I find this rather depressing.
McCain camp manager Rick Davis on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” spent most of the segment arguing about press coverage of Palin, downplayed Palin’s need to do interviews with the press. Dismissed reports that people within the campaign told McCain he couldn’t pick Lieberman for veep.
The McCain campaign is literally going to try to sell Sarah Palin as a credible president without letting the press talk to her. For example, this Sunday, Barack Obama will appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, John McCain with be on Face the Nation, and Joe Biden will be on Meet the Press. Sarah Palin will be reading briefing papers in Alaska. Her only appearance on television?
Fox News will air one-hour special documentary Saturday on Palin, interviewing her family, friends, colleagues.
Even Mark Halperin is mocking this campaign strategy. Ali has more.
It looks like Sarah Palin is going to be used more as a way to save congressional seats than any serious effort to win the presidency. Want evidence for that? John McCain cannot raise any more money for his presidential campaign because he is accepting public funding. So, why is Palin doing this?
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will appear at around 30 fund-raising events in the next two months leading up to Election Day – about one every two days on average, officials with Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign said today.
Where is that money going to go?
The money raised between now and Nov. 4 will go to the Republican National Committee and state parties, which can buy advertising and conduct get-out-the-vote activities to support the ticket.
Because McCain is accepting a public grant of $84.2 million to finance his general election bid, he is no longer allowed to raise funds for his campaign directly.
Money for the RNC and state parties will have a tangential beneficial effect for the top of the ticket, but the real beneficiaries are going to be politicians further down the ticket. A weak McCain-Romney ticket threatened to cause a wipe-out of Republicans in Congress and in state government. Palin will turn out the base in key Republican areas and she’ll raise a lot of dough. What she won’t do is run a normal campaign. She won’t be doing any media appearances except for fluff pieces. She’ll be doing a straight sprint…’30 fundraisers in 60 days’…to raise cash. That’s it. That’s what she’s for. There is a significant risk that this charade will collapse into an Epic Fail.
The strategy is an insult to every American. And then there are those scandals up in Alaska. Trust me on this…Alaska will supply bad news for Palin every single day of this campaign.
Why would it Epic Fail?
Rasmussen finds that people are loving her, and buying into the idea that attacks on her are unfair. I know they slant slightly Republican but even if you knock the numbers down a bit it’s nothing good except that Obama leads HER on the experience question which I suppose is better than being behind.
Look I’m sorry that I constantly concern troll your posts, but the numbers right now are not encouraging of Epic Fail.
the least meaningful data is that likeable/unlikeable stuff.
The fact that she is sequestered and will be limited to doing fundraisers is all the data you need to know she is in EPIC FAIL territory.
They are rolling the dice on this, surely. They’re confident that they no longer need the media to win this…after all they have Fox News.
But in all honesty BooMan all they have to do is repeat “the sexist liberal media is attacking poor Sarah Palin” and they win. Again. Already over half of America believes it.
If she smiles at a fundraiser and shows up to the VP debate, they win.
Go for McSame instead.
I don’t need to go after McCain. I need to counter the idea that Palin is a change candidate, a wholesome female warrior, and somehow qualified to be president. Palin is McCain’s greatest weakness and the Obama campaign isn’t going to touch it. That leaves us to do the job.
Fair enough. Somebody has to, surely.
how’s this for a counter to her “wholesome female warrior…nuturing mother” image. here’s palin’s favorite bloodsport: aerial slaughter:
and this video from gristmill:environmental news blog…The Truth About Aerial Hunting of Wolves in Alaska:
run them down, wound them with a shotgun, and then mutilate them…it’s called bounty hunting were l come from, and it damn sure ain’t sport.
palin’s an anti-intellectual, anti-science, pro oil, war, big business, reich wing, bloodthirsty fundamentalist; and l’m sure l left some out.
Good find! Now THIS is what we should be talking about when it comes to Palin. Even the few hunters I know think shooting from an airplane is disgusting and a slap in the face to all hunters.
Sarah Palin: marketing the slaughter of wild wolves from an airplane to rich out-of-staters. It doesn’t get more elitist than that.
I really think this is the one that could bring her down. What’s needed is explicit footage of the slaughter that doesn’t come from an “environmentalist” source. There should be lots around. Also unarguable proof of her involvement from non-partisan sources.
She’s doing a pretty good pretense so far of being a frontier environmentalist type. Remember how polar bears don’t need protection because here in Alaska we care about our environment? Now we’ll see in bloody detail exactly how much she cares. Except when it comes to money, of course.
l don’t think anything can “bring her down” among the fundie zealots, but this could hurt her big time with the nra types. their initial response has been euphoric:
l’m not an nra member but l’m a long-time wing-shooter, as well as trap and skeet shooting, so l come into contact with quite a few who are. certainly anecdotal evidence, but based on my experience and interactions with them, most of these guys are serious and conscientious sportsmen, and in their own way, environmentalists…with a few exceptions.
these kinds of activities are not looked upon with any respect…much like cheney and his canned hunts…and her support and promotion of them, will not go over well with them if it can be made a part of the dialog, and it has the potential to seriously erode some segment of that particular base.
certainly worthy of wider distribution.
I think it goes way wider than that. I’m thinking of a lot of suburban and small-town people who lean GOP but will be unable to vote for McCain after seeing this. Don’t forget that outside the loony base, McCain/Palin are going for the big content-free emotional binge to win over the soft-minded. In the sentimentality wars, this is a WMD to their .22. You’d have to be a borderline psycho to want to vote for her after seeing this.
.
(The Independent) Sept. 6, 2008 – Seen from the air, Sarah Palin’s state is an environmental wonderland. From Anchorage to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, there is a vast landscape of snow-capped peaks, fjords, crystal glaciers, coastal lagoons, wide river deltas and tundra.
The guardian of this wilderness – and Governor of Alaska – has, this week, become one of the most recognisable faces in the world. But behind her beaming smile and wholesome family values is a woman aligned with the big oil and coal firms that are racing to exploit Alaska’s vast energy reserves.
Governor Palin would also like to bring open-cast coal mining to Alaska’s Brooks Range Mountains, an act of environmental vandalism in the eyes of many.
The Palin administration has allowed Chevron to triple the amount of toxic waste it pours into the waters of Cook Inlet. This, even though the number of beluga whales in the bay has collapsed from 1,300 to 350 – the point of extinction – because of pollution and increased ship traffic.
On the Republican convention floor Palin said: “We Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas and take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: We’ve got lots of both.”
Alaskan village sues 24 energy firms for climate change
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — Palin’s Wildlife Policies, Guns and (Sex) Appeal ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I agree. if she looks like she’s hiding, it will not pass muster. the press will begin to smell blood.
meanwhile the alaska papers are starting to ask questions about trooper-gate, and wooten (the trooper) juist appeared on CNN.
drip drip drip, as they say.
I’ll give Sarah Plain this: she has significantly improved my mood. GOP scandals have a way of making me a smile, and Palin’s a cornucopia:
Troopergate; Dairygate; her possible affair; it’s OK for GOOPer teenagers to have children out of wedlock-gate; book-banning; ebay-gate.
Have I missed anything? It’s hard to keep up.
All we need now is for naked pictures to emerge.
OK, that was cruel.
…adding that Todd’s business partner’s emergency attempt to seal his divorce records just failed
Someone get the Jiffy Pop, this is going to be fun!
we’re taking the bait, playing into the distraction. The more focus on Palin, the more Obama-Biden is drowned out.
I think the John Bush camp should maintain this strategy.
Palin no Palin her past will soon catch up. The Alaska Legislature is on her tail – after her stonewalling and subpoenas. Sooner or later she’ll polarize.
People are not interested in beauty contests. The economy is facing a great depression. No exaggeration.
Joining with Greenspan who said the Fed is not everyone’s piggy bank, Paul Volcker today said the Finance System `Broken,’ Losses May Rise (Update1)
Now that’s depressing.
Which may be why they’ll turn to sappy smileyface marketing bullshit as an escape from reality. Worked for Reagan, worked for Hitler, among others.
Obama is in the fight of his life. Booman has too much confidence in the American public to understand anything beyond what they see on their local TVs. Public financing of presidential elections is another farce, given the 527 opening for anyone to castigate the opposition, Obama, daily, likewise on local TV.
I opened my pocket book today, but my feelings is that the election will go the way of Gore and Kerry, with another last minute reprieve, for McCain.
Marc Armbinder
Doesn’t Palin have to show up for the VP debates? Or have those been canceled?
Cancellation is the best way to remove the possibility that Biden will kill her off, thereby avoiding an opening for the feminists, even the residual Hillary voters still living in hate, to come to her rescue.
The underdog wins. It’s the American way.
Ifill is too kind…
The money raised between now and Nov. 4 will go to the Republican National Committee and state parties, which can buy advertising and conduct get-out-the-vote activities to support the ticket.
This is an end-run around the fact that McCain accepted public financing. That money will be used to push McCain/Palin to the limits that the law allows. Actually, since the FEC can’t get a quorum to review complaints, it will be pushed beyond the limit that the law allows. If McCain wins the election, it will be easy to pay off the fines that a fully-staffed FEC might (emphasis MIGHT) levy on him come next year. If McCain loses, well, it’s a gamble. Maybe he’ll need to sell a house or a pair of his wife’s earrings to pay the fine off instead.
And the GOTV stuff will be crucial for the Republicans this year because the Dems are running a mean GOTV machine.
So I don’t see this as a “I give up” move by McCain at all – this actually makes the pick make more sense than I thought a week ago.
(Keeping her out of the media spotlight might actually work – especially if they eventually let her out for a few softball interviews from Larry King or something. The scandals, on the other hand, may prove to be a different story.)
yes, all GOTV is beneficial but the problem is that she cannot emerge as a credible president if she hides in a cocoon for the duration of the campaign. What the GOTV does is to run up the score in Republican areas of the country. The risk with Romney was that the base would stay home and a bunch of downticket Republicans (normally in safe seats) would find themselves in jeopardy.
The Palin pick could end up as a total disaster in the Electoral College while at the same time limiting the downticket damage.
As an example, senate races in Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, just got a lot harder to win with this pick. But Obama was never going to win those states anyway.
When it comes to competitive states like Ohio, it’s important to turn out the base, but the base isn’t big enough this year and the election will be decided in Ohio among moderate suburbanites. Palin is deadly to McCain’s hopes there, particularly among pro-choice women. Suburbanites are also the chief consumers of high brow media and they don’t respect a candidate that is afraid to answer questions.
This is the most naked hunt for the dumbass vote I’ve ever seen, at least on the national stage. They’re counting on voters going for the Hallmark Moment and forgetting everything about issues, character, and credibility. They’re basically going all in on playing presidential politics as American Idol.
It’s become clear now that that was the game plan all along and Palin, or somebody like her, was the inevitable choice. Look at McCain’s campaign: all weepy hokum about his suffering and his barroom patriotism, coupled with hate attacks on “elitist liberals” and the rest, total conversion to the whiny theocrat right, and a small and transient sprinkling of vague references to policy. Palin ramps up the sentimental showbiz while she broadens the hate attacks to include environmentalists, science, gays, advocates of reproductive liberty, poor people, the well-educated, and of course “liberal elitists”. For that, she doesn’t need media interviews that she doesn’t control. They would just distract from the pre-adolescent appeal they are building out of second-hand emotion and wishful thinking.
Suddenly the campaign plan all falls neatly into place. I wish I felt surer that it couldn’t work, but Red Bull Gives You Wings.
OK, finally got through on Alaska.gov site. Palin’s biz partner divorce papers confidentiality request. Everything moves along to a final resolution and then sundry child-insurance mods. Inactive from May until September 3rd (lots of stuff before 4/3, including final dissolution decree). Then a move to remove from the public record. Yup, nothing fishy about that timing, I’m sure. Not an RNC lawyer in sight probably. Nothing to see here, move along…….
09/04/2008 Order Denying Motion Case Motion #3: Motion to Make Case File Confidential 0.00 0.00
09/03/2008 Motion to Make Case File Confidential Attorney: Pro per (0100001) Scott Alan Richter (Petitioner); Case Motion #3 0.00 0.00
09/03/2008 Motion for Expedited Consideration of: Motion to Make Case File Confidential Attorney: Pro per (0100001) Case Motion #2 0.00 0.00
05/19/2008 Notice to Employer Re: Children’s Medical Insurance Deborah Marie Richter (Co-Petitioner); 0.00 0.00
05/19/2008 Cust/Spprt/Visit Modified. Case Closed. (no motion link) 0.00 0.00
05/19/2008 Order Granting Stipulation Case Motion #1: Standard Motion 0.00 0.00
04/03/2008 Stipulated Agreement for Child Support and Parenting Agreement Attorney: Pro per (0100001) Case Motion #1
Booman, this pit bull with lipstick wants to fight with the big boys and throw low blows with zero street cred, then well it is time for all of her skeletons to be laid out on the national stage. She is a “family values” fraud.
There are 2 different men she is linked to with adulterous affairs. Scott Richter and Brad Hanson. Both are former business partners of Todd’s. Yes, Richter just attempted to seal up his divorce records. We just recapped everything on our latest blog post. It is blowing up on a few social sites.
http://www.bluetidalwave.com/2008/09/palins-lover-files-to-seal-divorce.html
The GOP would be running with crap like that. I think the narrative to push on her is that she is a LIAR and untrustworthy. Also, her husband Todd is pretty hands on and I think he is running more of the show than they lead on.
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
I guess we are about to find out. I hope you’re right BooMan. I hope you’re right.
Sarah Palin’s approval rating is 58%, higher than either Obama’s or McCain’s.
Still feeling cocky and confident, BooMan?
yes.
I hope you’re right because if you aren’t this country is screwed.
Wasn’t it supposedly 80% a couple of weeks ago? With the spin so furious, I can’t keep it all straight.
I didn’t hear about the 80%. This is from the latest CBS poll that has Obama and McCain both at 42% with 12% undecided, and Palin at 58% approval, 37% disapproval.
BooMan’s confidence notwithstanding, we should all be afraid – VERY afraid.
Thanks. I think I’m mixing polls–her statewide numbers (before selection) and this CBS poll that measures her as a national politician.
Am I concerned? Yes. But as brand new as she is, and disapproval numbers that high…well, let’s see what happens when her record comes out. Has it even been a week?
Troubling, knowing we’re less than 60 days out. But the campaign can still work it.
“Sambo beat the bitch” – let’s see if this gets any secondary confirmations.
whoa! great find manny…this “lady’s” got a serious nasty side.
I totally believe it, but it has to be confirmed.
I think that’s another reason she’s entered the rethug media shield–she’s not only a lightweight, but also a racist one who might slip, like Lynn Westmoreland.
Actually, I’m not so sure it’s a slip–he’s from a CD unlikely to hold him accountable. But Palin can’t get away with it.
Please God, can’t we beat back these moronic dead-enders and their bullshit feelings of “resentment”? After 40 years, they’ve MORE than had it coming to them.