Month: September 2008

Ruth Marcus:

An Alaska friend tells me that Palin has always benefited from being underestimated. Maybe I’m doing that. Maybe I’ve been around polished politicians too long to appreciate the unvarnished authenticity that obviously appeals to many voters. But there’s no Palin interview I’ve listened to, before or after her selection, that gave me the sense that she had anything but a millimeter-thin understanding of the issues facing the country she hopes to help lead.

She’s had only one interview since being selected, and one infomercial. We simply cannot know who she is. And the McCain-Rove team is absolutely intent on preventing us from finding out.

Chait has a great little column on the Pavlovian response of right-wing hacks to the Palin nomination and the uncanny echoes of the Quayle nomination back in 1988. But I think this is unfair to Quayle. Quayle was available for press questions one day after being selected as veep nominee. We are now on Day 27 of Sarah Palin’s refusal to take questions from the press.

Staggering. What happened to the First Amendment? What happened to political accountability? What happened to transparency?

This Howie Kurtz piece is amazing in many ways but there is one staggering piece of real news buried in it:

"Governor Palin has no history of health problems," [McCain campaign spokesman Michael] Goldfarb says. "We believe that a candidate should be able to preserve some privacy in this process, and we’re confident the American people will validate that judgment come election day."

So the only objective evidence we will be allowed to have about Palin’s medical history, including the bizarre story of her fifth pregnancy, is Michael Goldfarb’s assurance that she has "no history of health problems" and that "privacy" trumps even basic transparency and accountability in a national campaign. For the record, I agree with Sarah Palin who recently said,

"When you run for office, your life is an open book."

I have repeatedly demanded Joe Biden’s medical records be released here, here, here, here and here. I have only asked for Palin’s medical records twice here and here. This is not about partisanship. This is about transparency and accountability.

I reiterate my demand for Sarah Palin’s to be released as well immediately. If transparency and accountability do not apply to a candidate for vice-president, then the whole concept of open government and the free press is being held in contempt.

Give us the medical records for both veep candidates. Now. We have a right to know the truth before Americans vote. That’s all. And that’s everything.

Felix Salmon answers David Cay Johnston’s questions about the economy. So does Ryan Avent.

Tell it, sister:

"Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters… Let her have a real news conference with real questions."

But what does it say that this is not even her decision to make?

Gregg Easterbrook gets it:

The White House just asked the national debt ceiling be raised another $700 billion, for the proposed financial-sector bailout. If that happens, in 2008 alone, $1.5 trillion will have been added to the national debt: every penny borrowed from your children and their children. Stated in today’s dollars, in 1979 the entire national debt was $1.5 trillion. George W. Bush and Congress have in a single year added an amount equal to the entire national debt one generation ago. And the year’s not over!

And this – yes, this – is now regarded as conservatism!

"The task of building a world community is man’s final necessity and possibility, but also his final impossibility. It is a necessity and possibility because history is a process which extends the freedom of man over natural process to the point where universality is reached. It is an impossibility because man is, despite his increasing freedom, a finite creature, wedded to time and place and incapable of building any structure of culture or civilization which does not have its foundations in a particular and dated locus," – Reinhold Niebuhr, "The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness".

We need Niebuhr now more than ever.

I have to concur with Andrew Romano. This is the weirdest strategy I’ve ever heard of:

Endorphin branding is the use of scent as a means of imprinting a highly emotional, positive experience in tandem with a targeted signature scent, which can be reintroduced at a later time to trigger and recreate the desired response. This strategy should be implemented at political events, which are positively charged environments ripe for this type of scent branding.

This presidential election has already seen historic, innovative campaign efforts, particularly Senator Obama’s use of the Internet to raise funds and communicate his messages. A multi-faceted, scented campaign could provide the edge one of these candidates needs to help gain victory in November.

But no crazier than the selection of Palin.

If you work for a regular employer and just do a regular job, finding out about the work and finances of big-time Washington lobbyists can be eye-opening. I see them through the windows at the Palm, well-fed, chubby necks muffin-topping their crisp white collars, sharp knives slicing through the steaks, and wonder for a minute how they can endure the sheer boredom of their existence and where all that money really comes from. In Rick Davis’s case, it comes from Freddie Mac:

The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told Newsweek that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac’s vice president for external relations, because "he [Davis] was John McCain’s campaign manager and it was felt you couldn’t say no," said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].

Davis did next to nothing for the money.

This was classic corporate insurance, shaken down by someone in their pocket. And this person is running the McCain campaign and telling the public not to talk about issues. Meanwhile, McCain has no clue on this, as he seems to have no clue about Palin:

On Sunday, in an interview with CNBC and The New York Times, Mr. McCain responded to a question about Mr. Davis’s role in the advocacy group through 2005 by saying that his campaign manager "has had nothing to do with it since, and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it."

Do we really want an out-of-it president surrounded by corporate lobbying sleazeballs?