This Charlie Rose segment inspired me to post to my MyBO blog, consolidating my above thoughts...

MyBO: Sarah Palin vs Janet Napolitano -- Palin Pales In Comparison

> Is it sexist that attacks on McCain die in this forum, while those on Palin survive?

It is ridiculous ... for such an accusation to be made in such a generic fashion, lacking any specific instances of the threads in question, citing how they're sexist.

It's basic politics... McCain has been on the stage for decades and, unfortunately, the public has a certain perception of him and you'll be tilting windmills trying to change that perception -- via a frontal assault. In the case of Palin, however, she's brand new and so it is imperative that we fight back against the imaging that the Republicans are trying to do, before it takes hold in the public consciousness.

We need to propagate the image of Palin as a bitter, vindictive politician who puts loyalty and political retribution ahead of good governance... just like Bush. Palin's inexperience and inflated record need to be exposed, to demonstrate she's not ready for the White House this time around.

And the key is... by demonstrating Palin as unfit for the Vice Presidency, McCain's judgment has been demonstrated as faulty -- and his "Country First" campaign theme exposed as hollow (having selected a running mate strictly on the basis of politics).

Now, as for your main complaint, that McCain critiques sink amongst the flood of Palin threads, I'd think the best solution would be for DU to have a short-term forum dedicated to Palin -- from substantial critiques to rumor-mongering.

Cheers!

The Word From Wasilla
posted by John Nichols on 09/04/2008 @ 1:52pm

...

Well, Anne Kilkenny does know Sarah Palin. ... What's Kilkenney's take?

Here's a letter she has circulated :

...

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative." During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later -- to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

...

"What are they trying to hide?" needs to be the constant refrain of Dem. surrogates ... in any interviews with the media or even on the stump, befriending the media and taking their side .... emphasizing that we have only 60 days to do a full review of this relative unknown that John McCain judged to be best qualified to assume the Presidency, in his stead.

Talking points...

• The reporting on the pregnancy *did* go overboard, but was likely a result of the campaign's hiding the information at the time Palin was introduced to the country.
  
  
• The Republican attack against the media is just a variation of the "best defense is a great offense" approach. The McCain campaign only has to cow the media into backing off a bit, delaying and denying access, to allow their VP candidate to sneak unquestioned and untested through the next 60 days.
  
  
• The McCain campaign, it appears, is going to follow the Bush/Rove approach of staged town halls and speeches, and will likely allow a small number of interviews with friendly media, where they can set the ground rules, as we've seen in the past -- such as demanding a list of questions, in advance. (I'm sure Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly will be happy to squeeze Gov. Palen in.)
  
  
• Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden will be debating on Oct. 2nd, but, given the restrictive formats and limited time typically seen in (Vice)Presidential debates, the debate cannot be considered a substitute for the traditional media vetting of a candidate.
  
  
• Senators McCain and Biden have been in the public eye for decades and have been through a few Presidential campaigns, each; while Sen. Obama has been on the national stage for over 4 years and under intense scrutiny as a Presidential contender for more than 2 years. Sen. McCain introduced Gov. Palin to a national audience just 7(N) days ago, and appears to be obstructing the review to which every serious contender for the White House need be subjected. In the simplest sense, is there something that John McCain is trying to hide? The only way to answer the question is to make Gov. Palin openly available to the news media, to get done in 60 days what everyone else on the tickets have been going through for 2+ years.
  
  
• Sen. McCain was the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee for over 6 months, but having made a last-minute choice for running mate, Sen. McCain has only given the American people 60 days to learn about a relatively unknown candidate before they have to cast their votes for the country's next President. It is possible that it could be Gov. Palin putting her hand on a bible next January 20th, 2009, to be sworn-in as President. The voters will not be able to make an informed decision, November 4th, on Gov. Palin's ability to judge our priorities and confront our international adversaries if they haven't even seen her take on the news media.
  
  
• Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are proclaiming that they want to bring reform and transparency to Washington, but they turned their backs on transparency less than 7 days after forming their ticket. To demonstrate their commitment to transparency and reform, Sen. McCain needs to make Gov. Palin openly available to news media requests for interviews, and Gov. Palin needs to instruct her lawyers and surrogates to discontinue any actions that could be viewed as obstruction of the ongoing ethics investigation, in Alaska, related to Gov. Palin.

The media needs to be pushed to grow a backbone, and then McCain needs to be either challenged or shamed into allowing media access to his running mate.

The comment in the subject is taken from the following Aug 31 article, where the judge was commenting on the behavior of Palin and other family members.

Longstanding family feud in Alaska embroils Palin
By James V. Grimaldi and Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post / August 31, 2008

...

At trial on Oct. 27, 2005, the judge expressed puzzlement about why the family was trying to get Wooten fired, since depriving the trooper of a job would harm his ability to pay family support to Palin's sister.

"It appears for the world that Ms. McCann and her family have decided to take off for the guy's livelihood - that the bitterness of whatever who did what to whom has overridden good judgment," Suddock said in an audio recording from the trial heard on TV station KTUU's website.

... using this photo of a huge-arsed mansion as a backdrop for his speech? I bet that really connected with a lot of viewers -- along the lines of... "We could probably fit 10 families in that place comfortably... and McCain has SEVEN houses? Maybe that Obama guy is right... McCain just doesn't get it."

 
CNN hires-on with McCain campaign... officially adopting the campaign's "hockey moms" terminology ... and echoes their "Wal*Mart moms" usage, as well.

---

I must be an exceptionally slow learner, 'cause the media has surprised me yet again with their unprofessionalism & incompetence.

I had *just* flicked over to CNN, only to hear John King state, while discussing target McCain voter demographics with Wolf Blitzer & sidekick (Gloria?)...

"Another big constituency ... are what they're (McCain campaign) now calling 'hockey moms.' We used to call them 'the soccer moms'; we're calling them 'hockey moms' in this campaign because of Sarah Palin."

So CNN is adopting the McCain camp terminology for the previously-labeled "soccer mom" demographic, and is jumping on-board with the new McCain camp "Wal*Mart mom" term. (To King's minimal credit, he at least qualified his use of "Wal*Mart moms" as McCain campaign terminology, and didn't, within this particular segment, commit it into the official CNN lexicon.)

Given much of the political battle is about creating bonds between voters and a candidate, it comes across to me as the height of unprofessionalism for CNN to adopt McCain campaign terminology in their coverage, effectively doing mass media canvassing for McCain.

Good to see our media standing strong and holding fast to their objectivity.

http://www.cnn.com/feedback

How is this not worlds worse than Obama's "guns and religion" statement of fact? Republicans are mocking the very roots of democracy, for god's sake, the grassroots organizers.

I'm sure the media will spend just as much time going after the Republicans on this.

Based on what I've learned about Sarah Palin's record and from what I've observed in her two introductory speeches, Palin's addition to the McCain ticket turbo-charges the Obama/Biden "more of the same" argument against McCain.

A McCain Administration seemed certain to simply extend Bush policies, with McCain having compromised his alleged principles on so many critical issues... but Sarah Palin is apparently the embodiment of the hyper-partisan, fact-averse, loyalty-over-competence, abuse of power, cancerous politics we've seen in abundance from the Bush Administration and the Republican Party for the last 8 years.

Truly, Sarah Palin completes McSame.

Amazingly coincidental news report just published by the Telegraph (UK)...

8/30: Nine polar bears at risk of drowning in global warming meltdown

... in light of this Jan 8, 2008, editorial by the Republican VP candidate, Sarah Palin:

Listing the bears under the Endangered Species Act is the wrong move at this time. My decision is based on a comprehensive review by state wildlife officials of scientific information from a broad range of climate, ice and polar bear experts.

There is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future -- the trigger for protection under the ESA. And there is no evidence that polar bears are being mismanaged through existing international agreements and the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

... and this May 25th, 2008 story from the Anchorage Daily News regarding Gov. Palin's misrepresentation of Alaska's internal review of the issue:

The state's marine mammal scientists agreed last year with federal researchers who concluded polar bears are threatened with extinction because of a shrinking ice cap.

The state's in-house dispute seems to refute later statements by Gov. Sarah Palin that a "comprehensive review" of the federal science by state wildlife officials found no reason to support an endangered-species listing for the northern bears.

MORE OF THE SAME. Outright lies and suppression of scientific findings in support of corporate, crony interests. Does Alaska have any laws prohibiting lying to the public? If so, Palin should be investigated and potentially prosecuted.

The significance of McCain's "surge" comment continues to be understated.

McCain's disregard of the Sunni's "awakening" and their actively fighting against al Qaeda elements in Iraq demonstrates that McCain has either forgotten or never understood that al Qaeda never had any natural support in Iraq... even before we invaded. Iraqi Sunnis were opposed to al Qaeda before our invasion, and are opposed to al Qaeda now. (tip: they don't like foreigners interfering in their country)

Note that McCain needs to diminish the Sunni Awakening aspect, as admitting its role in lessening violence would undercut the Republican meme that Iraq is teetering on the brink of falling under the dominion of al Qaeda, their central argument in maintaining significant troop levels in Iraq for the next 100 years.

We invaded Iraq under false pretenses -- a.k.a. lies -- and McCain is using similarly deceptive arguments for maintaining our occupation of what is supposed to be a sovereign country.

... and nearly spat-out my coffee.

Do these people have no inner critic, that might allow them to reflect on how ridiculous they seem?

What had me laughing... the demographic of "PUMA" being so similar to the modern slang "cougar" (perhaps shifted forward a bit), but with a polar opposite fetish. Are Pumas like Cougars, except instead of going after younger men, they prefer old dudes... reaaaally old dudes?

So move along now, with that image in your mind... all these PUMAs wanting to get-it-on with John McCain.

... where Russert confided that... paraphrasing... he sure wished he could have known more about the conflicting opinions on the WMD case for going into Iraq... but that his phone just wasn't ringing.

edit: Ah, this passage... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

In the interviews I've seen, McClellan seems to be pretty much getting a pass for his complicity in taking the country to war in Iraq and in perpetuating the myths of the occupation, so, having just watched Friday's DemocracyNOW! interview of Vincent Bugliosi, regarding his new book and his efforts to bring George W Bush up on murder charges, I would *love* to see Bugliosi interview McClellan. I doubt Bugliosi would let the little worm off easy.

Hell, for that matter, I wouldn't mind a regular radio/TV show with Bugliosi and/or other former prosecutors conducting interviews with politicians and the powerful.