Republican Convention Speeches: Thompson and Lieberman

We’ll start with Fred Thompson’s speech:

The transcript can be found here.

My reaction: I actually enjoyed listening to this speech. Ironically, one of my liberal friends told me the same thing.

For the most part, Thompson gave a rather graphic account of what McCain had to endure as a prisoner of war. That part was well worth listening to.

He also gave some standard “conservative cultural references” and, yeah, I found myself chuckling a bit at some of these.

I’ll respond to a few of his lines here:

Let’s be clear … the selection of Gov. Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic.

Uh, no…actually, some of us fear that she will be pulled from the ticket. It is people like Dick Morris that are trying to rally people behind her nomination.

People like Peggy Noonan are saying that this is a terrible pick.

Frankly Sir, most on my side are delighted.

She has run a municipality [...]

Yep, a town of 7000. Obama has over 12,000 people working in his campaign; Palin maybe had 50 working for her when she was mayor.

Now, being a POW certainly doesn’t qualify anyone to be president.

Sir, I couldn’t agree with you more! Too bad that your side attacked General Clark when he said the same thing.

The Senate has always had more than its share of smooth talkers.

Like John F. Kennedy? Oh yes, we’ve had some not-so-smooth talkers in the Executive Branch, such as George W. Bush. How is that working out?

Of course, Redstate Update loved the speech:

Now to Joe Lieberman’s Speech

The transcript can be found here.

I could go on and on about Lieberman’s speech; let’s just say that

1. He is not a Democrat.

2. He found it necessary to bring up Michael Moore (who responded, by the way)

and

3. He gave the best line of the day:

What you can expect from John McCain as president is precisely what he has done this week:

EXACTLY. I couldn’t agree more. What we had was either a reckless, ill conceived decision made with almost no forethought, or a complete cave in to the extremists in his party. In short, the McCain campaign gave at most minimal vetting of Palin:

Here’s the opening paragraph of the article:

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday.

McCain did not sit down face to face with Palin (the Washpo article notes) until Thursday morning (though ABC says Thurs night):

McCain, himself did not speak face to face with Palin until, the next day, Thursday morning, at his retreat in Sedona, Ariz. He also talked to her by telephone the previous Sunday. McCain had spoken with all of the others on his shortlist over the course of a selection process that went on for several months, but he was least familiar personally with the person he finally chose.

This revelation actually doesn’t surprise me, because (as stated)the ABC article had revealed that McCain didn’t choose Palin until late Thursday night (probably after Obama spoke), compared to the Wednesday, or earlier in the week decision they claimed.

Amusingly, media outlets are vetting her, including the National Enquirer.

Another Incredible Allegation” — What The Enquirer Is Saying About Palin [Byron York]

Concerning the allegations in the new National Enquirer of an extramarital affair involving Sarah Palin, I called the tabloid this afternoon and asked for a copy of the new story. They obliged, and here is the portion of the story dealing with the alleged affair:

Another incredible allegation emerging from the family war is that Palin, a mother of five, had an affair with a former business associate of her fisherman husband, Todd.

“Todd discovered the affair and quickly dissolved his friendship and his business associations with the guy,” charges an enemy. “Many people in Alaska are talking about the rumor and say Todd swept it under the rug.”

And that’s it, as far as the affair is concerned. In the brief cover story, the Enquirer also says this:

The ugly family feud stems from a three-year battle between the 44-year-old governor and her former brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten.

“Sarah has many enemies in her hometown – but a lot of them are in her own extended family,” a source close to the Palin family told The Enquirer.

Family members loyal to Wooten are now waging a campaign to drag Palin’s reputation through the mud.

Yes, this is Posted at the National Review Online!

UPDATE: FactCheck.org says the following:

GOP Convention Spin
September 3, 2008
Lieberman and Thompson make misleading claims about Obama on Day Two of the party in St. Paul.
Summary
Joe Lieberman and his former Senate colleague Fred Thompson both made misleading claims about Obama in their prime time GOP convention speeches on Tuesday. We’ve heard two of them before – many times.

* Lieberman said Obama hadn’t “reached across party lines” to accomplish “anything significant,” though Obama has teamed with GOP Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Lugar to pass laws enhancing government transparency and curtailing the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons.

* Thompson repeated misleading claims about Obama’s tax program, saying it would bring “one of the largest tax increases in American history.” But as increases go, Obama’s package is hardly a history-maker. It would raise taxes for families with incomes above $250,000. Most people would see a cut.

* Lieberman also accused Obama of “voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield.” But Obama’s only vote against a war-funding bill came after Bush vetoed a version of the bill Obama had supported – and McCain urged the veto.

Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed on our Web site

Sam Harris Hits it out of the Park!

Same Harris wrote an excellent article blasting McCain’s pick for VP:

As many people have noted, placing Palin on the ticket has made these final months of the already overlong 2008 campaign much more interesting. Is Palin remotely qualified to be president of the United States? No. But that’s precisely what is so interesting. McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don’t look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan!

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the “Who would you like to have a beer with?” poll question in 2004, and won reelection.

This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages – and loses – both necessary and unnecessary wars. [...]

What I’ve highlighted is the real crux of the matter. Barack Obama is smart (and he knows it); and that just burns many of the wingnuts. Example: check out the pitiful attempt by Michelle Malkin to attack Barack Obama with this little piece of artwork.

Snob? Why? For using higher than 3′rd grade diction?

But of course, Harris caught heat for speaking the truth. I’d expect the conservatives to attack, but, well, some of the attacks came from guess who?

Sam Harris then made an excellent reply, which I will reproduce in full:

I’ve received more than the usual amount of criticism for my recent opinion piece on Sarah Palin, most of it alleging sexism and/or an unseemly infatuation with Barack Obama. For those who care, I’d like to briefly respond:

My alleged sexism: It is true that I used some hackneyed, gender-slanted language in the piece (“get sassy,” “girl-next-door,” etc.). This was deliberate. Clearly, I played this game at my peril. I can say that if Sarah Palin were a man of similar qualifications, I would have used equally slanted language to describe him. I might have called Mr. Palin a “frat-boy” or a “lumberjack.” I would have invoked some silly macho phrasing like,”Watch Cousin Jim flip Putin the bird.” My concern is not that Mrs. Palin is a woman. My concern is that she is a totally unqualified and poorly educated woman who was added to the Republican ticket as a token woman (and Creationist wacko). For what it’s worth, the article was vetted by the two women closest to me (wife and mother) and by two female editors at the LA Times. If anything, the editing at the Times made the piece even more “sexist.”

My alleged Obamamania: Many McCain supporters have written to say that (1) Obama is also unqualified (or even less qualified than Palin) and (2) I have shown myself to be a hypocrite by not objecting to Obama’s religiosity. Briefly: My criticism of Palin should not be construed as uncritical acceptance of Obama. Needless to say, I find Obama’s religious pandering repulsive. The suspicion that he is pandering, out of obvious necessity, and not quite as religious as he makes out, is somewhat comforting, however. But even if Obama were precisely as religious as he appears, he is not a Creationist, Rapture-Ready blockhead. Palin, by all appearances, seems to be one. This is a difference worth noting. Whatever you may think of his politics, Obama is very intelligent and reasonably well educated. Palin thinks the universe is 6000 years old. Unfortunately, I wrote my article before some of the most disturbing signs of her religious extremism came to light.

So, let me simply declare that I would be overjoyed to have a qualified woman in the White House. I would, likewise, be overjoyed to have a qualified African American in the White House. In fact, I would be overjoyed to have a qualified WASP man in the White House. I will be guardedly optimistic to have a very smart (and somewhat qualified) Barack Obama in the White House. And I would be frankly terrified to have a religious bumpkin like Sarah Palin in the White House. I think you should share this last conviction. Hence my latest opinion piece.

Best,
Sam

BRAVO, Mr. Harris!

Note: I know that what Mr. Harris said would make for poor politics. And frankly, I’d be a lousy politician or campaign worker; that is why I limited my activities to scripted phone banking, scripted knocking on doors and to giving money.

Someone like myself would be poorly qualified to be an official part of a campaign (unless I strictly stuck to data analysis, number crunching, statistics, etc.)

On the other hand, Barack Obama isn’t like me.

That is one of the many reasons that I back him for President; if he were anything like me, I wouldn’t want him even near the White House, much less living in it.

Pool Follies part II

The Riverplex lap swimming pool was closed….AGAIN. Chemical problems, they told us.

But as bad as the Riverplex has been, Central Pool has been that good. Kudos to Sue Wheeler (the aquatics director).

They opened 30 minutes early and so I managed to get 3100 yards.

Workout notes 3100 yards; 500 easy (8:58), 5 x (25 drill, 75 free zoomers) on the 2,
1000 in 16:21 (4:04, 8:11, 12:15, so my splits were 4:04, 4:07, 4:04, 4:06). If that seems strange, there was someone who is just a bit faster than I doing 200’s two lanes over from me; so when he’d start up I’d pick up my pace.

This 1000 was the fastest since May, 2007 (16:17 with flip turns). I honestly think that I could be a month or two away from breaking 16 again.

Then 500 stroke, then 6 x 100 (alternating pull, free).

The group of master’s swimmers were back in the pool; I wish I were fast enough to train with them. Maybe someday, with more time and effort.

Republican Convention I’ll probably listen to some of the speeches on politicstv (a youtube channel); they are pretty good about getting the speeches up.

Of course, Thompson talked about McCain being a POW and Lieberman talked about how great it is to be a Republican. I hope that when the next session starts, he’ll enjoy his minority status.

To show you just how poor my political instincts are, I actually was worried about Fred Thompson. He seemed to have it all: Senator, telegenic, and did well (I thought) in the debates. But his campaign was one of the worst ones I have ever seen.

A Clear Contrast Between Obama and McCain

One of the ways the undecided voter can find out about the candidates is to examine for themselves how they ran their campaigns and made their choices.

So lets compare how the two campaigns chose their candidates.

Barack Obama. Here is a nice article on how he went about it:

Speculation surrounding Senator Barack Obama’s vice-presidential selection has often been set off by the comings and goings at a law firm on Pennsylvania Avenue here, where leading members of his vetting team are working.

The real vetting, though, is a labor born of shoe leather that has taken Democratic lawyers and researchers to a number of places across the country in a secretive quest to pore over each chapter in the lives of prospective running mates, all in the hunt for anything embarrassing, distracting or otherwise problematic.

One point of inquiry, for instance, is a batch of old legal files in Richmond, Va., where death penalty cases of a young civil rights lawyer named Tim Kaine are being reviewed. Mr. Kaine is now the governor of Virginia, but his work from two decades ago is suddenly a subject of at least some of the political detective work being conducted on a handful of Democrats.

Mr. Obama, who devoted several hours here on Monday and Tuesday to meeting with his vice-presidential vetting team, is increasingly turning his focus to selection of a running mate. The detailed vetting of possible choices like Mr. Kaine suggests that the effort is well along.

Yet Mr. Obama has not conducted formal sit-down interviews with candidates, aides say, and a decision is believed to be weeks away, not days. His aides say there is no particular rush: the campaign seems to be going well for him at the moment, and so he does not need the burst of attention and energy that typically accompanies the announcement of a vice-presidential choice.

For all the calculations about who would make a better running mate — a governor or a senator, someone with a military background or business experience, a native of a battleground state or a national name — the list of candidates for Mr. Obama is believed to be fairly small. Several aides placed it at fewer than five, though they acknowledged that they were not sure, given the secrecy ordered by Mr. Obama. [...]

For more, follow the link.

Here is a post by Robert Reich, who himself was vetted for a cabinet position in the Bill Clinton administration (he served as Secretary of Labor)

[...]
Sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton’s “vetting” team asked me and other prospective cabinet members for (1) our tax returns, going back at least five years, (2) our bank records, (3) a detailed listing of our assets, (4) the names and places of everywhere we had lived, and the names and phone numbers of neighbors whom they could call about us, (5) a description of every job we had ever had, every client we had ever served, and the names of employers and clients with whom they could check, (6) the names of our family members, their ages, their occupations (if any), (7) a description of any civil or criminal investigations or prosecutions in which we had been involved (8) and – perhaps most importantly – “anything we should ask you about, the answer to which might cause you or the administration any embarrassment.”

It didn’t stop there. Investigators checked our answers, interviewed our friends and neighbors and former employers, asked for more records if uncertain. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation did their own background checks. Staff members of the relevant congressional committees, representing both parties, looked over the files and added questions of their own.

It didn’t even stop there. I recall two large, three-ring black binders containing passages from books and articles I had written that might prove troubling to some of the Senators. My vetting team suggested I be prepared to answer questions about them. [...]

John McCain

Well, he did meet her in February, 2008 and did talk to her once after that. I’ll let a McCain supporter tell the story:

NEWSWEEK: What does it tell us about John McCain that he met Sarah Palin twice and offered her the job at the end of the first interview?
Lindsey Graham: I think the basic point here is–I underappreciated it a bit–is that John was committed to making a transforming choice. Pawlenty was by everyone’s estimation a safe choice, a solid choice. And if he would’ve been the pick we would’ve been talking about an accomplished governor of the state of Minnesota who stuck with John during difficult times and is a solid conservative. But Tim is Tim.

What do you mean by that?
He’s a guy. And at the end of the day John was looking at trying to do something different. Lieberman was one road you could go down. I thought that would be a transforming pick. It would be John telling the country that these are unique times and we’re all under siege. Everybody in America is threatened by this radical Islamic movement throughout the world. Joe understands it. Joe has been a great ally. I trust him. Party label don’t mean what they used to before the war. That’s one story.

You know Senator McCain well. Why did he pick Palin?
With her, I think John was drawn … and trust me, he’s been talking about her for quite awhile in bits and pieces. I think he met her back in February sometime at the governor’s conference and mentioned to me how impressed he was with her. If you know anything about John and the appropriators and the battles inside the body this makes perfect sense. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And it just wowed him beyond belief that she would take this group of people on. When you think about it, all the battles between him and Ted [Stevens, the Alaska senator under investigation for corruption] ... he saw in her a lot of himself. The closer we got to having to pick–and the problems you could see going one way versus going the other–I think he was comfortable that she was the right person to send the message he wanted to send.

Did he know enough about her record of reform to be assured? Or was it merely instinct?
I think he knew enough about her confrontations with powerful people in the state to feel like she’s the right persona for what I want to do. I don’t know if he knew any more about what Tim had done than what she had done. I don’t know if he knew any more about what Romney had done in Massachusetts than what she had done. At the end of the day, I think she was … I honest to God believe it was personal appreciation; chemistry, from the persona that she projects; and what she was willing to do to people in her own party and stand up to corruption. Now compare that to Joe Biden. I love Joe Biden. Everybody likes Joe Biden. But I would argue that he hasn’t tried to change the culture in Washington at all when it comes to how we spend money and the way we run the town. Joe Biden is as comfortable as he can be with the way the Congress is operating. We are not. [...]

Long hard, calculating analysis versus “going with one’s gut”.

My note: Palin ran one of Ted Stevens’ 527’s.

ST. PAUL — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state’s political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin’s name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

Palin’s relationship with Alaska’s senior senator may be one of the more complicated aspects of her new position as Sen. John McCain’s running mate; Stevens was indicted in July 2008 on seven counts of corruption.

Palin, an anti-corruption crusader in Alaska, had called on Stevens to be open about the issues behind the investigation. But she also held a joint news conference with him in July, before he was indicted, to make clear she had not abandoned him politically.

Stevens had been helpful to Palin during her run for governor, swooping in with a last moment endorsement. And the two filmed a campaign commercial together to highlight Stevens’s endorsement of Palin during the 2006 race.

Shortly after Palin was announced as McCain’s vice presidential pick, the ad was removed from her gubernatorial campaign web site. It remains available on YouTube

With Palin, we can see the results; Ari at the Edge of the American West has a nice, concise list that was complete (as of this afternoon; it is hard to keep up with the Palin scandals)

We’ve had 8 years of the latter.

If you approve of the way George W. Bush is running the country, then John McCain is your choice.

Humor:

Republican Irony.

1. McCain is now whining about sexism.

So it is with a little tinge of surprise and much more newsworthiness that the McCain campaign leveled charges of sexism today at Barack Obama for his treatment of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

In a comment sent out by the Arizona Republican’s aides, adviser Carly Fiorina said she was “appalled by the Obama campaign’s attempts to belittle Governor Sarah Palin’s experience. The facts are that Sarah Palin has made more executive decisions as a Mayor and Governor than Barack Obama has made in his life. Because of Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the Presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognize and decry sexism in all its forms. They will not tolerate sexist treatment of Governor Palin.”

Oh we’re sorry. I can see why being mayor of this town should count as “executive experience” (snicker)

This is Obama’s “sexist” response

Barack Obama Said That He Had More Executive Experience Because Of The Size Of His Campaign.

CNN’s ANDERSON COOPER: “And Senator Obama, my final question, some of your Republican critics have said you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state of Alaska. What’s your response?”

OBAMA: “Well, my understanding is that Governor Palin’s town of Wasilla has I think 50 employees. We’ve got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the last couple of years.”
(CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees,” 9/1/08)

Oh, you didn’t see the “sexism” either?

Then check out this huge whine:

But wait…according to the Republicans, WE are the whiners!

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — Phil Gramm excluded John McCain supporters from his description of Americans as “a nation of whiners,” the characterization that forced his exit from the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign in July.

“If you’re sitting here today, you’re not economically illiterate and you’re not a whiner, so I’m not worried about who you’re going to vote for,” the former Texas senator told attendees at a Financial Services Roundtable event in Minneapolis on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.

Gramm, 66, a vice chairman of UBS Securities LLC, stepped down as a co-chairman of the McCain campaign in July after telling the Washington Times that the U.S. is a “nation of whiners” facing a “mental recession.”

So America, it really is more of the same. The economic numbers in Gramm’s formulas look good, so what you are experiencing is not real.

(psst: maybe Gramm’s models aren’t valid for today’s economy??? nah.)

Oh yes, here is someone who knows something about economics: Paul Volcker. Yes, he was the famous inflation fighter under Ronald Reagan that drove inflation down. Ok, to be nit-picky, he was actually appointed by President Carter and admitted that he started the “painful at first” program while Carter was still President, but never mind.

Guess who Volcker endorsed for President?

Yep, he endorsed Barack Obama.

Bonus

No, this isn’t photoshop, but a regular magazine cover.

No, I don’t read this magazine, but I am always willing to be fair and give my Republican friends the exposure that they so richly earned.