Election 2008

AlterNet's election coverage.

Rather than Vetting Palin, McCain Will Orchestrate a Cover-Up of Her Abuse of Power
Posted by Emptywheel, Firedoglake on September 8, 2008 at 4:31 AM.

I make [decisions] as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can. Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint. -- John McCain

It's bad enough that a presidential ticket claiming to run on reform is now orchestrating a cover-up of an apparent abuse of power. What's really stunning is that they're conducting this cover-up in lieu of actually vetting Sarah Palin.

The Cover-Up

As you've no doubt seen, Isikoff and Hosenball report that the McCain campaign is attempting to turn the bipartisan investigation into TrooperGate into a whitewash.

Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.

In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska's bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.

[snip]

Coghill, who told NEWSWEEK that he has the backing of Republican Speaker of the House John Harris in his effort to remove French, suggested Friday that the investigation into Palin's firing of Monegan should be shut down entirely. "If this has been botched up the way it has, there's a question as to whether it should continue," Coghill told NEWSWEEK. 

[snip]

Coghill told NEWSWEEK that he decided to write his letter to strip French of his position on his own-without any coaxing by McCain campaign officials.

But a top McCain campaign official acknowledged that the GOP lawyer had given the campaign a "heads up" about his letter and that the McCain campaign approved of the effort to remove French.

"An investigation that was supposed to be non-partisan has become a political circus and has gotten out of control," said Taylor Griffin, a top communications aide dispatched from McCain campaign headquarters to Alaska this week to monitor the investigation and related matters.

And, as I pointed out the other day, since Palin got named the VP candidate, seven people have not so mysteriously changed their minds about cooperating with the investigation; there will be a vote among the Republican-dominated committee conducting the investigation on Tuesday to decide whether or not to subpoena these seven witnesses.

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Election Observer Arrested in Arizona
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on September 7, 2008 at 1:45 PM.

According to the Election Defense Alliance blog, John Brakey, one of the country's leading election activists known for bring secretive electronic voting into public view, was arrested while observing problems in local elections this week in Pima County, Arizona.

The arrest begs the question of whether the same response will be forthcoming against election observers this November. That scenario is hardly moot after the police used excessive force in St. Paul in response to protests and other First Amendment activities at the Republican National Convention.

The EDA blog report said Brakey was arrested while officially observing the vote colunt.

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Will Sarah Palin Have An Effect on the Women's Vote?
Posted by Heather Gehlert, AlterNet on September 7, 2008 at 10:28 AM.

John McCain is clearly trying to court the women's vote with his selection of Sarah Palin for the Republican party's VP. But a survey conducted after Palin gave her acceptance speech at the GOP convention suggests that McCain might not be getting the boost he'd hoped for.

The survey, conducted by Women's Voices. Women Vote Action Fund (WVWVAF) between Sept. 2 and Sept. 3, gauged the reactions of 1356 women -- 1295 of whom are likely to vote in the November election. Many of the women supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries but now say they are undecided. The survey found that while both married and unmarried women were impressed by the delivery of Palin's speech, they were left with questions about its substance. Women voters walked away without a clear idea of how Palin would handle some of the United States' most serious problems, like the economy. And while some women moved toward the Republican party, an equal number back away from it.

Is Palin a Step Backwards for Women in Power?
Posted by Suzanne Braun Levine, SuzanneBraunLevine.com on September 5, 2008 at 4:56 PM.

Bella Abzug -- the shrewd, hard-hitting, passionate and idealistic legislative genius who led the women’s movement and represented New York in Congress -- once remarked that we would only have true gender equality when an incompetent woman could go as far as an incompetent man. That milestone appears to have been achieved with the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice President. Which is not to say that Palin couldn’t become competent, but Bella, who understood and believed in government so profoundly, would be horrified at how little expertise Palin brings to the table right now. Even the reportedly clear glasses she wears to play down her beauty-queen credential and enhance her gravitas can’t make up for experience. This is not an anti-woman statement; it is a pro-national leadership statement. Running the country is not a learn-as-you-go job.

It has been argued by her defenders that Palin -- the Hockey Mom -- can do it all and that any suggestions that she can’t are sexist. We, who know what sexism is because we helped define it before we began working to defeat it, can tell you that Having It All has been one of the crucibles of the struggle for equality. When the term began to circulate in the 1970s many women felt oppressed by the supposed message that in order to be "new women" they had to have high power careers, raise multiple children -- and, as Jane O’Reilly once wrote, be “multi-orgasmic til dawn.” As the conversation went on, women modified that message and began to reassure each other that "you can have it all -- just not all at once." Until we have more reliable and universal child care and special needs options and until we can offer all teenagers advice besides the "abstinence only" approach Palin subscribes to, a mother in her circumstances would have a hard enough time getting to work every day, let alone being a heartbeat away from leading a family of nations she has never even traveled through.

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Fox News: 'McCain's TV Commercials Contain ... Out-Right Lies'
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on September 5, 2008 at 2:01 PM.

We talked the other day about a surprising Washington Post editorial, which criticized John McCain's demonstrably false claims about Barack Obama's tax policies. Hiatt & Co., hardly a reliably liberal bunch, didn't pull any punches, concluding that "McCain's ads on taxes are just plain false," and noting his campaign's message is peddling a "phony, misleading and at times outright dishonest" line. The Post indirectly noted that candidates shouldn't "outright lie" about each other's policy positions.

How transparent are McCain's bogus claims? Even Fox News has noticed. Consider this report from Major Garrett:

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Van Halen, Heart, Others to GOP: Stop Using Our Songs!
Posted by Dave Burdick, Huffington Post on September 5, 2008 at 11:53 AM.

This campaign season, Republicans have been using a lot of songs from artists who wouldn't have given permission if asked, and some who have spoken up to ask that their songs not be used in the future.

Here's the No-Thanks-GOP playlist so far:

Van Halen - Right Now

Van Halen management tells us the band had no idea McCain was planning on using "Right Now" during his big entrance in Ohio telling us, "Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given."

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The McCain Campaign's Big McMansion Mystery Mistake
Posted by dday, Hullabaloo on September 5, 2008 at 9:51 AM.

To a man, everyone on the liberal blogger side of the aisle was stunned that the McCain campaign would allow the TV shot to go out to the world on his big night to be him in front of a lime green background. Cottage cheese and lime Jello, in the vernacular of the blogosphere. Surely they WATCHED the shot through a monitor and knew that it would make him look sickly.

But that's not the only head-scratcher with the RNC staging, which the set designers had months to organize. The giant screen was useless outside of the room, always putting the speaker at the podium behind monochrome, or worse, in the East River (in Rudy Giuliani's speech). Putting the seats for dignitaries along the side of the stage was OK, but the white line across the boxes designating them looked to the TV angle like the seats were empty, in a wide shot. And then there's this, which is absolutely amazing:

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McCain's Speech: Worst Acceptance Speech in Almost 30 Years?
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on September 5, 2008 at 9:22 AM.

So, I pretty much hated John McCain's speech.

It was boring as all fuck, not just because McCain is a miserable orator who never manages to hit any kind of compelling rhythm, but because it was the same damn speech I've heard at every GOP convention for my entire life injected with a shot of POW, the potency of which had been thoroughly undermined by every other convention speaker having taken possession of McCain's history during their speeches. Even the video package introducing McCain talked about his being a POW. There's a not-particularly-fine line between marketing relevant and evocative personal experience and Tragedy Branding. This convention sailed over that line into farce.

It gives me no joy to say that. And it doesn't change one iota the fact that McCain's service was intrinsically brave and honorable. I'm just really mystified by the decision to use something as intimate and distressing as the details of imprisonment and torture as the primary selling point of a candidate. Which is not to suggest McCain shouldn't have talked about it himself—but doling it out to everyone else to discuss onstage on his behalf had the twofold effect of diluting its effectiveness and disconnecting McCain from his own highly personal experience.

It certainly wasn't a good design for people tuned in to lots of the convention, at minimum.

I won't pick apart much of the actual content, because, quite frankly, it's too dry and dull to require it. There are two passages I wanted to mention, though.

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The Republican Priorities: What The GOP Focused On (And Ignored) During The Convention
Posted by Staff, Think Progress on September 5, 2008 at 6:35 AM.

During the Republican National Convention this past week, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign worked hard to put distance between the senator and President Bush. Bush spoke briefly via satellite and Vice President Cheney didn’t address the crowd at all.

Despite these attempts, what was most evident during the convention was how similar the two men’s policies were. New ideas to address the country’s problems and actual policy discussions were given little attention. As FiveThirtyEight notes, instead, much attention was given to “the three P’s — Palin, Petroleum, and POW.”

ThinkProgress has put together an analysis based on the prepared remarks (a total of 38,055 words) of the convention speakers, looking at how many times Republicans said various words. A glimpse at conservatives’ priorities:

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Republican National Convention: Whitest in Forty Years
Posted by Blue Texan, Firedoglake on September 4, 2008 at 5:01 PM.

Last month, the wingnuts freaked when Howard Dean called the GOP "the white party." But chances are if you saw the convention last night, you didn't see much color.

Organizers conceived of this convention as a means to inspire, but some African American Republicans have found the Xcel Energy Center depressing this week. Everywhere they look, they see evidence of what they consider one of their party's biggest shortcomings.

As the country rapidly diversifies, Republicans are presenting a convention that is almost entirely white.

Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern -- a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years.

"It's hard to look around and not get frustrated," said Michael S. Steele, a black Republican and former lieutenant governor of Maryland. "You almost have to think, 'Wait. How did it come to this?' "

How'd it come to this, Mike?

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Talk About Bad Planning: McCain to Speak Tonight, the Start of Football Season
Posted by Steven Reynolds, The All Spin Zone on September 4, 2008 at 1:51 PM.

I see around the net all sorts of Republicans are getting ready to watch John McCain’s acceptance speech tonight. They think they’ll be energized or something, and they even think that McCain will make his pitch to independent voters. Oh, yeah, like that will work after choosing a religious whack job who thinks a pipeline is “God’s Will” as his running mate. Be that as it may, McCain’s real problem is getting anyone to pay attention, because he’s got bigtime competition tonight on the TV dial.

First, while not in direct competition, Barack Obama will be appearing with Bill O’Reilly tonight at 8:00. If Barack speaks well, which is quite likely, then he’s going to attract a whole bunch of comments from the talking heads covering the RNC, if not before McCain’s speech, then in the aftermath of it. FoxNews is going to get ratings for the O’Reilly show, no doubt. In fact, I’m willing to be FoxNews gets higher ratings for the O’Reilly Factor than it does for their coverage of McCain’s speech.

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Giuliani and Palin Use Racist Dog Whistle in Speeches
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on September 4, 2008 at 12:41 PM.

Last night, while listening to first Giuliani and then Palin sneer at Obama for being a "community organizer," I nearly lost my everloving shit with fury -- not just because, on its face, it shows a deep contempt for an engaged citizenry (back to treating activist like a dirty word again), but because, beneath its surface, it was an ugly racist dog whistle.

Ezra succinctly explains the subtext:

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Steelworkers President Slams Palin: 'Stop Using Your Husband's Membership in the USW as a Prop'
Posted by Ali, Think Progress on September 4, 2008 at 11:33 AM.

When Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, he trumpeted her husband’s union membership: “The person I’m about to introduce to you was a union member and is married to a union member, and understands the problems, the hopes and the values of working people,” he said. That day, and again last night, Palin also emphasized that her husband is “a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union.”

Conservatives are hoping the reference will play well in Michigan and Ohio. But the United Steelworkers union (USW) isn’t so pleased. USW President Leo Gerard noted that just because Todd Palin is a union member doesn’t mean that Palin is automatically qualified to represent labor interests:

It is important to realize that while the governor’s husband is a member of a union, this does not automatically qualify her for an on-the-job training program to become a heartbeat away from the presidency. And while her husband is one of 850,000 dues-paying members of the steelworkers union, it does nothing to absolve Sen. McCain of his long history of anti-union sentiment and anti-worker actions.

In fact, McCain’s hostility to unions and union priorities runs deep:

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The GOP Thinks Organizing in Your Community is Worthless
Posted by Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake on September 4, 2008 at 9:34 AM.

Well, I suppose we should all just throw up our hands and let local children starve, let civil rights problems fester, and shut up and accept every problem for what it is:  our lot in life.  

Screw the poor.  To hell with women being allowed to vote.  Rollback the end of slavery.  And get yer hazmat suits, because your environment is about to be sold off piecemeal to the highest bidder -- hunters, fishermen, and wildlife enthusiasts be damned.

Welcome to Republican world, where trying to make things better in your hometown makes you something they laugh at proudly.  How's that feel America?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but without community organizers like Martin Luther King, Jr., we'd all still be dealing with separate water fountains for coloreds and Jim Crow Laws.  And I mean the old ones, not the new poll tax crap that Hans Von Spakovsky keeps trying to sneak in through the sewers.

Oh, and ladies?   No community organizers means that your voice doesn't count for shit.  No vote for you!

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Palin's Speech Can't Spark the GOP
Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo on September 4, 2008 at 6:36 AM.

I expect that a lot of people on both sides of the aisle were surprised that Palin didn't run out on stage dressed like Ellie May Clampett, chomping on a wad of tobacco and talking like Roseann Barr. Instead, she gave a successful political speech in the style of a female political icon like Ann Richards (if she had a Fargo accent.) She was confident and poised and she is obviously not going to embarrass the GOP with amateur, provincial incompetence. I don't think anyone's as sure she'll be dumped from the ticket tomorrow morning as they were today.

But the bottom line is that while she may not sink this ticket (at least immediately) she can't save it either. They'll get out their base, which until now was a questionable proposition. But that won't be enough. Their base has shrunk. They have to win over a chunk of independents and I just don't know if they can successfully separate themselves from the disaster of the past eight years, even if Maverick decides to move the White House to Point Barrow.

They are Republicans. Both of them. And that should be enough to sink them if the Democrats actually run against them.