The difference between Palin’s condescendtion and the Media’s criticism of Palin’s inexperience.

Palin’s speech tonight was condescending in many ways, belittling the work of community organizers, using the typical right-wing slurs about taxes and big governments, and lying about nearly anything and everything.

Look at some of these lies:

• She opposed the bridge to nowhere
• Obama did nothing significant in either the US Senate or the Illinois State Senate
• She took on the good ol’ boy network
• That Obama will raise taxes on anything and everything
• She opposed federal earmarks generally

Add on top of that a cheap shot towards Obama’s “bitter’ comment and his wife’s “proud of America” comment, and you have a full fledged right wing love fest slur machine. (I take it candidate’s spouses are in play now, since multiple speakers attacked Michelle Obama tonight.  I guess it’s time to bring up the fact that Cindy McCain is indeed a felon-grade criminal – and McCain is the only reason why she isn’t a convicted felon.)

And she justifies all of this because the media dare question whether being governor for 18 months, and mayor of a town of 8,000 gives one enough experience to be Vice President and, by extension, President of the United States.

And indeed, her speech did nothing to alleviate those doubts.   Cheering on John McCain, shooting cheap shots at your opponent, and reading talking points off a teleprompter proves absolutely nothing about their ability and qualifications to be Vice President.

The media will love it because it was a “tough” speech, and she has shown that she can give a good speach.  But nothing, absolutly nothing about her record backs up anything she said tonight, and she piled a whole buch of partisan vitrol on top of it.

If she made policy distinctions it would be a different matter, but she didn’t.  She merely belitted Obama, dismissing him as if he is a candidate who shouldn’t even be under consideration for being President.  It was the ultmate act of disrespect for the Democratic ticket.

Perhaps the pundits should consider that before heaping too much praise on Governor Palin.

Update

Fantastic catch by jonwilliamsl at Daily Kos.  Apparently Palin needs difficult words like “nuclear” spelled out phonetically in her speech:

Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines … build more new-clear plants … create jobs with clean coal … and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.

…

Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay … he wants to meet them without preconditions.

She truly is the 2nd coming of George W. Bush in every way.

Update 2

Another important point to make: Obama uses his past as a community organizer to show that he has a history of being a force for hope and change.  However, I have never recalled him actually trying to use it as evidence that he’s qualified to be President.  Palin is actually doing that with her work as a mayor of a town of 8,000 people.

Update 3

Palin also talks about the responibilities she had as mayor.  Too bad she utterly failed in them.

Sarah “I’m a radical extremist” Palin is up

- Palin is ready to give a speech written for her by someone else.

- Why is there a picture of the Liberty Bell behind Palin?

- John S. McCain?  I have a question…why does Palin always throw in the “S.”  I mean, it’s not important, but just weird.

- Palin: A year ago the experts counted McCain out.  Too bad you apparently did too, considering that you didn’t support him.

- I normally wouldn’t mind a speech by the VP nominee focused on the top of the ticket, but in this case, considering that Palin has made basically zero statements on foreign policy, it would be nice to actually hear about Palin herself, and not her personal story.

- And what does she do? She goes into her personal story.  Not that that’s unexpected, but I hope she gives something more than just that.

- Someone said her speech was scheduled for 10 minutes.  If that’s true, she’s running out of time fast.

- Ah yes, Todd, the oil worker who sits in on state energy meetings and is a proud ex-member of an Alaska secessionist party.

- I try not to dwell on this too much, because it’s not particularly relevant, but she speaks a lot like a chipper cheerleader, which doesn’t exactly give her a bunch of credibility in my opinion.

- The PTA! The ultimate experience to be President!

- Did she just say that she was a pig with lipstick on it?

- Palin about to describe what being a mayor of a town of 8,000 people involves:

• Kind of like a community organizer except “you have actual responsibilites”
• Takes a shot at “bitter” and “clinging to their religion and guns.”
• Oooh! San Francisco liberalism! Scary!

- Palin: if you’re not from Washington, media considers you unqualified.  No, that’s not what they’re saying at all. They’re saying that being mayor of a town of 8,000 and Governor for 18 months, no matter of what state, is piss poor experience to be Vice President.

- “I’m not going to Washington to seek the media’s good attention.”  Then why is your and McCain’s campaign pitching a hissy fit because the media is criticizing you?

- Palin: The right reason to go to Washington is to “challenge the status quo.”  Umm, isn’t McCain basically the status quo?

- Palin: I stood up to the “good ole boys.”  Like Ted Stevens?  Even though you chair his PAC?

-Amazing, she actually did sell the jet on ebay.

- Palin: The Veto pen works, and I cut wasteful spending.  Like spending on state troopers and support for unwed mothers.

- Palin lies about the bridge to nowhere again.

- Palin brags about the gas pipeline which construction was outsourced to Canada.

- Oh yeah, Palin brags about resisting earmarks, even though she brought in $27 million in earmarks as mayor, including many that McCain slammed, enough to give every citizen of the town $4,000.

- We need to produce oil here so we can mitigate against Venezuela or Saudi Arabia cutting off oil, even though we have nowhere near enough oil to make up for it if that happens.

- I love how non-fossil fuels are always at least 4th or 5th on the list when it comes to ways to solve our energy crisis.

- Palin lies about Obama “never authoring a major law.”

- Palin the Alaskan celebrity blasts Obama for being a celebrity.

- Taxes! Big Government! Scary!

- Palin giving a carbon copy of McCain foreign policy talking points.

- The GOP celebrating crushing the Constitution.

- Palin lies about Obama’s tax plan.  That’s at least 3 definitive lies.

- Palin: There are those who use change to promote their careers, and there are those who use their careers to promote change.  I don’t really think McCain is the latter, considering his 90% voting record with Bush.

- Palin: Lobbiests hate McCain! Except his campaign is filled to the brim with them!

- Palin: McCain isn’t looking for a fight.  Ask Russia about that.

- Palin: Obama has never fought for you.  Yeah, fuck you too.

- POW!

- Well, Palin seems somewhat adept at Talking the Talk.  But can she Walk the Walk?

- John Us Republicans to help reform Washington whom the Republicans have trashed!

Well, other the typical boogeymen over taxes and terrorist, her speech was basically one big cheap shot.

I should also note that, while she showed competence in memorizing McCain talking points on national security issues, she did exactly 0 in showing that she has actual knowledge of those issues.

Actually, I should correct. She didn’t even have to memorize them.  All she had to do was read the talking points off the teleprompter.

Rudy “Noun, Verb, 9/11″ Giuliani up Next

- Giuliani takes his turn wacking the media.  The GOP’s second favorite past time (besides wacking evil liberals)

- Giuliani: If you’re hiring someone to protect your family, are you going to choose the man who “has passed every test and is a true American hero,” or….we’ll here the second half later, but I have a good guess what it will consist of.

- POW!

- The other choice: “a gifted man, with an Ivy education”  Classy, the crowd laughs at Obama being a community organizer.  Ohh! scary “Chicago machine politics.”  Giuliani brings up the bogus argument about Obama’s present votes.

- Oh yeah, Giuliani is a good person to accuse Obama of being a celebrity.

- “He is the least experienced candidate for President in the last 100 years.”  That should be easy to check.

- They like saying Obama has lead nothing.  And McCain has lead…what?

- “This is no time for on the job training.” I wouldn’t be saying that with Palin on your ticket.

- Giuliani brings up Biden and Clinton saying that Obama being experienced “until they flip-flopped.”  Like no one in the Republican party has flip-flopped on their claims about McCain.

- The one thing Giuliani is missing in his “job application” analogy: one of the people works for a company who has utterly failed at their job for 8 years.

- Giuliani: Obama is for change…bad change.  “Change is not a destination, just like hope is not a strategy.”

- Guliani: McCain will lead us to energy independence. (except McCain has almost always opposed anything that would actually get us off of foreign oil.)

- Taxes! Scary! Tariffs!

- Terrorism!  He hasn’t said “9/11″ yet though.

- Giuliani: Who would democrats insult if they said “islamic terrorists”  Giuliani says they would be insulting terrorists.

- 9/11!

- Continuing on my last point…I know Democrats talked about terrorism, so Giuliani is complaining about terminolgy basically.

- Giuliani: Democrats gave up on America and declared that we lost to bin laden.  fuck you Giuliani.

- I should note that Al qaeda is nearly irrelevant in Iraq.

- Now Guiliani is talking about Obama’s flip-flops.  Obama should have fun pointing out McCain’s flip-flops.  And I find it highly ironic that the crowed booed over the FISA bill.

- Giuliani celebrating the fact that McCain would basically take us to war with Russia over Georgia.

- John McCain “looked towards the future” with Palin.  Too bad McCain isn’t the future himself.

- Giuliani attacks Obama on his “clinging to religion” remark in regards to Wassila.

- Giuliani: Palin became more experienced that Obama and Biden on her first day on the job as mayor.  That right there should discredit everything else he says.

- Giuliani: Palin took on corruption in the Republican Party.  I guess that’s why she heads Ted Steven’s PAC.

- Giuliani attacks Democrats over attacks that they never made via whether Palin has enough time to spend with her children.  I guess they’re diving into the sexism card now too.

- And Giuliani is done in probably the most despicable and dishonest speech I have ever heard in my life.

Governor of Hawaii: Flying while in Labor is “being tough”

That’s right.  Flying while in labor isn’t endagering your baby, it’s “being tough”

Another funny:

“Some people have dimished Palin’s service as mayor since Wasilla only has 10,000 people.”

Actually, it’s not even that big.

“That’s the same size as many towns around this country.”

John McCain: singlehandedly declaring thousands of people automatically qualified to be Vice President.

“People said that I was too inexperienced to be Governor of Hawaii”

Governor of Hawaii ain’t President or Vice President of the United States.

“Obama and Biden have zero executive experience”

Guess what, neither does McCain!

“Obama hasn’t been chief executive of anything”

I guess his campaign doesn’t count?  And since when is executive experience the ultimate experience, trumping even decades in the Senate?

God these people are desperate.  Alaska has the same number of electoral votes as Delaware, and Alaska is way bigger than Delaware, therefore Palin is way more qualified than Biden!

You can’t make this shit up.

- I should remind people that Rove criticized Kaine as inexperienced for being governor for twice as long as Palin of a state with 12 times the population of Alaska, and was mayor of a city over 20 times as big as Wasilla.

The Huckster is up

- This will probably be the best delivered speech of the night

- Huckabee “congratulates” the “elite media” for “uniting” “American and the Republican party” behind McCain and Palin.  Sure, whatever.  At least we know the top two themes of tonight: Obama will tax you to death, and the liberal media is evil.  Nothing like the oldest two GOP standbys to distract from everything else.

- OK Huckabee, even you are above lame Madonna jokes.

- Huckabee: Obama’s campaign is symbolic, but the Presidency is not a symbolic job.

- $4.00 gas? Bad economy? Home foreclosures? Republicans are the answer! (even though they’ve been in power for the past 8 years and caused most of it)

- Huckabee blasts Obama’s Europe speech and is “concerned” that Obama brought back “European ideals” from his trip.  Please.

- Lincoln!

- Huckabee: I’m tired of hearing the Democrats talking about they are about the regular folk, as if the GOP doesn’t.  Yeah, and I’m tired of being accused of wanting to tax people to death, supporing infanticide, and not caring if terrorists blow up New York City.

- Huckabee: I’m a republican because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.

- Huckabee slams Obama on “inflating your tires”

- Abortion!

- Gay Marriage!

- Lamest experience argument yet: Palin got more votes for mayor of Wasilla than Biden got for President.  Except he did.

- POW!

- Huckabee’s “school desk” story sounds so fake.  Maybe it’s true, but the part about “the media was out there with their cameras” should make it easy to verify.

- Huckabee: “John McCain helped me earn a school desk.”

- And he’s done. Personally, a speech not very befitting of him.

Late Update

I thought I should be sure to come back and report that Huckabee’s desk story is, for the most part, true.

Mitt “Who Let The Dogs Out” Romney is On

- Romney doesn’t waste time attacking the “eastern elites” and the media (and getting his tongue tied too).

- Romney is actually arguing that the Supreme Court is liberal.  That right there should discredit the rest of his speech.

- Romney: Liberals think we have the biggest and strongest economy in the world because of our government.  I’m not sure where he get his sources about what liberals believe, but it’s wrong.

- Romney: We have opportunities when our constitutional rights are preserved.  oops, too late.

- Romney: Democrats want to grow the number of people who pay no taxes at all.  Um, are you sure you want to make that argument?

- I should remind Romney that Republicans also control the Presidency and effectively half of Congress, and Democrats have only controlled the other half for 2 of Bush’s 8 years.  But of course it’s the Democrat’s fault that everything is wrong.

- Romney: did you hear any democrats talk about the threat from radical Muslim jihadists.  Um, yes I did actually.  Perhaps not in those exact terms, but yes.

- Romney likes his evil extremists

- Romney takes a not-so-veiled shot at Michella Obama: “there was never a day I was not proud to be an American.”

- And Romney is done with his speech filled with the typical, and old, littny of fake liberal caricatures.

- And the song following up Romney talks about “going through Hell.”  I think they should rethink their music programming.

Palin files ethics complaint…against herself

I’m guessing they’d spin this as her being a mavricky maverick.  She fights corruption, even if the corrupt person is herself!:

Gov. Sarah Palin wants a state board to review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan — taking the unusual step of making an ethics complaint against herself.

Her lawyer sent an “ethics disclosure” Monday night to Attorney General Talis Colberg. The governor asked that it go to the three-person Personnel Board as a complaint.

Ok, you know you’ve jumped the shark when you try to get out of an investigation by filing an ethics complaint about yourself so you can move the investigation to a board which just so happens to include a bunch of people you appointed.

I mean, seriously, Governor Palin, you’re not fooling anyone.  In fact, I think she’s well aware that she’s not fooling anyone, and yet is blatantly trying to twist the system to get out of trouble, despite running on a platform of anti-corruption and change.  It’s so patently transparent, I’m almost at a loss for words.

At least, once again, the legislature is still holding firm.

Oops

Why don’t you tell us what you really think:

I’m just wondering how they left the mic open that long, or was this some special feed someone had where they didn’t get ads?

Preacher on TV

Just listening to the MSNBC web feed.

Apparently the conclusion one preacher has while on there is this:

Black preacher going way over the top in saying racism still exists in America = bad

White preacher talking about terrorist attacks on Israel being punishment for being “unbelievers” = A-OK!

Also, apparently Palin’s church has taken down all the videos of their sermons.  I hope someone saved them all beforehand.

P.S.: I like how attacking Palin’s church for being uber-radical is being anti-Christian, but attacking Obama’s old church for being uber-radical is just fine too.

Semi-Germane Update

The Palin coverage in the news would be a lot better if news people didn’t actually make asses of themselves while talking about it.

Memo to press: Any talk about whether Palin can be Vice President and have five kids (this is the first time I’ve really seen anyone actually try to argue that point) is stupid, pointless, and irrevlant, not to mention opens the press up to sexist attacks which takes credibility away from all the actual real scandals you could be talking about.

The Sarah Palin Digest

Think Progress has put together all the stuff we know about Sarah Palin, and it ain’t pretty.  Definitely check it out.