Time Out!

John McCain's decision to demand a "time out" in the presidential campaign has led to some predictable and well-deserved blowback. If you missed Letterman last night, he delivered a beatdown worth watching.

George Brett, Hall of Fame Storyteller

My Gal

It's not often I say this -- but there's a hilarious piece in the New Yorker about Palin that you all should read.

It's Go Time

The new Obama ad, set to air in battleground states and on the cable news networks.

Like what you see? Want to get it out there? Then drop the campaign some cash. This is when it counts most, folks.

John McCain Approved This Message

Get This Man an Oscar

A Little Perspective

Conventional Wisdom IV: The Day After

Any thoughts? Was McCain as anticlimactic as it seemed? How much fun will Colbert have with the green screen?

McCain and Palin are at a rally right now, and I can't believe it, but Palin just repeated the snide comment about community organizers. What a clown.

GOP to Thousand Points of Light: Drop Dead

Republicans then:

I've spoken of a thousand points of light -of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I'll ask every member of my Government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because they're not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.

Republicans now:

Giuliani: "On the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. What? He worked -- I said -- I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume."

Palin: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities."

That's an ... interesting take. And I'm not so sure it's going to play well.

Conventional Wisdom III: The Preciousssss

Going into last night of the Republican National Convention, I was worried they might try to make an effective case to independent and moderate swing-state voters. Thankfully, they decided to replay the party's greatest hits of Republican hatchet attacks instead.

Mitt Romney, whose brain and hair apparently just jumped through time from 1968 to the present day, went on the attack against the elitist East Coast elite liberal media elites, the liberal Supreme Court (?!), and all the liberals who run Washington today (?!?!).

When Romney was done reviving the Spiro Agnew schtick, Rudy Guiliani decided to reach back even further for a vintage 1950 Joe McCarthy, sinisterly talking about how Obama went over to Europe -- gasp! -- and brought back some suspicious European ideas with him!

While I would've expected Romney to ooze insincerity (and secrete his own hair gel) and I would've expected Guiliani to bare his fangs like a C-list Bela Lugosi, I was a little surprised to see Vice Presidential Lottery Winner Sarah Palin continue to ramp up the attacks. If she'd played up the "hockey mom" act a little more, she might have appealed to suburban mothers across the country; instead, she decided to devote her time to shrill attacks and a long, long list of easily refuted lies about her Democratic opponents. Also, is it smart to keep mocking "community organizers" when they're the people who basically run the ground game in the Democratic get-out-the-vote effort? Way to make them kick it into high gear.

The media pundits are all swept up in the mood of the arena -- even nominally liberal Mika Brzyznski on MSNBC looks like she's going to stroke out from excitement this morning -- but I think they're misreading this. These speeches will doubtlessly fire up the Republican base, but I have to think they're going to alienate the hell out of independents and moderates. (And looking at the early focus group reports, that seems to be the case.)

It'll be interesting to see what Grandpa Simpson does tonight. I'm sure his speechwriters are seriously concerned about this issue, but there's also the matter of whether or not he can live up to the base's excitement after last night. My friends, I doubt it.

Peggy Noonan: "It's Over"

Caught in a live mic on MSNBC, Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy and Chuck Todd are ready to call the election.

Earmarked

I was trying to find a part to highlight, but the whole story is ludicrously tragic. Just read the whole thing.

"Jews for Jesus?"

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, the Palin pick just gets better and better.

[J]ust two weeks ago, ... Palin’s church, the Wasilla Bible Church, gave its pulpit over to a figure viewed with deep hostility by many Jewish organizations: David Brickner, the founder of Jews for Jesus.

Palin’s pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced Brickner on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on the church’s website. “He’s a leader of Jews for Jesus, a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism,” Kroon said. ....

Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."

Palin was in church that day, Kroon said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.

This was two weeks ago and Palin was there. And we thought Jewish voters were feeling queasy about the Republican ticket before.

I'd like to yield the remainder of my time to Captain Rex Kramer.

Conventional Wisdom II: The Whitening

Consider this an open thread for all things related to the Republican National funeral Convention.

The Pill-Popper Twins made an appearance last night, and this evening features speeches from Still-President George W. Bush, Pretend-President Fred Thompson (who is not at all a celebrity, thank you very much), and Droopy Dog stunt double Joe Lieberman. Should be an exciting niiiiiiiiighfdjskmzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Hurricane Sarah

Hurricane Sarah has finally struck the city of St. Paul, and the one-day devastation was phenomenal.

Greg Sargent at TPM has a convenient rundown of today's aftermath, so I'll just shamelessly repost the entire damn thing:

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...

* The news that Palin once backed the Bridge to Nowhere went national.

* It emerged that Palin has links to the bizarro Alaska Independence Party, which harbors the goal of seceding from the union that McCain and Palin seek to lead.

* The news broke that as governor, Palin relied on an earmark system she now opposes. Taken along with the Bridge to Nowhere stuff, this threatens to undercut her reformist image, something that was key to her selection as McCain's Veep candidate.

* The news broke that Palin's 17-year-old daughter became pregnant out of wedlock at a time when the conservative base had finally started rallying behind McCain's candidacy.

* Barely moments after McCain advisers put out word that McCain had known of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, the Anchorage Daily News revealed that Palin's own spokesperson hadn't known about it only two days ago.

* A senior McCain adviser at the Republican convention was forced into the rather embarrassing position of arguing that McCain had known about the pregnancy "last week" -- without saying what day last week he knew about it.

* It came out that Republican lawyers are up in Alaska vetting Palin -- now, more than 72 hours after it was announced that she'd been picked.

* Palin lawyered up in relation to the trooper-gate probe in Alaska -- a move that ensures far more serious attention to the story from the major news orgs.

Wow. Quite a day. (Click through to the original article for the links to full stories on each.)

As brutal as this list is, it still doesn't everything tragically ludicrous that went down with Palin today. For instance, her complete, nearly comical ignorance on the Pledge of Allegiance also came out in the media today. And just now on CNN, Campbell Brown ripped McCain functionary and apparent assclown Tucker Bounds a new asshole over the tired argument that Palin has national security experience because she's the head of the Alaska National Guard. (Seriously, watch that if you haven't. Brutal.)

I've never really professed to understand the deep inner workings of the Republican mind, but I have to think that not even an acclaimed genius like Turdblossom would have wanted the dead pool on the career of the newly minted Vice Presidential candidate to begin less than 72 hours after the announcement and on the very first day of the Republican National Convention.

Yeah, it's really hard to believe she's not polling well in focus groups.

(I can't remember where I saw the "Sheagleton" reference first, but it's brilliant. If you're not a complete politics nerd and don't get the somewhat obscure reference, read up on this historic moment that's apparently coming back for seconds.)

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