I keep wondering why there isn't more attention focused on Todd Palin since he has been a close advisor to his wife in a semi-official capacity, and also because of his involvement in the Troopergate investigation.

Amen. The thing that terrifies me is that McCain/Palin could win as we can't underestimate the intelligence of the electorate or the treachery of the Diebold/voter suppression Rethugs. Sadly, now that McCain has unearthed her, Sarah Palin will be with us for a long, long time. And she's so cute and perky...

Where's McCain? Has he given up on campaigning altogether?

Wow: I can't decide which of the two is the viler piece of scum, Palin for saying this, or McCain for sending her out to say this.

$50 for Obama.

"This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

THANK GOD!

The last thing we need is for Palin to reshape America into the image she sees -- clusterfuck nation indeed. Let Palin go back to practicing her own brand of eco terrorism in Alaska.

Sarah, ..., when you going to have a real town hall meeting with some citizens who are not pre screened?

So much for reaching across the aisle.

Steve, you got my adrenaline pumping. Aarrgghh!

Doesn't this make McCain hearting Charles Keating fair game?

"Third, does Palin really want to play the guilt-by-association game?"

Eh, Obama has made it clear he's going to be unstintingly high-minded.

McCain spent several years during the 1960's and 1970's hanging around with known Communists. Why won't the MSM report it? Why the cover-up?

If Obama had spent years hanging around with McCain's Communist associates, we can be sure that McCain would be running negative ads attacking Obama over it.

Funny words coming from someone who shoots down animals in cold blood for fun.

i still think Palin was even lower yesterday, when she - Sarah "Winkie" Palin - deigned to judge that Obama's statements on Iraq and Afghanistan made disqualified him from being Commander in Chief. Really? The pageant school dropout who admits she's only been at this 5 weeks thinks she gets to pass judgment on Obama's qualifications? You gotta be fuckin' kidding me. I'll give Obama this: it takes a bigger man than I to not take that bait. Were I the candidate, our campaign would have carved her like a shot moose.

I hate to put my trust in the American people, especially since millions are looking for any excuse to vote against the black guy, but I really think/hope that war+economy in free fall focuses the mind just enough that McCain spending the next 30 days on Ayers and Rezco is seen as fiddlingwhile Rome burns, as playing games while everyone else deals with reality - and therefore that it backfires horribly.

As the late Bill Hicks might say:

Suck it, McCain. It's only your dignity! Suck it. It's only your dignity!

First, we already learned, just today, that Obama is not tied to William Ayers in any meaningful way. I know Palin struggles to keep up with current events, but her attacks are obviously and demonstrably wrong.

Well to be fair to Palin, someone wrote that cue card for her yesterday.

The obvious response to this is for a 527 to run a commercial with pictures of McCain with Anne Hathaway's boyfriend and accuse McCain of "palling around with criminals".

no, the obvious answer is for Team Obama to let tAiO and I form a 527 armed with PhotoShop, photos of McCain, and photos of goats.

The Obama campaign should put up ads showing Palin uttering this nonsense, without any commentary at all.

Make her own this disgraceful attack; tie it around her neck, so that she's never tempted to try for national office ever again.

Obama has to defend his honor lest he meet Dukakis' fate. "Senator, it's painful for me to say this about a man who has sacrificed so much for the country, but you have lost your honor and dignity by approving your surrogates to make the charges of treachery against me".

You go Caribou Barbie...

I think her comments are wonderful.
But then I am selfish. Her's why:

Barack is one of the most respected men in America, and almost certainly, the world. That's just a hard fact. The more feces Palin throws his way, the more she turns off the people who might some day vote for her. She is fouling her own panties here. Big time. Or to put it in language a Gooper might understand, I hope she continues to: Shit baby shit! It absolutely ruins her future chances as a national candidate...

One last thing: Anybody out there still feeling sorry for her?

Vicki Iseman
Keating Five
Troopergate

That literal witchdoctor in her church is obviously losing his touch. He needs to get back to laying his hands on that Witch from Wasilla and pulling out some of his more effective spells and curses.

Zeitgeist, nice to see you round these parts.

Obama won't take the bait though so we'll just have to listen to another month of this BS. On some level though, I'm glad that he won't. Perhaps this will signal the death knell of this kind of campaigning?

Sorry, I took my happy pill this morning just before putting on my rose-colored glasses.

Signed,
Pollyanna

With 30 days to go, it's fear and smear time! I am sure that Barack Obama's "associations" with Ayers, Wright, Resko, and Raines will be brought up in the debate on Tuesday. McCain and Palin will continue to paint Obama as a dangerous and radical outsider right up until Election Day.

Palin has two roles: attack dog and window dressing. It's pretty clear that she's not in McCain's inner circle. I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes expendible should he, God forbid, win the election. I can see her stepping down for "family reasons." Then McCain would be free to replace her with his old buddy, Joe Lieberman.

The Obama campaign is ready for slimy personal attacks. Now that he's getting really desperate, McCain will resort to the kitchen sink strategy, just like Hillary did. Here is where the old guy could really lose it. Watch for his clenched jaw, scowl, facial tics, flapping arms and clenched fists banging the table.

dead thread post, but can't help it. McCain has retreated to a resort this weekend to prepare for the debates. He knows this is his last chance to change the dynamic of the race. The problem is, how can he go any more negative than he did in the last debate? Should be interesting.

It's time to complain about Alaskan separatists. At least Ayers was trying to fix the country, not to abandon it. Not that Obama has anything beyond very distant connections with Ayers, unlike Palin and her husband with the separationists.

What's clear from the Times (idiotic headline aside) is that Mayor Daley, the Annenberg Foundation, and the University of Illinois Board of Regents pal around with terrorists.

Now, try saying that with a straight face.

Sorta off topic but I wanted to share this with you because it made me laugh yesterday. When the "Sarah says Couric annoys her" story broke yesterday, a commenter on the Huffington Post wrote:

"If Sarah Palin can't handle Katie Couric, how can she handle someone really intimidating . . . like that plastic Burger King guy?"

It's really getting ugly, and this is only the beginning. It's odd that they say

"The gloves are coming off"--What then were they doing before? Holding back?

More like "The shot-guns are now out and they are aiming for the moose (Obama).

Apparently she is in some stadium now in Carson, CA with Jon Voight as the headline speaker for she and McCain.

As for CNN's promise to show Obama's campaign and "The Boss" campaigning in Philadelphia? They bailed.

Something tells me they won't bail however on Palin's stumping in CA today.

Everybody is trying to find out more about Sarah Palin. Someone was able to hack into Sarah Palin's Yahoo! email account because she hadn't taken the proper security measures. Yeah. So, folks, it's official. No one in the Palin family uses protection." --Conan O'Brien

Make yourselves feel better and google
political humor + Sarah Palin

It is clear, at this point, that McShame and Co. will say and do anything to stampede the electorate to their side. Also clearly, they have decided to repeat their lies, no matter how often they are exposed. The rationale being if you tell the same lie often enough it becomes the truth. That was Goebbels technique, and it works especially in the presence of a credulous or biased media. The current regime has blazed new frontiers in shameless mendacity. McShame aims to go further.

As the Rethugs become more desperate in the next month we may well see the kitchen sink fly by daily. What is really disheatening is that there are still potential voters who are undecided.

Well I for one have changed my opinion about Palin after the debate.

I use to think she was an idiot.

Now I think she is a smiling idiot.

Here is an example of her megalomania:
"I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'" --Sarah Palin, as quoted by former City Council Member Nick Carney, after he raised objections about the $50,000 she spent renovating the mayor's office without approval of the city council.

She is just like George Bush and aspires to be Dick Cheney.

By the way, Steve--your post is the best I have read online today.

This feels like I'm watching "Heathers" or "Mean Girls". The witchy (and I mean witchy) High School girl throwing out all manner of slander, pettiness, and cynacism in order to get elected High School President. We've seen this immature, childish behaviour in dozens of movies.

Hopefully life immitates art here, and the mean girl goes down in flames.

Please please please ... not more "Witch doctor" I know Bill Mahr has been throwing this phrase around, too, but it is incorrect! From Wikipedia:

"A witch doctor often refers to healers in third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than science or developed medicine."

This pastor from that Alaskan church is nothing of the sort! Witch hunter, yes. Witch doctor, NO! Stop insulting Witch doctors!

Like I said, time to get tough on Palin by reminded voters of her association with weird ministers, the Alaskan Independence Party (and her husband was a member) etc., as well as McCain and Keating Five (Obama or Biden *must* get the nerve to bring that up! The Press is still following that weird "unwritten rule" that it's supposed to be forgiven and off limits (then why not Ayers?)

"I am sure that Barack Obama's "associations" with Ayers, Wright, Resko, and Raines will be brought up in the debate on Tuesday."

And I hope that Obama responds by saying "You meet all kinds of people during your political career, good and bad. I would think you, John, of all people, would realize that, after your close friendship with Charles Keating, one of the criminals reponsible for the savings and loan crisis, and someone who almost destroyed your political career."

She should be warned or cited spreading such rumors.

There are some limits to free speech.

This is a hate crime.

This falls into the category of walking into a movie theater and screaming "Fire".

Sue the bitch.

What is really disheatening is that there are still potential voters who are undecided.

Not that many of them now, though, and I actually think there's a cap on the number of people who will decide their votes based on allegations of Obama's secret love for terrorists. I don't think that number is nearly as large as McPalin thinks it is.

Like zeitgeist says (if I had a nickel...), this sort of thing doesn't play so well when we've got really real real real problems facing the country. People who feel reasonably economically secure can get deeply interested in the sex lives of the two guys down the street, the candidates' flag pin-wearing habits and all the other distractions the GOP has succeeded with in past elections. People watching the economy teeter on the brink of collapse while their jobs and health care disappear are not too concerned about what some guy Obama knows mildly well did 40 years ago. They're looking for answers and what they see is that McCain and Palin are pretending there isn't even a problem.

"This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

Well, of course he isn't, you lipsticked, jackbooted moose! Barack Obama does not see AMERICA spelled with a "K" in place of the "C," and he doesn't see your pathetically-narrow-minded vision of an American aristocracy, waited upon hand and foot by some 300 million indentured citizens eternally in debt, from the cradle to the grave, to an economy driven by a cacophony of theo-fascists.

Sarah Palin---once again proving that "a cross is a cross is a cross, whether straight or bent...."

What's the track record of campaigns that go harshly negative in the last leg? I could be wrong, but I feel that it's poor.

Negative campaigning works in the first stages of the race, when your opponent is undefined. In the late stages, however, I feel that going sharply negative just rebounds on the campaign that's pushing the attacks.

Is there truth to this? If so, this seems like a desperate and likely losing move.

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe her words are too vague, but they nailed her down and she said his name in connection with "terrorist", could Ayers sue her for slander? Defamation of character?

He is a public figure who no doubt gets speaking fees, so surely there is basis for a complaint.

Have you ever gotten into an argument with someone and they were completely calm and collected while you were losing your cool? It's infuriating. That's how I see Obama. In the past I'd hope that he'd maybe get a little more combative but lately I've begun to think I was wrong to think that. As he remains calm the other side has really gone off the deep end. "Palling around with terrorists". Sure their base may buy it but it's tough selling change when you're pulling these tired tactics, or is that a strategy? Somehow Obama has managed to stay on the high road. I think his actions are speaking volumes and that why the numbers are moving toward him.
The Republicans are trying to play the emotional card but it's the wrong emotional card. They're still playing the fear card and Obama is playing the Hope/Love card. Fear is hate, hope is love after all. People have been fed fear for 8 years and look where it's gotten us. I don't mean to get all hippy.

[Steve isn't deleting your trolling and unsubstantiated slanders, I am, and I will continue to do so, and I don't care how mad that makes you. -Mod]

No, Obama shouldn't rise to Palin's bait.

Instead, some 527 group should make and run an ad about how Sarah Palin evaded taxes on her already questionable per diem charges to the state of Alaska.

I know on the per diem issue the state more or less said she was entitled to claim it whenever she was working away from the capital - even if it was her choice to live at home and do her work in Anchorage. But she didn't report the income, and that's what it is unless she can show that it was reimbursement for actual expenses. Which she can't. Because she was living at home.

Sarah Palin: Reformer, or tax cheat?

Financial papers reveal that Palin has assets totaling over 1million?

Yep- she's just your everyday middle class gal from Main street, Wasilla alright...

I agree that Obama's campaign shouldn't touch the AIP thing. She's not at the top of the ticket, McCain is.

I also agree that this salvo by Palin makes Keating more than fair game.

Let a surrogate group run with the AIP stuff, preferably in Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, PA, and North Carolina

Obama certainly does need to come back strong as he has been doing for the last several weeks.

Michael Dukakis was just saying the other day (on Maddow) how Obama has learned to do this well, learned from his and Kerry's mistakes and neglecting to fight back. (He added these days the comeback has to be like within three hours!).

Obama campaign has already said they are deeply offended by Palin's comments. And that's just the beginning--believe me.

But Obama does it very wisely.

The man knows what he's doing. I'm so sorry he's up against this horrifically sleazy and dishonorable B.S.-- but I feel confident he'll keep doing slam dunks like he's been doing.

Go Obama/Biden!

And I hope Biden can get back on the campaign trail soon--although I certainly understand it's family first.

Oh, gosh darn it--did I say 'in LIKE three hours'?

Yikes--the Palin dumbing down is contagious!

Watching the "debate" the other night between Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden, I couldn't help but think of a first-year student debating a Professor.

And another analogy.

With the "aw, shucks" "golly gee" "darn tootin" persona that Sarah Palin adopted during the debate, I half expected her at any moment to say "fer shure" or "gag me with a rubber hose," breaking into Valley Girl-speak.

Isn't McCain the one who's quite literally married to the local mob?

Will the Obama campaign finally squash her like the filthy roach she is?

To be fair, that guy at Palin's former church, while he does believe in witchcraft, wouldn't use it to treat someone. He hunts witches, and "abjures" their art.

Given his affection for "JAYsus", I guess the precisely accurate term would be "faith healer". I grant the distinction between "faith healer" and "witch doctor" is vanishingly subtle to many, but let's continue to strive for accuracy. After all, we have standards to maintain, even if the other side doesn't.

Have you no shame, Governor? Have you no shame?

Pass it on.

But wait, Biggerbox:

Given that the Witch Doctor QUITE LITERALLY expelled a 'witch' from his village in Africa, I think he qualifies as a, you know, Witch Doctor.

But wait, Biggerbox:

Given that the Witch Doctor QUITE LITERALLY expelled a 'witch' from his village in Africa, I think he qualifies as a, you know, Witch Doctor.

R.J. Eskow has this Palin speak down cold:
(You'll laugh, you'll cry...)

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/17679

God she's revolting.

Worse than Dubya.

John McCain lost his chance to brag about being a real Vietnam war hero since he was shot down. So, he wants to have an excuse to brag about having been a POW. He can use that most effectively if he slams Obama first on this garbage about Ayers.

Expect McCain ads saying that since he was a POW he should be allowed to be Presidency.

John McCain has no policies for America that Americans want. He offers us no hope for the future, only reminiscences of his 'glorious' past.

Americans need to look to the future and we need a candidate who offers us good plans for the future.

Americans need Barack Obama to lead America.

"
"If Sarah Palin can't handle Katie Couric, how can she handle someone really intimidating . . . like that plastic Burger King guy?"
"
Posted by: Paris Sailin on October 4, 2008

ROFL

News flash: Unprovoked attack by the King of Burger -- Sarah Palin says she's got a tiara too.

The old pardon guy is so deep in bushcon sewage any distraction from his dealings/ties/friends/associations/etc he will take. Even the wind-up doll with hit and miss and miss accuracy takes some heat off him.
Imagine what you find when you closely look at pre-k5, through k5 and up to now.How does he explain how he got from there to here.
Nevermind.
What we really want to see (maybe) is a comparison between dickman and the wind-up doll.
Why hasn't this happened? Not that anyone wants a replacement anything like dickman but how do they stack up to each other?
Don't people usually compare the current with the prospective?
They both drink and shoot. That's one place to start.
We know dickman stays put and changes the name on his door but how would he .......... de-activate the wind-up doll and leave the vp tag on her?
Maybe he makes her the designated driver for old pardon guy.
And just think when she has some of this stuff memorized.

How about using Sarah Palin as a pledging tool?

Every time Sarah The Prevarah-cator mentions Bill Ayers or Tony Rezko or Jeremiah Wright we send $10 to the Obama Campaign.

I'm in for my first $10.

The only group that sees America the way Sarah Palin sees it (in between roguish winks) is the same group that is going to vote McCain/Palin no matter what. There'll be no winning them over.

Bible Spice (I love that; who came up with it? Zeitgeist?) does not care if what she says is the truth, and those who flock to hear her don't, either. But since we've already established that those people will vote McCain/Palin anyway, and they're not enough to win it, does it really matter what she says? Since she dissed the media, they've shown a greatly-enhanced interest in fact-checking, and seem to have revoked the Republican free pass on lying - at least, up to a point.

I recommend Obama just shake his head sadly, and say that such people are more to be pitied than reviled.

But those fucking cock-a-roaches know that Obama won't likely bring up Palin's witchdoctor or her husbands association with Alaskan Independence movements. They are counting on Obama and his surrogates to continue to run a fairly decent, policy-focused campaign instead of a slash-and-burn bullshit like McCain.

Haven't read the thread yet.

But, slam, nice editorializing, Steve.

Good job, Steve. In case you haven't seen it, that Kurtz guy is attacking the NYT piece over at NRO so you might want to do a follow-up knocking down his objections. Shouldn't take more than a minute.

This blog actually deletes comments? I thought only Sarah Palin did stuff like that, and with library books. Anyway, if you do, you should also knock out some of the silly "McCain is a mobster" jibes to show some balance. Just sayin'. Otherwise, keep up the good work!

The notion that Obama has unpatriotic sympathies is preposterous. We all know that. In the Senate John McCain calls Senator Obama his colleague and they solicit one another's support.
Sarah looks rediculous, particularly so for someone with her track record.

One of the roles bloggers play is to validate and bear witness to the truth. We knew this assult was coming. Time to do our job.

Something to keep in mind is that a good part of fear is based on a lack of good information. We need to keep documenting and refuting McCain's and Palin's character assault for the MSM so they realize the issue is a red herring that doesn't deserve air time.

Palin can say it all she wants but she risks looking still more mis-informed. She has nothing new to add to our understanding on these issues, which have already been well-researched and widely exposed. "Sled Dog Sarah" is simply barking at Tucker Eskew's command.

Woof, Sarah, woof.

McCain was given a choice: lose his honor and lose the election. He's clearly made his decision, but if there's any justice, he's about to lose both.

Fixed.

McCain was given a choice: lose his honor or lose the election.

I'd say

McCain was given a choice: lose his well-crafted facade of honor or lose the election.

would be closer to the truth.

By going into Obama character assassination mode John McCain has raised the white flag of surrender on the economy and foreign policy. Senator McCain has conceded the policy debate so now he's reduced to throwing rocks and sticks.
In my family we don't call that "tough" campaigning, we call it a fundamental character flaw. McCain the war hero has been reduced to a cat scratcher.

We knew this was coming -- McCain advisor and slimemeister Tucker Eskew has done this kind of campaign numerous time before. Maybe it works in places like South Carolina but it will backfire on on a national scale and set the GOP's cause back to where they were in the 1920s, weak imitators of the Hoover Administration.

The GOP is the party of pretense, bad ideas and inept administration.

I don't think "witchdoctor" was the word you were looking for I think it was "witch hunter".

Don't want to give witchdoctors a bad name.