Month: September 2008

Ain’t that good advice right now? Edward Stanwood’s 1912 Atlantic article goes over some election superstitions held at the time; people believed "that no man possessed of a middle name could be elected President a second time" and that "that no senator can be elected President." His bottom line:

In the words of the sporting editor all records have been broken, and we may almost say that all the traditions and conventions of political campaigns and of political conduct have been affronted, if not violated. That being the case, it is somewhat late to consider whether the superstitions and traditions of a hundred or more years are to stand, in the result in November. All we can do is, to use the phrase that has become current in British politics: ‘Wait and see.’

Marc made a related point a few days ago.

The first part of O’Reilly’s interview with Obama:

Here’s a fascinating glimpse into how the rest of the world is reacting to the Sarah Palin selection. It’s from a classic and peerless British weekly radio panel discussion show, called "Any Questions." A panel of four take questions from an audience taped live somewhere in Britain. Click on the button "Listen Again" for "Any Questions" for September 5. The discussion begins at the 34 minute mark. The question:

Why is being a soccer mom a qualification for being the second in command of the so-called global superpower?

By the way, what does Derb think? Bea Campbell:

Let’s imagine that governor Palin was indeed a man. He wouldn’t be interesting. He’d be outrageous. She is outrageous, actually.

How to obstruct justice:

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…

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.

The move underscored the huge political stakes in the outcome of a legislative investigation that is being closely monitored by both the McCain and Obama campaigns because of its potential impact on the fall election. "How can this possibly be read as anything but a partisan attempt to shut down a legitimate investigation that was approved and funded with bipartisan support?" said one state Democratic legislative aide, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivities. 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.

Also read Marshall.

Who is McCain trying to kid? Here’s Palin’s record as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, from the vetting document (PDF) done by the Democrats in 2006, posted by Mudflats, the indispensable Alaskan blog. Yes, Palin has been vetted before – just not by McCain:

Debt Service Increased 69 Percent Under Palin. In fiscal 2003 — the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget — the total government debt service was $658,662. In fiscal 1996 — the year before Palin took control of the budget—the debt service was $390,385. The increase was 69 percent. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 1] Palin Left Behind Almost $19 Million In Long-Term Debt, Compared to None Before She Was Mayor.

In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the bonded long-term debt was $18,635,000. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—there was no general obligation debt. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]

Long-Term Debt Was $3000 Per Capita When Palin Left, Compared to None Before She Was Mayor.

In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the bonded long-term debt per capita was $2,938. In fiscal 1996—the year before Palin took control of the budget—there was no general obligation debt. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 10]

When Palin Left Office, 6.24% of Government Spending Was On Debt Service, Compared to None Before She Was Mayor.

In fiscal 2003—the last fiscal year Palin approved the budget—the ratio of debt service to general government expenditures was 6.24 percent. There was no long-term debt before she took office. [Wasilla Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2003, Table 11]

In so many ways, Palin is a contemporary Republican: no abortions ever but mounds and mounds and mounds of debt for the next generation.

This is incredible, totally incredible. A vice presidential candidate isn’t going to be available to the press for two weeks? Two weeks? In September. We have this total unknown who could be president of the United States next January. And she’s in hiding for two weeks. Chris Matthews on this clip says that this is fine. Has he lost his mind? She needs to be in front of the press now. The United States and the world cannot have this total unknown foisted on the presidency without any serious vetting and without any press interaction. This is absolutely third world. Since when is the governor of a state given two weeks in hiding?

The sexism that implies that someone cannot stand up to reporters because she is a woman is appalling. This entire pick, of course, is incredibly sexist, and the handling of her in the last week the most sexist double standard I have ever seen in American politics. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton saying she wasn’t going to answer questions for two weeks? Or Margaret Thatcher? Or Kay Bailey Hutchison? Or Elizabeth Dole? And none of these women were ever as close to global power as Sarah Palin now is. This is getting to Manchurian Candidate levels of creepiness. It’s deeply sinister and slightly terrifying.

The last bit of Christopher Caldwell’s article on 1998 article on the limits of the GOP:

The most profound clash between the South and everyone else, of course, is a cultural one. It arises from the southern tradition of putting values — particularly Christian values — at the center of politics. This is not the same as saying that the Republican Party is "too far right"; Americans consistently tell pollsters that they are conservative on values issues. It is, rather, that the Republicans have narrowly defined "values" as the folkways of one regional subculture, and have urged their imposition on the rest of the country. Again, the nonsoutherners who object to this style of politics may be just as conservative as those who practice it. But they are put off to see that "traditional" values are now defined by the majority party as the values of the U-Haul-renting denizens of two-year-old churches and three-year-old shopping malls.

Southerners now wag the Republican dog. How did the party let that happen?

And why does Sarah Palin’s Alaska seem like Alabama with penguins polar bears?

Larison on the dregs of Bushism:

McCain provides the basic policy trajectory of a third Bush term, and Palin provides the biography of a folksy pro-life ”reformer with results” governor of a large, oil-rich reliably Republican state in the West–it is pretty close to the Bush/Cheney ticket in reverse, isn’t it?

A bit from an interview by Harry Collins author of Rethinking Expertise:

I would say that the danger to democracy that my own discipline—social studies of science—is not doing enough to combat is the collapse of the idea of expertise. Current social studies of science has difficulty with the notion of expertise. The attitude that anyone’s opinion on any topic is equally valuable could spread, and there are some indications, such as widespread vaccine scares, that suggest it is happening. A world in which there is said to be no difference between those who know what they are talking about and those who don’t is not one that anyone who thinks about it wants. Such a society would be like one’s worst nightmare, exhibiting many of the characteristics of the most vile epochs of human history.