Johnny Coli

Are you serious? How can you look at what just transpired over the past few days and think that McCain will be able to deal with the media. His whole campaign the last 48 hours has been anti-media and how they're out of bounds for "attacking" his VP choice. Jesus. All they've done is ask a few simple questions and point out Palin's lies, and his campaign is in a virtual media black-out.

Women's Voices/Women Vote Action Fund commissioned a women's focus group of former Hillary Clinton supporters for Palin's speech coordinated by Anna Greenberg and Stan Greenberg of Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research (article here). While they seemd to think she was a good speaker, it doesn't look like former Clintonista's in Nevada were that impressed with the substance or tone. And they're not down with her anti-choice stance.

The evil media is fact-checking Pawlenty's Palin's speech because they hate women. Washington Monthly Here's a fun one.

He's going into the depths of hell tomorrow, and will be on O'Reilly. That's not the actions of a campaign that's afraid to put their guy in front of a hostile, and some might even say deranged, interviewer. On the other side, McCain is blaming the media because he didn't vet his choice, and his campaign won't let anyone near her. We'll see which campaign really wants to talk to Americans, and which campaign wants to dupe them.

Absolutely she'll do great. A GOP fembot trotting out in front of party faithful reading from a script. I'm sure the "applause" sign will be getting a workout. And then she'll be sequestered from the press. Hard to look bad in that setting.

Or pandered or flat-out lied to, because that is what this is about. It's not about the media or the "angry left" tearing down a poor working mom. It's about a guy running on a country first platform that chose a evangelical woman to not only pander to the extremists in his party, but to try and dupe other women into voting for HIM. Not her. He clearly doesn't give a damn about her or her family. A leader doesn't do that. A leader doesn't choose to thrust a pregnant minor into the spotlight in order to grab votes. And a leader sure doesn't fly the father of the baby into St. Paul for a photo op. This is the guy you're proudly going to vote for. When you watch this poor woman get rushed out onto the stage tonight into an arena she has no business being in, remember that the words coming out of her mouth were written for someone else, and they just re-wrote them last night to make them "less masculine." That's the kind of leader you're proudly going to vote for. That's the kind of man he is.

She's been cramming for her big speech tonight, and catch this little tidbit... That's McCain's campaign manager, the guy in charge of this thing. Jesus. Not only didn't they vet her, they had a speech written for somebody else. Anybody believe the crap they keep spewing about how properly vetted she was? If there is a God I hope it appears in McCain's applesauce and convinces him to keep Palin on the ticket. I don't want this to end.

It hasn't been torture, really. It's been pretty easy. Had McCain done any background check at all he would have found most of this out, too. And to clarify, "the left" didn't do anything to discredit Palin. She's done a fabulous job all by herself. You could even say that "The Left" is actually doing McCain's job for him in exposing this religious nut for what she is...a liar and a corrupt political opportunist.

Only from a GOP perspective would intelligence be considered a lesser characteristic for office than religious zealotry.

They're not going to let anyone interview her either: WaPo political blog Combative? People ask a simple question like whether she really was properly vetted, or whether people might think she's inexperienced and the media is being combative? What exactly did they think would happen when they vetted her and found out all this stuff they said they knew about? That people and the media would just let it go? Sure, why on earth would they want to know any details about the person chosen by a 72-year-old cancer survivor to succeed him if he can't finish his term? They won't let her near an interviewer, but she's good enough to be a CIC? It's laughable.

"A senior official close to the John McCain’s vice presidential vetting tells CBS News....." Really, though, what else are they going to say? No way in hell would they ever admit that this was a panic pick made in desperation on what other reports are saying was last Thursday. No one up in Alaska was interviewed. No records were looked at by anyone in the McCain campaign. They've got a team dispatched up there now to manage damage control, but what does that say about the pick? What I find truly fascinating about this is that she's it no matter what happens now. She's an anchor tied to an albatross wearing cement shoes, all hanging from McCain's neck. If he boots her from the campaign he pisses off the Fundies. If he replaces her with another woman, then it just shows he was pandering from the get-go. If he replaces her with a guy he risks alienating all the women he was trying to get with the Palin pick. He really is screwed. The thing he never calculated on was that, sure, she's thrust his campaign into the spotlight, but it's also put him on the constant defensive because she's a terrible pick. It's his Convention week, yet he can't attack his opponent because he's too busy defending the pick he didn't vet properly. That's not a "maverick." That's a guy who miscalculated once again. But that's his modus operandi. That's a guy I don't want running the country.

You should probably do a bit of research of your own. She's no more an outsider or a maverick than McCain is. She has ties to Ted Stevens' 527. She employed a lobbyist with ties to Jack Abromoff. She helped (ie lobbied extensively) to acquire $27 million in earmarks for a town of 6500, then left them $20 million in debt when she left office. She just flat-out lied about turning any bridge earmark money down. The "reforms" she instituted seem to largely be firings based on political retribution. Now, to add to all of that, she's tied to a secessionist group, tried to ban books from the library, is a creationist, has a pregnant minor yet is still a vocal opponent of sex education in schools, is under investigation, has hired a lawyer, claimed executive priviledge ( ), and that's just in the last 24 hours. Sounds like a pretty run-of-the-mill member of the GOP.

No. She's McCain's choice to succeed him should he not finish out his term. The lack of thought, lack of research, and serious lack in judgement to name her to the ticket speaks very loudly as to what kind of "leader" he will be. You clearly support a "leader" who makes uninformed decisions that would have far-reaching consequences should the worst scenario happen during his term. Not caring, gambling, pandering, lying, and just plain displaying a staggering lack of forethought what-so-ever are not qualities I, and many others I suspect, want to see over the next four years.

Nope. Not "bashing" this poor unfortunate girl. Just pointing out that it's very relevent in defining where the Bush McCain-Palin ticket stands with respect to teen pregnancy. McCain fought money on teen pregnancy programs Palin's daughter is just another unfortunate statistic that would be an all-to-common result if fundamentalist evangelicals get their way. I like this part of the article: Probably should have vetted your VP pick, then.

Sure you want to be trotting out the voting issue? Your boy McCain has missed 63.8% of the votes in the last Congress. That's 407 missed votes to 231 cast. He's missed more votes that any other congressperson, including Sen. Tim Johnson who was out because he suffered a brain hemorrhage. McCain missed more votes than a guy who was hospitalized for several months. Third was Obama (290 missed, 348 cast), but he was in a heated contest with Hillary (4th). What exactly was McCain doing? His race was over back in January.

Nice Time piece on her today. Mayor Palin: A Rough Record So, she's a book banner, too. Political hits, opportunism, evangelical zealot, secessionist, creationist, book banning. This Bush-Palin ticket is starting to sound like a real winner. Love this part about how she stood aside while the religious zealots in her party wrote "Babykiller" on her husband's stepmom's campaign signs. She was backing the other candidate because Todd's stepmom was pro-choice. Nice values, there.

He's not an elitist. He's a freeloader.

I do. She's a terrible choice. You have to question whether he's got the ability to make reasonable decisions in critical situations. If his reasoning is "I need a female running mate" then this is a colossal blunder, as there are many, many more qualified women in the GOP who would have made excellent choices. Trying to figure out his reasoning further is pointless, because as a VP candidate that would help the ticket in any other area, ie foreign policy, ability to deliver a key battleground state, an age demographic, or even race, she fails to deliver in any category.

He wasn't "chosen." He won the primary. And I (and many, many people) didn't vote for him in the primary because he is black or an excellent orator. We voted for him because he most closely represents the positions we have on a majority of the issues.

Are you implying that McCain only picked his running mate based on her gender? In your opinion does that reflect more on the depth of his character, or more on his ability to be a world leader?

Brilliant strategy by the McCain campaign to move the focus of the election to women's issues, where he clearly has the upper hand over Obama.

Explain what you're suggesting with this post.

Not entirely true. Her administration was of record when same-sex union benefits were instituted, similar to that of that pig Romney who was the governor of record when we allowed actual gay marriage here in Mass. Looks like she just complied with the Alaskan Supreme Court, and consulted with the AG prior to vetoing a ban. From Wiki (Yeah, yeah, but it's all we've got right now.)

They don't have to "attack" her. McCain picked an anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-evolution, pro-gun candidate with no experience and scandal baggage. I doubt anyone swayed by this pick to vote for McCain would have been voting for Obama, anyway.

Nope. That distinction goes to JoeSixPack on page one.