Presidential dance off

Saw it on CNN. Why not?

Sarah Palin's divorce from John McCain on same-sex marriage

As the examples multiply of the McCain campaign letting Palin be Palin, whether to tap into her authenticity or to give her space for her next step in politics post-McCain, Sarah Palin has come out in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. In a CBN interview, she said:

"I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that's where we would go. I don't support gay marriage," Palin said. She said she believed traditional marriage is the foundation for strong families.

Her position shouldn't come as much of a surprise given her remarks during the vice presidential debate. But it's still disappointing. I have to give some credit to John McCain. He's a federalist who thinks the issue ought to be decided at the state level, and I don't think he wants this campaign to be about bullying the GLBT community or immigrants or any other outsider group. But someone in the campaign has decided that it would be a good idea to allow Palin to talk about the issue. The next two weeks are going to be rough.

Dolly Parton's soft endorsement of Sarah Palin

Just when you thought the election couldn't get any more (fill in the blank), Dolly Parton dishes on Sarah Palin:

"I always say we're very much alike," says the normally bipartisan Parton. Parton goes on to tell "Extra": "(We're) both small town girls, both a Pentecostalism and we both carry an AK-47."

Maybe the connection goes deeper. She did sing the title song from the movie "Straight Talk." I wonder whether we'll start seeing Dolly's picture on the Straight Talk Express or hearing these lyrics slipping into Palin's speeches:

Gimme some straight talk, straight talk -- and hold the sugar please
Straight talk, straight talk -- sounds plenty sweet to me
Don't talk to me in circles in some mumbo-jumbo jive
Gimme just straight talk, straight talk and we're gonna be alright

'Cause I like to know just where I stand, I don't like guessing games
And I hate a bunch of gibberish, so just spit it out real plain
Don't use big educated words from your BS Degree
Straight talk, straight talk -- don't try B.S.-ing me

Tired and Correct vs. Energetic and Imprecise: Reaction to the Biden and Palin debate

It shouldn't matter, but Joe Biden looked tired and, apart from looking a little nervous, Palin was full of energy. Biden debated the points better, but Palin connected with the camera and likely with average people...unless....unless Palin's dodges were frustrating for viewers. Whether by deliberate strategy or by instict, Palin continued to answer questions she wanted to and not the ones posed by Gwen Ifill.

On grounds of merit, Biden won. But context is everything. In making up the most ground, Palin scored big. Some pundits are already saying that her foreign policy answers were scripted. That's no shock. But she knew which ones to marshal, and that's a departure from the interviews.

Setting aside the issue of who won the debate and turning to GLBT issues, our community won't be completely satisfied with either candidate's answers. Biden outlined areas of protection that will appeal to GLBT voters such as hospital visitation. Palin indicated that John McCain wouldn't oppose those. But it was clear that she was uncomfortable discussing the issue, so she turned that discomfort to a discussion of the diversity of her friends and tolerance. Both campaigns reaffirmed their opposition to same-sex marriage.

"Like watching Gidget address the Reichstag"

I howled with laughter as I read this writer's reaction to Sarah Palin. The gist of the article can be summarized with this quotation:

The truly disgusting thing about Sarah Palin isn't that she's totally unqualified, or a religious zealot, or married to a secessionist, or unable to educate her own daughter about sex, or a fake conservative who raised taxes and horked up earmark millions every chance she got. No, the most disgusting thing about her is what she says about us.

Sarah Palin Disneyfied

From CollegeHumor:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Will Troopergate help McCain-Palin?

That's what Wendell Moore told Hamilton County Republicans yesterday.

“It maybe helps us,” Wendell Moore, former chief of staff for Republican Gov. Don Sundquist who now works for Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., told the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club at its Monday meeting.

Information about Walt Monegan, the public safety commissioner fired by Alaska Gov. Palin, shows he deserved to be fired, Mr. Moore told the Republican group. The McCain campaign has argued that Mr. Monegan was insubordinate.

I think it depends. If the stories focus on the McCain campaign inhibiting the investigation, then it's a negative. It's harder to argue that Palin is the victim in that scenario. But if the stories continue to come back to Palin's former brother-in-law, then it's a positive for the campaign. Whatever Sarah Palin did or didn't do to the commissioner, the public won't care nearly as much if the interview with her former brother in law airs over and over.

Sarah Palin unplugged

Atheist Sam Harris discusses how unsettled he has been about the candidacy of Sarah Palin--a feeling that was recently soothed somewhat when he saw her performance in the interview with Charlie Gibson:

Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin's performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin's speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal cortex of every American and plant a three-inch heel directly on that limbic circuit that ceaselessly intones "God and country." If anyone could make Christian theocracy smell like apple pie, Sarah Palin could.

Then came Palin's first television interview with Charles Gibson. I was relieved to discover, as many were, that Palin's luster can be much diminished by the absence of a teleprompter. Still, the problem she poses to our political process is now much bigger than she is. Her fans seem inclined to forgive her any indiscretion short of cannibalism. However badly she may stumble during the remaining weeks of this campaign, her supporters will focus their outrage upon the journalist who caused her to break stride, upon the camera operator who happened to capture her fall, upon the television network that broadcast the good lady's misfortune—and, above all, upon the "liberal elites" with their highfalutin assumption that, in the 21st century, only a reasonably well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal.

Apparently, though, the McCain campaign is worried precisely that more people will take Harris' view and see Palin as unable spontaneously to handle tough questions. The New York Times is reporting that, whereas the Obama-McCain debate will be more back-and-forth between the candidates, the Biden-Palin debate will be more structured:

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

In a year in which we are hearing the words "most watched" to describe every new speech and announcement, these debates will likely fall into the same category. Biden, who is said to have been comfortable with just about any proposed format, is clearly the more experienced policy debater. He's also been a part of several of the debates among Democratic candidates. But one might expect, despite Palin's inexperience, for the McCain campaign to be a bit less cautious. If Palin sticks to her points and keeps a cooler head than Biden, which may not be hard given his penchant for overstatement and offensive gaffes, she could conceivably hold her own with him and possibly set a trap he could walk into, whatever the format. With so many people watching and with so much at stake in this election, it's a shame we won't see a more authentic exchange between Biden and Palin.

As it stands with the more staid format, if Biden keeps a cool head, it's hard to imagine him being bested by Palin. The media commentary around the debate will provide constant reminders of the fact that it was set up to protect Palin.

Katie Couric gets second Sarah Palin Interview

The AP is reporting that Katie Couric is going to interview Sarah Palin over two days on the road with the candidate. The interview will air in late September on the CBS Evening News and the Early Show.

We've already had the foreign policy oral exams on ABC. I hope that we'll have some tough questions about the economy from Couric.

Nashville women sound off on Sarah Palin

Bonna Johnson reports on some local women's reactions to Sarah Palin's candidacy.

DO THE MEDIA HOLD WOMEN TO A DIFFERENT STANDARD THAN MEN?

Sabrina >> Women hold women to a different standard. I’ve been watching TV over the last two weeks. Women have been the harshest on Sarah Palin. Women reporters … like Nora O’Donnell, Campbell Brown — I looked up their bios, these women have there or four children apiece. And they’re sitting there going, “How can she do that? How could she be a governor? How could she leave her children? She has a Down syndrome child.”


Mary Cady >> We are our own worst enemies here, forever telling women how they should parent because somehow we’ve got it right. Quite frankly, we’re all fighting the same battle here. … We’re all fighting to be heard.


Shifay >> I took a career break right in the middle of my career. … Are you wasting your talents to be at home with your children? Well, I had so many problems having my children, I want to be with them. I’m not letting this gray matter waste. I’m doing things. I’m volunteering, I’m writing, whatever. I’m not judging you, so please don’t judge me. … We’re held to a different standard by other women.


Kathryn >> I meet with my business clients and we analyze whom they should hire for things. And they all look at women in what they call “baby age” and they decide. … They might get married. … What if they have a baby? They might not come back. These women get put in the “no” pile. That’s not fair. When Biden had to raise those two children by himself, do you think anyone brought any of this up?

Palin vs Clinton

Pretty much the only Saturday Night Live skit worth watching last night, the Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton announcement about sexism in the media was an instant hit. Tina Fey, in a much anticipated performance, was spot on in her portrayal of the Alaska governor. The video has already been viewed 59,000 times. Amy Poehler likewise captured all the feelings of being cheated that many of us imagine Senator Clinton has experienced over the last few months.

Hope Fey is back for a skit on the Biden-Palin debate.

Sarah Palin as vortex

Before we go off the deep end, Sarah Palin is a human being who happens to be the Governor of Alaska and the Republican vice presidential nominee. She's not a spirit-animal--pitbull, pig, or otherwise.

If I had to pick an image, though, I'd say she has become something of a vortex in this campaign. There is incredible energy, both personal and the kind that her opponents project on her, at the center. It is the swirling kind that either draws people in through attraction or transforms them when they attack.

The day after she was introduced to the public, Barack Obama was reaching for words. Joe Biden said she was good looking. And even once the pair found words to attack the McCain-Palin team, the ones that got the most coverage were "lipstick on a pig" and, um, that bit about Biden saying Hillary Clinton might have been a better vice presidential pick than he is. A member of Tennessee's congressional delegation is now taking more time than he would have ever imagined explaining what he meant when he referred to Jesus and Pontius Pilate. And a South Carolina Democratic official is drawing fire for saying Palin was picked because she hadn't had an abortion.

Without uttering a word--except what she has said in those repetitive campaign speeches--Sarah Palin has drawn them all in and made them say or seem to say things that are leaving many observers scratching their heads.

Meanwhile, it is only today that her first real interview since the convention is being aired. To put it charitably, her answers on foreign policy are unimpressive. She didn't know what the Bush doctrine is. But even ABC got drawn into the Palin Vortex. Here's how they paraphrase the exchange on their own site:

Palin agreed in principle to the "Bush doctrine," the idea that the United States has the right to preemptively strike those another country the U.S. think will attack first.

"Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend."

That's one of the most generous paraphrases I've ever read.

But what good does it do to harp on the fact that she didn't know the Bush doctrine if you're trying to argue that McCain-Palin is a third Bush term? Isn't it amazing how even her weakest areas are fraught with danger for her opponents!

I can't think of any policy area where I would agree with Sarah Palin, but I'm now having trouble imagining how Obama-Biden can get anywhere by attacking her without getting drawn into the vortex.

Fortunately, it's not up to my imagination and they've still got time. But I'd love to see a clash of ideas that isn't blurred by mythology.

Joe Biden on Meet the Press

Joe Biden gave a good performance on Meet the Press today in the face of particularly strong questions about the influence of MBNA and lobbyists on his work in the Senate. The build up to that particular question went on forever and Biden patiently waited through quotation after quotation to respond. He was also strong on details when he spoke about the Iraq surge and bringing reconciliation among that country's factions.

What the interview revealed is that the Obama campaign is finding its voice on how to deal with Sarah Palin. Biden, who lately has had the problem of calling Palin "good looking" and referring to his wife as "drop-dead gorgeous" (and then remembering that she's smart), has become more focused on referring to "tough, smart women." He used the phrase several times today.

But more substantively he went on the attack without seeming angry. He said that he didn't know her policy positions. He specifically pointed out that he hasn't heard a policy position in which Palin is in agreement with Hillary Clinton. And he went further in saying, "Her silence on the issues is deafening."

He also made clear the reason why we don't know her policy positions. The McCain campaign has "sequestered" her, in his words. At the end of the interview, Tom Brockaw reminded the viewers that Meet the Press would like to have her on the program. Some are already charging that the McCain campaign is trying to stall access to Palin:

Since her debut in Dayton, Ohio, the McCain campaign has been receiving about 80-100 requests a day from news organizations around the world, according to spokesman Ben Porritt, who said interest in an interview was "through the roof" and that the campaign was going through them now.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the McCain campaign would like to run out on the clock on this," said David Chalian, political director for ABC News.

Update: Sarah Palin to be interviewed. ABC gets the prize.

Sarah Palin's Church and GLBT issues

The Associated Press is reporting that Sarah Palin's Church is promoting Focus on the Family's Love Won Out conference that advocates for gays and lesbians to change their sexual orientation. The campaign has not commented on whether Palin supports the conference or the concept behind it.

It's the rare American who agrees 100 percent with everything his or her house of worship says or does. I despised the way people drove a wedge between the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama and I don't think we should automatically assume guilt by association with the Palins. I don't think Joe Biden is answerable for every encyclical that comes from Pope Benedict XVI.

What the press and what activists ought to focus on are policy questions that are within the purview of the federal government--Don't Ask/Don't Tell, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Matthew Shepard Act, etc. No politician and no citizen should have to give a detailed account of his or her faith tradition for the public. So what if she's advancing faith and family in her campaign? It doesn't mean we have to enable that kind of politics by attacking her on those grounds. If you believe that there are no religious tests for office in this country, then act like it and go after her on policy.

Asking Palin how she might break a tie vote in the Senate on hate crimes legislation, for example, is entirely appropriate. There is no need to pit her against her Church or explain her in terms of her Church. The tough questions about the issues must not be lost in the cheap shots. My own guess is that she either won't answer them or won't answer them in a way that affirms the basic rights of GLBT Americans.

A focus on Palin's policy positions would also help avoid the sexist and anti-Pentecostal bigotry that we're already seeing in the blogosphere. If you're trying to attack her politics as bigoted by spewing comments about her Church or through references to her hair or her family, guess what, you're a bigot and a hypocrite.

Palin's ex-brother-in-law speaks...and probably shouldn't have

Hmmm. This video won't be enough to make the questions about Sarah Palin's handling of his employment go away, but I'd say his answers will garner her even more sympathy. CNN has given her talking points every time the subject comes up.

Sarah Palin's speech: Return of the culture war, but which one?

Culture war rhetoric is heating up around Sarah Palin. Specifically there's been a great deal of discussion of abortion, but not in any direct way in Sarah Palin's speech tonight. We heard a little about guns and a little about religion, but nothing heavily sectarian. And I didn't hear anything about GLBT issues. Palin highlighted family values by talking about her own family and, of course, showing them. But I didn't hear her using the usual words.

The front that Palin opened in the culture war tonight was small town vs. big city America. But she did it in a way that made it seem as if the Democrats had started it.

She went on the attack, which provides the natural opening Democrats need in order to fire back. They'll have to choose their angle carefully, but it can be done. As good as the delivery of the speech was, more of the public will understand that she is fair game now that she has staked out some ground. It will be interesting to see whether they debate her on the culture war or hammer McCain-Palin on the economy.

Dobson to the defense

Specifically citing the attacks on the Palins as hypocrites, Focus on the Family's James Dobson has come to their defense:

"The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a 'hypocrite,' but all it really means is that she and her family are human. They are in my prayers and those of millions of Americans."

I'd say McCain-Palin have succeeded in shoring up their base. Now the question is whether the way the Left handles the story of Bristol Palin's pregnancy will now generate sympathy for the ticket among voters in the middle.

Sin, Redemption, and the Left: Bristol Palin

Mr. Kleinheider has written an extensive post on how the Left is likely to fall in its response to the revelation that Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin's teenage daughter, is pregnant.

Sarah Palin did nothing “wrong.” And Bristol Palin did nothing other than sin, which we all do. She is now managing her sin as proscribed by tradition. To the traditionalist the situation is not ideal, no, but it is not a disaster.

Few on the Left will be willing to admit they got the interpretation of these events wrong. Sara Whitman is one of the few exceptions. There will be a continuing barrage of blog posts that we need science-based sex education and righteous comments that abstinence education is not enough. There will be calls for greater access to contraception. Right issues, wrong time.

I see the next several weeks as a time when the Left will continue to misfire on sexuality and gender. Just this weekend, I got an email from a popular radio show calling Sarah Palin a "beauty queen." Not only will these tactics not dispirit the Right, they will not move the Center, and they contravene the best traditions of the Left.

If the Left believes, and there is some doubt about this after the monstrous attacks on Hillary Clinton in the "progressive" blogosphere and on MSNBC, that women are complex human beings who should be given an equal shot at weilding political power, then why on earth did the worst epithets--witch, bitch, etc.--come from the Left? And given those beliefs, how can you reduce an elected, popular governor of a state to her past role as a pageant contestant? How embarrassing for you!

For those on the Left who trace their ideology from a secularist strain in the Enlightenment, it is perhaps unfathomable that the concepts of sin and redemption are anything but a confinement. What their comments this week, in fact, show is that they have retained sin in the form of talk about hypocrisy but jettisoned redemption. The answer to the sin of your opponent is revenge or schadenfreude.

As Kleinheider points out, Barack Obama can and will probably handle this situation honorably, but it may not matter if his progressive defenders continue with their witch hunt. He has repeated, "People's families are off limits." And he's right. He's right morally and he's right politically. This is not a winning issue for the Left. When encountering the personal drama of sin and redemption in a family, the words of an ancient liturgy are apt:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, And with fear and trembling stand.

MSM's diverging story lines on Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin has become something of a Rorschach of the mainstream media's interpretation of what is at stake in this presidential race.

Time lays out the positive case for the pick:

John McCain needs to persuade swing voters that he's willing to take on the Republican establishment. He needs to persuade conservatives that he isn't squishy about social issues. And he needs to close the gender gap. When you think about it, the real surprise about Sarah Palin's selection as his running mate is that it's such a surprise.

Palin may be an obscure 44-year-old first-term governor and mother of five from tiny Wasilla, Alaska, but in many ways she reinforces John McCain's narrative of a maverick conservative crusader.

Jonathan Alter at Newsweek is not impressed, though:

Happy birthday, Johnny Mac! You're 72 now, a cancer survivor, and a presidential candidate who has said on many occasions that the most important criteria for picking a vice president is whether he or she could immediately step in if something happened to the president. Your campaign against Barack Obama is based on the simple idea that he is unready to be president. So you've picked a running mate who a year and a half ago was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 8,500 people. You've selected a potential leader of the free world who knows little or nothing about the major issues of the day beyond energy. Oh, and she's being probed in her state for lying and abuse of power.

The Wall Street Journal highlights how different this election is than others:

Most years, vice-presidential picks end up having little concrete impact on the outcome. Voters usually tell pollsters they care little about the second name on the ticket. But the 2008 race, already unusual in other ways, could be an exception, because both choices are meant to deal with key issues the presidential candidates haven't been able to solve on their own.

The choices are mirror images in some ways. Sen. Obama, a youthful candidate promoting "change" above all, chose in Sen. Joe Biden a gray-haired career Washington politician with commander-in-chief gravitas reminiscent of his Republican opponent -- but who may weaken that campaign message for many voters. Sen. McCain's pick, like Sen. Obama, is an outsider who would represent a demographic breakthrough if elected -- and like the Democrat, is short on conventional political experience.

The New York Times wavers between the message of bold and risky with respect to McCain's judgment on the one hand and praising Palin's charm on the other. Peter Baker highlights the central message issue for McCain, who...

...spent the summer arguing that a 40-something candidate with four years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience was not ready to be president. And then on Friday he picked as his running mate a 40-something candidate with two years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience.

Some of Baker's colleagues report on her incredible appeal with people:

“She wouldn’t have articulated one coherent policy and people would just be fawning all over her,” said Andrew Halcro, a Republican turned independent, who along with Tony Knowles, a Democrat, ran against Ms. Palin for governor in 2006. “Tony and I looked at each other and it was, like, this isn’t about policy or Alaska issues, this is about people’s most basic instincts: ‘I like you, and you make me feel good.’ ”

“You know,” said Mr. Halcro, invoking the Democratic presidential nominee, “that’s kind of like Obama.”

And that strikes me as the potential of Sarah Palin to help John McCain. The Democrats have gone on and on about the fact that McCain had only met her once. Exactly! She basically replicated with him the experience that voters in Alaska have had with her. She's not at the top of the ticket, but the Palin announcement within hours took the media coverage away from Obama right after he made one of the best speeches of his life. She'll face some tough media scrutiny in the coming days and a test in the debates with Joe Biden, but she will be formidable on the campaign trail. People across the country will want to meet her. Whether she can get in front of enough people to overcome the negative coverage that is coming is another question.

GLBT community reacts to Sarah Palin

The Human Rights Campaign, whose PAC has endorsed Barack Obama, was quick to issue comment on Palin's nomination calling her a "Little-Known, Anti-Gay Governor:

“America may not know much about Sarah Palin, but based on what our community has seen of her, we know enough,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Sarah Palin not only supported the 1998 Alaska constitutional amendment banning marriage equality but, in her less than two years as Governor, even expressed the extreme position of supporting stripping away domestic partner benefits for state workers. When you can’t even support giving our community the rights to health insurance and pension benefits, it’s a frightening window into where she stands on equality.”

Alex Blaze reviews her record on GLBT issues as well as a host of social concerns. At the same blog, Serena Freewomyn is beyond annoyed that "McCain Did What Obama Couldn't" in nominating a woman.

Memphian Jim Maynard makes no bones about being disgusted with the choice.

The Log Cabin Republican President Patrick Sammon calls her inclusive:

“Alaska Governor Sarah Palin can help Sen. McCain win this election by appealing to independent and young voters. She’s a mainstream Republican who will unite the Party and serve John McCain well as Vice President. Gov. Palin is an inclusive Republican who will help Sen. McCain appeal to gay and lesbian voters.”

Given Dobson's enthusiasm, I can't imagine how the folks at LCR are using the word "inclusive," but we'll see.