McCain Adviser Lies, Says Palin Told People ‘How They’re Gonna Save Their Homes’ Last Night
McCain Adviser Lies, Says Palin Told People ‘How They’re Gonna Save Their Homes’ Last Night
This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Time Magazine Jay Carney pointed out that Gov. Sarah Palin has yet to answer any questions on foreign or domestic policy. McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace interjected, “Who cares?!” Wallace insisted that Palin “can answer the question” of how Americans can save their homes; in fact, Wallace erroneously said, Palin talked about it last night:
CARNEY: We don’t know yet and we won’t know until you guys allow her to take questions, you know, can she answer tough questions, you know, domestic policy, foreign policy–
WALLACE: But I mean like from who? From you? Who cares?!
CARNEY: Who cares? I think the American people care.
WALLACE: I think the American people want to see her — I mean who cares if she can talk to Time Magazine? She talked to the American people. The American people want to say, “How am I going to save my home?” She can answer that question. … She took the stage and talked to the American people about things they care about: How they’re gonna save their homes.
Watch it:
Of course, Palin never said anything about the housing crisis in her speech. Though she attacked Barack Obama and community organizers, lied about her opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere, and reversed positions on whether we can “drill our way out of” the energy crisis, Palin did not mention any aspect of domestic or foreign policy during her speech. She discussed McCain’s POW experience, compared herself to a pitbull, and declared that “victory in Iraq is finally in sight,” but never said anything remotely related to how Americans could save their homes.
Appearing on CNN this morning, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) praised her performance but said it lacked specific policy recommendations. “I didn’t hear the phrase ‘middle class.’ I didn’t hear a single word about health care. I didn’t hear a single word about helping people get to college,” Biden said.
- Comments
- 96
Steelworkers President To Palin: ‘Stop Using Your Husband’s Membership In The USW As A Prop’
Steelworkers President To Palin: ‘Stop Using Your Husband’s Membership In The USW As A Prop’
When Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, he trumpeted her husband’s union membership: “The person I’m about to introduce to you was a union member and is married to a union member, and understands the problems, the hopes and the values of working people,” he said. That day, and again last night, Palin also emphasized that her husband is “a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union.”
Conservatives are hoping the reference will play well in Michigan and Ohio. But the United Steelworkers union (USW) isn’t so pleased. USW President Leo Gerard noted that just because Todd Palin is a union member doesn’t mean that Palin is automatically qualified to represent labor interests:
It is important to realize that while the governor’s husband is a member of a union, this does not automatically qualify her for an on-the-job training program to become a heartbeat away from the presidency. And while her husband is one of 850,000 dues-paying members of the steelworkers union, it does nothing to absolve Sen. McCain of his long history of anti-union sentiment and anti-worker actions.
In fact, McCain’s hostility to unions and union priorities runs deep:
– McCain voted to block the Employee Free Choice Act, making it easier for workers to unionize. [6/26/07]
– McCain condemned unions as “serious excesses” and said government workers are “crippled” by union contracts. [10/9/07; 5/21/07]
– McCain voted to filibuster a minimum wage hike last year. [1/24/07]
– McCain voted against a bill protecting discrimination against workers who go on strike, effectively allowing companies to hire permanent replacements for striking workers. [S. 55, 7/13/94]
– McCain voted against an amendment providing more effective remedies to victims of gender discrimination in the payment of wages. [7/17/07]
Last night, Gerard demanded that Palin “stop using USW as a prop.” Noting McCain’s opposition to the top priorities on USW’s agenda, Gerard asked Palin:
Are you with McCain – and against workers – on these issues? If so, you need to stop using your husband’s membership in the USW as a prop, because then his union card cannot possibly cover up your or John McCain’s worker-savaging positions.
Jon Stewart mocks how O’Reilly’s opinion on teen pregnancy ‘gestated over a period of months.’
Jon Stewart mocks how O’Reilly’s opinion on teen pregnancy ‘gestated over a period of months.’
Last night on the Daily Show, host Jon Stewart skewered Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly for claiming Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is “a personal matter,” when last year he pointed the finger of blame at Jamie-Lynn Spears’ parents — “who obviously have little control over her” — and called Spears an “incredible pinhead” when she revealed she was expecting. Stewart joked, “You see what happens with opinions over teen pregnancy is that they gestate over a period of months.” Watch it:
Stewart also pointed out Karl Rove’s radical inconsistency when he mocked Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA) for being mayor of Richmond: “It’s not a big town.” Rove has since praised Palin’s executive experience as Mayor of Wasilla, population 9,700.
Only one mention of President Bush during last night’s RNC.
Only one mention of President Bush during last night’s RNC.
Last night, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, and Gov. Sarah Palin addressed the Republican National Convention. Between the four of them, there was only one reference to President Bush — in Romney’s pre-prime-time speech. Romney praised “George Bush” for labeling “the terror-sponsor states the axis of evil.” On Tuesday night, Bush was never mentioned by the RNC speakers.
Olbermann fact-checks Huckabee.
During his RNC speech tonight, Mike Huckabee declared that Sarah Palin “got more votes running for Mayor of Wasilla than Joe Biden got running for President of the United States.” After his speech, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann pointed out that this was a lie, since Biden received more than 30,000 votes in the primaries, while Palin received 616 votes — to her opponent’s 413 — in her 1998 bid:
OLBERMANN: Biden got 15,000 votes in Florida, 18,000 votes in California, in the primaries there — more than could have been gotten in two elections for the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska for Sarah Palin.
Watch it:
Olbermann also corrected Huckabee’s claim that Abraham Lincoln was the founder of the Republican Party. “It was actually founded in 1854 by disaffected members of the Whig party,” Olbermann said, adding, “Mr. Lincoln joined later on and ran for office in 1860.”
Scarborough, Buchanan Completely Reverse Positions On Palin In Just Five Days
Scarborough, Buchanan Completely Reverse Positions On Palin In Just Five Days
Today, Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan enthusiastically endorsed Gov. Sarah Palin, praising her experience compared to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) and slamming criticism of her as sexist attempts to “destroy this woman”:
BUCHANAN: Maybe she doesn’t have the foreign policy experience to be president now. But she’s a great asset, and she’s not DC, so they want to kill her. They are trying to destroy her in a way. […]
SCARBOROUGH: How can Barack Obama’s campaign criticize an inexperienced number two on the Republican side when Democrats have picked, I would say, probably the most inexperienced person to run for President of the United States in the Democratic party probably in a century?
Watch a compilation:
What a difference five days makes. Awaiting McCain’s VP announcement on Friday, Scarborough and Buchanan sang a very different tune, declaring Palin too inexperienced and pointing out that Obama “validated himself with 18 million votes”:
SCARBOROUGH: She’s only, she’s only been a governor for one year?
BUCHANAN: She’s been a governor one-and-a-half years, yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: That, that will not work. [Laughter] No seriously, you’re going to bring somebody from Alaska who’s been a governor — Let’s be honest here. … I just find it hard to believe that with the problems that we have across the world…that you’re going to have a governor that’s been there for one-and-a-half years as Vice President.
Watch it:
Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »
Kristol: Dating a stripper is ‘important for your character.’
Kristol: Dating a stripper is ‘important for your character.’
Speaking at the Republican National Convention last night, former senator Fred Thompson mentioned that as a young man, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “did drive a Corvette and date a girl who worked in a bar as an exotic dancer under the name of Marie, the Flame of Florida.” Thompson said this experience helped him “survive” his POW experience. Fox’s Bill Kristol and Brit Hume laughed conspiratorially at the idea of dating a stripper:
NINA EASTON: I thought — then Fred Thompson, we have heard the John McCain POW story before. But I thought he did an incredibly eloquent job using his acting skills to retell that. I’m still not sure how dating an exotic dancer helped john McCain survive that period [laughing], but it was colorful.
BILL KRISTOL: I’ll explain the dating exotic dancer thing to Nina off air.
BRIT HUME: It’s a guy thing?
KRISTOL: It’s important!
HUME: It’s a guy thing, right.
KRISTOL: It’s important for your character in a way that Nina might not fully understand.
Watch it:
Ironically, after Fox’s frat-boy-like enthusiasm for strippers, Fox News spent the next day infuriated over the supposed sexism of Gov. Sarah Palin’s critics.
Mayor, media silent on FBI raids of journalists and protesters at RNC.
Mayor, media silent on FBI raids of journalists and protesters at RNC.
This weekend, Salon’s Glen Greenwald reported that protesters in Minneapolis in town for the Republican National Convention have been targeted by a series of police raids “involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.”
So far, nearly 300 protesters and journalists have been arrested, but St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has stayed silent. Click HERE to add your name to the 35,000 already on a letter to Coleman condemning the arrests and demanding the charges against journalists be dropped.
Number of times Bush was mentioned during the RNC last night: 0.
Number of times Bush was mentioned during the RNC last night: 0.
Not only did the speakers during last night’s Republican National Convention fail to discuss the economy at all, they never once mentioned President Bush. TPM Election Central searched the texts of the speeches and found no mention of the words “Bush” or “president” when connected to Bush. It also notes, “The GOP’s page of speeches, which included the orations of a bunch of unknowns, didn’t even bother including the speeches given by the president or Laura.”
What does Cheney think of Palin?
It’s been five days since Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. In that time, Vice President Cheney has not released a statement supporting her candidacy. ThinkProgress contacted Cheney’s office today to confirm that no statement has been released, and when asked if a statement would be forthcoming, the press spokesman said he was not sure, since Cheney is currently on his way to the Georgia war zone. Cheney has no plans to speak at the Republican National Convention.