Movie critic Roger Ebert turns political critic in this column noting Sarah Palin's appeal as an American Idol version of a political candidate. He'd rather have the real thing.

I trust the American people will see through Palin, and save the Republic in November. The most damning indictment against her is that she considered herself a good choice to be a heartbeat away. That shows bad judgment.

The Palinpalooza among the shrill Obama blogs and the Media continues and with predictable results, McCain leads by 4 in the AP poll:

[T]he survey — conducted after both parties staged their conventions and picked their vice presidential candidates — conforms with others that have shown the Republicans grabbing the momentum after a summer in which Obama had steadily maintained a slim lead. According to the AP-GfK Poll, McCain leads Obama 48 percent to 44 percent.

Obama needs a new Tier 2 operation.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

During her interview with Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin denied that she had ever denied the human impact on climate change. Well, not since last year, when she said "I'm not one, though, who would attribute [climate change] to being man-made." And then there's

"I'm not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity."

Steve Benen:

But Palin's record is Palin's record, and the fact remains that she's so far out there, she's rejected the connection between global warming and human activity. Indeed, she's done so more than once. This not only tells us something important about Palin's understanding of public policy, it also tells us a great deal about how she perceives and considers evidence that runs counter to her ideology.

Her ideology, it seems, is malleable. Now that she's running for VP, she has to adopt the McCain view. But if tragic circumstances vault her into the presidency a few months after the election, what will she believe then?

The latest ad from the Obama campaign ends by doing what many have asked the campaign to do: emphasizing that John McCain is more of the same. It also suggests that McCain hasn't changed since 1982, although we've seen McCain change quite a bit (all for the worse) this year. That's change we can't believe in.

Discussing the Left blog teeth gnashing over the Obama response to Sarah Palin, Patrick Ruffini gets at the misguided nature of the complaints:

The netroots is engaged in some spirited discussion about the lameness of Obama's responses to Palin. But the problem, and what I believe this . . . gets at, is that Democrats look at everything about negative politics through the prism of response rather than attack, defense rather than offense.

Michael Dukakis's failure to respond in 1988 has become something of a creation myth, spawning the legendary Clinton war room in 1992. Their job? Leave no attack unanswered. Except the Clinton War Room was about something else too. Attack.

(Emphasis supplied.) And attack on narratives is the point too. The GOP's tactical attacks have always meshed with its strategic goal of negatively branding the Dems as otherworldly, socialist, America haters. The Politics of Paranoia is the GOP game. But in 2008, the game should belong to the Democrats. Because of GEORGE W. BUSH. McCain = Bush's Third Term has to be the underlying theme of everything the Obama campaign does. I would only discuss Sarah Palin if it helped feed that theme. Otherwise, ignore her. (See also Ezra Klein's smart take on this.)

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Matt Yglesias captures the dichotomy:

George W. Bush has outlined a doctrine that he calls “preemption” but that’s really prevention or “anticipatory self-defense.” It holds that we should attack other countries that might attack us at some future point even if we have no particular evidence of a specific or imminent plan to do so. As we also know, John McCain agrees with this doctrine. Sarah Palin . . . outlined a different position, advancing an imminent threat standard.

. . . Which naturally raises the question of whether or not McCain discussed the issue of the Bush doctrine, or preventive war, or anticipatory self-defense, before putting her on the ticket.

That is a good question. Hopefully the Media will ask John McCain about the Bush Doctrine and whether he now agrees with Bush's preventive war doctrine that led to the Iraq Debacle or with Palin's sensible "imminent threat" standard.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Tim Kaine is on Morning Joe right now and if he is signalling where the Obama campaign is going in this campaign, I strongly applaud.

When asked about Sarah Palin by Andrea Mitchell, Kaine said "The issue is John McCain" and his adherence to the policies of George W. Bush.

Kaine said this campaign is about the real issues that effects the lives of Americans. And Kaine just said something very good - "John McCain is not going to win this election by hiding behind Sarah Palin." Good stuff. I think Kaine is on to something. Here is an idea for Obama surrogates when asked about Sarah Palin - "John McCain wants to talk about Sarah Palin, Barack Obama talks about how he will help solve the problems of average Americans." A good job by Tim Kaine this morning. Circulate a tape of this appearance to your surrogates Obama campaign.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Now that Cindy McCain's prescription drug abuse is back in the news, let's take a look at Sen. John McCain's drug warrior record:

John McCain is a hawk in the war on drugs. One standard for his wife, another for everyone else.

His voting record on drugs, after his wife's problems: [More....]

Barack Obama will appear this weekend on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Expect Republican outrage that Obama is acting like a celebrity, even as they shop Sarah Palin out to People magazine and despite John McCain's own appearance on last season's finale.

Sarah Palin shows her inexperience on foreign policy issues. She's quite defensive as well.

Transcript here.[ More...]

John McCain defending preemptive war against Iraq:

Sarah Palin arguing that going to war is a last resort against an "imminent strike" against the American People:

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The Republican Attorney General of Wisconsin is in a position to meddle with elections, so of course he can't resist. J.B. Van Hollen has sued the state because it has not forced local clerks to "crosscheck voter names with driver's license records for voters who registered to vote or changed their addresses on or after Jan. 1, 2006." State election officials argue that conducting any required crosschecks "would cripple efforts to prepare for the Nov. 4 presidential election because they don't have the staff to check so many names in the next eight weeks."

If Van Hollen wanted to solve the problem, he would work with the governor and legislature to find a political resolution. That he chose instead to file a suit that seeks the disenfranchisement of newly registered voters suggests that Van Hollen's true motivation is the suppression of Wisconsin's new voters because they are enthusiastic supporters of Barack Obama. That suspicion is only heightened by Van Hollen's role as "state co-chair of John McCain's presidential campaign."

[more...]