Month: September 2008

McCain Campaign Issues Non-Denial Denial on Palin Troopergate Lie

Jon Ponder

Monnegan interviewed by Rachel Maddow on Sept. 15,

Now that Sarah Palin’s husband, First Dude Todd, has failed to appear at a hearing on Sarah’s allegedly improper firing of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, it can be said that the Palins are officially stonewalling the Troopergate investigation.
Gov. Sarah Palin’s chief of staff authorized former Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan to travel to Washington, although the governor has cited that trip as a primary example of the insubordination that led to his firing.
Todd ignored the subpoena because the Palins claim that the motivations of the Republican-dominated investigative committee are “partisan.” Ignoring subpoenas has become a hallmark of the GOP in the Bush years, and Todd Palin’s failure to testify is a clear signal that this brazen disrespect for the law will continue under the next Republican regime if John McCain and Palin are elected.

Now a document has been produced that proves that Sarah Palin has, in fact, lied about at least one aspect of her story about Monegan’s dismissal:

Gov. Sarah Palin’s chief of staff authorized former Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan to travel to Washington, although the governor has cited that trip as a primary example of the insubordination that led to his firing.

Monegan is the central figure in the investigation into whether Palin abused her power when she fired him. Monegan alleges he was fired because he refused to terminate a state trooper who was involved in a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister. Palin says he was fired because of insubordination on budget issues.

Even before the document was produced, Palin’s version of events was hard to believe. Her principle beef against Monegan, she says, was that he spent too much money fighting sex crimes:

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In One Florida Sample, Palin Pushes Undecideds to Obama

Jon Ponder

With the home stretch of the presidential race looming, few states are tighter than Florida:
The group has swung dramatically, if unenthusiastically, toward Democrat Obama. Most of them this week cited the same reason: Sarah Palin.

Five weeks ago, the St. Petersburg Times convened a group of Tampa Bay voters who were undecided about the presidential election. Their strong distrust of Barack Obama suggested it was a group ripe for John McCain to win over.

Not anymore. The group has swung dramatically, if unenthusiastically, toward Democrat Obama. Most of them this week cited the same reason: Sarah Palin.

“The one thing that frightens me more than anything else are the ideologues. We’ve seen too many,” said 80-year-old Air Force veteran Donn Spegal, a lifelong Republican from St. Petersburg, who sees McCain’s new running mate as the kind of “wedge issue” social conservative that has made him disenchanted with his party.

“I’m truly offended by Palin,” said Republican Philinia Lehr, 37, of Largo, a full-time mother with a nursing degree who voted for George Bush in 2004. Like Palin, she has five children and she doesn’t buy that the Alaska governor can adequately balance her family and the vice presidency.

“You’re somebody’s mom and what are you going to do, say, ‘Excuse me, country, hold on?’ … She’s preaching that she’s this mom of the year and taking that poor little baby all over everywhere. And, you know, what she’s doing to her 17-year-old daughter is just appalling.” Lehr said she’s bothered by the way Palin’s pregnant daughter has been brought into the national spotlight.

Of the 11 undecided voters participating in the discussion one recent evening at the Times — four Republicans, five Democrats, and two registered to no party — only two Republican men applauded the selection of Palin.

Nobody had finalized a choice, but seven of the panelists said that McCain’s running mate selection had made them more likely to vote for Obama, and in several cases much more likely.

Poll: Obama Leads Among Arab American Voters

Buck Banks

Well of course Barack Hussein Obama leads among Arab American voters. Duh!

In a new Zogby poll conducted for the Arab American Institute, it was revealed that Democratic candidate Obama holds a substantial 21 point lead over Republican John McCain among Arab American voters. The poll also found that Obama’s 54 percent/33 percent lead over McCain dropped to 46 percent/32 percent when independent candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr were included in survey questions.

Other key findings included:

  • The most important issues for Arab American voters are jobs/economy (far and away the greatest area of concern), followed by the war in Iraq/peace/foreign affairs, and health care.
  • Approval ratings given to the Bush Administration’s performance are low: 23 percent for overall performance, 19 percent for economic policy and 31 percent for foreign policy.
  • The shift in party identification continues. The Democrat/Republican break in 2000 was 40/38; now it is 46/20.

Palin Cancels High Profile Trip to California

Jon Ponder

California Republicans get no respect. Their numbers have dwindled to the point that no one from the hard core right can get elected to statewide office, and the Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has revealed himself to be more liberal than a lot Democrats in the state.
Palin may have “electrified” California Republicans, but her presence on the ticket has done diddley squat for the GOP ticket in the state.
Now even their rock star candidate, vice presidential wannabe Sarah Palin, has dissed them. She has canceled a major trip to the state next week:

The change is a shocker, because Palin’s presence had electrified the GOP base in California. Party insiders were distributing 15,000 tickets to her Sept. 26 rally in Orange County — and fundraisers reported an almost instantaneous sell-out of her two $1,000-a-head Sept. 25 fundraising events in Orange County and Santa Clara.

Both fundraisers had generated such high ticket sales that the OC Lincoln Club event was moved to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and the Bay Area event was moved from the Woodside home of Tom Siebel to the huge Santa Clara Convention Center.

Palin may have “electrified” California Republicans, but her presence on the ticket has done diddley squat for the GOP ticket in the state. A new Field Poll shows that Obama-Biden is leading McCain-Palin by a whopping 16 points hereabouts.

Still, it’s odd that she would cancel a fundraiser. Obama collected $9 million in a quick, one-day visit to Beverly Hills earlier this week.

What Does the Media Mean When It Quotes Sarah Palin?

Buck Banks

If you think listening to VP candidate Sarah Palin speak is bad, it’s actually worse when it’s reproduced in phonics in writing by reporters in the MSM. I can’t remember a time when a politician’s annoying accent and pronunciation was so faithfully reproduced in the media. Well, there was Billy Carter’s colorful language punctuated by “ain’t.” But one is left to wonder about the intent of the media in reproducing the peculiar Alaska vernacular that is PalinTalk (hmmm, an anagram for “plain talk?”).

Here are a couple of examples from today’s Washington Post:

  • “John? John?” Sarah Palin called to John McCain. “Can I add somethin’?”
  • A woman wanted to give her the chance to address those who say Palin can’t be a mother and vice president. “Well, let’s prove ’em wrong,” Palin said to cheers.
  • She talked about her role if the ticket is elected: “Let me tell you, I know a little bit about energy. That’s gonna be my baby when I get to Washington, D.C.”

My question is, would the Washington Post reproduce the phonics if Palin spoke like the cartoon character Sylvester the Cat or Elmer Fudd? They don’t reproduce every one of Barack Obama’s professorial ums or ers he inserts into sentences. Obama is also prone to dropping his Gs when he wants to sound less “elitist” or to make a homespun point, but I don’t recall seeing that phonically represented.

It’s either a) because it makes Palin sound like just “plain folks” or b) it makes her sound stupid and therefore unfit to be veep or c) because it’s all about accuracy in reporting, the foundation of our free press, and to hell with the English language.

I don’t know which it is, but I’m gonna start watching it in this here space. Oops! It’s infectious.

McCain’s Problem: He IS the Problem

Trish

Today’s humorous in a wry, mocking way web site is Lobbyists for McCain. The group made a splash in suits and alleged Ferragamos during protests at the Republican National Convention but continues to sock it to McCain on a range of issues. Of course, as the Washington Post pointed out in light of McCain’s statement that “the fundamentals of the economy are strong,” this is not hard to do.

Were McCain known as a student of the economy, this instance of a badly delivered statement would matter little. Because he is known as someone who is not, it matters plenty. McCain has responded by ratcheting up his rhetoric about cracking down on Wall Street and its regulators in Washington.

Plus they have this great yard sign

And yet the problem for McCain is that he IS the problem. The Keating Five scandal, in which McCain was No. Four, involved McCain and four other senators trying to prevent regulators from doing their jobs in overseeing risky real estate loans by Lincoln Savings and Loan, chaired by Charles Keating. The later collapse of the savings and loans industry, of which the Lincoln mess was an integral part, cost us taxpayers $125 billion.

Cindy Hensley’s son and McCain’s adopted son, Andrew McCain, resigned from the board of Silver State Bank in July. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shut down the bank and its parent company six weeks later. Guess who’s on the hook for all those assets now?

Which is precisely the kind of thing Lobbyists for McCain would like us to remember. Barbara Walters asked the 40-year Washington insider on The View, “Who are you going to change in Washington? You?” To which we can only add, “Who are you going to change on Wall St.? You?”

Find Lobbyists for McCain on our blog roll under “Campaign Sites.”

McCain, Obama Waging Rumor War Inside The Google

Buck Banks

If you think what you read in the paper, see on the TV or hear on the radio is bad, wait until you see what comes up on the most popular search engine when you type in “Obama Muslim.” On the left under results you get links to Urban Legends and Snopes that debunk the Internet rumor.
google-results.jpg
But on the right, where the sponsored links are, the first link says, “Searching for Experience/Instead of Researching Obama/
Learn More About John McCain.” The next three links are “Christians for Obama,” “Jews for Obama” and “Barak Obama Facts.”

If you search “Obama Biden,” the top sponsored result is owned by MoveOn.org, followed by McCain and then three sticker/button sites.

Score two for McCain who, according to U.S. News & World Report, is winning the bidding war on sponsored links:

Overall, the McCain campaign has been more aggressive in bidding on Google search terms. In August, McCain’s site managed 21.6 million sponsored search-link impressions (the number of times users click on a particular sponsored link), compared with less than 1 million for Obama’s site, according to Nielson Online, another Internet monitoring firm.

The way this works is, the campaigns enter online auctions and bid on search terms. The higher the bid, the higher the placement in the ranking of sponsored links. The real winner here is The Google, but that’s another story. Apparently, the bidding/search war is heating up:

Specifically, Obama’s campaign has waded into online auctions for Google search terms to snap up not only obvious phrases like “Barack Obama” but also potentially negative ones like “Barack Obama birth certificate” or “Barack Obama as a Muslim,” according to Hitwise, an Internet audience monitoring firm.

This means that, as of Wednesday morning, Google searches for Obama being a Muslim (a false but pervasive Web rumor) often turn up a prominent “sponsored” link at the top of the results page that connects to a page on Obama’s campaign website that debunks the myth and details his Christian faith. Searches for Obama’s birth certificate produce a link to a page showing the official document.

How effective has the rumor war been? According to Hitwise, the number of click-throughs from the sponsored links have been low. Is it worth the money and effort for the campaigns? Probably not, but in the age of Web 2.0, The Google provides just another battle front in a campaign that seems to have no bounds.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The first time I saw this particular fashion, I disliked it, and then I realized I’m getting old.

— Palm Beach, Fla., public defender Carol Bickerstaff after a judge says Riviera Beach’s “saggy pants” law is unconstitutional in the case of a 17-year-old who spent a night in jail for having his underwear showing. Bickerstaff said her office wants to get the law tossed altogether.

Poll: Obama-Biden Up 16 Points Over McCain-Palin in California

Jon Ponder

It’s another beautiful day in California:
Democratic women are now 83-9 percent in support of Obama.

The survey shows that the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden leads the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin by a 52 percent to 36 percent margin. The 16 percent point lead remains significant but is down from the 24 point lead the Democratic team enjoyed in July. An aggregate 3 percent of voters prefer other candidates, while 9 percent remain undecided.

Palin has not helped McCain among California independents, who represent one-fifth of the state’s electorate:

[McCain’s] choice of Palin has not helped him get to “stage two … broadening the (GOP) base to include the nonpartisans,” said DiCamillo. “He’s made very little headway in that regard.”

The independent and decline-to-state Californians – a rapidly growing number who represent 1 in 5 state voters and are increasingly younger and ethnic – are “still with Obama,” he said. Those voters are “what elected Arnold Schwarzenegger,” another star candidate who portrayed himself a as a maverick outsider, [said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo].

But with that critical electorate, “(Palin) is not moving the needle much. … That (independent voter) number would have to get very close or even in McCain’s column for him to be competitive in California,” he said. “And it doesn’t look that way.”

Palin did not help McCain woo California’s Democratic women either:

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