Steve, you seem to forget that being a Republican means never having to justify anything you say or do. Ever.

Well, Gov. Palin is at least working out as planned, I mean, no one is really talking about Obama or the Democratic Convention, so the repubs won this round.

Let's just go with the fact that she's Candidate McCain's soulmate.

The GOP is the party that creates its own reality, remember?

I'm still trying to figure out how she went from mayor of a town of 6000, with a strip mall storefront city hall, to the governor of Alaska.

Who bought and paid for this?

Next week she will be an expert on China because she watched the Olympics on ... TV. And then will hear that her TV was broken at the time.
The narrative of the GOP is sad and untrue but it may just work. A lot of people hear the GOP lies but I am not sure that the same number of people hear/pay attention the counter arguments that follow.

You simply don't have to do much vetting if you're confident you can bully the media into swallowing anything you tell them to swallow. That she is completely unqualified to even merit discussion as vice president is exactly the point. The tribal freaks in the conservative movement prefer it that way. They have no governing ideology or agenda, they have a pathological need to feel persecuted.

Kos has a fascinating, scary, and apparently well-documented story about Palin's connection to the Alaskan Independence Party. Check it out, and forward to as many commentators and blogs as you can.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/1/4231/18477/878/581881

Also, what's the latest on the weird but seemingly plausible story (after all, Palin sure doesn't look pregnant in pictures supposedly taken near the end of her ostensible pregnancy) that Sarah Palin's fifth child was actually her daughter's child? Also, many decry the poor judgment about being on the plane ride and etc. if Palin was indeed the mother of that child. Some rightie bloggers claim the late-pregnancy pics are mis-dated (but there's other data points too), anyone know what the best scoop is?

Alaska borders Canada, is next to Russia, and by
following that logic is also next to Europe.
Just look a globe.

DailyKos has two posts up this morning about connections between Sarah Palin and the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party, including a YouTube video where the vice-chairman of AIP speaks about "the necessity of infiltrating the major national parties in order to further the goals of the AIP." Heckuva vet.

On preview, Neil B beats me to it.

It might have been better to say Palin was in charge of the Department of Public Safety, where she took quick action to remove a commissioner who wouldn't fire her brother in law, and then replaced him with an accused sexual harrasser. Or maybe just leave out the details.

Even if Palin did have something to do with the Alaska National Guard, they number something like 4,000. The District of Columbia has 3,800 Metro Police. (Anyone remember Marion Barry?)

I have a long take on the "Alaska Commander in Chief" notion on my class blog, which isn't particularly class-centered at the moment since school is not in session, but it gives me a chance to rant.

Anyway, short story: Being "commander-in-chief" of the Arkansas National Guard provoked peals of Republican laughter when Bill Clinton tried it in 1992 so sauce for the goose...;

There are 54 National Guards -- 50 states, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands -- so there are 54 commanders-in-chief in the USA (POTUS is also CinC of the D.C. Guard), so commander-in-chiefitude suddenly doesn't seem so special;

Then-SecDef Rumsfeld banned use of the term, "commander-in-chief" for anyone other than POTUS on October 24, 2002 for the entire Defense Department, which includes the National Guard Bureau, an edict that has not been rescinded by Gates, so strictly speaking the Alaska National Guard's CinC is Bush;

The war-bloggers are aflutter about the 49th Missile Defense Battalion, Alaska Army National Guard, which is on full-time status as part of the ballistic missile defense program, "proving" that Palin is in command of something real. Unfortunately, that is a subordinate element of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, which is an active duty element, and so its commander-in-chief is POTUS.

In other words, 5 pounds of nothing in a paper bag.

Come on, Steve -- you know for a fact that the truth value of none of this matters to them. If we had a functioning press ....

Be sure to check the video in which the vice-chairman of AIP talks about "the necessity of infiltrating the major national parties in order to further the goals of the AIP."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/1/4231/18477/878/581881

Has the McCain campaign considered claiming that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the senator and told him to choose Palin?

Hail, Sarah, fair of face,
McCain is with thee....

dontcallmefrancis wants to know how Palin became Governor of Alaska.

Pretty easy.

Only 200K or so votes were cast statewide in the 2006 gubernatorial, Alaska is a pretty red state, and the incumbent three-term governor was embroiled in a bunch of scandals. So she essentially lucked out.

RE: Pregnancy

I'd like the press to investigate these claims, which on their face, are infinitely more plausible than the Swiftboat claims. Personally, I have seen small town politics at work and believe that the most outrageous things get covered-up all the time to protect the locally powerful. Might a good Christian doctor go along with a charade assuming that no one would ever know? Sure, why not.

But even taking Palin at her word, that her water broke and she was leaking amniotic fluid, consulted with her doctor who told her it was okay for her to: 1. give her speech, 2. get on a commercial flight to Alaska via Seattle, 3. drive 45 minutes out of Anchorage to Wasilla to give birth to a child who was a month premature and had special needs.

Is this the response of a sane person?

There's a great graphic on this decision making process at:
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/4628/sarahpalinla4.png

The age of reason died a hard death when the Bush administration came to power. It does not a matter whether something is true or not, it only matters that the believers believe it. Palin was picked to pander to the faith-based crowd. Science, reason and fact don't matter, it's all about creating your own reality and getting them to believe in it.

The obvious answer is that Obama is a scary black man and McCain panicked.

Well, here's one that's not about Palin:

record numbers of students turning up for classes this fall are homeless or poor enough to qualify for free meals

It does not a matter whether something is true or not, it only matters that the believers believe it.

It's the perfect propaganda storm.

The Talibornagains will lie at the drop of a hat, because it's done in the service of a Higher Truth, and if it's done to save the blastocysts of American from the specter of gay marriage, then, hey, what's a Commandment broken -- there are nine others.

The Party' shock workers know that 'truth' is an outdated, bourgeois concept, and that anything that advances the Party, because it is the Vanguard of the Revolution, possesses 'revolutionary truth'. All power to the Soviets of bond traders and hedge-fund managers!

In that environment, the truth has the half-life of a Yankees pitching prospect.

I'd add that Palin's rep for 'taking on Big Oil' is overblown & distorted as well.

Palin is all about increased drilling, including the ANWR region (even oil companies are somewhat antsy about drilling there). Where Palin & Big Oil butt heads is that she wants a bigger cut of their profits.

Like a drug-seller who wants a bigger cut of his dealer's take, she in no meaningful or moral way opposes Big Oil; she just wants a bigger slice of the pie.

Now that's capitalism we can believe in!

The refutations do not matter. The refutations are covered only briefly, while the arguments for Palin's qualifications are repeated endlessly. What we see as arguments falling by the wayside is seen by the casual observer as a build up of even more good reasons that Palin is qualified for VP.

You forget that she brings balance to the McCain ticket - she has the executive experience he desperately needs!

The arguments made for Governor Palin are almost exactly parallel to those made for George W. Bush in 2000. Then it was said that Bush -- who never held public office of any sort until he became governor -- had sufficient "executive experience," although the Texas constitution actually give the governor here substantially less authority than in most states. It was said that he had foreign relations experience, because Texas borders Mexico.

Senator McCain actually cited Governor Palin's work on the local PTA in describing her background and qualifications.

The current talking point seems to be that Governor Palin's "executive" experience as mayor of Wasilla, a part-time (and likely unpaid) position, and 20 months as governor of a state that, if it were a county, would rank 85th in population in the country, trumps both Senator Obama's twelve years of experience in the Illinois and U.S. Senate, and Biden's thirty-plus years in the Senate.

No word yet on why Senator Palin's in the VP slot, since by that same argument she's also more qualified in the "executive" area than Senator McCain. . . .

We've seen - and lived through - the disaster of an administration of a President with "executive experience" at the state level. Bush had NO experience other than that at the state level. Never traveled, not intellectually curious, depended on others - neo-cons - to govern. Though, "govern" should be used sparingly.

This is EXACTLY what the McCain campaign is pitching. If/when McCain doubles over with the "big one" and goes to that Hanoi-Hilton in the sky, we will be left with a female George Bush.
Depending on the same type of neo-con and Christian fascist advisers Bush has relied on for the last eight years.

Please, please, can't someone in the press say that???

Uh, Andy@11.00a, great minds think alike!

Heh - maybe Palin's experience as "commander in chief" of the Alaska National Guard is prep. for her taking on the rest of the USA when Alaska decides to secede! (Remember though, the AIP angle will actually appeal to dead-ender neoconfederates that are now much of the Repub's base.)

Palin used to enjoy reruns of Hogan's Heros, so she was practically a POW.

Palin is an articulate, intelligent female Steve. She now has the victim label without sacrificing a shred of credibility. While we may agree that she should not be entitled to vote, in America-2008, she is a very effective candidate. You will see this soon.

Orwell's flopsweat is rather pungent. Deodorant, dunce...deodorant.

Best push-back for "CIC of Alaska National Guard":

"Oh, really? When's the last time a governor declared war and ordered their National Guard into battle? Never, you say? Then why do you bring it up as if it's a qualification?"

Best overall pushback: "Remember in 2000 how the Bush campaign told us that his lack of foreign policy experience was no big deal because he would surround himself with good advisors? And then he surrounded himself with ideologues and sycophants? Because he wasn't smart or experienced enough to be able to tell a good advisor from a bad one? Intelligence and judgement matter."

"Palin is an articulate, intelligent female..."

Interesting how Brick Bat Bob refers to women as *females* as if he's sexing puppy litters.

Oh and then there's this:

"While we may agree that she should not be entitled to vote, in America-2008..."

Fucking pig.

Please, please, can't someone in the press say that???

It isn't up to the press to say that. It is up to the Dems to MAKE that case. It isn't the press' job to arbitrate for the Dems.

"Palin is an articulate, intelligent female Steve."

??? You mean she's a female Steve Benen? Holy crap, Drudge ought to know about this. Too bad the Weekly World News is defunct.

Senator McCain actually cited Governor Palin's work on the local PTA in describing her background and qualifications.

How gloriously delicious if someone in the media played along and asked for a fact sheet on her PTA accomplishments.

O the look on Gramp's face!

Well while the Republican party fiddles, Darth Vader , Dick Cheney leaves America under draconian security to rattle the sabers for Bombing Iran? Is this true?

Orwell: since you are insane, I guess the converse would be true. The Palin Pregnancy Decision Matrix chart was excellent, incidentally. A lot of her rumors and scandals are being hyped by Republicans. McCain is not a popular guy. The poles are really skewed this year. The media is less than credible. The key is to get that theft-proof majority.

If the Russians ever invade Alaskan territory, Commander-in-Chief Palin will be our first line of defense.

It's looking even less likely that Palin is her baby's grandmother now that she's admitted that her 17-year-old daughter is 5 months pregnant right now. This is not a rumor -- this has been confirmed by the McCain campaign.

Yay for abstinence education! If it doesn't work, you can always get married at 17!

Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard,[...]

But, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, he said [...] the governor is not briefed on situations. -- AP Google, via Benen

That's *not* what Chico was saying yesterday and, surely, Chico knows best?

Save argument the libs use for Obama. A historic moment for racist, sexist America.

BREAKING NEWS:

The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.

BREAKING NEWS:

The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.

Steve: Your commentary is another case for Senator McCain to quickly find a replacement for Gov. Palin. The national poll (e.g., CNN) shows that she is hurting him by about 77% of respondents. He made a mistake, but this does not mean he could not get out from this complex situation he is now experiencing. He should very soon tell the American people he was wrong and then select someone that is very-well known by the media and the American people. If he does not do that now, he would be giving Senator Obama the key to the White House even before the general election in November. Have you observed that Senator Obama is not putting too much emphasis on the "troopergate"? The reason: he actually does not want Senator McCain to remove Gov. Palin from his ticket, this explains why Senator Obama is not yet attacking Senator McCain on this issue (he has discuss the "experiential" isssue but has avoided talking about the "troopergate" issue...for the reason suggested above).