183 Comments

1. ken anthony:

I’ve read from a number of sources that the money for McCain-Palin is rolling in big time.

Aug 29, 2008 - 9:12 pm 2. Dawnsblood:

$3 million in 6 hours Ken. http://thepage.time.com/2008/08/29/palin/

Aug 29, 2008 - 9:18 pm 3. Benj:

Bounce II? From the New Republic – Did Palin Really Fight The “Bridge To Nowhere”?

Republicans have been heavily touting Sarah Palin’s reformist credentials, with her supposed opposition to Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere” as Exhibit A. But how hard did she really fight the project? Not very, it seems. Here’s what she told the Anchorage Daily News on October 22, 2006, during the race for the governor’s seat (via Nexis):

5. Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?

“Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now–while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.”

So she was very much for the bridge and insisted that Alaska had to act quickly—the party of Ted Stevens and Don Young might soon lose its majority, after all. By that point, the project was endangered for reasons that had nothing to do with Palin—the bridge had become a national laughingstock, Congress had stripped away the offending earmark, shifting the money back to the state’s general fund, and future federal support seemed unlikely. True, after Palin was sworn into office that fall, her first budget didn’t allocate any money for the bridge. But when the Daily News asked on December 16, 2006, if she now opposed the project, Palin demurred and said she was just trying to figure out where the bridge fit on the state’s list of transportation priorities, given the lack of support from Congress. Finally, on September 19, 2007, she decided to redirect funds away from the project altogether with this sorry-sounding statement:

“Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer,” said Governor Palin. “Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island,” Governor Palin added. “Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened.”

Maybe I’ve missed something, but it sure looks like she was fine with the bridge in principle, never had a problem with the earmarks, bristled at all the mockery, and only gave up on the project when it was clear that federal support wasn’t forthcoming. Now, Charles Homans, who knows Alaska well, says Palin’s anti-corruption instincts are fairly solid (she sold off the gubenatorial jet upon taking office, for one), and a casual Nexis search suggests that she’s fiscally conservative (insofar as that term makes sense in a quasi-socialist state like Alaska), but this hardly looks like the “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” moment everyone’s making it out to be.

P.S. Here’s a piece that Palin’s special counsel, John Katz, wrote in March of this year for the Juneau Empire, assuring the Alaskan public that Palin was still very much in favor of earmarks, but sadly needed to scale back her requests somewhat (to “only” 31 earmarks this year—down from 54 last year) in response to “unwanted attention” from Congress and the press.

–Bradford Plumer

Aug 29, 2008 - 9:21 pm 4. jaymaster:

And then we’ve got the experience argument.

The major democratic talking point now seems to be that with this pick, McCain threw away his major argument: that Obama lacks the necessary experience to do the job.

Whoop de doo…

This is a textbook case of the democrats fighting the last battle.

The experience thing was a good argument point a few days ago.

But with this pick, McCain just opened up 4 or 5 new fronts, and completely consolidated the rear.

Aug 29, 2008 - 9:23 pm 5. oMan:

rock and roll, baby. McCain suddenly persuades the dispirited and the cynical that he has something good to say and do. I’m in. Sarah Palin is an inspired pick, both because of what it says about McCain’s gutsiness and his strategic willingness to take the angle shot, but also because of what it says about the Republican next gen. She’s got game, and Johnny Mac is willing to let her use her game. Notice how different that is, where Obama Know-nothing is looking to Joe Do-Nothing (for 30 years) as his “successor.” The dynamics of this race just reversed, big time.

Aug 29, 2008 - 9:26 pm 6. trangbang68:

Benj, We already read that post. Its not working. drink some hot milk and run along to bed.

Aug 29, 2008 - 9:34 pm 7. Dave:

I have scoped out as much commentary as I could on Sara Palin since this AM.

The GOP base—those folks that normally vot Republican—-are certainly content with Palin. Have not seen this much “Hi-Fiving”
for a while. Those that were going along with McCain just because there was nothing better have been given a nourishing treat and feel quite a bit better about Head of Ticket than they did before.

With generality of Rs all smiles, the usual swing voters, along with whatever crossover Ds still exist, don’t have any compelling reason not to vote for McCain-Palin.

A good pick.

Aug 29, 2008 - 9:59 pm 8. ledger:

“He [McCain] has the ability to wait patiently until his opponent commits himself to a move then ruthlessly strike to exploit it. He gives nothing away to clue his opponent on which way he is going to turn. Then suddenly he snaps the stick.” –Richard Fernadez

Spot on Richard.

That is exactly what McCain did. And, it shows McCain’s fighter instincts are still intact.

I will say that Palin is a good choice given her record of fiscal conservatism, pro-gun owner’s rights, distrusting of Big Government, a non-beltway pol and energetic/athletic.

IIRC, her husband won a grueling 2,000 mile snowmobile race. Hence, there is a competitive spirit in the family. That’s very important.

Sure their are a pack of jackals in the press waiting to attack but, Palin will do fine if McCain watches her back – and she watches for hairpin turn attacks on McCain.

Aug 29, 2008 - 10:00 pm 9. Mark Adler:

I think Governor Palin is a great choice. She can be a real inspiration with her family background and her spirit. Politically, she is a reformer with results and that will win the day. She will make a great Vice President and in 2016 a great President.

Aug 29, 2008 - 10:06 pm 10. Dave:

Good video. Note: the actual designation
for the ME-109 was Bf-109.

Quick everybody, no fair googling, what was the ME108?

Also, has anybody besides me ever seen a Messerschmit with a Spitfire engine?

Aug 29, 2008 - 10:09 pm 11. Leo Linbeck III:

The Eye was looking the wrong way. It was looking at the gathered masses of its acolytes, worked into a frenzy, waiting for the moment of triumph when they would once again rule, as they had in the days of old.

Suddenly, the Eye shifts its focus onto two small, gutsy characters. How did this happen? Where did they come from, and how did they get the Ring of Power? They must be stopped! They are about to destroy the Ring, and with it all our hope for change. The Eye’s forces redirect, and go after this unlikely pair.

But it’s too late. Game over, man. They prepared for the wrong battle, the wrong war.

Self-absorption begets self-destruction. Looks like the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body™ has cut its November losses in half…

L3

Aug 29, 2008 - 10:15 pm 12. cjm:

mccain has only just started working on obama. he will cut him one hundred times and shed not a tear.

posters i never read:
benji
whiskey
c4
any russian pimps

Aug 29, 2008 - 10:40 pm 13. 2164th:

In the game of Chess the Queen is the strongest piece on the chessboard from the standpoint of being able to move, attack, capture, and generally to create havoc for the opponent. While the Kings are the most powerful pieces on the chessboard, the Queens are second in command. Removing an opposing Queen and seeking to keep the player’s Queen is a key focus and a strategic advantage. Does McCain play Chess?

Obama foolishly gave up his Queen and now has to fight with the lesser Bishop Biden. McCain has his Queen in play. The Democrats are rashly seizing on the youth and lack of experience of Palin and in doing so are exposing their King Obama. The more the Democrats focus and try to diminish the unknown Palin, they reduce her stature in the eyes of the public, but what happens when the public actually meets Palin? They expect little, but Palin will surprise them.

Today, she was stunning.

The more the Democrats foolishly spend energy attacking her, they waste time that should be used to protect their King.

Palin got a field grade promotion, of that there is no doubt, but Obama barely finished boot camp. Palin is not his opponent. That is McCain and now everyone is talking about Palin. Who even cares about Joe Biden? Interesting game.

Aug 29, 2008 - 10:44 pm 14. outa my league:

I’ve been fascinated by Sarah Palin since the Kudlow interviews. And her debut and speech at Dayton was indeed “stunning”.

In fact, I’m proud of the human female race like never before. Wow! May God go with her.

Aug 29, 2008 - 10:54 pm 15. outa my league:

Sarah “the Barracuda” Palin has shown more guts, integrity and character than most of us macho guys who post on this blog.

And in making that statement, I mean no disrespect to the macho guys who post on this blog.

Aug 29, 2008 - 11:16 pm 16. 2x4:

Little known fact: If placed into Schroedinger’s experiment, both Sarah Palins remain alive.

http://www.palinfacts.com/

Aug 29, 2008 - 11:24 pm 17. Bob Murphy:

ME 108 was a Taifun, a little thing that looked rather like a 109.
Adolph Galland had one he used to fly around in in the 1960s. I saw it at a air show in Wiesbaden and him and some other interesting types from the war time Luftwaffe. They were all fairly little guys. The Bf 109 had a cramped cockpit, very small. I took a picture of three guys at that airshow who had shot down more than a thousand planes during the war. Eric Hartmann was one of them. The krauts had a target rich environment to fly in for a long time and they didn’t get to go home after 50 missions.
From memory Bf stood for Bayerisher fleugzeug werke.

Aug 29, 2008 - 11:26 pm 18. James Kielland:

I’ve been indifferent to hostile towards McCain for a long time, and was certainly less than enthusiastic about him becoming the nominee.

Before I learned of the Palin pick via the news, I’d already received several catty messages from left-leaning friends, and I have to say that it never ceases to amaze me how sexist and chauvinistic such people can be, even the self-styled “feminist” women. And along with those comments, which I’ll not repeat here, there was a lot of “McCain must be crazy!” and “This shows how desperate and senile he is!”

I tried to keep myself from being affected by such talk, attempting to keep that vibe from reverberating through me or from trying to convince myself of the opposite. And then I began to look closely at what the left was saying about her. You can tell a lot about a person in observing what they attack in another person.

“Inexperienced, and just a heart-beat away from the presidency” seemed to be a big one. I’ll admit that I share it myself. Of course I heard this most frequently from people who were enthusiastically behind a campaign to elect an even less experienced person to the presidency. Hearing Obama supporters decry the candidacy of an attractive, inexperienced empty suit was truly amusing.

I’m less than certain about Palin, personally. I don’t care for her stands on a few issues, such as abortion and some words of hers which were unfortunately sympathetic to the notion of teaching Creationism in the schools. However, vice-presidents do not have the power to overturn court rulings nor do they have the power to dictate curriculum. Despite the ranting of pro-choice feminists, these are non-issues.

What Palin does seem to be to me is someone who is genuinely in this game for more than her own aggrandizement, something I cannot say about Obama, Biden, Hillary, or even McCain. She may lack in experience will be more than made up for in “guts, integrity and character” as a previous commenter noted, and I suspect that this impression will resonate with many Americans.

Her character, beauty, charm, and outsider status are what her opponents will be unable to refrain from attacking. And that’s exactly what will endear her to millions of Americans.

Aug 29, 2008 - 11:52 pm 19. Toad:

Any Debates between Palin and Biden are going to be real interesting.
She eats what she kills.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:11 am 20. buddy larsen:

Spain used the 109 after the war. Maybe some others did, too –Finland? But the so-called “Spanish 109″ had a different engine than the German wartime series. The Rolls Royce?

Maria Bartiromo (sp?) CNBC interview with the lady of the hour was eye-opening –she knows her energy issues and the hardware too. She said hub is native Alaskan so i guess that means Native American. So, add one more root to the Palin all-America tree.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:16 am 21. JMHawkins:

The VP doesn’t really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. This is still McCain vs Obama. But to the extent it matters, this was a pretty good pick.

The GOP’s biggest problem is corruption. That’s the reason the party was tossed out of power in Congress in 2006. A lot of people misread that and still think it’s about the war. But it was about the Bridge to Nowhere and pork and out of touch beltway Republicans. 12 years after Gingrich got them into power on a promise of reform, Republicans had become the problem there were supposed to solve. Rove’s K-Street Project was a disaster.

Proving they didn’t understand what got them into power, Pelosi and the Dems have been even worse since taking over.

McCain, for all his faults, is an anti-corruption guy. Palin is in the same mold. She saw corruption in her own party, called people on it, made enemies, and then defeated them. These two as the 2008 ticket puts the Reform card back in the GOPs hand.

Plus, she’s familiar with how oil gets out of the ground and into our cars. Oil will play a big role in this election, and Americans are not really buying the “drilling won’t solve all our problems” line Obama has been peddling. It might not solve all our problems, but it’s a good start, and Palin tilts the energy policy card farther into the Republican column.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:23 am 22. Dave:

Bob Murphy: Knew somebody would come up with the answer.

What the heck was that small, four passenger,
twin engine German plane that had folding wings like a carrier plane would have?

I saw one of them at Midland several years ago. It had a fuel line blocked and set down in a cow pasture. A lowboy retrieved it and it was a static display during the air show.
I have been unable to find a picture on line.

Speaking of Wiesbaden: I know a Bf109 ace from there. Had 38 victories. Also a guardian angel as he survived being shot down 6 times. And on a 7th occaison a P38 had him at point-blank range and ran out of ammunition.

I’ll see him in Cincinatti in October. Every year he comes to the 82nd Fighter Group reunion.

Want a day for the record books? 10Jun44 and divebombing Ploesti.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:27 am 23. buddy larsen:

benj –you’re shooting yourself in the foot –read your last sentence, tell me what you see. I see a tale of a governor whose state is one of 50 whose people by and large would like to get all the earmark$ they can get. I see a governor practical enough to know she has to have public support or she can’t reform a durn thing. I see cutting 54 earmarks down to 31 as precisely the sort of leading, sheparding along, incremental educating and difference-splitting that is the very art of effective political leadership. Try to reform too much too fast, and end without influence and with no reforms at all. Now, should i go find something on Obama and paste it here and make you waste your time answering it, as you have made me waste mine? Naah, i won’t do that to you –too easy.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:33 am 24. The Winner:

McCain’s airforce record is hardly something to be proud of. He crashed 3 planes. In Vietnam, he was trusted with only the lesser planes and least valuable sorties. However, his Polident slippage in his opening Convention speech will destroy his chances in any case. Further, Americans can see the empty seats at the GOP convention. Four local radio stations were giving away tickets yesterday. In stark contrast, Obama had a 200,000 person waiting list for closing of the Dem convention.

It is true that Dem Presidents – Carter, for example – divided the country. Nobody is as aloof and divisive as Bush. And the GOP offers 4 years of the same.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:34 am 25. Dave:

Buddy Larsen: Yep, Spanish 109s had the Merlin engine. Lot of them to spare. The Daimler-Benz engines were hard to find. So guy named Doolittle is said to have been responsible.

Merlin, made by Packard, was also in P51, replacing the Allison 1710 found in the immortal P38.

Now then: Did you know that trainee pilots
strafing a Japanese battleship in the Mojave desert often found themselves escorted by
an airplane without a propeller? It was flown by a gorilla wearing a derby and waving a cigar.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:36 am 26. buddy larsen:

Dave: “Storch”

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:38 am 27. Wadeusaf:

Percy Sutton flew with the 332nd, and a combat intelligence officer in Italy during WWII, pursuit not protection. I saw two different Suttons too, one the Atty of Malcom X retired in 2004 or there abouts, the other presented with a lifetime achievement by the ADL in 2005. Are they the same? The photo’s say otherwise. Malcom’s atty is the one who made the claim about “OH” and Harvard.

He certainly traveled in circles where such influence could be sought, but still, Sutton did not indicate he spoke to “Oh” nor sought to interview him. Crazy stuff, and unless Harvard college keeps that sort of stuff for posterity’s sake, there is no way to prove or disprove the assertion. He has a my space page, with only two friends, X and Tom. Life must be lonely after a certain age and invasive operations speed the decline of mental functioning.

The bridge herded and husbanded by previous Governors was no doubt a source of irritation for anyone. The misleading reporting about the intent of the project and the even the feasibility of it made the episode seem rather ridiculous, and easy to be flip in discussion of it. As for the number and amount of Pork, show me a district not invested in such stuff, and I’ll show you poor representation. Getting rid of earmarks only means some other way to buy votes will have to be found, or someone has to get serious about Congressional and Senatorial ethics. Don’t count on the present bunch to tackle it, these are Mid term issues.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:38 am 28. 2164th:

Winner, quit while you are behind.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:54 am 29. buddy larsen:

McCain’s celebrated three crack ups, IIRC, were
1) training, flame out over Tampa bay (mechanical)
2) Blue on blue rocket on flight deck of carrier (someone else’s accident)
3) shot down in combat by NVA AAA

You’d think there’d be SOMETHING out-of-bounds for smears –no, i don’t mean subjects sacrosanct –i mean subjects that make the accuser look worse than the accused POSSIBLY could. Non compos mentis.

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:03 am 30. 2x4:

James, The Loser thinks it’s gotten wings, must be Air Force. I bet he considers himself a highly educated, sophisticated, nuanced intellectual, though.

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:06 am 31. Dave:

Buddy: Storch was single-engine, high-wing
STOL. Otto Skorzeny used one of them to spring Mussolini from a mountaintop.

Have seen one of them in Midland too. But what I was asking about, different style of plane entirely.

Now then, what kind of plane was that gorilla flying?

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:10 am 32. buddy larsen:

“Some guy named Doolittle is said to have been responsible” sez dave above. wonder if that’s that same crazy bastid who took a bunch of B-25s off a carrier –which is as we know 99% impossible — 600 miles from Japan in the middle of the Pacific, four lousy months after Pearl Harbor, on a one-way mission –not enough fuel to do much but bail out over enemy-held China –to bomb Tokyo and shake up Tojo –and who then somehow got back, and somehow into the ETO, in order to blow up them DB engine factories?

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:15 am 33. buddy larsen:

Gorilla –Lockheed P-80 ?

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:16 am 34. Dave:

Yep, that Doolittle. Same fellow that proved instrument flying would work by putting a hood over the cockpit and taking her up.

Gorilla=XP59. P39 altered into jet format.
Not worth a hoot as a plane but did lead to
Uncle Sam having MUCH better engines that did the Germans. Armed with that, Kelly Johnson
whipped out the P80 in jig time. ME262 had more potential but achieved performance was not that hot and it was very unreliable and tricky to fly. 200 pilots died trying to learn. P80 could have been mass-produced if needed and could more than hold its own.

By the way, Doolittles Raid was supposed to have been Chennault’s Raid and done from land bases in China by second group of Flying Tigers.

Also, our secret aerial weapon? The M2 .50 caliber. Thank you John Browning and John Pershing!

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:32 am 35. buddy larsen:

ah, yes –Bell Airacobra –mid-mount engine –ideal for jet conversion. The CG problematical –pilots said it was like flying atop a ball-bearing. Gave ‘em to Reds, who loved ‘em.

Chennault, Doolittle, Johnson, Mama Deuce — large caliber, long range, fast shooters all.

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:52 am 36. fedya:

Dis heah thread gives me warm fuzzies, dudes.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:01 am 37. buddy larsen:

oh i like dem warm fuzzies. dey remines me of Sarah Palin and happy thangs.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:07 am 38. buddy larsen:

yikes –fo’ ayem n i got ta mowdegras indee mawnin –nite you cats –

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:10 am 39. ridgerunner:

Sarah Palin was a better round ball player in high school than Obama. Let’s see where that meme goes.

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:05 am 40. ridgerunner:

When you start out in life, you can make a living or you can fake a living. Palin and her husband did the former. Obama, Biden, the Clintons and those who never created anything but word strings did the latter.

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:16 am 41. kevin:

I think 2164th at 10:22pm pretty much nails it. And it looks like after an initial rush to foolishness, the Obama camp realize this is a decoy and trap and will avoid attacking her. In fact his team should go one step further and denounce all the media attacks on her. Obama should subtly play the protective alpha-male role that McCain is setting himself up to play.

In the post Hilary environment, attacking Palin is like blocking a woman’s shot while playing mixed sex basketball. Even though tactically you have helped your team, strategically you look like a fool. No one cares about vice President anyway. They should eventually nail her on Creationism but only after two or three of praising her.

What makes this a brilliant choice is that McCain has done a 180 degree turn on conventional thinking. Typically a vice Presidential candidate is carefully vetted to avoid any scandals. In this case the coming media frenzy will be a feature– not a bug. McCain wisely wants to muddy the waters and to avoid a direct Obama-McCain match-up. Every coming sentence that is wasted on Mr. Palin’s womanizing will only serve to distract the American people from any real issues and will hopefully turn off enough voters to let McCain sneak through with a victory.

Obama must get out in front of this and start attacking the media for attacking Palin.

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:44 am 42. Doug:

The Aircobra had a cannon that fired through the propeller hub.
The other machine guns were nose mounted and synchronized to fire through the propeller.
—
James K said,

“Then I began to look closely at what the left was saying about her. You can tell a lot about a person in observing what they attack in another person.

“Inexperienced, and just a heart-beat away from the presidency” seemed to be a big one.

I’ll admit that I share it myself.

Of course I heard this most frequently from people who were enthusiastically behind a campaign to elect an even less experienced person to the presidency.

Hearing Obama supporters decry the candidacy of an attractive, inexperienced empty suit was truly amusing.“

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:29 am 43. Doug:

bg said,
Black Liberation Theology – James Cone

“Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community.
If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him.
The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.

What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”

“just words”?? – Barack Hussein Obamacan’t you just feel the love??

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:53 am 44. Tamquam Leo Rugiens:

I still maintain that the primary reason the Rs lost in 06 had less to do with corruption, though that was part of it, than with they did not pursue their own stated agenda vigorously enough. Under Frist they played Brer Fox to the Ds Brer Rabbit. They spent their time and energy responding to Ds objections and agendas rather than advancing their own game. I offered Dr. Frist one of my own testicles in order that there might be one found amongst the R ‘leadership’ as none were then in evidence. Strangely, he never replied.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:02 am 45. hdgreene:

Apparently she stood up to some pretty unsavory people. Who are the Unsavory people that Barack stood up to, as opposed to enabled?

There is experience and then there is the past.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:13 am 46. Doug:

Mark Levin reminds us that Palin has more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:16 am 47. Mrs. Davis:

Her round ball nickname? Sarah Barracuda.

And the best part of the pick that no one has picked up on yet is that it reconciles McCain with the right wing base of the trunk party without offending, nay, yet even appealing to lots of donks. I haven’t given to McCain yet for a lot of reasons, but today’s bill paying day and there will be a check to McCain-Palin.

These debates are going to be worth watching.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:33 am 48. davod:

Slightly off topic.

I watched a re-enactment of the Grenada operation on TV yesterday. Summing up, the narrator said the US invaded Grenada rescue the island from a Marxist takeover.

Wouldn’t it be strange if we voted in (Obama) what we went to war to defeat.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:38 am 49. Peter Boston:

How does the Obama criticism of Palin’s “lack of experience” not bounce back on Obama? Palin took on the good ol’ boys and beat them. Obama has never taken on anybody. Obama’s whole life-what we know of it-has been Obama looking out for Number One with anybody who will push him ahead.

Biden coudn’t take on Harry Reid.

Sarah Palin runs rings around both these clowns.

The Cowboys vs. The Sleazy Lawyers. The Enterprise vs. The Borg.

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:26 am 50. Clioman:

I suspect that the real test–at least for the base, anyway–will be her position on illegal immigration. She hasn’t had to deal w/that politically, since Alaska doesn’t have a big problem w/illegals. It’s a long way to walk from Guatemala to Nome…

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:01 am 51. fred:

The very “executive” experience that Obama uses to criticize Palin for not having turns out to be the material they are now desperate to avoid scrutiny of. Hoisted on his own petard.

McCain is inside Obama’s OODA Loop and has been so all along. A brilliant, masterful move on McCain’s part. It’s hard not to laugh as one observes this fight unfolding.

Soros and his buddies are not sleeping now. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Serves them right.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:06 am 52. fred:

U.S. Marxists/socialists do not know how to fight a war. And Obama wants to make automatic guns illegal? Oh boy, he’s now faced with a big time, big game hunter who has him in her sights.

Signed,

One of those bitter clingers to guns and religion

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:09 am 53. Ari Tai:

Time for another webvid:

Mr. Palin working on a rig, covered in oil and sweat in a swarm of Alaskan-sized horseflies. He looks up, stops, stands (holding a 50lb KTSN-2 wrench) and says “send the dems a message this year by electing my lady and Mr. McCain, they’ll end this “not-in-my backyard” silliness that has shipped offshore 10s of thousands of great blue-collar jobs like mine.” Then have Mr. McCain barely visible in the background (masked by these giants of men) step forward into view and say “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.”

With the video have the bottom of the page scroll through a list of legislation and supreme court findings that have crippled the energy business (with job counts, dollars lost, and pictures and party affiliation of those responsible). From Mr. Carter’s “windfall profits tax” to now. And on the right-hand side put up pictures of folks at pumps rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in disgust as the digits spin past against a backdrop of “brought to you by the democratic party, where you can spend more and not get less.”

/Ari

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:16 am 54. Teresita:

JMHawkins: Plus, she’s familiar with how oil gets out of the ground and into our cars. Oil will play a big role in this election, and Americans are not really buying the “drilling won’t solve all our problems” line Obama has been peddling.

Well, McCain is right there with Obama on oil, voting against drilling ANWR every time. And the vice-president is not the Decider, not even Cheney.

Clioman: I suspect that the real test–at least for the base, anyway–will be her position on illegal immigration. She hasn’t had to deal w/that politically, since Alaska doesn’t have a big problem w/illegals.

She cut a bunch of rebate checks for legal residents of Alaska (Americans who have lived in Alaska for at least 12 months) from their oil revenue surplus fund. She has no track record on immigration, but my guess is she’s all about following the rules. Meaning no amnesty, no “path to citizenship” for those who willfully broke the law.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:27 am 55. neolex:

The sheer brilliance of McCain’s choice and the way it was kept secret is obvious to everyone except Obamabots. Especially nice is the misdirection bit, when Pawlenty canceled his appearances. Obama campaign was caught completely by surprise and their knee-jerk response to attack Palin’s experience will come back to haunt them. The dems charges of cynicism and pandering in selecting Palin also don’t hold water. Most of the Clinton supporters who were “in play” were already, though unwillingly, supporting McCain. The change in polls on announcement of Biden as the bottom of the ticket is evidence to that effect. In retrospect, Palin is great choice for a multitude of reasons and appeal to women and Clinton supporters is only one of them.

Karl Rove was right to say that McCain will get a sizeable boost from this, but in the long run, things will get more complicated. A lot depends on Clintons and the extent to which they will support Obama. Right now, Obama and the DNC has got them by the balls due to Clinton’s campaign debt. However, the selection of Palin has now re-energized Clinton base, which might result in extra donations for her. GOP should make a backroom deal with Clinton for funneling some money into her coffers to pay off the debt in exchange for “going through the motions” for Obama, rather than a full-court press support.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:36 am 56. neolex:

@2164
Excellent Chess analogy.

@kevin
I agree with your analysis. Obama campaign will likely lay-off the experience attacks, though it is by no means a given. The media frenzy, as you correctly point out, is the key in this fight. However, I believe that Obama defending Palin in the media (and I think his campaign lacks subtlety for such a strategy) will not take away examination of her experience by the media, which also leads to increased scrutiny of Obama’s experience. Obamabots have already dismissed Obama’s experience as an issue. They will not see how their stance on Palins experience appears as duplicity to any mainstream voter. Obama has two things going for him, Creationism (as you say) and “troopergate”. How effectively Obama can attack and McCain defend on this front is what will be crucial.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:57 am 57. I'm Just Plain Dumb:

For those having a hard time finding the conclusion of the dogfight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBfwXT_S70o&feature=related

Thanks for the post as always, Wretchard.

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:05 am 58. Peterike:

I like these memes.

Two lawyers vs no lawyers

No depth of life experience vs great depth of life experience

Insiders supporting the corrupt system vs reformers battling the corruption, even of their own party

We can’t drill our way out of this vs drill, drill, drill

We could do lots more.

Ari Tai, your script for a video is brilliant. Drilling is about way more than getting the price of gas down. It means jobs and more jobs of the kind that don’t require a degree from Harvard or a hand-out from wealthy Marxists benefactors.

I also find it funny that in some web netherworlds they are saying Palin “only has a journalism degree.” Heh, wonder if the press will pick up on that one?

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:17 am 59. Lifeofthemind:

Obama’s problem is that his campaign runs on inertia. That is one of the two great Newtownian forces. It is the vested expectation in his success as a phenomenon that brings people to him. Bandwagoning stops working the first time the parade stalls. Obama assumed that inertia meant that his prior advancement meant that his future moves could not be stopped, even without any more to justify it than the initial networking and fundraising. That was what Hillary damned as the “speech in 2002.”

The other force of nature Obama can’t control is entropy. Energy dissipates and control is lost. Without meaningful content to justify and reenergize your object becomes just one of millions of competing egos with no special claim or precedence. The natural tendency is for unpredictable and unscripted events to impede the linear flow of history needed to elevate Obama. Entropy and Inertia mean that in the real world movements like Obama’s tend to go to Hell and stay there.

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:23 am 60. Triton'sPolarTiger:

Hate this post filter…

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:27 am 61. Triton'sPolarTiger:

3rd Try

neolex writes:

“A lot depends on Clintons and the extent to which they will support Obama. Right now, Obama and the DNC has got them by the balls due to Clinton’s campaign debt. However, the selection of Palin has now re-energized Clinton base, which might result in extra donations for her.”

Hammer, meet Nail. You nailed it, neo.

At a minimum, the Clintons have to put on a good show of support for O! if they have any hopes of Hillary ever securing the DemNom in the future, but make no mistake: Their ultimate goal must be Obama’s defeat. If he wins, she’s out at least 8 years, possibly more if Obama wins a 2nd term (since his vp would likely run in 2016).

The genius of choosing Palin is, among other things, the fact that it HAS re-energized the Clinton base… less than 24 hours after their greatest disappointment. I have no doubt that the Clintons are aware that many of their supporters are seriously looking at voting McCain now. In a backhanded sort of way, they effectively watch her back by voting McCain, freeing her up to be more fulsome in her support of Obama, since she can count on them to help keep Obama from being elected, thereby opening the door for her in 2012. She comes away looking like a good soldier for the Dems, while Obama is pushed to the sideline permanently.

Here is just one example -

http://tinyurl.com/5b5dhb

I’ve read through 548 posts so far, and if this is representative of what Hillary’s supporters are feeling/planning, then McCain will indeed get a chunk of their vote, AND a chunck of their money… I also note that many say that they’ll continue helping Hillary retire her debt, which might help loosen her “obligation” to support Obama in the general.

This pick seems smart in so many ways the more I look it, that I have trouble believing that anyone could have guessed at all the potential upside(s).

Color me JAZZED !

Triton

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:30 am 62. Triton'sPolarTiger:

4th Try

neolex writes:

“A lot depends on Clintons and the extent to which they will support Obama. Right now, Obama and the DNC has got them by the balls due to Clinton’s campaign debt. However, the selection of Palin has now re-energized Clinton base, which might result in extra donations for her.”

Hammer, meet Nail. You nailed it, neo.

At a minimum, the Clintons have to put on a good show of support for O! if they have any hopes of Hillary ever securing the DemNom in the future, but make no mistake: Their ultimate goal must be Obama’s defeat. If he wins, she’s out at least 8 years, possibly more if Obama wins a 2nd term (since his vp would likely run in 2016).

The genius of choosing Palin is, among other things, the fact that it HAS re-energized the Clinton base… less than 24 hours after their greatest disappointment. I have no doubt that the Clintons are aware that many of their supporters are seriously looking at voting McCain now. In a backhanded sort of way, they effectively watch her back by voting McCain, freeing her up to be more fulsome in her support of Obama, since she can count on them to help keep Obama from being elected, thereby opening the door for her in 2012. She comes away looking like a good soldier for the Dems, while Obama is pushed to the sideline permanently.

I’ve read through 548 posts so far at HillaryClintonForumDotNet, and if this is representative of what Hillary’s supporters are feeling/planning, then McCain will indeed get a chunk of their vote, AND a chunck of their money… I also note that many say that they’ll continue helping Hillary retire her debt, which might help loosen her “obligation” to support Obama in the general.

This pick seems smart in so many ways the more I look it, that I have trouble believing that anyone could have guessed at all the potential upside(s).

Color me JAZZED !

Triton

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:33 am 63. JFSanders:

Attacking her stance on creationism will only agitate the large numbers of Bible clingers to get out and support McCain/Palin. They were lukewarm on him and his policy on immigration. The Dem party shouldn’t want to make this a issue.

Troopergate is a chance for Palin to show her stuff. She should come out swinging. The ex bro in law is a dirtbag with serious issues.

Jim

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:36 am 64. Boghie:

Something else Richard,

McCain picked his XO, Obama’s machine picked his.

Anyone out there think Palin was picked by the Republican machine to ‘buck up’ and support McCain. Anyone…

McCain’s pick was decisive.

Anyone out there (other than, regretfully, Senator Obama) think Obama picked his XO. With the notice coming at 3am it should be obvious to all that Obama could not make the decision. Maybe he didn’t have 100% of the information he thought he needed. Maybe there were so many options, so many variable. Finally, the Democratic machine picked for him. They picked the consensus pick. One they hoped could guide the CO, provide stability, impart experience. An XO that is older, more stable, and more experienced than the promising talent.

Properly, a CO should be guiding, stabilizing, and organizing the XO to eventually take command.

McCain has picked XOs before.
He has just picked his XO

They aren’t picked for him.

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:39 am 65. Alexis:

I think John McCain seeks to use the myth of Sarah Palin as heavy artillery against the Greek columns of the Obama myth. Obama’s father grew up in Kenya, his mother was born in Kansas, he grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, and he later graduated from Harvard Law School. There are places more exotic than the places Barack Obama is associated with – and one of them is the Alaskan wilderness.

What we have here is the myth of Sarah Palin, a pistol packin’ mama, a married version of Xena Warrior Princess, and a woman with the hard edge of a female Alaskan Crocodile Dundee who has the looks of a beauty queen. She comes from a family of fisherman and as a modern day hunter hero with echoes of Davy Crockett. Her husband is a commercial fisherman and an oil worker on the North Slope. Barack Obama made a joke about Annie Oakley, but this mama can shoot. Some people use the word “cowboy” as an epithet – anybody care to say that to the Sarah the Barracuda’s face? Sarah Palin appeals to myths about the American West, and the Alaskan wilderness is the closest place to the classic American frontier as you can get.

Ironically, I think John McCain may have picked Sarah Palin for her foreign policy credentials. Many commentators will ask, “What credentials?” They forget that exoticism sells. Simply being a rural Alaskan makes her exotic to foreigners, particularly Europeans and especially Germans. Even in American cities, rural Alaskans are exotic creatures, perhaps more exotic than Kenyans and Ethiopians. Barack Obama grew up in Java; Sarah Palin hunts moose. Sarah Palin can create the impression among foreigners that she is authentically American precisely because she conforms to the exotic “Wild West” myth of America. John McCain may be betting that the exotic nature of Sarah Palin will trump the exotic nature of Barack Obama.

Besides, if growing up in Indonesia could give someone insight into foreign policy, why wouldn’t growing up in rural Alaska do the same thing?

Sarah Palin gives John McCain one more advantage – Sarah Palin can probably beat Barack Obama in a game of hoops. If the Presidency hinged upon a basketball game between the Republican team of John McCain and Sarah Palin on one side and the Democratic team of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden on the other, there’s a good chance that the Republican team would win.

Hmmm – I would like to see a basketball game between the Democratic presidential ticket and the Republican presidential ticket.

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:46 am 66. JFSanders:

Reading the Hillforum.net link transported me back to high school. Man that was hard to read even tho they were praising McCain/Palin. It isn’t any wonder why the country is where it is. With people making a decision on a national matter using high school level maturity. I am glad they are choosing McCain but it would really be a better thing if they grew up. Maybe then this country would return to our Constitutional roots.

Jim

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:55 am 67. Peter Boston:

So far as I know I’m the only one using Cowboy, and it’s hardly a pejorative. There is perhaps no single other term that better exemplifies American individualism, self reliance, and free enterprise than the word Cowboy.

Obama will never get it because he only has technical Americaness. A Chinese kid growing up in San Francisco playing stick ball in the street is moe American that Obama will ever be. Whatever twinge he might have had would not have survived Harvard.

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:56 am 68. programmer:

As far as Palin’s Troopergate is concerned, it seems to me she made the right decisions even when they are hard (i.e. family related). Being a governor does not mean leaving a bad cop in his job just because he is family. I suspect that the MSM is going to have this backfire on them. A lot of people will identify with the narrative that the Alaska State Police mishandled this case and the new young governor “cleaned house”, even in the face of dangerous political implications. Sounds a lot like a maverick to me.

Aug 30, 2008 - 8:57 am 69. JFSanders:

“Hmmm – I would like to see a basketball game between the Democratic presidential ticket and the Republican presidential ticket.”

Maybe some one on one. But I wouldn’t like to see Sen.McCain get embarrassed.

Jim

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:00 am 70. Wadeusaf:

Teresita,

The VP, has a long winded and storied tradition of shaping the national debate, even before Spiro Agnew there was Lyndon B Johnson and long before him Aaron Burr.

Palin’s dust up with Big Oil in Big AK over NG says lots of stuff to lots of people. To Big Oil it says get busy, that lease isn’t a savings account, to Big Business it says get going, the offers (and the market) won’t get any better, and to big government it says back off, to the rest of us it says stay calm and follow the rules.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:13 am 71. neolex:

@JFSanders

The “troopergate” involves Palin firing public safety comissioner. Alaskan legislators, who are not on good terms with Palin due to her anti-corruption efforts, allege that it was due to him refusing to fire the dirtbag you mention. If true it is a clear example of improper influence and would represent a very valid line of political attack. The problem is, even if the allegations are not true, they will be exploited and there will be plenty of people in Alaskan legislature, who will support them, as there are many enemies Palin made there. This will likely be a constant distraction as it will be impossible for Palin to disprove her involvement, while her opponents likely don’t have any significant evidence to prove it.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:23 am 72. oMan:

Alexis at 8:46: you nailed it. Alaska as the last frontier, and such a spokeswoman for it and for the values we espouse. If Palin can speak from the heart (and having seen her acceptance speech I think she can) and if she can learn the basics of foreign policy (I suspect she’s already being given the cram course, and she looks like a quick study) so that she is at least one place-name ahead of Biden and Obama (not hard, frankly: their unforced errors so far are pretty amazing), then this is hers to lose. McCain really picked a winner here. I bet the donations are pouring in.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:25 am 73. AZVet:

I was a part of that $3 min 6 hours..
Huge Mitt fan, hadn’t taken a serious look at Palin.
I have now and it really was a WOW for me.
She was probably the only one besides Mitt who could get me re-jazzed about November.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:28 am 74. neolex:

@Triton

I read the same forums a get a feel for what Clinton base was thinking, hence our agreement.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:28 am 75. Lifeofthemind:

Now we need to consider the ex-Public Security Director who started this campaign against Pallin. The big problem that McCain and Pallin are running against is the culture of an entitled bureaucracy. The “Civil Service” has two components, one elected and the other appointed. That definition goes back to 18th century England. Both tend to become entrenched and deeply corrupt. Pallin had a Department Head who calculated that the old rules of get along go along in a unionized government administration meant that you handled a problem like an abusive trooper by kicking the can down the road as long as possible and then issuing a nominal suspension that is subsequently cut in half. Pallin said “No. You do your job.” The Department Head figured that he knew everybody and the trooper knew everybody and it would blow over until everybody retired. That is the way these things work. Pallin offered to move him to another Department, proving that she is not only principled but a savvy player herself.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:32 am 76. Stephen:

So Palin used her influence to get her sister’s ex fired? The guy was a LEO. If there is any suggestion that the guy abused the sister and that he used his LEO status to get away with it then this story will blow back on the Dems. A woman who pulled strings to get back at a guy who abused her sister is a woman other women will vote for.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:50 am 77. neolex:

@Leftofthemind

Actually, Palin claims that dismissal was due to “weak performance” and specifically, failure to hire sufficient new troopers and budget disagreements. I’m inclined to think that she is telling the truth, especially given the fact that Palin’s administration has cooperated with the inquiry into the matter, rather than trying to stone-wall it. However, Leftofthemind, where I disagree with is if refusing to firing the trooper was a factor, it would represent abuse of power, regardless of the fact that safety comissioner can be dismissed or appointed at governor’s whimsy. Bush’s dismissal of DAs comes to mind and it was a clear example of abuse of power. I am not directly comparing it to the current set of facts, as Palin does not appear to be at fault here. It will be used against her though.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:50 am 78. Lifeofthemind:

Strongly disagree with you on thefiring of the DA’s. THe Democrats have a long and dishonorable history of trying to entrench power through a permanent government. Remeber the grounds for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson was the Republicans trying to enforce the Tenure in Office Act to protect Cabinet officers. The DAs, like the Cabinet, are discretionary appointees for a good reason.

Aug 30, 2008 - 10:05 am 79. Peterike:

I think McCain should say he will task Palin with cleaning up corruption and waste in the government. This will attract non-idealogues from both sides of the aisle, and Palin already has shown she won’t hesitate to bust balls even against her own party. (The electorate has not yet grasped this fact — she took on her own party for corruption, not the opposition. Who does that?) How bracing would it be to see her cleaning house in the government, dumping the useless detritus that clings to the Washington like a barnacle.

Hell, after they’re elected McCain and Palin should go start a third party and break the two party system once and for all.

Aug 30, 2008 - 10:28 am 80. Tinian:

McCain is inside Obama’s OODA Loop…

fred took the words right out of my mouth. I’m getting lots of laughs watching the panicked Democrat’s reactions to McCains’s moves.

Aug 30, 2008 - 10:41 am 81. Peterike:

The inimitable Mark Steyn gets right to the point, as usual, and with tradmark hilarity.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODNhOTk2YTU0NWY4ZjY5ODNhZTgyOWZkNjY5YjFlMmY=

My favorite bit:

Fourth, Governor Palin has what the British Labour Party politician Denis Healy likes to call a “hinterland” – a life beyond politics. Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn’t just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won’t need the usual stage-managed “hunting” trip to reassure gun owners: she’s lived the Second Amendment all her life.

Aug 30, 2008 - 10:52 am 82. 3Case:

The Whinner lied. Dems are naught but lies and deceit, first and foremost.

“Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community.
If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him.
The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.

What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”

From M-W online:

“blas·phe·my Listen to the pronunciation of blasphemy
Pronunciation:
\ˈblas-fə-mē\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural blas·phe·mies
Date:
13th century

1 a: the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God b: the act of claiming the attributes of deity….”

What is the penalty for blasphemy, anyway?

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:01 am 83. neolex:

@Leftofthemind

Discretionary appointees can be fired for any transgression or even for no reason at all. They cannot be fired for performing their job functions (eg investigating someone administration doesn’t want them to) or refusing to break the law at the behest of the administration (eg investigating someone they wouldn’t otherwise bc of lack of evidence). During the hearings about the DAs, GOP liked to constantly use a talking point about Clinton firing ALL DAs, while Bush fired only a dozen, making it seem to be about arithmetics. The difference here is that Clinton fired all of them for no reason. He just wanted his own people in there and fired everyone. Bush, on the other hand, fired specific people who refused to tow the line (some of them Republicans, btw). Towing the line, in this case, was starting investigations, where the evidence wasn’t there. Clearly, this is abuse of power and I’d love to see some support from you to the contrary, rather than pulling a strawman about Democrats and entrenching power, which regardless of validity, has nothing to do with it.

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:04 am 84. buddy larsen:

@neolex: “…where the evidence wasn’t there”

And where is yours for that, neolex?

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:09 am 85. programmer:

Neolex,

I very seldom address comments to other commenters, but your statement about the firing of the DAs puzzles me.

“The difference here is that Clinton fired all of them for no reason. He just wanted his own people in there and fired everyone. Bush, on the other hand, fired specific people who refused to tow the line (some of them Republicans, btw). ”

Hmmm, explain the difference again please. I’m just a tad confused about the distinction between wanting your own people and wanting people who will follow your lead. I guess I don’t grasp the nuance, kinda of like the definition of what is is!

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:12 am 86. Benj:

Buddy – Good Foot – The question raised by by the article I posted was – Is Palin the echt anti-Stevenson? Doesn’t seem to be the case. Cept at the level of myth (as per Alexis). Hope you guys don’t really believe the politics is just about myth-mongering and/or “war by another name.” Obama doesn’t, though he wants to win bad. Doubt he would let political calculation drive him to put his country at risk. HE’s not Hillary – “obliterate Iran” – Clinton. Or it seems, Johnny Mac.

Thanks for punctuating the puncturing of the Percy S. silliness. BTW, I’m sure it’s the same PErcy who got the ADL award. Nothing peculiar about that given NYC.

What was most striking about that bit of flailing from Wretch was his asumption that the Old Black Man hazily recalling/rewriting his history of influence was necessarily a heavy Obama man. In fact, as I mentioned before – Mr. S. and the Harlem Establishment with which he is (literally) tight – Sutton and Rangel and other pols live in the same building! – were hold-outs for Hillary. James Clyburn, John Lewis et al turned to O when it became clear that black folks were rolling with him after he reached white folks in Iowa. But the Harlem pols hung tight…O got key support from the younger gen of pols like Newark’s mayor Cory Booker – BTW – There’s a very good post by Mickey Kaus about how Booker and couple other chrome-domed black mayors took on teachers’ union at the Dem PArty Covention. O will be more cautious there but I know you’re interested in that issue…Might think on that and then consider the Scopes trial angle on Palin. The future vs. the Past. Doesn’t seem all that myth-y thanks to Mr. Mac’s move…

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:20 am 87. Knight:

The Sarah Palin pick reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt – wasn’t he selected as VP precisely because he was cleaning up politics in NY and the idea at the time was “make him VP and we’ll never hear from him again?”

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:27 am 88. coyotl:

Wretchard, you’re conceding to your opponent’s arguments without any self-awareness. In using an OODA loop/dogfight analogy you buttress those liberals who claim that this choice was made only for short-term partisan political gain, not for the good of the nation. The choice “disrupts” the Obama campaign, it doesn’t provide the country with an experienced commander-in-chief should 72 year old McCain fall ill or worse.
Do fighter pilots really make the best strategic political thinkers and actors? By your analogy this is inferred, but you ignore how instinctive creativity, killer reflexes and ego-driven brashness can often lead to medium and long term social or political failure. Perhaps you can do a post on the stellar political career of Randy “Duke” Cunninghmam if you really feel secure with your analogy.

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:36 am 89. 3Case:

“Bush’s dismissal of DAs comes to mind and it was a clear example of abuse of power.”

That statement is ignorance as is the entire affair that has been created surrounding it. Once upon a time I was an AUSA. Prior to taking the oath, I had a sitdown with the FAUSA (that would be First Assistant U.S. Attorney for those unfamiliar) wherein I was advised that the boss, the USA, served completely at the pleasure of the President and that, generally speaking, we were all to follow suit unless advised otherwise.

That conversation was the reason that, while I objected to the cloddish style, I had no problem with Clinton’s wholesale firing of the USAs, even considering the fortuity (i.e. relief from prosecution) it visited on some Dems. The current brouhaha generated by the Congress that brought us $4 gasoline is complete crap; the timeworn Dem device of using ignorance they carefully fostered.

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:36 am 90. fedya:

@Peterike:
…are saying Palin “only has a journalism degree.” Heh, wonder if the press will pick up on that one?

Good one!

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:39 am 91. buddy larsen:

Cory Booker is good. I hope he hasn’t tied himself too tight to Obamanomics, tho. Booker is looking out for his city and is straight upfront honest about it. Doesn’t strike me as a ideologue. I’d love to see him drift rightward off the liberal plantation. He’s young enough and dynamic enough to go national.

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:39 am 92. Benj:

Buddy – just a quickie…Booker and O. are tight. Booker went down to North Carolina for the pivotal primary down there and helped juice folks down there…

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:48 am 93. buddy larsen:

3case is right –the tidal wave of phoney-baloney congressional investigations of the executive, right on cue after the power shift in 2006, confirmed that Democratic party leaders such as Sen Pat Leahy are utterly dishonest and utterly unconcerned with the health of the political system and the destiny of a nation caught up in a global struggle between right and wrong.

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:50 am 94. bobal:

I hardly ever give money to a politician, but, Monday morning I’m sending off a check to the McCain/Palin team. This pick has me really excited.

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:51 am 95. buddy larsen:

right, benj –i was saying, imho, that’s a bug, not a feature. has to do with the tax plan –and the tax plan doesn’t bother me wallet-wise, it bothers me national economic-health wise.

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:53 am 96. Triton'sPolarTiger:

Those PUMAs look to be climbing on board in a big way…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrbhYQLrqp0

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:58 am 97. Peterike:

Benj, a while back (seems like months) I asked you what you actually want/expect from a BHO administration in terms of policy. I never got an answer. I’m genuinely curious about what you expect him to do because you never say anything. Seems all BHO does is make you feel good about your own self-described enlightenment so beyond that of your benighted fellow citizens, which is what drives about 90% of O’s following, if you ask me. We ARE the ones we’ve been waiting for! And ain’t we summpin?

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:59 am 98. buddy larsen:

benj, re “race issue” the fundamental choice is between Thomas Sowell and LBJ. LBJ-ism has built a fantastically huge rent-seek edifice that has poisoned discourse and split the nation. Meanwhile, Thomas Sowell doesn’t even get read.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:03 pm 99. hdgreene:

They gotta dirty Gov. Palin up quick. Right now, all over America, they got rooms full of “real people” wired to machines while they call her everything from a bad mom to a corrupt pol to a creationist bigot to inexperienced. And I rather suspect they are using the results of these investigations to spew onto CNN right now.

I talked to a Hillary supporting friend this morning and she hit me with the “She should be staying home with her child” thing. I suspect she picked that up from CNN. Of course if Gov. Palin were a Democrat they would attack Republicans heatedly for such a suggestion. Besides, the Democrats think those children should be under “state care” in anycase (along with everyone else, of course).

She also knew of the “investigation for corruption” thing. Thought their might be something to it. All of a sudden the “lack of experience” thing was important, too. I told her not to count on that “deer in the headlight” look from this gal to mark her as in over her head. Of course, it can be photoshopped.

So get out your umbrellas and enjoy the shit storm.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:08 pm 100. programmer:

I try to stay reasonably fair and balanced, but darn, I love the sound of moonbats fluttering frantically around an open flame, then the sizzling and smell of burning moonbat wings. Does that make me a small person? Nahhh, actually it’s a whole lot of other personality traits that make me a small person. Okay, I’m going back to creating data entity relationship diagrams now. Really.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:18 pm 101. Eggplant:

JFSanders said:

“Attacking her stance on creationism will only agitate the large numbers of Bible clingers to get out and support McCain/Palin. They were lukewarm on him and his policy on immigration. The Dem party shouldn’t want to make this a issue.”

I strongly support John McCain and have contributed money to his campaign. I also think that selecting Sarah Palin was tactically brilliant (although Jindal would have been a better pick IMHO). However I am not happy about the creationism nonsense. It appears that tolerating creationism is the price one must pay to bring the Christian Conservatives on board. It’s a significant price but worth it if we can defeat the demagogue Hussein.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:26 pm 102. RJ:

“McCain’s airforce record is hardly something to be proud of.”

It’s always interesting how lefties go all military expert on people who have achieved more in life than they have.

And then they don’t even get the service branch right.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:27 pm 103. Barney Frank:

Buddy,

I believe McCain actually lost five planes.
The one on deck of the Forrestal, two to mechanical failure in flight, the one he was shot down in and unfortunately one wherein he seemed to be flying too low and clipped some power lines.
I could be wrong and would appreciate being corrected if so.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:28 pm 104. Eggplant:

programmer said:

“I try to stay reasonably fair and balanced, but darn, I love the sound of moonbats fluttering frantically around an open flame, then the sizzling and smell of burning moonbat wings. Does that make me a small person? ”

Schadenfreude is a terrible thing but I’m also guilty of it. I hate the moonbats (most of them are liars and cowards). I guess that makes me a small person. I’ll just have to live with that….

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:32 pm 105. buddy larsen:

“McCain’s airforce record is hardly something to be proud of.”

What is, then? Stealing hubcaps? Picking your nose?

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:33 pm 106. let’s drink tonight, because tomorrow we’re out of the news cycle — infotainment rules:

[...] [...]

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:36 pm 107. buddy larsen:

Barney, I do recall that, now that you mention it –some tv program covered it awhile back –in Italy, somewhere –shut down power for a mid-size town. Not sure if that plane was lost tho. The others were not dereliction, tho –bad luck, poor ground crew maintenance perhaps, good NVA gunnery (ground attack is by far the most dangerous of all types of air combat).

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:40 pm 108. bobal:

“McCain’s airforce record is hardly something to be proud of.”

What is, then? Stealing hubcaps? Picking your nose?

Good ol’ Buddy.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:44 pm 109. 2x4:

coyotl, you see only a surface. You are forgetting that dog fights are usually a part of a war, they are tactical, not strategic tools in themselves, but placed in context, they have a strategic aspect.

I found one interesting facet of this particular tactical operation.

You know how deeply entrenched memes can be, I suppose. The long standing Demorat meme is a set of political drawers that are used to describe Republicans, for their emotional aspect, as naturally the liberal mind set has an affinity to it.

Anti-women, anti-minority, anti-regular working folks, motivated by greed,…etc. Whether there is any correspondence with reality is irrelevant. This description envelope has been successfully implanted into minds of 2 generations, who react in it reflexively, as if that was a truth that is self-evident.

Scanning commentaries of PUMA and other forums that represent Hillary camp, this complex of memes is suddenly busted, it is in shambles and one can see that a ray of light is sweeping the dusted chamber that was, until now, protected by impenetrable barrier, at least for a sizable portion of these folks.

It reminds me the situation after 9/11, when a lot of people suddenly woke up (or within a relatively short time span). But that was caused by an external factor and was an unintended consequence as AQ was concerned.

The current situation, in my opinion, is loaded with intended consequences that are not just a short term political maneuver to catch Obamination with their pants down.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:45 pm 110. buddy larsen:

bobal, yes –it’s like, “Patton –wasn’t he the guy who slapped that soldier?”

this is the attitude that sees the human being as a support system for the rectum.

Aug 30, 2008 - 12:54 pm 111. cadams:

Crap, that was one hell of a comments section. Great commentary and analogy

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:11 pm 112. fedya:

Jonah Goldberg over at the Corner on the NationalReview [dot] com shares this zinger from a reader:

To borrow from Ross Perot (not always a good idea), would you hire any of these people as a manager at your company?

Palin you’d offer the job to right away, and then you’d sweat until she accepted it.

McCain would seem like a decent choice, but wouldn’t make or break you either way.

You’d wonder how Obama possibly thought he was qualified, and you’d leave him to be hired by some other company where they fall for people who say all the right things.

And you’d be telling stories about Biden’s interview, and making jokes about it, for years.

Revealing, seems to me.

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:13 pm 113. Peterike:

Wow, I just took a brief stroll to the Lefty interwebs underworld (I won’t even grace the sites with links). The venom is simply startling. That crowd hasn’t budged an inch.

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:28 pm 114. Jamie Irons:

Buddy,

I never knew you had so much knowledge of aircraft.*

Doesn’t surprise me, but it does impress me.

Jamie Irons

*My expertise in this area consists entirely in having sat several dozens of times confined in a space too small for my frame, being conveyed somewhere I didn’t especially care to go, in a state suspended between terror and boredom.

That’s right — I was flying Southwest!

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:32 pm 115. Joseph Somsel:

As to McCain/Palin governance, I’d like to point out that the vice presidency is the most well-paid sinecure in the US government. While Cheney was an exception, most VPs get pushed out of sight with few duties other than political fundraising and schmoozing. They get to vote as a Senate tie-breaker once in a blue moon.

What I find attractive about Palin is that she seems to understand energy issues better than any other political figure since James Schlesinger. Can she hold a dual position as both VP and Secretary of Energy?

Once the election is over, it would a shame not to put her energies to good use.

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:37 pm 116. buddy larsen:

hey, doc –only the WWII birds really –from that whole art-deco look, to the way they took the performance out as far as physics would let it go, to the whole breathtaking enormity of in a couple years from a standing start routinely –almost daily –putting a thousand four-engine bombers and another thousand fighter escorts in the skies over deep central Europe, but mainly to the 20-something kids flying them, who, as my dad once told me in an unguarded moment, their ability to take such humongous losses came from an unspoken consent that they all expected to die.

I was on a SouthWest flight one day and looked up to see founder and president Herb Kelleher wearing an apron and distributing peanuts –and laughing back as the whole passenger compartment slowly took note and started laughing. Wot a guy –positive & optimistic –and a great fuel-cost hedger!

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:50 pm 117. Wadeusaf:

“Thanks for punctuating the puncturing of the Percy S. silliness. BTW, I’m sure it’s the same PErcy who got the ADL award. Nothing peculiar about that given NYC.”

I didn’t do it for you, I was curious about the reported connection with Al Mansour, at such an early time. There seems no reasonable way Al Mansour would have known “OH”, other than through lecturing at Harvard, in which case why would he need to call upon Percy’s recommend for admittance to Law School? In fact the more I think on it the more I think Percy’s memory is of writing to someone, but probably not about Harvard, it is more likely it was as an introduction to Chicago.

What was most striking about that bit of flailing from Wretch was his asumption that the Old Black Man hazily recalling/rewriting his history of influence was necessarily a heavy Obama man.
–I did not catch that angle in the ahem–flailing. Not at all.

In fact, as I mentioned before – Mr. S. and the Harlem Establishment with which he is (literally) tight – Sutton and Rangel and other pols live in the same building! – were hold-outs for Hillary. James Clyburn, John Lewis et al turned to O when it became clear that black folks were rolling with him after he reached white folks in Iowa. But the Harlem pols hung tight…O got key support from the younger gen of pols like Newark’s mayor Cory Booker – BTW – There’s a very good post by Mickey Kaus about how Booker and couple other chrome-domed black mayors took on teachers’ union at the Dem PArty Covention. O will be more cautious there but I know you’re interested in that issue…Might think on that and then consider the Scopes trial angle on Palin. The future vs. the Past. Doesn’t seem all that myth-y thanks to Mr. Mac’s move…

I was thinking the NY power brokers would be fun to watch given their proximity to the so called ‘first black preZ’. Thanks for the tip on the NEA, and for not thinking me a prick, erm, i think.

Aug 30, 2008 - 1:59 pm 118. Doug:

“The first large order for 369 P-39Ds was placed in September 1940, and the initial deliveries of these began several months later. ”
—
‘Troopergate’ inquiry lurks for Palin

For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff,” Monegan said Friday from Portland. “What they said directly was more along the lines of ‘This isn’t a person that we would want to be representing our state troopers.’ ”

Palin again brought up Wooten in February 2007 as they were walking together to wish a state senator a happy birthday, Monegan said. He said he told Palin he had to keep her at arm’s distance on the matter and she agreed.

A Palin political rival, Andrew Halcro, was the first to publicly mention the Wooten matter in connection with Monegan. He titled his blog post: “Why Walt Monegan got fired: Palin’s abuse of power.”

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:00 pm 119. bobal:

Buddy, Sarah Palin is just a representative sample of our University of Idaho gals out this way. We have hundreds of like minded and talented gals just like her. !

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:06 pm 120. bobal:

this is the attitude that sees the human being as a support system for the rectum.

Another home run by the man from Texas.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:09 pm 121. Doug:

“Doubt he would let political calculation drive him to put his country at risk.”
—
Nah never happen, benj, like he would never associate, much less make plans and do business with terrorists like Dohrn and Ayers.
…not that it ended up selling students and patients at risk down the river @ the cost of 100’s of millions of dollars.
Never Happened.
Eyes Wide Shut.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:09 pm 122. fedya:

This from the TimesOnline, cited by Drudge:

The Kremlin moved swiftly to tighten its grip on Georgia’s breakaway regions yesterday as South Ossetia announced that it would soon become part of Russia, which will open military bases in the province under an agreement to be signed on Tuesday.

Now I personally feel like a shit for getting excited over “America’s Excellent Big Election. How about “The Wanking Big Fantasy” or “The Bi-Partisan [belch] Day-Dream”?

Sure, the world just goes on hold while we wank away, right? No, Russia announces its intention to annex Georgia. We prattle on about a hurricane and an election as if they are something unusual.

Great party! Too bad we all ended up in a Russian jail afterwards, but, hell, it sure was a great party!

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:16 pm 123. buddy larsen:

“Doubt he would let political calculation drive him to put his country at risk”

The country is gonna be at risk anyway, is at risk now, has been since it was borned, and will be from now on. What yer pols do is raise or lower the people’s willingness to care, one way or the other. See ‘demoralize’ vs hmm…what, is there no antonym for ‘demoralize’?

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:22 pm 124. 2x4:

Alaska Dems to others: Barracuda sighted! Panic now!

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:26 pm 125. Wadeusaf:

“So far as I know I’m the only one using Cowboy, and it’s hardly a pejorative. There is perhaps no single other term that better exemplifies American individualism, self reliance, and free enterprise than the word Cowboy.”

Pisst, the term Cowboy originated on Long Island, nothing to do with Texas or the West, just the usual conjoining of terms in Germanic language and the cows were domesticated, and more oftener than not were being raised for milk.

Summthing about old vs. new.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:33 pm 126. JFSanders:

Should it be moralize?

jim

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:33 pm 127. buddy larsen:

fedya, did you note that the same day Rus announced what amounts to annexation, they also announced this?

Playing it on the surface now, aren’t they. Question is, what will come out of the upcoming EU emergency meeting –what –next week?

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:34 pm 128. buddy larsen:

Jim, it should be –except that word is loaded. Oops i mean “loaded”.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:36 pm 129. 2x4:

Fedya, sure, we are in a spectacle cycle and the election issue is in the forefront. Not much we can do regarding Western Yuros, they decided that hardening their spines is too much of a pain and confirmed NATO status as a paper kitten. But it is far from finished in Georgia, and I doubt that the Bush administration has fallen asleep.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:40 pm 130. cjm:

seems like russia has convinced nearly the entire wold they aren’t fit company, and all the bluster in the world won’t change that. if they think they can beat the rest of the world combined then let them try it. russia reeks of decay and incontinence.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:41 pm 131. buddy larsen:

The Rus missile ‘Topol’ brings to mind Topol, the lead in “Fiddler on the Roof” –film which he played old Tevye, trying to raise a family under shadow of a coming czarist pogrom, with the words (in voice over a silhouette image of a fiddle on the roof, playing a sweet, mournful dirge),

“A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask ‘Why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous?’ Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!”

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:56 pm 132. 2x4:

Telling ya, it is a war on memes and the key word is authenticity. To wit:

McCain and the GOP are considering scrapping political speeches and turning their St. Paul/Minneapolis convention into a “service” program to help victims of Storm Gustav, The Post has learned.

Sources told The Post that McCain himself might visit the Gulf Coast during the week of the Republican National Convention, which begins tomorrow. McCain is not scheduled to make his nomination speech until Thursday.

The contingency plan – a worst case scenario if the storm devastates coastal areas – would turn Republicans into Red Cross-type volunteers who would help collect donations, food and goods to help storm victims.

Aug 30, 2008 - 2:57 pm 133. buddy larsen:

lord what an example that would set! Look, this storm is serious –i grew up in the area it’s aimed at, and am getting panicky emails from the zone “hey, y’all got room for refugees?”

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:07 pm 134. RWE:

A friend of mine has a Me108. He’s putting a Ranger V770 engine in it (check which aircraft used that one). It may even fly again one day.

The Me-262 was fast as the devil but not a good dogfighter at all. Its control forces were so high at high speed that the stick was designed to unfold to make it longer and give the pilot more leverage. Because the 262 had swept back wings and the 51 laminar flow wings, their top speed in a dive was the same, with a possible edge to the Mustang.

The P-59 was not a “jet P-39.” That was the original design concept, a P-39 with engines buried in the wings like a meteor. Probably would have been faster to develop and worked at least as well as the design finally selected.

The thing that gets me about Gov Palin is that she is like “Buckaroo Banzi” – which, y’all may recall, was a rock star brain surgeon racecar driver test pilot. She is a card-carrying NRA hunter, commercial fisherman, beauty queen, wife of an Eskimo oil field worker, working mother, governor. She is the real traditional equity feminism writ large, not the fake fascist sexist stuff you see from the Left.

Buddy: Ditto on those 40’s aircraft. They had “The Look.” That’s why I own one. It even uses the same fuselage structural design as the Bf108 and Bf109.

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:08 pm 135. Doug:

Hey, RWE:
What’s with that Topol seemingly being launched out in the forest?
How do they avoid repeatedly starting fires?

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:11 pm 136. cedarford:

Even without McCains age and cancer history, we are in a lull where we have had Presidents in reasonably good health and with continuity in office ever since Reagan getting shot….but if you look at the last 12 Presidents and a Sarah Palin type backup…3 VPs had to take over permanently.

In addition, there were failed assassination attempts on 4 others. Truman, Ford, Reagan, Dubya (someone threw a grenade at Bush in Georgia that failed to go off).

Also, 3 VPs had to become acting Presidents for reasonably long
periods of time, take the nuclear football…when Presidents became incapacitated.

Richard Nixon was acting President for almost two months after Ike’s massive 1955 heart attack. Then for about 4 days later when Ike had a colon operation, then for 3-10 days depending on who discussed it – after Eisenhower suffered a moderate stroke in 1957.

LBJ was unable to do duties and Humphrey took over for 3 days when LBJ had emergency gall bladder surgery. And throughout LBJ’s time, he and his doctors feared any day could bring a new, massive heart attack like he suffered in the mid-50s. During his Presidency, LBJ suffered dehabilitating bouts of angina that left him unable to work for hours at a time.
Luck meant the 2nd “Big One” fortunately waited until LBJ was almost a year out of office, in late 1969. The 3rd one killed him in 1973.

Besides nearly dying in his 1981 shooting, Reagan was unable to fully work and execute his duties as President for almost 3 weeks. The public was not made aware of this until the 90s, and legal scholars say Bush I failed in his duty to trigger the 25th Amendment. Though he did later when Reagan was disabled for 3 days for a colon cancer operation.

And besides death, Nixon’s resignation from office, medical incapacitations, you had Clinton’s impeachment and the significant possibility that the VP would take over if the dynamics and polls had shifted against Clinton.

6 of the last 12 Presidents had VPs take over for them permanently or for an extended time. 3 others besides Reagan had the specter of the VP coming in if the assassin had been better…And Clinton and his impeachment makes for 10 of the last 12 Presidents where the fitness of the VP to take over was a matter that hit home with the public at certain times..

McCains Dad and grandfather died of heart attacks in their mid-70s. He has a history of getting through two lethal melanoma cancers – a condition though that doctors say unfortunately recurs in such patients with new lesions or “hides out” dormant for years then switches on again and spreads aggressively. Though McCain is in less and less risk of the latter as time goes by since the 2nd melanoma was cut out of his face and lymph glands. (Why his left cheek is so bulgy – glands for removing lymph fluid there are gone).

The unfortunate truth is that on top of McCains age and medical vulnerabilies, the last 65 years have shown that in 10 of 12 Presidencies VPs have taken over permanently or temporarily, or there was a significant risk to the President through assassination attempts or impeachment.

That Sarah Palin is ready to be President does not rest on the unlikely event she has to take over – but even outside Mccains high risk factors – the high probability (83.3%) she will have to take over for death, prolonged medical incapacitation, a resignation, or would have had to take over in a near-miss accident or assassination attempt…

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:29 pm 137. buddy larsen:

Art-deco masterpieces, RWE –which also could fly.

Doug, target was Kamchatka Peninsula –remember KAL 007 –the fully-loaded-with-civilians 747 the reds shot down deliberately in 80s sometime –it had strayed over the Kamchatka Peninsula ?

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:31 pm 138. Al_Batross:

The CGI link is great, a concise historical reconstruction and a disarmingly modest old hero. However, I could not help thinking that he was probably a cocky young fellow back in his P51 days, which reminded me of this:

http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000172.html

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:44 pm 139. Doug:

Yeah, Buddy, I forgot the name of the fierce anti-communist that was aboard, tho.

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:46 pm 140. Doug:

wrt to that poor man w/the medical condition we were discussing:

“Starting with the series’ first episode, which opens with Moody fantasizing about a nun performing oral sex, the show is rife with romps, one-night stands, threesomes and, in one episode, a post-coital vomit session. Hence, the word “fornication” in the title. ”
—
It’d be a shame if his medical condition prevented him from continuing such great work, wouldn’t it?

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:48 pm 141. neolex:

@programmer

For a programmer, you weren’t very attentive when reading my post. I believe I have sufficiently defined the function “tow the line” within the scope of my argument. Please, go back and reread it. Following the lead, as you call it, is not an issue here.

@buddy

evidence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismissal_of_U.S._attorneys_controversy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Iglesias_(attorney)#United_States_Attorney_dismissal

+ his book

If you say he would be a biased source (he did get fired afterall), please provide evidence to the contrary, as if we were to dismiss all sources with bias, the only info we would end up with is time and atmospheric temperature.

If you expect me to provide evidence that Bush was the one who ordered this, I will concede it is not publicly available. Remember GOP email being erased? It would even be reasonable to assume that he didn’t order the firing, but as POTUS he is responsible for what’s going on in his administration and if Gonzales or someone else violated the law and acted against his will, they should have been fired. They do serve at his discretion afterall.

Aug 30, 2008 - 3:56 pm 142. 2x4:

There is one interesting aspect of Palin’s nomination that I’ve seen mentioned nowhere…
Her negotiations with Russian Federation over fishing and Russian Navy transit rights in the Bearing Sea. She has actually met with Putin, who said that Gov Palin is one of the few US officials he respects.

That also sweeps aside the “no international experience” meme.

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:06 pm 143. 2x4:

cedarford, I wouldn’t worry about her ability to step into Commander in Chief shoes if such a need arises. I think she is rather capable and able to organize a decent group of advisers to help her in areas she’s lacking.

I would be worried if The Narcissist One won elections. Bidden? Puhleese!

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:14 pm 144. Doug:

It was Congressman Larry McDonald, of Georgia:
—
Quotations by Larry McDonald

“We have four boxes with which to defend our freedom: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.”[13].[citation needed]

“The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and communism under the same tent, all under their control…

Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.” [14]

(Speaking of Carroll Quigley, a history professor at Georgetown University)
“He says, Sure we’ve been working it, sure we’ve been collaborating with communism, yes we’re working with global accommodation, yes, we’re working for world government.

But the only thing I object to, is that we’ve kept it a secret.”[15]

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:18 pm 145. fedya:

Anyone for some good-old Russian-style Black Humour?

Putin the Staunch Republican?
August 30th, 2008

Prominent Russian political figure Vladimir Putin is a staunch supporter of the US Republican Party. One can only guess at the reasons. Maybe, the word “democrat” is disagreeable to him from childhood. It’s also not impossible that our premier generally gravitates to conservatism in all its most diverse forms – from the East German to the North American. By nature and purely professionally. The KGB is a conservative organization.

read da whole ting: theotherrussia[dot]org/2008/08/30/putin-the-staunch-republican/

Hey, if pro-democracy Russkies can find a way to laugh at this stuff, why shouldn’t we?

Or howzabbout the Republican Convention airlifts itself to Tbilisi [if the storm is a dud, of course]? But whereever they do it, they simply must have a painfully drawn out roll call, complete with “Hi, Mom”s and pictures of local big-wigs in front of local eateries. You know, go where the local is? Think globally; act locally?

Whatever…

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:21 pm 146. Doug:

2 x 4
Putin also had an opinion of Hillary:
—
The former KGB lieutenant colonel appeared to lash out at U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton — a leading Democratic candidate for president — when one reporter quoted her as saying that former KGB officers have no soul:

“At a minimum, a head of state should have a head,”
Putin said.

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:23 pm 147. cedarford:

The WINNER – The Winner:
McCain’s airforce record is hardly something to be proud of…

Being ignorant that McCain was never in the Air Force, but the Navy, is not something to be proud of.
And the real determinant is the Navy is quite proud of McCains record – (not some clueless Lefty who thinks he was Air Force) – as a warrior and pilot and tell his story to new sailors and aviators as a role model.

The WINNER Four local radio stations were giving away tickets yesterday. In stark contrast, Obama had a 200,000 person waiting list for closing of the Dem convention.

There are millions of fans of rock stars who weep because they can’t get a ticket to a sold-out concert, just as Obama has his crying, adoring hysterical devotees of Black Messiah. That does not mean rock star worshippers form a majority anywhere.

===================
Alexis – Sarah Palin can probably beat Barack Obama in a game of hoops. If the Presidency hinged upon a basketball game between the Republican team of John McCain and Sarah Palin on one side and the Democratic team of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden on the other, there’s a good chance that the Republican team would win.

Hmmm – I would like to see a basketball game between the Democratic presidential ticket and the Republican presidential ticket.

From your comments I can surmise you never played sports seriously.
I get that from the usual blather about how some female star can “kick the ass” of any decent male athlete in the same sport. Almost never true. The male size, speed, agility, power, and aggressiveness advantage is overwhelming. Top-ranked female basketball and tennis players practice with
male athletes not good enough to make college or the pros to improve their game. My cousin is a part-time tennis pro who hits with female tour pros to boost their speed and power…occasionally, they want to play a set. He routinely beats them.

So Obama would near-predictably, smoke Palin in B-Ball. A game with McCain in it would be pitiful to watch because he is old and so crippled from his war injuries he cannot even trot, let alone run, and is unable to raise one arm above shoulder height.

In consolation, in sports where the male edge is eliminated like in shooting or short-length gold, women can be competitive with men. But that is not generally true in sport.

================
Somsel – What I find attractive about Palin is that she seems to understand energy issues better than any other political figure since James Schlesinger. Can she hold a dual position as both VP and Secretary of Energy?

Quite the feat for a housewife with a degree in journalism who has been a Governor for a year and a half.
While she appears to have a good laymans knowledge of energy, it falls short of political leaders or appointed experts in the Executive like Sclesinger from an engineering, science background or with extensive private industry experience in the transportation, utility, energy sectors.
========================

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:42 pm 148. neolex:

@programmer

For a programmer, you weren’t very attentive when reading my post. I believe I have sufficiently defined the function “tow the line” within the scope of my argument. Please, go back and reread it. Following the lead, as you call it, is not an issue here.

@buddy

evidence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Iglesias_(attorney)#United_States_Attorney_dismissal

+ his book

If you say he would be a biased source (he did get fired afterall), please provide evidence to the contrary, as if we were to dismiss all sources with bias, the only info we would end up with is time and atmospheric temperature.

If you expect me to provide evidence that Bush was the one who ordered this, I will concede it is not publicly available. Remember GOP email being erased? It would even be reasonable to assume that he didn’t order the firing, but as POTUS he is responsible for what’s going on in his administration and if Gonzales or someone else violated the law and acted against his will, they should have been fired. They do serve at his discretion afterall.

Aug 30, 2008 - 4:53 pm 149. buddy larsen:

i remember Yuri Andropov –not so much for being a good ole boy republican, but, dude, he was down wit jazz muzic –Cole Porter, too — (or ‘and’) and Louis Armstrong, iirc.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:00 pm 150. neolex:

@c4

You are making a very valid point about risk of McCain being incapacitaed, but I dont see why you have to twist your numbers. Your 83.3% is complete BS. Even according to the way you calculate, the probability she will have to take over permanently or for “prolonged period of time” is 50%. However, if we decide to be more intellectually honest and consider that past 12 administrations cumulatively served 75 years, and we are talking about 4, then the risk, again according to your mode of calculation, is 32%. It is still quite high and this is clearly an issue to be discussed, however there is not need to twist numbers.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:04 pm 151. cedarford:

2×4:
cedarford, I wouldn’t worry about her ability to step into Commander in Chief shoes if such a need arises. I think she is rather capable and able to organize a decent group of advisers to help her in areas she’s lacking.

That’s precisely the Obama supporters argument why inexperience and lack of knowledge does not mean Obama can’t be CiC if he has good advisors to make up for his deficiencies.

2X4 – Her negotiations with Russian Federation over fishing and Russian Navy transit rights in the Bearing Sea. She has actually met with Putin, who said that Gov Palin is one of the few US officials he respects.

That also sweeps aside the “no international experience” meme.

Again, State Governors do not negotiate with foreign nations.

The Federal Government does. The non-existent Alaskan Navy and Coast Guard to not enforce zones the Russian Navy may transit. The US Navy and Coast Guard do. The US Air Force guards air space, with an assist from the Alaskan Air National Guard on missions tasked to it by NORAD, not Governor Palin.

Any fishery negotiations are conducted by the Feds with the Russians per the Marine Fisheries and Coastal Resources Act. Of which certain aspects are then delegated to the States and private industry to work out deals and deatails of implementation. Such as the structure of trade and commerce with Russians, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans – all close to Alaska – once the Feds have given the green light. The more that goes to and from Alaska to those countries, as opposed to Seattle or California, the better for Alaska – and that is where Palin – or more accurately her predecessors as Gov fit in. (As Palin has only been around 1 1/2 years and the structure of trade and commerce with the 4 nations across the Bering Sea are pretty set from the past)

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:05 pm 152. outa my league:

T – “Well, McCain is right there with Obama on oil, voting against drilling ANWR every time. And the vice-president is not the Decider, not even Cheney.”

Ooda Loop John will “change his mind” about Anwar drilling at precisely the “right time”, having been “convincingly and overpoweringly persuaded” by his new star VEEP running mate.

Whatchu wanna bet it happens?

Mark my words, Sarah WILL become the next VEEP.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:09 pm 153. 2x4:

cedarford, true re lack of experience and advisors. However, Palin is not running for a president, McCain is. She can get on-job training.

However, consider that Obama did not have to make an executive decision in his entire life, in contrast to Palin. And, that is the most important factor here, the actual experience needed.

AS for the “negotiations”, pardon me. A wrong word. Should have used “ironing details, overview of compliance and problem resolution” on regular basis.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:40 pm 154. buddy larsen:

Around the third or forth day of the war, one of the Russian commenters on this site, Jack something, once we’d knocked him off and he was relaxing the boilerplate, went off on the USA elections –and he really liked Palin. Either that or he really DIDn’t like her, and was disinforming. I wuz trying to get more of his thoughts when benj’s tormenter wretchard kilt off the comments. I figured jack liked her due to her being civil with her neighbors up thataway. Anyway, VP choices, we have a Delawarian and an Alaskan, one an Atlantican and the other a Pacifican. Something to think about at least a bit, future trade-wise.

Aug 30, 2008 - 5:50 pm 155. Ben Franklen:

IMO what McCain and Palin need to do now is truly open up another front. They need to run against congress. The Dems are running against Bush. Both congress and Bush are held in low regard by the American public at this point in time. The difference of course is that after this election Bush is history. Congress will still be a problem… unless you elect McCain and Palin. They could come up with a platform and get other politicians who are running for seats in the senate or congress to sign on. It could even be bypartisan. Which party wants to claim the mantle of fiscal sanity by eliminating earmarks? Now is your chance to sign on.

Palin and McCain are uniquely positioned to take on the role of reformers since this is what they are by nature. Biden and Obama are creations of the machine and have no history of reforming anything.

One more thing worth mentioning is that much has been made of the fact that McCain does not consider himself to be very good on economic issues. He was wise in choosing someone whose skill set complements his so very well. He has foreign relations and defense experience in spades. She has experience meeting payrolls and balancing budgets. She has run a commercial fishery, a city and a state.

In contrast, all Obama has ever run is his mouth. I will do him the courtesy of not mentioning the $100 million he wasted running a Marxist indoctrination program at the behest of an unrepentant terrorist or the housing disaster he caused working to implement a program promulgated by a bunch of scam artists.

I was one of the few who had enough faith in the American people that I thought Obama would not win. I thought to myself that no matter what the polls show now, once the American people find out about Ayers and the others Obama has chosen to associate himself with, he will lose in a landslide. No white Republican could have survived such a thing and the basic fairness of the American people would win out in the end.

But I did not take into account how desperately the media want a leftist in office. I did not take into account just how batshit crazy people have been driven by the endless lies they hear about the Bush administration. This vice presidential pick restores my faith because it gives the American people another chance to pull back from the abyss and look at things with clear eyes.

A lot can happen before the election but I think McCain wins in a landslide now.

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:09 pm 156. cedarford:

Numbers are not twisted, though thank you for conceeding my larger point that the risk a VP will take over is still quite high even with your numbers.

The 10 of 12 represent Presidents we did lose, lost for a significant period of time, or came within a few feet to inches or votes of losing.
All brought public attention to the likelihood of adequacy of the back-up VP. And the fundamental truth and urgency of the “only a heartbeat away from the Presidency” saying.

We can add that we have a new worry about elderly politicians “bravely” struggling through strokes, cancer, brain damage while insisting they keep full power – and the ability of medical science to prolong periods of incapacity.

Cancer-ravaged Reinquist insisting he was “fine” to remain on the Court though too ill to appear on the bench. Brain-damaged Larry Johnson of S Dakota, over a year away from the Senate after a major brain anyeurism but “fully aware of all the issues and business”. Loyal acolytes of Justice Marshall, Senator Thurmond, President Wilson (18 months isolated from public and Cabinet by an incapacitating severe stroke), Pope John Paul II (after 1997-98) and President Reagan (after 1986) pronouncing them fully fit and in charge.

And it isn’t enough to say the voters can “fix” the situation when the next vote comes up or Congress can impeach high officials because it is years off from a voter fix and Congress lacks the balls to impeach other than on crimes..

But an unfit President can be removed if the VP invokes the 25th Amendment and the public believes they are credible about the incapacitation and trusts the VP to lead on domestic issues, foreign relations, and serve as military CiC. The question is if the VP is ready to step in.

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:23 pm 157. neolex:

@Ben Franklen

Excellent rational assessment. I’ve just spent a bit of time reading PUMA forums, and though filled with well-intentioned people, and very anti-Messiah their cluelessness about politics makes one’s head spin. Very refreshing reading your post after that.

Obama has hit his ceiling, I think, in terms of poll numbers. I don’t think McCain’s victory is a given though. There are many factors: Palin’s performance, Clinton’s support, “troopergate”, whether MSM will fall into the trap of attacking Palin, whether there will be a backlash if they do. One thing is clear, with selection of Sarah, McCain has completely pulled the rug from under Obama and made the race extremely exciting. I can’t wait to see how she performs in debates and interviews. So far, from the few clips I’ve seen, she’s very very good.

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:31 pm 158. mark_b:

How does Obama’s experience make him more qualified to be President than Palin?

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:40 pm 159. cjm:

c4, always the turd, never the punch bowl.

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:42 pm 160. cjm:

in case wretchard starts a pool for how many electoral votes mccain gets, i put my marker on 333.

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:43 pm 161. buddy larsen:

don’t forget Obama’s promise of $1000 to vite for him. Available, broadly speaking, to 60% of voters. We’ll see if those 19th century philosophers were right about democracy ultimately becoming a racket.

Aug 30, 2008 - 6:57 pm 162. neolex:

@c4

You cant lump close calls together with positives for statistical purposes. You also have to concede that statistics should be calculated based on years in office rather than # of presidents. McCain has an increased risk due to his health, but that risk is hard to estimate and is partially negated by modern medical technology (look at Cheney). His cancer is unlikely to cause him debilitating problems, according to survival and recurrence stats for melanoma for his age group.

Now about Palin. If elections were held today, and she was on top of the ticket, I would not want her to be president. If anything, Obama would be a better choice in such a case because he has DNC strings attached to him and cannot cause a disaster without them being pulled to prevent it. Palin is her own person, and her lack of experience would have pretty bad consequences when it would come to major decisions. However, we are not talking about elections today. She’s bound to gain some experience and a lot of knowledge by innaguration. Also, the risk McCain faces of being incapacitated is distributed throughout his term, with a spike on the innaguration day for assasination risk, and gradual increase in health risk towards the end of his term. Overall, I would be comfortable with Palin assuming presidency after 1 year of being VP, but that’s obviously my subjective take. If we assume equal risk distribution, using your model, the risk of something happening to McCain in the first year is 8% (close calls don’t count as she doesnt assume presidency in a close call). I believe that to be an acceptable risk, given what Palin brings to the table.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:03 pm 163. steveH:

Dave;

XP-59A. (The XP-59 was a very different aircraft, a twin-engine fighter under development by Bell. The project was cancelled, and the number used for the first U.S. jet fighter.)

Neither were modified P-39 (or P-63, either) although Bell built all three.

The P-39/63 were low-mounted wing, P-59A wing is mid-body mounted, different tail section, significantly larger.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:07 pm 164. FreeBirdWil:

Wow, hats off to LT. Richard Candelaria, such bravery, skill, quick-thinking, and total lack of fear or concern for self over mission, well, they just don’t make ‘em any better!

I see the usual suspects are gathered at each of The Belmont Club Articles to continue the discussions, on-point or off, fine with me.

I’ve been real busy this week and lost touch with the discussion, however, I still stand firm on my point that Vladimir Putin has the same “mental issues” as Adolph Hitler, and will not stop his empire building. He may take all his country and people down with him, but he will not stop. For just a brief moment it appeared the EU, NATO, USA, former Soviet slave-states might unite and walk tall, but the “appeasement party” has already wrapped it’s tentacles into the mix such that at best it might delay Putin, but onlyun unril too late. The only possible treatment for these “ego-maniac” would be emperors, is a sharp, quick, decisive warning followed immediately by overwhelming force.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:11 pm 165. nichevo:

C4 – How are ya? You sound great today – so normal! ;>

A few questions/comments:

What is “short-length gold”?

(BTW, re: the Olympics, the leading male runners are just about always black, usually US or native Africans (Husain Bolt aside to be sure), but though I don’t recall too well, it is or used to be always Eastern European women (unless Mary Decker Slaney won sometime).

Since you often seem to apply vividly expressed racial theories to politics and society, does this mean anything to you? Bigger sex differences in African bloodlines? Russian/East German women work harder? Just throwing it out there, why shouldn’t black women win more races?)

Now as to Palin vs. Obama (McCain as you say is quite unable to exercise the functions of a basketball player, though apparently he could run Obama into the ground):

Palin is 3 years younger, which would help, esp. as Obama smokes.

If they played in high heels…well, would Palin have the edge? Hmm.

More seriously, Palin has led a “real American” life, a largely outdoor life in mission-critical conditions (I should think moose hunting counts), raised by two athletic coaches. She appeared to pursue the sport quite seriously. (She probably still shovels her own snow, never mind gutting deer.) From her wiki:

“Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska, where she was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school[4] and the point guard and captain of the school’s basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds of the game, despite having an ankle stress fracture at the time.[4] She earned the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” because of her intense play[4] and was the leader of team prayer before games.[4]”

Grace under pressure.

Barack noodled around playing pickup b-ball with friends in between tokes; conceivably it was part of his black identity search, who knows? Is that why you give him the edge, because he’s black? I do not get an image of Obama toting bales, pouring concrete, wrestling with sharks. I see much more probability of servants in the Obamas’ lives. Less manual labor – whose hands do you think are softer? What, surfing is exercise on a par with chopping wood? I haven’t surfed but I’ve windsurfed and I’ve chopped wood. Wood is more work.

I assume you know size is not the issue – perhaps you recall a player named Muggsy Bogues (sp)? – depending on the roles you play.

I also think Palin’s personality would run over Obama’s.

I don’t reject your point on sex differences entirely – but I would throw my lot with Palin in this case. If nothing else, their teamwork would be better – Biden and O would be as two team captains.

As for VPOTUS subbing for POTUS, etc. – well, as for skewing, you did only count the last 12 Prex, no? Go back and count the rest. And people are healthier and better cared for now.

Nonetheless, it is a concern. I do think the odds of assassination are higher; I have long feared for Pres. Bush.

But in this day and age they seem to have reached a modus vivendi on invoking the 25th. I don’t really see a crazed post-stroke McCain arresting Palin and the Cabinet to avoid it. So the question is, is she ready? (As if anyone ever were…)

So…she’s young and relatively inexperienced, but has the right sort of experience (governor; real-world life; hell, she’s met Putin) and, at first glance, good instincts.

Vs. Biden? So? How great a job would Biden do? What did Dem primary voters think? Sure, he’d look the part, I suppose, till he opened his mouth.

I do not think that Sen. McCain omitted the precaution of looking into her eyes and gaining a sense of her soul. Or however you describe sizing someone up.

McCain looked into Putin’s eyes and said “KGB.”

(I credit Bush with diplomacy and getting more with honey than with vinegar. We have had at least some cooperation from the Sovs, uh, Russkis. But nonetheless…)

McCain looked into Palin’s eyes and said “VP.”

Anyway, if she was a bad pick, McCain will lose, so no worries. It will show if he picked someone he wouldn’t hand over the keys to.

We’ve gone young and fresh before. Not JFK or TR maybe, but who is? If you are open to the notion of a President Obama I see little to stop you from at least contemplating a President Palin. Esp. in 4-8 years.

Oh, and as for energy experience? There is experience and experience. Her hubby is an oilfield worker when he’s not fishing. She knows what the life does to boots and clothes and men. She knows the taste of drilling mud and how hard it is to get out of shirts. She knows what a difference it makes at Christmas for him to have had steady oil work outside of salmon season, and what it can mean to millions of other Americans.

In an executive capacity, well: (wiki again, sry)

“Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission,[21] where she served from 2003 to 2004. She resigned in protest over what she called the “lack of ethics” of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest.[22][4] After she resigned, Palin exposed the state Republican Party’s chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, who was accused of doing work for the party on public time and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail.[23] Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned. Ruedrich also paid a record $12,000 fine.[4]”

Then there’s:

“Palin is a life member of the National Rifle Association, and is popular among gun rights activists. She is a strong proponent of the Second Amendment, and supports gun safety education for youth.[83]”

The more I see the more I like.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:22 pm 166. nichevo:

Also, I would guess that with 5 kids and a husband (and one who looks like that, ahem) willing to keep giving ‘em to her (although at 44 I think she’s proved her point), our chances of another Presidential affair are safely low.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:29 pm 167. nichevo:

Freeb, yes, it is a tragedy that Russia and the West couldn’t hang together. You can say there were problems on both sides but no matter what we gave Russia or did for Russia, it is hard to know what would have done the trick. How much was enough?

I’m sorry that some people do not understand, however, that Russia is not used to partners as other than catamites. (Like anyone with heart or mind at work would just leave the former Combloc to the post Soviets’ mercy as a Near Abroad. The mistake if any was promising we would.)

The last time the Russians pursued a tolerably responsible international policy was in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. (Unless you count their feeding their young into WWI at the behest of the Entente.)

And even then they were on the make. Russia will never stop playing the Great Game, until it is either won or lost.

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:38 pm 168. neolex:

@nichevo

Russia can never win the Great Game. Anything that could take down West(Islamists, Chinese, rogue nukes, demographics), and Russia is not one of those things, will deal with Russia next (if not prior).

Aug 30, 2008 - 7:52 pm 169. buddy larsen:

Only if oceania and eastasia cancel each other.

Aug 30, 2008 - 9:17 pm 170. John Samford:

Quick everybody, no fair googling, what was the ME108?

a 4 seat passenger plane. IIRC, it was Messersmit’s first comercial venture with an engine. Before that he designed gliders, I think. Not sure why anyone would want to put a Merlin in a Bf-109. The D/B was in some respects a better engine. I don’t think it had the HP at sea level the Merlin I did, but it had a 2 stage supercharger after mid ‘39 ( E model) that was better then the single stage on the Merlin.
It’s a sure way to start a brawl in an English pub, but the 109 was a better fighter then the Spitfire.
The Army air corps did a lot of testing in late ‘43 early ‘44 of over a dozen different fighters. The only major advantage the Spit had was the Malcom hood, which allowed better SA thru increased visibility.
The 109 actually had a smaller turning radius from about 15,000 feet on up. That is with a test pilot under non-battle conditions. The Spit had a reputation of tighter turns because it would let the pilot know that he was losing lift, so the pilot could back off a little and keep the Spit at 9/10 or more. The 109 would not wobble or shudder so you didn’t know you had a problem until you were in a flat spin and falling. Not a good place to be in the middle of a dogfight. So the German pilots wouldn’t take the 109 much past 7 or 8 /10ths, which left the spit turning inside it.
An illustration of the difference between theory and the real world.

Here is the URL for one of the navy tests;

http://home.comcast.net/~markw4/index1.html

The USAAC did a bunch of other tests, but I havn’t been able to find them again. IIRC they are part of the U.S. ARMY CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY;

http://www.history.army.mil/index.html

We went around for about 2 years at the UC Berkley “On War” site over the best Fighter of WW2. After 50 years, you would think passions would cool down. NOPE!

Aug 30, 2008 - 11:02 pm 171. cjm:

the next president is going to get three scotus picks. do you want obama making those picks?

the fact that picking palin has sent the left into hysterics tells you that mccain has hit a vital organ. but the killing stroke has yet to be delivered.

Aug 31, 2008 - 8:30 am 172. FreeBirdWil:

@nichevo

I tend to agree, “Russia can never win the great game”, my concern is this; Hitler could never win the great game either, but he sure made a mess of the world, costs a fortune in blood and funding, reshaped (directly or indirectly) boundaries that still haunt people-groups today and create “hot-spots” for future potential outbreaks. Putin, like Hitler, is driven by inner “demons” beyond his control or even awareness, but he need not win to cause generations of damage. I’d be willing to buy the single bullet needed to save those masses of lives, dollars, and generations of ill will and world re-shaping plans, that Putin most certainly CAN and is, (if not stopped way before he reaches Hitler proportions), inflict on this aching globe. We, the people of planet earth have had enough lessons in appeasement vrs, confrontation to know the only path. If we refuse to practice the lessons history has so diligently taught us, I suppose we deserve all the suffering and misery we so regularly complain about.

fbw

Aug 31, 2008 - 8:52 am 173. Fletcher Christian:

I have a serious question for anyone who can answer it. What happens to control of the military (which presumably includes the nuclear forces) should the President become incapacitated, for example by a stroke? I have read the 25th Amendment, but I can easily envisage situations where executive authority needs to be exercised without the luxury of time in which to invoke its provisions. What happens then?

This sort of question became relevant when a two-hour war became possible. In former times, there would always be time to gather the relevant people; this might now conceivably not be the case.

Aug 31, 2008 - 3:00 pm 174. RAH:

Back to Wretchard’s original post, “Bounced”, the point is that he seems to admire the basic fighting instincts of McCain. Reminds me of Michael Barones’s article during the primaries of the “Jacksonians” who are the Scots Irish immigrants who have the warrior spirit and rugged individualism that voted in such numbers in the Democratic primaries for Clinton in PA, KY, WVA, Tenn., and Ohio. McCain is one of those Jacksonians.

So basically it is temperament and character and instincts that we are making our decision on. Now McCain has a long public record and we can somewhat predict what he will do in certain situations. Not always, since he is a maverick. Palin seems to have the right values, strength of personality, the crusading spirit and the rugged individualism of the Jacksonians. So based on those characteristics Palin may make a good President. The issue is she has so little seasoning in Washington.

Now many have constantly said the problem with our government is that Washington corrupts them. The primaries were full of “I can change Washington” and the candidates of Obama, Romney, Huckabee and McCain made the same case. But McCain was part of Washington and never could reform it from the Senate.

So it a bit inconsistent to complain that Sarah Palin is not yet corrupted by Washington, so therefore she cannot serve. The main reason that most candidates for President are Governors in the last 30 years is that the electorate believes that executive experience is better than legislative experience. This strange election it was the rarity that the candidates came from the Senate. Out of all 4 nominees, 3 are Senators and the “inexperience” one is the Governor. Based on that the most experienced candidate is Sarah Palin since she is a Governor and has executive experience.

Experience alone is insufficient to be a good leader and President. Most of the qualities are internal to the person, judgment, honesty, integrity and ability to make decisions, rather than dither. None of those come from a particular experience but from internal traits and life’s experiences.

The biggest complaint is that not that Sarah Palin is inexperience is that we have not yet had a chance to evaluate her. So far what we have heard she has all the right characteristics and we are very excited.

She seems to be an exceptional leader and has accomplished more in her limited years to change the government of Alaska than many accomplish in decades.

Most VP candidates are a mystery to the electorate. I guarantee to those who do not pay attention to politics all year around, Biden is an unknown. It seems that it is the MSM who interview and have these candidates on talk shows that we trust in the vetting process. I personally do not want to depend on the MSM to vet my candidates and determine who is OK and who is not.

Aug 31, 2008 - 5:47 pm 175. buddy larsen:

@John Samford –also there was the DB’s fuel injection, which gave it a few maneuvers Merlin’s carb couldn’t match. Both fighters went thru so many improvements one has to match the time. Spits late in the war (i’m thinking X and XII –right?) were beasts compared to Battle of Britain Spits –where 109 pretty much stopped with the G model (don’t want to say Gustav), which followed Battle of Britain’s E model pretty quickly.

Battle of Britain was almost a ”last man standing” contest –one wonders, what with 109’s fuel capacity limiting it to very few minutes of combat time over England, why Jerry didn’t think of auxiliary tanks? He did later, after all. What a screw up –thank goodness!

Aug 31, 2008 - 8:19 pm 176. USpace:

.
This is going to be fun. History will be made, one way or another, and it looks more likely now that it will be the right history.

Even more Hillary supporters will go for McCain now. Obama is no longer a near certainty. Heaven forbid something happens to McCain, but I believe Palin would rise to the occasion. She has the right attitude. Everyone knows Obama is NOT ready for POTUS, Palin is only for the VP. Look at Dan Quayle.

YEY SARAH PALIN! YEY John McCain! Great pick! The 1st woman for the GOP VP? SCORE!

She’s conservative! SCORE! She’s a Governor! SCORE! She’s pro-drilling! She’s a hunter! SCORE! She’s a hockey Mom and played basketball in school! SCORE! She’s pro-life! And she respects women! SCORE! She fights corruption! SCORE! She’s high-energy! SCORE! She’s tough! SCORE! She’s got 5 kids! SCORE! Her son is going to Iraq in the Armed Forces! SCORE! She’s married to a Blue-collar professional! SCORE! She’s smart! SCORE! She’s young! SCORE!

And she’s a Hotty to boot! SCORE! The Left is going to go nuts! SCORE!
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
never elect a woman

who’s a conservative
she’s just a gender traitor

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
just HOPE to pay more taxes

DREAM about high fuel prices
CHANGE PROGRESS to move backwards

.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech, there can be no real freedom.
.
Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
.
Help Halt Terrorism Today!
.
USpace

.

Aug 31, 2008 - 11:54 pm 177. Stones Cry Out - If they keep silent… » McCain’s tactics, and the Left’s confusion:

[...] the Belmont Club, Richard Fernandez [...]

Sep 1, 2008 - 4:03 am 178. Derek:

A couple of years ago I met an elderly german gentleman, tall and proud even if a bit stooped. He said he had been a mechanic on the german jets. One evening in the mess, after drinking a bit too much, he stood up and did an unflattering imitation of Hitler. Next day he was on a train to the eastern front. I think he was stationed in France.

He said the only thing that saved his life was that the jets started crashing. He knew how to keep them flying, so three weeks later he was on a train back to his base.

He told the story with pride and a light in his eyes.

Derek

Sep 1, 2008 - 9:49 am 179. Jay:

I know several people who lived for at ;east pme uear om Alaska and left because they could not handle the long dark winters. A lot of Alaskans handle the winter by drinking a lot. I have not heard her called a boozer. Perhaps the moonbats do not know this and thus have not accused her of having her last child disabled by booze.
Fishing in the ice cold northern waters is dangerous work. The peoplel who live and work in that industry are tough characters.
Life where O grew up both in Honolulu and Jakara is a sweaty lazy world.
Biden is a middle not lower income man who is a big mouth lawyer and Senator.
We could use a real American President who is not part of our political class.

Sep 1, 2008 - 11:55 am 180. buddy larsen:

”We could use a real American President who is not part of our political class”

Amen. A thousand times Amen.

Sep 1, 2008 - 2:23 pm 181. Thomas Jackson:

I.m not sure the Dalibama isn’t a high risk player. After all how many presidential candidates are best buddies with communists, terrorists, and convicted felons. Yes IU realize that LBJ, Carter and Clinton were all in the same league and JFK had many connections with the mafia but none of them sanctioned terrorists nor communists knowingly.

Tricky Dick looks like a choirboy compared to the annointed one. But then even Carter looks intelligent compared to him. Has any other presidential candidate been to 57 states?

Sep 1, 2008 - 4:50 pm 182. buddy larsen:

Derek –that’s a helluva story –thanks –my dad was a POW for a year and a half –Luftwaffe ran the camp (Stalag Luft I) –he said he felt sorry for the thinking ones –they were in a rotten position, caught between nation and madman –and they knew it.

Sep 1, 2008 - 8:50 pm 183. Corp Cactus:

Before Westminster, Margaret Thatcher was a small shopkeeper. The MSM’s attack against Palin is pure Antichristian. She breaks their mold of how everyone is to be brainwashed into becoming Ommm chanting New Age Oprah abortionists.

Sep 3, 2008 - 4:29 pm

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.