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plooger's Journal
Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Sat Sep 06th 2008, 06:33 PM
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

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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Sat Sep 06th 2008, 04:39 PM
  1. Selection of Palin reflects on McCain's judgement, intellectual rigor, and his independence. (If she's not fond of Palin, I would think that would translate to a rightly-diminished view of McCain.)

    • Palin is supremely unqualified to assume the Presidency, so by McCain's own measure he failed in his first commander-in-chief level decision; (If she needs to see how unqualified Palin is, this Charlie Rose interview is essential viewing. My thoughts on the interview are here and here.)

    • McCain was the presumptive Republican nominee for 6+ months, the last-minute rashness of the Palin selection, with very minimal background vetting, does not demonstrate a rigorous, intelligent approach to solving problems; (recommended listen: Rachel Maddow Show; Sep. 4, from 61:18-64:05)

    • Palin's selection is one tangible example that McCain's promises of non-partisan politics is a facade; McCain wanted a more moderate running mate (Ridge, Lieberman), but succumbed to the extremists in the Republican Party who were pushing for Palin; this first CinC level decision also demonstrates that McCain is not free to be independent; the negative tone of the Republican convention is another tangible example of McCain's actions speaking louder than his promises, relative to non-partisan governing;

    • Promises of transparency and reform have been quickly contradicted by McCain's actions within 7 days of teaming with Palin. She's been isolated from media interviews, and McCain has lawyers in Alaska trying to derail the bipartisan ethics investigation into Palin's firing of the very popular Public Safety head.


  2. McCain has been repeatedly wrong on national security

    • The most basic fact is that John McCain didn't just vote for the invasion of Iraq. As early as weeks after 9/11, John McCain advocated invading Iraq, the biggest strategic blunder in the history of the country -- the after-effects of which we're not yet close to fully understanding, as predicted by Obama in his 2002 speech in opposition to the invasion...

        Obama: (Saddam's) a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

        But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

        I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

        I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.


      (For example, bin Laden stills walks free; al Qaeda has expanded internationally; London, Madrid and Bali have experienced blowback attacks; thousands of soldiers dead and tens of thousands wounded; hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed and millions displaced; alientated relationships around the world; oil prices skyrocketing due to geopolitical instability; deficits and US debt out of control; and the US economy in tatters.)


    • McCain wants people to focus on The Surge(tm), as though the lessened violence was the goal and all that matters, and is pretending that the increase of troops in and around Baghdad, The Surge, is the sole reason for the decrease in violence. McCain's talking points require that the viewer be ignorant of the Shia cease-fire and that the Sunni Awakening, where we're paying Sunni militia to fight on our side. But, most importantly, The Surge is just a tactic; the strategy of political reconciliation and stabilization has not yet been achieved.... and CANNOT be achieved so long as American forces occupy the country and the Iraqi government is viewed as a puppet of Washington.

    • Did I mention that John McCain was an advocate for the biggest strategic blunder in United States history?

    • When Barack Obama commented that the US may find the necessity to act unilaterally in the nether regions of the Pakistan mountains, if targets are identified and the Pakistan government is unable to act, John McCain derided Obama. The US military is now following Obama's plan, by necessity.



  3. I want someone smarter than me as President.

    Fred Thompson's praise of McCain's Naval Academy failure aside (RMS, from 73:45-74:25), rather than someone who graduated at the bottom of his class from the Naval Academy, I'd prefer someone who not only graduated from Harvard Law, but was so respected by his peers that he was elected as the first-ever African American editor of the Harvard Law Review.


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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Sat Sep 06th 2008, 11:48 AM
> 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!
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Fri Sep 05th 2008, 10:17 PM
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.

    ...

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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Fri Sep 05th 2008, 04:59 PM
"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.
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Fri Sep 05th 2008, 03:07 PM
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.


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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Fri Sep 05th 2008, 02:29 AM
... 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."

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Posted by krkaufman in Political Videos
Thu Sep 04th 2008, 07:03 PM

 
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
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Thu Sep 04th 2008, 10:48 AM
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.
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Thu Sep 04th 2008, 05:59 AM
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.
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Fri Aug 29th 2008, 09:57 PM
Amazingly coincidental news report just published by the Telegraph (UK)...
... 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.
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Wed Jul 23rd 2008, 01:33 PM
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.
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion: Presidential
Tue Jun 17th 2008, 11:20 AM
... 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.
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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion
Sun Jun 15th 2008, 03:35 PM
... 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...


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Posted by krkaufman in General Discussion
Sat Jun 14th 2008, 12:24 PM
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.
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