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On the Fannie/Freddie/CRA Myth Posted by tgirsch

Slate has a good rundown of why Fannie and Freddie are symptoms of the current financial meltdown, not the cause.To borrow from publius’ summation: essentially, “it’s not risky to lend to minority families, it’s risky to lend to rich white people.”Taste the snark:I await the Krauthammer column in which he points out the specific provision of the Community Reinvestment Act that forced Bear Stearns to run with an absurd leverage ratio of 33 to 1, which instructed Bear Stearns hedge-fund managers to blow up hundreds of millions of their clients’ money, and that required its septuagenarian CEO to play bridge while his company ran into trouble. Perhaps Neil Cavuto knows which CRA clause required Lehman Bros. to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars in short-term debt in the capital markets and then buy tens of billions of dollars of commercial real estate at the top of the market. I can’t find it. Did AIG plunge into the credit-default-swaps business with abandon because Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now members picketed its offices? Please. How about the hundreds of billions of dollars of leveraged loans—loans banks committed to private-equity firms that wanted to conduct leveraged buyouts of retailers, restaurant companies, and industrial firms? Many of those are going bad now, too. Is that Bill Clinton’s fault?Crossed everywhere. October 10th, 2008 | Economics, News & Current Events | one comment

Why the Ayers Attacks Won’t Work Posted by tgirsch

So as I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere, it seems that McCain’s latest tactic is to try to hit Obama for his past association with William Ayers. I can understand why McCain wants to attack Obama, but I really don’t expect this to work. To explain, I’m going to crib heavily off Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book The Tipping Point.In order for the Ayers allegations to “tip” and become widely accepted and talked about, according to Gladwell, there are three aspects that need to be met:The Law of the Few: Ideas and other social phenomena are largely spread by a very few people.The Stickiness Factor: Whether or not something like this takes off depends on how “sticky” it is.The Power of Context: Any idea won’t “tip” unless the context — social, political, geographic, or otherwise — is ripe for it to do so.I think the Ayers allegations will fail to “tip” because they fail to meet at least the last two of those three criteria.For starters, the idea just plain isn’t sticky. Despite the McCain camp’s attempts to paint Obama as an unknown commodity, he’s been in the news almost constantly for the last two years, and he showed up on the public’s radar as early as 2004. Thus, he’s pretty well known by the general public, at least as well as dozens of other political household names. By now, most people — even undecideds — have already formed a lot of opinions about him, so attempts to redefine him in the eyes of the general public are going to be very difficult to pull off, unless they fit in with those already-formed opinions. Along that vein, even if the association with Ayers were deeper than appears to be on the surface, to the casual observer it just won’t make sense. When Obama gives speeches in public or appears in debates, he just doesn’t come across to most people as some kind of anti-American radical. If there’s a problem with Obama’s demeanor, it’s that he’s level to the point of being almost boring. The context just isn’t there. To convince the general public that Obama “pals around with domestic terrorists,” they’re going to need a hell of a lot more evidence than what they have right now, and/or a serious assist (e.g., misstep) by Obama. I don’t expect they’re going to get either one. And almost as importantly, raise your hand if you had even heard of William Ayers before this hubbub hit the first time around. I know I didn’t (I was only vaguely aware of the Weather Underground), and I suspect that’s true of most Americans.And that “first time around” bit brings up another, even simpler way to know that the Ayers ploy isn’t going to work. It’s been tried already, by Hillary Clinton, and it has already failed. So in addition to not having much traction, it’s already yesterday’s news.Now contrast that against some of the allegations made against John Kerry in 2004: that he was a “flip flopper” and a “war criminal.” Those smears stuck, because the context was already there for them to stick, and because Kerry himself helped make them stick. With respect to the “war criminal” allegation, there was already a good deal of resentment against Kerry, particularly among veterans, left over from his Winter Soldiers testimony and his activities with Vietnam Veterans Against the War. You had a ready-made army of foot soldiers out there willing to spread the message. And, of course, on the flip-flopper side, there was the infamous “I actually did vote for [it] before I voted against it” gaffe. Serious people, and anyone who knows how Congress works, knew what he meant, but he gave his detractors the perfect ammunition to make that attack stick. I just don’t see Obama making a similar mistake, and I don’t see that the context is already there among undecideds to make these attacks against him stick.I expect that attacks over Reverend Wright would gain a bit more traction, but still would ultimately prove unsuccessful because, as mentioned above, it just doesn’t “fit.” To anybody who’s heard Obama’s speeches and seen him in the debates, he just doesn’t come across as a racist, anti-American radical. Guilt-by-associaton attacks really only work when the associations make sense to people, and to most, Obama seems nothing at all like the type of person who ascribes to the more fiery sermons of Rev. Wright.Now that’s not to say that nobody’s going to buy into this stuff. Of course some will. But the overwhelming majority of those already weren’t going to vote for Obama under any circumstances anyway. So I just don’t see how this is going to help McCain. At this point, among the majority of Americans, he’s not going to be able to make it stick, and he’s just going to look desperate. 1f88 October 9th, 2008 | Politics | 10 comments

Enough of This Election Crap Posted by tgirsch

It’s hockey season, dammit, and the Leafs spoiled the Red Wings’ home opener. The Leafs are supposed to be in a down, rebuilding year, but they really took it to the Wings tonight. They were really aggressive, and never did the annoying “sit back and protect the lead” thing they were so famous for over the last two years.Of course, it’s only one game, and if not for an outstanding performance by Toskala in net, the Wings probably win by three. But still, it’s nice to see the Leafs actually beat a quality team, and to do so with more than just luck. Here’s hoping they continue to surprise.Tomorrow, it’s Kevin’s turn, and from the way all the analysts were singing the Blackhawks’ praises tonight, I fully expect them to be doomed.

(Oh, and the Phillies beat the Dodgers, but baseball was so last week…) October 9th, 2008 | Sports, NHL | 9 comments

Good Point Posted by KTK

Josh Marshall connects the dots:Seems like almost every day now there’s a McCain-Palin rally where the campaign has the candidates introduced by someone who hits on “Barack Hussein Obama”. . . . After the fifth or sixth time you pretty much know [it’s] on the orders of the campaign. It is obviously with tacit approval (to believe anything else is to be a dupe at this point); and quite probably on the campaign’s specific instructions.Given the regularity of the cries of “treason” and “terrorist” and the like, and the frequency with which the screamers seem in oddly convenient proximity to the mics, we should probably be considering the possibly that these folks are campaign plants. It happens all the time. It’s just that usually they don’t scream out accusations of capital crimes.(Or incitement to capital crimes. One of the recent shouters was quoted screaming “Kill him!”] October 8th, 2008 | General, Politics, Religion, News & Current Events | no comments

That One Posted by tgirsch

This didn’t take long, now, did it?UPDATE: As quickly as it went up, it came back down. Image is still visible here, and I’ll also post below:

October 8th, 2008 | Politics, Humor | no comments

NPR Fact-Checks the Debate Posted by 2171 tgirsch

Nothing new here, really, but worth checking out anyway. October 8th, 2008 | Politics | no comments

Patriotism That Matters Posted by KTK

Holy crap! Who’s been putting what in Tom Friedman’s Wheaties?After years of self-congratulatory “big idea” drivel and smug sooth-saying, I’ve noticed that Friedman seems to have been returning to real, thought-out, argumentative analysis lately. And today he apparently woke up with whatever strange, crippling monkey he’s been carrying around all this time finally off his back and decided to take a full cut at the ol’ pill, one time. He starts by treating Sarah Palin like a big fat teeball, but that’s just a warm-up swing. By the time he gets around to how taxes “buy civilization”, and whose interests, exactly, are served by the GOP continually stoking our oil addiction, he’s fucking Babe Ruth.Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But . . . there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.” . . .[P]utting the country in the position where a total novice like Sarah Palin could be asked to steer us through possibly the most serious economic crisis of our lives is flat out reckless. It is the opposite of conservative. And please don’t tell me she will hire smart advisers. What happens when her two smartest advisers disagree? And please also don’t tell me she is an “energy expert.” She is an energy expert exactly the same way the king of Saudi Arabia is an energy expert — by accident of residence. . . .At least the king of Saudi Arabia, in advocating “drill baby drill,” is serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil. My problem with Palin is that she is also serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil.Damn. I haven’t heard such a clear or uncompromising statement about what taxes are for since I can remember. And selling America to China and Saudi Arabia? About time someone said it.He hit that one out of the park. Hope somebody notices. October 8th, 2008 | General, Politics, Economics, Culture, News & Current Events, Taxes, Foreign Policy, Energy | 4 comments

Debate Thoughts Posted by Kevin

Nothing earth shattering came out of this. Obama probably had a small win, but McCain certainly did nothing to help himself.“That one”? McCain really, really holds Obama in contempt.McCain’s plan to buy mortgages was an interesting moments in that 1)it is already in the bailout package and 2) it is a pretty clear signal that the Reagan Revolution/Washington Consensus model of economics is dead.Obama and McCain both had effective closings, but aside from that Obama was clearly the better person on stage. He answered more of the questions and was better at tying his answers into the larget theme of what his presidency would be like.McCain is not funny and he should no try to be — it really comes off false.Brokaw mostly sucked. He tried too much to keep them on schedule instead of using their obvious willingness to ctualy debate each other to try and lead the debate inot interesting territory. The questions he chose were re-hashes of the ones at the last debate and he too often used right wing frames in his questioning and follow ups. He did almost nothing to drag the candidates back ont the questions asked, either. At east he didn;t sneak in any McCain Ayrs talking points in the form of questions.Obama stating that health care was a right warmed this liberal heat. It is reassuring in the face of his cautious approach to heath care reform.The format was terrible. Can we please, please, please have a real debate sometime before the Cubs win a World Series? 2c64 October 8th, 2008 | General, Politics | no comments

Presidential Debate #2: Initial Thoughts Posted by tgirsch

I’m a little behind, but just finished watching tonight’s debate on TiVo. I think you’ve got to score this one as a win for Senator Obama. Not a blowout by any stretch of the imagination, but still a win. His demeanor was calm, and while not particularly charismatic, he didn’t come across as unlikable or too professorial, I don’t think. Senator McCain, on the other hand, seemed antsy, and at times a little crabby. And on TV, he just looked old — that shouldn’t be an issue (at least, it wouldn’t be as big an issue if not for his VP pick), but it is one. Further, I did catch a little of the debate on the radio while I was out running an errand, and McCain managed to come across worse on radio than on TV.On substance, this is going to sound contradictory, but bear with me. Obama was more substantive, but didn’t always answer the question that was being asked of him. McCain was more likely to answer the question, but he almost always did so in vague terms. (Saying “I know how to do this” may be reassuring to people who already support you, but shoring up your base isn’t going to help you very much at this juncture.) Contrast this against the VP debate, where Biden was generally both substantive and on point, whereas Palin was generally off-topic and vague.Finally, I think McCain overused the “my friends” bit, and I think it wore a little thin. I wonder if I’m alone in this regard.McCain needed a game-changer here, and he didn’t get it. Because of that, a tie here equals a win for Obama. But as I said above, I think Obama won outright, even if not overwhelmingly. That can’t be good news for the McCain camp.But none of that, I think is the big story. The big story is the town hall format. It’s one of those things that looks like a good idea on paper, but never really works. One of the biggest problems was that there simply wasn’t enough time for the candidates to really address the questions in any kind of detail — they had to get in a few talking points, and then they were already over their time and had to move on. (I suspect this is a problem with the format — they went for quantity of questions rather than quality of answers.) But I think the biggest problem here was Brokaw. As a moderator, he was terrible. He seemed hostile to both candidates, and was just too in love with the rules. Here’s a hint, Tom: When both candidates are having a substantive discussion about an important issue, and both of them want to continue, FUCK THE RULES — let them continue to discuss. I don’t care what both campaigns pre-agreed to; both candidates — present there, right in front of you — clearly wanted to keep talking about it, and they hadn’t gotten repetitive or overly personal. Health care and mandates, I think, was a premier example of this. Both candidates had interesting things to say, even if you didn’t agree with them, and the discourse was well above the level of basic mudslinging and repeated talking points — and Brokaw cut them off. That’s inexcusable.OK, enough of my ranting. Give me your thoughts.Cross-posted at Tennesseefree October 7th, 2008 | Politics | one comment

VP Debate Posted by tgirsch

In case you missed it: October 7th, 2008 | Politics, Satire, Humor | one comment

Fun While It Lasted Posted by tgirsch

I’m late with this, but as you know, my team (the Brewers) and Kevin’s team (the White Sox) have been eliminated.I’ll let Kevin handle the Sox, but the Brewers’ demise didn’t go down quite how I expected it to. With the exception of a subpar outing by Sabathia (which really amounted to one bad inning) and a terrible outing by Suppan (which Brewers fans have come to expect), the pitching wasn’t the problem. The much-maligned Brewers bullpen only allowed one run in four games. The problem, as it so often was during the regular season, was lack of hitting, especially with runners in scoring position. During the regular season, they were 29th in the league in that category, and this series was no different.Defensive errors squandered a great outing by Yovani Gallardo (who, in my opinion, should have been the game 4 starter for Milwaukee) — 0 ER in 4 innings of work, with three runs thanks to an error by Rickie Weeks, and another should-have-been-an-error by Mike Cameron. But despite all of this, the Brewers had chances to tie or go ahead late in two of the three games they lost, thanks in large part to the fact that the Phillies also forgot how to hit in that series (excepting game 4).One more nit: Though it didn’t impact the outcome of the game, and though the umps got the call right according to the current rules, I think the rules should be changed so that “catches” like Corey Hart’s spectacular almost-catch from Game 3 would actually be ruled as a catch, and an out. If you didn’t see it, Hart caught the ball as he crashed full-speed into the outfield wall; he bounced off the wall, landed on his back, and rolled over; the ball popped out of his glove just as he was completing the roll, a good second after he made the catch. (The rules currently stipulate that the catch isn’t legal until you remove the ball from your glove with the other hand, no matter how long you hold on. You could die, with the ball tightly clutched in your glove and rigor mortis setting in, and the catch currently wouldn’t be legal.)My “A-Rod October Disappearing Act” award goes to Prince Fielder, who was just 1-for-14 with 5 strikeouts, 2 RBI (one on a sac fly), and one homer (after it was two late to matter) in the series. He walked twice, but both of those were intentional. The bright spot for the Brewers offensively was J.J. Hardy: 6-for-14 (.429), 2 RBI, 2 runs, and an OPS of 1.000. (Relief pitcher Carlos Villanueva put up a sick 2.000 OPS, but he singled in his only at-bat, so it’s nowhere near as impressive as it looks on paper.)At this point, I have to set aside my hatred for all things Philadelphia (except the cheesesteak!) and root for the Phillies to go all the way (sorry, Ted), for two reasons:I can say that at least the Brewers lost to the eventual World Series championThe Uncle I lost to cancer this year was a Phillies fan, so it’d be a nice way to honor his memory in some small way.Finally, the “rub it in” statistic of the day: Over the last five seasons (2004-present), nineteen of MLB’s thirty teams have qualified for the playoffs. Eighteen of those nineteen have won at least one game. The nineteenth? The Chicago Cubs, who couldn’t win even a single playoff game this year, despite having the NL’s best regular-season record, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. (If the Angels are any indication, having the best regular-season record really doesn’t count for much.) 2de5 October 7th, 2008 | Sports, MLB/MiLB | no comments

Due Process and Standards of Proof Posted by KTK

Eugene Volokh, of the eponymous Volokh Conspiracy - an excellent, slightly-right-of-center law blog - points out an interesting aspect of last week’s conviction in the O.J. Simpson kidnapping/robbery trial. Now that O.J. has been convicted, of course he will have to be sentenced, and the range of possible sentences runs from 15 years in jail to life. The actual sentence he receives, and his eligibility for parole, depend upon the judge’s discretion moderated by various sentencing factors the judge is allowed or required to take into account.The question here is what aspects of Simpson’s past may be held as relevant in determining the sentence for his current conviction. Technically, Simpson is a first-time offender - he has never been convicted on any criminal charges. He is also a double murderer, however, as determined by court of law in the civil trial that followed his acquittal on criminal charges in the same case. So, may the court take his prior violent acts into account in sentencing for his recent crime - itself involving weapons and threats of violence - or must it treat him as having a clean slate on the grounds that he was not legally convicted on criminal charges? October 6th, 2008 | General, Legal Issues, Culture, News & Current Events | no comments

Noted Without Further Comment Posted by tgirsch

Fred at slacktivist lays down some serious smack over Gov. Palin’s recent Ayers attacks, and about Palin in general. Go forth and read. October 6th, 2008 | Politics, Smackdown! | no comments

Three Generations of Imbeciles is Enough Posted by KTK

Omaha is becoming a major battleground. As the most urban district of Nebraska, it’s still in play even though the state overall is traditionally red. And Nebraska is one of only two states that split their Electoral College votes by district, so if Obama wins just Omaha, he’ll get one of Nebraska’s five EC votes and cut McCain’s EC advantage there from a five-vote margin to a three-vote margin. It’s important enough that Obama has opened two full-time campaign staff offices in that one district, and Palin showed up there to campaign personally yesterday.All of which is politics as usual, until you let Sarah Palin open her mouth. Then . . . weird things happen.Sarah Palin said at a hastily scheduled Sunday night rally in this solidly red state that the decision to come here was hers alone and was not the defensive move by her campaign to lock up Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District that many pundits have suggested. “The pundits today on TV—one of them was saying, check out the vice president’s schedule, check out where she’s going — she’s going to Nebraska,” Palin said. “But the pundit was saying the only reason she’d be going there is ‘cause they’re scared, so they gotta go there and shore up votes. And I so wanted to reach into that TV and say no, I’m going to Nebraska because I want to go to Nebraska.”Nebraska is one of only two states that splits its Electoral College votes, and the Obama campaign is making a serious play for the solidly-Republican 2nd Congressional District, which is represented by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. But Palin suggested that the obvious political ramifications had nothing to do with her decision to come here. “And you can ask — and probably the reporters will ask — the top dogs in our campaign why am I in Nebraska, and it’s truly because I asked to come to the heartland of America today,” she said.Now . . . what the fuck goes through her head?First of all, it’s obvious that this is a huge, transparent, stupid, and unnecessary lie. Of course she’s in Omaha to shore up their standing in the polls there. And she should be doing exactly that, by the perfectly ordinary logic of tactical campaigning. Nobody would question her being there.But for some reason she felt it was necessary to deny that she was campaigning in a battleground district in order to get votes. In fact, she went out of her way to call an unscheduled press conference to announce that she had gone off on a flyer in the last 30 days of the race, against the advice of her own campaign apparatus, for no purposeful reason at all. (And, apparently, she expects us to believe that her campaign managers didn’t want her to campaign in Nebraska, and tried to talk her out of it when she chose to do so.)Now, nobody in the world believes that. But what’s mind-boggling is that she felt the need to say it. She wants us to think that she’s conducting her vice-presidential campaign like a complete idiot? The idea that she runs her campaign on quirky flights of whim, without regard to any overall strategy or the practical effect of her actions in regard of obtaining her final goals, is supposed to make us like her more as a candidate for the highest offices in the nation?If in fact she is doing what she says she is doing, she’s an idiot. If, instead, she actually is campaigning in Omaha strategically and for a reason, then she’s a liar. And to top it off, she could have avoided being either of those by just going ahead and campaigning there, without making up some stupid lie about it, like any normal person would have. So I ask again, what goes through that bizarre pea-brain of hers?And: “I so wanted to reach into that TV”? What could that mean? “I wanted to go on that TV show . . .”? “I wanted to reach that TV audience . . .”? “I wanted to reach beyond the barrier of TV . . .”? Who knows?When George Bush speaks, you have to guess what his sentences might mean if he actually spoke English. But when Sarah Palin speaks, you have to make up things that her sentences might mean if they meant anything at all.Step by step, the GOP has incrementally lowered the bar of Presidential-level competency below existing expectations. Again and again they have nominated candidates whose intellectual capacity and coherence of thought would previously have rendered them unqualified by a large margin. Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin: the GOP has become the party of electoral Kallikaks. Three generations of imbeciles is enough.UPDATE: I forgot to mention: she calls herself the Vice President, now? So, when does the howling about “arrogance” and “the annointed one” begin, as we heard from the right wing when Obama dared to simply use a campaign logo resembling the Presidential Seal? Surely actually declaring yourself to be the officeholder before the election is even held is worth several times as much sarcasm and verbal abuse, right? We can expect to hear it any day now, right? Because the right wing really believes what it says, and campaigns on issues and principles they sincerely care about. Right. 1f4d October 6th, 2008 | General, Politics, Legal Issues, Culture, Media, News & Current Events, Fiasco | 3 comments

You May Not Be Registered To Vote if You Live in Memphis or Shelby County Posted by Kevin

If you registered at a public event or through a registration drive in Shelby County, you may not be registered at all:Several Mid-South groups that held voter registration drives asked registrants for only the last four digits of their social security numbers. But O.C. Pleasant with the Election Commission says all nine digits are required to be registered in Tennessee.“We’re going to reject those without the full social security number. They will have the opportunity based on law to correct, and have until five days before the election to do that.”Those who did not give out their full social security number during registration should keep an eye on the mailbox for a letter allowing them to correct that information.The article does not say, but you may be allowed to fix this at the normal registration locations. This link has a list of the kinds of offices that register people. October 5th, 2008 | General | no comments

Congratulations to the Cubs Posted by tgirsch

On reaching the 100 year milestone.No matter what happens from this point forward, Kevin and I are happy, because the Cubs were eliminated before the White Sox and Brewers were. And I’m extra happy, because no matter what else happens, the Brewers won more playoff games — and were more competitive in the games they lost — than the Cubs.Is it wrong to take pleasure in someone else’s misery? Eh, screw ‘em. The Cubs fans have been jerks all year… October 5th, 2008 | Sports, MLB/MiLB | one comment

An Apology to All Women Posted by Kevin

On behalf of men everywhere, I would like to apologize to all women everywhere for this:A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It’s one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O’Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.I promise that the vast majority of men are capable of seeing women in positions of power as something other than outlets for thier long repressed and apparently stalker-creepy sexual fantasies. Honestly. I swear. October 3rd, 2008 | General | 8 comments 1f4b

This One’s For Digg Posted by tgirsch

Bwah!Although I think they need to redo it with Bernie Brewer… October 3rd, 2008 | Sports, MLB/MiLB, Humor | one comment

The Senator and the Talking Point Robot Posted by Kevin

I don’t know who won the debate, or at least I don’t know how the press is going to play it and how that is going to affect the eventual common wisdom (Biden did win all of the post-debate pols, but so did Al Gore after the first debate in 2000. It wasn’t until after the press and SNL got through with him that he”lost”). But I do know a couple of things. First, that cutesy “I am just a regular joe six pack look at me wink at you!” nonsense Palin reveled in was a real turn off for me. And it infuriated my wife. She said she was reminded her of every woman she had ever met who tried to impress the men around her with her boobs instead of her brain. If the little dial things at the bottom of CNN’s screen were any indication, my wife was not alone. Time and time again, the women’s line plunged when Palin went into her “little ol’ me?” routine.Second, I really think Palin is a bad person. I know, I know, I don’t know the women, how could I? But she entered a national media campaign knowing that her teenage daughter was pregnant and knowing that said teenager daughter would inevitably get the tabloid treatment. Then she used her pregnant daughter and her boyfriend as political props leading up to the campaign. It left a very bad taste in my mouth. But last night was just atrocious. It was bad enough that she implied that only she among the people on the stage could understand the struggles of parenthood. But happened next was worse. When a visibly emotional Biden reminded her that he had lost his wife and very nearly lost his two very young sons, he teared up for a moment and had to fight to bring himself back under control. It was a raw, honest look at the horror Biden and gone through. Biden has lived every parent worse nightmare and I doubt there is a parent in the world whose heart didn’t break a little bit for him. Except, apparently, Sarah Palin’s.She said nothing humane to Biden after that moment, She didn’t offer condolences for his loss. She didn’t express sympathy for his pain. She didn’t mention the admiration most parents would have for how well he raised his sons under difficult circumstances. She didn’t even really pause before she gave her answer. Her very next words were “People aren’t looking for more of the same. They are looking for change. And John McCain has been the consummate maverick in the Senate over all these years.” It was a disgusting, inhuman response, fit for a robot but not a parent. It was performance worthy of contempt.All of that is subjective, of course, but it also highlights the substantive difference between the two. Sarah Palin was so desperate to stick to her talking points that she couldn’t respond as a real person to a very genuine and very human moment. She was like that the entire night. She hardly ever answered the questions that were asked of her. If she did not have a talking point ready at hand for the question she would pivot back to one (usually, for some odd reason, ‘energy’) whether or not it had anything to do with the question at hand. All politicians do this to some extent, of course. They want to fit the debate questions into the over-arching theme of their campaign. But I cannot remember the last time I saw a politician do nothing but spout talking points with such an open disregard for the content of the question. Usually a politician will address the point of the question and then use that answer to pivot iot the areas they want to talk about (Biden’s answer about what would have to be sacrificed in the face of the economic bailout was a good example of this). But Sarah Palin very often couldn’t be bothered to even pretend that she was answering the question. She just barreled past the question, the context of the question and the reasonable expectation that she spend at least a second or two on the matter at hand and dove right into the talking points. At one point she even bragged about her flat refusal to answer the given question, saying “And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear”. She was a broken robot, unable to do anything other than repeat the same stock phrases over and over again.Biden, on the other hand, answered the questions. He engaged with the details, he reacted to Palin’s answers and Iful’s follow ups. Yes, he tried to weave the questions into the larger Obama-Biden story, but he did so by demonstrating how the questions lead to the conclusions that he and Obama had come to. Unlike Palin, you got the sense that Biden was engaged and thinking, not just reaching for the next talking point to spew. And that is why Biden won the debate, at least in my mind; He sounded like an adult ready for the difficult years ahead. Palin sounded like a parody of a beauty contest pagent, determined to slip that “world peace” answer in somewhere, dammit. I’ve had enough of the White House being run by parodies of grown ups. It time to let the adults back in, and there was only one adult up on that stage yesterday. October 3rd, 2008 | General | 3 comments

VP Debate Thoughts Posted by tgirsch

I made no secret of the fact that I thought the first presidential debate was roughly a tie. This one, however, wasn’t even close. Biden moidelized Palin tonight. There will doubtless be some who think that by virtue of not making a complete ass of herself, Palin chalked up a “win” of sorts; and that by relying on folksy charm rather than substance (say, does that remind you of anyone), she endeared herself to voters. I don’t think it’s going to work, however. Her performance tonight will reassure the base, and probably strengthen her support there, but I really don’t think it’s going to win many swing votes. Swing votes are what McCain needs right now. For Biden’s part, he was good on substance, he didn’t sound professorial, and didn’t have any classic Biden gaffes, so my fears there were allayed. I think a solid win for Biden.As for why there weren’t any embarrassing moments for Palin tonight, I think TPM has it right: No follow-up questions. Not only were there not any follow ups (which is where Palin generally tripped up with Gibson and Couric); Ifill didn’t even really push Palin to stay on topic at all. I think Publius may be on to something when he suggests that the right-wing got into Ifill’s head with the conflict of interest stuff.Finally, I have to point this out: On Palin’s global warming answer, I laughed hysterically, because I recognized exactly what she was doing. She was bullshitting. How did I recognize it? Because it’s precisely how I got through essay tests in high school and much of college — saying the same thing over again but different ways three or four different times, repeating the question in the form of a statement, tossing out substantive-sounding terms without actually treading so close to substance that you can be held to your statements — these are all the marks of a gifted bullshitter (if I do say so myself).Your thoughts? Otherwise, open thread.P.S. She said “NUKE-you-lur” at least four times. For the love of Pete, please not four more years of NUKE-you-lur. October 2nd, 2008 | Politics | 5 comments — Next Page »

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