CNN Blinks and Fawns Over Palin - Pundit Live Blog Mishmash

I only had to watch about 5 minutes of post-speech coverage to see that yes, CNN has blinked. They have bent over for McCain AGAIN, and seem to be backing off Palin's numerous, and I mean NUMEROUS scandals.

The speech was light on the economy, and national security policy, but full of down to earth, real person rhetoric, which the stadium audience ate right up, and the so-called experts are now also scooping up heartily.

Ahahaha, Alex Castellanos just said that Palin is essentially the lead character in an 'Annette Benning movie', where the 'woman fights the good ol' boys network, wins, marries Michael Douglas, falls in love and lives happily ever after'. Castellanos is a longtime street fighter Republican, and this is how he, and the majority of his party see a pivotal woman's story playing out on the largest stage possible. This is the kind of respect that anybody but the rich and the pedigreed receive with this party. Anything else is pandering. Remember that.

Campbell Brown seems to have been put in her place as well, stating more than once how fantastic the speech was after nailing Palin's record to the wall yesterday. Wolf Blitzer, the man of the all-mighty beard, called the speech not only a home run, but a grand slam. John King, as always, is doing his best to not seem a strong partisan Republican, which, as always, is not going well. He even pulled out the Magic Screen to illustrate how many states George Bush won in the last election, as if that map has any bearing on this game-changer of an election.

Roland Martin is sllllllaming Palin right now for criticizing community organizers, saying they are the people who fight on the streets, and for people, and it should be a major talking point for Obama and Biden going forward. I agree, it could be huge, as those same organizers have great influence over generating people to go to that voter booth and cast a ballot. Who is that ballot going to be for, the campaign that mocked, or the campaign as essentially came from its roots? Nice, simple equation there.

Jeffery Toobin is making a point that I thought of during the speech as well, that Palin came off smug and sarcastic for a large chunk, kind of ruining her sweet hockey mom image.

He also cited the lie about her opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere, the lie about Barack Obama raising taxes, when taxes will fall for, he said 80%, Obama says 98%, of the middle class and the only increases will be for people making over $250k a year.

Lastly, making the most of his two minutes on the air, he said how Sarah Palin has in a sense lost the innocence around her, that she showed that she's a tough fighter tonight, and the Obama campaign will be less hesitant in the future to go after her. I like the fact that she came out that way, as absolutely no one likes to see a major leader be soft and weak in the face of pressure, but she, and McCain sure as hell better not cry smear campaign or character assassination or sexism any more. No one that goes out there and delivers a speech like that can ever again be portrayed as weak, or a victim, implicitly or not, ever again.

This thought made its way around the round table and seemed to get everyone's acquiescence. Excellent, no more sexism, Palin-is-the-victim memes. Well, at least for right now, I'm sure they'll be back in full force whenever they are on the defensive again, like say tomorrow, when the next scandal breaks loose about Alaskan independence, or women's rights, reproductive, contraceptive, or educational. She has a checkered past and no policy stands to speak of, and that will be an issue, speech or no speech.

Oops, Dana Bash just slipped and said "we", when referring to Republicans. Smooth, and clearly shows how independent her journalism is, if her words and actions didn't show that enough.

Wow, in a shocking act of actual journalism, Blitzer is stating McCain doesn't have executive experience, and has been part of the 'Washington establishment' for more than the last 25 years. Castellanos blew it off by again hitting the POW theme (Good lord, can that be referenced again, I think I forgot what happened) and it then was passed over, but still, nice to actually see some honesty flowing around.

Christ, Campbell Brown has pulled a complete 180, now defending Palin, on sexist grounds, against a statement by Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader for issuing a statement saying that 'shrill, partisan attacks do not change the fact that McCain-Palin is four more years of failed Bush Cheney policies. Wow, Dana Bash agrees, there's a surprise. Nice how a few minutes after saying Palin will be attacked now, saying she opened that door, the first attack that rolls off the wire after the speech is ripped to shreds, portraying Palin as a victim of sexism.

That's it, that's all, I'm done with CNN for the night. Republicans give me a headache, and watching Guiliani go two minutes without referencing 9/11 was almost enough to shock me into a seizure even before the mind-numbing right-wingness of Sarah Palin barracuda'ed (Heh) onto the stage. Twenty minutes of praise for the campaign that embarrassed the network and made them all look like shit not even 24 hours ago is enough to make me flick off for the night.

Live Blogging the Palin VP Acceptance Speech

She's kept it pretty 'down home' so far, talking about humble roots, her family, her husband, introducing her and her family to the world, as most know literally nothing about her.

She just dropped what is honestly a very good dig at Obama, explaining that being the mayor of a small town is 'like a community organizer, with actual responsibilities' Snap!

She's now bringing up the 'bitter' comment, which Guiliani did too. She's painting Obama as an elitist, and McCain as a straight talking good guy. She just made a comment about how John McCain is 'the same person wherever he goes'. I wonder if she knows about McCain's switching out of the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers in his POW story of the mental trick he used during interrogations based on whatever state he's in at the time?

There seems to be an image behind Palin now of a fiery explosion. Nice symbolism guys. No need to tie her to y'know, a bomb or anything, as it's not like she's fighting the image of being a bomb as a candidate...

Now she's saying she opposed earmarks and pork. Weird how Alaska ranks first in earmark money and Palin was cited by McCain at least 3 times in her term for unnecessary earmark diversion to her state. Let's also toss her connection to Jack Abramoff into the mix, as we seem to be on an anti-Washington establishment theme here. Real true reformers here guys and girls.

Oh, and she just repeated her 'thanks but no thanks' lie about the infamous 'Bridge to Nowhere', which she campaigned upon in her election as Governor, fought for, then kept money intended for the bridge after Washington killed it. Now though, it went down with her rejecting federal funds. Well, about that little nugget of a lie Sarah, thanks but no thanks.

She's actually discussing policy now, instead of taking shots and giving a bio, saying that the Alaskan oil pipeline will essentially solve America's foreign oil dependency. Yea, maybe after drilling in the pristine Alaskan National Wildlife Preserve, which she supports fully, by the way.

Geez, again they are going after Obama for 'not having a record' when he's spearheaded dozens of bills fighting against nuclear proliferation, government transparency and other major issues, going across the aisle to do so. Message to Republicans, stop beating this dead horse, it's just going to backfire.

Now apparently Obama again lacks specifics, even though he went line by line through his plan last Thursday in front of 75,000 in person and almost 40 million at home, listing off exactly how his policies will be laid out and paid for, and exactly who they will benefit. But I guess facts and statements aren't really applicable, this is the RNC after all.

She's also hitting a Libertarian kind of theme (Or maybe it's that Alaskan Independence streak, who knows), saying that more controls will be coming from Washington under an Obama Administration. Yes, that is true, and I must ask Gov. Palin, has the deregulation and 'freedom' of the past 8 years has really worked out all that well?

Here comes the 'hard facts' on Obama as a tax raiser. This is in spite of the fact that 98% of families will be getting tax cuts under his tax plan, and only the richest would see an increase. 'Hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes' under Obama she says. Well, when the top two percent control that much, then yea, it could be a number like that. But lets keep letting the gap between rich and poor grow larger, that's definitely a better idea Sarah.

I must say though, she seems very comfortable up there, very smooth, doesn't seem nervous, and is very down to earth. I know that's what they're trying to push, and I know she didn't actually write the speech, but she sure is reading it well. Almost like someone who used to be a sportscaster (Oh wait, that was what she studied in college, wasn't it?).

This is quite a hard-hitting speech though, and she is delivering it well. This is very much what Palin needed to do tonight, which was essentially her first platform as a national politician.

She just mentioned McCain was a POW for about the 27th time as well. She's basically saying McCain should be President almost as a reward (!) for being a POW. Apparently his POW experience also counts as foreign policy cred now too (Well if being geographically close to Alaska counts, I suppose this could too). Never mind of course McCain's POW colleague Phillip Butler said McCain should actually be disqualified from running because of the physical and mental strain of his POW days. McCain's judgment because of his POW status counts...not this guy.

The speech is over, she ended with another McCain is a POW mention. Shocking. The whole Palin family, secessionists and baby-mommas in a row, are now on stage, and Palin is holding her son Trig, in a nice family moment.

Johnny Mac is on stage now, saying only a few words, thanking Palin and saying he is sure he made the right choice.

They're switching over to the pundits now, and I'm interested to see if they will heed to McCain's criticism earlier today about their supposed 'smear campaign' (read: truthful journalism) about Sarah Palin. Will they fawn, or will they break it down honestly?

We'll see, and I'll try to be back for an end of the night recap later.

It was about as good as the Republicans and Palin could have hoped for, as she hit all the points, introduced herself well, and slammed Obama in a few new and interesting ways. Interesting night, we'll see how it plays out in the news and the polls.

I was just about to publish and realized that I need to add something else.

CNN is bullshit. Plain and simple. They never once broadcast the closing pledge of allegiance and national anthem during the DNC, and yet here it gets full coverage. Who comes off as more patriotic of the parties then? Nice and classy, as CNN always is. Oh and now, they're keeping the main feed on the stage for 'Raising McCain', a pro-McCain country song performed by John Rich. Real objective guys, thanks for showing your true stripes.

CNN's Bill Schneider : Obama Too 'Exotic' For Kentucky Voters

He just said this live on the air, in between shiny clips of Hillary's 'victory' speech on the night Obama clinched a majority of delegates.

This is now the second primary in a row where I've watched CNN and been utterly appalled by what I heard said on the air. Last time it was the alleged fraud and 'old school Chicago Style Politics' when a county close to Illinois posted their results a few hours late.

Now it is an outright slur right on Live TV.

Obama is too exotic? I turned to my partner and went, 'did he just say that?' and we both kind of sat there stunned while Wolf Blitzer segued onto the next spot.

I've come to expect the worst from most news networks, especially CNN, but I thought we could maybe keep this to some biased issues and language. But nope, we're going to move right to the GOP's under the radar message this fall, that Obama doesn't fit into the 'values' of everyday people, that he is an elitist, exotic and extreme liberal.

I really should stop watching the results on CNN, I know this, but I think that magic screen that John King plays with is hypnotic...

Cross Posted on Daily Kos Under the Name 'Red Star'

Desperate Times...

As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, and Hillary Clinton is in those times, and taking those sorts of measures.

She held a press conference this morning roasting a campaign mailing from Barack Obama , saying it contained 'lies' about her positions on NAFTA and a portion of her Healthcare plan. She compared Obama to Karl Rove, of all people, and said he, not her, was playing the dirty politics of the past, and betraying his message of positive hope and change.

Isn't this the same woman that accused Mr. Obama of plagiarism last week, trying to drag him through the muck before the all-important March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas?

Baseless plagiarism charges aside, the first basic problem Hillary has seems to be that the flyer states she supported NAFTA when it was signed in the early 90s, but doesn't now. This is completely true, as Hillary was a whole-hearted supporter when she was First Lady. She says now that NAFTA needs to be reformed, and as a Canadian, I couldn't agree more. The middle class, blue-collar workers especially, have been getting ripped by this treaty for around two decades, and I think it needs a serious revisiting. But back in the 90s, Hillary wasn't running for President, with blue-collars as her core base. She sure is now though, and now that she needs that support, NAFTA is evil. Sure wish she had felt that way in the first place.

Second is that Clinton says her Healthcare plan is being misrepresented. It has to deal with the fact that her plan forces people to pay for insurance even if they can't afford it, and will garnishee wages should the insurance not be bought out of free will. This, also, is true, and something Hillary Clinton nodded along with just this past Thursday, during the Democratic debate. I don't think penalizing people for not having the financial security is the right way to go, and falls along the same lines as the 'No Child Left Behind' program, where schools are fined and punished for not having test scores high enough. You don't penalize to make the situation better, you step in and make the situation better so you don't have to penalize in the first place, which is what

Barack is doing by attacking the prices of insurance so it is more affordable for regular people. He states that the problem is not that people don't want to have insurance; it’s that they can't afford it, and if it is more affordable, people will cover themselves adequately.

I am completely for universal healthcare, and as a Canadian, I do see it as an inalienable right, but it has to be a slow progression, and they can't just implement a Canadian-style system one day out of the blue. I think Obama's plan gets to the core issue, and Hillary's is pointed towards saying that everyone has coverage, even if it makes life harder on the average American to do so.

My own opinions aside, I have enclosed a link here to a video of the speech Hillary made this morning, so everyone can see what desperate measures in desperate times really look like.

You may have to watch a short ad first, and the video is about a minute and a half.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/23/clinton.mailings/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

McCain takes Delaware, big results up soon

John McCain has won the winner-take all contest in Delaware, with Mitt Romney finishing second, and Huckabee third, CNN is reporting. McCain appears to be pulling away, with Romney only pulling Massachusetts, Huckabee with West Virginia, and McCain with all the rest. His delegates and momentum are growing, and Romney may not be able to keep up.

Also, within 15 mins, large states on the east coast, such as new York, will be closing their polls.

Results on those as soon as they happen.