John McCain

If you missed Morning Joe, Mort Zuckerman was on and had a very grim outlook for our financial future. The Freddie and Fannie bailout, while necessary, will cost tax payers millions. Detroit is worse off. He is predicting GM and some other manufacturers like Chrysler to merge, and maybe a foreign automaker to buy out Ford. He actually said if things aren't done right we could be heading towards another depression and in the end all this will cost American taxpayers upwards of half a trillion dollars.

That's OK though, Americans see a "pit bull with lipstick" that they like, so our economy no longer matters.

I want to fully believe something John McCain said this past week. He insisted that Palin was fully vetted. So, OK, let's go there and accept that answer.

If Sarah Palin was fully vetted, don't you think she should have taken the time from being vetted to becoming selected to brush up on things like foreign affairs and handling the press? Why did she wait for this? Did her vetting not go that good, so she decided she didn't have to worry about it?

Perhaps when Sarah Palin decides to meet the press, this will be a question posed to her. I mean Sarah already thinks the media is this viscous attack dog, so shouldn't they live up the expectations from Sarah?

Andrew Sullivan dives into the latest exhibition of sexism by John McCain.

McClatchy goes there:

John McCain made a quick stop at the Capitol one day last spring to sit in on Senate negotiations on the big immigration bill, and John Cornyn was not pleased.

Cornyn, a mild-mannered Texas Republican, saw a loophole in the bill that he thought would allow felons to pursue a path to citizenship.

McCain called Cornyn's claim "chicken-s---," according to people familiar with the meeting, and charged that the Texan was looking for an excuse to scuttle the bill. Cornyn grimly told McCain he had a lot of nerve to suddenly show up and inject himself into the sensitive negotiations.

"F--- you," McCain told Cornyn, in front of about 40 witnesses.

Yummy! Read on..

The very basis of a democracy is the ability of its people to be able to select leaders based up on the best information available. By John McCain hiding Sarah Palin from the press, he is inhibiting the people from getting to know the person who wants to be the next vice-President of the United States. Why is John McCain standing in between America and democracy? I would love to hear the media start posing this question.

Last night McCain said this:

The—the constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these

problems isn’t a cause. It’s a symptom. It’s what happens when people

go to Washington to work for themselves and not for you.

Again and again—again and again, I’ve worked with members of both

parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will

govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get

this country moving again.

After two weeks of convention watching, I say I have to agree. Of course between the two conventions the most partisan one was the Republican convention. The Democrats attacked the ideas of John McCain and the Republican Party. The Republicans attacked Barack Obama, even lying at some points. This is a typical Republican ploy, however. They say this needs to stop, yet they are the ones most actively engaged.

John Cole also sums this up rather nice.

Jeffery Toobin wasn't impressed last night:

The Republicans went into full exploitation mode last night, using a video showing September 11th over and over again. Keith Olbermann, as someone who lost friends in the attack, went on to talk about how inappropriate it was.

That's why the Republicans hate Olbermann - he exposes their lack of common sense.

It seems like the general consensus amongst the pundits regarding John's big moment is the same feeling I had watching it - yawn. He didn't lay out a single policy, and instead stayed on his "change" platform. Funny - it seems like every Republican has said that since I can remember.

As matter of fact I didn't hear any policy come out of this convention. Instead it was a bunch of promises, with no roads on how to complete them. Something else I noticed missing - immigration. I guess that problem has been solved, because the Republicans sure seem to be ignoring it now.

It was just another Republican convention. Palin was the big winner of it, but as the media reminded us so well when Biden was picked, you're not voting for the vice-President, you are voting for the President.

It is really getting old hearing the media talk about McCain taking this "gamble" on Palin, like it makes him some sort of maverick. Remember this news from way back - like yesterday?

Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.

But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.

McCain didn't take a gamble, he folded to the right wing fringe elements of his party. That's not a maverick - that's a coward!

Andrew Sullivan has been doing some digging and noticed something very interesting:

I've noted the bizarre locution Bush used last night to describe the torture endured by John McCain. I hope the press corps will follow up. But one piece of evidence that the omission of the t-word by Bush was deliberate comes in Fred Thompson's speech as well. He went on at length about the hideous treatment handed down to John McCain in Vietnam. It was the longest section of the speech. Wanna guess if the word "torture" came up at all?

Now that sounds like a really well scripted convention. McCain is supposed to be such an advocate against torture, yet they won't even mention the word in his convention? I hope the media raises this issue - it seems like it's worth some spotlight.

Sounds like everyone isn't 100% confident in McCain.

There were these "lists" published over the past several years highlighting financial favors, or pork, that our tax dollars shouldn't go to. This list even highlighted three times "objectionable" spending, including earmarks, for a small Alaskan town, which was requested by it;s mayor - Sarah Palin. The author of this list? John McCain.

Here is an interview Campbell Brown had yesterday with McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. Campbell wouldn't let Bounds try to spin the question on Palin's national security, and Brown actually did a good job:

Now the McCain campaign is canceling McCain's appearance on Larry King tonight because of that interview. If McCain and Palin can't stand up to CNN then how can they stand up to al Qaeda?

But that's exactly what the McCain campaign did. They canceled Sarah Palin's appearance at the Republican National Coalition for Life event. I wonder why the campaign is keeping her away from that walk in the park?