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The Sarah Palin story is rapidly becoming the talk of both the convention in St. Paul, and is likely to dominate analysis on the Web. Here’s an early entry from Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: “All anyone wants to talk about all of a sudden is the intimate family choices of stressed-out working mothers. Every woman I know is consumed by Sarah Palin’s larger-than-life life: Was it irresponsible for her to continue on as governor, having given birth to a special needs baby?

Was it reckless of her to accept a vice presidential tap on top of that? Should she really have been flying in the eighth month of her high-risk pregnancy? Is she doing the right thing by supporting her unmarried teenage daughter whose pregnancy she revealed a few hours ago? Should she have inserted herself into her sister’s messy marriage?” It’s all a “Pandora’s box John McCain opened up when he picked Palin as his running mate—a woman whose family life is vastly more interesting than her very brief political career.” But, she adds, it’s not all bad: Palin “reflects the reality of women’s lives in America. Come on in, John McCain. It’s messy in here, but we’ve been waiting decades to show you the place.”

It may be a “bit morbid” to say so, but Hurricane Gustav offers some political opportunities for Sen. John McCain and Republicans as they gather in St. Paul, Minn., write Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei of Politico. They quote one convention planner saying: “You don’t wish for it, but it shows McCain dealing with a surprise — a big event that has consequences on people…It’s redemption for the Republican Party on the competence issue.

The convention ends up being about John McCain showing the best way to serve a cause greater than yourself.” Of course, the “storm carries with it political risk, too: If the government botches the emergency response, it could further erode the public’s confidence in the GOP’s governing competence,” say Allen and VandeHei. “But, in cold political terms, this could be a very good thing for McCain. At the very least, it pulls an unpopular president and vice president away from here at a time when Democrats are ready to hit McCain with a barrage of ads and talking points linking him to Bush.

One GOP consultant on what the absence of a Bush speech means for the party: ‘a whole series of Obama ads now in the dumper.’”

Salon’s Mike Madden says that “even before Barack Obama arrived at Mile High Stadium to accept his party’s nomination last week, the early five-day tracks had turned Gustav into a problematic metaphor for McCain.” But Republicans may be changing that: McCain “and his running mate, Sarah Palin – whose appointment he announced on the anniversary of Katrina’s landfall — headed off to Jackson, Miss., for a photo op with Gov. Haley Barbour to show how concerned they were.

The campaign chartered planes to fly the Mississippi and Louisiana delegations back home before the storm hit, and convention officials were planning to rework the entire week.” Still, Madden adds, “McCain can hardly afford to let Gustav wash away his entire convention like just another underfunded Army Corps of Engineers levee. His ‘maverick’ brand was damaged by his own efforts to unite his party behind him during the GOP primaries and by the Democrats’ insistence that he represents an extra term for Bush. Obama’s convention left him up 6 points by Sunday in the Gallup daily tracking polls (though those polls aren’t necessarily useful indicators). ‘McCain needs to become the personification of anti-Washington rage,’ one Republican consultant told me.”

Speaking of Palin, the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder says there were a few things about her that McCain’s staff didn’t know when he picked her” He writes: “McCain’s campaign seemed unaware that she supported a windfalls profits tax on oil companies and that she is more skeptical about human contributions to global warming than McCain is. They did not know that she took trips as the mayor of Wasilla to beg for earmarks.


They did not know that she told a television interviewer this summer that she did not fully understand what it is that a vice president does.” Still, “had McCain had the time or inclination to think about all of this, he still might have picked her. Like him, she has a habit of kicking lobbyists out of her office. Like him, she has a reputation for being a blunt speaker. Like him, she has a rep for cutting spending, and unlike him, had the executive authority to do so, slashing more than 10 percent of the state’s proposed budget in 2007. “

On the other side of the vice presidential coin, Andrew Malcolm of LATimes.com gives Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden some grief for a little aside he uttered about Palin. “Oh, jeez, here we go already. With the canny, seemingly good-natured-but-really-a-put-down jokes about a female candidate,” writes Malcolm. He notes that Biden told a rally: “There’s a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent,” Biden said. “She’s good-looking.” Writes Malcolm: “Yeh, really, hold your sides on that one. Let’s turn that reference around 180-degrees and imagine a female candidate in front of a large audience talking about some, oh, hypothetical male opponent for the vice presidency. “‘Thirty-six years in the United States Senate,’ she says, ‘And all he’s got to show for it is a beautiful head of hairplugs.’”

It’s not experience. It’s McCain’s judgment, stupid!

For weeks, advisers close to the campaign said, Mr. McCain had wanted to name as his running mate his good friend Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat turned independent. But by the end of last weekend, the outrage from Christian conservatives over the possibility that Mr. McCain would fill out the Republican ticket with Mr. Lieberman, a supporter of abortion rights, had become too intense to be ignored.

With time running out, and after a long meeting with his inner circle in Phoenix, Mr. McCain finally picked up the phone last Sunday and reached Ms. Palin at the Alaska State Fair. Although the campaign’s polling on Mr. McCain’s potential running mates was inconclusive on the selection of Ms. Palin — virtually no one had heard of her, a McCain adviser said — the governor, who opposes abortion, had glowing reviews from influential social conservatives.

Mr. McCain was comfortable with two others on his short list, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. But neither was the transformative, attention-grabbing choice Mr. McCain felt he needed, top campaign advisers said, to help him pivot from his image as the custodian of the status quo to a change agent like his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama.

Even if the McCain campaign knew everything that might be problematic about Palin—and it doesn't appear to—her national introduction has had a few ragged patches. Her role in opposing the bridge to nowhere—the poster child of federal pork—is the first loose thread. Both Palin and McCain mentioned her opposition to it as a central part of her reform credentials. "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere," Palin said when her candidacy was announced. This is no small deal. McCain talks about the bridge to nowhere all the time as the symbolic reason Republicans lost the Congress in 2006.

But it turns out Palin was for the bridge before she was against it, changing her mind just as the politics did. She wins points for being politically nimble, but maybe not for being a rootin' tootin' reformer. Maybe, had the campaign time to reflect, it would still have put the same emphasis on the bridge to nowhere. In that case, we reporters would undoubtedly have dismissed this talking point as bad spin. Instead, because Palin was a surprise, we can dismiss this taking point as the result of hasty decision-making.

Another ad hoc element to the Palin pick is the curious defense of her foreign-policy credentials. Republicans and Cindy McCain have mentioned that she understands national-security issues in part because she is governor of Alaska, whose borders nearly touch Russia's. A day and a half ago, I asked the campaign for an example of her dealings with Russia or the Russians. I'm still waiting. Again, maybe there's a bad-spin explanation here: They're swamped and are working to get back to me. Or maybe they just made the claim in haste without checking it.

Topeka Capital Journal - Topeka,KS,USAThis is the same man who hauled a wheelbarrow and 25 pounds of horse dung to Minnesota in a car decorated with an "Impeach Bush" sticker to add flavor to ...See all stories on this topic

TIME

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Mass show of peaceful dissent soon makes a violent descent

Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN

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Land of the free

New Statesman, UK

Matt Kennard is blogging the Republican convention in St Paul. Here is his account of attending the anti-war protest at the Minnesota gathering On our way ...


Denver and St. Paul: A word about security

Atlanta Journal Constitution, USA -

By Aaron Gould Sheinin asheinin@ajc.com St. Paul, Minn. — It’s thus far difficult to make an accurate comparison between last week’s Democratic National ...


As Throngs of Protesters Hit Streets, Dozens Are Arrested After ...

New York Times, United States

By PATRICK HEALY and COLIN MOYNIHAN ST. PAUL — Thousands of protesters, many of them demonstrating against the war in Iraq, marched on Monday through the ...


Taking It To The Streets... Day 2 At The GOP Convention

Indianapolis Star, United States -

Thousands of war protesters take to the streets of St. Paul, Minn. on a march from the Minnesota Statehouse to Xcel Energy Center, where the Republican ...


Hundreds to be charged in court after RNC protests

CNN

By Scott J. Anderson ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- Almost 300 people will be formally charged in Ramsey County District Court on Tuesday after they were ...


Republican National Convention Protesters flock to St. Paul

WELT ONLINE,

Germany Police using pepper spray arrested more than 250 people as demonstrations near the Republican National Convention site turned violent. ...


Protests become violent near convention site

Chicago Tribune, United States

By Amy Forliti AP ST. PAUL — Demonstrations near the Republican National Convention site turned violent Monday, as protesters harassed some delegates, ...


Dozens of protesters target Republicans

The Age, Australia

Demonstrations near the Republican National Convention site in St Paul have turned violent, with protesters harassing some delegates, smashed windows, ...


Protesters battle it out with police at GOP convention

Los Angeles Times, CA

More than 280 people are arrested after groups of anarchists set fires, throw rocks and break windows. By PJ Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer ST. ...


-Some turn violent in GOP convention protests

The Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Demonstrations near the Republican National Convention site turned violent Monday, as protesters harassed some delegates, ...


Scores arrested as protests turn violent outside GOP convention

San Francisco Chronicle, USA

Police used pepper spray and tear gas to quell breakaway demonstrators from an otherwise peaceful antiwar demonstration today outside the Republican ...


More than 100 arrested; police wield tear gas, pepper spray

Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN

While block after block of marchers chanted and peacefully waved signs, the carnival atmosphere turned violent this afternoon. ...


Police, protesters clash near convention

Reuters ST. PAUL -

Police in riot gear used pepper spray and smoke bombs against a few hundred violent protesters on Monday, and at least a dozen were arrested ...


Police, protesters clash near Republican convention

Reuters By Andy Sullivan ST. PAUL (Reuters) -

Police in riot gear battled hundreds of protesters with pepper spray and smoke bombs and arrested 130 people on Monday ...


Getting the walk-around

Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN

It's a long way to the bars and restaurants on St. Paul's W. 7th Street if you're starting from Rice Park. By JEFF SHELMAN, Star Tribune By candidate: By ...


Police, protesters clash near Republican convention

Reuters By Andy Sullivan ST. PAUL (Reuters) -

Police in riot gear used pepper spray and smoke bombs against a few hundred violent protesters on Monday, ...


'Anarchists' smash windows on St. Paul streets

CNN - By Scott J. Anderson ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) --

Nearly 5000 protesters marched peacefully outside the site of the Republican National Convention in this ...


Bush likely first President to miss convention since 1968

MLive.com, MI 8-18

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The Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) —

Thousands of protesters descended on the city hosting the Republican National Convention Monday, some smashing cars, puncturing tires ...


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Thousands gather for RNC protest

The Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) —

About 2000 protesters waving peace sign flags rallied at the state Capitol on Monday before an anti-war march to the Republican ...


Police, anarchists clash outside RNC

Boston Globe, United States

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff ST. PAUL -- Police appeared to fire tear gas today at a handful of self-described anarchists protesting near the Republican ...


Estimated 10000 protesters march on convention in St. Paul

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US authorities send 3500 police officers to protect Republican ...

Xinhua, China - Sep 1, 2008ST. PAUL, United States,

Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- More than 3500 police officers from Minnesota state and across the country have gathered in St. Paul, ...


290 arrested in violent RNC

Washington Times, DC -

ST. PAUL, Minn. 290 people were arrested during protests aimed at the Republican National Convention Monday that sparked violence and vandalism and led to ...


Protest group: ‘The illusion of business as usual has been shattered’

Arizona Capitol Times, AZ -

In a self-congratulatory press statement, the RNC Welcoming Committee – the group of self-described anarchists who took to the streets of St. Paul Monday to ...


Activists aim to ensure RNC protesters know their legal rights

Arizona Capitol Times, AZ

The Coldsnap Legal Collective aims to help RNC protesters during the convention. Member Jude Ortiz (far left) said, “The thing we all have in common is that ...


Gustav, protests lead convention news

MyWebTimes.com, IL

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It seemed like Monday might have been a nonstory at the Republican National Convention. Most of the schedule for the delegates and ...


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Day One of the RNC

Progressive.org, WI

By Elizabeth DiNovella, September 1, 2008 Even though it was blazing hot, the day seemed promising at first. While driving on 494 from the hotel in the ...


Billboard Battles Take Over Twin Cities

About - News & Issues, NY

Delegates to the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN, have been greeted with a billboard showing McCain and Bush ...


Convention, courts, protesters prepare for busy day 2

Minnesota Public Radio, MN

by Linda Fantin, Minnesota Public Radio As Republicans resume their convention, protesters promise more demonstrations and decry police tactics. ...


Protesters say they won't stop at RNC

WKBT, WIAP - September 2, 2008

Protest groups are pledging to take to the streets of St. Paul every day of the Republican ...


RNC Day One: Political Messages, Pepper Spray and Street Theater

Arizona Capitol Times, AZ

Nothing about this gig has moved ahead according to plan: The opening day of the 2008 Republican National Convention didn’t feature the expected full-blown ...


National & New Jersey political news, local talk & election results

The Star-Ledger - NJ.com, NJ

AP politics updates by John Farmer/Star-Ledger Political Columnist Stan Honda/Getty ImagesFirst lady Laura Bush, left, and Sen. John McCain's wife Cindy ...


SAWKAR: RNC Day #2: Back on track

KSTP.com, MN

It seems quieter inside the Xcel Energy Center this morning. It was pretty uneventful as we broadcast our morning and midday shows from the suite ...


GOP convention resumes normal schedule

Post-Bulletin, MN

By Matthew Stolle ST. PAUL -- Activities at the Republican National Convention began to resemble a more normal state today news of Hurricane Gustav's ...


Hundreds of protesters arrested

Capital News 9, NY

ST. PAUL, MN. -- Hundreds of protesters are facing charges after a peaceful anti-war protest near the site of the Republican’s convention turned violent. ...

Minnesota Daily, MN

A protester is hosed down with pepper spray after failing to adhere to police requests to back away on Kellogg Ave in St. Paul on Monday afternoon. ...


Local Police Arrest RNC Protestors

WNYC, NY

by Bob Hennelly NEW YORK, NY September 02, 2008 —After several thousand peaceful protestors marched from Minnesota's state capital to the site of the ...


What Democracy Looks Like

Minnesota Daily, MN

Monday’s protest march on the Republican National Convention was a characteristic amalgamation of almost every modern “liberal” cause: a group of ...


Anarchists' statement

Minnesota Public Radio, MN

Thank you to the 1000's of people who courageously faced 10 ton buses, concussion grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, batons, charging horses, gas masks, ...

FOX 9 News, MN

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RNC Protests Turn Violent

KAALtv.com, MN

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- Though it was a stripped down version of the opening day of the Republican National Convention, a few events still went on as scheduled ...


Area activists practice what they preach

Brainerd Daily Dispatch, United States

By MIKE O'ROURKE ST. PAUL - Outside the chain-link fence that separated credentialed Republican National Convention delegates from those without credentials ...

Pioneer Press, MN

Anarchists who had threatened to "crash the convention" wreaked havoc Monday in downtown St. Paul as the Republican National Convention opened, ...


RNC Gallery: Pictures and words from MnIndy reporters on the ...

Minnesota Independent, MN

By Steve Perry 9/2/08 8:18 AM At the end of a long and eventful first day outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, we asked the people who ...


Cops, Protestors Clash at Convention

KOKC, OK

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Corporate News Media 'Cover' Police-Statism at the RNC

Nolan Chart LLC, VA

by Dan Alba The State simply can not allow law-abiding citizens to accuse the State of doing what the State does; so it commits "preemptive" violence ..

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have been released from police custody in St. Paul, following their arrest while covering demonstrations at the Republican convention. According to Democracy Now!, all three were "violently manhandled by law enforcement officers."

http://pr.thinkprogress.org/

Last week, the Republican Party put the finishing touches on its 2008 election platform, which the party will officially adopt this week at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN. Many on the right have indicated that this year's platform represents one of the most conservative in the history of the party.


For example, the legislative advocacy arm of the ultra-conservative Family Rights Council hailed the 2008 platform as the most "conservative, pro-life and pro-family platform in Republican party history." David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU), considers the platform "very conservative," while the ACU's vice chairman Donald Devine called the document "a vast improvement" over the 2004 platform.

Indeed, the platform calls for constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and abortions, positions that, according to a recent Time Magazine poll, only 35 and 10 percent of Americans support, respectively. And while the document refrains from using the term "privitization," its "solution" to Social Security calls for giving workers "control over, and a fair return on, their contributions" to the program.

LIP SERVICE ON THE ENVIRONMENT: To its credit, the 2008 GOP platform recognizes the human role in global warming and advocates long-term tax credits for renewable energy.

However, the GOP's environmental platform is "loaded with caveats about the uncertainty of science and the need to 'resist no-growth radicalism' in taking on climate change." It also ridicules "doomsday climate change scenarios peddled by the aficionados of centralized command-and-control government." In effect, this approach endorses the Bush administration's climate policy, which has led to an increase in greenhouse gases. Moreover, unlike the 2000 and 2004 platforms' planks on protecting the Great Lakes and Everglades, the 2008 platform mentions neither.

Also absent from the 2008 platform is any mention of mandatory federal emission cuts in a cap-and-trade program. While the party's presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), has pushed for a federally mandated cap-and-trade program, he has walked away from it at various points during the campaign season.

GOP VERSUS McCAIN: The 2004 platform "found 80 things to 'applaud,' 17 to 'hail,' a dozen to 'commend' and several hundred opportunities to say what a great job [President] Bush was doing and would continue to do." Yet this year's document contains only one mention of McCain, which is simply "in support of his candidacy and those of our fellow Republicans across the nation." Indeed, there are many areas of disagreement between McCain and his party.

"The platform calls for a 'major expansion' of research involving adult stem cells but opposes embryonic stem-cell research, which Sen. McCain supports." The party's immigration stance is tougher than in 2004 -- when the GOP called for a "humane" immigration system with a temporary-worker program and a path for illegal immigrants "to come out of the shadows'' and apply for citizenship.

This year however, the GOP opposes any plan that includes "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants, saying "the rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity." McCain has previously supported a path to citizenship but his current position remains unclear, having declared securing the borders as his new number-one priority. Despite these disagreements, the McCain campaign reportedly plans to "run on the final version of the platform."


MEDIA -- RIGHT-WING MEDIA ELITES BLAST COMMENTERS ON LIBERAL BLOGS AS 'VICIOUS,' 'HURTING THE COUNTRY':

Yesterday at the Republican convention, the Huffington Post hosted a panel discussion about the rise of new media with a number of leading traditional media personalities. Conservative talker Laura Ingraham applauded the rise of the online journalism, stating, "Look, the old media blew it; the free market does work." But many of her conservative co-panelists lamented the perils of this free market. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said the flip side of the emergence of the blogopshere is that "it's so ugly now in some parts of the internet" that good people are being dissuaded from running for office.

His fellow conservative media elites chimed in with similar criticisms. Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan said online commenters "are much like what you would have gotten in 1880 if you walked into a bedlam with a megaphone and said, 'I'd like to say a few words.' It's wild, it's crazy, and it's awful, and it's often quite vicious." Conservative pollster Frank Luntz said, "Mean would not describe it.

It is as humanly vicious as it possibly can be," adding that it is "deliberately insulting." Scarborough then proposed a solution: "Why don't internet sites that want to be respected make people [commenters] put their names and their phone numbers." Arianna Huffington agreed with him about the need to keep commenters from "hiding behind the cloak of anonymity."