ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 5, 2008
After Conventions, A Race Reborn
CBSNews.com Reports: Following A Tumultuous Two Weeks, A Shaken-Up Presidential Campaign Begins Anew
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McCain: Change Is Coming
In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, John McCain praised President Bush's tenure in office. McCain also said that "change is coming" to Washington.
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Reactions To McCain's Speech
Senior strategists Steve Schmidt from the McCain campaign and David Axelrod from the Obama campaign offer their post-mortems following the Republican National Convention.
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McCain Lets Out The Maverick
Sen. John McCain touted his experience and his ability to bring real change to Washington in his speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination. Jeff Glor reports.
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Republican presidential candidate John McCain joins his running mate, Sarah Palin, on stage after her speech to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008. (CBS)
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Latest news and video from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
What a difference two weeks makes.
Fourteen days ago, it seemed plausible that by the end of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Barack Obama would have put enough distance between himself and rival John McCain that he could be considered the clear favorite as the presidential race entered its final two months.
Consider what was on the horizon: A Democratic National Convention set to culminate in a soaring speech showcasing the now unified party’s history-making nominee in unprecedented fashion. And a Republican convention expected to be a comparatively sleepy affair, one in which the biggest storyline was the possibility that a hurricane could hammer New Orleans and remind Americans of perhaps the lowest point in the unpopular Republican president’s time in office.
Now consider how it actually played out.
The weekend before the Democratic convention, news leaked that Obama was tapping Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate. With his decades in Washington, Biden somewhat undercut Obama’s message of change, but he also brought unimpeachable heft to the ticket and counterbalanced Republican charges that Obama lacked the experience to be president.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, had thrown her support behind her former rival for the Democratic nomination, even if not all of her supporters followed suit. With the press corps starved for stories at the start of the heavily stage-managed convention, disgruntled Clinton supporters took center stage in early media coverage. (The Obama campaign, perhaps justifiably, was soon openly complaining that reporters were overplaying the story.)
But by Wednesday evening - after Clinton strongly reasserted her support for Obama in a Tuesday night address and dramatically released her delegates to her former rival the following day - Democrats had largely pushed the convention, and the coverage of it, to their preferred script.
“The Democratic convention was aimed, pretty much, at solidifying the party,” Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said. “A real strategic decision was made that if all the Democrats came home that were supposed to come home, Barack Obama wins - mostly because there are more self-identified Democrats in the country right now than self-identified Republicans.”
The strategy seemed to be working: Biden’s speech Wednesday evening energized the crowd, and Obama’s Invesco Field extravaganza the next night went exactly as planned, with blue skies, massive crowds, and an address from the nominee that most felt lived up to what sometimes seemed like impossibly high expectations.
Yet just the next morning, the much-hyped speech wasn’t the big story. Obama’s address may have made history, but McCain had dropped what amounted to the biggest shock of the general election campaign: The selection of young, conservative, little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
“The selection and the announcement really was a trifecta,” Republican strategist Dan Bartlett said. “First, it staved off any momentum for Barack Obama and Joe Biden coming out of their convention. Two, it really gave McCain an opportunity to credibly get in the change debate. And three, it’s now taking a real shot at bringing disaffected Hillary Clinton voters to their side.”
The pick was widely seen as having fundamentally shifted the nature of the race, though astounded political commentators weren’t sure whether it was a home run or a disaster. Palin’s relative inexperience seemed to undercut the Republican party’s primary criticism of Obama, while her outsider credentials and anti-corruption bona fides fit well with McCain’s “maverick” image.
The one thing most everyone seemed to agree on, however, was that Palin’s conservatism thrilled a Republican base that had never really warmed to its presidential nominee.
“Because of that pick, John McCain is in better shape with the right wing of his party, where he has never been popular, than at any time in his political career,” CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer said. By the end of the week, Rush Limbaugh, the radio host who had been unenthusiastic (to put it charitably) about the Arizona senator, was calling him “John McBrilliant.”
Palin, meanwhile, generated a level of coverage that the men who had been seen as most likely to join McCain on the GOP ticket - Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty - could never have expected.
“We’ve seen the birth of a new political star,” said Bartlett. “There’s been one in this race so far, with Barack Obama. We now, legitimately, have two.”
Nominee Speeches At The Conventions:
Joe Biden:Video |
Text
Barack Obama:
Sarah Palin:
John McCain:
But the coverage was not always positive: Rumors about the Palin family swirled in the blogosphere, prompting the McCain campaign to reveal that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant. The tabloid-ready saga landed Palin on the cover of celebrity magazines and would eventually prompt charges of media bias and sexism from the McCain campaign.
And then there was Hurricane Gustav, the storm that forecasters predicted could hammer New Orleans even harder than Hurricane Katrina three years earlier. As massive evacuations took place to the south, McCain and the GOP scaled back the first day of the convention and called on Americans to drop partisanship and do what they could to help - a message, political observers noted, that fit well with the convention theme of “Country First.”
After Gustav, to everyone’s great relief, failed to live up to its billing, Republicans got the convention back on track Tuesday. While the hurricane hadn’t derailed the RNC, it had, in conjunction with the Palin pick, helped drown out what many expected to be the dominant theme of convention media coverage: McCain’s difficult task of distancing himself from an unpopular president without alienating the base to whom he remains a hero.
President Bush gave a short speech via satellite Tuesday night; it passed largely without comment as the public remained fascinated with Palin, the self-described “hockey mom” about whom new headlines - Troopergate! The Bridge To Nowhere flip-flop! Bristol’s "redneck" boyfriend! - seemed to emerge hourly.
So perhaps it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the GOP vice presidential nominee's Wednesday night speech was watched by nearly as many people as Obama’s address the previous week, something that would have been unthinkable before the conventions. And Palin’s speech was a hit, receiving largely positive reviews and rapturous applause from the crowd.
The following day, CBS News released a poll that found Obama and McCain dead even in the presidential race; the Democratic nominee had led by 8 points the previous weekend. The poll, which had been conducted Monday through Wednesday, did not take into account Palin’s speech.
“I think it’s really impossible to tell exactly where things stand,” CBS News director of surveys Kathy Frankovic said as the poll came out. “We get a lot of movement in this period. We’ll sort of assess the two conventions together when they’re both over.”
As Frankovic notes, the back-to-back conventions have made it difficult to assess what “bounce,” if any, Obama got following the DNC. But the fact that he now appears tied with McCain - in polling completed prior to Palin and McCain’s convention speeches - suggests that it is the Republican ticket, not the Democratic one, that may have taken the most from its convention.
“There is probably not a political observer in the country who would have told you three weeks ago that John McCain would have come out of these two weeks in a stronger position then when he entered them,” said Bartlett. “And quite frankly that’s probably going to be the case.”
In his Thursday night speech, McCain didn’t electrify the crowd as Palin had the night before, except for a brief period at the conclusion of his remarks. But he had the full support of the largely conservative audience gathered in St. Paul, something that seemed anything but a sure thing when he secured the nomination back in March. When McCain said, “Let there be no doubt, my friends, we’re going to win this election,” the faithful roared in approval.
“In a lot of ways, the fact that McCain’s even in this is an amazing achievement,” said Trippi. “The wind is at the Democrats’ back. You look at the number of House and Senate seats the Democrats are likely to pick up this year, and you look at where this race is…they’ve hung in there the whole way. They definitely executed with tough circumstances. The hurricane, they had to reshuffle the deck. Picking Palin, whether it turns out to be a disaster or not, is probably the bold thing he needed to do to give himself a shot. They’ve taken the risks they’ve needed to take and so far they seem to be benefiting.”
By Brian Montopoli
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See all 318 CommentsSee this article: http://www.examiner.com/x-322-Health-Care-Examiner~y2008m9d2-Sara-Palins-baby-laboring-in-the-skies.
She''s 8 months pregnant with a baby she knows has Down syndrome. She flies to Dallas and her water breaks. She gives her speech and then HOPS ON AN AIRPLANE to fly back to Alaska. This is at least a 10+ hour trip with car travel and airport waiting.
Does the governor tell the Airline? NO.
Does the governor tell her doctor? NO.
***? Can ANYONE find another woman who would even consider doing this? NO! Because you can KILL the baby!
Does this sound like someone who is making good judgments to you?
If you don''t agree, then imagine the woman described above is a young black woman on welfare instead of Palin.
I don''t trust his Character, I don''t trust his Arrogance and Ego.
To Obama''s blind followers I say: Party Unity My A$$!!!
Obama has as much pre-presidential experience as Abraham Lincoln.
Posted by notelatu at 07:09 AM : Sep 05, 2008
First off the only response to comparing Obama and Lincoln is..... ROTFLMAO. {Sigh} You kill me!
Your other point about Palin''s lack of international relations experience is correct. Obama has more - but not that much more. On the other hand, Palin does have executive experience which Obama completely lacks. The only big difference between the two is that, if elected, Obama would be President, but Palin might be if something happens to McCain.
IMHO Obama is not ready to be Commander-in-Chief. He may be fine for presiding over an economy, but I just don''t believe he has the foreign policy credentials and understanding required to be taken seriously. Remember when Krushchev thought JFK was inexperienced and could be bullied? I see the same thing with Obama and Putin.
That''s the main reason I can''t support Obama - he might be an okay President internally (despite the fact he''s a socialist), but he does not have the demonstrated skill and understanding (and perhaps maturity) to handle our international relations.
he cannot be trusted to run this country in the interest of ALL Americans...
I don''''t trust his Character, I don''''t trust his Arrogance and Ego.
To Obama''''s blind followers I say: Party Unity My A$$!!!
Posted by metroduck75
Spoken like a Republican Troll
Vote for PaPa Smurf and his Lipstick Wearing Pit Bull!
Take off the lipstick what do you have? Same old dog that won''t hunt.
Now they''re looking around, all "who did that?"
We know who left the pile, Repugs!
And we''re going to stick your nose in it and whup your little behinds with a rolled up newspaper until you remember.
This relatively inexperienced man saved our country and became the greatest president in our history. History is now repeating itself.
It has been reported that she has been during this tactic (against the media) since she became mayor of that town in Alaska.
Joe was wrong about the SURGE.
Wanted to DIVIDE Iraq into 1/3 s. Bad idea.
Did not support liberation of Kuwaitt. voted against it.
Television Lynching leader of Justice Thomas.
He double crossed everyone.
His sons are young but making $$$millions a year, with Bank JOBS, and "consultant" for HEDGE FUNDS, even though they have no EXPERIENCE. One is only 28 years old and a VP for MBNA....CBS are you asleep ?
O. says he wants CHANGE/ Joe is old news, in Washington for ? 30 years ? Some change. This is the good old boys.....Palin is change you can believe in.
Joe copied some guys speeches, word for word , and called it his own.. last time he "ran" for Pres. PLAGERISM is something you used to get kicked out of college for. AS a prev. College teacher, O. knows how serious that is... WHAT GIVES CBS ?
Talk about experience we don''t trust .... change we don''''t need.
Posted by aheadace at 09:57 AM : Sep 05, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heard that little joke years ago, although it wasn''t the difference between a hockey mom & Pit Bull, it was a "woman on PMS"......
Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for Vice President, promotes this barbaric practice, exploiting a loophole in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act to allow private wolf killers to shoot down wolves using aircraft. We have to get the word out about this!
Please watch this powerful video by Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, and then share it with every wildlife lover you know:
http://actionfund.defenders.org/palinvideo
BREAKING: trrrorislamd spams blogs with cut-n-paste boring BS because it can`t think of anything new or spontaneous! LOL
84,000 more jobs lost in August!!
Sen. McCain brags about supporting Pres. Bush`s economic policies and voting with Pres. Bush over 90% of the time! McCain admits from his own mouth he doesn`t know much about the economy. Unemployment jumps to 5 year high and 84,000 more jobs were lost in August and Americans are thinking of putting Republicans back in power for another 4 years?????? The Koolaide is really spiked this time around!! LOL
She also said she was against earmarks, but when she was mayor of her town of less then 6000 people, she hired a washingtong lobbiest, and got over 26 million in earmarks!!
Sorry, Palin is a hypocrite and a liar!
September 4, 2008 08:34 AM
Wednesday night on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart hit Karl Rove and Bill O''Reilly with damning evidence of their hypocrisy regarding Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
While Rove recently praised Palin''s experience as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Stewart showed video of Rove trashing Virginia Governor %u2014 and former Richmond Mayor %u2014 Tim Kaine''s executive experience, listing all the cities that are bigger than Richmond and calling such a pick "political."
Then, after recent video of O''Reilly describing Bristol Palin''s pregnancy as a family issue, Stewart showed a clip of the Fox News host blaming Jamie Lynn Spears'' parents for her teenage pregnancy.
Finally, after showing video of *** Morris complaining about the rampant sexism in the media coverage of Sarah Palin, Stewart unveiled a clip of Morris saying that Hillary hides behind the sexism defense, and that anytime "the big boys" pick on Hillary, "she retreats behind the apron strings."
www.videosift.com/video/The-Daily-Show-Sara-Palin-The-Gender-Card
If the link doesn%u2019t work Google; Daily Show Sarah Palin Gender Card
How the hell is she supposed to take proper care of her special needs infant?? Family values? NOT!
By: Jon Perr @ 6:00 AM - PDT
On the same day Barack Obama met with the conservative water carrier Bill O%u2019Reilly on Fox News, the McCain campaign made it clear that Sarah Palin won%u2019t be talking to any of the media any time soon.
In a jaw-dropping appearance on MSNBC Thursday, McCain aide Nicole Wallace told Time%u2019s Jay Carney that the press wouldn%u2019t get a chance to take shots at the hockey mom turned McCain running mate.
According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don%u2019t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace %u2014 in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough%u2019s show %u2014 the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin%u2019s scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.
Given the highly combustible mixture that is Palin%u2019s reed-thin resume, radical right-wing agenda and mushrooming portfolio of scandals, Team McCain%u2019s effort to field the first stealth vice presidential candidate in history comes as no surprise.
But for conservatives so found of countdowns and ticking clocks, the question now is: when will %u201CDisappearing Palin%u201D meet the press? Apparently, %u201CSarahcoulda,%u201D but won%u2019t talk to the media.
The clock is ticking.
cont
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism: Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights: Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
Religion and Government are Intertwined: Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government''''s policies or actions.
The folks over at MSNBC have become political scapegoats for the supporters of the candidate opposing Barack Obama. In the Democratic primary, backers of Hillary Clinton often quipped over what they deemed as unfair and often sexist coverage. In the general election the animosity between the McCain campaign and the peacock network has also spilled over into public.
So it was with as much humor as surprise that the crowd at the Republican Convention derided the network during the midst of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin''''s speech Wednesday night. After the Alaska Governor ridiculed the media for conflating her outsider status with being unqualified, the crowd stood up in applause... then boos... then derisive chant.
"NBC, NBC, NBC," they declared, pointing their fingers at the Networks filing center in the stadium. It was a sharp moment during a wildly applauded address. The media, indeed, has become the uniting foe for the GOP.
The Fascist Parade
Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause: The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals, illegal aliens etc.
cont
Just as in 2000 when Al Gore blew a huge lead to lose to Bush and 2004 when John Kerry blew a huge lead to lose to Bush, 2008 seems to follow the same metric. How pathetic is this party that cannot ever close the deal?
Posted by yellow651
Here are 3 Stunning facts that could not only change the outcome of this election, but with regard to the first two points, they could change the results of every election for years to come *if* we make enough people aware of them.
1) Over 70% of our National Debt was created by just 3 Republican presidents.
2) Real middle class wage growth is double when a Democrat is president compared to when a Republican is president.
3) 90% of Americans would pay less taxes under Obama''s proposed tax plan compared to McCain''s.
Source: Larry M. Bartels professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University, one of the country''s leading political scientists.
Countless millions of Americans vote Republican because they believe they''ll pay less taxes and that they''ll have their money spent more responsibly. As you can see, those beliefs are directly contradicted by the facts. Of course we can choose to ignore the facts and instead focus on which candidate is wearing a flag pin (you ever notice that McCain doesn''t wear one?
DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW!!!
Go ahead%u2026really, go ahead.
The Oil Companies has MILLIONS of offshore acres to drill on:
Offshore Leased Acres:-------------41,000,000
Offshore Acres in Production:------8,123,000
Offshore Unused Acres:-----------32,877,000 MILLION !!!
Percentage in Production:-19.8%
Percentage unused:---------80.2%
Sources: Department of the Interior, unpublished table entitled %u201CTotal Number of Acres Leased, Data from FY 1994 through FY 2007%u201D from Response to Questions for the Record from the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, February 7, 2008)
McCain/Palin = LIES, TRUTH DISTORTION, DECEPTION
Don-t trust them!!!
More GOP BS!
NO MORE YEARS!!!!
Posted by gophockeymom
--------------------
Yeah!! Only unpatriotic people want FACTS!!!
We''re you kidding????
She also said she was against earmarks, but when she was mayor of her town of less then 6000 people, she hired a washingtong lobbiest, and got over 26 million in earmarks!!
Sorry, Palin is a hypocrite and a liar!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by nolalou at 11:05 AM : Sep 05, 2008
Well she is a Republican, what do you expect? The truth? you''ll be waiting a loooong time for that one...
Here are 3 Stunning facts that could not only change the outcome of this election, but with regard to the first two points, they could change the results of every election for years to come *if* we make enough people aware of them.
1) Over 70% of our National Debt was created by just 3 Republican presidents.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock /
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20
http://zfacts.com/p/447.html (A running clock with the cost of the war)
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/business
2) According to new research from Larry Bartels out of Princeton, real middle class wage growth is double when a Democrat is president compared to when a Republican is president.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/magazine/27wwln-ideal
Here is a short summary of this research:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008
And here is a good, short audio interview with Larry Bartels:
http://youngturks.wmod.llnwd.net/a591/o1/4-25-08Bartels
3) 90% of Americans would pay less taxes under Obama''''s proposed tax plan compared to McCain''''s.
This is according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Institute as reported by CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/news/economy/candidates
Posted by gophockeymom at 11:21 AM : Sep 05, 2008
Ahh. Another poser troll. The flip side of GOP_Forever.
Both you guys are funny. No funny ha ha, but funny strange.
How-d THAT happen!!! :-)
It was Just A Sea of Well OFF Rich UnConnected White People who probably could not find New Orleans or Louisiana On a Map of the UNITED STATES before last Week. But the Rich White People know that there are Casinos in Louisiana but they have never been there.
Yeah like the Republicans Care so much about the Gulf Coast Residents. that is a JOKE !
--------------
Posted by MANDALAY-BAY
It seems that the bigots are out again today. Very good example of a bigotted statement. Nice job
Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check
It was Just A Sea of Well OFF Rich UnConnected White People who probably could not find New Orleans or Louisiana On a Map of the UNITED STATES before last Week. But the Rich White People know that there are Casinos in Louisiana but they have never been there.
It was Nice of George W Bush to ACT like he cared about the New Orleans he is so frackin fake.
It was Just A Sea of Well OFF Rich UnConnected White People who probably could not find New Orleans or Louisiana On a Map of the UNITED STATES before last Week. But the Rich White People know that there are Casinos in Louisiana but they have never been there.
Yeah like the Republicans Care so much about the Gulf Coast Residents. that is a JOKE !
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
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