Talking about The Thrilla in Wasilla

Jay Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald and Hub Blog joined me in studio last night for a fun hour of Salin Palin speculation. We had hoped to talk about Deval, the legislature, etc, but people were certainly ready with their Palin theories about the move and her political future. The callers were surprisingly rational. It seems the topic of Sarrah Palin drives people from both sides over the edge.

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Good thing we didn’t end up with a dummy for vice president

Biden Reveals Location of Secret VP Bunker

The vice president, well-known for his verbal gaffes, confirms at a dinner the existence and location of a secret hidden bunker that Cheney is believed to have used after the 9/11 attacks.

According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president.

The bunker is believed to be the secure, undisclosed location former Vice President Dick Cheney remained under protection in secret after the 9/11 attacks.

Eleanor Clift, Newsweek magazine’s Washington contributing editor, said Biden revealed the location while filling in for President Obama at the dinner, who, along with Grover Cleveland, is the only president to skip the gathering.

According to Clift’s report on the Newsweek blog, Biden “said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment.”

Clift continued: “The officer explained that when Cheney was in lock down, this was where his most trusted aides were stationed, an image that Biden conveyed in a way that suggested we shouldn’t be surprised that the policies that emerged were off the wall.”

Viva La Experience!

Here’s a list of 14 amusing yet cringe-worthy “Bidenisms” made during the vice president’s more recent political career.

– On March 13, 2009, Biden addressed a former Senate colleague by saying, “An hour late, oh give me a f**king break,” after he arrived on Amtrak at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The vice president’s expletive was caught on a live microphone.

– During a Feb. 25, 2009, interview on CBS’ “Early Show,” Biden encouraged viewers to visit a government-run Web site that tracks stimulus spending. When asked for the site’s web address, Biden could not remember the site’s “number.”

“You know, I’m embarrassed. Do you know the Web site number?” he asked an aide standing out of view. “I should have it in front of me and I don’t. I’m actually embarrassed.”

– At a Jan. 30, 2009, swearing-in ceremony of senior White House staff, Biden mocked Chief Justice John Roberts for his presidential oath blunder on Inauguration Day.

“Am I doing this again?” Biden said, after Obama asked him to administer the oath. When Biden was told the swearing-in was for senior staff — and not cabinet members — the vice president quipped, “My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts,” prompting a stern nudge from Obama.

– On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 2009, Biden misspoke when he told a cheering crowd of supporters, “Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart.” Justice John Paul Stevens — not Stewart — swore Biden in as vice president.

– When criticizing former GOP nominee John McCain in Athens, Ohio, on Oct. 15, 2008, Biden said, “Look, John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.”

– In a Sept. 22, 2008, CBS interview, Biden misspoke when he said Franklin D. Roosevelt was president when the stock market crashed in 1929.

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened,” he said. Herbert Hoover — not Roosevelt — was president in 1929, and television had not yet been invented in 1929.

– During a Sept. 12, 2008, speech in Columbia, Mo., Biden called for Missouri State Sen. Chuck Graham, who is wheelchair-bound, to “stand up.”

“Oh, God love ya,” Biden said, after realizing his mistake. “What am I talking about?”

– At a Sept. 10, 2008, town hall meeting in Nashua, N.H., Biden said, “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.”

– Biden mistakenly referred to Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the “lieutenant governor” of her state during a town hall meeting on Sept. 4, 2008 at George Mason University in Manassas, Va.

“I heard a very, by the way I mean this sincerely, a very strong and a very good political speech from a lieutenant governor of Alaska who I think is going to be very formidable, very formidable not only in the campaign but in the debate,” Biden said.

– Biden said he was running for president — not vice president — during a Sept. 1, 2008, roundtable discussion in Scranton, Pa.

“Today is the moment for me as a United States senator running for president to put aside the national politics and focus on what’s happening down there,” Biden said.

– Biden referred to John McCain as “George” during his vice presidential acceptance speech on Aug. 27, 2008, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Co. “Freudian slip, folks, Freudian slip,” he explained.

– Biden confused army brigades with battalions when speaking about Obama’s plan for sending troops to Afghanistan.

“Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?”

– During his first campaign rally with Obama as his vice presidential running mate on Aug. 23, 2008, Biden introduced Obama by saying, “A man I’m proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States — Barack America!”

– On Jan. 31, 2007 — the day Biden announced his presidential bid — the Delaware Senator was roundly criticized for calling Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Odds and ends

The new round of anonymous trashing of Sarah Palin is illuminating. These leakers must really want to hurt Palin. They are so incompetent that have hurt themselves more. They have proved to be untrustworty and disloyal. They are clearly poor political operatives to have begun all this self-serving leaking with two weeks to go in the campaign. Not only did the leakers expose their disloyalty and incompetence, they have now made Palin a sympathetic figure.

Counterintuitive Rahm Emanuel - good pick by Obama, evidence of pragmatism. Chief of staff is a good position for Emanuel in that he is loyal and ruthless. He will be mostly behind the scenes protecting Obama and running a tight ship. Instapundit thinks he will play bad cop to congress and interest groups. Even better.

Joe Lieberman - Hartford Courant’s Stan Simpson makes the case to kick him out of the party. On the heals of Rahm Emanuel, an overly aggressive move means GOP will have its theme…Democrats are not serious about bipartisanship and different tone in Washington. I think this is for show and they won’t follow through.

Speaking of a new kind of politics - will Obama pursue card check and unfairness doctrine in first 100 days? That would be a Clintonian-style early term disaster. At least it should be.

Republicans aren’t serious about cleaning house. Meet the new boss.

Wall Street votes - worst two-day performance in history.

Yahoo! has gone from one of the greediest CEO’s to one of the worst.

John Kerry will not be Secretary of State. His campaigning for the position is unseemly and his pomposity and verbosity would make him a disaster. Prediction, he will be offered Homeland Security instead via an appeal to his ego (I heard somehwere he served in Vietnam and is a self proclaimed national security expert. Plus, with a attack all but guarenteed by his Senate colleague Joe Biden, it’s a critical position).

Why does Eliiot Spitzer get off (again) and the booker and the hooker get arrested?

Amazon customers top history books of 2008. Number four, Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution. Author T.J. English joined me for a fun discussion about this excellent book,

Did you ever wonder what Chris Matthews sounds like naked?

Palin wins by not losing; Can we focus on who Barack Obama is now please?

I conducted a two person focus group, in real-time, over instant message, with two Democrats, one male and one female. Both were surprised by how well Palin did. I was surprised by how well everyone was saying Palin did, more than I was surprised by Palin’s performance.

I think Palin should send a dozen roses to Tina Fey this morning. She clearly benefited by people expecting so little from her.

Palin did just ok in my book. She clearly has a wafer thin understanding of most issues outside taxes and energy. She ignored many questions and just retreated to her warm and comfy areas of expertise.

Biden did fine by not being his typical overbearing, blowhard self, so I thought he did well.

Like McCain, Palin left so much on the table. When Biden launched into his complete BS about the credit crisis and how Barack Obama was like the Oracle seeing these problems two years ago, I thought great, here’s an opening to hammer Obama and the Democrats. For once, on this issue of Fannie and Freddie and regulation, it was the Republicans who were calling for it and the Democrats who were against it. This has been well documented and is a rock solid fact.

Two years ago, it was pretty clear that there were problems. Obama taking credit for talking about it is like a guy standing outside a house fire saying “this house might burn to the ground”. Well, no sh*t. It was John McCain and the Republicans in 2003 and 2005 trying to increase regulation over Fannie and Freddie, long before there was a serious crisis. Not once did I hear any of that. So frustrating to watch.

Joe Biden should go to confession this morning or have his mouth washed out with soap for what he said about John McCain and Iraq. It was disgraceful in how dishonest it was.

I love him. As my mother would say, god love him, but he’s been dead wrong on the fundamental issues relating to the conduct of the war. Barack Obama has been right. There are the
facts.

Nobody was more right about what was needed to achieve success in Iraq than John McCain. He was calling for more troops since the war started and was advocating for a surge before one was even proposed. He showed incredible strength and leadership on this issue, all with only one goal in mind, victory for our country and for our troops. It is laid out well in Bob Woodward’s new book, The War Within. That is more than Joe “Partition the country” Biden can say and it’s a hell of a lot more than Barack “Retreat and Defeat” Obama can say. Even to this day, neither Obama or Biden have shown any interest in achieving victory. They never even use the word. They just talk about how fast we can get out.

The last remaining question of the 2008 election is this, can the media coninue to protect Barack Obama until election day?

Will the public at large ever get to know about the nature of his relationship with unrepentent domestic terrorists? Will they ever undertsand how far to the left he is on social issues? Will they ever hear about Obama’s record as a hack machine pol in Chicago? Not likely, since it has no relation to Obama’s rhetoric about hope and change.

For his entire political career, Obama has been a status quo kind of guy. He never worked as a reformer in Illinois. In fact, he thwarted the campaigns of many promising reform minded progressives. You know, people who were what Barack Obama claims to be. He opposed them at every turn in favor of the corruption and incompetence that is the Chicago political culture. In IL and in Congress, Obama has been as partisan as they come. His record of bringing people together does not yet exist.

Yes, when it comes to Obama it is just words. Words about hope and change, a new kind of politics. When you examine Obama’s deeds, you see a different man. You see someone who threatens to put people out of business when they oppose him. When the NRA created negative Obama ads, Obama threatened to pull the licenses of any TV station that broadcast them. How many people know this? Not enough is the correct answer. That is change Mussolini could believe in.

Barack Obama is a complete phony. The record is there for anyone who wants to examine it. The public has four weeks to figure it out on their own, because the MSM will be of no help.

Bottom line: I agree with Barack Obama. He does not have the experience or any record of accomlishment that qualifies him to be president.

Gwen Ifill My Pockets?

VP debate moderator’s impartiality questioned

NEW YORK (AP) - PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, moderator of the upcoming vice presidential debate, dismissed conservative questions about her impartiality because she is writing a book that includes material on Barack Obama.

Ifill said Wednesday that she hasn’t even written her chapter on Obama for the book “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,” which is to be published by Doubleday on Jan. 20, 2009, the day a new president is inaugurated.

This is just the latest example of great moments in double standards. Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz calls it “The latest controversy to hit the echo chamber”. He went on CNN and started waiving the race card around, saying how sad it was for people (conservatives) to charge that Ifill can’t be impartial towards Obama becuase she is black.  Michelle Malkin says Ifill is doing the same thing.

I was surprised to hear this. She’s black? I hadn’t even thought of that. All I can see is a woman with an obvious conflict and direct financial interest in the outcome of this election.

Simple question: If Barack Obama loses the election, how well do you think a book titled The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama will do?

This is more than the appearance of impropriety. This is the existence of impropriety in that she stands to have a financial benefit from the outcome in favor of one side over the other.

Kurtz is not alone. Others are snickering that conservatives are doing this because they are trying to preempt a much feared poor showing by Palin in the debate. Furthermore, the “timing” of this criticism somehow invalidates it. How convenient. Ignore the obvious financial conflict of interest and point to two irrelevancies. Real honest critique of the media. Very fair and impartial.  These same media critics will be writing after the debate how easy Ifill took it on Palin and how this proves the conservative “noise machine” influenced the debate. 

Gwen Ifill is a respected journalist but she put herself in this position by not telling, then accepting, the Commission on Presidential Debates offer to moderate.

The host of PBS’”Washington Week” and senior correspondent on “The NewsHour” said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book. The commission had no immediate comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

Should be interesting when Ifill questions the candidates about the need for transparency and disclosure in the Wall Street bailout.

I’m not saying Ifill can’t or won’t be fair to Palin tomorrow night.  I’m saying she has a pretty obvious conflict in my opinion and supporters of McCain are justified to be upset about it.  While they are at it they should also be asking questions about the competency of the McCain campaign if they are truly just learning about this as they claim.

UPDATE: Some media critics are more honest than others. Here’s the Columbia Journalism Review,

Conflict of interest is often about appearances. There appears, to us, to be a conflict in Ifill moderating tomorrow night’s vice presidential debate….It stands to reason that a book with such a title would sell better if a certain person is inaugurated on that day.

McCain’s slogan fits: not ready to lead

Here is what I wrote the morning McCain announced Sarah Palin,

I saw her about a month ago on Larry Kudlow’s TV show and I thought she did ok, not great, just ok. If that was my impression watching her in friendly territory, how will she do when really pressed?…

…The most overlooked question in all of this is “does the VP nominee have the media relations skills to be a forceful advocate?” Pawlenty has demonstrated that he does. I don’t think you can underestimate how important this single point is, the media relations skills. Ultimately, I believe they are even more important than the conservative positions or resume…

I’m flummoxed by the choice honestly. Sure, its Mavericky alright. Yes, it shows McCain is an independent thinker. However, I wonder if he’s beeing too cute and losing sight of the basic ingredients that make a good running mate. I hope I am proven wrong.

Let’s just say that I haven’t been proven wrong.

I have sharper conversations with my friends, and none of them are in line to be a heartbeat away from leading the free world. I want to believe. But I have seen nothing to date to make me believe. If Barack Obama has proven anything, it’s that good speeches don’t count for anything. When she has done these interviews, even the hard hitting Sean Hannity interview, she seems to have only a superficial understanding of the issues.

My biggest fear, which I mentioned in a different post, still rings true,

I used a baseball analogy last weekend on the radio to describe Palin. She reminds me of a highly talented young pitcher, like Craig Hanson or Clay Buchholz, who is brought up to the big leagues too soon, has a terrible experience and regresses, perhaps never again being able to live up to the initial promise. Palin has potential to be a long term asset for Republicans. However, if she was brought up too soon, and is hammered or exposed as not ready, her brand will be damaged and her long term effectiveness muted. That would be a shame.

UPDATE: Conservative writer Kathleen Parker, writing at National Review,

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

McCain should put some lipstick on his misleading and dishonest ad

Wow. I don’t pay attention to the campaign for one day and look what I missed. I just heard about the lipstick kerfuffle this morning. Now that I have seen the McCain ad, I have to say that I am disappointed that his campaign went so far to make this a serious issue. What bothers me is that is was perfectly clear what Obama was saying and it had nothing to do with Sarah Palin. The icing on the cake was the ad itself, in which it said on the screen, “Barack Obama on Sarah Palin” before launching in to the clip of the lipstick comment. That is misleading and dishonest. Not a great moment for the McCain campaign. They compounded their mistake by trotting out our former governor Jane Swift as part of their Truth Squad. I have to agree 100% with National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuro,

Don’t they realize that this harping on ambiguous slights is what people hate about political correctness? It was bad enough when liberals were trying to destroy Palin. Now Republicans are trashing her brand. They’re undermining the basis of her appeal as a different, tougher kind of female politician. Today has been worse than wasted.

Having Jane Swift lead the McCain campaign’s Palin Truth Squad is an additional mistake. It’s not just that she was an incompetent and unpopular governor of Massachusetts, although she was, and had nothing like Palin’s credentials as a reformer. Her administration was a failure in significant part because of her inability to walk the line between public and private, work and family. She was the last female governor before Palin to be prominent for being pregnant in office, and she made a hash of things, using state aides as babysitters. Couldn’t the campaign have found someone who wasn’t such a counter-example to Palin?