ScottMcDaniel dot org

H/T Dvorak

Stick with it for a few minutes, it’s worth it.
:-)

One of my contentions has been that a McCain loss would be blamed on Palin – not by McCain himself (he handled the loss with aplomb and 2000 style class last night) but by his advisers. I’ll document these as they occur.

They plucked this woman from obscurity, frothed her up in front of the world and are now going to relegate her to being a B-list celebrity and comedic reference.

She’s supremely unqualified and sophisticated, but she doesn’t deserve what is about to happen to her.

In a new 50,000 word article on the presidential campaigns that will come out tomorrow, Newsweek reports that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) spent far more on clothing than the $150,000 reported last month. According to a preview by Politico’s Mike Allen, “McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy“:

One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family — clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent ‘tens of thousands’ more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband.

Newsweek reports that McCain “rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended.”

Oooh, more!

From Newsweek‘s Special Election Project comes the real Sarah Palin. She met staff members in a towel:

At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys’ club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. “I’ll be just a minute,” she said.

She raised William Ayers before the campaign signed off on it:

Palin launched her attack on Obama’s association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain’s advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

He was funny…this is the old McCain – likable, at ease, willing to laugh at himself. There will be plenty of discussion in the months and years ahead about how he sold out all he ever was or wanted to be, just to appease what’s left of the Republican party. The need for him to betray himself to appease the religious zealots who now run the party is a sad tale, indeed.

Here are both of his videos from last night.

A good comment from a HuffPo poster:

Let’s admit it: He’s a funny, likable guy.

During a time of relative peace and prosperity, he’d make a reasonable President. He’d be a forgettable, one-term place-holder, mostly relying on his staff to run things.

This just isn’t the time for that kind of President. “Likable” isn’t enough. We need a President with a clear vision for the country.

Instant classic.