McCain's Palin Problem

Reality is starting to set in for the McCain camp. John McCain has a Palin problem.

She has relentlessly ducked the press and we’re beginning to find out why. Governor Palin held her own in her interview with Charlie Gibson, with the exception of not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is. She hit some softballs with Fox News, but then came off looking inept in her interview with Katie Couric.

Conservative commentator Kathleen Parker has come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin should bow out. Parker has come to the conclusion that Palin is not credible. Parker says:

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

Jack Cafferty reacted to the Couric interview of Palin by saying:

If John McCain wins, this woman will be one 72-year old' heartbeat away from the presidency. And if that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, it should. I'm 65 and have been covering politics for a long time - that's one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I have ever seen from someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in the country. That's all I have to say.

Talk show host Ed Schultz reports:

Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."

What to do, what to do? If John McCain throws Gov. Palin under the bus, he’ll prove the point that he is unstable. If he sticks by his guns, he proves that he’s inflexibly loyal to his friends and we certainly don’t need four more years of that behavior.

John McCain has a Palin problem and the more she talks, the worse it’s going to get.

What the World Needs Now

George Bush says that what the world needs now is $700 billion welfare for Wall Street. Let’s face it. We all know that if the economy suffers, we will all suffer. However, we also know that if Wall Street falls and there are bargains to be had, someone will scoop them up and we will all survive to see another day. That includes my miserable little 401K.

But, if we decided not to spend $700 billion on the bailout, what could we use the money for?

Well, Malaria No More could use $10 per mosquito net to protect families from malaria. If we bought one million nets, that still leaves $699,990,000,000 for Wall Street. Malaria causes around 350 to 500 million illnesses and more than one million deaths annually. Malaria is particularly devastating in Africa, where it kills an African child every 30 seconds. Maybe we could redirect just less than two-tenths of one percent to do something about malaria.

Feeding America, the foundation formally known as America’s Second Harvest could put some money to good use. For every dollar donated to Feeding America, they can leverage their resource to purchase $30 worth of food. If we picked off another ten million dollars from the bailout, we could multiply that to $30,000,000 for food banks. That still leaves $699,980,000,000 for those poor folks on Wall Street.

And why don’t we give $100 billion to fund T. Boone Pickens’ energy plan? That will create jobs and stimulate the economy. That still leaves $599,980,000,000 for those poor investment bankers.

Or maybe we could run over to Heifer International and give away a million goats at $120 each. With these kinds of numbers, Wall Street wouldn’t miss a mere $120 million. That still leaves $599,860,000,000.

Maybe we can also fund after school programs, school lunches, single-payer healthcare, etc.

What would you fund with $700 billion?