CNN

The Product Of Being Unprepared

Sarah Palin gives the Obama campaign another gift:

Ensuring that news of the Republican National Committee's sartorial spending spree will remain in the headlines for at least one more news cycle, Sarah Palin on Sunday sounded off on the $150,000 wardrobe that was purchased for her in September, denouncing the report as "ridiculous" and declaring emphatically: "Those clothes, they are not my property."

A senior adviser to John McCain told CNN's Dana Bash that the comments about her wardrobe "were not the remarks we sent to her plane this morning." Palin did not discuss the wardrobe story at her rally in Kissimmee later in the day.

What did the McCain campaign expect when they picked her - a person with so little experience? They have no one to blame but themselves.

The Polls Are Rolling In

Who won?

CBS: Obama 53% McCain 22%
CNN: Obama:58% McCain 31%

These are polls of undecided voters. McCain needed a game changer tonight and I think he got it. Unfortunately for him it wasn't in the right direction. He helped make up the minds of more uncommitted and we should expect to see more polls reflect the CBS/NYTimes poll in the coming days.

Post-Debate Thoughts (updated)

My God could Gwen Ifill have been any more slanted towards Biden? Ok - had to get that little joke out of my system.

Despite having one hell of a cold, I managed to watch the whole thing. Honestly, it was exactly what I expected it to be. No massive screw ups from either candidate. One small thing I did notice was that Palin was looking at an awful lot of notes while answering. Perhaps I picked that up since I was watching and not trying to live blog it.

I don't see tonight's performances helping or hurting either campaign significantly. It was basically a wash. Palin may have calmed some nerves on the right, but she didn't bring anyone over. The same with Biden and his known history of gafffs. I do however think Palin fell flat on her face when she tried to play Reagan with her "there you go again Joe" line. Watching the reaction thing on CNN, it appears the focus group also thought the same thing.

So I am sure people on the left will be upset the Palin didn't totally implode, but that's not a problem. She now has a month of doing interviews and more time for Couric style blunders with no more debates to try and recoup a little comfort amongst the population.

Also I notice the polls over all are showing that Biden won. I have to agree. Yeah I am somewhat partial, but putting that aside, I saw answers out of Biden with great substance. I didn't see that so much out of Palin. It also helps restore a little faith in the American electorate since it appears they may have seen the same thing.

UPDATE:

When The Anonymous Hits

I love how all these "big stories" on right wing blogs can be traced back to some "emailer" who writes them. The latest case is this one from Glenn Reynolds:

A READER AT A MAJOR NEWSROOM EMAILS: "Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working." I asked permission to reprint without attribution and it was granted.

Dumpster diving - really? Is that where all my emails go when I hit the delete key? Damn be my degree in Computer Science - it's all wrong!

Of course if you look on Memeorandum this is the big story in the wingnut-schizophrenia blog world. I guess all these editors got together in some secret, smoke filled hotel room and colluded to elect Obama. I bet the Wall Street Journal and New York Post hosted this big meeting also, all at the expense of Rupert Murdoch. Damn that liberal media!

Well now I had an anonymous person write to say that they went dumpster diving at the WarnerBros Times and recovered this super secret photo showing a crime fighting team is now on the case:

Don't you threat my friends on the right. This looks like a great team to get to the bottom of the "liberal media election hijacking" scheme.

So Who Won?

It looks like Obama did. First a CNN phone poll concluded this:

Who won... Obama 51%, McCain 38%.
Who would better handle Iraq: Obama 52%, McCain 47%.
Economy: Obama 58%, McCain 37%.

By 40%-22%, a CBS snap poll found undecided voters favored Obama:

Forty percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Barack Obama was the winner. Twenty-two percent thought John McCain won. Thirty-eight percent saw it as a draw.

So the worse case scenario is that tonight ends up a tie once all the real polls start coming up. Even at that point, it's a big win for Obama. McCain is considered a great debater and tonight was on the subject he is supposed to be best at. I got a feeling the McCain campaign is scrambling to figure out what to do now, even though they won't publicly admit it.

The New McCain Slogan: "Party First"

That's what this has come down to. The House Republicans want to hold America hostage so that they can save their party - the exact same party that has caused this problem:

"At the end of the day, there's a lot of people thinking about how to rebuild this party," said GOP strategist Ed Rollins on CNN, "and do we want to rebuild it with John McCain, who's always kind of questionable on the basic facts of fiscal control, all the rest of it, immigration. And I think to a certain extent this 110, 115 members of this study group are saying, here's the time to draw the line in the sand."

"That's pretty scary stuff that they're thinking about party right now and not country, is that what you're saying?" responded host Anderson Cooper.

"I think they're, yes, they're thinking about themselves," said Rollins. "I think they don't think that the threat is as great as a lot of other people do."

This would go hand in hand with the House Republicans wanting to see the whole market collapse.

And what about John McCain? Well he is right in the thick of it:

"Bush is no diplomat," said a Democratic staffer, "but he's Cardinal freaking Richelieu compared to McCain. McCain couldn't negotiate an agreement on dinner among a family of four without making a big drama with himself at the heroic center of it. And then they'd all just leave to make themselves a sandwich."

Is that the man we want leading our country at this time, or ever? Perhaps it is time to declare the House Republicans and John McCain a new axis of evil. They are acting just like terrorists, putting their ideology before the good of the people.

Who Gets The Economic Blame?

A new CNN poll shows Americans blame Republicans 2-1 over Democrats for our current financial crisis. Is America finally waking up and realizing that Republicans are the worst choice for running our government?

Lou Dobbs Shows His Racist Side

Lou Dobbs proclaims "my wife will love this" when looking at the racist Obama Waffles box. Will CNN let this racist stay on the air?

(GottaLaff has more images of the racism this box exhibits. Think Progress also has more.)

Excuse Me?

Just listening to CNN, something caught my ear. They are talking about the "brave" residents that chose to stay behind and ride it out. The weather service issued one of their strongest warnings ever with this storm, and these people are brave? They sure didn't call the people in New Orleans, who decided to try and ride it out, brave.

Matthews And Olbermann Out On Election Coverage

There has been a lot of chatter today regarding MSNBC's decision to scrap Olbermann and Matthews on special election coverage. Honestly, I don't think it's a bad idea. MSNBC's ratings were in the toilet during the conventions and I can honestly see why. They didn't cover the convention - they covered each others opinions. I actually found myself tuning into CNN more during those two weeks (despite how much I despise CNN).

MSNBC needs to take this and do more than change the faces on these big nights. They could actually keep Olbermann and Matthews hosting the shows, but change the production. For too long we have been plagued with the same people on MSNBC. You can turn it on at 6:00am and see Pat Buchanan rambling his nonsense and then at 9:30pm he is still there. MSNBC only has a small handful of contributors/analysts and that is what's really biting them in the ass.

If MSNBC wants to continue to compete and grow, it's time for some fresh blood. Rachael Maddow's new show is going to be a good start, but the hosts really aren't the problem - it's everyone else. Let's get some more views on the shows. They don't all have to be left or right views - just different views. MSNBC - you are becoming extremely stale.

Not So Much Of An Endorsement

For the way the Republicans rally behind Condi, this less than glowing endorsement has to put them in a peculiar spot:

In a less-than-hearty endorsement, Rice declined to say anything more positive about Palin than "she gave a terrific speech" and "she's a governor of a state here in the United States" during her interview with Zain Verjee of CNN.

So that's all Condi can say about Sarah? If Condi isn't coming out with a glowing endorsement like so many neo-cons, it makes you wonder what Condi really knows. People always polish things up for interviews, so I got a feeling Condi actually thinks much less of her.

CNN Gets Dumped By McCain

Here is an interview Campbell Brown had yesterday with McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. Campbell wouldn't let Bounds try to spin the question on Palin's national security, and Brown actually did a good job:

Now the McCain campaign is canceling McCain's appearance on Larry King tonight because of that interview. If McCain and Palin can't stand up to CNN then how can they stand up to al Qaeda?

We Started The Georgia Conflict

That's not what I am saying, but rather what Putin is saying:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

In a perfect world we would write this off as the ramblings of a mad man. Sadly this isn't a perfect war and we have an administration who wouldn't think twice about doing something like this. Hopefully it will send enough of a message to Congress so that they start asking some questions. If there is any merit to these allegations at all, then the U.N. needs to start investigating also.

Obama Calls For DOJ Investigation Into Ayers Ad

Good for him. This kind of garbage has no place in our political landscape:

Sen. Barack Obama has launched an all-out effort to block a Republican billionaire’s efforts to tie him to domestic and foreign terrorists in a wave of negative television ads.

Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the “American Issues Project,” the vehicle through which Dallas investor Harold Simmons is financing the advertisements. The Obama campaign — and tens of thousands of supporters — also is pressuring television networks and affiliates to reject the ads. The effort has met with some success: CNN and Fox News are not airing the attacks.

The Obama campaign has also released an ad countering this garbage and is going after local stations that run it (psst - Obama campaign. WCPO in Cincinnati ran it Sunday morning during This Week).

I think the most interesting part of this is that the laws to prevent such attacks were part of McCain-Feingold. Does John McCain really think the laws he helped authored don't apply to him? The sure sounds like George Bush to me. More of the same.

Why The Outrage?

McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, has sent a very nasty letter to NBC about the claims that McCain may have heard the questions. Sully has the fully letter. So why is the McCain campaign taking such a defensive approach to this? A general reaction to something like this would be "we won't answer such false claims", or something of the sort. By the forceful defense the McCain campaign is launching, it seems like they are trying to hide something, especially considering the fact there is a silence on this from the Obama campaign.

So is McCain trying to hide something? I think this question needs to be pursued.

Also an emailer just wrote:

You fucking LIEbrals are so stupid. I guess John McCain had a large cable running to his limo so he could watch CNN. Give it a break. Your story is week. [sic]

So we are stupid? Perhaps this emailer needs to catch up on technology. I listened to part of the forum in my car, and there wasn't a long black cable running to it. It's called satellite and on Sirius satellite radio, you can listen to CNN on channel 132.

(On a personal note - I usually don't bother with these emailers, but this total ignorance had to be shared.)