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Category: Politics (Page 32 of 35)

Palin’s ethics

October 14, 2008 /

The sky is green and the grass is blue.

Sounds ridiculous – right?

Welcome to Sarah Palin’s world. Fortunately, Americans aren’t in the mood this year to buy her bullshit. The situation we face is just too serious, and she’s not a serious candidate.

Many conservative intellectuals are jumping ship, and Alaskans are getting sick of her as well. The Anchorage Daily News published an editorial today about her response to the troopergate report.

Sarah Palin’s reaction to the Legislature’s Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

She claims the report “vindicates” her. She said that the investigation found “no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.”

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

Page 8, Finding Number One of the report says: “I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”

In plain English, she did something “unlawful.” She broke the state ethics law.

Perhaps Gov. Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

Because if she had actually read it, she couldn’t claim “vindication” with a straight face.

Palin asserted that the report found “there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired.”

In fact, the report concluded that “impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.”

Palin’s response is the kind of political “big lie” that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

Civil Liberties, Culture War, Lunatic Fringe, Politics, President 2008

State of confusion

October 13, 2008 /

The McCain campaign can’t get anything right. They told they press that we would see a new economic proposal this week. Now McCain has abondoned those plans.

Presented with 30 options for new economic measures, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has – at least for now – chosen none of them.

His campaign had been planning to roll out new proposals this week that would be aimed at restoring confidence in financial markets and encouraging investors to return.

On Sunday, hours before attending a big strategy meeting at McCain campaign headquarters, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Bob Schieffer on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that McCain was planning “a very comprehensive approach to jump-start the economy, by allowing capital to be formed easier in America by lowering taxes.”

But when the meeting ended, so did plans for a new economy push. The campaign now says no new policy announcements are planned. Participants in the meeting refused to say what happened.

“We’re locked down,” said one official.

Politico reported McCain advisers’ descriptions of the plan in articles on Saturday and Sunday.

Jackie Calmes of The New York Times, who first reported the plan’s collapse on Sunday night, pointed to “internal confusion” about the matter.

Conservatives, Economy, Policy, Politics, President 2008

Anger spilling over at McCain campaign events

October 11, 2008 /

This was inevitable after John McCain and Sarah Palin started ramping up the personal attacks.

The anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is acting to tamp it down. McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Barack Obama’s character, he described the Democrat as a “decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.”

A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events this week as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Obama. Some in the audience are making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of “traitor,” “terrorist,” “treason,” “liar,” and even “off with his head” have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

McCain changed his tone Friday when supporters at a town hall pressed him to be rougher on Obama. A voter said, “The people here in Minnesota want to see a real fight.” Another said Obama would lead the U.S. into socialism. Another said he did not want his unborn child raised in a country led by Obama.

Is McCain sincere? Is he starting to see that he’s creating a mob mentality?

There are many Americans who have very legitimate disagreements with Obama. He’s a liberal. But we know that there are crazies on both sides of the political spectrum, and if you whip up fear and feed their anger at political rallies, you run the risk that the angry mob takes over your message.

Hopefully, McCain will recognize that he risks what’s left of his reputation if he doesn’t tamp down these personal attacks.

Conservatives, Culture War, Lunatic Fringe, Politics, President 2008

Who is John McCain?

October 10, 2008 /

More Republicans are starting to turn away from John McCain.

He endorsed John McCain in the presidential primary, but now former Republican Gov. William Milliken is expressing doubts about his party’s nominee.

“He is not the McCain I endorsed,” said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. “He keeps saying, ‘Who is Barack Obama?’ I would ask the question, ‘Who is John McCain?’ because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.

“I’m disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues.”

Milliken, a lifelong Republican, is among some past leaders from the party’s moderate wing voicing reservations and, in some cases, opposition to McCain’s candidacy.

Conservatives, Moderates, Politics, President 2008, Quotes, Republicans

Al Franken surging in Minnesota

October 10, 2008 /

The Minnesota Senate race is stsrting to look like a potential pick-up for Democrats. Al Franken has taken the lead in the three latest polls in this race. The economy is obviously a factor, but Norm Coleman’s campaign is having some serious problems. Franken’s latest ad shows how the Coleman campaign has been taking clips out of context to make Franken appear to be angry and unstable (sort of like John McCain). Here’s Franken’s latest ad.

Coleman has also been embarassed by recent reports that a wealthy donor has been buying expensive suits for Coleman. His campaign spokesman had a disastrous news conference where he refused to answer simple questions about this allegation.

Races like this one might get the Democrats to 60 seats in the Senate.

Politics, Polls, Senate 2006, Video

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