Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote: Huckabee said that Palin received more votes running for mayor of Wasilla then Biden received running for President. The crowd went crazy and I'm sure you will be hearing that "fact" repeated. But, that ludicrous on the face of it. Palin ran twice. Once she received about 600 votes and once about 900 votes. So, say 1500 votes. Biden received 15,429 in Florida alone.

Huckabee's line also struck me as bizarre. I don't get it. Is there some way to interpret what he said so that it's not utter nonsense? Or is it just an absolute lie?

I just did a quick Google search -- lit ooks like Biden got zero DELEGATES during the primary race, not zero VOTES.

New political maxim: A good lie in prime time is worth a thousand facts the following day.

Anonymous wrote:It takes more than sarcasm and canned insults to impress me. And that goes for Giuliani, too. Since when is "community organizing" worthy of dirision and scorn? It seems that the Republicans just can't help themselves . . . they love to go mean!

I thought Giuliani really blew the "keynote", and the disdain for community service annoyed me in both speeches.

Here is an interesting sidelight from Talking Points Media http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

Nukes
Anybody notice anything odd about this part of the transcript of the Palin speech released to the press?
Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines ... build more new-clear plants ... create jobs with clean coal ... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.

I'm sure she's familiar with the word nuclear and does not need the phonetic spelling except to be sure she does not say new-cue-lar and connect herself to Bush.

Anonymous wrote:Although very well delivered, I also found her speech snide, totally negative, sarcastic, and of very little substance. Completely inappropriate for a potential vp. Is this really what the majority of Americans respond to? Nastiness?

It also creeped me out how she seemed to be using her family to gain political appeal: Iraq bound son, her baby with downs syndrome, her pregnant teenage daughter along with boyfriend. It's almost as if they are her only and best qualifications to be a vice president. The whole thing left me feeling so yucky! She's really gross.

Wasn't Biden at least as negative about McCAin? And hasn't her used the story of his first wife's and daughter's death and the train commute to be with his kids? I don't mean to defend it on either side, but it's par for the course. It just seems so much tackier when you see the other side do it.

Anonymous wrote:You are kidding, right?

I wish I had been, but I was totally serious (as some of the other repliers apparently realized). But I hope you are right, if I understand that you think her speech was a dud. I agree with Jeff that it was a snarkfest, but I'm thought it was a very effective snarkfest. I HOPE I'm wrong.

Anonymous wrote:tee hee.

Rich, I really enjoy reading your posts but am curious about you Do I remember correctly that you once posted you were in your 60s?

If so, how did you come across this board and why are you posting? I don't intend this to come across as a "what is this man doing on our board" type of thing - just curious about you since you don't seem like the target demographic

Jeff and I got well acquainted during the Ward 4 special election to fill Fenty's Council seat. He knew I was looking forward to the political blog he was planning, and I guess he figured that in discussing politics, my not fitting the demographic profile would not be that much of a drawback.

In fact, most of the time I don't have any feeling that I am that different in outlook from anybody else. For example, I was a single parent for a while, and have always considered myself a feminist. Besides, as you grow older, you'll find that inside, you don't really feel that you have changed. So not seeing each other's faces, I merrily write as though we're all pretty much alike (except maybe when the Dem/Repbu thing gets nasty).

Probably my biggest lack of fit is my not catching on to the "anonymous" thing. BTW I hope my age references don't creep people out.

jsteele wrote:Palin's speech was nothing but a snark fest. It was very disrespectful and even condescending. I'm not sure how that's going to go over beyond the true believers.

I hope you're right, Jeff. I put a question up asking what the rest of the group thought.

I don't think she could possibly have done better (unless, perhaps, she had left out the distorted tale of the bridge to nowhere). What do you all think?

Anonymous wrote:

Rich wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I explained to my daughter: Everybody in the class has to bring in 50 cents for cupcakes. But one little girl's mommy didn't have 50 cents to give her. The democrats would say the little girl could still get a cupcake, everyone could share. Republicans would say, you didn't bring in your 50 cents so no cupcake for you!!

Surely there is a Republican out there to point out that the Republicans are the ones who chip in to pay for the little girl's cupcake rather than expecting the state to supply it.

Ha! I'm not even a Republican and I found this one funny.

My point, much less eloquently made than Obama in his 2004 keynote, is that a lot of blue and red staters would find a way to get that cupcake to the little girl. Sniping at each other does not do much to advance the level of political discourse.

I've been a Dem since before most of the people were born, I would guess, and I have not the slightest inclination to vote for McCain/Palin, but I will grant to them the compliment, back-handed though it may be, that McCain is no Bush and Palin is no Cheney. Jan 20, 2009 will be a great day for my country no matter how the election turns out!

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I explained to my daughter: Everybody in the class has to bring in 50 cents for cupcakes. But one little girl's mommy didn't have 50 cents to give her. The democrats would say the little girl could still get a cupcake, everyone could share. Republicans would say, you didn't bring in your 50 cents so no cupcake for you!!

Surely there is a Republican out there to point out that the Republicans are the ones who chip in to pay for the little girl's cupcake rather than expecting the state to supply it.

Tonight the arena in St Paul will become the Palin-drome.

Anonymous wrote:To jeff at 11:19... AHA! So he IS a typical "tell us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear" politician after all??

Other than Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, what politician isn't? Sad to say, you just don't get far without a bit of pandering now and then.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pro-Choice professional here (meaning I have been working to defend Roe v Wade professionally for 10+ years).

The Democrats will have 60 Senate seats after this election. Any Supreme Court nominee McCain comes up with who does not support Roe can be and should be blocked by the US Senate. The Dems won't tell you this now because they depend on holding Roe over our heads to get our votes....however, why do we vote for them if they won't stand up and block anti-choice nominees?

If this is true, how did the last 2 appointees get through?

By lying about how they would respect Stare Decisis.

Anonymous wrote:BTW, I hope that by "teenager" you meant that your ex-wife was 18 or 19.

A month shy of 18. She had messed up her first year of college (after early admission) and had divorced parents. She had no obvious place to live, so marriage seemed like the best choice. A few years later, we would probably have just lived together.

Anonymous wrote:It makes "sense" in regards to why they would never make the same choice again, yes. And I can respect that all the way, I actually think it is healthy, after all nobody is very fond of the idea of abortion as birth control. But the fact that you once MADE that choice and are now condemning everyone who does the same by calling them murderers etc. is extremely hypocritical to me. And I cannot stand that. It makes everything you have to say to the issue invalid to me.

It works the opposite way also. I have always been pro-choice, but when my first wife and I got married (she was still a teen-ager), she got pregnant immediately -- it was pure luck that it was after the wedding. Anyway, despite being politically pro-choice, we were both rather shocked when her mother suggested an abortion. We had the baby and the marriage broke up four years later.

I would definitely counsel a couple in that situation to consider the abortion that we were not willing to choose. So I can understand those women feeling they'd like to advise the world "Don't do as I did." However, advising and forcing are very different.

I hope your evaluation of Thompson is correct. I, for one, understood him easily, despite coming from no further south than NY City. And I thought the stuff about what a cut-up the young JM was made a pretty good intro and contrast to the description of the POW years. For a guy who never managed to make his own candidacy believable, I think he gave a really effective speech for McCain. And you've seen enough from me to know I'm not happy saying that.