And yet another political roundup...

Its Not Just Palin -- Its The Message.:

The brilliance of the McCain strategy and messaging is that it includes a trap for Obama. To push back on the McCain claim of "country first" and "the original mavericks who will shake up Washington" the Obama campaign's attack of "four more years of George Bush" becomes a problem. In a country that yearns for post-partisan change the Obama campaign risks sounding too partisan and like more of the same.

Morning podcast with Jay Rosen (please LISTEN to the entire podcast - will make you think!):

That led me to the idea that perhaps it's not Obama that the Repubs are really running against, perhaps it's the press. What clued me into that was the way Carly Fiorina conflated three NY Times columnists as "The Democrats" on This Week earlier today. Huh? They may be Democrats, but they are not The Democrats. If the Repubs are running against the press, then why do the press care what the Repubs think (the mistake Obama makes too). And how does Obama get back in the game if the conversation is to between the Repubs and the press (and the press like Obama are always three steps behind, confused as hell and not going to take it anymore). Permalink to this paragraph

Which finally led me to the conclusion for the Obamas and I really hope they get the message, you need to grow your own press, quickly. Use the Internet. It's all you've got. Don't count on the press caring, they're busy fighting a war with the Republicans. Permalink to this paragraph

More under the fold:

The Palin-Whatshisname Ticket :

The cunning of the Palin choice as a political strategy is that a candidate who embodies fear of change can be sold as a "maverick" simply because she looks the part. Her marketers have a lot to work with. Palin is not only the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket, but she is young, vibrant and a Washington outsider with no explicit connection to Bush or the war in Iraq. That package looks like change even if what's inside is anything but.

How do you run against that flashy flimflam? You don't. Karl Rove for once gave the Democrats a real tip rather than a bum steer when he wrote last week that if Obama wants to win, "he needs to remember he's running against John McCain for president," not Palin for vice president. Obama should keep stepping up the blitz on McCain's flip-flops, confusion, ignorance and blurriness on major issues (from education to an exit date from Iraq), rather than her gaffes and résumé. If he focuses voters on the 2008 McCain, the Palin question will take care of itself.

Why McCain is going so negative:

McCain strategists now have became even more sure of themselves after the picture-perfect reaction -- in the GOP's view -- to the decision to put Palin on the ticket. The choice provoked derision from elites, jubilation among conservative voters long skeptical of McCain and uncertainty from Obama about how to respond. If you are a McCain staffer, it doesn't get better than that -- so who cares that the candidate had met her only once and her chief foreign policy credential seems to be that she lives closer to Russia than other Americans.

Average Is Beautiful. But in a Leader?:

There is lots of science to show that average is beautiful. But I have never understood why averageness was a desirable trait in a political candidate. That Bush was "an average guy" was the political battle cry manufactured by Karl Rove. I didn't understand the desirability of that statement back in 2000 and I still don't understand it now. But at least it was manufactured. After all, how can you possibly be average if your father was President?

But in the case of Sarah Palin, though, I do believe she is truly average. The average person, for instance, would not necessarily know what the Bush Doctrine was. After her interview with Charles Gibson, it's clear Palin doesn't know what it is either:

Sunday Sermon: Reporters Need to Side With the Truth:

A lot of political reporters seem to work under the impression that they offer neutral descriptions of lies. As Foser notes, they can't: they're either for them or against them.

Meet the Older Boss:

After calling Monday night's RNC opening ceremonies on account of shame, it was obvious that John McCain was about to drop off the Bush-Cheney team at the next intersection with an open sewer grate. Last night, in accepting the Republican nomination for president, McCain jettisoned, by calling for the end to "partisan rancor." That means everyone. After all, if McCain can be big enough to look past recent American political ugliness, he canexpect nothing less of his political opponents. After all, the Hapless Warrior isn't really a Republican, he's just a patriot. But not just any patriot. McCain doesn't just love his country, last night he proclaimed he's in love with the USA. Psychosexual overtones be damned, this leader isn't afraid to express his attraction to majestic purple mountains and fruited plains. If you don't like it, you're just part of that tax-loving America-comes-second crowd.

Irredeemable Right-Wing Moral Degeneracy:

These people are irredeemable moral degenerates, and there is nothing we can do about it except work our fucking asses off to ensure that they have as difficult time as possible recruiting new people into their sick depraved world view, and let attrition do its work.

Joe Trippi Misses The Fucking Point:

The brilliant trick is that low-information-but non-deranged-voters look at her on teevee and see someone who looks very normal, and even wears "hip" glasses and "cute" shoes and shit, so how could she possibly be a neofeudal depraved destroyer of everything normal Americans actually give a fuck about?

Devastating Sarah Palin expose:

This story presents overwhelming evidence that Palin is unqualified and unethical. She has a history of abusing government power to settle personal scores. This is not a person who should have the keys to the NSA's domestic spying program. Sarah Palin should never be heartbeat away from the presidency.

Sarah Palin's diversity in action as governor: cronies and classmates - and definitely no blacks:

It's an attitude that doesn't surprise me at all. It's right in alignment with a Values Voter Summit attended by many GOP luminaries that promotes the display and sale of Obama Waffles. It's in alignment with a party and campaign that is already working to cage voters through unclear ballots and contest voters from foreclosed homes.

Talking to ourselves :

I couldn't help but think how simultaneously important it is to work carefully and persistently to demolish the lies the Right promulgates, and how ultimately "necessary but insufficient" that exercise is.

Because underpinning the effort is the idea that somehow, some way, if you just given them enough of the right facts in overwhelming numbers, some statistically significant number of Republicans will see the error of their ways and come some number of inches towards the light.

But if the last 30 years (and especially the last seven) have proven anything, it is that this proposition is ridiculous.

No reform will fix them and no remediation is possible, except of ourselves.

We must stop beginning sentences or thoughts with "They must be made to understand...", "When the people finally see..." or "When Americans wake up and realize..."

No such thing will ever happen, because there really is no monolithic entity called "America" to wake up.

Instead you have around 45% of the voting public who are either well-informed, or at least interested in issues and policies. They are anxious to fix the mess the GOP has created and will be voting Democratic in the Fall.

Then you have another 45% who are basically our own, homegrown Stalinists. Loyal, mentally-flatlining, cult-of-personality Bush-worshipping lemmings. These are the people have been calling you "traitor" for 30 years. Who gird the GOP with a solid ring of diamond-hard stupid.

A week ago they had no fucking idea who Sarah Palin was. A week later she is their Joan of Arc, and they stand ready to slit their own economic throats at her say-so and perish in ignorance, cursing some mythical "Liberals" who are somehow to blame.

It doesn't matter to them whether or not the "Bridge to Nowhere" turns out to be horseshit.

How many of their rationalizations for going to war in Iraq turned out to be horseshit?

Lou Dobbs photo/story scrubbed from Obama Waffles site:

Hmmm...why would the page on the Obama Waffles site linked above suddenly get pulled? After all, Lou Dobbs, a speaker at the Values Voter Summit, stopped by the vendor table to give a slamming endorsement of the product; it depicts Barack Obama as a Muslim bug-eyed Aunt Jemima. The photo, as you can see, shows an approving Dobbs with a box of the mix in his hand.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes*:

I'm confident in the Obama campaign, but even if they run the perfect campaign, they are handicapped by the media. They've made a couple mistakes, but on the whole, it's a tightly run, confident campaign. And of course, they can't turn around and lie right back. They simply won't be extended that privilege of being able to bald-faced lie without getting called on it, because they're Democrats and probably because Obama is black. The media would turn back on their referee duties if Obama started lying, so even if he wanted to (and that is not something I believe), he couldn't return this fire. The high road is the only option, and let's hope the voters reward that.

But what we've learned this campaign is that the mainstream media has completely abandoned even the pretense of ethical journalism. Even during the run-up to the Iraq war, they could plead ignorance and terror of terrorism. Now, there's no reason to coddle the liars, outside of complicity with the project to dismantle our democracy.

Heck of a Job:

Needless to say, this is where Michael Browns come from. Not only the cronyism of Palin's approach to running the state of Alaska, but the nonchalance with which John McCain chooses his subordinates. Is arguably a maverick? Check. Social conservatives like her? Check. Let's roll. Nevermind questions about her suitability for office or ability to contribute constructively to an organization. And of course what you see once you're staffing the executive branch is that you can't actually fill thousands of jobs with your own cronies. Friends of friends who you don't even know anything about. Unless, that is, you're careful and make sure to staff the top ranks of your administration with people of integrity who you're confident will make responsible hiring decisions.

McGamble:

The McCain strategy is based on a series of major premises. These include, first, that what many thought was the fading salience of wedge issues -- evoking stereotypes of liberals as 'weak on terror' and 'sexually permissive' - can be revived; second, that Obama is particularly vulnerable to these stereotypes, in part because he is African American; third, that standards of accuracy and truthfulness in political competition have eroded; and fourth, that the traditional authority of the national media as arbiter of what is legitimate in political discourse has disappeared.

Feels Fine:

The Obama campaign has now clearly taken the leap into openly attacking John McCain for the series of lies and fraudulent statements he and his campaign have now told over the previous two weeks. The evidence is beyond question and even mainstream news organizations which place balance over accuracy in reportage have confirmed his deceptions. Presumably they will soon move to the obvious and more consequential corollary. If voters can't trust John McCain to tell the truth about even the most basic facts of the campaign, how can they trust him when he says he's going to bring change?

McCain's Lying Has Gone Too Far, According To ... Karl Rove!:

In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove -- the man who held the previous record -- said McCain's ads have gone too far.

Obama Raised More Than $66 Million In August:

An Obama aide this morning sent over his fundraising number for August: More than $66 million, topping his previous best month of $55 million by $11 million or more.

The astonishing haul means Obama is more than on track to raise the $300 million or more that the campaign had intended to raise for the general election -- a total that required him to raise over $50 million a month, which he's succeeded in doing.

The total suggests that McCain's gains, and the choice of Sarah Palin, helped galvanize and expand Obama's donor base: The campaign reports adding half a million new donors this month. The haul could also help put to rest lagging questions about the strain that opting out of public financing had put on his fundraising operation.

'Alaska Women Reject Palin' Rally is HUGE!:

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

IT'S NOT ALL MCCAIN'S FAULT.:

The McCain campaign's decision to lie about, well, everything, really needs to be understood as more than the outcome of John McCain's consuming ambition. It is a rational and obvious response to the rules laid down by the media. Indeed, McCain's spokesperson Brian Rogers says this directly to The Politico's Jonathan Martin. "We ran a different kind of campaign and nobody cared about us. They didn't cover John McCain. So now you've got to be forward-leaning in everything."

Compare And Contrast:

During the primary, I compared the legislation Clinton and Obama had managed to get enacted (1, 2, 3); and it occurred to me that it would be useful to do the same thing for Obama and McCain. I compare the legislation each person has sponsored (later I'll do co-sponsored legislation) that actually became law. For one thing, this gives some idea of how effective they are at working with Congress, and for another, it's easy to write a bill that promises the moon so long as you don't think there's the least possibility that it will ever become law; sticking to legislation that actually got enacted avoids bothering with that stuff.

More Comparisons:

Earlier today I posted a list of the bills and amendments sponsored by either John McCain or Barack Obama that were enacted into law. In this installment, I list the bills and amendments that they co-sponsored that were passed in the 110th Congress. (The 109th is coming later.)

Comparisons: Last Installment:

Continuing (and, mercifully, ending) the comparisons made in my last two posts: McCain's and Obama's co-sponsored legislation that was passed in the 109th Congress. Criteria, caveats, etc., are the same as before: only bills that McCain and Obama co-sponsored at the earliest opportunity, no purely ceremonial legislation; no legislation that just calls for a report or expresses the sense of the Senate; no legislation that appropriates less than $40 million, and does nothing else; no legislation of purely local interest. The list is below the fold.

Naysayer:

Since the Palin announcement, a number of intriguing critics of the Governor have gained notoriety. There's Anne Kilkenny, a voter registrar and housewife who observed Palin up close on the Wasilla city council in the nineteen-nineties. She wrote a long anti-Palin missive that coursed through the Internet last week with the speed of one of those viral e-mails tarring Obama. And there's Mudflats, the anonymous Alaskan blogger who has become a go-to source for Palin muckraking in the liberal blogosphere

The Get:

Palin's answers to Gibson's questions made it clear that all the briefings and all the cramming that she could absorb in two weeks were not enough to endow her with what her résumé so plainly indicated that she lacked: sufficient exposure to national-security issues to serve as President, should she be required to do so. She confirmed that she has never been abroad, apart from visits to Canada and Mexico, and a recent trip "that changed my life" to Kuwait and Germany, where she met American soldiers. She also said that she has never had occasion to meet a foreign head of state. She added, a little defensively, "If you go back in history and if you ask that question of many Vice-Presidents, they may have the same answer."

The Lonesome Trail - Cindy McCain's nontraditional campaign.:

It's possible, though, that Cindy McCain's reluctance to enter this race also had to do with the fact that her family is not actually that traditional--far less traditional, in fact, than the Obamas. Since childhood, McCain has been expected to embody certain pillars of conventional femininity: beauty, refinement, altruism, and an inclination to encourage the ambitious men in her life. She is probably better suited to this particular formulation of public wifehood than the outspoken, muscular, and frankly powerful Michelle Obama. But, if you watch her closely, from time to time you can see Cindy McCain slip out of character.

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes :

But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics -- she sometimes calls local opponents "haters" -- contrasts with her carefully crafted public image. Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

MORE TAX POLICY.:

In other words, McCain wants to give money to the rich, Obama to the poor. Now, it could be that McCain is out of touch, and doesn't understand the effects of his own policy. Or it could just be that he thinks rich people need more money. Or it could just be that he's a liar and has some secret tax plan he's hoping to implement in office. Any of these things are possible. But let's cut the crap: McCain is going to blow a hole in the deficit in order to accelerate income inequality. It's incredibly irresponsible, and he should be hounded over it.

Lipstick On A Pig...:

Coturnix has found a wonderful video--a reporter from the Chicago Tribune going out to a farm to... put lipstick on a pig. It really says so much about the focus the media has on the truly important issues this election season.

Dem: Palin 'Cliff-Noted' Her ABC Interview:

However, another Governor, Democrat Janet Napolitano of Arizona, said that in the discussion of Palin's credentials it was John McCain's qualifications that were the issue.

"He chose Sarah Palin because she's going to support those views," Napolitano said. "And that's why she shouldn't be the vice president."

US in 'once-in-a-century' financial crisis : Greenspan:

The United States is mired in a "once-in-a century" financial crisis which is now more than likely to spark a recession, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Sunday.

The talismanic ex-central banker said that the crisis was the worst he had seen in his career, still had a long way to go and would continue to effect home prices in the United States.

Gov. Palin's Worldview:

What made it so much worse is the strategy for which the Republicans have made Ms. Palin the frontwoman: win the White House not on ideas, but by denigrating experience, judgment and qualifications.

The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things -- who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls "the mission" that they won't even pause for reflection -- shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country.

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This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn't pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today's profound economic crisis.

In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation.

Out-Takes: Behind The Atlantic's McCain Cover:

These images are, to any reasonably decent person, simply political pornography. There's just no other way to parse them.

1500 Alaskans, mostly women, protest Palin & McCain in Anchorage:

The Saturday protest in front of the Loussac Library appeared bigger than any Anchorage has seen in recent memory. The crowd looked to be in the high hundreds at least, and organizers said they counted 1,500. It included roughly 100 counter protesters supporting Palin.

Cheney's office hid wiretapping memos from White House chief of staff:

Today, the Washington Post's Angler series explores Vice President Cheney's heavy hand in Bush's domestic surveillance program. Documents giving "strategic direction to the nation's largest spy agency" were held not in the White House but in Cheney's office. Cheney's lawyer David Addington, who wrote the documents, kept White House Chief of Staff Andy Card in the dark:

Rove: McCain attacks have gone 'one step too far':

Rove, a Fox News contributor, has provided informal advice to the McCain campaign for months but singled out the GOP nominee today for recent attacks that he believes go beyond the pale.

My fellow Democrats:

The more you point what a wacky lady she is, the more likely you are to help Republicans win. After all, we're all wacky and we all love to vote for someone like us: unless someone is calling on us to be better.

The Public and its Problems:

Whereas Walter Lippman believed that the public had little capacity to be a rational participant in democracy and was essentially nonexistent, Dewey held a more optimistic view of the public and its potential. Dewey did not call for an abandonment of the public; rather, he hoped the public would regain a sense of self. The solution to this, he writes, is improved communication. Only then, with communication, will the public find itself and become a cohesive group.

No One Here Gets Out Alive:

There is no truth. All things are relative. The truth is a lie. All politicians lie, so why are you so worked up about the McCain campaign? You see how this works, don't you?

And that is exactly what they want, because once they have destroyed every component of society that Americans trust, then they can simply do whatever they want. It has worked everywhere else they have tried it- intellectuals are dismissed scornfully as coastal elites, Universities dismissed as havens of bias.

There is no consensus on evolution- just different opinions. Sure, they say that McCain's plan will be bad for the health of the nation, but those are just different opinions, and you are biased anyway. it is just your opinion that there are no WMD in Iraq. Who knows, they may have moved them all to Syria and we were right. Your anti-Bush bias is showing. Starting to see how this works, yet?

Facts are tricky and troubling things, and get in the way of the GOP machine. Might as well destroy the rest of our non-partisan fact-checkers, as well. We are all Michael Moore, now.

Neoconservatives plan Project Sarah Palin to shape future American foreign policy :

Sources in the McCain camp, the Republican Party and Washington think tanks say Mrs Palin was identified as a potential future leader of the neoconservative cause in June 2007. That was when the annual summer cruise organised by the right-of-centre Weekly Standard magazine docked in Juneau, the Alaskan state capital, and the pundits on board took tea with Governor Palin. Her case as John McCain's running mate was later advanced vociferously by William Kristol, the magazine's editor, who is widely seen as one of the founding fathers of American neoconservative thought - including the robust approach to foreign policy which spurred American intervention in Iraq

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Pat Buchanan, the former Republican presidential candidate and a foreign policy isolationist, who opposes the war in Iraq, the project most closely associated with the neocons, said: "Palin has become, overnight, the most priceless political asset the movement has. "Look for the neocons to move with all deliberate speed to take her into their camp by pressing upon her advisers and staff, and steering her into the AEI-Weekly Standard-War Party orbit." The AEI, or American Enterprise Institute, is a free-market think-tank with many neo-cons among its members.

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In her first television interview, she was on message, agreeing with Mr McCain that Israel has the right to take military action against Iran if necessary. "I don't think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security," she said. Jacob Heilbrunn, author of They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, said the interview was "further evidence that she has soaked up the neocon view of the world." He was particularly alarmed by her suggestion that war with Russia is "perhaps" a possibility. "The neocons surrounded Dan Quayle, with William Kristol becoming his main tutor. Now both McCain and Palin are being closely advised by neocons. Far from being chastened by the Iraq debacle, the neocons are now poised for their moment of greatest influence." Mr Buchanan has predicted Mrs Palin will become a major player for years to come.

Has the West Reached Its Limits?:

"Train-wreck" doesn't even begin to describe what is starting to happen to the U.S. today with the financial crisis, an onrushing depression, and the failure of George W. Bush's war policy as he is faced down by Iran and the Russian bear.

But in an even broader sense, the West, as a civilization, after a century of world war and the utter failure of global finance capitalism, may have reached its limits.

Can Twitter influence press behavior?:

Online social communities built around niches can be quite effective in forcing changes. While Twitter isn't a niche social service, the networks that build up around individuals tend to be niches; ergo, Rosen's followers includes hundreds of reporters, editors, academics, and the media "elite." When that group gets to talking amongst themselves about important issues, social change within the group is possible.

This power of niche online communities was first demonstrated to me 17 years ago (or thereabouts), when I was graphics editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. I used Compuserve, the old proprietary online service, and there was a "forum" on it just for newspaper graphics folks. it's so long ago that I can't remember the specific issue, but I was annoyed by a policy of the Associated Press graphics department, which fed us syndicated infographics. I griped about it and a discussion with my co-horts around the U.S. ensued, with others sharing my complaint.

It wasn't long before the director of AP Graphics chimed in and agreed to change the policy, based on our online group gripe session.

That was my introduction to the power of online community. I think that it can be demonstrated here on a much larger issue with Rosen's #spinewatch initiative.

WHEELS COME OFF STRAIGHT TALK EXPRESS? :

And it concludes, "While the media is slowly starting to call the McCain campaign on their dishonest tactics, McCain's staff boasts that they don't care. As a McCain spokesman told the Politico, 'We're running a campaign to win. And we're not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.'"

Bering Straight Talk:

I've been in Alaska only a week, but I'm already feeling ever so much smarter about Russia.

I can't quite see it from my hotel window, but, hey, I know it's out there somewhere, beyond all the stuffed bears and cruise ships and glaciers and oil derricks.

More than Half a Million New Donors in August:

This morning the campaign announced that more than half a million new donors contributed to the Obama campaign during the month of August, bringing the total number of donors so far to over 2.5 million. In August, these donors helped raise a record $66 million.

McCain Accused of Using DEA and Senate to Cover Up Cindy's Drug Habit:

It seems John McCain may have used his connections to cover up his wife Cindy's prescription drug abuse (something she later admitted to). Open Left's source, Tom Gosinski, worked with Cindy at her charity, American Voluntary Medical Team. He claims that while she was funneling drugs to those in need, Cindy was also securing her own fix, by getting prescriptions written in other people's names, including Gosinski's.

Lowry: Palin's Not Ready:

Again, we see a conservative and a Palin fan basically hoping Palin will be ready at some future point when she has the opportunity to learn about such matters as foreign policy and domestic policy. And of course it's unlikely that McCain will win the election and die in January, so probably we won't wind up with a president whose not prepared to discuss the vast majority of issues in national politics.

All of which is a reminder of what a crassly political choice this was. The President of the United States has an enormous job. And nobody expects anyone, no matter how experienced, to somehow do it single-handedly. You're helped by a team. Recent Presidents have used the Vice Presidency as an opportunity to add a key player to the team. And it's easy to see why someone might think that adding Joe Biden to the Obama Team would allow the Obama Team to govern more effectively. Biden is the kind of guy who, had he not gotten the nod for VP, would have been in the mix to run the State Department. If McCain had gone with Joe Lieberman, I wonder which agency Palin would have been a serious choice for.

A Saturday Tour through General Wingnuttia:

Lots going on this weekend on the fringe right, so I thought I would take you all on a guided tour of the crazy.

New Things McCain Has Lied About:

It's getting difficult to provide a separate blog post for each McCain Lie that winds up getting exposed.

Old habits die hard:

So: a post in which The Ticket uncritically adopts as fact Jonah Goldberg's defense of John McCain, a post in which The Ticket uncritically adopts Charles Krauthammer's defense of Sarah Palin, and a post in which The Ticket adopts Karl Rove's electoral map as its own.

Now, would it surprise you to learn that all three entries were written by Los Angeles Times reporter Andrew Malcolm? Would it surprise you to learn that Malcolm used to be Laura Bush's press secretary?

Group With Swift Boat Alumni Readies Ads Attacking Obama:

A new group financed by a Texas billionaire and organized by some of the same political operatives and donors behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004 plans to begin running television ads attacking Barack Obama, a signal that outside groups may play a larger role than anticipated in the closing days of the presidential race.

Sarah Palin's just fine with vicious sexist smears ... of her foes:

I guess that nasty personal smears, attacking someone's motherhood, are only a problem for Sarah Palin and John McCain when they're directed their way.

Campaign of lies disgraces McCain:

McCain's straight talk has become a toxic mix of lies and double-speak. It is leaving a permanent stain on his reputation for integrity, and it is a short-term strategy that eventually will backfire with the very types of independent-thinking voters that were so attracted to him.

Educational Resumes of Obama, McCain, Biden & Palin:

Suppose you are a hiring manager and have four young candidates to choose from to work in your business. The job involves managing a diverse group of people, having a basic knowledge of economics, politics, foreign relations, education, law, and government. You need someone who is a team-player, is decisive, and has a "get the job done" attitude.

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But, consider this: What does it say about them, when the playing field was as level as it might ever be, how they chose to use their educational opportunities? To me, it speaks volumes about their character, and their ability at a young age to seize an opportunity or let it nearly slip away.

Palin Administration Still Pursuing 'Nowhere' Project:

But Gov. Palin's administration acknowledges that it is still pursuing a project that would link Ketchikan to its airport -- with the help of as much as $73 million in federal funds earmarked by Congress for the original project.

Political: This May Qualify Me As an 'Elitist' But I Don't Care:

Without getting into specific numbers, I can say without a doubt that I and my household are not average. While I know what I want out of government, my elected officials, and the country I live in, those things are skewed by my reality. For me to think that my point of view, and therefore the things I hold dear, accurately reflect those of 'average Americans' is absurd.

Discussing Lipstickgate, Kurtz asked: 'Why, exactly, did the mainstream media go hog-wild over a manufactured story that was pushed by the right?':

Summary: Howard Kurtz described the "lipstick controversy," regarding a comment made by Sen. Barack Obama, as "ridiculous, trumped-up, phony" and asked, "Why, exactly, did the mainstream media go hog-wild over a manufactured story that was pushed by the right?" Kurtz asserted, "Just about everyone knows it was essentially pushed along and made up by Drudge, Sean Hannity, and the New York Post. ... Surely the media wouldn't fall for this," adding, "And even as they [the media] were saying, 'Well, you know, this isn't quite the way it happened,' it didn't matter. They'd still do segment after segment on it."

The New York Times: All the Euphemisms That Are Fit to Print? :

Well, of course they're not lies, Joy, you silly goose: they're barbs or attacks or distortions, or--if you're really feeling ballsy--misrepresentations, just like the nice newspaper folk say. Surely you didn't expect McCain to call a lie a lie? And indeed, why should he, when hardly a soul in the mainstream press dares to utter or type the word.

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The financial news this coming week, and maybe the problems in Galveston, will make a mockery of the McCain campaign's silly diversions.