Why is the race so close? Come on people. Please lets not keep the whole elephant in the room thing going.

Actually, I said this months ago. Of COURSE it's racism, but it's impossible to prove racism when it's not overt, so the media can't report it - although having no proof generally doesn't stop "journalists" like Keith Olbermann (who I see NBC has demoted from its election coverage thanks to the complaints of real journalists at the network).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if the polling the night before the election shows Obama ahead by about 51-49 or even 52-48, I think he loses the popular vote by a percentage point or two. We all have an element of racism with us, but there are still too many people who like to convince themselves they are "progressive" but who harbor deep unease at the thought of voting for a black man, and I think when the time comes and they are alone in the voting booth and nobody can see what they are doing they will vote McCain. I think that's one reason Obama is always so annoyingly measured in his responses: he knows better than anybody that Joe Sixpack finds nothing as menacing as an angry black man.

Sorry to be so blunt. I hope nobody fainted.

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.


* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a
state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.


* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.


* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.


* If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.


OK, much clearer now.

IIRC, Zogby was pretty much spot-on with the 2004 election results.

I do NOT agree with those who say that if Obama enters election day with a 2% lead in the polls, he will lose because of racism in the voting booth. Of course racism is still very prominent in this country and it exists. But I agree with Chuck Todd's analysis that he does not believe the full extent of the Obama vote is being measured and he just said this morning that it's quite possible Obama has a lead actually somewhere around 5 to 7% nationally and that it is much more likely that Obama will over-perform on election day compared to polling rather than under-perform based on enthusiasm along with surges in Democratic registration across the board.

I think that's one reason Obama is always so annoyingly measured in his responses: he knows better than anybody that Joe Sixpack finds nothing as menacing as an angry black man.

This obsession with the daily polls is ridiculous.

I think what's amusing is that we get these breathless posts about the polls only when Obama is doing well. When he's not, there's silence followed by dismissals of polls as being "too early."

I also think it's unhealthy to only get news from one source - the Chuck Todd fan club on here is scarier than a gaggle of screaming 10-year girls at a Miley Cyrus concert. Just because it's on MSNBC doesn't mean it's true - just search for Tom Brokaw's unflatterng commentary about his cable colleagues.

I think what's amusing is that we get these breathless posts about the polls only when Obama is doing well. When he's not, there's silence followed by dismissals of polls as being "too early."

I also think it's unhealthy to only get news from one source - the Chuck Todd fan club on here is scarier than a gaggle of screaming 10-year girls at a Miley Cyrus concert. Just because it's on MSNBC doesn't mean it's true - just search for Tom Brokaw's unflatterng commentary about his cable colleagues.

I think the polls are usually bullsh*t...I also think Obama's securely in front. The Palin glow has already faded and it's been just a couple of weeks since she hurled onto the scene. McCain seems like he's barely holding it together - watching him speak, watching him fumble through his answers to questions that don't seem all that tough to me, is nerve wracking to me: I feel like he's going to explode any minute! The McCain/Palin ticket will one day be on par with Dan Quayle as a national joke. Sure, it's still looking 'maverick and reformer' right now but when you strip away all the hoopla, it just falls apart.

There are certainly going to be those who freak at the thought of a black man being President but those people are likely all over 40 or 50 years old. The younger generation, those voting for perhaps the first time, are not looking at his skin color - they're looking at his substance and his ability to inspire and see things clearly and fairly.

I think we're watching the evolution of our country in action right this very moment - yes, it's moving very fast, and that can be very challenging and confusing, but nevertheless, this country has to change, the old ways, the old straight white boy elitist network has to change: and when I say elitist I mean the Bushes and the McCains because they certainly are that. McCain once was a true independent, I think...but he surely has sold his soul...I hope he can redeem himself when he goes back to the Senate. I'm disgusted with him.

True, and the same can be said of Faux News as well.

Actually, I said this months ago. Of COURSE it's racism, but it's impossible to prove racism when it's not overt, so the media can't report it - although having no proof generally doesn't stop "journalists" like Keith Olbermann (who I see NBC has demoted from its election coverage thanks to the complaints of real journalists at the network).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if the polling the night before the election shows Obama ahead by about 51-49 or even 52-48, I think he loses the popular vote by a percentage point or two. We all have an element of racism with us, but there are still too many people who like to convince themselves they are "progressive" but who harbor deep unease at the thought of voting for a black man, and I think when the time comes and they are alone in the voting booth and nobody can see what they are doing they will vote McCain. I think that's one reason Obama is always so annoyingly measured in his responses: he knows better than anybody that Joe Sixpack finds nothing as menacing as an angry black man.

Sorry to be so blunt. I hope nobody fainted.

I'm sorry but why the f**k is no one in here talking about that disastrous interview that Sarah Palin did with Katie Couric ...

Kathleen Parker: How to solve this Palin problem?

Friday, September 26, 2008

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream – away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president – and possibly president – is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Ms. Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Ms. Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick – what a difference a financial crisis makes – and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we've seen and heard more from John McCain's running mate, it is increasingly clear that she is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn't know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met several heads of state as the U.N. General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan's president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she's had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Ms. Palin's narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Ms. Palin first emerged as Mr. McCain's running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood – a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Ms. Palin didn't make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Ms. Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Ms. Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Ms. Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage, and there's not much content there. Here's but one example from her interview with Mr. Hannity:

"Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."

When Ms. Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Barack Obama's numbers, Ms. Palin blustered wordily: "I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?"

If BS were currency, Ms. Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Ms. Palin were a man, we'd all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she's a woman – and the first on a Republican presidential ticket – we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

Mr. McCain can't repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP's unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Mr. Obama faces the same problem with Mr. Biden.

Only Ms. Palin can save Mr. McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist. Her e-mail address is kparker@kparker.com.

Because they're all too busy worrying about whether they should date Log Cabin Republicans.

Because they're all too busy worrying about whether they should date Log Cabin Republicans.

SNL's version of the Katie Couric - Sarah Palin interview.

SNL's version of the Katie Couric - Sarah Palin interview.

I know it may be difficult, but Biden basically has to just showup on Thursday night, and let Palin to all/most of the talking.....

How alarming is it that Palin, when asked this weekend about the Supreme Court, could not name a single Supreme Court decision other than Roe vs. Wade? I think she will fare OK in the debate Thursday if only because the expectations are lower for her than any debate in history.

The polls have worsened even more for McCain and there was even an analyst on Fox today who said the race is basically over. Obama leads by 10 percent in the Research 2000 poll today (his largest lead ever in their tracking) at 51 - 41. Obama leads by 6 percent in Fox/Rasmussen today (his largest lead ever in their tracking) at 51 - 45.

State polls done by Fox/Rasmussen out yesterday: Obama is up 8 in Pennsylvania, and Obama now leads in Florida, Virginia and North Carolina, in addition to Colorado. Obama is polling over 50% in Virginia for the first time, and has pulled within 1 point in Ohio.

The state and national polls are bad enough, but Fox/Rasmussen also reports that for the first time since they began tracking the race in March, Obama now leads McCain on all 10 issues they routinely poll about (truthfulness, preparedness, the economy, Iraq, etc). Also Fox/Rasmussen says Obama now leads among independent voters in every battleground state they've polled.

Interesting to note that Rasmussen on Sept. 30, 2004, showed Bush leading Kerry by 1 percent at 49 - 48, and that's almost exactly where the race ended.

McCain has started airing real nasty national ads as of yesterday. I saw 3 commercials (all new, each one dirtier than the next). This is obviously his final push and he knows the only way he can win is by going extremely negative.

How alarming is it that Palin, when asked this weekend about the Supreme Court, could not name a single Supreme Court decision other than Roe vs. Wade? I think she will fare OK in the debate Thursday if only because the expectations are lower for her than any debate in history.

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, "Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?" Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.