And then back to the unplesantness
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.”
September 23rd, 2008 11:57
The Report that you quoted said: “Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning…”
You said: “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.’”
So, when was Biden’s last news conference? That’s the true comparison, since Palin and Biden are running for the office of VP. Why do I keep reading comparisons (here and elsewhere) between Palin and Obama, why not McCain and Obama, Palin and Biden?
I’m not voting for any of them, so I really don’t care how they handle their campaigns, but I think that they should be dealt with even handedly.
September 23rd, 2008 13:35
I don’t see how you follow my quoted comment with “so when did Biden last do a news conference”. My point was about the McCain’s camp protecting of Palin from the Big, Bad, Apparently Suddenly Sexist News Media Because We Sure Were Calling Hillary A Whiner If It Ever Came Up Then. My complaint is obviously not “she hasn’t done a news conference”. My complaint is “the campaign says she won’t do interviews until she gets proper deference,” which is about the most elitist statement I could have imagined they make. Actually I could not have imagined it. I would never have believed they would come out and say that. I would as likely have expected them to say “we will not sully her honour with the tawdry presence of the unwashed masses”.
Seriously, evenhandedly? Okay, yeah, I would like to see that too. But we won’t really know whether it’s even-handed until Biden’s office issues a “no talking to him until you promise to show proper deference” statement. And if that were ever to happen, which it won’t because Biden is never gonna turn down TV time, the result would be constant, repeated bashing over the elite-ness on the Obama campaign by the McCain camp, and the press dutifully recording and reporting it, every time. A few months ago I’d say “they could never complain about that after they’ve said it about Palin”, but the last month or so has abused me of my notion of logic as applied to their campaign.
The reason you’re seeing Palin/Obama comparisons is 1) they’re actually much closer to even comparisons in the opposing parties and 2) conservatives were never really excited about McCain anyway, and Palin is someone they can get excited about. And, because conservatives can gripe in a way that successfully gets into the news cycle, she’s gotten a lot more press.
September 24th, 2008 11:31
I wonder if the plan is to protect Palen, or if it’s just to make sure the Democrats keep focused on her.
Ever since her nomination, the left wing has focused exclusively (rabidly?) on her and McCain has gotten a complete free ride. I don’t think McCain originally planned this, but it’s working out brilliantly for him, and I think they now try to perpetuate focus on Palen. The bad press doesn’t really hurt his ticket as, like it or not, people don’t really vote based on the VP. However, while everyone if focused on her instead of “100 years in Iraq” McCain, he doesn’t get the “100 years in Iraq” attention he deserves.
Disclaimer: I’ll be voting third-party because I the evil of the two main candidates is too much for me to take.
September 26th, 2008 12:38
I’m curious about your view of the Barack Obama Evil.
September 30th, 2008 12:27
Silly, silly spinn. BROWN people aren’t due any deference!
October 1st, 2008 11:45
Well, for one, he warmongers much like McCain. Although he’s somewhat McCain-lite on Iraq and says he will set a time for withdrawal (I’m somewhat skeptical), he wants to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan, possibly spread it to Pakistan, and increase an aggressive posture against Russia. He’s just more of the same in that respect — possibly slightly better than Republicans, but not great IMO.
For his economic view (and I fully realize you won’t agree with any of this), he has a seeming unending list of new, expensive programs that will be impossible to fund since we can’t fund the unending list of “entitlements” that we currently have. He also pushes more government to solve problems government created (and, for the record, so does McCain).
For instance, the current financial crisis is almost wholly caused by the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates that have been particularly onerous in the last two decades. They caused the “dot com” bubble, and now they’ve caused the housing bubble. Obama, McCain, and the other Washington [expletive deleted] blame “greedy people,” which presumably includes people buying homes with the unusually-low interest rates. They both want more oversight over citizens and companies. We need to end the Federal Reserve. (and I’ve been saying this for decades, so I’m not a “Johnny-come-lately” to this issue). People say a commodity-backed currency is “crazy,” but a small group of suits pulling interest rates out of their asses and printing money to satisfy the monetary demand created by their low interest rates is “sane.”
That’s the tip of the iceberg, but I can pretty much equally hammer on McCain and Obama. I don’t see that much difference between them anyway. On social freedom, Obama is McCain-lite and on economic freedom, McCain is Obama-lite.