Sarah Palin

Over the last two weeks, Politicker.com reporters from fifteen states filed over 2,000 stories from Denver and St. Paul. Our staff is taking a short break this weekend, and will return in full force on Monday. 

One of our favorite convention moments was six-year-old Piper Palin fixing the hair of her baby brother.  As always, thank you to our valued readers, one of whom pointed out the "more of the same" connection to Paul Wolfowitz, who served as President Bush's Deputy Secretary of Defense. 

Enjoy the weekend. 

To view a larger version of this cartoon, click here.

A riverboat welcome.: Politicker photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - If the Democratic National Convention provided a simple conflict-resolution storyline, the Republican counterpart took the shape of a Quentin Tarentino script in comparison, with a hurricane threatening to throw everything off and the New Jersey delegation heading out on a river boat cruise anyway and doing relief work in the morning, and protest actions punctuating the streets.

All against the backdrop of McCain/Palin.

Despite a gaffe-filled Tuesday production, with Jo Ann Davidson, co chair of the Republican National Committee, referring to Alaska Gov. Sarah "Pawlenty," and a trio of gray or white-haired prime time speech-makers, including an unpopular sitting president and a former Democrat, hardly igniting the New Jersey delegates.

Tear gas cartridges hit the pavement outside the Xcel Center

"The protesters are all in here fighting with police," said the cabby on the way out of the downtown.

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September 4, 2008

Lance Praises Extreme Right-Wing Palin
VP Nominee and Lance Represent More of the Same Failed Bush Policies

Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).: Politicker file photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - It’s several hours until Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) takes the stage downtown at the Xcel Center and one of his supporters sits in a hotel where the New Jersey delegation is housed, and he reflects on the years he’s spent in support of this man who would be president.

Soon he will again observe McCain in person.

State Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), a state campaign co-chair for McCain, goes back to 2000 in his support. But it was during the 2008 Republican presidential primary that he deepened his respect for the Arizona senator and recognized up close what he sees as McCain’s particular leadership qualities.

"He came into Hamilton - and look, I’ve been in politics going back to 1984, I’ve been around presidents and the rest of it, it’s heady stuff - but we were sitting in the back of a bus that day in Hamilton: Baroni, and Sean Kean and others who have long supported McCain," O’Toole says. "Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman were there, and so was John McCain."

The presidential candidate talked strategy, and seated with him, O’Toole, the Essex County political insider who came up in politics the hard way, says unabashedly that he felt he was in the presence of greatness.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Assemblywoman Carolina Casagrande is outraged at what she sees as sexist media coverage of Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. 

“I just think that a lot of the things surrounding the Governor’s personal family life have been highlighted by the mainstream media, and amplified in their importance in a way that you would not see if this was a male candidate,” said Casagrande, a new mother herself. 

While some pundits see the “us versus them,” small town mayor versus elitist media tact that Palin took in her speech last night as nothing more than a campaign tactic, Casagrande sees it as the vestiges of an old way of thinking.

"A hockey mom from Alaska has just shown the entire New Jersey Republican Organization and its so-called leaders what courage is all about,” said Mecca. “Not one member of the inner circle of Republican Trenton corps of insiders would have the guts to give a speech like that. But they should.”

MINNEAPOLIS - John Murphy walks up onto the stage. He’s pumped from the Palin speech.

"If Michelle Obama was watching last night, it’s probably the second time in her adult life that she’s proud to be an American," says Murphy, a reference to remarks by the Democratic presidential nominee’s that her husband’s Iowa victory provided her with her first moment of pride in country in her adult life.

"In my adult life," the Morris County freeholder says, "I’ve always been proud to be an American."

The crowd claps.

Murphy stays with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"Our rock star tells jokes and has experience," he says. "The turning point for the general election was last night. Those independents and even a boatload of Democrats who were Hillary supporters know we have two candidates who are the real deal."

MINNEAPOLIS - The breakfast gathering welcomes U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding) to the podium as a friend of military veterans and longtime supporter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Frelinghuysen stands between the flags of the Untied States and New Jersey and exhorts the small crowd to support congressional candidates Medford Mayor Chris Myers in the 3rd District and state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in the 7th.

"We need to keep Republicans in the House from New Jersey," he says. "These are tough races. Democrats in those races have raised a considerable amount of money. ...We need to work toward a Republican majority in both the House and Senate."

Applause.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech last night is still bringing smiles to the faces of those in this room, and the congressman seizes on the mood.

And now we go back in time, to Mr. Dembo's eighth grade science class and JHS 278, and a sixteen millimeter film about the seasonal migration of a very special species of ‘birds'----the Politicus Presidentius Candidatus. This year, the migration started particularly early....

In the quadrennial running of "the presidential candidates" [Politicus Presidentius Candidatus], within both ‘Republicanus' and ‘Democraticus' varieties, there seems to be one common similarity amongst the species: it is how those who previously attacked opponents viciously during their year long migration around the country in search of the nourishment of ‘votes', now lavish praise upon the most popular presidential candidate, as they settle in for a brief gathering before the hard ‘political season'.