Always keep in mind. They will do anything...ANYTHING to win

The national enquirer claims to have explosive info about the troopergate scandal as well:

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/sarah_palin_at_war_with_her_daughter_over_pregnancy_wedding/celebrity/65370

McEvil has made a contract with the devil in order to fulfill his ambitions to be the president. Can this piece of shit get ever more disgusting and repulsive ?

good catch. they put the family out there as bait, and when the media or Dems take it, they say "you detestable cads, dragging innocent family members into your political hit jobs like that!"

clever, i confess, if one thinks turning pregnant teens into partisan pawns is an acceptable means to your ends.

but they should absolutely be called on this. you know they wont (cant?) stop slamming on anyone in reach for "going after" the Palin family. from now on, everytime - without fail - the response needs to be "um, you were the ones who had the Bristol-Levi photo op, you were the ones who announced the news, you were the ones who made Levi come to Minnesota, you were the ones who put them on stage."

The McCain campaign planned all of this to change the subject from McCain's flip flops on every issue - too bad it's not gonna work.

Check out this info culled from Alaska Newspapers about Sarah Pallin:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003845449

We don't allow liberals on our show because, as Bill Bennett pointed out, they'd attack her pregnant daughter, and we will not be a platform for liberals to say the horrible things Bennet says they'll say.

Your post stated the issue perfectly. McCain seems to be playing up the tabloid aspects to avoid the real issues surrounding his choice.

I, for one, am most curious about Palin's ties to the AIP and the reaction it will cause. I have not heard the issue mentioned by any MSM news source yet. I just listened to an hour and a half on NPR's Talk of the Nation and it was NOT mentioned.

How will the Republicans react when the spouse of their candidate turns out to be something of a traitor to the country? How would they have reacted if Michelle Obama had been in a similar position? Enquiring minds want to know. (Sorry)

Matthew Dowd said the same thing on Sunday, this campaign is not about issues.

This fits right in with the premise outlined in "The Political Brain" and is why republicans keep winning when they shouldn't.

You fail to appreciate the greatness of the GOP. Theirs is a stylized form of Kabuki that makes the Japanese variant look like mud-wrestling. The elevation of symbols over people, the feigned outrage over imagined insults, the mythical oppression at the hands of the media -- all is pure political art of the highest genius. Must the warrior not control CNN before he can control the country?

Overwhelmingly, reporters are pressing eminently reasonable questions -- her role in troopergate, her lack of experience, her connections to the AIP, her history of earmarking and lobbyists, etc.

Third, Republicans are blaming The Angry Left for stoking the culture wars.

I drink your milkshake!

I can only add my voice to everybody else who says this tarmac greeting is about the most detestable, cynical example of self-loathing, manipulation and shameless pandering I have ever seen, though I can only expect worse going forward.

The TV media CANNOT let their attention be diverted from the legitimate questions about her earmark record, her extreme political and social views, her abuses of power.

And don't miss the fact that whenever an uncomfortable question about Palin comes up, they change the subject to Bristol's pregnancy, and talk about how disgusted they are at the liberal media for bringing it up so often. Oddly, the "liberal media" never defends itself.

But the other nonsense is the importance of tonight's speech. That's when we will really learn whether Palin is VP material. Nonsense. The only thing we will learn is if she can read a speech without oscillating like a twenty dollar fan.

Are we finally realizing that the revelations about Palin's pregnant daughter weren't any kind of vetting error, but actually represent a PR coup? What possible better way to shut down inquiry into Sarah Palin's economic and foreign policy positions and experience?

The media's been played, folks, and I'm not some fringe nut saying it.

Maybe we'll see a scene like this tonight:

http://failblog.org/2008/09/03/proposal-fail/

Next up, we'll have McCain's chief political strategist tell us what liberals are saying about Palin. What he says they're saying may shock you.

Josh isn't the only one to see it this way. The Field has an article with a similar take on things. http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield

Josh isn't the only one to see it this way. The Field has an article with a similar take on things. http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield

You know, maybe I'm just hoping, but it seems the media may not fall for it this time. Well, not the media en masse. I think there is going to be push back that the McCain campaign can't contain with games like this. One, there's just TOO much stuff. I mean too much. And second, and this is just my take on all the reading I've been doing, but I've never sensed as much hostility on the part of the media since really Gore. And I don't think their hostility is directed so much at McCain like it was at Gore, but at his campaign. I get the sense that some of them think or feel that the campaign is playing them for saps. As the Repubs have always done mind you, but I think this completely cynical vp pick has really maybe shocked them into reality.

The exploitation of the privacy issue is another thing I noted in my roundup of Day 4 of the Palin follies.

"Show me the birth certificate" is coming later.

Watching the video, you'll notice that McCain lingers with Palin's pregnant daughter and her fiancee.

Fiancé, you mean, not fiancée. This is the Republican convention, after all.

Well, that explains why not to use the accents. So fiance, not fiancee.

Oh my. Jack Cafferty's question of the day (4 o'clock) is "Should McCain replace Palin?" Also they are showing polls with Obama holding 12%+ leads in Minn and Iowa. CNN usually ignors polls like this.

I feel for Levi. Poor kid just wanted what all kids his age want, a little action. Now his MySpace page was taken down along with life as he knows it.

I realize he is legally an adult but where are his parents?

Maybe the kid likes being paraded around as the guy that knocked up Bristol. Will he make it to November without having a complete, 9mm-with-an-8 ball-and-a-hooker-in-a-hotel-room meltdown?

Or worse. Another celebrity wanna be reality show?

have a hissy fit one day about respecting the girl's privacy then drag her and the baby daddy onto the world stage the next...

This, folks, is what a double-shotgun wedding looks like.

if McCain aides and surrogates can keep talking about Palin's family by complaining about the coverage of Palin's family, the public will eventually collectively shrug its shoulders, and assume that all Palin-related criticism is trivial and should be tuned out.

But this stuff is so basic that the public is just making up its own mind -- the public doesn't need anything more than basic information from the press to form an opinion on whether Palin can do the job with all this going on in her family. People disagree, but they're not responding to any media overkill -- they're just hearing the facts (kid with Down syndrome, pregnant daughter, life spent exclusively in rural obscurity) and making up their own minds.

The people who are discussing Palin's children are playing right into McCain/Palin's hands. Anyone with a brain knows that this subject is radioactive and shouldn't even be approached by Dems.

Jay Rosen in the Huffington Post has a very interesting analysis of what McCain's campaign is doing with the Palin situation:

Posted September 3, 2008 | 09:46 AM (EST)

John McCain's convention gambit is now a culture war strategy. It depends for its execution on conflict with journalists, and with bloggers (the "angry left," Bush called them last night) along with confusion between and among the press, the blogosphere, and the Democratic party. It revives cultural memory: the resentment narrative after Chicago '68 but with the angry left more distributed. It dispenses with issues and seeks a trial of personalities. It bets big time on backlash.

At the center of the strategy is the flashpoint candidacy of Sarah Palin, a charismatic figure around whom the war can be brought to scale, as it were. In fact the Politico is reporting just that: Palin reignites culture wars.

I have no idea if the ignition system will work; nor do I claim that "this is what they were thinking" when they made the decision to nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Other interpretations may turn out to be truer than mine. This post is my look at the bets McCain and company seem to be placing. I am not recommending the strategy. I am not predicting it will succeed. I think it was improvised, like my description here....

The storm around Sarah Pailn overtakes the story of the Republican convention and merges with it, like a smaller but stronger company taking over a larger but troubled enterprise. Behind the storm a "wave narrative" builds as her appointment generates headlines on multiple fronts. The irresistible force of fact-fed controversy meets the immovable enthusiasm for Palin as cultural object: charismatic everywoman straight from the imaginary of conservative America.

* The basic strategy is: don't fight the "crisis" narrative. Rather, do things that bring it on; and in that crisis re-divide the electorate hoping to grab the bigger half.

The evangelical wing, and other social conservatives are strongly moved by her candidacy. More and more of their commitment to McCain is vested in him through her. As Andrew Sullivan writes: "The emotions involved -- especially among the Christianist base who have immediately bonded on purely religious and cultural terms with Palin -- are epic."
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* The strategy: sell the epic version of her candidacy. Allow her to become bigger than McCain in narrative terms. And let the two mavericks together overawe the Republican party, a damaged brand.

Continued bad news on the investigation front adds further drama, new fact streams and more protagonists to the Sarah Palin story. As more comes out about the decision to name Sarah Palin to the ticket, it's harder to see how anyone on the inside thought it McCain's best choice for president-in-waiting.

* Strategy: Give no ground, pile on the praise for her performance in Alaska, pump up her governor's experience to death-defying extremes, hope for theatrical confrontation with characters in the mainstream media who can star as the cosmopolitan elites in the sudden politics of resentment the convention has been driven to.

Bloggers and open platforms continue to publish riskier--and risque--material, some of it unfit for family consumption, some of it false, salacious and reckless, some of it true, relevant and damaging, a portion of which is picked up by the traditional press.

* Strategy: confound and collapse all distinctions between closed editorial systems (like the newsroom of the New York Times), open systems (like the blogging community DailyKos.com) and political systems, like the Democratic party and its activist wing. Whenever possible mix these up. Conflate constantly. Attack them all. Jump from one to the other without warning or thread. Sow confusion among streams and let that confusion mix with the resentment in a culture war atmosphere.

As more emerges about how the McCain camp made the decision, the appointment looks more and reckless, the decision rushed, the vetting inadequate. This leads to advanced jeering from the left, intense criticism in the press, damaging leaks from within the Republican party, fueling calls from within and without for Sarah Palin to remove herself.

* Strategy: stick with "she was fully vetted" no matter what comes out. People who don't believe it are trying to bring down Palin's historic candidacy; or they don't accept that a conservative woman can be the one to break the glass ceiling. If some establishment Republicans are skeptical or trying to stop her, that's good for the crisis narrative, and good for two maverick candidates.

Sarah Palin under intense pressure then gives a charismatic performance on Wednesday of convention week and wows much of America, outdrawing Obama in the ratings and sending a flood of cash to McCain and the GOP.

* Strategy: bingo, that's your big break. A wave effect is unleashed by a stunning televised performance. It is shock and awe in the theater of the post-modern presidency.

Journalists watching all this keep saying to themselves: wait until she gets out on the campaign trail. Wait until she sits for those interviews with experienced reporters and faces a real press conference.

* Strategy: double down on defiance by never letting her answer questions, except from friendly media figures who have joined your narrative; like Cheney with Fox. No meet the press at all. No interviews of Palin with the DC media elite-- at all. De-legitimate the ask. Break with all "access" expectations. Use surrogates and spokesman, let them get mauled, then whip up resentment at their mistreatment. Answer questions at town halls and call that adequate enough.

Meanwhile, the investigation of her performance in Alaska puts more and more pressure on the Palin appointment as things come out that would ordinarily disqualify a candidate from consideration or cast doubt on her truthfulness in a grave way.

* Strategy: Comes from Bush, the younger. When realities uncovered are directly in conflict with prior claims, consider the option of keeping the claims and breaking with reality. Done the right way, it's a demonstration of strength. It dismays and weakens the press. And it can be great theatre.

You wouldn't know it if you read the liberal blogs, but their single-mindedly focusing on the teen pregnancy of Palin's daughter. You'll hear a lot about Trooper-gate and the AIP, but what the liberal blogosphere won't tell you is that they are obsessing over Palin's personal life. You'll only get that here.

Good grief, people. Hasn't the total collapse of the Bush Administration, something that happened largely without the media's involvment, made you realize that these people really aren't that smart? Stop trying to assume that they have some sort of plan and stop assuming that just because they try to do something they'll pull it off.

Palin and her boyfriend are there, not out of some clever political strategem, but because the Palin family desperately wants to pretend that this is a case of true love, not their little girl getting knocked up. They have to treat the guy like he's really the daughter's "meant to be" and was going to marry her anyway so they don't have to think of themselves like white trash or think other people are viewing them that way.

Just calm down!

Mike

Mom, I'm not going to have a kid and marry that loser just so you can move to DC and play White House with some old guy. I'm getting an abortion and that's final. And if you try to stop me I'm spilling the beans about all those phone calls I listened in on when you fired that guy for not firing uncle Mike.

Some commenter here (sorry, can't remember who) brought up a good question yesterday--where is McBush's black adopted child? That heartwarming shot of the families had his side looking relentlessly white and blond. Plays well with the Rethuglicans who would never vote ethnic but where is the rest of them?

Is that tarmac where they met Levi at the same airport where Wide Stance Craig tried to get his rocks off in the bathroom? I can't wait to see what the Enquirer digs up. I was pissed at them for Edwards, so turnabout is fair play.

Mom, I'm not going to have a kid and marry that loser just so you can move to DC and play White House with some old guy. I'm getting an abortion and that's final. And if you try to stop me I'm spilling the beans about all those phone calls I listened in on when you fired that guy for not firing uncle Mike.

Posted by: Bristol Palin Saves The World

Thank you, second best laugh I've had today beside the Youtube poster who simply said "FRIEND! FRIEND!"

You can see the touching moments for Mommie Dearest off to the sides there too. Another pristine photogenic moment for the traditional values/opportunist party!

Wouldn't it be better if she didn't have to decide to keep the baby but instead the government made her keep it?

A speech is not the best venue to assess Sarah Palin's VP chops; she'll have practiced it to a fare-thee-well, and nobody else will be talking. It's a one-way conversation that allows her to catapult the propaganda, without question or comment.

Her true skills (or lack thereof) will be on display during debate. In THAT venue, Joe Biden will have to walk a fine line in order to deny his critics ammunition. He can't patronize her, but he can't come off as bullying. Somewhere between those extremes, he must highlight her unpreparedness for the office to which they both aspire. Pointed, polite questions about management, foreign policy, national defense, demographics and the economy seem to be the way to go, with special attention drawn to answers that are demonstrably incorrect. When you start screwing up in front of an international audience, the initiative passes to the questioner. She's going to want to talk about drilling, energy policy and drilling - don't let her.

It's going to be a tricky act, but one which has the potential to make this a one-horse race very quickly.

orange

The story isn't only front and center, it may even represent the Republicans' best chance of winning the election.

First off, they want the reluctant couple in plain view so they'll draw fire away from all the other (real) stories about her track record in Alaska.

But the second element to it is potentially much bigger. If the McCain/Schmidt campaign can paint the Palin family as the victims of outrageous slurs, it not only fires up the base, it engages the attention and sympathies of a much wider audience.

Victimhood is powerful. Much of McCain's 'hero' status derives not from the notion he was 'brave' (let's face it, it's not like he had a choice once captured), but that he suffered terribly for his country. It may even be inextricably linked with the Christian understanding of penance and the crucifixion. It certainly appeals mightily to the religious right.

Schmidt almost certainly sees an opportunity to turn this to his advantage. He wants the Palin pregnancy to be the central issue because he wants victimhood for Palin. The crucially important white-women-of-a-certain-age demographic is likely to feel especially empathetic and would certainly engage the emotions of a large swathe of people.

Victimhood for Palin could even potentially swing the election the Republicans' way. Schmidt is counting on it.

I know where this is heading. By getting to the convention at such a late date all the hotel rooms will be booked and Bristol and Levi will have to stay in a manger.

Interesting that there is a presumption by most posters here that McCain is doing something smart, even diabolical. Sometimes you have to stop thinking about what would make some kind of sense, and start looking at what is really going on. What is going on is not good for McCain. The Palin’s daughter situation is not going to help him, not with his base and not with indies or dems. Republicans have to spin this because the alternative is to break down and cry.

As someone who was once 17-year-old boy a long time ago, I gotta empathize with that poor kid Levi. If it was me, I’d be thinking suicide isn’t a good enough solution, because it can’t be made retroactive. Preston Sturges used to make movies about situations like his. Guys, stop doing whatever important thing you’re doing for a moment and pray to the god(s) of your choice for that poor sap. That could have been you.

Wow! A self-identified "fucking redneck" and high school drop-out becomes famous overnight for knocking up his girlfriend!

Now that's what makes America great.

If Sarah Palin had an ounce of integrity, she'd get up on the stage tonight and tell McCain, the Republican party and the world that she and her family refuse to be exploited in this manner and that she's voting for Obama.

Somehow, I don't see that doing real well on InTrade.

Mbunge:

Palin and her boyfriend are there, not out of some clever political strategem, but because the Palin family desperately wants to pretend that this is a case of true love, not their little girl getting knocked up.

This is absolutely correct. Palin was choosen to secure the base: think guns and churches. Pastor McCain has brought these young people together on the tarmac to secure his matrimony with that base.

Check out this photo:
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/09/03/mccain-meets-the-daddy.aspx

Nice looking kids and one very grim reaper.
Bottom line: The shameful calculated political manipulation of these kids is simply off the charts.

I have to admit to being curious if the wedding of Bristol and Levi will happen at the convention, there on stage, perhaps as a backdrop to Sarah Palin's talk. Or if she'll introduce them as "the newly married Mr. and Mrs..." during her talk.

Given the level of exploitation of the family so far, it doesn't seem far-fetched. Why else bring Levi to the convention?

Sigh. Sigh.

I am tired of thinking that the McCain campaign has reached its lowest point only to be sadly surprised by the next hole they dig for us all.

Any respect I ever had (and I did once have some, honestly) for McCain as a man of integrity has vanished in the last weeks.

Gees, let the GOP trot out the family (who bought the ring and the boy's new suit) and let Palin give her speech tonight and McCain tomorrow night. Every dog has its day.

But come Monday morning, Palin will be just another crazy xtain right winger pol scaring the pants off independent voters and this one wants to be a heartbeat from the President.

The gamble by Rove is this: can the base, fired up by Palin, out vote the leaners tired of 8 years of GOP ineptitude? McCain wasn't gonna convince anyone. Now the playing field is different because the base is back in play. At this point the faster Palin is off the front pages, the better for Obama.

Mark wrote: "Joe Biden will have to walk a fine line in order to deny his critics ammunition. He can't patronize her, but he can't come off as bullying."

No matter what Biden does during the debates, the Republicans, and the openly partisan right-wing extremist media, and their allies in the corporate-owned mass media, will say that he both patronized and bullied Sarah Palin.

In the first of the 2000 presidential debates, candidate Bush told one blatant whopping lie after another, and committed one shocking gaffe after another, but all the corporate-owned media could talk about was Al Gore's troubling sighs.

That's what is in store for Obama and Biden in the upcoming debates, all of which will be "moderated" by highly-paid employees of giant corporations who want Their Man McCain to be the next president.

Those simpering, fawning, obsequious courtiers to corporate power, the "on-air personalities" of the corporate-owned media, may well be irritated with the McCain campaign for forcing them to debase themselves to previously unheard-of depths in order to shill for the Palin-McCain campaign's blatant bullshit. But shill they will. They are very, very, very well paid for it.

I realize he is legally an adult but where are his parents?

His poor parents are basically being besieged by the media and strong-armed by the Republicans.

The only people I don't feel sorry for in this whole situation are McCain and Sarah Palin. Everyone else involved -- her pregnant daughter, the rest of her kids, her husband, the boyfriend, the boyfriend's family -- they're all innocent victims here.

Palin knew she had a bombshell and she didn't defuse it when she first announced. That's the mark of an asshole right there.

While I agree that the left has been distracted by the Palin fiasco, McCain's strategy in focusing on the Palins' situation is quite risky. There are many people who are turned off by this story and the hypocrisy of the GOP. If that family goes on the stage parading the couple that will lead to a backlash against the GOP. Because for decades the GOP has put itself out as the party of family values and using that as a cudgel to beat Democrats. So now they turn around and say that the Pailins are moral paragons. Gimme a break!

the caption for the pic of the day (mccain with his arm around levi) is:

"Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as gift on Palin's daughter's wedding day."

Secular Animist I would tend to agree with you but Palin is just too risky for the corporates. They don't want to hand over the keys to someone who might be just left of David Koresh and right of Pat Buchanan.

I don't think the non fundamentalist right had any idea what a nut she was and many believed the false narrative created in the last 2 years that she was a reformer. Seeing the first wave of stories from the right they were all about her reform credentials and how good looking she was. Then there was Luntz' polling data the week before that had reform and corruption in government as one of the top issues for undecideds.

Interesting that her b.s. story started to be sculpted after 2006 when the Republicans were thrown from office because of corruption and inability to reform. Reed et al. made a shrewd decision to create their own reformer that would appeal to as many groups as possible but since McCain's campaign is apparently lazy and swamped by the tasks at hand they had no idea this woman was way too fringe.

Saint Zak wins the thread.

But nobody had pointed out that just a few weeks ago McCain's TV ads were likening Obama to vapid celebrities. Now, McCain is taking the lead in the tabloidization his campaign by creating and exploiting this salacious story.

Another flip-flop to ad to McCain the weather vane's pile?

A brave war hero and POW hiding behind the skirts of a 17-year old girl? Tell me it ain't so!

Just like "I'm reluctant to talk about POW" while talking about POW nonstop.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is going absolutely non-stop about Palin's daughter. It is unmistakable.

Fine, but how are they going to spin it once Levi Johnston impregnates Meghan McCain? Because now that they've flown him in, I guarangoddamntee you that he's going to hit that in the next twenty-four hours....

Because now that they've flown him in, I guarangoddamntee you that he's going to hit that in the next twenty-four hours....

Oh Christ that was funny!

Someone else may have noted this already, but what better illustration could one have of the changes that have occurred in the United States since 1968 than the image of a conservative Republican candidate embracing the boy who knocked up his running mate's daughter? Can you imagine Humphrey or Nixon embracing a boy who'd knocked up the daughter of Muskie or Agnew? It's inconceivable. And of all things it's the conservative candidate who's doing it, of the party that still effectively mines the knee-jerk social conservative reaction against the spirit of the 1960s. What an interesting juxtaposition.

This might be the most cynical thing I've ever seen. But there are a couple days of convention left, not to mention two months until the election, so I don't think that bar is going to last long.

I look for Bristol Palin and her boyfriend to get married in front of the whole Republican congregation Thursday night after Pastor McCain gives his speech on the sancity of marriage.

Actually, McCain will be officiating at the ceremony. It'll be beautiful: the First Dude will walk Bristol (still holding onto Trig for dear life) down the aisle of the convention to the podium as a gospel choir of black children specially trucked in for the occassion sings hosannas. Levi will be standing at the podium awaiting her, the gun jammed into his ribs by a GOP henchman not even visible to the TV audience. Holy Joe Lieberman will give a brief prayer and then McCain, God's Own POW, will unite the two in a brief but touching ceremony, after which there won't be a dry eye in the house.

And after that, instead of the traditional balloon drop, they'll drop rice from the ceiling.

In bags, hopefully. The twenty-pounders. The kind that can do some real damage.

Josh Marshall would say anything to be famous. See Democratic primary.

Listening to Morning Edition on NPR this morning, I was practically punching my car radio, as the nitwits went on and on about Palin's daughter's pregnancy, and made no mention whatsoever of any of Palin's actual controversies and problems. This despite the fact that there is no new news about Palin's daughter's pregnancy in two days. They announced she was pregnant on Monday. I can see why it made the news. Since then, well, she's still pregnant, and we learned a bit more about her personal life, none of which says anything about Sarah Palin. Meanwhile, where is the AIP? Where is dairy gate? Where is Jews for Jesus? Where is library censorship? Where is firing the police chief for trying to close bars earlier or personally opposing unlimited concealed carry?

Maddening.

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