The big news since John McCain announced his VP pick was how Sarah Palin would rally the conservative wing of the GOP, and by all accounts that is happening. The conservative blogs are giddy and McCain's fundraising went through the roof with $10 million coming in since the announcement.

It appears something else is happening, the Democratic base as well as undecided Independents seem to be catching Palin fever as well and Barack Obama is seeing the results.

First comes the results of the latest Gallup poll released on Tuesday which has Obama up 8 points over McCain, hitting 50% for the first time. A full 3 days after the Palin choice was announced.

And today came word of Obama's fundraising numbers since the Palin announcement and it appears that he will have also raised $10 million by the time McCain accepts the nomination this evening.

So while McCain has accomplished his mission of pandering to the religious right and winning their favor, has he also fired up the equally if not more important moderates and independents to the point where many of them have moved towards Obama.

With all that said, I don't give a hoot what September polls say or mean as they will change more than Cindy McCain changes her designer shoes and no matter what your views, you'll find one that will agree with your particular bias. But one thing I do know, even though I will be holding my nose when I pull the lever next to Obama's name in 2 months, choosing him now doesn't seem as hard as it did this time last week.

Read more about the upcoming election at Politics and Hypocrisy.

The comment the other day by Fox News’ Steve Doocy that newly minted McCain VP choice Sarah Palin has plenty of national security experience due to her being Governor of a state in close proximity to Russia was bad enough when he said it. So why exactly is Cindy McCain continuing to put forward that same argument and more importantly, does she think that we are that stupid?

Asked about Palin’s national security experience, Cindy McCain could not come up with anything beyond the fact that, after all, her state is right next to Russia — so she surely knows a lot about that country. She added that Palin has “more experience than….” but  Stephanopoulos cut her off before she could say, for example, “Barack Obama” or maybe “others give her credit for.”

And while we are discussing ridiculous talking points, could we please stop mentioning Palin’s time in the PTA when trying to cite reasons for her having the necessary experience to be Commander in Chief?

Earlier, she actually said that Palin was “heavily experienced” in general, citing her going from the PTA to mayor to governor

Believe it or not, while I was born during the day, it wasn’t yesterday.

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In case you missed it today, John McCain has tabbed less than 1/2 term Alaska Governor and former mayor of Mitchell, err Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his choice for Vice President. Palin brings to the table slightly more foreign policy experience than me though I could contend that I have traveled more extensively, and as much experience in government as Spiro Agnew (you older folks remember him right?).

So the question should be asked, why? Is McCain going after the Hillary castoffs? Is he going for disgruntled Obama supporters whom are disappointed with his flip flops? Why choose someone with Palin's obviously weak political resume?

Maybe the answer lies with the far right. McCain, far from the golden boy of the right wing, has been trying to win their favor from the start. Years ago he pandered to Jerry Falwell and his Liberty University after initially snubbing them and more recently he tried to gain favor with radical pastor John Hagee in a vain attempt to court the religious right.

Palin brings the conservative chops that McCain is lacking and had been thus far unable to win over. Staunchly pro-life, she appeals to the Conservative base in a way that McCain could never do considering his past voting record. And already conservative blogs are taking notice and singing her praise and along with it giving McCain the bump with conservatives he had been unable to get before. But will that last and will it be enough? And more importantly will everything else she lacks cost him?

I have tried to figure out why McCain chose Palin but no matter what his reasoning was, for me it always comes back to this. Is it smart to choose someone with even less foreign policy experience than his opponent, while using that against him, and then putting her a heartbeat away from the oval office all on his 72nd birthday?

Not quite the expected choice for a party whose main strength in the upcoming election lies in national security and experience...

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Our illustrious Congress already irreparably weakened the 4th Amendment earlier this summer when they passed the “Spy on Americans” act, also known as the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and now the Justice Department wants to pretty much erase it from the Constitution.

A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.

And here is the meat of the Justice Department plan:

The senators said the new guidelines would allow the F.B.I. to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps “without any basis for suspicion.” The plan “might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the letter said. It was signed by Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. (emphasis mine)

Just like when dealing with a 4 year old, you give in once and they want more. What’s worse, knowing the total lack of backbone exhibited by our wonderful Democrat led Congress, the Justice Department will likely get what they want.

Finally, speaking of FISA, since the FISA bill all but cut off at the knees all pending lawsuits against the Telco's, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has had to resort to plan B. They will instead sue the US Government over illegally spying on US citizens as the final bill signed into law didn't contain the government immunity that Bush had requested.

Considering George Bush will long have been out of office if and when this goes to court, the new administration will be left to deal with it. If it is Barack Obama, I will have zero sympathy considering his flip flop on the issue.

And yes I know the above scenario is highly unlikely, but I can dream can’t I?

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John McCain has been hitting Barack Obama hard from day one for being an elitist and out of touch with us middle class folks so when the number of houses he owned came into play, the campaign went into damage control. And as I have documented several times, when the McCain camp goes into damage control what usually pops up?

He also added: “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.

Yep that POW card again.

Anyway the McCain camp was asked by Politico how many houses he and his wife owned and the McCain camp was only off by 4. But as McCain says, not remembering how many houses he has is a non-issue because voters care more about a candidates ethics and not whether they can find their way home at the end of the day…

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That is what Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel thinks. It seems that his energy plan along with the other members of the “Gang of 10″ sounds eerily similar to that of the Nancy Pelosi led House plan (or vise versa) and vulnerable oil state Democrats couldn’t be happier.

That’s because the plan is a Democratic giveaway. New production on offshore federal lands is left to state legislatures, and then in only four coastal states. The regulatory hurdles are huge. And the bill bars drilling within 50 miles of the coast — putting off limits some of the most productive areas. Alaska’s oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is still a no-go.

The highlight is instead $84 billion in tax credits, subsidies and federal handouts for alternative fuels and renewables. The Gang of 10 intends to pay for all this in part by raising taxes on . . . oil companies! The Sierra Club couldn’t have penned it better. And so the Republican Five has potentially given antidrilling Democrats the political cover they need to neutralize energy through November.

Could it be that Thune, unlike many of his own GOP colleagues, realizes that “Drill here, drill now” is just a slogan that will in reality do very little to affect prices at the pump either now or in the future? And how are the rest of his big oil Republican’s buddies going to react to their plan that would raise taxes on oil companies?

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Steve Jarding’s announcement that Senator Tim Johnson would not be participating in any debates against opponent Joel Dykstra has caused quite a stir. Comments ranging from how can he represent us if he can’t speak well? To we deserve a debate, or he lied to us have been prevalent since the end of the news cycle Friday evening announcement.

The question to be answered then is can he represent South Dakota despite not debating or even being able to debate effectively as is the implication from this announcement? My observations:

- Since returning to work last August he has kept his committee assignments and hasn’t missed a vote in the Senate (unlike John McCain).
- Organizations that monitor these things rate Senator Johnson as the most Conservative Democrat in the Senate.
- Does the average non-political blog reading die hard political junky South Dakotan even know where Joel Dykstra stands on the issues? 2 of the 3 voters in my house would say no.

So we have a Senator from the hard working blood red state of South Dakota that goes to work every day and votes conservative more than any Democrat with at least some seniority (re:power) in the Senate. He is facing a questionable candidate that doesn’t seem to want to raise money and who appears to be afraid to go on the offensive even after Johnson puts the health question on the table. And now that Johnson will not be debating him, Dykstra will have almost no opportunity to gain any name recognition that a successful debate would have given him and will be left with limited late election season ad buys and hand shaking tours.

If the Republican’s had a stronger candidate things might have been different so I would say that not debating, while not what some South Dakotan’s want from Johnson, will likely not lead to much other than maybe a 15-20 point win instead of a 30 point win in November. He has too much money, too much name recognition, and very little competition.

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