McCain Digested

The Republican Convention is scheduled to start tomorrow, unless it is postponed due to bad weather. Dems denizens of the blogosphere will have a very different experience, I dare say. This week we get to be the opposition naysayers, as equally partisan Republicans were during the Democratic Convention. On of my regular contributors, Jon, has sent me a number of good leads. It is a set that deserves its on separate post. Co-authored by Jon, let's call it --

McCain Digested:

Section One -- Puzzlement over Palin

• 8/30/08 -- "Alter: Why Sarah Palin Is Likely to Belly-Flop" at Newsweek.
• (8/30/08) -- From Politico.com, "Scholars question Palin credentials," by Fred Barbash and David Mark. To quote:

  John McCain was aiming to make history with his pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and historians say he succeeded. Presidential scholars say she appears to be the least experienced, least credentialed person to join a major-party ticket in the modern era.
  
  So unconventional was McCain’s choice that it left students of the presidency literally “stunned,” in the words of Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor and scholar of the vice presidency. “Being governor of a small state for less than two years is not consistent with the normal criteria for determining who’s of presidential caliber,” said Goldstein.

• I got this link recently from both Jon and my blog friend "betmo," (good minds run in the same directions) -- Think Progress: "Top Alaska Republicans puzzled by Palin pick." To quote:
  
  

  The Anchorage Daily News reports that the state’s leading Republicans are expressing shock and bewilderment over John McCain’s selection of their governor as his running mate. . .
  

• Jon said, "This looks like typical doublespeak or is this just flat out lying?" 8/30/08 -- The story is from Think Progress, "Palin Repeatedly Professed Desire To Renew Federal Funding For Bridge To Nowhere." To quote:
  
  

  It appears, however, that Palin is lying. As Bradford Plumer first noted, the Anchorage Daily News interviewed Palin during her 2006 campaign for governor. At the time, federal funding for the bridge had been stripped by Congress. They asked if she was in favor of continuing state funding for the project. “Yes,” she responded, noting specifically her desire to renew Congressional support:

  Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now–while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.

  That assistance never materialized. When she finally canceled the $400 million project, Palin lamented the fact that Congress was not more forthcoming with federal funding.

• Jon said, "Hey, I just saw this article over at RawStory.com I thought you might like. Check it out! Can you believe this? It must be that compassionate tough love conservatism." (8/29/08) -- To quote:
  
  

  On January 15, 2008, McCain VP nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called into a radio talk show and laughed as the host questioned Alaska Senate President Lyda Green's parenting, and then further attacked the cancer survivor calling her a "bitch" and a "cancer."
  
  At 7:11 in the audio of the program, the host says "Governor, you can't say this, but we can. She is a cancer and she is nothing but a very jealous woman."
  

Section Two -- Veep Intrigue

• This link "Rove tried to kill Lieberman VP pick" (8/28/08) at Politico.com., is from Jon, who says about it:
  
  

  The nickname of puppetmaster still fits! On another note, what are your thoughts on the fact that polls do not call cell phones for polling. Landlines are somewhat foreign to a whole generation, so I think that the polling results we are fed may be somewhat skewed. I hope I'm correct. As you and I know, the excitement and participation shown by the under 30 crowd was historical. I think that the college age group will be the ace in the hole for Obama. They have no connection with grandpaw mccain, and until grandpaw mccain learns from senator stevens how to use the internets tubes, they never will.
  

• Jon said, "Hey, I just saw this article over at RawStory.com." (8/23/08) -- "Buchanan accuses 'McCain's neocon warmonger' of treason." To quote:
  
  

  According to conservative commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, Sen. John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is a dual loyalist,' 'neocon warmonger' involved in activities that 'none dare call treason.'
  
  Scheunemann's former employer, Orion Strategies, is a lobbying firm with strong ties to Mikheil Saakashvili's administration in Georgia. Since Georgia attempted to retake South Ossetia by force, triggering a sharp, violent rebuke by Russian forces, Sen. McCain has been by far the most strident advocate of US support for the former Soviet state.

Section Three -- Pursuing Poor Policies

• Jon said, "This is a brilliant plan!" (8/28/08) -- "McCain’s Health Care Architect: There Are No Uninsured Americans," by "satyam" @ Think Progress: To quote from the post and its own quote:
  
  

  In an interview with the Dallas Morning News yesterday, John Goodman, the “Father of Health Savings Accounts” and architect of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) health care plan, said the term “uninsured” is a misnomer because Americans have ER access. According to Goodman, “only people who are denied care are truly uninsured – everyone who gets care is effectively insured by some mechanism,” the paper states:

  Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain’s health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

  “So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Mr. Goodman said. “The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. “So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.”

• (8/27/08) -- "Rep. Schakowsky On McCain’s Women’s Rights Record: ‘He’s Not With Us’ @ Think Progress, by Amanda. The author interviewed Rep. Schakowsky for the post. To quote:
  
  

  . . . the SeaChange Ideas Forum. One of the speakers at the event was Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Democratic Vice Chair of the bipartisan Women’s Caucus.
  
  Schakowsky blasted the Bush administration’s record on women’s issues, calling his tenure “anti-women” from day one. In particular, she criticized a recent Bush administration memo that “defines several widely used contraception methods as abortion and protects the right of medical providers to refuse to offer them.

• About Fox-fair-and-balanced, (8/26/08) -- "Fox makes stunning attack on Jon Stewart, citing Oscars' A ratings after he criticizes political coverage: Stunning attack defends network's 'balanced' label" To quote:
  
  

  After Jon Stewart called Fox News is as "an appendage of the Republican Party" Monday in Denver, Rupert Murdoch's 24-hour cable news broadcast returned fire with flames.
  
  "Wearing a gray T-shirt, khaki pants and a healthy stubble, the 'Daily Show' host told reporters at a University of Denver breakfast that Fox's 'fair and balanced' slogan is an insult 'to people with brains' and
  that only 'Fox News Sunday' host Chris Wallace "saves that network from slapping on a bumper sticker. . . . Barack Obama could cure cancer and they'd figure ..

Puzzlement over Palin, Veep Intrigue, Pursuing Poor Policies -- all Fair and Balanced -- Today's post is a collaborative advocacy effort between a regular reader and me, as we try to digest what the McCain candidacy may hold out for the nation. From here it does not look promising. By the end of next week we will know much more.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

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