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RNC/Hurricane Gustav Coverage: Hour 1
An update on Hurricane Gustav and New Orleans with Times-Picayune columnist Lolis Eric Elie.
Then
Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT 4th), representing southeastern Connecticut, talks about being a moderate Republican, why he's not attending the convention and why his latest ad features John McCain -- and Barack Obama.
Then
An interview with Senator Lindsey Graham.
Then
WNYC's political director Andrea Bernstein with the latest from the RNC.
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Can politics get any weirder than the last five days?
It's not as if Bill and Hilary back-to-back in one week isn't jarring enough. Add to that the media continually telling us how jarring it would be. And the squeaky, little-girl voice of the new VP candidate, the photos of post-Palin Cindy looking like she wants to deck John McCain, and the whole concept of something called a "hockey mom." I don't even want to get into having to assess Palin's assessment of the ethics of shooting wolves with a high-caliber rifle from a helicopter, or Cindy's assurances that Russia's proximity to Alaska confers foreign policy experience upon the vp candidate.
But if that weren't weird enough, we're faced with the theological proof provided by James Dobson, who asked us to pray for a rain-out, of the old expression that you should be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.
What's next? A plague of locusts? Cats sleeping with dogs?
Don't even get me started on Gerry Ferraro's inscrutable comments over the weekend...
Shays is a moderate in name only. He is a typical politician, he says what he thinks the people want to hear and then votes the way his donors want. He is ineffective in getting good legislation introduced, much less enacted.Furthermore, he gets nothing for his district and its constituents. Like most politicians he is a fraud and a con man, little else.
The audio from Hour 1 of Friday's program has still not been posted on your web site.
[[BL Producer writes: It's fixed!]]
Slate's John Dickerson has already put out the headline that will characterize the Repub convention: hurricane Gustav gives McCain the chance to act presidential.
My sympathies to the hurricane victims, but thanks to stenographers like Dickerson, McCain will score a huge PR victory this week.
Based on news reports, McCain wanted Joe Lieberman to be his running mate but was told by Karl Rove that this choice was unacceptable because Lieberman is pro-choice among other things. So McCain backs down and chooses Sarah Palin who is loved by the religious right. In light of these events, McCain is proclaimed a maverick by all of the pundits.
Given his failure to stand up to the extremists in the Repub party, calling McCain a maverick is laughable. A better word to describe McCain would be that of a coward.
One of the GOP arguments re: Palin's utter lack of foreign policy experience is that Alaska is close to Russia. Seriously.
Palin is an extremist.
here is some info on her:
Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
1)She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half
ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.
2)Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.
3)She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.
4)Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.
5)She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.^5
6)She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.
side question: How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.
why don't you talk to Ron Paul? Shays is a horse's behind. Obama has been running a huge and successful campaign org and Bill Clinton who oversaw 8 years of prosperity with infinitely less hatred fro the USA worldwide is uniquely qualified to assert that Obama is ready to be president. I'll take that assertion over this any day
seth from Long Island asserts: "Based on news reports, McCain wanted Joe Lieberman to be his running mate but was told by Karl Rove that this choice was unacceptable..."
Just curious: What news reports would those be Seth?
The Int'l Herald Tribune says Lindsey Graham pushed very hard for Lieberman as the VP pick? True?
Graham is another one of those like-able decent Republicans. I dont agree with him on much, and he is a political operative, just more fair than most.
Brian - please call Graham on that bridge-to-nowhere comment - Palin supported it: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/31/mccain-bridge-nowhere/
Mike, #8
it was a Sidney Blumenthal report.
At least Hil could keep her hair out of her eyes. Palin has bedhead, which is unnerving in a potential VP.
There were so many qualified GOP women from which to choose. Why Palin?
Agree with Steve, above. You should have fact-checked Graham on Palin's backing of the bridge to nowhere. She ran for governor in 2006 on a platform of SUPPORT for the bridge, flipping against it only AFTER the Alaska delegation was unable to push through Federal funding for it.
And yet, McCain continues to cite Palin's position on the bridge as Exhibit A of what a reformer she is.
Ha!
She wants Palin for dinner? Did she want a beer with W' too?
Enough with the dinner/beer come-overs
This election will come down to 2 opposing sensibilities:
1. American exceptionalism vs. moral equivalence - the Republican idea that America has unique characteristics that other nations should emulate, such as self government with great guarranteed personal liberty and equality.
2. Limited government vs. government as nanny - No explanation needed. One example would be bringing down prices by letting people decide where to spend their health care dollars. We do not have competition today. that's why it's expensive to get sick. read the wisdom in:
http://www.vaclib.org/basic/gk/SinglePayer.htm
The other stuff isn't important. It's too late to do anything to stop the sea levels from rising in the next 200 yrs. that's a done deal, if you understand what's going on with arctic and glacial ice melting. Same with abortion law. Adult stem cells have been made pluripotent, so that moral dilemma has ended. keep your eye on what's important.
I am a Republican in New York state so my vote is worthless. Nonetheless, I will vote and I am currently on the fence between Mcain & Obama.
Obama chose a candidate based on what's best for the nation and what best compliments his weakness. He made a great choice.
McCain chose a candidate necessary to win an election. He did not choose someone I would have confidence in taking over in case something happened to McCain.
His choice of VP is making me lean Obama once again, though I am still undecided and will be until the minute I cast that vote.
face to face with the decision to deliver a downs baby? Pul-eeze - SHE is not the person raising that little boy!
While I understand the need to keep interviews within the time alotted for live radio, I find it troubling that Lindsey Graham is able to say that Barack Obama supports killing babies that are saved after an abortion without any discussion about the veracity or circumstances surrounding the Illinois bill he (graham) refers to. I respect the depth to which your program addresses topics but feel that given the stature of Senator Graham, the nature of his claim, and the sizable audience you reach on a daily basis that this should have been given more time to take Graham to task. Thank you.
Mike from Inwood - it was in the Sunday New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/politics/31reconstruct.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=lieberman&st=cse&oref=slogin
Brian, what's with the constant referrals to AK-47s and how it is reasonable for the government to restrict ownership rights of firearms? Do you know what an AK-47 is? It is an underpowered, inaccurate, cheaply made rifle from the former Soviet republics that is often used by illiterate third world peasants because it is easy to make out of sheet metal. There are no machine guns that are legal to make anymore in the US, unless they are being made for the military or for law enforcement. These laws regulating automatic weapons were passed in 1930 and then again in 1986.
So why the comments on AK-47s? Is it because they look scary? Because bad guys in movies use them? How often are they used in crime? Do you even know? In short, machine guns are already ILLEGAL and HIGHLY REGULATED. How can Obama bring new legislation into effect that will change that? Semi-automatic rifles, now matter what their nomenclature, are rarely used in crimes. Despite your discomfort at the notion that free Americans own them, there should be no law restricting their ownership.
it blows my mind how people think.
they DISAGREE with a given politicians policy...but lean toward VOTING for them because of the steadfastness with which they stick to that policy.
if you are pro choice....and palin is completely and utterly anti choice....how does that make you more likely to vote for mccain?
i heard similar ideas concerning GWB.
beyond bizarre.
I'm getting a little sick of hearing women say things like "I'm going to vote for McCain to punish Obama for what he did to Hillary," or "I'm not going to vote at all, I"m going to sit it out."
First of all, Obama didn't do anything to Hillary, she lost just like any dude would have lost, fair and square. And anyone who votes for someone based on their emotions ought to have their right to vote taken away from them in my opinion, but luckily my opinion is overridden by the Constitution.
That said, for those who claim they won't vote at all out of some kind of sulkiness, it's your duty, not just your right, to vote. You people who don't vote are always the first to complain about the way things turned out for you. Shut up and vote. Vote for McCain if you must exercise your right to be a petulant little brat (something all feminists aspire to, right?), but vote.
a woman, #21
Thank you. What you said may not have been diplomatic or politically correct, but it is right.
Europeans - our strongest traditional allies - have sent us a strong message about who they would like to work with, and it is Obama. Is that less relevant to US voters than abortion and gay marriage or whether they feel "slighted"?
a little disappointed in the show so far today. brian always seems to find someone black to discuss obama. since obama isn't MAKING blackness an issue the correlative would be mccain's age and temper which are not exactly selling points in the mccain campaign. but shays and lindsay graham are not short-tempered 70 year old men. i hope brian addresses this promptly since whenever he goes back to discussing obama he'll have obscure african-american studies professors for that.
as for hillary supporters who will now vote for mccain: i feel sorry for them. whatever mistreatment they seem to think she received (i saw a lot more ugliness from the clinton camp myself. especially the vote suppression antics practiced by hillary supporters in north carolina) i can't see how voting republican would address this. there's little difference between hillary and obama in their senate voting records either. somebody should inform every propagandist (lindsay graham) who insists on obama's far-leftness while praising hillary of this fact.
as for graham, does he always start mindlessly repeating the phrase "at the end of the day" whenever someone mentions gay marriage? poor guy, it must kill him to be a republican. thought his remarks about obama voting with harry reid were especially funny. bush and cheney aren't even invited to appear at the republican convention but he's talking about congress's low ratings.
I don't understand people saying they don't vote in this election. The are basically giving up on their country - "I have nothing to do with this place anymore!" It's childish and irrisponsible. Cherrish the gift you all have - that you are allowed to vote!
The second point I don't understand of course is how you could have considered voting for Hilary Clinton and now turn to Mc Cain - how much more different can 2 candidates be?
And the last point I can't stop wondering about is why the fact that somebody was unfortunate enough to be a POW makes him more qualified to be president?
#17 comment: "face to face with the decision to deliver a downs baby? Pul-eeze - SHE is not the person raising that little boy!"
Palin takes an extreme position on life, to be sure. That makes her a champion of the moral ethic, and an opponent of the utilitarian ethic. If she applies this view to other issues, then she would be just the person to raise YOUR little boy. She would, for example, oppose the utilitarian ethic of permitting her boy to go on ritalin, or sticking him in some placebo group when you thought you were taking him to get a new medication for his asthma.
The utilitarian ethic has it's place on some issues, like the necessity to go to war. The moral ethic there would represent the individual soldier's hardships as the person who do the fighting, versus society's need to advance it's security interests. She seems to be a good mother.
Hey Guys,
Thanks for responding to each others comments. A gentle reminder, please make sure to keep your responses civil and on-topic (please no name calling), respecting WNYC’s comment posting guidelines.
Thanks!
Why was Palin chosen? Sure, there were gender and political calculations. But you also choose a VP to complement you needs. GW Bush, for example, needed experience in foriegn affairs and how DC operates. Cheney filled that void.
But McCain doesn't need as his right arm, a beltway insider, lobbyist, lawyer, serviceman, senator, etc. He needs counsel from someone he's not. A mother from middle america.
#8 Mike
To add to prior responses, here are links to stories pointing to Karl Rove working to prevent Lieberman being chosen by McCain as his VP running mate
Rove tried to kill Lieberman VP pick, Politico,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12922.html
Is Karl Rove Ruining Romney's VP Chances?, NY Observer
http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/karl-rove-ruining-romneys-v-p-chances
McCain put his ego first and his country last when he chose Palin. Palin is on the ticket to win an election not to help with governing. Choosing Palin for a running mate is like taking a rookie minor league pitcher and having him start game 7 of the World Series.
A year ago, McCain wouldn't have been able to identify Palin in a police lineup.
Obama has been dealing with natl and intnatl issues since he joined the Senate. While Obama and Palin may have similar resumes regarding yrs in political office, Obama's senate years are far more relevant than Palin's tenure as governor.
Palin is not ready for primetime and is in way over her head.
McCain simply chose the person with the most compelling personal biography not the person with the most impressive credentials. This is good if you're casting a lead in a reality tv series but not so good if you're choosing someone to be the 2nd highest ranking official in the federal govt.
#6 eligit - great post
harmon michaels from jersey city opines: "... brian always seems to find someone black [obscure african-american studies professors] to discuss obama"
I think I've heard a wide variety of people discussing Obama on this program. Perhaps these are among the select times when African-American or Black Studies professors are also invited, but I think they have something to add given that, if elected, Obama would be the first Black President and a small but statistically significant percentage of voters do say that race is an issue for them in this election. Who would you suggest instead?
eva & seth, thanks
One thing is for sure: McCain did not put the country first when he selected Palin. This is a crass political move with no concern whatsoever whether she is qualified to be President.
John McCain has shown over the last few months that he will say anything to be President, that he will put his selfish ambition to be President over all considerations of civic ethics. He now has shown he will do anything as well. Quite a sad devolution for the old warrior.
Nice, classy performance by Arizona delegate. He makes a mean-spirited personal attack on Obama calling him an empty suit and accusing him of making 1 gaffe after another. I guess he didn't get the memo from McCain's campaign about putting setting politics aside because of hurricane Gustav. Brian doesn't ask him for examples of Obama's gaffes. He just gives the delegate a free pass and thanks him for his time.
somebody is now referring to obama as an empty suit. a mccain supporter who is unaware of how little mccain actually brought to mccain-feingold and that mccain's big idea about line-item vetoes was been ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court. somebody who is untroubled by mccain's seeming inability to go more than 5 minutes without reminding people that he was a POW. mccain or his campaign managers literally bring it up constantly. they evoked it again recently in a response to the obama camp's jokes about his 7 homes. this of course does not disgust this person. he just said obama can't open his mouth without making a gaffe. did obama sing "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb iran"? or maybe that's not a gaffe as far as this person is concerned. pathetic.
response to [6] eligit 's #(5) and Brian Lehrer bringing up John Kerry's voice comment, both saying that Palin doesn't believe that humans are the cause of climate change.
Well, I think it really doesn't matter as much who caused the changes ( even though I believe people are very involved ), as whether we have to DO something about it. We do.
In which case, it's unfair not to note McCain's mandatory carbon cap program or that apparently Palin has hired people among her advisors to help her with climate issues. Of course hiring people to do something is not a solution in itself, but hopefully an attempt to stay informed.
( where I read about Palin: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/palin-global-wa.html )
McCain says Obama would rather win an election for President than win a war. He defends this and says it is NOT questioning his patriotism, this is an questioning his judgment. What does this mean? He is questioning what judgment? What does even "losing the war" mean at this point? After we have lost so much already, never to be retrieved.
As Lakoff said, it is not even a war really for us.
Disappointed that you let Chris Shays rattle on with his absurd Republican talking point about how Palin's experience is on par with Obama's.
Sarah Palin is, for comparison's sake, the mayor of Fort Worth -- which has almost exactly the same population as Alaska, where Palin has been governor for the last 18 months.
Before that, Palin spent 10 years as a council member, then mayor, of a stop light. Wasilla, Alaska, had a population of barely more than 4,000, when she first ran for council in 1992.
In 1992, Barack Obama -- having been elected president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990 and graduated from Harvard Law in 1991 -- was...
--using a fellowship from the University of Chicago Law School, to start writing his first book, "Dreams from My Father";
--directing a 6-month-long Illinois voter registration drive (with a staff of 10 and 700 volunteers) that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state; and
--beginning a 12-year-long teaching career as a lecturer in Constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Even Chris Wallace of Fox News fact-checked John McCain, when McCain tried to say that Palin was at Obama's level.
mike #29: it is clearly obama's preference to run a race neutral campaign. obama didn't even mention any black leaders during his speech. whether or not one agrees with that decision it seems strange that brian would have an obscure african american studies professor on to discuss obama's candidacy on the day he accepted the nomination. do you think the central guest on the day when mccain accepts his party nomination will be a cranky old white guy you've never heard of or will it be well-known members of the punditocracy? it'd be ridiculous to think that obama could run for president without his otherness being mentioned but brian's choice on that particular day made no sense to me. i'd never heard of mellissa harris lacewell before her appearances on his show. will someone as obscure become the go-to person for mccain commentary? this seems valid to ask considering the disparity between how mccain is perceived in the national press and how disliked he is by arizona reporters. there seem to be a disproportionate number of black commentators on the obama candidacy relative to how integral blackness is to the campaign itself. which kind of destroys the whole notion of "post race" politics if you think about it.
Palin's 17-year-old is pregnant, according to Palin
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/us/international-usa-politics-palin.html
right to life? right to idiotic teen pregnancy is more like it.
The New York Times site has run the following story:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/us/international-usa-politics-palin.html
The present pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old daughter is an indication that Palin was unable to instill a proper abstinence education in her children. If she can't manage her own household, why are we to trust her in the Veep position?
I'm not blaming her for her kid's pregnancy, but at a certain point, you have to admit you've bitten off a tad more than you can chew. 5 kids, and a grandma-to-be at 44? That's a lot of distraction for someone who's already on a steep learning curve, and who admits she doesn't much know about foreign policy.
I TOLD you it was a weird news week. The only thing that would be weirder is to learn that, because Russia is SO close to Alaska, thus conferring foreign policy expertise to S. Palin, we should next learn that the baby-daddy is Vladimir Putin.
Can GOP politics get any weirder? This is not H.W.'s GOP.
My take on Palin's daughter is:
- Kids have unprotected sex when they don't have the information they need to make an informed choice.
- Girls do unwise things (like unprotected sex) when they're not strong enough in their male relationships (like, with dad) to stand up for themselves.
If Palin has given her own daughter enough information to make an informed choice, if the Palin parents were more involved with what was going on in her life, their child wouldn't be facing down an extremely life altering event at a very, very tender age.
Parents, would any of you choose to put this kind of internal pain on the national stage?
So, yeah, I think her leadership is in question here. Frankly, I'm just appalled that this drama has been pulled into the presidential selection process.
Context: I am a parent of a daughter, someone who was active in my teens but had zero information about sex, someone who got pregnant early and had an abortion.
Re disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters towards Obama and the Rep. VP pick of Gov. Palin designed in part to pick off Hillary supporters...
As an activist feminist I would love to see a female president/vice-president of the U.S. but other considerations should not go by the wayside. Sen. Obama won the primaries and caucuses and was following the Dem Party rules not to compete in MI and FL (unlike Sen. Hillary Clinton who bypassed these rules). I believe he did not pick Hillary Clinton as a V.P. because she ran a vituperative campaign against him and imagine Obama running for Pres. campaigning/ competing with Bill Clinton who would not take being "First VP Dude" as an acceptable role. Sen. Clinton comes with alot of baggage and was not initially running an efficient campaign. Yes, the media and pols were prejudiced and patronizsing towards Hllary, there is still alot of prejudice towards aggressive women out there, more acceptable than racism in some quarters and something that must be eradicated. Yet,...
Hillary supporters for McCain and Palin, does your anger at Obama really extend so far that you want 4-8 more years of the same misery we have endured in this country under Republican leadership, and do you possibly want a right-wing woman who believes in creationism, against resolving global warming (probably responsible for the weather bearing down on New Orleans), anti-choice, etc. etc. to possibly be installed as Pres. if McCain cannot complete his office?
As Krauthammer shows, Obama did nothing extraordinary since graduating Harvard, except pad his resume. Didnt even write a scholarly paper. read it and weep:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjhkNmQ5ZjBjYzQ3MGE5ZWRmYmY5NGYwZjRmZTM3NDk=
Also, I never would have expected there were so many mysogenist listeners to the show. Really, this will backfire if it spreads.
I empower mothers in my work. But many who seek my counsel are tougher than most tough men I know. They became activists without my help, and don't let themselves get pushed around by health and education authorities.
Same as in nature. Get between a mom and her babies and you have a load of trouble.
Gary/ as a parent and active citizen may I remind or inform you that parenting and community organizing is BEYOND extraordinary (and certainly more so than "authoring a paper.")
Palin is against "Sex Education" and promotes "Abstinence Only Education". Independent
studies show that "Abstinence Only" education does not reduce teen sex and pregnacies,
only sex education does. Obviously, "Abstinence Only" did not work for her daughter now will it work for the American public at large. Large numbers of American young people under 20 year old become infected with the AIDS virus and other STDs. This is life threatening.
Dear Brian,
I find it interesting that more males than females called in response to your discussion of teaching contraception in schools.
It is not "teenagers" who are affected by such shortsighted policies, it is female teenagers. As a mother, I certainly would not want a 17 year old entrusted with raising a child, and getting married to the boy who impregnated her could prove disastrous for her life. We do not know at this point if this is the right decision. I certainly hope that she is not being "pressured" into getting married in order to rescue the morally bankrupt McCain campaign...
Is anyone else finding it deeply ironic how often these deeply socially conservative interviewees are invoking the word "choice" in their praise of Bristol Palin's behavior in her circumstances...? How proud they are she's making the right one! How desperately they believe she's got not business making it... Head spinning!
Brian,
Given that she's a high-profile politician with strong pro-life stance, Gov Palin probably had no choice but to keep her Down's Syndrome child if she did not want to commit political suicide. Usually, pro-choice parents are not tested prenatally for genetic disorders because there would be no medical intervention based on the results. I wonder why she chose to be tested.
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