Daily Archives: Oct. 2, 2008

Open thread on v.p. debate

Oct. 2, 20088:04 p.m.
By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (349)

Voters share Parker’s doubts about Palin

Oct. 2, 200812:00 p.m.

“After 20 years of column writing, I’m familiar with angry mail,” wrote Kathleen Parker. “But the past few days have produced responses of a different order. Not just angry, but vicious and threatening.” The responses were to Parker’s column last week in which she decided that Sarah Palin is out of her league.
“Some of my usual readers feel betrayed because I previously have written favorably of Palin,” Parker wrote. “By changing my mind and saying so, I am viewed as a traitor to the Republican Party – not a ‘true’ conservative.
“Obviously, I’m not employed by the GOP. If I were, it’s seriously in arrears. But what is a true conservative? One who doesn’t think or question and who marches in lockstep with The Party?”
Meanwhile, most voters seem to be agreeing with Parker. An AP-Gfk poll released Wednesday found that only 25 percent of likely voters believe Palin has the right experience to be president, down from 41 percent just after the GOP convention. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 85 percent of voters said Palin does not have the requisite experience to be president.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (204)

Punishing Wall Street hurts Main Street

Oct. 2, 20086:03 a.m.

“I totally understand the resentment against Wall Street titans bringing home $60 million bonuses,” wrote New York Times columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman. “But when the credit system is imperiled, as it is now, you have to focus on saving the system, even if it means bailing out people who don’t deserve it. Otherwise, you’re saying: ‘I’m going to hold my breath until that Wall Street fat cat turns blue.’ But he’s not going to turn blue; you are, or we all are. We have to get this right.”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Congress, Economy | Comments (134)

Open thread 10/02

Oct. 2, 20086:02 a.m.

By The Editors | Filed under Open thread | Comments (153)

Not too late for Obama-Sebelius?

Oct. 2, 20086:01 a.m.

As vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden prepare to debate tonight, Palin isn’t alone in being the subject of speculation about whether she can or will go the distance. An unsigned e-mail message making the Internet rounds has Biden leaving the Democratic ticket on or around Oct. 5 for health reasons, supposedly to allow Barack Obama to pick either Hillary Clinton or Kathleen Sebelius. That’s far-fetched in the extreme, but as Los Angeles Times blogger Andrew Malcolm put it: “Either one would throw off the Republican strategies and be a potential game-changer.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (18)

Poetry by Palin

Oct. 2, 20086:00 a.m.

Some of Sarah Palin’s interview answers have been compared to refrigerator magnet poetry, so Slate writer Hart Seely took her “verbiage” the next natural step. Two examples:

“On Good and Evil”
It is obvious to me
Who the good guys are in this one
And who the bad guys are.
The bad guys are the ones
Who say Israel is a stinking corpse,
And should be wiped off
The face of the earth.
That’s not a good guy.
(To CBS’ Katie Couric, Sept. 25)

“Haiku”
These corporations.
Today it was AIG,
Important call, there.
(To Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Sept. 18)

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Presidential race | Comments (42)