• Robyn74

  +1

  I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is going to be one interesting race. Let the games begin!

  Posted 9/2/2008 respond (flag)

Live from the RNC: The Party’s Back On
Pajamas Media — GOP delegates are upbeat and counting the minutes till Sarah Palin hits the podium. [image] 09:52 am PDT The GOP convention will get into full swing today following the expulsion of a very uninvited guest. Hurricane Gustav’s inopportune appearance during the week of the Republican convention may have seemed to some that the Lord was on the side of the Democrats — at least several gleeful Dems thought as much. Party leaders caught gloating over the misfortune of their political opponents (not to mention the tragedy of people caught in the storm’s wake) will not have to pay much of a price for their insensitivity. The media doesn’t cover ...

Palin Babygate, more questions than answers
Preemptive Karma — Palin corruption probe continues, Palin hires defense attorney | Main | Merkley urges Oregonians to support disaster relief September 01, 2008 Palin Babygate, more questions than answers March 6th, 2008 : Gov. Palin announces that she is 7 months pregnant. That the pregnancy is so advanced astonished all who heard the news. The governor, a runner who's always been trim, simply doesn't look pregnant . More to the point... She's known as a fashion plate, but said she hasn't been dressing differently to cover her barely perceptible bulge. It's unclear whether that is Gov. Palin describing her own "barely perceptible ...

War and Piece — NYT : Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom. While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Ms. Palin on the first day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the ...

Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News — ... has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge. Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting... Mission accomplished, huh? It's out ...

Sarah Palin Hired Lobbyists To Bring In $27 Million In Federal Earmarks
Oliver Willis — ... and the NY Times is now reporting, it is clear Sen. McCain used the same sort of judgment in bringing Sarah Palin into his campaign as he did when he voted for the Iraq War: None at all. It is just the latest bad decision and lack of judgment John McCain has demonstrated in both his public and private life, and the sort of impulse control he would exercise if God forbid he was elected president. ...

Is Sarah Palin a head-fake?
Brilliant at Breakfast — I'm beginning to think so. I don't know if the delegates who hew to the religious right were planning any shenanigans at the Republican National Convention. But with the strong evidence that Palin is only being vetted by Camp Grandpa Simpson NOW, it seems to me that it's either the Palin nod was about McCain escaping his handlers and making a characteristic gamble that he cynically believed would rope in the Hillarions (and draw attention away from Barack Obama's Thursday night speech), or else she's designed to get him through the convention and seal the nomination before he ...

Meltdown
Shakesville — So, in my earlier CifA piece regarding the annoucement of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, I said: If there's any political point to be made here at all, it is about the very real possibility that the McCain campaign did not know about this pregnancy, despite reports to the contrary. There is a whole lot McCain evidently didn't know about Palin – and there have been reports that McCain chose her for the ticket after a half-assed vetting, about which even Republicans outside of DC have been grumbling. But even that is predicated on the idea that an out-of-wedlock pregnancy is so scandalous as to warrant preclusion of a related politician on a national ...

Sarah Palin Thoroughly Vetted By Jamie Spears' Mom, McCain Campaign Says
Opinions You Should Have — John McCain's campaign vigorously denied accusations that it had not thoroughly vetted McCain's vice presidential pick, Governor Sarah Palin, saying she had been thoroughly vetted and "raked over the coals" by a trusted campaign advisor. That person was Lynn Spears -- Jamie and Britney Spears' mother. "Spears gave Palin two pacifiers up," a spokeman for the McCain campaign said today. Spears was selected to vet Palin because she is an authority on mothering, and the author of numerous books on the subject, including "Through The Storm -- How To Raise Good Christian Girls." She is also an authority on raising good Christian grandchildren "as quickly as possible," says Dr. Ian Fesslhoff, ...

The Base Can't Be Reasoned With, It Can't Be Bargained With...
Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness — The Base Can't Be Reasoned With, It Can't Be Bargained With... dobson.jpg dobson.jpg dobson.jpg dobson.jpg dobson.jpg This is the part of the post where, if I could Photoshop, we'd have John McCain waking up in bed with the disembodied head of BFF Joe Lieberman. -------------------------- HAGEN: Mr. Corleone is Johnny's godfather. To the Italian people, that's a very religious, sacred, close relationship ...

Devastating report in the New York Times
Blah3 Feed — McCain's Vetting Problem goes mainstream. It's all there. Everything from Palin's tawdry past in Alaska to the fact that Religious Right leaders mixed McCain's original choices (Ridge, Lieberman) and pretty much shoved their choice down Senator Maverick's throat. And contrary to what the McCain campaign says, they didn't even run a background check through the FBI. The Washington Post quoted advisers to Mr. McCain on Sunday as saying Ms. Palin had been subjected to an F.B.I. background check, an F.B.I. official said Monday the bureau did not vet potential candidates and had not known of her selection until it was made ...

Just One Day at Memeorandum: Any Questions About Media Bias?
Stop The ACLU — [image] From Memeorandum Members of ‘Fringe’ Alaskan Independence Party Say Palin Was a Member in 90s — The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. — Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent … Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times : Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process — ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican ...

‘McCain Didn’t Vet Palin’ Meme Has Serious Holes
Pajamas Media — Slippery prose and outright errors in the NY Times and HuffPost. [image] Two major elements of the developing meme that John McCain did not sufficiently vet presumptive vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin are highly suspect. Each contention is not provable, and there is strong reason to believe that each is almost completely, if not totally, untrue. The first assertion is that McCain’s people did little if any vetting of Palin until a few days ago. The second is that McCain’s team has never looked at years of archived articles at Palin’s hometown paper. The first claim has bubbled up from various sources on the left side of the blogosphere, culminating in this slippery prose found in this ...

The Connection Between John McCain And Bristol Palin
BAGnewsNotes — Although the McCain campaign said that Mr. McCain had known about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he asked her mother to join him on the ticket and that he did not consider it disqualifying, top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of the pregnancy, and from whom. (NYT) If there was a national organization dedicated to helping people with impulse control problems, this image -- taken just before the Veep announcement on Friday -- would make a great billboard for the front of its headquarters.  What resonates in this photo -- in John McCain's over-the-top chuckle and his focus on Bristol Palin -- ...

The New York Times Hands McCain the Shovel
Hoffmania! — ... It is truly difficult to single out one overriding thought when you read this devastating story in The New York Times this morning. NOW they have people in Alaska to vet her? Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican ...

links for 2008-09-02
FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog — Power Line: What Next? John McCain must be feeling like Job. What else can go wrong? First his convention is scrubbed by a hurricane, now Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter turns out to be pregnant. The campaign is putting the best face on it. (tags: sarah_palin mccain) Marc Ambinder (September 01, 2008) - ...

McCain Wanted Lieberman, But Chose a Question Mark
Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines — As little as two days before he made his VP announcement, John McCain wanted to pick friend and Democratic turncoat Joe Lieberman, according to a report in the New York Times. But like so many other decisions in his campaign, the alleged maverick caved to the far right of his party, which threatened to sink the ticket at the convention, and ...

NYT: fundies pushed Palin selection, McCain team left scrambling to vet
pandagon.net - we are the public option — by Pam Spaulding The blockbuster story of this Sarah Palin debacle is that John McCain and his team simply didn’t vet this candidate. He only met her once, spoke with her once, and only now is there a GOP team on the ground combing through records to see what other skeletons are in her closet. This ultimately doesn’t have anything to do with Palin—it’s about McCain’s judgment and fealty to the fringe element of his party. What does this say about his leadership? Do you want a man without impulse control leading this nation?  (NYT): Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground ...

Musings Over Morning Coffee
Daily Kos — It's been a long weekend. So where do we stand? Well, we were right the moment the pick was announced. We shook our heads along with the sensible public, took stock, considered our response and said "Hail Mary" out of desperation. Four days later, that's still the thinking. Even Bill Kristol, an early Sarah Palin backer, admits the obvious: despite the "close race" in the polls, Obama's convention and Thursday speech made McCain a sure loser. But what was McCain’s alternative? To go quietly down to defeat, accepting a role as a bit player in The Barack Obama Story? McCain had to shake up the race, and ...

More Palin problems
Citizen Crain — ... , McCain's decision to pick Palin was hurried and based on impulsive instinct, not careful judgment. Today's New York Times reveals just how little vetting Palin underwent before McCain announced her. In the most important decision to date for him in this campaign, McCain demonstrated how he makes important decisions. It is not a model I want to see for anyone sitting in the Oval Office.

The lefty media attacks Palin pick
Rathergate.com — Writing in yesterday’s New York Times , Elizabeth Bumiller attacked Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin by accusing her of being nominated only because John McCain did not really examine just how bad she is: A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket. These disclosures, the ones which Bumiller has disqualifying Palin for the veep office, include her daughter being pregnant and the Palins’ defense of her sister against a wife beater. The idea ...

Post hoc vetting
Political Animal — POST HOC VETTING.... After having watched John McCain for many years, I don't hold him in the highest regard. But even I, in my heart of hearts, never expected him to invite a total stranger onto the national ticket, and possibly put this stranger one heartbeat from the presidency of the United States, without a thorough vetting. But that is precisely what's happened. John McCain's operation is not only reckless and irresponsible, it's backwards -- McCain picked Sarah Palin and then decided to vet her. MSNBC reported yesterday that Republican lawyers are ...

Did Palin Get Vetted?
Swampland — Not so much, apparently. On Sunday, the McCain campaign told the Washington Post this: "Nobody was vetted less or more than anyone in the final stages, and John had access to all that information and made the decision," Davis said. "It's really not much more complicated than that." Today, in the New York Times, we learn this: Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in ...

Max Blumenthal: Council for National Policy “Hidden Hand Behind McCain’s Palin Pick”
Comments from Left Field — For those who claim that the McCain campaign didn’t thoroughly vet their VP nominee before offering her a slot on the ticket, Max Blumenthal puts all concerns to rest: Last week, while the media focused almost obsessively on the DNC’s spectacle in Denver, the country’s most influential conservatives met quietly at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis to get to know Sarah Palin. The assembled were members of the Council for National Policy, an ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy. ...

No More Mister Nice Blog — HE WAS TOO GUTLESS TO PICK LIEBERMAN AND HE'LL BE TOO GUTLESS TO DROP PALIN Jeralyn Merritt is asking people to bet on when John McCain will drop Sarah Palin from the ticket. I say never. Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog said just the right thing about the capitulation by the alleged tough guy McCain (citing this New York Times article on McCain's selection process, which says McCain really, really wanted to pick Lieberman or Ridge but was ordered not to): If John McCain was truly the leader he claimed to be, Sarah Palin wouldn't be the v.p., Ridge or Lieberman would be. This was the most ...

McCain-Palin: An Epic Fail And Its Sources
Firedoglake — ... with two anonymous Republican sources pointing the blame finger at Rick Davis in the NYTimes. (Say hello to Steve Schmidt's pals, kids. Don't you think?) ...

"He Didn't Vet the Bimbo"
Little Miss Attila — "He Didn't Vet the Bimbo" Of course he didn't. And having Palin on the ticket will be a disaster for the Republicans (oh, please God, please!). A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket. On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father. Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that ...

Kristol: McCain Likes Wild Bets!
Matthew Yglesias — ... that the Palin pick is best described through gambling metaphors and reflects John McCain’s gambler persona. I guess, though, that if I were going to say that McCain “went all in with Sarah Palin” I would add that he seems to have decided to go all in without really looking at his hole cards which is pretty odd. ...

John Didn't Get What He Wanted
Obsidian Wings — ... by hilzoy From the NYT: "A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin. (...) In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about ...

Around the Web: 2008
The Corner on National Review Online — ... Palin Roil the Start The Washington Post [image] Laura Bush, Cindy McCain Make Plea for Gustav Aid The Boston Globe [image] Convention Hopes to Get Back to Normal Today Associated Press [image] Convention Perspective: GOP Misses Anti-Terror Message Slot The Boston Globe [image] Mass Show of Peaceful Dissent Soon Makes Violent Descent Minneapolis Star Tribune [image] [image] McCain How Thoroughly Did Campaign Vet Palin? McClatchy [image] Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process The New York Times [image] No Surprises From ...

McCain camp slams NYT's Bumiller
Michael Calderone's Blog — McCain spokesperson Michael Goldfarb responds to the NY Times Elizabeth Bumiller's A1 piece on Sarah Palin's recent disclosures.   In "Bumiller Writes Her Own Story," Goldfarb accuses the Times reporter -- who already had a notable altercation with McCain -- of "writing fiction." While the press scrambles to report on the process by which Governor Palin was offered the second spot on the Republican ticket, New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller has opted instead to make up her own version of events. As the AP reports, "Sarah Palin voluntarily told John McCain's campaign about her ...

What Judgement?
TPMCafe — If the first major judgement call a Presidential candidate makes is the Vice Presidential pick, then John McCain's judgement needs to be seriously questioned. In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about Ms. Palin before the announcement of her selection, Although campaigns are typically discreet when they make inquiries into potential running mates, officials in Alaska said Monday they thought it was peculiar that no one in the state had the slightest hint that Ms. Palin might be under consideration. As I ...

NEW INFO: The Palin nomination is DOOMED.
RedState: Conservative News and Community — Or will GOP enthusiasm remain high despite latest media disclosure? Amidst the New York Times' concerns that John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate without fully vetting her – at least not enough to discover that her daughter was pregnant, her husband got a DUI two decades ago, and she defended her sister against an abusive lout – comes word of something McCain did know. This was from the report sent to McCain by his veep vetter, Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr. We owe a national debt of gratitude to the Associated Press for bringing this to our attention, as it cuts to the core of what we want and expect ...

John didn't get what he wanted
Political Animal — John Didn't Get What He Wanted From the NYT : "A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin. (...) In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about Ms. Palin before the ...

Red Neck Nation
DownWithTyranny! — This piggy-wiggy hubby of Scientologist/Fox News thingamajig Greta Van Susteren just switched from Clinton to McCain, bitching that MoveOn.org has taken over the Democratic Party; if only! More likely this was the piggy-wiggy who didn't like his hotel accommodations for the DNC. Watch the video and you'll see how stupid and brain dead this guy. His reason, he says, for switching to McCain is because of McCain's position on torture. I'm guessing he doesn't even know that, in the end, McCain voted for torture for all his posturing. When they call him "one of Hillary's biggest supporters" I wonder what they mean? I ...

What Does This Remind You Of?
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — I mean, really: Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. It reminds me of the decision to go to war with Iraq, and have no idea what to do when you get there. Just unbelievably incompetent. ...

Debunking another meme about Palin: the "was she vetted" nonsense
Stubborn Facts — Can we put to bed the meme that Sarah Palin wasn't vetted? The claim that Palin wasn't vetted, or that she's only just being vetted now, is false. Wholly and patently false. The lesser claim that she was inadequately vetted rests, I must assume, on a false premise: the idea that McCain wouldn't have picked her if he had known that [insert preferred "revelation" that was "unearthed" over the last 72 hours], ergo he must not have fully vetted her. It just doesn't seem to occur to those pushing this trope that the "revelations" they find so concerning might be matters of near-supreme indifference to McCain and to ...

The problem with Sarah
The Reaction — ... The New York Times is reporting that Palin was essentially handed to McCain on a silver platter by a hard-right think tank and that he took her with minimal vetting. That is unfortunate. The thing is, I'm not certain the "experience" factor is as significant as some are wont to make it. ...

Heckuva Job, Rick
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — The standards of competence of the Bush administration are now up for a third term: “They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,” said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor. Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her. “I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. ...

Forget the Baby. There's Too Much Else!
MoJo Blog Posts: mojo — Look, let's put Bristol and the baby behind us. There are two new story lines about Sarah Palin currently gaining momentum that are more substantive and potentially more damaging. There is Palin as a ordinary, slimy politician, as articulated by First Read: On Monday, the papers were full of stories about how Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. Also yesterday, we found out that Palin worked for a 527 group organized by Ted Stevens, who is now facing trial on corruption charges. Then came the news that she has retained an attorney for that Troopergate ethics investigation. And finally is today'sWashington ...

McCain Camp to NYT: Try Reporting
Real Clear Politics - TIME.com — rnclogo.gif ST. PAUL -- NY Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller's story today on Sarah Palin has received this strong rebuke from McCain blogger Michael Goldfarb: While the press scrambles to report on the process by which Governor Palin was offered the second spot on the Republican ticket, New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller has opted instead to make up her own version of events. As the AP reports , "Sarah Palin voluntarily told John McCain's campaign about her pregnant teenage daughter and her husband's 2-decade-old DUI arrest during questioning as part of the Republican's vice presidential search, the lawyer who ...

McCain’s Bad Judgment: How In The Hell Could He Miss All Of This?!?
Firedoglake — ... Except when she rakes in it by the bucket load to boost her political career using that very same good ole boy network.  She conveniently left that part out.  Hypocrisy, much? But wait, there's more.  Rick Davis lied to the WaPo about putting Palin through an FBI background check -- the FBI says that did not happen.    As emptywheel notes, they are omitting whole swaths of problems from public discussion. And to top it off, Sarah Palin wasn't Miss Congeniality in the Miss Wasilla pageant.  Sure, that's trivial ...

McCain's Katrina moment
The Reaction — By Creature And I'm not talking about hurricanes here. For the current president of the United States the beginning of the end of his popularity, and the media's love for him, started when hurricane Katrina took out an American city. After years of positive treatment, and numerous benefits of the doubt, the lens through which he was seen was forever skewed to the negative. John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin is his own Katrina moment. From Campbell Brown's devastating interview with Tucker Bounds to Obama's surge in the polls, the turn against ...

Talk Radio Forced To Rethink Convention Strategy
The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney — HURRICANE MSM Mainstream Media Undermines GOP's Convention Though the threat from Gustav may have passed, Hurricane MSM is now a category five, with further threats of gale force windbags and fact twisters likely through the end of the week. Yes, with the mainstream media (MSM) determined to deny Republicans the same national spotlight enjoyed by Democrats last week, the already ugly political climate has taken a turn for the worse. As one would expect from a political calamity of this nature, the ...

9/2: Scrutinizing Sarah
Blogometer — ... , they're accusing liberal bloggers of spreading scurrilous rumors about Palin and thereby forcing the Palins to reveal that their 17-year-old daughter Bristol Palin is pregnant. Liberal bloggers are denying that they spread these rumors and are arguing that the McCain camp is simply trying to deflect attention from its disastrous VP roll-out. PALIN: This Is How McCain Made His First Important Decision? Liberal bloggers are buzzing about the recent series of disclosures about Palin: "ST. PAUL -- A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain's ...

NYT Opinionator on Palin "Blogspat"
TalkLeft — Toby Harshaw, co-author of the New York Times Opinionator blog, writes up my post suggesting John McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate will turn out to be another George McGovern-Thomas Eagleton scenario. He notes Ann Althouse's disagreement with me, calling it a "blogspat." Toby writes: The Opinionator is enjoying an enlightening little blogspat between two of his favorites, Jeralynn Merritt of TalkLeft and Ann Althouse. Merritt is taking bets on when Sarah Palin will drop out, Thomas Eagleton-style, saying of the historical parallel that: “It had nothing to do with ...

GOP im-Palin itself
The Reaction — By Carl Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas, as they say: A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain's choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ...

McCain: The Election is Not About Issues
TalkLeft — Straight from the mouth of the John McCain campaign: Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning. "This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." And Gov. Sarah Palin's Wednesday speech was pre-written. Davis said a generic, "masculine" speech was being prepared before the pick was made and, now that Palin is the choice, ...

Define 'thorough'
Political Animal — DEFINE 'THOROUGH'.... The evidence pointing to a weak and cursory vetting process in the McCain campaign is pretty overwhelming , but John McCain doesn't want us to believe a word of it . "The vetting process was completely thorough, and I'm grateful for the results," McCain said during a campaign stop this morning at Engine Company 56 of the Philadephia Fire Department. His aides have said nothing has emerged in news reports about Palin that McCain and the campaign did not know before selecting her, including that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant. Look, McCain is in a bind, and the truth is, there is no compelling response. ...

Remainders: "Transpartisan"
Jonathan Martin's Blog — Lieberman speaks tonight. The McCain campaign cancels the candidate's interview with Wolf Blitzer because of the Tucker Bounds/ Campbell Brown showdown from yesterday, Charles Gibson will interview McCain this week. Kate Phillips offers an obvious but remarkable reminder: Joe Lieberman was the vice presidential nominee 8 years ago. The New York Times raises questions about the vetting process. Goldfarb fires back by calling it a "fiction." Michael Crowley calls the McCain campaign the most sarcastic campaign ever. Byron York reveals the ...

Alaska Party Official Says Palin Was Not a Member
The Caucus — The chairwoman of an Alaskan political party that advocates a vote on the state’s succession from the union said Tuesday that she had been mistaken when she said Gov. Sarah Palin was a member of the group. A front-page story in The New York Times ...

The Palin Picture from Top News Sites
Open Left - Front Page — What's the media narrative this morning on Sarah Palin? The top online news sites, in some order, tend to be Yahoo, CNN and MSNBC with the NY Times the top "newspaper" website. Nicely, as of this writing, both CNN and MSNBC have a picture of President Bush on the video wall as the front page image from last night's Republican convention. Here are the Palin-related headlines on the main pages: CNN GOP speakers step up to defend Palin Lawmaker: Palin due to face investigators   MSNBC Crafting Palin's introduction Aides:  Palin's last-minute ...

NYT -- Front page Palin story was incorrect
Wizbang — This is how they roll. Report it and get it out there . Get it picked up by all the television reporters who repeated it as recently as today's morning news/chat shows. Too bad it isn't true. The chairwoman of an Alaskan political party that advocates a vote on the state's secession from the union said Tuesday that she had been mistaken when she said Gov. Sarah Palin was a member of the group. A front-page story in The New York Times on Tuesday and articles in other news media reported that Ms. Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party for two years in the 1990's. The information in the Times article was based on a statement ...

The Palin Problem
The Republic of T. — I haven’t had time to write anything about McCain’s VP pick, because I’ve been at home with Dylan — who’s apparently cutting his top front teeth, which makes him really irritable — since yesterday (daycare is closed), and probably won’t have anything to post today for the same reason. I do have a couple of posts I’m working on which, with nay luck, will get posted before the end of the week. In the meantime, I have a question. Which is worse. That McCain’s choice of Palin was essentially a roll of the dice? Or that after a vetting ...

McCain to go on offense, with FOX snarling and setting the tone
News Hounds — The tone today on FOX is outraged, and the mainstream media's and bloggers' critical scrutiny of Sarah Palin is the cause of it. Megan Kelly was in high dudgeon this morning as she angrily read the list of grievances the McCain camp is going to address today and the tactics they will employ to put the media and the Obama camp on defense. With video The McCain campaign is defending their vetting of Palin as "thorough" and will let the American people vet her in November - in other words, show their approval of the apparently reactionary and politically motivated choice. The New York Times reported that "A ...

NYT Issues Retraction
Real Clear Politics - TIME.com — rnclogo.gif ST. PAUL -- Yesterday the McCain camp hit back hard on this front-page NYT story by Elisabeth Bumiller reporting that Sarah Palin had been a member of the Alaska Independence Party in the 1990s. Today, the paper writes : A front-page story in The New York Times on Tuesday and articles in other news media reported that Ms. Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party for two years in the 1990’s. The information in the Times article was based on a statement issued Monday night by Lynette Clark, the party’s chairwoman, who said that Ms. Palin joined the party in 1994 and in 1996 changed her registration to ...

New York Times Corrects Itself On Palins Relationship With Alaska Independence Party
Say Anything — Whoops... The chairwoman of an Alaskan political party that advocates a vote on the state’s secession from the union said Tuesday that she had been mistaken when she said Gov. Sarah Palin was a member of the group. A front-page story in The New York Times on Tuesday and articles in other news media reported that Ms. Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party for two years in the 1990’s. The information in the Times article was based on a statement issued Monday night by Lynette Clark, the party’s chairwoman, who said that Ms. Palin joined the party in 1994 and in 1996 changed her registration to ...

11th-hour vetting
Political Animal — 11TH-HOUR VETTING.... There were a series of disconcerting reports yesterday on the McCain campaign's haphazard and slapdash vetting process when it came to Sarah Palin. By one account , Palin wasn't on the short-list a week ago, and the McCain team "used little more than a Google Internet search as part of a rushed effort to review Palin's potential pitfalls." By another , McCain aides have begun a more thorough vetting of Palin now . The Washington Post's Dan Balz moves the ball forward today, noting that Palin first sat down with McCain's vetting team on Wednesday , 24 hours before receiving the big invitation. ...

Sarah Palin: The Xena of the War Party
Antiwar.com Original — ... and only lately elevated to the governorship been raised up so quickly, and mysteriously, like Venus sprung from the sea-foam? McCain really wanted Joe Lieberman , the last surviving member of the Scoop Jackson wing of the Democratic party, whose neoconservative credentials , electoral appeal in certain key areas , and ability to provoke the Obama-crats made him the natural choice. Karl Rove , however, is too smart for that: he knew there would be a floor fight over it, and the McCainiac-neocon faction could very well lose ...

A Model of Thorough Fact-Checking...
Power Line — ...the New York Times is not. On Monday, the Times published an article criticizing John McCain for failing to check thoroughly enough into Governor Sarah Palin's background before selecting her as his running mate. The Times cited a "series of disclosures [that] called into question ... how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket." As it turned out, though, it was the Times that failed to investigate thoroughly. One of its "disclosures" was false, as the paper admitted this morning: An article on Tuesday about concerns over Senator John McCain’s background check of Gov. Sarah ...

The worst news of the year
HorsesAss.Org — Nine days ago in this space, I took a lot of heat for pronouncing John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as politically “brilliant.” My assumption, of course, was that McCain had actually seriously vetted the most important decision of his campaign (I was wrong), but, scandals and ugliness in Palin’s past notwithstanding, that judgment is looking pretty sound. I praised the selection as giving McCain his best, perhaps only, shot at winning in November, and after this week’s convention and media coverage, the McCain strategy has become pretty clear: make November a referendum on personalities, not ...

Frank Rich: Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage
The Latest on Air America — By GottaLaff Please read the whole thing, but until you do : Even more fraudulent, if that’s possible, is the contrast between McCain’s platonic presentation of his personal code of honor and the man he has become. He always puts his country first, he told us: “I’ve been called a maverick.” If there was any doubt that that McCain has fled, confirmation arrived with his last-minute embrace of Sarah Palin. [...] Most of the rest of the biography supplied by her and the McCain camp is fiction. She didn’t say “no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere” until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 ...

McCain Ad: The Wolves Are Out Against Palin
The Caucus — Forget how worn that “lipstick on a pig” talk is getting at this point. Let’s, uh, put a little gloss on that for a second, even though the liberal blogosphere and others have been awash in media-bashing today for anyone even writing about Senator Barack Obama’s comments that the McCain campaign is putting “lipstick on a pig.” He contended that it was all about the McCain-Palin ticket representing no change. (And there’s no question that Senator Obama did not refer to Gov. Sarah Palin as a pig ...

"Hardly Ever Wrong"
TPMCafe — Sarah Palin in Colorado yesterday: I was reading my copy of today's New York Times and I was interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago....Turns out one of Barack's earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, and they are hardly ever wrong, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that quote launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and US Capitol. Wow. As Gov. Palin would say, Wow. You betcha she's off message. The paper that's hardly ever wrong was accused two weeks ago of being "an Obama advocacy organization" that perpetrated "a ...

Bristol Palin on Teen Parenting
The Caucus — Bristol Palin, Gov. Sarah Palin’s 18-year-old daughter, sat for her first interview since giving birth to Tripp, which aired Monday on Fox News Channel’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” News of the unmarried high school student’s pregnancy emerged within days of her mother’s introduction ...