Spokesman On McCain Strategy of Campaign Lies
From NBC's First Read ...
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to the Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign's factual claims: "We're running a campaign to win. And we're not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it."
Basing a campaign for high office on a strategy of deliberate lies is not an issue of tactics. It calls into question the character of the candidate and his fitness for office.
--Josh Marshall
Truly Must-Read
I've been meaning for a while to write a post explaining just why Trooper-Gate matters -- a lot. And I will. But for now read this piece just out from the Times on Palin's governing style. In a different way it tells the same story -- a small-minded person who populates her administration with cronies and grade-school friends, fires those who dare to criticize her and uses the power of her office to pursue personal vendettas. In other words, someone in the habit of abusing official power who should not be let within a mile of being president.
Late Update: The Post, meanwhile, has a story about Palin's tenure as mayor. Gist: The position has limited responsibilities; she hired a city administrator to take over a lot of those; and her tenure was highly divisive. And the same pattern of hiring cronies.
--Josh Marshall
Interesting Question
If John McCain were still in the Navy what consequences might he face for being caught telling a long series of lies?
--Josh Marshall
Grading On A Curve
Remember how Al Gore's alleged and largely non-existent 'exaggerations' became a staple narrative of the 2000 campaign? Reed Hundt asks why the most of the press still seems largely indifferent to John McCain's repeated lies throughout this campaign.
--Josh Marshall
Like I Said, Morally Unfit
From TPM Reader BK ...
It seems to me that the lying and exaggerating that has been done by the mccain campaign either from his lips or with his approval has a moral dimension that is not being discussed. No one is questioning McCains physical courage. But lying is an immoral act, one that you cannot get "forced into" by acts of others.If there is a sustainable link between McCain, Palin, Bush and Cheney, it is their willingness to lie to get what they want. Bush and Cheney lied us into a war they wished to wage and they have been deceptive about many of their other policies. And the way an Administration runs takes its direction from the top. Is there really any doubt that if McCain and Palin are willing to lie about themselves and their opponents in an effort to get elected that they will continue to lie to the American public about there plans and policies.
Campaigns offer a direct view into how a candidate will run a large complex organization. McCains true colors,,,,,his true moral convictions....are being demonstrated for all of us to see. We have seen this ends based strategy before and we know it never turns out well for us.
I quite agree. This campaign has shown that while we know McCain has physical courage, he has bad moral character. And in this respect he's found a true partner in Sarah Palin.
--Josh Marshall
Just Gets Better and Better ...
Turns out Palin didn't quite shut down the Bridge to Nowhere after all. She held on to $73 million federal dollars for a scaled down Bridge to Nowhere.
Late Update: Extra bonus McCain Lie (tm) unearthed! Down in the aforelinked article McCain spokesman Peter Feldman says this: "The fact is that once Governor Palin was elected and had an opportunity to look closely at the project, she killed it. She fought for Congress to kill the provision, but they sent the funds anyway. Palin fired the kill shot by not using a dime of that money on the bridge. (emphasis added)" Feldman appears now to be saying that Palin either campaigned against the original earmark or campaigned for it to be killed after it was approved. To the best of my knowledge I have never even heard them claim this before. But keep the timeline in mind. The Bridge to Nowhere earmark was killed in 2005, a year before Palin even ran for governor. And when she ran in 2006 she ran as a strong pro-Bridge candidate. So when exactly is Feldman claiming she campaigned against the bridge earmark? When she was Mayor of Wasilla?
--Josh Marshall
Creeping Flanaganism 1.0
McCain-Palin caught making up crowd-size estimates for campaign rallies.
--Josh Marshall
Tommy Flanagan
From The Boston Globe ...
Sarah Palin's visit to Iraq in 2007 consisted of a brief stop at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait, the vice presidential candidate's campaign said yesterday, in the second official revision of her only trip outside North America.Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone.
But in response to queries about the details of her trip, campaign aides and National Guard officials in Alaska said by telephone yesterday that she did not venture beyond the Kuwait-Iraq border when she visited Khabari Alawazem Crossing, also known as "K-Crossing," on July 25, 2007.
--Josh Marshall
Election Central Saturday Roundup
The Boston Globe does some digging on Palin, reveals her to be a big-spending tax-hiker who hasn't actually travelled to the countries that the McCain campaign has said she has. That and other political news in today's Election Central Saturday Roundup.
--Eric Kleefeld
Weekend Entertainment Video
Sarah Palin struggles to explain why she's been saying she said "Thanks. But No Thanks" even though she didn't ...
Note particularly how she explains wearing this "Nowhere, Alaska" t-shirt when running in support of the Bridge in 2006 ...
--Josh Marshall
More on How Gibson Did
Todd Gitlin has more on Charlie Gibson's visit with Sarah Palin in Alaska.
--Josh Marshall
Very Gently Put
From the NYT ...
Harsh advertisements and negative attacks are a staple of presidential campaigns, but Senator John McCain has drawn an avalanche of criticism this week from Democrats, independent groups and even some Republicans for regularly stretching the truth in attacking Senator Barack Obama's record and positions.
--Josh Marshall
Oy
You and I may have seen Sarah Palin caught off guard in the Charlie Gibson interview because she'd never heard of the "Bush Doctrine". But now we learn her seeming ignorance was actually a penetrating insight into the ambiguities of the "Bush Doctrine."
--Josh Marshall
Revise and Extend ...
I haven't yet seen the entire interview or interviews. So I'll reserve final judgment. But as you know I was very skeptical and fairly hard on Charlie Gibson in advance of his interview with Sarah Palin. I still think this was a terrible way to interview a person trying to be one heart beat away from the presidency (more like a celebrity interview than a live-to-tape interview on a Sunday morning show). But Gibson was more probing and his questions more substantive than I expected.
--Josh Marshall
Lying Sarah (Caught Red-Handed Edition)
Sarah Palin ducks and weaves as she's caught out on the Bridge to Nowhere lie ...
TPM Reader MM adds some thoughts ...
She introduced herself to the world stage by delivering a speech that she knew was a lie.What kind of a person does that?
What does that say about her moral character?
How can the American people believe anything she says from here?
That was what she presented as evidence A#1 of her stature as a reformer!
I mean...
WTF?
I mean, she's as bad as McCain ...
--Josh Marshall
Original Liar John McCain
It seems like the English language isn't big enough to contain the lies of John McCain. McCain has now launched a Spanish language in which he blames Barack Obama for torpedoing comprehensive immigration reform -- even though they were both on the same side.
--Josh Marshall
Reformer
Two high-ranking McCain campaign officials were longtime lobbyists for companies at center of sex-drugs-oil Interior Department scandal.
--Greg Sargent
What a Team ...
As you know, Sarah Palin's been caught straight-up lying about deep-sixing the Bridge to Nowhere. And here's the transcript of her trying to explain the fib to Charlie Gibson ...
GIBSON: You have said continually, since he chose you as his vice-presidential nominee, that I said to Congress, thanks but not thanks. If we're going to build that bridge, we'll build it ourselves.PALIN: Right.
GIBSON: But it's now pretty clearly documented. You supported that bridge before you opposed it. You were wearing a t-shirt in the 2006 campaign, showed your support for the bridge to nowhere.
PALIN: I was wearing a t-shirt with the zip code of the community that was asking for that bridge. Not all the people in that community even were asking for a $400 million or $300 million bridge.
GIBSON: But you turned against it after Congress had basically pulled the plug on it; after it became apparent that the state was going to have to pay for it, not the Congress; and after it became a national embarrassment to the state of Alaska. So do you want to revise and extend your remarks.
PALIN: It has always been an embarrassment that abuse of the ear form -- earmark process has been accepted in Congress. And that's what John McCain has fought. And that's what I joined him in fighting. It's been an embarrassment, not just Alaska's projects. But McCain gives example after example after example. I mean, every state has their embarrassment.
GIBSON: But you were for it before you were against it. You were solidly for it for quite some period of time...
PALIN: I was...
GIBSON: ... until Congress pulled the plug.
PALIN: I was for infrastructure being built in the state. And it's not inappropriate for a mayor or for a governor to request and to work with their Congress and their congressmen, their congresswomen, to plug into the federal budget along with every other state a share of the federal budget for infrastructure.
GIBSON: Right.
PALIN: What I supported was the link between a community and its airport. And we have found that link now.
We're at a key moment -- where we learn if there is any consequence in this election for serial lying. It's a question that only the major media outlets will be able to answer.
Late Update: Here's the video:
--Josh Marshall
Thinking Ahead
McCain state campaign co-chair files suit to begin vote purge in Wisconsin.
--Josh Marshall
Todd?
Alaska's Senate Judiciary Committee votes to approve subpoena for Todd Palin.
--Josh Marshall
The Congressional Races
In the midst of this all-consuming presidential race, it's easy to forget that there's a whole other national battle going on: The war over Congress.
So we're unveiling a new feature over at TPM Election Central -- daily roundups devoted entirely to the Congressional races, designed to give you an overview of the national Congressional map and to spotlight interesting stuff going on in individual contests.
TPM's own Eric Kleefeld will bring you two of these each weekday, one in the late morning, and one in the early evening, and our first is up. Take a look.
--Greg Sargent
Question of the Day
How can we trust a liar as big as John McCain?
I'm using the L-word. So that may come across as a slashing blog remark.
But let's slow down and look at the facts that are not being disputed. John McCain is telling lie after lie. Not off the cuff remarks that can be excused as accidents or flubs but the same lies consistently and many of them. Serial liars are never trustworthy people -- that is a truism. But it also demonstrates a deeper character flaw. A normal job applicant would be disregarded out of hand after such a record became clear.
--Josh Marshall
Lying McCain
It's become pathological. John McCain just claimed on TV that Sarah Palin has never requested an earmark for her state -- when actually her state gets more earmarks than any other state in the country. And this year she asked for $197 million worth of them herself.
Even the AP couldn't ignore his lying -- even though they phrased it in their own anemic way. "When pressed about Palin's record of requesting and accepting such money for Alaska, McCain ignored the record and said: "Not as governor she didn't."
For the record Palin requested $197 million this year and $256 million last year. Per capita, that's $288 this year and $376 last year.
To give you some perspective, Palin herself requested at least ten times the dollar value of earmarks as most states get total every year.
--Josh Marshall
Polls to Your Inbox Every Morning
For better or worse, lots of you are addicted to polls in these final weeks before the election. Not just the bumpy daily presidential tracking numbers, but all the house and senate and state presidential numbers around the country. The TPM Daily Digest brings you all the polls from the previous 24 hours delivered directly to your inbox every morning. In addition, you'll find the post popular TPM Media posts from the previous day, our editors' pick, the latest episode of TPMtv, a daybook of the political events of the day and much more.
Click here to sign up. It's free. And we won't ever sell, barter or give away your email address to anyone. Sign up today.
--Josh Marshall
More on Her War with Russia Flub ...
More details from an informed reader ...
There's a bit more on Georgia and Ukraine and NATO. What Obama and Biden favor is for NATO to offer these two countries accession to the "Membership Action Plan" (or MAP), a process set up in the late 1990s to help aspirant countries prepare for possible membership in the Alliance. MAP isn't a promise of membership, and the last members to join NATO were in MAP for nearly a decade. It would take at least as long for Ukraine and Georgia to become members of NATO, not least since one of the criterion for membership is that there are no territorial disputes involving the country that is requesting membership... A lot of mumbo jumbo on NATO accession procedures, this. But here's the kicker: What Palin said is that Ukraine and Georgia should become NATO members now. Not even Bush is arguing that. (He, too, favors MAP.) McCain was with Bush on this until recently and, I assume, if asked still is. Palin didn't know the distinction, and is suggesting that these countries get into NATO tomorrow. She may not realize that this is a decision that NATO members need to make collectively, all 27 of them, which won't happen, given that MAP was denied the countries just a few months ago...
--Josh Marshall
Inspiring Confidence
Rep. Zack Wamp (R-TN), on Palin's performance with Charlie Gibson:
Governor Palin is confident, smart, disciplined and while not yet totally prepared on the issues, she clearly is getting there....The country likes her so she will get a pass or two. If she holds up beyond that, she could be a transformative woman in American history. If not, we will all be disappointed.
That's not an endorsement we can believe in.
--David Kurtz
History Quiz
This is not the most consequential answer Sarah Palin has given Charlie Gibson so far, but it's indicative:
GIBSON: Have you ever met a foreign head of state?PALIN: I have not and I think if you go back in history and you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer.
If you look back at the 10 vice presidents since 1960 -- Johnson, Humphrey, Agnew, Ford, Rockefeller, Mondale, Bush, Quayle, Gore and Cheney -- which of those would not have met a head of state before becoming VP?
Based on their pre-veep resumes, only Agnew jumps out as a possible candidate for Palin-level isolation. But I'm curious about this. Would Palin be the only veep in the last half century to have had no contact with a foreign head of state before taking office?
I'll update this as readers offer new info.
Late Update: On it already, ABC News' Lisa Chinn reports every veep in the last 32 years has met a head of state before taking office.
--David Kurtz
Ike
With a hurricane bearing down on Galveston, I'd be remiss in not recommending to the uninitiated Erik Larson's 2000 book on the great Galveston hurricane of 1900, which killed more people than any other single natural calamity in U.S. history. Isaac's Storm is an easy and engrossing read; I raced through it on a transatlantic flight. Worth your time.
--David Kurtz
Once Again
Obama leads on foreign policy; Bush eventually follows; and McCain is too proud to admit he was wrong.
--Josh Marshall
Dangerously Unprepared
Fallows explains why it matters that Palin had never heard of the 'Bush Doctrine'.
--Josh Marshall
Big Bucks
Earmark factoid of the day.
How much money would it take to provide earmarks for all Americans at the same rate that Sarah Palin bagged them for Wasila? On an annual basis?
A mere half a trillion dollars.
Exact number $422,302,519,152.
--Josh Marshall
Disrepectful
Check out the latest McCain ad, especially the line, "How disrespectful." Doesn't it just drip with contempt? The sort of old-fashioned contempt that whites often held blacks in (and obviously still do). Take a look.
--David Kurtz
Election Central Morning Roundup
Palin happy to perpetuate the Iraq-tied-to-9/11 lie. That and the day's other political mythology in today's TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
--David Kurtz
Critical
E.J. Dionne: "McCain has shown he wants the presidency so badly that he's willing to say anything, true or false, to win power. Obama can win by fighting for what he believes. What he can't do is wait for the media to call McCain out -- although they should -- or expect voters to know he'll fight for them when they are not yet sure that he's willing to stand up for himself."
One point E.J. mentions that I've noticed too. Beside his convention speech, I can't think of a time in the last week or so that I saw Obama in front of a crowd. The appearances that I'm seeing showing up on TV during the day (an incomplete but probably not unrepresentative sampling) all look like there in front of a hundred or so people in a library or something. I wonder whether the celeb thing has just gotten inside his people's collective head and they're afraid to get him in front of real crowds.
If so, it's a very bad mistake. He has to be who he is. He can't run from his strengths. And he needs to charge up the people who want to be in the trenches with him. Excitement is infectious.
--Josh Marshall
Super-Human Energy Powers
"Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America."
That's John McCain on Sarah Palin. Even better? It's McCain's answer to what her foreign policy credentials are ...
I think at this point we need to confront the fact that we don't know yet which is more uncomfortable: watching Sarah Palin try to demonstrate her qualifications to be president or watching John McCain try to describe them.
--Josh Marshall
Farewell to Tire Swings?
From the AP on Palin's interview ...
John McCain running mate Sarah Palin sought Thursday to defend her qualifications but struggled with foreign policy, unable to describe President Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against threatening nations and acknowledging she's never met a foreign head of state.The Republican vice presidential nominee told Charles Gibson of ABC News in her first televised interview since being named to the GOP ticket that "I'm ready" to be president if called upon. However, she sidestepped on whether she had the national security credentials needed to be commander in chief.
A second AP article lede ...
The "Straight Talk Express" has detoured into doublespeak.Republican presidential nominee John McCain, a self-proclaimed tell-it-like-it-is maverick, keeps saying his running mate, Sarah Palin, killed the federally funded Bridge to Nowhere when, in fact, she pulled her support only after the project became a political embarrassment. He accuses Democrat Barack Obama of calling Palin a pig, which did not happen. He says Obama would raise nearly everyone's taxes, when independent groups say 80 percent of families would get tax cuts instead.
Even in a political culture accustomed to truth-stretching, McCain's skirting of facts has stood out this week. It has infuriated and flustered Obama's campaign, and campaign pros are watching to see how much voters disregard news reports noting factual holes in the claims.
--Josh Marshall
Not Ready
Sarah Palin's "perhaps" in response to the question of whether we might have to go to war with Russia over Georgia is getting a lot of attention. The truth, though, is that Palin was doing little more that drawing out the logical inference of McCain & Co.'s unhinged policy vis a vis Russia -- not a huge surprise if you've just learned the policy in the last week. But McCain and those in his entourage at least have the seasoning to know not to traipse into throwaway hypotheticals about 'war' with the only other country in the world with a vast and eminently deliverable nuclear arsenal.
Late Update: A further point. It's true that Obama and Biden both favor Georgia's accession into NATO -- a very bad policy position, as I've argued before. However, I do not think that their positions and McCain's positions are equal. The best analogy I can point to is the nominal agreement on Iraq policy (embodied in the Iraq Liberation Act) between the Clinton administration and the most radical neocons in the late 1990s. Nominally, they shared a policy. In practice, however, it was one group that was completely nuts and gung-ho in favor of a reckless idea and another that was sort of dabbling in and passively favoring the same policy. Not that that is saying much in the latter's favor. But there's a big difference.
--Josh Marshall
Painful
The awkward moment when Charlie Gibson tries his best not to press the point that Sarah Palin doesn't know what he's referring to when he asks her about the "Bush Doctrine" ...
--Josh Marshall
12 Party Politics
Book Clubbin' with Hendrik Hertzberg: Is the fruit-fly-like proliferation of parties in the Knesset a good thing?
--Lila Shapiro
TPMtv: Deep Denial
It seems that the John McCain campaign can sink as low as it pleases, and John McCain - thanks to his impenetrable bubble of honor and the media's deep denial about what's going on - stays totally clean ...
Full-size video at TPMtv.com.
--Ben Craw
Like I Said, Four More Years of Bush Would Be Vastly Preferable
Wow, going to war with Russia might be necessary if Russia invades another one of the former states of the Soviet Union. So says Sarah Palin. War with Russia over Armenia? If Russia and Georgia go at it again? War between the US and Russia sure would be a positive development for the US. And sort of shows the consequences of taking a freshman governor with no experience in foreign policy and giving her a ten day crash course with Randy Scheunemann and the rest of John McCain's neocon brain trust that got booted from the Bush inner circle for being too nutty.
Late Update: Do we all understand now why former Sen. Chafee (R-RI) called her a "cocky whacko" earlier this week?
--Josh Marshall
Palin Foreign Policy: War with Russia
From ABC News:
EXCLUSIVE: GOV. SARAH PALIN WARNS WAR MAY BE NECESSARY IF RUSSIA INVADES ANOTHER COUNTRY
More of the first excerpts from the Charlie Gibson interview here and here.
Here's the exchange on Russia:
GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.
But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to -- especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.
We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.
GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.
PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.
And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.
It doesn't have to lead to war and it doesn't have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.
His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that's a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen.
--David Kurtz
Ask Her About the Rape Kits
I get the sense that maybe the subject is so charged that people don't want to bring it up. But I'm wondering if Charlie Gibson might be able to raise the matter during the Barbara Walters style interview he's doing today with Gov. Palin up in Alaska.
While Gov. Palin was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in the late 1990s, the city's policy was to charge rape victims for the cost of the 'rape kits' used to collect forensic evidence to help prosecute the rapists. Eventually the state had to step in and pass a law banning the practice. And according to former Gov. Tony Knowles, the law was passed specifically in response to Wasila's policy. "There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," says Knowles.
So Wasila was either the only or one of the only towns in the state to follow this practice. And the state legislature had to intervene to put an end to it. There's no controversy about this. So this part is clear.
But it appears this is another case whether Sarah Palin is lying or in this case deputizing press aides to lie on her behalf. In this case spokeswoman Maria Comella, when asked, told USAToday that "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test. Gov. Palin's position could not be more clear. To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice."
Well, this just appears to be a confident statement of another lie. She does not and has never believed this, only it was her policy when she ran the city in question which was either the only or the most prominent in the state that held to this practice.
Charlie, can you help on this?
(ed.note: This has been another edition of "Lying Sarah Watch"...)
--Josh Marshall
A National Scar
Paul Rieckhoff: Seven years later, why is there still a hole at ground zero?
M.J. Rosenberg talks about how we mourn not just the victims of 9/11, but the country we lost that day.
Bernard Avishai discusses how the next President might recover that past.
--David Kurtz
Seen But Not Heard
John McCain asserted in an interview with local Maine TV that Sarah Palin is "coming out in the next couple of days with interviews with numerous people."
Really? Is that true?
We know about the Charlie Gibson interview, Barbara Walters style. But we also know that she declined to be interviewed for CNN's big investigative special set to air this weekend (in contrast to Joe Biden, who sat for an interview with CNN).
So who is McCain talking about? Is she really doing "numerous" interviews? Or did McCain just make that up?
Keep an eye out and let us know if you see any others.
Late Update: The McCain campaign confirms to TPM Election Central that a series of Palin interviews are in the works, to start early next week (not in the next couple of days), but declined to provide specifics. Should we expect a soft roll out, with the likes of Hannity and Fund "grilling" her?
--David Kurtz
Research and Pork
A number of you have written in (mainly research scientists of one sort or another) to say that in the case of Sarah Palin's $3.2 million earmark request to study seal DNA we should not jump to the conclusion that such spending is wasteful just because it may sound funny. So let me be clear. I don't assume that at all. In fact, I'm a big supporter of federal spending on pure research -- much of which McCain routinely derides as pork to guffaws all around. My father was a marine biologist whose commitment to investment in the sciences was so great that he'd surely send a thunderbolt down from heaven to smite me if I didn't. Of course, being such a hard core scientist he didn't believe in heaven, which is a complication. But I digress. I raise these earmarks because it is another example that John McCain and Sarah Palin are monumental hypocrites and liars on the whole issue of reform, earmarks, the Bridge to Nowhere and virtually everything else. So it would be irresponsible not to make that clear.
Late Update: TPM Reader LS makes a good additional point ...
One more point of view from a scientist:good science is funded through peer review, not via earmarks and lobbying.
we don't want science funded this way, it leads to croneyism and misuse. give the money to NIH and NSF and don't do by congressman trading favors.
earmarks are lousy way to fund science, bad, bad, bad.
TPM Reader CM makes much the same point ...
I'm a social scientist, rather than a hard scientist, but, for better or for worse, I swim in the sea of research dollars. While I agree with your post that funding research is a good use of tax money and is essential to keeping our society and economy vital, I'm not sure that earmarking research dollars through legislative action is the best way to ensure that the best research is funded. The federal government has organizations like the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities that distribute research dollars after review by area experts and professional scientists. While I certainly do think congressional oversight of the NSF and the NEH is necessary, allocation of research funds is best left to the professionals. However valid, direct research funding through spending bills is a pork-related program activity.
As a related matter, most of Palin's 'science' earmarks requested for last year are actually sops to the fishing industry in her state to which she is closely tied.
--Josh Marshall
McCain: Too Many People Insured
Joe Klein on McCain's (too little talked about) health care insurance tax increase.
--Josh Marshall
Shut It Down!
The latest on Trooper-Gate is that Gov. Palin is moving to have her ally, the state's Attorney General move to quash subpoenas of her aides in the investigation.
--Josh Marshall
BaBa WaWa
Can anyone else think of a major political figure who's done only Barbara Walters-style prime time celebrity interviews rather than appearing on actual news shows? I can't. And really a political campaign will do whatever it can get away with. But what news organization has ever done that? What an embarrassment.
--Josh Marshall
Not Just a River in Egypt
James Carville still mourns the McCain he once knew -- and is struggling to move past the denial phase:
--David Kurtz
Rumble
From an Obama supporter who's gunning for a fight ...
3.2 million for Seal DNA?People love this. One thing that captures the imagination. It's the new Bridge to Nowhere. That should be the talking point. 3.2 Million for Seal DNA? Is that the kind of change we need? "Do I hear lipstick on a seal?"
--Josh Marshall
Erratic
Former AZ Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ) on why the press's judgment problem about McCain ....
[McCain] has a problem of judgment. I think that has been clear, as the campaign goes on, that his judgment is flawed. He paints it as a "maverick" position, but in fact he has a problem finding good judgment and staying with it.He likes to paint himself as a man of convictions that stays with it. But if you served with him, as I did, and if you have followed him since I have left, and I have done that, you see his positions changed [with] whatever is needed. Whether it's on taxes, income tax cuts; whether it's on drilling in Alaska, or offshore, or you name it -- and John McCain has been all over the map.
And he will continue to do that, and that's why he has been able to be successful because, in my judgment, mostly. not all of the media, but much of the media kind of lets him get away with it.
--Josh Marshall
Election Central Morning Roundup
New Quinnipiac polls give Obama leads in Ohio and Pennsylvania but show McCain ahead in Florida. That and the day's other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
--David Kurtz
Lying Sarah Watch
WSJ: In confidential letter, one-time Palin ethics advisor warned her that Trooper-gate scandal was "grave" and recommended she and her husband publicly apologize for their actions.
--Josh Marshall
Deep, Deep in Denial
WaPo editorial: "John McCain is a serious man who promised to wage a serious campaign. Win or lose, will he be able to look back on this one with pride? Right now, it's hard to see how."
--Josh Marshall
Deep Thought
Did Biden forget to mention to Obama that he was retiring from public life in September?
--Josh Marshall
Embrace the Pig, II
TPM reader and film director James Mangold scripts what he wishes Obama had said today:
So. I'm talking about John McCain's economic policies, and I say: "This is more of the same, you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig." And suddenly they say, "Oh, you must be talking about the governor of Alaska." And now they're making this big fuss and, you know -- here's where most Democrats in the past would carefully and earnestly explain how I meant nothing of the kind.Heck, I was about to do that. Yesterday, I didn't mean anything but a comment on their policies, one that was obvious to anyone who was there. But today is different. Today I am here to tell you that I am flip flopping. I've changed my mind.
Pig in lipstick. I meant it any way they want to take it.
For weeks we've all watched their low-ball ads and listened to their lies and twisted innuendo, attacks on my family and our values, community service and patriotism, all of it wrapped in our flag-- and last night I thought to myself, Barack, CHANGE isn't letting someone kick you over and over again. CHANGE doesn't mean that the only response to blatant lies, extremism and intolerance is thoughtfulness.
Maybe the reason they think they'll get away with this is they think I'm such a big lofty "celebrity" that I can't get down on the ground and fight like a man. Well, they are wrong. Lies are lies. Not untruths. Not misstatements. Not "questionable" facts. Lies. And lies dishonor our nation.
A great country, the world's greatest country, should not waste its time with trivialities -- but a wise leader cannot pretend the world is as he wishes it was. If this is the kind of fight they want, then I will give it back to them.
So let me be clear what I meant yesterday.
McCain and Palin, their policies and their demeaning campaign are A PIG IN LIPSTICK.
They are OLD FISH IN A NEW WRAPPER.
They are a threat to our future. Because they are the past, masquerading as the future.
You want to go backward -- vote for them.
--David Kurtz
Delusional
Groping toward the truth but still utterly delusional. MSNBC's Chris Matthews has been doing a pretty decent job being candid and straight-up about the sleazy campaign the McCain camp is running. But he still thinks 'the McCain camp' is doing this behind McCain's back since he's too honorable and straight-talking to stand for this kind of sleaze.
Matthews: "I do have a tremendous amount of faith in John McCain's integrity. He used to be on the show all the time ... I don't believe he'd sit where you're sitting and call his opponent or say his opponent called his running mate a pig. I don't believe he'd say that. So i wonder why his people agreed to do that ... This is a claim I don't think the candidate himself would make."
Joe, you've seen the light on this guy, right?
--Josh Marshall
For Your Evening Viewing Pleasure ...
(Special Lying Sarah Watch Earmark Edition)
--Josh Marshall