Politics and Culture Reads around the Web 10/27/2008
Monday, 27 October 2008 Clay Burell 
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Sarah Palin: the character question should rule her out :: Iain Martin – Annotated
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In contrast to Palin, one of Barack Obama’s most attractive traits, alongside his sense of calm, is his flexibility, his adaptability and his willingness to consider his options and learn. That’s going to be of more use in the difficult years ahead than a politician who cannot be swayed by rational arguments or evidence.
- The criticism of Obama as “PROFESSORIAL” distorts the fact that he’s A LEARNER.
It’s the ideologues who refuse to question their dogma – and we need look no further than creationists like Palin – who are more “elitist,” in their ignorant way. They “talk down to us” about their “knowledge” that “evolution is ‘just’ a theory” and reams of other tripe, which all demonstrate their smugness and (misguided) sense of intellectual superiority. – post by cburell
- The criticism of Obama as “PROFESSORIAL” distorts the fact that he’s A LEARNER.
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Palin pushes McCain staff aside as blame game begins | csmonitor.com
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Properly vetted or not?
And further, if she is was as ill-prepared as some McCain staffers are saying, then it would suggest that she was never properly vetted — something that was angrily taken off the table for discussion by the McCain team six weeks ago.
But they can’t have it both ways. Either she was properly vetted or not. If she was properly vetted, then they knew what they were getting into. If she was not properly vetted, then they can only blame themselves for the selection.
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The Associated Press: Palin: Election isn’t over till it’s over
Remarkable: Read the article, and you’ll find NOT ONE IDEA OR ISSUE DISCUSSED BY PALIN in the entire thing.
Instead, there are attacks, innuendo, flirtation, and sarcasm.
Just amazing.
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Barry M. Goldwater, Jr.: Why Barry Goldwater Couldn’t Support Obama
Interesting little tempest in the Goldwater family over the question of McCain.
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Barry Goldwater was one of the icons of the Republican Party and, yes, would be unhappy with many of the recent failures from within. I speak about this all the time and how mad I am that Republicans have lost their way. However, we do not find our way back by sheepishly going over to the other side. My father worked to rebuild the party in 1964 by taking it back from the liberal Establishment. He would work to do the same thing today.
CC does not help the Republican Party nor the cause by minimizing John McCain. McCain may not be everything she wants in a President or hold her exact values, but she should work within the party to promote the ideals Barry Goldwater stood for. Endorsing one of the most liberal Senators in Congress is certainly not the way to help fix any problem she sees; instead it is a betrayal of everything my father advocated government should be. My father would never endorse a candidate or a party that wanted to grow government, raise taxes or in any way step on our freedoms.
Together the Goldwaters, including CC, should work together to redefine the Republican Party and make it the model Barry Goldwater Sr. stood for.
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CC Goldwater: Why McCain Has Lost Our Vote
Goldwaters reach across the aisle to vote for Obama. More Republicans voting ideas and character instead of brand.
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There always have been a glimmer of hope that someday, someone would “race through the gate” full steam in Goldwater style. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened, and the Republican brand has been tarnished in a shameless effort to gain votes and appeal to the lowest emotion, fear. Nothing about McCain, except for maybe a uniform, compares to the same ideology of what Goldwater stood for as a politician. The McCain/Palin plan is to appear diverse and inclusive, using women and minorities to push an agenda that makes us all financially vulnerable, fearful, and less safe.
When you see the candidate’s in political ads, you can’t help but be reminded of the 1964 presidential campaign of Johnson/Goldwater, the ‘origin of spin’, that twists the truth and obscures what really matters. Nothing about the Republican ticket offers the hope America needs to regain it’s standing in the world, that’s why we’re going to support Barack Obama. I think that Obama has shown his ability and integrity.
After the last eight years, there’s a lot of clean up do. Roll up your sleeves, Senators Obama and Biden, and we Goldwaters will roll ours up with you.
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Palin allies report rising campaign tension – Politico.com Print View
This is getting interesting, in a side-show way.
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Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain’s camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain’s decline.
“She’s lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,” said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to “go rogue” in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.
“I think she’d like to go more rogue,” he said.
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GOP challenges to new voters set back by courts – Politico.com Print View – Annotated
Wonderful to see GOP-heavy Supreme Court show non-partisanship with these decisions.
Not surprising to see George W. Bush disagree with them.
The entire article is worth a read.
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The battles are over a section of the Help American Vote Act, passed in 2002 by Congress to prevent another Florida-style recount. HAVA requires states to match information supplied on voter registration forms with department of motor vehicles and Social Security records.
Individuals who provide information that does not match those documents may face confusion at the polls or be required to vote on a provisional ballot.
But critics of the provision say inaccurate state databases lead to erroneous disqualifications. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law found that the matching process fails 20 percent to 30 percent of the time due to minor errors like database typos, use of nicknames, and multiple entries.
“The general narrative of what’s going on with a lot of these cases is to attempt to limit the voters to who are participating,” said Georgetown law professor Jonah Goldman, director of the nonpartisan National Campaign for Fair Elections. “The central premise is that more voters help Democrats.”
Republicans, however, say that the databases are a way to increase security at the polls and stop illegal registrations from becoming fraudulent voters.
“Make no mistake, HAVA disenfranchises no one and protects the right to vote,” said Wisconsin Republican State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, state chairman of McCain’s campaign. “HAVA checks are an important safeguard — one mandated by Congress and state law — to help make sure those lawful votes are not diluted by unlawful votes.”
- NOTE the research by NYU and the following testimony from Georgetown.
Then NOTE the opposing viewpoint, from McCain’s campaign chairman in Wisconsin.
Which parties seem more credible? – post by cburell
- NOTE the research by NYU and the following testimony from Georgetown.
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At the beginning of October, ACORN reported that it registered 1.3 million new voters. But further investigation found that 30 percent — roughly 400,000 registrations — were faulty in some way, either registered under fake names such Mickey Mouse, were duplicates or were incomplete. Republicans jumped on the findings, arguing that the group was proof of a systemic voter fraud campaign by the left.
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But faulty registrations rarely turn into illegal votes. While ACORN has admitted to errors in its registration process, documented cases of illegally cast ballots remain rare. A five-year investigation by the Bush administration resulted in the convictions of only 26 voters found guilty of voting more than once, registration fraud, or ineligible voting.
- In other words, the faulty registrations at ACORN result in ACORN losing money paid to the dishonest employees. They do NOT result in illegal votes.
Read it: Bush commissioned the study that confirms this. – post by cburell
- In other words, the faulty registrations at ACORN result in ACORN losing money paid to the dishonest employees. They do NOT result in illegal votes.
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“This is not a plan that was hatched yesterday,” said Daniel Tokaji, an election law specialist at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. “The Republican party is using the whole ACORN rap as a justification for the stringent ballot security measures they are urging.”
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Wisconsin election officials admit that their database incorrectly flags voters at least 20 percent of the time. When the six members of the state elections board, all retired judges, ran their own registrations through the system, four were incorrectly rejected.
- HILARIOUS. – post by cburell
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In Michigan, the Democratic National Committee and the Obama campaign sued the Michigan and Macomb County Republican parties after learning of an alleged Republican plan to use foreclosure filings to keep some residents who’ve failed to update their address from voting. The suit settled last week and the information will not be used.
- The cynicism of this one is only matched by its heartlessness. The Michigan GOP wanted to DISENFRANCHISE JOE THE PLUMBERS WHO’D LOST THEIR HOMES DUE TO THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN.
We don’t want THEM voting, do we? – post by cburell
- The cynicism of this one is only matched by its heartlessness. The Michigan GOP wanted to DISENFRANCHISE JOE THE PLUMBERS WHO’D LOST THEIR HOMES DUE TO THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN.
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In-depth discussion, with historical precedents, of the government’s options in intervening in the market. By the US editor of the Economist.
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LINN WASHINGTON JR: Consider Florida; The Great Vote Fraud Hoax | Capitol Hill Blue
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Contrary to McCainian claims of major registration fraud, the greatest voter fraud in recent history occurred during the 2000 presidential election where a massive Bush/GOP conspiracy robbed over 50,000 folks in Florida of their right to vote by falsely listing them as felons ineligible to cast ballots. Remembering that George W. Bush won Florida by a mere 534 vote margin in 2000, simple math exposes that GOP disenfranchisement fraud as demonstratively more devastating than some (alleged) fudging on registration forms.
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Op-Ed Columnist – Desperately Seeking Seriousness – NYTimes.com
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As someone who’s spent a lot of time arguing against conservative economic dogma, I’d like to believe that the bad news convinced many Americans, once and for all, that the right’s economic ideas are wrong and progressive ideas are right. And there’s certainly something to that. These days, with even Alan Greenspan admitting that he was wrong to believe that the financial industry could regulate itself, Reaganesque rhetoric about the magic of the marketplace and the evils of government intervention sounds ridiculous.
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I suspect that the main reason for the dramatic swing in the polls is something less concrete and more meta than the fact that events have discredited free-market fundamentalism. As the economic scene has darkened, I’d argue, Americans have rediscovered the virtue of seriousness. And this has worked to Mr. Obama’s advantage, because his opponent has run a deeply unserious campaign.
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In a way, you can’t blame Mr. McCain for campaigning on trivia — after all, it’s worked in the past. Most notably, President Bush got within hanging-chads-and-butterfly-ballot range of the White House only because much of the news media, rather than focusing on the candidates’ policy proposals, focused on their personas: Mr. Bush was an amiable guy you’d like to have a beer with, Al Gore was a stiff know-it-all, and never mind all that hard stuff about taxes and Social Security. And let’s face it: six weeks ago Mr. McCain’s focus on trivia seemed to be paying off handsomely.
But that was before the prospect of a second Great Depression concentrated the public’s mind.
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The Obama campaign has hardly been fluff-free — in its early stages it was full of vague uplift. But the Barack Obama voters see now is cool, calm, intellectual and knowledgeable, able to talk coherently about the financial crisis in a way Mr. McCain can’t. And when the world seems to be falling apart, you don’t turn to a guy you’d like to have a beer with, you turn to someone who might actually know how to fix the situation.
The McCain campaign’s response to its falling chances of victory has been telling: rather than trying to make the case that Mr. McCain really is better qualified to deal with the economic crisis, the campaign has been doing all it can to trivialize things again. Mr. Obama consorts with ’60s radicals! He’s a socialist! He doesn’t love America! Judging from the polls, it doesn’t seem to be working.
Will the nation’s new demand for seriousness last? Maybe not — remember how 9/11 was supposed to end the focus on trivialities? For now, however, voters seem to be focused on real issues. And that’s bad for Mr. McCain and conservatives in general: right now, to paraphrase Rob Corddry, reality has a clear liberal bias.
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McCain volunteer admits to hoax
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Once she had told the story to police, “she told lie after lie and the situation compounded to where we are right now,” said Lt. Kraus. He added that Ms. Todd showed no remorse for her actions but was angry with the media, saying they blew the story out of proportion.
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Mr. Garcia took the widely published picture of Ms. Todd with her injuries. He said he took several photographs with a digital camera to document what had happened. He said he only gave copies of the photos to police and Ms. Todd’s employer, the College Republicans. One photo appeared on The Drudge Report on Thursday, setting off a storm of media attention.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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