Month: September 2008

Jim Henley thinks I am misinterpreting Palin’s remarks about Iraq and God’s will:

This does not strike me as at all a confident declaration that the Iraq war is a task from God, but rather expresses a hope that it might be. It’s, dare I say it, humble, anxious and becomingly sincere – a genuine mother’s genuine hope and worry. The phrasing clearly admits the possibility that the war might not have God’s favor. I expect that Palin’s entry into Republican presidential politics marks the end of that brand of humility and genuineness touching matters of war and peace, but at least once it was there.

I fear Henley doesn’t understand the totalism of the Christianist mindset. If your pastor is Larry Kroon, everything is under God’s authority; no decision is made independently of God’s instruction; and obedience to God’s every word in every single detail is compulsory. But make your own mind up:

He was giving press conferences one day after the convention. Of course. He was a serious pick. Can you imagine George H. W. Bush runing off to Kennebunkport to cram for three weeks in September 1980?

A reader adds more detail. In fact, Eagleton may not have given a press conference until July 25, but he was interviewed on television on July 14, the day of his selection, and on July 16, on Face The Nation. So Eagleton was available to some press one day after he was announced. From the NYT archive:

Sen McGovern pushes through nomination of Sen Eagleton as his running mate

July 14th  Eagleton’s comments on his nomination, made during CBS-TV int,
Sen Eagleton, appearing on July 16 on Face the Nation,
Sen Eagleton announces during July 21 interview in Washington (DC) that he will emphasize law and order and urban problems as the Dem Vice Presidential candidate this fall

Notice that most campaigns actually believe that it is good for them to get press interest in their vice-presidential pick. Normally, they can’t wait to get him or her in front of the cameras. It’s important to realize that, whatever the intimidation from the GOP, what is happening with Palin is without historical precedent.

The question we have every right to ask is: why?

A reader writes:

Assuming Gov. Palin is entitled to time to "prepare" for her new job, could you or I learn what we need to know in 3 weeks? Can she?  I’m a lawyer, a political/news freak, and work in gov’t, and I don’t think I could do it. 

As my mother would say, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph…"

He was announced August 7, the convention ended August 14, his first presser as veep nominee was August 15. Of course he was very well known by then by the country and the national press corps and had given plenty of national press conferences before that date. But since we’re counting: that’s ten days. Tomorrow, Palin crosses the line into new territory.

And again, it’s the second week of September, not the middle of August. Proximity to the election itself matters. This really does feel like a one-party state, doesn’t it?

My readers are better than Wikipedia. Thomas Eagleton was selected on July 15, 1972. His first press conference was July 25, 1972. So ten days is the maximum delay in recent history so far. On the tenth day, he announced his history of bipolar disease. On the eighteenth he withdrew. The story has some truly eerie parallels:

Eagleton was an unlikely running mate for McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee. He supported a McGovern rival in the primaries, and according to the columnist Robert Novak, he spoke damagingly of McGovern off the record. But after Edward M. Kennedy and others refused McGovern’s entreaties, the call went out to Eagleton.

In a room with staff members, friends and even reporters present, Eagleton spoke on the phone with McGovern for less than a minute. McGovern’s aide Frank Mankiewicz subsequently asked Eagleton if he had any skeletons rattling around his closet. A terse denial inaugurated a latter-day industry of vice-presidential vetting.

More here. Lloyd Bentsen gave a press conference one day after being selected.

By tomorrow, Palin will be in unprecedented territory. And, of course, the Eagleton delay should also be seen in the context of how much time the country still has to weigh its decision. When Eagleton was selected, there were a little under four months left till election day. Now there’s less than two months. And they say the public has no right to know who could be their next president.

This downturn keeps getting grimmer.

Ferraro was being interviewed within four days of being announced. Dan Quayle gave an interview one day after being selected.

We are now on Day Nine for Palin and are told to expect another thirteen before she’s ready.

This is a pitbull with lipstick? More like a cowering chihuahua.

(I’ll keep you posted on the other precedents. I should have asked how many days it took Eagleton to speak to the press.)

"Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are," – Oscar Wilde.

(Photo: Robyn Beck/Getty.)

Fox News now has a propaganda film up about the possible next president of the United States; but the actual press is not allowed near her. With one single exception: in a staggeringly sexist decision, Steve Schmidt has allowed Palin to be interviewed by a soft-focus, non-political magazine, People. There was also a lifestyle interview on jogging and diet in the WSJ, but that was obviously done before her selection. But no actual political journalists, asking questions about what her, you know, views are on, say, Iran or Fannie Mae or the EITC or the battle between Shia and Sunni Islam. Now: can you imagine a man being selected as vice-president and only giving feature interviews to People?

McCain’s treatment of Palin is increasingly one of the most sexist displays I’ve ever seen in national politics. They somehow think this woman cannot handle the press. Why?

And a bleg to readers. Can you find me the first press conferences for every vice-presidential nominee since 1976? That’s the modern era. Let’s see how glaring a sexist double standard there is. Please provide online verification. I’ll put the record out there as soon as you assemble it.