Fox News host set up false contrast between Palin and Biden, both of whom have sons going to Iraq
SUMMARY: Summary: Fox News' Jon Scott suggested that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can contrast herself with Sen. Joe Biden on Iraq because her son is "deploying to Iraq next month." But Scott did not note that Biden's son is also reportedly deploying to Iraq.
During the August 29 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott suggested that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can contrast herself with Sen. Joe Biden on Iraq because her son is "deploying to Iraq next month." But Scott did not note that Biden's son is also reportedly deploying to Iraq. After guest Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said that a vice-presidential debate between Palin and Biden will be "fascinating," Scott asserted of Palin: "[H]er oldest son is deploying to Iraq next month and volunteered to serve, you know, September 11th of last year. That's a pretty compelling storyline when Joe Biden, you know, suggests that Iraq is not the place American troops ought to be."
Biden's son Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III -- a member of the Delaware Army National Guard -- is scheduled to deploy to Iraq on October 3, according to a FoxNews.com article.
From the August 29 edition of Fox News' Happening Now:
SABATO: Yeah, and that vice-presidential debate is going to be really a headliner. You've got Joe Biden, who, of course, is very blunt and very frank, and I happen to know some people who know Sarah Palin, and she is also very blunt and very frank. That is going to be a fascinating debate. I think it may get a much larger audience than the vice-presidential debate normally gets.
SCOTT: Right, and the fact that their son -- her oldest son is deploying to Iraq next month and volunteered to serve, you know, September 11th of last year. That's a pretty compelling storyline when Joe Biden, you know, suggests that Iraq is not the place American troops ought to be.
SABATO: Look, this -- there are so many pieces to this. I can see why they were so attracted to her, not just the nature of a woman candidacy, but also the family connection there, the Western spirit -- and by the way, the West has always been very open to women politicians.
SCOTT: Right.
SABATO: The first two women governors came from Texas and Wyoming.
Sabato must have been asleep this week as well. Notice how often he is the guest when so much right wing distortion goes unchecked.
In an interview with Time Magazine today, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) running mate, suggested that McCain has yet to share his plan for Iraq with her. Palin, who has not been to Iraq, said she does not know “what the plan is to ever end the war.”
Yeah, I guess she can contrast with Biden. He's got a plan and she has no clue...
Courtesy of think progress, btw.
Beau Biden joined the National Guard in 2003. He's a JAG (Judge Advocate General) officer with the rank of Captain. Biden is assigned to Delaware's 261st Signal Brigade, which is slated for deployment to Iraq in the near future.
When Beau Biden joined the Guard and Joe Biden suggested that the idea of his son deploying caused him to consider Iraq policy even more carefully than he previously had, Ann Coulter mocked him and suggested that there was little likelihood that Beau Biden would ever have to go to a combat theater. I wonder if she'll be retracting that comment, or if Jon Scott will correct the false impression described in this MMFA story. Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Being a Republican means never being wrong and never apologizing.
No doubt the repubs are going to contrast Biden's reservist status as an 'elitist', with Palin being the real soldier.
Give them about 6 hours to figure out how to do it. Then the MSM will scrutinze Biden.
Right on.
Here's my first prediction -- The Republicans say that being a military lawyer doesn't count as real service, an approach they'll use with no sense of irony when the names Congressman Steve Buyer and Senator Lindsey Graham are mentioned -- IOKIYAR. In addition, they'll accuse him of padding his resume as part of a long range plan to succeed his father in the Senate.
Here's my second -- the GOP meme is that Beau Biden used his father's political connections to jump to the top of the waiting list to join the National Guard in a cowardly attempt to escape combat, and then leapfrogged more qualified applicants to obtain a direct commission as an officer, an appointment for which he did not meet the minimum eligibility criteria. Oh, wait...
I guess they'll stick with number 1.
I was contrasting Beau Biden's decision to voluntarily join the military during a war with George W. Bush's decision to use his father George H.W. Bush's political connections to get to the top of a waiting list to join the Texas Air National Guard.
The younger Bush made this move in 1968 in a cowardly attempt to avoid being drafted for active duty and service in Vietnam.
Further, the younger Bush then received a direct commission as a second lieutenant, an appointment for which he did not meet the minimum eligibility criteria.
Even further, after his training as a fighter pilot, Bush attend weekend drills and annual training for a while, but them mysteriously stopped performing his duty, something that coincides with the end of the draft and the institution of mandatory drug tests for pilots.
Finally, Bush then asked to be released from his service contract before he had fulfilled the minimum six year commitment he made when he joined the Guard in 1968, and he received his discharge a year early.
I thought that anyone with knowledge of current events and recent history would have understood the references I made and would have understood why I made them as a way to contrast Beau Biden with George W. Bush. My apologies.
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Interesting...they didn't make that comparison with Kerrey (active duty in 'Nam) vs. George W. (protecting the U.S. Gulf Coast).
Nah, I use google. I have one wierd thought process!
Obama and co. needs to hammer home her creationist creds.
Friday, August 29, 2008Sarah Palin on teaching Creationism:
From this (via this via this):
Should we also teach all of these creation myths in biology and physics classes? They bring alot to the development of the universe debate. So does the study of art, philosophy, and on and on.
No, we should limit science classes to teaching science.
Wouldn't it simply bring balance to the development of the universe debate? Like a "Fairness Doctrine" for education?
Sure, but it ain't science. So don't teach it that way-- which is what they want.
Also availible.
A non-denominational creationism class? I'd like to see that curriculum.