The Joan of Arc of Alaska politics
Gov. Sarah Palin: A biography
Sarah Palin was a hockey mom, small-town mayor and rising young Republican star in Alaska in 2003 when she ran afoul of her party's establishment as a whistleblower and was cast into the political wilderness.
But she came charging back as an ethics crusader to win the governor's office in 2006 (including a landslide primary victory over incumbent Republican governor Frank Murkowski) and has remained one of the most popular local politicians in America even as she continued to take on such powerful figures as the oil companies and the leaders of her own state party.
Palin, 44, has been the Joan of Arc of Alaska politics, marching into battle against long odds on such big local issues as oil taxes and construction of a natural gas pipeline only to see her opposition crumble. Days after her 2006 primary victory, an FBI investigation into political corruption involving the oil industry and Republican legislators burst into view with surprise raids of legislative offices. Criminal indictments and convictions followed, often just in time for the headlines to help her win another contest in Juneau.
Though fearless in choosing the outsider's path in politics, she remains relatively untested as a campaigner, a politician and as a governor who has held office less than two years. And even as she drew increasing attention nationally as a potential vice presidential nominee in recent months, she has come under withering criticism at home from business-minded Republicans who consider her a misguided populist and an intellectual lightweight.
Her criticism of congressional earmarks, for instance, seemed out-of-touch to Alaska political veterans who saw them as essential to getting money to a small-population state. But her rejection of Ketchikan's "Bridge to Nowhere" funding was one of the first thing's John McCain mentioned Friday.
In one-on-one settings, Palin's relaxed, no-bull manner has contributed to her popularity in a state of 670,000 residents, where such contacts are not only possible but essential for political success. Voters here also warmed to the outlines of her all-Alaska biography.
THE HOOPS HERO
She was born in Idaho and came to Alaska when she was 3 months old. She grew up in Wasilla, where her father, Chuck Heath, was a teacher and coach, her mother, Sally, a school secretary. One of her most formative experiences, she has said, was helping to lead her high school basketball team to the 1982 state championship. Palin played point guard and got the nickname from her teammates of Sarah Barracuda.
Palin went on to study journalism and political science in college, graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987. Along the way she competed in the Miss Alaska contest after being chosen Miss Wasilla 1984. In both contests, she played the flute and won the title of Miss Congeniality. As runner-up in the state contest, she lost to the first African-American Miss Alaska, Marilyne Blackburn.
She grew up hunting with her father, whose living room wall is densely populated with trophies and antlers. Her favorite meal, she said during her gubernatorial race, is moose meat stew after a day of snowmachining.
She eloped in 1988 with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, who expands the family biography considerably. He is a commercial fisherman, an oil field worker, a member of the United Steelworkers and an Alaska Native. Todd's grandmother grew up in a traditional Yup'ik Eskimo house in Bristol Bay and accompanied Sarah in her race for governor as she sought support from Alaska Native voters. Sarah Palin has joined her family in fishing a commercial setnet site on the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay every summer.
Todd Palin has worked 20 years on Alaska's North Slope for BP, where he has continued to work as a production operator. He is also a four-time winner of the Iron Dog, the 2,000-mile snowmachine race from Big Lake to Nome along the Iditarod Trail and then on to Fairbanks. Since Sarah was elected governor, Todd has remained in the background as a close political confidante and "First Dude," an expression his wife sometimes uses.
Sarah Palin made her way into local politics on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 and then ran for mayor as an agent of change. Though she established a reputation as a tax fighter, she actually increased the budget and spending on roads and sewers, reducing property taxes at the same time thanks to a huge increase in sales tax revenues coming to the booming commercial hub. She's had the same luck as governor -- a fiscal conservative in charge of a wealthy government, this time because of high oil prices.
BUILDING AN ETHICS BASE
Palin finished a strong second in the 2002 primary for lieutenant governor and was being groomed by the party for higher office when she clashed with state Republican Party chairman Randy Ruederich. They both had seats on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, appointed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, the Republican she would later depose. She accused Ruederich of misusing the job for political chicanery and eventually resigned in frustration. Ruederich was forced to resign the job as well, though he remains head of the state party.
Palin later took on Murkowski's attorney general in a conflict-of-interest scandal that forced his resignation. And when state Sen. Ben Stevens, the son of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was caught making a dismissive remark about the Wasilla area, Palin appeared in a rebuttal ad wearing a "Valley Trash" T-shirt.
In 2006, she knocked off Murkowski and then Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles in a campaign that drew on grassroots support, relying on neighbors and friends for staff rather than the party and veterans of big-time campaigns.
She had strong support from social conservatives and often speaks of her religious faith. The Palins have five children, including their first-born, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007. Track Palin is 19 and stationed at Fort Wainwright with the Stryker Brigade, preparing for a deployment to Iraq in September. The Palins also have three daughters: Bristol, Willow and Piper.
The newest member of the family, a son, Trig, was born in April ago after a pregnancy that Palin managed to keep secret for seven months. Trig was born with Down syndrome, which the Palins had discovered through testing.
But as governor, she has not pushed any big-agenda items of social conservatives. She spoke favorably in her campaign of schools teaching the creationism debate with evolution, but lived up to her pledge to do nothing as governor to push the idea. Her first veto was of a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships -- she said she supported the idea but accepted legal advice that it was unconstitutional. This year, she declined to call a legislative special session on two abortion bills because they would have interfered with her top priority, a measure promoting a new natural gas pipeline.
OIL AND GAS ISSUES
Her focus has been on raising oil taxes -- long suppressed by oil-friendly legislators, the taxes seemed ridiculously low once oil prices started rising -- and on launching construction of a $40 billion gasline from North Slope oil fields. Palin took on the oil producers, especially Exxon Mobil, saying they had been dragging their feet on a gasline. She persuaded the Legislature to pass a bill authorizing an independent company to build the line with state subsidy.
The ongoing corruption scandal in the Legislature over influence of the former oil field services company Veco helped Palin force change in the Juneau state capitol. That scandal has spread to include Alaska's two longtime powers in Congress, Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. Palin has kept distance between herself and those Republican icons and backed ethics reform measures that passed the Legislature.
Palin's clean image has lately taken a shot, however, over charges that she tried to use her office to get rid of an Alaska state trooper who had gone through a messy divorce with one of Palin's sisters. Palin denied any involvement but has conceded a staff member made inappropriate calls. The Legislature has hired a special investigator, with the strongest criticism coming from Republicans antagonized by Palin during the oil and gas battles of the past two years.
She was already under steady criticism from some quarters, including conservative radio talk show hosts in Anchorage and rental car executive Andrew Halcro, a former state representative who ran as an independent in the last governor's race and features almost-daily criticism of her on his blog. Critics call her naive, a panderer in her economic populism and reckless in her dealing with the vital oil industry.
But at a time when state coffers are spilling over with new oil revenues, Palin has remained popular with voters, recently pushing through a $1,200 per person "rebate" to help with high fuel costs.
Who is Prepared to be President? Nobody
By Richard ReevesDENVER -- Is Barack Obama prepared to be president? No. Neither is John McCain.
I have written about 12 pounds of books on the presidency over the past 22 years, three long studies that focused on the day-to-day work of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. This is the most important thing I learned in doing that, a paragraph at the end of the introduction to "President Kennedy: Profile of Power":
"John F. Kennedy was one of only 42 men who truly knew what it is like to be president. He was not prepared for it, but I doubt that anyone ever was or ever will be. The job is sui generis. The presidency is an act of faith."
The Kennedy book was published during the presidency of Bill Clinton, so now 43 men know. Obama, as I said, is obviously not one of them. But in praise of his acceptance speech here after winning the Democratic nomination, I did think the senator from Illinois, four years older than Kennedy was when he was inaugurated, showed he had a clue when he said:
"We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past."
That is not a particularly graceful or articulate line, but it is the most important fact about being president. The toughest job in the world is essentially reactive. The president does not run the country and is not paid by the hour. He is there to respond to events unanticipated: bizarre attacks on New York City, the blockade of a European city occupied by American troops, the rising of young black men and women against legal segregation, civil wars and genocides in places we never knew existed, the shelling of an American fort off South Carolina by other Americans.
Presidents are alone, facing the unknown. The job is not about running the country; it is about leading the nation in unexpected crisis or danger. No one remembers whether Lincoln balanced the budget.
Obama touched on what we anticipate will be the issues faced by the next president, as McCain will this week: a fading economy and place in the world, terrorism, health care, climate change. All important, critical, even, but no one knows what will be the issue that defines the next president. John Kennedy and Richard Nixon debated about defending Quemoy and Matsu, two islands off what we then called "Red China," but Kennedy's presidency was defined by surprising events in the Cold War against communism, and by civil rights and a civil war in what was called French Indo-China.
And if you are interested in what being president is like, look at the day 45 years ago, Aug. 28, 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. That made Kennedy realize that his historical destiny would be to put the government on the side of a minority, no small thing in a democracy of majority rule. Until that day, Kennedy had never allowed himself to be photographed with King, who was seen, rather suspiciously, as a man of the left.
That day, he invited the black minister to the White House. Waiting for King to arrive, Kennedy met with the National Security Council and signed off on a plot to depose President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, an action that turned that far country into an American military colony -- an action that led to disaster.
That is what it was like to president. No one, least of all Kennedy, knew. In the end, we choose a president on our own sense of character and judgment. In the end, it is not about the candidate; it is about the character and judgment of the American people. We decide. It is a great gamble. Then, the president's real job is to bring out the best in us.
Let Palin Be Palin
Why the left is scared to death of McCain's running mate.
by William Kristol
A spectre is haunting the liberal elites of New York and Washington--the spectre of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism, rising out of the American countryside, free of the taint (fair or unfair) of the Bush administration and the recent Republican Congress, able to invigorate a McCain administration and to govern beyond it.
That spectre has a name--Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska chosen by John McCain on Friday to be his running mate. There she is: a working woman who's a proud wife and mother; a traditionalist in important matters who's broken through all kinds of barriers; a reformer who's a Republican; a challenger of a corrupt good-old-boy establishment who's a conservative; a successful woman whose life is unapologetically grounded in religious belief; a lady who's a leader.
So what we will see in the next days and weeks--what we have already seen in the hours after her nomination--is an effort by all the powers of the old liberalism, both in the Democratic party and the mainstream media, to exorcise this spectre. They will ridicule her and patronize her. They will distort her words and caricature her biography. They will appeal, sometimes explicitly, to anti-small town and anti-religious prejudice. All of this will be in the cause of trying to prevent the American people from arriving at their own judgment of Sarah Palin.
That's why Palin's spectacular performance in her introduction in Dayton was so important. Her remarks were cogent and compelling. Her presentation of herself was shrewd and savvy. I heardBut before and after that, she'll be swimming in political waters infested with sharks. Her nickname when she was the starting point guard on an Alaska high school championship basketball team was "Sarah Barracuda." I suspect she'll take care of herself better than many expect.
But the McCain campaign can help. The choice of Palin was McCain's own. Many of his staff expected, and favored, other more conventional candidates. The campaign may be tempted to overreact when one rash sentence or foolish comment by Palin from 10 or 15 years ago is dragged up by Democratic opposition research and magnified by a credulous and complicit media.
The McCain campaign will have to keep its cool. It will have to provide facts and context, and to hit back where appropriate. But it cannot become obsessed with playing defense. It should allow Palin to deal with the charges directly and resist the temptation to try to shield her from the media. Palin is potentially a huge asset to McCain. He took the gamble--wisely, we think--of putting her on the ticket. McCain's choice of Palin was McCain being McCain. Now his campaign will have to let Palin be Palin.
There will be rocky moments. But they will fade if the McCain campaign lets Palin's journey take its natural course over the next two months. Millions of Americans--mostly but not only women, mostly but not only Republicans and conservatives--seemed to get a sense of energy and enjoyment and pride, not just from her nomination, but especially from her smashing opening performance. Palin will be a compelling and mold-breaking example for lots of Americans who are told every day that to be even a bit conservative or Christian or old-fashioned is bad form. In this respect, Palin can become an inspirational figure and powerful symbol. The left senses this, which is why they want to discredit her quickly.
A key moment for Palin will be the vice presidential debate, to be held at Washington University in St. Louis on October 2. One liberal commentator--a former U.S. ambassador and not normally an unabashed vulgarian--licked his chops Friday afternoon: "To steal an old adage of former Secretary of State James Baker . . . putting Sarah Palin into a debate with Joe Biden is going to be like throwing Howdy Doody into a knife fight!"Charming. And if Palin holds her own against Biden, as she is fully capable of doing? McCain will then have succeeded in combining with his own huge advantage in experience and judgment, a politician of great promise in his vice presidential slot who will make Joe Biden look like a tiresome relic. McCain's willingness to take a chance on Palin could turn what looked, after Obama's impressive speech Thursday night in Denver, like a long two months for Republicans and conservatives, into a campaign of excitement and--dare we say it?--hope, which will culminate on November 4 in victory.
Italy seals Libya colonial deal
 Mr Berlusconi (left) and Col Gaddafi shook hands |
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has signed an agreement to pay Libya $5bn as part of a deal to resolve colonial-era disputes.
Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi said the settlement signed in the city of Benghazi opened the door to partnership between the two states.
Mr Berlusconi said the deal, which sees the money being released over 25 years, ended "40 years of misunderstanding".
Libya was occupied by Italy in 1911 before becoming a colony in the 1930s.
The former Ottoman territory became an independent country in 1951.
This is the first African country to be compensated by a former colonial master, the BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Benghazi.
The question is, she adds: will this latest move set precedents for other former African countries to follow suit?
Coastal motorway
Mr Berlusconi explained that $200m would be paid annually over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects, the main one being a coastal motorway between the Egyptian and Tunisian borders.
 The headless statue was displayed when the two leaders met |
There will also be a colonial-era mine clearing project.
As a goodwill gesture, Italy also returned an ancient statue of Venus, the headless "Venus of Cyrene", which had been taken to Rome in colonial times.
The settlement was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era", the Italian prime minister said.
"In this historic document, Italy apologises for its killing, destruction and repression against Libyans during the colonial rule," Col Gaddafi said for his part.
The agreement was signed in the Benghazi palace which once housed the Italian colonial administration, Reuters news agency reports.
Rome and Tripoli have spent years arguing over compensation for the colonial period.
Mr Berlusconi's one-day trip was his second since June when illegal immigration from Africa to Europe was the key issue of talks.
Italy has been swamped by thousands of African migrants trying to reach its shores by boat.
Libya has come in from the diplomatic cold since 2003 when it abandoned efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Next week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to make the first high-ranking American visit to Libya since 1953.Cuba braces for deadly hurricane
 Windows in Havana were being boarded up on Saturday |
Mass evacuations are under way in Cuba hours before Hurricane Gustav is due to blow in after wreaking destruction around the Caribbean.
Some 13,000 residents and 4,000 tourists were evacuated on Friday from low-lying coastal regions and the capital Havana is also on storm alert.
Half a million sacks of valuable dried cigar tobacco have been stored away.
Gustav has reached Category 3 strength - the same as Katrina when it hit New Orleans in 2005 - and could increase.
The US city has issued a mandatory evacuation order for coastal districts, or parishes, which comes into force on Saturday.
Overnight, Gustav, which now packs maximum sustained winds of up to 205km/h (125mph), struck the low-lying Cayman Islands.
 | HURRICANE CATEGORIES FIVE: Winds over 155mph (249km/h). Storm surge more than 18ft (5.4m) above normal. Only three such US landfall hurricanes - Labour Day 1935, Camille 1969 and Andrew 1992 FOUR: Winds 131-155mph. Storm surge 13-18ft THREE: Winds 111-130mph. Storm surge 9-12ft. Katrina hit New Orleans as a three. TWO: Winds 96-110mph. Storm surge 6-8ft ONE: Winds 74-95mph. Storm surge 4-5ft Source: Saffir-Simpson Scale/US National Hurricane Centre  |
Storm surges and heavy rain flooded the streets of the tax haven and luxury tourist resort as people took refuge in government shelters, though no injuries were reported.
Earlier, Gustav swept through Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, killing more than 70 people and causing widespread damage.
Its projected path also takes it over the oil-producing Gulf of Mexico, before striking the US early next week.
America's Federal Emergency Management Agency said it expected a "huge number" of residents would be told to leave the region over the weekend.
Storm surge fears
As of 1500 GMT on Saturday, the centre of Gustav was about 85km (55 miles) east of Isla de la Juventud, and about 295km east of the western tip of Cuba, the US National Hurricane Center said.
|  Predicted route of Hurricane Gustav (30 August 2008)  |
Enlarge ImageCuban evacuations focused on the coastal regions of Pinar del Rio and Isla Juventud.
"It will produce a storm surge and torrential rains in the western part of the country," warned Cuban meteorologist Jose Rubiera.
In Havana, hotels and shops have been boarding up their windows and all buses and trains to and from the capital have been suspended until further notice.
Cuba, the only communist country in the Americas, boasts one of the best organised disaster-preparedness systems in the region, the BBC's Michael Voss reports.
However, much of its ageing housing stock is in poor condition and this could pose additional risks if Gustav hits the capital, a crowded city of two million people.
Katrina dead
Gustav claimed the lives of at least 59 people in Haiti, eight in the Dominican Republic and four in Jamaica, where heavy rains caused flooding and strong winds tore roofs off houses.
North Star
DENVER--On the bus from Invesco 1,609 Meter High Stadium back to civilization last night, we sat next to a Hillary Clinton delegate from New Jersey. She was not a bitter-ender; she intends to vote for Barack Obama and said there was never any chance she would not support the Democratic nominee. But she was decidedly unenthusiastic about Obama. She said she expected that more would come out about his relationship with Jeremiah Wright (the nominee's America-bashing erstwhile "spiritual mentor"), and she readily agreed with our observation that Obama's friendship with an unrepentant terrorist (that would be Bill Ayers) would not go over well with ordinary Americans.
The conversation turned to John McCain's vice presidential choice, and our interlocutor said she thought McCain could help himself among Mrs. Clinton's backers by choosing a woman. We asked if Obama would have helped himself by choosing a woman, and she said no, Mrs. Clinton's backers would have seen that as a slight. In any case, we told her, all the chatter we were hearing suggested the pick would be Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota's male governor.
As it turns out, McCain had Pawlenty o' nuttin'. This morning word came out that he had chosen Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate, making her the first woman on a presidential ticket since then-Rep. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. With Walter Mondale atop the ticket and the great Reagan representing the other party, Ferraro won only 13 electoral votes, 257 shy of a majority.
Palin's strongest credential is her record of fighting corruption. As The Wall Street Journal describes in a profile:
When a hockey mom named Sarah Palin ran for governor as a Republican outsider in 2006, she took on not only a sitting governor from her own party but also Alaska's Republican establishment--vowing to clean up a political system that had been rocked by an Federal Bureau of Investigation corruption probe.
After handily winning, her popularity in Alaska soared as she went on to sack political appointees with close ties to industry lobbyists and shelved pork projects. Gov. Palin has shown similar fearlessness in going after Big Oil, whose money has long dominated the state. She appears, for example, to have forced Alaska's dominant oil producers, ConocoPhillips and BP PLC, to finally get serious about a natural-gas pipeline--without making any tax or royalty concessions.
"People see her as the symbol of purity in an atmosphere of corruption," says Anchorage pollster Marc Hellenthal. "She's more like Saint Sarah."
In her introduction speech this afternoon (video here), Palin set herself apart from pork-barreling Washington Republicans:
I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress--I told Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves.
If McCain was looking for a way to distinguish himself from the Republicans who lost in 2006, he could hardly have done better.
Palin's eldest son, Track, serves in a U.S. Army infantry brigade and is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq next month. "Todd and I are so proud of him and of all the fine men and women serving this country," Palin declared--a refreshing contrast to Democratic Convention, where speaker after speaker infantilized veterans by promising to "take care" of them.
The biggest drawback of the Palin pick is that it complicates the argument that Obama is too inexperienced to be president. At 44, Palin is actually younger than Obama, and she has two years' less experience in statewide office than he does. On the other hand, she has more executive experience than McCain, Obama and Joe Biden combined, and the Democrats have a rookie at the top of the ticket.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton quickly denounced McCain for proposing to put "the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency." This took a degree of chutzpah, since the Democrats have just spent four days touting Obama's experience as a "community organizer" as a central qualification to put him no heartbeats away. Even after listening to those speeches, we're still not sure what a "community organizer" is.
The Journal profile notes that Palin "hasn't been completely free of controversy as governor":
A flap blew up after she fired Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on July 11.
He said afterwards that Gov. Palin and her husband had pressured him to remove a state trooper who was a former brother-in-law she and her family had feuded with. Gov. Palin denies that, saying she removed the commissioner she appointed 18 months ago because she wants "a new direction," and offered him a job as liquor board director which he turned down.
The case stemmed from a messy divorce between the trooper, Mike Wooten, and his wife, Molly, who is Gov. Palin's younger sister. In 2005, Gov. Palin alleged the trooper had threatened to harm her father and sister and that he had engaged in numerous instances of official misconduct, including using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson and shooting a moose without a proper permit, according to state documents. In one instance, she told state investigators, she overheard him on the telephone threatening her sister: "I'm gonna f--- shoot your dad. He's gonna get a lead bullet."
Mr. Wooten told investigators he tested a Taser on the boy at his request, thought he was within his rights to kill the moose and never threatened the Palins. An internal police investigation substantiated the moose and Tasering charges, but threw out most of the rest. He was ordered suspended for 10 days in 2006. He declined comment through a spokesman with the Public Safety Employees Association.
Make of this what you will, but the Palin-Biden debate certainly ought to be fun.
About Last Night
We almost forgot: Barack Obama gave a speech last night. Although we were there, we're not sure how he did, for in a way our vantage point was the worst imaginable. We watched the speech from the press box at Invesco 1,609 Meter High Stadium. This is an enclosed suite with a great view of the field below, but with windows that muffle the crowd noise, keeping us from getting a sense of how the speech was going over in person. We also didn't see it the way most viewers did--on TV.
We left the speech thinking it was reasonably good, but started to doubt our judgment when we had a midnight dinner with Peggy Noonan, Michael Goodwin and Mickey Kaus, all of whom panned it. Rather than review the performance, we thought we'd offer some advice for John McCain on how to respond.
Keep your cool. A favorite theme among Obama supporters is that McCain has an unstable temper, a characterization at which Obama hinted when he declared, "If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have."
Keep your distance from President Bush. "Next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third," Obama said. "We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: 'Eight is enough.' " We're not at all convinced the Democrats are succeeding at depicting McCain as a Bush clone, but the Republican Convention provides an opportunity to see to it that they do not.
Take note of Obama's defensiveness over "character and patriotism." Obama declared, "One of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism." This is supposed to sound high-minded, but what Obama is really trying to do is pre-empt questions about his own character. The Chicago Tribune reports that the Obama campaign is trying to suppress criticism of Obama's friendship with Bill Ayers. This defensiveness reflects a vulnerability that McCain can subtly exploit.
Show that you "get it." Obama is trying to counter the perception that he is a cultural elitist by depicting McCain as an economic elitist: "Now, I don't believe that Sen. McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans," Obama said. "I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? . . . John McCain doesn't get it." McCain's convention is an opportunity to demonstrate otherwise. It wouldn't hurt to choose a down-to-earth running mate.
Surprise everyone with your vice presidential choice. That will ensure that Obama doesn't remain the lead story for long. Check.
Rock Concert
How did Obama's decision to deliver his nominating speech in a football stadium rather than the smaller Pepsi Center work out? From our standpoint as an attendee, we'd say pretty well. There was a certain excitement about the event that made it stand out from the convention's earlier days. It had a fun rock-concert atmosphere--in fact, it was a literal rock concert, with performances by Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow and "Will.i.am" of the Black Eyed Peas. Since Hillary and Bill Clinton both made their speeches at Pepsi, the move amounted to a symbolic new beginning from the party.
On the other hand, the logistics were a nightmare. We left at 9 p.m., just after Obama's speech, and it took us until 10:45 to get back to our hotel, less than three miles away. There was no system for getting people onto shuttle buses in an orderly fashion; you sort of had to follow the crowd and hope you were close enough to make it onto a bus after it pulled in.
Once we were aboard, the bus sat in place for at least 45 minutes. The bus conductor explained that we were waiting for the police to clear the crowd, so that no one would be run over.
We guess we can understand why they'd be sensitive about that. It would be a disaster for the Obama campaign if the news the day after his speech was that he had thrown supporters literally under the bus.
By the way, according to the Invesco Web site, the stadium opened just under seven years ago when it hosted a Monday night game between the Broncos and the New York Giants. The date: Sept. 10, 2001. One supposes Obama chose the site in spite of, rather than because of, that symbolism.
Gore Decompensates
In 2004 we titled our report on Al Gore's convention speech "Gore Goes Sane." "The most remarkable thing about Al Gore's speech last night was how unremarkable it was," we wrote back then, contrasting it with the wild-eyed rants for which he had become known.
Yesterday Gore was not wild-eyed, but the substance of his speech was pretty wild. He issued a series of retrospective campaign promises:
Take it from me, if [the 2000 election] had ended differently, we would not be bogged down in Iraq, we would have pursued bin Laden until we captured him. We would not be facing a self-inflicted economic crisis; we would be fighting for middle-income families. We would not be showing contempt for the Constitution; we'd be protecting the rights of every American regardless of race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation. And we would not be denying the climate crisis; we'd be solving it.
He likened Barack Obama to Lincoln:
The experience Lincoln's supporters valued most in that race was his powerful ability to inspire hope in the future at a time of impasse. He was known chiefly as a clear thinker and a great orator, with a passion for justice and a determination to heal the deep divisions of our land. He insisted on reaching past partisan and regional divides to exalt our common humanity. In 2008, once again, we find ourselves at the end of an era with a mandate from history to launch another new beginning. And once again, we have a candidate whose experience perfectly matches an extraordinary moment of transition.
And he declared: "We are facing a planetary emergency which, if not solved, would exceed anything we've ever experienced in the history of humankind." After this lunatic alarmism, he said Americans are "tired of appeals based on fear." And come to think of it, we are.
Where Are They Now?
John Edwards, whom the Associated Press drolly describes as a "two-time presidential candidate," plans to speak at the University of Illinois in October:
University spokeswoman Robin Kaler said Thursday said a student group has booked Edwards to speak October 14 at Foellinger Auditorium on "The American Dream." Tickets are free, but the student group is paying Edwards $65,000.
Kaler says the group gave Edwards a chance to back out after he acknowledged earlier this month that he had an extramarital affair with a filmmaker hired by his political action committee during his most recent bid for the presidency.
"The agent responded that (Edwards) is adding to his calendar, and that the fee has gone up," Kaler said.
We know what you're thinking, but give him a break. Sure, he's a filthy rich trial lawyer, but he's got a families to support.
Take That, Swift Boaters!
• "Two Investigations to Take Place Into Kerry Landslide"--headline, Irish Times, Aug. 27
'Mr. President, You Really Must Stop Eating So Much'
"California Moves on Bill to Curb Sprawl and Emissions"--headline, New York Times, Aug. 29
Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control
• "Stowaway Afghan Spider Kills Family Dog"--headline, CNN.com, Aug. 29
• "Single Women Slammed by Housing Mess"--headline, MSN Money, Aug. 25
• "Michael Jackson at 50: 'The Best Is Yet to Come' "--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 29
News You Can Use
"Now Hear This: Leave Your Earwax Alone"--headline, MSNBC.com, Aug. 29
Bottom Stories of the Day
• "Byrd Perseveres as West Virginians Look On"--headline, Roll Call, Aug. 28
• "Va. Democrats Scoff at Choice of Palin"--headline, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aug. 29
Thank You, Harry Blackmun
DENVER--Scenes from a culture kerfuffle:
It's midafternoon and a dozen or so antiabortion protesters have gathered on 16th Street, the downtown pedestrian mall. They claim they're from Democrats for Life, but there's no indication of that on their literature. One protester hands me a flier with the Web site ObamaWantsYou.com, which gives contact information for Operation Rescue, the Christian Defense Coalition and Christians for Social Justice. Younger members of the group wear T-shirts that say "I survived Roe v. Wade."
Not surprisingly, the display draws hostile reactions from passersby. "I'm going to have an abortion right here!" shouts one woman. Another chants: "Get out of my body! Get out of my body! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!" A female antiabortion demonstrator extends her hand, offering to shake that of a male heckler. He replies "I'd rather spit on you, bitch."
At one point three female clowns appear, chanting, "Sew it up! Cut it off! Whatever it takes!"
Several banners are lined up along the sidewalk. The megaphone-toting lead protester stands next to one of them, which features a graphic photo of what appears to be a partial-birth abortion in process. A thin 20-something man has taken it upon himself to protest the protest. He has removed his T-shirt and tucked a corner of it into his pants. He holds the other end out so that it obscures the graphic photo.
"This is gross, disgusting and traumatizing!" the shirtless man keeps shouting. "I'm not against the cause, I'm against this picture!"
Several people assume he is part of the protest. At one point the shirtless man lights up a smoke. "Hey, you're a hypocrite, man!" shouts a middle-aged man, who turns to the spectators and says, "He's killing people right here with that cigarette."
Another middle-aged man gets in the shirtless man's face, and for a moment it looks as if a fight is going to break out. "You want to call me a sexual molester!" shouts the shirtless man. "I'll [obscenity] you up!" As the middle-aged man walks away, the shirtless man shouts, "Pedophile! Pedophile! Pedophile! He called me a cho-mo!" (Apparently that is prison slang for "child molester.")
Then the shirtless man calms down, turns to the assembled crowd, and says, "I apologize for my outburst, people." Civility restored, we decide it is time to move along.
In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1991), the Supreme Court reaffirmed Roe v. Wade on the ground that "the Court's interpretation of the Constitution calls the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division by accepting a common mandate rooted in the Constitution."
How'd that work out?
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