The Palin Puzzle

There are "leaks" coming out, supposedly from McCain campaign aides helping Sarah prepare for the debate, saying that it is just awful and frantic about what to do.

I wonder if we're being set up? Sarah Palin's performance in interviews has been so pathetic, and expectations for her debate performance are so low, that we may be surprised. She may exceed those expectations, and then the news cycle will be all about her "surprising success."

The Obama camp seems to be concerned also. They're putting out the word that she really is a skilled debater and have sent out tapes of her debate performances in the Alaska governor's race, where she is said to have done very well against more experienced opponents.

Of course, debating foreign policy with Joe Biden, and trying to even talk sensibly about the economic crisis are very different matters from debating local issues in Alaska (even if you can see Russia.) And her interview with Katie Couric really is pathetic, and I don't believe she was faking it.

But we should never 'misunderestimate' the right-wing press and the public in judging debate performances, or in their ability to sell black as white.

Ralph

Debate: early reaction

There are several ways to judge a debate: on substantive points, on demeanor/tone/how presidential, on whether expectations were met, on how it played with the audience.

As a passionate Obama supporter, I would give him the edge in all categories. But neither candidate hurt himself; no major gaffes; no soaring phrase that will echo around the internet.

Regarding expectations: McCain didn't have a meltdown or senior moment; he didn't sound as erratic as he has seemed recently; and he did display his knowledge of the world. He needed not to mess up, and he didn't (oh, sure some minor things). But about all he did was not hurt himself on the topic that's supposed to be his strong point.

On the other hand, Obama needed to prove that he is presidential, that he can hold his own on foreign affairs and national security, and to give crisp, succinct, forceful answers. He did all that admirably. And he was forceful in correcting McCain's frequent distortions of his record. He looked presidential. And, remember, the tallness factor? The taller one usually wins. Pretty obvious when they're standing on stage together.

I think a McCain supporter would be reassured that he didn't mess up. I think an Obama supporter would feel very proud of his superior performance.

A group of 500 uncommitted voters were instant-polled by CBSNews: 40% said Obama won the debate; 22% gave it to McCain, with 38% calling it a tie. In addition, 46% said their opinion of Obama had improved, while only 7% said it was worse.

My take-away memories: Obama saying to McCain: "You pretend like the Iraq war started in 2007" (with the surge). "You were wrong on the war. I know it. You know it. Everybody in American knows it except John McCain. He was wrong, and that's not the judgment we need."

And McCain? If he had said one more time that "Senator Obama doesn't seem to understand . . . " (he said it 6 times; I counted), then one fine TV set would have had a shoe aimed squarely at the old man's image.

Ralph

The Lone Ranger Rides to the Rescue

Here's the scenario as I see it: McCain's campaign is in big trouble. He creates a sideshow stunt by rushing to Washington to save the day. Let's just overlook his 24 hours delay while he did TV interviews and took care of political business.

It's obvious the bipartisan leaders don't need his help and wish he would stay away. But he has convinced Bush to play along with this completely unnecessary White House photo op meeting. At least that's what we thought.

But no. They have to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory so they can create a situation that "needs" McCain's help and he can play the selfless hero. Maybe he should put on a cowboy outfit.

So he meets with Boehmer before the WH meeting. It's true, many Republicans aren't happy with the plan, but might have gone along with Boehmer's encouragement. Remember, before McCain entered the picture, Boehmer seemed to be hopeful of a bipartisan deal. Instead, to help McCain, they are encouraged to balk, to offer some crazy plan of their own.

This gums up the works. This gives McCain something to do. Because as their presidential candidate he probably does have some clout at this point with the Republicans in Congress; after all they want to win the presidency.

At the White House photo op, he sits silently while he lets John Boehner spills the beans: no deal. McCain remains non-committal, saying he still hopes this can be worked out so he can debate tonight.

His campaign is now putting out the info that he spent the night on the phone with Republicans trying to broker an agreement.

Eureka. Some time this afternoon they will announce success, which will probably be the deal that was in place before he mucked it up, maybe with just enough tweaks to claim he did something.

Then he waltzes in to the debate tonight as the hero who saved the nation from bankruptcy.

And it's all a bunch of political stunt grandstanding.

Please, Barak. Do not get sucked in to trying to "help" with a solution. Leave it to the congressional leaders as you have been doing. The only way for you to win in this situation is to point out McCain's stunt, that it was not only unnecessary but actually slowed the process.

Ralph

McCain Scorches the Earth - To Rescue Palin?

No reasonable person can any longer deny that McCain's visit to DC yesterday was a contrivance to bolster a flagging campaign. What was shocking, though, is that he essentially said nothing during this entire meeting - that it was soooo important he attend - until the end when he referenced an alternative plan formulated by House Republicans. This 'alternative' plan the House Repubs hadn't bothered to mention to anyone prior to this, until, at the White House, they came up with one page of bulleted notes. This was McCain's accomplishment. He was the conduit who ushered in the destruction of the hard work everyone had put in all week on this bailout plan. The highlight of which seemed to be

* Suspend the Capital Gains tax for two years - a move sure to help the wealthy more than the middle class
* Give Big Businesses more tax breaks to buy up debt, so even more money will be shovelled to large corporations

- and don't talk to me about trickle down

Not a lot of concern for Main Street there, but this alternative plan will certianly help those at the top of the economic food chain.

That's leadership.

Since last Friday, in a rare display of bipartisanship, Congress had been working, with Paulson and Bernanke, on a plan without the hostile finger-pointing that has characterized partisan politics recently. Obama had been daily monitoring the plan, talking to Paulson and senators on both sides of the aisle, since last weekend, without trumpeting that to the press.

Then Wed. McCain, who hadn't even read the 2.5 page proposal, grandstands, flies into Washington, and does what? Emboldens the House Republicans(whether he encouraged their revolt is uncertain) to turn the White House meeting into a shouting match and 'carpet-bomb' an entire week's worth of work done by Paulson, Bernake, and Senate Dems and Republicans.

That'ss leadership

Increasingly, people are questioning whether this is simply a ploy for McCain to get out of the debate. Many believe there will be a miraculous agreement tonight, just about the time the debate is due to start, so the TV coverage will focus on the deal, and not the debate. Others hypothesize that McCain will make a last minute flight to the debate, the beset hero trying to do his duty for his country and take care of everyone's needs.

I have a different take. I watched the Palin-Couric interviews. I reread the transcripts. As a woman friend said, If I were Sarah Palin I would be ashamed to show my face in public. It wasn't even funny. It was painful. Palin, on her own, was worse than anything Tina Fey could come up with on Saturday Night Live.

Palin made Dan Quayle look like William F. Buckley. I've never seen a candidate for VP show, not so little, but absolutely no grasp of any basic issues. Her knowledge base isn't thin, it's non-existent. She has a vocabulary of about 100 words - all slogans, most culled from Bush(I know the good guys. I know the bad guys. I know who the good guys - sure Sarah, maybe it's the floating Putin head invading yoru air space). She seemed incapable of putting together two grammatically correct sentences in a row. She didn't show a grasp of any concepts or policies, or the ability to talk specifically. About anything.

Even all the conservatives - Morning Joe, Pat Buchanon - said today, McCain has to hide her. He can't let her show up in public. She's a talking disaster.

McCain's ultimate endgame in his political grandstanding is, in the long term, yes, to try to salvage his campaign, but in the short term to deep-six the VP debate. Because despite the couple of stupid pronouncements Biden has made recently, he does have a grasp of concepts and issues, and he can speak to the specifics of a situation. Palin may be clever, and you can teach her key words a couple of key phrases, but you can't cram her full of wisdom and knowledge in one week. Or one month. Or one year.

She is exactly what she says she is - a 44-year-old hockey mom.

A pit bull with lipstick.

There's nothing wrong with that. But she is eminently unqualified to be president.

McCain creates mess so he can pretend to fix it

I knew the Paulson plan was outrageous in its giveaway to Wall Street. The modifications as worked out by Congress are a huge improvement. On the other hand I recoil instinctively at the thought of having taxpayers bail out private corporations. Yet experts are telling us the whole economy could suffer big time if we don't, and then the taxpayers would be hurt even worse.

At this point, I'm undecided, but I tend to trust Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, even if I don't trust the Republicans.

But it's looking like, here at 9:30pm on Thursday that John McCain may have succeeded in scuttling the deal that seemed close to passing. Yes, I know that a number of Republican House members have been close to revolt. But how many, and what clout? Nancy Pelosi had said she had the votes to pass it.

So, Aviator McCain zooms into town (after a 24 hour detour since he "suspended" his campaign in order to rush to DC to rescue it). He meets privately with House Minority Leader Boehner. They then both go to Bush's White House meeting, at which Boehner says the Republican votes are not there to pass this "bipartisan" bill.

Dodd and Frank are furious with McCain, seeing their hard nonstop work for 6 days go down the tubes to try to save McCain's political life. With George Bush as enabler.

Are we seeing a political fix (or rather un-fix)? Is McCain trying to scuttle the Dodd-Frank deal so he can then pretend to fix it?. After some negotiations with Republicans, maybe a few modifications, will he then claim credit for breaking the "logjam" that didn't exist before he began mucking about?

No, I can't prove any of this. But this sequence of meetings did take place according to multiple news sources today. Am I full of cynicism toward this man whom I used to have some respect for? Sure, and I think he has earned my cynicism and scorn. And this is no way for a president to behave.

Ralph

Palin's exact words

Okay, read these exact words from Palin and tell me again, how can anyone think she is capable of being VP.

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

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

COURIC: Mock?

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

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

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

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

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

John 'Backstab' McCain Proves he is Unfit to Lead

The way McCain has handled this fake stage show clearly shows he is unfit to serve as President. When somebody calls you and asks you to work together on an issue of mutual importance, and you agree, and then, while you are in the middle of negotiations, you turn around and stab that person in the back by going public with a proposal clearly designed to put yourself in a better political light and make your opponent look worse - that's not statesmanship. It's demagoguery.

A true statesman would never scuttle negotiations merely for their own political advantage. This back-stab approach is indicative of how McCain would negotiate sensitive treaties with foreign leaders. This is precisely what he should be judged on, the way he puts personal political gain above the common good. Pretend to negotiate, then secretly bail out and go public in an attempt to bolster your political stock and embarrass the person with whom you're negotiating.

Put that together with Sarah 'I Want to be the Female Huey Long' Palin's long, sordid history of using people then destroying them when they are no longer convenient for her - we have quite a pair here, don't we?


No reasonable person seriously believes that at 9pm on Friday night there will be anybody in DC working on the bailout bill. Sure, McCain will hide the whiskey and stage a photo-op for the media so he can pretend he was too busy doing the country's work to go to Mississippi to debate. But it will be just one more falsehood in a campaign that is beginning to look even more deceitful than the last two Bush campaigns.