Apparently John McCain’s campaign manager is contending that Palin is being shielded from the media, not because she can’t handle an interview, but because they’re gonna be mean to her:
“Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?” he asked. “So until at which point in time we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment,” he said.
Three things occur to me:
1) If McCain’s people were taking this position with a male candidate, the perception would be that he’s weak and inept. So McCain’s people are banking on the concept that her being a woman will preclude that criticism, because anyone who says that will be tagged as being insulting and anti-feminist.
2) This sounds unbelievably patronizing to her and monumentally arrogant to the media. They’re saying she can’t handle tough questions, or at least shouldn’t have to, and they are endeavoring to dictate terms as to how the media has to treat her in order to rate an interview.
3) Someone who needs this much handling and protection doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in contemplating her being toe-to-toe with various foreign dictators and strong men, particularly if a stilled heartbeat thrusts her into the presidency anytime after January 2009. Golda Meir didn’t need insulation. Neither did Margaret Thatcher, to whom Palin has ludicrously been compared. Well…NOW Thatcher needs insulation, because she has dementia. So basically Sarah Palin needs as much protection as a former world leader who has trouble recalling her husband is dead. Make of that what you will.
PAD
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And where Palin has never been, along with every other country in the world.
As long as you don’t count Germany, Kuwait and Canada as other countries.
See, this is what I don’t get. A leader who has only been to 3 other countries is something worth criticizing. So why are the people who criticize Palin so fervent about it that they have to invent the fiction that it was zero instead of 3? I take it as a given that PAD really thinks it was zero and that’s easy to believe because I’ve seen the same thing “reported” elsewhere. the number of exaggerations and outright lies about her have even eclipsed those said about Obama, which is saying something. And while many of the people lying about Obama have the decency to not give their names out we have actual celebrities and pundits talking about how Palin believes dinosaurs are Satan’s Lizards or that her youngest child may actually be her grandchild. Or joking about her husband committing incest on their kids.
Ugly, ugly stuff. And so unnecessary. There are plenty of perfectly legit reasons to vote against her or even dislike her if you need to get emotional about it. Why the craziness? Naomi Wolff thinks Palin is stealing her mail. Or something. It’s hard to tell; Wolff hasn’t been the same since she had a vision of Jesus a few years back. Can’t blame her. But the people who take her seriously? The people who would ever think of Sandra Bernhard as anything other than an example of how hatred can twist a good talent? I don’t know…
(No, I’m not suggesting Wolff or Bernhard should be looked at as any kind of bellwethers. But in a more decent atmosphere they’d be shunned.)
You’re right. I did further checking. The incredibly well-traveled Palin got a passport waaaaaaay back in 2007. And she went to Kuwait and Germany…to visit Alaskan troops. Wow. How continental. My comment about her lack of curiosity about other countries and the world around her remains intact.
My daughter Ariel’s been to more countries than the GOP candidate.
PAD
Has Ariel been vetted by the Obama campaign yet? because if Joe keeps running his mouth…
Sean: “And I don’t have any Micronaut figures anymore,”
I do.
~8?)`
I am convinced…..I have done a 180..Palin is not very experienced and yes I agree, Obama has a bit more experience then her and would be a better Vice Presidential candidate……………..(!)
Holy crap:
nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/w24davis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp
Seems like Obama is back on the lead, actually as large a lead as he ever had. It just took a huge economic crisis to do it. I wonder if the Democrats will still manage to lose this one? I very much hope that Obama wins, but at the same time I have zero confidence in the Democrats when it comes to campaigning.
By the way, what are you guys oppinion on the currrent financial crisis? Are the Republicans really to blame? Is Bush?
Bill
Actually we are closer on the teaching of sex education than you think. I think more info is better than less. Age appropriate would mean that the information should be given in a way that takes into account that the children’s knowledge and life experience are very limited. There are a number of books out there that have been written by those more knowledgeable than me about those issues that the schools could draw from.
Of course, instead of talking about the bigger issues of the economy, the wars, our standing in the international community, etc., we are bogged down in the minutiae of a state bills language. I think, more than anything else, the misleading GOP ads are aiming the national discourse away from the failures of the last 8 years so the McCain ticket won’t have to defend his votes and positions. They don’t care if the ads are misleading or outright lies. If we are talking about them, we aren’t discussing McCains record. I’m not sure whether to compare this tactic to Houdini (nothing up my sleeve!) or Barnum (there’s a sucker born every minute.)
McCain was on of the Keating 5, and the shame of that still made him of no use in preventing the current crisis.
Reagan made deregulation sexy, and now these financial institutions that engineered their own deregulation are holding out for the government safety net. Of course the republicans are to blame: a safety net for their pack leaders, paint the fixed-game as fair for everyone else, then campaign for the same áššhølëš who got us into this mess in the first place.
Karen, there’s no doubt McCain needs to make this a vote on Obama. by every historical analysis you can think of, this should be an easy year for a democrat to win.
Obama, it seems to me, wins easiest by sticking to being the figure that inspired so many people to like him in the first place. If he gets in the gutter he will be fighting the exact wrong fight.
Certainly in a general way, emphasizing deregulation over common sense. And right now, any attempt to fix things while allowing past actors to get away scott free is a non-starter.
What’s not helpful is throwing up a miasma of countercharges. Sure, maybe there’s a bit of responsibility for Democrats for not minding the store, as well, but there’s less cupability there because a lot of the problems were in the administration of regulations and oversight, which is in the executive branch by definition.
What’s not helpful as well is trying to shift the blame. No, trying to lend to poorer people and minorities WASN’T the cause of this–a) look where the loans AND defaults are coming from, and b) dude, you have a serious case of innumeracy if you think poor people have THAT much money or real estate.
Wait, wasn’t the bank deregulation bill that Phil Gramm championed and is now being blamed by Democrats for the crisis, actually signed into law by Bill Clinton?
I don’t pretend to fully understand this mess–it’s above my pay grade, you could say–but isn’t it also true that without that law it would have been illegal for J. P. Morgan to rescue Bear Stearns?
I’m sure there’s plenty of blame to go around but I don’t think it’s a good idea for democrats to try to score too many points here. It might encourage people to take a closer look at who Fannie and Freddie were sending political contributions to (when it’s clear they had better things to do with that money.)
Turning on the TV and seeing Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate banking committee and recipient of the most contributions, not to mention a below-market-rate VIP loan Countrywide Bank before it too went under…yeah, THAT Chris Dodd…talking about how we need to get this mess fixed, well, you have to laugh.
If I’m understanding this bailout–and I probably am not–it would end up making the federal government the nation’s biggest landlord. Yeah, no way that will work. The government will not be evicting people no matter how far back they fall on their loans. The stories write themselves. The saps who bought homes they could afford and pay their mortgages on time and had no expectation that housing values would magically keep doubling every few years…those chumps will bail out the rest. As usual.
On the bright side, anyone who was frightened about how McCain or Obama would take the opportunity to enact huge changes to society…relax. They won’t have the cash to do it now.
But through it all, Americans kept their sense of humor:
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2008/09/ny-mets-too-big-to-fail.html
NY Mets Too Big To Fail?
The New York Mets are suffering a stunning late season collapse once again. Leading by three games just a week ago, they are now a game-and-a half behind the first place Phillies and without a drastic change, the Mets could be shut out of the playoffs altogether.
This historic collapse is seen by some as warranting a government bailout of the Mets…before things get worse.
…But now the Mets are petitioning the federal government for funds to hire relief pitchers. “If we collapse and don’t make the playoffs again, thousands of hearts will be broken. Think of the children” said one Mets front office executive. “Think of the seniors who’ve been waiting over twenty years for us to win the World Series.”
Other sources say the team not making the playoffs would affect local vendors as well. “When there’s no game I don’t make any money,” said a man who identified himself as Tony and runs a parking lot near the stadium. Local sandwich makers said that perhaps a ton of pastrami would rot in area delicatessens without playoff games to boost sales.
The Mets salary this year is $137,793,376. In comparison, the first place Phillies have a mere $98,269,880 yearly salary. These stunning numbers have led many experts to argue that the Mets are just too big to fail. “If the Mets don’t make the playoffs, the damage to New York would be so grisly that I can’t even discuss it. In the end, the entire country would be hurt.”
The Mets have asked the federal government to either see its way clear to pony up a few million so the Mets could hire a relief pitcher that doesn’t give up a home run every third pitch or just assign a decent reliever to the Mets. If that proves impossible, some are speculating that the government could temporarily reward the Mets four outs during their turn at bat so they could score more runs.
And now McCain is “suspending his campaign” and calling for a delay in the first debate.
Wha-huh?
TWL
Wasn’t Phil Gramm a republican during Bill Clinton’s presidency? It’s all Bill Clinton’s fault. It’s all so clear to me now…
Passed by veto-proof margins. Make of that what you will.
Passed by veto-proof margins. Make of that what you will.
Yeah, here are the numbers given by Wikipedia on the vote for the bill:
“The final bipartisan bill resolving the differences was passed in the Senate 90-8-1-1… and in the House: 362-57-15.”
Clinton could’ve vetoed, but an override was inevitable.
This is a gimmick by McCain. He’ll show up all disheveled and turn the supposedly foreign policy oriented debate into a talk about the economy. If Obama protests about it he’ll say that the American economy is more important yadda yadda yadda.
McCain is trying to play up the maverick persona and make Obama look like a politics as usual guy. With Obama up 9 points in the latest poll I guess you can’t blame McCain for a hail Mary pass.
If I’m wrong and he actually doesn’t show up for the debate I can’t see how this would not be a devastating blow to the McCain campaign.
And if I’m really wrong and things really are so bad as to make this a reasonable choice on McCain’s part…if things are really as much on the edge as the doomsday scenario people are painting it…this election is the least of our worries.
An interesting article from 1993 points to another cause of the current financial crisis:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n13_v9/ai_13561070
“Focus on alleged loan bias will benefit only bad risks – Bill Clinton’s proposal race discrimination in bank loans – Column”