Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”
The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.
WE CANNOT AFFORD TO HAVE A LEADER WHO IS THIS STUPID AND THIS SCARY!
Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city to gather evidence.
Under Sarah Palin’s administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee “does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test…To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice,” Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin’s knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city’s victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice.
News of the controversial policy has leaked slowly into the press this week as the presidential campaign has heated up and Palin’s record has been subject to increasing scrutiny. The practice of charging rape victims has called into question Palin’s stated commitment to women’s issues, her judgment as an executive and her honesty about her record.
Heartless liars. Unbelievable. This really makes me sick.
When does being a governor or mayor for a short period of time not disqualify your credentials on national security? When you are John McCain and your task is to defend your vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
When does being a governor or mayor for a short period of time ABSOLUTELY disqualify your credentials on national security? When you are John McCain and your task is to defeat primary opponents Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.
Back in October 2007, when McCain’s candidacy still appeared dead and buried, the Senator berated the two Republican front runners for lacking the necessary political experience to handle commander in chief responsibilities.
“I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I’ve been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism,” the Senator declared. “I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn’t a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn’t a governor for a short period of time.”
Fast-forward nearly a year, and the argument McCain made back then is being used against his vice presidential pick today. Only Sarah Palin held the post of mayor of Wasilla for less time than Rudy Giuliani headed New York City. And her gubernatorial stint in Alaska is shorter than that of Mitt Romney’s in Massachusetts.
McCain, not surprisingly, has changed his tune. His campaign has suggested that as head of Alaska’s national guard, Palin had more national security experience than Obama. The Senator himself went on Fox News and declared:
“I’m so proud that she has displayed the kind of judgment and she has the experience and judgment as an executive… She’s been commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard … she’s had judgment on these issues. She’s had 12 years of elected office experience, including traveling to Kuwait, including being involved in these issues. I’m so proud she has the experience and judgment as an executive.”
And yet, for critics, Palin’s interview with ABC on Thursday evening was an apt demonstration of the criticisms McCain raised about mayors and governors back in October. In her first interview since being tapped as McCain’s vice president, Palin showed, in some respects, the limitations of her foreign policy capacity. Time’s Joe Klein wrote, “A joke… This woman clearly has no idea what she’s talking about. What an embarrassment.” Unable to define the Bush Doctrine and contradicting McCain on Pakistan, she acknowledged that she had only visited a handful of countries and never met with another world leader. Then, it was her turn to ridicule the lengthy Washington resume that defines McCain.
“Charlie, again, we’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time,” she said to the ABC host. “It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.”
Wow, these girls went nuts on John McCain! This was one of the hardest hitting interviews he’s ever had. And wow, he is ridiculous! Joy Behar really hit him hard flat out calling his ads lies. Loved it! You go girls!
And later when Cindy McCain was invited on the show, she said that her husband was a “very measured man” – hmmmm, wonder if she ever got the memo about his anger management problems. Measured? Ok, that’s one word that absolutely cannot describe Sen. McCain.
From Salon.com
The hard-hitting journalism came courtesy of none other than Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck (yes, even conservative sylph Hasselbeck threw down!), who welcomed McCain to their comfy couch on Friday morning as the spider welcomes the fly. As soon as he settled in and got nice and comfortable, the women proceeded to slice and dice the Arizona senator on everything from his dishonest attack ads to his stance on abortion and interpretation of the Constitution, his feelings on secularism and the qualifications of his running mate.
First up was McCain’s recent ads, including one implying that Barack Obama wants to offer sex ed to kindergartners, and another asserting that Obama used the phrase “lipstick on a pig” in reference to Sarah Palin, when in fact he applied it to McCain policy. “There are ads running from your campaign,” said Joy Behar, “now we know that those two ads are untrue, they’re lies.” Here Behar was using words that the press has been too squeamish to utter to McCain’s face. She went on, “And yet, you at the end of it say you approve these messages. Do you really approve them?” Such a simple, straightforward question. One that someone should have asked McCain days ago.
When McCain replied that his ads were not lies, Walters quickly stepped in to point out to him that “you yourself said the same thing about putting lipstick on a pig.” McCain responded that his use of the folksy turn of phrase was in reference to a healthcare plan, and Walters again cut him off, saying, “But [Obama] talked about change. He wasn’t talking about Sarah Palin.”
McCain was left twisting, his only out the weak rejoinder, “Senator Obama chooses his words very carefully.” At that moment, it seemed that McCain himself does not.
In the second segment, Whoopi Goldberg introduced McCain after a commercial break, jocularly asking if she was still allowed to call him J-Mac, then punching him in the gut with “a straightforward question … because I’m curious about your choice for vice president: Do you believe in the separation of church and state?”
Let’s take just a moment and offer a tip of the hat to Goldberg (and her colleagues), for honing in on the simplest iteration of what has been on the minds of many since they began to read about Palin’s evangelical beliefs, her reading of God’s will into the mission of Iraq, her belief in banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
Goldberg pressed McCain on whether or not, given the fact he assured her that, “sure,” he believes in secularism, he experienced “a moment of pause” before selecting Palin, since, “god forbid anything happen” to him, she might be in control and not share his views on this linchpin of our democracy.
“Judeo-Christian values were the foundation of our nation. In God we trust,” McCain unreassuringly responded. “[There was] clearly a belief that God has a plan for the world and that we should do what we can to live as good a life as we can and trust that God — in God we trust — will guide this nation and this world to a better existence. You’re entitled to … not believing in God, but I think we should respect the views of those who believe in God and believe that we are a special nation … And we believe that God does play a role, not in whether we win or lose elections, but whether we have a better world and a better future and better lives.”
Gulp?
After trying to interject about 20 “buts,” Goldberg finally was able to restate her question, which was that, since this is a nation filled not only with Judeo-Christian believers but also with “Muslims … Zoroastrians … [and] Wiccans,” as president, should he win, would McCain govern this nation “as God would have you do it, or do you govern this nation for the greater good of the people in it?”
McCain replied, “I think everybody, obviously, is entitled to their individual faiths and beliefs, including not believing in anything. But I pray every day.”
Next up was Hasselbeck. Promising McCain “no softballs coming from me, even though you have my vote,” the youngest “View” co-host asked him if he, and in turn if Palin, would work to overturn Roe v. Wade. McCain said that though he’d impose no “litmus test” on nominees to the court, “they would have to have a clear record of strict interpretation” of the Constitution. Here Walters tag-teamed again, clarifying that this was simply “another way of saying ‘people who would want to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
When McCain responded by saying he thought “Roe v. Wade was a very bad decision, Barbara,” the “View” audience audibly booed him, and when he continued to talk up his interest in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, Goldberg piped up, wondering, “Do I have to worry about becoming a slave again? … Because there are certain things that happened in the Constitution that had to change.” To this, all McCain could say was, “I understand that point. Thank you. That’s an excellent point. I thank you.” (Walters did score a lifetime’s worth of wacko points for her weird reassurance to Goldberg and Shepherd, “Don’t worry, us white folks will take care of you!”)
Finally, Barbara Walters, showing teeth she hasn’t bared in years, pressed McCain — and I mean, with a steam iron — on what his running mate meant in her interview with Charlie Gibson on Wednesday when she said she was chosen to “reform” Washington. Given that McCain himself has been a working inhabitant of the country’s capital for 22 years, what or whom, wondered Walters, was Palin supposed to reform? “You?” she asked McCain incredulously. “The Senate? Congress? The Republican Party?”
“The Democrats have been in charge of both houses of Congress for the past two years,” McCain said hopefully, clearly trying to help flesh out the Republicans’ bizarro-world story line that the liberals (cunningly disguised as George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Donald Rumsfeld) have been running the country.
But Walters wasn’t having it. “She was chosen to reform the government. Who is she going to reform?” she asked again. McCain tried to argue that, with a flick of her wand, his Change Maker from up north would transform everything: “The Republican Party, the Democratic Party, even the Independent. She’ll reform all of Washington!”
But Walters wasn’t mollified. “How?” she hammered. “How? What is she going to reform specifically?” When McCain replied that she would do just what she did in Alaska, like clean up earmark spending, Walters said, “She also took some earmarks.” Not as governor, McCain claimed (despite the fact that Palin put in for a load of earmarks in the past year). When McCain said she freed Alaska from debt for the first time, Walters pooh-poohed it. “OK, but what’s the biggest reform –” And that’s when McCain finally got testy, saying, “You’ve got to let me finish” and explaining how Palin gave government back to the people of Alaska. “What is she gonna do in Washington?” replied an unimpressed Walters. “The same thing,” said McCain.
This whole exchange, all of it, was not only great television, but a series of great questions from a group of people who seemed not to be interested in pussyfooting around. “The View” hosts appeared not to be worried about being labeled elitist (perhaps because their show is populist by definition) or leftist (perhaps because one of them is a staunch conservative) or sexist (perhaps because they are all women and know that to question a candidate’s actual qualifications for a job, not based on gender but on experience and beliefs and policy history, is the opposite of sexist).
But the best part, perhaps, was that after making McCain writhe in agony for the first two segments, after eating him for breakfast — Mmm! Delicious! — the ladies of “The View” were such coldblooded professionals that they were able to usher McCain’s wife, Cindy, on and kibitz with her about cookie recipes for the remainder of the show.
Listen Monday because Cassie and I are going to talking ALL about this scandal and questioning why people think this is ok…
Meanwhile, it is Friday, so if you want a raise, show some skin and do some grazing on your boss. It obviously worked for Stacy Leyshon and Crystel Edler…
The two presidential campaigns had declared a truce for the anniversary of 9/11. Traditional campaigning, especially of the negative sort, was supposed to be put on hold. But John McCain’s campaign, it’s now clear, broke that truce — and did so with an ad that nonpartisan watchdog FactCheck.org calls “particularly egregious” for its distortions.
FactCheck is also responsible for noticing the violation of the truce; it caught the McCain camp airing the ad in Denver on Thursday, the seventh anniversary of 9/11. And there’s another glaring sign I just noticed — if you look at the YouTube page for the ad, it says the video was added on Sept. 11, 2008.
The spot itself, titled “Disrespectful,” is more push-back against criticism of Sarah Palin. In this case, as with other similar ads the McCain camp has put out, the criticism discussed is largely fictional. FactCheck has three points summing up the distortions in the ad:
The ad says “they said she was doing ‘what she was told.'” But the Obama adviser who’s being quoted didn’t accuse Palin of meekly following orders. What he actually said is that she made a false claim about Obama’s legislative record and added, “maybe that’s what she was told.
It says “they lashed out at Sarah Palin; dismissed her as ‘good looking,'” But “they” didn’t lash out at all. Obama — who is the one pictured — didn’t say anything like that. The only one the McCain campaign quotes is Obama’s running mate, Biden, and he actually offered the remark as a compliment. Biden said the “obvious” difference between Palin and himself is “she’s good looking.”
The ad says Obama was “disrespectful” when he accused Palin of “lying” about her record. But the truth is Palin’s claim to have “said no” to the “bridge to nowhere” is indeed a dubious one, as we and many have pointed out.
You want to talk about DISRESPECTFUL?! John McCain’s campaign can’t even stop their lying smears for ONE DAY to honor those who were affected by 9/11. John McCain’s campaign can’t even keep a simple promise to put down the sabers for 24 hours. Despicable. Lying. Despicable. Twisted. McCain/Palin CANNOT happen. Vote Obama, a man at least who can honor his word on a day of solemnity and national solidarity. For God’s sake people.
It seems that Douglas Holtz-Eakin, John McCain’s chief economic advisor, has exposed yet another hole in the Straight Talk Express. Time’s Joe Klein reports that in a forthcoming book by Fortune columnist Matt Miller, Holtz-Eakin admits that the next president will have to raise taxes. “If you do nothing on the spending side, you’re going to have to raise taxes whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or a Martian,” Holtz-Eakin tells Miller.
So why does McCain keep voicing his opposition to tax hikes, and hitting Obama for supposedly wanting them? Holtz-Eakin had an idea about that too. When Miller asked him why Republicans continue to push tax-cuts, Holtz-Eakin replied, “It’s the brand… and you don’t dilute the brand.”
Holtz-Eakin has also previously acknowledged, to Time’s Michael Scherer, that Obama’s tax plan will lower taxes over ten years.
So perhaps Holtz-Eakin should sit down with McCain himself as well, because the candidate seems to disagree with his chief economic advisor on these two points — at least publicly. In his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, McCain said, “I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them… My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them.”
Barack Obama explains why he picked Joe Biden as his running mate. This is an amazing look at the maturity, wisdom, and heartfelt sincerity of Barack Obama. If you want a brain, a heart, and a soul in the White House on January 20, 2009, I think Barack Obama/Joe Biden is your winning team.
I’m really sorry, but if ANYONE thinks that this woman is prepared to lead our country, whether in the #1 or #2 spot….I seriously don’t even know what to say. But I do have to give some props where they are due. I thought Charlie Gibson was going to lob softballs at Palin and let her hide her ineptitude (which is difficult). But he didn’t. He really went after her and demanded that she answer some pressing questions – which she miserably failed to do. I mean, seriously, each answer was a debacle in and of itself. Here’s the interview for your own personal painful viewing.
And again, if you think that THIS is someone who is ready to lead our nation, if you think THIS is someone who is going to talk straight to the American public, if you think THIS is the type of person who will take us into a new age of progress and reform and strength, then you can get everything you deserve. Because this will NOT happen with my vote. And I hope to God you won’t let it happen with yours. Register today at Rock the Vote’s website and make sure to stand up against this madness on November 4.
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