| 8:30 PM: | Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process. Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain's running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described. NYT. | |
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| 7:56 PM: | Obama and Biden's Chemistry Test. Four hundred and sixteen words later Biden abruptly stopped talking, right in the middle of a train of thought that any other time could've easily gone on for another three thousand words. Looking like a smoker trying to resist a pack of cigarettes, for a moment he seemed to be reminding himself of all the important reasons to quit cold turkey. Then Biden visibly reined himself in, made his excuses and then a bee line for the buses, leaving Obama to shake hands alone for 15 minutes. Time. | |
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| 7:54 PM: | The Palin Meltdown in Slo-Mo. On the same day that the Republicans were forced to dramatically cut back their convention activities, the Palin Meltdown unfolded with extraordinary speed. It's worth pondering the totality of what happened today, in a mere half day. TPM. | |
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| 6:06 PM: | Two-thirds link McCain to Bush policies. They are "very" or "somewhat concerned" that John McCain "would pursue policies that are too similar to what George W. Bush has pursued" say 64% of those surveyed in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. USA Today. | |
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| 6:02 PM: | Members of 'Fringe' Alaskan Independence Party Say Palin Was a Member in 90s. Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States. ABC. | |
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| 5:52 PM: | No more Palin red flags, McCain aide thinks. "I think so," the man who led John McCain's vice presidential search team said a short while ago when asked if all the "red flags" his team turned up about vice presidential contender Sarah Palin have now been revealed. USA Today. | |
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| 5:49 PM: | Hurricane Bristol hits Minnesota. Republicans try to brush off the tempest over Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and turn that other storm in Louisiana into a political prop. Salon. | |
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| 5:49 PM: | In St. Paul at the Ghost Town Convention. The first day of the Republican convention was dominated by the names Gustav and Bristol. Campaign Stops. | |
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| 3:27 PM: | Making the Choice. McCain should be totally indifferent to whether Bristol chose this course of action or was pressured into it by her mother. McCain's view is that he should make the choice for her and for every other pregnant woman in the country. Yglesias. | |
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| 3:21 PM: | What the Heck is McCain Up To? By picking Palin, [McCain] is signaling that he intends to win this election not just by attacking Obama, but by offering an affirmative message of his own. RealClearPoliti. | |
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| 3:03 PM: | Obama Maintains 6-Point Lead, 49% to 43% Gallup's first tracking report based entirely on post-Democratic convention attitudes shows Barack Obama maintaining a six percentage point lead over John McCain, the same as Sunday's report. Gallup. | |
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| 2:09 PM: | CBS News: Obama-Biden +8. ST. PAUL - CBS News is out with a new post convention survey (August 29-31, 781 RV) showing Obama receiving a 5-point bump, increasing his lead over McCain to eight points from three points two weeks ago. Time. | |
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| 2:08 PM: | Gingrich: Palin is great; needs to explain. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is a big Sarah Palin fan. He was talking up the Alaska governor as a veep candidate long before John McCain unveiled his choice last week. USA Today. | |
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| 2:07 PM: | What's Norm Coleman doing? Minnesota's U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman is defending fellow GOP lawmakers who are skipping the Republican National Convention -- not because of the hurricane, but because they say they're busy with re-election campaigns. MPR. | |
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| 2:07 PM: | CNN Poll of polls: Obama holds slim lead. Roughly nine weeks before Election Day, a new CNN poll of polls shows Barack Obama holding a five point lead over John McCain. CNN. | |
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| 2:06 PM: | Despite political respite, Biden hits McCain. This morning, Joe Biden said today was not a day for national politics. He said it again during a roundtable discussion outside his childhood home here this afternoon. But before long, he couldn't help himself, criticizing McCain for his views on offshore drilling and questioning his foreign policy judgment. MSNBC. | |
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| 2:01 PM: | Saving the GOP and The Unbearable Lightness of Being Sarah Palin. If McCain had picked any of the far more experienced candidates on his short list, they would have come fully equipped with a long paper trail implicating them in the horror show that is the Republican Party of the last eight years. Arianna Huffing. | |
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| 1:14 PM: | Hurricane Forces GOP To Scale Back Convention. The Republican National Convention is changing in response to Hurricane Gustav hitting the Gulf Coast. NPR. | |
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| 1:14 PM: | Conservative reaction to Palin pregnancy. The Right seems mostly to be stunned into silence. Salon. | |
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| 1:13 PM: | The Palin vetting continues. The radical right wing blogs are predictably complaining and slinging mud at people who pass on stories about McCain's choice for vice-president, but that shouldn't change a thing. Scripting News. | |
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| 12:39 PM: | Obama: Leave Bristol Alone. Obama said the media should back off the story, and that it has no bearing on Palin's performance as Governor of Alaska or what kind of Vice President she would be. He denies anyone in his campaign is responsible for spreading rumors about Palin, and adds that anyone caught doing so would be fired. NPR. | |
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| 11:57 AM: | Palin Was a Director of Embattled Sen. Stevens's 527 Group. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. Washington Post. | |
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| 11:14 AM: | Just Really Odd. What this does show is much more confirmation of what Republican operatives and pols are saying loquaciously off-the-record: that they don't think there was any real vetting of Palin. Acting out from the McCain camp will not change that. TPM. | |
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| 10:29 AM: | Palin On Abortion: I'd Oppose Even If My Own Daughter Was Raped. At the time, her daughter was 14 years old. Moreover, Alaska's rape rate was an abysmal 2.2 times above the national average and 25 percent of all rapes resulted in unwanted pregnancies. But Palin's position was palatable within the state's largely Republican political circles. HuffPost. | |
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| 10:12 AM: | Post-Palin focus group report. "Right now I'm wondering where the John McCain I really liked in 2000 went, what happened to the moderate? This John McCain has the look of someone who is being manipulated -- probably by Karl Rove." Time. | |
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| 10:02 AM: | Laura Bush warns Dems away from anti-Palin sexism. "The other side will have to be particularly careful," Bush said in an interview on Fox News from St. Paul, "because that's something we all looked at." Politico. | |
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| 9:53 AM: | TV networks shifting toward hurricane. Anchors Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith were all going to the New Orleans area for the storm instead of being with Republicans in St. Paul, Minn. AP. | |
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| 9:22 AM: | Politico Arena -- Palin edition. "A recurring theme at the Democratic convention was: John McCain is well-intentioned but out of touch. There is no better example than his VP pick." Politico. | |
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| 9:21 AM: | Clinton's conundrum. Why picking Palin should make Hillary work harder for Obama--or not. Salon. | |
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| 9:20 AM: | Cindy McCain, Laura Bush to speak tonight. Yesterday, the McCain campaign and convention planners said that due to Hurricane Gustav, all convention activities would be canceled for Monday except for essential business. But Cindy McCain and Laura Bush will speak tonight after that business, from 5:50 pm to 6:10 pm ET. MSNBC. | |
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| 9:19 AM: | Obama returning to Chicago to monitor Gustav. Obama has canceled a planned overnight stay in Milwaukee to return to his Chicago headquarters and monitor Hurricane Gustav's damage to Gulf Coast states. AP. | |
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| 9:19 AM: | To rebut rumors, Palin says daughter, 17, pregnant. The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child. Reuters. | |
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| 9:14 AM: | What McCain Didn't Know About Sarah Palin. Late Thursday night, the campaign began to tell some of his surrogates that the pick would upend the "conventional wisdom." Speculation swung to Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman. Governor Tim Pawlenty usually spends the night at his private home in St. Paul. Expecting to be picked, he camped out in the more formal governors' mansion. Atlantic. | |
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| 9:13 AM: | What Hurricane? Lobbyists, GOP Party On. As residents of New Orleans were fleeing Hurricane Gustav, top Republican party officials donned pink boas and swigged vodka shots at a wild whirl of corporate and lobbyist-paid parties this weekend in Minneapolis-St. Paul. ABC. | |
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| 4:49 AM: | GOP, citing Gustav, makes case for McCain. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) made the case Sunday that McCain is best equipped to lead the country -- whether it's acts of terrorism or acts of God. The Hill. | |
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