OPINION
Keeping terrorists from striking US with nukes is next president's only real goal
New York Times Sep 9, 08 12:40 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Fannie and Freddie, health-care reform, and Wasilla, Alaska, are just meaningless election “commentary” to Jeffrey Goldberg, who writes in the New York Times that nuclear terrorism is the only issue that matters. Proliferation experts say the chance of a terrorist group detonating an atomic bomb in the US could be as high as 50%. And neither candidate seems wholly prepared.
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Democrat will support charter schools, merit pay for teachers
Time Sep 9, 08 12:04 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Barack Obama will come out today in favor of merit pay for teachers, doubled federal support for charter schools, and other centrist strategies to boost American education, reports Time . In the draft of a speech he's giving in Ohio, Obama warns that teachers who fail to improve will “be replaced,” though his party is close to teachers’ unions, which have also objected to using public money to fund privately run charter schools.
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OPINION
VP pick has turned the debate away from actual issues; Obama must steer it back
Huffington Post Sep 9, 08 11:48 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Of Troopergate, the “Bridge to Nowhere,” and the other so-called scandals the left has been hoping will sully Sarah Palin’s reputation, Arianna Huffington scoffs: “who cares?” McCain-Palin will gladly take up time discussing various small lies to distract from the “big truth”: that George Bush’s terms have unleashed havoc on America, and the Republican ticket represents “4 more years of disaster.”
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OPINION
Hence the request for 'deference,' VP pick's absence from talkfests
Washington Post Sep 9, 08 10:49 AM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain knows that running mate Sarah Palin isn’t ready to be president, which is why the campaign is hiding her away and bullying journalists who investigate her, EJ Dionne argues in the Washington Post . She has yet to respond to any “serious questioning” since being nominated, a sign “McCain’s advisers clearly don’t trust Palin to answer questions.”
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OPINION
Candidates must surprise voters: Brooks
New York Times Sep 9, 08 10:40 AM CDT
(Newser)
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For the 2008 presidential candidates, “weirdness wins,” writes David Brooks in the New York Times . They soar when they surprise voters by making unusual choices, drag when they run more typical campaigns. Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton by saying he’d “cleanse the country of the baby-boom culture war mentality.” Now John McCain is the weirder one, pursuing "maverickism—against the entrenched powers and party orthodoxies."
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OPINION
Alaska shamelessly sucks money from
Lower 48, behaves
like OPEC: Kinsley
Time Sep 9, 08 9:59 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Maybe Sarah Palin is better than all the rest of us because she's a small-town hockey mom, Michael Kinsley writes in Time, but “spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative.” Palin’s state ranks first in the nation in taxes and spending per resident. The trick is that while Alaska spends lavishly on its residents, it gets most of the money from taxes on the rest of us.
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What's the etiquette for a mixed-gender ticket?
New York Times Sep 9, 08 8:00 AM CDT
(Newser)
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In 1984, Walter Mondale had a strict "hands-off" policy with running mate Geraldine Ferraro, never even putting his palm on her back when they waved to crowds. Two decades later, times have changed: John McCain and Sarah Palin have been embracing on the campaign trail, forgoing handshakes for a series of somewhat stiff hugs. But etiquette for female politicians remains delicate, reports the New York Times .
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Gains among white women give GOP momentum
Washington Post Sep 9, 08 4:24 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The John McCain/Sarah Palin ticket has all but wiped out Barack Obama's lead, according to a Washington Post /ABCNews poll. White women voters now back McCain by a 12% margin, a sharp change from Obama's 8% edge among the same voters before the conventions. They view McCain as being better able to handle the economy.
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Now that hockey moms are the hot political constituency, a closer look
Wall Street Journal Sep 8, 08 4:29 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Sarah Palin describes herself as a “hockey mom,” but in a land of soccer moms and Nascar dads, that's a less familiar life form. The Wall Street Journal looks at the predawn practices, smelly yet pricey equipment, and long-distance travel helping shape a demographic that makes twice the country’s median family income. How do hockey moms vote?
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OPINION
What some conservatives call tacit admission was subtle allusion
Chicago Tribune Sep 8, 08 4:03 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Reports that Barack Obama mistakenly revealed his “Muslim faith” in a television interview are ridiculous, Frank James writes in the Chicago Tribune . Talking with George Stephanopoulos about suggestions he is a Muslim, Obama agreed “that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith.” Stephanopoulos corrected him, saying “Christian faith,” and Obama corrected the apparent gaffe, setting conservative blogs abuzz.
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OPINION
Palin rhetoric rallies
the base, but indies care about their wallets
Guardian (UK) Sep 8, 08 12:40 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The McCain-Palin ticket is hoping to reignite the culture wars—but this time, it might not work, writes Michael Tomasky in the Guardian . While the Republicans once again drag out attacks against secular elitists on the coasts, the small towns whose "values" the GOP extols are suffering from 6.1% unemployment and high gas prices. In that atmosphere, fighting on abortion and religion is not a winning prospect.
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Opinion
Praises 'battle-tested courage' over Obama's inexperience
New York Post Sep 8, 08 8:41 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The New York Post “emphatically” endorsed John McCain today, praising the Arizona senator’s “battle-tested courage, unshakeable devotion to principle,” and national security acumen, and dismissing the “tissue-paper-thin resume” of Barack Obama. Despite decades in Washington, McCain “is not of Washington,” the Post argues, something he underscored by picking outsider Sarah Palin as his running mate: “Neither plays well with others.”
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