From Confederate Yankee...

Democratic state senator and staunch Barack Obama supporter Hollis French of Alaska boasted in early September that he would provide an "October Surprise" which would upset the McCain-Palin campaign. Indeed, he originally planned to time it for October 31, four days before the election, for maximum impact, until
other legislators forced him to abandon that particular strategy.

Today, however, in an episode of political theater that would make Josef Stalin blush, French gave it his very best shot: The investigator he hired and directed, Steve Branchflower, has labored mightily and given birth to a bloated and redundant 263-page report which boils down, for purposes of the ongoing presidential campaign, to two paragraphs that completely contradict one another. And the one of them that's unfavorable ignores the most important — indeed conclusive — evidence on point, but goes on to provide Branchflower's guess as to whether Gov. Palin has done anything improper.

Please understand this, if you take nothing else away from reading this post: The Branchflower Report is a series of guess and insupportable conclusions drawn by exactly one guy, and it hasn't been approved or adopted or endorsed by so much as a single sub-committee of the Alaska Legislature, much less any kind of commission, court, jury, or other proper adjudicatory body. It contains no new bombshells in terms of factual revelations. Rather, it's just Steve Branchflower's opinion — after being hired and directed by one of Gov. Palin's most vocal opponents and one of Alaska's staunchest Obama supporters — that he thinks Gov. Palin had, at worst, mixed motives for an action that even Branchflower admits she unquestionably had both (a) the complete right to perform and (b) other very good reasons to perform.

All that work, and they get this. At least they get a few headlines out of it.

This Is Why We Love Her

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvGI2pTDcvw

From Jim Treacher...

Some possible questions from Gwen Ifill, so totally not invested in Barack Obama's victory and impartial moderator of Thursdays Veep Debate:

http://jimtreacher.com/archives/001643.html

I Note that Matt Damon...

...A guy who once did a movie about being a Siamese Twin...says that Sarah Palin's candidacy is like 'a bad Disney movie.'

Really? 'Cause I never caught the Geena Davis show. Did it suck as bad as people said?

What An Awesome Story

Pictures included. Touching stuff.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_090908/content/01125113.guest.html

Ah, Front Page News

It seems that Sarah Palin spent too much money while Governor of Alaska. How do I know? The WaPo says so. She spent $122,970 in travel expenses in her first nine months. Extrapolated to a year, it ends up being $164,000 or so.

Frank Murkowski spent, during his term, $525K, $255K, $217K, and $275K. Tony Knowles, his Democrat predecessor, spent $278K and $210K in his last two years in office.

She's really fleecin' 'em, huh?

With a Big Doff O' The Cap...

I link to you Conservative Belle, who chimes in with zingers to Jamie Franks Jr.:

http://conservativebelle.blogspot.com/

Its amazing how in a week Obama and his surrogates have taken to comparing a VP candidate to their standard-bearer and Messiah. John McCain's qualifications are now unassailable.

Dare I say it: Mission Accomplished.

Not To Be Outdone...

Joe Biden yesterday suggested prosecuting the Bush administration for its crimes.

I love Joe Biden's mouth. It's almost as fun as that of one Jamie Franks Jr.

I Am In Awe of Sarah Palin.

You, ma'am, are made of awesome.

You Burn 'Em Rudy

"If I were Joe Biden, I'd get that VP thing in writing."

Nobody else could give this speech except a New Yorker. He's tearing it up.

EDIT: "I have some advice for Senator Obama. Next time, call John McCain."

EDITED AGAIN: I am now ready to go eat nails. Good work, Rudy. Now comes the lady herself...

You Know the Media Coverage is Bad...

When a cokehead of questionable sexuality notices it:

"I think the real problem comes from the fact that we are taking the focus off of getting to know Sarah Palin and her political views, and what she can do to make our country a less destructive place," Lohan writes. "It's distracting from the real issues, the real everyday problems that this country experiences."

Were that we all as wise as Lindsay Lohan.

The Scumbag Checklist

The List May or May Not Be Complete

1) Start rumor about a baby with Down Syndrome? Check.

2) Make fun of a pregnant teenager? Check.

3) Release a person's Social Security number? Check.

http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/sep/02/breaking-democrats-release-sarah-palins-soc/

I fully expect an Obama complete denial in 3, 2, 1...

Let Me Get This Straight (Part Next)

Barry Messiah was a member of a black nationalist church for 20 years. During that time he gave thousands of dollars to this church, where the pastor asked God to "damn America," called this country "the United States of KKK," referred to Italians as "garlic noses," and said 9/11 was "chickens coming home to roost." These, of course, are just the greatest hits of Trinity United Church of Christ.

None of this, I have been told, is relevant to whether or not he is fit to be president.

Sarah Palin sent a video address to a bunch of goofball types in Alaska and it is supposed to be a huge controversy.

Nope, no media bias here. Its just strange to me that the Palin family has recieved more scrutiny in the last half-week than Barry Messiah has in the last year.

Let Me Get This Straight

Obsecenely Wealthy Presidential Candidate Knocks Up Campaign Staffer While Wife Fights Cancer, Gives Her Hush Money, Visits Her and Child In Ritzy Hotel, Skirts Her Off to Virgin Islands (resist...urge...to...make...joke...), His Buddy Claims Fatherhood:

Not a story.

Vice-Presidential Candidates Daughter Pregnant, Will Keep Child and Marry Boyfriend:

Three stories on the front page of the New York Times.

It makes perfect sense. In Bizarro World.

Bill Kristol looks like he wants to Punch Mort Kondracke

I love it. I do too. You're a better man than me, Bill.

How Will We Ever Compete?

Surely we cannot stand up to the one-two punch of the Most Smarterest Men in the World? (Just ask them!)

Let me go on record as suggesting a time limit for Biden at the VP debate.

Don't Hold Your Breath

While the Obamessiah is having his photo taken around the world and ignoring the man who designed our counter-insurgency strategy, and buffing up his foreign policy credentials by giving a speech or two (not to mention giving a speech in front of a monument to Prussian militarism), some have speculated that this would be the week that Senator McCain would name his running mate. Hate to break it to you, folks: It ain't happening this week.

You don't vet a candidate in a week. George McGovern didn't vet Tom Eagleton, and look where that got him (okay, it was his utopianism and dovishness that lost him the election, not his veep choices). And with McCain's negatives-let's face it, he's never going to be most people's favorite Republican-he doesn't need a similar episode. And while I'm sure most of the guys in the running haven't got electro-shock therapy in their pasts like Eagleton, their does need to be a weighing of the strengths of each of them. First, let's eliminate some of them.

Bobby Jindal is too young (though let's face it-he's more accomplished than the Democratic nominee, and he's what, nine years younger?) and frankly he's the next star of the party, but he's been in office a short time and Louisiana needs its reformist governor in the worst way. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a new mother of a son with special needs (and she's a better basketball player than Barry Messiah, too). They do bring youth to the equation but frankly, they'd be a nice tandem in a future election. The same with Eric Cantor, the Virginia rep.

Who are some bad candidates? Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Joe Lieberman, and maybe Charlie Crist. Each of them is too in lock-step with McCain, and frankly the idea should be to maximize the base turnout, not turn them off. Which makes me wonder if they won't be the pick. Ugh. An open-borders guy, a guy to the left of Jamie Franks on economics, a hawkish liberal, and a squish. Color me unimpressed.

From the crank files, Condi Rice, Tom Ridge and Colin Powell. Yeah, they all bring something to the table-a big negative from the Bush years. While Ridge has the least negatives and might be good for bringing PA into play, he's to the left on abortion. Rule one for Johnny Mac: Don't antagonize the base. Since all three are to the left of Mac on the issue, rule 'em out.

The serious candidates should be Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, former Rep. John Kasich of Ohio, and, yeah Mitt Romney. The big issue is the economy, and that's where Kasich and Romney separate themselves for me. Both of them understand it and give it more concern than Mac. Kasich was a budget guy in Congress and Romney has the reputation of fixing things. Yeah, Romney's a new convert on abortion, but since when did we stop accepting converts? If we didn't accept people converting to conservative positions, Ronald Reagan would have been a man without a party.

They both could speak more effectively and definitively on economic realities than Obama, whose main subject interest, Charles Krouthammer noted in is recent column, is Barack Obama. And unless he chooses Robert Rubin as his Veep candidate (not gonna happen-while liberal, Rubin's too much a free trader for Obama), his running mate would be at a distinct disadvantage, much like lightweight John Edwards was to Cheney.

Don't discount geography, either-Kasich is from Ohio, and Romney's father was governor of Michigan. I think they're both strong candidates who bring a lot of positives to the table on an issue McCain admittedly isn't an expert on. Jim Geraghty has thrown Carly Fiorina's name in for the same reason. Whoever he picks, Johnny Mac doesn't have to do it this week. This week is for Obama's attempt to make himself credible on an issue that McCain has sewn up. Let him make his gaffes-Geraghty has a good list going so far.

But it better be good.