Originally Posted By Mr X The towel thing, for me, seems nothing more than gratuitous and unnecessary (if you want to talk about "important" reporting). So..freakin..what? So she was busy and just jumping out of the shower in her hotel room, and asked them to wait a sec. So..freakin..what? It's embarrassing that's a story. THAT sort of thing ticks me off. It's a non-story. It's stupid. It's irrelevent. The other stuff though? HERE'S one thing that bugs me WD, which I hinted at in my last post...I think there's a big difference between "off the record", and "off the record until...". I'm not happy about hearing all this dirt, AFTER the fact (just like you). I appreciate it to some extent, like Newsweek doing a big exclusive "inside the campaign" deal which they couldn't have been able to do if they hadn't promised to keep it all on the downlow until the election was over. But, the dirtslinging by the aides and FOX news after the fact...kind of a different story. Yeah..now that I think of it, that IS more of a "cover-up" than true "off the record" journalism. Ugh. And I thought I was okay with it!
Originally Posted By WorldDisney LOL, well its nice to know I got you to see it my way . To people out there, I'm not trying to make this a huge issue just because its Palin and FOX news. I know at the end of the day they werent keeping bigger stuff hidden like her palling around with terroists or being Muslim . I know for most, as OReilly tried to say, it's 'nitpicking'. On one level it is, on another it isnt! Palin came into the campaign unknown and untested. MANY of us doubted and questioned her credibility that she knew wha the hell she was doing and information like this speaks to it. Again, I thank god Katie Couric did a number on her because that was the first time we saw her truly break down. The Charlie Gibson interview was bad, but Couric made her look down right incompetent (and remember people, the McCain staff picked COURIC ) which she is. THAT'S the real Palin, it was obvious and McCain knew that and why from that point on in every major interview he had a front row seat with her. I'm still shocked they let her go on CNN by herself. But yeah, I'm over it now, she lost, thank GOD!!! Its more about FOX now. On one hand, the fact that they are even reporting this is a shock to me, but I do wonder if Palin was on her way to the White house now, would they have decided to just sit on it?
Originally Posted By Mr X Screw O'Reilly and his agenda. It's not nitpicking to be aware of the fact that a major political player is WOEFULLY unaware of even basic world stuff like GEOGRAPHY, basic American concepts like HOW THE CONSTITUTION WORKS, and basic issues such as WHY WE SPENT $700000000000 last month and what the goal of it was. "Nitpicking"? What the hell does he consider "important" then? I suppose ANYONE could be "tutored" though, right? Why the heck have ANY credentials for public office then? What a world!
Originally Posted By mele Yeah, the towel story is stupid. These people are touring around and hanging out 24/7. It's not like she came out naked and tried to seduce them all (that we know of. hardy har). They came to her room and she wasn't ready. What should she have done? Seems we're expecting her to be some sort of wilting flower but it seems pretty down-to-Earth of her to me. There are so many real things to criticize about her, weaing a towel sure aint one of them. Although, wouldn't Towel Palin have been a great Halloween costume?!
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Newsweek is saying that in order to get such inward access to the McCain campaign, they had to agree to keep a lid on what they saw and heard until after the election. And that they have had similar agreements with other campaigns as well. I'm not sure how I feel about this sort of thing, but I'm leaning towards not liking it. I don't like all the secrecy. The American people should have ample opportunity to hear from VP candidates as well as the top of the ticket so as to make an informed choice. If a candidate stumbles in answering questions from a reporter, as Palin surely did, we have a right to see that and factor it into our decision. This business of journalists witnessing stuff, compiling a backstage story, and agreeing to release it too late to do anything about it seems very wrong, very shadowy. These things may be true, but their may be another side to the story. Maybe these are accurate reports, or maybe they are simply ticked off staffers lashing out after a loss. And since Palin was SO shielded from all but "friendly" like-minded media through this campaign, knowing that Newsweek was getting inside access and keeping it from us is more than annoying.
Originally Posted By mele I think most people realized that Palin is an idiot because of the Couric interview. Sure, we didn't know how stupid she was but now we do. :-D
Originally Posted By mawnck At least now we know why they felt that having her overcoached was better than having her speak for herself. Can you imagine being on the campaign staff, and being told "Palin is the candidate, now go out and make sure she doesn't make us look bad"?
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh Unbelievable. Sen. Biden says something stupid almost every day and regularly garbles simple facts and you all ignore it. But some McCain staffer trying to shift blame from their guys inadequencies anonymously leaks dirt and you spend 47 posts deriding her. What is wrong with you people? Are you totally unable to look beyond the liberal spin?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>What is wrong with you people? Are you totally unable to look beyond the liberal spin?<< I'll get back to ya!
Originally Posted By chickendumpling <<Biden says something stupid almost every day and regularly garbles simple facts and you all ignore it. >> Biden can be stupid, Palin is ignorant. There is a difference. Whether we see her in 2012 depends on which direction Republicans decide to go once they regroup imho. But, for now, she lost and I'm all for not hearing about her future for a while. I do think it's natural to want to "debrief" about a nearly two year long campaign. We've all endured an exhausting thing and,imho, talking about it in a constructive way is healthy.
Originally Posted By dshyates I think this election as a whole was a rejection of ideology over pargmatism, jingoism over real patriotism, and ignorant rhetoric over reality.
Originally Posted By gadzuux >> What is wrong with you people? Are you totally unable to look beyond the liberal spin? << Douglas - discussing the VP candidate's lack of qualifications or aptitude isn't "liberal spin". Are you prepared to defend the woman and her abilities to be leader of the free world? AND - the idea that journalists knew of important information about the candidate, but were prohibited from reporting it until after the election is also a legitimate topic for concern. AND - the reports are that McCain and Palin barely spoke to each other during the campaign, and that McCain lost whatever respect he may have had for her. If you want to start a thread bashing biden, go right ahead - I might even post to it. But instead you're criticizing US for participating in a thread that's critical of Palin. You're not disputing that any of these comments are factual, just that we're being inappropriate in discussing it. Why?
Originally Posted By ecdc Douglas, don't confuse gaffes with ignorance. The Republican party has a choice. There's an important place at the political table for intelligent, thoughtful conservatives. We need them to balance the other side. I'll plead guilty to watching something like Bill Maher and chanting, "Yeah, damn right!" only to have a more thoughtful conservative guest correct some of the misconceptions lazily being tossed around. Will the Republican party choose to stop marginalizing those people? Will they redefine what it means to be "conservative" back to Goldwater conservatism? Douglas said just the other day that Andrew Sullivan isn't conservative. Sullivan would disagree. But he goes with the old definition. Presumably, Douglas and others don't think he's conservative because he dislikes Bush and because he's gay. So which way will the party go? Will they embrace the Palin's of the world? Is she the face of the party? Is it religious zealotry that actually prides itself on ignorance? Who cares that she doesn't know that Africa's a freaking continent, she reads the Bible, prays to Jesus, and is a militant anti-abortionist? Or will the party actually embrace some intelligence and some thought. Our country is better off with a strong two-party system. It's better off with that balance. But nutcases like Sarah Palin should have no role in it. That's not balance; that's antagonism and demonization. That's comments like "the real America" and "pallin' around with terrorists." How'd that work out for you this last election, Douglas?
Originally Posted By dshyates I like when O'Rielly said VPs can be taught. But starting with 3rd grade geography, it's going to take a while to bring her to presidential level on foreign policy. Even if she crams really hard, she's going to be, like, 10th grade by 2012.
Originally Posted By DAR Palin is a former beauty pagent contestant. As another contestant just recently told us, people can't afford maps that's why they can't locate places like The Iraq or The Africa. So I think we need to cut Palin some slack on this one.
Originally Posted By DAR As for Biden I can see Obama at his press conferences saying things like: Well that's just Joe. You know how Joe is. Who else but Joe(which would cut to a photo of Biden with hands up shoulder shrug who me? type of look)
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Here's the thing about O'Reilly..he's a dirtbag opportunist>> Britan will prevail! Oh, wait, wrong movie.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Sen. Biden says something stupid almost every day and regularly garbles simple facts and you all ignore it.> Biden often garbles his words, but I guarantee he knows which countries are in NAFTA.
Originally Posted By barboy ///...where they are discussing the "fact" that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, AND what they should do about it./// Well, I for one would at least look to see that 666 marking on his palm or scalp before making such damning accusations. Until then leave the guy alone I say.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney It's silly when people bring up Biden versus Palin, seriously get real! It's not even close. Biden makes MISTAKES when he's speaking, Palin simply doesnt know what the hell she is talking about. And again, Biden made 3 or 4 gaffes, out of 200 interviews he gave for VP. Palin was did 4 interviews and just two of them alone probably help sink McCains campaign. And BTW, she wasnt coached for the Katie Couric interview, isnt that scary?? The entire time, we thought she sounded like an idiot because she was overcoached. Now we know rocks for brains was never given a textbook since she could 'handle it' and got torpedoed by America's sweetheart lol. I bet everyday McCain put his head in hands and think, 'what did I do??'
