I know all of us are holding our breath for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to wow America all over again during her vice-presidential debate with Delaware’s Sen. Joe Biden Thursday night.
One newspaper has called Mrs. Palin’s debating skills “formidable.” The New York Times says she’s a confident debater. In fact, the Obama campaign, calling her a “terrific debater,” is thinking of suspending the vice-presidential portion of the fall campaign.
I thought, maybe, we should imbibe a little her recent series of triumphant interviews with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric:
Couric: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?
Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada. It’s funny that a comment like that was kinda made to . . . cari . . . I don’t know, you know . . . reporters.
Couric: Mocked?
Palin: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.
Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.
Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…
Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.
Ms. Couric then brought up the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, suggesting the money could be better spent by regular Americans. Mrs. Palin burst forth in incandescent rhetoric. Her answer was nothing short of historic in its scope and grasp of policy details, mastery of nuance:
COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?
PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.
Drinking. Again?
John Aravosis of AmericaBlog reports:
We now find out that the Republican party cut ads, and sent them to TV stations around the country, opposing the bailout bill even BEFORE Pelosi spoke before the vote yesterday. The Republican National Committee, the official “party,” was planning on the bill passing, and then was going to attack Democrats who voted FOR the bill. Talk about calloused. So in fact, the Republican party was playing games, playing politics, with our economy. Did the RNC tell individual members of Congress that they were going to be running ads attacking anyone who voted for the bill? Is this why Republican members voted against the bill 2 to 1 (while Dems voted for the bill almost 2 to 1), sending Wall Street into a nose dive? And what about John McCain? What does it say about him when his own party is secretly undercutting the proposal that he claimed to “save the day” on?
In the linked story from Politico.com:
RNC ad, was cut, sent out before package failed
The Republican National Committee’s new advertisement critical of the the Wall Street “bailout” was produced and sent to television stations in key states before the package failed, officials at two stations said.
“Wall Street Squanders our money. And Washington is forced to bail them out with — you guessed it — our money. Can it get any worse?” asks the ad’s narrator, as the words “BAILOUT WITH OUR MONEY” cross the screen. (The answer: Obama’s plans would make it worse.)
The ad, however, seems to assume that it can safely attack a successful plan. And the reason may be the timing: Though it started airing this morning, the spot was released to stations yesterday morning, ad executives at stations in Michigan and Pennsylvania said.
Kae Buck of WLNS in Lansing said her station received the at at 7:55 a.m. Monday. Luanne Russell of Pittsburgh’s WTAE said her station received it at 10:49 Monday morning.
Wanda Sykes
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SYKES: Well, you know, I watched the convention. you know, watching the Democratic Convention, it felt like America. You know, it looked like America. It was hopeful and it was positive and, you know, everybody holding hands. And then I watched the Republican Convention. It was like watching a meeting in Dr. Evil’s lair.
LENO: Wow.
SYKES: It was like all of the evil people got together, and they were having an evil board meeting.
LENO: Really?
SYKES: And each of them, you know, at the board meeting all got up, and each one would tell their plan of how they’re gonna, what they’re going to do with the evil. and it was just so tense and scary. ‘Cause you know those Dr. Evil board meetings, somebody gets it. You know, they usually —
LENO: Oh, they press the button and —
SYKES: Press the button and —
LENO: Go through the floor.
SYKES: You go into a pile of alligators or something.
LENO: Right, right.
SYKES: And I was tense. and it’s usually the weakest one. And I figured that’s why Bush didn’t show up. he was — Bush is, like, “I’m doing this via satellite,” ’cause, you know, he was scared. He was like, next thing you know, Giuliani runs up behind him with a baseball bat.
LENO: Wow, wow.
SYKES: He walks out on the — you know, walks out on that stage, and he’s like, “Why is this plastic on the floor? what’s going on?” Like the scene from Goodfellas.
LENO: Wow, you seem to know all these moves. Now, what are you expecting on the debate Friday? You gonna watch? It should be interesting.
No, Sen. McCain, the election will not be suspended just because circumstances do not currently favor your ascension to the presidency.
One way or another, Republican misrule must end. John McCain cannot postpone the inevitable. If he has any idea how the nation should navigate these treacherous economic waters, he should propose them. One thing is clear: the administration’s current proposal that Congress hand over $700 billion without oversight is not going to work.
They need to either come up with a more realistic plan, or negotiate one with the Congress.
McCain Embraces Regulation After Many Years of Opposition
By Michael D. Shear, Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, September 17, 2008; A01
A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.
Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation’s largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end “reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed” on Wall Street.
“Government has a clear responsibility to act in defense of the public interest, and that’s exactly what I intend to do,” a fiery McCain said at a rally in Tampa yesterday. “In my administration, we’re going to hold people on Wall Street responsible. And we’re going to enact and enforce reforms to make sure that these outrages never happen in the first place.”
McCain hopes to tap into anger among voters who are looking for someone to blame for the economic meltdown that threatens their home values, bank accounts and 401(k) plans. But his past support of congressional deregulation efforts and his arguments against “government interference” in the free market by federal, state and local officials have given Sen. Barack Obama an opening to press the advantage Democrats traditionally have in times of economic trouble.
In this speech 60 years ago almost to the date, President Harry S. Truman spoke to an audience of over 80,000 persons and a nationwide radio audience. Truman’s definition of the values of Democrats compared to that of Republicans, spoken so long ago, could easily describe the two parties today. Truman’s indictment of Republicans are as true today as they were 60 years ago.
I wish Sen. Barack Obama would give a version of this speech, give voice to these values everyday until election day on Nov. 4.
Harry S. Truman, XXXIII president of the United States, 1945-1953
September 18, 1948–Address at Dexter, Iowa, on the Occasion of the National Plowing Match.
Mr. President, and all the good farmers who are responsible for this wonderful demonstration:
It does my heart good to see the grain fields of the Nation again. They are a wonderful sight. The record-breaking harvests you have been getting in recent years have been a blessing. Millions of people have been saved from starvation by the food you have produced. The whole world has reason to be everlastingly grateful to the farmers of the United States.
In a very real sense, the abundant harvests of this country are helping to save the world from communism. Communism thrives on human misery. And the crops you are producing are driving back the tide of misery in many lands. Your farms are a vital element in America’s foreign policy. Keep that in mind, that is of vital importance to us and to the world.
And while I am on that subject–I know that the war talk which is so prevalent today is causing all of you deep concern. It is plain enough that we are facing a very disturbing international situation. I should like every American to realize that this country is making every possible effort to preserve the peace.
In this critical situation, my motto has been: “Keep your temper and stand firm.” We have kept our tempers. We have stood firm. And we have been reasonable and straightforward at all times.
It is the policy of this Government to continue working for peace with every instrument at our command. At the same time, we have been rapidly building up our strength. The peace of the world and the prestige of the United States require that the Nation be strong and vigilant.
But that is not the main point I wish to cover today. In addition to the issue of peace, there is another important reason why this is a critical period for America. I am talking about our economic future–your economic future.
Alright, calm down. Let me rephrase.
It just should not be possible that Republicans stand any ghost in heck of a chance of winning any office on Nov. 4, let alone the presidency of the United States.
Yet, here they are and here we are.
Sen. John McCain is buoyant, ascendant, barnstorming the nation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin beaming on his arm, both confident of a romp in November.
Sen. Barack Obama, meanwhile, is beginning to rue forgoing Federal financing for his political campaign. His message of change, after being brilliantly co-opted by McCain and Palin, sound shopworn.
Bill Clinton’s eight years in office, dogged every step of the way by rapacious Republicans, ended with the nation at peace, the economy robust and in surplus. Clinton handed off to George W. Bush a stable nation on sound economic footing. The question was what to do with the surplus.
George W. Bush, appointed President of the United States by a majority of Republicans on the United States Supreme Court, then proceeded to fritter away the nation’s good fortunes with unfunded tax cuts for the very rich (“the haves and have mores,” as Bush called them, “my base”).
As it turns out, Republicans have not been in power the last eight years, including controlling of all branches of government the first six. Both houses of the Congress acted as the lookout while the Bush administration violated every tenet of the Constitution of the United States, made short shrift of American rights and values, and undermined every national institution.
Didn’t our national legislature dote on this Republican administration as it slept at the switch while terrorists trained on American soil, hijacked American planes to attack Americans in America without anyone so much as raising a finger to stop them.
Exploitive RNC 9-11 Video
Then, when it turned out the men who attacked America were mostly from Saudi Arabia, this government, this administration mounted a Republican headwind to get approval from Congress to attack . . . Afghanistan, then Iraq.
No, it was not really Republicans who started these two costly wars, finishing neither, even as the Congress eschewed any oversight of the corruption and pillaging that took place by Republican functionaries and appointees on the ground in Iraq.
I would call it their mismanagement of the economy if the eventual outcome has not been what Republicans intended.
I would call it mismanagement what happened in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a major American city and American citizens literaly drowning as the world watched, without their government raising a finger to protect them, had it not been Republican blueprint of how government should function, which is not at all.
The list grows but not the outrage.
Because, it turns out, Republicans had not been in charge, did not do these things all these years. Sen. Obama was responsible for the high energy costs. Democrats were at fault for all these things.
And it’ll take a Republican, that maverick John McCain, and his moose-hunting sidekick, Sarah Palin, to set things right. McCain, the Charles Keating consort, and Palin, she of that welfare state, Alaska.
That’s my point. Republicans should have no leg to stand on, no argument to muster in the national debate on how make right what is wrong with our nation.
Wasn’t it Republicans who presided over the deterioration of the nation’s infrastructure, watched a major bridge collapse in Minnesota and then had the audacity to hold their national convention in that state, despite not raising a finger to fix that bridge?
So, you have to ask that old Harry S. Truman question:
“I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.”
Yet, here they are and here we are.
Which has led me to this ledge. If Republicans manage to win in November–and the polls show McCain-Palin either ahead or about even with Obama-Biden–then we should all join the Republican Party and change it from within.
Democrats, by losing an unloseable election, would have forfeited the right to be called a major political party.
My friend, Chiara, sent me this note on Thursday, the final day of the Republican National Convention. I managed to miss the note and I’m offering it now for your consideration.
Last night, my sister-in-law, Joyce, a nurse, mother of three, and grandmother of many, wrote to a number of us in the family to express her views about the presidential election. Joyce focused on an aspect of a potential and unthinkable Republican victory that I think few of us — certainly not I — have considered at any length. I believe Joyce’s take on a McCain/Palin administration is worthy of contemplation and so I’d like to share with you the note she sent to us from Santa Rosa last night, at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention.
Yes, we can.
Chiara
Dear Kim, Tami, Erik, Steven, Deena, Todd, Chiara, Lucia, Kathleen and Eddie
As most of you know I am very pro Obama. I had the opportunity to watch all major speeches for the Democratic convention and now I’m giving equal time to the Republicans. Two very different takes on patriotism. I was heartened by Obama, Biden, and Michelle Obama. This week, I watched John McCain become animated over his sudden secret weapon, Sarah Palin. I listened to the speeches last night and heard similar slurs in each one, obviously written by the same team. No lies told, but less than the truth said. The crowd went wild. There are lots more at home who believe and will vote.
Tonight, after listening to Cindy McCain’s profile (she has been an international relief worker!!) and her well delivered speech following Sarah Palin’s rousing rendition of the republican working super mom last night, I know big work must be done if the White House is to stay in the hands of the party that I believe is more fair and balanced.
But my greatest fear is that, if the McCain/Palin ticket wins, my grandsons, Jeff, Brennan, Justin A and Justin C will be registering for the draft before the end of 2009. Devin won’t be far behind. There are simply not enough volunteer bodies to fill the battle needs in the many places our hawk leaders feel we should go. I was a fierce mother against the war in Vietnam when Steven was a child and I can do it again. And be even more involved this time because watching my grandsons go off to war for oil and power doesn’t feel patriotic to me.
I’m calling the local democratic party headquarters tomorrow. I will volunteer however they need me because I now have the time to go with my passion that the charismatic folks running on the republican ticket are defeated in Nov.
John McCain just finished the most compelling speech I’ve ever heard from him. Almost, but not quite eloquent. That the crowd is going wild is an indication of what’s happening in front of millions of American TVs. Scary.
Oh woe, we have lots of work to do. Both parties want change in Washington, but only one party wants to escalate war in several world regions.
Going forward, I’ll keep the grandson faces in front of me to remember why the war mongers cannot win.
With love,
Mom, Joyce