Palin not the Mom? It’s Not the “Crime,” It’s the Cover-Up

Nobody should know better than Republicans that it’s not the crime or misdeed that brings down a political life, it’s the cover-up. Rumors are swirling that Sarah Palin is a grandmother, that her 16 year old daughter is really the mother of her new 5 month old baby with Downs syndrome.

Now, I guess suddenly being referred to as grandma is one way to counter concerns about her inexperience; but the real question here has to do with John McCain’s judgment. Seems he doesn’t have any. The McCain campaign is conceding there was not much of a vetting process before the Senator chose Palin as his running mate, and as a result, who knows what else might yet befall this “charlie brown” candidacy.  Beyond that, imagine what this sort of judgment means for a commander in chief whose bellicosity and lack of foresight could make the Bush Administration seem downright reasonable.

All the superficial evidence gives some credence to the veracity of the story: Family photos taken when Palin would have been 5 or 6 months pregnant have been removed from her website; photos on the web however, show her 16 year old daughter with a belly bump that is consistent with her being pregnant. BTW, Sarah never looked pregnant, during her pregnancy, according to photos and people who met with her during this time.  The daughter also dropped out of school during the last months of her mom’s supposed pregnancy, for having mono.  Is there a physician’s note anywhere?

With all these questions, it seems imperative for the McCain campaign to address them in a press conference, or at least issue a press release, with reasonable proof that the governor is the mom.  Again, an unwed child mother is no reason to disqualify sarah palin from the vice presidency, but it does raise questions about judgment and cover-up.  couple this with her trooper-gate scandal and suddenly she no longer seems a “maverick reformer.”  Also says something about the Republican team’s commitment to family values, coupling this story to McCain’s own problem with adultery.  The alternative, of course, is that rumors will continue to swirl.  

At least, in the meantime, Sarah Palin’s newfound celebrity finds a parallel in Brittney Spear’s younger sister, the 16 year old new mom, Jamie Lynne.  Who knew the Spears’ family would have become the meme for the ‘08 campaign.

 

The Bottom Line: Somebody needs to investigate this, connect the dots. should be easy enough to do. Either you are pregnant or not! hospital records, doctor’s records, eye witness accounts, Bristol’s doctors note telling school she had mono….

for more:

 

tpm cafe talk w/ photos

worth looking into?

gossip?

good questions

Top 10 Why Palin is Stupidest Choice Ever

Rachel Maddow calls the Palin choice a LOL Quayle like decision.
Here’s why:
1) knows less about foreign policy than McCain knows about the economy.

2) by own admission, hasn’t followed that Iraq thing

3) former Republican opponent calls her lightweight and vague on Alaska state issues

4) supported Ted Stevens’ bridge to no-where before she said today she opposed it.

5) is a creationist

6) opposes abortion

7) thinks global warming is myth

is under investigation and going to be deposed in Alaska trooper-gate scandal

9) called Hillary Clinton a whiner before seeking Hillary voters

10) on October 2 debates Joe Biden

and for good measure:

11) doesn’t like polar bears

McCain Veep Pick Palin Under Investigation

No sooner had John McCain made his Veep decision public than press accounts began to surface of an abuse of power investigation against his choice, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Now Alaska is so full of corruption investigations at the moment, that the mere mention of another investigation sends Alaskans running for cover. Still, the last week of July, 2008, the Alaska legislative council voted unanimously formally to investigate the sitting governor for abuse of her power as governor.

Here’s the gist of what the press accounts suggest:

1) Palin’s husband and members of her administration made dozens of phone calls to Alaska Public safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to get him to fire Trooper Mike Wooten (Palin’s former bro-in law), who is going thru a messy divorce and custody battle with Palin’s sister.

2) Monegan refused to fire Wooten.

3) Palin dismissed Monegan.

4) The legislative council investigation will cost taxpayers an estimated $100,000.

Alaskans must have very mixed feelings this morning that their governor’s newfound celebrity will shed a great deal of light upon the state’s corruptions investigations and trials.  The Ted Stevens corruption charges and bribery and conspiracy trial may have to share the limelight with Governor Palin’s legal woes.

 

for more, see

TPM on Palin Scandal

Wiki gets scoop: It’s McCain-Palin

just posted on wikipedia for sarah Palin:

 

Sarah Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) is the current Governor of Alaska, and a member of the Republican Party. She is the youngest and first female governor of Alaska. She is theRepublican vice presidential candidate for the November 2008 election. Brought to statewide attention because of her whistleblowing on ethical violations by state Republican Party leaders,^[1] she won election in 2006 by first defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary, then a former Democratic Alaskan governor in the general election.

On August 29, the Associated Press reported that “speculation [has] moved to [Palin as a] darkhorse” pick for the vice president running mate slot by presumptive Republican nomineeJohn McCain.^[2] The CNBC news service is now reporting that Palin will in fact be the GOP vice-presidential nominee.^[3] She is reported to be a possible choice for the Republican Party’s nomination as Vice President of the United States in the 2008 election. Formal announcement of the presumptive nominee will be made in Dayton, Ohio on August 29, 2008, by Presidential candidate John McCain. On 29 August, CNN confirmed that Palin was the running mate for Senator McCain.^[4]

Question: Won’t this choice focus attention on Ted Stevens indictment and Republican Party corruption?

Will. I.am on Barack’s Celebrity

Will.I.am just told luke russert that there is nothing wrong with celebrity as republicans are applying the term to Obama
Bottom line: john McCain is jealous.
Nothing wrong with Obama having gained reknown for his accomplishments and ideas. To the contrary. This is the essence of politics: gaining popularity thru the force of argument.
John McCain would, if only he could.
McCain can’t even give away tickets for his veep announcement tomorrow. Really think McCain doesn’t want to fill venues? C’mon

Hillary, Bill and Joe OK, but Look to Michelle and Jill

Hillary, Bill and Joe set the table for Barack who must deliver the speech of his life tomorrow night in mile high stadium.  Still,  the most telling moments came far away from the podium. The real story could be found in the body language of candidate spouses and family who are in on all the big decisions.  

Consider the following:

Regarding the speakers themselves, their words were compelling but they could have spoken even more forcefully to close the deal for Barack.  Hillary could have and should have reminded her supporters that McCain is a right to life candidate who will appoint right to life judges.  Bill was vintage Bill and he did a great job reminding voters that Barack is ready, but Joe seemed constrained by the text (new writers?), as I am hearing Chuck Todd suggesting. 

But, as Rachel Maddow adroitly pointed out, the democrats could and should have gone after Bush Administration abuses of power, and they didn’t. No mention of Cheney by name and little mention of Bush? I don;t get it. It is not a matter of playing nice. This is a matter of the constitution and rule of law.

The words last evening do not bode well for a truth and reconciliation commission to reveal Bush administration crimes against the state.  No accountability. Again, it doesnt make sense. No Gitmo, no abu -grahb, no us attorney scandal, nothing but an oblique reference to the fear instilled by the image of VP Cheney on the phone; no reference to David Addington or John Yoo.  This is the real red meat which could have and should have reminded voters of one of the most lawless regimes in history, and more of the same mccain.

What gives?

So, to find some red meat, i turned to the sidelines. But then again, the real insights of the week go to the quick glances of Michelle Obama grimacing as Bill started to speak , blocking the camera view of her face with her hands during much of his speech, only to smile in relief and some delight at some of the president’s truly laudatory passages comparing barack to a Bill Clinton in 1992. The insight here is inside stuff, but revealing: no trust between Clintons and Obamas; the Obama campaign was pretty nervous about the speech.  Next, the shot of Michelle wiping tears as Beau introduced his dad did more to humanize Michelle and Barack than her brilliant but somewhat contrived monday night speech.   And then, Jill Biden’s pride of her hubby as Joe began to speak did more to connect Barack to the heartland than anything Biden subsequently said from the podium.

So, here is what I think was achieved last night: it was not so much that the democrats stole the republican thunder on national security and foreign policy, (a theme in Biden’s speech), but they stole a more subtle virtue from the repubs, the republican thunder on family values (compare Barack and Joe with McCain’s philandering), an issue that may well have won the election for bush-cheney in ‘04.

and perhaps this is what they intended to do.

(Pre-Hillary) Post-Partisan Democratic Convention= McCain Presidency

Mark Warner reached out to small town rural voters in southern virginia and for this he deserves some credit. He also helped himself lock up a senate seat this november. He alluded to Republicans being the party of the past, and that is as far as he went to draw red meat distinctions between Obama and McCain.  Much of the speech emphasized blurring all partisan distinctions all together. Fine. It might help him in Virginia, but will assure Obama’s defeat.

Problem is, polls show McCain has gained 2 or so points in the polls since the Democratic Convention started. Gallup has McCain 2 points up on Obama.  The dems have an audience of 30-40 million per night this week. Next week, the Republicans will make full use of their audience share. They will torch Obama and Biden with lies and distortions; will frame McCain– successfully by the way– that McCain is ubber partisan, that is, that he transcends partisanship because McCain= Country.  Anything McCain is everything American.  And, as we have seen for the past 8 years and for the past 2 months, the Republicans may be bereft of ideas but that are experts in scorch, burn (the opposition) and sell (themselves). 

The dems. are blowing it right now.   As Eugene Robinson just pointed out,  no one has yet mentioned the words, torture, Cheney or Iraq.   Hey Dems. What gives?

 

nte: this was written before Hillary’s speech. She shifted the dynamic.

McCain’s McMansions in Context

 

 

Brave New Films Applaud BBC coverage of spiraling McMansion Story

Michelle Obama: Race and Post-Racism

Michelle Obama had an impossible task last evening. Her job was to bridge the huge gap between modernity and its still festering wounds of racism, and post modernity where racism and race for that matter are signifiers of things no longer relevant.  Barack has the same challenge which, admit it or not, makes winning this november more difficult than we like to admit.

First, let me agree with Olbermann and suggest that Michelle was brilliant. Now, here’s the challenge.  Michelle’s objective was to 1) sell America on the possibility of having an African-American first family in the White House. This task supposes a modernist America that remains muddied in the racist waters of the not too distant past in terms of law and the very real presence in terms of every day realities. As commentators suggested last evening and this morning, Michelle needed to convince America that the Obama’s were not “the Other.” Something unsettling about having mainstream media discussing and even judging whether the Obama family (a black family) “deserves” or should be considered eligible to be treated like a “white” first family.  I don’t think Cindy McCain will be expected to give this sort of speech.

2) second, has to do with a “post racial” America,  the idea that many people associate with barack’s candidacy.  As the idea applies to Michelle’s speech, she needed to show america that the Obama’s are no different than any other American family.  As unsettling as the first task was, this one strikes a different chord: on the one hand it is such a “no-brainer” as to challenge commentators to say anything at all that is not incredibly stupid or blatantly racist. And is there not something incredibly patronizing about forcing the Obama’s into the white fantasy of a color blind country? You see, the thing about post-racism is that it plays out on two different fields: one is the field of mainstream media fixating on the faux notion that if Obama gets elected, then, fantastically, racism becomes a thing of the past.  Obama’s bio happens to represent the more complex notion of post-race and post-racism.  This is the idea that Obama is mixed race, and is only considered black or african american because of the binary categories established and maintained by mainstream culture.  It is my guess the Obama’s would rather challenge America to think about the latter category of post-race; but last, evening, Michelle was forced into the “black and white” version of the term.

Finally, as much as the Obama’s face an incredible test over the next 70 days or so, I believe the real test lies with the american voter who must answer some vital questions about american identity in the 21st century.

Barack Should Speak Out Against Denver’s Free Speech Cages!’

As Vietnam vet and hero Ron Kovic has discovered this week in Denver, even when Democrats are nominating a constitutional scholar and civil libertarian like Barack Obama for president, there remain a great many limits on a person’s right to tell Obama and other Party leaders what they are thinking.

Consider the thousands of protesters who will be separated from the 4,000 delegates by a distance of some 400 feet and by chicken wire and chain link fencing.

Late last month, a dozen organizations concluding the ACLU and American Friends Service Committee filed suit against the US Secret Service, The city and county of Denver for infringing on the rights of protesters to engage on their free speech rights during the democratic convention. The ACLU asked for two things: 1) to compel the city to reveal information about the protest restrictions; 2) to rule the restrictions unconstitutional.

The Court (Judge Marica Kramer presiding) ruled the protesters had a right to know about the restrictions, but on the bigger issue, the court sided with the Secret Service, citing the “need for security” that trumps the right to protest.

Undeterred, Kovic led 1,000 protesters yesterday through downtown Denver. Their message? “Stop the torture, stop the war. That’s what we’re fighting for.” Luckily for Kovic and the other protesters, there were no arrests, but the convention had yet to begin.

Overall, the protestors, which include the group, “Recreate ‘68″ (Mark Cohen organizer) are protesting the following: 1) continued war funding; 2) threats to escalate war in Afghanistan; 3)corporate control of politics (ATT is biggest sponsor of the Denver convention).

The first two points are self explanatory. Obama agrees with them on the first point; there is some tension between his and their second point; and on the third point, Obama is almost as bad as the pro-corporate Republican party.

The real problem here is the appearance of a conflict of interest between ATT $$ in Denver and the recent vote, supported by Obama, on Telecom immunity. Personally, I’d like to be convinced this was a coincidence, but it would take some convincing.

My point here is twofold: 1) Obama is sympathetic to what the protestors have to say; 2) on the issues of disagreement, he is keenly on the record in favor of robust and open dialogue. (did he not want a Veep candidate who would reasonably disagree with him on issues?); 3) It would be in Obama’s interest to help ensure that the protestors are caged and separated from this important public forum.

Part of Obama’s new politics that is so alluring is his repeated cadence of overcoming such anachronisms of the old politics, such as free speech cages and other mechanisms of control that separate speakers from their fellow citizens.

Although Obama wasn’t party to the ACLU lawsuit, and he is not yet president, he is in a position of moral authority to begin to guide this important free speech debate.