McCain didn't predict success:

McCain made it clear that he supports Bush's plan to send more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq as the only way to prevent that country from slipping further into chaos. "I cannot guarantee success, but I can guarantee failure if we don't adopt this new strategy," he said.

Posted at September 5, 2008 2:17 PM in response to Palin Hits Campaign Trail, Keeps Up Attacks On Obama

McCain didn't predict success:

McCain made it clear that he supports Bush's plan to send more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq as the only way to prevent that country from slipping further into chaos. "I cannot guarantee success, but I can guarantee failure if we don't adopt this new strategy," he said.

Posted at September 5, 2008 2:03 PM in response to Palin Hits Campaign Trail, Keeps Up Attacks On Obama

The difference is that Wright's comments hearken back to an era of Black nationalism that's perceived to frighten voters; given the real poll impact of Wright's comments once they became public, this is apparently true.

Despite the very real ties of radical American separatists to domestic terrorism, people still see them as kooks without influence. Radical White preachers have never been treated in the remotest bit of proportion to Black ones. That's the difference, and there's no getting around it.

Palin's preacher's said worse than Jeremiah Wright. Many who've endorsed McCain have said worse than Jeremiah Wright. This AIP fellow's said worse than Jeremiah Wright. Now, none of those people made a public disgrace of themselves when given the opportunity like Wright did, but they we never really gave them a chance, did we?

Posted at September 3, 2008 10:25 AM in response to Why Isn't AIP Founder Sarah Palin's Reverend Wright?

It's stupid to act without considering the consequences. All I'm saying is that the assumption that McCain was silly enough not to have noticed this in vetting is ridiculous. This event was known to Alaska Republicans at the time, is discoverable on a Google search, etc.

McCain made the choice in consideration of that, and if Obama were to personally jump on Palin for her disgust w/ Lydde, McCain/Palin would immediate hit back that Obama doesn't realize how traumatic it is for a mother to be told she can't go to her kid's high school graduation before he gets shipped off to Iraq. That's a losing argument.

This is a disgusting mistake by Palin, but it needs to be treated carefully given the broader context that wasn't fully evident when it first surfaced. Given Obama's organization in Alaska, I'm confident that his people are well briefed on the details, though.

Posted at August 30, 2008 4:47 PM in response to Palin Took Heat For Giggling After Radio Show Host Attacked Opponent As "Bitch"

FYI, she's a bitch because she's pissed off that Sarah Palin changed the time of the State of the State address in Alaska and said she wasn't gonna go or something.

This is the sun that's off to Iraq on 9/11, by the way. So, tread carefully here because I'd wager McCain knows about this and is going to pounce all over you for knocking a woman that was pissed off that someone told her she couldn't see her soldier son's graduation.

Posted at August 30, 2008 4:13 PM in response to Palin Took Heat For Giggling After Radio Show Host Attacked Opponent As "Bitch"

The money quote is ~10 minutes into that MP3 ... if that link goes down e-mail me at zach at alchemytoday dot com and I have it saved.

Posted at August 30, 2008 4:08 PM in response to Palin Took Heat For Giggling After Radio Show Host Attacked Opponent As "Bitch"

Here's the full call:
http://bobandmarksuck.com/blog/audio/Palin-responds-scheduling-conflict.mp3

Posted at August 30, 2008 4:06 PM in response to Palin Took Heat For Giggling After Radio Show Host Attacked Opponent As "Bitch"

The Palin audio is available on the site for the show... I had it before and am searching for it again now. Definitely real.

Posted at August 30, 2008 4:01 PM in response to Palin Took Heat For Giggling After Radio Show Host Attacked Opponent As "Bitch"

Smart, but he appears to be in an unlit room -- is this a veiled POW reference?

Posted at August 28, 2008 4:53 PM in response to New McCain Ad Congratulates Obama

Also, I don't think it works in McCain's favor to talk about Obama writing letters for real estate deals given that McCain netted $20 million in pure profit for a major contributor in Arizona: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2008/04/mccain-aided-ar.html

Posted at August 21, 2008 7:32 PM in response to New McCain Ad: It's Obama Who Has A "Housing Problem"