Anyone else watching the DNC coverage?

[policywonk]

It's on BBC Parliament.

Joe Biden is coming across as a right twerp.

[slim22]

looks like the news cycle story of the week is going to be Gustav hitting New Orleans.
The Rep. PR machine must be gutted.

[policywonk]

Thanks ladies. Can't decide whether this will turn out to be a good thing or not (from POV of Democrats - obviously Gustav is a Bad Thing overall).

Roll on tomorrow.

[catinthehat]

KM, yes I thought it was !

[catinthehat]

Hurrican Gustav means a lot of the events are cxelled - haven't seen if the whole thing has been canned. A good week for burying bad news.

[policywonk]

KM is being a little ray of sunshine

Interesting indeed. With an edge of 'really bloody scary'. Are the Republicans going ahead this week? I could look at the news but I'll just ask you lot instead...

[catinthehat]

Do I know that song KM?

[catinthehat]

1. the "combing " may have been less than thorough
   
   2)So that it was public that "her" waters had broken? Maybe things had started happening in Wasilla and an excuse was needed to get out of Texas PDQ.
   
   Interesting questions, interesting conference.

[policywonk]

It's an interesting theory. One thing I don't quite get is: why would she say her waters had broken right before the speech (if it was all made up)? Wouldn't she just have gone off to her local hospital and announced the birth with the minimum of fuss?

Also, would such an ambitious woman take such a risk? And wouldn't the Republicans have combed all of this over very thoroughly before nominating her?

[catinthehat]

Would have thought the whole piece is fairly straightforward to check/refute.

If true, then it is damaging.

[catinthehat]

Extract from the Daily Kos article linked
above
Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 01:12:31 PM PDT"On Friday, April 18th, 2008, Sarah and her husband Todd were in Dallas, Texas for a Republican Governor's Convention. They had been in town for three days already, but Sarah had yet to give her keynote speaker address on energy policy. Then early Friday morning at 4:00am, Sarah began leaking amniotic fluid. Instead of checking into a hospital, she instead made a call to her doctor, and delivered the keynote speech.

"I was not going to miss that speech," she says.

She rushed so quickly from the podium afterwards that Texas Gov. Rick Perry nervously asked if she was about to deliver the baby then.

The oddities only grow from here on, as instead of rushing to a Dallas medical facility that could treat a mother who's amniotic fluid has been draining for hours on end (made even more crucial due to the fact that this is occurring a full month prematurely), Sarah & Todd instead opted to... Fly all the way back from Texas to Alaska. A dangerous choice, as with each pregnancy (once again, in this case after four previous), a mother's window of labor to delivery grows shorter and shorter.

Aboard Alaska Airlines, the flight lasted for eight hours, with an additional landing in Seattle. The majority of commercial airlines require mothers seven months pregnant to provide a doctor's letter to fly, but Sarah did not inform the airline of her condition. Alaska Airlines is one of the few airlines that do not require such a notice, despite the possibility of an emergency landings being required in such scenarios. That said, no one on board noticed that Sarah was going into labor:

"We leave the decision to fly up to our customers and their medical advisers," according to Alaska Airlines representative Caroline Boren.

...

"Governor Palin was extremely pleasant to flight attendants and her stage of pregnancy was not apparent by observation as she didn?t show any signs of distress," Boren said.

Eight months pregnant. A 6.2 pound fetus. No one notices a visible trace. By the third trimester, a perfectly fit woman not wearing anything less than a space suit should be easily spotted as pregnant. Not in Sarah's case.

The plane then made a landing in Anchorage, Alaska. Does Sarah then visit a medical facility that can accommodate a premature birth in Alaska's most equipped city? No. She drives 45 minutes away, to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, right outside the small village she used to govern as Mayor, Wasilla. Trig Palin is then delivered one month premature, Friday night. Sarah returned to work after three days."

Interesting photos as well if genuine.

[policywonk]

It's my crappy old machine. It barely loads mumsnet.

[catinthehat]

to Dittany - yes, all politicians (particularly the ones with vaginas) are morally impeccable and would never tell a pack of lies to anyone to get exactly what they want. It is wrong of anyone to question their motives and honesty in any way.
Daily Kos
Policywonk, seemed to load just fine a moment ago.

[policywonk]

Yes, true.

[policywonk]

Oh I see - I thought you meant that BO was trying to reach out to people with extremely right-wing views in general (not just religious).

[catinthehat]

Just google "sarah palin grandmother" in "Blogs" on Google - you won't find anything in "News" yet.

It was just a short cut for that search, wasn't trying to explode yr PC or anything!

[policywonk]

I tried to load the link from the other thread and it killed my computer, cat, so I'm a bit nervous about it. I'm happy to spread scurrilous rumours about her though.

Do you really think he's that bad dittany? I mean, I don't think he's great, but her beliefs are on the right of the Republican party (not just the religious stuff but everything else).