Update: From MyDD: Rightwing writer Peggy Noonan discussing the choice of Sarah Palin with Chuck Todd says off-camera (MSNBC), "It's over."

The absurd GOP attempt to sell Gov. Sarah Palin (and former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska) and compare her intelligence and heft to that of Hillary Clinton is provoking a backlash from Hillary supporters.

Here is the text of an e-mail from a genuinely frightened Alaska resident making the rounds that began as a missive to her college classmates:

As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that he picked her. The most accurate description of her is red neck.

Everything McCain does (from picking the head of Alaska's National Guard to be his running mate to avoiding George Bush at the convention) has a ring of desperation to it as he faces an electoral landslide.

But politicos seem just as desperate to portray the doomed McCain campaign as on the verge of a breakthrough or a game changer.

Now it’s Hurricane Gustav that will help the ailing McCain.

Hurricane Gustav “presents the candidate with an opportunity to show that he would be a different kind of president than Bush” (Washington Post).

John McCain can't stop the storm, but his campaign is determined to make the most of it by using it to rebrand a new generation of Republicans as leaders who govern effectively and rise above partisanship (Time Magazine).

Good news for the male cousins in my family who have graduated recently, or will do so shortly ... the government may give you a big assist in deciding how a large portion of your life will be spent.<snark>

AUDIENCE MEMBER: If we don't reenact the draft I don't think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

JOHN MCCAIN: Ma'am let me say that I don't disagree with anything you said.

Hat tip to the Jed Report. (with video)

by globalgirl and mal contends

Madison, WI - We have heard numerous comments in conversation from friends and family fearful that there are just too many bigoted idiots in America to let Barack Obama live to be president.

 
Our common response is that: Though I do not know it for a fact, the United States Secret Service, created after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, is surely a dynamic, continuously improving organization. A would-be assassin's shot like that taken at Ronald Reagan in 1981 is undoubtedly nearly impossible today. It would take a military assault to get to Obama, I bet, I hope.

Dane County 911 Center

Update: Obama Ground Report: Canvassing in Waukesha, Wisconsin and Record-low seventeen percent of Wisconsin voters think the country is going in the right direction

The political wisdom of some (the Washington Post's Dan Balz, for example) is the next 10 days in August will see the presidential race in a holding pattern.

Nothing could be further from the truth of course, and this applies emphatically in Wisconsin.

Two dynamics continue here:

- Barack Obama's on-the-ground field operation (that rivals his Internet operation's superiority to the McCain camp's) is hitting the ground running

- Barack Obama will pull away in fundraising, no matter the sleazy finance machinations of John McCain and the rightwing independent slime merchants

Wisconsin is saying we're heading in the wrong direction, and they're not talking about Brett Favre ['we'll always have Green Bay'].

A record-low seventeen percent of Wisconsin voters think the country is going in the right direction, according a new poll conducted by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a right-leaning public policy think tank.

And yet, everyone will note, Obama leads McCain by only 44% to 38% among likely voters in the same poll.

So what? For one thing, the polls are generating much angst among those terrified that McSame will win in November.

But as a writer at MyDD scoffs, 'We're Doooooooooooooooomed!'

The point is well-taken

Does anyone know when in the last 48 years (arguably the modern era) has a non-incumbent presidential nominee of any party ever been ahead by, say, eight points in early August polling?

I can't recall any time, maybe going back to Ike in '52? If anyone has any data, please post it.

Milwaukee - Spent this weekend listening to numerous people in Milwaukee in one of Wisconsin's most diverse and densely-populated areas.

Asking residents (living in expensive homes, modest homes, and rentals) their concerns in open-ended questions, I expected answers on Iraq, the national debt, the price of a college education, downsizing and outsourcing to be the most frequent complaints.

And downsizing and outsourcing were mentioned, but by far the biggest complaint was the lack of respect for a person's home, a quality-of-life issue for which residents seek redress from all levels of government.

Complaints ranged from jerks littering on front yards, vandalism, loud music, trespassing, with burglaries rounding out the list.

The consistency is striking, residents in a $500,000 home two blocks down from a $100,000 home share the same anger at toward trespassers, vandals, and people screaming in front of their homes like they're at a Brewer game.

In so many words, people just do not like anyone messing with their homes in which they have carved out their familiar, calming refuge in an increasingly isolated, inequitable society.

Update: Prominent evangelical leaders to McCain: Don't pick Mitt. We don't trust him.

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone discusses the failure of John McCain to consolidate his position as GOP nominee with the religious right, asking: Is this the end of the GOP's unholy alliance?

As written here before, though I happen to disagree with their descriptive facts of the world, those of the religious right whom I have met personally (here in Wisconsin) are earnest and well-intentioned, disdainful of cynicism and involved in the concept of community. And they do not respect liars.

And that's why McCain is not playing well.

(H)is basic stump speech doesn't contain a single line about God or religion. McCain is probably the first Republican in modern history to talk more about 'green technology' than about his personal relationship with Jesus Christ. ...

Update: Obama Far More Popular Among American Jewry Than Lieberman

One of John McCain’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders and top campaign surrogates, Sen. Joe Lieberman, will address a controversial, militaristic conference sponsored by an organization founded and led by the bigoted Pastor John Hagee tonight, Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

The Christians United for Israel (CUFI) group will hold its Third Annual Washington-Israel Summit in Washington, D.C. beginning today.

McCain had sought out and received Hagee’s endorsement before renouncing him earlier this year. “I’m very proud to have Pastor Hagee’s support," said McCain before repudiating Hagee.

Hagee’s anti-Catholicism and homophobia and whacky statements on blacks and women had caused an uproar on the internet, but it was Hagee’s statement on Judaism that finally saw McCain break with Hagee publicly in May.

Update - Kimberly’s last remaining paper mill closing, taking 475 jobs (July 31, 2008)

Great two-part series by Barry Adams in the Wisconsin State Journal, Paper mill jobs disappearing; stunned workers look for alternatives, and in this morning’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, we read the news, Midwest Airlines to cut 1,200 jobs.

I grew up in Wisconsin Rapids and spent two summers at a mill working as a summer replacement employee (SRE), when I was a student at UW-Madison.

It was work, and a 20-something art history undergraduate woman was not always treated with immense kindness by long-time colleagues.

But Adams' articles capture well the devastation wrought far and wide. Few who grew up in the Rap don’t know at least one friend or family member who hasn’t lost a job in the last several years.