Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

[Jocephus]

i spend so much time in the world that is spinning all the time, that to be in the "no spin zone" actually gives me vertigo

[haltz]

This keeps getting weirder: Mayor Palin Charged Victims for Their Own Rape Kits

[cardsfansince82]

[/youtube]

im shamelessly bumping this

Watching hardcore church stuff like that makes me incredibly uncomfortable. I don't even know how to relate to those people.

[GatewaySnayke]

If Obama goes that road, he's in danger of losing me. He can and should go after McCain on factual issues. He can and should go after Palin (and the bridge and all that) via McCain, i.e.:

You should note that while McCain was lying without shame with regards to Obama's energy plan and Obama did not fight back that McCain started gaining ground. McCain has gained so much ground because there's been little in the way of offense. McCain has managed to play offense on almost every issue and has distorted everything Obama stands for in some way or the other.

It's silly to expect that Obama never gets his hands dirty. Most of his supporters want to see him launch an offensive assault against McCain. And if they have to tear some people down along the way -- so freaking be it.

And I disagree that attacking Palin is bad for him because Palin is the strength. John Kerry's military experience was a HUGE strength and the Republicans made that an even bigger negative against him. The Republicans make their opponents biggest strength a weakness. Palin is both the strength and weakness. You can't use rules of the past to try and win this election. Sarah Palin is not John Edwards, Dick Cheney, etc. She is the most significant VP nominee in my lifetime, so going after her is something they have to do.

EDIT: Adding to the VP stuff, the Republicans completely wiped out Edwards' credibility four years ago and they didn't do it via Kerry.

[Simbagal23]

To be fair, in response to the portions of the Washington Post article previously posted, following are more excerpts:

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

And (sorry, I tried to quote and it was messed up):

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

I don't see an issue with this.....Also, if the Post is digging into this, shouldn't they also fly speck the McCain, Obama and Biden expenses? Craziness. This thread has just about turned me off on politics yet again......

[Socnorb11]

Not much relevance to this, although one wonders why she'd keep this a secret:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 23489.html

Of the many disclosures about the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, since John McCain selected her as his running mate, one of the most intriguing surrounds the birth of her youngest child, Trig.

Even her closest aides did not know she was pregnant until a few weeks before Trig's birth in April. That, according to yesterday's New York Times, is because she hid her pregnancy. The 44-year-old Governor was photographed by Vogue in January in a giant parka. At work, she began wearing billowing scarves and loose jackets.

She was, it seems, struggling to come to terms with the fact that the baby would be born with Down's syndrome. She also feared a public backlash over the pregnancy. So she kept working, even travelling to Texas a month before her due date, to give a speech.

On the day of that speech, Ms Palin began discharging amniotic fluid. She went ahead and gave the speech anyway, before returning to Alaska – a 10-hour flight.

"Nobody knew a thing," Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii told The New York Times. "I only found out from my security detail on the way home that she had gone into labour and that she had gone home to Alaska."

Trig Paxson Van Palin was born early next morning, weighing 6lb 2oz. Mrs Palin soon sent an e-mail to relatives and friends, signing it: "Trig's Creator, Your Heavenly Father."

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

but I don't care what the President thinks about it.

Even though it's the president who has the responsibility of appointing federal judges? Why do you think the religious right are frothing over the Palin nomination? It's not only symbolic, it has very real implications in the direction the country goes. In 2000 I wouldn't have been too concerned about McCain making such appointments. But since he's been willing to sell out his principles for the last 8 years to get back in the good graces of the party base, why wouldn't he continue to do it as president if he's pressured to do so?

I don't really think he's sold out his principles. If either Huckabee or Romney wouldn't have been in the race, the other would have likely won the nomination. Those two were far right of McCain. They battled for hardcore conservatives and McCain just picked up everyone else which was more than enough. The day after Romney dropped out, Huckabee took every single county in Kansas....

[Numbers]

Keep throwing out unsubstantiated rumors.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157986

[GatewaySnayke]

Terrific.

She still has no business making decisions for our country. Or monkeys for that matter.

[haltz]

Newsweek is fisking chain emails? lol

FWIW, "teaching both sides" is just as bad (or offensive, to me anyway) and because she registered republican doesn't mean she wasn't an AIP member. Her husband was and more than one person involved in the party in Alaska has said she was as well. Snopes has the book list thing covered already, and the initial conversation that it stemmed from is weird at best.