Police rescue Lefty protesters from homicidal Palin motorcade!

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has the story about protesters trying to impede Sarah Palin’s motorcade in Colorado:

Eight to 10 protesters broke away from a larger group of demonstrators and darted into the street in front of Palin's car just after the first police motorcycles in her motorcade had passed, said Acting Chief Troy Smith of the Grand Junction Police Department.

Wearing bandanas and with their faces covered, the protesters blocked the path and held up a large banner. Officers stopped their motorcycles, grabbed the protesters and dragged several out of the path of the oncoming motorcade.

How come they’ve always got their faces covered? Are they ashamed of themselves or something? Mom and Dad might stop your allowance if they see you on the news acting stupid?

Anyway. Pay special attention to this paragraph:

Smith said officers saved the protesters from injury because "the motorcade likely would not have stopped" for them. He said "we don't know what their intentions were" in trying to block Palin's motorcade.

See, the Secret Service is not going to allow the motorcade to stop in an unsecured area. They'd keep right on going, even if they had to run somebody over.

But if they ran somebody over, that would reflect on Palin and the campaign – not on the idiot who ran in front of a moving vehicle.

I’m just hoping there aren’t any Obamaniacs out there infatuated enough to “take one for the Messiah” in quite that fashion.

Palin

I caught a few headlines here and there earlier today, suggesting that tonight could be a "make or break" moment for Gov. Sarah Palin.

I don't know if that was really the case. A flub wouldn't be good. Neither would a flat and boring speech. But...deadly? Very little can kill off a political effort that has talent, energy, and money behind it.

Anyway, her speech wasn't a flub. I kinda doubt the Xcel Center crowd would've allowed it to be. The cheering upon her introduction and entrance was deafening. It was almost physically forceful.

(NOTE - it was even more so after McCain's surprise entrance following Palin's speech.)

Palin had already been out on stage earlier today, getting used to the setting. I hope somebody thought to prepare her for the noise, too. And for the flash bulbs. They were going on and on and on like strobe lights.

If they didn't, she still handled it. She introduced her family (no mention of the daughter's pregnancy). She lauded John McCain. She talked small-town hard work and values, took shots at the Obama/Biden ticket, and had a half-dozen or so good applause lines (not nearly as many as Rudy Giuliani, but whaddayagonna do? It's Rudy).

I'd have liked to hear some version of the "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" line again. Maybe another kudos to Clinton and Ferraro, maybe making some contrast between their experience and Obama's.

But anyway. It was a good speech. Not a great speech. But a pressure speech, and she handled it. So. Did she "make or break?" Prediction: according to the pundits, she did both.

Here's the text.

Okay, so I can’t resist the “lipstick on a pig” thing

Here’s the story from ABC’s Jake Tapper (via HotAir, via Charlie):

"You know, you can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said, "but it's still a pig."

The crowd rose and applauded, some of them no doubt thinking he may have been alluding to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's ad lib during her vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last week, "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."

The McCain campaign called it a smear, and the blogosphere is in full uproar mode.

At least, the few small corners I’ve been to today are.

Anyway. Ann Althouse says it’s nothing (although she parses it further). Sean Hackbarth also says it’s nothing.

I’m perfectly willing to go along with that, simply because the obsessive/compulsive political drive to pick at every little thing; every statement; every action; every word and syllable, both said and not said, drives me NUTS.

So: fine. The great orator didn’t mean to reference the Republican V.P. candidate when he invoked the subject noun from one of the best-remembered, most oft-repeated phrases from her convention speech. It just totally happened by accident, man. Went right over his head.

Fine.

Then he’s got to tell N.Y. Governor David Paterson to shut up (via Bruce at Badger Blogger):

“There are overtones of potential racial coding in the campaign,” Paterson said at an event in New York City.

Paterson said that while Republican candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin haven’t directly talked about race, it’s strongly implied in comments Alaska Gov. Palin and others have made about Obama. McCain’s camp said Paterson’s claim is false.

“The Republican party is too smart to call Barack Obama ‘black’ in a sense that it would be a negative,” Paterson said. “But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican convention. A ‘community organizer,’ they kept saying it, they kept laughing, like what does this mean?”

You don’t want us digging for “code,” then you don’t do it, either.

And one more thing: timely as always, Ed Garvey repeated the entirely debunked smear that Sarah Palin made a list of books to be banned from the Wasilla, Alaska library.

The internet moves fast, Ed. A word of advice: Snopes.

Standout Quotes from the RNC, Day 3

This'll be a slightly abbreviated version, since I missed Steele's, Romney's, and Huckabee's speeches.

Yeah, I know. Bad blogger. Gimme a break. I was schmoozing.

Anyway. I caught Rudy.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani (on Obama's lack of experience):

His rise is remarkable in its own right - it's the kind of thing that could happen only in America.

Giuliani (again on Obama's experience):

We agree with Joe Biden.

The Xcel Center audience (chanting):

Drill, baby, drill! Drill, baby, drill!

Giuliani (on Obama struggling to form an opinion on the Russia-Georgia fighting):

Later, after discussing it with his 300 foreign policy advisors, he changed his position and suggested that the "the UN Security Council," could find a solution. Apparently, none of his 300 advisors told him that Russia has a veto on any UN action. Finally Obama put out a statement that looked ... well, it looked a lot like John McCain's.

Here's some free advice: Sen. Obama, next time just call John McCain.

Gov. Sarah Palin:

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

Xcel Center crowd (chanting and pointing at the MSNBC booth, in response to a Palin comment about liberal media):

NBC! NBC!

Palin:

...this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

Palin:

Harry Reid (loud, lengthy booing), the Majority Leader of the current do-nothing Senate, not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee.

He said, quote, "I can't stand John McCain." Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we've chosen the right man. Clearly what the Majority Leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain.

Dead on

Is it a sign of the Apocalypse when NOW aligns itself with a Republican front-runner?

Even that "women's advocacy group" - among others - took offense at Letterman's remarks about Palin's "slutty stewardess look" and her daughter (14-year-old Willow) getting "knocked up" by A Rod during their Yankees outing.

Who wants to sit by Letterman on his next flight? I'd keep my seatbelt on, 'cause it might be a bumpy ride.

Politically, Palin made an astute point that one can hope will be taken to heart (or any major organ) by the media:

[Palin] said there was a double standard where the media treats President Barack Obama's family as generally off-limits while her family was the target of jokes during last fall's presidential campaign and beyond.

Honey, that ain't the only double standard working here, but it's true.

Chelsea Clinton? The media called her horsey-faced and left her alone. When does that kid ever hit the radar? The Bush twins? Who do you think tipped the cops off so often to their bar-hopping antics? The Gore kids? Crap, I think the press used to buy them coke, hide their joints and alert them when the cops were in the neighborhood.

So now we know it's open season for anyone to take shots at Republicans and their children.

Geez, what kind of crowds is McCain drawing?

I'm betting they're nothing like this:

THE VILLAGES -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told wildly cheering, flag-waving, chanting supporters that John McCain is "the only great man in this race" and promised Sunday he will fix the nation's economy if voters give the GOP four more years in the White House.

…"Sa-Rah! Sa-Rah!" they chanted at every mention of her name, applauding loudly and waiving tiny American flags that were distributed -- along with free water bottles -- by local volunteers. The fire chief estimated the crowd at 60,000.

Whatever else you want to say about Palin, you can't deny the excitement and energy she's brought to the race. Republicans haven't been this fired up for at least three years.

On a related note: does it seem to anyone else that McCain has stepped aside a little, and allowed Palin to take center stage? It seems so to me. That's a sign of mature leadership: somebody who doesn't care who's getting credit, as long as the job's getting done.

Now: try to imagine the Democrat ticket doing the same thing. Biden drawing ginormous crowds, and Obama quietly stepping aside to let the energy flow.

Right.

McCain picks Palin

Link

Oh yeah, I called this:

Prediction

Both Either McCain and or Obama will choose female Vice Presidential candidates.

Yes, I waffled on this prediction right after I made it.

Bonus prediction: the term “running mate” will quickly fall from favor.

But I also agreed with this:

Sarah Palin will not be the Republican VP nominee, okay? She won't. Maybe in '12 or '16 (depending on who wins in '08), but not now. She just had a baby in April. The baby has Down's Syndrome. She is not running for vice president this year.

Although, if it were the father of a baby with Down’s Syndrome, would anyone be concerned?

I am a little concerned about her experience – only two years as Governor. She was active in state-level politics before that, but…well, I’ve been pretty critical of Democrats choosing Obama for exactly this reason.

On the other hand, maybe McCain chose her just to goad Democrats into talking about experience. This from Talkleft, via Instapundit:

Let me also add that when Tim Kaine, who has exactly the same experience as Palin, was treated by the Media and the Dems as a serious and acceptable potential pick, it opens up charges of a double standard.

Why does Obama hate the Earth?

Fausta links to this story about Obama's flights to Hawaii and asks: isn't that an awful lot of money?

Barack Obama’s trips to Hawaii on a chartered Boeing 757 each cost more than twice the price of Sarah Palin’s new clothes.

Brad Blakeman, who was in charge of scheduling for President Bush, says a Boeing 757 costs about $20,000 an hour for fuel, crew, and maintenance. Since a trip to Hawaii entails 10 hours of flying time from Chicago, the total cost for each round-trip comes to about $400,000.

…On the other hand, the media are highlighting the Republican National Committee’s purchase of $150,000 in clothes for Palin, even though the dresses will be donated to charities. The New York Times played the story on page one.

Fausta says:

…as a self-declared conservative capitalist, I don’t begrudge anyone how they spend their money. But for Obama to be using campaign money for that trip while saying that anyone making more than $250,000 should have their money redistributed to others, and then for the NYT to whiiiiiine about the price of Palin’s clothes on their front page without mentioning the cost of O’s trip is the acme of hypocrisy.

All true, of course, but missing the overall point: why does Obama hate the Earth so much?

And why hasn't Al Gore taken him aside?

More Palin-As-A-Pig Smears

Cross-posted at THEB.

This is far beyond a metaphor. More like unhinged personal attacks right out of the sewer.

Fox Head tells us the Drive By Media weighs in with a political cartoon depicting Sarah Palin as a pig with lipstick. Palin can take her place alongside the likes of Condoleeza Rice and Michael Steele, who have been smeared by the racists, sexists and bigots on the Left.

Imagine the outrage if a cartoonist or a blogger with Photoshop depicted Barack Hussein Obama as a monkey.

You stay classy, liberals.

Paul Ryan conference call

I took part in a blogger conference call with Rep. Paul Ryan earlier today, and let me say to my fellow bloggers: I sure hope I didn't screw anybody out of asking a question.

Turned out Ryan only had about 25 minutes, and since I asked a question and two follow-ups, I probably took more than my share of time. Sorry about that.

Anyway: the good news is I now know that, yes, a "snow machine" is the same as a snowmobile. I'd been wondering that.

Highlights: McCain/Palin better on energy (Ryan called it an "all of the above" policy); better on the economy (lower taxes, protect us from the Alternative Minimum Tax, reduce dependence on foreign oil); and Sarah Palin might as well have been mayor of Wausau, rather than Wasilla, because she comes off as a native Wisconsinite.

Except she hunts moose instead of whitetails, and calls them "snow machines" instead of snowmobiles. That's what he said.

I asked him about the "energy bill" "passed" by House Democrats. He called it "the biggest hoax I've seen in a long time here...and that's really saying something."

He said this because the bill puts over 80% of our offshore reserves off-limits to drilling. It doesn't allow for revenue-sharing with coastal states, and it doesn't allow for new refining capability.

He said there's other poison pills in it, too, so even if the Senate was going to take it up (they're not), President Bush would be sure to veto it.

But at least they got their issue, right? Congressional Democrats can go home and say they voted YES on drilling!

Except...Ryan also said that Congress will soon vote on a continuing budget resolution. Word in the halls of power is, he says, that Dems will try to extend the drilling moratorium in that resolution - the moratorium that's set to expire on September 30.

I can't help but think that that would be dumb. So I hope they do it.

Cindy from Fairly Conservative was also on the call. Phil Klein, from the American Spectator, asked about the financial bailouts. His report is here.

To those who are sure McCain will or must pick Alaska Gov Sarah Palin as Veep:

Mr. Pterodactyl's got the money.

Sarah Palin will not be the Republican VP nominee, okay? She won't. Maybe in '12 or '16 (depending on who wins in '08), but not now. She just had a baby in April. The baby has Down's Syndrome. She is not running for vice president this year.

Now that's community organizing!

Grandpa Steve has the scoop:

Vice-Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, also has community organizational experience. As a member of the Wasilla P.T.A., Ms. Palin organized an effort to provide hall monitors for the local schools and crossing guards for the walkways that schoolchildren took to and from school. Data comparison, before and after, showed that there were significant declines in gum chewing, running in the halls, and tardiness in the schools as well as a 93% decline in the casualty rate of schoolchildren during collisions with dog sleds on the snow covered streets of Wasilla.

By the way, Grandpa Steve posted the 2000th post over at Grandpa John's back on Thursday, September 4th.

And just to prove that we Grandpa Johnnies are far more generous than anybody else, we're going to double the prize Marcus got for posting BBA's 4,000th post!

Question: how does one promote and sell a book called “The Age of Obama” if Obama loses in November?

Answer: well, you can still point out that Obama almost made it. But the theme – not to mention the title: “Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” – are far better marketed following an Obama win in November.

Clearly, the author of this book has a stake in the outcome of the election. So why is she – Gwen Ifill, a TV journalist with PBS – moderating tomorrow night’s vice presidential debate between Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden?

By the way: guess when the book is scheduled to be released. January 20, 2009. Yep: Inaguration Day. It'll sure take the wind out of those marketing sails if Chief Justice Roberts is swearing in President-Elect McCain, instead of President-Elect Obama.

This isn’t just an instance of a reporter who’s shown bias in the past. One can always change one’s stripes, if only for a single evening.

This is worse: this is a woman who has money riding on the outcome of this election. An Obama win could translate to a lot more book sales – a lot more money – in Ifill’s pocket than a McCain win will.

Yeah, I changed my verbs in that sentence from “could” to “will,” and I’ll stick to that: an Obama win will mean more money – a lot more money – for Ifill than a McCain win will.

Could she still do the job fairly and objectively? Sure. But should a media outlet allow someone with such an obvious conflict of interest to do that job?

That’s not just a no. That’s a hell no.

This has been all over the internet today, but I saw it first at Sweetness & Light.

This from Michelle Malkin:

Tons of readers recommend that Sarah Palin open her debate remarks by congratulating Ifill on her book and asking her to tell everyone the title.

Ha.

Ed Morrissey notes that four Republicans on the Commission on Presidential Debates signed off on Ifill. Watch out, Democrats! The fix is in! A built-in excuse!

This is a good point going around: it’s true, Ifill was hardly hiding the fact she’d written the book, the title, or the publication date. It wasn’t a secret. Not at all.

But if Ifill is a highly-respected professional (as John McCain called her when asked about the conflict) then she should have disqualified herself. She never should have accepted the job, knowing she had such an obvious conflict of interest.

This is just creepy

Please note that the "details" don't include any clothes:

Despite their political differences, Elliott admits to a bit of a crush on the Alaska governor. He began painting her smile and trademark glasses, he said, before filling in the details: a gun, red high heels, polar bear rug, rugged Alaska landscape and a scared moose.

That's right: he painted a nude likeness of Gov. Sarah Palin. That's bad enough - you wonder whether the Palins can't do something about that - but get a load of the next sentence:

His daughter, who looks a little like Palin and does a great impression of her, served as model for the governor's body.

Here's a quick poll for all the married men out there:

If you suggested using your own daughter as a nude model to help you pursue a weird sexual fetish, you would end up sleeping:
	In your bed
	On the couch
	Mostly submerged in a pile of trash in some cold back-alley somewhere
pollcode.com free polls

The "artist's" wife owns a tavern on Chicago’s north side. He hung the painting there. You can see a partly covered picture of it here.

I fully expect an eyewitness report from Marathon Pundit soon.

Hat tip Backyard Conservative

McCain Palin coming to Waukesha.

Please Join John McCain and Sarah Palin for a Waukesha Townhall Meeting.

Thursday, October 9th
Doors Open at 9:30AM
Please Arrive No Later than 10:30 AM

Center Court Sports Complex
815 Northview Boulevard
Waukesha, WI 53188
(414) 326-4250

Tickets are required for admission and are first come first serve at the following Ticket Distribution Centers.

Tickets will be distributed from 9 am - 9 pm

Waukesha County Victory Center
1701 Pearl Street, #10
Waukesha, WI 53186

West Allis Victory Center
1470 South 84th Street
West Allis, WI 53214

Germantown Victory Center
N112 W15800 Mequon Rd
Germantown, WI 53022

Re: Why does Obama hate the Earth?

Al Gore is uncharacteristically silent, but then he's not running for anything right now, except maybe a seat at Obama's table.

And what would he say, anyway? I believe he'd mumble something about carbon credits and happy little third-worlders who can keep haulin' water by hand to offset the big O's daytripping.

grumps: Obama suspended his campaign to detour to Hawaii, but since fans got to see him there, we'll call it a campaign stop? Nice try, but you'll have to do better. If Palin's clothes matter, Obama's detours paid for by his campaign do, to.

He and his body guards coulda flown first-class commercial easily for a couple of Palin's jackets and shoes, but he still wouldn't have anything to donate except a bigger carbon footprint.

The Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

I’m Strangle Thicket Palin.

Link. Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

The Palin Effect

The Drive By Media takes it on the chin in a pair of cartoons courtesy of Townhall.com.

First, Gary Varvel sticks it to both Chris Matthews of Screwball and the laughably partisan hack David Gregory:



And Eric Allie shows the likely effect of Palin Power on Matthews:

Some highlights of tonight's lineup

Don't wait up, it's gonna be a late one. Programming starts at 6 tonight. Here are some of the highlights:

8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

• Speaker: GOPAC Chairman Michael Steele
  
• Speaker: Former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.)
  
• Speaker: Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.)

9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

• Speaker: Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (N.Y.)
  
• Speaker: Gov. Linda Lingle (Hawaii)
  
• Video: Sarah Palin
  
• Speaker: Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin

10 p.m. to Conclusion

• Roll Call

The roll call is the part where every state takes forever telling us how great they are before they cast their votes for the nominee.

Prediction: New Jersey will not yield the floor to Illinois. Illinois will not yield the floor to New York. New York will not move to stop the voting and nominate McCain by acclimation.

But the New York delegation will mention Brett Favre during their speech.

UPDATE - I'm already getting excerpts of some of the speeches in my Inbox. According to this, Mike Huckabee is going to say:

"I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me."

I'm not entirely sure I was supposed to tell you that, so: shhhhh.

Last night in Baraboo

We had a really good event at the McCain/Palin - Sauk County GOP headquarters last night. A really good event. Lots of people, lots of good food, lots of enthusiasm both for the top of the ticket and the state legislative races.

A couple pictures:


You can make out Tim McCumber, chair of the Sauk GOP, speaking up front. He told us we've flown through 800 McCain/Palin signs in just over a week.

He's not really that tall. He's standing on a chair.




You can just barely see state Senator Dale Schultz up front (right side - and he is that tall).

I counted 80 people while I was standing in the back. Would've been more, but the Sauk County Right to Life banquet was last night, too, so a bunch of people went to that instead.

Since I saw several people leave before the speeches started, we're rounding our official attendance estimate up to 200.

Oh, no, wait: that's anti-war protest math. Sorry.