The weather in New Orleans helped expose how incompetent George Bush was. Ironically it is helping John McCain by providing him an excuse to limit his appearance with Republicans–especially George Bush. John McCain the individual is far more popular than the Republcian Party as many voters fail to realize how close his views really are to those in his party.
McCain realizes this and has quickly taken advantage of the situation to reduce the harm which could be caused by a Republican convention. Matthew Yglesias summarizes the situation as he considers how much the Republicans really care about Gustav and how much they are acting out of political expediency:
Politically problematic speech by unpopular incumbent president = canceled. Parties = not canceled.
Well, the streak of thirteen consecutive posts about Sarah Palin has come to an end. I’m not sure if you’ve set a record of some kind, but what a whirlwind tour of one of the most inexperienced running mates in history. And thanks a lot for the information; in the past 96 hours I have learned just how extreme Governor Palin is and how dangerous for the country it would be if she became vice president. I mean, even though both Obama and Palin have limited time in national office (Obama 3.5 years as a U.S. Senator and Palin 1.5 years as Governor), at least Obama has over a decade of experience involved in the running of a dynamic state, while Palin was the mayor of a village of 5,000 and the governor of a state of only 680,000. The difference between the Obama/Biden ticket and the McCain/Palin ticket should be clear, and the obvious choice this November should be readily evident.
As for the obsessive coverage of Palin and everything about her from her family to Troopergate over the past four days, it is necessary because prior to Friday, only a select few (myself included) had ever heard of her. She is such an unknown that we NEED as much information as possible in a short amount of time to determine exactly who and what she is and what she will mean for the Republican ticket and the nation. It is a necessary saturation.
Anyway, by the way, doesn’t this seem as if we are living in one of those crazy fantasy “what if?” worlds that answer unknowable historical counter-factual questions, such as “What if President Kennedy was not assassinated?” or “What if Henry Clay won the 1844 presidential election?” or “What if John Kerry won the 2004 election?” or, of course, “What if John McCain picked Sarah Palin, an unknown extreme right-wing governor from Alaska, to be his running mate?”
The sad thing here is that there have been a number of additional revelations about Palin posted which I did not get to here. This string of Palin articles could have been much longer.
Among the revelations is that the McCain campaign is now vetting Palin–after she was chosen. The media will also be doing this and I wonder how many more things will come out about her.
A vice presidential pick rarely makes much of a difference, but this one could make McCain unelectable, although he probably would have lost if he hadn’t done this.
The question now is whether he would be willing to drop her from the ticket. He probably can’t win with her on the ticket, but dropping her would also be a serious blow.
Obama’s experience in the Illinois legislature is certainly more meaningful than Palin’s experience. In some ways it could even be a better training ground than the US Senate (at least on domestic policy). A member of the state legislature such as Obama must take a far more hands on approach to legislation than a US Senator who has much of the work done by staffers.
Even Obama’s experience running his campaign is more meaningful than Palin’s experience in Wallisa. Obama’s staff and budget are certainly far larger than that handled by Palin.
so true….how did manage to get 8000 people into over 20 million in debt?
maybe it was the new seaplane she “frugally paid for” with her campaign money……