McCain Advisor Calls Palin a "Whack Job"

Better late than never to wake up, I suppose:

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, on a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”

***In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”

November 5th is going to be fun. And nobody deserves it more than the GOP.

The $150,000 Hockey Mom

The fraud that is Sarah Palin becomes more obvious on a daily basis.

Irony Meter Mass Extinction Event

Sarah Palin actually has the unmitigated gall to say this about Obama?!

"Some in the mainstream media are saying that well we're taking the gloves off unfairly. No. You know there are only, what, 26 days to go. We gotta start getting answers to these questions that are paramount here so that voters have a choice in front of them that is based on truthfulness and candor. They deserve it."

When's your first press conference, you snarky, hypocritical bitch?

The Stones Begin to Pound Sarah Palin's Glass House

You want guilt by association, Sarah? You got it.

The Media Allows Sarah Palin's Propaganda Campaign

When it comes to Sarah Palin, McCain isn't running a presidential campaign, he's running a propaganda campaign. And the media is letting him get away with it. Andrew Sullivan said it best:

Until governor Sarah Palin gives a full press conference, it seems to me that the cable news outlets should stop running her stump speeches in full on television. The deal is: candidates get to broadcast their message if the press get to question them thoroughly. That's how real democracy works - give and take. What the Palin-McCain campaign wants is all give and no take: an indirect propaganda filter and the outrageous precedent of no press conferences in presidential campaigns. This is an assault on democracy. It is closer to Russian or Georgian democracy than American. If cable news continues to enable this chilling process, they will become complicit.

Enough.

I only disagree with his choice of tense: they are already complicit and have been for weeks.

Sarah Palin's America

Let's all take a big step backwards, shall we:

McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

...

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

When do they break out the white sheets and the burning crosses? Well I guess they need to save something for the next three weeks too.

Time for Americans to Learn More About Sarah Palin's Witch Doctor, er, Pastor

If the cluebot wants to scare people out of voting for Obama because of Wright, then her own kooky religious past is fair game.

Then again, the more she does this, the more the veneer is eroded off her "hockey mom, apple pie" image. As it should be.

Sarah Palin Continues to be an Obnoxious, Lying Bitch

The empty-headed robot from Alaska has been pumped full of ridiculous attacks by the McNasty campaign and is dutifully repeating them:

Obama has denounced the radical views and actions of Bill Ayers, a founder of the violent Weather Underground group during the Vietnam era. On Sunday, Obama dismissed the criticism from the McCain campaign, leveled by Palin, as "smears" meant to distract voters from real problems such as the troubled economy.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, launched the attack Saturday and repeated it Sunday, signaling a new strategy by John McCain's presidential campaign to go after Obama's character.

"The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about," Palin said as she boarded her plane in Long Beach, Calif. "I think it's fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy's living room."

...

But while Ayers and Obama are acquainted, the charge that they "pal around" is a stretch of any reading of the public record. And it's simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts. Obama was 8 years old at the time the Weather Underground claimed credit for numerous bombings and was blamed for a pipe bomb that killed a San Francisco policeman.

Keep driving those favorables into the ground, sweetie: nobody deserves the upcoming ass-kicking more than you do, except for your fellow false-maverick. I eagerly await the second ass-kicking you'll receive when you slink back to Alaska.

Sarah Palin Cowardice Watch -- Six Weeks with No Free Press Access

Weeks go by and we learn little more about her; and what we do learn turns most of us off. She continues to prove more and more that she is unfit for high office:

One of the reasons Palin has had so little opportunity to make any promises - or clarify some of her past positions, for that matter - is that the 44-year-old governor's interaction with the news media has been so carefully rationed. As of Friday, she had not given a single news conference. Her exposure has been limited to stump speeches and interviews with TV journalists Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson and Sean Hannity. Even in those selected settings, her freeze-up at seemingly straightforward questions - What newspapers and magazines does she read? Which Supreme Court decisions does she disagree with? - and her accentuating her state's proximity with Russia as a foreign policy credential did not suggest the depth or confidence of someone who was ready to become leader of the free world.

Her debate performance did not assuage those doubts. Time and again, her answers were incomplete or outright evasive.

...

Americans should not have to wait until after election day to know more about Palin's vision for a national energy policy - with follow-up questions - or myriad other matters in this period of economic crisis and overseas wars.

We know what's on the cue cards, and we know that she can deliver those points with winks and zing. Palin has said McCain never asked her to "check my opinions by the door."

It's time to let them out.

Troopergate Investigation Enters the Home Stretch

An Alaskan court threw out an attempt by the McCain campaign to impede the investigation, and the report is due out on Friday. Sarah Palin continues to destroy her reputation and political capital in her home state -- or rather, to allow McCain to destroy it -- and the pressure continues:

Legal issues aside, it never made sense for Palin and Colberg to put up such a fight over the investigation anyway. Palin has maintained all along that she fired Monegan for legitimate reasons. She also said from the beginning that she'd cooperate with the legislative inquiry.

With nothing to hide, what's the problem?

The McCain-Palin presidential campaign -- which has no business getting involved in the first place -- keeps holding press conferences saying the investigation is political, and that's what's wrong with it.

Of course the investigation is political. The governor is running for vice president. The Republican presidential campaign has inserted itself smack into the middle of Troopergate. And Colberg and Palin, by refusing to cooperate and telling state employees not to cooperate, have delayed meaningful results -- charging up the political atmosphere as the November election draws ever closer.

...

What could de-politicize the investigation?

Finishing it.

The very fact that Sarah Palin allowed John McCain to come into Alaska and essentially take over the governor's office shows what a weak, easily-manipulated leader she is, and what a danger she represents on the national scene.

How a Real Woman Leader Deals with the Public

Andrew Sullivan very succinctly illustrates how Margaret Thatcher -- whatever you may think of her -- shows the right way for a public official to interact with the public. No scripts, no pre-screened interview questions, no "handling" -- open questions from the public. Sullivan's comments are worth a read as well.

Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart

Click to enlarge.

The Silliness of "Expectations"

Yes, Palin "beat expectations". About the only way she could not have is if she had gone out there, hitched her skirt, and taken a dump on the stage.

The Republicans who are celeberating this only show just how ridiculous their ticket is, and how little they understand of the real issues and stakes here. They are certainly free to "grade on a curve" if they want, but "not being as big of a joke as she was before" is not a very good standard of success.

Voters don't grade on a curve -- they look at the whole person. And the person Palin showed us last night is one who is not ready for high office. She acted mostly like a robot reading programmed lines, and needed her crib sheet to even attempt to respond to the most basic issues. Her response on the role of the vice-presidency shows that she understands little to nothing about the Constitution.

In the real world you don't get to "cram". You don't have the luxury of reading off crib notes.

She still can't hold a press conference to answer tough questions but we're supposed to believe she's going to make critical decisions and take on Washington? Who is really stupid enough to believe this? Only people who either can't think or choose not to.

Palin's overall attitude, with the plasticky smile and goofy lines, seemed to be that leading this nation is a big joke. But she is the joke -- one that makes a mockery of McCain's claims about the importance of the job he seeks. Anyone who thinks that it's a good idea to support a candidate who bluffs her way through easy questions is not a patriot -- he or she is someone who puts winning an election ahead of the good of the country.

Initial VP Debate Thoughts

They say that the first rule of the VP is "do no harm". This reflects the fact that few people will vote for a candidate because of his or her VP, but many might vote against a candidate because of one. It was for this reason that some of us said earlier that even if Palin did okay it wouldn't matter a great deal.

Well, she did "okay". And it won't matter a great deal.

No major gaffes, but it's also quite obvious that she is totally clueless, especially on foreign policy. She proved again tonight that she has charisma and she can regurgitate talking points, but that she has no depth of understanding of important issues at all.

IMO the story tonight isn't Palin -- it's Biden. He got no attention coming in, and IMO he came across as prepared, intelligent, experienced and very human.

Voters Continue to Wake Up About Palin

A third of the country still remains asleep, but that's a self-induced comatose state. Others are starting to finally notice that she's a farce. I have a feeling that her numbers will improve after tonight if she does a good job "looking cute" and bullshitting answers (the only two things she is good at, after all). But for now, this Washington Post ABC Poll has good numbers for those of us who are fans of reality:

1. Palin's net favorability is still +11, but down from +30 three weeks ago. Her "strongly unfavorable" number is a sky-high 29%.

2. Asked if Palin has the experience necessary to serve as president if that becomes necessary, 35% said yes, and a staggering 60% said no. Three weeks ago these figures were 47% and 45% respectively.

3. Impact on voting for McCain: 23% say more likely, 32% say less likely; three weeks ago these figures were 25% and 19% respectively.

Top Ten Things Overheard at Sarah Palin's Debate Camp :)

LOL.

Now Over a Month Since Palin Was Selected

Still no press conference, and it appears she's now going to be avoiding even the "tough" (LOL) Couric type interviews in favor of Sean Hannity style infomercials.

And there are Americans who fall for this. It's like we live in the old USSR or something.

What It's Like to Debate Sarah Palin

A former debate opponent speaks.

Sounds great: she knows how to "win" a debate without actually saying anything of substance. Our nation really needs another leader like that, doesn't it?

Sarah Palin "Pity Party"? Good Grief!

Just when you thought the whole Sarah Palin thing couldn't get any more ridiculous, now we have commentators saying they feel sorry for poor, poor Sarah.

Give me a break! This isn't someone who has been beset with some tragedy. She made the decision to step into this position knowing full well that she wasn't qualified. She hasn't even had the basic decency to act with any humility, openly and brazenly proclaiming her "readiness", exploiting her own children, and dishonestly attacking even when her opponents stood up for her.

She wants pity? Let her withdraw, then I'll consider it. Right now, it's the American people who deserve pity for having to endure another five weeks of her candidacy.

McCain Camp Working the Refs on the VP Debate

Blah blah blah.

Americans are counting on Gwen Ifill to be objective in helping us learn as much as possible abotu Sarah Palin, since the Keystone Kops Kampaign sure as hell isn't.