Being among those old enough to remember Saturday night live when it was the new kid on the comedy block. John McCain’s performance ranks as the single best offering by a member of the political class since the shows debut. The man nailed it; he pretty much defined the difference between laughing at and with someone.
Who knows it may have helped nudge some of the leaning his way undecided voters. Though I tend to agree with rational conservatives who speculate at this point McCain/Palin will draw the larger share of undecided anyway. I was also pleasantly surprised when Senator McCain declined to use the leaked immigration news of a Kenyan woman related to Senator Obama for mudslinging.
A half-sister of his late father is still living in the states despite having lost her petition to remain. The campaign returned a couple hundred dollars in donations she made. Foreign nationals are not permitted to donate to U.S. political campaigns.
Since very few people would find it untoward or suspicious for a family member, much less a sitting Senator to do all the law permitted to assist a distant relative navigating the immigration process. I must agree with those who speculate the Senator was unaware of her status. Perhaps if she had kept in contact he may have been able to provide some guidance and help with the naturalization process.
I doubt few people close to John McCain were told in advance of Saturday’s oh so very public endorsement of John McCain by Vice-President Richard Cheney. But those close to Sarah Palin must have been aware it was coming. Scheduled events for the Alaskan Governor were unexpectedly changed at the last minute. It allowed the media folks to provide full coverage of one of two people on earth John McCain has been unable to shake the entire race. The bigger John McCain and establishment republicans lose if a loss is inevitable the better for Sarah Palin and the rank and file in taking over.
It tends to support my previous conclusion the social conservative wing of the party sees in Sarah the hope for 2012. I am confident they will attempt to take control within days if not hours of Tuesday’s outcome, assuming the polls are accurate in prediction of an electoral landslide the likes of Regan/Carter in 1980.
Disliked as they may be by most Americans George Bush and Richard Cheney are still very popular figures amongst evangelical and social conservatives. Mitt Romney who got a few seconds of national airtime is attempting to cultivate favor amongst establishment conservatives. The endorsement by Cheney cut into his spotlight and I anticipate George W will spend his last month in office providing Sarah Palin with visibility, access and as much weight as possible as the GOP factions begin a very nasty in house fight for control of the RNC and conservative movement.
psburton
8 users commented in " McCain SNL performance Outstanding "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackShould there be anyone out there needing more reasons to vote for Obama/Biden then the repulsive Cheney’s endorsement of McCain/Palin should do the trick…
Honestly, the skit was amusing because of Fey, but McCain’s age became very apparent. I hope on Tuesday voters will realize that Obama is the only cadidate fit for office.
Hey Jake – Ageism anyone??? Yeah don’t vote for McCain b/c he is older and Oh yeah, has more experience than Obama.
Jake: Fit for office? President of Anti-Whites? Unquestionably qualified. And do attempt to learn to spell.
The bigger picture is Mccain will probably die in the next 4 years and Palin is not qualified to be president. Anyone that wants to spend money on creationism, absentance only programs, banning books, and killing wolves has no place in higher office. Mccains age would not be a prblem if he had choosen someone with an IQ higher then Bushs and a iota of common sense.
hlovell: Careful — are you sure you want to use the “unqualified” argument? You are comparing Palin, a person who has operated within the executive branch of government (as a mayor and governor) against Obama, a man who is only a junior legislator, and who has absolutely no experience running any branch of government. Sorry, but if you are afraid of having somebody unqualified in the White House, then you are supporting the wrong team.
Now, let’s address your other arguments:
1. Creationism — Palin never advocated pushing Creationism into schools — she advocated permission for teachers to discuss it if a student asked questions about it. You’d be hard-pressed to find this position unreasonable.
2. I’m assuming you mean “abstinence”. Palin has clearly stated that she supports teaching both abstinence as well as contraception. Old reports refer to a comment in 2006 in which she withheld her support for “explicit” sexual education. If somebody used the word “explicit”, they wouldn’t have my support either.
3. Banning books — this is just a complete and total joke. Palin never asked to have any books banned. She asked the librarian’s position on banning books and the procedure that would be followed. Then people say she fired the librarian. True — she fired the librarian because she didn’t support Palin’s position on merging the library and museum. Afterwards, when the librarian changed her mind, she was re-hired. Telling partial truths that mislead is as much a lie as telling falsehoods.
4. Killing Wolves — This is a valid criticism. Palin’s take on this certainly doesn’t align with my own feelings. However, I don’t live in an area where wolves are a large threat. And as long as I live in a neighborhood that was built at the expense of wildlife habitats, I’m not going to point fingers.
Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service over death threats against Barack Obama
Sarah Palin’s attacks on Barack Obama’s patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 4:04PM GMT 08 Nov 2008
Palin’s tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists Photo: Reuters
The Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for accusing Mr Obama of “palling around with terrorists”, citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers.
The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling “terrorist” and “kill him” until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.
But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.
The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin’s attacks.
Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: “Why would they try to make people hate us?”
The revelations, contained in a Newsweek history of the campaign, are likely to further damage Mrs Palin’s credentials as a future presidential candidate. She is already a frontrunner, with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, to take on Mr Obama in four years time.
Details of the spike in threats to Mr Obama come as a report last week by security and intelligence analysts Stratfor, warned that he is a high risk target for racist gunmen. It concluded: “Two plots to assassinate Obama were broken up during the campaign season, and several more remain under investigation. We would expect federal authorities to uncover many more plots to attack the president that have been hatched by white supremacist ideologues.”
Irate John McCain aides, who blame Mrs Palin for losing the election, claim Mrs Palin took it upon herself to question Mr Obama’s patriotism, before the line of attack had been cleared by Mr McCain.
That claim is part of a campaign of targeted leaks designed to torpedo her ambitions, with claims that she did not know that Africawas a continent rather than a country.
The advisers have branded her a “diva” and a “whack job” and claimed that she did not know which other countries are in the North American Free Trade Area, (Canada and Mexico). They say she spent more than $150,000 on designer clothes, including $40,000 on her husband Todd and that she refused to prepare for the disastrous series of interviews with CBS’s Katie Couric.
In a bid to salvage her reputation Mrs Palin came out firing in an interview with CNN, dismissing the anonymous leakers in unpresidential language as “jerks” who had taken “questions or comments I made in debate prep out of context.”
She said: “I consider it cowardly. It’s not true. That’s cruel, it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news that’s not fair and not right.”
She was not asked about her incendiary rhetoric against Mr Obama. But she did deny the spending spree claims, saying the clothes in question had been returned to the Republican National Committee. “Those are the RNC’s clothes, they’re not my clothes. I asked for anything more than maybe a diet Dr Pepper once in a while. These are false allegations.”
Speaking as she returned to her native Alaska, Mrs Palin claimed to be baffled by what she claims was sexism on the national stage. “Here in Alaska that double standard isn’t applied because these guys know that Alaskan women are pretty tough, on a par with the men in terms of being outdoors, working hard,” she said.
“They’re commercial fishermen, they’re pilots, they’re working up on the North slopein the oil fields. You see equality in Alaska. I think that was a bit of as surprise on the national level.”
[…] news, half hour infomercial at least partial success. John didn’t approve, of course (though SNL infomercial sketch actually rather amusing), but is well-documented fact that infomercials have power to make people buy anything. In fact, […]
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