Re: sarah palin?
 

Interesting post, Chuck. And interesting to read the comments too.

I think what is niggling away at the back of my mind now is this: this has all been a big set-up.

Get the pretty, gutsy, christian hockey-mum lady up there, get the rednecks loving her for her huntin' an' fishin' down-to-earthedness (forget all the lies and half-truths, she's a darling, this one) then have her fail miserably because the "liberal press" and "those nasty Democrats" are being so mean to her - poor woman, she is trying so hard!

And then count the millions of sympathy votes that come flying in on November 4th because everyone is so horrible to her and she is really quite a cutie....

Re: sarah palin?
 

When it comes to her performance, remember how low the bar was set prior to the Republican convention, and the way she exceeded expectations? I just hope the same doesn't happen in the VP debate this Thursday. She won't win it on conventional grounds of course - she might be able to memorise lines, but her off-the-cuff speaking is cringeworthy - but she might just perform better than expected. That need not be by much, but it might be enough to make Biden look like a bit of an ass, especially if he makes a gaff or two or comes across as condescending.

It's his to lose and hers to "do better than expected".

I hope that doesn't happen.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Oh my god!

This clip could be the funniest thing I've seen in ages. Tina Fey back in Palin mode, this time doing an interview.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0..._n_129956.html

So ridiculously perceptive and funny, I feel guilty about how much I just laughed! :D

Re: sarah palin?
 

Superb.

Tina Fey nails it to a tee - and I think she even offers some actual policy in there. The bit about "dollar value meals" sounds like something that could actually be implemented!

Poehler's take on Couric is great too - the stunned pauses and blinking "wtf???" looks.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Couric Rocks.

Re: sarah palin?
 

It's almost more Palin than Palin, and she (the real one) must be mortified watching it - assuming she had the sound turned on this time.


Meanwhile, speculation about McCain's possible next stunt - a Palin wedding.

"It would be fantastic," said a McCain insider. "You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week." ... "What's the downside?" a source inside the McCain campaign said. "It would be wonderful. I don't know that there has ever been a pre-election wedding before."

Please let them do it. Please. Because I'm convinced the US public couldn't possibly fall for that without starting to seriously question McCain.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Palin quote generator:
http://palinquotes.awardspace.com/

Re: sarah palin?
 

...and an interview generator:
http://interviewpalin.com/

Re: sarah palin?
 

I bet cash money that a huge portion of the country would love it. I have so little faith in people right now....:(

Re: sarah palin?
 

Please elaborate.

(I can hear you wit coming. Seriously elaborate.)

Re: sarah palin?
 

Palin Claimed Dinosaurs And People Coexisted

Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.

Scary scary scary. I hope someone has the guts to grill her on TV about it.

I firmly believe that her 'faith position' should be no more off limits than her beliefs on tax policy or abortion. The electorate are absolutely entitled to judge her on something like this.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Not sure why I should go to th etrouble of elaborating for you, but I will just for the hell of it. The support for the McCain/Palin ticket has me completely disheartened. How can people truly support a candidate who wants to continue clearly failed policies, has run the dirtiest campaign I think I've ever seen, and selected a VP candidate who's dangerously unqualified?

Re: sarah palin?
 

See. I'm not as worried about the stories that other people are saying.

It's the shit these two are saying themselves.

Even together - they stink.

McCain runs interference

"gotcha" journalism - wtf are they talking about.

These are serious times - serious issues - and serious questions need to be asked. Palin and McCain sound like Fox News hosts - instead of individuals who are actually offering up some solutions and/or ideas.

We're starting to trip over that bar of standards if this is how pathetic they're going to be.

Re: sarah palin?
 

palin side by side with snl (olbermann)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzmC-UlAQtU

Re: sarah palin?
 

Knew the attitude'd come out, mwrhrarrr(sp?).

You sound like me last election. uh-oh.

Re: sarah palin?
 

So back to Palin - what stunt are we expecting from McCain in the next 24-48 hours in order to "manage the news" post-Palin debate?

Could he suspend his campaign a second time?

Re: sarah palin?
 

they've established the phrase "gotcha journalism" so they'll be exploiting that and running it into the ground post-debate. any tough questions will be "gotchas" and anything biden lobs at her will be "gotchas."

Re: sarah palin?
 

McCain's campaign has also been stressing how low the bar of expectation has been set for Palin by the "liberal elite media" so that now, if she shows she can do slightly better than a functionally retarded person, she'll have done a "super" job. I don't mean to be non-pc with that statement, but it's really the clearest way to make the point.

They'll also surely pounce on this story about how Thursday's VP debate moderator is scheduled to release a book about the rise of blacks in today's political world - a book with a pro-Obama slant to it.

And here's a little of what to expect from Palin tomorrow, too.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Former State legislator Andrew Halcro, 44, who took part in a handful of debates with Palin during Alaska's 2006 gubernatorial race:
Oh dear.

Been here before, haven't we? :rolleyes:

Re: sarah palin?
 

They were prepping her with mock debates at one of McCain's 11 houses, and she reportedly failed in those. I don't think she's going to get away with folksy stories about national issues.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Do you have a link to a news story about her failing in the mock debates? I'm interested to hear more.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Who's up for following it live tomorrow night then?

I can have a late start Friday AM so I'll probably be here. ;)

Re: sarah palin?
 

What time is it on? I have school on Friday.....

Re: sarah palin?
 

In the UK, 2am BST.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Um, I saw it on Countdown last night. I tried looking for the article referenced in the report, but I couldn't find it.

Re: sarah palin?
 

The Huffington Post put the picture I saw on Countdown with Gov. Palin practicing for the debate:

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/200...1154fbcacb.jpg

If the lecture stand used in St. Louis is this size, it will make Palin look so short.


This might be the Wall Street Journal article Olbermann referenced:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122265784614384667.html


Jason

Re: sarah palin?
 

Thanks for looking anyway. Interesting point nonetheless.

Aside from that, I have a question that's related to the issue of sexism - a topic that I feel I've been extremely successful discussing here in the World forum. ;):D So my question is this:

So far, Palin has only had a few interviews, all of which she's tripped up horribly in, and plenty of folks on the conservative side of things continue to claim that the questions being asked were unfair and/or motivated by sexism. Questions like "can you name a supreme court decision you disagree with?", or "do you agree with the Bush doctrine?". Meanwhile, in preparation for the debate tonight, a lot of pressure is being put on Biden to be careful not to come off as too critical or tough on her, otherwise conservatives will go off on him for being mean to the female VP candidate, and therefore sexist. So I'm wondering if I'm alone in thinking that this pressure on Biden to be extra gentle and nice to Palin in tonight's debate is far more of a sexist demand than any policy question she's been asked has ever been? I mean really...if Palin is ready to be President, shouldn't she be able to handle the same level of intensity we expect our male politicians to be able to handle? And yet I can't imagine you'll hear a conservative outcry about how sexist it is that they expect Biden to take it easy on her simply because she's a woman...

Re: sarah palin?
 

I've thought this myself. Biden is a boy who was raised to be a gentleman to women, and, as said before, doesn't sugarcoat issues for the boys. I trust him in the gentlemanly trash-talk(damn I want to say shit-talk so bad here, but Ohpra doesn't approve) area.

Re: sarah palin?
 

I expect Biden to hit her hard on policy expectations and decisions made. It's a tough job, you've got expect tough questions. And be able to respond about policy - not bullet points.

The problem for the Democrats will be if Biden comes across as condescending. The GOP will leap on that.

I don't agree with it - because Palin comes across as not only condescending but arrogant in the extreme when she disagrees with others. The Couric interview showed that. But those voters who listen to soundbites will take that.

For me - Obama was far more measured and "presidential" in his debate manner. For others it wasn't agressive enough.

I really agree with Joe Klein's commentary: Anger vs Steadiness.

Biden has to be that - present himself as someone who's ready to take on that role and the responsibilities inherent in it - literally, the one to step into the presidential seat. Unfortunately Biden has a habit of shooting his mouth off and getting cocky. That will sink him. Not because it'll be condescending to Palin or an opening for the Republicans, but because it belittles the position he's applying for.

Sean - I don't know if that answers your question. I think the GOP at this point are grasping for any lifelines they can get a hold of to keep their campaign afloat. The sexist line is one of them.

Re: sarah palin?
 

You are spot on, Sean. It is sexist in itself to say "oh, be nice to her cos she is a woman". The sexists are not the ones treating her normally, like they would treat any other candidate. They are the ones calling for special treatment of her because she is a nice hockey mom who can't be expected to know anything about the world outside of Wasilla because, you know, she is a woman and a mom and she has done great things.

FFS. I find the latter totally offensive to women.

I studied for my degree and the Bar while working, being a mom (although not a hockey one - maybe that is where I went wrong? ;) ) and a wife, and all the stuff that entails. Never once did I ask my profs for special treatment because of that. And the day I turn up in court late and dishevelled because I had a tough time getting my son out of bed and off to school in the morning and dare to ask the judge to excuse me of it is the day the judge is likely to ask me if I am cut out for the job because everyone else manages to get to his court on time. Nobody cuts me any slack, and I wouldn't expect them to either.

Equally, with all of the above, if I were too dumb to do my job I would get very short shrift too and be openly mocked by judge and opponent alike. You can't expect the glass ceiling to crack itself just because you are the one standing underneath it.

Now for a sexist joke from me.... for women to succeed in life, they have to be twice as good as men. Fortunately, this is not too difficult. ;)

Re: sarah palin?
 

well yeah...

i mean, i think the most fair thing for biden to do is, if palin keeps staying this course of stellar dialogue, to castigate the everlasting tundra out of her. i'm dreading biden doing the common sense thing because i'm not sure that people have a good grasp on what sexism is, so they might actually think it's credible for conservatives to queue the umbrage and let fly the last thing they should be accusing anybody of. i think it's tremendously sexist to be dicey to a woman in politics, and generally disrespectful to everyone involved to treat a VP candidate with kid gloves, but the political shots that play to people's i-dont-know-so-i-guess-they-know faction deem it kinda necessary to play it a certain way.
my best case scenario, where biden keeps it steady and knowledgeable and palin trips on her own sword, is what could feasibly happen, the real best case scenario is that she keeps rattling her nonsense, biden schools her 10 different ways and makes it painfully obvious how inept she is, and everyone says well played and this ticket finally becomes poison for everyone.

Re: sarah palin?
 

Troopergate pushes on despite McCain and Palin's best efforts. Here are a couple excerpts:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An investigator hired by Alaskan lawmakers to probe abuse-of-power allegations against Gov. Sarah Palin was free to finish his work by a deadline set for a week from Friday after a state judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block the probe.

and...

At first, Palin agreed to cooperate with the probe, but since being picked Aug. 29 to be Sen. John McCain's running mate, she, her family and staff have instead said the legislative investigation has been compromised by politics and that they would cooperate only with a separate investigation run by the Alaska State Personnel Board, whose members Palin can fire.

Re: sarah palin?
 

yes, it doesn't get any less retarded:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/1..._n_131655.html

she was annoyed by Kouric's questions. you know what sarah, your ANSWERS are annoying.

Re: sarah palin?
 

a bit of awesomeness (need to scroll down about halfway thru):

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/274874.php

a NOW representative introduces her:
"America, this is what a feminist looks like -- Sarah Palin."

and Palin then says : "There's a special place in hell for women who don't support women."

Re: sarah palin?
 

when the rest of us use that expression, we mean it as just that. an expression. sarah palin literally believes that there is a hell and there is a special room where the red, horned, hoofed devil keeps the women who don't support women.

Re: sarah palin?
 

We're talking Bill Clinton here, right?

(You betcha! *wink* ;) )

Re: sarah palin?
 

Anyone notice the change of look recently?

Gone the school-ma'am bun - now it is the Hairdresser Barbie look...

Re: sarah palin?
 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/...aim/index.html *







*Obama, hint, hint: Milking the beast.

Re: sarah palin?
 

For anyone who's not yet seen it: more Tina Fey fun, this time in the VP debate :D

(Is it mostly liberals/Dems who watch SNL then?)

Re: sarah palin?
 

It's mostly liberals/Dems who write SNL maybe, but SNL is watched by a lot of different people.

I also liked the guy who did the Biden impersonation. He was very funny as well. :D