I told you that BUSH = MCCAIN = PALIN!

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
I told you that BUSH = MCCAIN = PALIN!
7
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 2:49am

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/09/02/bushies-come-to-palin-s-rescue.aspx?tid=relatedcl

Bushies Come to Palin's Aid
Michael Isikoff
By Michael Isikoff

The McCain team has hastily assembled a team of former Bush White House aides to tutor the vice-presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on foreign-policy issues, to write her speeches and to begin preparing her for her all-important Oct. 2 debate against Sen. Joe Biden.

Steve Biegun, who once served as the No. 3 National Security Council official under Condoleezza Rice at the White House, has been hired as chief foreign-policy adviser to the Alaska governor, campaign officials told NEWSWEEK. After taking leave from his job as vice president for international affairs at Ford Motor Co. last Friday, Biegun flew to St. Paul and, together with McCain’s foreign-policy guru Randy Schuenemann, began briefings for Palin on national-security issues—an area where her resume is conspicuously thin.

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Biegun is hardly the only Bushie to be tapped for Palin duty. Among others:

Matt Scully, a former Bush White House speechwriter who helped draft some of the major foreign-policy addresses during the president’s first term, is working on Palin’s acceptance speech to the convention Wednesday night.

Mark Wallace, a former lawyer for the Bush 2000 campaign who served in a variety of administration jobs including chief counsel at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and deputy ambassador to the United Nations, has been put in charge of “prep” for the debate against Biden.

Wallace’s wife, Nicolle Wallace, the former White House communications director, has taken over the same job for Palin.

Tucker Eskew, another senior Bush White House communications aide, is serving as senior counselor to Palin’s operation.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former chief economist at the Council of Economic Advisers who has been serving as top economics guru for the McCain campaign, has moved over to serve as Palin’s chief domestic-policy adviser.

The proliferation of former Bush White House aides in the Palin team may strike some as ironic—and could even provide some fodder for the Democrats—given the McCain camp’s efforts to distance itself from the unpopular president. (It has been widely noted, for example, that while the president is addressing the convention tonight by satellite, neither the president nor Vice President Cheney will be coming anywhere near St. Paul. And when Palin's selection was announced last week, McCain aides touted it as an example of the senator returning to his "reformer roots" and rebelling against the GOP establishment.)

One administration critic, Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, said today that while he personally liked Biegun and viewed him as “extremely competent,” his retention as Palin’s foreign-policy tutor could have unpleasant consequences. Describing Biegun—a Russia expert who once served as staff director for Sen. Jesse Helms at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—as a “big gun” in conservative foreign-policy circles, Clemens said “he will turn her into an advocate of Cheneyism and Cheney’s view of national-security issues.”

But another former colleague, Matthew Waxman, said that he saw Biegun as more of a pragmatist than ideologue when they worked together at the NSC under Rice. “Steven Biegun was one of the steadiest hands I worked with in government,” said Waxman. “He was kind of the chief of staff of the NSC. He was running day-to-day operations, and he did so extremely effectively.”

How effective he is in instructing Palin on the fine points of national-security and foreign-policy issues may now turn out to be one of the biggest questions of the campaign.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 3:20am

We suspected that Governor Palin was a "little lite" in the areas of domestic and foreign policy, by the way the campaign was hiding her from interviews with reporters.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 4:02am

(((She is good at being an attack dog and smart quips, but I want to know if she is really qualified to run the country? What is her position on health care and prescription drugs? My 85 year old father, on social security is paying $157.00 for one bottle of pills. What is her position on affordable housing?

When they "let her answer a question", she was under the mistaken idea that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were publicly run companies. That was scary.)))))

These are valid questions that even the media doesn't know the answers to. Very scary that the GOP is hiding her away and scarier that the media is letting McCain get away with it. She's too new. Too linked to Ted Steven's corruption. Too linked to sedition from the US. She spent money and didn't admit it, but labels herself a maverick?

McCain supports reimbursement of medical insurance premiums, but that is based on the assumption that you can afford premiums in the first place. That pull yourself up by your boot straps even if you don't have any statement from Barack is sounding eerily true with the GOP ticket.

Your Dad should not have to pay that much for medicines. It's highway robbery for pills that cost pennies to make. Barack said that he will mandate pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies to lower costs to Americans. I hope that you and your Dad get some relief for your costs.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 4:31am

Questions remain on Palin vetting
By DAN JOLING

updated 11:29 a.m. ET, Sat., Sept. 6, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - John McCain's presidential campaign did not speak with the Alaska House speaker and other leading Republicans before McCain tapped Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

The low-profile vetting allowed McCain to spring Palin onto the national scene uncolored by media scrutiny. But it has left the campaign open to criticism that McCain did not fully explore her qualifications.

"I haven't heard of anybody being contacted, not that that's bad," said John Harris, speaker of the state House of Representatives. "I just haven't heard of anybody."

The subject is now closed, said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.

"Gov. Palin was fully vetted as previously described and we are no longer commenting on the vetting process," Bounds said Friday. "She was selected, is qualified and is ready to serve."

Attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., who led the review for the McCain campaign, and told The Associated Press earlier this week that Palin underwent a "full and complete" examination.

But Harris, state Senate president Lyda Green and Alaska Republican chairman Randy Ruedrich said no one called them in advance to talk about the governor.

"I've not heard of one person who was talked to," said Green, who lives in Palin's hometown of Wasilla and has feuded with the governor.

Palin also has had a rocky relationship with Ruedrich, whom she tried to oust as party chairman.

It was the same story at one of Palin's previous elected offices. Mary Bixby, executive assistant to Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller, said no one contacted the office for information about Palin before her selection. Since the announcement, the only attention had been from reporters.

"Nobody has been here," Bixby said.

Culvahouse said Palin's review, like others, began with two dozen people sifting through information from public sources: speeches, financial records, tax information, litigation, investigations, ethical charges, marriages and divorces.

For Palin, the team studied online archives of the state's largest newspapers, including the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin answered a personal data questionnaire with 70 "very intrusive" questions, Culvahouse said, and was asked to submit years of tax returns. Culvahouse conducted a lengthy interview.

"They obviously felt like they did enough research and were comfortable," Harris said.

Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, said Friday that campaigns should be more diligent about examining the record and background of lesser-known candidates than well-known ones.

"Any sensible due diligence would include not just looking at the public record, not just looking at the newspaper, but also talking to people," he said.

When Democrat Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, she was not fully vetted, Brady said. Questions about her husband's financial holdings and tax returns became a central issue in that election, won in a landslide by Ronald Reagan.

Since the Palin announcement, snippets of potentially damaging information have dribbled out — Todd Palin's youthful intoxicated driving conviction, the pregnancy of the Palin's unmarried teenager daughter, Palin's lack of international traveling, reality vs. hype on her effectiveness as a governor.

"The question is whether all these other little shortcomings are going to accumulate into a not-such-a-great picture," Brady said.

The process does, however, reflect on McCain's decision making. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination in March, giving him plenty of time to investigate potential running mates. Barack Obama did not clinch the Democratic nomination until June after battling Hillary Rodham Clinton in an extended primary campaign.

"You've got months to make this decision," Brady said.

He called it astonishing that with so many unknowns about Palin, more was not done. Brady said he suspects McCain did not seriously consider Palin until just before he picked her.

Still, he said, "This is one where there was time to do it right."

In the end, it may not matter, Brady said.

"She's worked out pretty well," he said of Palin. "She gave a heck of a speech."

___

Associated Press writers Matt Volz and Gene Johnson contributed to this story.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 4:56am

(((When Democrat Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, she was not fully vetted, Brady said. Questions about her husband's financial holdings and tax returns became a central issue in that election, won in a landslide by Ronald Reagan.

Since the Palin announcement, snippets of potentially damaging information have dribbled out — Todd Palin's youthful intoxicated driving conviction, the pregnancy of the Palin's unmarried teenager daughter, Palin's lack of international traveling, reality vs. hype on her effectiveness as a governor.

"The question is whether all these other little shortcomings are going to accumulate into a not-such-a-great picture," Brady said.)))

This interview will be too little too late. A lot of questions are up in the air.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 3:29pm


McSame: John McCain Offers a Third Term of Bush
Progressive Media USA Research
PUBLISHED: June 03, 2008

"e has more than earned our support. He has earned our admiration and our love."

- John McCain on George W. Bush

Top Hits:
In 2008, John McCain has voted with George W. Bush 100% of the time.
Bush said McCain was set to "carry forth his agenda."
McCain said his friendship with Bush was based on shared views on the issues.
McCain will continue Bush's failed policies in Iraq.
McCain's health care plan is the same as Bush's.
McCain supported Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security.
McCain flip-flopped to align himself with the Bush tax cuts.
McCain supported Bush's disastrous No Child Left Behind.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 6:40pm

(((The Bush administration has barred veterans at the bottom of the priority list from even enrolling in the veterans’ health system, a decision that Democrats in Congress have talked about overriding.

Additionally, the Bush administration has drawn distinctions between combat and non-combat injuries as it has worked with Congress on a wide range of benefits issues, including increases in death gratuity payments, traumatic injury insurance and the ability of military retirees to concurrently receive military and veterans’ disability benefits.)))

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/military_mccain_healthcare_072208/

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 09-10-2008 - 6:55pm

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mccain-prius,0,5935028.story

UAW head chides McCain for Prius 'flip-flop'

(((The Obama campaign has been pushing the economic message hard in Michigan, a critical Midwestern battleground state Obama almost has to win if he wants to gain the White House.

Tuesday evening, Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry held an economic roundtable meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich., to discuss what it says are the ways "the Michigan's economy has suffered under the failed Bush-McCain economic policies."

Obama's Michigan policy director, Jenna Pilat, was to hold a similar roundtable discussion Wednesday night in Traverse City, Mich. The Obama campaign was also sending actor Kal Penn and actress Jurnee Smollett to six university campuses on Wednesday to register student voters. )))