Right now I wouldn’t believe anything the dem guy in Alaska reported anyway. His statements made his effort all the more unreliable.

I would unwelcome that kind of stuff too, kind of a disinvitation.

Your claims on both the energy issue and the “trooper gate” are trumped up. A specialty of your man’s man, Senator JB.

Use the mind to accomplish something, then we can applaud the intellect. Otherwise it is good for Jeopardy, and not much else.

PS re Palin – again – You’re slipping the subject. The issue is Palin vs. Monahan. Doubt it was M.’s place to come down on one side (or another) AFTER one of his troopers got in (and OUT!) of a nasty divorce. Do you regularly try to force your co-workers to get involved in your family matters and then fire them if they choose to steer clear? Doesn’t sound like a sound conservative postion to me! And of course you do know that since her VP selection, Palin’s defense has been organized by legal pro engaged by/in Mac’s campaign…

Charlie’s questions re the Doctrine, were not very in depth nor well defined. Not even given Charlies take of what the Doc was (which he gave after the third take) My own sense of the Bush Doctrine is something else entirely, BTW. The answer wasn’t great, but given the question…better than Charles performance. So what is Biden’s take on it, as his is the more important view of those two, isn’t it? Cough, cough.

Mac is no slouch. I’m not a fan of his legislative efforts while in cahoots with Dems, I am not about to question his input and his stamp on speeches, statements, legislation and (as Science and Technology Chair) even e mail. A navy pilot doesn’t get to fly muliti billion dollar birds being technologically incompetent.

I get what you are saying re your son’s grandpa. I get too, what your dad had over “OH”. His writing was proven over time, Honed by more outward observation and realized as prose after internalization. “OH” has nice prose, but as he was writing about himself there is nothing there to internalize. The resulting suggestions for change are not tested, or the results not properly collected, quantified or defined. Policy should not be based on what is wished for, but on what is. Leading opinion back to a solid grounded and substantive position may require nodding to the gods of Carbon foot prints, but I would never kneel nor swear obeisance. And that is exactly what I think Governor Palin has stated on climate change.

So you really think defending abusive behavior is okay?

Noticed you don’t really speak to the points I made re her bs on Climate change or her laughable reponse to Gibson’s first (and second) ask for “insight”…

But. Let’s cut to the chase. We’re not going to see “experience/qualifications” the same way…- Lot of that has to do with fam/background I suspect. Look – my (passed) pop has willed a nice little chunk of change which I’ll probably use to help pay for my kid’s college. ‘Preciate his financial management/acuity that enabled his contrib…He also wrote a half-dozen books and more than a few essays that my boy might read (with profit) when he grows up. Which gift do you think I value more? It ain’t the $. O’s two books matter bigtime in my estimation. I read them as a personal and then a wonkish attempt to revive a moribund political philosophy and way of being in the world – Call it (as I have) liberal-mindedness. That philosophy is not yours. But if you put yourself in my shoes (as O often manages to put himself in the shoes of folks who don’t agree w/ him), maybe you’ll see why his intellectual “achievements” seem to me to be, sorry, infinitely more signficant than Ms. Palin’s experience running a biz or a small town or small state awash in oil revenues. O’s achievements also dwarf Mac’s. Mac doesn’t write his own stuff. And he’s not a deep thinker about American politics or culture…

Mind matters. Especially when the guy with an exceptional one has spent years figuring out how to put himself in a position where where he can jump the shadow that so often fall between the idea and the act.

PS Where the bodies are counts too. I don’t think Rezko is a killer, but I wanted to take a bath after I read those Globe stories about O’s connections with those sceevy developers in Chi-town. If I were you, I’d be feeling dirtied right about now re troopergate. C’mon man – It isn’t about the bad apple you cite. It’s Palin’s (reported) firing of that (ex-marine) Monahan!! (whom she first claimed NOT to have fired and now says she ditched because he was egregiously insubordinate). I’d agree the facts in the case have yet to be determined but consider P’s new-found determination to avoid the very accountability that she was “welcoming” two months back. It stinks…

Alaska accounted for on average 20% of the nations Energy Production in the 80′ and in the 90′s. The figures, modified recently (within the last seven months) to reflect the rising demand and consumption of foreign energy in the early years of the new century are slightly less than 15%. We have every confidence that Alaska can produce a lot more than 20%, an that is no BULL. No shit. Pretty good stat for promoting production, not a lie but certainly nothing to get all unhinged about.

Do you really want to go on the record supporting the claims of a (reported) child abuser and (reported) spouse beater. Isn’t “OH” in enough trouble already on that sort of stuff, get a grip man.

“OH” may be a truly special person, but not special enough to be President. Maybe he’ll figure out what he can do, and what he wants to do someday. You’ve run through the list of real accomplishment. Three is the number I think, nothing against school but academic environments make for a poor and narrow perspective. Applying what was learned is the real test, the real deal. It is the conspicuous lack of originality, and the dearth of deed that gives me pause in slack jawed amazement that so much could be entrusted with someone who has demonstrated so little. That by comparison Governor Palin has more real world experience is not contestable. That Governor Palin, as a business owner has a real feel for the struggles of average Americans is nothing to short change. That Governor Palin has a real verifiable track record of bringing about positive change and promoting beneficial policies is undeniable. That Governor Palin has really taken on corruption within and without the GOP in Alaska, cannot be denied. What comparable feat has “OH” to display? He gives a nice speech and pressed a bill through a state legislature, a bill whose time had come.

I remain less impressed by intellect and more impressed by the application of ideas especially those supported by ideals. I am impressed with General Petreaus not because of his intellect but like Governor Palin, because of the application of knowledge in a way that helps others to be successful. As a community organizer there ought to be dozens of stories about “OH” success stories. Acorn? The failures of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

What totally makes me blush for you “OH” guys is that he doesn’t stack up to the GOP VP candidate. When compared to the Presidential one…I have to ask, what were the Democrats thinking? What were the Democrats thinking,

How the hell can you tell yourself I’m a “fraud/phony”? Facts are facts. AClubbers tend to reach for the invective when you got no bullets. As I mentioned above – this is getting ridiculous. A couple threads back, somebody assured WADE – after I invoked the Kilkenny letter (avec caveats) – that Fact Check had debunked that letter. So I check Fack Check. Turns out they say explicity they had NOT debunked Kilkenny’s claims.

WADE – I go right and left in search of info. Maybe you should too. Andrew Sullivan just slammed O (rightly) for two less than truthful ads. But, man, just check Sully’s fact-checking on Palin’s expert howlers – Dig that one on Alaska producing 20% of America’s energy? She be BULLshitting on the regular!! Even AFTER her lies are exposed.

Here’s a column by a conservative columnist in Alaska re the investigation – mebbe there’s back-story here (guy could be a Stevens partisan or somebody with personal ax to grind) but Palin’s serial explanations for the firing of the State Policer does not inspire confidence…

http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/528420.html

Re – Global warming – you seem to be avoiding MY point there. I pointed to here anything-but-straight talk on the subject – Could you evenk make out what she was trying to say? Another sign of an impulse to prevaricate, no?

Re O’s resume – Glad you invoked that bill re taping confessoins that (you and me both would) agree was a more significant achievement than graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School. Still – that last one isn’t NOTHING (along with the little add-on of being the Editor of the Law Review). Here’s some passages from an old National Review piece by Dean Barrett. Bit of a twit – Big Mitt man – and not much of a prophet – wondered in the same piece why O was getting no traction in the Dem primaries…But his reporting here is to the point, especially since some fools here have been pretending that O’s H-years were all about Affirmative Action (If so, his achievements make a STRONG case for race-based preferences!!!) Here’s Barrett from last year in the NR:

“The only reason I bring this barely relevant history up is to show what a stud of a law student Barack Obama was. He graduated Harvard magna cum laude. This was one honor you unquestionably had to earn. It’s a very impressive feat. Back in Obama’s days at Harvard, more than 50 percent of the class graduated cum laude, a fact that made graduating “with honors” a meaningless accomplishment. But graduating magna was a different kettle of fish. Barack Obama graduated right near the top of his law school class.

That fact, along with his presidency of the Law Review, makes his uniform popularity all the more impressive. Law schools are intensely competitive places. People who thrive to an unseemly extent, as Obama did, are usually subject to an array of resentments. After all, the lawyers of tomorrow populate law schools; pettiness and insecurity reign supreme.

The people that Obama so thoroughly charmed generally weren’t the charm-prone types. I say the following as a well known Republican partisan–the fact that his classmates so universally held him in the highest regard suggests that Barack Obama may truly be a special person.”

MURPH the SURF – I’m a leg man too!

I’m not going to jump up and down every time a new rumor appears to contradict what is and what is not known. It is a criminal investigation underway (and an ethics probe) that unfortunately tend to get trampled in a rush to pass judgment. Pressure is no doubt being applied to serve justice independently of the pressure applied by the press to meet deadlines and politicos drop dead line.

Confidence projected is not necessarily confidence. Provincialism, how quaint. Sounds like a smear word like “progressive” used to be, lol.

I think the high minded appearance of the press, in the face of incomplete, incomprehensible and inconsistent data and flawed science implied in a rush to judgment about man and global warming is similar to the rush to judgment in the SP investigation. The facts not being known and the data not all in, it is premature and full of gas to indicate guilt on anyone’s part.

Appearances would have damned a whole lot of good marines, and a whole lot of other folks too. But that one accomplishment we know for a fact that “OH” attached his name to and helped to guide through the Illinois legislature. It isn’t by mere chance that the press is bumbling through the church hall and RFD listings for anyone with a passing grudge about anyone who might have been the Mayor.

You give “OH” way too much credit for too much on less real information than you would have us turn on Governor Palin over. I think the learning curve of managing a town to managing a State and all the negotiations in between speaks well of the Governors ability to analyze and assimilate data quickly and come to the right conclusions and make the best decisions. It is a judgment thing. “OH” history doesn’t speak to judgment but feelings. His history doesn’t talk the talk of accomplished leadership, but of glamor magazine.

I suppose that is why all of the “reports” on “OH” tend to be gossipy too. He’s like the invisible man (not Ellison’s), no history but what has been made up to satisfy an audience.