Budget talks: This is getting nasty

Honestly, at the point he picked Palin it couldn't have been too difficult for McCain to see he was going down, and it wasn't going to be pretty.

A person who had spent most of his political career rebelling against the establishment should have done it his way and played out his final major act in the same manner: with a middle finger to the party "insiders" who were bound and determined to make McCain run as somebody other than his true self.

Picking Lieberman would've been a death blow to his campaign, obviously. But at least McCain would've lost with dignity, not as some poor pandering fool who is sadly remembered as only a shadow of the man who endured several lifetimes of abuse in the Hanoi Hilton.

 

To be fair, at the point when Palin was picked, the White House was still (plausibly) up for grabs.

It wasn't until the Wall Street meltdown a few weeks later, McCain's bizarre behavior in the aftermath, and the "gotcha" pieces where Palin couldn't answer a few simple everyday questions, where Obama won it.

 

The Presidential nominee has a responsibility to the Party though.

Doing something like that would have hurt races all the way down the ballot.

As it was, he got slaughtered, and the Party got beat up. But, being a Party man is part of the job when you accept the nomination of that Party.

Want to do it your own way? Run as a third party.

 

Or, feed on the rotting carcass of an existing one.

Speaking of the Tea Party, there are two ways to look at this lawsuit seeking $100,000 in back child support for Tea Party freshman Joe Walsh of Illinois. One is that (especially given his other financial problems) this guy is a complete fraud and cipher, and is endemic of the worst hypocrisies of the Tea Party movement. The other is that he believes cutting funding for children begins at home.

http://www.suntimes.com/6720892-417/tea-party-rep.-joe-walsh-sued-for-100000-in-child-support

 

Sometimes the nominee makes a crazy VP choice out of desperation (see Reagan's nomination of Richard Schweiker). And sometimes the nominee, thinking his wooing of a reluctant choice might ultimately bear fruit, runs out of time and then stumbles badly (see McGovern's flirtation with Ted Kennedy exploding into the disaster that was Thomas Eagleton). I've read a few things lately that suggest that the Palin McCain thought he was getting -- someone who had a track record of working with Democrats to take on "corrupt" special interests -- was not the one he wound up with.

 

That's the thing, YF: If I'm McCain, I seek the nomination as a party loyalist who is trying to win the presidency. But he was running into some pretty serious headwinds from the start, with Bush's unpopularity hung around his neck and Obama bringing out minority voters in droves, and it was fairly obvious to me by the time he announced Palin as his VP choice that his campaign was doomed.

At that point, if I'm McCain, I say fuck the party. I'm doing this my way and if that means I'm done with national politics, I'm at least taking my leave with my head held high.

Remember, it's a two-way street, the whole "fealty to party" thing. Who in the party stepped up and stuck their necks out for McCain when Bush the draft evader was destroying the reputation of an American war hero in South Carolina?

 

Palin had a very small, very dedicated group of people pushing her.

She's charming and good looking. The National Review folks met her when they sponsored an Alaska Cruise, and were won over by both.

And, as much as McCain didn't do his homework on her, neither did any of the people advocating for her.

Maybe just because she was such a long shot, no one ever thought she's be picked.

The thing is, no one he would have picked would have made a difference.

It's like getting mad about error in a blowout of a baseball game.

McCain was losing no matter what.

 

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, at the podium in the White House briefing room to talk about the FAA situation.

He's citing his time as a staffer for former House Minority Leader Bob Michel as a golden age of compromise and bi-partisanship.

Yeah, that argument is going to sway a lot of the current Republicans.

It's like citing the Dark Ages as some sort of great period of history.

Oh, great, now he's demonizing the airlines for raising prices to "collect" the tax that has fallen by the way side.

Reporter call it's theft and asks the Secretary to agree.

Holy crap.

 

Name one thread that's become a rip job on any Democrat.

The whining about the Tea Party is just laughable.
They've helped rout the Obama congress in 2006.
They're pulling the strings on the current budget deal to the point that Obama is looking behind him at Americans, saying "C'mon guys, speak up! Cheer me on!" This from the same president who declared "we won" when declaring his right to a mandate on health care, etc.

 

Palin = Bartman.

 

Explain.

 

I would think he means that he's a scapegoat for a team (person) that was going to lose anyways. Obviously, many Cubs fans would disagree.