“ ‘Ace’ McCain admitted in his RNC acceptance speech that he had overflown his mission target, with the consequences being shot down and held as a POW for 5 & 1/2 years.
By going deeper into enemy territory than authorized, he was insubordinate, disobeyed orders, and was hot-dogging for his own sheer pleasure. He paid dearly for that joy ride, but has no one to blame but himself ...”
If McCain's US NAVY superiors deemed him unworthy of flag rank, don't you wonder how he can claim fitness for the role of Commander-in-Chief?
Sparky: One theory is the GOP want to lose and lose BIG because they plan to blame their mess on the Democrats. But they haven't told Songbird. I have to say camping the HuffPoCo gives me hope.
Experts say:
“A family would get $5,000 to purchase coverage, BUT coverage for a family costs around $13,000. An individual person receives $2,500, BUT coverage for single person is around $5,000. This money would be sent directly to insurance company. You have to figure out how to pay the rest.
Those with employer-sponsored coverage, McCain's plan means they will pay taxes on the value of health care benefits they receive from their employers. It's not that families will receive a windfall of $5,000, but that the credit will more or less offset the increased taxes they'll pay.
Those who would benefit most from McCain's tax credit are those who buy their own private plans (those NOT sponsored by an employer) This represents only 5% of population.
The current tax system encourages companies to offer insurance, and 61% of the younger population has insurance through their jobs.
They admit that in the future, the tax credit may not be substantial enough to make up for the increase in taxes.
McCain"s plan to tax workers on the value of their employer-provided health care plans and provide tax credits would encourage some employers, mainly small businesses, to drop health benefits, say experts, and the proposal could eventually eliminate job-based insurance altogether.
Obama Uses Palin Performance In Ad
"Huge Missed Opportunity"
Barack Obama's campaign is already out with an ad based on the vice presidential debate -- specifically, Sarah Palin's inability to defend John McCain's health care plan. The clip uses Joe Biden's line that the McCain-Palin health care plan is a "bridge to nowhere." Watch:
The Politico reports that the ad is part of a broader health-care focused strategy:
Obama's aides said the campaign would key in not on something Palin said, but rather on what she didn't: Her failure to offer a detailed defense of McCain's plan to finance a $5,000 healthcare tax credit by treating employers' healthcare payments as taxable - something Democrats relish hitting both as a "radical" healthcare scheme and a tax hike.
The campaign had already decided to attack McCain's healthcare plan, and the debate exchange will help drive that focus, they said."We're on a big offensive on John McCain's healthcare plan," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. "I think Sen. Biden did a terrific job today of describing why middle class families should fear John McCain's health care plan. She didn't answer the attack."
Palin's silence - she attacked Obama's plan as "government run," but didn't return to McCain's - was "a huge missed opportunity," Plouffe said, "because I will assure you this: Every voter in every battleground state is going to know that John McCain is taxing healthcare for the very first time. Twenty-one million people lose their healthcare because small businesses will drop it."
Read more about the new ad here.
Biden Camp "Nothing Short Of Buoyant" Over Debate
Following Thursday's one and only vice-presidential debate, the mood in the Biden camp was nothing short of buoyant as they bolted out of St. Louis in the middle of the night.
When he arrived at the airport after his big Show-Me State showdown with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Joe Biden told reporters that he was "feeling good" and flashed two thumbs up.
Aboard the flight back to Wilmington, the good vibes continued with a champagne toast from the senator's son Hunter, one of 15 Biden family members to accompany the Democratic vice-presidential nominee to the Washington University duel.
Palin Got Troop Levels In Iraq Wrong
Palin got her numbers wrong on troop levels when she said that troops were now down to "pre-surge" levels. The surge was announced in January 2007, at which point there were 132,000 troops in Iraq according to the Brookings Institute Iraq Index. As of September 2008, that number was 146,000. President Bush recently announced that another 8,000 would be coming home by February of next year. But that would still be 6,000 more than when the surge began.
Sarah "Tinky Winky" Palin
What is up with Sarah "Tinky Winky" Palin? Did some of the BS she was throwing around fly into her eye? I mean, what woman winks anymore other than at the Holiday Inn Express Karaoke Night?
Since she's only been at this national politics thingie for five weeks, we as a nation don't really know if winking is Palin's Modus Operandi when she's debating serious issues or just something she does.
What if Palin winks while she's looking into Putin's eyes? Will he think, "Oh, it's okay that I invade the Ukraine?" or will he think, "Did the Vice President of the United States just make a pass at me?"
This was so Cher during her "Half Breed" performance at The Dunes Hotel circa 1972.
Now, I know what many of you might be thinking. There was a time when a woman's winking was considered standard communication. Joan of Arc was a winker. Big time. As was Marie Antoinette, whose famous last wink was sadly cut short. And, as I'm sure you all remember, before the women's suffrage movement female winking was the only way women could vote.
Did Rosa Parks wink when she wouldn't give up her seat?Come on! Is that what we're left with here? Come hither looks from our potential national leaders? Is she going to suck on her finger next? Or, maybe put her lips together and blow? And where was the "finger gun?" Aren't you supposed to wink and shoot off the old finger gun? Isn't that how it's supposed to be done?
Or in Alaska, where they have to where mittens 11 months of their Russian adjacent year, does the finger gun signal that somebody has to die?
So she didn't shit her pants last night. Is that the standard we are being asked to judge Sarah Palin? Like new parents? "My little baby is so brilliant. Look at how she can hold her head up."
For somebody who so proudly said she didn't blink when asked if she would like to join John McCain's ticket as Vice President, Sarah Palin sure does like to wink.
Palin Repeats Kissinger Falsehood, And Gets Called On It
A familiar debate emerges over what is effective diplomacy. Palin claims Obama wants to meet with the world's worst dictators without preconditions. Reminded that Henry Kissinger argued that same position, she posits:
"Dr. Henry Kissinger, especially, and I had a good conversation with him... and he shared with me his passion for diplomacy." How could we sit down, she asks, with those who "hate America and hate with we stand for with our freedoms... those who want to destroy what we stand for cannot be met with discussions on a presidential level."
Biden, like Obama before him, was ready for the response. McCain and Plain talk about a passion for diplomacy, and we have to bring our friends and allies along," he says. "Our friends and allies [are the ones who] have been saying sit down, and talk, talk, talk."
WASHINGTON: Doggone, you betcha it was a heck of a debate. US vice-presidential aspirants Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin were both winners in the eyes of their supporters in the first and only debate between them that attracted unprecedented attention and record viewership in the US and across the world.
Palin, an underdog who many thought would self-destruct under the klieg lights, threw in a few hecks and darns, a couple of winks, and a ‘doggone’ it to hold her own in a folksy style, coming out relatively unscathed on the big night. Biden, often described as a pompous windbag, contained himself and emerged as a sober, seasoned veteran who has been in the thick of things for a long time.
Most liberal pundits pronounced Biden a winner by points, but the fact that Palin made no major gaffes (save for getting the name of the top American general in Afghanistan wrong) was received with relief by conservative talking heads who tried to spin her average performance into something more substantial.
But it was clear to any neutral viewer that while Biden was masterful about the complexities of the world, Palin was merely artful, essaying canned responses that came from instant and intense coaching. She avoided direct answers to several questions, preferring to dance around them. At one point, she actually said, “I might not answer the questions the way you want or the moderator want...”
The moderator was Gwen Ifill, an African-American host of PBS’ television’s News Hour program, who appeared constrained by suggestions that she was pro-Democrat because of her upcoming book titled “The Breakthrew: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” She allowed Palin to dodge many questions, and seldom pinned either candidate to specifics, permitting answers that sounded like campaign rhetoric.
The best that could be said about Palin was there were no “moose-caught-in-the-headlights” moments for her and she appeared poised and confident. In the one area thought to be her Achilles heel - foreign policy - she stayed within the tramlines of well-stated Republican Party (and McCain) policies. Asked which country was more dangerous, Pakistan or Iran, both candidates said both countries were dangerous.
The contrast though was clear. Biden exuded the authority and depth that comes from 35 years in Congress while Palin tried to parlay here modest executive experience as mayor of a small town and governor or a sparsely-populated state (700,000; less than Pune or Chandigarh) into something more formidable. But Biden was careful not to mock her (he addressed her as Governor Palin), appearing conscious of not putting off women voters. Instead, through much of the debate, he rose above Palin and trained his attack on John McCain, his Senate colleague and peer.
There was one emotional moment in the evening and it did not come from Sarah Palin. It came from Biden when he spoke about the death of his wife and child in an accident, and raising his sons as a single father. He voice choked.
At the end of 90 minutes of verbal jousting, most polls showed Biden had scored heavily. A CBS Focus Group poll of uncommitted voters gave Biden a significant edge: 46% say he won compared to 21% for Palin. Thirty-three per cent said it was a tie. But such mainstream media outlets are dismissed by conservatives as elite east coast liberal media. Random polls on conservative websites showed Palin to have won the night
posted by ZenPupDog @ 1:52 PM
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