PoliticalDerby.com

Because politics isn’t always the most important thing…

Politicalderby.com in cooperation with ESPN.com is launching our annual Pigskin Pick’em derby! The rules are simple. Log in each week and make your selections on who will win each NFL game.

Games lock each week on Thursday and Sunday. The player with the most number of correct winning selections will take the lead. At the end of the season the player with the most correct selections earns bragging rights as the “world’s most super duper PD game selector!”

So, log into PigSkin Pick’em here.

You can create a new account at ESPN or just log in with last years account here.

Our group name: PoliticalDerby.com
The password: cindyforcongress

And if your just dying to learn more about the exegesis of our password, be sure to check out cindyforcongress.org

The first game locks on Thursday, so before checking out PD’s live blog of McCain’s speech, log into ESPN and enter you picks.

Has anyone noticed that the Democrats are defending Barack Obama in comparison to Sarah Paline, and not John McCain. This can’t be good for Democrats.

From ABC News’ This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You heard Senator Graham, though. He said that she has more experience than Senator Obama.
KERRY: That’s just ridiculous on its face. I mean, John — you know, Barack Obama has been in the United States Senate. He has not been absent more than he’s been there. She’s been a governor for, what, the two years now, Barack Obama and the four years? But, moreover, Barack Obama has traveled abroad. Look at the trip Barack Obama took. I mean, it is remarkable to me that the Republicans would try to denigrate a trip that a candidate for president takes where he attracts more — more attention, more support, if you will, than a sitting president of the United States of America.

Click to read more …

THE SARAH PALIN CHRONICLES (PalinFacts.com)

* Sarah Palin is not affected by global warming, evolution or gravity.
* Sarah Palin eats moose. Preferably live.
* Sarah Palin is so HOT that God had to send a hurricane to cool America off.
* Sarah Palin will give birth to the man who will lead humanity’s war against the machines.
* Sarah Palin knows how old the Chinese gymnasts are.

Click to read more …

As you’ll recall, there were three prizes on the table. One for correctly picking Obama’s VP, one for correctly picking McCain’s VP, and one for correctly naming both.

Many of you correctly picked Joe Biden, but only three gambled on Sarah Palin. And no one correctly picked both. (Always stick with your gut, AndDru1!)

So without with adieu, watch Mr. Kason pick the winners. If you’re one of them, drop me a note and I’ll ship your prize booty asap.

If you didn’t win, but you’re dying for a signed book anyway, (SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT) you can always pick up The Wednesday Letters, available in paperback for the first time, or my new one, Recovering Charles, in hardcover everywhere on September 26, and drop them in the mail for a fancypants signature

Let me begin by saying that the appointment of Sarah Palin was a deft political move. Obama’s acceptance speech? What speech? McCain’s selection of Palin was up there with “I’d rather win a war and lose a campaign… (you know the rest).”

But this recent interview with Larry Kudlow and the bottom of the ticket doesn’t exactly inspire me.

Hat tip to our friends at the Politico.

As those of you who read PD regularly can guess, I can barely contain my excitement about John McCain’s selection of someone who so obviously undercuts the campaign’s only message. I won’t get in to details, as there really isn’t much more to add at this point, but I’ll address what Jonathan Martin of Politico admittedly calls contrarian.

Maybe its ultimate impact on this race will be … well, not much at all. And voters will still make their choice based upon, say, the economy, Iraq, George W. Bush, John McCain’s age, John McCain’s military service, Barack Obama’s race or Barack Obama’s call for change.

You know, the stuff that dominated the race before this pick and that still weighs on the minds of many Americans.

This is precisely correct and precisely why the pick the was so dangerous: it amplifies and intensifies legitimate criticism on many of these issues and does so in a way that’s incredibly obvious to even the most inattentive voters.

So remember that one time way back in 2008 when the McCain campaign accused Obama of being inexperienced… being inexperienced… being inexperienced… and then McCain ended up choosing the inexperienced Harriet Miers as his running mate?

Sorry, freudian slip. I meant Sarah Palin.

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Let’s try to square John McCain’s pick with some logic. The most important choice the presidential candidates have to date is their selection of a vice presidential running mate. And the big litmus question is “Could this person step in as president at a moment’s notice?” 

For Sarah Palin, the answer is “no.” Sure the pick is a ballsy one by McCain, but it is terrifyingly flimsy, hypocritical, patronizing and just plain dumb.

Click to read more …

I’m not a Paul Begala fan, in fact he makes me ill 99% of the time, but here’s what he’s saying, and it’s clearly the line dems will take over the next 67 days. These are fair points, right?

Commentary: Is McCain out of his mind?

McCain needs what Kinky Friedman calls “a checkup from the neck up.”

In choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate he is not thinking “outside the box,” as some have said. More like out of his mind.

Click to read more …

Question of the Day: How long until Obama calls Sarah Palin sweetie?

Very curious who else is watching Palin make her first appearance on the national stage. How’s she’s doing?

Side note: I’m getting lots of email traffic from conservative activists that are jazzed about the pick. But one is raising some serious concerns about putting someone with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat from the presidency.

Carl Cameron from FoxNews just reported that a senior campaign official has confirmed, on the record, that it’s Governor Palin.

CNN has also confirmed through their own “senior source”.

MSNBC is grudgingly reporting this too.

I’m curious, how many of you watched it last night? (And if not all of it, how much?) Whether you watched it or not, you probably knew the media would gush over it; we all knew that, right? But some of the reaction is downright embarrassing.

Here’s my favorite. Check out what David Gergen had to say:

“But for this moment and for this purpose, I saw Obama’s speech tonight as a political masterpiece. As I had a chance to say on CNN a few moments ago, it was in many ways less a speech than a symphony.”

A symphony? Really?

Romney and Pawlenty are out. According to Fox News:

Sources told FOX News that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will not be McCain’s choice, even though Romney is scheduled to appear at the Dayton rally.

And Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told a Minneapolis radio station that he was not going to be in Dayton for the McCain announcement.

“I’m going to be at the [Minnesota] state fair,” Pawlenty said on WCCO. “I will not be in Dayton, Ohio, so I think that’s a fair assumption,” when asked if this was an indication that he would not be McCain’s running mate.

Late last week, Drudge had a photo of Joe Biden and Barack Obama at the top of his main page, and I speculated that it could be a hint as to Obama’s pick, which proved to be the case.

Now Drudge is saying that both Romney and Pawlenty are not the pick, but there is a mock-up of a campaign button with his portrait and the portrait of his running mate. Those of you that frequent Drudge know that the front page changes virtually minute-to-minute sometimes, so who knows how long the button stays up there.

The person in the photo is…

Click to read more …

From the Office of the Governor:

TIM PAWLENTY is regarded as one of the nation’s most innovative, energetic, reform-minded and accomplished governors. Now serving his second term as the 39th governor of Minnesota, Governor Pawlenty has brought increased accountability to state government, held the line on taxes, improved K-12 education standards and made Minnesota a leader in energy reform.

Click to read more …

John McCain continues to win the ad war.