Agents of Change?

Without question, the Republicans helped their cause this week. The Palin pick energized the base and McCain’s speech tried to make the case that the maverick war hero is the true agent of change. Both were smart moves to drive up enthusiasm among social conservatives and attract support from the narrow but critical minority of voters who, somehow, are still undecided. Of course, McCain’s pledge to shake things up did not match his agenda. His policies are right out of the same old Republican playbook. And McCain missed the opportunity to distance himself from any of George W. Bush flawed record (though his distaste for the guy seeps through). He paid tribute to Bush for leading the fight against terrorism then avoided mentioning his name for the rest of his speech. He said both parties were guilty of lapses in ethics and declared that he was a servant not of any party but of the American people. Talk about lofty but meaningless rhetoric! But anyone who sees McCain-Palin as agents of change is delusional. The “Drill, baby, Drill” chant, the opposition to a government role in health care, and, most scary of all, the commitment to continue, even expand, a confrontational approach to foreign policy makes it more than unlikely that these two will shake things up on any critical issue facing our nation and world. As expected, McCain’s personal story of suffering at the hands of interrogators as a POW during the Vietnam War was dramatic and compelling. But the maverick McCain should have used that story to criticize the use of torture by us as well as them. Notably he didn’t and other speakers in St. Paul tweaked the Democrats for suggesting that Gitmo prisoners had any rights. I don’t know how any independent observer could miss that odd dissonance. He vaguely referenced ethical excesses by both parties and pledged to seek common ground but failed to give a single example of an issue appropriate to compromise. His litany of priorities were lower taxes and less government, i.e. more of the same. My friends, Americans want change this year and Senator McCain realizes he needs to appeal to that zeitgeist. But Americans know what change looks like, what change feels like, what change sounds like. Sen. McCain, we know change and you ain’t it.

Brief morning update- news of brutality starting to slowly spread

Republican National Ridiculousness

I’ll admit that I’ve been bored by this election for a few months. It’s crazy, I know. But ever since Barack Obama’s presumptive nomination early in June, it’s been kind of a snooze. Barack Obama is so compelling, and John McCain is so old — and careless. He can’t remember how many houses he owns. He can’t turn on a computer. He doesn’t seem to know where he is half the time. If this were 2000, McCain would be a dynamic candidate, a loud-mouthed maverick with ideas about war, torture, special interests and energy policy (Thomas Friedman’s piece yesterday about McCain’s energy policy is right on the money) that would make the sleepy Democrats stand at attention. He used to be a contender. Now he’s just a contender who needs a nap. This whole thing was one big “duh.” And it was boring me. But then! The McCain campaign announced, with a gigantic bang, a running mate: a 44-year-old virtual unknown … FEMALE … from Alaska. A hot female. With like a million kids. Including one with Downs Syndrome. We all said it together when the news broke in our hotel room in Des Moines: “Oh, SHIT!” It was like that moment from Trapped in the Closetwhen Twan and Sylvester find out that the police officer’s wife Bridget is three months pregnant … by a midget (Oh, SHIT!) But it was also such a thrill. What was McCain thinking? Who is this lady? Let’s watch the news for a few hours. Oh shit … she’s under investigation? Oh shit … pregnant teenage daughter? Oh shit … censorship controversy? It’s so bad. And so good. And so I found myself watching the Republican National Convention last night, writhing through Rudy Giuliani’s awful, awkwardly constructed, stumbled-through speech (“Imagine you’re voting for president …”), reminded every few minutes that this bankrupt party is anti-brains, anti-substance, anti-action, condescending, hateful and ignorant. Seriously, is making fun of Barack’s years as an activist the best you could do? Do you really think he’s been sitting around for the past 20 years eating Funyuns? Her derisive comment about her “actual responsibilities” as Mayor of Wasilla as opposed to Barack’s apparently “imaginary” responsibilities at the Developing Communities Project and on the board of Public Allies were downright off-color. When he started at Harvard Law in 1988, Sarah Palin was still a local TV sports reporter. The strangest part? They were cracking themselves up. Barack! What a crazy guy! Rudy actually could not handle it after he uttered the phrase “community organizer”. He started laughing! Don’t get me wrong. I still think this is a “duh” election, and I think whatever the Republicans can pull out of their crooked sleeves between now and November 4 will be too little, too late, especially if they keep making these glittery but poorly thought-through snap decisions. Those hundreds of RNC attendees in cowboy hats shouting “DRILL BABY DRILL” would be heeeelarious if they weren’t so scary. But then again, maybe they’d be […]

Country First?

John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate calls his judgment into serious question. Let’s start off by stipulating, as Barack Obama has, that family issues like her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy and her decision to give birth to a Down syndrome baby are personal and should not be open to analysis. And too much is often made of vice president choices. You have to go back to 1960, when JFK’s pick of LBJ provided the margin of victory by bringing along Texas (that and the shenanigans in Illinois allegedly employed at the behest of the elder Richard Daley). More often, even the lamest picks seem to have little effect on the outcome of the election (think Spiro Agnew and Dan Quayle). But with both candidates competing for the narrow group of voters who somehow have managed to remain undecided their choices may have a more than usual effect this year. Barack Obama’s choice of Delaware’s Sen. Joe Biden leaves little to criticize. McCain backers are asserting that Biden’s long experience in Washington casts doubt on the Democratic ticket’s promise of change. But Obama has already so strongly linked his campaign to change that that dog won’t hunt. Plus Biden promises to bring valuable expertise on many issues, foreign and domestic, that can only give the Obama administration a greater chance of success. As for McCain’s choice, what can you say? Where do you start? He apparently wanted to choose his friend, and fellow Iraq War hawk, former Democrat and current Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut but all signs suggested that a messy floor fight, possibly even challenging McCain’s own nomination would ensue. So his fallback was to go with a “fresh face” who would appeal to the social conservative base of the party, never all that comfortable with McCain, and possibly appeal to disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters and other women. The idea that a pro-life, pro-oil industry, pro-NRA female would win over Hillary backers implies a radical feminist demographic that defies logic. Palin’s appeal is to people who weren’t going to vote for Obama anyway. What’s actually scary is the way this choice suggests that McCain relies on his gut instincts, a tendency that may not always lead to the best results in the Oval Office. Heck, he met Palin a mere two times. McCain’s slogan is “Country First” but this pick seems to put electoral considerations, however bizarre, ahead of governing priorities. Perhaps a better McCain slogan would be “WTF?”

More updates on police brutality at the RNC

More video and pic- more on the RNC brutality

Info needed for AP photographers/videographers

Des Moines

I’m a little discouraged this morning

Missing video, fear, and a little bit of hope from readers

As promised- footage and pics!

More on RNC police brutality