Night of the Living McCains

[Campaign 2008] Have no idea what's going on in this Reuters photo from last night's Obama/McCain debate; don't care. Anyone for a 28 Days Later reference?

(Bill Frost)

The Death of Swiftboating?

[Campaign 2008] This just in: Voters seem to be waking up--at least in this presidential campaign--to cheap smear tactics.

According to this current poll, six out of 10 respondents believe John McCain has far surpassed Barack Obama in negative campaigning. The poll was conducted at the height of McCain and running mate Sarah Palin's attack on Obama over the past two weeks for his loose association with former '60s radical William Ayers. Perhaps there is hope for the intellect of American voters.

McCain and Palin changed up their tactics again on Monday (for what? the 32nd time in six weeks?) after dropping even further in the polls behind Obama. Someone in their camp took a mallet to McCain's head and mentioned there's a little hiccup out there bothering people. It's called the tanking economy.

Let's see if the name "Bill Ayers" shows up in tonight's final debate between the two candidates. I suspect we won't be hearing the phrase "palling around with terrorists" even once tonight. (Holly Mullen)

McCain-Palin in Search of a Verb

[Campaign 2008] John McCain and Sarah Palin were slogging along the campaign trail again today, after some weekend polls showed the Republican team trailing Barack Obama by as many as 11 percentage points.

And as he's done for more than a month, McCain was desperately trying to find himself an image and stick with it. Apparently, McCain campaign consultants (some of whom are the same scumbags who engineered "swiftboating" against John Kerry in 2004) have urged their boss to lay off the effort to link Obama with William Ayers and to stop for now in painting the candidate as a terrorist.

Because it's the economy, stupid (Thanks Bill Clinton!).

First, McCain tried to paint himself as the "change" candidate. Though that sounded um, vaguely familiar. He's still a maverick, apparently. But along with Palin, today he became a maverick with a softer, gentler touch. At their campaign stops this morning, neither of them mentioned Obama by name once.

Still, McCain is badly in need of the right verb. Suddenly, he's ready to fight. He's down, (I know, I know. "Down" is a preposition) but he's not out.

Dear John: Find a verb wouldja, and stick with it. (Holly Mullen)

Send Palin Packing?

[Palin Watch] Namaste! Even in India, they are talking about whether John McCain should replace Sarah Palin with a new vice presidential pick.

Except then we might be stuck with Mitt Romney. (Holly Mullen)

McCain vs. Letterman

[Campaign '08] What happens when you blow off David Letterman? For Katie Couric, no less? You get this:



Still predicting a Utah landslide for McCain, of course, with Mitt Romney running a close second. (Bill Frost)

Palin and Experience...Again

[Campaign 2008] A tip of the Salt Blog/Values Voter hat to Feministing.com, which posted yet another reason why we need to know more about Sarah Palin. As the mother of a child with Down syndrome, she vowed in her RNC acceptance speech to back funding for special needs education programs.

Yet she's a member of a political party whose stalwart right wing for more than three decades has tried to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. (Go here and here for more.)

Step away from your handlers and tell us what you really think, Gov. Palin. (Holly Mullen)

Cotton-Peggy '08

[Election '08] John McCain is up in the polls, presumably because of the introduction of VP nom Sarah Palin last week--oh, America, so fickle.

But, our previous assessment of the Battlestar Galactica influence maybe have been a bit overblown, as evidenced by these two ads recently sent in to us: It's all about Cotton and Peggy from King of the Hill, voters!

(Bill Frost)

RNC: Where's the Tilt-o-Whirl?

[RNC Arena Insanity] E. Thomas Nelson, a recent City Weekly intern and a 2008 University of Utah graduate, is in St. Paul, Minn., this week covering the Republican National Convention. Tom (that's what we called him here) is one of five handpicked Hinckley Institute of Politics students working with seven students from the Cheung Kong School of Journalism at Shantou University in China, covering both national conventions.

Here's Tom's take on the scene on the floor in St. Paul last night:

Given all the cowboy hats at the Xcel arena Thursday night, one might think they were at a rodeo and not a political convention. Most abundant were the simple white Stetsons with a black ring, but there were also black, straw, and of course, red, white and blue sequins.

Second to cowboy hats were equally unnecessary short plastic top hats in the fashion of early 20th century American politicians who stood on bandstands to deliver their speeches.

Known as American election hats, these fashion accessories are appropriate in this day and age only once every four years (many would argue not at all).

The election hats at Thursday's convention were white, trimmed with red and blue and matching almost everything else in the Xcel arena. The colors could be found on ties, dresses, and the balloons that hung in a net attached to the ceiling, weighted down and ready to fall.

Most recognizable, however, was the gigantic, artificial flag that waved in computer-generated wind on a jumbo-screen behind the podium.

Also in excess were homemade posters. Every imaginable color, shape, and size danced in almost all white hands throughout the arena, as though their creators were cheering on their team--America.

There wasn’t much variation among the posters: “McCainiac, He Means What he Says,” and “Straight Talk” were among the most clever. From my vantage point a scaffold that held 15 or so cameramen blocked a large section of the arena, but in my section-by section analysis of the arena I counted nine USA posters and eight McCain-USA posters.

It seemed as though the crowd was rooting for some entity known as “USA,” as though it were a sports team whose competition was the world at large.

The marquee (and rather unimaginative) U-S-A chant could be heard no less than seven times.

Each speaker tonight played into the ideal of “U-S-A” and “Country First” in a unique way. There was loveable Huckabee, the soft-spoken church leader, there was the polished Mitt with big, white teeth and stern accusations, and there was the pit-bull Giuliani, who waged an all out assault and went for the jugular of the Democratic party.

Speaker of the night Sarah Palin was able to rouse the crowd to a fevered pitch with her attacks on Barack Obama and her appeals as one of them--a hockey mom and PTA board member. She did her best to appear as a typical American, not a Washington elitist.

Throughout the night it seemed that the Republicans were trying to out-American their Democratic counterparts. Between the chants, posters, rhetoric, and of course, live and recorded country music, the events felt like a county fair.

The height of patriotism occurred after Palin and McCain (who in their interaction and embrace had all the chemistry of two people meeting for the first time) left the stage.

It was then that a country trio began a bizarre hybrid presentation that blended The Pledge of Allegiance, The National Anthem, and The Preamble of the United States Constitution.

In an attempt to cram three highly important and hugely different bits of American history together, the presentation ultimately demeaned each. It was another example of trying to mix together as much patriotism as could be mustered in one Cliffs Notes, abridged version that came across as a pandering, chauvinistic, even xenophobic spectacle.

As I left the arena an electric guitar hung around the neck of a country-singing millionaire excited the crowd. Bumping into a man with a cowboy hat, I was tempted to ask where I might find the Tilt-o-Whirl ride. (E. Thomas Nelson)

Palin Opened Up, So Let's Dig In

[Palin Powered] Short and sweet, here are a few thoughts about Sarah Barracuda Palin and her v.p. acceptance speech at the RNC last night:

1. Masterful speech. Delegates and more importantly, the rest of the country, finally learned something of the mystery candidate from Wasilla, Alaska. She was gritty, personable and managed to come across as EveryWoman. Thanks, McCain speechwriters!

2. Like the three who came before her, Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani, Palin was snide and shitty toward Barack Obama and woefully stuck in the '80s. (To wit: Mike Huckabee's joke about a costume change at a Madonna concert. Cutting edge Republican humor!)

3. Finally, I hope this puts to rest any questions/attacks about Palin's potential ability of serving as a vice president while being a mother. I'm sick of reporters and political adversaries even bringing that up. Start asking male candidates the same question, start measuring their time and effort with their children and then we'll talk.

4. Besides, the focus on Palin's family and her skills at balancing work and family is merely superficial crap. From now until Election Day, the national press should have more than enough challenge in tracking down her record in Alaska. Twenty months as governor--of Alaska for hell's sake--shouldn't be too tough to scrutinize. I hope the press--always the convenient whipping boy among the right-wing-- is fanning out across the 49th state, stalking Palin's record and political history like a Kodiak bear after a fat salmon. Hey--she stood up last night and laid her record out to the world. She opened a window; now the media have an open door.

Meanwhile, read this from a formerly undecided voter on the Palin effect.

Oh, and while the Republicans remember her well you might not. Above, that's Madonna, from the '80s film Desperately Seeking Susan. The horror! (Holly Mullen)

My Vagina Vote

[Hillary-Schmillary] Gotta hand it to John McCain and all of his handsomely paid GOP consultants. It's like they read my vagina's mind!

This Sarah Palin has it all--anti-abortion, pro-gun, squeaky voice, a whopping 20 months as governor of America's Last Frontier. Uh, no, she doesn't quite match Hillary Clinton's lifelong feminist credentials, and eight years as First Lady and moving along in her second term as U.S. senator from New York. But what do we know? One estrogen-propelled candidate is as good as the next to us female voters.

According to the U.S. Census, there are an estimated 116 million women over the age of 18 in this country. And we all think alike. I know the only thing I care about when I touch that voting screen is what kind of indoor plumbing the candidate has. (Holly Mullen)

Let The Daily Show's Samantha Bee tell it:

Romney Out: Day of Mourning In Order

[McCain's Pick] Who cares about this Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin? The Deseret News nailed the real story--with this pithy lede: It's not Mitt.

OK Utah: Let's all cut our wrists together, wail and gnash our teeth. Then we can move on.

(Holly Mullen)

Their Hype vs. Obama's Hope

[Democratic National Convention] This is what it came down to the final night of the DNC, before a crowd of 80,000-plus in Denver's Mile High Stadium: Barack Obama had a few things to nail in his acceptance speech. He had to show substance to his rhetoric, grit to his glitter. He also had to retell his story as a healer while at the same time standing up to John McCain.

“The record is clear: John McCain has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really what does it say about your judgment when you think George W. Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time?” Obama asked the roaring crowd.

Obama kept his McCain attacks in reference to George W. Bush and his party, not stooping to such potshots as McCain's anmesia for the number of homes he owns.

“For over two decades he’s subscribed to the discredited Republican philosophy to give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else,” Obama said. “In Washington they call this the ownership society, but what it really means--you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it...
"... Well it is time for them to own their failure. And it’s time for us to change America.”

After remininiscing about his time as a community activist on Chicago's South Side and how he learned a work ethic from his scrappy grandmother, Obama ended on what he promises will be the key to the next 68 days: “That’s the promise of America. The idea that we are responsible for ourselves but that we also rise or fall as one nation.”

And finally, a few of Obama's plans, as outlined in his speech:

*Cutting tax breaks to corporations that shift jobs overseas; rewarding companies that keep jobs in the U.S.

*A tax cut for 95 percent of all working class families.

*Eliminating capital gains taxes for small businesses and high-tech startup companies.

*Affordable health care for all.

*Pledging to end foreign oil dependence in 10 years.

*In foreign policy, the focus will return to Afghanistan rather than Iraq. “John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell—but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives,” Obama said.

Then in a magnanimous conclusion, Obama recalled his experience and reflected on the good of all Americans.

“It is that American spirit that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen—that better place around the bend.”

It was a place called hope hat seemed at long last to subdue the week-long hype surrounding Obama. (Eric S. Peterson)

DNC Hillary Night: Crushing Unity!

[Democratic National Convention] Last night Democrats delivered on Unity…in the party.

In a display of deft politics the Democrats united through spite, against McCain. They were whole once again as speaker after speaker lined up to pound on McCain. Governors, senators and representatives tapped in and out to pummel the presumptive Republican candidate up until Hillary herself made the stage. By the time Hillary entered the ring the straw man effigy of McCain was dazed and stunned after some six hours of punishment. Throughout the madness of the crowd it was almost as if the voice of Mortal Kombat’s Shang Tsung pronounced from on high: “Finish him!”

But before that moment you have to appreciate the blows that rained down upon McCain. Really these blogs are long enough and there would be just no way to repeat all the put-downs. Needless to say, McCain was getting be-bopped and scatted on so many times the whole affair was beginning to resemble a furious barrage of political yo-mama jokes.

“They say the George Bush came into office on third base [after the Clinton years]. Well if that’s the case he then stole 2nd, and McCain cheered him on every step of the way.” –Ohio Governor, Ted Strickland.

Oh snap!

“Well being from Kansas we’re familiar with the term there’s no place like home. But John McCain’s version seems to be ‘there’s no place like home or home or home or home…”-- Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas Governor.

Oh no she didn’t!

“McCain says he’s a maverick. But when you vote 95 percent with Bush this year, that’s not being a maverick, that’s called being a sidekick.”-- Sen. Robert Casey Jr., P.A.

Daaamn!

“No way, no how, no McCain,” Clinton said warming her up speech. Moving in a way that was both grateful and sympathetic to her supporters, the party and Obama. Clinton graciously recalled meeting young veterans, a mother without health insurance battling cancer, the pleas of a family one paycheck away from poverty. Invoking these figures Hillary spoke directly to her loyal soldiers.

“Were you in this campaign just for me or were you in it for the young Marine and others like him? Or the mom struggling with cancer? Or that young boy and his mother surviving on minimum wage? Or for all the people in this country who feel invisible?” Clinton asked in complete sincerity and authority.

The Democrats clearly have taken to a classic good cop/ bad cop routine to win over the public and especially disenchanted Clinton voters. On the one hand, distanced from the punchier attacks, Obama will appeal to unity among Americans, highlighting “post-partisan” working class values. On the other, Clinton and others will beseech their wayward party members through an unrelenting attack on the McCain camp as the greater evil to a not-Clinton presidency.

And so after historical comparisons to the women’s suffrage movement Clinton called upon supporters to recognize the historical import of the present.

“Think about your children and grandchildren come Election Day,” Clinton said. “We’ve got to ensure the choice we make this election honors the sacrifices of those who came before us.”

With a speech punctuated by yells of ‘We love you!’ and roaring applause, Clinton beckoned with open arms her followers back into the fold and with a kick to the gut of the McCain campaign.

“It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities, because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart,” Hillary said, pulling the head and spine from the metaphorical McCain, to a standing ovation. (Eric S. Peterson)

Apocalypse Bush!

[Aerial Politics] Ever since last weekend, gigantic military helicopters have been flying over my neighborhood (and yours too, I've learned). I saw them hovering over downtown yesterday, too. It was all a bit mysterious and even foreboding--very Apocalypse Now.

I thought they were from Hill Air Force Base, doing maneuvers or some other military transport.

And then I learned the choppers were merely facsimiles of Military One, the official helicopter of the U.S. President. The helicopters have been scoping out the route George W. Bush will be taking during his big fund-raising visit in Salt Lake City and Deer Valley today for his kinda-sorta buddy (mostly behind closed doors), John McCain.

Wonderful. It isn't enough my tax dollars have propped up a hopeless war the worst president in U.S. history started for no good reason. Now I have to help pay for presidential security while Bush stumps for McCain at Mitt Romney's mountain mansion to the tune of $30,000 a plate from well-heeled Repub donors. The rest of us will eat cake. Our tax dollars at work.

(Holly Mullen)

Why a Democrat Must Win

[Campaign 2008] The best headline yet to prove John McCain would be four more years of Bush. (Holly Mullen)

No Love Lost on Jon Jr.

[Veep Wars] So. I'm driving along the freeway at 3:19 p.m. yesterday, and surfing the radio dial. I drift to the Sean Hannity Show on KSL-AM, where I hover briefly over a familiar voice.

It's Mitt Romney. He's yakking it up with Sean, who's doing his best "I believe you would make a fine running mate for John McCain" suck-up.

Anyway, after much mutual admiration between the two, Hannity finally asks Romney if he would accept an invitation from McCain to run for veep. Romney tap dances, and finally responds something to the effect that there are many qualified Republican governors who would do a fine job as vice president. To which Hannity follows up: "Name some."

Well, says Romney, there's Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. There's Mark Sanford of South Carolina, there's ... well, there are just a lot of fine governors out there.

You'd think with their shared Mormon/Utah/Scions of Capitalism roots, that Mitt would have had Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. on the tip of his tongue. But he didn't mention Jon--whose name has actually been tossed around seriously as a McCain running mate.

But then, people with an ounce of memory will recall there's no love lost between these two perfectly-coiffed sons of famous fathers. It's been rumored for years that Huntsman Jr. and Romney were bitter rivals to head up the 2002 Winter Olympics; Romney won that round and Huntsman trundled off to Singapore as a diplomat. Also, Jon Huntsman Sr. supported Romney in his failed presidential bid; Huntsman Jr. sidled up to McCain.

Political memories are l-o-o-n-g. (Holly Mullen)

Won't Someone Please Think of the Conservatives?

[Election 2008] If you were watching cable news networks yesterday in the wake of Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the Republican nomination race, you saw the oddest combination of hand-wringing and back-slapping. One after another, Republican party stalwarts and other members of the conservative punditocracy observed that now that John McCain has all but sewn up his party's nomination, they can avoid the money- and attention-draining battle that will occupy Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will into August, improving the chances of a November victory.

Yet you also had the lamentations of Glenn Beck and others that they were stuck with a finance-reforming, immigrant-loving impostor as their choice over a Democrat who (to paraphrase Romney's farewell address) will all but hand the keys to America to al Qaeda. Quoth Beck, as he considered whether or not he should support McCain, "When you're a parent, sometimes the best thing you can do for your kid instead of propping them up is to let them fall down." Will the right sabotage the Republicans' chances at a victory as it throws a collective "he's not Reagan enough for us" hissy fit? (Scott Renshaw)

Hearts Afire!

[Media & Politics] I actually heard KSL radio gabber Doug Wright say, at the opening of his show today, that the only way whipped puppy (my term) Mitt Romney might be able to pull out the Republican nomination would be if John McCain had...

...a heart attack.

Granted, before he let that zinger fly, Wright offered the typical Utah passive-aggressive way of backing into an insult by saying--and I'm paraphrasing--"I' don't really mean anything by saying this, but..."

Still, the guy said it. Gawd, this is some strange planet. (Holly Mullen)

Michigan Primary Primer

[Election 2008] In contrast to everyone else, here's what you probably don't need to know about the Republican presidential candidates in tonight's Michigan Primary ...

Mitt Romney


John McCain


(Bill Frost)