Just like Evel Knievel, it looks like John McCain hasn’t found a stunt that he didn’t like.

Getting trashed in the polls? Just pick an unqualified Dick Cheney in a dress. Got a debate that you are worried about? Tell everyone you are suspending your campaign to help the country out of financial ruin and after throwing a monkey wrench into the process you return with your tail between your legs.

So what can John McCain do now to jump start his mess of a campaign?

In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”

When George Bush needed a boost, he had his terror warnings. John McCain has Sarah Palin.

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You have one of the most unpopular outgoing Presidents in history. You are facing a candidate that promises pretty much 4 more years of the policies of that unpopular President. Your opponent choses the mayor of B.F.E. as his running mate whose only foreign policy experience is the proximity of her state to Russia. So why are you behind in the polls and in real danger of losing?

Well this might have something to do with it. From Obama’s spokesman Dan Pfeiffer on his latest ad slamming McCain’s internet skills

“Our economy wouldn’t survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats,” [Obama spokesman Dan] Pfeiffer said. “It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn’t know how to send an e-mail.” (emphasis mine)

The only problem?

McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Put aside for the moment that being able to use a keyboard is not a deal breaker if one desires to send an email, does Obama really want McCain’s POW card being used again, this time in the proper “noun verb POW” context? Yes McCain could send an email if he really wanted to learn even with his war inflicted injuries, but is the shi*storm that will likely ensue really worth it?

Newsflash to Obama and his surrogates. Before criticizing your opponent for his lack of internet skills, maybe consider hiring someone that knows how to use the internet, you know like maybe Google, so that they can research your attacks before you make them. There is so many other things that you could slam McCain on, why choose this one?

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I have been doing some research on John McCain's time in the military, for the obvious reasons of course, but also because I am a fan of naval aviation having spent over 5 years serving on aircraft carriers.

Much of what I found is the standard stuff that McCain himself likes to discuss including his 5th from the bottom of the class graduation at the Naval Academy and his being shot down in North Vietnam but I did find out a few more interesting tidbits. The most intriguing of which being the fact that McCain is an ace, a reverse ace that is, meaning that he destroyed 5 aircraft during his military service, all of which were his own (4 in accidents and 1 in combat). This fact supposedly earned him the nickname "Ace" from his Vietnam flight buddies.

I was previously aware of 2 incidents, the most obvious being the one he had shot out from under him in Vietnam and the second which would be familiar to any sailor that has ever been to firefighting school, happened during the USS Forrestal fire in 1967 that killed 134 of McCain's shipmates. McCain was temporarily trapped in his A4 Skyhawk on the flight deck when an errant missile hit either his plane or the one next to his while preparing for flight ops. The unarmed missile knocked off a fuel tank that consequently started the deadly fire.

But of course an ace has to destroy 5 aircraft and McCain crashed 3 other times to get his 5. His first incident happened in 1958 when his engine quit while doing practice landings causing him to crash into Corpus Christi Bay. He was very lucky as the impact knocked him unconscious and the plane settled to the bottom of the bay before he came to and made it to the surface. A subsequent investigation found no engine problems.

McCain's second crash occurred while he was deployed in the Mediterranean and he took out power lines while flying too low which was similar to what happened in 1998 when a Marine Corps jet hit the Italian ski resort gondola cables.

And McCain's 3rd crash prior to the Vietnam and Forrestal incidents happened when the trainer he was flying from Philadelphia after the Army-Navy game flamed out and crashed into a row of trees. He was able to eject before the plane went down.

So there you have John McCain's flight record. 20 hours of combat flight and 5 planes destroyed. But considering McCain's flight instructor said that he was "positively one of the weakest students to pass our way", what else would one expect?

Other than possibly being our next commander in chief that is...

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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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