No NO, There WILL BE Blogging in Live-Type Real Time Tonight!!

So my buddy Venice (aka Matt) has volunteered to live blog this evenings' VP BloodFest '08 in real time as it happens. He's nervous about taking on these responsibilities, so please support him with your comments, real-time witicisms of your own, etc., and enjoy his brilliant insight. If I can make it home from the softball madness perhaps I'll join in at some point, but fear not! Live Blogging is SO on.

No Liveblogging for John tonight! :(

Just a quick announcement: I won't be able to live blog the debate between the Barracuda and Gaffey Joe this evening, as I'll be in a softball triple-header starting at 6pm. That's right, three straight games of softball. Now, I have DVRed the debate, so I'll have some thoughts, for sure. If any of my fellow contributors would like to take on live blogging, please feel free.

Sarah's Rough Start To the Day

I hopped on Yahoo News, the site I often use as a compilation of various news sources, this morning and was greeted by a trio of Sarah Palin related stories from the AP. These stories discussed how voters in general are doubting Palin's readiness for office, how Alaskans are increasingly unhappy with their governor since she splashed onto the national stage, and how voters in the deep South, including many moderate Republicans are wary of McCain's VP choice.

Meanwhile, the Republican party talking heads are working to lower expectations and the Democrats are working to keep expectations that Palin may do quite well high. All I keep hearing about on MSNBC this morning is how the bailout bill that passed the Senate has $millions of tax breaks to help make wooden arrows for children (what???).

All of this along with recent polls showing Obama up by 10+ points in swing states may explain why John McCain was so cold to him on the Senate floor yesterday.

Ugh, Oh, Good Lord!!!!!!!!!!!! Make it STOP!! PLEASE!!!!

This really deserves no introduction, no explanation, no... good freakin christ, just watch this and tell me you're not afraid. Why, John McCain, WHY!!??!?!?!?!?!



Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick.

This Doesn't Happen In America! Maybe Ohio, But Not In America!

Nice little video from the Simpsons, Homer trying to register his vote(s)... with some fun results.



hat tip: Wonkette.

First the UN, now Epcot

The Onion breaks news today of Sarah Palin's next planned step to make her foreign policy credentials more robust, a lengthy fact-finding mission to Disney's Epcot Center. Check out the details here.

Hamburgers and economics

It's good to see that the economic advisors to the McCain and Obama campaigns are focusing on the important things.

Best part:

GOOLSBEE: Wait -- when they came to a deal...
(LAUGHTER)
... John McCain wasn't there. John McCain was out to dinner at one of the fanciest restaurants in Washington on a double date with his wife, Joe Lieberman and Joe Lieberman's wife. They were having a meal.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: What, does Obama eat at McDonald's every night or something?
(CROSSTALK)

GOOLSBEE: ... for a 3 a.m. phone call.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: You guys don't eat. Barack Obama hasn't eaten since the campaign started? Come on, Austan, get serious about this issue.
The bottom line is this...

GOOLSBEE: If you're having a meal where there are $35 hamburgers...
(LAUGHTER)
... and you get a 3 a.m. phone call, it's time to ask for a doggie bag and get back to work. That's what John McCain was not doing.

Traditional Republican Values

I think the best line has to do with pillows. Found this today, and thought it was very much worth sharing. Also, I think they strategically edited in the image you see paused before you hit play to try and hook random dudes into watching the video! Hopefully it works, either way this thing is pretty damn hilarious.



I'm also a fan of "mandatory smiling"

Surprise!

From Tom Toles at the Washington Post:

Nice Polls

Nice indications today from a Diageo/Hotline tracking poll:

Among registered voters surveyed in Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Nevada, Obama tops McCain 50 to 40%. Just a week ago, Obama led 45% to 42%.

Nationwide, Obama leads 47% to 41%.

hat tip: political wire

"No Wilting Flower"

Salon has a piece today highlighting why the author, Rebecca Traister, will not participate in the Sarah Palin Pity Party. Traister gets into it on the second page, after documenting well how a variety of correspondents and "media elites" have declared their pity for Palin's position, for the difficult spot she finds herself in, etc. Traister will not have it:

"Sarah Palin is no wilting flower. She is a politician who took the national stage and sneered at the work of community activists. She boldly tries to pass off incuriosity and lassitude as regular-people qualities, thereby doing a disservice to all those Americans who also work two jobs and do not come from
families that hand out passports and backpacking trips, yet still manage to pick up a paper and read about their government and seek out experience and knowledge.

When you stage a train wreck of this magnitude -- trying to pass one underqualified chick off as another highly qualified chick with the lame hope that no one will notice -- well, then, I don't feel bad for you."

But Traister's piece is not simply harsh without reason, not simply aimed at saying to her colleagues, "come on, give her a hard time!" Nope, the piece is motivated by outrage. Traister explains it best herself:

"I don't want to be played by the girl-strings anymore. Shaking our heads and wringing our hands in sympathy with Sarah Palin is a disservice to every woman who has ever been unfairly dismissed based on her gender, because this is an utterly fair dismissal, based on an utter lack of ability and readiness. It's a disservice to minority populations of every stripe whose place in the political spectrum has been unfairly spotlighted as mere tokenism..."

In a week where conservatives are contemplating whether Palin should step down ("Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons"), and others are calling for the McCain campaign to provide an actual real world press conference with Palin ("Until Sarah Palin agrees to a full and open press conference, she should not even be considered as a possible vice-president"), the Salon piece hits a big chunk of what I have been wishing someone would say. Check it out.

(stock wilted flower photo above from istockphoto.com)

Best Response to Bailout Bust

No caption needed here, nicely done Barney Frank (the video is all setup for the first 43 seconds or so, then you get to the good stuff).