Palin didn’t suck.

The polls are going to flatten out. By election time they’ll be close enough that the vote fixing can be hidden in the chaos of small sample sizes.

I was actually starting to get some hope, too.

sigh.

Consecutive sentences.

McCain: “Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to fix the blame; it’s time to fix the problem.”

I mean even forget the larger point that he was the one who swooped into Washington, Batman-like, making a big friggin’ deal about going there to get shit done when in fact all he did was sit at a table and be noncommittal and not deliver whatever magic pixie dust he thought would make it all better. Forget he went from “NO DEBATE UNTIL THERE’S A DEAL” to “Okay, we can debate because there’s a framework for cooperation” to “you guys better all get back to work because you didn’t fix it yet” in under a week.

I mean just look at the consecutive sentences. “I blame Obama. This is not the time to blame people.” Amazing.

I have this empathy for embarrassment. I’m one of those people who has a really tough time watching things like Crank Yankers or America’s Funniest Home Videos or a sitcom where it’s the episode’s big punchline moment where someone’s caught in something really embarrassing. I get all squirmy and can barely look at the TV.

It’s because of this reaction that I’ve had a hard time watching clips of Couric’s interview with Palin, but I finally suffered through this one in its entirety because it carried the promise of Cafferty being a grumpy old man at the end:

Talking Points Memo | Cafferty: Palin’s a Friggin’ Laughingstock

(Personal to M.G.: Why do I think Palin should be laughed off the public stage? This.)

This scares me because I know exactly what she’s doing. I do that. Hit the popular phrases and the right-sounding words. I have a general confidence that if I just start running my mouth, I’ll either shortly have enough of an idea what I’m talking about, or I’ll be able to present it well enough to fool non-savvy people into thinking I know what I’m talking about. But I don’t risk it unless I have a general understanding of the topic and when I’m under less scrutiny.

But when I do it, I also have the confidence that, if I don’t pull it off, I have the safety net of apologizing, saying “oh, sorry, I got confused there,” and promise to get a better answer later after some research. I can work a crowd well enough that I can keep goodwill through that if I don’t try it too often, and people’s bullshit meters are usually thrown off by an admission that you don’t have all the answers.

But of course Palin doesn’t have that luxury. She can’t possibly say “I don’t know”—well, she can maybe a few times, but the number of times she can get away with that is very small—so she has no choice but to barrel through. And that’s what she’s doing here. I’ve heard a lot of people say “this sounds like a bad interview” because that’s exactly what it is. It’s a job interview with a candidate who has no right to be there, but she’s trying to bullshit through the interview and hoping for the best. If you were hiring a Safeway regional manager and she answered a question like this, you’d kick her out the door.

You know JOBS. Jobs and 1 in 5 and immigration. And oh yeah taxes! Taxes so hard-working Americans can 9/11 and jobs overseas the economy strong Israel and Iran porkbarrel spending bridge to nowhere. Russia.

edit: this guy does that riff better.

Again, protecting Palin from reporters. For some reason. Because she’s totally ready, and like, stuff.

Talking Points Memo | Palin bans reporters from meetings with leaders
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, on Tuesday banned reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew.

CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought.

Presumably until they show the proper deference. Man, it blows my mind, the banhammer that would come down on the Obama camp if any of them said that Obama wouldn’t talk to reporters “until they give him the proper deference.”

There’s something gratifying about playing Rock Band 2 in a Best Buy, and having an onlooking 12-year-old say “wow, you’re good.”

I dig the Republicans making this election about personality rather than issues, because it’s what they do. It’s what they understand. Nothing sinister about it, it’s just an argument that sort of person finds more persuasive. So Barack + proximity to William Aires = “hates America” for them fairly easily.

I just don’t get it. You look at his life, and what has he done that makes these people think he hates America or that he’s some sorta secret sleeper cell terrorist or something? It’s an indicator of how conservatives dominate the discussion that this isn’t asked much. What is it about Obama that says he hates America? you’d ask. And in some sense I guess some prominent pundits have already answered it…I seem to remember Sean Hannity saying he is afraid that, in his heart, Obama doesn’t love America, or similar.

Meanwhile you get this:

Palin touts stance on ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ doesn’t note flip-flop: Politics | adn.com
Meanwhile, Weinstein noted, the state is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone — because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government.

So 1) not only did she support the Bridge to Nowhere, but 2) she is currently in support of a road to nowhere. Why? Because if Alaska didn’t use the money, they’d have to give it back. So not only is the “thanks but no thanks” a lie, but it covers up a greater falsehood: she’ll keep Federal money and burn it on something useless.

But somehow, in many people’s minds, the perky scrappy hockey mom image wins.

ABC News: Sarah Palin Defends Experience, Takes Hard Line Approach on National Security

On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Gov. Sarah Palin took a hard-line approach on national security and said that war with Russia may be necessary if that nation invades another country.

I’ve just realized: this is why the neocons don’t want to do anything about global warming. Because it’d mean that Russian winters aren’t as bad as they used to be.

Via Talking Points Memo, I learned about intrade.com, “The Prediction Market”. It’s set up like a stock trading site, but really what it is, is online gambling taking bets on current events. Kind of a slick re-casting of the concept, really. There’s a wide variety of topics, from legal to entertainment to whatever. I’d kind of like to be active in stock trading, but I have a hard time getting involved because I know there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know, so I couldn’t adequately predict what will happen with them. But things like this, I feel like I could be closer to making informed guesses, so it has some appeal to me.

I haven’t made the plunge, but I’m starting to itch to bet on who’s going to win the presidential election. The problem I have here, though, is which one to bet on. I really think Obama’s going to win, so I’d like to cash in on that…but on the other hand I am wondering if I should hedge my bets on McCain. If he wins, my life’s going to get worse and my money’s going to be worth less, so maybe I should throw a bunch of money to bet on him, so at least if he wins I’ll have some extra cash to offset what I’ll essentially be losing in his presidency.

how — how do you — how can you even — and of course the press — the press will let them get away — the press will — I’m comin’ Lizbeth

Marc Ambinder (September 05, 2008) - No Interviews Till She’s Ready
A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won’t submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she’s ready — and until she’s comfortable — which might not be for a long while — the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media’s complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: “Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters.”

Not out of the question are appearances on lighter, fluffier television shows. But — not for a while.

Well, by the transitive property, anyway. Before Obama announced Biden was his choice for VP, one of the names kicked around was Governor Tim Caine of Virginia (who, before that, was mayor of Richmond). And of that possibility, Rove said this:

With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?

Replace some names and a few pronouns and he’s talking about Palin, isn’t he? Holy crap I hope someone finds a public way of using this.

I bought Guitar Hero over the weekend. I’m not that great at it—”easy” is just below my ability, and “medium” is slightly above, so I’m pretty much never gonna see the game on any level that I feel like I’ve mastered it.

Still, whatever, it’s kind of fun. I always liked the guitar in Sunshine Of Your Love, so I looked forward to that. A couple songs like Hit Me With Your Best Shot and Welcome To The Jungle are a lot more fun to play than they are to listen to. I am surprised to find I like more straight rock than I’d thought.

However, odd thing happened while I was going through Easy mode and got down to One by Metallica. I had like an emotional reaction to it—or hm, no, that’s how I described it at the time, but it’s not quite right. I had maybe a pride reaction. Or honor? Anyway, it just felt wrong to play it on easy. It deserved more. I just cancelled it mid-song and picked a different one.

I was having a difficult time with “medium”, and you have to get through a number of songs before you can get down to the part where One is available to you. But I bludgeoned my way through it just so I could get down to One again and put some effort into it that it deserves.

I don’t even like Metallica all that much. I am fascinated by this reaction in myself, and as self-analysis is my lifelong hobby, I expect to mull this over a fair bit.

I got drawn into a Microsoft ad for The “Mojave Experiment”. Basically it goes like this: they ask (supposedly non-actor) people what they think about Vista, and they generally get the response oh it sucks, all my friends say it sucks, I haven’t really used it yet but it sucks. Then the interviewers say, okay, we got this new operating system we’re working on, Mojave. Have a look, what do you think?

They do, and wow they are floored. Hey this is just what I need, when can I buy it, this does everything I ever hoped and dreamed and more. And then — whoahey fooledja! This isn’t “Mojave” at all, it’s Vista! OMG no way I’m telling all my friends!

Aside from the fact, as Debb pointed out, that the problems with Vista wouldn’t be immediately apparent — yes, it’s a pretty interface, and if you have a knowledgeable tech guy walking you through a gloss of the fancier features, of course it looks wonderful — I am just entertained by the baseline start of this campaign. “Okay, people hate us. We know it. you know it. But hey let’s trick you into thinking we’re good anyway!”

If you’re not aware, Congress has pretty much removed any right to privacy you might’ve thought you had. And while I think that’s a pretty bad thing, I was never really prepared for one of the easy core arguments against thinking it’s a big deal: “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about.” I mean, it just feels instinctively wrong, but I couldn’t think of a good reason why, and I tend to mistrust my own feelings like that, as they might just be bourne of personal bias.

But the other day I had an epiphany, which is that the statement “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about” is false. Here’s the correct statement:

If you haven’t done anything that someone else thinks is wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about.

When you work through the implications of that statement, losing your privacy seems like a much more worrying issue.

If being captured and tortured makes you ready to be president, there’s a whole Guantanamo full of candidates the Republicans haven’t even considered.

Got this in email from a friend today (or, more specifically, from a friend’s email account):

From: Gary (xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com)
To:
Subject: Emergency Help

Hi,

I’m in a hurry writing this mail. I had a trip to Nigeria visiting the Tinapa opening ceremony. Unfortunately all my money has been stolen at the hotel where I stayed, by some armed robbers and since then I’v been without any money and I’m even owing money to the hotel here. So I have only access to my emails,my mobile phone can’t work here so I didn’t bother bringing it along.

Please can you lend me $2,500 so I can return back and settle the hotel bills I will return it back to you as soon as i get home.You can have it sent through Moneygram money transfer.

I have already spoken to the hotel manager, please let me hear from you so i can collect his full name and address where you can send the money tomorrow please or if possible today. I am waiting for your reply

Thank you.