Biden on Swine Flu

Can Joe Biden just please shut up?  He fades from the picture — I haven’t heard anythng about or from him in weeks, it seems — and then pops up with something like this:

I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that it’s going to Mexico, it’s you’re in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway.

This, right after President Obama said all the sensible things last night.  Avoid the subways?  President Obama said that we should be calm about this — concerned, but not alarmed.  Has Biden gone ’round the bend?

People in this country are just looking for a reason to panic.  And this is a story that the media are hyping beyond belief already.  Can’t he see that he just adds to that with comments like these?  Mr. Vice President, please, close your mouth.

We’ve already been told how to deal with this.  Wash hands.  Stay home if you’re sick.  Don’t go to work for a couple of days if you’ve been exposed.  Make business contingency plans to keep the business going if someone important gets sick. 

It’s the flu.  It’s not a joke, but people get the flu all the time.  People die from the flu all the time, too — about 30,000 a year.  The government seems to be on top of it and seems to be taking sensible measures in dealing with a potentially widespread flu. 

The point is that we don’t need — or want — the hype.  The media need to tone it down a bit.  Spending ten or so minutes of airtime in am hour-long local broadcast and front page stories with huge headlines does not try to tone down the hype.  Take some sensible precautions, and we’ll be fine.

More on the Palin Clothes Flap

It’s funny trying to watch some right wing bloggers try to defend the Republican National Committee for spending $150,000 on Sarah Palin’s clothes.  It’s indefensible.  Some Republican donors agree; some are quite angry and, frankly, want their money back from the RNC.

From RedState:

Now the Obamunist media is upset over the shopping spree the RNC sent the Palin family on soon after John McCain named Alaska’s governor as his running mate. The talking heads among them won’t dare mention that their own fancy threads are freebies, btw.

My search engine was unable to find a price tag for Sen. Obama’s Hartmarx suits and Michelle’s Maria Pinto dresses for their DNC convention appearances. Suits similar to the ones made for BHO go for $1,500 off the rack, but these were custom-made threads, not off the rack fare. Custom-tailored suits can easily ring up at $5,000 each or more. The Burberry suits that make up the bulk of Obama’s wardrobe start at about $900 per.

The difference is simple.  It’s not about the price of the clothes.  It’s about who paid for them.  Barack Obama paid for his clothes himself.  So did Joe Biden.  John McCain, I presume, paid for his with Cindy’s money.  But the Republican National Committee took donated dollars and used them to buy clothes for Sarah Palin. 

Another thing: Those clothes constitute a taxable gift to Sarah Palin. 

From AmericaBlog:

As you know, the Republicans bought Sarah Palin $150,000 in clothes last month – that’s more than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. That’s also a gift. And it’s a taxable gift. It doesn’t matter if it’s for work. And it doesn’t matter if the Republicans now say they’re going to donate the clothes to charity after it’s over.

Sarah Palin can’t accept $150,000 dollars in goods, use them, then later give them away to charity and not pay taxes on the gift she received. By the time she gives them away to charity, they’re used clothes – and worth about 1/3 of their original value. So, sure, she can take a tax deduction on the $50,000 in clothes she’s giving away (a savings of perhaps $15k or so), but she still has to pay $50k or so in taxes on the $150,000 gift she received in the first place. That means Palin will owe $35,000 net in taxes due to her big shopping spree at Neiman Marcus and Saks. And the Republicans can’t help her pay for it, or she’ll be paying taxes on their help as well.

Of course, Palin is no stranger to failing to report her taxable income – she did the same thing while serving as governor of Alaska.

Obviously, AmericaBlog’s tax bill numbers are speculation.  But they’re conservative estimates.  She has some tax problems now.

Also, I should have put this in my post yesterday on this: The RNC’s purchase of clothes violates the spirit (but not the letter) of the McCain-Feingold Act.  Isn’t that ironic?

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Receiving more than $150,000 in clothing and accessories from the Republican National Committee last month doesn’t just run counter to Gov. Sarah Palin’s image as a “Wal-Mart Mom from Wasilla,” it also might have violated the spirit if not the letter of a campaign finance law co-authored by her running mate, Sen. John McCain.

The 2002 McCain-Feingold law prohibits funds that “are donated for the purpose of supporting the activities of a federal or state officeholder” from being used for personal expenses, including clothing, but it doesn’t preclude party committees from doing so.

McCain’s response on the topic, also from the Chronicle:

Presidential candidate John McCain isn’t happy about having to explain why the Republican Party has had to buy running mate Sarah Palin $150,000 in clothes, hair styling and accessories.

McCain was asked several questions on Thursday about the shopping spree — and he answered each one more or less the same way: Palin needed clothes and they’ll be donated to charity.

McCain offered no further comment, except to say that the Republican National Committee doesn’t buy his clothes.

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Another Biden Gaffe

Well, Joe Biden certainly is consistent.  I know Obama knew that Biden — for all his expertise and experience — was prone to tickling his tonsils with his toenails. 

He stuck his foot in it again yesterday with comments that Obama would be tested within six months of taking office.  He’s probably 100 percent correct.  But that doesn’t mean it needs to be said on the campaign trail, where the opposition is just waiting to pounce on something that doesn’t sound quite right.  Especially when one of McCain’s main (legitimate) line of attack is on Obama’s experience.  The McCain campaign certainly jumped on this.

From The Caucus:

BELTON, Mo. — Senator John McCain freshened up his criticism of Senator Barack Obama as too untested to be president on Monday and, seizing on remarks by Senator Joseph I. Biden that an international crisis was coming, said that Mr. Obama would have to lean on others to handle it.

A day after Mr. Obama was endorsed by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell as a candidate who was ready for the military, political and economic challenges facing the United States, Mr. McCain said that it would be far too risky to have Mr. Obama in the White House.

He then asserted that Mr. Biden, Mr. Obama’s running mate, had told campaign donors on Sunday night that in a crisis, supporters of Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden “would have to stand with them because it wouldn’t be apparent that Senator Obama would have the right response.”

Mr. Biden, according to remarks recorded and transcribed by ABC News from a fund-raiser in San Francisco, said this:

“Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.’’

Mr. Biden added: “And the kind of help he’s going to need is, he’s going to need you — not financially to help him — we’re going to need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not going to be apparent initially, it’s not going to be apparent that we’re right.”

Mr. McCain, speaking to a crowd in a high school athletic field outside Kansas City, responded: “Just last night, Senator Biden guaranteed – he guaranteed – that if Senator Obama is elected,’’ the county “will have an international crisis to test America’s new president. We don’t want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars.’’

Mr. McCain continued: “What is more troubling is that Senator Obama told their campaign donors that when that crisis hits, they would have to stand with them because it wouldn’t be apparent that Senator Obama would have the right response.’’ (Mr. McCain evidently meant to say that “Senator Biden” told campaign donors about the coming crisis, as the prepared text of his remarks indicated.)

I don’t think it’ll make much difference in the end.  But Biden needs to watch it a bit more.  This kind of thing doesn’t need to be said for several reasons: it gives McCain ammunition to use, and it also may give some people ideas.

Obama may be light on practical experience.  That’s not a problem in itself.  Bill Clinton was light on foreign policy experience.  McCain clearly does have the practical experience, his own gaffes notwithstanding (examples: He forgot the difference between Sunni and Shiite, and today he said he would let Osama bin Laden go if he had him in his sights).  Where Obama makes up the lack of experience is his intellect and his thoughtfulness.  He’s smart enough to ask the right questions and thoughtful enough not to go off half-cocked, the way Bush did and the way McCain promises to with the way his anger simmers.

Racism? Sexism?

I came across this really interesting video today on Youtube.  Very topical.  It’s a great sampling of voters and their attitudes.  There are smart people, and some people that you really wonder about.

More on McCain’s Melanoma

I remain quite concerned about McCain’s melanoma, particularly in light of who he chose to be his running mate.  We — the public — simply need to know more.  (In fact, we need to see all the candidates’ medical records, as I’ve said before.)

From AmericaBlog:

A dermatologist of 35 years weighs in on the unanswered questions surrounding McCain’s cancer

The doctor has been practicing dermatology for 35 years.

As a dermatologist, I’m particularly troubled by the lack of information that has been released by the McCain campaign about the malignant melanoma, or skin cancer, that was removed from McCain’s left temple in 2000. I have spent considerable time researching this issue in an effort to compile complete information about McCain’s lesion, to no avail. While I have been able to obtain some information, I have to the inexorable conclusion that critical information about this potentially deadly cancer remains missing from the public record.

This is what I have been able to learn: McCain has had four melanomas. Three of these were “in situ,” i.e., very superficial, caught at the earliest stage they can be detected, and of no threat if removed upon discovery. However, the left temple melanoma at issue here, which was excised from an area of relatively thin skin, was described as being a Stage 2A lesion that was 2cm, 2.2mm in diameter. Further, it was HMB-45 and S-100 positive; these are special stains, which, if positive confirms the diagnosis of melanoma skin cancer. Despite finding this information, I could find no mention of the Breslow level of the lesion, which describes the depth of the lesion related to the micro-anatomy of the skin, nor could I find any or data about ulceration, mitotic rate, or other common markers that help determine a patient’s prognosis after a serious episode such as McCain’s in 2000. Because all of this data is a part of the standard pathology report about any melanoma, I can only conclude that the actual pathology report for this skin cancer was not released last spring, when reporters were allowed a few hours to review over 1,000 selected pages from McCain’s medical records. The absence of this information is very troubling as this lesion still has significant potential to be life-threatening.

The prevailing statistics suggest a 10 year survival rate of 65% from malignant melanoma. “For patients with a melanoma like Mr. McCain’s who remained free of the disease the first five years after the diagnosis, the probability of recurrence during the next five years was 14% and death 9%.” (Lawrence K. Altman, MD, NY Times, March 3, 2008).

Remember, however, that the true depth of McCain’s lesion in the thin skin of the temple (Breslow level) is not known. Thus, the potential for metastasis (that is, spreading of the skin cancer to internal organs) cannot be determined without more information. This information must have been available to his surgeons and given that McCain had a sentinel node biopsy evaluation (reported as negative) and the removal of an unknown number of lymph nodes from the left neck, (all also reported as negative for melanoma), it strongly suggests that the information his surgeons gave them cause for concern. The steps they took were are common unless there is a real concern about the possibility of spread at the time of biopsy. Metastases in melanoma may bypass the regional lymph nodes in any case.

Given the office he seeks and, particularly, his choice of running mate, the stated odds will be unacceptable to a significant number of voters.

The American public has every right to complete disclosure and an open discussion of McCain’s potentially catastrophic health history.

Beyond the right to a complete disclosure, we have a need to know.  Sarah Palin is less qualified than Dan Quayle was.  Why aren’t the media asking questions about this?  Why aren’t the media repeatedly asking for Palin’s, Obama’s, and Biden’s medical records as well as McCain’s?  This is a critical point.  The media need to get busy on this one.  Only 28 days left.

More Debate Thoughts

I wanted to come back to the debate a bit after I’ve slept on it and read a little news about it.

• As I said last night, both candidates stayed on message and obeyed the “first, do no harm” maxim.
• Sarah Palin outright ignored questions and rebuttal and plowed ahead with what she wanted to say, an admirable debate tactic.
• Joe Biden is competent and knows his stuff.  I would feel comfortable with him as president.
• I still would not feel comfortable with Sarah Palin as president, the least of which is my philosophical and ideological differences with her.
• Gwen Ifill — pro that she is — failed us last night.  She did not follow up on questions that Palin, especially, simply sidestepped and talked about something else.  That allowed Palin — and Biden — to stay on message and not be rattled.
• Palin, astonishingly, still does not know what the vice president does and what his or her duties are.  The vice president’s duties as defined in the Constitution don’t make a long list.  Basically, that person presides over the Senate and casts a tie-breaking vote, should the Senate be deadlocked.  And, that person is president in waiting, should the president become incapacitated, resign, or die.
• Biden does know what the vice president does.
• Palin does not get it, in regards to foreign policy.  The learning curve is still steep.  She doesn’t — to me — show much more understanding of domestic issues.
• Palin repeatedly tried to cast McCain — and herself — as a maverick and a change agent.  I don’t think those arguments resonate with voters anymore.  Obama has stuck to the change message for two years.  McCain has come to it late.
• Biden didn’t seem to suffer from “brain flatulence” last night.  He did get a little senatorial from time to time, but that’s who he is.
• I liked Biden’s show of emotion last night, when talking about his first wife (who was killed years ago in a car accident).  It was genuine, and the women in the room with me last night all thought so.  Genuine emotion is never a bad thing.

So, no game changers.  The main focus will go back to Obama and McCain.  But — as I said last night — we have to stay focused a bit on Palin.  Biden is qualified to be president.  He could step right in, if needed.  There are some real, serious doubts about Palin.  So, as they say, the beat goes on.  Only a little more than a month left.

Thoughts on the Debate

My random thoughts on the debate, taken before hearing any pundits talking about it:

• It wasn’t a game changer.  Both stayed on message, for the most part.
• Neither Biden nor Palin made any gaffes.
• Biden has an in-depth command of the issues; Palin does not.  Biden won this debate hands down, on substance. 
• I hated Palin’s wink.  We saw it at least twice.  I think she uses it as part of her folksy charm, but I — and all of our friends watching the debate with us as well — absolutely hated it.
• I liked Biden’s repeated mention of “people sitting around the kitchen table.”  The Obama campaign gets it when it comes to middle class issues.  The only time Palin mentioned the middle class was when she said she was part of it.  And we know that John McCain is not a member of the middle class and is out of touch with it.
• Palin did what she did in interviews — she filibustered.  She repeated words and on several occasions, she seemed to not answer the question.  She ignored Gwen Ifill’s questions and kept talking about what she wanted to say.
• Palin’s smile was beautiful, providing you only looked at her mouth.  Her eyes didn’t seem to change, in my opinion.  They seemed like they didn’t change.  There was no sparkle, no twinkle.  She didn’t smile with her eyes, to me, and the people watching with me.

Like I said in the first bullet, it wasn’t a game changer.  I think Biden won, and I think most pundits would agree with that.  It’s not going to change the electoral map and I don’t think it will move the polls much.  The focus now goes back to Barack Obama and John McCain, mostly.  I think Palin still needs some attention — and she MUST do a press conference — if nothing else, because of the questions about McCain’s health and her lack of experience, as well as the many doubts about her readiness.

Debate Expectations

Tonight, the vice-presidential debate.  It’s between Joe Biden, who’s been in the Senate for years and is a foreign policy expert and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska.  You’d think that Biden would win this debate hands down.

I don’t think it’ll be quite that easy. 

Joe Biden suffers from what’s been aptly called brain flatulence, tending to speak before processing his thoughts through his brain.  There’s no doubt that he has command of the issues, but he will have to watch his tone and his extemporaneous thoughts that just pop out.  (I’m thinking of comments like the Franklin Roosevelt and getting on television when the stock market crashed.  Of course, Roosevelt was not president in 1929 and television didn’t come along for another decade or so.)  Biden cannot afford to come across as a know-it-all and he certainly cannot come across as being condescending to Palin, even if she deserves to be talked down to.  I’d expect Biden to attack McCain rather than Palin tonight, to help avoid being nasty to Palin.

Palin, from several accounts, is a much better debater than she’s assumed to be.  I heard a quote this morning on the radio from Ann Compton of ABC News (I’ll try to recreate it 100% accurately): “Alaska is littered with the political corpses of those who underestimated Sarah Palin.”  She beat Frank Murkowski — her predecessor — in a debate, and won the election.  She’s a good communicator, even if she’s coming across as incoherent during interviews.  Biden will need to watch himself.  Palin is no shrinking violet, despite the McCain campaign’s attempt to lower expectations for her performance tonight.

Of course, of paramount importance to both candidates tonight: do no harm to the top of the ticket.  Stay on message.

It’s certainly going to be interesting.

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Media Still Complaining about Lack of Access to Palin

The media still do not have access to Sarah Palin, a candidate who could become president of the United States (if McCain is elected and something happens to him).  She has only done 2 major interviews — I can’t include her sit-down with Sean Hannity; that was an infomercial — and zero press conferences.  She does not answer questions from the media at campaign stops.

The McCain campaign is attempting to do something unheard of in the modern political era. It is not just running against the mainstream media, it is running around it.

This strategy is not so much expressed in McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt’s declaration last week that the New York Times is “150 percent in the tank” for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama or the media-bashing by several speakers at this month’s Republican National Convention. It’s more about the GOP’s continued sheltering of its vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

She has yet to hold a major press conference 32 days after McCain announced her as his running mate – and that’s not changing anytime soon. McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said Palin will do at least one news conference before election day. That could mean that the person who could potentially lead the free world will have done one national press conference before being sworn into office.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has given more than 89 national and local interviews over roughly the same period of time.

Other than TV interviews with CBS anchor Katie Couric, ABC anchor Charlie Gibson and conservative Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, Palin hasn’t engaged the press. The effort to shield her is so intense that when she met with foreign leaders in New York last week, the campaign initially would only allow photographers near her.

‘Free Sarah Palin’

Last week, The Chronicle began a “Free Sarah Palin” campaign on its Politics blog, documenting the continuing lack of access to the candidate. The effort was echoed by CNN host Campbell Brown, who called on “the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment.”

“This woman is from Alaska, for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff,” Brown said. “Free Sarah Palin.”

The real loser in this game of hide-the-candidate: voters. Palin was not well-known outside of conservative circles before the campaign chose her. Polls, including one taken by the Pew Research Center, taken over the past few days show that Palin’s approval rating has dropped since she was nominated.

“The lack of access is potentially damaging in the eyes of the voter, because they are trying to get to know the candidate,” said Paul Dimock, associate director of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for People and the Press. Palin is especially vulnerable because voters know McCain, Obama and Biden better, he said.

“The McCain campaign has discovered it has a major problem,” said Sally Jenkins, president of the Women’s Media Center. “Increasingly, it has become clear that she doesn’t have a grasp of the issues. If I were John McCain, I’d be doing the same thing with her.”

No incentive

But Jenkins said the campaign doesn’t have an incentive to give the media more Palin face time. “If there is anybody more despised than Congress, it’s the media.”

So what can the media do? Jenkins said they shouldn’t have given in to the campaign’s demands last week during Palin’s New York visit. “At some point, the media has to stop cooperating with the campaign.”

The reason she is being sheltered is clear to me.  She’s not ready.  She’s not conversant with the issues, which is disturbing for such a “quick study.”  She sounds like a blithering idiot, as AmericaBlog noted.  She is obviously not thinking well on her feet, something that is an essential skill for a politician.  She doesn’t seem to know her limitations, either.

The fact is that the voters are the losers here.  The voters are being denied the opportunity to fully evaluate candidates for high office.  That’s because the McCain campaign is actively thwarting any attempt by the media to ask Palin a question.  That will make Thursday’s debate critical in the voters’ vetting of Palin.

The media should indeed stop cooperating with the McCain campaign.  We’ve seen what happens when members of the media do stop cooperating — the McCain campaign tosses them from the campaign plane (see Dowd, Maureen).  The McCain campaign is playing a dangerous game, for political gain.  The press shouldn’t help them do it.

Thursday’s Debate

Sean Quinn has a really good point.  He suggests that Biden let Palin talk.  I know that’s hard for Biden; he does have that disease that many senators seem to get — he loves to hear himself talk.  But this time he needs to let Palin hang herself with her own incoherent words.

Here’s Quinn’s post:

Joe Biden doesn’t need to do much in this debate. Everyone, Republicans included, know the guy knows policy detail and foreign relations cold. He really doesn’t need to do much to prove he has mastery.

Normally, “time of possession” is a key signifier in football of which team is likeliest to win the game, but in this case the opposite seems true. Think of it — all anyone cares about in this debate is what Sarah Palin says.

The Republican base wants to hear her because they like her and identify with her — we’ve heard this chorus countless times on the road in McCain volunteer offices. She warms Republican base hearts. On the other hand, Democrats believe they’re about to witness an epic train wreck. So does the media. The expectations could not possibly be lower for this one.

For those who worry about expectations being so low that she can’t help but beat them, that she did well in Alaska debates (by being spunky and bluffing through with gimmicks like patting a “stack of solutions” on health care), consider this:

Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin.

The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”

Some might be concerned that this is all about purposefully lowering expectations… and then you watch that Couric interview. That was not some gambit, that was real. If this is an elaborate expectations-setting ruse, I’m sure the multiple days of ridicule leading up to the debate aren’t worth it.

The inevitability of this is like when Nebraska used to run that option in the mid-90s with Tommie Frazier at QB. You knew exactly what play was coming… and you couldn’t stop it.

Only Joe Biden can mess it up… by running up his own time of possession.