black…MYstory

…her state’s biggest newspaper endorses Obama?

It seems that the Anchorage Daily News further confirms what many of us know, Sarah Palin’s not helping John McCain.  Also, any charm she has is not distracting away from a critical analysis of McCain’s policy proposals.

Yesterday, that paper officially endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Here’s some of what they had to say about Obama:

“Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.”

In regards to McCain, they offered the following:

“Sen. McCain describes himself as a maverick, by which he seems to mean that he spent 25 years trying unsuccessfully to persuade his own party to follow his bipartisan, centrist lead. Sadly, maverick John McCain didn’t show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years.”

And, on Palin, they stated the following:

“Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.”

So, even the biggest paper in the Governor’s home state is saying look to the other guy.  I think the choice is clear.

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Could Ashley Todd’s story be true?  Of course — but it’s kind of suspect.  Ms. Todd, a Texas college student, was working for the McCain campaign in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  According to Ms. Todd, this past Wednesday, she went to an ATM machine to withdraw some money.  She said that, while there, she was robbed by a black man at knifepoint.  She further stated that the assailant backed off but, upon seeing a John McCain sticker on her car, became enraged, punched and kicked her and then sat on her shoulders, facing her, and carved a “B” on her cheek (for “Barack”, I presume?)

Of course, the police are investigating this as a robbery and assault but, they are expressing skepticism about her account of the attack.  There are just some glaring concerns with/inconsistencies in her behaviors and statements that inspire doubt.  For example,  she refused medical treatment.  But, to be fair, if she were a victim of a violent crime, she could have been so shaken up that she chose not to go to the hospital.  However, there are other things that have me scratching my head on this one.  First of all, the “B” carved in her face is backwards. Did someone sit on her shoulders and carve a backward “B” or could this be done by someone doing this to herself while looking in a mirror?  Then, there is the problem that the bank surveillance footage doesn’t show her being at the ATM where she said she was attacked.  Finally, she has now, also, changed her story.

Ms. Todd now says she was unconscious and doesn’t remember being cut.  She says that she discovered the knife wound later.

Though the authorities are treating this a credible case, Ms. Todd is being subjected to a lie detector test.

Right-wing blogs across the internet have been on fire regarding this attack on a Republican by a “crazed Obama supporter”.  I wonder what they will say if it proves untrue.

UPDATE:

Well, never mind, it appears that she was lying.  Pittsburgh police are now saying that Ashley Todd made up the entire story.  She will be charged with making a false report to police.

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I actually felt kind of bad for McCain-Palin spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer.  She’s in the unenviable position of having to defend Governor Palin’s total lack of understanding of the role of the vice-president.

In a recent interview, Sarah Palin stated that the role of the vice-president was to be “in charge of the Senate” and craft policy with the Senate.  In actuality, a vice-president on presides over the Senate to cast the deciding vote in case of a tie.  However, because of the separation of powers, the vice-president is a part of the executive branch, not the legislative branch so, it is not within the normal duties of a vice-president to help craft legislation.

Since the Palin interview aired, the McCain camp and surrogates have tried to spin this but, it is clear — Sarah Palin has no idea what the job she is campaigning for actually involves.  I guess she was too busy shopping at Nieman-Marcus to actually take time out to read the part of the Constitution that describes her potential role.

Video below:

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Somebody shared this with me.  Gotta love it.

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The AP believes that it borders on such.

Over the weekend, Sarah Palin, at the urging of the McCain campaign, decided to launch personal attacks on Obama, presumably to steer the conversation away from the economy.

Palin accused Obama of “palling around with terrorists” and of not seeing the U.S. like other Americans do.  Palin was referring to the tangential relationship Obama had with former 60’s radical William Ayers.  Some 40 years ago, Ayers was part of the group, The Weather Underground, that took part in the bombings of federal buildings.  Ayers and Obama served on a community board together.  In ‘95, Ayers hosted a fundraiser for Obama when Obama was just launching his political career.  For his part, Obama says that, in ‘95, he was unaware of Ayers past.  For many years, Ayers has been an English professor and Obama indicates that this was the capacity in which he knew Ayers professionally.

So, why could their be racial subtext in Palin’s accusation?  The question is addressed in the article:

Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

The saddest part about it is that these attacks are simply not true:

In her character attack, Palin questions Obama’s association with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground. Her reference was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers’ radical views and actions.

But, we know, with one month to go before the election, the gloves are off.  So, I’m sure we’ll hear about Rev. Wright.  But, McCain is not without his own liabilities.  I’m sure we’ll hear about the “Keating 5″, particularly when we are dealing with our current economic issues and McCain’s heavy reliance on advisors with strong lobbying ties to write his economic policy.  Also, Palin is not yet out of the woods on “Troopergate” and her husband’s former membership with the Alaska Independence Party (a group with a goal of Alaska seceding from the U.S.) and her addressing this same group in 2006 may not be out of bounds, now, either.

Let’s get ready for the mud to fly.

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John McCain’s poor judgment seems to be coming back to bite him in the…well, you know the rest.

It appears that,the more Sarah Palin speaks, the more concerned conservatives get.

This time, it is The National Review’s Kathleen Parker that’s bemoaning the McCain pick’s performance as VP candidate.

Understand — just a few weeks ago, Parker was fiercely defending Palin, accusing critics of her as being sexist.  She even praised Palin as revolutionizing a new form of feminism.  But, what a difference a few weeks and a few interviews can make.  Now, Parker is hitting Palin harder than I’ve seen any across the aisle do.  Just look at some of the gems from her article.

“Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.”

And this gem:

“Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.”

But, this is the best line of them all:

“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.”

Whoa!

She is not the first conservative commentator to say so.  On a recent episode of the Chris Matthews Show, conservative columnist David Brooks questioned if she was ready to be vice-president, saying “Based on what we’ve seen with the Katie Couric interview, it’s embarassing, it’s painful to watch those things, you want to turn them off.” He went on to say that in the debates, she could “rise to the level of mediocrity.”

It is said that, in regards to politics, “Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line.”  From what I’ve seen lately, the Republicans are breaking ranks and saying it’s every man and woman for themselves.  With a little over a month until the elections, Republicans are going to have to cheat heavily to pull this one off.

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I’m not going to lie.  Up until yesterday, I don’t think I’d ever heard of the paper the Stockton Record.  However, I do recognize when something is of historical significance.  This is a paper that has not endorsed a Democrat for President since 1936.  Well, on September 28, 2008, that streak ended.

That is because the California paper has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

It is an endorsement that is stated without hesitation or trepidation.  It cites that, while they may feel that Barack Obama does not have a total mastery of all issues (i.e. the economy), he does know that having the right people in place to actually have real oversight and accountability for the markets and industries they are tasked to keep in line is vital.

Furthermore, the paper cites that Obama clearly bests McCain in another area of importance: judgment.

Just read what they say:

“He (McCain) tends to shoot from the hip and go on gut instinct. The nation cannot go through four more years of literally and figuratively shooting now and asking questions later.

My guess is that is safe to regard the Record as a pretty conservative paper.  If they are willing to endorse Obama over McCain, what does that really say about how presidential many think McCain really is?

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NBC News recently did some fact-checking on some of the claims VP hopeful Sarah Palin has made about her record.  In a nutshell, she has a little problem with something I like to call “the truth.”

This isn’t the first time a news agency has found her claims to be untrue. Here’s a previous story from CNN on her claims proving to be false.

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What’s good for the goose…

It’s funny to see how the McCain campaign is trying to spin the questions on Sarah Palin’s credentials and experience as ’sexist’.  They want Americans to believe that she’s the only one whose gotten such questions and that these questions wouldn’t be coming if she weren’t a woman.

However, McClatchy Newspapers writer Steve Thomma cuts through the B.S. and reminds us that, not too long ago, we heard much more intense scruitiny about Barack Obama.

For example:

Covering Obama’s very first trip to New Hampshire in 2006, for example, McClatchy Newspapers noted that, “if Obama exudes a JFK-like charisma for some, he doesn’t share Kennedy’s 14 years of pre-presidential experience in Congress.”

At one of the first Democratic debates way back in April 2007, McClatchy noted that Obama failed to list Israel as a top U.S. ally, a news story that Fiorina’s own Republican National Committee used in news releases to point out Obama’s lack of experience in foreign policy.

Last fall, the news media continued to raise questions about Obama’ experience, including those raised by Democratic voters. “A lot of people think he’s too inexperienced to be president,” said one article last September. ‘”It’s not his time,” said Cindy Forbes of Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines. “He’s not experienced enough. He’ll be president some day, but not now.”‘

A quick search of newspapers that contribute to the McClatchy-Tribune News Service found 89 references to Obama and the word inexperience. A Google media-wide news search found nearly 10,000 such references.

What you are seeing is a questioning about who she is, particularly since a lot of people, including a lot of people who are trying to tell us how great she is, really don’t know Sarah Palin.

She wants a job that would put her one heartbeat away from the presidency (insert McCain age joke here) so, to think that she should get a free pass based on gender would be a ludicrous as believing that Obama should have gotten a free pass based on race.

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Despite putting on their best faces for the cameras, in unguarded moments some Republicans are saying what they really think about McCain’s choice of the nearly-unvetted Sarah Palin for his vice-presidential running mate.  Republican pundits Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan were on MSNBC today and did not know the mikes were still on.  Here’s a clip of what they had to say:

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