Palin Reverses Press Ban

By Ari Melber

This shouldn't even be news, but yes, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has announced she will actually take questions from the press during her quest for the White House, per the AP:

Sarah Palin has agreed to sit down with ABC's Charles Gibson later this week for her first television interview since John McCain chose her as his running mate more than a week ago.... The first-term Alaska governor has given speeches alongside McCain since becoming his surprise pick on Aug. 29. But Democrats have already begun to question why Palin has not been put before reporters to answer questions....

"She's not scared to answer questions," [campaign manager Rick] Davis said on "Fox News Sunday."

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September 7, 2008

Palin Coward Clock Starts Ticking (Updated)

By Ari Melber

Sarah Palin is an able liar, as her acceptance speech showed. She may be a coward, too, at least when it comes to facing down the reporters she blasted from the comfort of that solitary podium in St. Paul.

The McCain campaign has admitted to a ban on most press interviews for its largely unknown but popular running mate. McCain's aides are selling this highly unusual approach with rank contempt for the public. "Who cares?" laughed Nicolle Wallace, when pressed on why Palin won't take questions by Time's Jay Carney, on MSNBC. "But I mean, like, from who, from you?" she added, incredulous at the very idea of Palin taking questions from Time's Washington bureau chief. "Who cares? No offense," she added, "who cares if she can talk to Time magazine?" (Of course, it was Time's Jay Carney who had that "prickly" interview with McCain last week, which enraged his aides.) Booman Tribune reports the strategy in action this weekend:

The McCain campaign is literally going to try to sell Sarah Palin as a credible president without letting the press talk to her. For example, this Sunday, Barack Obama will appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, John McCain with be on Face the Nation, and Joe Biden will be on Meet the Press. Sarah Palin will be reading briefing papers in Alaska.

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September 6, 2008

McCain's "Worst Speech" Panned by Pundits

By Ari Melber

John McCain's nomination speech was so flat, so disjointed, so utterly devoid of any vision or affirmative plan for the U.S. -- it's hard to say much about it, other than it sucked. That's basically what CNN's Jeffrey Toobin was driving at when he panned it in historic proportions on Thursday, declaring it the "worst speech by a nominee" since 1980. It was, Toobin added, a "shockingly bad," "boring," "theme-less" train wreck. (More after clip.)

Another pundit, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, said McCain's poor policy emphasis in the speech represented a missed opportunity:

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September 5, 2008

Palin's Big Strikeout

By Ari Melber

Sarah Palin gave a riveting and devastating nomination speech on Wednesday night. She shared her inspiring story and brave family, while savaging and ridiculing the celebrated life story of Barack Obama, a fellow barrier-breaking candidate, with whithering attacks on his work as a community organizer, senator, and author. She misrepresented his record and simply lied about her own, claiming to oppose earmarks that she supported, and dissembling on her $1.5 billion tax hike and record of raising sales taxes by 25 percent in Wasilla. Reviewing the McCain Campaign's bullying, "unprofessional" onslaught against anyone who notes Palin's extreme positions and dishonest claims, Time's Joe Klein urged reporters to face facts:

I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God."

By all accounts, Palin faced a huge task in St Paul. She had to prove she was up to the job of commander in chief.

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September 3, 2008

Diddy to McCain: "You Are Buggin" with Palin

By Ari Melber

Forget Paris Hilton, rapper and music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is now taking on John McCain.

Combs posted an extended YouTube blog this weekend, part of his "Diddy Obama blog" series, blasting McCain for making a reckless running mate selection. "No disrespect, I love you, I want you to live to be 110," he says into a rotating camera. "If you really think we are going to let you win this election with these decisions that you're making, you're buggin!" he adds.

The video, which is laced with f-bombs, calls on youth voters to "protect our future" and stop McCain. After just two days, Combs' address is already one of the top viewed and most favorited videos in YouTube's News and Politics section, with over 50,000 views. It still trailed Obama's convention speech and a handful of other Palin clips.

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September 1, 2008

New Obama Ad Rebuts Palin Pick (Updated)

By Ari Melber

The Obama campaign released a new, national cable ad on Saturday responding to John McCain's decision to tap Sarah Palin as his running mate. The message could not be clearer: Forget McCain/Palin, this ticket is all about McCain/Bush.

The negative ad comes just after Obama and Biden congratulated Palin's progress, though not her positions, touting her on Friday as a "compelling new voice" whose assent marked an "encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics." Picking up where that praise left off, the ad says McCain offers no change, given his economic policies and support for Bush. "He's made his choice," the narrator sighs, "but for the rest of us, there's still no change." The Obama camp is right to commend the Palin pick for breaking barriers -- I had a similar reaction on Friday -- and immediately return to savaging McCain for his elitist economic agenda and stubborn support for the failed Bush policies of the past.

The ad is below, followed by video of Obama speaking about Palin, and then a clip of an MSNBC debate I did from the Democratic convention. The debate focsed on McCain's outreach to Clinton supporters and the prospect of putting a women on his ticket.

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August 30, 2008

Who is Watching the Dems in Denver? (An Answer!)

By Ari Melber

Barack is now the nominee, Hillary is on board, Bill is kicking into gear and Joe is taking names. The Democrats' convention is eventful, but who is watching it all go down?

Over twenty million people a night -- and the numbers are rising. In fact, on the second night of the convention, the Dems quintupled their draw compared to 2004. Five times the voters ain't bad.

This Tuesday drew 26 million viewers, while only about five million people tuned in on the same day in 2004. That's partly because no networks covered Kerry's second day in Boston. This year, in contrast, there is huge interest in the entire convention, and especially in Sen. Clinton's address on Day Two.

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August 27, 2008

Tailgating with the Dems in Denver

By Ari Melber

Sometimes tailgating is even better than the game. The Democratic National Convention starts Monday, but thousands of delegates, activists, operatives, protesters and members of the media have already flooded Denver. The media started pre-partying in earnest on Saturday night, in a blowout reception at a local amusement park; the bloggers began pre-funking Sunday afternoon, at the 8,000 square foot Big Tent "new media center"; and Democratic pols are tailgating Sunday night at several welcoming receptions, from a DNC museum gala to a concert at the famous Red Rocks amphitheatre. There's even a DLC party for self-doubting Democrats.

Parties are central to the party conventions, as The Nation's Ari Berman explains in a new video, and we're hitting our share. Gov. Ed Rendell dropped by a small Salon loft party last night, where he chatted with guests about his intention to cast his first ballot for Hillary Clinton, if there is one. Put Clinton's desires aside, Rendell said, and it's simply in Obama's interest to give voice to Clinton supporters this week, since some could still jump ship. The McCain campaign obviously agrees, given their new Clinon ad. (Rendell also thinks she'll run again, but that's another story.)

As delegates mingle, the buzz is focused on Biden, naturally, along with excitement for the first big speeches on Monday, from Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy. Hardcore delegates are also sizing up the convention floor map, which the DNC released Sunday, showing which states have the best positions and revealing, supposedly, the party's national pecking order. On Sunday morning, organizers moved the Delaware delegation to the front of the hall. "Honoring of the home state delegation of the Vice Presidential nominee is a Convention tradition," explained a solemn announcement from the convention committee. While Delaware moved up, most of the convention floor was dotted with staffers and security officials making last-minute preparations on Sunday. The Obama campaign "boiler room," outfitted with a dedicated phone line for every state delegation, was piled high with homemade Obama signs shipped in from around the country.

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August 24, 2008

MSNBC Taps Rachel Maddow for New Show

By Ari Melber

Popular pundit Rachel Maddow will host a new talk show on MSNBC, catapulting the Air America host and progressive favorite into a prime time field largely dominated by male and conservative anchors.

MSNBC is set to officially announce the decision on Wednesday, but the channel's biggest star, Keith Olbermann, broke the news to supporters through a "fully authorized leak" on his diary at DailyKos on Tuesday evening. The jocular host, a longtime Maddow booster, even wrote up a few answers to "key questions" for his blog audience:

No, the format isn't set, though there have been a lot of discussions out there and they have all centered on how to best allow her to both give her laser-quality insights while soliciting the opinions of others.

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August 19, 2008

Fighting Back with a Nixon Money Bomb

By Ari Melber

Today, on the anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation, activists are running a money bomb campaign to raise money for candidates to oust incumbents in both parties that have sold out the Constitution during the Bush era. Glenn Greenwald explains:

Thirty-four years ago today, Richard Nixon was forced from office as a result of mounting public anger, which in turn fueled the bipartisan intent of Congress to impeach him, due to his involvement in the relatively minor Watergate crimes. Accountability of that sort for our highest political leaders is today inconceivable. Rather than investigate and punish violations of the Constitution and other laws, our political class conceals those crimes for as long as it can, endorses them when they are disclosed, and then acts to protect the lawbreakers. ... Laws are written not just for, but literally by, the largest corporations and their lobbyists -- even including, as we recently witnessed, laws that have no purpose other than to immunize them from consequences when they are caught deliberately breaking our laws. Our basic Constitutional framework is being continuously assaulted while the lawless Surveillance State expands without limits, all justified by a condition of permanent War....

The Times reports on the plan and the "Strange Bedfellows" coalition, which I joined, along with progressive activists, liberal bloggers and Ron Paul supporters:

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August 8, 2008