Questions and Answers
You know that cinematic technique of voicing over people’s spoken conversations with what they’re really thinking? I thought it might be fun to do that with some of Sarah Palin’s responses to Katie Couric in the latest installment of the Alaska Beauty Queen Penny Dreadful. Palin’s in-her-head answer is in ital below each out-loud answer.
Obama’s New Message Shaper: Sarah Palin
You know, it feels like only a couple of days ago when I had personally sworn off writing about John McCain’s running mate for good. There just wasn’t anything there… literally. Of course it’s been a little longer than that, I think my ambivalence reached the breaking point right around the whole Bush Doctrine fiasco.
But what I didn’t know then is the absolute train wreck that this woman’s presence in the public eye would become.
Disillusioned With Republicanism
Earlier today I wrote up a quick post about the fact that the GOP is in a state of disarray. It may not necessarily be coming apart at the seams exactly, but wires are most definitely getting crossed, and it’s almost impossible to grasp what exactly is going on.
It Worked So Well The Last Time
You know how we can tell that John McCain suspending his campaign helped? Easy! The stock market totally didn’t crash because enough bipartisan support was totally available to pass the bailout bill, and we’re totally looking towards bright and shiny days again when it comes to the economy.
…wait…
Okay, my sources are telling me that the stock market did plummet almost eight-hundred points because House Republicans backed away from the bill at the eleventh hour pointing to a major failure of the supposed leadership of the party’s leader.
My bad.
Speak Softly
I’ve got to be completely and totally honest, I’m more nervous about the upcoming vice presidential debate than you might speak.
Republicans in Disarray
Jane Hamsher asks the one million dollar (which, at the rate we’re going, may buy you a gallon of milk in a couple of weeks) question; if McCain can’t even lead his own party, how can he lead the nation?
Four Trillion Dollars
That is how much George W. Bush has added to the national debt in the eight years he’s been in office.
The - 777.68 Point Plunge
Bailout compromise bill fails. Dow subsequently plummets by a record figure (nine-eleven-shmine-eleven). TSX also plummets by a record figure, throwing a wild card onto the Canadian election table. All this capped off a day in which global markets took a major league ass-whipping (most of which, it should be noted, occurred before the bailout flame-out).
To quote Paul Krugman (who, in turn, quotes himself)
So what we now have is non-functional government in the face of a major crisis, because Congress includes a quorum of crazies and nobody trusts the White House an inch.
As a friend said last night, we’ve become a banana republic with nukes.
Heck of a motherfucking job, kiddies.
That’s Rich
First McCain took credit for the bailout bill, then it failed. In a fit of irony the likes of which I had never seen before, instead of owning up to a damn thing, McCain blames the whole mess on Obama. Even though the real reason the bill failed was due to the very same House Republicans that McCain was supposed to deliver.
When those very same House Republicans were asked, the reason they went against it all of a sudden was because Nancy Pelosi was mean to them, and their feelings got hurt. Granted, I do fault Nancy Pelosi for not remembering that Rep. Boehner is a big fat sobbing crybaby.
Josh Marshall, I think, gets the last word:
Palin Induced Head Injury
I have to admit, I have been, secretly, among those who believed that the calamitous performances by Sarah Palin on the stump and in interviews (specifically the Katie Couric interview) were all a clever and complex attempt at the most ambitious lowering of expectations ever.
The Obama Effect
Obama is leading in the polls, true. And he does have a tentative lead in the electoral college (though, how big of a lead is as variable, if not more variable, than his lead in the national trends). It’s important to note, though, that while the Obama lead is irrefutable, it’s not insurmountable.
And yet, the Obama campaign actually believes it can win the election in a landslide.
More Shenanigans
“Curiouser and curiouser,” Alice once said of the strange dream world that greeted her down the rabbit hole. Indeed, in many ways this presidential election has already given even the most hardened of political analysts more than enough cause to think that they have fallen down the very same rabbit hole, marched through the looking glass, or, gulp, even swallowed the red pill.
From the selection of an unknown as a running mate, to PUMAs, to campaign suspensions, this election has been anything but conventional and boring.
REJECTED! BAILOUT BILL KILLED IN THE HOUSE
The $700 Billion bailout bill, intended to prevent further economic collapse has just failed in the House of Representatives.
Winning a Debate
In the cold open of Howie Kurtz’s column today in which he claims that the media was “taken for a spin,” it would seem as though Kurtz himself was spun around a bit as well. Between David Axelrod and Steve Schmidt, he claims, it was McCain’s man with the solidified message that Barack said McCain was right 11 times that won the day in the infamous spin alley just moments following the debate.
But, as has been made plainly obvious over the course of the days following the debate, this isn’t exactly true.
The Right Gets It Wrong About Soldier Bracelet
The Guardians of Sanctimonious War Hypocrisy have been pulling out the fainting couch over a bloggers’ claim that Barack Obama did not have permission to wear the soldier bracelet that he mentioned after John McCain pulled off his own bracelet and boasted about how the mother who gave it to him had asked him to make sure her son’s death was not in vain.
Two Days Later, Obama Won the Debate Even More
Yesterday, Josh Marshall put up this post, about Friday night’s debate:
Let’s Not Get So Upset About “John Is Right”
I’m with Hilzoy on this one (my emphasis immediately below and in quote from Pat Lang):