Reason Magazine - Staff

The Friday Political Thread: The Garden of Mutual Resentments

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:00:00 EDT

Most of the Twin Cities' temporary population packed up their suits, filed their business cards, and put wheels up at the airport early this morning. I stuck around to work and take in some of those alleged "sights" that had been separated from us by a whole lot of steel fences and a whole lot more cops. Cruising down the highway, looking for my exit, I spotted one of the boys in blue (in yellow jacket and black riot gear, if you want to get all specific) swinging his arm, directing us to move away from the exit and into the fast lane. I did. As we passed the exit, I did what the cars in front of me were doing and slid back into the slow lane.

Deja vu—I thought I saw that cop again. I did see that cop again! He was right next to me, hand-chopping and pointing like an extra in Return of the Dragon, demanding that I pull over. "Stay there!" he said. I stayed there for about 15 minutes until he came back. "Did you see me back there?" Gulp. I did. "You were not allowed to stay in this lane. I'm going to let you off. But the next officer you see, you do what he says. OK? All right?" OK, all right.

The police presence in St. Paul was striking, far more pervasive than that of Denver. While Denver's Pepsi Center was surrounded by a huge perimeter fence, nothing inside but the convention, media tents, parking, and a CNN Grill, the St. Paul XCel Energy Center (and its appendenges) were blocked off from the rest of the city with a labyrinth of gates, some opening out next to bars, some opening out onto busy streets. You could see a friend on one side of a fence and walk ten minutes to find the exit that let you join him. While you did so, cops would leer as if you were smuggling a kilo of china white stuffed inside of novelty dynamite sticks.

The cops were only nominally there to protect the speakers. Anybody worth John Wilkes Booth-ing was in D.C., "leading" on Hurricane Gustav. Mostly, the cops were there to protect us all from the protesters. It was the most absurd over-application of force since Xerxes says "screw it, how about 10 more legions?" at Thermopylae.

But that's just the way everyone liked it. The protesters were mildly put out by the fines they had to pay when they got arrested. Other than that, fantastic! They wanted to get arrested. They wanted to shame the Republicans, and failing that, to be able to say to their friends that they'd shamed the Republicans. And they fed the media. Alt weeklies and left-wing radio had a drama to uncover, ready-made proof of the police state's rottenness. Fox News, blasting from every bar and from a Blade Runner-worthy enormoscreen that leered above the security perimeter had an easy story to cut back to every day. The most surreal moment of the convention for me was walking past that screen, seeing a report on "the protesters moving towards the stadium," and seeing... nothing.

The protesters and the Paulistas were engaging in a more apparent, more low-key version of what Republicans had this week and Democrats had last week. They were acting out, proving to themselves that there's a reason for their boiling political anger. It was a little less obvious with the Democrats, if only because they're running the less pessimistic campaign this year. But you could see it in the way their candidates framed their speeches and their biographies. Joe Biden isn't the word salad-tossing blowhard who's reigned Washington since the original release of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. He's a scrappy kid from Scranton, who grits his teeth about this here Bush economy as you are every time he boards the train to work. Sarah Palin isn't an amiable social conservative with a resume shorter than that of John Edwards. She's a hockey mom! Why do you hate hockey moms?

It's never going to make sense watching a made-for-TV-event from the inside. I understand that the Clinton's solipsistic speeches, Obama's monster truck rally, and Palin's just-follow-the-script bash-o-thon played great in living rooms. Behind the cameras, you see the results of taking politics too seriously: tens of thousands of people engaging in voluntary resentment, fantasizing about the use of state power, and calling themselves part of movements.

See you in four years! Bring more flags.

And if you want to chew it over some more, consider this the weekly political thread.

Ron Paul's Surprise?

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:05:00 EDT

His Rally for the Republic was a media mixed bag: Lots of coverage, but just as much focused on the weirdest elements there as focused on the man's message and movement. So yesterday we learn that Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin has been invited to a 9/9 press conference with Paul, and today we get this:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jesse Benton
September 5, 2008

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – On the heels of his historic three-day rally in Minneapolis that drew over 12,000 attendees, Congressman Ron Paul will make a major announcement next week in Washington at the National Press Club.

More details will be announced Monday.

What's Paul going to do? Endorse Baldwin? I don't think so. I'm reliably informed that Paul has invited the top four third-party candidates—Baldwin, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader—for a joint appearance. The "major announcement" will be that he encourages voters to look beyond McPalin and Obiden. At this minute Baldwin is the only one on deck.

John McCain: The American Comment Thread Americans Have Been Waiting For

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:40:00 EDT

Document the atrocities. The convention hall could not care less about Cindy McCain until she mentions Sarah Palin. The poor volunteers who are bouncing signs at the audience, rousting up applause, can get a little relief.

The post-Cindy music:

"Johnny B. Goode" - the touching story of a low-IQ child who learned, against all odds, to play basic guitar solos.
"Celebration" - the joy that comes after a bone-grinding day of community organizing.
"Rock this Town" - a tribute to our crushing victory over the Islamists in Anbar province.

A fairly bland video (it's impossible to make parts of McCain's story bland, but that montage at the end... eh) ends and there's a weird moment as Fred Thompson's disembodied voice re-re-introduces McCain. "When you've lived in a box, your life is about ensuring others don't have to endure that box." Well, thanks!

9:16: Is it only happening in the hall, or is the screen behind Mac a sickly shade of green on your TV, too?

9:17: Someone heckles McCain: the actual heckle is inaudible where I sit, but it's quickly drowned out by a cheer of "USA!" Maybe he was chanting "USSR"?

9:20: Aha: It was members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, yelling that McCain votes against vets.

9:21: I have the speech now, and there's the expected distancing from Bush.

The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics.
...
I will work to establish good relations with Russia so we need not fear a return of the Cold War. But we can’t turn a blind eye to aggression and international lawlessness that threatens the peace and stability of the world and the security of the American people.

As I look for more, the hecklers strike back! This time it's Code Pink. "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other!" McCain says. And they scream again. This isn't bad at all for him, is it it?

9:29: When is "maverick" not a compliment?

9:31: The speech contains 34 iterations of the word "fight," which isn't actually that much for a Democratic speech. For a Republican speech, though.

9:34: Actually, go to it. Here's the speech.

Thank you all very much. Tonight, I have a privilege given few Americans -- the privilege of accepting our party’s nomination for President of the United States. And I accept it with gratitude, humility and confidence.

...

9:35: The reference to Obama "passing corporate welfare for oil companies" is the first Obama reference that doesn't draw boos. If only he'd passed welfare for community organizers.

9:39: The boos on McCain's "my opponent" section are seriously robotic. Like, outtakes from Metropolis robotic.

9:54: I've moved the whole speech to a direct link, but here's the Cause Greater part from the ending, which is stronger and more Mark Salterish than the preceding.

If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.

Stuff that has nothing to do with McCain (or Obama!) being president. I like it.

10:01: Hrm.

I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need.

So says the co-author of Character is Destiny, Hard Call, and Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Better Life.

10:11: Fully half of the balloons have yet to drop. They're being saved for Earth, Wind and Fire's "September," I think.

Dr. Buttons: Delegate, American

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:45:00 EDT

Inside the XCel Center, interviewing delegates, I walked right into New York McCainiac Frank A. Adamo, Jr., who calls himself "Dr. Buttons" because of the chestful of political flair on his medical coat. (He's a retired teacher.) I didn't expect to talk for very long, but Adamo unloaded on topic after topic and I think it's important that you hear what he had to say.

on Joe Biden

He came right out of the army, went right into politics. Been on the public tit his entire life. And he brings up tragedy? Every family has tragedy. Every family. My brother died, my wife died, my daughter had a miscarriage. Life goes on! People go on!

on Sarah Palin

Her daughter gets pregnant? Thirty-eight percent of American teenagers get pregnant out of wedlock. Thirty-eight percent of the girls in the world get pregnant out of wedlock. Come on! When my daughter was 16 years old I sweated. I sweated six years of my life. Because I was hoping that my daughter wouldn't get pregnant if she had any... activities.

on racial diversity at the convention

The local party has speakers, the local organization has speakers. They want to get exposure. They put up a minority or a woman to show these ethnic groups. A latino, a black, four or five blacks, because they want to say they're not prejudiced. Everybody's prejudiced! [ed - He grabs my arm.] Listen to me. We're Italians. Everybody's prejudiced. I was in the army. I got "you dago, you wop, you guinea wop! You carry a switchblade? You in the mafia?" And I would tell them boys, I'm from a steeltown in Pennsylvania. I remember Gettysburg, 'cause we knocked out 51,000 of you scumbags in two days. You're easy. You fuck with me and you see what the mafia's all about.

on Rudy

Rudy Giuliani! If they would've made him the drug czar, Giuliani would have rounded up all the drug dealers in five years. We know who they are. RICO Act! Destroy it. They wouldn't give him the job because they didn't want to build him up. Now Giuliani thought he could be the president. The people of this county aren't ready for Italian, and they're not ready for a black. They'll tell you yeah, they'll vote for Obama! They'll tell all the pollsters. But when they go behind the curtain, watch what happens.

It's Always 1968 Somewhere

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:50:00 EDT

When I left the University of Minnesota I paused for a second inside the May Day Book Store (est. 1975), right near campus. Nothing unsurprising there, if you've ever been to a college town. Posters of Eugene Debs, Ho Chi Minh, and Che Guevara. A big, frayed sign reading "Inside Job?" Fresh copies of books by Michael Parenti, Tom Hayden, and Tariq Ali. The Way the Wind Blew, a history of the Weathermen, up on display.

As I walked in I was handed this:

More than 400 protestors have been arrested, more than 150 charged with felonies, but the happy anarchists of the heartland are taking it all in stride. "I'm just surprised we're not getting more coverage," says Tom, holding court (I can't call him an "owner," as the store has been "proudly making no profit since 1975") at the store. "Maybe I'll buy my own TV station!"

The store's patrons ask me about Jesse Ventura at the Ron Paul rally, and what he talked about. I say he talked about himself, mostly. "That sounds like Jesse," says Tom's co-not-owner. "If he'd run for Senate I'd have voted for him anyway. Al Franken's not a peace candidate."

As I head out, a skinny college student with hair metal facial hair walks up to the counter. "Can I get a ticket for the Nader rally?"

Yes he can.

Dollar Dollar Bill, Y'All

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:18:00 EDT

I'm an auditorium in the University of Minnesota about to hear economic gurus for Barack Obama and John McCain: Austen Goolsbee, Doug Holtz-Eakin, and some unaffiliateds. It's a half-full room and I'm a few rows in front of David Broder, who is answering phone calls in the loudest indoor voice I've ever heard: "THIS IS DAVID BRODER, RETURNING YOUR CALL. I'M TALKING QUIETLY BECAUSE A SPEECH IS STARTING."

McCain's team goes first, with John Taylor subbing in for Holtz-Eakin, with a disclaimer: "These are tough times." Solution:

- Remove the penalty that firms face when they create jobs in the U.S. – "the second highest tax rate in the world."

- Prevent personal tax increases. "He does not want to raise taxes on anybody. The idea of preventing taxes increasing on personal incomes is a great way of preventing tax increases on small businesses."

- Double exemption on dependents.

- The health care tax credit.

- Don't increase marginal tax rates: Cut, if possible. "My guess is Obama would take it up to 65 percent, maybe as high as 70 percent."

- McCain's team projects that revenues will grow 5 percent a year, so they'll balance the budget by “getting off the binge we’ve been on recently” by keeping that growth at 2.5 percent.

Next up: Goolsbee.

"I disagree vehemently" with Taylor's characterization of Obama's plans.

Bush was a disaster: "He pulled the oldest page out of the playbook: We need to grow jobs and the way to do that is cut taxes and it will trickle down and create growth. And it didn’t work.”

The same people criticizing Obama attacked Clinton's tax hikes. "They were wrong." And "trickle down failed." Bush's other mistakes were "unfunded tax cuts" and "riddling the thing [the tax code] with gimmicks."

Solutions: the health care tax credit. "It is a net tax cut and it is a substantial tax cut for 95 percent of America." The only people who'd hurt would see their taxes rises to Clinton-era levels: Not a problem.

- Obama's tax policy would reduce the deficit: "McCain's policy, which Prof. Holz-Eakin witnessed from the stump, would explode the deficit."

- McCain's dependent exemption does not apply to 101 million households. “It is absolutely following the Bush playbook, pretending that the 2000s didn’t happen.”

Goolsbee mocks McCain's promise to balance the budget, as he "isn't even pretending" that he's scored spending in order to do that.”Which $800 billion a year would he cut from spending?”

Joel Slemrod gets up to critique both plans. "They can't both be right," he says. "There is no sign of fundamental tax reform from either candidate. There is no sign that either policy will address the long-term fiscal imbalance between the promises in Social Security and especially Medicare."

Slemrod attacks both candidates, McCain a little more than Obama, for not paying for everything. He really hates supply-side:"The 'starve the beast' philosophy has been decisively shown in the last administration to not be true."

The Tax Policy Center's Leonard Burman attacks both candidates for failing to simplify the code. "The tax system has become kind of a Christmas tree where most new spending is run through taxes," he says. On the health care credit: "Why is it run through the tax system? It's a voucher!"

"Ultimately, this complexity undermines support for the progressive income tax."

The panelists have all come to the same table now. Taylor dismisses Goolsbee's comparisons fo the situation in 2009 and 1993. "Bush 41 left a booming economy to Bill Clinton." Goolsbee rolls his eyes. "We have a net tax cut." "It's a NOT tax cut!" says Taylor.

Goolsbee says "the McCain tax cuts are twice as large and twice as regressive" as Bush's. Again, he says this failed: Famiy income has gone down.

Taylor pushes McCain's idea of offering people a simplified tax code as an opt-out of the current one--something we haven't heard much of. "These details need to be worked out but that is a good political way to proceed."

Goolsbee keeps needling Taylor on how McCain will pay for everything: Taylor names "victory in Iraq," stopping farm subsidies, and "the terrible problem of earmarks."

First question: Why does the McCain campaign praise Sarah Palin's Alaska oil windfall profits tax but attack Obama's. Taylor... "can't speak to it at all" Goolsbee: "I think that fairly speaks for itself."

Second question: The tax gap. Taylor agrees that it's a problem McCain will deal with. Goolsbee finds a villain: "the Republicans in Congress have blocked every attempt to close the tax gap."

Great Moments in Good Timing

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:08:00 EDT

Barack Obama finally, finally takes a stand on Detroit's natural disaster of a mayor.

Brent Colburn said in an e-mail Wednesday night "Senator Obama believes that Mayor Kilpatrick's ongoing troubles and the serious charges against him have been a distraction that the city cannot afford."

Presto!

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to a pair of felony obstruction charges on Thursday in a sex-and-misconduct scandal and will step down after months of defiantly holding onto his job leading the nation's 11th-largest city.

Kilpatrick is a massively tragic figure, elected mayor at age 31, running on the energy of a freight train, and completely sexually amoral. I've had people tell me about Kilpatrick showing up early to an a.m. meeting, clad in a purple three-piece suit, all while he was apparently setting up trysts with his chief of staff via text message. But then he did stuff like this (the fun starts at 0:56):

Related (because without Kwame dragging down the Democrats, Obama has a better chance of winning Michigan): I have found the first candidate for the Bob Herbertism I was looking for last night, from Jesse Taylor at Pandagon.

Haha, “community organizer”. Barack Obama sold mixtapes out of the back of his Cadillac, that shifty bitch.

If every reference was like that, it wouldn't be so bad.

The Bob Herbert Countdown!

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:58:00 EDT

Since the theme of the night became "small town mayor" versus "community organizer" (cue laugh track), what's the over/under on Bob Herbert—or a similar, earnestness-spurting liberal columnist—making the argument that this is racial code for which the GOP must be shame, shame, shamed? Does it happen today? Tomorrow? Do we have to wait for the Sunday papers?

It didn't occur to me at first, because I associate "community organizer" with "trust fund-happy college grad" more than I associate it with "ex-Black Panther," and I associate "small town mayor" with "season three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer." But there was a mini-eruption when the RNC called Obama a "street organizer," so the subliminals are all there, ready to be plucked.

So Big Speeches Are a Qualification, Now?

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:58:00 EDT

Let's be honest about what we saw: a woman who was thrust into the presidential race in a farce worthy of Preston Sturges, reciting a speech written by Matthew Scully, faking as hard as she could fake, and lying as fast as she could lie.

You can be certain that wherever he goes, and whoever is listening, John McCain is the same man.

This is the John McCain who grumbled about how much he hates immigration restrictionists before caving and ceasing to support his own immigration bill, yes?

I... championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress.

Says the woman who requested millions for her town and many more millions for her state.

I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves.

Not even close to true.

For six months I've heard Republicans attack Barack Obama, on point, for having nothing to offer but a bunch of speeches. Tonight they're willing to overlook the falsified spin that got her this job, the blundering lack of vetting that sealed the deal, and the telling refusal of Palin to face questions from media tougher than People.

I guess this is the GOP coming to its sense on Obama. The idea that the country would reject a charasmatic, history-making fortysomething who makes great speeches wasn't working. So they looked for their own Obama, and they think they've found her, in the crudest sense.

Sarah, Palin and Tall

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:16:00 EDT

Consider this an open thread for the first true news event of RNC2008, the second national speech by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as she accepts her party's nomination for ~~Tom Eagleton~~ vice president. Excerpts are being tossed out to hungry reporters, and if they're not exactly full of mooseburger, they're full of... something that comes out of mooses.

I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.

Yes, that's the problem: It's not that Palin's record as a reformer has proven as durable as an oragami mountain bike. Just an excerpt, of course, but from talking to Republicans all day this looks like the hill they're going to die on: Any attack on St. Palin of Wasilla is a product of sexism, media elitism, or both, or more.

We've been promised some attacks on Obama, but what we have so far reads weak.

Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.

I don't quite get that. Obama, if elected, will change things, just not in any way that we'd like. She punches a bit harder in her biography.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.

Effective! But I'd bet Palin's town got more lucre from taxpayers.

UPDATE: Delegates are buzzing about that "community organizer" line, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Obama wrapped up his community organizer days in 1988, when he went to Harvard Law. He was registering voters in 1992, the year he started teaching at the University of Chicago. So Palin's arguing that she had as much experience in 2006 as Obama did the year that Wayne's World came out.

9:38: I was worried that Palin's gender politics wouldn't do the trick, but the pandering to parents of children with special needs? That's the ticket.

9:42: The GOP-approved signs in the arena are far too samey, and all obviously drawn by the same people. PALIN POWER in bold, straight letters. HOCKEY MOMS FOR (or 4) PALIN in fun, slanty letters.

9:45: First Gov. Lingle attacks Delaware, then Republican delegates literally shake their fists at me (at all the media, actually) and yell "Shame on you!" I may not write that $2300 check to McCain after all.

9:50: "I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that Bridge to Nowhere." This is slightly off. She said "thanks," and then it became unpopular, so she said "no thanks."

9:52: Fast forward! Later in the speech, Palin will fire a series of attacks at Obama. It's sort of jarring on the page... I suppose she's being cast as the champion of humility, standing against the arrogance of St. Barack.

This is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.
...
When the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan?
...
Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?
...
They're the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.

A challenge: Name two McCain-written laws that have been enacted. McCain-Feingold is one.

My Reflection, Dirty Mirror

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:51:00 EDT

The first spontaneous chant of the night is "ZERO!" said in response to Hawaii Gov. Linda "Wait, who?" Lingle's attack on Obama and Biden for having "zero experience." It's... pathetic. Trust me, Republicans, you don't want to peel that onion. Romney could sell his business record and work in Massachusetts. Palin cannot spend two months selling her experience as mayor of a town the size of Mayberry.

Lingle's a treasure trove of ridiculous, stadium-rousing lines. "The last time I checked, Alaska had the same number as electoral votes as Delaware!" And you can fit a lot of other states in it!

Rudy Giuliani's doing a bit better, turning "community organizer" into a slur and hitting the Surge as a rallying point.

Huck!

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:22:00 EDT

The younger, thinner Man from Hope is gearing up to speak now. He's slated to attack Obama with lines like this:

Maybe the most dangerous threat of an Obama presidency is that he would continue to give madmen the benefit of the doubt. If he’s wrong just once, we will pay a heavy price.

It's a good choice. He plays attack dog better, and more forgiveably, than most of the people who'll take this stage. I'm still waiting for some speaker to broaden the attacks from policy to the Obama scandals that are ripped and rended every night on Fox News. Will Huck finally bring up Rev. Jeremiah Wright?

Huck's Europe-bashing is meeting a completely bored room. There's no reaction to the attacks on the continent until Huck says Americans "want less government." A big change from the popularity of France-bashing of '04, I think.

A huge reaction to the Wassila, AK line: "She got more votes running for mayor than Joe Bide got running for president." Except I don't think that's true. In 1996, Palin 616 votes to her opponent's 413 votes. And the Iowa caucus eliminates people who don't get 15 percent in the first round, so no one knows how many votes Biden got. And if winning elections is a qualification, than Obama is as qualified as McCain. And, and... the GOP has no clue about how to defend Palin.

Mitt!

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:07:00 EDT

His expectedly oily speech is going on right now, so comment away. I'm struck again by how much this Massachusetts governor loathes the east coast.

Three Cheers for... Something Else!

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:06:00 EDT

We're in the run-up to the big speeches, when speakers like Dr. Elena Rios of the Hispanic Medical Association are prodded onstage with a half-hearted "knock 'em dead, kid" to address an uninterested audience. Rios, though, was entertainingly off-message. By the year 2032, she said, minorities will make up a majority of our population! Dead silence. John McCain understands this! Yet more silence. Then, when Rios warned the crowd about the high rate of AIDS in non-white women, higher than it is among white women, a small roar of applause went up on the left of the stage. Sen. Bob Dole was walking the floor, saying hi.

Bob Barr Can Think of Somebody More Qualified Than Palin

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:58:00 EDT

I ran into Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr at the Xcel Center and asked what he thought of the Sarah Palin nomination and what it meant for his campaign.

reason: Are you more qualified for the presidency than Sarah Palin?

Bob Barr: Absolutely. That takes nothing away from her. She may have been a very good governor, these last two years, of Alaska. She may have been the very best mayor that Wasilla, Alaska has ever had. That is not the same as having two degrees in international relations, having worked in foreign intelligence for a number of years, working as a U.S. attorney, spending eight years in the Congress, and having lived overseas. That's a higher level of development and understanding of foreign relations. I have it. She doesn't.

reason: What do you make of her actual record as mayor and as governor? McCain has presented her as a fellow maverick, but we've learned that she requested multiple earmarks, supported the Bridge to Nowhere...

Bob Barr: If McCain claims that he picked her because "she's a maverick, just like me," then she's not a maverick. Because he's not a maverick. I think he basically traded some short-term political gain for the long-term interests of the country.

Free Paulistine!

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:40:00 EDT

It just ain’t fair. Last week you could prowl the streets of Denver for hours and not find a PUMA—a Hillary Clinton diehard who’d pledged her heart and blog to John McCain. Flip on the TV, though, and there they were. This week you can’t take 50 steps without seeing some physical evidence of the Ron Paul campaign, which as far as most people know ended months ago. There they are, holding up signs at the Xcel Center security perimeter. There they are, marching in an anti-war rally. But the cameras are always somewhere else.

A little bit of media love finally arrived on Tuesday, however, as Paul backers swarmed into Minneapolis for the immaculately planned, heavily promoted "Rally for the Republic." Ten thousand tickets were sold for what would be the final Paul event of the campaign. The man’s supporters had finally sorted out their Republican convention credentials, and dozens of them walked smiling past the Timberwolves and Alicia Keys signs of the Target Center, jangling their holographic “delegate” badges. The thousands of other ticket-holders had flown (or just as often, driven) in from all parts of the country for a final election-year salute to Paul—and for the launch of the Campaign for Liberty, Paul’s 501c4 that’s actually been humming for a few months.

”We’re fixing everything that’s been going wrong in the country since the banks took over in 1913,” said Fred Brown, a North Carolinian sporting a “Veterans for Peace” cap. He’d signed up in a political training seminar two days before this, attended a picnic and concert yesterday, and then watched all eight hours of Paul’s mega-rally. “Seven months ago I was just a November voter, and now I want to take back the Republican Party.”

That was one man’s opinion, close enough to the theme of the rally. Organizers handed out calligraphied signs that read “Taking the GOP back to its ROOTS!” John Tate of the Campaign for Liberty explained that the group will not endorse against incumbent Republicans, but will aid the efforts Paul-ish Republicans in open primaries. (Paul’s endorsement of Alaska Rep. Don Young, according to Tate, had nothing to do with the CfL.) The stated mission from the stage was safe and mundane, a gold-and-silver-centric version of a Club for Growth party.

Again: That was what the Campaign for Liberty was saying. The other speakers and sponsors were not so chaste. They gave the roughly 10,000 people in the Target Center what they wanted. Outside the hall, the John Birch Society set up a sprawling, high-tech booth advertising its campaign to link Paul and JBS founder Robert Welch: “Two Leaders, One Cause.” The Constitution Party passed out information on its presidential ticket inside the hall, with CP founder Howard Phillips comparing “the threat of the North American Union” to “the war of Northern Aggression.” The publisher of the best-named fringe newspaper, USA Tomorrow, appeared in the hall’s massive screen to hawk his products, as bushels of copies sat around the arena. “We run the news the good ol’ boys won’t print,” he said, with a 10-foot high smirk.

Here were the reporters, finally covering the Paul movement. Here’s what they were covering: Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, a vision in a yellow T-shirt and blue blazer, aired 9/11 conspiracy theories while reporters rushed to get comments from attendees. (I walked past a New York Times reporter who was quizzing two Paul backers about controlled demolitions.)

That pissed some people off. “I think the 9/11 Truth Movement as we knew it in 2006 and 2007 is dead,” said Justin Martell, a Franklin Pierce college student who’d spent much of 2007 showing up at New Hampshire candidate rallies asking about a new investigation. "We need to focus on the bigger picture, on issues like Iraq." The 9/11 truth issue roiled a number of attendees. “I might even be sympathetic to it,” said Paul voter Mike Reineke, “but I’m from New York, and that’s a touchy subject that you don’t want to talk to voters about.”

It was unavoidable. The Rally for the Republic was a crystallizing moment for the Ron Paul Nation. Without the focus of presidential debates or voter mail or TV ads, the congressman has become the latest Leader of the Fringe, a pop-political icon for all things outré. The job used to belong to Jesse Ventura. Before that it belonged to the person Ventura talked about the most, Ross Perot. On Thursday, Ventura will speak at a “super-rally” for perpetual candidate Ralph Nader, who wants to be included in presidential debates in part because he’s Ralph Nader and in part because he, too, used to be Leader of the Fringe.

Of course, there wasn't (and isn't, and won’t be until he croaks) anything libertarian about Ralph Nader’s campaign. There was romping anti-government rhetoric on tap at the Target Center, however, from Grover Norquist (who called pro-tax Republicans “rat heads in coke bottles”) and from the ex-candidate himself. Anti-war paleocon Bill Kauffman gave the best-phrased speech, patriotically libertarian, limned with jokes about pro-war Republicans: “Locating the antiwar wing of today’s Republican Party is like looking for the Juice Newton wing in the rock and roll hall of fame.” Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson gave the least far-fetched speech, full of references to decriminalized drugs and vetos he'd delivered, but it got less applause than, for example, Bircher John McManuses' buffet of red meat. (In solidarity with his base, Johnson delivered the speech with lots of distracted laughter.)

Paul’s speech wasn’t as hotly anticipated as, say, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s effort to prove she’s not the new Tom Eagleton will be tonight. “I’ve heard most of this before,” said Ronald Cadby, a transplanted Tennessean wearing a Santa Claus cap. References to legal marijuana got as much applause as attacks on the North American Union. But Paul debuted an affecting argument in his speech. He’d been preceded by singer Aimee Allen (a punky, libertarian Gwen Stefani-alike) who played back to back renditions of her song “Revolution.” (“We don’t want world government/and the Bilderberg Group that pays for it.”) Paul had requested that she play Buffy Sainte-Marie’s folk song “The Universal Soldier,” about the canon fodder summoned by every war-happy leader in history to make pointless conflicts.

”I used to be the universal soldier,” Paul said. No more rhetoric about how many “troops” had given money to his campaign: The armor clanked off. “We need to replace the universal soldier with the universal campaigner for liberty.”

Still, despite the weirdness of Paul's movement, and despite the fact that it can be so easily pigeonholed by the fringers trying to exploit it, it is still, at its core, a libertarian campaign. But the odder it gets, the less the GOP worries about it.

David Weigel is an associate editor of reason.

Wanna Grow, Grow Up to Be, Be a Debater

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:33:00 EDT

I think the one-day burst of enthusiasm about Sarah Palin has been fading here, if only among the pundit class. The new, new optimism centers on the presidential debates, where people expect two things to happen.

1) Barack Obama will get lost without his speeches and teleprompter and throw a debate to McCain.

2) Joe Biden will blunder into insulting Sarah Palin and she will mount a spirited, surprisingly knowledgeable counterrattack.

The first theory has some evidence behind it; radio host Guy Benson pointed me to stories of Obama needing a teleprompter with talking points even during a town hall meeting. It's an accepted truism here that Obama is a terrible, lightweight debater who lost every showdown with Hillary Clinton. This seems like spin: Obama's actually a perfectly adequate debater who lost every showdown with Clinton, and who doesn't get frazzled unless he's asked about one of his old political associations. The lucky thing for him is that our modern Commission on Presidential Debates fora don't go into that territory: If 270 minutes pass and Obama is never asked about Bill Ayers or Tony Rezko, he's home free.

As for Palin... look, at this point it's shredding McCain's straight talk image whenever someone from his campaign puts on an earpiece and pretends she's a decent VP pick. To wit:

For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.

Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.

The Washington Independent's Laura McGann is in Palin's home town, uncovering stuff like her sentiments about being mayor ("it's not rocket science") and the fact that McCain's team, all spin to the contrary, had no idea what the hell they were getting into. So it's too early to assume Palin won't be a disaster in a debate, too.

Twin City Rockers

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:59:00 EDT

Like Cap'n Ed Morrissey, I was an honored guest at James Lileks' 50th birthday bash, a well-catered, well-valeted, and surprisingly frigid (or not: this is Minnesota) event co-sponsored by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. A giant banner of Lileks was pinned up on a tent for guests to sign: Dave Barry signed on his forehead.

The special musical guest was John "Five for Fighting" Ondrasik, a purveyor of what the kids call Norwegian Black Metal, I think. He sat down at a piano and played some of his hits, rewriting the occasional lyrics to pay tribute to his host, as in the opening of "100 Years.": "I'm fifty, for a moment." In between songs, Ondrasik talked about the fun he was having at the RNC. "My wife and I were walking into the convention," he remembered, "and got delayed by some... 'peace' protestors." Knowing laughs from the crowd (Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Glenn Reynolds). "They were chanting 'John McCain, 100 years! John McCain, 100 years!' And I thought, 'that sounds all right!'" He waxed about playing at military bases in places that the United States had liberated, like Guam, and wondered what the Middle East would be like if we finished the job of liberation and reform. Hopefully, "somebody will be playing this song in Iraq in 100 years."

Ondrasik was sensitive about talking politics in front of so many bloggers, so he joked at his own expense. "Musicians are some of the last people you should take political advice from," he said, slightly above convicted felons. He played an encore of "Superman" and waved off stage. "Let's elect John McCain, people!"

The Coming of Vinegar Joe

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:22:00 EDT

As the McCain-Juno ticket has slipped in the polls, my mind keeps a-wanderin' back to Joe Lieberman. How awful is his life going to be come January, when Democrats win enough Senate seats to stop humoring him? How much worse will it be if Barack Obama is in the White House? Pretty bad, I'd expect. So Joe's speech, leaking out to press now, isn't too hard on the man from Hope. It's mostly praise for the man who plays Moe to his Larry, like:

God only made one John McCain, and he is his own man.

Unfortunately he only made half of Joe Lieberman before moving on to something more interesting.

If John McCain was just another go-along partisan politician, he never would have led the fight to fix our broken immigration system or to do something about global warming.

But he did!

Did... what, though? Yes, bills were written and speeches were made, but no McCain bills were signed into law on either of those issues. McCain's bills became unpopular, so he started talking about "enforcement first" on immigration and "drilling here and now" through caribou skulls into Alaskan tundra.

I ask you whether you are an Independent, a Reagan Democrat or a Clinton Democrat, or just a Democrat: This year, when you vote for President, vote for the person you believe is best for the country, not for the party you happen to belong to.

They're doing that already. That's the problem!

Ron Paul's Rally: Hot Rumor of the Day

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:06:00 EDT

MINNEAPOLIS - The big hubbub in the hall of the Target Center is that the GOP will suspend the rules in St. Louis and hold its presidential nomination right now, while the small number of Paul delegates are tied up. Jason Littlejohn of Lives in the Balance ran over to the press table to inform us that a Hope for America Coalition director was in the XCel Center, frantically calling about the rule change and screw-over. "They don't want any 'nay' votes," said Paul Nevada delegate Arden Osborne.

As I was typing, an announcer took the stage mic to warn the delegates about a possible rush to the XCel Center.

UPDATE: At RP's war room, the word is: Calm. The delegates are staying here. "We think it's a political trick to clear out the rally," says Paul ally Doc Meder. "We're staying put."

That was a fun six minutes, though.

UPDATE: Doc steered me wrong! John Tate of the Campaign for Liberty says that the delegates and alternates just went to the XCel Center to cast voice votes. Tate headed up to the main stage to announce the availabilty of "about 500 floor seats" in the front of the arena.

Ron Paul's Rally: The Speeches

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:40:00 EDT

MINNEAPOLIS - I have never heard political speeches like these. Obviously a feature of the Ron Paul campaign was the interminable, free-form rhetoric of the man himself. No matter what crowd he was in front of—pot-lovin' college kids, fetus-lovin' religious conservatives—Paul would speak for 40 minutes about gold, Iraq, medical privacy, civil liberties, and non-intervention. And the Fed. Chatting with me and reason.tv superstar Dan Hayes, near the stage here, MC Tucker Carlson went on about how surprised he was at passion for the gold standard and anger at the Fed, cropping up at every Paul event.

So that same spirit of randomness is on display here. Speakers have been chosen for their celebrity within the Pauloverse, not their speakifyin' abilities. Lew Rockwell, introduced to cheers of "LEWWWWW!", weighed forth in an angry monotone about George Bush's attempt to "create an authoritarian government," and compared non-resistance to non-resistance during the "Stalin, Hitler, and Mao administrations." Author Bill Kauffman, pure swagger in khakis, joked about how Robert Taft would be pilloried if he showed up to the XCel Center. "They'd choke him with pages from a Mitt Romney speech!" he said. "Or worse! They'd make him LISTEN to a Mitt Romney speech!" One liners tumbled forth: "John McCain is more concerned with the Georgia of Joseph Stalin than the Georgia of Ray Charles." He started to sing a few bars: "Hit the roa-a-ad, jack..."

There was a special guest slotted at the time that we were interviewing Carlson, as he would be the first speaker NOT introduced by Carlson. He was John McManus, a John Birch Society board member who fed the crowd red meat. The Birchers are heavy into this: Rev. Steven Craft, who lectures for JBS on sexual morality, told me that Paul's been good for them. "Ron Paul, the Constitution Party, and the John Birch Society see eye to eye," he said. Both of those groups are sponsors of this event, while the LP just has a booth.

But like I said: Random. The Birch booth wasn't much more crowded than any other booth. McManus was followed by Bruce Fein, who gave the same high-strung lecture on civil liberties he makes at every ideologically compatible forum (with metaphors like "trying to get sunlight from a cucumber"). And as Nick Gillespie noted from reason World HQ, Jesse Ventura tried to draft the crowd into his 2012 presidential non-campaign.

Ron Paul's Rally: Kirchick Bait

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:58:00 EDT

MINNEAPOLIS - Yes, that's a brochure for the John Birch Society, festooned with Paul quotes in favor of the group and advertising his coming appearance at their convention. No kookery has been turned away from the Target Center, and you can pick up merch from the late Aaron Russo's Restore the Republic (like his film From Freedom to Fascism) to copies of USA Tomorrow (cover story: "Two Innocent and Patriotic Citizens Dodge 64 IRS Lethal Bullets in a Triumph for Justice and the American Way").

This stuff stands out in an otherwise boisterous, busy rally, with a surprising number of reporters, bloggers like Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald, and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr was mobbed outside talking to sign-waving Paul people.

The content of the speeches: All over the map. I walked into the arena to hear Constitution Party founder Howard Phillips demand that Paul backers nail down John McCain "and Barack Hussein Obama" over the North American Union. "This is the biggest threat to our liberty since the war of Northern Aggression," he rumbled. But he was followed up by presidential historian Doug Wead, waxing kindly about how nice young people are and how Paul "spoke up for me" at the debates.

But back to that brochure. It's truly weird to see a (former) presidential candidate photoshopped into a photo of Robert Welch* by people who like him.

*Fixed this.

Nation Celebration, All Across the... Country

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:18:00 EDT

There's the scene last night at the tail-end of the Ron Paul Nation Celebration, the kick-off to today's Rally for the Republic. I missed all but Rockie Lynne's closing blast of country-rock songs refitted with Ron Paul lyrics and B.J. Lawson's introduction of the man, the legend. "Does this look like the end of a revolution to you," Lawson said, "or does it look like the beginning?" The cheer rang forth: "THE BEGINNING!"

The crowd was a fraction (maybe one-quarter) of the number expected to rally in Minneapolis today. At the front of the arena, Paul's musical supporters like Aimee Allen and Lynne signed home-made posters and took photos with fans next to a table of Ron Paul merch. Inside, people who'd last seen each other in New Hampshire or Iowa or Pennsylvania hugged and swapped stories. I ran into Arden Osborne, a Nevada Republican web designer who was brandishing his GOP delegate credentials. A compromise has been made, and four Paul delegates will be voting for the silver state. But "we're not going to nominate Ron Paul," Osborne said. He only hopes they get fair time on the floor: "You have to jump through 15 hoops to get to a microphone."

On the way out I walked past another merch table selling stuff like the Freedom Calender ("Large print wall calender displays and explains the Bill of Rights... the Best Educational Tool in over 200 Years.") and past a fleet of cars with Paul stickers, Barr stickers, soaped-up sloganeering windows ("HONK FOR RON!") and more:

Boing!

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:59:00 EDT

If the cliche that "the guy leading in the polls on Labor Day wins" holds out, say hello to President Obama. USA Today/Gallup:

In the head-to-head race between the candidates, Obama now leads 50 percent-43 percent among registered voters. In the USA TODAY poll taken Aug. 21-23, the Illinois senator held a four-point lead.

CBS News:

Obama and his running mate Joe Biden now lead McCain and Sarah Palin 48 percent to 40 percent.

CNN sees the race moving from a 47/47 tie to a functional tie with Obama up one. All the polls bring good news for Democrats: Obama way up on "who can handle the economy," tied on Iraq, down in unexperienced, leading McCain on strong leader. I don't see the Palin pick changing that for McCain. If the argument for Palin is that she is as or a little more experienced than Obama, that doesn't change the fact that she was the first major pick McCain has made. Given the same choice, Obama went for a stolid 36-year senator over wet-behind-the-ears types like the governor of Virginia.

I saw the new polls while having [well, not] lunch [but whatever 3:34 p.m. Thai food could be designated] with some Colorado McCain delegates. They shrugged it off.

"The debates are going to matter," delegate Summer Vanderbilt said. "What's going to happen when the Democrats find their candidate can't speak without a teleprompter?"

Vanderbilt told me she'd gotten Ron Paul supporters' DVDs in the mail, encouraging her to switch her vote in the convention hall. "I'm a very conservative Republican," she said. "Not a libertarian."

I do think the polls underrate how much happier the base is, post-Palin.

This is the Way, Step Inside

dweigel@reason.com (David Weigel) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:55:00 EDT

The road inside the MSP (as us locals call it) convention is easier than the one inside the Denver convention. The reasons: more security gates, better organization, and, of course, less of a convention. With no one quite sure what the bill is going to be, until Gustav blows itself out, delegates and reporters walked in early in the afternoon just to get a sense of the logistics and to meet up with each other.

I walked into the main security gate on the west of the stadium as Maurice, see here, held up his Ron Paul signs. How long had he been here? "Since this morning." How many people had talked to him about Paul? "You're the first."

I did not meet any Paul delegates: the Paul agenda, unlike the main RNC agenda, is unaffected by Gustav. (Maybe this is why?) I did stroll through the XCel center gawking at and and talking to Republican delegates,
shuddering Ralph Steadman creations, all varicose veins and spite. Most everyone was in a hurry, although Oklahoma party committeewoman Bunny Chambers had camped out in a nice location handing out "STOP Obama Express" stickers to delegates, who went out of their way to grab them. "Sean Hannity says Stop Obama!" Every three or four people who took one asked: "Is he here?"

The extremely long and wide perimeter made access to today's war protests difficult, but I got through after about 15 minutes of searching.