In some ways, the Palin selection has probably generated more criticisms of McCain from the Left (at least) than any of his other choices would have. The known alternatives — Romney, Lieberman, etc. — were known values, and the criticisms against them already heard, their weaknesses already dissected, and none of it likely to change anyone’s mind. <\/p>\n
But by choosing a relative unknown — and one with so many new points to attack (not least of which is McCain’s judgment in choosing her), there’s tons <\/em>to talk about. Indeed, given the looming disaster on the Gulf Coast, the only silver lining in Hurricane Gustav for the GOP is that it will distract the news cycle away from Palin in a way that the convention simply could not.<\/p>\n So here’s a collection of bits that were just too numerous to fit into a regular Potpourri here (and which you can skip if you are so inclined).<\/p>\n In some ways, the Palin selection has probably generated more criticisms of McCain from the Left (at least) than any of his other choices would have. The known alternatives –…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,9,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008","category-politics-law","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12937,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/04\/palin_potpourri_for_a_con.html","url_meta":{"origin":12956,"position":0},"title":"Palin Potpourri for a Conventional Thursday","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Sep-08 1:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I know, obsessive a bit. But ... Factchecking Palin\u00a0and The Reality-Based Community: Palin v. Reality\u00a0- Palin's Big Speech and the, um, misrepresentations therein. Putting Words in Palin's Mouth -...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12917,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/07\/potpourri_on_a_sunday_eve.html","url_meta":{"origin":12956,"position":1},"title":"Potpourri on a Sunday Evening","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Sep-08 10:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"OBSESSIVE SARAH PALIN STUFF For all that she's the darling of the conservative set, Palin is being kept under wraps and away from interviews, despite earlier plans (FLASHBACK: In July,...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging - Technical"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging - Technical","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogging-technical"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12927,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/04\/potpourri_sans_palin.html","url_meta":{"origin":12956,"position":2},"title":"Potpourri sans Palin","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Sep-08 11:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Because, sooner or later, I have to stop talking about her. Dissent done right 2 - Very cool end (part 2 of the story) of an unpleasant tale. How do...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging - Technical"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging - Technical","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogging-technical"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12953,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/02\/potpourri_on_a_way_too_bu.html","url_meta":{"origin":12956,"position":3},"title":"Potpourri on a way-too-busy Tuesday","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Sep-08 1:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"PALINESQUE POLITICS! Executive Experience and More on \"Executive\" Experience\u00a0- Having \"executive experience\" is a lot more (and a lot less) than serving in office in an executive branch. Obama's demonstrated...","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12914,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/08\/potpourri_for_a_monday_af.html","url_meta":{"origin":12956,"position":4},"title":"Potpourri for a Monday afternoon","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Sep-08 3:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"SEE? LINKS OF STUFF THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SARAH PALIN (WELL, MOSTLY) Squid beaks and materials science\u00a0- How\u00a0do super-hard squid beaks work with a very squishy squid body?...","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17198,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/24\/unblogged-bits-for-sat-24-apr-2010-201am.html","url_meta":{"origin":12956,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Sat, 24 Apr 2010, 2:01AM","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 24-Apr-10 12:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Why do we need to get for-profit companies out of the health care business? [Pharyngula] - And here is the issue. Insurance was designed to be a joint risk pool to share costs, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
On the other hand: David Rees: Palin: It Wasn’t a Tactical Decision.<\/a> – If we take McCain at his word, that he didn’t rely on identity politics or elaborate plans — then he simply believes Palin is the best-qualified candidate for VP<\/strong> in the GOP today<\/em>. That’s … scary on so many levels.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"