A Mind is a Terrible Thing

Last week, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan, on Barack Obama’s acceptance speech: “I stand with Obama! It was a genuinely outstanding speech, it was magnificent. I saw Cuomo’s speech, I saw Kennedy in ‘80, I even saw Douglas MacArthur, I saw MLK; this is the greatest convention speech and probably the most important because unlike Cuomo and the others, this was an acceptance speech, this came out of the heart of America, and he went right at the heart of America. This wasn’t a liberal speech at all. This is a deeply, deeply centrist speech. It had wit, it had humor, and when he used the needle on McCain, he stuck it into McCain and it was funny. It was Kennedy’s speech in ‘80. I laughed with Kennedy when he was needling Ronald Reagan.”

contrast this with–

Last night, CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, about John McCain’s acceptance speech:  “I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I’ve heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980…. I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad.”

And Juan Williams on Fox News: “I don’t think it worked very well at all.”

Politics and Power Blog: vanityfair.com
Cindy McCain
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100

Still think John and Cindy McCain are “regular people”?  This is Vanity Fair’s estimate of how much Cindy McCain’s outfit cost back on Tuesday, when she went on-stage with Laura Bush during the RNC.  True, much of this is predicated on the notion that Cindy’s jewelry was real and not fake — but how likely is it that a woman worth an estimated hundreds of millions would wear anything less than real diamonds and pearls?

$300,000.  That’s enough to buy a house, in many parts of the country.  Or, roughly twelve Priuses.  It’s also 17 times the U.S. gov’t defined poverty income for a family with 3 kids in the U.S. mainland.

(via The Age) — Republican vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin denies steamy extramarital affair rumours
The McCain campaign has vigorously denied reports that Republican vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin had a steamy extramarital affair with her husband’s business partner.

Might be worth mentioning that the National Enquirer also broke the eventually-proven-true John Edwards affair.

The "Eagleton Scenario"

Feels like I’m watching a disaster movie now.

Eagle Forum Alaska: 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

Sarah Palin: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

To be fair, the phrase "under God" was added in 1954 (to distinguish America’s pledge from rather similar pledges being made in Communist U.S.S.R.).  And Alaska wasn’t, um, "illegally annexed"* as a state until January, 1958…  So clearly it falls under the category of "pre-annexation American history."  And Francis Bellamy wrote the original version of the pledge (which included a distinctly fascist ‘Christian Socialist’ salute) in 1892, and the ‘Founding Fathers’ lived in the 1700s…

1954, 1892, 1776 — dates all close enough to be considered near simultaneous by someone who, as recently as this last June, didn’t know what America’s Vice President does every day.  A perfectly reasonable mistake for someone who was born in 1964, and apparently snoozed through her "American Civics and History" classes.  Or maybe she was home-schooled?

(*cf: The official position of the Alaska Independence Party, of which Sarah Palin was a member for some years back in the 1990s, is that Alaska’s statehood is illegal and unconstitutional, and that Alaskans should have the option to secede from the US.)

(Update 4 Aug: Apparently the decidedly conservative Eagle Forum didn’t much like the fact that Sarah Palin’s answers were out there for the whole world to see.  They’ve since been scrubbed from the site.  Fortunately, they live on in Google.

As a special bonus, I will attach a post I originally put up over on dKos, on how Ms. Palin’s seeming ignorance on basic American history can be explained away by…. TIME TRAVEL!)
(more…)

What Josh said:

Talking Points Memo | Face It: They Didn’t Vet Her  By Josh Marshall Earlier
I noted Andrea Mitchell’s reference to reports that the McCain camp had just sent a team of GOP lawyers up to Alaska to do what I guess you’d call a post-vetting of Sarah Palin. Now George Stephanopoulos appears to have more. George says the McCainers are sending a "rapid response team of about ten operatives that includes lawyers" to do the aforementioned deeper vet. A lot of attention is being given to Gov. Palin’s daughter’s situation. The much bigger deal is the expanding trooper-gate investigation, the fact that Palin lied in her Friday speech about her purported opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere, her apparent former membership in the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, and more. Individually, you can come to your own judgment about how consequential these stories are. What they show pretty clearly now — in addition to the news that the McCain campaign is only now sending in a vetting team — is that John McCain didn’t do any serious vetting of Palin before he invited her to join his ticket and, he hopes, become Vice President of the United States.

Fundamentally, of course, this is about John McCain. And the real issue here is what this slapdash decision says about his judgment.

Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process - NYTimes.com
(snip)
Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.
(snip)

So, McCain went into this wanting to get one of his two choices — either of whom, by most GOP standards, would’ve represented "reaching to the center".  (I’m not going to get into whether or not Lieberman or Ridge actually are moderates, but it is safe to posit that neither of them is a right-wing extremist.  Which makes the GOP radical-right base very unhappy with them.)

The article mentions two of the other front-runners:  Romney and Pawlenty.  Of these, Romney was never liked by the hard-right and few but the gullible thought his newly-adopted conservative positions were honest.  I think that had he truly been on the short-list, he’d have been ruled out by the right-wingers just like Lieberman and Ridge.  Also, I suspect McCain despises him.  Call it my own gut-feeling.

Before I get to Pawlenty, I’ll offer two other choices whose names seemed on the "likely" list, or at least not surprising.  One was Congressman Rob Portman of Ohio.  Could’ve been helpful to the ticket…but he lacks national recognition — and any measure of "Zazz."

The second would’ve been Mike Huckabee.  This was actually the one pick I feared most, as I think Huck would’ve helped McCain hugely with the far-right Evangelical base.

I’m not even going to get into the other qualified female GOP candidates at this point, because I don’t think "woman" was ever the most important feature for McCain.  What I’m trying to get at is the reasoning.  (Also, I don’t think any of the current GOP female leads is considered far enough to the right to satisfy the rad-right base.  On top of this, they’re all also experienced and independent-minded — which I don’t think McCain truly wants.)

In all likelihood, both Huck and Pawlenty would’ve been totally safe choices to keep the right-wingers happy.  But they’re also both seasoned politicos.  Of those two, Pawlenty comes up short though in the "Zazz" department (that is, he would bring little or no useful excitement to the ticket).  He would’ve been the safest choice of all, and really does seem to have been the presumptive nominee.  The rumors and indications are that Pawlenty and his people thought the job was his.  Huckabee, on the other hand, is a bit of a loose cannon, and he has an outsized ego.  More to the point, I don’t think McCain would’ve seen Mike Huckabee as a man he could control.

Here are the reasons why I think McCain made the impulsive and ill-considered choice to go with Sarah Palin:  It is an overt attempt to give the far right what they want — their raw meat, as it were — but to do so in the form of someone incredibly inexperienced, malleable, and who, without a doubt, would be shuffled back off to be the traditional "warm bucket of spit" Veep.  Sarah Palin is young, pretty, and seems to embody many of the self-same demographics McCain needs desperately to win.  However, McCain doesn’t want someone to be his equal, to be able to argue policy with him, or even to be a significant part of his governing team.

Somewhere along the way, I think McCain and his Veep team also bought into the silly idea that Hillary supporters would be so disappointed, they’d abandon every one of their deeply held positions and simply vote for "a woman, any woman."  I suppose there might be a few who feel this way, but most progressive and centrist feminists I know also have brains.  They’d rather vote for a woman who supports their positions — but will vote for the man supporting their positions over a woman who espouses the polar opposite of everything they believe in.  Nevertheless, Palin is abundant in the "Zazz" department. 

Unlike Joe Biden, Sarah Palin has no foreign policy positions.  In 2007, with a brand new passport in hand, she got her first three stamps ever: Germany and Iraq, to visit Alaska’s deployed National Guardsmen, and Ireland as an airport stopover.  Given her prior membership in the Alaska Independence Party (AIP) in the 1990s and subsequent statements as mayor, candidate, and neophyte governor, Palin’s entire interest in the United States of America seems to be restricted to "what can I get for Alaska?"  (The AIP platform: For Alaska to secede from the US, or be granted total autonomy as an independent territory.  Could this be why Palin was so frantic her last child be born in Alaska, that she dared a 10 hour flight, with a stop-over in Seattle, after her water broke?  Was she afraid her son would thereby not be considered a "native born citizen" of Alaska?  It almost makes sense if put in these terms, and a fair question to put to her.) 

On top of all this, Palin seems to show a pattern of lying whenever it suits her.  Troopergate, Bridge-to-Nowhere, and more.

Unfortunately for McCain, his obviously last-minute impulsive lunge at a decision — the GOP poster gal in go-go boots — has neglected to consider the potential (and exponentially increasing) negatives that a thorough vetting process would have uncovered.  And which would’ve disqualified Sarah Palin not only from the Veep slot, but resulted in a conclusion reading: "Flame-out candidate.  Ethical lapses, misrepresentations, and personal family problems will probably limit Ms. Palin’s career to what she’s achieved already and no more.  Impeachment or resignation from governorship a distinct possibility."

Back to the main point though:  This decision isn’t about Sarah Palin’s manifest unfitness for the office of Vice President.  This pick demonstrates how John McCain makes decisions.  There is no way he can be thinking about the good of the country first.  That said, although I’ve said I thought McCain’s choice was irrational, I’d like to back away from that notion.  It’s rational, but only for him.  There is no way he can be thinking there’ll ever be a President Palin…or if there is, he doesn’t care.

There is a rationality involved, even if it was unwise and ill-considered.  On the surface, I think that having been denied his first "partner in governing" choices, McCain went for the choice which would make the far-right ecstatic, but who would be consigned to obscurity once elected.

Palin Says Her Daughter, 17, Is Pregnant - NYTimes.com
17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child. Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin’s five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

And if John McCain becomes President, both he and his running mate — Bristol’s mother, Sarah Palin — intend to make it so that nobody else’s daughter has the freedom to decide differently.

I think we’re also seeing here the too frequent consequences of an ‘abstinence-only’ upbringing.

Scenario #1:  After a hard-fought campaign, Senators Obama and Biden win the November election.  In January 2009, President Obama is sworn in.  Two months later, tragically, Marine One crashes, killing all on board.  Vice President Biden is sworn in.  Reeling from the loss, nevertheless America breathes a sigh of relief:  President Obama picked a highly qualified, able, and ready V.P. to be his back-up. 

Scenario #2:  After a hard-fought campaign, Senator McCain and Governor Palin win the November election.  In January 2009, President McCain is sworn in.  Two months later, tragically, McCain has a 5th relapse of his cancerous sarcoma, and within weeks is deceased.  Vice President Palin is sworn in.  Reeling from the loss, America panics as the enormity of the situation sinks in: The new President has absolutely no idea what she’s doing.

The point of these scenarios?  It’s said that the first truly important decision made by any US Presidential candidate is whom they choose as their VP running mate.  It is nothing less than saying to the country, "This is the person ready to take over, if I can’t complete my term of office."

There may be many who like Sarah Palin’s solid far right wing positions.  Or her plucky, personable charm.  Or the fact she looks like a stereotypical "hot librarian".  Or even that she’s a female candidate on the ticket.

But think about it:  President Sarah Palin.  This is who John McCain wants to be chief executive and commander-in-chief if he cannot finish his term of office.

This is someone who served as part-time mayor for a podunk Alaskan town for a couple terms, then managed to snag the GOP-guaranteed Alaskan governorship because the last guy was too corrupt — and then served for 19 months, while racking up a number of abuse-of-power ethics charges.  By no rational measure is such a person anywhere near qualified to be the 1st backup choice for President of the United States of America.  Especially when we’re talking a 72-year-old man with a history of health problem.

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
Federal government involved in raids on protesters
As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue — see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway — it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign.

Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Today’s Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups."

Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force — an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI — was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing.

There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday. So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone. And it’s not difficult to see why. As the recent "overhaul" of the 30-year-old FISA law illustrated — preceded by the endless expansion of surveillance state powers, justified first by the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror — we’ve essentially decided that we want our Government to spy on us without limits. There is literally no police power that the state can exercise that will cause much protest from the political and media class and, therefore, from the citizenry.

This is a very, very bad sign.