CNN: It's McCain and Palin

[Evo]

Is Joe Biden on the way out? http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/11/america/biden.php

Love it! He looks like a used car salesman but his gaffes make him seem like a real person. I like him now.

His saying Hillary would have been as good or a better choice for VP, IMO, will endear more women to him. The acknowledgment will be well received by women. (I am a woman btw, so I should know).

He will need to at least get his facts straight for the VP debate though.

 

[LowlyPion]

Is Joe Biden on the way out?

Actually, the problem is that the 'debate' has become between the Democratic Presidential nominee and the Republican Vice Presidential nominee. In that, I guess you could say Biden hasn't held up his end of the boat.

Instead of attacking Palin, he's been busy trying to heal the crippled:

Joe really better step up his game a little.

I can agree with that. To that extent I think the Republicans count success every day they can keep a squabble going between Palin's right wing nut spinmeisters and Obama. Though I would say that lately they have come out on the short end of the stick trying their smears.

Biden would do well to start a fight with McCain - call him to task for engaging in politics of mudslinging, for reneging on his earlier vows to wage a clean campaign on the issues.

Like where is McCain on the issues? I'd say his smarmy news bites and remembrances of imprisonments past are getting a bit worn at the edges.

 

[chemisttree]

Is Joe Biden on the way out? http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/11/america/biden.php



Actually, the problem is that the 'debate' has become between the Democratic Presidential nominee and the Republican Vice Presidential nominee. In that, I guess you could say Biden hasn't held up his end of the boat.

Instead of attacking Palin, he's been busy trying to heal the crippled:

Joe really better step up his game a little.

I had almost forgotten about these as well:

Obama knew what he was getting when he picked Biden as his running mate: A veteran of six terms in the Senate, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, an Irish Catholic with working-class roots, a guy who had twice been tested in the arena of presidential politics.

And a human verbal wrecking crew. This is the fellow who nearly derailed his nascent presidential campaign last year by calling Obama bright and clean and articulate and who noted that you needed a slight Indian accent to walk into a Dunkin' Donuts or 7-11 in Delaware.

The guy who, reading his vice-presidential acceptance speech from a TelePrompter, bungled McCain's name, calling him "George" ("Freudian slip, folks, Freudian slip," he explained).

The guy who, on the day Obama announced him as his running mate, referred to his party's presidential nominee as "Barack America" and noted that his own wife, Jill, a college professor, was "drop-dead gorgeous" but who, problematically, possessed a doctorate.

The guy who has said he is running for president (not vice president) and who confused army brigades with battalions. Who referred to his Republican vice-presidential opponent as the lieutenant governor of Alaska.

I going to be fun watching the verbal wrecking crew in action! (or was that inaction?)

 

[BobG]

I can agree with that. To that extent I think the Republicans count success every day they can keep a squabble going between Palin's right wing nut spinmeisters and Obama. Though I would say that lately they have come out on the short end of the stick trying their smears.

Biden would do well to start a fight with McCain - call him to task for engaging in politics of mudslinging, for reneging on his earlier vows to wage a clean campaign on the issues.

Like where is McCain on the issues? I'd say his smarmy news bites and remembrances of imprisonments past are getting a bit worn at the edges.

Yes, this is what Biden should be doing. Biden is very entertaining to listen to. He's a mix of serious forcefulness and wit. He may be prone to talking a bit too much, but so is McCain. Arguing with McCain is the job Biden was hired for.

It should be Clinton making the attacks on Palin. Her attacks have to avoid the 'working mom' and abortion conflicts, though. The main point is to pit the white female voters' old hero against the new hero. If Palin is lacking in experience or substance, then Clinton is the one who can point it out without raising the gender issue.

All in all, I have to say I'm disappointed how this has turned out. I thought Palin would negate Obama's aura and bring the campaign back down to a level one based on the issues. Instead, the issues have been pushed to the background as trivial.

We seemed primed for one of the stupidest campaign fights ever. Putting lipstick on pigs is now worthy of debate? Sheep, maybe, but lipstick on pigs is just a stupid issue.

 

[LowlyPion]

... Instead, the issues have been pushed to the background as trivial.

We seemed primed for one of the stupidest campaign fights ever. Putting lipstick on pigs is now worthy of debate? Sheep, maybe, but lipstick on pigs is just a stupid issue.

And this trophy can clearly be laid at the feet of McCain, and his total sellout to the Right Wing - the same Wing that did the very thing to him while forwarding their hand-operated Bush Puppet ... er I mean inaction figure ... back in 2000.

He knows how they operate. And he has embraced their strategies. He must know in his heart there is no way for him to ever win a policy debate.

 

[BobG]

And this trophy can clearly be laid at the feet of McCain, and his total sellout to the Right Wing - the same Wing that did the very thing to him while forwarding their hand-operated Bush Puppet ... er I mean inaction figure ... back in 2000.

He knows how they operate. And he has embraced their strategies. He must know in his heart there is no way for him to ever win a policy debate.

Not completely. I have no idea whether Obama saw any connection between his comment and Palin ahead of time, but the crowd listening to Obama definitely saw a connection. It was worth a responding comment, but I just can't believe it was a 'big story'. It was a stupid thing that should have dropped out of the picture almost immediately.

 

[baywax]

I run my snowmobile on lichen and permafrost.

Did anyone see Mr. Obama on Letterman?
Pretty darn good American you got there.

 

[LowlyPion]

Not completely. I have no idea whether Obama saw any connection between his comment and Palin ahead of time, but the crowd listening to Obama definitely saw a connection. It was worth a responding comment, but I just can't believe it was a 'big story'. It was a stupid thing that should have dropped out of the picture almost immediately.

You may well be right that it was intentional or maybe even a subliminal nod to Palin's smarmy self characterization of herself as a pit bull. But whatever the motivation, were it intentional in any way, it was clearly a subtle jab, delivered within the context of contrasting McCain's voting consistently for Bush agenda bills. It is a common metaphor, used widely in the vernacular after all.

If there was any artifice, I'd suggest that Palin calling herself a kind of dog, in a widely broadcast speech, is the provocative act, with Republican attack Kamikazes, apparently at the ready forearmed, to blow away any references to female dogs and act hypocritically self-righteous.

I'd say on the whole the McCain/Palin handlers are the ones that came off less than Presidential in how it was handled regardless of Obama's intent.

 

[mheslep]

...McCain's voting consistently for Bush agenda bills. ...

Simplistic. By the same measure Obama voted with the President 40% of the time, and Democratic lawmakers on average voted with the President more than half the time.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/is_it_true_john_mccain_voted_with.html

 

[Astronuc]

Palin leaves open option of war with Russia
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94534529

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin left open the option Thursday of waging war with Russia if it were to invade neighboring Georgia and the former Soviet republic were a NATO ally. "We will not repeat a Cold War," Palin said in her first television interview since becoming Republican John McCain's vice presidential running mate two weeks ago.

Well considering Russia already did invade Georgia and has slowly been withdrawing. And yes - those tensions from the Cold War have returned if only mildly.

This woman needs to get a grip on reality.

 

[LowlyPion]

Simplistic. By the same measure Obama voted with the President 40% of the time, and Democratic lawmakers on average voted with the President more than half the time.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/is_it_true_john_mccain_voted_with.html

Simplistic indeed.

But at least 50% better than McCain, currying favor with the right wing to make his grab for power.