Cheer!

All these articles about Palin running in 2012 makes me think of an old basketball cheer:

Go back, go back!
Go back to the woods!
'Cause your team ain't got no spirit
and your coach is no good!

(Coincidentally, I though the same thing about my HS basketball team. Depressing.)

Wool over my eyes

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581

I defended her against critics over the clothing flap. Boy, was I wrong!

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Joke of the Day

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President. The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.'

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher explained, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle.'

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. 'You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'

Palin, Alone Aboard the Bus

http://men.style.com/gq/blogs/gqeditors/2008/10/palin-alone-abo.html

This blog entry definitely projects sympathy for Gov. Palin, and I feel it.

Palin: Obama wants to re-write Constitution

I swear, she's just pulling stuff out of her butt now!

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/28/palin-obama-wants-to-re-write-constitution/

Posted: 08:57 PM ET

From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby

SHIPPENSBURG, Pennsylvania (CNN) – As the McCain campaign continues to press Barack Obama over a 2001 radio interview in which he uttered the phrase “redistributive change,” Sarah Palin on Tuesday accused the Democrat of wanting to re-write the Constitution to give the judiciary the power to redistribute wealth by confiscating the property and income of ordinary Americans.

Palin brought up the interview almost immediately after beginning her evening speech at Shippensburg University in central Pennsylvania.

“Sen. Obama said that he regretted, he regretted that the Supreme Court hadn't been more radical and he described the Court's refusal to take up the issues of redistribution of wealth as a tragedy,” Palin said. “And he said that he also regretted that the Supreme Court didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers there in the Constitution, that's a quote.”

Palin was suggesting Obama had expressed support for a broad redistribution of wealth in American society that would be carried out by the Supreme Court, but as fact-checkers noted on Tuesday, Obama was discussing the courts in the context of the civil rights movement, and was not referring to taxes.

Additionally, Obama said in the interview it was a mistake for civil rights leaders to rely too heavily on the courts to affect social change, and that issues of income redistribution were better left to legislators and community organizers.

Nevertheless, Palin claimed that Obama — a former constitutional law professor — favors allowing the judiciary to seize property and personal income in order to “spread the wealth around.”

“So you have to ask: Is this a suggestion that he'd want to re-write the founding document of our great nation to accomplish his goals, and what does that say about his ideas on future Supreme Court justices?” Palin asked.

Under an Obama administration, Palin said, judges would “confiscate your property and your hard, all of your hard-earned money and then re-distribute that. He may call that a tragedy, but I call it fairness and adherence to our U.S. Constitution.”

Barack Obama is a socialist? McCain, Palin on record supporting similar proposals as Democratic rival

From The New Yorker
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27397938/

Note the hypocrisy:

For her part, Sarah Palin, who has lately taken to calling Obama “Barack the Wealth Spreader,” seems to be something of a suspect character herself. She is, at the very least, a fellow-traveller of what might be called socialism with an Alaskan face. The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist.

The Making (and Remaking) of McCain

Published in The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/magazine/26mccain-t.html

I miss Will Ferrell's GWB.

For women in public eye, looks matter

Great article about the "controversy" over Sarah Palin's wardrobe cost. I have thought it a non-issue today because of the reasons Campbell outlines below.

Commentary: For women in public eye, looks matter

By Campbell Brown
CNN

(CNN) -- There's been a lot of sniping and a lot of stories Wednesday about Gov. Sarah Palin's clothes.

Politico.com reports that the Republican National Committee spent more than $150,000 on clothes, hair and make-up for Palin on the campaign trail. Now, these are not your tax dollars.

This is money given by Republican donors to the RNC. But the report questions whether it is legal to use campaign cash for quote "personal use."

My issue? There is an incredible double-standard here, and we are ignoring a very simple reality.

Women are judged based on their appearance far, far more than men. That is a statement of fact.

There has been plenty of talk and plenty written about Sarah Palin's jackets, her hair and her looks. Sound familiar? Watch Campbell Brown 'Cutting Through the Bull' »

There was plenty of talk and plenty written about Sen. Hillary Clinton's looks, hair and pantsuits.

Compare that with the attention given to Sen. Barack Obama's $1,500 suits or Sen. John McCain's $520 Ferragamo shoes. There is no comparison.

Women get scrutinized based on appearance far more than men. And look, I speak from experience here. When I wear a bad outfit on the air, I get viewer e-mail complaining about it. A lot of e-mail. Seriously.

When Wolf Blitzer wears a not-so-great tie, how much e-mail do you think he gets? My point is for women, unfortunately, appearance is part of the job.

If Wolf or Anderson Cooper shows up on the air without makeup, you think you would even notice? I show up without makeup? Trust me, you'll notice.

This doesn't just apply to TV. All women in the public eye deal with this issue. And it is for this reason that I think the RNC should help Palin pay for clothes, hair and makeup. It is part of the job.

Now, you may think, that's an awful lot of money to spend on clothes, hair and makeup.

Or you may complain, as some have, that it's hypocritical to sell yourself as a "small-town hockey mom" when you are wearing designer clothes. That's fine, just don't ignore the fact that there is a double-standard here.

And personally I think in this campaign, with so much at stake, this is a peripheral issue.

I, myself, have raised plenty of questions about Sarah Palin, much to the annoyance of the McCain campaign. But those questions have been about her qualifications and experience, never her appearance.

Let's keep the focus on what really matters here.