Sarah Palin – what a mistake

Successful campaigns are what one team did right, combined with what the other side did wrong.  As I mentioned, I think the Palin choice was the biggest mistake.  Here’s what Julian Zelizer has to say:

Team McCain ran a campaign that ranks on the bottom of this list. This was an aimless and chaotic operation made worse by poor choices at key moments.

Their first mistake was picking Gov. Sarah Palin. Though in the first week following her selection, Palin energized the conservative base of the GOP, she became a serious drag on the ticket.

This turned into one of the worst picks since McGovern selected Thomas Eagleton, a Missouri senator who withdrew after revealing that he had gone through electroshock therapy and suffered from “nervous exhaustion.” By picking Palin, McCain simultaneously eliminated his own best argument against Senator Obama—the limited experience of his opponent—while compounding his own most negative image, that of someone who was erratic and out of control. The pick also fueled the feeling that grew throughout September and October that the Republican candidate was willing to take any step necessary to win the campaign. The Palin pick made every decision that followed seem purely political.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167561

4 Days that Killed the McCain Campaign

Daniel Gross of Slate writes about 3 days that he says killed McCain’s campaign in an excellent and to-the-point essay last night.  I think he’s exactly right – but I think he left out one very important date that crippled the campaign: August 29th.

On August 29th, John McCain announced his first “presidential” decision – the choice of a running mate.  While the shiny new wrapper was impressive for a couple of weeks, it did not last.  As Gross says of September 15th, this date was also a twin killer.  First, the thought of the uninformed, power-abusing, bible-thumping, ultra-right-winger as the President of the USA hurt the campaign.  Because this decision was John’s, and John’s alone, it also reflects very poorly on his judgement and decision makig process. 

His other 3 dates were also disasterous: Proclaiming the economy is still strong, halting his campaign but accomplishing nothing, and using the 3rd debate to regail voters with the economic insight of Joe Wurzelbacher. 

September 24, 2008
The Day John McCain Lost the Election
http://www.slate.com/id/2203763/?GT1=38001

A Question

Obama aides have long argued that their candidate offers hope while McCain offers fear. Judging by the balance of messages both candidates are giving voters before Election Day, it’s hard to disagree.  

Question: You take the money that government generates and you spread that money equally among all of the citizens. Is that: the former Soviet Republic? … or Alaska? 

    

Conservative Newspapers Publish Endorsements

Today 5 major papers from 5 major US markets announced endorsements for the presidential race.  The papers were from New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  The Chicago and DC papers are nationally known as “Conservative” papers. I think you can see where this is going:

Knowledge, Learnedness, Insight

The idea of “leadership” must include knowledge, learnedness and insight.
Let’s look at the educational background of your two options:

Obama:
Occidental College – Two years.
Columbia University – B.A. Political Science with a specialization in International Relations.
Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
(J.D. is a doctor of law, the legal counterpart to M.D.)

Biden:
University of Delaware – B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

McCain:
United States Naval Academy – Class rank 894 of 899

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study
University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester
University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in journalism

Now, which team are you going to hire ?

Hate Mongering

McCain and the politics of hatred, fear, and prejudice: http://therealmccain.com/mob/ (2 min)

 
And this next one…it’s about a large group of hate mongers being catered to right now….Wow. 
(The 60 seconds is an introduction (a little slow, IMO), but it picks up quickly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGn9F1Jw24U&NR=1
 
It reminded me of this video from 50 years ago – it’s the exact same group of people, just a generation removed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgH7WgtIU2k  (15 seconds). 
 
 
You can sign a petition to be sent to John McCain after watching the video.  And, if you’ve got $5 you can fight against this political campaign: 
http://my.barackobama.com/page/contribute
 

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek.

  — Obama

He’s Never Seemed Smaller

This is the intro to an essay by Susan Estrich, click the link below to read the whole thing:

Smear Campaigning Should Be Beneath John McCain
Friday, October 10, 2008

By Susan Estrich
FOX NEWS 

Imagine that. We’re in the midst of an international economic crisis and the McCain folks are trying to make hay out of what a guy who hosted a reception for Obama 13 years ago was doing 20 years before that.
 
Is William Ayers the best the McCain camp can do? The ads claim that Obama’s relationship with Ayres is somehow proof of his dangerous ambition. But it’s McCain’s blind ambition, or his campaign’s bad judgment, that is painfully on display in the newest ads.

U.S. Senator John McCain tried to use his influence to help a crook named Charlie Keating, one of the worst of the saving and loan robbers, a man who ripped off everyone in sight, including American taxpayers. That’s OK. Forgive and forget. But serving on a foundation board with a guy who engaged in radical politics decades ago? That’s a voting issue? Desperate. Dumb. You want to convince voters that you’re totally out of touch with their lives, and their fears, this is the way to do it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,436341,00.html

nBy the Numbers: Palin’s Record

 John McCain, presumptive GOP nominee for months. He had tons (TONS) of time to research and vet a running mate suitable to be the President. Selecting Palin is not just a blow to his own campaign but to the whole party.

It appears it may have come from the greatness of the Huffington Post.  Here’s a sampling, see the whole list at the great Huffington Post website.

 

 

Sarah Palin may lie, but numbers don’t. Her record speaks for itself.   2007: the year in which Sarah Palin first obtained a passport (Source) 1.5: the approximate number of hours Palin spent on a refueling layover in Ireland, which the McCain campaign cited as part of her foreign policy experience (Source)  3: the number of times John McCain specifically criticized earmarks requested by Sarah Palin when she was mayor of Wasilla, citing them as examples of wasteful spending (Source)  $506.34: the amount of federal earmarks Alaska residents will receive per capita in 2008, the highest level of any state (Source)  312: the number of nights during her first 19 months in office that Palin charged taxpayers a “per diem” totaling $16,951 for staying in her own home — an allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business (Source)  $453 million: the total amount of earmarks Palin has asked U.S. taxpayers to fund for Alaska projects over the past two years, despite McCain’s insistence that she hasn’t sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress (Source)  $500 to $1,200: the fee that Wasilla charged rape victims to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams, after the city cut funds during Palin’s tenure that had previously covered the exams (Source)  25: the percentage by which Palin raised the sales tax in Wasilla to pay for a sports center, despite claims that she cut taxes (Source)   0: Wasilla’s long-term debt when Palin took office in 1996 (Source)  $18.6 million: the long-term debt Palin racked up by the time she left office in 2002, amounting to about $3,000 per resident (Source)  $150: the cash payment offered by the Palin administration to hunters who turn in legs of freshly killed wolves gunned down from airplanes (Source)  500: the number of Fortune 500 companies Sarah Palin is not qualified to run, according to McCain adviser Carly Fiorina (Source) 15: The number of minutes McCain and Palin spent together during their only meeting prior to the interview in which McCain offered her the vice presidential slot (Source)  50: the number of days after Palin announced she “will fully cooperate” with an ethics investigation into the “Troopergate” scandal that the McCain campaign announced she was “unlikely to cooperate” because it had been “hijacked” by Obama operatives. The probe was unanimously authorized by a bipartisan panel of eight Alaska Republicans and four Democrats. (Source)  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-kurtzman/sarah-palin-by-the-number_b_127355.html      How Palin became VP: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6bda020b0f  (McCain cites PTA experience).   Right to Know: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/03d0f10a32   Got $5?  http://my.barackobama.com/page/contribute

McCain’s Questions

Why did I have to write down the 3 most important domestic issues Tom asked about?   Why did Tom have to repeat them for me?

Barack looked like an vibrant, energetic man ready to take on a grueling job.  Did I look like that, too…or did I look like a wind-up robot hobbling around?

Personal Attacks – McCain’s Only Hope

John: When you flip flop on the issues, when you can’t win by talking about your own platform, all you can do is wage personal attacks.  So, kitty-cat, good luck with your spineless, chicken ‘S’ campaign.

McCain can’t debate experience, because his VP has none.  He can’t debate the war, because everyone agrees we need the $10 billion per month here in the USA.  Now he can’t (and won’t) debate the economy:

Over the weekend, John McCain’s top adviser announced their plan to stop engaging in a debate over the economy and “turn the page” to more direct, personal attacks on Barack Obama.

In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, McCain wants to change the subject from the central question of this election. Perhaps because the policies McCain supported these past eight years and wants to continue are pretty hard to defend.

But it’s not just McCain’s role in the current crisis that they’re avoiding. The backward economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis are looking more and more like the other major financial crisis of our time.

During the savings and loan crisis of the late ’80s and early ’90s, McCain’s political favors and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan, one of the largest in the country. More than 23,000 investors lost their savings. Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion.

Sound familiar?

In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee. The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain’s Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts — and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain.

See “Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis” http://www.KeatingEconomics.com 

Watch the video to see why John McCain’s failed philosophy and poor judgment is a recipe for deepening the crisis:

http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo

It’s no wonder John McCain would rather spend the last month of this election smearing Barack’s character instead of talking about the top priority issue for voters.

But if we work together, we can make sure the focus stays on the economy — and how to fix it.

Please forward this to everyone you know.

Thanks,
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America