Month: October 2008

“Health of the Mother”

I don’t have a lot to say about the final presidential debate, other than I’m glad we don’t have to sit through any more. Obama was great in all of his debates and while not every answer was what I wanted to hear as a progressive movementarian, he undoubtedly connected to voters by a far greater margin than did McCain.

What really stood out for me last night was the discussion of abortion. Both men and women were through the roof while Obama was speaking about abortion in CNN’s Ohio debate dial poll. It was remarkable. They ate it up. Then McCain rewound the tape 8-16 years and tried to culture war up some votes:

“Health of the mother” in air quotes? I hope that no woman in America will be able to look at John McCain today with anything other than the same disdain that he shows for you.

McCain was a disaster. His ideas are wrong. His policies are unpopular. He is a brash, angry, codger with an entitlement problem. And he’s about to suffer the biggest loss in Republican Party presidential history in nearly 50 years.

An Obama Economy

Ian Welsh has a must-read post for anyone following the economic crisis and wondering how Barack Obama might respond as President. Welsh is concerned that Obama will deploy neo-liberal and not liberal policies on the economy. I think that while Obama may not be pushing for liberal policies now, the economy would be one area where an evolution to the left is most likely. If Ian’s pessimism bears out, then the economy will get worse, necessitating a shift in economic policy towards a liberal agenda. Obama might not be there right off the bat, but I find it hard to believe he’d be incapable of shifting in the face of the evidence.

Rearing Heads in Alaska

Putin rears his head

Apparently while Sarah Palin has been running around the country, Russian energy giant Gazprom has, um, reared its head in Alaska.

MOSCOW, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom  said on Tuesday its top executives had visited U.S. state Alaska, where the gas company is seeking a share in a project to pipe gas via Canada to the United States market.

The world’s largest gas producer discussed gas production, transport and supply to Alaska — which shares a border to its east with Canada and a sea border with Russia to its west — with the region’s officials and the CEO of ConocoPhillips, Jim Mulva, Gazprom said in a statement.

On a substantive level, the TransCanada pipeline is Palin’s pet project. Her not being around to add the other Alaskan neighbor to the taxpayer funded pipeline construction is meaningful. I’ll be curious to see if Palin has authorized her subordinates in the executive branch of the State of Alaska to negotiate a place for Gazprom in the gas line deal. If she did, I can’t imagine Alaskans being too pleased about it. Nor can I see it helping with her whole head-rearing theories of foreign policy.

What surely would not be meaningful is any further Palin analysis of Russian foreign policy and how she keeps a watchful eye on her neighbors to the West…except when, you know, she’s not.

Strange Patriotism

Josh Schrei has a very thoughtful post up that aims to blow up the flawed perception that Republican views are normative for defining patriotism, while Democratic views are somehow unpatriotic. Based in large part on Josh’s time working on the NASCAR circuit and experiencing these memes first-hand in debates with people across the country, he identifies several of the central falsehoods that underly the “Republicans are more patriotic” narrative. It’s a long post worthy of repeated readings, but here are the bullet points that Schrei takes down:

1. Wanting smaller government = being more patriotic
2. Rekindling the rebelliousness of the confederacy = being more patriotic
3. Questioning your nation’s foreign policy = being less patriotic
4. Being an intellectual = being less patriotic

These are insidious, pervasive narratives that underlie the key to much of the contemporary Republican Party’s argument to voters. Needless to say, Schrei’s rebuttals are powerful and accurate.  Rather than quote them here, I hope you will just go read the original post.

Backlash? We Haven’t Even Begun to Lash Yet

David Brooks has used today’s column to fast-forward through the coming re-regulation of the economy and much-needed growth of key domestic initiatives and social support systems that will drive us back to economic health, and ushered in what Brooks sees as a coming conservative political swing that will throw Obama and Democrats out of power.

It’s pretty remarkable that with weeks left in the presidential election and nearly 100 days left in the Bush presidency, Brooks is able to write a column, presumably with a straight face, predicting a conservative backlash to Democratic spending that hasn’t happened yet. It reminds me of the opening wedding scene in Spaceballs, where Bill Keller is the Minister, Princess Vespa is David Brooks, Barack Obama is King Roland, and I’m Dot.

MINISTER Dearly beloved, we are gathered here on this most joyous occasion, to witness Princess Vespa, daughter of King Roland….

VESPA starts running toward the door, while Dot is dragging behind.

MINISTER ….going right past the alter, heading down the ramp, and out the door.

ROLAND Stop her! Someone, stop her! Stop her!

EXT. CHAPEL – DAY VESPA and DOT come out of the chapel. They head for the getaway car.

DOT Hey wait! You forgot to get married. Will you stop?

My guess is Brooks won’t stop and we’re in line for 4-8 years of Brooks predicting an imminent backlash.

Listen to Kristol

John McCain really should take Bill Kristol’s advice in his NYT column today and fire his entire campaign. You know, for the good of the country.

It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign.

He has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources, and the candidate and the campaign are in sync. The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed.

He may be anyway. Bush is unpopular. The media is hostile. The financial meltdown has made things tougher. Maybe the situation is hopeless — and if it is, then nothing McCain or his campaign does matters.

Kristol really strikes me as of the same ilk as all those Tom Friedman and Nick Kristof columns, proclaiming the path the Bush administration should take in Iraq. At no point did the Bush administration ever listen to these columnists, but endorsements of particular plans by ostensibly liberal columnists gave the patina of approval to a failed war. Moreover, the columnists who penned articles that decision makers would never, ever listen to would be able to deploy the incompetence dodge when analyzing the war’s failure in hindsight (“We would have won in Iraq if Bush and Rumsfeld had listened to my column,” bemoans the columnist spurned).

That, to me, seems to be the main point of Kristol’s column today. He’s laying down a marker that might look great in hindsight and distance himself from the outcome of McCain’s campaign. But any analysis of whether Kristol was right in his column today from the vantage point of November 5th will be based around a counterfactual. It won’t be available for actually legitimizing Kristol in the ashes of the McCain campaign.

It’s also worth mentioning that one reason Kristol would be wanting to innoculate himself from the downfall of John McCain and the Republican Party is that he played a critical role in the formation of this ticket. According to Scott Horton, Kristol was the key advocate for Sarah Palin’s vice presidential pick and in so doing, he defeated Karl Rove’s push for Mitt Romney. Given that Palin has been a complete flop outside the Republican base, Kristol will be well served to place distance from the terminal McCain campaign.

I say McCain should take Kristol’s advice. It will succeed in doing two things: electing Barack Obama president and putting the nail in the coffin of Bill Kristol’s reputation. It would be impossible for McCain to operate, let alone win, with complete staff turnover today. It would be impossible for them to buy tv time and plan town halls, as Kristol suggests McCain do, with the termination of the entire campaign. But by all means, John McCain should take Kristol’s advice. The country will be far better off if he does.

Nasty Attack, Good Response

I had a conversation on Friday night with a friend who does a lot of work in Minnesota about the nasty attack ads Norm Coleman has been running against Al Franken in the Senate race. Specifically, Coleman used video of Franken telling a heartwarming story about deceased Senator Paul Wellstone and his son to make Franken look angry. I tracked down the ad Franken put up in response and it truly is appalling how Coleman’s campaign twisted this footage for political purposes.

Coleman has since pulled down all negative ads, though he didn’t have the courage to tell Minnesota voters that it was because his campaign smears have failed and he can no longer chance voters responding to his attacks.

The Branchflower Report

Yesterday investigator Steve Branchflower delivered his 263 page report on Troopergate to the Alaska Legislative Council, which voted unanimously to release it to the public. You can download it here (PDF link). Here are key findings:

“For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]

“The Attorney General’s office has failed to substantially comply with my August 6, 2008 written request to Governor Sarah Palin for information about the case in the form of emails.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]

“I find that, although Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as commissioner of Public Safety.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]

“The terms of my contract with the Legislative Council establish the framework within which I have been required to conduct my investigation and make my findings….Todd Palin is not an employee of the executive branch, so his conduct is not a violation of AS 39.52.010 – 39.52.965. Given the terms of the contract, I make no findings as to Mr. Palin’s conduct.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, pg. 67-8]

“Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 65]

“The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in ‘official action’ by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation. She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office and the resources of the Governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 65-6]

“Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 66]

“In this case, Governor Palin has declined to provide an interview. An interview would have assisted everyone to better understand her motives and perhaps help explain why she was so apparently intent upon Trooper Wooten fired in spite of the fact she knew he had been disciplined following the Administrative Investigation.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 66]

Alaska Democratic Party chair Patti Higgins response frames the pushback the McCain-Palin campaign should receive for politicizing the investigation, obstructing the investigation, and smearing the public servants who took their job seriously enough to conduct themselves professionally:

“The finding of the Legislative Council’s investigator that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska’s ethics act is deeply troubling. Governor Palin has violated Alaskans’ trust. I hope that in light of this finding Governor Palin will stop playing partisan politics to the detriment of Alaska’s future.

“I believe there are three key points that Alaskans will appreciate. First, this investigation began with a unanimous vote of a bi-partisan committee. Second, the investigation was conducted in a professional and confidential manner. Third, the unanimous vote of Democrats and Republicans to release this report after it was read demonstrates that this is not a partisan process as alleged by Senator McCain and Governor Palin,” Higgins said.

Higgins statement doesn’t suggest a legislative response. At minimum, I hope the Alaska legislature brings up the report before the full body and considers what consequences should be handed out to Gov. Palin and those individuals who avoided subpoenas. A lot of people in Alaska, from both sides of aisle, are furious about how the McCain-Palin campaign has treated the state since she was picked as his VP. If she loses the election, she will not be returning to a friendly legislature. I don’t know if they will pursue impeachment (at this point I’d be surprised), but she is going to have a difficult time getting her agenda done. My guess is a coalition of Democrats and anti-Palin Republicans will be able to render the Republican majority moot on many of Palin’s pet issues.

Hopefully the Obama campaign can take the Branchflower findings and remind American voters that Palin is a vindictive power abuser who is completely unprepared to be anywhere near the Oval Office.