SDS

I know - I read the stories too. What I'm asking for is a reasonable explanation of how this is a solely Sarah Palin driven event and not a campaign driven one that Palin didn't object to? If she didn't do the actual shopping - how exactly did she dictate the spending? Did she put money floors under all these requests?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/20...-aide-offe.html Do any of you stop to ask yourselves how she managed to do all this shopping? Seriously, don't you think she would have been noticed if SHE spent the entire day. Day after day - in the mall? If she didn't do the shopping herself - did she tell others to go out and buy x, y, and z and make sure you spend over $x? Just please provide a reasonable explanation for how she was the one spending this money, while the rest of the campaign staff had no part in it besides doing her bidding.

FWIW, it is a he said/she said situation: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/20...-aide-offe.html I can understand that someone who doesn't speak on national issues makes a verbal gaffe. The explanation given in this article is entirely plausible. Now, that isn't to say she was indeed knowledgeable on these matters, just that some internal people may had already turned on her and are now taking things out of context to paint her in the worst possible light.

He was my favorite in 90's. The dude has really changed. Supposedly, he is contemplating a run for Senate in PA.

If you could provide a more thorough discussion when you have time - that would be greatly appreciated.

Well, given my sugar momma of a wife - we don't make the cut for the Harvard deal, but Deborah has her sites on working at Johns Hopkins in about 7 years. That gets a 50% tuition break... I would still like to see your thoughts on the subject (I was thinking of you and TPS mainly when I started this). Apparently though, everyone thinks they are smarter than me.

Go crap in someone else's thread. I asked a serious question to those w/ a better understanding of economics than me.

If every student was offered a $5000 per year student loan, wouldn't the cost of tuition just raise that much faster, such that the pre-loan tuition cost and the post-loan tuition cost would just be the same?

I always pegged Obama as a fish person. You know... where he can look inside a tank and just look at wide-eyed, unblinking creatures staring back at him adoringly.

case closed.

Uhg. I guess you can blame the party for allowing others to define you, but here are the votes regarding the Patriot Act: http://educate-yourself.org/cn/patriotact2...enatevote.shtml I know a lot of people think King W decreed this, over objections of the masses, but that wouldn't be true.

Then John McCain was your guy.

Actually, I unpinned all the threads. And it had nothing to do with looking idiotic. One thread didn't have a response in 3 years. Here's a tip - don't be an ass to the people who donate their time to try and at least keep the incivility to a dull roar.

Dude, where do you think the laws of our society originated from - age old secular humanism? Where do you think laws regarding theft, marriage, murder, etc come from? Religious values formed the foundation of our society and our law.

Let's assume that NYT piece is more or less accurate. Although they didn't spend months together - the staff and McCain himself spent a decent amount of time with her. It is really hard to imagine how the conversations went w/o them being alerted to any potential shortcomings.

your partisan jabs aside, Kristol is extremely thoughtful even if you don't agree with him.

I understand that. But you would have to accept the corollary - that she did nothing. I can't believe that while being surrounded by campaign staff - all she did was lick ice cream cones and read Cosmo. I'm not defending her interviews, but I am saying that there are bona fide cowards in the McCain campaign that want to blame her for their and their own candidate's failings.

Why would that be all anyone needed to know?

you don't know this. again, these are 2nd hand reports from staffers who ran an incredibly poor campaign. Maybe she didn't prepare, but this would go against all the reports of her previous campaigns in Alaska. It doesn't pass the smell test at all.

where is this obvious? EVERY report said it was his choice and that it surprised staffers.

BTW, anyone in the McCain campaign that blames Palin is !@#$ing coward. THEY picked her and they alone bear that responsibility. But MOST importantly, if she did mean that much to the election it only speaks to John McCain's weakness as a candidate. Seriously, who the hell blames their VP choice?

I think you know that your stance here is extremely disingenuous. You know every well that if there is a law that says you HAVE to teach about marriage, then this gives them political coverage to go ahead and do that w/o parental interference. Yes, they can teach it now, but they would have to deal with the parents. I know you know this. Being this unyielding only hardens people in their stance.

Not going there. You clearly don't want to discuss the issue - you just want people to speak and then slap them down as haters/bigots who would be better off dead. Whack-a-Mole was fun at Darien Lake, but I prefer not to engage in those types of debates anymore.

I'm just saying I think the "Africa" comment is probably an exaggeration. As for the clothes thing, I don't know the context. I see you are implying a contradiction, but maybe Palin didn't ask and some other campaign official did. As a side note, your analysis on the day of the pick was spot on (the whole hail Mary thing...). Well done.

I understand. However, there are a handful of posters here who want to marginalize/trivialize the opposition to this issue as simply hate/bigotry by a fringe portion of the electorate. Clearly, it is not.