A Little Background On McCain's VP Pick (With Update)

From Trapper John at Kos:

* * * We're told that McCain really wanted to pick his old friend Joe Lieberman to run with him, but that Karl Rove and the rest of the elite Republican politburo nixed the idea, and told McCain that he had to take a conservative. And as he has at every step of his campaign, the one-time "maverick" sold out to the venal, icy core of the Republican leadership, and acquiesced by selecting [Alaska Governor Sarah] Palin. Palin is really a Republican after Rove's heart - she's a product of the party that produced the indicted Ted Stevens and ethically tarred Don Young, and she's embroiled in a Troopergate scandal of her own, with state investigators looking at serious allegations that Palin abused her office by pressuring the state Public Safety Commissioner to fire "an Alaska state trooper involved in a rough divorce from Palin's sister." Sounds like a woman after Karl Rove's heart.

In addition to further associating McCain with the Republican culture of corruption, the Palin pick undermines one of his main anti-Obama narratives. It's going to be laughable to hear McCain assail Obama's supposed lack of experience after naming the first-term governor -- only one-and-a-half years into her term -- of the 47th largest state to be his running mate. Palin lacks any foreign policy experience, and is bereft of even the two core areas of policy expertise that governors are supposed to bring to a ticket -- ag policy (Alaska doesn't have much in the way of traditional agriculture) and urban affairs (Anchorage is the 65th largest city in the US, behind giants such as Corpus Christi). She's easily the least experienced running mate in recent memory, which is pretty scary, given McCain's age and his history of cancer. * * *

If this is the kind of "executive" decision we can expect from McCain in the future, then I can't wait to see who he picks for his cabinet should he win in November. Maybe he'll pick Phyllis Schlafly as his Secretary of State. That would make just as much sense.

UPDATE: From the Washington Post:

Though it was high in shock value, the Palin pick left bruised feelings among the short-list contenders who were not picked -- and infuriated some Republican officials who privately said McCain had gone out on a limb, unnecessarily, without laying the groundwork for such an unknown. Two senior Republican officials close to Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty said they had both been rudely strung along and now "feel manipulated."

"They now know that they were used as decoys, well after McCain had decided not to pick them," one Republican involved in the process said.

Maybe the whole "shock value" point explains this selection. Perhaps McCain's plan was to name Palin in order to really attract attention away from Obama's speech last night, and then take her name out of consideration at the last possible second and pick another GOP type with more experience, like Chuck Norris.

I'd Love It If McCain Picked Romney

If McCain picked Romney as his running mate, then the Democrats would have good grounds to argue that the evil Karl Rove was behind the selection (from Politico.com):

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) late last week and urged him to contact John McCain to withdraw his name from vice presidential consideration, according to three sources familiar with the conversation.

Lieberman dismissed the request, these sources agreed. * * *

Rove, President Bush’s former top campaign adviser and arguably the most prominent political operative of the past generation, has no formal role in McCain’s campaign. But he knows much of the Arizona senator’s high command and has been offering informal advice, both over the phone and in his position as a Fox News analyst, since McCain wrapped up the GOP nomination.

His decision to wade into the vice presidential selection process could provide Democrats fresh ammunition to tie McCain to the polarizing Bush.

It is also chafing some Lieberman allies and others wary of the selection of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

“Rove is pushing Romney so aggressively some folks are beginning to wonder what's going on,” grumbled one veteran Republican strategist. * * *

If McCain did end up selecting Romney as his running mate, then Obama would be able to say it was actually Karl Rove who made the selection, and it makes one wonder how many other important decisions Rove would make in a McCain Administration should the GOP hang on to the White House.

Rush Limbaugh Is Rolling Over In His Grave Right Now

From the AP:

Republicans have come up with another name for the opposing party — the right name.

For years now, the GOP has gone after "Democrat schemes," "Democrat presidents," "Democrat Congresses" — all phrases from the 1996 Republican platform, repeated many times since. Twenty years earlier, Bob Dole famously declared that all wars of the 20th century were "Democrat wars."

On Tuesday, members of the Republican platform committee meeting in Minneapolis voted down a proposal to call the opposition the "Democrat Party" in the 2008 platform. Instead, they'll go with the proper Democratic Party.

"We probably should use what the actual name is," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the panel's chairman. "At least in writing."

In 1996, references to the Democratic Party were purged from a draft of the platform. As party leaders explained at the time, they wanted to make the subtle point that the Democratic Party had become elitist, no longer small-d democratic.

In the debate Tuesday, Jim Bopp of Indiana echoed that sentiment but said fair's fair.

"We should afford them the respect that they are entitled and call them by their legal name."

Drill Here! Drill Now!

This video response to the GOP's "Drill Here Drill Now" bullshit battle cry could easily be adapted for an Obama commercial. But it would probably be too late for such an ad, because the GOP (thanks to Obama's refusal to immediately go on the counter-offensive with attack ads on this topic) has been able to successfully frame this issue to its benefit -- so much so that House Republicans are actually threatening to shut down the government over this single issue alone.

But as mad as I am at Obama for trying to hand the election to McCain by being a 2008 version of John Kerry, I'm relieved that John Edwards -- my first choice for the Dem nomination (well, first choice after Gore) -- did not get the nod. Can you imagine the mess there would be right now if Edwards were the nominee? At least now -- even with Obama -- the Democrats have a chance to win (although that chance fades the longer Obama waits before going on the offensive).

And one more thing while I am on a rant -- I think Bill Clinton should stay the hell out of politics for about three months or so. When he was asked the other day if he thought Obama was ready to be commander-in-chief, his response was, "you can argue that nobody is ready to be President."

Geesus, with Democrats like Bill Clinton around, who the hell needs Republicans?

What he should have said was "absolutely he's ready to be commander in chief, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens." And if he was pressed on the whole "experience" issue, the simple response would be, "well, Dick Cheney was one of the most experienced persons ever to serve at the highest levels of the executive branch, and he's been an unmitigated catastrophe, so obviously there's more to this job than experience -- there's also a judgment component, and I have no doubt that Barack will exercise rock-solid judgment as commander-in-chief, and won't that be a nice change of pace from the last seven-and-a-half years."

That's how a political ally would answer such questions.

I guess Bill -- as a former Democratic president -- should be allowed to speak at the convention; but after he's done doing that, I think he should go on a vacation for about two-and-a-half months. The last thing Obama needs right now is any help from the Hillary 2012 Campaign.

And by the way, I'm ready to make my predictions with regard to running mates for McCain and Obama. McCain will pick former Ohio congressman Rob Portman, and Obama will pick Tim Kaine, the governor of Virginia.

I used to think Portman didn't have much of a chance to be McCain's running mate, given that he is very close to the Bush family and McCain seems intent on getting some political separation from BushCo. But McCain has a problem in Ohio -- it seems that Rick Davis, his campaign manager, successfully lobbied Congress back in 2003 to approve DHL's buyout of Airborne Express, and DHL is now planning to shut down Wilmington's Airborne Express hub, which will cause the loss of 8,000 jobs in Ohio.

This is such an obvious problem for McCain that the Obama campaign is actually running an attack ad (!) stating that "[i]t was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio." [The Obama campaign, apparently afraid of looking too aggressive, is only running the ad on the radio, and only in the Cincinatti market]. I used to think that McCain was going to pick Romney as his running mate; but given this DHL problem, McCain will need all the help he can get in Ohio, so Portman will probably get the nod.

Although I would have loved to see Obama pick Chuck Hagel to be his running made, Tim Kaine appears to be the obvious choice for the Democratic VP slot. Virginia is actually in play this year (the last time that happened was in 1964), and Kaine will be a big help in putting that state in the Democrats' column.

Porn In The U.S.A.

I'm not sure how I missed this story from last month (via UPI):

A U.S. monitor of adult Web sites said Internet pornography has seen an "ups[ch]wing in sales" since taxpayers began receiving their stimulus checks.

The Adult Internet Market Research Co., or AIMRCo, said President Bush's Economic Stimulus Plan, which yielded checks of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for married couples, led to a number of pornographic Web sites recording an increase in membership, the New York Post reported Monday.

"Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20 to 30 percent growth in membership rates since mid-May, when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market," said Kirk

Mishkin, head research consultant for AIMRCo.

Proprietors of adult sites said they welcome the new government-funded business.

"Getting more people to buy porn was probably the last thing Bush had on his mind when he came up with his 'stimulus package,' but we'll take it," said Jillian Fox of LSGmodels, a site monitored by AIMRCo.

Obama Campaign Explains Its Mystifying "Don't Attack McCain" Strategy (With Update)

Camp Obama explains why it refuses to launch attacks against McCain (from the Washington Post):

Obama spokesman Burton said the campaign sees no reason to shift strategy.

"This is a classic Washington story, anonymous quotes from armchair quarterbacks with no sense of our strategy, data or plan," he said.

The Post article further elaborated on the Obama strategy: "Because Obama opted out of public financing and the spending limits that come with it, he will be free to swamp McCain with television spots in the fall. If he needs to become more negative at that point, he can -- knowing that McCain would be hard pressed to reply."

OK, I freely admit that I don't know shit about how to run a campaign, but I do remember what happened when John Kerry failed to immediately respond to the Swift Boat attacks in 2004 -- we got four more years of BushCo ineptitude.

I agree with this unnamed Democratic strategist (also quoted in the Post article):

"If somebody attacks you, you have to frame the attack: 'This is the same old politics, or better yet, the Bush-Rove politics,' * * * At the same time you do that, you have to counterattack. You don't want to look like a whiner. You want to look tough."

In fact, as noted by Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's executive director, the best response to McCain's ad comparing Obama to celebrities like Paris Hilton has come from . . . Paris Hilton, who released an ad calling McCain "the oldest celebrity in the world, like super old."

You know a campaign is in trouble when it has to rely on Paris Hilton to implement the correct strategy.

UPDATE: Sen. Schumer chimes in:

One of the Democratic Party's leading electoral street fighters, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, said that Barack Obama should respond to John McCain's personal attacks with an equally personal slap.

"I would not be afraid to attack back," said Schumer, who chairs the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, in an interview with Politico. "When they say, 'He's not one of us,' you don't say, 'Here's our plan on health care,"' he said.

"I thought the Britney Spears commercial was powerful," Schumer said, referring to McCain's television ad casting Obama as a vapid "celebrity."

Currently promoting the paperback edition of his book "Positively American," which argues for a Democratic agenda pitched around a new set of bread-and-butter issues and government activism on behalf of middle class voters, Schumer didn't directly criticize Obama's strategy. Rather, he argued for a higher-velocity response.

"I would answer back hard. What do you mean he's not one of us? It's John McCain who wears $500 shoes, has six houses, and comes from one of the richest families in his state," Schumer said. "It's Barack Obama who climbed up the hard way, and that's why he wants middle-class tax cuts and better schools for our kids." * * *

F*cking-A.

John "The Surge!" McCain (With Update)

One of my favorite moments from the Democratic primaries was when Joe Biden, during a debate last October, mocked Rudi Giuliani's obsession with 9/11. Here's what Biden said:

"And the irony is, Rudy Giuliani, probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency, is here talking about any of the people here. Rudy Giuliani... I mean, think about it! Rudy Giuliani. There's only three things he mentions in a sentence -- a noun, a verb, and 9/11. * * *"

Well, I think the time has come to start mocking McCain with regard to his apparent obsession with The Surge. Here is what McCain said today:

What we need today is an Economic Surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones. We need to reduce the tax burden on businesses that choose to make their home in the United States of America. We need to open new markets to U.S. products. And we need to reduce the cost of healthcare. And we need to end the out of control spending in Washington that is putting our debt on the backs of our children.

This isn't the first time McCain has applied The Surge to other matters (from Think Progress):

McCain’s policy prescriptions for the major issues often boil down to simply tacking on the word “surge.” In the past, he has trumpeted the Iraq surge and recently embraced an Afghanistan surge. Last week, he suggested a surge to control inner-city crime.

I think the time has come for the Obama camp to run ads which mock the fact that McCain seems to mention only three things in a sentence -- a noun, a verb, and THE SURGE! Of course, that would mean that Obama would have to run (gasp!) a negative ad, and heaven forbid he do that. It just wouldn't be nice.

You know, Hillary had her problems, and she would have carried them into the general election had she been the nominee. But I doubt one of her problems would have been a fear of running attack ads against McCain.

UPDATE: This is from Political Wire:

According to a new Pew Research poll, 48% of Americans say they have been "hearing too much" about Sen. Barack Obama lately.

"In contrast, if anything, Pew's respondents said they want to hear more, not less about the Republican candidate. Just 26% in the poll said they had heard too much about McCain, while a larger number (38%) reported that they had heard too little about the putative Republican candidate."

Hmmm -- now that's an interesting situation. So people want to hear more about McCain. Let's see -- what could Obama possibly do to give the voters more information about McCain.

That certainly is a difficult problem. A real head-scratcher. But maybe -- just maybe -- Obama might want to consider . . . running some m*ther-f*cking attack ads. That might help.

A Suggestion For Barack

This video would make a great campaign ad for Obama. All he'd need to do is add a brief introduction to it which explains how McCain recently compared Obama to Britney Spears, then just let the images and words speak for themselves.

I'm supremely disappointed with Obama's reluctance to go on the offensive and run negative ads against McCain (and I'm sorry, Barack, but running an ad which criticizes McCain for running attack ads just doesn't cut it for me). I understand that he wants to project a positive image, but all Obama seems to do these days is respond to attacks. Sure, that is still better than what John Kerry did in '04, but you don't win elections by merely responding to what the other side is doing.

Obama certainly has enough ammo to really rip into McCain on a number of issues (e.g., McCain was for the tax increase before he was against it). But he has a particularly great opportunity to go after McCain on the issue of oil, given that the oil companies are currently setting records for quarterly profits.

All Obama has to do is run an ad which points out these record profits, mention that McCain actually supports tax breaks for these oil companies, and then point out that McCain's plan to drill off of our coastline is merely a gimmick -- just like the proposal for the gas tax holiday was -- and won't show results for at least seven years and even then would only reduce the price of a gallon of gas by a few pennies.

It's that simple -- geesus, that would hardly even qualify as a negative ad. Obama is already saying a lot of this stuff in his stump speeches, so why not make an ad.