Republican National Convention Thread (September 1-4, 2008)

Anybody watching Larry King? The Republicans calling in cannot even get her title right.

"What other experience does the Democrats want from Senator Palin?"


LOL!

 

Actually, all of those ties have been thoroughly debunked. If you think you can find an example of one that hasn't, be my guest. That was a made up thing. You got suckered. If I was you, I'd be pissed about that.

 

How do you know they're not?

 

again, i was alright with the low blows. i was saying the mccain camp complained about it, and yet she does the same things.

 

In op-ed's? Or in the opened top secret files we've yet to see? Or where?

 

In investigative reporting. Even the Bush administration isn't pretending to believe this stuff anymore.

 

I'm surprised that people still cling to that.

 

As a proud American and someone who believes in the words of the delcaration of independence yes I do.

Someone would have to not believe in those things if they didn't.

 

Nobody said they weren't that's why they should either be POW's or put on trial so that can be proven.

 

Dude, those leaders have since regrouped driven American forces off of bases and out of positions while the terrorists themselves still go free. Hello?

 

Huckabee gave the best speech of the night. It was similar to Hillary's speech in that it made me question why he wasn't on the GOP ticket. He praised Obama's historic campaign as great for America...saying Obama didn't win the Democratic nomination because he was black. Huckabee was very genuine about his upbringing...made you feel like here's a Republican who gives a damn about the poor cause he was once poor. Huckabee made points about McCain without tearing down Obama. The story about the teacher and the desks was a great end.

The worst speech of the night was Rudy "scare tactics" Giulani. Oh no look out for the brown people with funny names Does this guy talk about anything other than 9/11? America will always be on the offensive regardless of the next President but with Obama will use something called diplomacy first, jackass. Obama will not use Iraq as a distraction. I thought "community organizer? what?" was offensive.

Palin gave a good speech. I had low expectations and she surprised me. I hope she is that witty when she doesn't have a telepromter in front of her. Obama will not live down the "clinging to guns and religion."

The next two months will be fun.

 

Yeah, that one stings, don't it. The truth hurts.

I especially love the towels that the Pennsylvania delegation is waiving around that said "we're not bitter!" Ummm, isn't the passive aggressive action of printing that on a few hundred towels declaring a lack of bitterness actually sign of that you are bitter?

 

Speeches of the GOP Fact Checked

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

 

I don't know what to think when a group of people:
(1) emphasize the importance of family and particularly raising children,
and
(2) chant "drill, baby, drill," which seems to prioritize the ease, comfort and affordability of today at the expense of our childrens' and grandchildrens' future worlds.

I'm sympathetic to either view separately, but together they make no sense to me. Seems like a "head in the sand" sort of view, and I can't help think of Easter Island (read Jared Diamond's book Collapse, for instance).

 

Or a party that is :

1. Pro life

2 Pro death penalty

DD

 

new gallup poll is out and after day 2 (this isn't counting palin's speech), the poll is now 49 obama, 42 mccain (same for obama, down 1 for mccain). that day was thompson and lieberman's speeches and apparently their attacks failed.

tomorrow's poll will reveal about palin's speech.

 

That poll is built using a 3-day rolling average. So only one-third of the poll would be influenced by Thompson/Lieberaman's speeches. oops

 

Obama was -2 after his first day at the convention so i wouldn't put much stock in it. The palin bounce will be interesting.

 

well he was -2 b/c the first day didn't tell much about him and his policies (michelle obama gave a great speech but it didn't reveal much). a lot of people said that day was not very good and provided much. also, you had the divisiveness b/t clinton and obama's camps. so that's why polls went down. it only started to go up after hillary clinton, which was day 2.