My RNC Grab Bag: 09/01/08

Jane and Lindsay have the police-state angle covered, so for this post I’m concentrating on the other stuff:

– Doesn’t the blue elephant RNC graphic (which local CBS affiliate WCCO-TV uses on its RNC news website) remind you of a certain Great Old One?

– As you see the news reports of all the Republican luminaries graciously begging off appearing at the RNC "because of Gustav", remember that many if not most of them had made that decision well before Gustav was a blip on the radar screen.  In fact,  National Republican Congressional Committee chair Tom Cole told his fellow Republican congressional candidates to stay away back in July: 

The NRCC chief discouraged candidates from attending the national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, saying that spending days there would be a “waste of time,” and they would be better off campaigning.

– Assuming Sarah Palin shows up at the Xcel Center, you can entertain yourself by watching her televised appearance and comparing it with the tidbits cited (such as this one) at the Alaskan blog The Mudflats.  The proprietor has already bested the national media by catching Palin in a big fat lie involving the Bridge to Nowhere.

– Speaking of lying and liars, Howie Klein points out the WaPo’s showing that John McCain is lying like a rug about Obama and taxes, yet can’t quite bring itself to use the L-word to describe him and what he’s doing.  Howie also recommends that you go visit ObamaTaxCut.com to find out whether your taxes will be cut under Obama’s plan (if you’re like 95% of all Americans, the answer is "yes").  

– As you know by now, Bush and McCain have cut short their RNC appearances to do photo-ops in New Orleans.  Meanwhile, just as he did for the flooding of the Mississippi back in the spring, Obama is mobilizing his volunteers to provide aid however it is needed. I suspect that Obama’s move is the more useful one, as far as the Gulf Coast residents are concerned, and the least likely to interfere with first-responder efforts; as he says, "The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm is whether we’re drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the Secret Service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire and other departments away from concentrating on the job."  Contrast this with McCain’s refusal to cancel an Iowa flood photo-op despite being asked to do so by Iowa’s governor.

Related posts:

1. Palin’s Shot Across Pawlenty’s Bow
2. Sarah Palin Thinks Being President Would Be Awesome Because Ass-Kicking “Department of Law” Would Protect Her from Lawsuits
3. Kiss of Fail Palin Gets Un-vite, Sulks, Pouts, Prevails. Sorta.
4. Get a Grip, Wingnuts: John McCain Obsessively Quotes Mao Zedong
5. Come Saturday Morning: Is It Just Me?