Pardon His French, But This Is Hilarious

He’s Ba-aaaack

Today in Minneapolis, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Phil Gramm:

“If you’re sitting here today, you’re not economically illiterate and you’re not a whiner, so I’m not worried about who you’re going to vote for,” Gramm told supporters of McCain at a Financial Services Roundtable event in Minneapolis on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.

That’s right, he stepped right in it again. But wait, there’s more:

Gramm also defended presumptive Republican presidential nominee McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate.

“We went through a process of vetting all possible candidates,” narrowing it down to three before choosing Palin, he said.

“We?” I thought you weren’t part of the campaign anymore, Phil.

When asked later whether he still has a role in the campaign, Gramm said, “I’m a supporter.”

The Latest Intelligence-Insulting GOP Talking Point

Having apparently decided that that the McCain campaign hadn’t insulted our intelligence enough with the laughable “Alaska is close to Russia” and “Palin commanded the National Guard” talking points, McCain flack Nancy Pfotenhauer rolls out a new talking point today that really makes me wonder just how low their opinion of the American electorate is:

As the chief executive of the nation’s largest state, Ms. Palin oversees some of the country’s largest energy reserves.

Yes, it’s true: Alaska has the largest landmass of any U.S. state. And apparently overseeing vast tracts of uninhabited land gives you some special insight into governing a nation of 300 million.

As much as I have despaired the media’s inability to see past Republican spin and recognize reality, I ultimately am willing to make the same bet that Obama’s made in the common sense of voters. Thankfully, there are at least some early indications that faith may be justified.

I do wish, however, that Obama would actually turn these flacks against McCain: “John McCain thinks you’re stupid, and won’t notice it if he sends out a bunch of hacks to regurgitate talking points that deny reality. Show him you know better.”

Once again, no exit strategy

John McCain, leader of the charge into Iraq, has used that same precipitous decision-making to plummet his party into a no-win conflict over someone they shouldn’t even be fighting about.

Now, once again, they don’t have an exit strategy. And, unlike Iraq for so long, there is a ticking clock for Palin. But what can they do?

There’s no doubt that having Palin on the ticket has weakened McCain with independents and raised serious doubts about his ability to make the critical decisions that a Commander in Chief will need to make. I don’t need to go over the litany of criticisms she herself has suffered – but remember, it’s about the top of the ticket. Sarah Palin reflects first and foremost on John McCain.

Lastly, reports that he wanted Lieberman on the ticket, but caved to the right on Palin emphasize that McCain is both unable to make a good selection (Lieberman would have been awful in a change election) and incapable of standing up to the radical fringe of his party.

Obama Made a Small Mistake This Morning

This morning on CNN, Anderson Cooper asked Barack Obama on how his experience dealing with natural disasters compares with the experience of Sarah Palin as governor and Mayor of Wasilla. Obama responded:

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We’ve got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina.”

Mistake. Americans already believe Obama is ready to lead, and the convention certainly cemented that. Additionally, it’s becoming increasingly clear Sarah Palin isn’t ready to lead, and it’s apparent what that says about John McCain. Obama does NOT need to get down in the weeds comparing his experience with McCain’s VICE PRESIDENTIAL choice.

What he should do is laugh at the question, and say “The American people can judge who’s ready to lead. I’ll put my qualifications up against anyone. And, by the way, I’m thrilled with my choice of VP, Joe Biden, who would be ready to step in at a moment’s notice.”

Next time, Barack, avoid the question and laugh it off.

McCain Releases New Hit Ad On Obama

On the eve of the Republican National Convention and the fiasco with Sarah Palin, the McCain team again releases this misleading ad about Obama’s position on taxes. Also, the “anti-christ” imagery is there at the start of the ad, with the disappearing crowds–”rapture” imagery, eh? This is a huge dog whistle to the recently energized fundamentalist base of the Republican Party, telling them to get out to the polls to vote for their sweet fundamentalist girl, Sarah Palin.

The truth must come out about Sarah Palin. She raised taxes twice in Wasilla, and even instituted a 23% increase in the sales tax, which even taxed groceries. Americans can’t afford Palin, and they can’t afford McCain either.

McCain-McFailin’!

Must Read LA Times on John McCain’s “Gamble”

A must-read article from the LA times reveals that McCain used little more than “the Google” to vet Gov. Palin:

On Monday, the McCain campaign dispatched lawyers to Alaska in a move described as an attempt to manage a growing crowd of journalists who have traveled there to inspect Palin’s background. But the move raises the impression that the McCain campaign didn’t know everything about his No. 2 and is now racing to learn what it can while trying to avoid tough questions about the Arizona senator’s decision-making process.

Are You %$&#!@&% Kidding Me?

I was about to put up a post arguing that Obama didn’t need to come up with an anti-Palin strategy, because her qualifications would either become apparent, or more likely, she would soon be revealed as not-ready-for-prime-time. And as much as I might find the Bristol Palin pregnancy irrelevant, it at least seemed to have woken the press up to the real scandal, which is the unforgivably cursory attempt at vetting that McCain seems to have performed.

In other words, I put my faith in the media to do its job.

Big mistake.

Campbell Brown Publically Flogs Tucker Bounds

Wow.