What Randy said.

A couple of more thoughts on the use of the word “maverick.” I wonder if it’s the right moment for McCain to constantly describe himself using a word that essentially means “unpredictable” when the country is looking for someone with a steady hand, calm in a crisis. It doesn’t help when McCain’s campaign is erratic, too.

And the word “maverick” comes from Samuel Maverick, a 19th century Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle. His fellow ranchers thought him independent because of this fact, but his failure to brand his cattle signified a lack of interest in actually ranching. So maybe it is the perfect word to describe John McCain, a senator with a fake ranch, a candidate who takes risks to show how “mavericky” he is but who shows little interest in actually governing.

…By the end of her opening answers, it was clear she would meet the test…

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So, our useless media talking heads think Sarah Palin did just fine and dandy at the vice-presidential debate, eh?

…Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?

Sarah Palin invoked the name of Ronald Raygun and quoted him in defense of “freedom”. Hmmm. Were those “stirring” words about the great struggle at the time between Democracy and the totalitarian regimes in control of vast swaths of humanity? Nope. They were recorded by a republican hack for a limited release record on behalf of the American Medical Association’s efforts against Medicare in 1961:

RONALD REAGAN speaks out against SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

…Write those letters now. Call your friends, and tell them to write them. If you don’t, this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country, until, one day . . . we will awake to find that we have so­cialism. And if you don’t do this, and if I don’t do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.

Yeah, getting elderly people access to affordable health care will cause the demise of the Republic and our way of life. As if. Typical republicans. And our useless media lets Sarah Palin get away with it.

via Firedoglake and Steve Benen

I just made it back from Washington University, the site of the 2008 Vice-Presidential Debate. Along with a couple of other friends, I met up with Archpundit and DailyKos’ GoldnI at the new University Center. None of us had credentials to attend the actual debate, but all of us had permission to be on the campus.  After taking a quick tour of the media whirlwind on campus (MSNBC had a stage up next to Graham Chapel, and Archpundit witnessed John Oliver being chased by dozens of students), we attempted to watch the debate from the new campus restaurant so that we could get some drinks while watching it. A fine idea, but there was no TV in the restaurant (probably a good idea for a nice restaurant) and the Archpundit’s laptop didn’t have a strong enough wireless connection to deliver reliable video, so we ended up standing in a packed student cafe watching it on one of the many live feeds around campus.

The restaurant foray wasn’t a total loss. The door opened from the restaurant to the patio we were sitting on, and sitting at the head of the table directly in our view, almost like a Mafia don, was Chris Matthews.

Anyway, some quick impressions. I think McCain probably bussed in a lot of people, because in the battle of the sign holders around the MSNBC stage, Team McCain’s people looked older and out of place with the normal Wash U crowd. After the debate, none of those people were back at the MSNBC stage. We did see Steve Schmidt angrily storming away from the stage after taping an appearance. Don’t know if it was in response to what he had been asked or something unrelated.

Also, this was my first time in a long while watching the debate in a public venue in a long while. And I have to say, Biden was the only candidate who elicited any cheers, or any vocalized response, other than a few chuckles at some of Palin’s dunderheaded answers. And if you think that’s just because Wash U is just some liberal elite school, it also has a well-organized College Republican chapter and is the recipient of major conservative donors like John Olin. One of the major Swift Boat donors has a building named for him on campus. And the campus held a cookie sale in 2004 as a proxy vote for the election. It was hotly contested, and Bush ended up besting Kerry by a similar margin as the real election.

As for the debate itself, I don’t think my opinion is controversial. Biden did relatively well, Palin beat her abysmal expectations, and not many votes probably changed as a result.

Sarah Palin just needs to be more awesome, and then she will win.

Via this lovely interview with P-D’s Political Fix:

Blunt also thinks that Palin would benefit from more interviews on the “interview circuit”. Not because the practice would make her comfortable and well-rehearsed, mind you, but because a couple of gaffes during a few highly scrutinized interviews are blown out of proportion, while mistakes made over a series of interviews go unnoticed.

Unfortunately, I think he’s probably right.  

Ridiculous. Washington University is currently receiving a ton of complaints because of Gwen Ifill’s alleged bias.

Note to wingnuts: Even granting your argument that Ifill is biased (which I do not), the site of the debate has no input as to the moderator, just as they have no input as to the format, podium height, or myriad other details that the two campaigns negotiate for a presidential debate. If you have a problem with her, take it up with Team McCain. They agreed to have Ifill moderate this debate even knowing that Ifill would be publishing a book on a new generation African-American politicians.

Nice. Another independent anti-Palin ad will be airing in Missouri this week, this one put together by the California Nurses Association. The ad implicitly refers to McCain’s health by repeatedly referring to a heart monitor, while running through a greatest hits list of Sarah Palin’s negatives. The list is good (wants to teach creationism, took on a personal vendetta as Governor, charged rape victims for exams, etc.) but it would have been nice to at least include a reference to a source with each claim. And I would have also preferred the ad to link this all back to McCain’s judgement, just as the ad implicitly links Palin to McCain’s health. Still, good ad.

Watch the ad:

Saradice Lost

…To me, the fact that McCain is still even within shouting distance of winning with a running mate so dramatically uninformed is some kind of cosmic joke. But I’m not sure that a majority would agree if not for those other circumstances.

Jon Stewart said the other night after one of her bizarre non answers: “Did she win a contest?” I think she did. She won the Hockey Mom contest and got the right to run on the national ticket with John McCain. She was the prototype Republican for the next generation — someone who knows absolutely nothing about politics at all. I guess they must have figured that Bush’s failure was due to the fact that he knew too much…

We are not worthy.

For most of the day Monday I went through voir dire as a prospective juror (I wasn’t selected). We were questioned in mass and individually. Before we entered the courtroom we all filled out a supplemental questionnaire which included inquiries as to our television habits and preferences. My personal favorite: asking us if we had bumper stickers on our cars, and what type. You all know my answer to that.

Some individuals were questioned in detail about their favorite television shows, if they listened to talk radio (also on the questionnaire) and what kind of books they read. They were also asked what organizations the belonged to and what they did in their spare time.

The vast majority provided answers that indicated that people were involved inwardly. That is, with family, work, and their local religious group. It struck me that the information they get about the world outside their local environment passes through the filters of television and radio. That explains a lot.

Digby’s commentary echoed some recent conversations I’ve had with others who are politically active. It is some kind of cosmic joke. We should be up by sixty points, but we’re not.

I’ve paraphrased an old union organizer’s saying about organizing votes several times: “You don’t blame the people who voted against you, you blame yourself because you didn’t explain it well enough.” There’s work to be done. So do it.

Via Huffpo, Defenders of the Wildlife has expanded its buy for the “Brutal” ad to include Missouri. For those who missed it, this 60-second ad criticizes Sarah Palin’s support for the “aerial hunting” of wolves and bears and the placement of a bounty on their severed forelegs. Like any good ad, it provokes a lot of emotion, and apparently is very good at moving opinion away from Palin in some of the demographics the GOP was aiming at (no pun intended) when they chose Palin for the ticket.

Watch the ad here:

This e-mail is making the rounds. One similar to it referring to dubya has been around a few times, too.

…While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.  Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President.  The old rancher said, “Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.”  Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.  The old rancher said, “When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post turtle.”

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain.  “You know she didn’t get up there by herself, she doesn’t belong up there, she doesn’t know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.”

Hat tip to Blue Girl at They gave us a republic…

Yep, a post turtle. That’s the republican way.

Again, we have been assured by Brett Penrose that no Alaskan moose were injured in the production of this ‘toon.