Flailing Palin

[Chuck Bao]

Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me, much more than Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi combined.

She is coming across as an expensive suit and a mouth piece for the religious right.

That in itself wouldn’t be so bad, but she is taking up their attack and blame rhetoric.

First she attacked Obama and when that wasn’t working she started indirectly attacking President Bush (see article below), now some people are saying that she has cut herself away from the McCain handlers with her own appeal to the religious right conservative base.

I stated here before that I have no problem with either presidential candidates. However, the VP selection would be the key issue for me. It would give a very good indication as to how the future president would select his cabinet and run his administration. McCain made a grave mistake here.

Can someone confirm some internet accounts that McCain was very angry with the Palin selection and he fought for the Joe Lieberman selection? If he was not the one to choose the VP selection, who was? And, who would run his administration?

Unfortunately, this is not the only case about McCain and his ability to run his own show. I have a lot of respect for the man and I, like a lot of people here, would have rather he won the presidency in 2000. But, the religious right backed Bush and now they seem to back Sarah Palin.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27364991/


Palin calls Bush a major obstacle for campaign
Republican ticket targets administration in bid to boost poll numbers
msnbc.com and NBC News
updated 6:31 p.m. ET Oct. 24, 2008

GREEN, Ohio - President Bush’s unpopularity is the No. 1 problem for the Republican presidential ticket, vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said in an interview airing Friday, breaking sharply with the president as the campaign enters its final days.

Palin made her remarks in an interview Wednesday with Brian Williams, anchor of “NBC Nightly News.” Beginning with that interview and continuing in newspaper interviews and campaign speeches, Palin and Republican presidential nominee John McCain have made it clear that they are determined to disassociate themselves from the president, who registered only a 22 percent approval rating in a New York Times poll released this week.

“We’re up against a lot,” said Palin, the governor of Alaska. “We’re up against a very unpopular president, Bush’s administration right now, and those who want to link us to that administration.”
Palin rejected the comparison as “off base,” contending that McCain, a senator from Arizona, “is known as the maverick, who has had to fight his own party when need be.”

“He has the scars to prove that,” she said.

Two opponents: Obama and Bush
Palin’s comments were a major shot in what has become a campaign against Bush almost as much as one against the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Not since 1968, when Vice President Hubert Humphrey disavowed the Vietnam War policies of President Lyndon Johnson, has a campaign so clearly repudiated the sitting president of its own party.

In an interview Thursday with The Washington Times, McCain spoke of Bush in tones bordering on contempt, ticking off a litany of what he said were the president’s failures.

“Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government — larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America — owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously,” McCain told the newspaper.

“We just let things get completely out of hand,” he said of the past eight years of Republican rule.

Friday, McCain extended the theme in an address at a campaign rally in Denver.

“We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: hoping for our luck to change at home and abroad,” he said. “We have to act. We need a new direction, and we have to fight for it.”

Obama’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, called the new Republican strategy “crazy” Friday.

“John McCain is now attacking the Bush budget and Bush fiscal policies, which he voted for, I might add,” Biden said at a rally in Charleston, W.Va. “Folks, this is as crazy as, you know, Butch Cassidy attacking the Sundance Kid. I mean, that’s a team.”

Prospects for Palin
For Palin, the strategic shift could have long-term implications, in victory or defeat. In recent weeks, political analysts have suggested that should she and McCain lose, Palin, who is highly popular with Christian conservatives, would immediately become a front-runner for the 2012 Republican nomination.

Palin dismissed such speculation in the interview Wednesday with NBC News.

“I’m not even thinking about that,” she said. “I’m thinking between now and November 4th what it is that we have to do in reaching out to the electorate, letting them know who John McCain is, what we represent and how electing John McCain is the right decision for future of America.”

Palin, only the second woman to be nominated for vice president by a major party, has become a focus of unusually heavy attention for a No. 2 candidate, occasionally overshadowing McCain and leading some analysts to suggest that she has been a drag on the Republican ticket.

In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released Tuesday, 55 percent of respondents said they believed Palin was not qualified to serve as president if the need arose. Palin’s qualifications were the No. 1 concern voters had about McCain’s candidacy, ahead of the economy and the war in Iraq.

For the first time, more voters had a negative opinion of her than a positive one. In the survey, 47 percent viewed her negatively to 38 percent who saw her in a positive light, a striking shift since McCain chose her as his running mate in early September, when she held a 47 percent-to-27 percent positive rating.

But she said Wednesday that she paid no attention to such polls, insisting that “I stay up because I know that it’s a positive message that we have, and I stay up also recognizing that, as an underdog, that’s OK. That motivates us. It makes us work that much harder.”

Turbulent introduction for Palin
Unlike McCain, Obama and Biden, Palin was virtually unknown to most of the country as recently as two months ago, prompting news organizations to send scores of reporters to Alaska to dig into her background. What they have found has led many Democrats and some Republicans to question her qualifications.

Critics said she had no international credentials to speak of as the first-term governor of a state with fewer then a million residents. Palin responded that she had foreign policy experience because Alaska was close to Russia, a contention that Democrats have widely mocked.

She was also criticized for claiming repeatedly that she had opposed federal spending of $398 million on construction of the “Bridge to Nowhere,” linking Ketchikan to the city's airport on Gravina Island, population 50, even though she actively supported the project as governor and did not return the approipriation to the federal government.

Other controversies have followed Palin on the campaign trail.

Palin is the subject of two ethics investigations reviewing allegations that she dismissed Alaska’s public safety director because he would not fire her former brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper. Palin gave a deposition in the case Friday.

Palin’s expense records have also been questioned. When the Legislature is not in session in the state capital, Juneau, Palin lives at home in Wasilla and conducts state business from nearby Anchorage. Since taking office, she has received nearly $17,000 in per diem expenses and has charged the state more than $21,000 for commercial flights and hotel rooms for her children.

The Associated Press, which reported the children’s expenses, found that the state paid for the children’s travel even on trips on which they had not been invited and had no official function.

More recently, financial disclosure forms filed by the Republican National Committee showed that — at a time when McCain and Palin were focusing their campaign on the struggles of middle-class voters — the party spent about $150,000 on clothes, hairstyling, makeup and “campaign accessories” after Palin joined the ticket.

“With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses,” said Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the campaign, who said the clothing would be donated to charity after the election.

[Chuck Bao]

If anyone was wondering about Palin’s unusual rise in prominence, this Washington Post article is interesting.

It also casts a lot of doubt about that so-called “executive experience”.


PR Consultant Helped Palin Grab Spotlight
By Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 10, 2008

During her first months in office, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin kept a relatively light schedule on her workdays in Juneau, making ceremonial appearances at sports events and funerals, meeting with state lawmakers, and conducting interviews with Alaska magazines, radio stations and newspapers.

But this spring, Palin's official calendar chronicles an extraordinary rise to national prominence. A fresh face in Republican politics, she was discovered by the national news media at least in part because of a determined effort by a state agency to position her as an oil and gas expert who could tout Alaska's determined effort to construct a natural gas pipeline.

An outside public relations expert hired under a $31,000 contract with the state Department of Natural Resources pitched the "upstart governor" as a crusader against Big Oil, a story line that Palin has adopted in her campaign as Sen. John McCain's running mate. The contract was the only time the Palin administration hired an outside consultant to set up media interviews, a function performed in many states by government employees.

At the state Capitol, Palin agreed to be "shadowed" for days by some national reporters, and her dealings with the legislature dropped off so dramatically that some House and Senate members donned red-and-white "Where's Sarah?" buttons to show their disapproval. But her high-visibility campaign paid off, helping Palin win notice from political pundits, who began including her on lists of long-shot choices for the GOP vice presidential spot.

"We were glad she was out there promoting energy development," said Alaska state Rep. Jay Ramras (R), an occasional critic of Palin. "Who would have guessed the self-promoting element would have led to such an improbable move, to place her on the ticket, but it worked."

Palin's gubernatorial calendar, obtained by The Washington Post under the Alaska Public Records Act, adds to the understanding of Palin as a political phenomenon, a governor from an obscure state who exploded onto the national stage after just 21 months in office. While many factors played a role in Palin's rise, including her background in broadcast journalism and the appeal of her life story, she also benefited from expert counsel on how to take her message to a national audience.

Palin made energy a priority as she took office in December 2006. Much of her time was devoted to discussions of a proposed 1,700-mile pipeline that would deliver natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to the lower 48 states. The issue had long been controversial, but Palin vowed to tackle it without making too many concessions to oil companies. Her first contact with Washington came on Jan. 17, 2007, when the vice president called her to discuss the project, the calendar shows.

In early January 2007, Palin met with Marathon Oil executives, and the next month, while attending a meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, she met privately with Exxon Mobil executives, including the president of production at the time. The conference also provided her first audience with President Bush, who hosted the governors at the White House.

But Palin's typical day during her first months in office was far more mundane, the calendar shows. Her schedule shows long gaps in her official business on school holidays, appearances at local events and festivals, and frequent out-of-town trips with a child or two in tow.

Meetings on the pipeline became regular features on her calendar, and the Department of Natural Resources wanted to heighten national attention on it, said Kurt Gibson, a member of Palin's oil and gas team. Despite the project's "unprecedented" nature, state officials were not attracting the interest of national media, he said.

"We are a small state far removed from major media markets. We needed someone with expertise. The objective was to raise national awareness of the project," Gibson said. "It benefits not just the state of Alaska, but Americans in general. We want the public to understand this."

Gibson said Palin was an articulate advocate for the project and "the best person to deliver that message."

The agency signed a contract last year with Marcia Brier, who is based in Needham, Mass. Brier's Web site says she has been a public relations expert for 20 years, working mostly with law and medical firms. She represented Bader al-Saud, the Saudi prince, in his plea deal on a vehicular homicide charge. Another Brier client is the law firm Greenberg Traurig, which is providing legal services to the state of Alaska on the pipeline and recommended Brier to state officials.

Brier began pitching Palin for media interviews as early as October 2007, when an e-mail was sent to The Post.

The media campaign did not take off, however, until this year, after Palin announced that TransCanada was the only firm to meet the bidding requirements for the pipeline. As events unfolded, Brier pitched stories promoting Palin, casting her as the force behind creating the pipeline plan and convincing the legislature to go along.

Media pitches sent to The Post in mid-May were titled "Big Oil Under Siege" and "Alaska's Love-Hate Relationship With Big Oil." Each offered an interview with Palin.

"The announcement of the winning bidder for a new Alaskan pipeline is a major blow to ExxonMobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips, the three oil companies operating in Alaska," Brier's pitch said. "These companies have blocked construction of a new pipeline for decades. . . . But now, the new governor of Alaska has devised a way to circumvent Big Oil's delaying tactics."

Another pitch said: "Even Alaska's upstart governor, who has been key in pushing through the pipeline project that oil companies detest, depends on these very companies for her family income. Her husband, Todd, works for BP as a field worker."

Adding to the media's interest in the 44-year-old governor was the delivery of her fifth child, Trig, on April 18. Palin flew home from a Republican Governors Association meeting in Texas to have the baby at a Wasilla hospital, and the schedules show that she returned to work three days afterward. She resurfaced to attend a meeting on the pipeline at the Capitol.

McCain shows up twice on Palin's calendar during the months he was considering her as a potential running mate. In February, he hosted a gathering with governors at a Washington hotel during the Republican Governors Association's winter meeting. The next month, Palin promoted McCain at the Alaska Republican Party's annual convention in Anchorage, reading a letter from him that expressed his regrets for not being able to attend.

On May 22, Palin recommended that the legislature approve the selection of TransCanada for pipeline construction. That same day, Brier scheduled an interview for Palin with the New York Times. She also did telephone interviews with The Post, Fox News, Fortune magazine and "60 Minutes" this spring and summer.

In June, Palin called the legislature into special session to consider the pipeline proposal as well as her plan to give state residents $1,200 oil-dividends checks. The Wall Street Journal flew in to shadow the governor, her calendar shows.

Before long, the spotlight on Palin had expanded to include personal profiles and stories about her staunch opposition to listing polar bears as endangered. People magazine, which sent a reporter to follow her, featured her in a cover story with photos of her holding Trig.

Some lawmakers complained about the governor's preoccupation with media coverage, blaming it in part for her absence at the Capitol.

There also was some resentment that Palin presented herself as the driving force behind the pipeline. "This didn't happen because of one person," said state Rep. Beth Kerttula, a Democrat and House minority leader. "We saw changes because many, many people wanted them and worked for them." The legislature ratified the TransCanada proposal in August.

Larry Persily, an associate director in Alaska's Washington office until June and a former Anchorage Daily News opinion page editor, said the governor initially might not have known how to reach out to national media, but she was well versed in doing interviews from her experience with Alaska news outlets. By the time there was some national buzz on her, he said, she was ready, and an easy sell to reporters.

"The national media loves it when we make the news, because we are so weird out there" in Alaska, Persily said. "Editors across the nation started saying, 'Let's go find out who this woman is.' "

Gibson, the oil and gas team member, said the contract with Brier ended when McCain picked Palin.

"We'd achieved our objective with getting the national attention," Gibson said. "There was no need anymore to use state money to achieve that. She has the platform. She can deliver the message. She doesn't have a problem reaching out to the media."

[Flagstaffsooner]

yup, and I listen to you for my political advice.:(

[Okla-homey]

Chuck,

The other side has just as much right to be excited about one of their candidates as your side is about BHO. Clearly, much of this Palin-oia is being ginned and drummed up by lefty spinmeisters who oppose her, just as the "BHO is a Muslim terrorist who wasn't even born in the US but was born to a drug addicted white nyphomaniac who had serial black lovers" stuff was ginned-up by rightie spinmeisters.

I think they are particularly focused on Palin because if they can somehow destroy her popularity with punditry, then she's no longer able to threaten them in the national arena.

[JohnnyMack]

Word is Palin has about "gone rogue" and has stopped taking direction from mccain staffers. Lots of difficulty handling her and keeping her on message. Is she separating herself to try and save her political future if they don't win?

[StoopTroup]

Hawt Chicks are so much fun at parties.

It's when they start party planning is when it usually gets a little weird.

:D

[85Sooner]

McCains handlers have done a ****ty job. SHe should just be who she is and do what she deems necessary to get her points out. A person who would say she is scarier than B Hussein O and hillary must be homeless, a criminal, a communist/socialist, sponging off the government, not paying any taxes, because that is the only context that would substantiate the comment.:)

[Okla-homey]

McCains handlers have done a ****ty job. SHe should just be who she is and do what she deems necessary to get her points out. A person who would say she is scarier than B Hussein O and hillary must be homeless, a criminal, a communist/socialist, sponging off the government, not paying any taxes, because that is the only context that would substantiate the comment.:)

or ghey. Palin's not a particularly big proponent of ghey rights.

[JohnnyMack]

I am all of the above. You two whitebred, flyover state living in bible thumpers are always good for some entertainment.

[Okla-homey]

I am all of the above. You two whitebred, flyover state living in bible thumpers are always good for some entertainment.

fact is, if BHO wins, and doesn't start immediately crapping diamonds, the media will turn on him faster than a Vegas roulette wheel, and we'll be in for a very long four years until the 'Pubs come storming back in 2012.

[yermom]

i'll bet Rush is secretly hoping Obama wins :D (the real one, not the clone one)

[Chuck Bao]

or ghey. Palin's not a particularly big proponent of ghey rights.

I believe I have already clearly explained why Palin is so dangerous.

But yep, Homey, her call for a constitutional amendment to deny rights to gay people is just another example of her pandering to her own support base in the religious right.

These busybodies won’t be satisfied until there is a Bill of Wrongs (as opposed to the Bill of Rights) added to the constitution. Wait, I’m sorry. They will call them the “Thou Shalt Nots”, as their god adds another 10 or 15 new commandments.

Maybe, Palin is already taking her moment in the spotlight to start her run for president in 2012.

Or maybe the real reason is that Palin simply isn’t comfortable talking about really, really complicated issues like the economy and tax plans and foreign policy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27285822/


Palin breaks with McCain on gay marriage
Palin tells Christian Broadcasting Network she's in favor of a federal ban
Associated Press updated 6:10 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2008

NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a break with John McCain who has said he believes states should be left to define what marriage is.

In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, the Alaska governor said she had voted in 1998 for a state amendment banning same sex marriage and hoped to see a federal ban on such unions.

"I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that's where we would go. I don't support gay marriage," Palin said. She said she believed traditional marriage is the foundation for strong families.

McCain, an Arizona senator, is supporting a ballot initiative in his state this year that would ban gay marriage. But he has consistently and forcefully opposed a federal marriage amendment, saying it would usurp states' authority on such matters.

As governor, Palin vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to the partners of gay state employees. In a debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden, Palin said she was "tolerant" of gays and said she supported certain legal protections for same-sex couples, like hospital visitation rights.

In the CBN interview, Palin also said she would speak out if she heard a supporter at a rally yell violent or threatening comments about Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.

"What we have heard through some mainstream media is that folks have hollered out some atrocious and unacceptable things like 'kill him,'" Palin said, referring to a Washington Post story two weeks ago about angry supporters at a Palin rally in Florida. "If I ever were to hear that standing up there at the podium with the mike, I would call them out on that, and I would tell these people, no, that's unacceptable."

CBN released excerpts of the interview Monday and planned to broadcast it in its entirety Tuesday.

Palin also claimed religion and God had been "mocked" during the campaign, although she offered no evidence to support that.

"Faith in God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart and that is unfair for others who share a faith in God and choose to worship our Lord in whatever private manner that they deem fit," she said.

Palin is a conservative Christian who was baptized and grew up attending Pentecostal churches. In September, Obama defended Palin's religious beliefs and said it would be "offensive" to portray her faith as strange or wrong.

Palin also reaffirmed her view that Obama had been "palling around with terrorists" because of his association with Bill Ayers, a 1960s-era radical who helped found the violent Weather Underground group to protest the Vietnam war. The group was responsible for bombings of several government buildings.

"I would say it again," she said.

Ayers and Obama live in the same Chicago neighborhood and have served together on charity boards. Ayers also hosted a house party for Obama when he was first running for the Illinois state Senate.

[yermom]

here is why i'm afraid of Palin:

UwjlUMoLVvA

this is the element she's promoting, and pandering to.

it's nice to know it's all about who your parents were

[lexsooner]

here is why i'm afraid of Palin:

UwjlUMoLVvA

this is the element she's promoting, and pandering to.

it's nice to know it's all about who your parents were

I give her credit for not claiming Obama is a Muslim. Then again, the bar was really, really low in this case. The Lexington Herald Leader published today the results of a poll of Kentuckians about their understanding of the backgrounds of Obama and McCain, and the results showed 28% of Kentucky Republicans surveyed believe Obama is a Muslim. Four percent of Democrats surveyed believe the same.

[Chuck Bao]

She's real!

She speaks from her heart.

She connects with the average American.

Republican VP material, right there.

She should hook up with Joe the Plumber.

[VeeJay]

fact is, if BHO wins, and doesn't start immediately crapping diamonds, the media will turn on him faster than a Vegas roulette wheel, and we'll be in for a very long four years until the 'Pubs come storming back in 2012.

I mentioned this very scenario to Mrs. VJ this morning. Fact is, under your scenario, conventional wisdom tell us you're correct.

But the wave sweeping him into the WH is a mix of unions, teachers, nearly all African Americans, hardcore Democrats, wackadoodle lefties - er...uh...moonbats...(the moveon.org crowd), and a big segment - those new to the political process born since 1980 (our kids) who have never actually lived through tough economic times - they see this boob as the messiah. No matter what he or his campaign pull off in terms of stuntsmanship or arrogant flippancy (the Orlando TV questioning of Biden) - they have no clue what they are voting into office.

After four years of The Chosen One, they will realize their dreams of quickly surpassing our generation in terms of wealth and idealism has not materialized, and they will not understand why.

[Chuck Bao]

I mentioned this very scenario to Mrs. VJ this morning. Fact is, under your scenario, conventional wisdom tell us you're correct.

But the wave sweeping him into the WH is a mix of unions, teachers, nearly all African Americans, hardcore Democrats, wackadoodle lefties - er...uh...moonbats...(the moveon.org crowd), and a big segment - those new to the political process born since 1980 (our kids) who have never actually lived through tough economic times - they see this boob as the messiah. No matter what he or his campaign pull off in terms of stuntsmanship or arrogant flippancy (the Orlando TV questioning of Biden) - they have no clue what they are voting into office.

After four years of The Chosen One, they will realize their dreams of quickly surpassing our generation in terms of wealth and idealism has not materialized, and they will not understand why.

You don't have to wait four years. Reality check is already in the mail.

[Big Red Ron]

Palin = Dangerous
Obama = safe.

Gotcha

[soonerhubs]

You don't have to wait four years. Reality check is already in the mail.

Signed and sealed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

[Big Red Ron]

Signed and sealed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Yes, yet more proof that the government shouldn't be involved in anything but war.

[soonerhubs]

Yes, yet more proof that the government shouldn't be involved in anything but war.

You mean to tell me you wouldn't follow Barney Frank's advice for investment plans? :D

[Chuck Bao]

Seriously, I've been telling my American friends for 10 years already that their children cannot expect to maintain their lifestyle. That was just on the basic premise that US consumer debt could not be sustained.

I've been telling my nieces and nephews that had better study hard and get into the best schools because the haves and have nots will only become more pronounced under the "new economy" with the export of jobs and new technology eliminating the middle management.

Okay, I was too early. The fact is that it is coming due now and we all better scinch our belts and gird our loins. I admit that I should be in the forefront of the scinching and girding.

[soonerhubs]

Seriously, I've been telling my American friends for 10 years already that their children cannot expect to maintain their lifestyle. That was just on the basic premise that US consumer debt could not be sustained.

I've been telling my nieces and nephews that had better study hard and get into the best schools because the haves and have nots will only become more pronounced under the "new economy" with the export of jobs and new technology eliminating the middle management.

Okay, I was too early. The fact is that it is coming due now and we all better scinch our belts and gird our loins. I admit that I should be in the forefront of the scinching and girding.

I agree with you that most of America has been living outside of their means. Regarding the loss of jobs in the US? I've got a perfect solution. Lower taxes on businesses so they don't go over seas.

[Chuck Bao]

The reality check I get goes far beyond Fannie and Fredie.

How about those insurance companies?

[Chuck Bao]

I agree with you that most of America has been living outside of their means. Regarding the loss of jobs in the US? I've got a perfect solution. Lower taxes on businesses so they don't go over seas.

I agree hubler. I also agree with Obama's plan to give tax breaks to companies that hire Americans.

But, that is not going to solve the problem. The nut of the issue is that Americans are expensive. And, health care is tied into it. That is pretty basic. One can low ball employees only so much.

[soonerhubs]

I agree hubler. I also agree with Obama's plan to give tax breaks to companies that hire Americans.

But, that is not going to solve the problem. The nut of the issue is that Americans are expensive. And, health care is tied into it. That is pretty basic. One can low ball employees only so much.

You're probably right. I didn't mean to make it sound like I had the silver bullet.

[Chuck Bao]

You're probably right. I didn't mean to make it sound like I had the silver bullet.

You're 1,000 x smarter than I am, hubler. I'm pretty much at a loss for ideas and I have to write my monthly stock market strategy and all I can think of is "punt".

[soonerhubs]

You're 1,000 x smarter than I am, hubler. I'm pretty much at a loss for ideas and I have to write my monthly stock market strategy and all I can think of is "punt".

You're very kind, but I wouldn't come to me for much advice beyond relationships and family life. Some wouldn't even come to me for that. :D

[picasso]

attack and blame rhetoric? are we really going to throw stones on that argument from either side?

and enough about the expensive suits ****t. it's pretty obvious she doesn't come from big money, was anyone ever bitching about Bush or Kerry's suits? hint hint, they both come from big money.

sheesh.

whaaaaa.

[yermom]

with all the millions of dollars thrown around i'm not sure why $150k for clothes, etc... is a big deal

[yermom]

I agree with you that most of America has been living outside of their means. Regarding the loss of jobs in the US? I've got a perfect solution. Lower taxes on businesses so they don't go over seas.

how about you tax the crap out of the ones that move out of the country?

i don't think taxes are the problem. "Frank" in India that works for $.25 an hours is the issue

maybe we should require American companies to pay minimum wage overseas :D

[Sooner_Havok]

attack and blame rhetoric? are we really going to throw stones on that argument from either side?

and enough about the expensive suits ****t. it's pretty obvious she doesn't come from big money, was anyone ever bitching about Bush or Kerry's suits? hint hint, they both come from big money.

sheesh.

whaaaaa.

You don't get big money winning dog races? Guess I better stop going to the Grey Hound track :D

[JohnnyMack]

how about you tax the crap out of the ones that move out of the country?

i don't think taxes are the problem. "Frank" in India that works for $.25 an hours is the issue

maybe we should require American companies to pay minimum wage overseas :D

Great post. The corporations love people railing against raising corporate taxes, saying they're too high when the actual rate paid is much lower and these corporations have a long history of shipping jobs overseas, not paying a living wage and crying about the big bad tax rates they don't actually pay. **** 'em.

[Chuck Bao]

For the record, I was calling Palin a "suit" because she was toeing the company/party/big business line and not because her new set of clothes were more than I make in a year.

Doncha know there is gay either doing her hair or picking out clothes and she calls them her friends.

[JohnnyMack]

For the record, I was calling Palin a "suit" because she was toeing the company/party/big business line and not because her new set of clothes were more than I make in a year.

Doncha know there is gay either doing her hair or picking out clothes and she calls them her friends.

I know her stylist is the highest paid member of the McCain staff. Seriously.

[Chuck Bao]

I know her stylist is the highest paid member of the McCain staff. Seriously.


WO0T!1!!! More pink dollars in circulation.

[soonerscuba]

I know her stylist is the highest paid member of the McCain staff. Seriously.Wow. I just looked this up, while I personally think it's awesome that McCain is spending in the neighborhood of $200,000 on Palin's appearance, it's certainly doesn't bode well for people that actually want them to win.

[JohnnyMack]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iU_P23eyGmxqE8EEa7ba6r86BpIwD9411AVG0