That's Right, AP!

The AP has chosen Tina Fey as their Entertainer of the Year, and I couldn't agree more. Among other laudatory things they had to say about this decision, the AP describes Fey as, "She is the epitome of the smart kid coming out on top for once."

Nice one guys. Anyway, this is a choice by the AP that I think really fits. Fey has been around for quite some time doing some remarkably excellent comedy even in difficult circumstances (read: the SNL cast over the past few years) but this year she really blew up. The existing success and hilarity of 30 Rock certainly laid a good groundwork, but then along came a... well... yeah, you betcha, set of circumstances that might as well have been out of a story book. (remember that fake movie trailer? Ok... Tina Fey didn't make that but still...)

Anyway, good choice AP. I agree.

That Turkey Thing

Wow... so... apparently Sarah Palin has decided to keep making our lives more interesting even though she isn't a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Case in point? Um... yeah.



Ok... you've probably already seen that, huh? Oh well. Just tryin' to catch up here.

UPDATE: Letterman took up turkeygate last night in his top 10! Meet the new Joe the _________, America.

SNL Will Ferrell's Brilliant George Bush Returns

I'm a pretty huge fan of Will Ferrell, I'm not gonna lie. Elf? Perhaps my favorite Christmas movie... ok, perhaps second to It's a Wonderful Life, with Home Alone a close 3rd. Did anyone else see the Ice Harvest? That was kinda fun too. Crap, I'm totally off topic. Anyway, Will Ferrell, I love the guy, I'll be honest with you, I love his music, I do, I'm a Will Ferrell fan. For my money, I don't know if it gets any better than when he sings "When a Man Loves a Woman." celebrate his entire catalogue... yeah, oops, off topic again.

SNL rolled out Ferrell for the latest brilliant installment of the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin show. While we all now know that playing Sarah Palin causes Fey the kind of pain typically reserved for Guantanamo Bay interrogations, the sketches really are amazing. I'll be happy to see Palin and McCain lose so that Fey doesn't launch herself into space, but I will miss the comic hijinks. Check it:

Biden Takes on the Idea of "Pro-American parts of America"

I think Americablog gets it right when they say that the video below shows, "Biden at his best." This short clip shows Biden reacting to Sarah Palin's recent remark about how she likes to visit, "Pro-American parts of this country." Biden says, among other things:

I've never been to a state that hasn't sent it's sons and daughters to fight and die for this country. It doesn't matter where you live! We all love this country.

Thoughts on Momentum

Last Friday a big piece of news dropped as the evening skies darkened here on the week leading into Columbus Day weekend. Up in Alaska the commission investigating whether Sarah Palin acted improperly in the firing of a public official wrapped and they released a report showing (big surprise) Palin did, in fact, act improperly.



Over the weekend Philadelphia Flyers fans booed Palin (see video above) as she dropped the first puck at a hockey game. On Monday, John McCain tried to restart his campaign with a whole new stump speech, and here on Tuesday morning it seems like in the face of all these potentially at least somewhat interesting news pieces the big story is that the numbers (check out the cool interactive graph developed by the geniuses at Pollster.com below) show a trend that is solidifying and increasingly undeniable.



So even as things continue to seem strange out in some crazy little parts of America, as we see idiots with monkey dolls who think they're funny (damn it, that happened in the friggin state where I was born! $%*&%$ing ^*&#k s#$*&#t!!!!), and even further into the crazy where fanatical fans dress like their political obsessions...

...in many parts of America I guess I get the sense that something is settling in, the simple clear idea that Change is a must, and that the choice if you want change and real leadership is fairly straightforward.

Will the McCain campaign continue to implode this week? Will the right continue to turn on him and his campaign? Who knows? But the picture will certainly continue to develop, and I for one am glad that some of the scary angry dangerous tone that was present towards the end of last week seems perhaps to be dying back a bit.

I, for one, at least hope that last part is true.

NEW All Time Favorite Election-Related Video

Ok, so the video below is amazing. You should watch it, then you should send it to your grandparents, your siblings, your rabbi, your 3rd grade teacher, the guy who works at your local gas station, anybody you care about. Betty White is beloved to so many Americans and the only downside of her is that she makes me sad thinking of Bea Arthur, god bless her soul. Anyway, Betty White has some choice words about her friend John McCain and his friends.



Many thanks to Tyler for posting this on Facebook. You rock.

The Hockey Mother of All Bad Ideas

Perhaps Wonkette doesn't quite imagine this future event correctly, but I do think that somebody in the McCain campaign miscalculated badly when they signed Palin up to drop the puck for the Flyers opener. She'll be lucky if my fellow Philadelphians simply boo her off of the ice but the prospect of what will really happen made me giggle out loud as I read the story. Who wants to start a list of things most likely to end up thrown on the ice?

Not Just Dirty, Dangerous

John over at AmericaBlog makes a good and important point today in a post today, and I'd like to do my small part to echo and hopefully amplify the outrage around an idea they've brought up. The idea is basically that McCain's choice to start attacking Barack Obama in certain ways this week is not simply dirty, it is dangerous. The accusations being tossed around by Palin and McCain today are the kind of ideas that stand some chance of riling up the craziest of the lunatic fringe on the borders of the right wing in America, the kind of folks who yell, "terrorist" at McCain rallies or, "kill him!" while Sarah Palin talks about Obama.

By suggesting Obama likes to hang out with terrorists and that we don't know who Obama really is they are playing the classic Republican, those who disagree with us are unpatriotic card, but with some ugly and new racial, ethnic and geopolitically tinged undertones. In essence, they are saying something that will sound to the craziest on the right like, "Obama is a terrorist," and in so doing I think they have truly crossed a line that has everything to do with decency.

Now, I know and am not surprised (nor should you be) that politics is ugly. However, the two-faced talk about bipartisanship, McCain's ability to reach across the isle, and building a better future, all while smearing their opponents in the ugliest possible way strikes me as something more people should speak out about. The larger pattern already established has been outrageous long before this week's increased intensity. What is new, is the dangerous and tantalizing possibility McCain's camp keeps spreading, the clearly implied endorsement of all those ugly forwarded emails that have been circulating since long before the Democratic primaries were over.

This world of lies and disinformation, these whispered notions about Obama being a secret Muslim and a friend of terrorists do absolutely nothing to move our discourse forward, nothing to benefit America or strengthen our nation. They take the exact the opposite tack from the dignified tone Biden took in the VP debate when he discussed his belief that you should never question other peoples' motives, simply their tactics, choices, perspective, etc.

I am not worried about the fact that today was simply an uglier day in a race that is likely to get a bit more dirty as the week wears on, but what worries me is that all of a sudden the McCain camp has put this campaign back in a place where it seems rational and reasonable to worry about what the lunatic fringe might do if Obama wins the election. I, for one, am angry that this kind of concern seems rational again. Angry and disappointed.

The Palin Effect: New Hampshire Edition

Whatever else Palin has going for her, I have always thought she would be a liability in my home state of New Hampshire. Turns out that a couple of polls today have proven me right. At first blush, this might seem a little surprising. Palin is a moose-hunting maverick, right? And New Hampshire is much beloved of both moose and mavericosity. She's a former small town mayor and there are plenty of small towns. But once you go past the superficial appeal, there isn't much left. She's a strong christian conservative in what is ulitimatly a pretty secular state.

She is an obvious gimmick in a state that tends to prefer 'straight-talk" (even if it comes from xenophobic idiots like Pat Buchanan). And while I much enjoy watching moose I have never heard of a mooseburger (and I could have lived quite happily without, thanks). Moose here are mainly something to avoid hitting with your car. I think McCain made a real mistake choosing Palin, but I do look forward to a new generation in which Trig and Piper are popular names.

Politico Gives Stark Rundown of Debate Performances

Politico writers John F. Harris and Mike Allen pop up today with a solid piece of post debate analysis under the heading, "Palin clears bar, still falls short." In the piece they discuss how Palin managed to disappoint all those who watched the debate wishing for real blatant blunders, delivering a performance that steered clear of anything extreme on the gaffe front. Still, they go further into what we all saw, describing Palin as being both on defense basically the whole time, and struggling to go on the offensive as McCain's advisers, no doubt, wanted her to against Biden. Their critique is smart and to the point:

Washington power lawyer Robert Barnett, who helped Biden prepare, said viewers would come away with the sense that Palin "is a nice person, an interesting person but not a qualified-to-be-the-president-of-the-United-States person."

They do give each VP candidate credit for having their moments, saying:

From the moment she blew a kiss as she walked onstage, the Alaska governor was folksy and spunky, dropping a “bless their hearts” here, a “God bless ‘er” there and “darn right” — twice. She showed a cheerful confidence that must have been hard to muster after the humiliating coverage of her amateurish interviews...

Biden offered a fluent, self-assured performance of the sort that cannot be especially hard for him after two presidential campaigns, 35 years in the Senate and countless appearances on Sunday morning programs...

Still, all in all, our friends at the Politico came around to the point well summarized in their title, that last night's debate while it wasn't a debacle also didn't change basically anything about the larger trends in the race.

The debate did nothing to arrest — and may even have helped cement — a gradual but unmistakable turnabout in the race, with Barack Obama gaining in polls and momentum and McCain losing ground in must-win states. The financial meltdown has put a new premium on competence, and Palin did nothing to show she is ready to be in charge...

In many ways, Obama-Biden has taken ownership of the play-it-safe vote, and McCain-Palin have become the more unpredictable and potentially risky choice.

In Case You Missed It... Sarah Palin's Addiction to Winking

I think the soundtrack is a little cheesy, but it works. Here's some documentary evidence of Mrs. Palin's winking frenzy last night.

The True Story of Palin's Debate Semi-Success

A friend, Dave, posted this on Facebook today, and I couldn't resist throwing it up here. The image really speaks for itself, and is kinda great. I wonder how much the recent debate talk has helped stock in companies that manufacture flash cards.



View Full Size here.

Live Blogging Follow-Up

First, can I just say that Live Blogging the debate was yet again a ton of fun tonight... if you missed it, we'll try it again at the next debate. In comments during the live blogging I mentioned a 1-doggie survey regarding Sarah Palin's ability to inspire sleepiness. Evidence of her ability to put dogs down is below. Thanks to Kim's lovable cutie pie Zoey for being our test subject and spokesmodel for this survey.

Live Bloggery on the Internets

8:55: Just testing out how this works since I've never done this funky live blogging thingy before. I like the timer feature that all the cable news networks seem to have. makes it feel like New Years Eve.
9:00 Washington University in St. Louis always strikes me as an overly long name.
9:02: I wonder if the fact that the moderator wrote a supposedly pro-Obama book will come up tonight?
9:06 McCain was a champion of greater government oversight? I don't know much about that, but it seems a little unlikely. I don't mean that as an insult, either.
9:08 I love how they talk up anti-partisan creds while attacking the other side.
9:10 from the comments: "WOAH! Sarah Palin just winked at all of us! Holy crap... uh, I dunno what to do." Personally, I find her very likable. She should sell soap.
9:11 And Biden could probably sell ties. I like his.
9:13 From Comments: Holy crap. She said "Joe Sixpack" and the CNN line for undecided men went apeshit! It literally went backwards.
9:15 Obama NEVER voted to raise taxes on people making $42k! That's just unfair. And does anyone actually think the next president will lower taxes?
9:17 Lowering taxes on the middle class is redistributing wealth?
9:19 Doesn't Biden have hair plugs? they don't seem to work all that well. I want the name of the place so I can avoid them.
9:23 Another Comment: YES! BIDEN, ZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ULTIMATE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE!

Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
9:23 She took on the oil companies? I bet she dropped them like a rabid moose.
9:26 Normally, the idea of taxing a company for making too much profit would scare me, but it is true that oil companies get really sweet tax treatment. Almost as if they know the people who write the tax laws...
9:27 NO! Let go of the damn "Main Street and Wall Street" thing.
9:29 Great Comment: did she REALLY just say "i haven't made any promises i can't keep b/c i've only been around for 5 weeks" ?!?!?!

That has got to be the worst answer ever. "I haven't had a chance to lie yet, but just you wait."
9: 31 "attribute every activity of man to changes in the climate." WTF?
9:36 I much admire Biden's comments on same-sex benefits. I'd still rather see marriage equality, but progress is progress.
9:38 Palin: "I have gay friends. Really."
9:39 why not just define marriage as one man and one woman of the same race? There's an argument that that is the traditional definition.
9:42 Iraq? What's that? Apparently not a big deal in Ohio.
9:43 Biden's son heads off to Iraq tomorrow. I don't think that he wants to waive the white flag.
9:44 My mom, who is a Republican, is yelling at Sarah Palin.
9:47 Again, comparing Petraeus and al Qaeda?!?!???!?!
9:49 I still don't think that meeting with foreign leaders is naive. I like the way she pronounces "naivete" though.
9:51 From Comments: Eeeee when Sarah Palin says, "Stinking corpse" it gives me the heeby geebys. However, when she says, "The Castro Brothers" I somehow think she's talking about some sort of Disney Channel boy band.

And

I heard the Castro Brothers play a gig in Altanta. They were pretty good.
9:53 It drives me nuts when politicians refer to themselves in the 3rd person. Bob Dole don't like this.
9:55 "Joe Biden is FUCKING dynamic when he refers to himself as Joe Biden... third person always kicks ass. Kim agrees, our only critique is that he should have said, "Israel has no better friend than Joe Motha F**ing Biden!""
That actually woulda been cool. I stand corrected.
9:56 "Nuclear weaponry would be the be all end all of too many people..." what did she just say?
9:58 Mamma Venice: Sarah Palin should play herself on Saturday Night Live.
10:01 Biden is truly strong on foreign affairs. This is like me playing golf with Tiger Woods. Except cheaper. And without those funny shirts.
10:03 You big city Washington types. I'm just from a small town and so I'm a real American. I don't go in for none of this fancy policy talk. I just want to put a moose in every pot.
10:05 'DIDN'T SHE DO THE SAME DAMN THING on the bridge?!!?!!??!?"

Yes, but she's NOT FROM WASHINGTON. so it's OK.
10:09 Look at how the CNN happy lines fall as soon as she starts talking. Maybe he should have met her more than once before selecting her to be his running mate.
10:11 I think she means that if she's vice president, people on Wall Street will start volunteering at soup kitchens and feeding stray kittens.
10:13 the Home Depot line is my least favourite of his so far.
10:14 Dude, if she's vice-president they better not give her more power...
10:16 Total non-answer in my opinion. Too bad, since the vice-president's proper role is kind of a big question if you are, you know, the vice-president.
10:18 From Comments:Sarah Palin wants to drill into the position of Vice President! She wants to tap all of it's potential for domestic homeland energy independence. Drill Baby Drill!!!!
10:21 Biden's tale of raising his children is enormously powerful. I didn't watch the happy lines, but I hope they reflected that. I think he really DID get choked up.
10:28 "Obama wants to kill jobs." Can't you just see him sitting around, saying to himself, how can I kill some jobs? I want people to be out of work and miserable!
10:30 Why don't the Republicans just get a blow-up Reagan doll and nominate it?
10:33 I love Biden. I can't deny it.
10:34 From Comments: Sarah Palin won because her head didn't explode!!!!!

That may be true. I don't think she was great but she wasn't as bad as she could have been. Given the low expectations, that may have been enough.
10:38 This guy talking on CNN has a great mustache. What's it made of?
10:39 Alright, this was super grovilicious. I really enjoyed all the comments. I look forward to doing this again, hopefully with a less one-sided debate.

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.

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.

"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)

Monday Morning Barage of Political Videos!

It's Monday and who wants to think, right? Wait... no... wrong beginning to the post here. It's Monday and the world of viral video had a whole weekend to play on their MacBooks with video clips related (and unrelated) to Friday evening's debate between Obama and McCain. Here are four videos I found while cruising the internets this morning. Hopefully they'll start your week off right!

1. Let's get it out of the way here, SNL did it again, with Tina Fey playing Mrs. Mooseburger herself, Sarah Palin, and Amy Poehler turning in a nice Katie Couric... blinking and awestruck at the bizarreness of Fey's Palin answers. Incredible traits of this video: if you don't find it all that funny, compare it to the actual video of the interview. SNL really didn't take liberties with large pieces of this, they simply had Fey read Palin's lines... or reinact them. Um... yeah, so anyway, that's #1, here:



2. This is the first of two debate-related clips, below you can see a clip where supposedly John McCain mutters "horse shit" twice as Barack Obama makes reference to McCain's recent flub regarding Spain. Now, some may say it's a little unclear whether he is actually saying horse shit or not, but having looked at the video a couple times, it seems like it's not only there, but audible. Let me know what you think!



3. This one is slightly less funny, but incredibly nicely done, and simple in many ways. I thought one of the most effective moments of the debate on Friday was when Obama held up McCain's record of statements predicting how the conflict in Iraq would go as evidence for a lack of strength in judgment. Jed Lewison edited together a video for Huffington Post that simply supplies video to corroborate what Obama said. Damning? I think it is, and I honestly think the Obama campaign should consider running basically this exact video as a campaign ad.



4. Finally, let's end this little journey with more of the funny. Obama Girl has returned with a clip from her new reality show, the Obama Girl and Ralph Nader Show. Ok, so this is actually a nice attempt by the Nader camp to work the viral video thing, and it reminds me of the Obama Girl/Mike Gravel clip from awhile back. Anyway, they make good use of Nader's dry sense of humor, and say what you will about Nader and his choices in the last 10 years, the man is my kind of American Hero. Take issues with his tactics, but I believe in his efforts to build a stronger and more equitable nation and to counterbalance the powerful voice of corporations in American politics. All that aside, the video is rather charming, I think (especially the reference to Bea Arthur... now that's classy!).