McCain Makes the Case that Energy State Governors Are Great on National Security
Joe Sudbay is right—this interview, in which McCain is challenged to explain why Governor Palin is qualified to be a 72-year old heartbeat away from the presidency, is terrible.
But I’m most interested–disturbed, really–by his latest explanation of how Sarah Palin is qualified on the matter that McCain says matters most: national security.
Reporter: You say you’re sure she has the experience, but I’m just asking for an example. What experience does she have in the field of national security?
McCain: Energy. She knows more about energy than uh probably anyone else in the United States of America. She represe–is a governor of the state that 20% of America’s energy supply comes from there. And you all know that energy is a critical and vital national security issue.
McCain is basically arguing that serving as governor of a state that supplies a lot of America’s energy gives a person great national security credentials.
Hmmm. Governors of states that supply lots of energy … states that supply lots of energy … lets see, those would include Alaska, Louisiana, …
Ut oh.
And Texas.
Now aside from the fact that McCain is wrong about his claim that Alaska provides 20% of our energy supply (it provides 20% of our oil, relatively little–at least thus far–of our natural gas, and insignificant amounts of coal, nuclear, wind, or solar power), he’s basically arguing that a guy like George Bush has the national security qualifications to be President.
And we saw how well that worked out.
All in all, I’d say, McCain’s making a great case for voting against Sarah Palin.
This is not leadership for the 21st century.
It wasn’t even leadership for the last half of the 20th.
This is disastrous; it’s embarrassing to watch.
What happened to John McCain? He’s turned into a Cautionary Tale.
Watching him in 2008 is like driving by the scene of a fatal car wreck.
Disturbing.
What??? I’ve got lots of neighbors (on my block, even) who know more about energy than Sarah Palin. At least one of them is a woman, too. She pretty much shares Palin’s political views. As an exec at ExxonMobil, she probably has more executive experience than Palin. Why isn’t my neighbor Deb running for VP? None of her daughters are pregnant.
That’s the problem, the daughters aren’t pregnant.
I was on the board for my school, how come McCain didn’t pick me? Never mind.
I think Cindy is just glad to have a great gal to push John’s wheelchair. So companionable. He loves her!
Does this mean that McSame is looking at Hall Monitors for his Secretary of Defense?
Honor is earned. Honor can be lost.
Appears to be the tragic case here.
I thought the thing about national security was, y’know, all those unsecured ports and things like that. Or maybe the problems that arise when intelligence services are ordered by political bosses to lie to themselves, never a pretty picture in the end. Does Sarah Palin know or care about stuff like that? It doesn’t sound as though John McCain does.
So I could ask governor Schwarzenegger his expert advice on my sons pot growing project. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
According to Eric Bailey of the L A Times
Date: 18 December 2006
That interview is an example of committing journalism.
McCain states another big lie (surprise) in there when he claims that the pipeline project will get energy to the lower 48. Not true.
This is a good rundown of the pipeline project from dengre at dkos.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..297/589573
By jove I think you’ve broken the code. In as much as I had managed to avoid hearing Sarah Palin’s voice until last night when I watched her return to Alaska on CNN, I think it is becoming increasingly clear that the McCain camp has bet the farm on perpetuating the the slow death of the oil economy. (What with Thomas Yorke and the blokes at the Hollywood Bowl and the unnecessary drama of the Vols in the Rose bowl how was I to find time to listen to the Republicans).
It is no wonder that the McCain campaign is a characterizations of the worst traits of corporate manipulation. Palin’s popularity in Alaska is obviously premised on the oil dividend she has brought home to the 600,000 plus citizens of Alaska who are hungry for frontier economic opportunities, and who can really blame them. What’s a bit of abuse of power when that $2000 citizenship dividend comes rolling in. But Alaska is a narrow constituency. The values of Alaska may be admirable but they do not necessarily translate to the values of the national political interests. The broader national politic features a war waged on false pretenses and a profound need to break the oil addiction, not go to on down to the man one more time. One should never underestimate the willingness of Republicans to seize the political margins built by democrats, to open the flap to the tent as need be to maintain administrative power. In the context of an economy that is crying out for alternative energy sources removed from the petroleum economy the drum beat for a so-called “victory” in Iraq and potential war with Russia over Georgia should be a non-starter.
The promise of a broad based national dividend arising of the economic spikes in the fits of the dying petroleum economy might bring a Texas style oil boom to Alaska in the short run but in the end it is merely a rationalization, a short sighted bargain, another gambit by the oil industry to hold on yielding some short term gains and selling the pursuit of rational energy solutions down the river.
Why is Georgia strategically important in a world with emergent, hydrogen, wind and solar energy technologies. It is this base play to the values of a spent paradigm, the play to the fears of those who can not imagine the transformation inherent in emergent energy technologies that Palin and so McCain in fact plays. Reform my ass. Imperial militarism to seize strategic oil assets is indeed more of the same. Palin is obviously a Bush understudy and should be attacked as such.
Candidates Forum for Service (debate) between Senator Obama and Senator McSame now on.
Please, please watch it on CSPAN so as not to give the MSM any ratings boost or ad revenues!
I am currently watching it on ESPN; is that okay? So far, the red is beating the blue though….
As long as you’re rooting for the blue, you’re fine. LOL!
And this is who White America will pick for President of the United States just because the other canidate is a shade darker……SAD, SAD, SAD…..When we are a thrid world Ctry by 2012……Don’t go screaming at the politicans…..You are the ones that have chosen another 4 years of BUSH!!!
WHAT HAPPENED TO TAKING CHANCES….? THAT IS THE ONLY WAY WE, AS A CTRY GROWS…AND THE WORLD IS LOOKING IN ON US, LAUGHING BECAUSE WE ALLOWED ROVE POLITICS TO SCARE US FOR 8 YEARS…..AND IT SEEMS THEY WILL DO IT AGAIN IN THE NAME OF A WOMEN…..FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER 4……SO, ALL THAT COMES TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IF THEY ARE IN OFFICE, THIS CTRY DESERVES…..AND DON’T GO CRYING WHEN YOUR SON GOES TO FIGHT IN RUSSIA, OR YOUR DAUGHTER WHO HAS BEEN RAPED NOW IS FORCED TO CARRY A CHILD AND RAISE IT ALL BECAUSE OF ANOTHER’S BELIEF!!
YOU WILL HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN….INSTEAD OF FIXING AMERICA, YOU CHOOSE INSTEAD TO DO THE SAME THING AGAIN, EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT!!!
IT WILL NOT HAPPEN!!! MCCAIN AND BUSH ARE ONE…..WHY DO YOU THINK HE WOULD LEAD ANY BETTER? HE IS ALREADY USING ROVE POLITICS….AND BUSH STAFF, AND LOBBYISTS, AND HE IS LYING, AND HE IS DUMB…..SOUNDS A HELLUVA LOT LIKE BUSH TO ME!!
BUZZARD’S KORNER
The LATimes published two articles this spring about the Colorado River delta in the gulf of Baja MX that revealed the complex interactions of various ways to extract value from natural resources; rivers serve for hydroelectric as well as ag and potable water; the CO river supplies 7 arid states, but its outfall finally in the coast has new characteristics which are altering the lives of people who live near its oceanward terminus.
Yep, actually is problematic way upstream too. There have been some fairly inventive efforts to do extended length flows out of Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell to try to replenish the silt, sand on banks underwater bed structure for fish etc. With intelligent thought, engineering, and hydrology the status at both ends and in between could probably be made much improved.
Karl Wittfogel used to call most of the earliest states “hydraulic civilizations” because the most important common feature they shared was management of a large river ecosystems in a dry environment. Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, and China (Yellow River) are the obvious examples. The Colorado River doesn’t get that much press, but how its waters are controlled is a key and not well understood feature of The American West. Basically, San Diego would be a sleepy desert town if they didn’t have a pipeline from the Colorado River.
Bob in HI
I just watched a clip of Ms. Palin just now with Charlie Gibson in which she didn’t have a clue about the Bush Doctrine. She sure tried to gloss it over, though! Gibson kept trying, in his gentle way, to get her to respond “Yes” or “No” to whether or not she believed in that doctrine. Now, maybe it is good that she does not have a clue about it — I would hope that anything Bush stands for will be passe when a new administration comes to town. However, this is the woman who is being touted as so experienced in foreign policy.
Not to dishonor our female friends on this board in any way, but maybe we should hope that someone comes up with nude pictures of Sarah Palin (or something equally embarrassing and scandalous) to put an end to this idiocy…
Partial clip of that up at Thinkprogess.
and btw, one needs to tune into a whole lot of ABC news programs to see this interview in it’s entirety (and even then, is that the whole thing).
BTW, re my comments @ 17, McCain also said (from memory) that she’s scheduled a whole bunch of interviews over next few days. Is that another whopper, or am I unaware?
TPM today said that the McSame campaign confirmed to them that there are new interviews for McBull…winkle in the next week:
McBullwrinkle!
I see my inadvertent misspelling (McBull…winkle instead of MsBull…winkle) has coincidentally inspired your excellent concoction.
Let’s see here. We’ve now got a Repug campaign lineup of:
McBullwrinkle and MsBull…winkle
Works for me! *g*
Ya, looks like Hannity is up next. Then Greta Garbo.
I’m sure that’ll shed all kinds of light on things.
Certainly was trying to think on her feet. Or other part of anatomy. Gawd, what a long, awkward pause after that first question!!
I pulled my tinfoil hat down quite firmly over my ears today and was able to pick up signals that encoded the real Palin family story and how it’s going to play out over the coming months. There is going to be a bombshell, but it probably won’t be recognized as such. And it won’t go off before the election.
Recall all the hyperventilating prior to and during the first days of the RNC about how not seven months pregnant Sarah Palin looked in that Super Tuesday photo taken less than two months before the baby was born? And the speculation that the baby was Bristol’s because she had been MIA from school for so many months? Suppose that the baby really is Bristol’s, and suppose you’re a ruthlessly ambitious pol who’s just had the mega-breakthrough of a career and within a week it looks like it’s all going up in shit.
You’re pacing the floor of your hotel suite in St. Paul, trying to think of a way out of this pickle that will (1) salvage your career break; an d (2) convince the National Enquirere and all the other obnoxious snoopers that there’s “nothing here, so move along now.” Suddenly the light bulb pops on in your head, and you holler into the other room “Bristol, come here!” In trots your daughter in her bare feet saying “What is it mom?” Sarah closes the door and says, “OK, honey, as you well know when I cooked up the idea last winter to pass off your baby as mine, I had no idea that I’d be selected for VP on the national ticket. We were doing just fine keeping the lid on it, but we’re in the big fishbowl now, dearie, and there’s no way that’s going to continue with the tabloids sending platoons up home to look under every rock. But I’ve got a plan that’s going to head them off at the pass and shut it all down. Here’s what we’ll do.
“You’re still a little puffy and you haven’t quite got your figure back yet. So, we’re going to announce that you are pregnant now and that you’re expecting sometime around the first of the year. I know that neither you nor Levi want to get married, but for now we’ll pretend that you do. If he has a problem with that, I have some friends who, after they hear this plan, will be very eager to make it worth his while. You’ll stay out of sight during the campaign (we’ll say you want your privacy) and a couple of weeks after the election we’ll announce that you’ve had a miscarriage. See how ingenious this is? It solves all our problems. Announcing you’re pregnant now makes it incredible that you were also pregnant last spring. And if you weren’t I must have been, that damn Super Tuesday photo not withstanding. But the best part is that by announcing that you’ll keep the baby, the forced birth folks who constitute my base will be ecstatic and fall all over themselves jumping on the McCain/Palin (or should I say Palin/McCain) bandwagon! It’s a masterstroke of turning lemons into lemonade!”
So, folks, keep an eye out for the news of Bristol’s “miscarriage” shortly after the election. You heard it here first.
are you a writer for days of our lives?
No. But do you think there’s a possibility of a new career for me?
Unfortunately for your scenario, the Dallas Morning News took a picture of Sarah Palin back in April at the Rep. Gov. Conference. Look closely, she’s pregnant.
Well, it was a fun thought experiment in any case. On the other hand, there are pregnancy prostheses for the stage . . .
Honestly, McMoose’s act has gotten so ridiculous at this point I wouldn’t be surprised by your “surprise” sceneario. I’m amazed his campaign put her on the big stage last night: certainly, they had to be aware of her naivete… and that’s Vast w/a capital VAST! That the whole Republican contigent has come out in chorus to applaud her “experience”, as defense for executing what’s ahead for us… it’s a caricature squared of the Bush years.
No wonder the US is broke.
“You can see Russia from Alaska” was one of her comments in response to questioning about foreign policy Putin. Maybe she could “look in his eyes” from there?
Ed Wood had better scripts than these guys.
WO, How are you faring with Ike?
Things are fine in my neighborhood at the moment, but this thing’s not going be pretty. Parts of Galveston are already underwater and the storm’s still 200+ miles away. The folks in coastal areas are going to be hit very hard with the storm surge. The wind field on this thing is huge. That means lots power outage.
Depending on the exact track of the storm, I expect to see hurricane force winds in my neighborhood, 50 miles inland. All the beautiful pine trees will become our biggest danger. We’re prepared as we can be. Now it’s mostly just waiting.
Yeah, but that photo was taken after she announced the pregnancy. Of course she looked pregnant after the announcement. I have yet to see a photo of her looking preggers before she announced it.
Once she announced, she was all in. They had to run the scam prego suit and all. I had dinner with a young FIT woman 6 1/2 month in just the other night, people notice. I gotta say, I’m still with the tinfoil hat crowd. But again, The GOP would love for us to spend time on that. I’m quite sure they hoped we would, and I think it drives them nuts at Obama just flat doesn’t take that kind of bait.
That photo doesnt’ ding the theory. Bring me a credible photo of her at 6 1/2 months and showing then the theory is busted.
Don’t you have to take a look at ALL of the pictures? I’ve heard it alleged that it is easy to “pillow up” for a photo opportunity.
As Hugh has pointed out, if she really wanted to put this to rest, all she has to do is to provide access to the hospital records and all the other abundant records that accompany a pregnancy. But she hasn’t done it.
And then there’s the incredible tale of her giving a talk in Texas supposedly after her water broke, and then calmly getting on a long airline flight all the way back to Alaska to have the baby! That’s just crazy.
Bob in HI
Sorry Charlie, I heard it over at kos a week ago – on day one of the Bristol is pregnant ploy. However, I still think it sounds just a plausible as it did then. More plausible than Sara not showing at 7 months. We’ll see on this one. I think the miscarrage is coming.
Most of McCain’s other comments were ridiculous as well.
– “She was right on Iraq, Sen. Obama was wrong.”
– “She was right on Russia, he was wrong. He made moral equilalency between Russia and Georgia”(…) WTF? (Palin on Russia w/Charles Gibson)
– “She was right on Iraq, he was wrong on Iraq. She has more experience than Sen. Obama does.” (talk about sitting down w/(his pronunciation) “Ak majdenajad… blah blah blah. Condi’s been talking to ‘em BTW a lot lately)
– “She’s right on foreign policy, Sen Obama is wrong.”
Unbelievable.
One of the keys to political rivalries in the West relates to hydroelectric, and Cheney Rove recognized that part of the formula in their grandstanding with tractor brigades to trespass in the Klamath to operate the diversion valves to serve reclamation district farmsteads in 2002 creating a salmon stock obliteration; fish lifespans create regeneration of populations but it takes a few years. Besides that obscene stunt on the OR-CA border by Rove Cheney, there was the accession in the Enron GetShorty scandals in CA which early in the millenium saw a gubernatorial recall over the electric ’shortage’ embarrassment of the then governor. The celluloid scriptreader who replaced that evicted governor adores earthworks, berms and the like; his political base 400 miles away needs North CA water; he mandated hydro pumps to extract an extraordinary amount of water from the confluence of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers for export to ag and to So. CA; at the end of the following linked article there is a paragraph tucked which references the still fairly secret scandal of what script reading Schwarzenegger and patronage job appointees accomplished by obliterating the Sacramento River salmon stock. The linked article discusses how polar icecap melt from global warming has provided cool water, which supports an increased food supply for salmon. But the salmon endured Rove’s emasculation of the Klamath River, and Schwarzenegger’s sale of Sacramento River water to ag and So CA. The politics are delicate, but the klutzes played havoc with salmon populations. Nice senators voted hundreds of millions of $ to support fishing industry people who are waiting for the salmon population rebound. Energy, water, fish.
did anyone mention mccain is an idiot?? just thought i would throw that out, as he is loosing touch with reality at a fast pace at present..
I worked at CVS once. Can I be the head of the FDA?
I’m going to give her a pass on not knowing what “the Bush Doctrine” is. I really didn’t understand what he was asking, and his “pre-emptive strike” philosophy (which was called an “unprovoked attack” when the Japanese did it to us, but whatever) wasn’t the first thing that popped into my mind (torture, erosion of civil liberties, and attacking the wrong country all came first).
“E. J. Dionne: Does the Truth Matter any More? Subtitled at Reddit.com, “Why is lying an acceptable tactic, asset, even, in campaigning for the most important job in the world? “
http://voices.washingtonpost.c…..id=topnews
“John McCain wasted all that time trying to control big money in politics and got slapped down by the courts.
Maybe he would have been better off passing legislation allowing the Federal Trade Commission to fine political campaigns for purveying obvious falsehoods in their advertisements. I’m not talking about claims over which there can be a reasoned dispute. I mean claims that are just obvious lies, about which all reasonable persons would agree as to their plain falsehood
The president of the United States can still start a nuclear war with an ill-considered policy, leaving tens of millions of people dead and threatening all life on earth with a nuclear winter.”
That doesn’t deserve the slightest due diligence from our regulatory agencies
http://www.juancole.com/2008/0…..asset.html
I’ve got it!!
like capone and mail fraud if the FTC could enforce the use of misleading statements against Trudeau for infomercials why couldn’t the same be used against politicians?
“A Federal Trade Commission settlement with Kevin Trudeau – a prolific marketer who has either appeared in or produced hundreds of infomercials – broadly bans him from appearing in, producing, or disseminating future infomercials that advertise any type of product, service, or program to the public, except for truthful infomercials for informational publications. In addition, Trudeau cannot make disease or health benefits claims for any type of product, service, or program in any advertising, including print, radio, Internet, television, and direct mail solicitations, regardless of the format and duration. Trudeau agreed to these prohibitions and to pay the FTC $2 million to settle charges that he falsely claimed that a coral calcium product can cure cancer and other serious diseases and that a purported analgesic called Biotape can permanently cure or relieve severe pain.”
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/09/trudeaucoral.shtm
She’s an Impostor – she’s pretending to be a Qualified Candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the United States of America.
He’s unfit for Command – he was Derelict in his Duty to demonstrate sound, principled judgment in his first Presidential decision.
Frank at 35 – But the McCain Campaign was given the questions in advance.
Guess they didn’t know the answers either.
Just a little OT
Talked with a group of people yesterday who said they really need Obama to stay on the issues and to keep his ads on the issues. People in Columbus are sick and tired of the “character slamming” ads from McCain and do not want to see them from Obama, unless the ad is pointing an error in an oppo ad.
The same group did admit if there is truthful information out there that would make a voter question if a person is fit to lead, that would be important. Many said they did not trust Todd Palin and that issue reflected on the inner motives of Sarah Palin.
Most gave articulate reasons for why Palin was not prepared to be President.
Also, heard a story on NPR which stated that the blogosphere has been leading the way for the MSM to learn facts about Palin and to understand the arguements about why she is a bad selection and addressing the false cry of sexism from the McCain campaign.
ot
hearing the same things. glad to hear about the NPR story. Do you know about this?
http://freepress.org/doit.php?…..rYear=2008
Let’s keep registering voters. In Ohio we have up until Oct 6
We can all be fairly sure now why they kept the Divine Mrs. Sarah under tight wraps after the convention.
The script, she’s all.
I feel like a guy without a country.
Did you listen to McCain last night as he defined “exceptionalism”
We are fucked if he’s elected, cuz I think his marbles are wrapped tightly
in the American Flag.
For the record, “All men are created equal”, not ALL Americans are created
equal”
No wonder, the global world hates us.
I’m ashamed of his comments.
“Liar, Krugman of NYT, blasts McCain With the Truth”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..278/595686
Republicans Hijacked 911, by Keith Olberman, Courage to Speak Truth!
http://www.jedreport.com/2008/…..men…
How many more Journalists & Reporters will show courage and begin to do their duty and Inform the public as to truth and falsity? We should never again be lied into a False & Phony war by a President you want to have a beer with! Republicans strong on National Security? I don’t think so, after all 911 happened on their watch, but they have been allowed to distort the facts and public perception that it is the Democrats who are weak on national security! They have failed to properly enact the 911 Commissions recommendations which would make us a lot safer! Politicans who willfully and intentionally lie to the public are engaged in a betrayal of the public trust and such distortion should be deemed unethical and in some cases, criminal! We need a Media to be the third-wheel of democracy again and not a parrot of those who are corrupt, unless they are corrupt too!
Republicans are just as dismal on economics. It is an outrage or should be that the government can give millions of dollars to CEO’s from the failed Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac and yet, cannot give a second stimulus check to American citizens in these hard economic times? Republicans say No to a second stimulus while the Democrats say Yes to a second stimulus! Is the Republican Congress working for CEO’s or are they working for you, the people? We need a Government and a Congress to work for the People, not lie to the people, not bail out their own special interest groups and leave the people hanging. We need a government to put the burden of taxes on the rich where they belong and stop putting the tax burdens on the middle class and poor, those who can least afford it. We need a government who will put money into education and make that a national priority again, both lower and higher education and give more Pell Grants and less loans so that young people can once again achieve a higher education, get a good job and lift everybody up out of poverty. We need action and not more spin, talk and lies. We need a Congress who will vote Yes to bridges, roads, schools, health care. Who will invest in America and not in Iraq and in themselves and their special interest groups. America is dying. We need Change!
Illinois produces a fair amount of oil, too, but our governor isn’t qualified to be dog catcher, much less VP. Or governor, for that matter. Even if he is a Democrat of sorts.
Sarah Palin is just one more glib moron from the Grand Old Perverts’ apparently inexhaustible stable of barely educated idiots. The more stupid stuff she says, the more the ‘public’ will love her because she sounds just like them.
as I get out in the real world, I see we are in more and more trouble
I am in starbucks and I hear the two kids that work there talking about how much they love palin, (they are college girls) and how “everyone is talking about palin haveing no experience, obaman is running for president and he has no experience, palin is vice president and she will learn”
we are in tons of trouble, this isn’t a midwest or southern state and these aren’t uneducated kids, this is new york and these are college girls
we are in tons and tons of trouble…I would not have believed this just two months ago, now I see it is a fact
I agree and that’s why Obama should being having “second thoughts” about appeatring on SNL.
I love SNL and the comedy, but the Repugs may turn the tables.
Maybe I’m panicking but I’m worried.
I’m feeling more confident about the way things will go in Ohio as I hit the the streets talking to and registering more voters. Folks are fired up. The young people that I am talking with on the campuses of Ohio University and Ohio State (in Columbus) are blowing right by the Sarah myth. They are expressing deep concerns about Sarah’s fundamentalist positions and lack of national security experience. Juan Cole has focused on this
http://www.juancole.com/
What’s the difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalists? Lipstick
http://www.salon.com/opinion/f…..index.html
As my mother continues to point out. (a Hillary devotee totally on the Obama/Biden bus) She hopes Obama, Biden, Michelle, Hillary and Bill spend more time going into assisted living, nursing homes and Veterans Administration facilities. These folks are being ignored. They are a force to be harnessed.
The John McCain of 2000 was every bit of a phony of the John McCain of 2008. He’s simply willing to whore himself to whatever opinions he thinks are popular or necessary in order to win.
He’s a phony and has been a phony for decades.
-G
Thank you, emptywheel. This makes an excellent talking point guaranteed to catch asshole Republicans off guard. I hope the setup comes for this in the debates, because I can already picture McCain’s rictus-of-death grin and wheezy chuckle.
Just watch. McCain’s entire discourse is a sequence of nonsequiturs.
Thursday night, he blamed Palin’s derision of community organizers on Obama’s refusal to join him at “town meetings.” He did so via one level of indirection:
– Palin’s meanness was the result of the low tone of the campaign.
– This campaign would have had a completely different tone if Obama hadn’t declined to participate in the town meetings.
But his whole discourses was that way on Thursday night: syntactically correct but semantically incoherent. It was almost like a satirical portrayal of political discourse.