Palin and her kill

Sarah Palin’s favorite food is reported to be moose stew, but one of the allegations against her ex-brother-in-law, the state trooper, is that he killed a moose without a license. Some sources say that, at the time, Palin was not so outraged over this illegal act. Reportedly, she helped eat the illegal moose.

Update: I’m informed in the comments that this poor moose-like animal is actually a caribou, which is a North American reindeer. Now we know where Palin stands on the War on Xmas.

We didn’t have caribou or moose in the Blue Ridge of the Great Smokeys where I grew up. Full disclosure, however, there was an Elks Club.

Ht Roz

Dear Dr. Democrat:

Mystified in Micanopy

Dear Mystified:

They’re carpet bombing Obama with lies in order to a) keep him and the media distracted as they scurry around refuting lie after lie, and b) shredding Obama’s biggest asset, his charisma. Carpet bombing with lies is how Swiftboating works. John Kerry decided not to engage in the scurrying around, and it lost him the election. It’s also what Rove did to McCain in South Carolina in 2000. It always works.

Republicans have gamed our imperfect system. They have thoroughly discredited the media (often with the media’s help), so that when the MSM debunks one of their lies, GOP voters discount it out of hand. They also carefully craft the lies so that they’re not easily disproven, a la “I never had sex with that woman.”

A currrent McCain-Palin lie is, “Obama requested $1 billion in earmarks this year.” This year, he requested $0. In the four years he’s been in the Senate he has requested about $1 billion, but unlike the other senators he made his request amounts public. Oh, and Palin has requested $495 million in earmarks in her 21 months as governor. None of this really matters on the political stage, however, because the average voter starts snoring after the “B” in billion.

Even the best strategy that doesn’t involve lying and skullduggery has little chance against the dirty politics being played by McCain and Palin.

The best news I saw last week was that Obama had lunch with Bill Clinton. With all his faults and recent missteps, Clinton is better at political strategy than Rove. But even the best strategy that doesn’t involve lying and skullduggery has little chance against the dirty politics being played by McCain and Palin.

The only way to win is to play offense on their sleazy turf — as I like to say, to cram the truth down their throats. Republicans absorb minor defeats. They don’t care if they get caught lying by the MSM or the Dems because they have created an alternative reality among their followers in which their accusers — the Dems and the MSM — have no crediblity. Obama has proved that he can nail them, but what needs to be done is a total annihilation, something that leaves McCain totally discredited.

I don’t know what that is — maybe a zinger a la “You’re no Jack Kennedy” in the debates. Otherwise, this is, as it always has been, John McCain’s contest to lose. The best we can hope for today is that Obama can take all the states Kerry took plus Ohio. That is possible, mainly because the GOP in Ohio is in disarray from scandal, but even there, those scandals are now two years old and fading in voters’ memories.

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Despite the presence of every big name in Republican Florida politics, the kick-off this morning in Jacksonville of a four-city Florida tour by John McCain was poorly attended.

All weekend, those of us who live in Northeast Florida heard announcements on radio and T.V. that the rally set for Monday morning had been moved from its original smaller venue to a much larger one to accommodate the anticipated throngs. Whoo-hoo, we Democrats said, disconsolately. But it turns out the only unexpected crowds were from the Obama camp.

By 8 a.m., prominent Florida Republicans including Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, current Gov. Charlie Crist, former Govs. Jeb Bush and Bob Martinez, and Sen. Mel Martinez began revving up the crowd inside Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

“American Idol” finalist Phil Stacey sang the national anthem, then Arizona senator was introduced by his wife, Cindy.

Sounds like a can’t miss crowd pleaser, right? Not according to the Washington Post.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain held his first rally without running mate Sarah Palin today, and let’s just say there were seats available.

The McCain “Road to Victory” rally was originally scheduled to be a pancake breakfast, but the campaign said there was such an outpouring of enthusiasm the event was shifted to the 15,000-seat Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

The may not have been the best idea: There were almost no supporters in any of the cavernous arena’s 24 upper-level seating sections, and only eight of the 21 sections downstairs held fans. Only four of those were filled, though some supporters crowded around the stage on the arena floor.

McCain and wife Cindy made a point of thanking supporters for coming out on “a Monday morning” for the 9 a.m. rally.

Yeah, that was probably why more fans didn’t appear. It was Monday morning. But as pressed for time as everyone was, McCain still managed to work in a reference to having been a prisoner of war.

McCain quickly connected with his audience, saying he has a special connection to northeast Florida, recalling that he was stationed at Cecil Field when he was deployed to Vietnam.

“In the years that I was away in prison, the people of Orange Park, Fla., took care of my wife and family,” McCain said. “The people of Jacksonville opened their hearts to my family, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Of course, when he says his “wife and family,” McCain is referring to his first wife and their children together before McCain unceremoniously dumped them all for the much younger and richer and blonder Cindy Hensley.

The event did draw some people with real enthusiasm though. It’s just that they were on the Obama side.

…supporters of democratic opponent Barack Obama also showed up for the rally. Just across the street, waving signs, Obama supporters like Minerva Fare said they’re hoping to pull in some of the undecided voters.

“Obama is the man, he has a plan to get us back where we need to be,” said Fare. “A lot of people are teeter tottering. And some don’t support McCain. They are just supporting him to be part of the party.”

Start that party without me.

The St. Petersburg Times is running an open letter from John McCain’s cousin, who lives in Tallahassee. In “Cousin John, Where Did You Go? ” Adam Vaulx Boles first explains his history and relationship with McCain, and his family’s pride at their famous member’s accomplishments.

Then pride turns to shame.

Clearly, a lot can change in eight years. Our nation has gone from a time of unparalleled prosperity and peace to one marked by debt in the trillions of dollars, record foreclosures, and a global reputation for warmongering and neo-imperialism.

“America’s working families no longer recognize you, John McCain, nor does your own.”

So, where is the straight-talking, commonsense John McCain of 2000? I’m afraid he is long gone, replaced by a desperate version of himself who seems to contradict nearly everything he once stood for.

What becomes apparent in his ideological about-face is just how out of touch McCain really is with America’s working families.

In a time when the country is facing the worst housing crisis in the memory of most Americans, McCain couldn’t even recall how many homes he owns. When asked how many homes my side of the family owns, I can answer you pretty quickly. Zero.

Just like so many working families in this country, we were nearly ruined by the ongoing mortgage and foreclosure crisis. Our family home of three generations was sold at auction last year. The story is a familiar one: We were suckered into a refinance deal during the real estate boom, and when times got tough, the near criminally deregulated mortgage companies changed the rules on us.

What was John McCain’s response to this? He lumped together all the families who fell victim to the smarmy sales pitches from subprime lenders, calling us “irresponsible,” a move the New York Times described as “mean-spirited and economically naive.”

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