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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Life without Palin on the trail

Posted: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:42 AM by Mark Murray

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy

JACKSONVILLE, Fl. -- At his first rally without Palin since selecting her as his running mate, McCain attracted roughly 3,000 people at an arena here with 16,000 seats.

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lmao
The boring old liar can't bring in the crowds without his Wicked Witch of Alaska.

Religion, time and time again, has brought down empires, rotting them from within!  We can't afford to have "Airhead" Palin as VP, she's the true Antichrist in a Skirt!

Go Obama/Biden 08/12!
You know my thought is what will happen to his campaign if Palins lies are exposed. As well as the straight talk express running off the tracks. You know you are running a dirty campaign when TurdBlossom  Rove says so.  To NoBama you said that democrats dont love our country. That is more childish thought. Because we wont except lies as facts like you missinformed so-called patriots do. The beauty of being an American and what makes this country so great is the fact that we are allowed to disagree and not be slanted one way or the other. To hold one view as being better is foolishness at it's best. That is why a true thinking person can find good in both trains of thought and be in the center.
Whoopsie, forgot to bring the crowd magnet huh?

i guess McCain's message isn't what is important to their supporters, its just the VPILF (soon to be PILF).

They should rename their campaign to "Ambition Express".  Both want to be president, and neither one have any clue what to do once there... Palin couldn't even be a small town Mayor without an assistant, and i don't think that placing all your high school friends in federal government positions will work very well...

http://horneddevil.proboards98.com/index.cgi?board=iduspolitics
I'm picturing a Brando-esque McCain screaming into the air, "Sa-rah!"

Meanwhile, in Colorado, Palin and Obama are sold out.
they probably thought their queen would be there.
Enough of the whinning about Sarah Palin.
We put Quayle and Gore in the same spot.
Heartbeat away...

Oh, and Hollywood needs to shut up!
Say what?

I'm sure the "official" estimates will be closer to 10,000, dontcha think?

Who needs "facts" when you can just make up the numbers you like? I hear it works for the economy too!

Pa.The.Tic.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Give the (very) old man a break, will you?
I am surprised that Palins Naughty Monkey shoes have not been the focus of an interview since she is being tossed up such soft questions.
Yikes!  Get those cameras in for some tight shots!  Or maybe put in some CGI people in the empty seats?

This is why the McCain campaign has announced that John and Sarah will be doing their on-the-road buddy tour together.  Lack of enthusiasm for the top of the ticket is never pretty.
People fail to realize, Palin is not at the top of the ticket and she is only a token for the republican party.  If something was to happen to McCain, Palin will not run an effective government and the American people will suffer, not to mention the bigots (who dislike women and minorities) in the republican party will never allow her to have such a key role as president; who are they fooling?  

Women have never had such a role in the republican party until this year.  They overlooked Hutchinson a woman with much more experience than Palin, because Palin is weak, scandalous, and no class.  Well glad they woke up, but maybe they have to regroup for 2020 or beyond.
Who wants to spend their time listening to repeated misrepresentations, lies, and factually-discredited applause lines.  McCain is a tragic figure.  He sold his reputation down the river to win.  And for whom? His lobbyist advisors, desperately trying to cling to power.

The same special interest who ran Bush-Cheney won't give up the reins easily.
Dear concerned citizens of America and Mass Media of the U.S.A.

As a concerned registered independent voter, forensic psychiatrist, disabled American I made my decision to vote after taking into consideration following joint tickets attributes and characteristics.
 
1. Has the ticket shown adequate calmness, coolness, and connectedness's under pressure to lead our nation  [Presidential Temperament]?

2. Has the ticket shown sustained sound "Judgment and Caliber"?

3. Has the ticket shown adequate understanding of depth and degree to address the crucial challenges in their their purpose, policies, and positions [ Honesty, integrity and sincerity]?

4. Has the ticket sufficient "understanding and knowledge" of inside Washington workings [Experience]"?

5. Has the ticket reservoir resilience,  wisdom, and vigor to address the present and future f our beloved "Great-grand Nation"?

6. Has the ticket enough joint foreign policy experience and exposure based on " Values, Virtues, Vastness, and " [American moral soul]"?

7. Has their campaign talk, slogans, ads, plans, and programs based on facts and are they free of fear, fiction, frivolous labels, unfair attacks, negativity, and impulsively? [No "imminent danger to national
security and safety"].

8. Has the ticket genuinely kept on message of country first and politics last and   avoided  copying  [Message change"]?

9.Has the ticket message stayed away from Culture divide and war[ Disaster prevention ]?

10. Has the ticket  resisted being surrounded, supported and  surrogate's by divisiveness, distortion's, and destructive characters, [ Real patriotism VS shiftiness and shameless parrot-ism]?

I have  personally and professionally concluded that OBAMA-BIDEN ticket will lift and inspire our greatgrand nation back to its greatness within and restore our global standing with the use of maximum, firm
international diplomacy and minimal force if and when indicated {" Peace thru Strenght "}.


Yours sincerely,

COL. A.M.Khajawall [Ret] MD.
Forensic psychiatrist, Disabled American Veteran and Iraq
Freedom team. Grass roots California leader per Senator McCain's mailings.

Put sarah at the top of the ticket
But since McCain/Palin/Rove have been inflating the numbers of attendees, how do you know he got that many?
The McCain Campaign's ugly confrontation with reality after he divorced it to marry Palin.

Does it sting, Johnny Mac?
Whhhoooo cares.   Unreal.   John Kerry had huge rally's leading up to the '04 election.  12,000, 15,000, even 20,000 were not unheard of.

John Kerry lost.


McCain's supporters aren't like Obama's.  They have real jobs.   They can't just skip class and head down to a rally.
The people in Alaska love her (Palin) and say she is doing a great job, but the New York Times and the other left-wing press parachute in and say she is horrible and can't be trusted.  Who are you going to believe?  Certainly not the left-wing press.
He also said at the same rally "the fundamentals of our economy are strong". Please report that too.
I watched it this morning. McCain and his campaign are living in a bubble.

Obama/Biden '08

No wonder he wants to campaign with Palin permanently now, besides someone will have to tell her what to say.
Ihave done some research and learned a few things. John McCain has not always been as honorable in personal life as in his military life especially given the way he treated his first wife and the way he entered into politics. And, Sarah Palin seems to befriend people to get a start in politics and then turns against those same people for her own political gain including the former mayor of Wasilla and the former Governor of Alaska; they were the same people when she courted them as when she turned against them. Maybe McCain needs to be more concerned than he seems.
Did anybody realize there hasn't been any mentionings of the electoral map on a regular until McCain looks like he might be winning another state??? Check out the map on CNN and see the disparity... (I doubt this get posted).

Try as you might, the Media wont be influencing THIS election.

Obama's had a plan from the start, so let the polls say what they will. We have numbers under the radar, and no one can guage them, so with that comes frustration coupled with people giving their best false analysis based on past elections, but we WILL have a November surprise...

And does anybody really believe that McCain stands a chance in a town hall venue against Obama??? For me the Repugnants plight is obvious. As far as these type settings are concerned, they've been this persistant and so insistant simply because they're clueless as to what to expect, and scared out of their minds. They're trying to get a practice session in. But NOPE!!! Obama see's their angle, and he's been very wise in not indulging them...

They'll have plenty of live sessions in a few days...

Home Stretch Baby, Bring it Home!!!

I'M LOVING IT!!!
And?  If it was a 3,000 seat arena the story would be?  I thought the story use to be only hundreds - don't tell me MSNBC is trying to spin this - off course they are.
Seems to me "The Base" likes Sarah Palin more than they like John McCain!  At some point do they realize that it's McCain and not Palin who is running for President?

The scary scenario is that McCain IS, in fact, running for only one term.  What's scary about it is that McCain will then not be subject to the same accountability that running for re-election would provide.
Awe, poor fellow!!  LOL!!!
It's hard to be the Maverick. You piss of Republicans. You piss off Democrats.

BUT, you work for the American People.

Thanks, John McCain. For taking a beating, when your peers were smoking pot and having promiscuous sex. For trying to treat South American immigrants like human beings. For putting your political career on the line for our troops.

It may not pack stadiums, but doing the right thing rarely does.
Pretty good for a work day, not to mention it is now thousands in stead of hundreds.
I guess their LIES sound so much more believable coming from Palin. The downside for McCain - the GE is still 7 WEEKS away, and Palin's already losing a lot of her luster as the MSM continues to vet her (something the McCain campaign thought was unnecessary).

Once all the Palin-euphoria wears off, voters will be left with the realization that her presence really does NOT change the equation. We are still looking at 4 more years of Bush under a McCain presidency, and that's just something that we cannot afford.
If people don't like him, why in the world are they willing to vote for this ticket??? I have always heard that folks don't vote for the VP, but it sure looks like that might not hold true  this year. Really scary!!
The big, strong fighter pilot who can defeat the terrorists can't draw a crowd without his skirt! LOL!!

Palin/McCain 08--Lies and Smears You Can't Believe.
Goody!
That must have been a sad sight to behold.
LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO

Awesome.

Add this to the reports that the Palin crowds are being completely overestimated and I think we're seeing the glow of the Palin effect quickly dimming.

http://www.rodneyhopper.com
Johnny brings nothing new to the equation.  He has the same old ideas that he has employed in the last 26 years in Washington.  Those same stale ideas have now driven us right into a Black Monday.  Thanks, Johnny, but no thanks.  You've done enough, really.
McCain & Palin will not win the white house because will see they are full of arrogrance, wealth, and the same ole politics of the past.  McCain made a political move....not a people move.  He is a fraud.  He wants the White House for his own personal family legacy, not to make change.
God will say Enough!!!! & McCain & Palin will have to go back to what they've been doing..........serving their own personal gains!!!!!
We the people of the US are not stupid and we can see through this smoke screen of lies!!
Not surprising. With no "bunny" to his "Hefner" who would want to come and see him when they can't flaunt the "babe" on the ticket to the drooling men and in awe women that support this trainwreck with such enthusiam.
It is becoming abundantly clear that this race is  Obama versus Palin. Once the initial excitement over Palin wanes, she is exposed as being out of her league, and Biden takes her apart in the VP debate, Obama will win this election.
"Country First, unless things start looking bad."

Comparing Gore to Palin/Quayle? Only a right winger could do that.
Does that figure reflect the campaign's padding of the numbers? Even with Palin here in Albuquerque, campaign spokespeople repeatedly said they drew a crowd of 6,000 in a venue that seats, at most, 2400.

I guess they forgot some of us know how to use The Google to determine the truth for their small lies as well as their whoppers.
The Palin bubble will burst, and this willll turn into an electoral landslide.  
McSame, alone with no star quality.  Must be scary, he'll have to deliver his own recycled jabs!  The Lipsticker, still not ready for prime time?  

McSame can lie, lie, distort, and continue on until the Lipsticker rejoins him.  Maybe he'll visit Disney World, and get some new ideas for the fantasy that he lives, and is trying to sell to the American people. What a couple of nut jobs!
People aren't voting for John McCain. They're voting against the black guy or for the beauty queen whio is really Dick Cheney in panty hose.

America has officially become stupid.
I loved these comments from ND,Chi-Town they were worth repeating. Great work ND.

"If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different.

* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, and you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and be President of the Law Review, and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now."


The revolution will be televised.

Obama/Biden 2008


Who wants to listen to McCain when he's still claiming the U.S. economy is fundamentally sound?  


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