What Debate?
September 26th, 2008
I was following more important matters.
Categories: MLB/MiLB, Sports | 9 Comments
A Little Worried, and Open Debate Thread
September 26th, 2008
I must confess to being a little bit worried about the debate tonight. It’s not that I expect McCain to win, or even to do particularly well (I don’t). It’s just that with the way he’s run his campaign over the last couple of weeks, anything short of a complete disaster in tonight’s debate is going to be seen as some sort of “comeback.” Couple that with the media’s love of a close race (whether one actually exists or not), and I’m concerned about how the debates will be reported.
All that said, this is Obama’s chance to really start opening up a lead, if he does well enough, and if the reporting is fair. Here’s hoping. (Hey! “Hope!” I like that!)
Thoughts? Otherwise, open debate thread, before Ted asks for one…
Categories: Politics | 11 Comments
Losing the Base
September 26th, 2008
The National Review’s Kathleen Parker on The Palin Problem:
Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.
What to do?
McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
I thought it was the Left that was supposed to suffer from “PDS.”
Categories: Politics, Weekend Flame Bait | 1 Comment
Pollsters and Weighting
September 26th, 2008
Nate Silver of 538 has a very interesting interview with a highly regarded pollster about what goes into poll weighting. Definitely worth the read if you are interested in the polling process.
Categories: General | No Comments
McCain and House GOP: Rewarding the People Who Brought Us This Mess
September 26th, 2008
So the McCain, in all of his Mighty Maverickness, appears to have thrown his lot in with the House GOP on the economic bailout plan. And what, pray tell, is the House GOP plan? It appears ot be nothing more than a gigantic giveaway to the very people who got us into this mess:
Instead of the government buying the distressed securities, the new plan would have banks, financial firms and other investors that hold such loans pay the Treasury to insure them. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a chief sponsor, said it was clear that Mr. Bush’s plan “was not going to pass the House.”
But Democrats said the same was true of the conservatives’ plan. It calls for capital gains tax cuts and insurance provisions the majority party will not accept, they said.
… At one point, several minutes into the session, Obama said it was time to hear from McCain. According to a Republican who was there, “all he said was, ‘I support the principles that House Republicans are fighting for.’”
You read that correctly. The House GOP plan,which McCain apparently is backing — or, at least, is not trying to push them off — is to insure rather buy the assets and to give the very people who got us into this mess a two year holiday on paying capital gains taxes. So the GOP plan is to insure the bad debts, putting the taxpayers on the hook for possibly much more than the 700billion dollar Paulson came up with without giving the taxpayers anyway to ever get compensation if the government is required to pay off on that insurance. And then, just to rub salt in the wounds of the average tax payer, they are going to give the class of people who are most responsible for getting us into this mess a huge tax break for two years. Apparently the plan is to put the taxpayers on the hook for an unknown amount of money, fix none of the regulatory lapses that allowed this risky behavior in the first place, and then give essentially the same people who created the mess a bunch more money so they can do the whole thing over again. It’s like catching a drunk driver, taking all the cops off the road, handing him the keys to a Ferrari, a cooler of vodka and telling him to drink up and be sure not to be late to that party on the other side of the state.
I’ve been joking for a couple of days that if we really want to solve this mess we should just take that 700 billion dollars and pay off the mortgage on everyone’s primary residence. The banks get cash, the country gets a huge and permanent stimulus, and, hey, if we are going to do the socialism thing let’s do it right! Who would have thought that I didn’t have the craziest plan around?
Categories: General | 5 Comments
