Blogs: The Big Con

The conventions are behind us, and as the balloons and confetti are swept up, it's time for for the watchdog to make its weekend rounds. The Sunday show line-up particularly interesting this week, both because of the names you see and the names you don't see. 

At least one politician who made a big splash this week isn't taking any questions for a while, but there's lots of time to study (and time for tutoring) on the way home for all the questions to come on the campaign trail. In the meantime, we'll have to make do with the line-up we've got.

• That "JUST SAY NO TO B.O." bumper sticker with the picture of Barack that I mentioned yesterday? I asked one of the vendors selling it, "Isn't it a little juvenile to say your political opponent smells?" Answer: "Well, maybe he does. You never know." more »

Here's another NIXONLAND parallel. In 1966 George Wallace, when he couldn't run for governor again because of Alabama law, decided to run his wife Lurleen instead. more »

I love this bit from a September 2 Wall Street Journal article about Wasilla, Alaska, under the Sarah Palin regime:

Wasilla has neither a planning nor a zoning board, and it shows. “The box stores and businesses are king,” says Curt Menard, mayor of Matanuska-Susitna Borough, which includes Wasilla. The town “is a wild, wild West show, in the development sense.” more »

Enormously gratifying to see how many bloggers have found my book NIXONLAND illuminating of Sara Palin's speech last night, and of the Republicans' convention narrative generally. more »

Conservatism is addicted to snidery, and Gov. Sarah Palin looks to be just another pusher. more »

Since Sarah Palin's speech was allegedly already written even before she was picked as John McCain's running mate, I think it's fair game to run a piece I wrote before she was John McCain's running mate... more »

Last night's liveblogging was an Intertubular freak; the Xcel Center is supposed to be a wifi-free zone during the proceedings, but somehow the gods smiled on your humble correspondent, and I got a couple of hours to throw up some posts. Then, like a summer rain, it was over before you could blink. But I kept on liveblogging the old-fashioned way--in my Moleskin notebooks. more »

Conservatives lost Congress in 2006 because they failed to win over secular voters. Their rejection of a pro-choice VP shows they haven't learned any lessons since then. more »

I'm sufficiently bored to start cruising Proquest Newsstand for references to the Republican running mate's future son-in-law, Levi Johnston. Perlstein shoots, Perlstein scores!

Wasilla hockey enters break on a hot streak; [State Final Edition]

Copyright The McClatchy Company Dec 23, 2007 more »