The above may sound too dogmatic (and it probably is) but one of the sterling distinguishing virtue of this blog as opposed to other so-called progressive blogs is the general recognition that rumors treated as fact lead the commenters into chatter and wild speculation and divert and distract from meaningful discussion of issues.

"In 2006, the Eagle Forum Alaska sent a questionnaire to all the state's gubernatorial candidates, including Sarah Palin (R). From Palin's response about the Pledge of Allegiance:

11. Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.  [Emphasis added]

Palin addressed teen pregnancy prevention in her 2006 run for governor, indicating on a questionnaire that she favored abstinence-until-marriage education over explicit sex education programs, school-based clinics and condom distribution in schools. [redacted] Wasilla High School, teaches abstinence in health class, its principal said.

ST. PAUL -- Donna Brazile was hit by pepper spray as she walked to the Xcel Center at the start of the Republican Convention here.

The well-known Democratic pundit and strategist confirmed the incident, but declined to comment further. Protests outside the convention center led to 56 arrests earlier in the day.

The Plank

Another one at another of their sites on the influence of the right wing on their platform (big surprise) and how it could affect McCain.

The novel just got rave reviews from KIRKUS REVIEWS and LIBRARY JOURNAL.

The Kirkus Reviews rave is very significant because it has a direct effect on how many copies the chains order.

Anyone familiar with publishing will attest to this.

A review of the news on Palin is quite something. I thought this pick was bold but risky when announced. The biggest question was: "how is the media going to respond to this pick?"

The answer is: not very well. There is blood in the water and the sharks are hungry. Frankly a lot of the coverage is bad. But bad or good makes no difference. If the Village gets it in its head that you need to be savaged for the good of...uhhhh...whatever it is they think is important on that day, then you are in deep trouble.

"This is what vetting looks like"

It's relatively clear that though mysteriously popular, she's galactically uninformed about some basics in American History and government.

The thing about running for President or VP is that utter overt populism isn't going to get it done.  You need a bit more than "God" and conservative values.

Alaska consumes more Fed grant money per capita than anywhere.  "God" was added to the pledge in the 1950's.  She was for the bridge befroe she was against it.  She just got her passport.  Alaska is to Russia as Oregon is to Singapore.  

I mean, if we needed further indication that the Republicans truly think that their constituencies are made up of a bunch of rubes, this pick is it.

Here's a little youtube self promotion which I went to to be reminded of his voice.

>>>>The New York Post reports that during a sermon at the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, Wright said: "This ordinary boy -- Obama -- just might be the first president in the history of the United States to have a black woman sleeping at 1600 Pennsylvania legally."

or a discussion of her personal life

seems to be to be both unreasonably restrictive -- it's not clear to me what can safely be said about a candidate under these guidelines aside from discussing their theoretical position papers -- and a form of unilateral disarmament -- the Republicans are not now and will not in the future be shy about discussing the personal lives of our candidates.

In addition, this policy seems to be considerably more protective of the Republican candidates than this site has been of either of the major Democratic candidates about both of whom many personal insults have been posted in the comments without a policy of deletion.

andrys, first you argue that the votes in Michigan are countable, since the DNC restored Michigan's delegation to full voting strength at the convention last week.

Then you turn around and argue that "No, the DNC does not determine state votes, or, more accurately, State-certified votes." The DNC, you admit, can ignore the results of primaries that violate DNC rules, "but that does not change the votes that were made by individual humans during this primary season."

Let's put aside, for now, the very relevant question of who gets to decide when "primary season" begins. You do see the contradiction here, don't you? You can't very well argue that the DNC has no power to determine which popular votes are to be counted, and also claim that the DNC's removing the 50% voting penalty means that the Michigan popular votes now "count".

I agree that Obama and his people were equally guilty of making "total popular vote" a talking point. Obama also regularly cited the number of state contests he had won, another bogus metric. For her part, Clinton tried to interest the superdelegates in the superior "total electoral vote" of the states she won.

The point is, the real vetting is going on now, as we write, and the reporters are writing whatever it is they will write.

We, OTOH, have to dial back from the emotional issues and stay focused on the real issues - winning the election and persuading people that Obama is better across-the-board when compared to McCain.

The Texas state-adopted health books (that must be used in every class in the state) can only mention abstinence in discussions about birth control.  No other options (condoms, the pill, etc.) can be discussed, even regarding efficacy.  

I'm watching McCain surrogate Gary Bauer, a religious leader who had a fall from grace a few years ago, lecture MSNBC about how dare they cover the Bristol Palin unwed pregnancy story. McCain supporter Bill Bennett tried this tactic on CNN's Wolf Blitzer yesterday too. Someone needs to remind the McCain campaign, when they whine to journalists about how terrible it is that the media is reporting on the pregnancy, that none of us knew about Bristol Palin's unwed pregnancy until yesterday morning when John McCain's campaign leaked the story to Reuters.

Joe Biden: Sarah Palin is "good looking"

Who do they have to work with?
Joe Lieberman
Fred Thompson
W
Sarah Palin
John McCain
Rudy Giuliani