Palin is dumber than a fence post and she also had a recent extramarital affair. But, like John McCain's extramarital affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, the mainstream media will not mention it, while John Edward's affair will continue to be a staple on FoxNews, despite the fact he is a private citizen and running for no political office.

Republicans don't like to bring out new products after Labor Day. They sold us a war, now they're trying to sell us a candidate. It's up to the press and the public to demand that she come out of hiding - on our schedule, not theirs.

Some people are laughing about this, but it's frightening. If she can't stand before the voters and the journalists now, she hasn't got a chance with Putin or any other world leader. You can't learn those skills in two months.

And who wants their kids to be deployed in yet another war? Or Social Security privatized? Or unemployment hitting another new high? Or becoming homeless?

Eight years is enough.

It is absolutely sustainable over the next 59 days. All it needs is a compliant national media. The campaign is using the fake outrage over the coverage of her daughter's pregancy. Who's going to challenge them? The big, tough, hard-hitting mainstream media? Ha!

Her performance in Wisconsin was much less effective than her speech. Her level of sarcasm is fairly high and I don't think sustained levels of it will go over well with the voters.

If I were Palin, I would tell McCain this:

"Alright, I'm joining this loser campaign to get my name out there and build my own cult of personality for the next presidential election. If you think I'm going to embarrass myself by doing MTP at this stage, you've got another thing coming. So I'm going home to take care of my state and my family and see my son off to war. If you can shut down this ethics investigation for me, I'll agree to do a bunch of fundraisers for you. If not, I may not even show up at the VP debate. Goodbye."

In a way, all the focus on Sarah sort of takes attention away from John's utter inability to talk real issues with the voters.

Maybe she'll be allowed to get "interviewed" by
HUSTLER?

I wouldn't put it past these clowns.

Sorry guys, but you've got this all wrong. The real reason Palin can't give interviews is because she's currently waterboarding Bin Laden in hopes of getting him to tell her where she can find his boss, the Prophet Mohammad. She found OBL in the bottom of a Pakistani spiderhole and used her ability to memorize other people's speeches to lure him out, so she could blast off both of his kneecaps with a moose rifle. And after she bandaged his wounds to prevent him from dying, he called her an angel and remarked that he now knows why his evil plans would never have worked: Because America had such resourceful women as Sarah Palin.

And did I mention that she's currently got both Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caught in a love triangle fighting for her affection? It's true. They've already vowed to renounce their evil ways and join the Axis of Palin. Yes, she's that good.

Maybe the media could write their questions down, and she could return an answer in a day or two.

orange

This is something Obama's surrogates need to go after. Don't attack Palin personally. Merely ask the voters whether Palin is truly ready to take on Russia or Al Qaeda if she's not able to face down a few reporters.

It would be wrong to underestimate Palin. She rose from beauty contest runner up to state governor in just a few years. She's not stupid. She's arrogant, ignorant and intollerant, but she's not stupid. She already reads speeches well and by the time the debate rolls around she'll be ready to regurgitate the sound bites necessary to appear like she actually knows what she's talking about.

Democrats need to score some hits on her public image now.

It would be comical if it weren't such an important thing, you know, the presidency. I remember thinking last Friday that McCain was treating the presidency like a joke, that it was an embarassment to have picked someone with so little going for her other than cynical political positions. A week later and it is even worse. McCain's team knows it and so they will do their best to hide her.

She's such a "strong woman" but I'm just looking forward to the debate with Biden when they start complaining that he was too tough on her. I don't think that will fly this time. I think people will say, if you can't handle Joe Biden, how can you handle Putin? Ahmanidijad?

One oddity: Joe Biden will know McCain's past record far better than Palin. I would expect Biden to use the Senator McCain vs. Candidate McCain theme. He can talk about positions McCain used to have before he changed his positions to run for the presidency. I will bet you 100 dollars that Palin will not know any of that history. So, you will have one person who really knows the republican candidate (Biden) explaining to the republican VP candidate the hostory of John McCain's growing extremism.

I think the other thing you are likely to hear is an infantile economic trickle down theory from Palin. Biden can talk in specifics about EITC and the like. I expect Palin to go "taxes bad."

Finally, if I were the Dems, I would go for an extra free-wheeling VP debate. Tell the media that it is important to see more of Palin and watch the repubs run.

orange

No, this is just dubya's low expectations all over again... they'll train her very carefully, (it's not too hard to come up with a set of one-liners for each general subject), convince a friendly outlet (like Fox) to have her on (as an exclusive!), and then make a big deal ("See, she isn't so dumb after all!"). Meanwhile, as WSJ points out (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/04/palin-30-fund-raisers-in-60-days/?mod=fpa_blogs) she'll be doing 30 fundraisers in 60 days. This is her strength as far as the McCain campaign is concerned.

Actually, she is practising going into a safe and undisclosed location.

You'd think with her wealth of executive experience, she'd have an inkling of how to talk to the press. Maybe they do things differently in Alaska.

She's more than smart enough to memorize a half-hour's worth of talking points, and more than enough of a pol to worry about not actually answering questions. Two weeks, tops, and she'll be swapping inane cliches with the best of 'em.

She already reads speeches well and by the time the debate rolls around she'll be ready to regurgitate the sound bites necessary to appear like she actually knows what she's talking about. - Steve T

Sounds like a very generous description of Bush.

McEvil's and Palin's 'campaign' is nothing but of one massive fraud .. and total con job .. all based on lies, deceptions, images, slogans, smears, and propaganda that have absolutely nothing to do with reality, and offers zero change: only more of the same. It's nothing more than trying to sell a product. What is so fucking sad in this country are how many people 'buy' into this charade, this illusion, as if it were actually real. The sad fact is is that the population, in general, is just plain fucking stupid .. so they stand there shouting 'sarah, sarah' ... it's fucking mind numbing to even listen to this fucking stupidity .. and yet so 'real' cause it actually exists .. the whole fucking world wants obama to be president .. they want america to be what it once was .. the whole fucking world .. the only country in which there is any population at all in which this is not the case is america itself .. which means that a relative minority of the population here could thwart the will of the entire world population .. think about that .. and then ask yourself what does that mean about this stupid country as it mindlessly chants 'sarah' , 'sarah' .. and within this the same population that buys into the larger fraud, con, of the repiglicans themselves ..

Beware another rope-a-dope. First the suggestion seemed to be that she was so stupid/incompetent that she wouldn't even be able to deliver a decent speech. But simply reading a speech someone else has written, and doing so off of the teleprompter, is just a kind of talent, like singing or wiggling your ears--some people can just do it. And she was a newscaster. So her performance looks good by comparison to expectations.

Now the suggestion is that she is so ignorant of issues that she'd be shredded at any interview or press conference. But even someone starting from a pretty-much dead stop could be trained to get through the average softball interview with a decent chance of success.

Seems to me that the right thing to do here is not to let ourselves be rope-a-doped by punching away at the "she's ignorant!" point while she trains away for the day she can emerge for a carefully-staged (probably Fox News) interview guaranteed to, again, make her exceed expectations.

What's the alternative? Not sure. How about honestly pointing out that such isolation from the press is bizarre and unprecedented and unacceptable for such a candidate. If people are supposed to vote for her, we, as a nation, need to hear how she answers questions.

Don't forget the kind of people we're dealing with here, and don't forget the advantages they have. They play the I'm-one-of-you likability game in a way we can never hope to. They've got immeasurable advantages in this game, and they'll judo he hell out of us if we don't watch it, using our own force and momentum against us--no matter how right we actually are.

This is almost surreal. No, it is surreal. The one comfort we can take is that we still have a Constitution - and the union has suffered through idiocy before and survived. The frightening thing now, however, is that in terms of foreign policy - so much more is at stake, than say during the reign of Warren G. Harding. But for our system of checks and balances, we might soon find ourselves living in a theocracy, ruled by a woman who became governor with a votes totaling 1/6th of the population of Alaska.

In a radio report the other day, it was mentioned that all the candidates except Palen were briefed on international affairs. She had not yet been cleared by government officials. Did anybody hear that? Does this sound scary to be giving her classified information, when she's probably going back into the general public?

Good point Eric @10:28 (Steve, can we get numbered comments??) about Palin saying "taxes bad." I think though that she should just be goaded into as many one-liners as she can possibly deliver. The more inane she and McCain sound and the more responsive Obama/Biden are, the more "It's the economy, stupid" starts to play in. Obama/Biden are already running with this theme and I think it rings true to people.

It's like Biden in that clip from an earlier post saying they're great with the one-liners arguably, but they come across like bullies and nobody likes a bully. I like to think that Obama/Biden finally punch the bully in the nose. I'm liking what I see so far.

Good point Eric @10:28 (Steve, can we get numbered comments??) about Palin saying "taxes bad." I think though that she should just be goaded into as many one-liners as she can possibly deliver. The more inane she and McCain sound and the more responsive Obama/Biden are, the more "It's the economy, stupid" starts to play in. Obama/Biden are already running with this theme and I think it rings true to people.

It's like Biden in that clip from an earlier post saying they're great with the one-liners arguably, but they come across like bullies and nobody likes a bully. I like to think that Obama/Biden finally punch the bully in the nose. I'm liking what I see so far.

Leave it to our current Republican campaign leaders to relegate the historic occasion of the first female VP candidate in our history to a token prop.

Where is Sarah?

I want her to articulate her views on all the issues that are important, and of the hour - civil liberties (gay marriage, spying on Americans), immigration, the economy, the mortgage crisis, how she'd administrate the Senate, if she'd consider her office a forth branch, our occupation of Iraq, the war against extreme religion - just to name a few!

So, I ask the honorable Senator McCain again, where's Sarah? I ask my many Republican friends, where's Sarah? I can't in good conscience vote for a person, male or female, if I don't know anything about him or her. Why is their candidate of choice not available to appear on national programs?

Well, deep down inside, we, and they know why! -Kevo

Get real....she's gonna avoid the media like the plague and she's going to get away with it. The campaign will wail that asking her questions would be sexism, that the liberal media wants to crucify her and that the public will be able to learn about her when she makes appearances around the country....

and the media...to be fair and balanced...will cover those appearances and the public basically won't give a crap because they "DO" see her and hear her and don't pay any attention to the fact that every single word out of her mouth will be heavily scripted by her handlers. They will think they are seeing the real Sarah. And just to make the argument go away, at some point between now and then, she'll appear on Faux or some other puffball venue and be served up massive softballs. That's the way the modern political system works. suck it up!

Get real....she's gonna avoid the media like the plague and she's going to get away with it. The campaign will wail that asking her questions would be sexism, that the liberal media wants to crucify her and that the public will be able to learn about her when she makes appearances around the country....

and the media...to be fair and balanced...will cover those appearances and the public basically won't give a crap because they "DO" see her and hear her and don't pay any attention to the fact that every single word out of her mouth will be heavily scripted by her handlers. They will think they are seeing the real Sarah. And just to make the argument go away, at some point between now and then, she'll appear on Faux or some other puffball venue and be served up massive softballs. That's the way the modern political system works. suck it up!

Just remember, when you go into the polling booth in November, that you're voting for a President.

The difficulty arises when the guy on the left is voting for an American Idol and the lady on the right is voting a Survivor off the island, or vice versa.

The difficulty arises when the lady on the left is wielding the Lord's swift sword, and the guy on the right thinks he's choosing the National League's representatives to the All Star Game.

The difficulty arises when the guy on the left is thinking 'nice tits', and the lady on the right is thinking 'wrong pants'.

A deeply unserious country is going to have a deeply unserious politics for the same reason that a country a mile up in the air is going to have kick-ass distance runners.

I like what Eric said at 10:28. It puts her in a no win situation. If Biden asks her to explain McCain's flip flops, she either has to try to do that or say, "this debate is supposed to be about my views", which she would also not be inclined to do.

I suspect if 'they' become hard-pressed to put their pretty little doggie back in the window, they will use some female ailment to postpone any appearances.
i.e., pms, postpardom, not wanting to be away from her brood.
I see them pandering all the way down to the core of what they have always refused to accept exsists: the bond between a mother & her (responsibilities) kids.
-this is coming from a stay at home mom who also runs a business during naptimes-
I hate anyone who thinks a strong woman stands for equality in time and importance of kids & work. KIDS ALWAYS COME FIRST!!
unless the kids were meant to serve as props & then you shouldn't be allowed to live with yourself for subjecting them to a lifetime of that.

There will be no teleprompter at the debates. We'll see if she can memorize enough answers to questions for the debate to be less than humiliating.

The strategy will obviously be to memorize the likeliest questions and when an unexpected one comes up, give a cursory answer and follow up with an irrelevant passage that you DO have memorized.

Look for about half the questions to go unanswered. Also expect almost no one to call her on it. I'd love to see Biden say over and over "Governor Palin didn't actually answer the question, but I can..."

I expect him to have many opportunities.

She seems to be more in the position of a president who hasn't spoken to the press since some major news story broke. Problem she has a long list of stories. I bet every reporter on earth has a list of questions to ask on the off chance they get called on.

Seems like a minefield.

There will be no teleprompter at the debates. We'll see if she can memorize enough answers to questions for the debate to be less than humiliating.

Remember the Benson/Quayle VP debate in '88? Total humiliation for Quayle. General election result: something like 40 states for Bush/Quayle.

We 'mericans love us some nincompoops.

I'm hoping Palin will create an opening somewhere during the debate for Biden to respond with "I know Senator Hillary Clinton, and you're no Hillary Clinton."

You need to put a counter on your website that shows how long it has been that Palin hasn't made a comment or answered any questions!

I've heard that the Obama people plan to ignore Palin and concentrate their attack on McCain. This would be a huge mistake.

Tearing down Palin is the key to this election. It is in the interest of the Dems to get Palin on the Sunday talk shows as quickly as possible, before she has time to adequetely prep and also establish a BS persona with the general electorate.

The way to do this is to run a slew of ads questioning her truthfulness on the issues (such as the Bridge to Nowhere, Troopergate) and also highlighting her radical religious views (hardline anti-choice, censorship). This will force the GOP to counterattack with an appearances by her on the MSM.

I think she will wither when faced with real questions, especially if she forced to do this in the next two weeks. This is how to win this election.

Actually, I do expect questions about Palin's experience to come up during the debate, and I expect her to answer them with the same bullshitty response they've trotted out already. To which Biden will respond with "how many votes on international issues, trade policy, treaties, blah blah blah have you ever made? In fact, when have you ever needed to know or learn anything about the world outside our borders before the past month?"

Really, I do wish the Obama campaign would stop acting like the experience argument is one that would best be left alone. This crap about being mayor of a town of 6,000 being "experience" comparable to representing 200,000 people in a state legislature is pretty easy to slap down. Not to mention that she went for the lower bar in trying to compare her mayoral experience as being superior to being a lowly, pathetic community organizer. Which is another nail that begs to be hammered down - her sneering and condescending attitude towards people who actually are doing the social welfare work her party has always insisted shouldn't be a part of government responsibility. Those pansy Democrats who try to help people improve their circumstances should be more like those tough Republicans, and just pretend those people don't exist. What kind of a loser would actually try to help the poor and disadvantaged? Talk about a feckin' elitist - the elitism just oozes from this bitch's every pore when she screeches out that line. It needs to be made into an ad pointing out the party's hypocrisy and elitist attitude towards those who are struggling, and run over, and over, and over again.

To get an idea of why the republicans are afraid of putting Palin in from of the media, just check out the Campbell Brown interview of McCain campaign manager Tucker Bounds.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/05/brown.bounds/#cnnSTCVideo

I almost feel sorry for McCain's campaign staff. The crazy old man goes off and picks someone with no experience after talking with her for 15 minutes and no they have to find a way to sell this.

I really think this has more to do with her not answering questions about herself than about answering presidential questions. They're waiting for these stories to die down before they'll put her out there. Of course, she also sounds like she was indoctrinated with hard rightwing talking points and they're probably working to deprogram her right now as a way of making her sound more acceptable to real America.

For as much as wingnuts love their leaders, they really don't talk the same way.

I think Biobrain is correct, the key to tearing down Palin is not showing that she is ignorant, but that she is a lying hypocrite. Obama must attack now, and attack often.

g. powell - no, Obama should not attack Palin. That's exactly what the Republicans wanted with putting her out there as an attack dog - to draw Obama into squabbling with their VP candidate. Don't expect Obama to take the bait - the Republicans are the only ones laboring under the misconception that Obama is not a smart man. Biden also needs to hold his fire until the debates. In the meantime, the surrogates can be out there hammering on Palin; likewise the unions and others can take her apart. I'd love to see some noise made by community volunteers, too: why does Sarah Palin look down on people who work to make their communities better? Do we really want someone who sneers at people trying to improve their communities only a heartbeat away from the presidency?

There's a lot of low-hanging fruit with this nutjob; let's not expect our candidates for president and vice-president to stoop to pick it, when there are so many others who can easily reach it.

It's funny how she can't even be allowed to respond to questions from the very voters that she needs to be spending more time with. I guess repeating, verbatim the words written for her acceptance address are to be preferred.

There will be no teleprompter at the debates.

True. But does anyone doubt that the questions will be leaked to her handlers? I have no faith that things will be fair. I can't imagine anyone can trust that they will be...

Sorry to seem a little conspiratorial, but here is my take on where we are:

America as currently composed is not a dictatorship. Rather she is what I like to call a soft dictatorship. Basically, you've got two "bases" that won't be changing their minds no matter what happens between now and Nov. These people can't be dictated to. They are what they are...

Now consider the smaller critical mass of Undecideds. They represent the swing of the election. This block of voters determines the outcome. If you were a "soft dictator" this is the block of voters you point the dictation at...

This block doesn't pay much attention to things. They don't have strong critical thinking skills. But they did watch Palin's speech. They saw it favorably. They think she is ready to be President.

Okay. They've got the dictation. Now you want to lock in down. To do so you control Palin's appearance and words to the utter max. To do so you need the corporate republican media to abet this tactic.

That's where we are. A soft dictatorship that controls things by manipulating the low information and undecided block of voters.

One more thing. You've heard of the mathematical flaws and paradoxes associated with democracy and voting? As far as I know I've just discovered a new paradox:

In a entrenched two party system where both parties have a user base of roughly the same size, the results of an election will be determined by a relatively small block of uninformed, undecided voters who have little interest in policy, positions, or the polity in general.

Corollary: America's particular flavor of democracy is doomed to under perform in the marketplace of democracies. As such it is non-sustainable.

kevo wrote:
Leave it to our current Republican campaign leaders to relegate the historic occasion of the first female VP candidate in our history to a token prop.

Uhhhh... although I agree with your sentiment, you're forgetting this:
"Mondale chose U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York as his running mate and she was confirmed by acclamation, making her the first woman nominated for that position by a major party."
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1984

We are so screwed. If the Republicans manage to pull off another stolen election, I cannot imagine a President McCain and Vice President Palin.

I tell you, I am not concerned as much about voters voting for this Beavis and Butthead pair of politicians. But I am deathly afraid of Diebold, Sequoia and the rampant voter suppression and caging efforts.

The GOP is like the mafia. And we're the ones being extorted.

The GOP is like the mafia.

Well, except the mafia has higher ethical standards.

Remember that last or next-to-last episode of the Sopranos, as Tony prepares to go into hiding and tells Carmella, "don't worry - you know how this works. Families don't get touched."

Compare and contrast: Karl Rove: "Wilson's wife is fair game."

They're the GOPranos - gangsters minus the ethical standards.

::We are so screwed. If the Republicans manage to pull off another stolen election, I cannot imagine a President McCain and Vice President Palin.::

If that comes to pass, I'm going to have to write to my relatives in Canada and see if they have an extra room, because there will be no hope left for this country.

On the question of how to handle Palin, I think Obama's answer to any questions should be, "Sarah Palin is John Mcain's running mate. If she can't handle the press, that's his problem."

There is really no reason why she can't field questions today. Remember, it's already been established that things that John McCain says do not necessarily reflect the views of John McCain. She can say what she wants and it will be "clarified" the next day much to the relief of a confused media.

orange

Josef - sorry, I forgot the qualifier first Republican VP candidate. (I am a registered Republican albeit a libertarian sort) so when I referenced we, I was in a bit of a brain fade. The point of relegating Palin to window dressing still stands. -Kevo

Which troll was sneering at Obama for using a teleprompter and claiming that Palin didn't need one?

Damn, that was funny.

This is the biggest joke yet from the glorious goofuses at GOPers-R-Us.

Consider, for a moment or three, that you needed to put a new roof on your house. As a responsible homeowner, you start asking around about who's good at doing this kind of work---and you come across one contractor who won't answer any of your questions, but points over to a group of politicians and lawyers, telling you, "I don't have to answer your questions about my qualifications, and those people over there are here to keep you from asking me any questions about my qualifications. Now here's the contract for me to fix your roof. Just shut up and sign it."

Would you really be willing to sign that contract---or would you pick up a crowbar and chase the filthy scoundrel from your property?

Sarah Palin is that filthy scoundrel---and every voice raised against her is a crowbar to be wielded against the maniacal vision of Team McCain....

Which troll was sneering at Obama for using a teleprompter and claiming that Palin didn't need one?

That was Brick Oven Bill - he apparently followed Hilzoy over here after she banned him at ObWi. I haven't seen him lately - maybe she banned him here, too or maybe he is laying low hoping that we forget those ridiculous assertions. I kinda hope he comes back today. I'm sorta in a mood...

Jennifer, agreed that Obama should not attack Palin himself. But his campaign should run negative ads and Biden should throw some punches in her direction.

She must be point on the defensive and her time should be devoted to restoring her reputation. Otherwise, she will erode enough support from Obama to earn a GOP win. Every time Obama lays off the attacks he falls in the polls, and he can't afford that now.

I think Paul Begala was right on when said: "attack, attack, attack."

According to witnesses, Sarah Palin called Barack Obama "Sambo" and called Hillary Clinton "the bitch" while dining with colleagues in a public restaurant. She is known to refer to the aboriginal Inuit people of Alaska as "arctic Arabs" and "f**king Eskimos".

It is not surprising the McCain campaign is uneasy about letting her loose in front of the press.

Nah - the rethugs are playing this one perfectly again. Luke and dweb have it right - she goes on campaign stops in front of media without taking questions, does a cream puff interview with faux news, and voila, nothing for the masses to complain about. As to the debates, all they have to do is continue to lower expectations, give her one line answers to the most likely questions (and or get them in advance), and then control the spin afterward. Meanwhile, we don't get to pound McCain for both their terribly out of touch stances on all the issues. The only thing that sinks them now is the troopergate investigation - which it looks like they will succeed in supressing. I was optimistic when she was first selected and it was clear that she was a nut and not well vetted, but those two messages are not getting enough air time, and won't.

Sarah Palin does have far more racism and bigoted banter experience than any other presidential or vice presidential candidate--ever. She makes George Wallace look liberal on that score. Who in their right mind would have selected such a despicable running mate? I think it rules out right minds and points directly to Rove.

My guess is that the Obama campaign is looking back to January, when so much of the coverage of him was positive and surprised, and how that shifted within a few weeks.

McCain-Palin doesn't have the luxury of recovery time, and Palin's honeymoon period with public opinion and coverage isn't likely to last another 59 days.