Crazy Palin Supporters On Parade

Sarah Palin has accepted Dave's (unnecessary) apology for making jokes about her daughter and A-Rod, but her diehard supporters are still demanding Letterman resign. Cenk Uyugr takes a look at just how loony this bunch was outside of the Ed Sullivan theater this week.

The Palin Family "Abstinence" Hypocrisy Is America's Problem

When Sarah Palin stepped out onto the national stage, she brought her big family with her too, so that America would love her even more, or something like that. Unfortunately, the story about her pregnant teenage daughter surfaced shortly after and hypocrisy meters were screaming off the charts. Palin's views were of a typical wingnut Republican (abstinence education only, nothing about birth control) but the reality in her own home was quite a different story. Well now her daughter Bristol got herself on the teevee, and well, like, oh my god, guess what she said.

From ThinkProgress:

In 2006, as a gubernatorial candidate, Sarah Palin filled out a questionnaire emphasizing her support for abstinence education. She wrote that “the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.” Alaska does not require sex ed to be taught in schools; Anchorage schools teach “Abstinence Plus,” which emphasizes abstaining from sex.

Palin’s views came under fire when it was revealed that her then-17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant. In her first public interview, Bristol told Fox News’ chief Palin cheerleader Greta Van Susteren last night that abstinence is “not realistic at all”:

VAN SUSTEREN: I don’t want to pry to personally, but I mean, actually, contraception is an issue here. Is that something that you were just lazy about or not interested, or do you have a philosophical or religious opposition to it or…

BRISTOL: No. I don’t want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like — like, the — I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.

When Van Susteren asked Gov. Palin about abstinence, she seemed similarly dismissive of her former views, admitting, “It sounds naive.” Bristol added, “I just — I hope that people learn from my story and just, like, I don’t know, prevent teen pregnancy, I guess.”

I guess? To paraphrase a quote from a great President, is our children learning anything at all?

Thank god that the adults are back in control of the government and are directing spending towards sex ed and not merely abstinence. The ways of the GOP puritanical purity patrol have shown themselves to be a complete failure, and not just in the Palin house. Schools across the country that have only taught abstinence are doing our nation's children a serious disservice, and that willful ignorance of a real problem will be put to an end by President Obama.

Republicans Continue To Shun Sarah Palin

The nasty shots McCain aides took at Palin immediately following the campaign were vicious and reinforced her "unprepared" persona. The Alaskan Governor went on the defensive and did tons of interviews to show her getting back into the swing of things up north. Then came the Republican Governor's Association meeting. At first she took the spotlight down in Miami but when things were all said and done, the rest of the GOP Governors came down firmly against her.

From The Washington Wire:

The Republican Governors Association announced its new leadership lineup today after their annual meeting concluded Thursday in Miami.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort.[..]

Not on the list? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also attended the Miami meeting.

A majority of Republicans polled last week may want her to be at the top of the party, but the current leadership is definitely not that positive about Palin. I suspect that as long as she has respectable numbers, those who want to hold onto their inter-party power will continue to attack Palin and make sure she stays above the 50th parallel. Many in the leadership won't admit it outright, but going with the darling of the rabid right will do nothing but marginalize and regionalize the GOP.

Run Sarah Run!

Sometimes I really do love the Republican party. No, not their (lack of) ideas, bad policies and sell-out to the highest bidder mentality. In the aftermath of their epic defeat at the hands of a nation that clearly does not care for the corporate welfare and disdain for the middle class, the GOP is wondering what went wrong and where to go from here. One of the first questions is who shall lead them out of the wilderness in 2012 when they fight Obama's re-election.

From Rasmussen:

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republican voters say Alaska Governor Sarah Palin helped John McCain’s bid for the presidency, even as news reports surface that some McCain staffers think she was a liability.

Only 20% of GOP voters say Palin hurt the party’s ticket, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Six percent (6%) say she had no impact, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin, including 65% who say their view is Very Favorable. Only eight percent (8%) have an unfavorable view of her, including three percent (3%) Very Unfavorable.

When asked to choose among some of the GOP’s top names for their choice for the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, 64% say Palin. The next closest contenders are two former governors and unsuccessful challengers for the presidential nomination this year -- Mike Huckabee of Arkansas with 12% support and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 11%.

All three of those contenders are terrible for a new and improved GOP, but the numbers for Palin are....well, fantastic, for Democrats that is. Palin can only lead them further into the woods, with her creationist beliefs and level of ethics that makes Newt Gingrich look like an upstanding individual.

Independents are aghast at her selection to be VP by McCain and most of America sans the Republican party saw her as a major drag on the ticket. I know there are a few pundits on the left that tell us to beware of a resurgent Palin in four years but as Paul Begala said on Real Time with Bill Maher last night, you can cure ignorance by learning but not hate and meanness (or something to that effect). That "real-America" crap just does not fly. As for her Presidential aspirations in four years, let's just see if she can be re-elected Governor with all of her ethical scandals pulling down her popularity.

Voter Fraud In Alaska?

The Presidential race is over, Barack Obama had a landslide victory, picking up electoral votes in such places as Indiana and even one of Nebraska's. Nothing like Florida in 2000 or Ohio 2008 happened and the race was called early at 11pm EST. Yet after many of us went to bed, the polls closed in Alaska one hour after the crowds were cheering for Obama and the results from up north are extremely troubling.

From RawStory:

Even though the polls this year have generally been pretty accurate, they were way off in Alaska. Stevens was running between 7% and 22% behind his Democratic challenger in the polls, but now he is narrowly ahead in the vote count

Polling analysis website 538.com comments, "The emerging conventional wisdom is that there was some sort of a Bradley Effect in this contest -- voters told pollsters that they weren't about to vote for that rascal Ted Stevens, when in fact they were perfectly happy to. Convicted felons are the new black, it would seem. The problem with this theory is that the polling failures in Alaska weren't unique to Stevens."

The polls also consistently showed Rep. Young as losing by at least 6%, but he is currently ahead in the vote count by 8%. Even in the presidential race, where polls showed McCain leading by 14% or less, the vote count has him winning by 61% to 35% -- precisely the same margin as George Bush in 2004. That represents a polling error of at least 11% to 14% in all three races.

At the same time, total voter turnout appears to be about 11% lower in Alaska this year than in 2004 -- despite over 20,000 new registrations, heavy turnout in the primaries, record early voting, long lines at the polls on Election Day, and the state's own governor being on the ballot, all of which had led to an expectation of record participation.

A possible "Bradley effect" in the opposite way is one possibility for Stevens' narrow margin that puts him ahead of Mayor Begich, but it doesn't add up for the other races at the Presidential level and for the Congressional seat. If I had to put on my Captain Obvious glasses, I might just see that Democratic votes were wiped off the tallies. Now who would do such a thing?

Well can you guess who tallies the vote up in the Last Frontier State? If you said "Diebold" then congratulations, but for the voters in the state, I apologize. Of course, Alaskans already know the company's miserable track record, with possible illegalities in 2004 as well as the primary race in 2006 with a state that scoffs at those that would dare question Diebold's accuracy. It is still early, but one thing is for sure, this whole thing smells fishy.

Republicans Eating Their Own

Olbermann discusses why on Earth would the Republicans be trying to tear each other down to the degree they have been over the last couple of days? As we on the left laugh at Palin's lack of civics and geography, you've got to wonder who benefits from hurling these embarrassing attacks.



So far the best guess is that they are just juvenile hits that will help to spin the GOP further out of control.

The Disasta Returns To Alaska

Large (or small) crowds are gone, as are the free clothes and the chartered jets to ferry Sarah Palin around the country. She is now off to return to the Great White North and resume her gubernatorial duties (or not). One thing that is up in the air right now is her political future, whether that be for the national GOP, her re-election in two years or even the remaining amount of time left for her current term. What is certain though, is that the Alaska she left is not the same place she left two months ago.

From The Anchorage Daily News:

In the 68 days since Alaska's governor began her run for vice president, things have changed on the home front. Some of her former allies are fuming, and former enemies are lying in wait. Public perceptions of the governor have also changed. Has the governor changed as well?

Questions about Palin's future began to circulate at Alaska's Election Central on Tuesday night almost as soon as the national election results came in.

Palin is expected to arrive in Alaska sometime today in a campaign plane. Will she be the old Palin, a populist who worked with Democrats to achieve victories in the Legislature, or the sharp partisan from the national campaign?

At an Alaska Obama gathering Tuesday night, some celebrants said they were disappointed by the new Palin they saw in the campaign.

Well it is good of the Obama supporters up there to realize that, but we are talking about a state that just might have re-elected a convicted felon to the United States Senate. Alaska just might embrace her again, especially with some time for the liberals up there to cool down from the vicious attacks that their governor lobbed on them. As for a future on a national scale, the extremists would have to win out their party's civil war before she could come back down here. Meanwhile McCain's people are busy destroying whatever credibility she has left.

The Last Throes Of The McCain Campaign

There are less than 26 hours before all the polls close on election day and all signs point toward an Obama victory (that doesn't mean you do not have to go out and volunteer and fight until every ballot is counted). That is a tremendous thing for America and the fact that we as a nation can elect an African-American to be our President. For the McCain/Palin ticket however, it means the ugliness continues to dig new depths.

From TPM:

In a speech just now in Missouri, Sarah Palin unleashed some of the most ostentatious POW-POW-POWing of the campaign, and strongly implied that Dems think the "terrorists" are the "good guys."

After saying that some Dems want to cut defense spending by a quarter, she said:

"What do they think? Do they think that the terrorists have all of a sudden become the good guys, and changed their minds? No! The terrorists still seek to destroy America and her allies and all that it is that is that we stand for: Freedom, tolerance, equality."

What she stands for is anything but freedom, tolerance and equality. Freedom only applies if you adhere to her narrow right-wing views. Tolerance for "good Christians" in "pro-America" and fugheddaboutit if you live in a big city. Equality, now that is just an outright joke. I wonder if anyone at her sparsely attended rally laughed. Most likely not, because they are probably getting ready to cry tomorrow night as the returns come in.

As for the bit about Democrats thinking that terrorists are good guys, I've got four letters for her on that:

S.T.F.U!

Palin Gets Pranked By Montreal Radio Station!

Funniest moment of the week in the election, hands down!



How pissed must McCain and his staff have after hearing about this, lol!

Circular Firing Squad Continues Within McCain/Palin Camp

These are not good times for the GOP and their hope (McCain) and prayer (Palin) to stay in the White House. George Bush has less than three months to go but the way things are going on the campaign trail the "team of mavericks" have four days until it's all over. The blunders were bad enough yesterday, but one supposed supporter of McCain and former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger shredded Palin's "experience" went above and beyond, or shall I say below for the Republican ticket.

From The Huffington Post:

Lawrence Eagleburger, who served as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and whose endorsement is often trumpeted by McCain, said on Thursday that the Alaska governor is not only unprepared to take over the job on a moment's notice but, even after some time in office, would only amount to an "adequate" commander in chief.

"And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested," he added for good measure -- referring both to Palin's policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office. (Listen to audio below.)

The remarks took place during an interview on National Public Radio that was, ironically, billed as "making the case" for a McCain presidency. Asked by the host whether Palin could step in during a time of crisis, Eagleburger reverted to sarcasm before leveling the harsh blow.

"It is a very good question," he said, pausing a few seconds, then adding with a chuckle: "I'm being facetious here. Look, of course not."

Facetiousness aside, prominent Republicans are abandoning McCain in droves. Incumbents looking to win close races are either ignoring him or trying to link themselves with Obama and/or attacking the Presidential nominee out in full view for the public to see. Pundits started leaving with the selection of Sarah Palin and it could just make for the undoing of tie that binds the different factions of the Republican party, not just for the hope and prayer of getting into office.

Smoke Rising From McPalin Camp

Cenk Uyugr delivers the damaging goods on the tumultuous relationship between John McCain and Sarah Palin. Things are not looking good for their ticket as Sarah goes wild and shows her "diva" to save her own hide in the GOP.

The N Word At A Palin Rally, The Hate Continues And Increases - Update

With eight days to go, the spectacular end of the McCain/Palin ticket promises an explosive end. For the minority that votes for them, beware the racists in your midst. Today at one of Palin's rallies one supporter increased the level of hate by screaming "and he's a ni**er," clearly catching the VP candidate off guard. Unfortunately, like all other screams and shouts, she said nothing to denounce the racist in front of her, despite showing that it threw her for a moment. Okay, I've got to admit that this video doesn't say that after closer inspection, it says this.



It is sad to see this, but perhaps these few brazenly racists' acts can alert the people who erroneously believe that racism is a thing of the past and compel them to do something about it now and in the future. Racism still exists and it is still rampant in certain parts of the GOP and the far right. That was clearly put on display with the plot to assassinate Obama and kill over a hundred African-Americans in Tennessee. Thankfully that was broken up. Here for this video, the woman shouted "Redistributor." It is still wrong and comes from misguided Republican talking points, but not as bad as the N word.

Palin Shows Her Disdain For Local Press

Sarah Palin has made herself famous for brushing off questions on a national stage, such as her insulting behavior with Gwen Ifill at the VP debate. When asked questions by well-known media personalities such as Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams she consistently stumbled and made a fool out of herself. Now that local reporters are getting a chance to interview her, the freedom to ask questions of the Disasta from Alaska has been severely curtailed.

From ThinkProgress:

Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) granted an interview to a local CBS affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday, much of which was filled with talking points that Palin has repeated in a number of local interviews recently.

However, after the interview, reporter Cynthia Fodor revealed that she had to submit the interview topics in order to talk to Palin, something she called “not standard procedure”:

HOST: Governor Palin, as we know, doesn’t give a lot of interviews so did you have a lot of time to chat with her?

FODOR: No, in fact this was the only one she gave today and we were limited to about five minutes of time which is not a lot of time and we had to submit which topics we wanted to discuss ahead of time which is not standard procedure.

I guess it all depends on what you define as "standard procedure." For journalists that care about the freedom of the press, then it is a testament to the way things are going for the Fourth Estate in our country. For Sarah Palin and like-minded Republicans, it is the way of doing business.

Unlike Palin, Biden Knows What The VP Does

Sarah Palin described for a third-grader last week how she wants to abuse the power of the Vice-President's office. It was an over simplification of exactly how she sees being McCain's number two but important nonetheless of how she emulates the Dick Cheney method of corrupting government. Joe Biden was actually interviewed by a fifth-grader recently and at about the 4:00 min mark of this very cute video, he accurately tells young Damon Weaver what the VP does per the Constitution of the United States.

Palin Says Bush Is Their #1 Problem, She Doesn't Know The Half Of It

Sarah Palin is right that George Bush is their number one problem but it isn't as simple as that. Almost all of their other problems are inextricably connected to the President as well. Simply put, voters want change from the mess Republicans are offering us now, but McCain and Palin are offering more of the same. To her though, it is merely a campaign message problem.

From MSNBC:

“We’re up against a lot,” said Palin, the governor of Alaska. “We’re up against a very unpopular president, Bush’s administration right now, and those who want to link us to that administration.”

Palin rejected the comparison as “off base,” contending that McCain, a senator from Arizona, “is known as the maverick, who has had to fight his own party when need be.”

“He has the scars to prove that,” she said.

The only scars we can see are that on McCain's sold out soul. Whatever "maverick" he was got washed over by his willingness to do whatever it takes to appease the right so that he could run for President in 2008.

Palin doesn't recognize that those that wish to link them to George Bush aren't just Barack Obama and Joe Biden. A majority of the country sees the Republican ticket as extension to Dubya because their policies reflect the disaster that has played out over the last eight years. While McCain recognized that and tried to pass himself off as the "real" candidate of change, people flatly rejected that tactic because it was merely a tactic and not a message and platform like it is for Obama. Now all the GOP has left are smears and baseless attacks and the contest continues to slip from their grasp.

In other news, President Bush and his wife Laura voted early in Texas yesterday, I'm sure McCain loved to hear that.

In Less Than A Minute, Palin Labels Elitists And Decries Labels

All the while, John McCain just sits there with his hands folded and watches his shot at becoming President get further and further away:

Obama: We're All Pro-American!

Sarah Palin uses speech that divides us, but here is the candidate that wishes to unite us and affirm that we are all pro-America!

Chris Matthews Schools Pfotenhauer On VP Role

Nancy tries to spin Palin's answers as best she can but in the end Matthews embarrasses her. How sad is that the Republicans do not understand the role of the Vice-President as the Constitution lays it out.



I smell a serious amount of smoke from this campaign.

Socialism For Palin Kids And Scrubbed Books To Hide It

Sarah Palin is going around to campaign rallies with this week's attack on Obama about socialism and that we don't need that in America. Well, since she has ties to the secessionist AIP, perhaps the socialism she does wants up in Alaska doesn't count in the lower forty-eight. I guess that's just being a hockey mom, you know, like all the other hockey moms that get to charge $150,000 on the RNC credit card to go shopping for new clothes.

From Newsweek (AP):

(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

That money spent by Alaskans without their knowledge was used highly inappropriately for the only purpose of showing her girls a good time. She is free to do that, but pay for it on your salary just like anyone else would have to. As the AP notes, organizers from many of these events the girls attended didn't even know they were coming and there was no reason to have the state pay for their trips.

Now that is bad enough, but when Sarah Palin realized she'd be the VP nominee she knew this might come up. So what would any ethically challenged and corrupt Republican do? Well that would be to amend all the expense reports to validate her kids coming with her with such official duties as "raffle ticket drawer." Tax lawyers were awfully perplexed with the situation and now we have it all here on the AP to show just what a mavericky reformer Governor Palin is.

Now the McCain camp will have yet another story to lie about or deflect with less than two weeks to go in the race. It has been said over and over again but jeez McCain, didn't you think to vet this woman for at least two minutes? A little extra time back in August would have gone a long way in October. Of course, this is just one bad mark among many in his campaign that lost its bearings way back.

Palin Still Has No Idea What The VP Does

Not even three months ago, Governor Sarah Palin went on CNBC and proclaimed she had no idea what the Vice-President of the United States does. More than that, she thought it was more important to be govern Alaska, but that is neither here nor there. Yet as of October 20th, she still does not know the duties of the Vice-President. Apparently an NBC-affiliate reporter in Colorado "Couricized" her with a basic question and she fell in the trap yet again.

From ThinkProgress:

Yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sat for an interview with KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is “in charge of the United States Senate“:

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

Indeed, while Palin suggests that questions about what the Vice President does is something only her daughter Piper would ask, Palin herself asked this very question on national television in July. Apparently, she still hasn’t learned the correct answer.

Article I of the Constitution establishes an exceptionally limited role for the Vice President — giving the office holder a vote only when the Senate is “equally divided”:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

Damn, so it was actually a third-grader that stumped her. Even if McCain brought in Dick Cheney to give her a run-down on some of his activities, she should recognize that he himself doesn't know that the the VP is in the Executive branch. Perhaps she should pick up a copy of the Constitution, before Bush shreds the rest of it.