The Republicans Tap Out!

[Fubo]

I can believe that some people actually think Palin won that debate, or faired well - after all don't you have to answer most of the questions to be considered as actually participating in the debate? Palin, like Macain but to a more extreme degree, talked in in huge generalities without providing any depth to whatever plan they might have.

The only thing that Palin came across knowing something about issues in Alaska, but as for foreign policy, health care reform etc... things that will affect the whole country and how it work within the world, she came off as a student trying to do a teachers job - little depth, understanding and experience.

VP Palin = soccer mom with nukes! If that doesn't scare the shit out of everyone in the world, I don't know what will.

[DeusTrismegistus]

How about people that think that redistribution of wealth and government control of the economy is a good thing? That scares me. Or people who think americans shouldnt be able to own guns, that scares me too. How about having presidents who are friends with terrorists, thats pretty scary. Ooh how about having a president who wants to tax small businesses and make america even less competitive in the international market becasue of it. Thats scary too. Having parties that create huge governmental businesses that interfere with the free market and are govt sanctioned monopolies that are used to forward a socialist agenda and line the politicos pockets at the same time, that create economic instability by their interference, and then use the excuse of a emergency rescue to pass a bill that moves the american econonmy as far from capitalism as the chinese AND casts 100s of millions of dollars in pork, while giving 100s of millions of dollars in tax breaks that will further exacerbate the debt and increases insurance limits on the FDIC at a time when the FDIC is already saying it is going to have to go to the american taxpayers to build more funds because have enough money as it is at the 100k dollar limit, and this party ruling the legislature AND teh executive branch, makes me want to just leave this country before it goes to hell completely.

[Fubo]

Socializing health care gives everyone the opportunity to have health care, look at how it's worked in other countries - it works! Having Macain give out his $5,000 for insurance only to tax it is scary.

People that have guns scare me more then people who don't.

Obama didn't say he would befriend terrorists, that is right wing spin. On the other hand Macain won't even talk to the leader of Spain - that is scary. Do we want to work through issues or are we going to give everybody the silent treatment?

"Taxing small businesses", you do mean Macain right? After all he is going to give corporate America huge tax breaks - yeah, really taking care of the little guy! That's scary. That will not make America more competitive, it will make a sinking ship plummet even further.

Regarding increasing more regulations for corporate America as a means to line government pockets - the past 7 years has shown that deregulation gives corporate America and Bush & co. (the government) a lot more room for lining pockets, engaging in corruption and rupturing the stability of the economy.

[DeusTrismegistus]

Socializing health care gives everyone the opportunity to have health care, look at how it's worked in other countries - it works! Having Macain give out his $5,000 for insurance only to tax it is scary.

People that have guns scare me more then people who don't.

Obama didn't say he would befriend terrorists, that is right wing spin. On the other hand Macain won't even talk to the leader of Spain - that is scary. Do we want to work through issues or are we going to give everybody the silent treatment?

"Taxing small businesses", you do mean Macain right? After all he is going to give corporate America huge tax breaks - yeah, really taking care of the little guy! That's scary. That will not make America more competitive, it will make a sinking ship plummet even further.

Regarding increasing more regulations for corporate America as a means to line government pockets - the past 7 years has shown that deregulation gives corporate America and Bush & co. (the government) a lot more room for lining pockets, engaging in corruption and rupturing the stability of the economy.

France has the best healthcare in the world according to the WHO but from what I heard it is not a socialist system like people in the US would think. The system works because it uses governmental power to facilitate compition and quality which increases the value of the product and keeps prices down.

Why do people that have guns scare you? Do you not have any experience with guns to base your opinion upon?

Obama had a fundraising party organized by a man who is a convicted terrorist. Obama doesn't have to say he would befriend terrorist, he has already been their friend for years. Bush is no better giving the Bin Laden Family free rides out of the country after 911 when most of the planes were grounded either. Zbigniew Brezinski which is Obama's foreign affairs advisor wrote an article in Time magazine after the Russie Georgia thing that portrayed Russia as the aggressor and poloticized the possibility of a new cold war.

Obama will increase the capital gains tax, corporate income tax, the death tax, the marriage tax, and many others. These are what keeps jobs in america. Any increase in corporate taxes will only be passed on to the end consumer (us) so taxing corporations more heavily is in fact a tax increase for the american public. Most people are just too short sighted and ignorant to understand or consider anything but the immediate consequences of the tax plans, which for Obama 95% of americans will recieve tax breaks in personal income tax (Under McCain's plan 100% of people will get an personal icnome tax break) while the people who take the largest financial risk and employ this country will be taxed MORE, thus decreasing the value of being a business owner and making the american ideal of business ownership less lucrative.


So how exactly do you think tax breaks to corporate america (which includes most businesses in the country as most are organizes as S-Corps, C-Corps, or LLCs) will make the economy worse? Of course there is the national debt issue but any rational congress matches spending with income which the deomcratic congress hasn't happened in forever. However the inability for our govt to be responsible spenders is not a failing of the economic model we operate but a failing of our citizzens for allowing it to continue. Any tax and any monopoly decreases consumer suprlus, which is defined as the amount of money people earn and can spend above and beyond what they must earn and spend on basic necessities. So any tax decrease puts more money in the consumers pocket, increases spending and usually results in a taz revenue increase because of the increase in the economy more than offsets the income from the tax reduction that was lost.

Actually the Bush adminstration has shown that lobbyists rule the govt and the will of the people doesn't matter. As has been shown by that idiotic pork laden bill passing the house and Bush trying to push it through despite the people not wanting it passed. The Bush Adminstration has shown that when you deregulate certain industries and hand govt work to institutions like Haliburton that it harms the economy. I hate the Bush adminsitration. They have moved to a fascist policy in areas and they have destroyed some of the fundamental freedoms of the american people. Bush needed out of the office in 04' but he knew if he was in a war he would be re-elected because historically no pres. has been outed after one term during a war. Now Bush's economic policies were idiotic because they rewarded and upheld corporate monoplies and oligopolies. The Democrats however are responsible for creating 3 companies which are govt sanctioned monopolies and have helped destroy our economy.

This is not an issue of voting for Obama because people blame the Bush regime for the current economic problems. The economic problems started when Fannie May, Freddie Mac, and Sallie May and the Federal Reserve started pulling our economy around like a tin can on a string. That was over 40 years ago. The problems got worse each time their power was extended. The problem got worse when acts that were designed to prevent a second great depression were repealed. The problems got worse when Deomcrats shot down any attempt to have oversight and regulation for these entities.

The economic model on which America has grown so powerful upon and which has served us well since our inception is based on not having regulation. This system has been under attack by the Republicans and the Democrats for decades. Both parties have enabled monopoly power and consolidation of bargaining power within the corporations of producers. Republicans have made laws that reward monopolies and that help maintain them, the democrats have made monopolies and regulated them through the govt. Both of these have contributed to this problem. The entire financial system is based on imaginary money, hopes, and dreams (ie. speculation) and anyone with half a brain and few economics courses and a single iota of free thought would be able to tell that any system like that is prone to major collapse.

The basis of a caplitalist economy is PERFECT COMPETITION. BOTH groups have done their fair share to degrade this in america. True Capitalism needs to be returned to this country. Many buyers and Many sellers are necessary for perfect competition and it should be the governments job to maintain that to the greatest extent possible. Where it is not possible it should then be the governments job to provide regulation to provide for and protect the consumer.

McCain, is not nearly as scary as Obama. McCain, despote what his campaign would have you believe, is a far cry from Bush. Bush is a horrible president. Obama would be even worse. His understanding of economics is laughable, his lies are ponderous, his personal affliliations speak volumes about his character, and his record speaks volumes as to where he stands on the issues, usually not present because if he voted it could be used against him later. At least with McCain I will know what I am getting. Although sense he supported the freakin economic emergency destruction act of 2008 I might just fucking vote for Bob Barr now.

[steelincotton]

Deus, I think it's your turn to take a break now man.... Just sayin

[CaliG]

It must be Dues's day off.

[Fubo]

Deus,

We don't see eye to eye. You have an obvious predisposition leaning to the right, and I've heard the same rhetoric positioned from institutions like Fox news and other right wing supporters and entities. An endless back and forth with you (which this will turn into) seems futile - with some research on track records, specific polities, people can judge for them selves who will make the most positive difference.

BTW, I've lived in countries with socialized health care - the ones that were in first world countries, UK, work.

[nianfong]

which would you choose?


or

[TaoJoannes]

Famous Person Said She Won

[nianfong]

[CaliG]

The house of cards begins to fall.

Palin allies report rising campaign tension

Even as John McCain and Sarah Palin scramble to close the gap in the final days of the 2008 election, stirrings of a Palin insurgency are complicating the campaign's already-tense internal dynamics.

Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain's camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain's decline.

"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.

"I think she'd like to go more rogue," he said.

The emergence of a Palin faction comes as Republicans gird for a battle over the future of their party: Some see her as a charismatic, hawkish conservative leader with the potential, still unrealized, to cross over to attract moderate voters. Anger among Republicans who see Palin as a star and as a potential future leader has boiled over because, they say, they see other senior McCain aides preparing to blame her in the event he is defeated.

"These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves," a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week.

"A number of Gov. Palin's staff have not had her best interests at heart, and they have not had the campaign's best interests at heart," the McCain insider fumed, noting that Wallace left an executive job at CBS to join the campaign.

Wallace declined to engage publicly in the finger-pointing that has consumed the campaign in the final weeks.

"I am in awe of [Palin's] strength under constant fire by the media," she said in an e-mail. "If someone wants to throw me under the bus, my personal belief is that the most graceful thing to do is to lie there."

But other McCain aides, defending Wallace, dismissed the notion that Palin was mishandled. The Alaska governor was, they argue, simply unready — "green," sloppy and incomprehensibly willing to criticize McCain for, for instance, not attacking Sen. Barack Obama for his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Palin has in fact performed fairly well in the moments thought to be key for a vice presidential nominee: She made a good impression in her surprise rollout in Ohio and her speech to the Republican National Convention went better than the campaign could have imagined. She turned in an adequate performance at a debate against the Democratic Party's foremost debater.

But other elements of her image-making went catastrophically awry. Her dodging of the press and her nervous reliance on tight scripts in her first interview, with ABC News, became a national joke — driven home to devastating effect by "Saturday Night Live" comic Tina Fey. The Couric interview — her only unstaged appearance for a week — was "water torture," as one internal ally put it.

Some McCain aides say they had little choice with a candidate who simply wasn't ready for the national stage, and that Palin didn't forcefully object. Moments that Palin's allies see as triumphs of instinct and authenticity — the Wright suggestion, her objection to the campaign's pulling out of Michigan — they dismiss as Palin's "slips and miscommunications," that is, her own incompetence and evidence of the need for tight scripting.

But Palin partisans say she chafed at the handling.

"The campaign as a whole bought completely into what the Washington media said — that she's completely inexperienced," said a close Palin ally outside the campaign who speaks regularly to the candidate.

"Her strategy was to be trustworthy and a team player during the convention and thereafter, but she felt completely mismanaged and mishandled and ill advised," the person said. "Recently, she's gone from relying on McCain advisers who were assigned to her to relying on her own instincts."

Palin's loyalists say she's grown particularly disenchanted with the veterans of the Bush reelection campaign, including Schmidt and Wallace, and that despite her anti-intellectual rhetoric, her closest ally among her new traveling aides is a policy adviser, former National Security Council official Steve Biegun. She's also said to be close with McCain's chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, who prepared her for the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.

When a McCain aide, speaking anonymously Friday to The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, suggested that Palin's charge that Obama was "palling around with terrorists" had "escaped HQ's vetting," it was Scheunemann who fired off an angry response that the speech was "fully vetted" and that to attack Palin for it was "bullshit."

Palin's "instincts," on display in recent days, have had her opening up to the media, including a round of interviews on talk radio, cable and broadcast outlets, as well as chats with her traveling press and local reporters.

Reporters really began to notice the change last Sunday, when Palin strolled over to a local television crew in Colorado Springs.

"Get Tracey," a staffer called out, according to The New York Times, summoning spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt, who reportedly "tried several times to cut it off with a terse 'Thank you!' in between questions, to no avail." The moment may have caused ulcers in some precincts of the McCain campaign, but it was an account Palin's admirers in Washington cheered.

Palin had also sought to give meatier policy speeches, in particular on energy policy and on policy for children with disabilities; she finally gave the latter speech Friday, but had wanted to deliver it much earlier.

She's also begun to make her own ad hoc calls about the campaign's direction and the ticket's policy. McCain, for instance, has remained silent on Democrats' calls for a stimulus package of new spending, a move many conservatives oppose but that could be broadly popular. But in an interview with the conservative radio host Glenn Beck earlier this week, Palin went "off the reservation" to make the campaign policy, one aide said.

"I say, you know, when is enough enough of taxpayer dollars being thrown into this bill out there?" she asked. "This next one of the Democrats being proposed should be very, very concerning to all Americans because to me it sends a message that $700 billion bailout, maybe that was just the tip of the iceberg. No, you know, we were told when we've got to be believing if we have enough elected officials who are going to be standing strong on fiscal conservative principles and free enterprise and we have to believe that there are enough of those elected officials to say, 'No, OK, that's enough.'"

(A McCain spokeswoman said Palin's statement was "a good sentiment.")

But few imagine that Palin will be able to repair her image — and bad poll numbers — in the eleven days before the campaign ends. And the final straw for Palin and her allies was the news that the campaign had reported spending $150,000 on her clothes, turning her, again, into the butt of late-night humor.

"She never even set foot in these stores," the senior Republican said, noting Palin hadn't realized the cost when the clothes were brought to her in her Minnesota hotel room.

"It's completely out-of-control operatives," said the close ally outside the campaign. "She has no responsibility for that. It's incredibly frustrating for us and for her."

Between Palin's internal detractors and her allies, there's a middle ground: Some aides say that she's a flawed candidate whose handling exaggerated her weak spots.

"She was completely mishandled in the beginning. No one took the time to look at what her personal strengths and weaknesses are and developed a plan that made sense based on who she is as a candidate," the aide said. "Any concerns she or those close to her have about that are totally valid."

But the aide said that Palin's inexperience led her to her own mistakes:

"How she was handled allowed her weaknesses to hang out in full display."

If McCain loses, Palin's allies say that the national Republican Party hasn't seen the last of her. Politicians are sometimes formed by a signal defeat — as Bill Clinton was when he was tossed out of the Arkansas governor's mansion after his first term — and Palin would return to a state that had made her America's most popular governor and where her image as a reformer who swept aside her own party's insiders rings true, if not in the cartoon version the McCain campaign presented.

"There are people in this campaign who feel a real sense of loyalty to her and are really pleased with her performance and think she did a great job," said the McCain insider. "She has a real future in this party."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200810 ... tico/14929

A little music for the GOP please.

[Chris Fleming]

[internalenthusiast]

i don't mean this comment to be rude, but...

is this what happens when you try to keep a self-declared pitbull on a leash?

that's probably unfair, as the image may have come from rove's speechwriters, and not palin.

and...they may have unleashed her somewhat, so she could act as the teeth.

nevertheless...perhaps more than they bargained for?

she obviously has support though. that says a lot about our country.