I was a big Perot guy.......the independents are more in line with the original founders of this country IMHO. DD
Awww, poor Georgie has to play the gender card! I guess Caribou Barbie isn't as tough as everybody says she is . . . yet she still managed to talk a ton of crap last night!
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.
This was a convention speech aimed at firing up her party's base. She clearly accomplished that goal.
I only caught a couple of minutes of it, when she was dogging Obama with lame one-liners and a bit of praise for McCain. My impression is that she's an adequate speaker, but had the crappy job of stumping for someone else. Presidential candidates are handicapped in speechifying because they have to stump for themselves; other party speakers are doubly-handicapped because they have to stump for someone else. So, a lot of what I saw was riddle with logical fallacies and rhetorical BS, but I frankly don't expect anything better can come from a politician in her place. It's too bad I missed the part where she talked about herself. In general, I don't think she'll ever get the respect she needs in this election. She doesn't have the presence.
Ugh. Can we drive a stake through this one? Clinton's lead over Bush was the same with Perot out of the race. Perot voters were essentially equally split between Bush and Clinton. Perot did not cost Bush the election. I can back that up with stats and journal articles, but I already have done so several times in this forum, so use the advanced search if you're curious. In the meantime, please don't buy into the convenient Republican fiction that Perot was the reason for Clinton. If anything, he hurt Clinton more by keeping him under 50%.
she did hit a homerun, but in what context? if it's in regards to the appeals to the base, she did hit it way out of the ballpark no doubt about it. did you see the audience last night? their analysis also mentioned that. but i'm talking about independents and swing voters. she failed miserably at that.
I don't think Perot cost anyone the election. I think GHB lost the election. He said one thing..but did the other...sound familiar?
I think this is a good summary. I actually think, assuming McCain loses, Palin set herself up as the favorite for the GOP nomination in 2012. She's sort of a female Huckabee that is more aligned w/ the GOP on fiscal matters.
like people said, when you start blaming the media, you're behind. or in sports, when you start blaming the refs, that means you are losing or basically lost. like i said, the mccain camp said the same thing earlier about the democratic side and how they're "a bunch of whiners," these guys are crying more than a newborn baby.
In all fairness, they have to cry to get any attention. A pundit said it on TV on CNN, all their complaining has gotten them more exposure and attention the last 5 days of Palin's announcement than McCain has had the past 5 months.
The only people who should be scared of Palin are Romney, Huckabee and any other Repub Pol thinking about 2012. She walked into a convention ready to love her, she gets access to the best staffers in the Republican Party and she gets to travel the country and build a network from the vantage point of a national ticket. She may have had the ambition to go national, but doing it from Alaska with a coterie of Alaskans as your advisers and speech writers and spinmeisters would have been extremely tough. She got lucky. I seriously doubt she's the Republican equivalent of FDR running with James Cox, but she will definitely be a national player in Repub politics for awhile. By the way, did anyone notice how they softened up her image? Hair down, better makeup, and different glasses.
Also, there was a conscious decision to have her speak slower and in a lower tone. Compare last night to her first appearance with McCain... not nearly as shrilly. The coaches did a good job with her... which brings up the question... why weren't they able to do the same with W throughout 8 years? if they could have kept him from smirking and leaning on the podium and chuckling at inappropriate times, he might be in the mid-30's by now.
the sad thing is: the GOP is more excited about palin than mccain. today's speech is probably gonna fall short of the excitement palin generated. now she has more national exposure than john mccain. that's not a good thing if mccain wants people to focus on what he wants to do. palin is now a celebrity. she will overshadow mccain and i don't think that's the thing you want to happen since she's not running for president.
I can't comment on the makeup, but the hair down has been her image in several pictures. The glasses are also very hideous and are ones she's had for awhile. The videos they were showing on the news and the pictures have her in those glasses occasionally as well. I guess she has multiple pair.
