Miss Alaska, a state with less than 1 million; that had to affect her psyche.  Cutting to the point, it is very easy to see her as “resentful” of all those who were ahead of her in the intellect line.  But Sarah knew she had something many of the “intellects” did not.  Her weapon is her disengaging presence – though she does like guns – and she knows how to use it very well.  Sarah Palin is Columbine with a pretty face. 

Most liberals want to believe that we live in a meritocracy.  My immigrant parents made sure I got a good education because they said “it is the key to success in “America.” Unfortunately, in this century, we do not actually live in a meritocracy but in some Andy Warhol-like nightmare where the inmates run the asylum. 

My apologies for generalizing but I have often found that people who are not confident of their brain-power have very little tolerance for any challenge to their mindset.  When Palin took office, she required all government workers to sign an oath of allegiance and fired anyone who she thought was not supportive.  I ask, what country did this happen in?  When I grew up, we thought behavior like this happened only in RED China or Communist Russia.  When I grew up, we thought fascism was something my father fought against in WWII.

But this behavior of hers is very consistent with the “resentment class.” It is their turn to be at the top and by golly they are not going to let any of those smart-asses tell them what to do.  This is Palin in spades.

Re: rowman

Your comment: “You have taken hypocrisy to a new level.”

Funny, that of all people you should be the one pointing fingers. Remember what you learned as a child that “everytime you point a finger at someone there are four fingers pointing back at YOU” (personally,,I’d say three since the thumb...well, you know what I mean and anyway that’s just a different arguement)

You refuse to concede that there were BLATANT illegallities inflicted by the police on innocent citizens.  These were video taped and cannot be disregarded.  Yet, still in YOUR HYPOCRISY you claim that somehow it is warranted. 

In addition, what you are attempting to qualify and argue is ludcris.  Contrasting the actions of a TRAINED, SUPERVISED AND PUBLICALLY PAID ENTITY against the misguided notions of a few young people, what are we up to… eight supposed “conspirators”, is ridiculous.

You a