Rudy tells people that he is calling on behalf of John Sleazebag McCain and the Republican Party. So no assumptions required. Rudy, Johnny and the RNC think its perfectly legitimate campaign tactic to say that Senator Obama is against mandatory sentencing for violent felons. Senator Obama is against ‘minimum’ mandatory sentences, preferring to leave that up to the judges presiding over the case. Sleazebag McCain is making these calls in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia, and Maine. The calls are so vile even a few Republicans like Olympia Snow and Norm Coleman have denounced them. There are two routes to the presidency. One is where McCain sticks to the issues and discusses them honestly. The other way is for McCain to lie and smear his way to the White House. He and his supporters like Rudy Giuliani obviously think their best chance is going with the later. Their base will happily swallow any swill they dish out, but they’ve written off the moderate middle who recognize a con when they see one. Taking the low road also says a lot about how much confidence the Republicans have in their platform. If McCain doesn’t believe he can win based on the policies he would implement – a variation on Bush’s policies which he admits in one of his TV ads haven’t been great for the average American – then what can the nation expect from a McCain-Palin administration. Bush ran a very similar slash and burn campaign and we got a slash and burn presidency.
Palin stumped when asked to explain her preconditions for meeting foreign leaders
WILLIAMS: — that you both have been hammering the Obama campaign on. What — first of all, what in your mind is a precondition?
PALIN: You have to have some diplomatic strategy going into a meeting with someone like Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-il, one of these dictators that would seek to destroy America or her allies. It is so naive and so dangerous for a presidential candidate to just proclaim that they would be willing to sit down with a– a leader like Ahmadinejad and just talk about the problems, the issues that are facing them. So that — that’s — that’s some ill-preparedness right there.
Before negotiations start, Palin thinks whoever would be on the other side of the table has to first agree to some demands. Thus negotiations with the other side start first with taking away the other sides impetus to come to the negotiations. In that scenario Nixon never would have started talks with China and ‘real’ America couldn’t buy their Chinese made sweat shirts and socks from Wal-Mart; and Ford and Reagan never would have talked to the Soviet Union. Dubya never would have had Ambassador Crocker talk with Iran or had intermediates talk with North Korea. Its the we’re not talking to anyone until they agree to all our demands school of diplomacy, which is not diplomacy its a petulant and insecure attitude. Palin’s paranoia isn’t useful or reality based. Neither Iran or North Korea’s leaders like us, but any provocative act by them toward the U.S. would be tantamount to suicide. Our troops have been worn ragged, but we still have plenty of missiles and bombs.
Palin clearly flunked civics or just doesn’t care. Palin does not know what the Constitutionally defined job of the vice-president is. Even if asked to define the VP’s job to a grade school child that doesn’t make it OK to give the wrong answer. Newsbusters, supposedly the rabid Right’s answer to Media Matters, has an excuse for Palin. She was giving an answer a 3rd grader would understand,
PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me!…[T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.
Why would a 3rd grader understand that gibbering nonsense better then,
“The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.”
“policy changes’ would be changes to bills being considered by the Senate or passed by the Senate. To say the VP can do that is a falsehood and a deceptive idea of how power is distributed among the three branches of our government. Newsbusters, ABC’s David Wright Slams Palin for Living in a ‘Glass House’ By Scott Whitlock October 22, 2008 – 12:15 ET
Wright didn’t mention it, but the question was actually part of the local affiliate’s “questions from the third grade” series, where politicians answer questions from local children. (Palin prefaced her answer by noting, “Oh, that’s something that Piper would ask me.”) Considering the generalized tone of the Alaska governor’s statement, it seems clear she was tailoring her remarks for younger people. Wright should have mentioned the context.
What context would that be. Telling lies to school children about how American government works. Why would Palin’s lie be easier for a child to understand then the truth. Judging from the behavior of those attending Palin-Mccain rallies we could use a lot less dumping down of the truth.
Jonah Goldberg says that Senator Obama’s supposed socialism is bad, but Sarah Palin’s Alaska socialism is good. Could Goldberg go a month without a pretzel twisting rationalization.
The Long Goodbye 