If you watched the Democratic Convention last week, you saw a party that loves their country and the people in it, and wants to win an election by appealing to the people and calling for a new direction for the country. You saw a party that, while very clear about the differences between them and their opponents, has a positive vision for what America can become and a positive direction of leadership.

The Republicans, in contrast, have become a party of hate and contempt. They hate the Democratic Party and their standard-bearer, Barack Obama, and clearly think that the rest of the American people are too stupid to realize that the reason the country has been run into the ground is years of incompetent, morally-bankrupt, corrupt, and ideologically-unsound Republican "leadership." Their plan to win the election is to pour as much contempt on Barack Obama as possible and hope they can make enough people afraid of him that they'll stay home.

I sincerely hope that the American people will be smart enough to see through the Republicans' lies and amorality. I also sincerely hope that those who consider themselves Republicans will put country above party and call on their party to begin campaigning honestly on issues and ideas rather than on hate, contempt, and fearmongering. But mostly, I hope that those who have taken the Republican Party in this direction - including their presidential and vice-presidential candidates - go down to such ignominious defeat in November that their political philosophy is completely discredited and people of conscience retake the Republican Party.

Labels: Democrats, Politics, Republicans

...you're threatening to sue the National Enquirer.

What next? A suit against Mad Magazine for running a less-than-flattering caricature of Palin in this month's issue? Or will it be a suit against the Weekly World News for suggesting that Sarah Palin is also the mother of Bat Boy?

"Macabre" doesn't even begin to describe the circus this choice has become...

Labels: John McCain, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin

First, let me get something out of the way:

Things that are not any of our business:

• Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy

Thank you. Anyone who thinks otherwise can just bug off. No teenage girl deserves to have her problems broadcast on national TV, even if her mother is the Republican VP pick.

But there are some things that are our business regarding John McCain's irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin. For example, on the aforementioned story: Why did the McCain campaign claim that they knew about this pregnancy before they chose her, when Palin's own press secretary didn't know a thing about it two days ago? (If you think I'm undermining my first point, remember the words of the "Impeach Clinton" crowd: it wasn't the sex but the lying.) Another good question: Why did Sarah Palin belong to an Alaskan secessionist party back in the 1990s, and does she still sympathize with their "Alaska First" views (which would, of course, contrast with McCain's own "Country First" campaign)? Why did Palin have to lawyer up today in the Troopergate scandal in Alaska?

But those questions are all trivial and meaningless, really (except for perhaps the last one, which might indicate her willingness to abuse government power for personal vendettas... which isn't necessarily a dealbreaker in the Bush-McCain era). They're fodder for the bloggers and the talking heads for a few days, after which they fade into oblivion. The question we should be asking, the key to the whole thing, is this: why does all of this seem to be taking the McCain campaign by surprise?

If Sarah Palin were an applicant for just about any government job that's going to have access to the most classified information we have (as the VP has), she would have to go through an incredibly thorough, invasive, and stringent vetting process. She would have to list just about everyone she's ever known and anything that could even potentially be used against her. This isn't just to root out potential spies; this kind of background checking is done because people with access to that kind of classified information can be blackmailed or threatened if there are skeletons in their closets. It's for the protection of the country and the information, and I for one am glad that everyone with high clearance has been checked out by the appropriate government agency.

However, an applicant for the vice presidency cannot constitutionally be held to any standard other than that he/she be 35 years old and a natural-born citizen.

Thus, if the McCain campaign is putting "Country First" and not "Election First," as they claim, wouldn't they want to vet a person who would have access to the most classified information we have at least as much as an agency like the CIA, NSA, FBI, etc. would? Hell, even if they are putting "Election First," wouldn't they want to do that kind of vetting, as scandals like these could threaten to derail the candidacy?

What does it say about John McCain's decision-making ability that he would make this choice - which is, we should note, the first presidential choice a candidate makes, and perhaps the most important - without doing his homework? What does it say about his judgment that the decision appears to have been made before the candidate was vetted?

Most importantly - do we really want that kind of decision-making judgment out of the person with his finger on the flashing red button?

I sure as hell don't.

Labels: John McCain, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin

...really is a woman after John McCain's own heart:

"I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere," Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan's Gravina Island bridge.

But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.

The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere." [...]

In September, 2006, Palin showed up in Ketchikan on her gubernatorial campaign and said the bridge was essential for the town's prosperity.

Wow... she really is a maverick. To make the soundbite line of her speech a bald-faced lie, instead of the half-truths and bumbling "my friends" of John McCain, is truly mavericky and bold.

Is anyone over at Camp McCain doing their job? Come to think of it, is anyone in the national media - you know, the people who should be pointing out that Palin openly lied in her speech - doing their job?

Labels: John McCain, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin

Charlie Black with the Bush-McCain campaign:

[Palin]’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long.

I know it was a joke, but seriously... most doctors think he'll be around at least that long? What happens if he isn't? A 72-year-old man with a history of cancer and other ailments could (God forbid) pass away at any time - even on January 21, 2009. Will she be ready then? Or will she still need a few years to "learn national security at the foot of the master"? If so, what new "master" will be pulling the strings of the new Commander-in-Chief?

The more I look at this choice, the more it becomes clear to me that with this decision John McCain was thinking only of November 5, 2008 - and not of January 20, 2009. It's an irresponsible choice - and an even more irresponsible way of making that choice - from the man who wants Americans to make him the next leader of the free world.

Update: Even Karl Rove thinks this is an irresponsible choice - or at least he did back on August 10:

"With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years, he's been able but undistinguished," Rove said. "I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America."

It's important to note here that Tim Kaine has twice as much experience as governor as Sarah Palin, and of a much more populous and diverse state with an economy that isn't propped up by the oil and gas industries and federal pork.

Oh, and for the record, I can't even find where Wasilla, Alaska, with its population of a whopping 6,715, ranks on the list of US cities. But if the state of Alaska were a city, its population of 680,000 would make it the 17th largest city in the nation - meaning that anyone who has been the mayor of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Columbus, or Austin has, in fact, had more constituents than Gov. Palin.

Labels: John McCain, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin

You can tell how a person works by asking his or her coworkers... and John McCain's coworkers, Democratic and Republican alike, all agree that John McCain's temper is out of control.

“He has a huge anger problem,” [Sen. Barbara] Boxer said. “And he never hid that….I have seen it happen on the Senate floor many, many times... He has exploded at me a couple times.”

Oh, and let's not pretend McCain has the kind of control over his temper that he can keep from being violent:

Boxer pointed out that many of McCain’s GOP colleagues have also spoken out about his volatility, highlighting an incident told to the Biloxi Sun Herald by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).

Cochran told the newspaper that he watched McCain get involved in a physical confrontation with a Nicaraguan government official during a 1987 trip there. According to Cochran, McCain grabbed the official by the shirt collar and “snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair.”

So... in the many stressful and frustrating situations the next president is likely to find himself in, do you really want a man who is this unable to control himself? Do we really want the leader of the free world to be a (supposedly) grown man who gets violently angry and throws a temper tantrum whenever he doesn't get his way?

John McCain does not have the temperament to be President. Add that to the numerous reasons he is unfit for the office.

Labels: John McCain, Republicans

On Jay Leno's show tonight, John McCain personally engaged in the same crass exploitation of his own life story that his campaign has been engaging in for weeks - another rather pathetic attempt to use the fact that he was a POW to suggest that this makes him completely beyond any criticism for anything he's ever done.

"For a million dollars," Jay Leno asked Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., today, "how many houses do you have?"

"Could I just mention to you, Jay, that, at a moment of seriousness. I spent five-and-a-half years in a prison cell," McCain said. "I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. I didn't have a table. I didn't have a chair. And I didn't spend those five-and-a-half years because, not because I wanted to get a house when I got out."

Seriously... what the hell does your having been a POW have to do with the fact that you're such a massive economic elitist? Are a few years of heroism supposed to paper over a lifetime of moral cowardice, lack of character, and failure of integrity?

John McCain is running a serious risk that his personal story will become a running joke - and when it happens, he will have only himself to blame.

Labels: John McCain, Republicans

Why is it that Barack Obama is painted as an elitist when John McCain, the son and grandson of admirals who grew up in privilege, has a great deal more money, wants to basically sell what remains of this country's middle class to the rich, and doesn't even know how many houses he owns at a time when many of his "fellow" Americans can barely afford to stay in theirs, is somehow seen as a "regular guy"?

Anyway, Obama's come out with a new, strong ad on this very topic.



Update: "John Sixpack" calls the Waaaaaaaambulance and issues a response.

Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people ‘cling’ to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?

Um... "Senator"? Barack Obama earned his money by writing books people wanted to read, and only got out of student loan debt a few years ago. You left your first wife, the mother of your children, because your mistress had a lot of money and was willing to fund your political career... not to mention that you can't even be bothered to show up for the job the American people are paying you to do. I don't think you want to have the debate about who's making a better living here, "Senator" Whiny.

Update 2: Someone else pointed out that according to John McCain, Barack Obama's $4 million income is still well within the middle-class.

Update 3: Another predictable response from Widdle Crybaby Johnny's campaign: "b-b-b-but he was a POW!"

Labels: John McCain, Politics, Republicans

You'll undoubtedly notice that the McCain campaign isn't making much hay out of the Edwards affair - and the reason is that if they did, it would open them to massive charges of hypocrisy. As it is, I think we need to turn a bigger spotlight on what McCain's own affair reveals about his character.

First, like John Edwards's affair, John McCain's wife was sick at the time. It takes a special breed of scum to cheat on one's spouse when he or she needs more support, when he or she is hurting.

Second, unlike John Edwards's affair, McCain didn't break it off - in fact, he dumped his first wife (who was sick and crippled from a car accident) to run off with Cindy. Yep, Mr. Integrity himself dumped his sick wife for a hot, young, rich heiress. Edwards is working to make his marriage work; McCain decided that it was too hard to stay with his sick wife and ran off with the mistress. Stay classy, Mac.

Third, unlike John Edwards, John McCain's affair helped his career. It was Cindy's cash that bankrolled McCain's first run for office.

So, to review: John Edwards had an affair with a woman around his age, an affair that hurt his career perhaps irreparably, and broke off the affair to make things work with his wife (who is, I might add, an incredible woman who should get a Cabinet seat in the Obama administration).

John McCain had an affair with a rich beauty queen decades younger than him, an affair that helped his career by bankrolling his first campaign, and instead of doing what honorable people do he dumped his sick wife to run off with the heiress. And I have yet to see the slightest indication that he repents or regrets what he did in any way.

Someone tell me again how the Republicans - who nominated this scumbag - are the party of family values?

Labels: John McCain, Politics, Republicans

Are you having trouble making the mortgage payment now that your adjustable rate has gone up?

Are prices at the pump making it tougher for you to get by?

Are your stagnant wages not keeping up with your expenses?

Good news! McCain adviser Phil Gramm says it's all in your head!

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession [...] We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

Talk about out-of-touch. Tell the family whose house is being foreclosed on that we haven't had a recession yet. Tell the people who are getting laid off, or who are going back to work at jobs with longer hours for less pay and no benefits, that we haven't had a recession yet. Months of growth are fine and dandy - but when that growth only affects the portfolios of the top 1%, let's not pretend that the other 99% aren't feeling the pinch.

But that isn't even the best part:

We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."

A nation of whiners? Does that make John McCain - who said in a recent ad that our economy is "in shambles" - the greatest whiner of all? And how can Phil Gramm continue to have a role in the campaign of a big whiner like John McCain?

John McCain needs to not only denounce these words but also ensure that Phil Gramm no longer serves in his campaign. For a candidate whose economic elitism - multiple houses (at least one of which he hasn't paid taxes on), hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit-card debt, the penchant for high-stakes craps games in Vegas - is a major storm on the horizon, a connection to someone who calls the very real struggles of everyday Americans "whining" will only add to the trouble.

Labels: John McCain, Phil Gramm, Politics, Republicans