Shots from the RNC

From CNN's front page, above (via reddit and pam) and below, the most awkward shot of the night (get that child out of there!), AFTER THE JUMP...

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Posted 11:09 AM EST by Andy in John McCain, News, Republican Party, Sarah Palin | Permalink

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Did it strike anyone else as odd that a 4-month old would be at this convention? Shouldn't he be in bed and not in the midst of all that noise and people? Also, they passed him around like a toy. First the middle sister, then Cindy McCain, then the dad, and then to the little sister. Who gives an infant to a 5-year-old? I am sorry, but I have to question both parents' judgment as parents.

Posted by: Joe | Sep 4, 2008 11:23:57 AM
Look, I'm totally against the Republicans as well. But what is awkward about the shot of Palin with her child?

McCain is obviously talking about somethng else and pointing, she is bending to listen to her child.

What am I missing? Or are we stretching?

Posted by: Mike | Sep 4, 2008 11:24:22 AM
Oh dear! That second photo is going to get Photoshopped from here to Eternity! Awkward indeed!

Posted by: Xuriel | Sep 4, 2008 11:24:46 AM
Palin's pick (and speech) has certainly energized the Republican base, particularly the Evangelicals, which is exactly what it was designed to do. Unfortunately, as I mentioned yesterday, the Republican Party in this country is small and shrinking.

2006 Party Affiliation (millions)

77 Democratic
55 Republican
42 Independent

To have any shot at winning the White House, particularly in a year when Democrats are incredibly fired up, McCain needs to take the lion's share of Independent voters from Obama.

So how'd the Pig in Lipstick's little speech go over with Independents?

According to TNR and the Detroit Free Press, like a lead balloon.

"Did Independents Hate Palin's Speech?

We won't know until the polls start trickling out—and maybe not even then—but check out the Detroit Free Press' focus group of voters who watched Sarah Palin's speech last night. Republicans swooned, Democrats grudgingly applauded, but independents and older voters all thought the speech was a dud. They still wanted to know why Palin was even on the ticket, and her sarcastic attacks on Obama, while good for press coverage, didn't reassure anyone. (There also seemed to be a disturbing amount of sexism among the older voters—one dismissing her as a high-school "cheerleader," another slamming her as "snide," and so forth.)

--Bradford Plumer"

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/09/04/did-independents-hate-palin-s-speech.aspx

And how'd Palin do with Hillary voters? Again, the speech was a net loss:

"...in both groups, narrow majorities said they held a more negative view of Palin after her speech. 'She comes off pretty cutthroat,' said one."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/04/female-clinton-supporters_n_123794.html

Posted by: 24play | Sep 4, 2008 11:26:10 AM
@Mike: Look at the picture and imagine that the little girl is not there and focus on MCCain's silhouette and Palin's positioning.

Posted by: Xuriel | Sep 4, 2008 11:28:02 AM
Re: photo #2 -- If you have an evil filthy perverted mind, "awkward" doesn't begin to describe it.

It's fabulous.

Posted by: David D. | Sep 4, 2008 11:28:59 AM
Mike,
I believe it's the location of the microphone that McCain is holding

Posted by: 1♥ | Sep 4, 2008 11:33:00 AM
JOE, the baby was the necessary punctuation for her speech...

"Thank you, and God bless America. Thank you.... Baby with Down Syndrome!!!!"

awwww

Posted by: Mark in NYC | Sep 4, 2008 11:33:26 AM
and it looks like Sarah is going to spit on her daughter in pic no. 2

Posted by: Mark in NYC | Sep 4, 2008 11:35:56 AM
I just donated $50 (all I got at the moment) to Barack Obama, and signed up to be a community volunteer.

I have never felt this... emboldened... to be involved before.

I don't need 4 more years of being an outcast while some Christian wingnut has her mind made up for what is right for "the country".

And onto her son, the look of absolute terror in his face when she announced he ships out next week. Lovely parenting skills, indeed. She probably already has plans to turn his bedroom in the double wide into a nursery for her illegitimate grandchild.

Rad

Posted by: Rad | Sep 4, 2008 11:39:40 AM
On your question about the infant....

First, 'Trek' as they call him, is a 'tard.
The fifth kid is a 'tard...and everybody seems to take turns mothering him but our Sarah. Trek is going to become the posterchild for the 'tard movement....

Second, it seems as if part of the image is the family being together...taking care of their little tard which they chose not to abort...so in the most unhealthy way possible, our SARAH typically hoists the 'tard off as the responsibility of the oldest, (now happily pregnant) older daughter.

WHAT A LOAD that is...dump your 'tard on your oldest daughter...

Posted by: tom | Sep 4, 2008 11:45:02 AM
Turns out Sarah sister (Hanah, I think) has a 13 yrs old son with downs syndrome. So, I guess they were already comfortable with the idea. But, honestly, do you really think it is helping Obama to be trashing the kid on here? Folks calling him a 'tard is repulsive! More likely to drum up sympathy votes if you ask me.

Posted by: john | Sep 4, 2008 12:01:26 PM
Oh, Tom, thanks for reminding me that even people on my side can be white-trash too. Calling a child with Down Syndrome a "tard" is tacky and reprehensible. You are a total dick.

Posted by: crispy | Sep 4, 2008 12:09:11 PM
Her speech was deeply divisive and mocking. I was appalled she would not mention Obama by name, instead indulging in smarmy guilt by association tactics.

The GOP don't have a record of accomplishments to run on so it's Fear and Smear as usual.

This broad appeals to gun nuts, fundamentalists and Ann Coulter. That math is not going to change, either. She's a foolish choice and even further to the right than Dick Cheney - even he would never have called the war in Iraq "God's will."

Posted by: FASTLAD | Sep 4, 2008 12:13:15 PM
Any one notice that the first pic looks like shes shouting 'Heil McCain!'

Posted by: Mr. E | Sep 4, 2008 12:45:26 PM
It is clear that they are going to continue to just slash and burn. The fact that they would mock people who do 'community service' as if it was a joke. Newsflash Palin and Mayor 9/11, it is people like us, who do volunteer work to help others that are the back bone of true 'values'.

I know that this is something they can not comprehend, after all you don't make money doing it.

Posted by: patrick nyc | Sep 4, 2008 12:46:18 PM
CRISPY,

I think TOM actually might be making a strategic move against us liberals and the liberal press. Calling us on what he believes is our hypocrisy in how we view Palin & and her family.

It's still a risky strategy, TOM. Your comment was real mean, but so are mine about Tough Sarah. Is that what you're tryig to point out me? Well, I'm going to keep beig mean to Tough Mama Sarah, but I'll leave her children out of this... but not her fornicatin' future son-in-law.

Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Sep 4, 2008 12:55:02 PM
Palin is a joke. She talks about being a reformer but is now trying to throw a monkeywrench into the bipartisan investigation of her alleged attempt at using her gubernatorial office to exact revenge against a former brother-in-law.

While mayor of her 5,000-person town in Alaska, she threatened to fire the town's head librarian who refused to give in to Palin's demands to censor books from the library.

Stop! Think about how much the Rethugs act like Soviet-era dictators who used to pull crap like this.

Do we really need a thug in office who has a history of abusing executive power?

Again, the Big Bad Wolf (Bear) is back! The Russians have shown that they are going to be aggressive in the coming years. Does anyone think that Vladimir Putin wouldn't wipe the floor with her?

Also, it's nice to see CNN & MSNBC ignoring her membership in the Alaska Independence Party. Why the hell is a former secessionish on a presidential ticket?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks4-2008sep04,0,5675222.column

Here I thought we fought a war that killed 500,000 Americans to preserve the Union, now we have someone sympathetic to sessionists on a ticket from the Party of Lincoln! Oh, that's right, the Party of Lincoln abandoned Lincoln long ago when it decided to embrace "States Rights!" (the rally cry of the Confederates years ago. The dead Confederates like Lee and Calhoun must be rolling in their graves with ironic delight.

These are the words of founder of the AIP, the party to which Palin's husband was affiliated for 7 years:

"Over the years, Palin has actively courted the Alaska Independence Party, or AIP, an organization that supports Alaskan secession from the U.S. To be clear, we're not necessarily talking about friendly secession either: As the AIP's founder, Joe Vogler, told an interviewer in 1991: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. ... And I won't be buried under their damn flag." "

Hmm???

So, why isn't the press asking Sarah and her hubby about how they could be a member of a party whose founder hated the U.S. so much?

I seem to recall bullsh@t arguments that Michelle Obama was unpatriotic because she now felt "really proud of America." Why is Palin's husband getting a free pass here? Why aren't the press and the pundits ripping him a new one?

Oh, that's right: different rules for different people.

Posted by: noah | Sep 4, 2008 1:01:02 PM
Nooo! Mr. E got to make a "Heil McCain!"-joke before I did (I was out)! Unfair!

Posted by: Philip Wester | Sep 4, 2008 1:21:53 PM
i think america--especially working mothers--will be tired of the Palin family being used as campaign props within 2 weeks... not to mention that some tabloid is going to make an end run with an "exclusive" with the boyfriend-in-law. i couldn't have imagined being more impressed with the Obamas than i already was, but my appreciation for them is growing daily. he, for one, has spoke about the difficulty of campaigning and being away from his family. i only hope that after last night's Palin speech and the PBS interview with Cindy, that they let Michelle become herself again in the campaign. she's been holding back for the past few months and you can see it in her facial expressions. the next few months will be exciting--we probably wouldn't notice if there was another writer's strike, unless it was the writers that put together Palin's speech.

Posted by: my2cents | Sep 4, 2008 1:28:10 PM
"Community organizer" is Republican for "NIGGER!!!"

Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Sep 4, 2008 1:46:00 PM
Jon Stewart had some great clips about this nut job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8uGenNjOAI

Posted by: patrick nyc | Sep 4, 2008 2:05:48 PM
My God. The anger that is spewing here. Calling a baby a 'Tard?? Saying the family is trash? You're going to use a quote by someone from 1991? Did you know that Palin's law enforcing brother-in-law used a taser on his step son after bragging to his friends that he wanted to taser him? No, of course we won't mention this because people here are out to make enemies. If you want ANY CHANCE of conservatives to accept our rights to marry, the hate better stop. To say, "They hate us so we hate them" is not an adult argument. It is a 3rd grade childish argument. Lets be bigger here people! We want respect...we need to show it first.

Posted by: BC | Sep 4, 2008 2:09:22 PM
""Community organizer" is Republican for "NIGGER!!!""

Well, the folks running the campaign are the political descendants of Lee Atwater.

Posted by: MAJeff | Sep 4, 2008 2:21:45 PM
I think her whole styling, with the glasses, the cheap, drab suits and the hair is ripe for Saturday Night Live parody. Or wait was her speech a Saturday Night Live parody?

I sat throught the whole primary thing for this? According to Yahoo election predictor, Obama has 250 electoral votes and they're not counting Maryland (lol) ...this is becoming a farce

Posted by: John | Sep 4, 2008 2:35:36 PM
I'm guessing the "B" in BC is for "Bruce,"
uncle Bruce?

Posted by: Rocco | Sep 4, 2008 2:44:24 PM
24 Play and everyone

Check this out

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
oliver-willis/the-other-base_b_123808.html

Great piece at huffpo.

It talks about her stirring up the repub base. The problem is that the repub base is already stirred up and behind mccain due to the muslim smears, scary blk man schtick, etc. Palin doesn't even galvanize the fundies because they in fact were already stirred up.

Who she does stir up is ............

wait for it

...............................

US!

You, me, all of us. The already galvanized Obama supporters by showing us our greatest fear. A far right religious nut.

PatrickNYC , ^5 on the summing up community service. Well said

RAD :-) Cool and good for you

Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Sep 4, 2008 2:47:52 PM
John

Yeah

The electoral college map is looking great.

Crazy prediction from a crazy here

Pop vote =10% Obama lead

Electoral college = 290-320 Obama (270 to win)

The down tickets are amazing. Repub head of senate re-election team has said they would be lucky to keep their losses to 4 senate seats

Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Sep 4, 2008 2:51:13 PM
The thing that got my attention was the first picture... it reminded me of some kind of Nazi rally... with Palin with the "Heil Hitler" pose and the "S" shape wall looking EXACTLY like one of the "S" in "SS" - which was an evil elite military organization in the Nazi party. Seriously... this is bizarre! The symbolism and propagandising methods of the republican party are like some weird deja vu of Germany during the rise of power of the Nazis.

Posted by: Mike | Sep 4, 2008 3:01:36 PM
Calling Sarah Palin's grandson Trig a "tard' is way out-of-bounds… Levi's unfortunate child evidently has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and now Trig's mother Bristol is already on her second pregnancy, while fighting the urge to drink.
Please have some sensitivity to the need for privacy and respect when a upright and moral family is forced to disguise private issues like an unwed pregnant teenager's underage drinking.

Posted by: Baked Alaska | Sep 4, 2008 3:26:50 PM
"Community Organizer" is Republican for "NIGGER!!!!"

Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Sep 4, 2008 3:58:07 PM
DAVID EHRENSTEIN

I would say it is repub code speak for "Upity N...er" and "pesky k@k@" because Jews like to go out and register dem voters in GOTV efforts while making baby jesus cry

A Ga repub congress critter actually just dumped the code speak and went straight to what they all say behind closed doors "Upity" in referring to Obama

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/
westmoreland-calls-obama-uppity-
2008-09-04.html

Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Sep 4, 2008 4:31:21 PM
How has it come to pass that we are voting on people who do not and cannot resolve our problems? What is their role in this representative democracy if we disallow them their opinions, their prejudices, their gifts for self-aggrandisement? Gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people are the final test for this form of government. It's unfolding before our eyes.

Posted by: BILLOFTHEDESERT | Sep 4, 2008 8:25:15 PM
Uppity....The Southern Strategy is alive and well.

Posted by: MAJeff | Sep 4, 2008 8:52:13 PM
One thing that the whole Palin thing has done .... it's got Hillary supporters like myself, my husband and my parents to throw our support 100% behind Obama.

Last night I donated AGAIN to Obama and my husband is getting an Obama/Biden sticker for his car.

I just got my Hillary quote sticker for mine.

"No Way, No How, NO MCCAIN"!!

Posted by: Tralfaz | Sep 4, 2008 8:56:53 PM
please please please will somebody prove one simple thing: at the time of being placed on the ticket, sarah palin had no idea her daughter was pregnant. she found out three days after the announcement. thus, mccain had no idea as well. they are lying. they need to be caught in that lie, and that lie alone, and no other scandal is necessary to bring the ticket down.

Posted by: sam | Sep 5, 2008 1:36:59 AM
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/09/08/080908ta_talk_gourevitch

Before she was running against him, Sarah Palin—the governor of Alaska
and now the Republican candidate for Vice-President of the United
States—thought it was pretty neat that Barack Obama was edging ahead
of John McCain in her usually solidly red state. After all, she said,
Obama's campaign was using the same sort of language that she had in
her gubernatorial race. "The theme of our campaign was 'new energy,' "
she said recently. "It was no more status quo, no more politics as
usual, it was all about change. So then to see that Obama—literally,
part of his campaign uses those themes, even, new energy, change, all
that, I think, O.K., well, we were a little bit ahead on that." She
also noted, "Something's kind of changing here in Alaska, too, for
being such a red state on the Presidential level. Obama's doing just
fine in polls up here, which is kind of wigging people out, because
they're saying, 'This hasn't happened for decades that in polls the D'
"—the Democratic candidate—" 'is doing just fine.' To me, that's
indicative, too. It's the no-more-status-quo, it's change."

This was two weeks ago, at the statehouse in Juneau. After persistent
reports, in July, that Palin was on McCain's short list of potential
running mates, her name had faded back into obscurity. Nobody in
Alaska seemed to take her seriously as a national prospect, and she
had shrugged the whole thing off on television, telling CNBC's Larry
Kudlow that, before considering the job, she would want to know "what
is it, exactly, that the V.P. does every day." Now, at the statehouse,
she sat, unattended by aides, curled up in a cardigan, and explained
that what she had done every day since becoming governor was to stick
her thumb in the eye of Alaska's Republican Party establishment. "The
G.O.P. leader of the state—we haven't spoken since I got elected," she
said.

She went on, "I guess if you take the individual issues, two that I
believe would be benchmarks showing whether you're a hard-core
Republican conservative or not, would be: I'm a lifetime member of the
N.R.A.—but this is Alaska, who isn't?—and I am pro-life, absolutely."
She continued, "I guess that puts me in a box of being hard-core
Republican." But she said she recognized that "the Democrats also
preach individual freedoms and individual rights, capitalism, free
market, let-it-do-its-thing-best, let people keep as much of their
money that they earn as possible. And when it comes to, like, the
Party machine, no one will accuse me of being partisan."

So the possibility that Obama might win Alaska did not worry Palin:
"Turning maybe purple in the state means, to me, it's more
independent, it's not the obsessive partisanship that gets in the way
of doing what's right for this state, and I think on a national level
that's what we're gonna see." And she added, "That's why McCain is the
candidate for the G.O.P.—because he's been known as the maverick, as
the conduit for some change." In the state's Republican caucus, McCain
came in fourth, trailing Ron Paul. "I always looked at Senator McCain
just as a Joe Blow public member, looking from the outside in," she
said. "He's been buttin' heads with Republicans for years, and that's
a healthy place to be." Then again, on McCain's signature issue—the
prosecution of the war in Iraq—she did not sound so gung-ho. Her son
is a soldier, and she said, "I'm a mom, and my son is going to get
deployed in September, and we better have a real clear plan for this
war. And it better not have to do with oil and dependence on foreign
energy."

Posted by: rich | Sep 5, 2008 2:31:30 AM

John McCain | News | Republican Party | Sarah Palin

Shots from the RNC

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