“at least one runner-up bird should also be protected”

She said it, not me. . .




“Any state programs on the chopping block?” Oh, no she didn’t.

Oh, yes she did.

Palin punk’d—by a Canadian!

Actually, they call it “pranked,” and you probably think I’m talking about famous Canadian-born SNL producer Lorne Michaels, but no, no, no. . . or should I say “non, non, non?”

Canadian radio host Marc Antoine Audette convinced Republican VP wannabe Sarah Palin that he was French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a six-minute conversation that aired on Montreal station CKOI.

The pretend président told a giggly Palin that they had much in common—like they both can see foreign countries from their homes (Sarkozy/Audette said he could see Belgium), and how both loved to hunt:

Mr Audette said he would be keen to join her on a helicopter hunting trip.

"I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," he said in an exaggerated French accent.

"I'd really love to go, so long as we don't bring along Vice-President [Dick] Cheney."

In 2006, Mr Cheney infamously shot and injured a hunting partner while quail-hunting in Texas.

Mrs Palin responded: "I'll be a careful shot."

Audette throws out the wrong name for the Canadian PM, and another for the “Prime Minister of Quebec,” but the Alaskan governor, who often references the border that her state shares with Canada to claim foreign policy cred, not only doesn’t notice, she replies as if she knows these guys.

A star-struck Palin later attempts to compliment Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni—Palin praises her beauty repeatedly, but clearly can’t remember Bruni’s name.

But the very best part for me is right up top when the pseudo Sarko says that he follows Palin’s campaign with his “special American advisor” Johnny Hallyday.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mesdames et Messieurs, I present to you, je me présente vous, Johnny Hallyday:




Insta-update: Just discovered that the BBC link above has an edited audio excerpt—the full interview is even more brutal:



. . .

A friend just sent in a suggestion for a different Johnny Hallyday number, and it is so much more, um, what’s that French word. . . apropos!








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But who do you really love?

Just a quick observation:

Number of times John McCain mentioned Senator Joe Lieberman in the two presidential debates: 4

Number of times McCain mentioned his vice presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin: 0


. . . .

Bonus observation regarding McCain’s affinities:

Number of times John McCain said “My friends” in the first debate: 2

Number of times McCain said “My friends” in the second debate: 19

Olbermann puts the blame on Mame

On last night’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the MSNBC host delivered one of his patented “Special Comments,” this time raking Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin over the coals for yet again cheapening the quality of debate in the presidential race, this time by accusing Senator Barack Obama of “pallin’ around with terrorists.”





While I don't disagree by-and-large with the substance of the segment, Olbermann failed to do what I think is most important when attacking Palin.

Palin is, to my eye, a horrible person, certainly unqualified, overtly corrupt, viciously ambitious—a joke, really (and a bad one)—but at the end of the day, no one votes for the Veep. The biggest problem with Palin is that John McCain picked her. McCain showed in this, like in so much else, his complete lack of sound judgment, his fascination with the maverick-ie gamble to buttress his bogus brand, and his track record of putting his own ambition above any other consideration.

Any attack on Palin has to remind voters that she was put in this position by a cynical candidate McCain. Keith came close to that point when he explained that he forgives Palin—because she is in a situation “beyond her ability to cope”—but he needed to make it explicit: You can't forgive Palin without blaming McCain.

. . .

As for the title, I think I’ll let Rita explain:

jeepers, veepers

Well, bygollygosh, Sarah—is it OK if I call you Sarah?—ya’ didn’t stare blankly into the camera like a moose in headlights, or make sick allover that pretty jacket yer wearin’, so I guess you can be vice president now fershure.

. . .

And let me use this opportunity to add a line I forgot to work into my other post:

Joe Biden: the attack dog you’d actually want as a pet.

I’ve already got a shoebox in the back of my closet with your name on it

Almost just in time for the debate:

Earlier this year, Topps issued a 12-card insert in its 2008 Topps Baseball product called “Campaign 2008” featuring Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden and nine other presidential hopefuls.

On Oct. 1, Topps announced that it has added an additional subject to the set: Republican VP hopeful Sarah Palin.

Palin will have 2 cards: Pictured as you see her today and pictured on a “rookie card” as an Alaskan Beauty Queen.

Topps says the Palin cards will be available the second week of October. . . about three weeks before most of us will resolve to forget about Sarah Palin forever.

I don’t think these will quite get up to, say, Nolan Ryan rookie card value, but, what with her flash-in-the-pan celebrity, maybe it will be a fun addition to your collection. In fact, that gives me an idea for tonight’s debate. . .

If anybody reading this can get the attention of Joe Biden, please forward him this guaranteed, sure fire, can’t miss zinger:

I knew Nolan Ryan, I saw Nolan Ryan play, and Sarah, you’re no Nolan Ryan.

(h/t LZ)

(cross-posted on The Seminal)

more of McSame

Many suspected it, and Wednesday night served as proof; John McCain picked a running mate that is able to do something that he can’t: read a teleprompter.

The bar was set very low for the small-town mayor turned small-state governor turned last-minute Republican VP pick, so it should surprise no one that Sarah Palin was able to meet and in some ways exceed expectations. Still, Palin, who is reported to have practiced this speech for over six hours, was an impressive mouthpiece for a litany of Republican attacks—especially impressive when you consider that the McCain team wrote most of the speech for someone else.

And since the speech was supposedly drafted for another mouth, it is not surprising that Palin’s primetime coming out party did little to introduce the McVeep to American voters. (And why would you want to spend any more time talking about a woman, Palin, under investigation for possible abuse of gubernatorial power, a woman with close ties to oil lobbyists and to indicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a woman who has fought hard for the boondoggle earmarks that McCain says he’s against, a woman that is opposed to reproductive choice, even in cases of rape and incest, a woman who has ties to a party that advocates Alaskan secession—through violence, if necessary—a woman who demanded personal loyalty oaths from public officials, tried to ban books from the public library, and raised taxes as mayor and as governor?) It did, however, remind all of us why the last decade of Republican domination has been such an abject failure.

For Sarah Palin chose neither to provide a substantive defense of the Bush-Cheney policies that she and McCain plan to continue, or offer any examples of what another four years of Republican “leadership” might do differently. Instead, Palin offered better than a half-hour of partisan, Karl Rove-style attacks—as rife with flat-out lies as they were with snide, cynical jokes.

Palin lied about her support for the “Bridge to Nowhere” (she was for it before she was against it). Palin lied about Obama’s record as a legislator (Obama has authored or helped pass ethics reform, healthcare expansion, aid for wounded vets, incentives for alternative energy, safeguards against “loose nukes,” and a system to put federal funding details in a searchable database). And Palin joined with other Republican speakers on Wednesday night to belittle the hard and important work of community organizers everywhere (community organizing is not only noble work, often for no or low pay, that requires a day-in-day-out connection with people not privileged enough to have private jets to sell on eBay, community organizing was hailed by none other than President George H.W. Bush).

Indeed, it was perhaps most stunning that a woman billed (ad nauseam) as a “Hockey Mom” and as “relate-able” spent so much time acting just like all the other millionaires and billionaires who took the Xcel Center stage before her. (The combined worth of Meg Whitman, Mitt Romney, Carly Fiorina, and Rudolph Giuliani currently tops $4 billion—more than the gross national product of any of over a third of the world’s countries.) For, while Palin’s choreographed sniping might have won her cheers from the diehard Republicans inside the hall, it only helped accentuate the distance between her and the America she hopes to help govern. Wednesday night thus served to demonstrate not that Sarah Palin is fit to lead us into the future, but that she, like her soul mate, John McCain, is closely aligned with the failed Bush-era politics of division and destruction. Sarah, like John, is more of McSame.

Perhaps, then, it should come as no surprise that Palin did such a good job mouthing Republican insiders’ boilerplate rhetoric. No surprise at all.


(cross-posted on capitoilette, The Seminal, and Daily Kos)

open mike night at the RNC: Murphy calls Palin pick cynical; Noonan declares race over for McCain

Earlier today, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and Republican strategist Mark Murphy finished a segment with MSNBC host Chuck Todd. . . and then kept talking:


What the live mikes catch is truly something to behold. Noonan says of the presidential race, “It’s over,” as in it’s over for McCain. Murphy calls McCain’s pick of Palin “Cynical.” (transcript below)

Earlier today, Noonan’s Wall Street Journal column declared:

Gut: The Sarah Palin choice is really going to work, or really not going to work. It's not going to be a little successful or a little not; it's not going to be a wash. She is either going to be magic or one of history's accidents. She is either going to be brilliant and groundbreaking, or will soon be the target of unattributed quotes by bitter staffers shifting blame in all the Making of the President 2008 books.

Peggy plays it coy for the sake of journalistic “balance.” If we are to believe Noonan’s gut AND mouth, then her verdict is already clear: the Palin pick is NOT going to work.

And, it seems, we won’t have to wait till after the election to hear those sniping quotes—and, it seems that they won’t be “unattributed,” either.


Transcript (taken from the YouTube audio):

Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing-state governor world. Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all about how you win a Texas race. You know, just run it up. And it's not gonna work.

Noonan: It's over.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

Todd: Don’t you think that the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson?

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning

Todd: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about it.

Murphy: All bummed out.

Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.

Murphy: Yeah, but what's the narrative?

Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it.

Murphy: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical.

Todd: This is cynical, and, as you called it, “gimmicky.” Thanks guys.

UPDATE: Perhaps I was also being a little coy. C&L says what I feel:

Will the media start asking conservative scribes if they really feel like Murphy and Noonan do about McCain’s pick of Palin? Honesty is out in front right now as we just witnessed. Are they all just lying to our faces and not being called out about it by our talking heads sitting right next to them? We just witnessed the real deal and not the dog and pony show Republicans are so good at.

(cross-posted on The Seminal)