Toadfish Monastery

I don't think anyone would pick on Palin because she has a child with Down Syndrome, not anybody that should be voting anyway.  Personally I think someone with Down Syndrome would make a better president than McW.

There are rumors (I did not check the believability) that the DS child is actually not hers but that of her (underage) daughter. If that were true (although I doubt it), it would be a virtual nuke.
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Btw, why does the floor look like the Union Jack?

http://static.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/goppodiumsmall.jpg
(design for the GOP convention hall)
Others also feel strong Nuremberg (pre-1945) vibes with that setting

I was so not surprised at this McCain stunt. I knew when I heard that he was waiting to see who Obama picked for VP running mate that he would choose either a woman or an African-American man. I know that the republicans chose her becuse she has a vagina but otherwise has all the right-wing correctness about her. What a weirdo! I can see in McCain's grimace that it's killing him to be running with a woman. It's all too hilarious. He has totally shot himself in the foot.

I don't know that he shot himself in the foot.  The word I hear from the Republikan sheeple is that they are very happy with her.

Quote from: Swatopluk on August 30, 2008, 02:23:20 PM
Btw, why does the floor look like the Union Jack?

The Mancunian Candidate?

Quote from: MentalBlock996 on August 30, 2008, 06:19:07 PM
I don't know that he shot himself in the foot.  The word I hear from the Republikan sheeple is that they are very happy with her.

Some like her-- she's a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth fundie.

But for some-- in secret?  Vote for a wimmin?  No Way!

So vote for wimmin or vote for a %^&$#^. I'm betting they'll pick the gun toting fundie. 

At least the Son of Cain achieved one thing with this: all the media now discuss it/her instead of Big O's speech.
Btw, I think it was a good speech but don't understand the superlatives many usually sane people use to describe it.
I am not a soundbite fetishist but for what has been described as one of the most brilliant speeches in US history there was a certain shortage of really memorable sentences that people will be able to recite 50 years from now (like MLK's "I have a dream" or Kennedy's "Don't ask..."). This convention was a memorable one for the high number of talented orators and inspiring speeches and it may mark a turning point for the country but the effect was not imo in the single Obama speech but in the obviously meticulously prepared sequence of all the important ones with Obama's as the cap stone (I deliberately avoid the term apex or crown here).

Apparently  McCain  is a bit hawkish for the Torygraph. Unfortunately elsewhere our media gives the impression that the Democrats are rather like Labour pre-Blair, (busy fighting internal battles and not connecting with the swing voter electorate).  Perhaps Obama should strike a secret deal to hand over to Hillary after five years (then again, perhaps not...).

The cover of this week's Economist has "Bring back the real McCain" and on the article mentions how he should 'separate himself' from dubya. Please don't tell me that the Torygraph and the Economist are made/owned by the same people. 

Not as far as I know, though they're not that dissimilar in outlook, favouring economic liberalism, deregulation and global free trade.

Quote from: MentalBlock996 on August 30, 2008, 06:19:07 PM
I don't know that he shot himself in the foot.  The word I hear from the Republikan sheeple is that they are very happy with her.

Yeah. I had the misfortune to listen to Hannity or Limbaugh (not sure which) and he was absolutely ecstatic about the choice.

Analysis from this guy.

QuoteWas it only to take female votes away, or is there something more? Her farther right stance than McCain throws a line to many in the Republican party who were floundering over McCain in the first place. And the fact that she's a "hockey mom" in one of the states that's been farthest from Washington will make it more of a challenge to pin any dirt on her.

Quote from: beagle on August 30, 2008, 10:16:47 PM
Apparently  McCain  is a bit hawkish for the Torygraph. Unfortunately elsewhere our media gives the impression that the Democrats are rather like Labour pre-Blair, (busy fighting internal battles and not connecting with the swing voter electorate).  Perhaps Obama should strike a secret deal to hand over to Hillary after five years (then again, perhaps not...).

Mm, dunno about that. Didn't Bill tell the Democractic masses to get behind Obama? As I recall, there was a great big rift the Clintons and Obamas, and his support (how ever fake or for the party it may have been) might be a step towards unity?

There are some who ate Hillary's rhetoric and will not vote for Obama no matter what (and I wouldn't be surprised if they are closeted racists), so for them the choice doesn't make any difference. Those with 2 neurons firing will realize that a staunch pro-life woman will not be on their own interest*.

*then again I'm counting on the intelligence of voters... 

A thin thing to count on indeed, as the last two consecutive elections have shown.

Part of the problem evaluating it from here is that we have no equivalent of primaries; The fight as to who will be candidate for a given post is carried out behind closed doors and is presented to the electorate as a fait accompli. Consequently it's hard to estimate how much of the Obama/Clinton division is typical of the process, and how much is deeply ingrained and party-alliance-changing.