On The Run from AJC

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution contains some humorous anecdotes from the Presidential campaign trail here. The bit that caught my eye was that Russia decided to turn down John McCain's request for campaign funding. I know! First McCain wants to kick Russia out of the G8, and then his campaign solicits Russia's Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, for funding. Well, if your opponents is busy raising $150 Million in a single month, why not look under every stone?

The bigger question is what Obama plans to do with all that money. Better yet, with such a downturn in the economy and the vaporization of wealth on Wall Street (best characterized as simple paper losses, unless people actually sold their shares after stock values plummeted), why are people funding a single campaign in such record numbers?

Especially when the presidential race seems to be almost a foregone conclusion with just 14 days remaining until the polls close.

It's always nice to receive a personal note from the current Governor of Alaska in my inbox, however:

Dear Supporter,

If you caught my guest appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend, you may have seen an ad or two (or twenty) from Senator Obama's campaign.

This barrage of advertising is adding up to the most expensive negative ad buy in political history. And these ads are funded with the nearly $200 million the Obama campaign and the DNC raised in September.

With this new money, they'll only step up their media buying efforts to flood every network with ads attacking our shared values. These ads are full of inaccurate information designed to mislead voters in key media markets.

We need your support to stop the Obama-Biden Democrats' media buying binge. Your immediate contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more will help fund our team's ads in key media markets across the country.

The current media buying gap is a direct result of Senator Obama's broken pledge to accept public financing. This summer, Senator Obama chose to break his promise to the American people by opting out of the public financing system. But, you can be sure that our entire team will honor all of the promises we make in this campaign because we are men and women of our word.

Our team of reformers has a plan to take America in a new direction. Our economic policies focus on providing economic relief to those who need it most. While the Obama-Biden Democrats say they want to "spread the wealth around," our team won't support economic policies that punish Americans for working hard and pursuing the American Dream.

I'm asking you today to help our team get this message out. The funds you give today will help pay for upcoming ad buys and get-out-the-vote efforts.

If Senator Obama is elected and Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid are in charge of Congress, there will be nothing stopping them from raising your taxes, immediately pulling out of Iraq and placing your healthcare decisions in the hands of government bureaucrats.

We can't let this happen and that's why your financial support is so critical to our efforts. Every dollar we raise goes directly to help fund media buys and get-out-the-vote efforts in important races across the country. So, please make the most generous contribution you can give - whether its $25 or $250. We're certainly grateful for any help you can give. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Governor Sarah Palin

Too bad the e-mail didn't include pics!

McCain Gets Younger

So, by now, I'm sure everyone has heard the news about John McCain selecting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the general election. Ah, but what to make of it?



I'm sure Democrats will be upset that he made the announcement on the same day that Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination in that functional, workmanlike speech in Denver. That, in and of itself, was interesting: gone were the uplifting, flowery words of hope ("Yes, We Can!"), replaced with actual step-by-step planks of what Obama hopes to do once he assumes the Presidency. I know the NY Times talking head didn't like it, but let's be honest. Obama has taken heat for his inexperience and lack of substance, and he really needed to show that he can be serious about running the country. I thought he did a great job, and for the first time, I heard some things from Obama that I really appreciated. I really liked it when he said we should be able to find middle ground on issues like gun control, gay rights, and abortion. Even if it is an agreement to disagree, I like the move to the middle. The far left and the far right have dominated their respective party politics for too long.

Of course, Obama's choice in his VP selection, Joe Biden*, showed that he was also serious about filling the holes in his own resume by picking a running mate with considerable foreign policy chops and a long legislative track record. I was surprised that Obama didn't pick Tim Kaine, Kathleen Sibelius, or some other Governor from a state that could really help him. By picking another Senator from a small population east coast state, I'm not entirely sure Obama helped himself as much as he could have. It will be interesting to see how the general election plays out.

* When I told my mom, who was vacationing in Colorado at the time and had no access to news, about the Joe Biden pick, she was devastated. A die-hard Democrat who has been on the Obama bandwagon for quite a while now, she had no excitement over the naming of Biden to the ticket.

But then McCain announced his VP choice in Sarah Palin. Which really means he is also serious about filling holes in his candidacy. McCain knows he can't really be challenged by Obama on foreign policy issues or on his experience in the Senate. (Yes, that's what Biden is for.) McCain has been taking heat on the age issue, though. If elected, McCain will be the oldest first-time President sworn in to office in the history of the U.S. He's been shown to be out of touch with the Internet and e-mail. His cultural references are older than the Baby Boomers. He really needed to connect with a younger generation, and Palin fits that bill.

By all accounts, Palin is considered a maverick on par with her new running mate. Appointed to a high position by the previous Republican Governor of Alaska, she exposed corruption within her own party. She brings a blue-collar mentality to the ticket, as her husband works on the oil pipelines in Alaska. She also is adamantly pro-life, which should help McCain with the right-wing evangelicals within the Republican party.

It's too early to say whether a McCain-Palin ticket will have the same effect as the Mondale-Ferraro ticket in 1984. Already, Geraldine and Hillary have praised the decision to name another woman to a major party Presidential ticket. It would be not a little disingenuous to say that McCain is not deliberately reaching out to the Hillary supporters, all 18 million of them, with his choice in running mate. Politics can be a dirty business, and you gotta do what you gotta do to win. Bill Clinton said words to that effect back in the '90s.

They say that genius usually comes with a tincture of madness. It will be interesting to see if McCain's move is a stroke of genius or the desperation of a madman.