Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin burst on the scene from nowhere – Nowhere, Alaska, that is. You know, the place where they wanted to build that bridge to. And despite the fact that nobody in at least 49 states knew the slightest bit about her, she rocketed to stardom as the leading light of American conservatism.
Consequently, some Americans wanted to know more about the person who may become a 72 year old heartbeat from the presidency of the United States. They will be disappointed. The McCain campaign has sequestered Palin and will not permit reporters to interview her. They will allow no questions on the vetting process, or the abuse of power investigation that is currently underway. They refuse to clarify her positions on foreign policy or Congressional earmarking. There will be no direct examination of her record as governor or her fitness for national office. In short, the American people should shut up and be happy with whatever happy talk the campaign wishes to engage in via staged rallies and campaign ads. That is almost exactly what McCain spokesperson Nicolle Wallace told Jay Carney of Time Magazine.
I created the Palin Watch widget to record the elapsed time from her entry into the race, until she agrees to answer questions in a fair, independent, national media forum. There is simply no other way to assess her ability to perform the job she seeks. A candid give and take with probing journalists reveals more of a candidates knowledge and insight than a speech that was probably prepared by aides. The job she wants is far too important to give to an unknown quantity who arrogantly declines to open herself up to the people she would serve.
The Palin Watch was inspired in part by the Obama Watch, a device that Chris Wallace used to goad Barack Obama into appearing on his Fox News Sunday program. The difference is that I am not pimping my own show, or any show, so long as Palin makes herself available to press scrutiny.
Americans must rise up and demand that McCain free Sarah Palin. The time is now to come clean so that voters have sufficient information to make an informed judgment. Democracy is in a sorry state if political strategists can hawk candidates like soda pop without ever disclosing the ingredients.
You ask a perfectly legitimate question. When does get Sarah Palin get fairly vetted by the media?
You and I disagree on how smart McCain was to pick her. However, it appears obvious to me that McCain, trailing in the polls, realized what I did. Picking a woman as a running mate was his best way to run a sword through the heart of Obama’s campaign. Sarah Palin was probably his best option.
Based upon the reaction I’ve seen, I think I’m right. I’ve bumped into a lot of independents and even Democrats who are at least giving McCain a serious look now, if not completely flipping into his column. It appears to me the liberal liberal Obama supporter realize this as well because they’ve cranked up the Palin smear machine into overdrive.
Given the ridiculous left-wing smear campaign raging against her, I’m sure McCain will be extra cautious in exposing her to the media. She appears to be a last-minute choice so I’m sure she’d take extra prepping for singing from the McCain hymnal in any case.
I personally lean to the left but I find the smears against Palin way over the top. Photoshopped pictures of her in in a bikini holding a rifle, a college photo of her wearing a t-shirt talking about breasts, a completely asinine conspiracy theory about her pretending to be pregnant, tabloid stories of her having an affair, implying she thinks a rival is a “bitch,” etc. This is the sort of loopy smear material I expect to come from Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.
Obama’s got to get his rabid camp followers in line.
The hate Hillary machine backfired and, according to a POTUS ’08 report I heard on the XM radio, foiled his chance to seal the deal at the Democratic convention (I believe this is based on a Zogby poll but don’t quote me on that).
The Sarah Palin hate machine is backfiring as well and making Obama supporters look very small. The only people attracted to such bull are the left wingers who already hate her.
Sarah Palin is likely the most conservative VP pick in the history of modern politics. If the Obama supporters can’t beat her on the issues they might as well pack it in and go home.
sknabt.
The press is doing the job the McCain camp should have done, which is vet her background. Do you really think this country needs a “last-minute choice (who should) take extra prepping for singing from the McCain hymnal in any case” to be a heart beat away from the most important job in the world? I agree, the photo shopped pictures of her are for the most part tacky, but who in public life does not get photoshopped? It’s just part of the nature of being in public life.
Let me quote you again: “Sarah Palin is likely the most conservative VP pick in the history of modern politics.”
Most likely? She appears to be farther to the right than any of the better known people in the Republican Party. Finally: “If the Obama supporters can’t beat her on the issues they might as well pack it in and go home.: It’s pretty damn hard to beat her on the issues when they have kept her sequestered under lock and key from any television, from radio, from newspapers, from magazines, from anyone at all. Doesn’t it scare you that a person with these significant lack of qualifications has been nominated for the Vice Presidency of the United States? I’ll tell you, it sure as hell scares me.
I bet you $100 that when and if Palin does her first “unscripted” interview, it will be with Fox News. Better, I’ll wager that Fox News will be provided the questions, word for word, that she should answer….and be given those questions well ahead of time.
Every time I turned on Faux News this afternoon, the main thing they were talking about was the media bias.
This could be the start of a state-controlled media.
> Obama’s got to get his rabid camp followers in line.
Obama cannot control the crazy left bloggers any more than McCain can control his own party. Those bloggers that you complain about are not part of the campaign, despite their obvious preference.
I haven’t heard any of her own words (except the pitbull with lipstick joke), though I do disagree with her stances on the issues.
And I don’t believe the Iraq war was a “mission from God” or that the gas pipeline in Alaska was God’s work either.
Her views scare me.
The Palin selection strikes me as similar to that MTV show called “making the band”, except the stakes are so much higher.
“Making the VP”
We Fools! Stop Palin attention.!! We are falling for it!!. She will deflate on her own. Anytime spent on Palin, serves to increase her aura.
The target is McCain.
The issue is Change for better: Health, Opportunities, Environment, Peace…
I just blogged on a topic that cuts through every comment here plus Mark’s post.
Mark asked for media vetting of Sarah Palin. You got it. As expected, Fox News is the first out with a Sarah Palin special humbly subtitled “An American Woman” to cue Fox News’ conservative hordes into the fact this’ll be the sort of propaganda they’ll be able to sink their fangs into. 😉
As an aside, a friend tells me CNN is producing specials for McCain (which he’s seen already), Obama, Biden, and Palin.
I wouldn’t be surprised, as another predicts here, if it does include the first Palin interview. Guaranteed to be a softball classic.
How conservative is Palin? She talks far right. However, the little bit I’ve pieced together, like all politicians, she waffles on her rhetoric when faced with political realities. Obama can exploit this to undercut enthusiasm from the far right.
A key issue to me is Obama’s rabid followers. Having overdosed on campaign coverage because I have XM satellite radio with a 24×7 election coverage channel, I can tell you the anti-Hillary hatred traces back to the Obama campaign itself.
Did this inspire the bloggers who now have branched out into shameless PUMA bashing and Palin smearing? I suspect so but can’t prove it. I can say, however, it doesn’t matter because in any case Obama can tell them to shut the h*** up but he’s chosen not to. Him and Biden both piously say, for example, families are off limits but don’t dare criticize the lefties playing this sad, pathetic game because they know it’s the heart of their base and the smears may yet prove useful.
If the Palin smear campaign backfires, as I suspect it will with uncommitted voters, then maybe Obama will summon the moral fortitude to speak out more clearly in condemning it. For now, they’re useful idiots to the Obama campaign.
I disagree a discussion of her issues can’t be started (even if it couldn’t smearing in the meantime is wrong). We know she believes in teaching creationism in schools, is pro-life, is a lifetime member of the NRA, disagrees even with McCain on drilling in Anwar, supported the “bridge to nowhere” before she was against it, ditto earmarks in general, claims to support benefits to people in same sex marriages as she vetoes legislation to provide it, she’s opposed to taxes but is for raising taxes on oil companies, and has been on seen on tape mixing up the Iraq War with Christianity. That’s a start.
Bush was the first president to cut taxes during a war which bloated the deficit and raised the national debt to gargantuan levels. Would Palin be for more of the same? Sounds like it to me. Obama/Biden could call her out on it and force a response.
Nope, the growing ineffectiveness of the Obama campaign in all but fund-raising it becoming readily apparent.
I did not ask for media “vetting” of Palin. There is actually some of that going on. I asked for Palin to meet with reporters and take questions that she would have to answer candidly. No prepared texts or stage management. We need to see if she can answer questions about her past, her record, and her agenda.
And you are still the only one I hear talking about PUMA or “Hillary haters.” That issue is dead. Women are supporting Obama in greater numbers than McCain and even greater numbers than Kerry in 2004. The only Hillary supporters not on board with Obama are Republicans or the ones Rush Limbaugh manufactured to mess with the Dems primaries.
Mark, sorry if I misinterpreted your blog post. It wasn’t intentional. Being a governor, I’m sure she’s not a complete babe in the woods in dealing with the press. I doubt the reason she’s not doing interviews out of the starting gate is because she fears the press, per se, it’s because she needs to get prepped by McCain’s aides to make sure her message meshes with his.
BTW, it was just announced ABC News will get her first interview killing my expectation right-wing Fox News was the logical pick. Date vaguely set to the coming weeks.
Obama and Biden should be calling her out on the issues (though this just validates her impact on the race) but, last I heard, they weren’t. In fact their last mention of her was when they were forced to come out and declare children off limits in response to whacko smear rumors vomited forth by left-wing blogs.
The PUMA issue isn’t my invention. I’ve talked about some of the background already but I’ll offer you the update that a pollster on XM’s POTUS 08 channel – I think it was Zogby (who’s often featured on it and has his own show) – reported post-Palin Obama’s lead among women has shrunk from double digits to single digits (I think he said 7% but don’t quote me on that).
As I said before, post-convention Obama failed to “close the deal,” again according to a pollster on POTUS 08, with former Hillary supporters and they have either switched to McCain in large numbers or moved into the undecided column.
Today I was visiting a favorite site, Rightwing Nuthouse, and Rick’s latest post makes a similar point as I: “Every time the press tries to belittle Palin, the Republican base rallies to her and independent women resent the attacks.”
So I’m not alone. Granted, Rick and I agree on little but our views intersect here.
We’ll argue this point until the cows come home but Palin was a brilliant pick. Didn’t her speech draw more viewers than Obama’s? Seemingly incredible for a VP pick. She’s changed the topic. Huffington Post has been Palin, Palin, Palin since she was announced, Crooks & Liars is all over her, you’re posting on her, etc.
Sure, the left is trying to pound her into the ground, largely on smears and FUD posts, but, it’s only an indication of how grave a threat the Obama-ites view her.
What attention does Biden get? Not much more than a yawn.
The Democratic party is fractured. Not down the middle but significantly. Palin has largely unified McCain’s base and it can’t be argued he isn’t drawing former Hillary supporters to McCain.
In a way, it’s unthinkable to McCain could win. Many liberal friends have told me over and over it’s in the bag. For a brief while I agreed. The ineptitude of Obmam’s campaign (other than fund raising where my hat’s off to them) boggles my mind.
Let’s hope Obama recovers. While I’m no big fan of his the alternative, IMHO, is worse.
Palin in a light-weight. But that is part of her strength as a candidate. I guess she is above criticism, based on the theory that all criticism is proof of a bias.
Even if you point out her lies (“I said ‘no thank you’ to Congress on the bridge to Nowhere”) it will be called “a smear campaign” based on sexism.
My recommendation for the Dems is to stay on message – focus on the issues and stay positive.
Americans want to vote for a positive candidate. They don’t need any more reminding of how badly Bush has done – McCain can make that his campaign theme now.
Palin’s hardly above criticism. However, the left-wing smear campaign is embarrassing and will backfire. Huffington Post, a web site I usually enjoy, is obsessed with smearing her. The latest smear is she’s a member of a lunatic fringe church. Remind you of the right-wing smears against Obama?
I agree with you. The Democrats need to stay on message and stay positive. They’ve also got to call her out on the issues and expose how far out of the mainstream she is.
Unfortunately, the grossly inept Obama campaign is fumbling all over the place. I was listening to Obama’s last stump speech where he’s shotgunning yet more government $pending initiatives with fuzzy math to pay for them. Regarding Palin, he just says she’s like Bush, an anemic shot which gets him nowhere.
Call her out on the issues! There’s less than 60 days left!
We all heard of the Gallop poll putting McCain ahead by 4 points. I was listening to Zogby’s analysis of a likely voter poll that has McCain ahead by 10 points. It’s a very historically accurate, detailed poll that shows Obama losing ground most key demographics.
That’s the Palin effect Mark here pretends doesn’t exist. Obama screwed up the VP political chess match royally. He needs to recover quickly or he’s toast. More promis$e$ he can’t keep or will bankrupt the nation trying isn’t real change Americans want.
You shouldn’t call the Pentecostal Church “a lunatic fringe church”.
It’s not really Pentecostal or Evangelical – it is lunatic fringe. Jim Jones on ice.
Great clock!
Today I heard that folks in Alaska started wearing yellow buttons that said “Where’s Sarah” becasue she was MIA so often. Perhaps when she goes back to Alaska, we should wear yellow buttons. She is more like Bush than McCain. She’s even the Governor of an large oil rich state and has been “chosen” by the religious right. Check out this video.
This is a great video. It needs some serious mojo
It’s called “sound familiar?”
That is a nice video. I saw Nine Inch Nails last week and they have a part of the show where they project Bush’s face morphing into McCain.
For those who want to catch a glimpse of the young Sarah Palin, here’s an old clip of her as a sportscaster, from about 1988…
http://deadspin.com/5045284/you-can-take-our-sarah-palin-videos-but-youll-never-take-our-freedom
Why is Palin widget only for Leopard? Does everybody else have Leopard?
It isn’t just for Leopard. It should work across most platforms. Try clicking “Get & Share” and then “Embed” and see if that code works for you.