I'm eagerly looking forward to the debate on Thursday, and evidently, so is everyone else. Roger Simon at Politico wrote an interesting article on how Biden is prepping for the debate.

Biden's strategy is twofold: Don't look condescending and study-up.

1) Don't look condescending - No one wants to see Biden sighing and looking like the smart kid in class who knows all the answers (think Al Gore). Sarah Palin's gaffes will be picked apart by the the mainstream media and bloggers, regardless of Biden's reactions to them. Everything she says will be carefully fact-checked, analyzed, and blogged about anyway, so Biden shouldn't lose any fans by looking bored or even amused. If Biden can keep his conduct befitting of a president, and he can keep the first-names and colloquialisms to a minimum (think Sarah Palin referring to Charles Gibson as "Charlie" every time she answered a question), he'll come out looking like the better candidate.

2) Study, study, study - Biden has been prepping for this debate for a long while, presumably since before Palin was announced as McCain's running mate. Plus, Biden has been a senator since age 1973, when he was 30 years old (the minimum age for a senator), so, as we've discussed in class, he hasn't been front-loading political knowledge for the last month - he's been acquiring it for 35 years. Biden's political experience aside, he already knows Sarah Palin's record. He knows that she's a suspect choice for a vice president and she has already shown that she doesn't have the depth and breadth of knowledge necessary to hold her own in an interview, let alone a debate.

Biden is, by far, the least talked about of the four major players in this race. There have probably been more articles about Cindy McCain than Joe Biden in the last month. Because of this, Biden has the chance to show Americans who have no prior knowledge of his politics how well he knows the issues and how tactful he can be in the face of incompetence.

Best campaign junkie site I've found thus far

Slate is a wonderful source of campaign news and this compilation of videos, maps, and articles is very interesting and very valuable.

The more I watch these videos and read these articles the more riled up I become. Palin's accusation that Obama voted "present" is ridiculous, but it lends itself to another conservative sound byte. To the regular American, a vote of present probably sounds like Obama can't make up his mind or isn't involved. However, these myths are easily dispelled with a little research, courtesy of Barack Obama. Though this article was written 8 months ago (and the quote is from 4.5 years ago), it still works for Palin's accusation:

"Anyone Who Thinks A Present Vote Is A "Duck" Doesn't Understand How the Process Works. "There is a presumption, if one is not familiar with the mechanics of the General Assembly, that a present vote is a "duck." Pam Sutherland, the CEO and President of Illinois Planned Parenthood said of [this] Hull argument: "I think it's not well-based…I think it's somebody who doesn't understand how the legislative process works." [Chicago Daily Herald, 3/10/04]"

As time goes on, I'm wondering if there's a very low bottom to the depths of Sarah Palin's ignorance of the political process. Luckily, the availability of content on the internet might encourage voters to look into these matters for themselves, hopefully with less biased news sources. The map the campaign website is a good tool for this. You can watch the candidates, research what you're interested in, and see how positions change over time, and, when you watch several in secession, you can see an extended conversation between the candidates about the issues.

Sorry about the multiposts...

Saving posts as drafts and publishing posts are two very different things, I now see. Sorry about all of the posts being put up today. I have to make sure I'm hitting the right button next time, or perhaps in Palin speak "Incorrect buttons were pushed."

Palin and Couric

I have to say, I'd love to see the unedited footage of Sarah Palin walking and talking with Katie Couric.

Couric did an excellent job of going after Palin's use of the passive voice. "Mistakes were made..." won't cut it in this campaign, and I hope that more interviewers realize this soon.

An interesting timeline

Glen Greenwald from Salon wrote up a well-cited time line that chronicles McCain's 48 hour debate/no debate/debate change of heart last week.

Just a funny aside

After John McCain's heroic potentially-debate-postponing flight back to Washington last week, Washington law-makers struck a bailout deal without him, while he was eating an Epicurean meal.

Debate One: And the winner is...

As much as we've been talking about political sound bytes in class, I agree with Slate's Christopher Beam about the lack of choice quotes and zingers in Friday's debate. With all of the disasters of the week, Americans need to hear what the candidates actually think - what they stand for, what they're going to vote for. The debate was a more stripped down, but still palpably tense discussion than the unfair campaign ads, misleading sound bytes, and sensational stories we've seen over the last month.

However, conservative columnists and bloggers are finding Obama gaffes left and right, and have said that Obama's deference on several points and willingness to look at McCain during the debate are a serious fault - it shows that Obama thinks John McCain is the alpha male.

Interestingly, it seems like many conservative bloggers justify their nitpicking with " If John McCain had done X, the liberal media would be all over it!"

Despite all this, the Gallup Poll says that more people thought Obama won the debate (46% to McCain's 34%) and thought that Obama had better solutions to the country's problems (52% to McCain's 35%).

John McCain's changing campaign

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how John McCain has changed over the course of this campaign. In 2004, I considered him a viable Republican candidate whom I would be proud to have as my president. Now, I'm not so sure how I feel. McCain's need to win has become palpable, from his changing policies to his pick of Palin, I'm glad to see that Carl Bernstein feels the same way. Also, this article brings up many of the points we discussed in class regarding a candidates right to privacy. John McCain's medical records are especially important because he has chosen such a controversial and seemingly inexperienced running mate. Just how sick is John McCain? How many times has he had cancer?

What is the American public supposed to make of a 72 year old man who, in a last-minute, Hail Mary decision, choose a woman whom he had only met twice as his running mate? Will he make the same sort of impulsive decisions for America if he is elected president?

An amazing interview that's not for the faint of heart

An interviewer from XXLmag interviewed rapper DMX last March and Andrew Sullivan snipped these priceless quotes. Word of caution: Heavy swearing.

It's interesting when celebrities talk to interviewers about politics and DMX's view is certainly particularly refreshing, I'd say.

I know this is old, but...

My mom has been talking about the book Obamanation for a few weeks now, so I decided to look it up. In the process, I found this article.

In our discussion of "What is the media?" I think that this is an interesting point:

"The level of devotion among Obama's supporters rivals what Bush had with his flock in 2004. The left-wing blogosphere is MUCH more powerful than what you see on the right this cycle and it reminds us of the advantage Bush had in '04. While we all know about that so-called right-wing voice machine, don’t forget that there is now a left-wing noise machine (on the internet) as well. And it has found its voice. "

It's as close to mentioning bloggers as you can get...without saying the word blog.

Photoshop and John McCain

Professional photographer Jill Greenberg, who, notably, opened an exhibition in 2004 filled with anti-Bush artwork, took some rather unflattering, back-lit photos of John McCain for The Atlantic Monthly recently. Usually, Greenberg is a talented and photographer, but after the McCain shoot, she photoshopped McCain's visage to look like this.

I'm not surprised that FoxNews and The Wall Street Journal Best of the Web are covering the story, but I'm glad to see that other left-of-center news outlets are also. Of course, Jeffery Goldberg from The Atlantic Online (no relation) also covered the story with ire. Interestingly, even a blogger from PC World covered the story, if only because the pictures are poor examples of a professional photographer using Photoshop.

Greenberg has done some fabulous portraits of John Stewart and Gwen Stefani. Some of her art has been provocative and shocking, but her photoshopped pictures of McCain are immature, crude, and many are offended by the fact that they're so poorly executed and childish. I'm glad to see that she's been chastised by both Democrats and Republicans alike.

Note for McCain: Spain isn't Mexico

I've been reading about this bizzare McCain senior moment all day, but I can't find English language coverage on the event.

I found this article stating that in the interview McCain doesn't seem to know who Zapatero is, or where Spain is...

Unfortunately, the English translation of the interview hasn't worked on my computer. The link is on this page, on the right hand side.

Perhaps McCain got confused and thought the interviewer was asking about Zapata. I'm really not sure.

Disaster of the Week pushes political issues out of the limelight

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting Pro-McCain/Palin opinion piece and video that briefly addresses the idea of political sound bytes.

Recently, Disasters of the Week have been in the news far more than the campaign, but, no matter the topic, reporters seem eager to know what candidates are saying. Hurricane Ike, the impending stock collapse - certainly the candidates "real" political issues have been put on the back burner. Additionally, a good portion of recent campaign news has been centered on misspoken sentences, poorly worded phrases, and political gaffes. Is this phenomenon creating a race where Americans are choosing a candidate based on sound bytes and personality, rather than politics?

It's clear that McCain has had a rough few days because of his flip-flopping on the state of the economy. This blog entry by Marc Ambinder does a nice job of spelling out some of the gaffes-made-sound-byte from the McCain campaign over the last week or so. I'm not sure how damaging one (or even several) of these mistakes would be for a candidate, but when mistakes are endlessly analyzed, parodied, and replayed (as the media is fond of doing) the effect can snowball, much like the infamous Howard Dean scream.

Ok, not officially from "The Media": An excerpt from an interesting email my friend sent to me

"I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're
"exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers: a quintessential American
story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig, and Track: you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating: you're well
grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the
first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter
registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years
as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator
representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of
the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years
in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people
while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs,
Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you
don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl (sports caster), 4
years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with
fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with
650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second
highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while
raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're
not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left
your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a
Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including
the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with
no other option in sex education in your state's school system while
your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in
a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city
community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values
don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI
conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote
until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the
secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now."

This letter is interesting because it's a lot like all of the Obama-is-a-Secret-Muslim chain letters which I received early on in the campaign, but with more facts. Once again, all of these tidbits are worded in a clearly pro-Obama way - as the saying goes, it's not what you say, but how you say it.

Sarah Palin and Jews for Jesus?

With all of the talk surrounding Obama's religious background and the beliefs of his church and his pastor, I'm surprised that Sarah Palin's religious affiliations haven't been scrutinized more.

The Wasilla Bible Church, the church that Palin attends, recently hosted David Brickner, the executive director of Jews for Jesus. Palin was in the audience when Brickner addressed the congregation.

The McCain camp denies that Sarah Palin shares the beliefs of Jews for Jesus or David Brickner, but, according to Brickner, Palin's pastor pastor is a supporter of his mission.

Senator McCain's tenuous relationship with email

One of the most popular memes of this campaign has certainly been experience or lack thereof. However, oftentimes with experience comes age - and the age difference between the presidential candidates must be one of the largest in American history.

The Obama campaign has released a new ad highlighting the fact that John McCain doesn't know how to use computers - or email. It's an effective ad. I certainly don't know if I feel comfortable with a president who's either too obstinate or elderly to learn how to use the one of the most basic functions of a modern computer, which is a reasonably user-friendly machine. Computers are no longer the size of living rooms, nor do users have to create their own programs and punch cards. If John McCain really wanted to succeed in this campaign, or at least appeal to younger voters, he should have taken a computer class at the local learning annex, or even just had one of his aides to teach him how to use Gmail. Perhaps it's a generational thing, but computers don't seem to be going anywhere - refusing to learn how to use email is not like refusing how to use a Laserdisc player.

Obama's campaign has stayed away from negative ads for the most part but I think that the criticism of McCain's technical ineptitude is warranted and should be pointed out to the public.

Obama meets with Bill Clinton

Barack Obama and former President Clinton have had a rocky relationship and the photograph chosen for this article highlights that pretty nicely.

Karl Rove on Obama and Palin

Perhaps I haven't noticed this before, but how common is it to call Barack Obama "Mr. Obama?" Certainly it's something I'll be looking for now.

It seems odd that Mr. Rove would so consistently use "Mr. Obama" and "Mrs. Palin." Is he trying to downplay the Senator versus Governor distinction?

Rove refers to Joe Biden as "Senator." Why not Obama?

Oh Sarah Palin - How have you convinced people that you're even slightly liberal?

Sarah Palin has been, by far, the most covered player in this election since McCain's announcement last week. Several writers for The New Yorker have been downright incisive when talking about her politics:

"Governor Palin ticks every box on the checklist of the social right. She opposes abortion rights, even for women and girls made pregnant by rape or incest. She thinks that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools. She does not believe that global warming is caused by human activity. She supports public funding for homeschooling. She is against stem-cell research. She opposes 'explicit' sex education and supports the abstinence-only kind, though she is surely aware of its indifferent record of success.

With the selection of Sarah Palin, McCain completes the job of defusing the enmity (and forgoing the honor) he earned in 2000, when he condemned Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as 'agents of intolerance.'"

Despite her staunchly conservative political views, numerous people (the vast majority of them women) have been quoted saying that she's "down home" and "accessible". For instance, Lizzie Widdicombe from The New Yorker printed this quote:

"Alice Rekeweg, a fiftyish Texas delegate who was passing out scarves printed with the Ninety-first Psalm, said that she had been surprised by Palin’s selection. 'But I really like her,' she said. 'She drives a motorcycle, and so do I.'"

Preliminary Palin-mania is reminiscent of the 2004 election when voters were famously quoted as saying that they supported George W. Bush because they could see themselves having a beer with him.

A beer and a motorcycle does not a president make.