Posts Tagged ‘craps’
McCain Wants to Cancel the Debate?
McCain wants to cancel the debate? What?
Republican John McCain said Wednesday he was suspending his White House campaign and asked to put off Friday’s presidential debate over the nation’s financial crisis.
Saturday Politics
On the politics front, the new GOP line (apparently) is that Sarah Palin isn’t ready to be president after all—yet.
I’m certain that over the next couple of weeks the press will be pounding her and the campaign wanting to know where the access is. There’ll be a lot of process stories about why isn’t she talking to reporters. There’ll be a lot of noise that voters, frankly, don’t really care about—and as frustrated as the press is gonna be it’s a smart move by the campaign because, like I said, voters don’t really care about these process stories, but if she goes out and makes a mistake, that is something that [voters will] care about, and that’s something that will haunt [McCain] for awhile, so I think this is a smart move.
GOP strategist Todd Harris goes on to say that she’ll be getting prepped for as long as two weeks before she talks to anyone in the media. The Jed Report says it best:
This has got to be one of the craziest messaging decisions ever: Harris is conceding that Palin’s not even ready to be a vice presidential candidate, let alone be president.
Kevin Drum, too:
The McCain campaign is scared to death. They knew nothing about Palin before they announced her, they relied on a cursory vetting process that has turned out to be shot full of holes, they realize now that she has no settled views on any issue of national importance and could blurt out anything at any time, and they’re terrified about what might crop up next. So they’re keeping her in the deep freeze.
Has it really come to this? The absolute lack of confidence McCain has in his own pick to be vice president is mind-boggling; the absurdity of this past week truly marks a singular event in the history of our Republic, and if things go wrong it’ll be probably be used (alongside Florida 2000) to mark the start of its final decline.
This is monarchism, not democracy. A candidate for office needs to be accountable to the voters, not to a vague mish-mash of identitarian buzzwords. If we as a nation passively accept the Palin candidacy, if we demand nothing more than this from the Republicans or from ourselves, then American democracy is simply dead.
(Of course, a candidate should also be trusted to talk about something other than their own love of self, but we’re sitting by and letting John McCain fail that test, too.)
In more positive news, at least Joe Biden continues to win my respect. Give ’em hell, Joe.
RNC Day 2 Preview
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the seriousness with which the mainstream media has handled John McCain’s veepstakes roll of the dice: there’s negative pieces on the poorly vetted, poorly thought-out selection in the New York Times, Washington Post, and L.A. Times today. However, I’m not hopeful this attitude of diligence and responsibility will last past tonight—Palin’s ability to read a speech to an adoring crowd will be taken as “proof” that she’s ready to take over as president if something happens to John McCain. (And yes, thank you, I’m already fully aware of the irony.)
I had high hopes the caught-flat-footed Lieberman video I uploaded last night would go viral and destroy McCain’s credibility for all time. That hasn’t happened (yet!), but so far it has been picked up by Washington Monthly / CBS Online, Cynical-C, and Crooks and Liars. Alongside the Daily Kos diary I hope that means it’s catching some eyes. It’s an incredibly revealing, damning, and best of all self-inflicted indictment of McCain’s gamble from one of his top supporters; I can’t say enough good things about it. Show it to anyone you can.
The Sarah Palin Chronicles
More and more evidence mounts that the McCain camp didn’t actually vet Palin at all. They didn’t read a single article in the Wasilla newspaper, and they didn’t talk to Walt Monegan, the man at the center of her still open abuse of power ethics investigation—nor, apparently, did they talk to anyone else. They’ve been pushing as one of her few notable accomplishments her opposition to the “Bridge to Nowhere,” which has turned out to be, well, bullshit. Nearly recalled as mayor, she left the small town of Wasilla over $20 million dollars in debt. That’s after she tried to censor the town library and fire long-time town employees without cause for “not fully supporting her efforts to govern.”
Oh, and her husband works for BP, one of the largest employers in Alaska, which is not in any way a conflict of interest.
And those are just the highlights. Given all this, I get a sinking feeling when I see how much attention the already ubiquitous, totally moronic baby smear is getting. Even Andrew Sullivan is pushing it now, though he’s careful to hedge his bets. That’s just not a basket in which I want to put Barack’s eggs; it’s the raw irresponsibility of John McCain’s cynical and poorly thought-out VP pick—a roll of the dice from a chronic gambler—that we should be talking about, not whether a seventeen-year-old girl does or doesn’t have a “baby bump” in a given photo.
The Juno/Juneau parody poster on Gawker made me laugh, but that’s the only upside here. I don’t think we’d want anything to do with the baby thing even if by some impossible chance it all turns out to be true.
John McCain says he made this decision because he looked into Putin’s Palin’s eyes the one time they met and saw a soul mate. The only thing we should be saying about Palin is that this is not the way to make the most important decision of your candidacy. The Palin pick is stone-cold proof that John McCain has neither the judgment nor the temperament to be president.
So leave her kids alone. Keep your heads on straight, netroots.
Last Words on Palin
Last words for a while on Palin.
* Andrew Sullivan of all people has been absolutely brutal, all day, hitting just about every objection to Palin in order. He’s also pushing the gambling meme, which I’m convinced is the key frame through which to view this very reckless, lunatic choice.
* More gambling: Dan Gerstein, a former adviser to Sen. Joe Lieberman, in the New York Daily News:
“In picking an unknown, untested, half-a-term woman governor from Alaska to be his running mate, John McCain is following in a long line of reckless men who have rolled the dice for a beauty queen. Except in this case, McCain is taking one of the biggest, boldest gambles in modern American political history.”
Sometimes you have to roll the hard six?
* Sullivan and Ben Smith together point out the worst vetting lapse I’ve heard thus far, that Palin supported Pat Buchanan for president in 1996 and 1999. That’s mind-boggling. Was she vetted at all?
* Maybe not: as of Sunday, he’d still wanted Lieberman, and the final decision was only made last night.
* Ezra’s been good today too, particularly on the cable news coverage.
* Robert Elisburg’s verdict: The Worst Vice-Presidential Nominee in U.S. History.
Cynicism or Risk Addiction?
A text message from an old friend raises a question about my last post, in which I called the Palin selection the most “cynically short-sighted, purely news-cycle-motivated choice in presidential politics history.” Echoing Pat Buchanan, he asks:
Cynicism or risk addiction?
It’s certainly not the first time questions have been raised about McCain and high-stakes craps.