Legal Commentary

A respectful suggestion to the McCain-Palin campaign: Change your slogans

Posted on September 07, 2008
In 2006, when Sarah Palin and Sean Parnell ran for governor and lieutenant governor in Alaska, their campaign slogan was "New Energy for Alaska." I think there is a lot of truth to Sarah Palin's one-liner, during her acceptance speech at the GOP convention, to the effect that the presidency is not supposed to be a voyage of self-discovery...

Dear Mr. Obama

Posted on September 07, 2008
I believe that this entire video, which runs less than two minutes, is worth your time. (H/t The Return of Scipio.)

Kaus is just wrong in diagnosing McCain's "rather lose an election than a war" claim as bogus

Posted on September 07, 2008
Mickey Kaus is probably my favorite left-of-center-leaning blogger, but right now he's badly off his stride. After a ghastly reference last week to Trig Palin as a "prop" at the GOP convention, he now swings and misses with this observation (emphasis omitted, links in original) (h/t Instapundit): McCain would like everyone to think his campaign imploded last summer because of...

Axelrod spinning out of control on Palin and related topics

Posted on September 07, 2008
Obama campaign czar David Axelrod was hilarious on Fox News Sunday this morning. Pressed by host Chris Wallace as to whether Sen. Obama thinks he has more executive experience than Gov. Palin, Mr. Axelrod first exploded into a litany of non-responsive Obama campaign talking points, a filibuster that probably lasted for two minutes...

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The McCain-Palin campaign on offense

Posted on September 07, 2008
I love metaphors. I especially like elegant metaphors, which can include sports metaphors. I'd previously made the point that the Palin choice was definitely not a Hail Mary (which is a desperation play), but I'd characterized it as a long bomb (on first down, from mid-field)...

"I feel like we deserve to win more than they deserve to lose"

Posted on September 06, 2008
Normally I'm not much of a "just linking" blogger. I figure you folks can find what you want without much help from me, if you found your way here in the first place. But Bill Whittle has posted an exceptional piece about Sarah Palin and John McCain on the NRO website that I wish I had written...

Don't confuse Republicans' thrill over the Palin nomination with the Dems' worship of Obama: A reply to Paul Mirengoff

Posted on September 06, 2008
My blogospheric friends over at Power Line are still struggling to get their minds, individually and collectively, around what has just happened in the Grand Old Party. Paul Mirengoff writes: We conservatives have had a good time ridiculing the Obama phenomenon, especially its messianic feel ? the willingness of its adherents to pour so much hope and belief into such...

More metaphors from the wild kingdom to describe the Obama-Biden campaign's "Palin problem"

Posted on September 05, 2008
Politico.com has a funny story up now entitled Obama's Palin strategy: Sit and wait. Oh yes, please. That's a fabulous idea. The Obama campaign has no silver bullet to use against the Palin. Instead, Obama has decided to largely avoid directly engaging her and will instead keep his focus largely on John McCain and on linking the Republican ticket to...

Alaska governor's position among the most powerful and most challenging, in the U.S.

Posted on September 05, 2008
Given its source, today's article in the NYT entitled The Unusual Challenges Palin Faced in Alaska is remarkably balanced and informative. As PrestoPundit Greg Ransom notes, though, in his post linking the article, Remember when the Democrat press wouldn't stop telling us about how Texas has a "weak Governor" system, when Bush was running for President? Well, don't expect them...

Palin seeks truth from state agency with jurisdiction, refuses to cooperate with political hatchet job, in Tasergate non-scandal

Posted on September 05, 2008
A blogospheric friend sent me this link to an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News, asking me for my thoughts on what a columnist there was describing as Gov. Palin "stonewalling" the state legislature's investigation into "Tasergate," a non-scandal I blogged about on the evening of August 29th, immediately after Sen...

Palin's history shows ever-growing opposition to earmarks

Posted on September 05, 2008
GOP vice presidential nominee has been accused of "flip-flopping" and being hypocritical on the subject of federal "earmarks" ? appropriations to state governments associated with particular state spending projects. This article from the Anchorage Daily News is probably the best reporting I've seen on the subject, and I highly recommend it to you...

Meanwhile, in the convention hall

Posted on September 04, 2008
As I type this, the sound system from the GOP convention floor is cranked up all the way, playing Heart's galloping mega-hit from 1977 (my college graduation year, yay!) ? "Barracuda." All of the GOP delegates are transported with enthusiasm. This is classic rock and roll, but this is not your daddy's Republican Party...

The Palin nomination had plenty of foreshadowing, despite MSM meme of it being a bolt from the blue

Posted on September 04, 2008
Simon at Stubborn Facts has a link-filled post (h/t Althouse) which refutes the MSM's meme that the Palin nomination "came out of the blue." Lots of people were becoming "Palinfatuated," and it wasn't just bloggers: Gov. Palin placed a close second behind Mitt Romney, for example, in the Pajamas Media online poll that began in mid-June and ran for several...

Sexism versus shoddy journalism and elitism in the stream of Palin invective

Posted on September 04, 2008
I may be in a minority in this. And I'm willing to be educated, or reminded of something I forgot. But the most blatantly, obviously sexist question I've heard in the last 35 years has been the one put to Sarah Palin or other GOP representatives, to the effect of "Can Sarah Palin really be vice president while being a...

Empirical proof of Palin's leadership abilities relative to Barack Obama's

Posted on September 04, 2008
Fred Kaplan writes in Slate: At times like these, I'm relieved that I don't cover elections. There's bum DNA in my heart, and the agita might send me keeling over. How else to react to the sight of sophisticated people saying, with impressively straight faces, that Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president ? even president ? because she's...

Team Obama's response to the political speech of the 21st century

Posted on September 03, 2008
I just heard Brit Hume read aloud the Obama-Biden campaign's response to Gov. Palin's acceptance speech. It went: George Bush. George Bush. George Bush. That's not an exact quote, but it's awfully close. I promise you there was no other substance to it at all...

Palin's acceptance speech

Posted on September 03, 2008
My take, in three words: The. Real. Deal. Your comments?

Noonan on Palin: The rest of what was said, and what she thinks

Posted on September 03, 2008
You can rely on remarks wrenched badly out of context from a recording made of her unguarded remarks on an open microphone. Or you can read the rest of what Peggy Noonan said, and what she really thinks, about Sarah Palin's nomination. I recommend the latter, especially if you've already read the former.

Brave couple meet war hero

Posted on September 03, 2008
Below, Levi Johnston, future husband of Bristol Palin (center left), meets Sen. John McCain as his VP selection and Bristol's mom, Gov. Sarah Palin, looks on. (H/t PowerLine via InstaPundit) Look at Bristol's smile. That is priceless, and it warms my heart...

Palin is popular — not because she's a "populist," but because she works for the whole population "with a servant's heart"

Posted on September 03, 2008
Christopher Orr has a very interesting post at The New Republic about Gov. Palin entitled The Case Against the Case Against Sarah Palin. No, it's not savaging the MSM or Hard Left sources who've been vomiting out smears so fast it's hard to keep track of them ? I, for one, have been playing Whack-a-mole since the announcement on Friday,...

Dems ought not count on Sarah Barracuda to blow the VP debate

Posted on September 02, 2008
PrestoPundit Greg Ransom has an embedded video of Sarah Palin at the final gubernatorial debate before her November 2006 general election victory over Democrat Tony Knowles and independent Andrew Halcro. It's about 84 minutes long, and much of it (especially the middle third) was focused on issues that are unique to Alaska, such as whether to pass a constitutional amendment...

Are the pregnancy smears coinky-dinky? Or conspiracies involving the Obama-Biden campaign?

Posted on September 02, 2008
I've never run one of these polls before, but I'm curious how my readers would respond if prompted to guess on this one. NOTE: I have no evidence showing that there was any campaign involvement in the origination or spread of these rumors. And Sens. Obama and Biden both vigorously deny that they or anyone in their service has been...

Not a radical secessionist: Sarah Palin, registered Alaska Republican continuously since 1982

Posted on September 02, 2008
Another pathetic, disgusting smear attempt. What will it be tomorrow? "Palin is evil clone produced from long-frozen embryo salvaged from Eva Braun's corpse"? (Subheading: "Nevertheless continues to oppose abortion, stem-cell research.") ******* Governors have a public relations role on behalf of their states...

Palin ahead of the curve in 2006 on "all of the above" solutions to energy problems

Posted on September 02, 2008
Long before the current spike in gasoline prices at the pump that has kindled the raging debate on national energy policy, even before she had ever been elected to any statewide office, Sarah Palin was already studying what her state should do as the world begins to exhaust its petrochemical resources...

A timely Palin family history regarding the competition between privacy and political possibilities

Posted on September 01, 2008
This is the only post I intend to write about the vicious rumors and, then, news regarding Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, and I am not going to open comments on this post or permit comments on the topic on other posts. I have precisely one point to make on this topic, and I only write this because it's a...

Comparing Palin and Obama based on their respective experience in political campaigns

Posted on September 01, 2008
Since the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's choice for the GOP vice presidential nomination, the Obama camp has been stressing that his experience is superior to Gov. Palin's on grounds that he's been trained and tested through his presidential campaign...

Obama talks (and talks and talks) the talk on global poverty, and the talk is for more talks

Posted on September 01, 2008
On the same OTB post I referenced just below, someone in the comments demanded to know (for purposes of contrasting Gov. Palin's accomplishments with Sen. Obama's) what bills Obama had introduced. I think he meant to ask, actually, what bills Obama had introduced that had actually passed the Senate, despite opposition, and then been enacted into law via passage through...

When toting up Palin's credentials, do not omit her experience as chair and ethics officer of the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission

Posted on September 01, 2008
I'm cross-posting here, with only slight revisions, a comment that I've left on a post from James Joyner at Outside the Beltway entitled Experience: Obama v. Palin. --------------- Dr. Joyner: You, like most others who are only starting to look at Gov...

Because we can learn about Sarah Palin from looking at her family scrapbook ...

Posted on August 31, 2008
More Palin pix ? you'll want to see these. (H/t to Prestopundit Greg Ransom, who has many other great links, videos, and posts on Gov. Palin!)

MSM and critics mischaracterize Palin as being ignorant of general Veep job duties by taking out of context her statement that she'd want to know her specific responsibilities as McCain's Veep

Posted on August 31, 2008
I had previously seen online references to Gov. Sarah Palin having asked a question during an interview on CNBC that supposedly demonstrated her lack of understanding of the general job responsibilities of the Vice President of the United States. The argument thus being peddled is that Sarah Palin can't possibly be qualified for the job if she doesn't know what...

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