Repooplicans.com

Apparently, the McCain campaign is airing radio ads in four states (Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia) where coal-related issues are important, claiming that Obama is opposed to clean coal as an energy source. Now, there are a couple of things wrong with this.

#1 - It’s false. Obama’s energy plan clearly states a goal to develop and deploy clean coal technology. (Full PDF here, see page 6)

#2 - McCain’s only source is a quote from Joe Biden while shaking hands with a large group of supporters at a campaign event in Ohio.

More on #2 in a moment, but first, here’s the McCain radio ad:

McCain-Palin 2008 Radio Ad: “Clean Coal”

Announcer: Clean Coal is important to America. And to Pennsylvania. For Pennsylvanians, coal means thousands of jobs. Economic growth. More affordable electricity.

For America, coal means energy independence. And clean coal means cleaner air. But Obama-Biden and their liberal allies oppose clean coal. Listen to Joe Biden.

Biden: “No coal plants here in America”. “We’re not supporting clean coal”.

Announcer: No coal plants in America? No jobs in Pennsylvania? No energy independence for America? It’s no surprise. After all, Obama-Biden and their liberal allies opposed off-shore drilling. Congressional liberals blocked off-shore drilling putting special interests, before our interests.
Obama-Biden and their liberal allies. Too risky for our jobs, our economic future. Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee.

McCain: I’m John McCain and I approved this message.

Did Biden do justice in explaining the Obama/Biden position on clean coal technology? Not exactly. Whether he forgot that portion of the energy plan, couldn’t hear the question clearly, or dropped another gaffe, only he knows. The fact of the matter is, the record is clear: Obama has always supported clean coal technology and has included it within his energy plan should he become president.

The radio ad clearly takes a couple of quotes from Biden out of context and uses them to the advantage of the McCain/Palin ticket. Shame on Biden for answering the question the way he did. Shame on McCain for using pieces of that answer, knowing full-well that Obama’s energy plan includes and supports clean coal technology. That, however, is U.S. politics. Peace.

Now, for the really good part: The same exact thing just happened to everyone’s favorite VP wannabe. The only difference? McCain flew off the handle in a joint interview with Katie Couric, claiming Palin was the victim of “gotcha journalism”:

Anyone else see the similarity here? This is hypocrisy at it’s core. I mean, this was only a “conversation with a voter” after all. Who the hell cares about getting things right when talking to voters? To answer that, please begin reading the post from the top again.

The hypocrisy aside, two additional observations about the interview. First, watch McCain’s body language as Palin begins to explain her answer to Couric. He’s clearly very uncomfortable, fidgeting with his hands, throwing quick, paranoid looks at the camera and Couric and trying desperately to restrain himself from interrupting Palin to take over the answer. Secondly, he’s angry that Palin’s answer is being used against them. You can see the anger in his face and body language during his interjection. How dare anyone take anything this woman says and contradict him?

It sucks, doesn’t it, John?

So what about that “voter” that McCain made light of in the interview above? It turns out he’s a grad student at Temple University. Not exactly someone who would blurt out meaningless questions to a VP candidate and not care about the answers. Note the local Fox affiliate anchor’s weak ass attempt at shielding herself from the wrath of Rupert when the guy she’s interviewing states that Palin “just supported Obama”:

Remember, John, Santa’s watching. If you keep running this kind of campaign, you’ll find all the clean coal you’ve ever dreamed of in your stocking this year.

–Gordy

Election

John McCain says he may suspend his campaign again to solve the economic crisis being faced by our nation. This seems like an excellent idea, especially given how well it worked the first time. Watch as the Foxies drool all over themselves, virtually begging him to suspend his campaign…also watch how uncomfortable McCain appears to be while trying to decide whether he should go along with their unbridled ass-kissing or remain non-committal with his answers:

Wow, if Steve Doocy could stick his tongue through the camera and lick McCain’s feet, he’d do it. I’m serious.

Let’s forget the fact that McCain’s first campaign suspension wasn’t really a suspension at all. His television ads never came down, his banners never missed an impression and his campaign staffers were still holding interviews and issuing statements throughout the four day “suspension.” Like I said, let’s forget that. What we can’t forget, however, is what happened once the campaign was pseudo-suspended. McCain went to Washington. McCain urged a meeting at the White House and made it clear that Obama should attend. McCain met with, and threatened, his fellow Republicans. Then he claimed credit for putting together the votes to pass the bailout package, while slamming Obama for staying out of things:

“I’ve never been afraid of stepping in to solve problems for the American people, and I’m not going to stop now,” McCain told a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “Senator Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn’t want to get involved. Then he was monitoring the situation.”

Yesterday, however, the bailout failed to be approved by the House. Putting that whole “taking credit” thing aside, in the face of failure, John McCain once again called for bi-partisanship in solving this problem:

“I am disappointed at the lack of resolve and bipartisan good will among members of both parties to fix this problem,” McCain said today in Des Moines, Iowa. “Bipartisanship is a tough thing; never more so when you’re trying to take necessary but publicly unpopular action. But inaction is not an option.”

I agree. The members of Congress need to suck it up. Put away pride and differences and find a solution that works best for the majority of the people being affected by the situation. At virtually the same time McCain was preaching bi-partisanship, however, his campaign released the ad below in key states completely blaming Democrats for the current crisis and bailout failure:

How’s that for bi-partisanship? Nothing more than the typical filth we’ve come to know as The Straight Talk Express.

At :18 into the ad, I want you to look at the house the McCain camp has chosen to represent the mortgage crisis. A pretty fair representation of the home owned by the members of the American middle class who are most affected by the economic crisis, no? Are they freaking kidding me? Until they understand that the average person facing financial crisis right now isn’t living in a $2.5 million McMansion, they are headed for political failure. Hell, maybe they’re already there.

To borrow a bit from our illustrious leader these past eight years: There’s an old saying in Tennessee - I know it’s in Texas, it’s probably in Tennessee - that says, suspend a campaign once, shame on … shame on you. It suspend me. We can’t get suspended again.

Sage advice. Go for it, John. Please suspend your campaign again. In fact, why don’t you just leave it suspended until 11/4?

–Gordy

Election

Apparently, asking too many foreign policy-related questions is going to be unfair, the McCain camp said today in a televised interview on everyone’s fair and balanced new network. Ironically, these same people did not raise a similar objection for the first presidential debate which was largely focused on…foreign policy. Now why would that be?

Now, a couple of observations:

The moderator will have questions to answer themselves if the do go so heavily foreign policy.

Really? Gwen Ifill will have to answer questions? Who’s going to be asking those questions? Because I would pay good money to see Nancy Pfotenhauer attempt to go toe-to-toe with Gwen. And I’d likely have to, given that Gwen would lay such a hurt on Nancy it’d only be available on pay-per-view.

It sounds like they’re stacking the deck against her, because…well…everyone knows that’s Joe Biden’s forte…

For crying out loud, where did all Palin’s foreign policy experience suddenly disappear to? I thought one of the main reasons she was selected as a running mate was due to her extensive foreign relations experience, what with Canada sharing a border with Alaska and Russia being a short boat ride away. Now that we’re three days out from the VP debate, however, that appears to be becoming a much harder sell. I’m guessing they’d rather the whole nation not get another taste of this:

Oh, and lets not forget that all that foreign relations experience was debunked right here anyway…as if it needed to be.

Why don’t they ask half and half?…uhhhh…the average person is more concerned with domestic stuff than the foreign stuff anyway.

Oh boy, there are so many ways to go with this one… I’m just not sure the blog system could handle the length of my post if I were to write down everything I’m thinking, so I’m just going to keep with the original subject of Governor Sarah Palin. Ok, you want to stick with the domestic stuff? Let’s stick with the domestic stuff:

Anyone know what the emoticon is for the expression of slapping both hands to the sides of your face in dumbfounded astonishment?

The fact of the matter is, Sarah Palin really doesn’t know much of anything when it comes to the issues and politics on a national scale. She’s not stupid and I’ll debate anyone who says otherwise. You don’t get to be mayor of a town (regardless of how small) and governor of a state (regardless of how remote and irrelevant) by being stupid. Sarah Palin has proven that she knows how to play the game of politics on a local/regional level. From everything I’ve read and seen, she is very adept at keeping her true beliefs and feelings suppressed and hidden until she achieves her goal and then springs them like a moose trap on her unsuspecting victims. That, and she surrounds herself with those that are loyal and see things her way. In other words, she’s a good politician…on a local level. National politics, however, are on a completely different level and that’s where Palin runs into trouble. She is so far out of her league, it’s scary. Someone needs to remind her that you cannot see Russia, nor Alaska, from Washington D.C.

Why McCain picked her in the first place is a mystery to me. She brings him down on foreign policy, which should have been his greatest strength over Obama. She brings him down on spending reform, because her reforms are almost completely inaccurate or downright false and she still requests earmarks for Alaska as if that state’s population had another zero on of the end of it. She brings him down on looks, because let’s face it, John McCain is one short, balding (please, please lose the comb over soon), weasly-looking old fart…and she’s not. Finally, she brings him down because he’s a 72-year-old who’s had cancer and she, in all her crazy, nonsensical misunderstanding of the issues, would be next in line to hold the keys to the missiles.

I read an article earlier postulating that Sarah Palin has a very good chance of exceeded expectations in the debate because she’s set the bar so low already with her limited, but devastating, TV appearances that coming even close on a question or two is going to be seen as an improvement. With a mere 36 days until the election, I’m not looking for a minor improvement at this point. If the knowledge and experience is there, it’s there. If it’s not, and you know it’s not, it’s not something anyone can teach her between now and January.

Turns out, however, that CBS has been holding back on us. Look for more “right out of an SNL skit” answers from everyone’s favorite VP-wannabe. Howard Kurtz’s column yesterday had this stuck near the end:

And the worst may be yet to come for Palin; sources say CBS has two more responses on tape that will likely prove embarrassing.

I, for one, cannot wait.

No matter how the questions are broken down during the VP debate, there’s a very good chance we’re going to witness an epic fail the likes that exceed even Dan Quayle’s worst nightmares. Regardless of what happens, I’m not sure CNN’s Jack Cafferty is going to be able to take much more. I love Jack, because he proves that even someone as passionate, opinionated and explosive about politics, such as myself, can get a job on network TV:

There’s still hope!

–Gordy

Election

Over 2 hours in and I still can’t stop reading Twitter’s live debate discussion. The updates ranged from respectful and well thought out to pointless and idiotic (e.g. “Michelle Obama makes Janet Reno look hot”).

I’ve been following Obama on Twitter for a while, but I was curious to see if John McCain had a presence there as well. It turns out that he does. Rather than go on about what I found, I thought I’d let the numbers do the talking:

John McCain
5 updates
1,035 followers
Tweeting since September 19, 2008

Barack Obama
206 updates
86,556 followers
Tweeting since April 27, 2007

* stats accurate at the time of this post.

What does this have to do with the election? Probably not much. It does, in my opinion, further illustrate how out of touch John McCain is when dealing with technology and communication. In spite of the “fact” that he helped invent the Blackberry.

–Gordy

Election

I’d have more to say about this awesome video a friend just shared with me, but I have to go change. I just wet myself. Please visit The Great Schlep website after you watch.

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

–Gordy

Election

Now even conservative commentator, Kathleen Parker, thinks it’s time for Sarah to step aside.

Sure, if Palin were to drop out of the race now it would be disastrous for the Palin/McCain campaign…I mean what is everyone going to do with all that crappy lipstick they bought?…but is anyone considering what a detriment it would be to the left-leaning blogs out there? What about our rights? She’s worth 3-4 posts a day alone. Who are we supposed to blog about if she’s not in the race? Oh…wait a minute.

The Palin Problem? More like the Palin Pot of Gold, IMO:

–Gordy

Election

Thanks to a couple of friends for pointing me to this McCain video shot earlier this year. I’m not sure I can do justice to the comments that need to be made about this video, other than to question why it still exists in the video archives on McCain’s website (which it does). What could he possibly hoped to have gained from doing this that would have outweighed the potential ridicule? Then again, he is now the Republican presidential nominee and the video was targeted toward WWE viewers who live in South Carolina. No offense if you fall within that demographic, but I think you know what I’m saying.

I can smell what The Mac is cooking and it smells like ass.

–Gordy

Funny

Halloween is fast-approaching, I get that. There’s a corn maze we go to here in Portland every year. Fun stuff.

This, however, is just plain wrong.

(AP Photo/Duke Wheeler, HO)

Yes, sadly, it really does say “Sarah America” above her corny likeness.

–Gordy

Funny

No, John McCain hasn’t suddenly changed his mind (again). He still plans on attending the debate tonight in Mississippi. The thing is, though, he’s already won it.

I’m serious. The Internet told me so.

Apparently, banner ads featuring a headshot of McCain were spotted running on the Wall Street Journal website declaring, “McCain wins debate!” There was apparently another ad featuring, now illusive campaign manager, Rick Davis, stating, “McCain won the debate–hands down.” Here’s one of the banners:

And here’s the screenshot from WSJ.com.

In less than two weeks, he’s gone from stating that the fundamentals of our economy are strong, to expressing the seriousness of the crisis our nation’s economy is in, to suspending his campaign (which was never really suspended) and attempting to delay the debates, to traveling to D.C. to muck up what looked to be a bi-partisan bailout package, to declaring himself the victor of a debate that doesn’t take place for another 7 hours.

Maybe this is what’s been making McCain look so haggard lately. I hear time travel takes an enormous toll on your body.

–Gordy

Election

Watching Sarah Palin’s interview is akin to rubber-necking a car accident on the freeway. It’s a horrific sight that you know you shouldn’t be watching, yet you cannot look away.

This latest segment from the interview is the best yet. How journalists have been able to keep themselves from just downright laughing in her face during interviews is beyond me. SNL’s skits, while tremendously funny, aren’t anywhere near as good as the real thing:

Watch CBS Videos Online

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.

Trade missions? Really? Well, if there have been any, they must have been complete failures. Russia doesn’t even make the list of Top 20 trade partners for the state of Alaska (PDF). In fact, Alaskan exports to Russia accounted for a mere $14 million in 2007. That’s less than 0.4% of the state’s total exports for that year. It’s also less than half the total exports sent to #20 on the list of top Alaskan trade partners, Norway, a country which, by the way, you CANNOT see from Alaska. Even more embarrassing for Palin is the fact that states not sharing “narrow maritime borders” with Russia, like Oklahoma and North Dakota, do more in trade with that country. 3 to 6 times more, to be exact.

Now, to be fair, Alaskan trade with Russia has increased since Palin took office, moving from about 0.3% of total exports to roughly 0.4% from 2006 to 2007. That amounts to a net increase of about $3 million dollars of total exports estimated at nearly $4 billion. So, as you can see, all those “trade missions” have been extremely effective…

If only Katie Couric had asked Palin for some details regarding those “trade missions”. One can only imagine the disaster that answer would have been. In fact, I’m pretty sure that, in my 30 or so minutes of online research, I now have a far deeper knowledge regarding Alaskan foreign trade than Governor Sarah Palin.

–Gordy

Election