More paranoid fallout from the We-Didn’t-Get-To-Vet-Her whiners in the MSM. Palin is afraid to face us!!
Grab some Rolaids, you’ll have to suffer through Olbermann and Howard Fineman to get the initial story.
Note the insults. Fineman calls the Palin pick the “accidental brilliance” of John McCain and reminds us that Palin is actually the “Heiress of George W. Bush.”
The McCain campaign says they spirited her out of Alaska to keep the announcement a surprise and she needs to return to Alaska for a few days to get her affairs in order (she is the sitting governor, jackass) and wants to be there on September 11, when her son Track ships out for Iraq.
Fineman, however, sees a conspiracy. He says the campaign’s “excuse” is that she needs to wrap things up and see her son off to war, but in reality, the trip is just so they can “educate Sarah Palin” (who is a bumpkin moron) on the issues. Yup, she’s just a pretty face, so we need to be sure that her pea-brain is filled with all the right answers so she can fool everybody into thinking she knows what she is talking about. Note well the continuing sexist, empty-headed bimbo meme here.
NBC News’ Chuck Todd reported the same thing yesterday, saying Palin will “hole up in Alaska” and we “may not see her on the campaign trail for a little while.”
Election Day is in just 60 days. The conventions are over, Labor Day has come and gone, and the stretch run is underway. Now, however, it’s time to “pause to train”? It sounds like the campaign still has some serious concerns about Palin’s ability to answer questions about her readiness for national office.
These reporters already underestimated her once, to McCain’s and Palin’s great benefit. If they keep up the good work, they might just provide McCain/Palin the landslide they so justly deserve.
Triple dose of bad news today for ol’ Barry. First, we learn that Sarah Palin has higher approval ratings than anybody else on either ticket. Second, she either has slightly fewer or slightly more viewers of her speech than Barry had of his, depending on how you crunch the numbers. But Palin is the Vice-Presidential candidate.
The worst news for His Rockstarness, is that John McCain, a boring, old, white guy who gave a long, boring speech, after a night of long boring speeches, beat Obama’s Snow-Job-in-a-Stadium speech in the ratings.
Presidential candidate John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention drew more television viewers than his rival Barack Obama attracted at the Democratic party’s event last week, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.
Across all broadcast networks Thursday, Sen. McCain’s speech ended the night with a 4.8 rating/7 share, compared to Sen. Obama’s 4.3/7 average, according to overnight numbers from metered households in 55 U.S. markets measured by Nielsen. These ratings are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.
This was with the media utterly in the tank for Obama during both weeks and smearing Palin and her family for most of the second week. And McCain’s speech was just average. But maybe, like many Americans, people weren’t tuning in to McCain to see an empty-suited gasbag bloviating among fireworks and styrofoam pillars, because there wasn’t any of that last night. Maybe they wanted to see a great American patriot tells us why America is great and how he can help make it ever greater. Because after a while, Americans get sick of politicians and their wives telling us how they aren’t proud of our country, how America is “downright mean,” how the world doesn’t want us to drive the cars we want, keep the air-conditioner setting where we want, and eat the food we want. McCain’s the real deal. Obama is the flavor of the month.
I think this is what you call a good first impression. From Rasmussen.
A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Now, following a Vice Presidential acceptance speech viewed live by more than 40 million people, Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom.
The figures include 40% with a Very Favorable opinion of Palin and 18% with a Very Unfavorable view (full demographic crosstabs are available for Premium Members). Before her acceptance speech, Palin was viewed favorably by 52%. A week ago, 67% had never heard of her.
The new data also shows significant increases in the number who say McCain made the right choice and the number who say Palin is ready to be President. Generally, John McCain’s choice of Palin earns slightly better reviews than Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden.
Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Palin’s favorable ratings are now a point higher than either man at the top of the Presidential tickets this year. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%.
Oh yeah, the poll also finds that a majority of Americans recognize the MSM as the hyper-partisan, left wing, condescending, lying sexists that they are. The poll question was probably phrased a little differently, but that was the gist of it.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans believe that most reporters are trying to hurt Palin’s campaign, a fact that may enhance her own ratings.
Then there is this cool little dynamic. What is wrong with this sentence?
However, following the Wednesday night speech, voters are fairly evenly divided as to whether Palin or Obama has the better experience to be President. Forty-four percent (44%) of voters say Palin has the better experience while 48% say Obama has the edge.
How about the fact that Palin isn’t running for President, the country only met her one week ago, and His Rockstarness only beats her by 4 points on the issue of who has better experience to be President? What happens if we wait another week and she actually starts beating him on the experience-to-be-president issue? Will the MSM run with that?
I will be a panelist over at Scott Martin’s blog Conservatism Today live blogging the convention with him and any like-minded folks that want a little snark with their beer. Come on over and join in. I will be there sporadically in the 8:00 p.m. (Eastern) hour and locked in by 9:00 p.m. for Johnny Mac.
Of course, in this virtual world, I can be in two places at once. The Patriot Room will be fully staffed and serving all comers.
This doesn’t look like an official ad from the McCain/Palin campaign, but somebody dismantles Obama with his own words on the Iraq War, the Surge, Iran, Diplomacy, Pakistan, and the Cuban Embargo. Some of it is familiar, but the last minute is really devastating.
Last night we saw the future President Sarah H. Palin. No question about it. That speech was the most startling, striking, political explosion in decades. Rush Limbaugh said he hasn’t seen the Republican base this excited since 1994, when the GOP seized control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. But one could argue that some Congress-watchers and pundits may have seen the results of the 2004 election coming in the polls. One could argue that Ronald Reagan’s win in 1980 was a logical result of Reagan’s 1976 run and the subsequent tomfoolery of the Carter years.
But Sarah Palin came out of the blue (though we here at PR were digging her in March) and rocked the entire political world. Her tough, funny, relaxed skewering of Barry and Plugs was astonishing. Her velvet-gloved mauling of the press brought tears to the eyes. Is there anyone alive who saw that speech that still thinks Obama is the candidate of Change? Sorry Barry, Sarah Palin owns Change.
Oh yeah, and Palin (the Vice-Presidential candidate) only fell 1 million viewers short of Barry’s Obamacropolis speech at Invesco Field. And she had 4 fewer networks carrying the speech live.
The McCain campaign must be giddy [and Obama is on his second pair of clean underwear since breakfast] with this news, just out from Nielsen: Sarah Palin’s speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just a 1.1 million viewers fewer than watch Barak Obama’s Invesco Field acceptance speech. As Nielsen notes, only six networks carried Palin’s speech compared with ten for Obama’s.
If you haven’t seen it, here is the video and the transcript is here.
Because Rudy’s thrashing went long, the RNC could not run Palin’s bio clip. So here it is.
The Hillary Dems are having a schadenfreude moment seeing Barry’s Belligerents get their comeuppance. An excerpt from Uppity Woman. She has a couple of tasty pull quotes at the link.
After chuckling while reading the NY Times piece, Sarah Palin Electrifies Party, I surfed The Regressive Party’s posts this morning about Sarah’s speech last night at the Republican Convention. What a I saw everywhere was a gaggle of shocked and flustered people who are now officially trapped in their own irony.
Having become the fascist thugs they claimed to despise for 8 years, they are now officially reaping what they have sown throughout the primary season, when Hillary was trashed at every turn, the Race Card was played daily, and the party Far Left Fascists laughed gleefully while leaving us to watch in horror. Not only did they horrify us, but they returned as often as possible to us to shove hot pokers at us.
Now we are laughing gleefully as the Republicans turn on the fan and slop the Obama camps’ own shit right back in their faces.
This morning, I am seeing some very similar diaries to the ones we Clinton supporters were writing just a few short months ago…..and all I can think to say is “HOW DOES IT FEEL??!!!”
News reports from this morning indicate that Hurricane Sarah struck with unusual accuracy, and damage was thankfully limited to insufferably arrogant, smug, politicians of the Democratic political persuasion. Nobody even bothered to call FEMA.
Democrats have been told for generations that Republicans are cold-hearted, intolerant, bigoted, sexist neanderthals who must be destroyed at all costs. Then 2008 happened, and the most screwed up election year in decades fractured both Parties. Only in 2008 would we find Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democrat Vice-Presidential candidate, at the Republican Convention praising Bill Clinton, and actually receive applause from hard-core conservative Republican delegates.
Hillary voters were watching. And they liked what they saw. Here is a link to The Hillary Clinton Forum thread from the convention last night. They loved Fred and were very impressed with McCain’s bio. Lieberman was speaking directly to them, and they knew it. One example where you can almost hear the “shhhhh, don’t tell anybody, but . . ., ” before she starts.
You know what is funny? I have something to tell you guys.
Of all these years, I never watch Republican Convention. I never really know any republican figures other those who are hated by Democrats. I never spend anytime learning more about them as I grow up in Democrat family. This year, for the first time, I watch Republican Convention. You know what I find? People are not angry. They all say gracious things. There is a lot of kindness. One hispanic woman was asked if Hispanic folks will be behind John McCain even though he backed securing the border first before immigration reform, she answered kindly “Yes, we will back John McCain. He had faught for us on many issues even though it made his party angry and dislike him. John McCain tried hard and many times to get immigration reform to pass, but there were too many Americans believe it is more important to secure our border first. If that is the most important thing to everybody and must do in order to pass immigration reform, then we better get that done right away.” Another man was very proud of McCain picked Palin as a VP for her record and what she had done in Alaska. He also admired her for being non-Ivy league candidate who achieves professional political life and family life without being abbrasive. And on, and on….. Wow…. Everybody is so kind and gracious and hopeful. Nobody is so angry like last week. I am amazed.
These folks might want to be careful lest that anger from last week be turned on them.
Buchanan sees history in the making in the Palin pick. First he defends her credentials, which are far superior to Obama’s; and Palin is only the Vice-Presidential candidate. Her qualifications cannot be repeated enough, because the scurrilous reprobates in the media are trying to take Palin down in the filthiest, most sexist way possible. So once again, why Sarah Palin is more qualified than Barack Obama to be president, this time via Buchanan.
Liberals howl that Palin has no experience, no qualifications to be president of the United States. But the lady has more executive experience than McCain, Joe Biden and Obama put together.
None of them has ever started or run a business as Palin did. None of them has run a giant state like Alaska, which is larger than California and Texas put together. And though Alaska is not populous, Gov. Palin has as many constituents as Nancy Pelosi or Biden.
She has no foreign policy experience, we are told. And though Alaska’s neighbors are Canada and Russia, the point is valid. But from the day she takes office, Palin will get daily briefings and sit on the National Security Council with the president and secretaries of state, treasury and defense.
She will be up to speed in her first year.
And her experience as governor of Alaska, dealing with the oil industry and pipeline agreements with Canada, certainly compares favorably with that of Barack Obama, a community organizer who dealt in the mommy issues of food stamps and rent subsidies.
Where Obama has poodled along with the Daley Machine, Palin routed the Republican establishment, challenging and ousting a sitting GOP governor before defeating a former Democratic governor to become the first female and youngest governor in state history.
The base loves Sarah Palin, and will turn out in droves to get the Republican ticket elected. However, Palin’s appeal to the base is so deeply rooted, that the turnout for the ticket will actually be more to boost Sarah Palin into the Vice-Presidency than it will be to get McCain into the White House. She is the future of the party, not McCain. Buchanan thinks so too.
And his decision is likely to be rewarded with a massive and enthusiastic turnout for the McCain-Palin ticket. Rarely has this writer encountered such an outburst of enthusiasm on the right.
In choosing Palin, McCain may also have changed the course of history as much as Ike did with his choice of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan did with his choice of George H.W. Bush. For should this ticket win, Palin will eclipse every other Republican as heir apparent to the presidency and will have her own power base among Lifers, Evangelicals, gun folks and conservatives — wholly independent of President McCain.
A traditional conservative on social issues, Palin has become, overnight, the most priceless political asset the movement has. [snip]
Indeed, if McCain defeats Barack, 2012 could see women on both national tickets, and given McCain’s age and the possibility he intends to serve a single term, women at the top of both — Sarah vs. Hillary.
The arrival of Palin on the national scene, with her youth, charisma and vitality, probably also portends a changing of the guard in Washington.
With Republicans having zero chance of capturing either House, and but a slim chance of avoiding losses in both, a Vice President Palin, with her reputation as a rebel and reformer, would surely inspire similar revolts in the Republican caucuses. [snip]
With his selection of Sarah Palin, John McCain has not only shaken up this election, he may have helped shape the future of the United States — and much for the better.
Democrats think they have a game changer on their side. The only thing Obama changes are his positions. Sarah Palin is a dyed-in-the-wool classic American patriot. We can spot them from a mile away and the Democrats are about to find out what a powerful force that can be.
Fred gave the best speech of his career, from ripping the MSM, to an excruciating description of McCain’s capture and torture by the North Vietnamese. The full transcript is here and below is the full video, with a few choice lines highlighted after that.
On Sarah Palin and the Media.
Speaking of the vice presidential nominee, what a breath of fresh air Governor Sarah Palin is.
She is from a small town, with small town values, but that’s not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family.
Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. Well, give me a tough Alaskan Governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the Union — and won — over the beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week.
Let’s be clear … the selection of Governor Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a courageous, successful, reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment.
Sound like anyone else we know?
She has run a municipality and she has run a state.
And I can say without fear of contradiction that she is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose … with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt.
She and John McCain are not going to care how much the alligators get irritated when they get to Washington, they’re going to drain that swamp.
Slamming Barry and the Dems.
The Senate has always had more than its share of smooth talkers.
And big talkers.
It still has. [snip]
The respect [McCain] is given around the world is not because of a teleprompter speech designed to appeal to American critics abroad, but because of decades of clearly demonstrated character and statesmanship. [snip]
To deal with these challenges the Democrats present a history making nominee for president.
History making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for President. Apparently they believe that he would match up well with the history making, Democrat controlled Congress. History making because it’s the least accomplished and most unpopular Congress in our nation’s history.
On Taxes.
Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases.
They tell you they are not going to tax your family.
No, they’re just going to tax “businesses”! So unless you buy something from a “business”, like groceries or clothes or gasoline … or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small “business”, don’t worry … it’s not going to affect you.
They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the “other” side of the bucket! That’s their idea of tax reform.
McCain.
Now, being a POW certainly doesn’t qualify anyone to be President.
But it does reveal character.
This is the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their leaders.
Strength.
Courage.
Humility.
Wisdom.
Duty.
Honor.
It’s pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, “Who is this man?” and “Can we trust this man with the Presidency?” [snip]
Tonight, we are being called upon to step up and stand up with John just as he has stood up for our country.
Our country is calling.
John McCain cannot raise his arms above his shoulders.
He cannot salute the flag of the country for which he sacrificed so much. Tonight, as we begin this convention week, yes, we stand with him.
And we salute him.
We salute his character and his courage.
Fred was on fire and had he given speech like that during the primaries, he might be receiving the nomination this week instead of McCain.
This guy is awesome. Let’s just get this fact out right up front. Barack Obama has no executive experience. Period. Any question about his executive experience is a trick question, and Obama should know that. It cannot logically be answered because he has never been an executive and thus cannot have any executive experience. But being Barack, I guess he can Hope for some. Hope counts for something, doesn’t it?
So when Anderson Cooper asks Obama to compare his executive experience to that of Sarah Palin, The Messiah almost made me spray my coffee. Partial transcript follows.
AC: Some Republican critics say, you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this [Hurricane Gustav]. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state like Alaska. What’s your response?
BO: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years. Uh, and certainly, in terms of, uh, the legislation that I’ve passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina, uh, of how we handle emergency management. The fact that, uh, many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place, uh, as we speak indicates to extent to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.
But the main point here is that Obama didn’t really answer the question, and he set up a straw man argument in response to Cooper. Governor Palin is, well, governor, and not currently the mayor of Wasila. As Governor, Palin operates a $9 billion budget, and manages $13 billion in revenue. Furthermore, she runs a government that employs 25,000 people. Obama blithely pretends that she’s still the mayor of “Wasilly” in order to boost himself.
There’s that condescension about small towns again. He deliberately makes fun of the name of the town like the arrogant elitist he is, and once again manages to insult small town America and their bitter, clinging, citizens.
Ed continues.
However, running for office isn’t executive experience, for one good reason: Obama isn’t the campaign manager. He has a CEO actually running the campaign, handling the budget, and managing the people while Obama makes the speeches.
I would add that even if Obama personally managed every last detail of his campaign, he still believes the act of running for president gives him the executive experience to be president. And the decision to run for president, of course, requires no executive experience at all.
Barack Obama has had 4 full days to come up with the answer to the question comparing his executive experience to that of Governor Palin, and for this to be his answer shows just how badly they have been shaken by her being added to the ticket.
UPDATE: McCain/Palin punches back hard against the Hapless One.
For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and it’s laughable. It is a testament to Barack Obama’s inexperience and failing qualifications that he would stoop to passing off his candidacy as comparable to Governor Sarah Palin’s executive experience managing a budget of over 10 billion dollar dollars, and more than 24,000 employees. —Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain 2008
The lefties had better be careful. Alaska is a tough, wild place, and Sarah Palin may just be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This bear (and the crab for that matter) found out what happens when you cross the governor. You end up as a decoration in her office.
And it runs in the family. Here are her parents (with 2 more bears) watching their daughter in action on Friday.
To avoid any confusion, these are not necessarily gifts to the governor, she (and her daughter) aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
We all know lefties are afraid to fight and rumors are that the governor is looking for a throw rug. She mentioned that Howard Dean’s pelt might look good in the bathroom.
It wasn’t an intentional double entendre in the title of the post (Paglia being a proud, self-proclaimed lesbian and all), but I had to tie in that Palin was the subject of the comment . . ..
Anyway Camille Paglia is, by far, one of the most intelligent Democrat commentators I can think of, and even Rush Limbaugh digs her - a lot - even if she is, as Rush says, totally in the tank for Obama.
I have the deepest admiration — the most profound respect and love — for Camille Paglia. I think Camille Paglia is absolutely brilliant in what she does.
So when this little quote from Paglia on the Palin pick popped up, I thought it was worth mentioning.
We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails. Good Lord, we had barely 12 hours of Democrat optimism. It was a stunningly timed piece of PR by the Republicans.
As for the best political speech by an American woman, I wholeheartedly agree. She was utterly brilliant. Here is the video if you missed it.
The Democrats are all reeling and there may not be enough time for them to recover. The netroots are going bananas cranking out rumors, but the power of Palin’s speech, directly to the American people, will have voters believing their eyes and ears, not internet rumors. She is unquestionably the real deal, exuding confidence and patriotism every bit as much as Ronald Reagan before her.
The left went crazy in the 1980’s and hated Reagan with spittle flecked venom. He was still the greatest president after Washington and Lincoln.
Paglia is right, we are probably looking at the first female president of the United States. Conservatives could not be happier.
Kirsten Powers, a Dem, thinks that McCain was paying attention when Obama and his bag of tools went to work denigrating and insulting Hillary Clinton. McCain figured that if Obama managed to lose 18 million Hillary votes with boorish behavior toward women, maybe he would do it again, this time to Sarah Palin.
And so the trap was set.
And the bait was taken.
She’s just a beauty queen.
She’s another Dan Quayle.
And ironically, the biggest criticism of Sarah Palin, John McCain’s veep choice, is she has no experience. Funny, coming from the Barack Obama camp.
Following McCain’s announcement of Palin - the first female to be put on a GOP ticket for the White House, and only the second in US history - the Obama campaign skipped the niceties and blasted her as the “former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience.” She’s also a governor of Alaska (my home state), the first woman in that office and the youngest elected in state history. She has an 80-plus percent approval rating. She has turned the state upside down with her reformist zeal and has made enemies of the Republican establishment. [snip]
But listening to Obama supporters take to the airwaves to shriek with indignation about her lack of experience is just a little too rich. Where were they when Obama, two years into the Senate, announced his candidacy for president?
One Obama supporter and political operative blogged, “In picking an unknown, untested half-a-term governor from Alaska . . . John McCain is following in a long line of reckless men who have rolled the dice for a beauty queen.”
Do we really have to do this again?
No sooner was Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the race, and a new woman is in the cross hairs. [snip]
I can’t help wondering if this is a trap. The McCain camp watched and learned as Obama supporters offended Hillary supporters by their treatment of her. The McCainiacs had to know that this group is incapable of behaving, that Palin would bring out their worst instincts.
Trap number 2, right this way.
The other potential trap is luring the Obama campaign onto the “experience” field. The early conventional wisdom says McCain’s pick was boneheaded because it takes the experience issue off the table. But it seems that it has done the opposite: The importance of experience is the topic of the day.
The more Democrats complain about this, the more Republicans can turn it on them and say, “If you are so concerned about the amount of experience of the vice president, what about the top of your ticket?”
Obama’s argument thus far has been that experience isn’t what counts; it’s judgment. By attacking the Republican woman relentlessly on this issue, Democrats are undermining their own man.
See, there is a difference between reading about things in books and actually doing them. It is called experience. McCain may have taught this young punk a really hard lesson. Maybe Sarah Palin the hunter can help get that trap off The Messiah’s leg . . . on November 5.
President Bush and Vice-President Cheney will not speak, McCain may also not attend on Monday.
Mr. Davis left open the possibility that Mr. McCain might not attend. He said the nominee is not required to attend, but since this convention is “the culmination of his political career,” he wants to be here but he “won’t do anything deemed inappropriate.”
Earlier in the day, President Bush said he would not attend the convention on Monday because of Gustav, and the White House spokeswoman, Dana M. Perino, said Vice President Dick Cheney also would not attend it.
Looks like the Convention may turn into a disaster relief effort.
“We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans,” said Mr. McCain, appearing with his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi. “We have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster.
“I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat.” [snip]
Among the options for altering the convention format, Republican officials said Sunday, were cutting back on the evening and prime-time hours of convention sessions in the hall over the four days, or compressing the main events over perhaps two or three days, instead of four. Party officials may also plan blood banks and Gustav relief fund-raisers.
Republicans Suspend Most of Convention Activities Monday
With Hurricane Gustav heading toward the Gulf Coast, Senator John McCain announced that Republican Party activities on Monday in St. Paul would be suspended except for necessary business. He called on his party members to “take off our Republican hats and put on out American hats.”
McCain looks to be seizing a golden opportunity for demonstrating leadership in a (literal) storm, while at the same time shooting down the Democrats’ attempts to saddle him with the Bush/Katrina issue.
Sarah Palin is a Bounce-Killer. Actually, Palin was only partially responsible for zeroing out Obama’s convention bounce. Obama himself was also to blame. Rasmussen did a three day running poll, which included Thursday (Obama’s speech), Friday (Palin pick), and yesterday.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday—the day before the Republican National Convention is scheduled to begin—shows Barack Obama ahead of John McCain by three percentage points both with and without leaners. That’s exactly the same edge Obama enjoyed a week ago on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.
Today’s numbers show a one-point improvement for McCain, but Obama still leads 47% to 44%. When “leaners” are included, it’s Obama 49%, McCain 46% (see recent daily results). Obama is now viewed favorably by 57% of the nation’s voters, McCain by 56%.
But here’s the real news. The Palin pick, from two days of the poll, has ignited the base and the independents.
There have been significant changes in perception of John McCain in the two days of polling since he named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Since then, 49% of Republicans voice a Very Favorable opinion of McCain. That’s up six percentage points from 43% just before the announcement. Also, 64% of unaffiliated voters now give positive reviews to McCain, up ten points since naming his running mate.
There has been little change in perceptions of Obama since his Thursday night speech and the Palin announcement (see trends and other recent demographic observations).
Palin herself made a good first impression and is now viewed favorably by 53% of voters nationwide. Her counterpart, Joe Biden, is viewed favorably by 48%. While Palin has made a good first impression, the more significant numbers will come a week from now after the nation has a chance to learn more about her.
So Palin kills Obama’s bounce (with an alley-oop from Obama), solidifies the base, and boosts independents by 10 points. In one weekend. Jeez, if the GOP gets any more press exposure, Obama may be in trouble. Oh yeah, the Convention starts tomorrow; too bad for Barry.
Absentee over at Red State was on a plane returning from the Convention in Denver and was seated behind the former DNC chairman Don Fowler and Rep. Congressman John Spratt (D-SC). They were talking about Gustav possibly making landfall in New Orleans as the curtain goes up at the GOP Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Apparently that’s a frickin’ riot. Absentee got it on video.
As Absentee points out, the Dems slam Bush for his response to Katrina as a major reason for Change. Turns out Hurricanes are really just big, awesome (and really funny) political tools of the left.
Programming Note: I will be giving a radio interview today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on “The Blog Bunker” show on Sirius Channel 110 to talk about the selection of Sarah Palin and the race in general.
This will not only cause the base to open up their wallets, get the yard signs (with pictures?) out, and boost the get-out-the-vote efforts, it may just grab enough of Hillary’s folks to teach Obama a lesson about playing nice with others. Her speech with McCain this afternoon was a show-stopper.
And best of all, a Conservative, Republican woman is the heir-apparent to the Republican Party.
McCain demanded no leaks on the Vice-Presidential pick in order to give Obama 12 whole (overnight) hours of glory before stealing the spotlight at noon today with an announcement. Here’s a little roundup of the last minute speculation.
Red State is flat out calling it for Pawlenty. But according to the AP, “Pawlenty would only say that he is to be in Minnesota on Friday for the state fair.”
I’ve researched a lot of candidates for VP and I find that there are two that stand out to me. One is Eric Cantor. He has everything a Conservative could want in a VP candidate: he’s a social, fiscal and foreign policy conservative. He has a tragic story about his cousin being murdered by terrorist. (I hate to make that a positive but we are in a war with these people.) He’s a strong supporter of Israel. He’s an amazing fundraiser and he’s the only Jewish Republican in Congress. However even with all these amazing qualifications he lacks one thing, he’s not a woman. I believe to win this election we will have to steal some of those Hillary Clinton voters away from Barack Obama while at the same time holding true to our conservative principles. I know of only one person that has all those credentials and can attract women to the ticket, Sarah Palin.
John McCain should name Sarah Palin has his VP. Palin is like McCain’s twin when it comes to fighting corruption. She doesn’t care where it is she’s going to find it and make whoever is responsible pay. She also helps in the energy debate, she is for drilling offshore, and for drilling in ANWR. She brings in all three segments of the Republican Party and she’s a Christian so she may very well spark the evangelicals to rally to McCain’s side. (Something McCain has not acheived on his own.) We need all three branches of the Republican Party and a few Democrats to win this election. Palin could bring some Democratic women into the fold. I believe that naming Palin as VP will give us the best chance to win in November.
The libs hate it when people point out examples of flag abuse. It probably galls them because they view it as a piece of cloth or paper, and, after all, how can anybody be offended when somebody bites, folds, tears, mutilates, or devours a piece of cloth or paper? They hate being nailed on it because they think a bunch of yahoos will question their patriotism. Hmmm.
So, since fomenting liberal angst is one of greatest sporting events known to man, and we lettered in that particular event, here goes.
From Red State (part from email alert, part from link).
For two days RedState has been at the Democratic Convention trying to find American flags.
Sure, when the television cameras come on for prime time network coverage, the Democrats have been passing out flags like candy.
But when the prime time lights are not on, and for the entire time Tuesday night, including during prime time, there have been no American flags: not in the crowd, not on the stage, not in the hallways — nowhere.
Well, we finally found some American flags.
They were in the trash.
Red State found a couple of bags of trash at the Democrat Convention last night.
Just focus on this: The Democrats only pulled out the flags for prime time Monday night and Wednesday night. They have otherwise avoided all displays of the American flag.
After Wednesday night, they threw them in the trash.
I guess, what, they will all be taken away and burned?
Hillary, dressed to avoid a hunting accident, was all about Hillary last night at the convention. She didn’t tell us about Barack Obama’s character, his ability to lead the United States in a troubled world or even how he would thump John McCain in November. Her speech boiled down to: Obama’s the nominee and I support Democrats, so I support Obama. That is it.
She even got in a couple of nice digs, one at Michelle, by pointing out that she, Hillary, is indeed a proud American. The other at Barack by thanking “all 50 States” for their support. You can call it cherry-picking and reading things in that were not intended, but Michelle’s failure to embrace America for its greatness and Obama’s propensity for gaffes are common knowledge and the subject of late-night comedians. Hillary knows that, and every single word of her speech was meticulously chosen, and they were digs at the Obamas. So when she called John McCain her “friend,” it stuck out like a sore thumb when she didn’t say the same about her own nominee. Maybe that explains the sunny disposition Mrs. O exhibited throughout the speech. From the “if looks could kill” department.
She was glaring at Hillary through the first half of the speech until someone got to her and told her to smile. After that she pasted on a phony rictus grin just to prove she wasn’t some kind of vindictive bitch. Too late darlin’, we saw the Michelle we all know before your handlers got to you, and it wasn’t a pretty picture.
McCain and Conservatives are worlds apart on Immigration and Global Warming. We used to be worlds apart on offshore drilling and McCain came around (to his infinite advantage). Stephen Spruiell at The Corner has been watching the Republican Platform Drafting Committee and thinks that Johnny Mac may be coming around, at least a little, on Global Warming.
Crafting a platform that marries John McCain to the Republican base on environmental policy is a little like filing a lawsuit against yourself in which you only get to write one brief. By the time you’re done, you’ve scratched through so many lines and penciled in so many revisions that the document is barely legible. I wish I could show you my copy of the energy section of the 2008 Republican Platform’s working draft. You wouldn’t be able to read it, but you’d see what I mean.
The first thing that’s scratched out is “Global Warming and” at the top of a section that used to read “Global Warming and Environmental Protection.” The energy subcommittee — whose task is to draft energy- and environmental-policy language of which the full Republican Platform Committee can approve — decided to strike the phrase “global warming” anywhere it appeared in the document, either replacing it with the more neutral “climate change,” or removing it altogether.
Though “Climate Change” may be more ambiguous than “Global Warming,” it still falls in the category of putting lipstick on a pig (you can call it what you want, it is still a pig), the change in terminology may just work here because the real progress was on the man-made aspect of climate change.
The don’ts had other problems with the working draft. None of them was happy with the first paragraph of the global-warming climate-change section, particularly the line, “Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the earth.” Nor did they think the paragraph was specific enough when it called for “measured and reasonable steps today” to mitigate the consequences of climate change. [snip]
The new version dropped the sentence that attributed warming to human activity. It also added a line after “measured and reasonable steps” that stated, “Any policies should be global in nature, based on sound science and technology, and should not harm the economy.”
So the adopted language dumps the hoax of a man-made cause of planet-warming. And it goes further to require real scientists to agree on the causes (that’d be the sound part). But the piece de resistance is the requirement that any measures taken to combat climate change not harm the economy, which pretty much rules out the capitalism-destroying global taxes advocated by the Gorebots.
Carl Cameron is reporting that if you are looking for Hillary to carry any water for Barry, you’ve got the wrong girl. Here’s Ace’s take.
But the gist is: Yeah, she’ll knock the “Bush/McCain” economy, but she won’t “lay the wood” to them (not her job), and she’ll support Obama, but she’s not going to be making the case for Obama (or party unity), because that’s also not her job.
So she’s announcing “Yeah, I’ll do the minimum required of me, but gee, if you wanted me to be an attack dog, you should have made me Veep, and if you wanted my full support of the Democratic nominee, you should have made me the Democratic nominee.”
This could be a bit of lowering expectations, so that the Obama cultists don’t freak on her if she fails to offer Obama the laurel wreath three times.
On the other hand, she could just be really pissed off.
And really awesome.
But wait, Bill is running his yap and pretty much said McCain is the only guy responsible people would vote for. This one is Politico via Hot Air via Ace again.
Bill Clinton appeared to undermine Sen. Barack Obama again Tuesday.
The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.
He said: “Suppose you’re a voter, and you’ve got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don’t think that candidate can deliver on anything at all. Candidate Y you agree with on about half the issues, but he can deliver. Which candidate are you going to vote for?”
Then, perhaps mindful of how his off-the-cuff remarks might be taken, Clinton added after a pause: “This has nothing to do with what’s going on now.”
Yeah, he was talking about a hypothetical election in a hypothetical year in a hypothetical country where one guy is an empty suit . . . hypothetically.
The Democratic National Convention has begun and the poll numbers are bouncing, but not in the direction that most people anticipated.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Barack Obama attracting 44% of the vote while John McCain also earns 44%. When “leaners” are included, it’s still tied with Obama at 46% and McCain at 46%. Yesterday, with leaners, Obama had a three-point advantage over McCain (see recent daily results). [snip]
Obama is supported by 78% of Democrats while McCain gets the vote from 85% of Republicans. The GOP hopeful also has a slight advantage among unaffiliated voters.
Rasmussen thinks the selection of Biden and the non-selection of Clinton may be hurting Obama. This translates to a negative bounce from the VP selection, a rare occurrence.
Today’s results are the first based entirely upon interviews conducted since Joe Biden was named to be Obama’s running mate.
Obama’s support has declined in each of the last three individual nights of polling. This may be either statistical noise or a reaction to the selection of Biden. If it’s the latter, it probably has less to do with Biden than Hillary Clinton. Forty-seven percent (47%) of Democratic women say Clinton should have been picked and 21% of them say they’ll vote for McCain.
I am sure last night’s Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy love-fest will give His Rockstarness the big boost he needs. Heh.
It’s a shame, because I was looking forward to all the positive effects of an Obama victory, but barring a major gaffe by John McCain, Barack Obama will lose in November. When McCain was trailing big and Obama was sailing along, I never felt Obama should be favored. He simply is too flawed of a candidate. Now that things have tightened in the polls and we are seeing what happens when people start to take a closer look at Obama, I believe the race is over. I have not gotten a presidential election outcome wr
