Entries tagged with “John McCain” from Reality Window

This is from a commenter at Margaret and Helen's blog post for today and just adds onto Helen's advice for "undecided voters" which is priceless all by itself.

What if things were switched around?

• What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage following the debate, including an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
• What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
• What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his college graduating class?
• What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
• What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
• What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
• What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
• What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the serious Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
• What if Obama had trouble reading from a teleprompter?
• What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
• What if Obama was the one who was known to publicly display a serious anger management problem?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected a reality, if the tables were turned, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative characteristics in another when there is a color difference.

And, think of this - the candidates' educational backgrounds:

Barack Obama:

• Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
• Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:

• University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
• Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:

• United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:

• Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
• North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
• University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
• Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
• University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.

You make the call.

From prosebeforehos.com blog comes this handbill which the blogger notes was distributed in Dallas the day JFK was assassinated.

Exchange the word communist for the words terrorist and socialist and some of the lines come directly from the rhetoric being spouted by Republican candidates. Outrageous rhetoric which is responsible for the tire-slashing, car-smashing, canvasser-assaulting, baby-bear-killing, spitting, death-threat writing, muslim-children-gassing supporters of right-wing outrage that frequent the McCain-Palin rallies and claim to be the representatives of "real America".

John McCain and Sarah Palin, how far is too far? How will you know when the rhetoric and rage that you're advocating through euphemisms has gone too far? Who has to be injured or killed?

The moral and ethical bankruptcy of the Republican party is revealed.

There have been hints and bits of this story floating around since shortly after Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate. Max Blumenthal and Dave Neiwert have done the investigative reporting that confirms what's what with Sarah Palin and her support of and by members of an Alaska secessionist movement that has strong ties to the white supremacist movement in the lower 48 states.

Rachel Maddow interviewed Max Blumenthal and CNN did a lengthy segment with Dave Neiwert. Rachel and Max's segment is more concise than the CNN segment but the CNN segment has more actual source material in it. Unfortunately, the CNN segment is actually spread across 2 youtube clips because of editing issues. The first CNN clip has material that the second clip edited out. The second clip repeats some of the material of the first but does have the end of the interview which the first clip does not.

Here is Maddow's interview which is a good start if you're not familiar with the topic at all.

The original Salon article is "Meet Sarah Palin's radical right-wing pals". Be sure to watch the companion video of their interview with Mark Chryson, former chair of the Alaska Independence Party and Palin's political mentor who was largely responsible for her move from the city council to the mayor's office.

After reading this and watching the videos, one is compelled to question again: what was John McCain thinking when he chose Sarah Palin as his VP running mate? A person with her small-town, petty, vindictive approach to use of power and evident ties to an organization that quite literally stands in opposition to the United States of America should never have passed any legitimate vetting process. What must Republicans such as Olympia Snowe or Jody Rell or Mitt Romney or Charlie Crist think after having been passed over for Sarah Palin?

I'm tempted to add Joe Lieberman to the list though, of course, he still pretends to be an independent Democrat. The one benefit to the McCain-Lieberman relationship is that it has finally damaged Joe's relationship with Senate Dems enough that we can say good bye and good riddance.

All of this merely confirms another aspect of what we know about John McCain. His judgment is cannot be relied on. He is erratic, tempestuous, impulsive, and the precise opposite of what this nation needs as a leader at this time.

In contrast with the McCain campaign, which was clearly against having an economic strategy before they were for it, Senator Obama laid out a plan in Toledo yesterday to restore our economy, reminding us first of his long term plan for growth, which includes:

- Reforming the tax code
- Bringing down the cost of health care
- Providing affordable education
- Creating 5 million new renewable energy jobs and 2 million new construction jobs to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure

In addition, Senator Obama introduced an economic rescue plan to provide near term relief.

"It's a plan that begins with one word that's on everyone's mind, and it's spelled J-O-B-S."

To deal with our immediate needs, Obama proposed

- Protections for homeowners including refinancing loans and a 90 day foreclosure moratorium
- A $3,000 tax credit for businesses for each new job created
- Allowing withdrawals of 15% up to $10,000 of retirement funds without penalty
- Low cost loans for small businesses
- A stimulus package and extended unemployment benefits

Finally, Sen. Obama called for a return to fiscal responsibility and accountability from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.

  Video Credit: BarackObamadotcom

Yesterday, the McCain camp said this:  

... "We do not have any immediate plans to announce any policy proposals outside of the proposals that John McCain has announced, and the certain proposals that would result as economic news continues to come our way," said a campaign spokesman, Tucker Bounds. Mr. McCain's policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said, "I have no comment on anything, to anybody" ...

before they said this:

A freeze on foreclosures will not be part of a new economic rescue plan Republican John McCain will present to voters Tuesday, a senior aide told reporters Monday.

[McCain senior policy advisor Doug] Holtz-Eakin would not provide details about McCain's new proposals, but told reporters they would be far superior to those offered by Obama on Monday.

In other words, they'll try to find one and 'bring it to ya'.

Pretty erratic, or as former Reagan and Bush economic adviser Bruce Bartlett noted, "At this point I don't think McCain can say anything on the economy that will sound credible."

 
Cross-posted at Kerryvision.net

McCain's debate performance last night will become a teaching example on how not to treat your opponent. It's already garnered headlines around the world. "That one" It's even got a website now. It's become so clear that McCain does not respect his opponent or his right to be on the stage with him. The anger and disrespect is palpable and it was in evidence throughout last night's debate. An indication that McCain is less than presidential in his inability to put aside personal animus and focus on what's best for our country.

Obama, on the other hand, affirmed his standing as a calm, collected, thoughtful person who really connects with working people and conveyed a strong vision for where he wants to lead the country. And when he flashed his megawatt smile, he seemed completely comfortable in the spotlight. He did not allow his opponent's demeanor to distract him from communicating with the audience within the hall, on television and on streaming internet.

In the end, the debate will not have a noticeable impact on the race. Its effect will be subtle. An underscoring of McCain's erratic behavior and temperament issue and an affirmation of Obama's intellect, stature and ability to be president of the United States in rocky economic times.

McCain's behavior is consistent though. Rolling Stone's article, Make-Believe Maverick, makes it clear that McCain's behavior should not be viewed as a departure from the Straight Talk Express. Rather it becomes clear that his disdainful manner, erratic behavior, poorly controlled temper, and reckless judgment are all of a piece with his entire life in school, in the Navy and finally in Congress. The Straight Talk Express was the departure, an image carefully nurtured for the benefit of the media. The Keating scandal, outlined by the Obama campaign in this web video, has long been recognized in the Arizona press for what it is. And it's of a piece with the way he conducted himself with fellow Arizonans.

It took awhile but McCain's past has finally caught up with him. I wonder who he'll blame for his loss in November.

If you missed it, cspanjunkie.org has uploaded it to youtube in segments and collected them all in this post. CNN has the full transcript. UPDATE: CSPAN has uploaded the complete debate to youtube.

Here is one of the more memorable salvos that Obama delivered.

In general, the quick polls and focus groups identify Obama as the winner though the punditry splits on the point. Steve Benen has a round-up of the polls and focus groups and how they viewed the debate results.

The Obama campaign chose this excerpt from the debate for the first post-debate ad which is already out.

ZERO

It certainly draws a focus to the point Nate Silver made in his analysis of the polling and the pundits at TNR.

My other annoyance with the punditry is that they seem to weight all segments of the debate equally. There were eight segments in this debate: bailout, economy, spending, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, terrorism. The pundit consensus seems to be that Obama won the segments on the bailout, the economy, and Iraq, drew the segment on Afghanistan, and lost the other four. So, McCain wins 4-3, right? Except that, voters don't weight these issues anywhere near evenly. In Peter Hart's recent poll for NBC, 43 percent of voters listed the economy or the financial crisis as their top priority, 12 percent as Iraq, and 13 percent terrorism or other foreign policy issues. What happens if we give Obama two out of three economic voters (corresponding to the fact that he won two out of the three segments on the economy), and the Iraq voters, but give McCain all the "other foreign policy" voters?

  Issue        Priority      Obama     McCain
Economy         43    -->    29        14
Iraq            12    -->    12         0
Foreign Policy  13    -->     0        13
 ==========================================
Total                        41        27

By this measure, Obama "won" by 14 points, which almost exactly his margin in the CNN poll.

McCain's essential problem is that his fundamental strength - his experience -- is specifically not viewed by voters as carrying over to the economy. And the economy is pretty much all that voters care about these days.

EDIT: The CBS poll of undecideds has more confirmatory detail. Obama went from a +18 on "understanding your needs and problems" before the debate to a +56 (!) afterward. And he went from a -9 on "prepared to be president" to a +21.

Nate's analysis underscores why the viewer polls all clearly give Obama the win for the evening.

From the foreign policy perspective, Fred Kaplan of Slate declares "Judged on the substantive issues, especially on which candidate has the more realistic view of the world, Obama won hands down." Joe Biden certainly delivered that message as well in his appearance on CNN.

As an aside, Wolf Blitzer was finally forced to respond to emails and comments on why the Republican VP candidate was not interviewed by saying that they would have been more than happy to interview Sarah Palin if she had been available. It seems she was being booed (video) on the streets of Philly before the debate began. [via WGRZ]

Back to Joe though. He was in fine form last night.

Yes, Joe. Obama certainly did well.

And McCain didn't help himself with his refusal to look at Obama, his obvious looks of annoyance and anger, and his moments of foreign policy brilliance like this one ... comparing the height of North Koreans to South Koreans. Really.

What on earth was that about? McCain was stuck in history, inarticulate at many points, an angry old man and it showed.

Obama was a little stiff in the beginning but came out with a strong opening statement, concisely made, and once he got going, he was on. He demonstrated skills on multiple levels, how he deals with a cantankerous opponent, his concern for the middle class, his grasp of economic realities, his strategic view of the US's role in the world, his awareness of the need to balance multiple roles/needs of the US including economic, environmental and diplomatic requirements. He did well.

First, we have the obvious conclusions. Josh Marshall goes on a little rant about John McCain's campaign suspension and potential attempt to get out of the debate. It's good though David Letterman really does take the prize on this one.

But as funny in a biting sort of way as those two are, there is a serious consequence to McCain's action and interactions yesterday, including his making time to meet with Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild and Katie Couric. It is clear how he's prioritizing his activities and they having nothing to do with the good of the country and the economy and everything to do with the health or lack therein of his campaign.

Ahem, John McCain. What do you think all the world leaders think? You've just given them two examples of how your word cannot be trusted inside of 24 hours: 1 - lying to Letterman and 2 - stiffing Obama on the joint statement in order to make the campaign suspension announcement. Both are highly visible examples that you cannot be trusted, that your word is worthless.

Looks like you're just another cowboy whose word is no good. Not what the world wants. Not what we want.

Obama's press conference this afternoon in Florida concerning the current activity in Congress on the bailout bill and coordination with John McCain.

His points on being able to do more than one thing at once and the difficulties inherent in bringing two presidential nominees into a delicate negotiating process that needs a bipartisan approach were very well made.

It is evident that he is focused on doing the best for the nation and emphasized repeatedly his and McCain's development of common ground on addressing the Wall St. bailout issues. He also demonstrates the ability to handle multiple issues simultaneously, calmly and without histrionics. Calm, cool, steady, thoughtful. Sounds like characteristics we need in our next president in great contrast to McCain's bombastic and scattershot, panicked approach to his campaign.

There is speculation that McCain chose the debate delay option in an attempt to deliberately delay the VP debate and possibly end up failing to reschedule it. And after seeing the first portion of Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, it's completely understandable why McCain is hitting the panic button.

And it's this point in particular in the interview that is just cringe-inducing.

COURIC: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

PALIN: He's also known as the maverick, though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about -- the need to reform government.

COURIC: I'm just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation?

PALIN: I'll try to find you some, and I'll bring them to you.

Actually there was more than one cringe-inducing moment but that's the one that stands out. There will be more segments of the interview released over the next few days per CBS. "Tomorrow's (25) portion of the interview will focus on international affairs. As previously announced, Couric's extended interview with Gov. Palin from the campaign trail will be broadcast on the CBS EVENING NEWS next Monday (29) and Tuesday (30)."

I think that sign from the Alaska Women's Rally said it best.

McCain / Palin
Unstable / Unable

Ben Smith has the complete transcript of the first segment of the Palin-Couric interview.

Well, John McCain is losing conservative support right and left. First, it was Susan Eisenhower, Jim Leach, and then this last week it was Wick Allison.

On Sunday's This Week's Roundtable, George Will dismissed McCain's behavior last week as "not presidential". The whole discussion is interesting. The McCain campaign must have been furious.

But today, George Will lays it out plain and simple.

McCain Loses His Head

"The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said without even looking around."

-- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

To read the Journal's details about the depths of McCain's shallowness on the subject of Cox's chairmanship, see "McCain's Scapegoat" (Sept. 19, Page A22). Then consider McCain's characteristic accusation that Cox "has betrayed the public's trust."

I think that McCain's 'quick - here's a scapegoat' reaction really ticked off George. He's repeated it twice now on This Week and in his WaPo column. Something tells me that Will may be voting for Obama in November.

Take a look at his conclusion of today's column:

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

The answer is, of course, "No, George. It can't." What's surprising is just how long it took you and others in the media and out of it to figure McCain out. The top honchos in the Republican party are now wondering how they ended up with such a loose cannon as their presidential nominee. It will be interesting to see how they advise other Republican candidates running this year.

Alaskan women held a protest rally this weekend and it turned out to be the largest protest rally Alaska has ever seen. The pictures of all the hand-lettered signs are great including this one, courtesy of frsbdg. Mudflats blog has even more pictures.

The sentiment expresses in 2 words what Richard Cohen and Eugene Robinson take a few more well-chosen words to say in their columns today.

No one could do any better than Glenn Greenwald in describing the inanity of the current focus of the McCain campaign, the trad media and the chattering classes.

Just for the record, here's the complete Obama statement which has been twisted by the McCain campaign. I won't go into the history of how many times McCain and Obama, much less other politicians, have used the same phrase in discussing various policies and issues over the last 2 years.

John McCain says he's about change too, and so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out George Bush -- except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics -- we're really going to shake things up in Washington.

That's not change. That's just calling something the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You know you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing.

Here's the video. It seems Andrew Romano of Newsweek's The Stumper blog agrees.

The trad media seems to have figured it out. John McCain and Sarah Palin are lying about the signature item they're using in all their stump speeches. That Bridge to Nowhere -- Sarah Palin fully supported it. And when she realized that it wasn't going to happen -- that Congress was killing it -- she still took the money and used it elsewhere.

Here's how the Wall Street Journal reported it.

She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.

"We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge," Gov. Palin said in August 2006, according to the local newspaper, "and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." The bridge would have linked Ketchikan to the airport on Gravina Island. Travelers from Ketchikan (pop. 7,500) now rely on ferries.

A year ago, the governor issued a press release that the money for the project was being "redirected."

TPM points out in Meme Taking Hold?:

McCain said during his convention speech:

"I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them."

Per the New York Times, the reality is this:

This drastically simplifies what the candidates' tax plans would do. Mr. McCain would preserve all of the Bush tax cuts, while Mr. Obama would let them expire for those making more than $250,000 a year. Mr. McCain would also double the child tax exemption to $7,000 and reduce business taxes. Mr. Obama would reduce income taxes and provide credits for people earning less than $250,000 a year.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that Mr. Obama's plan would amount to a tax cut for 81 percent of all households, or 95.5 percent of those with children. The center calculated that by 2012 the Obama plan would let middle-income taxpayers keep about 5 percent more income on average, or nearly $2,200 a year, while Mr. McCain would give them an average 3 percent break, or about $1,400. The richest 1 percent would pay an average $19,000 more in taxes each year under Mr. Obama's plan but see a tax cut of more than $125,000 under Mr. McCain.

The repetition of outright lies and misrepresentations by the Republican nominees is astounding.

NPR mentioned it in their coverage of the Republican nominees' campaign speeches for today. Don Gonyea noted that she's repeating her lie about opposing the Bridge to Nowhere word for word. The Wall Street Journal mentions it although they don't manage to call it a lie.

How is it that the Republican nominees can stand up in front of hundreds, if not thousands of people and outright lie and no one calls them on it? What does that say for their honesty? Their strength of character? Nothing good.

TPM puts it this way and they did a damn good job of it.

Here's what you need to know about the person that the 72-year-old, cancer survivor nominee of the Republican party, John McCain, has picked for his VP. This was taped in June 2008 for their "Masters Commission" graduates who are people who have completed a training program the church runs whose ultimate goal is to evangelize non-believers in Alaska. [via]

As my family includes missionaries and pastors and others deeply involved with their churches and in living their lives as they believe God wants them to do, I am deeply sympathetic to Sarah Palin's obvious pride and love for her church family. However, her inability to separate her personal faith from her role as governor of all the people of Alaska is disturbing.

I've written before about the separation of church and state and how important it is to our country. I think that Governor Palin missed that lesson about Thomas Jefferson and the First Amendment. When I combine that with the other deficiencies in her resume including a complete lack of foreign policy experience or even evidence of basic knowledge, I can only say that her selection profoundly underscores John McCain's reckless decision making which puts our country's national security at risk.

We do not need someone ready to start a war based on her interpretation of the end times described in the Bible one heartbeat away from the presidency. And if she is an active believer in the Assemblies of God churches, then she believes in Revelations.

UPDATE: NPR's All Things Considered just aired a segment on these videos along with more background. Please do check it out as well.

UPDATE #2: Huffington Post has more background on Sarah Palin's churches and points out that they are part of "a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949. This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord. At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation. The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world."

Talk2Action has the complete post which HuffPo excerpted along with a lot more reference information.

The RNC has a problem. First they used fake soldiers in a video supposedly honoring them. But last night they leaped right over that line of disrespect and right into callous insult to anyone impacted by the events of 9/11.

You may have missed it. If you did, you can watch it now.

If you did see it, you already know why people are so angry about the RNC's video last night. A fear and hate-mongering mashup of epic proportions which callously used extended video of 9/11 to create the proper atmosphere of fear and hate at the Republican Convention.

Keith Olbermann was certainly angry about it. So is eshfemme at DU.

But here's the message I'd like to share with you.

plf515 at dkos was in the Twin Towers when they were hit on 9/11. He has a message that he asked us to share far and wide. It's a message for all those who would so callously use other people's loss and grief for their own personal advantage. Get angry with him.

OK, I've not been watching the RNC. But they have apparently pulled something about a 'tribute' to 9/11. And they are going to have McCain start his speech at 9:11 Central time

UPDATE McCain started at 9:11

I am outraged. ...

I'm a victim of 9/11. I was in the building when the plane hit.

In the 2000 election, one line often heard was that there was no real difference between voting for the Democrat versus voting for the Republican and many voted for Nader to vote their protest. It was fallacious reasoning and I can but hope most of those who voted for Nader have come to appreciate how much damage they did to our country and the world.

But that was then, this is now. And Thomas Friedman reminds of the huge difference between the two candidates despite McCain's attempt to wrap himself in "green".

With his choice of Sarah Palin -- the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change -- for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.

He did try to wrap himself in "green language" while ducking all the votes in the Senate supporting renewable energy source development but his actions in the last few days have shown his true colors. Carl Pope of the Sierra Club has a unique way of putting it.

"Back in June, the Republican Party had a round-up. ... One of the unbranded cattle -- a wizened old maverick name John McCain -- finally got roped. Then they branded him with a big 'Lazy O' -- George Bush's brand, where the O stands for oil. No more maverick.

"One of McCain's last independent policies putting him at odds with Bush was his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," added Pope, "yet he has now picked a running mate who has opposed holding big oil accountable and been dismissive of alternative energy while focusing her work on more oil drilling in a wildlife refuge and off of our coasts. While the northern edge of her state literally falls into the rising Arctic Ocean, Sarah Palin says, 'The jury is still out on global warming.' She's the one hanging the jury -- and John McCain is going to let her."

So in a way, we should be thankful that McCain picked Palin because in doing so, he's declared his true colors. He is most definitely not serious about climate change, energy independence and renewable energy resources and technology. Thomas points out the important part:

By constantly pounding into voters that his energy focus is to "drill, drill, drill," McCain is diverting attention from what should be one of the central issues in this election: who has the better plan to promote massive innovation around clean power technologies and energy efficiency.

Why? Because renewable energy technologies -- what I call "E.T." -- are going to constitute the next great global industry. They will rival and probably surpass "I.T." -- information technology. The country that spawns the most E.T. companies will enjoy more economic power, strategic advantage and rising standards of living. We need to make sure that is America. Big oil and OPEC want to make sure it is not.

That's part of reason #1 to vote for Obama. Our country's security and prosperity depend on leadership that will take us into the E.T. future. The other, of course, is the survival of life as we know it on this planet. Both are motivations for Americans to pay attention. Others certainly are.

This anecdote that Friedman quotes brings the point home in a different way. The rest of the globe is waiting to see if we screw ourselves or not.

Palin's nomination for vice president and her desire to allow drilling in the Alaskan wilderness "reminded me of a lunch I had three and half years ago with one of the Russian trade attachés," global trade consultant Edward Goldberg said to me. "After much wine, this gentleman told me that his country was very pleased that the Bush administration wanted to drill in the Alaskan wilderness. In his opinion, the amount of product one could actually derive from there was negligible in terms of needs. However, it signified that the Bush administration was not planning to do anything to create alternative energy, which of course would threaten the economic growth of Russia."

So, ... don't let anyone tell you that on the issue of green, this election is not important. It is vitally important, and the alternatives could not be more black and white.

This is reason #1. Our future, our children's future, our country's future, our world's future depends on getting this one right. And Thomas is right this time. The alternatives could not be more different.

Please ... choose green. Vote Obama. For reason #1.

This post is divided into 4 sections. The first is the timeline; the second a series of quotes from Alaskans about Palin. It's followed by a review of Palin's video and audio record. The fourth section contains many direct links to Alaskan media coverage of Palin, followed by coverage from national media and blogs. Significant articles are added to that section as they become available. I intend to continue updating it. Please comment if there are significant items I've missed.

I think what puts Sarah Palin's selection as McCain's running mate in sharpest perspective is this biographical timeline of her career thus far by KTVA news in Alaska.

This is it:

Feb. 11, 1964 -- Born in Sandpoint, Idaho.

1982 -- Graduated from Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska.

1987 -- Graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho.

August 29, 1988 -- Married Todd Palin, whom she would have five children with.

1992-1996 -- Entered public life, serving two terms on the Wasilla City Council.

1996-2002 -- Elected mayor of Wasilla City, Alaska, for two terms until term limits forced her from office.

2002 -- Lost her first statewide campaign for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.

2002 -- Frank Murkowski left the Senate to become governor and named Palin chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

2003 -- Split with the party leaders by battling Randy Ruedrich, the head of Alaska's Republican Party.

2006 -- Upset then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican primary, then defeated former two-term Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election.

2007 -- Pressured lawmakers to get the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act passed, to build a natural gas pipeline to deliver 35 trillion cubic feet of North Slope natural gas to market.

Aug. 29, 2008 -- Chosen as Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential running mate in the 2008 election.

That's all of it. Really. Presidential historians and scholars are stunned. The New York Times did a biographical feature article: Palin, an Outsider Who Charms

How many times can John McCain and his campaign use "but that doesn't count because I was POW" before it becomes a punch line?

I don't know but they're working hard on figuring it out. Actually, I think it's already become the punchline. [via]

Here's how the McCain campaign responded to the general hilarity and the Obama campaign's responses to McCain's Politico interview gaffe about not knowing how many houses he owned.

"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.

For those of you who haven't kept track, the McCain campaign also cited McCain's POW years in explaining away the deficits in his health care plan, the Miss Buffalo Chip gaffe, his infidelities in his first marriage, and in dealing with the allegation that he broke the rules and listened in on Barack Obama during the Rick Warren forum. And now he's rolled it out yet again on The Tonight Show last night with Jay Leno .

Later, he asked McCain: "For $1 million, how many houses do you have?"

At that, McCain got serious, saying he had been imprisoned for five-and-a-half years during the Vietnam war, and that "I didn't have a house. I didn't have a kitchen table. I didn't have a table."

If it can be used as the excuse for anything as McCain seems to think, you ought to feel free to borrow it.

Rachel Maddow spells it out best here. Watch the part from 0:44 to 3:29 and just tune out Buchanan as best you can.

I think he's already crossed the overuse line. Every time he uses it from now on, it will be examined in light of all the other misuses and its effectiveness is lost right there. From this point on, his use of it slips into self-parody.

In any case, I like TPM's characterization of it: the POW-POW-POW defense. I think that should be the short-hand reference from now on, as in, "Say did you see McCain POW-POW-POW'ed again?" Just give him a day or two. I'm sure we'll have a couple more examples to add to the list.

Sidenote: for ease of loading and reading, all the links to video clips below will open in a separate browser window.

Unless you've been completely out of touch with TV and political news coverage online, you know by now all about John McCain's number of houses gaffe during his interview with Politico reporters.

Pile that on top of his answer of $5 million to Rick Warren's question of How much is rich? at the Saddleback forum, Phil Gramm's statement that Americans concerned with the economy are a bunch of whiners, and McCain's insistence that the economy is fundamentally sound and -- Eureka! I'm sure the Obama campaign team felt like they'd struck gold and they sure didn't waste time capitalizing on it.

First up is their ad "Seven". Here's the video if you haven't seen it but you don't have to click on it unless you really want to see it uninterrupted because if you watch the news coverage, local and national, of the gaffe, you'll see it.

Obama expanded on it in his speech (video) in Chester, VA in a way that got all the hand-wringers in the blogosphere and chattering class cheering about him stepping up and hitting back. But Obama really brought home why this gaffe moment (video) is important in Chesapeake, VA Thursday evening.

How is this actually playing in the burbs? On the local news? On the national news? Are they hearing about it? In a word. Yes. It definitely broke through the barrier.

First up are 2 summaries of the national news video coverage. The first National Coverage video clips includes CBS, CNN, MSNBC, more CNN, ABC. There's a couple items in common but the second National Coverage video clips includes NBC's coverage which the first does not.

How about local coverage? Well, they covered it in Raleigh, Milwaukee, Erie, and on Fox in Philadelphia -- this one is great!

As for the houses themselves, the Washington Post has the details about them. And both BraveNewFilms and JedReport posted videos on them sometime ago. BraveNewFilms also includes a little lifestyle commentary with a look at McCain's $520 Ferragamo loafers and Cindy's private jet, "the only way to get around Arizona". BraveNewFilms has more on McCain in their The Real McCain video series.

In this shorter clip, ProgressiveMediaUSA gives McCain The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous treatment which has a few new facts in it I hadn't seen elsewhere. Did you know that McCain carries one of the super elite, by invitation only, black American Express Centurion cards?

And then there's the DNC's contribution (video) -- just a little humor, John:

All that good video to watch and we haven't even gotten to all this:

   - McCain's history with the Keating 5 (1, 2, 3)
   - filing false income tax returns (1)
   - his topgun, party hard, playboy days with his 5, count'em, 5 airplane crashes (1, 2, 3 )
   - his implied dissing of fellow Vietnam POWs (1)
   - lieing about his voting record to a veteran (1)
   - his affairs, both early and late, (1, 2)
   - doubletiming & dumping his 1st wife Carol for meal-ticket 2nd wife, heiress Cindy (1, 2, 3)
   - why & how the story of Cindy's drug abuse & criminal misuse of her charity came out (1)
   - John's legendary temper, dirty tricks & his need to get even (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Oh and then there's the age/health issue which when your body suffered non-torture as his did, definitely has an impact on health and ability. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

And we haven't even dipped into his policy knowledge issues, his flip-flops, his pandering, his connection with Jack Abramoff and his crew, and lack of management skills.

Greg Djerejian has posted another must-read analysis which takes apart the predictable neo-con, McCain response to the Georgia-Russia conflict.

Witness this incredibly poor reasoning by McCain, jaw-dropping even by the standards of the mammoth policy ineptitude we've become accustomed to during the reign of Bush 43 and his motley crew of national security miscreants. Here is McCain:

Mr. McCain urged NATO to begin discussions on "the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to South Ossetia,'' called on the United Nations to condemn "Russian aggression,'' and said that the secretary of state should travel to Europe "to establish a common Euro-Atlantic position aimed at ending the war and supporting the independence of Georgia.''

And he said the NATO should reconsider its previous decision and set Georgia - which he called "one of the world's first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion'' -- on the path to becoming a member. "NATO's decision to withhold a membership action plan for Georgia might have been viewed as a green light by Russia for its attacks on Georgia, and I urge the NATO allies to revisit the decision,'' he said. [my emphasis]

First, what does it matter in this context that Georgia was "one of the world's first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion"? If it had been the first to adopt Islam, or Judaism, or Buddhism, would the situation be different? Perhaps this might get assorted Christianists in an excited tizzy or such, which come to think of it, might be why some clueless aide to McCain, fresh from a Google sortie, decided to plug this little factoid into his statement. But what is really mind-boggling here is that McCain would have us double-down, and cheer-lead having NATO "revisit" the decision not to extend membership to Georgia! It is precisely this type of profoundly flawed thinking ... that has gotten Georgia into this bloody mess.

There's more, said in the way Djerejian only can do so along with some references to more authoritative, informed views such as those of George Kennan as well as some recent comments by Henry Kissinger.

Then he produces this bit:

So here is where matters stand. Rather than talk and obsess about what we should do, it is the Russians, sad to say, who will determine the fate of Georgia in the coming days and weeks, and so we might take a moment or two and stop and think about what their next moves are likely to be. Will they stop at Gori (just south of Ossetia) as well as a bit to the east of Abkhazia (a similar 'exclusion zone'), or have they now decided to march into Tbilisi and unseat this Government whole stop (I think it's a closer call which way Russia will go than many of us realize at this hour, but won't hazard to make a call just yet. UPDATE: The latest Russian moves would appear to indicate the former). As a Georgian civilian put it more pithily: "The border is where the Russians say it is. It could be here, or it could be Gori". Or, indeed, it could be Tbilisi, as I say.

Meantime, a Georgian soldier tells a U.S. reporter in the same piece: "Write exactly what I say. Over the past few years, I lived in a democratic society. I was happy. And now America and the European Union are spitting on us." They are, aren't they? They had no business making the cheap promises and representations that were made. No business on practical policy grounds. No business on strategic grounds (though I guess it got Rummy another flag, near the Salvadorans, say, for the Mesopotamian "coalition of the willing"). And now our promises are unraveling and nakedly revealed for the sorry lies and crap policy they are, with the emperor revealed to have no clothes, yet again. This is what our foreign policy mandarins masquerade about as they play policy-making, in their Washington work-stations. It's, yes, worse than a crime, rather a sad, pitiable blunder.

And one McCain would have us compound, I stress, again! An honorable man who served his country well, it is clear his time has past and his grasp on the most basic foreign policy calls we'll need to make in the coming years is very tentative indeed. He'll be surrounded by second-tier 'yes-man' realists and residual neo-con swill, few with any ideas worth pursuing if we mean to take the national interest seriously with sobriety and freshness of perspective. So let us help him exit off-stage gracefully, as he served his country with dignity when called upon, but let us not sacrifice our children's future to ignorants with deludely romantic notions of empire. Been there, done that. Indeed, we have a President who has announced a pre-emptive doctrine which allows us to, willy-nilly, instigate regime change when and where we deem appropriate. Who are we to lecture Putin now? What standing do we have to do so? And what parochial and self-satisfied myopia has us indignantly thinking we are some unimpeachable arbitrer of right and wrong in the international system after the disastrous missteps of the past eight sordid years?

If we mean to help the Georgians escape an even worse fate, we must summon up the intelligence and humility to have a dialogue with Putin, Medvedev, Sergie Lavrov, Vitaly Churkin and the rest of them based on straight talk (not of the McCain variety, and if we can somehow find a messenger of the stature and talent to deliver the message in the right way, hard these days), to wit: we screwed up overly propping this guy up and he got too big for his britches, we understand, but for the sake of going forward strategic cooperation (and don't mention Iran here, at least not as the first example)--as well as stopping further civilian loss of life--agree to work with us in good faith towards a status quo ante as much as possible, don't enter Tbilisi, and throw show-boats Sarkozy/Kouchner a bone with some possible talk of a going forward EU peacekeeping role (if non-binding, for the time being). This is roughly what we should be saying/doing now, not having the President step up to the White House mike fresh back from the sand volleyball courts of Beijing to gravely declare Russia's actions are "unacceptable in the 21st century." Such talk will get us nowhere, instead, it might just fan the flames more (as will Cheney's threats of "serious consequences", apparently a favorite sound-bite of his, but this time mentioned only in the context of the U.S.-Russian relationship). Let us be clear: these men's credibility is a sad joke, and Putin knows it only too well. So let's get real. Before it's too late, and more facts are created on the ground, mostly on the backs of innocent civilians throughout Georgia's various regions.

Amen.