Liveblogging the VP Debate

10:00pm:  Sarah Palin is lying like a rug.  Oh, and she can’t pronounce “nuclear”.  Who coached her, Bush?

As usual, Palin is expressing the idea of “change” and “regulation”, completely ignoring the fact that the Republicans have been in charge for the last 8 years.  She also repeats stupid lines like “they hate our freedom”.

Biden got in a few nice hits.  He pointed out McCain’s record on the Iraq war and diplomacy with…Spain.  But shame on you and Obama both for not supporting gay marriage!

Palin:  lie lie lie.  She’s a lying sack.  Been there, done that, don’t need another.

She spouts the party line about Iraq: victory, Petraus, central front in the War on Terror.  Hey, Sarah!  Bin Laden isn’t in Iraq, he’s in Pakistan!  Idiot.

If she says “maverick” again I might break the TV.  Maverick my ass!  McCain and Palin represent the status quo.  Just saying it doesn’t make it so.

Where’s the question about womens’ issues?

10:18pm: Palin thinks the VP isn’t part of the executive branch?  She shouldn’t refer to the constitution, since she clearly doesn’t know anything about it.

Biden DOES know the consitution.  And yes, the VP is part of the executive branch.  SMACKDOWN!  SCORE!!

Go Biden!  The maverick label is horse pucky.   Tell it!

So…how is appointing your best friends from high school to government positions bipartisan, Governor Palin?  Lying sack.  Oh, did I mention she’s a liar?

Oooh take a dig at the mainstream media.  You’re going to fight for me, Governor Palin?  You want to do something for me?  Drop out of the race, kthx~

They’re going to say she won the debate because she didn’t puke or pee on herself.  I expected no less from her, though.  She’s ambition incarnate, narcissistic, and a skilled liar.

My take: this did not help the McCain ticket.  She spewed a lot of talking points but avoided answering a lot of the questions.  Just saying “We’re going to change things/shake things up” and giving no details isn’t very convincing, especially when your running mate is part of the status quo.  Anyone who thinks she did well was probably already going to vote for McCain.

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t liveblog.  Or maybe I should drink next time.

I’m off.  Gotta donate some more money to Obama.

How McCain deals with a crisis

John McCain showed us today how he deals with a crisis(h/t HuffingtonPost):

RUN AWAY!!!  RUN!!!!   FUQN RUUUUUUUUUUUN!!

Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, does it.

Wanda Sykes weighs in on Election 2008

Wanda Sykes isn’t one to mince words, and last night on The Tonight Show was no exception.

How refreshing!  Thank you, Ms. Sykes.  I needed that.

Latest attack ad from the GOP

I first saw this on Racialicious:

Can’t say she wasn’t warned. Many pundits pointed out that Hillary’s scorched-earth strategy was enabling the right-wing smear machine, but she wouldn’t listen.

Let’s hope this election year puts an end to this kind of negative campaigning. Let’s defeat McCain on the issues, without stooping to character assassination.

Hillary to end her campaign on Friday

via Yahoo News:

“Senator Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington on Friday to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity,” her communications director Howard Wolfson said.

Also in the speech, Clinton will urge once-warring Democrats to focus on the general election and defeating Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

The money quote is the following, though:

On the telephone call with impatient House supporters, Clinton was urged to draw a close to the contentious campaign, or at least express support for Obama. Her decision to acquiesce caught many in the campaign by surprise and left the campaign scrambling to finalize the logistics and specifics behind her campaign departure.

Obama had nothing to do with it. According to Keith Olbermann on Countdown, it was Clinton supporters like Charlie Rangel and party elders like Nancy Pelosi (both of whom were mentioned specifically by Olbermann) who put the pressure on Hillary to end her campaign and support Obama.

Good. Now we can get to the business of beating McCain. I suggest debates, as many as we can stand

We still have a strong woman to support

Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee, Clinton supporters are understandably disappointed, but the complaints of some are just annoying.

I agree that Hillary was the victim of many undeserved sexist attacks. I would much prefer focusing on the issues rather than stupid crap like pantsuits and cleavage. I’m sure that there are some people who didn’t vote for her simply because of her gender, just as some didn’t vote for Obama because of his race. I don’t think that’s why she lost, but it IS an undeniable fact, and a serious problem with our national political discourse.

Now that Hillary is (presumably) out of the race, though, where do you think that misogyny will be focused next?

Yes, that’s right. Michelle Obama.

We will, hopefully, have another strong, intelligent, independent woman in the White House come January. Michelle Obama is as much a role model for young American women as any other successful female public figure, including Hillary Clinton. She is successful in her own right, having come from Chicago’s South Side and going on to attend Princeton and Harvard Law School. From BarackObama.com:

For three years after law school, Michelle worked as an associate in the area of marketing and intellectual property at Chicago law firm Sidley and Austin, where she met Barack Obama. She left the corporate law world in 1991 to pursue a career in public service, serving as an assistant to the mayor and then as the assistant commissioner of planning and development for the City of Chicago.

In 1993, she became the founding executive director of Public Allies – Chicago, a leadership training program that received AmeriCorps National Service funding and helped young adults develop skills for future careers in the public sector.

Michelle began her involvement with the University of Chicago in 1996. As associate dean of student services, she developed the University’s first community service program. Michelle also served as executive director of community and external affairs until 2005, when she was appointed vice president of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She also managed the business diversity program.

Michelle has fostered the University of Chicago’s relationship with the surrounding community and developed the diversity program, making them both integral parts of the Medical Center’s mission.

What an impressive list of accomplishments. If it’s really about empowering women, then Hillary’s feminist supporters should get behind Michelle, right? Right?

The Presumptive Nominee

I never thought we’d actually reach this point, but here we are. I’m amazed, excited, and hopeful for the future. I’ve never worked for a candidate in my life, but I’ll be volunteering for this one.

The debates should be wondrous to behold. I hope there are many. Tired talking points, propaganda and straw men won’t stand a chance. I recall Obama being asked a “what if the republicans say ____?” kind of question during one of the primary debates, and he said he was “looking forward to having that conversation”. I am, too. We need some rational dialoge in this country, and it’s going to be difficult to fight the the media talking heads. The debates, though, that is where he’ll shine.

It’s still a long road to go, but I’m with you, Obama.

OBAMA ‘08 !!!!

Hillary’s Snoopy Helmet Moment? (Updated – Update2)

Via HuffingtonPost:

Hillary Clinton’s argument for staying in the race took a disturbing turn today. While meeting with the editorial board of South Dakota’s Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, she raised the specter of assassination while discussing why she would stay in the race:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it.”

Oh no she didn’t. She did NOT go there.

There is no way that any thinking person could have believed a reference to any assassination would be appropriate, not this year or any year. Obama has had Secret Service protection for a year because of death threats, earlier than any primary candidate in history.

The Obama camp responded quickly:

“Senator Clinton’s statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Of course, now she’s backpedaling:

“Earlier today I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June 1992 and 1968 and I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That’s a historic fact.

The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy and I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that, whatsoever. My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and give us a lot to live up to, and I’m honored to hold Senator Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family.”

Well, the historic fact didn’t need to include any mention of RFK’s assassination, did it. And I really don’t see an apology to Obama in that mealy-mouthed explanation, only to the Kennedys. But let’s face it, she can’t defend her statement because it’s indefensible.

My husband is calling this her “Snoopy Helmet moment”. He thinks she has completely sunk her campaign with this outrageous remark. I hope he’s right.

Update: Nobody, nobody has anything good to say about Hillary’s statement. There are already three posts up on Huffington Post criticizing her. Bob Cesca writes:

If nothing else, the superdelegates ought to receive this as a blaring, siren-light warning. A giant red flag. Senator Clinton is embarrassing herself and the Democratic Party. She has ceased to be a viable, respectable candidate and has, instead, become a ghoulish, desperate shell of her formerly strong and admirable self.

Maybe my husband is right.

Update 2: I knew Keith Olbermann wouldn’t let this pass without a Special Comment.

Erica Jong compares Obama to George W.

The desperation of the Clintonistas is reaching new depths. Yesterday, Erica Jong posted an hysterical screed on The Huffington Post, with the jumping-off point being Obama’s unfortunate use of “sweetie” to reporter Peggy Agar of WXYZ-TV in Michigan.

Despite his penchant for saying “sweetie” to shut women up, Barack Obama does seem more likable than Hillary Clinton. But so what?

The press loved frat boy George W. Bush and hated nerdy Al Gore eight years ago. And look what we got? Endless war, economic meltdown, torture, a bigoted Supreme Court, the destruction of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, a desecrated planet. Will Americans never learn that who they think is a “nice guy” is no reason to elect a president? Apparently not.

The lack of any substantive logic to get from “sweetie” to George W. is worthy of the Lee Atwater school of politics. I don’t understand how Clinton surrogates can tout change when their tactics are straight out of Karl Rove’s political handbook.

But as if that wasn’t bad enough, Ms. Jong continues:

So here we go again. NARAL loves the new boy on the block — even if HRC was there at its founding. So does John Edwards. And Ted Kennedy. The fact that Barack has little experience makes him the hot new ingénue, whereas Hillary is old like your mother.

The truth is we know about her — and we know very little about Obama. That alone makes her detractors scream: Get Out! Off the stage with you! Give us that hot new boy! Give us that sepia Brad Pitt! Old women are so over!

OK sweetie, we’ll step aside. Watch your own cauldron bubble. You’re in a heap of trouble — and you don’t even know it.

Oh no you didn’t. You did not just refer to the first African American presidential candidate as “boy”, not once but twice. And the veiled threat…how very unifying for the Democratic party.

Ms. Jong sounds like a spoiled kid who didn’t get her way. The entire post is a temper tantrum, ending with taking her ball and going home.

Chris Matthews Schools Kevin James

I don’t usually watch Hardball, but last night I was treated to the following smackdown of radio host Kevin James. (video courtesy of Huffington Post)

You know you’ve really screwed up when Chris Matthews is the one takes you behind the woodshed. I can’t blame him for getting so disgusted with his guest, though. Kevin James was out of control, almost literally foaming at the mouth, and he clearly had no idea what he was being asked. He seemed to think shouting the word “appeasement” repeatedly was a sufficient response to every question. To quote Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think that means what you think it means”.

The greatest irony, though, is that the US Senators and Congressmen who counseled appeasement with the Nazis back in the late 1930’s were Republicans. Their floor speeches were published in The Illustrious Dunderheads, by Rex Stout. The book is described as

a collection of some of the silliest, stupidest, and most dangerous statements that have ever ben made by men laying claim to being leaders of the American people. . .The quotations in this book are only a sampling of the speeches delivered in the halls of Congress and elsewhere by U.S. Senators and Congressmen who have given currency to Nazi propaganda which is designed to bring about the defeat of the United States, the creation of a fascist America subservient to Hitler’s Germany.

Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.