Portrait of "Change" - McCain/Palin

Sarah Palin just emailed me.

Her writing sounds like most political email, but Palin bolds key sentences for emphasis. The first dispatch to McCain's supporters, for example, has two bold sentences in the body, beneath an image designed to suggest a portrait of change: -- --

Then, further down, Palin's final line is also bolded:

If you want change in Washington, then John McCain and I are asking for your support.

Change and fighting the status quo. McCain's aides might as well have thrown in Hope, too.

Forget the polls, pundits and handicapping. The surest sign that McCain is in trouble is not the unconventional pick itself, nor his panicked rush to select a teammate he'd barely met. The evidence is in the campaign's strategic emphasis -- co-opting change however possible. Everyone knew McCain was trying to define himself by running from Bush's message, (despite backing him over 90% of the time). It turns out he's also running towards Obama's message, defensively trying to cast his ticket as a change agent that will, as Palin says, "challenge the status quo in Washington."

UPDATE: The New Yorker has more on Palin's change message:

Before she was running against him, Sarah Palin [...] thought it was pretty neat that Barack Obama was edging ahead of John McCain in her usually solidly red state. After all, she said, Obama's campaign was using the same sort of language that she had in her gubernatorial race. "The theme of our campaign was 'new energy,' " she said recently. "It was no more status quo, no more politics as usual, it was all about change. So then to see that Obama--literally, part of his campaign uses those themes, even, new energy, change, all that, I think, O.K., well, we were a little bit ahead on that." She also noted, "Something's kind of changing here in Alaska, too, for being such a red state on the Presidential level. Obama's doing just fine in polls up here, which is kind of wigging people out, because they're saying, 'This hasn't happened for decades that in polls the D' "--the Democratic candidate--" 'is doing just fine.' To me, that's indicative, too. It's the no-more-status-quo, it's change."

Comments (41)

1. Change is Washington? so, they want the people that voted for Bush twice to vote to change the path taken by Bush?

   Fight corruption in Washington? So, they want the people that have been saying for 8 years that the Bush admin is not corrupt, to vote an anti-corruption platform?

   Experience? 36 years of guvt experience on the dem side, 26 on the republican side.

   Basically the repubs have to take a lot of their words from the last couple of years and, with a smiling face, ignore themselves.

   Posted by crabwalk at 08/30/2008 @ 2:49pm

2. "Sarah Palin just emailed me."

   So what did she have to say exactly?

   Not that I'm particularly interested in what she might have said --nothing of significance most likely-- but you did leave that intro unresolved, Ari.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 2:57pm

3. Or I assume you must be on a McCain supporter mailing list perhaps?

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 2:59pm

4. I would have much preferred that we'd have gotten Michael Palin for veep, in any case, than the rather obvious lightweight, Sarah.

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Palin

   Imagine what fun we could have had?!

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:04pm

5. In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn't seem "productive."

   In fact, she said she didn't know what the vice president does.

   Larry Kudlow of CNBC's "Kudlow & Co." asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain's ticket mate.

   Palin replied: "As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?

   huffpost.com

   Posted by crabwalk at 08/30/2008 @ 3:11pm

6. Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:04pm |

   they got the wrong Bush 8 years ago, so should we be surprised that they got the wrong Palin?

   Posted by crabwalk at 08/30/2008 @ 3:12pm

7. meet the new bosses...same as the old bosses...

   but iron dick cheney sure got a lot hotter!!!!

   hope the country sees through this little clever rightwing shower curtain...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 08/30/2008 @ 3:16pm

8. Michael Palin would be awesome. And he could bring over Cleese to be the Secretary of Silly Walks (since we don't have ministries)/Silly Walks Secretary.

   Posted by onthehelm at 08/30/2008 @ 3:17pm

9. Posted by onthehelm at 08/30/2008 @ 3:17pm

   Excellent call.

   And no one would ever have to expect the Spanish Inquisition either.

   www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldlyTjXk9A

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:22pm

10. A better link to the Spanish Inquisition --including the torture by "cushion and comfy chair":

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI&feature=related

    Classic.

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:34pm

11. God, I didn't intend to waste my time here today, but here is a quite entertaining Python skit featuring Palin --the more intelligent and entertaining one-- over the last minute or so.

    Truly a Smithsonian quality bit of Python inanity and high wit:

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI&feature=related

    Enjoy ;-)

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:46pm

12. Haha. Looks like McCain is doing what Clinton did. Trying to take Obama's message because his isn't sticking. It failed for Clinton and it will fail for McCain.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:59pm

13. No one is going to believe McCain is about change when he votes for Bush 90% of the time.

    Change is not simply a slogan to try to garner votes, there must be some basis in reality in your record, history and policies that demonstrates the change you claim you want.

    Posted by Metteyya at 08/30/2008 @ 4:13pm

14. And what if Palin is getting impeached up in Alaska? She fits right on in with a hsuB / cHeney / McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS new con repub dic'tator admin:

    "I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said. But Palin said her decision to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan last month had nothing to do with his refusal to dump trooper Mike Wooten.

    The governor said evidence of what she called a "smoking gun" conversation, and other calls made by her aides, only recently surfaced as the attorney general started an inquiry at her request into the circumstances surrounding her firing of Monegan. Palin wanted the review because a special investigator hired by the Legislature is about to investigate the firing and a legislator has been quoted in a newspaper story talking about impeachment.

    The majority of the calls came from Palin's chief of staff at the time, Mike Tibbles, according to information gathered by the state attorney general's office. Attorney General Talis Colberg and Palin's husband, Todd, also contacted Monegan about the trooper."

    http://tinyurl.com/6embgh

    Doesn't sound so very familiar?

    Just don't Plame me for stating the facts mam...

    er,

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 4:33pm

15. But it's McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS that calls his wife a cunt and can't even afford to pay the rent on all the mansions he lives in!

    And then smiles and laughs when someone called Hillary a bitch.

    I'm sure those along with other film clips will beg the question of Palin-- what does she really think of her willing subjugation to McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS...?

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 4:51pm

16. "Right now the top story on the Anchorage Daily News web site looks at new info in what it calls "troopergate" and opens: "Alaska's former commissioner of public safety says Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's pick to be vice president, personally talked him on two occasions about a state trooper who was locked in a bitter custody battle with the governor's sister.

    "In a phone conversation Friday night, Walt Monegan, who was Alaska's top cop until Palin fired him July 11, told the Daily News that the governor also had e-mailed him two or three times about her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, though the e-mails didn't mention Wooten by name. Monegan claims his refusal to fire Wooten was a major reason that Palin dismissed him. Wooten had been suspended for five days previously, based largely on complaints that Palin's family had initiated before Palin was governor."

    A reporter for the Anchorage daily, Gregg Erickson, even did an online chat with the Washington Post, in which he revealed that Palin's approval rating in the state was not the much-touted 80%, but 65% and sinking -- and that among journalists who followed her it might be in the "teens." He added: "I have a hard time seeing how her qualifications stack up against the duties and responsibilities of being president.... "

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 6:35pm

17. "In fact, as the governor herself acknowledged in her acceptance speech, she never set out to be involved in public affairs. She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?"

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 6:36pm

18. Posted by hsuBfools at 08/30/2008 @ 6:36pm

    Actually Palin's inexperience with national campaigning...or even TOUGH campaigning will be a major roadblock for her.

    McCain, Biden, and Obama all been put through the ringer...she hasn't.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/30/2008 @ 7:22pm

19. Posted by frankgrits at 08/30/2008 @ 8:01pm

    FLASHBACK!

    "Michael Moore is on with Jon Stewart right now."-----Posted by frankgrits at 06/27/2007 @ 11:22pm |

    "When are the coffers going to fill? I missed that part. Unless coffers is a word for "debt owed to foreign bank?"------Posted by crabwalk at 06/27/2007 @ 11:26pm

    "If there is a better reason to elect a democrat president in '08, I don't know what it is."----Posted by frankgrits at 06/27/2007 @ 11:28pm

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/30/2008 @ 8:22pm

20. Oh Mask gie it up. Frank is so far down the right-wing rabbit hole I think he's completely forgotten his slavish devotion to Her Highness. I mean, he's said things lately that makes JM look like a liberal!

    Posted by yutsano at 08/30/2008 @ 10:09pm

21. Posted by yutsano at 08/30/2008 @ 10:09pm

    That's been THE most interesting part...

    as he dives deeper and deeper into his "I MUST get McCain elected, for HER in 2012" cesspool...

    he's bought into, not only the Limbaugh talking points, but actually ENDORSING right-wing policies...completely contradicting his claims that he's a progressive AND his claim that "even if Obama were to win, it'd be a win-win for me, because my agenda would get enacted quicker!"

    With the Hard Right choice of Palin, he's actually SUPPORTING things he claimed just days ago to be firmly against!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/30/2008 @ 10:25pm

22. I would have much preferred that we'd have gotten Michael Palin for veep

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/30/2008 @ 3:04pm

    no way.

    terry gilliam.

    imagine the inaugural........

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/31/2008 @ 01:38am

23. BRING IT ON, SENATOR OBAMA

    Did I hear her right? Did Miss Sarah–-the underside of the GI Joe/Barbie Doll ticket--actually say "Bring it On" during her acceptance speech? Lets puts aside the fact that Georgie later repudiated that infamous post 9/11 comment as being too inflammatory. Instead, lets ask this question: Senator Obama, did you hear that? Did you hear that? Did she really say, "Bring it On? ...... or was it "Bring HER On?"

    As much as I despise Hillary, as much as I wish she would go away for good, this election is too important to cater to my individual pet peeves.

    In a way, politics is sometimes like the game of poker. The best bullshitter usually wins. Are you listening Barack. In choosing his running mate, John McCain essentially said, "I"ll see your black guy, and I raise you a chick."

    Whatca gonna do Barack?

    I know what you're thinking. And you're absolutely right, Senator. According to Hoyle, it's time to bring her on. Her of course, meaning Hillary.

    Its time to announce some pre-election cabinet picks, including, Hillary (God, I sometimes hate myself) as Secretary of State.

    Your response, in poker parlance:

    "I'm throwing in the bitch. I'm all in."

    Posted by bobforer at 08/31/2008 @ 03:08am

24. Posted by bobforer at 08/31/2008 @ 03:08am

    that's funny.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 08/31/2008 @ 03:59am

25. Posted by bobforer at 08/31/2008 @ 03:08am

    Nice post.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 08/31/2008 @ 05:16am

26. "When are the coffers going to fill? I missed that part. Unless coffers is a word for "debt owed to foreign bank?"------Posted by crabwalk at 06/27/2007 @ 11:26pm

    ?????

    Posted by crabwalk at 08/31/2008 @ 08:41am

27. It is mind blowing to see these talking heads,saying things like she has the qualifications needed for the VP spot etc etc.Folks these people have stopped drinking the "kool aid" they are shooting up with the "kool aid".

    Posted by eniobob at 08/31/2008 @ 09:12am

28. Posted by crabwalk at 08/31/2008 @ 08:41am

    You kinda got stuck in the middle on that one, CRAB.

    There were back-to-back posts from FRANK (one mentioning his FORMER hero, Michael Moore on Jon Stewart) and the next was FRANK saying he "couldn't think of a better reason to elect a Dem in '08"...

    both of which he's now contradicting less than a year and a half later!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/31/2008 @ 09:48am

29. WOW, all the arguments the new con repub dic'tatorship followers are making about Palin's exec experience being more than Obama's on the MSM right now all apply to McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS as well!

    Like when has McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS ever been an executive!

    And then the new con repub dic'tatorship followers are arguing that Palin has gone after her own party to reform it and that Obama is lock step with the dems!

    Like how much has McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS voted against the hsuB/cHeney admin? 5%. And in almost all of what one would think would be the deepest convictions of a McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS, especially like torture - he totally agrees with the hsuB/cHeney admin to continue doing it.

    So aren't the new con repub dic'tatorship followers really saying that Palin is even better qualified than McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS?

    YES.

    Of course-- but like McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS, do they even get it?

    NO.

    Even Gov. Rudy 9/11 G. himself is saying that McPOWhowmanyMANSIONS, having no exec experience unlike Palin, is not as qualified!

    Are new con repub dic'tatorship followers then totally insane?

    Apparently yes.

    But, if not, one has to hand it to new con repub dic'tatorship followers, they definitely have proven over and over again that they know how to lie-- big time.

    Posted by hsuBfools at 08/31/2008 @ 10:59am

30. If McCain has been relegated to "sidekick" status, what does that make Palin? Can a sidekick have a sidekick?

    And if they were to win .... and that 3 AM phone call comes .... hopefully they call the right house. After all, there are 10 or 11 right now. Adding the POTUS and VP residence to the mix brings it up to a lucky 13!

    McCain / Palin ... V ain't just for victory anymore.

    http://home.avenuebroadband.com/~dvaughn58/GOP2008.html

    Posted by leftofcenter at 08/31/2008 @ 1:02pm

31. Posted by Maskdelta at 08/31/2008 @ 09:48am

    "... Oh, I forgot. That was just a bunch of lies by Michael Moore. Geesch!"

    Posted by frankgrits at 10/07/2005 @ 6:10pm

    Maybe he just didn't forget, this time?

    Eric

    Posted by Malcontent at 08/31/2008 @ 1:49pm

32. Posted by bobforer at 08/31/2008 @ 03:08am:

    BRING IT ON, SENATOR OBAMA

    Did I hear her right? Did Miss Sarah–-the underside of the GI Joe/Barbie Doll ticket--actually say "Bring it On" during her acceptance speech? Lets puts aside the fact that Georgie later repudiated that infamous post 9/11 comment as being too inflammatory. Instead, lets ask this question: Senator Obama, did you hear that? Did you hear that? Did she really say, "Bring it On? ...... or was it "Bring HER On?"

    As much as I despise Hillary, as much as I wish she would go away for good, this election is too important to cater to my individual pet peeves.

    In a way, politics is sometimes like the game of poker. The best bullshitter usually wins. Are you listening Barack. In choosing his running mate, John McCain essentially said, "I"ll see your black guy, and I raise you a chick."

    Whatca gonna do Barack?

    I know what you're thinking. And you're absolutely right, Senator. According to Hoyle, it's time to bring her on. Her of course, meaning Hillary.

    Its time to announce some pre-election cabinet picks, including, Hillary (God, I sometimes hate myself) as Secretary of State.

    Your response, in poker parlance:

    "I'm throwing in the bitch. I'm all in."

    -------------------------------------

    Excellent post. I can't help but think it would make a good basis for some kind of open letter to obama, that many could sign..perhaps even enough so obama would actually read it.

    Eric

    Posted by Malcontent at 08/31/2008 @ 1:53pm

33. "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light and it was good." Genesis, 1-3.

    Those of us who are concerned about the future in America must thank Senator John McCain for finally flipping the switch and showing us the light by his selection of Mrs. Palin to be his running mate.

    A former fervent Hillary supporter and lifelong Democrat, I even considered throwing my reluctant lot with the GOP. This even following the massive juggernaut of the Dems and their standard bearer, Mr. Obama, displayed in Denver. That was, until Mr. McCain let there be light.

    Mrs. Palin, a hiccup away from being the leader of the free world has a resume so skinny and vacuous that by comparison, Mr. Obama's resembles the Encyclopedia Brittanica. "Hockey mom," has never, to my knowledge, been part of the paradigm for the Vice President of the United States of America. Not that being a "hockey mom" is a bad thing.

    Of much greater significance are several of Mrs. Palin's positions relative to issues of major interest to all thinking Americans. She does not support a woman's ineluctable right to control her own body as well as her own future to parent or not to parent. Mrs. Palin is, in fact, the poster girl for right-to-lifers. She is able to display her newborn son, Trig, who has the terrible affliction of Down's syndrome. Knowing that her fetus was thus imperfect and doomed to a substandard existence, Mrs. Palin elected to deliver the child rather than abort it. This decision was clearly hers to make and while I do not criticize it, she wishes to foist her willingness to raise a child which may indeed be undesirable or unmanageable to less competent mothers onto American women as a whole. She rejects abortion in a thoughtless and heedless manor;

    Posted by spotdog5 at 08/31/2008 @ 4:04pm

34. Posted by Malcontent at 08/31/2008 @ 1:49pm

    Careful, Eric...contradict FRANK with his own words, he'll "punish" you by putting you on Ignore "for a while!"

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/31/2008 @ 4:49pm

35. "Classic liberalism of the 19th and 20th century (up to the 1970's) was followed by Democrats and Republicans alike. Much of conservativism today is more similar to classic liberalism than any position represented by the far left Democrats who have finally seized back control of the party from the DLC and the Clintons."

    Except that isn't you. Seeing as you consider FDR to have ignored the Constitution, it's clear that your conservativism is nothing like the classic liberalism in question.

    But considering your obvious misunderstanding of words like "Marxism", "socialism" and our Constitution, it's not surprising that you don't understand this either.

    Posted by brunowe at 08/31/2008 @ 7:58pm

36. Palin investigation info on local AK TV channel 11

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJ-MHz90TY

    Posted by leftofcenter at 08/31/2008 @ 8:08pm

37. but the current collectivists have captured that designation in the United States. Happily they did not capture it in Europe, and were glad enough to call themselves socialists. But no one in America wants to be called socialist and admit what they are.

    The only problem with that argument is that there has never been anything like socialism here. There has never been the nationalization of a major industry. There is no planned economy, no move for the collectivization of property. Indeed, what would be called liberal here would be conservative in much of Europe.

    Fascism is opposed to classic liberalism but it doesn't share many features with welfare-state liberalism. First, it's approach to individual liberties is arguably closer to the more hard-right law-and-order types on the right wing. It's economic approach certainly involves a state-managed economy but one that is somewhat cosier with conglomerates than I think a socialist would be. The corporatist approach involves subsuming workers and industry into the government mechanism. The regulatory framework taken in today's US government is extensive but I don't think you can say that business take actual marching orders from the federal government.

    Posted by brunowe at 08/31/2008 @ 10:38pm

38. i still find it hard, that after the last over seven years, there are still people out there that will vote republican. what does it take? and this would be a continuation of the bush admin. that is republican philosophy and has been quite a while. 80 percent not happy with the direction of the country, yet there are those who would still vote to stay on that disastrous course

    Posted by vertigo23 at 09/01/2008 @ 12:17am

39. I know you are intelligent Brunowe, but this old man studied the constitution, marxism, maoist thought, and classical liberalism versus socialist liberalism before you were even born.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 08/31/2008 @ 9:29pm

    but can you do the mashed pōtātō?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 09/01/2008 @ 01:10am

40. Posted by vertigo23 at 09/01/2008 @ 12:17am

    Sadly there are those who think that Bush is doing a "fine job", others vote for who they think "God wants" (Fundyvangenuts), and yet others who can't bring themselves to pull the handle for a "darkie" ... put those three groups of nutters together and you have a bigger slice of our nation than I would like to think live here.

    Posted by leftofcenter at 09/01/2008 @ 04:42am

41. potato, potah-to....tomato, tomah-to, let's call the whole thing off.

    Posted by leftofcenter at 09/01/2008 @ 06:15am