Yikes.

Getting a little... interesting, as Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own when his pitcher loaded the bases. (If you don't know the line, interesting = bad. I don't want an interesting election, I want a boring one where the outcome is known months in advance.)

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (99)
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At Mark Levin's.

Here's an email I wrote to someone on the night of the first interview:

One thing that independents like most about mccain -- including me, too, actually -- is his line that as a fighter, he has seen the horrors of war and knows how terrible it is. And that he will therefore not go lightly into it.

Palin came across-- I'm telling you -- as rather blithe about these risks. That is NOT what the country wants. SHit, that's not even what I want, and I'm more pro-war than most.

Answers like this must be couched in terms of her recognizing how horrible war is, and how terrible a new cold war would be, etc., and she has no desire to go down that path, AND, as a child of a soon-to-be soldier she shares the worries of many american mothers, BUT...

She needs that preamble, dude. She cannot blithely speak of war with Russia. People will not take that as authentic or strong, but as glib about something one cannot be glib about.

...

But seriously, she can't speak of war so lightly.

Well, the thing is, if you read the transcript, she actually did say all of that stuff. They just cut it out.

I guess the lesson that has to be learned is Always pack the caveat into any forward-leaning statement so they can't cut it out and make you sound like a warmonger.

Part of the reason I give Palin a break on a lot of this is that she has juggle a lot of balls simultaneously:

1) She has to learn all this stuff quickly. Quick, how much do you really know about federal health care policy? I bet not a lot. Well, Palin has to master all this stuff in a short period of time.

2) She can't even express her own opinion on this stuff. Sometimes she can. But most often she has to view a question through two filters: What she herself believes and what the McCain position is (which is the position she ultimately must either adopt or at least defend).

3) She has to then be guarded about committing McCain to some position.

4) She has to watch out for the gotchas and soundbites that can be edited to make her sound bad.

That's a lot to think about every time a question is asked.

The Anchoress has a truly awesome comparison of the softball Gibson tossed to Barack Obama vs. the hardballs thrown at Palin.

That kind of tells you what you need to know -- Gibson didn't even trust Obama enough to handle difficult questions. He knew he'd wilt, so he skipped them.

More good stuff at Hot Air.

Question: Preamble first. The knock on the Democrats, especially the Peace Lily Obama, is that they're not tough enough on national security.

The knock on Republicans, especially Bomb-Bomb Iran McCain, is that he's too belligerent.

So the question: If Barack Obama answered on Iran (as he always does) that he will pursue all diplomatic means of preventing them from getting the bomb, and then added "But I will not take the military option off the table," would ABCNews or any other MSM outfit have edited out the latter statement, which "saves" his relentless peace-mongering by offering the nuance of an openness to the use of force in the right situation?

Of course not. They would never have chopped his answer up to play into stereotypes about Democratic weakness on national security.

So why is ABCNews so eager to cut the soft-power nuance out of Palin's answer on Russia?

Posted by: Ace at 11:02 AM | Comments (53)
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Rhandhi Rhodhes claims Palin sleeps with teenage boys.

At this point she's been accused of sex with everyone but her husband.

Allow me to rhemindh Miss Rhodhes: Apparently it doesn't interfere with her job performance. She can compartmentalize her executive duties from her teenage boy activities. This is an issue between her and Cub Scout Troop 47. I'm sure when she was having sex with the entire cast of The Goonies (including Chunk) she was defending the Constitution.

You, Madame, are a Goof.

Remember how the press was oh-so-vigilant about debunking rumors from the "Hateful Right" about Clinton? For example, documenting the viral emails about the "Clinton Murder List" and calling all those who traded in such rumors insane and ignorant?

How about their two year running project of reassuring us that Barack Obama was never a Muslim (despite a document from his school, filled out by his father, listing his religion as "Islam")? How sternly they rebuke anyone who suggests something along these lines.

I seem to have remember a lot of articles about "hate radio." Hate radio. Is it only hate when its directed at Democrats?

Hey, MSM: Maybe it's time to discuss the hatred on the hyperpartisan left, huh? And examine their pathologies as you once did those of the "hateful right"?

But of course the MSM can't; they share the same pathologies. This crap doesn't strike them as crazy. It strikes them as 1) possible or 2) idiotic, but useful to have lots of people believing, so let's let the lies lay, eh? more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:07 AM | Comments (80)
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In Delhi. Fifteen killed, about eighty injured.

The Indian Mujahedeen, which also said it was responsible for a string of five bomb attacks in July in the commercial city of Ahmedabad that killed at least 45 people, made the claim in an e-mail, the Press Trust of India said.

India's television network NDTV quoted the email as saying, "In the name of Allah, the Indian Mujahedeen has struck back again."

Cinema halls, religious places, goverment offices and markets have been closed as a precaution.

The cause of the explosions is not yet known.

Emphasis added by me, derisive snort added by you.

Hey, know what would be very illuminating?

If our candidates for POTUS were each asked how they believe the Indian government should tackle this problem.

Oh, and Obama answers first.

As Hillary supporters well know, the guy has a bad habit of cribbing.

Posted by: LauraW at 08:54 AM | Comments (37)
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I think he's dead, but let's get Zawahiri.

NPR has learned that the raid by helicopter-borne U.S. Special Operations forces in Pakistan last week was not an isolated incident but part of a three-phase plan, approved by President Bush, to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership.

The plan calls for a much more aggressive military campaign, said one source, familiar with the presidential order, which gives the green light for the military to take part in the operations. The plan represents an 11th-hour effort to hammer al-Qaida until the Bush administration leaves office, two government officials told NPR.

"Definitely, the gloves have come off," said a source who has been briefed on the plan. "This was only Phase 1 of three phases."

Pentagon and White House officials have declined to discuss the new plan.

The intelligence community already had approval from the president to carry out operations inside Pakistan, which included attacks by Predator drones, which can carry 100-pound Hellfire missiles.

Additional authority came from the president just recently that allowed incursions by U.S. Special Operations forces, the source said.

Posted by: Ace at 10:32 PM | Comments (60)
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John Fund is giving a creditable performance.

But he's not the star.

Bill Maher and Jeneane Garofalo are.

The studio is quiet. Not as quiet as a funeral, but say as quiet as a hospital waiting area.

In the quiet spaces, you can just barely hear Jeneane Garofalo's heart breaking, and Bill Maher stamping his elevator boots under the table.

This is more thrilling than the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars.

Clips here.

Picture via Retired Geezer/Man of Substance/The Only Important One on That Blog.

Posted by: Ace at 10:29 PM | Comments (131)
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Not good news for Obie. He's gonna have to spend some heavy jack in a state he thought was locked up. Looks like Obie is going south on the "economy" aspect which had been a winner for him. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:20 PM | Comments (112)
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Karl Rove finally caught up with him and fed him his lines.

Posted by: Ace at 06:22 PM | Comments (55)
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She's obviously comfortable here.

But as Allah notes, the no-exceptions-for-rape-and-incest thing will spook some people. Yes, it's a principled position, and she has the courage of her convictions, but a lot of people who are sort of in the middle on the issue are going to balk at the idea of forcing a raped woman to carry her rapist's child to term.

Yes, the baby is innocent. But so is the woman.

I don't think this is going to damage her much. But it is going to turn off some independentish women.

Some of the Other Questions... 70% of the country favors a ban on "semiautomatic assault weapons," Charlie?

Well, if I didn't know anything about guns and heard that phrase I might be for a ban too. It sounds scary.

It's a made-up term, Charlie. Invented to scare people. There has never been a gun called "semiautomatic assault weapon" until liberal Democrats focus-grouped what words they could make up to sound scary. It has no meaning, except in its strange definition in the actual Assault Weapons Bill.

Compare: For those who think Sarah Palin's answers often sound canned -- as I do, actually -- a bit of perspective.

Canned, evasive answers from Barack Obama, including endless tap-dancing on whether or not the surge succeeded.

Does Obama sound more comfortable? He should. He's been mouthing this gibberish for months, with lots of different chances to try out new ways to avoid saying the obvious. He has the memory of twenty or thirty variations on this balderdash to play with, mix and match 'em, make it sound fresh.

Hey, give Palin time. I'm sure she'll prove as capable of mouthing smooth nonsense as The One, if she needs to.

Posted by: Ace at 05:04 PM | Comments (150)
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Vanderleun hits one outta the park here. Go read it all.

The monsters from the id that now control the Democrat Party have transformed that party into a mob of undead extras from The Dawn of the Dead. It's an indecent and disgusting spectacle and I suspect there's more than a few million long-time Democrats who are revolted by it. That certainly seems to be creeping into the polls. No matter the good it once did, the Democrats today present as sick and crazed political party that is so greedy and hungry for power that it will do anything, including selling its country down the drain, to get it back.

Regardless of the race of the Democrats' selected nominee, Martin Luther King's dream of judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin has been transformed into a tawdry thing; a dried husk in which they wrap their skeletal remains, a hollow phrase spewed by the ascendent race hustlers of the party and lapped up by their acolytes.

Until 2004, with the exception of Guiliani's second term as mayor, I voted the Democrat ticket in every election since 1967. In 2004, offered the Insane Clown Posse of John Kerry and John Edwards, I voted for George Bush. The spectacle of the last four years of various Democrats reaching for the gold ring did not inspire me to change my view. Only the dead enjoy parties in a crypt. Not even Roman columns improve the Charnal house atmosphere that fumes through the party today...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:48 PM | Comments (55)
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