by David Safier McCain’s poll numbers are sinking, but his dignity and honor — what little he has left — are sinking faster. It’s hard to imagine new lows in presidential politics, but Palin/McCain may be reaching down for them. If the mob-mentality responses of his crowds are any indication, those two are playing a … Read more

by John Adams The rest of the country is finally learning what Arizonans have known for 26 years: John McCain can’t be trusted. At the September 26 Presidential Debate, McCain claimed, “The veterans know I’ll take care of them.” Americans stand together in honoring John McCain as a veteran himself, but his negligent record in … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: "I’m a maverick." — John McCain. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." — Inigo Montoya in Princess Bride. Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone magazine (Oct. 16 issue) has a closer look at the life and career of John McCain in "Make-Believe Maverick," … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

For those of you playing a drinking game at home, I’m a maverick…

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

And slam bam I’m feelin’ alright
Troubles take a hike in the blink of an eye
Don’t need to psychoanalyze or have a stiff drink
All she’s gotta do is just give me that wink

–Wink, by Neal McCoy

The McMedia set the expectations bar so low for Sarah Palin in her one debate performance that they buried the bar in the sand.  With "the soft bigotry of low expectations," how could Palin not be pronounced a success by her acolytes in the McMedia (who did the same for George W. Bush eight years ago).  Is this really the standard by which we should be judging our leaders?  Shouldn’t we be demanding the best and the brightest to lead us in these dangerous times?

By the way, all the post-debate poll numbers show that Joe Biden won the debate by as much as a 2-1 margin.  The same poll numbers suggest that Sarah Palin did little to allay the fears of voters that she is unprepared to succeed to the presidency.

There is no "there" there.  Everything Sarah Palin says are pre-rehearsed talking points.  She is just a local sportscaster reading from a teleprompter or her 3×5 index cards. She may as well have a string on her back one can pull for one of a dozen prerecorded messages.

Palin stuck to the talking points prepared for her on 3×5 index cards that she kept looking down to read.  When she did not have an index card for a question, or did not want to answer the question, she announced that she would not answer the question and pivoted to an unrelated subject that she wanted to sneak in whether she had been asked a question or not.  Debate rules are meant to be broken — I’m a maverick dontcha know, by golly!

Palin managed to string together a series of non sequitor platitudes and worn out cliches that play well to her conservative base.  At other times she destroyed the syntax of the English language and spoke incoherent gibberish.  Palin is George W. Bush in a dress.

The McMedia gave her credit for her "folksy" language and her flirtatiousness with the camera – wink, wink.  One has come to accept the waitress at the local diner to flirt in this manner to encourage a customer to leave her a good tip.  "How ya doin’ Hon?  Can I freshen your cup of coffee? How ’bout a piece of homemade pie? I baked it myself!" (big smile and a wink).  This is unacceptable behavior in someone interviewing for the most important job in the world, president of the United States (Palin made it very clear in her comments that she sees John McCain as just a stepping stone to her becoming president.  I’ve warned you before John, "watch your back Johnny Mac.")

The few times that Palin did attempt to engage in a substantive discussion of actual facts, she got the facts wrong, or outright lied to stick to her talking points.  (See Fact Checking video below the fold).

Despite this unbelievably poor performance, the right-wing punditocracy spun Palin’s debate performance as a success.  The right-wing has created an alternative reality in which reason, logic and facts no longer matter.  It is a faith-based belief system in conservative political ideology.  "Don’t bother me with the facts, I know what I believe."  And according to right-wing pundits like Rich Lowry of the National Review, "all she’s gotta do is just give me that wink."

by David Safier I wrote a post yesterday taking Constantin Querard to task for his double standard in an email I quoted in a still earlier post. And I wrote that, once I had opened the Pandora’s box of critiquing Querard’s comments, I wouldn’t be able to stop until I worked my way through the … Read more