Joe Conasen at Salon:

It is hard to think of a more cynical and contemptuous political act this year than John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. Having served as governor of Alaska for less than two years -- and as mayor of a small town before that -- her qualifications for national office are minimal.

Palin is the epitome of tokenism, exactly what conservative Republicans have always claimed to scorn, until today, as the politics of quotas and political correctness.

John Kerry this morning on why women Hillary supporters won't flock to McCain/Palin: [More...]

Who knew Jimi Hendrix would be posing the seemingly seminal question of the election? (According to some folks anyway.)

This is an Open Thread.

John Kerry this morning:

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. . . . [Palin]'s been a governor for, what, the two years now, Barack Obama and the four years [in the Senate]? But, moreover, Barack Obama has traveled abroad.

(Emphasis supplied.) So Kerry's argument is Palin is unqualified because (1) She has been a Governor for 2 years, (2) was not a Washington politician (assuming the House of Representatives would have been acceptable) and (3) did not take a trip abroad like Obama did this summer. Whereas Obama IS qualified because (1) He has been a Senator in Washington, DC for 4 years (as opposed to 2) and (2) he traveled abroad this summer. This is NOT the argument Obama wants.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Here's an open thread for comments related to the Republican National Convention.

It also gives me another excuse to remind commenters that this site supports the Democratic ticket and comments expressing support for McCain/Palin or opposition to Obama/Biden are limited to four per 24 hour period. Our comment rules are here.

Also, personal attacks (and unsubstantiated rumors of a personal nature) on any of the candidates or other commenters or the authors of this site are not allowed period.

From Michael Chertoff's press conference today:

CHERTOFF: As you know if you followed the latest weather report, Hurricane Gustav is headed, I’d say at this point likely landfall somewhere between Vermilion Bay and New Orleans in Louisiana. Again, it’s possible this will change, but this is where most of the prediction seems to be centered. The storm is moving a little more quickly than we were seeing late yesterday, which means it will arrive within certainly 24 hours in terms of tropical storm winds. At the same time, that may benefit us a little bit by minimizing the strengthening.

We’re still looking, however, at what may be a low Category 4 or a high Category 3 storm.

This is a thread for hurricane related news and updates.

USA Today has released the results of its first poll on Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's choice of a Republican vice-presidential running mate.

39% say she is ready to serve as president if needed, 33% say she isn't, and 29% have no opinion.

That's the lowest vote of confidence in a running mate since the elder George Bush chose then-Indiana senator Dan Quayle to join his ticket in 1988. In comparison, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was seen as qualified by 57%-18% after Democrat Barack Obama chose him as a running mate last week.

There's other numbers in the poll that are favorable to the McCain-Palin ticket, particularly those related to the lack of importance of the VP candidate of both parties to their decision as to whom to vote for. And while Obama's speech was viewed favorably, it doesn't seem to have resulted in gaining him a lot of new voters.

Sarah Palin's mother-in-law hasn't decided who she will vote for in November.

Faye Palin admitted she enjoys hearing Barack Obama speak, and still hasn't decided which way she'll vote. "We don't agree on everything. But I respect her passion," she said. "Being pro-life is who Sarah is."

Faye Palin said the entire family was shocked by the news on Friday. "I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative.

One of the residents of Wasila told the News: [More...]

No surprises in the abortion plank of the Republican platform. In 2000, John McCain wanted the platform to include exceptions for rape and incest, and to save the mother's life. He said in May that he still held to those positions. He apparently has little influence over the platform of the party he leads, or he's choosing not to exert the influence he has. The platform will not include those exceptions. Wonder why?

Mr. McCain has been trying to win over social conservatives wary of his candidacy, and the party is set to approve the platform Monday without the exceptions. On Friday, he named a vice-presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who opposes any exception for abortion and whose selection was hailed unequivocally by groups opposing abortion rights.

Under McCain/Palin, the Grand Old Party is the Same Old Party. The party that refuses to respect a woman's right to choose. The party that would rather see a woman die than allow a pregnancy to be terminated medically.

Josh Marshall defends his reporting on Gov. Sarah Palin's alleged abuse of power involving her ex-brother in law, state trooper Mike Wooten:

I've noticed some people who should know better claiming that bringing up Gov. Palin's troopergate scandal is tantamount to making a victim of or defending her slimeball ex-brother-in-law who allegedly [BTD - makes you wonder how much Marshall knows about this story as Wooten admits to the tasering] once used a taser on his stepson. That's awfully foolish. So I thought I'd put together a post explaining why.

The person in question is state trooper Mike Wooten -- Palin's ex-brother-in-law who's embroiled in a bitter custody and divorce battle with Palin's sister. . . . Most people who are familiar with the ugliness that often spills out of custody and divorce cases know to take accusations arising out of the course of them with a grain of salt unless you know a lot about the people involved.

(Emphasis supplied.) More . . .

Al Giordano is right, the Obama bio video that preceded his nomination acceptance speech was fantastic. If you missed it, here it is:

Perhaps hearing it from Digby will make it more palatable:

I really hope the Obama campaign does not take to heart some of the "advice" it's getting about going after Palin with snappy slogans over her picture that say "this is what McCain thinks is ready to lead?" After all the talk in this election about feminism, I think the Obama campaign is sensitive enough to know that that reads like a sexist dogwhistle loud enough to shatter the sound barrier. This is not a good approach.

I don't think that many Hillary followers will vote for an anti-choice zealot, but there is no point in unnecessarily suppressing the female Obama vote by thoughtlessly pushing buttons that don't need to be pushed. McCain chose Palin partially because they wanted to keep open the wounds of feminist discontent and there's no reason to help them by picking at the scabs. There are many things on which to attack her --- her social conservatism, her anti-environmental extremism, her bad policies, even her potential corruption, but her inexperience has to be handled very deftly. [More . . .]

Digby writes about the Democratic Convention:

I was quite surprised at how ... well, progressive everyone was. The Democratic party is beginning to unapologetically identify itself as ideological again, tempered with a new pragmatism about Obama and what we can expect him to accomplish on his own. There wasn't much disagreement at all on issues or the fact that the party establishment is not going to do what needs to be done without strong outside pressure.

The task before us, as a progressive movement, is to figure out how to make them do it. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Agreed. But, here's my question, where was this awareness for the past year? And what evidence is there of it now, other than Convention cocktail party talk?

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only