pH Reading — Tuesday, September 2, 2008

By Write Of Center 

 

A Star Is Born?
New York Times · William Kristol
Thursday night, after Barack Obama’s well-orchestrated, well-conceived and well-delivered acceptance speech in Denver, Republicans were demoralized. Twenty-four hours later, they were energized — even exuberant. It’s amazing what a bold vice-presidential pick who gives a sterling performance when she’s introduced will do for a party’s spirits…

Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama
RealClearPolitics · Gerard Baker
Democrats, between sniggers of derision and snorts of disgust, contend that Sarah Palin, John McCain’s vice-presidential pick is ridiculously unqualified to be president. It’s a reasonable objection on its face except for this small objection: it surely needs to be weighed against the Democrats’ claim that their own candidate for president is self-evidently ready to assume the role of most powerful person on the planet…

In Wasilla, Pregnancy Was No Secret
Time · Nathan Thornburgh
So his name is Levi. That’s about the only thing that I didn’t know about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy. The rest of the details I picked up almost without trying, while talking about other things with townsfolk — some who know the governor and her family well, some who don’t. It was, more or less, an open secret. And everyone was saying the same thing: the governor’s 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, the father is her boyfriend, and it’s really nobody’s business beyond that…

Dems Shouldn’t Underestimate Palin
RealClearPolitics · Joe Trippi
I have seen a lot of commentary on why John McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a cynical and transparent ploy to bring disaffected women who supported Hillary Clinton to his cause – and why this ploy would fail. But I don’t think John McCain and the people around him are that stupid. Something else in his speech introducing Palin as his choice caught my attention and I believe shines some light on the real reason McCain chose the Alaskan…

pH: I’m not sure how insightful “don’t underestimate Palin” is, but it’s the most positive thing I’ve read by a Democratic operative.

Obama Should Come Clean On Ayers, Rezko And the Iraqi Billionaire
Wall Street Journal · John Fund
Even as Barack Obama gave his soaring speech Thursday night, his campaign was playing hardball with its critics. Team Obama has launched an offensive against WGN, the Chicago Tribune’s radio station, for interviewing Stanley Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz is a conservative writer who this week forced the University of Illinois to finally open its records on Sen. Obama’s association with William Ayers, the unrepentant 1970s Weather Underground terrorist…

Why No Bounce?
Commentary · Jennifer Rubin
How can it be that The One is in a dead heat, that the bounce — if the mini-rise in a couple of tracking polls can even be called that — is already subsiding? There was The Speech! The media all told us he was fabulous! Several explanations are possible…

pH: Excellent analysis from Rubin.

Obama on Palin
Politico · Ben Smith
Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown reports: At a press avail in Monroe, Mich., Barack Obama on Palin: “Back off these kinds of stories. I have said before and I will repeat again: People’s families are off limits,” Obama said. “And people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18 and how a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn’t be a topic of our politics.”…

pH: Good stuff from Obama. Candidates can’t be held responsible for the actions of morons supporting them, but they need to disavow when their supporters cross the line.