Andrew Sullivan: Joe the Plumber has now had more press conferences than Sarah Palin.
Archive for the ‘Sarah Palin’ Category
Circular Firing Squad
Posted: October 16, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Beltway Drama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, Beltway Drama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Talking Heads
A few days ago, I made note of the back and forth sniping going on between the McCain campaign and conservative pundit Bill Kristol. It’s gotten a bit personal lately, with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis personally taking Kristol out to the woodshed on national television. The key soundbite:
DAVIS: Yes, well, you know, it’s a good thing Bill Kristol has never run a political campaign because he’d probably have to fire himself at least two or three times.
This may be beyond standard political sniping. Scott Horton of Harper’s has written extensively about Bill Kristol’s role in promoting Sarah Palin for the VP slot. But in a recent interview with Glenn Greenwald, Horton reveals evidence of discontent behind closed doors at the McCain campaign.
SH: I’d say, of course the McCain campaign isn’t doing too well right now, and one of the consequences of that is we’ve got a lot of finger-pointing going on within the camp, and I’d say there’s a pretty broad agreement amongst a number of the senior-most advisors to McCain that the Palin pick is worse than disappointing. It’s a total disaster, as one describes to me. And there is a sort of blame game going on there.
Now, one of them described to me quite recently in some detail, who it was who introduced and pushed the Palin nomination, and he says it really boils down – there were a number of people behind the nomination, but there’s one person who was essentially the person who introduced her as a candidate and pushed her consistently and firmly all through the summer primary she was elected – and that person is Bill Kristol. And the interesting thing is of course, if we look across the whole horizon of conservative columnists, prominent conservative columnists, pretty much all of them are expressing reservations or concerns or they’re outright opposing Palin as a pick, with one really striking exception, and that’s Bill Kristol. And Bill Kristol, in none of his columns has acknowledged that he in a sense is the author of Sarah Palin. He discovered her, he promoted her, and he pushed her through to the vice-presidential nomination.
If this is true, that makes Kristol’s recent criticism of Palin much more self-serving. It’s become full-on cover your ass mode. When the post-mortem of this campaign is written, there will be a lot of people pointing fingers at each other, and I think quite a few of them will be pointed at Bill Kristol.
The Tell
Posted: October 15, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Sarah Palin, Talking HeadsTags: 2008 Elections, Sarah Palin, Talking Heads
See Rush Limbaugh’s question to Sarah Palin.
SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Though her cell phone service repeatedly dropped during her call-in, Sarah Palin made her first appearance on the Rush Limbaugh show on Tuesday, just minutes before taking the stage at a rally in Scranton.
In an unusual moment, Limbaugh asked Palin if she had thought about her “political future beyond this campaign.” The vice presidential nominee told the conservative talker and his millions of listeners: “That’s a good question.” But she then quickly re-assured the radio host that her focus was on winning the White House with John McCain on November 4.
“No, because I am thinking about November 4, and I am just so absolutely passionate about the job that we have in front of us from now to November 4,” she said.
If Limbaugh’s asking about Palin’s future, odds are that rank and file conservatives are probably thinking and feeling the same way.
Playing Defense
Posted: October 13, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Sarah PalinTags: 2008 Elections, John McCain, Sarah Palin
If somebody had told me a year ago that I’d be looking at poll numbers hinting at a close race in North Dakota, I would have told them to get their heads examined. These numbers seem like an outlier to me, but if McCain has to spend time and resources defending North Dakota, he’s screwed.
Barack Obama is shown with an edge against John McCain in a North Dakota presidential race that has narrowed to a statistical tie, according to a new Forum poll.
The survey shows Obama squeaking past McCain, 45 percent to 43 percent, a lead that falls within the poll’s margin of error and therefore indicates a dead heat, according to political analysts.
Still up for grabs: undecided voters, comprising 12 percent.
“It’s a statistical tossup,” said Jim Danielson, co-director of the Public Affairs Institute at Minnesota State University Moorhead, which conducted the statewide telephone survey for The Forum. Pollsters contacted 606 likely North Dakota voters by telephone Oct. 6-8.
The poll indicates McCain’s once-comfortable lead in North Dakota has melted away as Obama is the widely favored choice among voters who consider the economy the most pressing issue.
I repeat what I said before – the candidates’ itineraries often speak volumes about the state of the race and the morale inside their campaigns:
Things aren’t looking much better in Indiana:
(CNN) – Sarah Palin will campaign in Indiana for the first time Friday, the latest sign this once solidly-red state could be up for grabs this year.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain has already visited the state once, speaking at a law enforcement conference in Indianapolis this summer. Palin’s visit will also be in the Indianapolis area, the McCain-Palin campaign confirmed.
The Democratic ticket has visited the state half a dozen times. Last week, Barack Obama drew an estimated crowd of more than 20,000 at the state fairgrounds.
And they’re now playing catch-up in North Carolina and Virginia:
(CNN) — John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning Monday in two states that haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in more than four decades, a clear indication the GOP ticket is scrambling to defend longtime Republican strongholds with only three weeks until Election Day.
But at a time when the McCain campaign had hoped to have shored up its support in the traditional red states, a string of new surveys show Obama has made significant gains there as voters become increasingly worried about the nation’s financial woes.
McCain and Palin held a joint rally in Virginia Beach Monday morning before the two candidates split up, as the Republican nominee heads down to North Carolina as his running mate stays behind for more events in Virginia. It’s only the second time McCain has made visits to either state in more than four months, and comes as a series of battleground surveys suggest his playing field is increasingly shrinking.
As I’ve said repeatedly – Barack Obama’s road to 270 is expanding, while McCain’s is stagnant or shrinking. If the trends remain constant for the rest of the campaign, McCain will have to come up with the Electoral College equivalent of an inside straight if he has any chance of winning in three weeks.
Friday Night Fallout
Posted: October 11, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, October Surprise, Sarah PalinTags: 2008 Elections, John McCain, October Surprise, Sarah Palin
Looks like the McCain campaign’s attempt at preemptive spin was justified. The Alaska Legislature’s Troopergate report is out (PDF) and concludes that Sarah Palin abused her powers as governor in the firing of the public safety commissioner. Here’s the write-up by the Associated Press:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday. The politically charged inquiry imperiled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain’s Republican ticket.
Investigator Stephen Branchflower, in a report to a bipartisan panel that looked into the matter, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.
The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who said he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.
Monegan’s firing was lawful, the report found, but Palin let the family grudge influence her decision-making — even if it was not the sole reason Monegan was dismissed.
This goes back to McCain campaign’s VP vetting process and ultimate decision in asking Palin to be on the ticket. Why the hell did they think it was a good idea to have a candidate who was under an active investigation whose final report was due weeks before the election? It wasn’t a big secret, a simple Google search would have uncovered it. Even though this is the sort of thing the Right used to scream bloody murder about during the Clinton presidency, the GOP base will still love Palin anyway, come hell or high water, and I don’t think it’s going to change any minds among Democratic voters who weren’t going to vote for her anyway.
The ultimate damage to this may be long term, after this campaign is over. If McCain loses and Palin goes back to being governor of Alaska, the rest of her term will be clouded by this investigation. When she’s up for reelection in 2010, it will come back to haunt her, either in the form of a primary challenge or from her Democratic opponent. If she had been exonerated and if she were a genuine asset to the GOP ticket right now, she would have been the frontrunner for her party’s nomination in 2012. Instead, this will be her first, and likely only, shot at national office.
Nothing to See Here, Move Along…
Posted: October 10, 2008 in 2008 Elections, October Surprise, Sarah PalinTags: 2008 Elections, October Surprise, Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the firing of the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner by… the McCain-Palin campaign. Feel free to make your own jokes.
The 28th Amendment
Posted: October 7, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Humor, Media, Sarah PalinTags: 2008 Elections, Humor, Media, Sarah Palin
VP Debate Recap
Posted: October 4, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Debates, Joe Biden, Sarah PalinTags: 2008 Elections, Debates, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin
So the big event came and went, and nearly 70 million people tuned in, second only to the Reagan-Carter debate in 1980.
The bar was not very high for Palin following the disastrous interviews with Katie Couric, so even showing up and being able to say a complete sentence would have made the debate a success for her. She didn’t make any major gaffes that came anywhere close to the train wreck spectacle that the Couric clips did. She was very folksy in her mannerisms and language (“Say it ain’t so, Joe”) which I think helped her to connect more directly with the audiences watching on TV in a way that they could relate to her. Thematically, she sounded most comfortable talking about energy.
Some liberal bloggers were alleging that Palin was reading off cheat sheets or prepared notes. Both candidates had a notebook to write on the podium. While she definitely looked down at times like she was reading from prepared text, the truth is not so sinister.
When I took the GRE to apply for grad schools, you are given several blank pages of paper. Before the test begins, you are allowed to write down mathematical formulas and the outlines for the essay questions so you can have them handy and not waste any time during the test itself. My assumption is that something similar happened here: Palin wrote down several prepared responses during the course of the debate and read off of her notes when she had to.
When the focus shifted to foreign policy in the second half, Joe Biden turned on the jets and never looked back. Given years of experience on the Foreign Relations Committee, he has a near encyclopedic understanding of every major issue in American foreign policy. He sounded confident, authoritative without coming off as condescending to Palin and the audience, and based on my impression, did not appear to hesitate in responding to any topic.
Most post-debate polls and analysis declared Biden the winner, and I agree. He looked and sounded like a President, Vice President, or Secretary of State (he was rumored to be on the shortlist for this job if John Kerry had won in 2004). While Palin showed she had clearly prepared and learned from her interview experiences and was able to connect more on an emotional level than Biden (except for when he choked up) and snuck in a few jabs at Barack Obama, she was essentially running the same play over and over again. It was substance without depth, and it became blatantly obvious as the debate progressed when you compared Biden’s responses on some questions to hers.
On to McCain-Obama Round 2 on Tuesday…
I Put a Fatwa On You
Posted: October 2, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Foreign Policy, Sarah PalinTags: Foreign Policy, Pakistan, Sarah Palin
I really don’t know what to make of this.
With some overly friendly comments to Gov. Sarah Palin at the United Nations, Asif Ali Zardari has succeeded in uniting one of Pakistan’s hard-line mosques and its feminists after a few weeks in office.
A radical Muslim prayer leader said the president shamed the nation for “indecent gestures, filthy remarks, and repeated praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt.”
Feminists charged that once again a male Pakistani leader has embarrassed the country with sexist remarks. And across the board, the Pakistani press has shown disapproval.
What did President Zardari do to draw such scorn? It might have been the “gorgeous” compliment he gave Ms. Palin when the two met at the UN last week during her meet-and-greet with foreign leaders ahead of Thursday’s vice presidential debate with opponent Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
But the comments from Zardari didn’t end there. He went on to tell Palin: “Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.”
Regardless of the absurdity of the comments, and the reaction, this is not the kind of impression that a new head of state wants to make on his people.
Icepicks and Nukes 