In His Own Words


Stand for Nothing Fall for Anything


Oh, this is priceless. From BoingBoing via John, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

In March, Ms. Todd was asked to leave a grass-roots group of Ron Paul supporters in Brazos County, Texas, group leader Dustan Costine said. He said Ms. Todd posed as a supporter of former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and called the local Republican committee seeking information about its campaign strategies.

(…)

About a month earlier, he said, Ms. Todd sent an e-mail to the Ron Paul group saying her tires were slashed and that campaign paraphernalia had been stolen from her car because she supported Mr. Paul.

Seems Palin’s not the only woman the McCain campaign failed to vet before pushing her story out to the press.

What’s At Stake

Do you have a friend in a battleground state still considering voting for John McCain? Does he have health insurance through work? Does he like it? Think he might like to keep it?

Send him this map.

Just click on your state and find out how many people will lose their employer-sponsored coverage under John McCain’s health care plan sham.

Yes We Will


Was It Something I Said?


I’m too embarrassed to admit how I stumbled upon this gem, but it seems Palin’s shout-out to her favorite Alaskan consignment shop (you know the one where she used to go before she got all fancy-like) is now facing legal troubles. And it’s Palin’s fault! From WWD:

Palin told Sean Hannity that she is a frequent customer of Out of the Closet, an Anchorage clothing reseller. Unfortunately for the Alaskan shop, Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation has operated charity resale stores under the same name in California and Florida since 1990. It registered the moniker as a trademark in 1997. In a teleconference Monday, the group, which describes itself as the nation’s largest HIV and AIDS nonprofit, said it sent a cease and desist letter to the Anchorage store. It also threatened a trademark suit if it wasn’t appeased, and invited Palin to donate her campaign wardrobe to its own Out of the Closet operations after the election. The Out of the Closet shop to the north did not return a call seeking comment.


To Tell The Truth


Do they even know what they’re saying anymore?

Younger, healthier workers likely wouldn’t abandon their company-sponsored plans, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s senior economic policy adviser.

“Why would they leave?” said Holtz-Eakin. “What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit.”

So now the McCain campaign is admitting the private insurance market sucks? They really are imploding on all fronts.

Jason’s got more here. Igor breaks it down too:

[I]n order to defend the McCain health proposal from critics who charge that it would undermine existing coverage, the campaign is awkwardly trying to convince Americans that healthier workers won’t flee employer-insurance pools and increase costs for those who are left behind. In the process, they’ve admitted that the individual health insurance market offers inferior coverage, conceded that workers value the employer health contribution, and have stepped all over their talking points.

All in all, it’s kind of fun to watch.


Laying Down the Law


When I heard that a Republican outfit in PA was sending Jewish voters emails suggesting Obama’s candidacy resembled the rise of Hitler, I was livid. I’m glad the Anti-Defamation League is fighting back.

Found via AMERICAblog, the ADL’s statement reads, in part:

Regardless of which candidate one supports, it is shocking and profoundly distressing that anyone would see fit to make such an odious, false and repugnant analogy. Not only does it further debase the level of our political discourse, but it also diminishes and trivializes the virulent anti-Semitism and Nazi aggression that led to the slaughter of six million Jews and millions of others.

Read the whole thing here.

I’ve written about Godwin’s Law before (on AMERICAblog, actually), but now seems like an excellent time to bring it up again:

As a Usenet discussion gets longer it tends to get more heated; as more heat enters the discussion, tensions get higher and people start to insult each other over anything they can think of. Godwin’s Law merely notes that, eventually, those tensions eventually cause someone to find the worst insults that come to mind – which will almost always include a Nazi comparison.

(…)

When it happens, the thread is going to start either degenerating into a long flamewar over Nazi Germany or about Godwin’s Law. Either way, the thread is effectively over, and you can safely killfile the thread and move on.

I’d say the “Republican Federal Committee of PA – Victory 2008” has effectively crossed the line with its ‘Holocaust’- themed correspondence, and we should be allowed to safely dismiss the McCain campaign and move on.

Me First


I love these reports of Palin starting to wing it:

McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls — recorded messages often used to attack a candidate’s opponent — “irritating” even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign’s decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” this McCain adviser said. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.

“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”

The McCain campaign made its own bed on this one. It’s a pleasure to watch them toss and turn.

Style Over Substance


If you didn’t happen to see the article in yesterday’s NYT about “pundit school”, here’s a snippet:

He is being trained to carve his conservative philosophy into bite-size nuggets — preferably ones that end with a zinger — and to avoid questions he doesn’t like. He is discovering the right way to attack opponents (with a smile) and to steer a conversation in his direction (by interrupting).

TV news has become a shell of its former self.

Health Care Quick Hit


Morning.

If anyone you know – especially a woman you know – still thinks McCain’s “$5000 credit/buying across state lines” health care plan is a good deal, send them the following from the NWLC:

Most people in the U.S. get coverage through their own or a family member’s employer, and may be blissfully unaware of how challenging it can be to try and buy coverage directly from insurance companies. But even they could be one job change, divorce, or other major life event away from shopping in the individual health insurance market. Moreover, some health reform plans could lead to an expanded role for the individual market, making it more likely that any of us—major life change or not—could need the coverage offered there. This is why we all must become more aware of the last-resort, ‘Wild, Wild West’ of health insurance, and of the pricey and precarious products that are sold there. It’s no place that you’d ever want to find yourself, and its existence is one more major reason that we need comprehensive health reform that will provide high-quality and affordable health coverage for all.