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RNC Convention Update

The smaller than feared Gustav
For most people means missing big grief
But Bush and Cheney's no-show
Now appears to be missing its fig leaf.

Sarah Palin Is Pretty & Slim But Her Credentials Are Pretty Slim

At the end of the day, I don't really believe
This choice is one that inspires

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BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

This says it all: “MATTHEW ZENCEY, "ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS" (via phone): ... And in my humble opinion, she is less qualified than Dan Quayle.”

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Yes, it's likely tacky to talk about the impact of Gustav on the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, and on the subsequent McCain/Palin ticket. But we live in a political reality that isn't always pretty or politically correct, so here we go.

Let's start with the speeches. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were scheduled to speak Monday night. And they didn't. Yes, they could have rallied Republicans. But people other than Republicans would have sliced and diced the speech, exposing it to many forces including, but not limited to, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The last thing Republicans really want is public speeches from Bush and Cheney. After all, Cheney wasn't originally going to speak, and then suddenly he was. Overall: plus for the Republicans.

Then there are the speeches from John McCain and Sarah Palin. After the eloquent speeches from many Democrats last week, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the expectations and pressure were high for the Republican nominees. Well, now, the speeches (if they happen) will be low-key, and less focus will be spent on the speeches. Without the Gustav issue, the speeches from McCain and Palin would have seemed weak. Overall: huge plus for the Republicans.

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Martha Rosenberg is a Staff Cartoonist for the Evanston Roundtable.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

 

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There are many reasons why most Americans should be turned off by Republican presidential candidate John McCain's last-minute choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

She's an evangelical Christian who believes in creationism and thinks this fantasy belongs in the school science curriculum alongside evolution. She's opposed to the right to abortion. She thinks global warming is not a proven phenomenon. She favors drilling for oil in the Arctic Refuge and damn the environmental consequences. This supposedly family-centered "hockey mom" is happy about sending her 18-year-old son off to war in Iraq, even as Iraq is trying to shoo us out of the country and even as the president is tacitly admitting that the whole thing is a bust by agreeing to a timetable for withdrawal.

But the real reason Palin, the former mayor of little Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 5,000 when she was there) and two-year governor of Alaska, is a disastrous pick for the vice presidency on a ticket headed by an ailing 72-year-old presidential candidate who has suffered two bouts of melanoma and who is showing early signs of dementia, is the evidence that she has abused power as governor.
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The Palin Choice

The Reality of the Political Mind

By George Lakoff  (Submitted on Labor Day to BuzzFlash by Mr. Lakoff)

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Sarah Palin and I may not have much in common, but we do share an early history of bloodlust.

We both got guns before we were teenagers. According to a report in the British Times newspaper, Palin took a shotgun at age 10, crawled through the grass in back of her house with it, took aim at a bunny "and blew its furry little head off."

For my part, I got my parents to let me buy a single-shot .22 rifle when I turned 12, and proceeded to go out in the woods, alone and with friends, to shoot at targets, trees, and the occasional animal. A crack shot, I remember picking off what I thought was a dove perched at the top of a tree a good 200 yards away. I nailed it, but when I went to the base of the tree, what I discovered was a dead robin. Oh well. 
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