Really? Dick Morris shills for the Republican Party?

 

Astounding.

One thing I've noticed that no one has pointed out yet.

For two months, McCain pounded Obama on his so-called lack of experience. But then he turns around and picks someone with no experience.

So-- besides removing that as an issue against Obama-- doesn't that make him a phony, insincere hypocrite?

How come no one in the MSM has pointed out M's inconsistency here? All they talk about is how M might not be able to use this in the future-- but how about his use in the recent past?

It's been pointed out.

What somebody really NEEDS to point out is how unwise it is to put "Morris" and "flip flops" in the same sentence.

I was expecting a completely different story. 

BRAB,

While I agree that the issue has been covered by MMfA...... and then some.....

As far as I'm concerned.... MMfA IS the MSM..... but thats just my opinion.

I don't think that it counts toward the MSM covering it?

Maybe I misread him, I thought he was talking about the forum.  But I've seen it pointed out several times, even on the WSJ panel, which was comprised entirely of conservatives.

This is something we've been emphasizing on ever since she got the nom.

(Yes, I know VPOTUS is different from POTUS, but not by much)

MMFA +1.

State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to give her the news. "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

Presidential scholars say she appears to be the least experienced, least credentialed person to join a major-party ticket in the modern era.

LOL

 

I don't think the whole experience thing is much of an issue though. I'll give Palin and Obama the benefit of the doubt in terms of experience. What gets me is the double-standard being promoted by the Republicans and their media spokespeople! I don't know why Sean Hannity didn't grill Dick Morris over his earlier comments, and I think Alan Colmes could have been a little more assertive in his objections regarding Obama-Palin.

 

 

... I know - some time next year I'll be a liberal in agreement with 90% of the things liberals say...

Let us pray...if there is a next year!

Eventually experience certainly must matter.  Remember before W. got in he couldn't name world leaders when asked and look what a disaster he has been.  I mean the job does require some skill and knowledge or can we dumn that one down too.

In fact, Obama's lack of experience was always in my mind his main weakness but obviously the Republicans never were too worried about experience (first W and now this!).  Too bad they didn't tell Dick Morris, sean H., Rush and all their buddies.

If McC had picked Charles Manson these same right wing talking heads would be extholing Charlies leadership experience. Listening to them praise nothing is rediculous.

I think George W Bush has proven what happens when you treat the Presidency of the United States as an on-the-job training opportunity.

Especially when it is clear he hasn't learned a thing.

Vitriole to be expected from a political rival, when Palin shakes the status quo including the Republicans in her state.

Hahaha.  Here come the talking points from Lemoc.  It's a solid Republican state to begin with.  Whenever you have a monolithic state government, factions are going to be created.  This is just factional in-fighting -as opposed to "maverick" actions.  I would consider her more of a "maverick" if she regularly agreed with Dems in her state, but apparently, there aren't many.  There are probably more moose than Democrats there.

No Repub here.  Registered Libertarian.

But thanks for reinforcing my point.

Open was refering to Palin and the majority of Alask as being republican.

Not you

"It is one of the all-time great speeches. It ranks up there with Lincoln's second inaugural, with John Kennedy's only inaugural."

 

... but if someone said that about Obama the conservatives cry hubris...

I'm pretty sure Morris was saying that about Obama.

Yeah you're right - for some reason I thought he was referring to McCain's Palin intro... Wow now THAT would have been quite the comparison!

My days, these republican shills have no shame!!! I swear that we are close to the day when one of them is shown in a photo smeared in the blood of dead puppies, their torn bodies strewn around their feet, while having intercourse with large root vegetables andthey would STILL go onto tv and talk about liberals lacking "family values".

And as long as they were followers of the risen savior they still get plenty of votes.

robertson,swaggart, benny hinn, falwell, oral roberts, etc. have followers also. Charlatans manage to find a faithful few that believe. bush is a great example. When it is time for bush to be on a postage stamp, it should be for postage due or on a liquor stamp.

Someone enlighten me as to how obama's lack of experience differs from Palin's lack of experience.

Ask John McCain.

"She's probably the only governor in America that beat the incumbent governor of her own party in a primary fight over corruption."

OMG. American history is littered with such victories. Alfred E. Newman could have beaten the incumbent there.

 

 

 

Let the media whores twist like pretzels to get around this one!

Oh and all the "outstanding strategy" talk from these guys contradicts all the "democrats just want to get elected" BS. 

Oh, Dick.  Are you ever right about anything?

Next week, to further show how stupid this move is, McCain will announce that he has hired Dick Cheney to be the Assistant VP candidate. To be sure, Elaine (Seinfeld) will be Dick Cheneys' boss, but the Dick will remain in the White House if McCain is elected. ***This will be announced from the balcony of house #5.

***Dick Cheney actually conducted the search for this VP race and suggested he become the Asst. VP. Honest, no lie.

It would have been nice for John McCain to pick someone who knew what a VP's job is a month ago.

I think that quote is going to be played a lot, since it reflects badly on McCain as well.  If I was vetting potential VP picks, someone saying they don't know what the VP does from day to day would be instant disqualification.  And if he didn't know about the quote, then that makes him look pretty dumb as well.

That will get lottsa play, as will the statements (televised) of ALL the Dem Pres hopefuls who pointed out Obama's dirth of experience coming up to the primary.

Your memory's kinda short. 

Face it folks, picking Sarah was a damn fine chess move, whether ya like it or not.

It was a gamble that could possibly pay off hugely, but it's still too early to tell. Unless McCain's campaign is a rabble of imbeciles, then they presumably vetted her properly. It's essential that she come across as more than window-dressing, and hold her own in the debates and in interviews. I do think it was risky though.  If she comes off as a moron, or a mere rightwing toady, then she won't inspire much confidence in McCain's decision-making for putting her in line as potential commander-in-chief.

Of course the dems and the liberal media will ignore their own hypocrisy and harangue about how she's inexperienced and has a thin resume, while continuing to ignore BO's similar deficiencies, but that's to be expected. It will be interesting to see how she does in the spotlight.

I largely agree with your take, Steve. I would add that Obama has had the chance to answer questions about his relative inexperience over the past year, and, for Democrats at least, he has. As you said, it remains to be seen if Palin can do the same.

Even if she pulls it off however, I think her selection reveals some problems with McCain's judgment. He has attacked Obama for lack of experience, but he chose a running mate with less experience. And he was reportedly talked out of selecting Lieberman by his campaign, who wanted to appease the far right.

McCain has falsely accused Obama of putting political ambition over the well-being of the nation, but now the same is fairly being said of McCain. Like you said, he took a gamble.

I generally agree with what you said as well.  Obama has proven himself quite capable of answering the charge of inexperience, having performed successfully in debates and campaigns against experienced opponents like HC, Biden, Dodd and Biden. He's obviously a smart fella . ..

I, like so many others, have never seen Palin in the hot seat and haven't a clue how she'll perform. Her coming from Alaska and whatnot leaves open the question of whether she'll appear comfortable under intense media scrutiny. I don't think people outside that state pay too much attention to their gubernatorial races. If she peforms poorly, it could really cause some damage

If she's capable, and can articulate her positions well, then I think she may be an attractive VP.  I'm not one who really believes that she'll win over any significant Hillary-voters, but she may be alluring to more middle of the road women, and at the same time energize McCain's campaign a little, which it desperately is in need of.

You're also correct that McCain's experience argument against Obama is now gone. That obviously was a calculated risk, and requires a pretty major shift in his message. 

My memory isn't short at all.  First, there's a difference between inexperienced and ignorant.  Second, McCain's going to look like an idiot attacking Obama's level of experience after picking Palin.  Good luck with that ad campaign.

Before I sign off for the night, let me address something about "chess".

There are at least two levels to politics.  You have the maneuvering, the strategizing, the "chess" game, as you say.  That's the top level.  Some people know why people vote this way or that on a bill, or use specific phrasing in their comments, etc, and they know that's just how the game is played.

But you would never hear McCain say that he picked Palin because she appeals to the religious right and would hopefully pick off some Hillary supporters at the same time.  That's because most people don't want our politicians to be cynical opportunists.  Part of playing the game well is creating at least some sense of plausible deniability that you're not playing the game, that you're really acting in the best interests of the country.  That's the bottom level, the public perception, while the actual game is going on over those people's heads.

The (political) problem with this choice is that there's no subtlety to it whatsoever.  There's no plausible deniability.  Does any sane and rational person genuinely believe that if Hillary was Obama's VP that McCain would pick Palin?  She undercuts his message about Obama's experience and brings nothing to the table that couldn't have been provided by dozens upon dozens of other candidates.  There's no way for McCain to say with any credibility that he thinks she's the best choice to lead the country should she be needed to.

Now, evangelicals don't really care.  They pretty much demand to be pandered to.  Women are a different matter.  They don't like to be manipulated or have their intelligence insulted by such obviously cynical tactics.  So how this passes as some sort of brilliance is a complete mystery.

Great post, Brab!  I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks very much!

Naturally, Dick Morris is impressed with Palin.

As tall as she is, just imagine the size of her toes!

The line that I had to stare at for a few moments and not allow myself to laugh out loud so as not to wake the neighbors was........ 

"But it's OK if the Republicans nominated somebody for vice president who needs a little warm-up time 'til they become president"

Of course, this little tidbit is coming from the prostitute toe sucker..... and it was said on Hannity's pukefest of a show.... so its not all that suprising that these ass-clowns would believe that its ok if the Republicans do it.... but bad if the Dems do it!

Shocking

This experience schtick is way overblown...on both Obama and Palin.

Heck, there are dozens of posters that are here every day that are qualified to run the country or be second in command.

They prove it every day...showing up with all the answers to all the issues. The field of qualified candidates is nearly unlimited...and that's just counting the mmfa legions.

Thanks Wesley, I'll take the job..It is a demotion from my princely status but for my country, I'll do it.

I guess I am more qualified the Palin only because of 20 years executive experience and almost 2 years of military service. (actually 140 days short of 2years)

Atta boy...there's a lot to be said for the early bird and the worm.

Now where's that darn sword?

The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse who gets the cheese.

I know your post was made in jest, but you make a good point.

There's executive experience and then there's executive experience.

Her executive experience, in a small town where she was so inept she left them in dire financial straits (can you say Geo Bush with his huge deficits?), and in 20 months in the 47th smallest state by population gives her the requisite experience necessary to run a country of 300 million?

As President, it's not like you have any role in the day to day running of the government. You lead with ideas, and visions, and direction.

The very reasons that Geo Bush has been such a terrible President - he has crappy ideas like nation building in a contrived country like Iraq is a winner of an idea, a vision that government is bad and profits are good, and with direction that tells you that you should go to a birthday party on the day that Katrina hits New Orleans and then tell Brownie what a great job he's doing!

Her resume is not a good one for a President to have. The Republican pundits are trying to say that it's good to have executive experience. Not her kind. Leading a state that has 1/5th the number of residents that live in our 3rd largest city, Chicago? It's a small, homogeneous state, and governing it for 20 months is nothing like the role and responsibilities associated with being President.

Anyone can die at any time. But there's a greater chance of McCain dying soon because of his age and his 4 cancers. Fully 1/3 of our VP's have had to become President! Can we take a 33% chance that Palin would become President with so little necessary experience in things that matter, like foreign affairs?

Can we take a 100% chance on ELVIS, his sorry lack of experience and a running mate with hair plugs in front whose real ambition is to be an entertainer?

It's better than taking a chance that you will ever have anything intelligent to contribute. So far that's been precisely zero percent.

A standard side-step rather than an answer, Easily Refuted.  I have yet to see you answer a question directly.

 -- Fully 1/3 of our VP's have had to become President! -- bottleblond

That means at least 14...name them.

http://www.usatrivia.com/Vpstats.html

BottleBlonde poorly worded it.  He/She should have said, "Fourteen Vice Presidents have went on to be President."  Five of them served terms as VP before being elected on their own.  That makes 9 (a fifth) who have had to assume office without being elected specifically for the office of President.

"Fourteen U. S. Vice Presidents became President. Five were elected in their own right; four inherited the office through the natural death of the incumbent, four by assassination, and one by resignation."

Elected:

John Adams, GHW Bush, Jefferson, Van Buren, Nixon

Natural Death of incumbant:

Tyler, Fillmore, Coolidge, Truman

Assassination:

Andrew Johnson, Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson

Resignation:

Gerald R. Ford

 -- BottleBlonde poorly worded it -- OM

No, it was not worded poorly...it was an obvious attempt to spread false information...pure and simple...and incorrect.

First she sets the stage that "there's a greater chance of McCain dying soon because of his age"...then the real funny stuff begins...claiming incorrectly that 14 veeps "have had to become President"...when in fact, as you pointed out, only 4 veeps have been elevated to president because of a natural death...less than 10%.

So bottleblond's laughably incorrect number of 33% is actually less than 10%...when the truth is told.

She asserts a bogus fact to prop up a bogus question...no it wasn't poorly worded...it was an obvious attempt at chicanery. 

I read the post a little differently than you did.  I did not connect the two statements by bottleblonde as you did above.  The chance that this what's-her-name has to become President is really about 1 in 5 as far as the history is concerned.  It has been about 5 or 6 Presidents since the last one.  We are statistically due to have this happen again.  It should be a consideration.  I don't think what's-her-name is anywhere near ready.  I also think this choice shows that McCain may have lost his mind.

If history is any guide, we must be far more concerned with McCain's VP choice than mere statistics.  McCain's father (70) and grandfather (61) both died suddenly of heart attacks.  McCain is already 72.  Both his father and grandfather were Navy admirals who had ready access to health care, so it's not like they were more subject to health problems than McCain.

The statement to Morris that should have been made was:

 "Dick; which of your two statements is full of sh*t.. The one you just made or the previous one. You get to choose."