Tag: John McCain (page 13)

In an earlier post I wrote about Saturday's McCain-Palin rally in Colorado Springs, and how the candidates and speakers, while stressing the importance of Colorado and El Paso County in particular this November, failed to give even a passing nod to the evangelical social agenda. That brings to mind a larger question.

Is El Paso County, with its high concentration of evangelical and military-oriented voters, enough to push McCain to victory in Colorado in November? Taking a look at various numbers, I would say it's a close question, but unlikely. [More...]

CNN reports that John McCain said he'd include Democrats in his cabinet. Since Sen. Barack Obama said the same about Republicans months ago, there's no story there. (Unless it that's McCain gives us Joe Lieberman, hardly something to write home about.)

But, this quote is curious: [More...]

The LA Times reports today that McCain's blatant attempt to target working class women voters with his choice of Sarah Palin to be vice president isn't convincing many of them.

For many of these critical swing voters, economic interests trump any admiration of the Alaska governor's maternal grit, and some are repelled by her sarcastic jabs at Obama.

As one woman put it:

"I wanted Hillary to win so bad, but I saw Sarah, and it just didn't work for me," said Heckman, taking a break in the empty courtyard of J. Paul's restaurant in a downtown struggling to revive. "I have no retirement. Obama understands it's the economy. He knows how we live."

[More...]

As I've mentioned, I covered the McCain/Palin rally in Colorado Springs yesterday for Salon.com. My report is now up on their site, McCain and Palin Go to Dobsonville. The gist:

Fresh from the GOP convention, John McCain brings his Christian fundamentalist running mate to Christian fundamentalist headquarters –- but doesn't mention abortion or gay marriage.

Not surprisingly, it focuses on aspects much of the mainstream media coverage missed or ignored. Until I saw this CBS report, I was beginning to wonder whether I had attended a different event.

ABC has an article about rock stars telling McCain/Palin to stop using their music at campaign events. Jackson Browne and Heart are among them.

I heard another group yesterday blaring from the speakers at one point during the Colorado Springs event, held in a jet aviation hangar and on the tarmac: The B-52's.

Here's a comparison of Gov. Sarah Palin and President George W. Bush, demonstrating their similarities.

In Gov. Palin, the GOP has its new Bush, same as the old Bush, but more polished, more presentable, more user-friendly than the original ever was -- and, they hope, still fresh and unencumbered enough to run as a "maverick" against the legacy of Dubya 1.0's failures.

The examples on the second page of the article are striking:

If there's a common cause for Bush and Palin's less-than-complex worldview -- one that should disturb the security minded of both parties -- it's their profound disinterest in understanding or even experiencing other countries and cultures.

The mastermind behind both: Karl Rove. [more...]

You don't win elections with one hand tied behind your back. The Democrats need to come out swinging against Sarah Palin, the unqualified, radical right choice of John McCain to occupy the nation's second most powerful leadership position. The fact that she's under investigation for abuse of power alone should be enough to disqualify her. Tell her to come back after she's been cleared and has shown she brings something other than tokenism to the job.

The Democratic strategists and pundits who think Obama should ignore Palin and stick to debating the issues are the best example of why the Democrats lost the last two elections.

The National Jewish Democratic Council has begun an online campaign to oppose Sen. John McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate:

Senator John McCain made a poor choice in his first critical presidential decision with his vice presidential selection of Governor Sarah Palin. We, in the Jewish community, have to question McCain’s judgment for choosing a right-wing religious conservative with absolutely no foreign policy experience and a brewing scandal which is being investigated by the Alaska state legislature.

It is ironic that McCain, who turned 72 last week, has said, “The fundamental principle behind any selection of a running mate would be whether that person is fully prepared to take over.” And then McCain selected Palin???

More....

Today I remembered this blogger conference call with Sen. Charles Schumer in 2005 over President Bush's judicial nominees.

Sen. Schumer was emphatic in his remarks to us. He said the hard right, both economic and religious, has decided that the only way to push their agenda through is to control the courts. If they win and gain control of the courts, both economically and socially, they will roll back America to the 1930's or the 1890's.

He said that the hard right made a deal with George Bush during the election. It would support him and "not hound him", but he had to cede control of his judicial nominations to the Federalist Society.

That's the reward (in addition to enthusiastically supporting his election) I would bet the radical right is offering John McCain. When you see reports of his campaign coffers growing due to Gov. Palin, the picture comes into closer focus. [More...]

And it's unlikely to be favorable to Gov. Sarah Palin.

ABC News has exclusively learned that Alaska Senator Hollis French will announce today that he is moving up the release date of his investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired. The results of the investigation were originally scheduled for release Oct. 31 but will now come almost three weeks earlier, according to sources.

More...

Now that the Republican Convention has ended, it's time for the rest of us to remember This is Our Country, and John McCain, Sarah Palin, James Dobson and the radical right can't have it.

I took this video in Des Moines at a campaign event for John Edwards. I chose it because he has the audience -- all Democrats -- sign along with him on the refrain, "This is Our Country."

We need to remember this in the next 60 days. The country that George Bush and the Republicans stole in 2000 and kept in 2004 belongs to us. Eight long and miserable years later, it's up to us to take it back. [More...]

Calling Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. That's the McCain/Palin ticket. Take us back to the mid-1970's.

Reaction from others: Jeffrey Toobin on CNN: The worst acceptance speech ever. Not a single new policy idea.

David Gergen: It struck an emotional chord with those in the hall, but the substantive part was poor, he didn't differentiate between him and Bush and the country has had enough of Bush.

USA, USA, USA!