Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet

The great David Letterman, last night. This is must-see video. Then again, so is this: contest winner Sarah Palin with Katie Couric. Unbelievable.

I think people are starting to realize that that voice would be annoying as hell for four years, to say nothing of her policies. I’m talking about that chickadee, Palin, of course. McCain’s no prize with the voice either, but whatever. But with the country in financial collapse, what we need is a smooth, calming voice to sail us through the waters. So there’s one more for Obama.

Something to realize: Obama the “celebrity” has been riding this wave for a good four years since the 2004 DNC. In other words, he’s no flash in the pan; he is the candidate, the one that beat Hillary Clinton. It has taken Palin about two weeks to peak and fade. She can’t and will not last because she is not even riding her own wave; she is following a script (you may remember, Obama wrote his own–twice in book form).

Palin, not even the candidate, but the vice-presidential gimmick, is so much a set-piece that she has been shielded from the public since her one-night-stand at the RNC and only allowed out for carefully plotted “interviews”–one with Sean Hannity! She repeats the same lines and phrases over and over while stalling for time by calling the interviewer by his first name again and again; this is obvious stuff, Charlie!

It’s funny to hear that audiences are leaving after she speaks because McCain is such a bore. Sad, but funny. Celebrity goes at the top of the ticket, guys. But even that will not last, there’s just not enough there. Talk about an empty skirt.

Experience–it ain’t what it used to be. Great column from Steve Chapman in the Trib:

At the Republican convention, Rudy Giuliani lamented that Obama has “never run a city, never run a state, never run a business”—unlike Palin, who was a mayor before becoming governor of Alaska two years ago. Giuliani didn’t mention what he said when he was running against McCain: “He has never run a city, never run a state, never run a government.”

…

(Obama) has spent more time in elected posts than Hillary Clinton, and no one doubted her credentials. When he ran in 2000, Bush himself had spent only half as much time in elective office as Obama has.

The Democratic nominee’s other jobs, such as teaching constitutional law, look like better training than, say, helping to run a baseball team. As for McCain’s 26 years on Capitol Hill, wasn’t it Republicans who used to say there was such a thing as being in Washington too long?

Twenty questions for Sarah Palin. Lots of good ones in there. I’d like to know McCain’s answers on many of these as well. We know that this one would give him problems: “What’s the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?”

I would like to know more about Palin’s book-banning skills and how the Iraq War is “God’s will.” Those answers would be interesting. Hell, any kind of information about her would be nice. Fave lipstick color, child-rearing tips, foreign policy, whatever. She is, after all, running for second in command.

Just to review what has happened here in the last couple of weeks:

The McCain campaign whined their ass off about the media for asking too many questions about their unknown VP candidate, the media backed off obediently, they continued to not answer questions about their unknown VP while spinning lies and distortions about themselves and their opponents, and now the media wakes up and discovers that the McCain campaign is in the mud. Meanwhile, McCain-Palin have been out spreading these lies unchallenged. Say it enough and it becomes the truth. Who you gonna believe?

The only question now is whether McCain left his honor in that cell in Hanoi, or did he sell it to Karl Rove for a shot at the White House?

I’m referring to Mr. McCain, of course, in case there’s any misconception or misunderstanding. Why would there be? Who else would I be talking about?

Huffington Post has a nice round-up of the depths that McCain’s campaign has sunk to–Gutter Politics, it is called. I especially like Joe Klein’s post regarding an ad he calls “one of the sleaziest ads I’ve ever seen in presidential politics.”

I just can’t wait for the moment when John McCain–contrite and suddenly honorable again in victory or defeat–talks about how things got a little out of control in the passion of the moment. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

I can’t say it enough: this kind of shit cannot work, again and again, every election, for Republicans. What amazes me is…what kind of people respond to this sort of thing? Who enjoys getting down in the mud with the pigs, besides other pigs? Well then, I’ve answered my question.

“These are serious times and they call for a serious debate…spare me all the phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change.”

- Barack Obama, telling it like it is

Time to step it up! Without fake outrage, the right-wing is left with a failed president and failed policies, and John Friggin McCain. Please. This shouldn’t even be close.

It appears that Sarah Palin doesn’t want to give any interviews. I can see why. She seems to have little knowledge of the issues and what the office of VP entails, and those investigations are just getting warmed up. Lots of questions to be answered. Problem is, “the Base” is used to accepting their candidates with blind faith, and are notoriously against any kind of “questioning” of their kind. To paraphrase Chris Rock, they “love not to know.”* Truth is like kryptonite to the Base!

(I do see that they’ve lost that nutjob Charles Krauthammer. Ouch. That guy usually eats whatever shit the GOP feeds him.)

You know what will suck though, is if they get elected–McCain and Palin–you know that the same dumbasses that took eight years to realize how bad Bush was are going to be just as slow with these two. And we’ll have to sit and complain about it until they finally realize they were wrong, like they all were about Bush. And yet it won’t teach them anything. ‘Cause they love not to know.

No, no way. Not this year. It’s not going to happen.

* Reference is at the 3:00 mark of this hilarious and NSFW video by Chris Rock.

That’s why it falls by the wayside at the RNC. No wonder they liked her speech so much–it was full of lies, exaggerations and smug sarcasm. And not just her speech, but Romney’s, Huckabee’s and others were full of shit. For example:

At her first press conference, why not ask her why she said that Obama has never passed a single reform, when he passed the 2007 Ethics Reform, described by many as the most sweeping package of its kind since Watergate. Of course, she doesn’t know. She was given this speech. But she should be asked to respond to the question of why she said something patently untrue to the entire country.

Palin lied about her opposition to the “Bridge to Nowhere,” about Obama’s tax plan, about the gas pipeline, about earmarks…Republicans really eat this shit up! Mike Huckabee stated that Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.” That one, as the Tribune notes, is “a whopper”:

Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

In the real world,the Bush administration keeps following Obama’s lead as far as foreign policy goes, this time in Pakistan. As Sullivan points out:

It’s also a policy – like the withdrawal timetable and like talking to Iran – in which Barack Obama was ahead of the Bush administration. If his judgment is so faulty, why do the wiser heads in the Bush administration keep following it?

Has McCain or his smug running mate come up with anything of substance, or is it all going be whining about media and sarcastic attacks? Talk about a vapid campaign.

I would live-blog the RNC but I just turned it on and this woman who is speaking is so goddamn boring I don’t think I can stand it. Apparently the crowd agrees because all you can hear is the murmur of white people and occasional smatterings of applause. Her name is…Carly Fiorina? She keeps saying “I know John McCain” and follows it with the most inane sleep-inducing crap you’ve ever heard.

Also, the Cubs game is not on my television tonight, so I can’t watch that either. This, my only real free night of the week and I am reduced to this? Pathetic. Oh, wait! Here’s a black guy! Where’d they find him? Better yet, where’s the Tecate?

McCain is picking Sarah Palin? On the count of three, conservatives everywhere, repeat after me: “Experience? When did we ever say anything about experience?”

Note to GOP: change all black is white/up is down equations. This year, down is up and white is black.

Explanation: In 2004, John Kerry was the flip-flopping senator with the long record (and face), rich heiress wife, and out of touch persona who needed to remind everyone again and again that he fought in Vietnam. He was mocked mercilessly by the very same people who are now championing John McCain, the flip-flopping senator with the long record, rich heiress wife, and out of touch persona who can’t stop telling everyone that he was a POW in Vietnam.

Now, as I argued for Kerry then, having money has nothing to do with anything; look at the Bush family! They have so much money they built a fake ranch for George to pretend he was a Texan at. It’s a long way from Connecticut, clearing brush in Crawford. But everyone who runs is going have some level of wealth and connection. It’s not news. Unless they’re a Democrat!

Still, Bill Clinton came from nothing much at all, and Obama certainly has inherited nothing in his life, and both were fatherless, but somehow these stories are misplaced when the rich, elitist tag comes up. Obama wrote a book–by himself–and made lots of money from it. Two books, actually. Is he out of touch? Please. There is no other candidate who is more in touch than Barack Obama, certainly not any running in this election.

As for Biden, I like the choice. I started to wish for Hillary only for the reason that the election would be sealed quite easily with her, but besides Webb I think Biden is a good man to do the dirty work. And he’s likable, unlike his would-be predecessor, Mr. Cheney. As for Clinton, she blew it by going so negative, I wish she would have taken a higher road. There’s still hope for her in Denver tomorrow, perhaps. But I really wanted to like her, really, and I just couldn’t do it.

Good god, who is this Jack Cafferty of CNN? He’s my new hero:

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. “It means I’m saved and forgiven.” Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries.

One after another, McCain’s answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has — virtually none.

Yes, but it’s those simple one-liners that so impress the evangelicals–hell, they impress the whole right-wing movement. Black and white. No big words. Absolutes. Nuance? That’s code for “thinks too much.”

He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the “Straight Talk Express” for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes.

That’s because he can’t keep the old “maverick” version and the new “conservative talking point” version of himself straight. He’s rightly confused. Let’s not mention his age.

George Bush’s record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.

He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens’ faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.

I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.

Well, yeah. That’s like what this entire Booze Cabinet has been saying for almost 8 years about Mr. Bush, boiled down to a paragraph. The legacy has already been written. Cheers to Mr. Cafferty. And as for McCain, don’t say we haven’t been warned.

Of all of the names floating out there, Biden is the one that I hope to be named as VP, but really, I don’t know how much it matters. Besides Hillary Clinton, I don’t know that anyone he picks would have that huge of an impact. It’s still going to be all about Obama.

I really like what he said yesterday regarding McCain’s campaign, written about at the Huffington Post here:

“One of the things that we have to change in this country is the idea that people can’t disagree without challenging each other’s character and patriotism,” he said, to applause. “I have never suggested that Senator McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America’s national interest. Now, it’s time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same. Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America, so do you, and so does John McCain.”

Everyone wants him to attack, and I’m sure he will, but I still like his dignified approach. It’s unfortunate that in order to reach a certain segment of the American population you need to speak like a schoolyard bully belittling the opponent. Or better yet, like a real asshole. Bloodlust works real well on the Republican side, and as we have seen, not so much on the Democratic side. Obama doesn’t have to stoop to that level like McCain has, but I’m sure at some point he will have to point out that his opponent has no clue about economics, was in favor of the Iraq War, and continues to speak as if he has no clue regarding Shias and Sunnis and that entire culture.

Furthermore, this so-called “maverick” has completely shit-talked his way into the arms of evangelicals and embraced the kind of politics that worked so effectively against him in 2000. He truly could not beat them, so he joined. I think it’s pathetic, because of all the candidates on that side, I thought McCain was the best–more so in 2000 than now–and now he has proven to be just another part of that machine.