Sarah Palin touted her business savvy in her acceptance speech. As an example, she said she put a jet purchased by her predecessor on EBay, leaving the impression she sold it through EBay.

The plane failed to sell on EBay. It was purchased by a private entrepreneur for $300k less than the broker's price.

And, turns out, the plane was used to transport prisoners, not just for the Governor's travels.

Update: Sen. John McCain perpetuated the misleading story today, falsely saying she sold the jet on EBay for a profit. There actually was a half-million dollar loss. [More...]

Today I remembered this blogger conference call with Sen. Charles Schumer in 2005 over President Bush's judicial nominees.

Sen. Schumer was emphatic in his remarks to us. He said the hard right, both economic and religious, has decided that the only way to push their agenda through is to control the courts. If they win and gain control of the courts, both economically and socially, they will roll back America to the 1930's or the 1890's.

He said that the hard right made a deal with George Bush during the election. It would support him and "not hound him", but he had to cede control of his judicial nominations to the Federalist Society.

That's the reward (in addition to enthusiastically supporting his election) I would bet the radical right is offering John McCain. When you see reports of his campaign coffers growing due to Gov. Palin, the picture comes into closer focus. [More...]

And it's unlikely to be favorable to Gov. Sarah Palin.

ABC News has exclusively learned that Alaska Senator Hollis French will announce today that he is moving up the release date of his investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired. The results of the investigation were originally scheduled for release Oct. 31 but will now come almost three weeks earlier, according to sources.

More...

Josh Orton, who apparently did not get enough of the Media's Palin feeding frenzy, reacts to the news that Palin is going back to Alaska and is snubbing the Media by urging: "Traditional media: get thee to Alaska!"

I urge the opposite - Media - ignore Palin. My advice is both what I want as a Democrat and legitimate advice for the Media. As a Dem, I would much rather the Media cover McCain and the fact his agenda is identical to George Bush's eight years in office. For the Media, the best way to smoke Palin out is in fact to ignore her and to cover McCain's similarities to Bush. I guarantee you McCain will be trotting out Palin in no time as a result.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Kudos to the New York Times editorialists for calling attention to an issue of critical importance to TalkLeft and to Americans who care about the Constitution:

“Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights,” Ms. Palin said. Mr. Obama, in reality, wants to give basic human rights to prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only a handful of whom are Qaeda members, and shield them from torture. So, once upon a time, did Mr. McCain, but there was no mention of that in St. Paul, or of the bill he wrote protecting those prisoners.

"Miranda" is a conservative code word for "stupid rights that unfairly keep criminals from being brought to justice." Miranda has nothing to do with rendition, with never-ending detention in the absence of probable cause, with tortured confessions, or with sham trials based on secret evidence that fail to provide due process. Miranda has nothing to do with the unconstitutional suspension of habeas corpus. Those are the rights John McCain and Sarah Palin are denigrating, and those are the rights that Barack Obama has repeatedly pledged to protect.

One of my major frustrations with the tack taken by Obama supporters in the blogs and the Media last week (the obsession with Sarah Palin, both on issues and the personal) was that it lost the most important political narrative coming out of the Democratic Convention - that John McCain represents George Bush's Third Term. To its credit, the Obama campaign fought hard to keep that narrative going, not getting caught in the Palin cul-de-sac.

For the most part, I am happy to see that Obama supporters in the Media and the blogs have come to realize that focusing on Sarah Palin is a self defeating approach (Palin became a standard for the GOP base to rally behind, performed extremely well in her speech and was perceived as unfairly attacked by many, if not most, Americans). This focus underlined the experience issue, an Obama weakness. But George Bush still seems an afterthought. For example, Ezra Klein writes:

In the aftermath of the desultory Republican convention, particularly John McCain's awful speech, I think we can say with some conviction that the best thing John McCain has done politically in the last week is choose Sarah Palin as his running mate.

The McCain confidant and informal advisor Mike Murphy condemned the choice and perennial Republican blowhard Peggy Noonan proclaimed the race "over" as a result of the pick. It is clear now that if McCain had not picked Palin it would be absolutely over. Murphy wrote:

It's game on. 59 days until the election. I don't think this week's polls are indicative of much since both sides will be rallied by their respective conventions. I think we need two weeks before polls become reliable indicators of voters' intentions in November.

Today, I'm wondering, what were Barack Obama's biggest mistakes in the campaign to date and how many can he rectify in the time remaining?

Since we now have fewer opponents to the Democratic ticket on the site, I'm going to ask readers who intend to vote for the Dems in November to weigh in.

Here's my list: [More...]

Now that the Republican Convention has ended, it's time for the rest of us to remember This is Our Country, and John McCain, Sarah Palin, James Dobson and the radical right can't have it.

I took this video in Des Moines at a campaign event for John Edwards. I chose it because he has the audience -- all Democrats -- sign along with him on the refrain, "This is Our Country."

We need to remember this in the next 60 days. The country that George Bush and the Republicans stole in 2000 and kept in 2004 belongs to us. Eight long and miserable years later, it's up to us to take it back. [More...]

Calling Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. That's the McCain/Palin ticket. Take us back to the mid-1970's.

Reaction from others: Jeffrey Toobin on CNN: The worst acceptance speech ever. Not a single new policy idea.

David Gergen: It struck an emotional chord with those in the hall, but the substantive part was poor, he didn't differentiate between him and Bush and the country has had enough of Bush.

USA, USA, USA!

A condensed version of John McCain's convention speech:

I want to thank the president for keeping us safe from more attacks like the one that he failed to prevent during his first term.

As a first lady, Cindy will rock.

I respect Sen. Obama. We're both Americans. But only one of us was a POW.

After I win, I'll work closely with any other patriot who was a POW.

My friends, please shut up with the "USA" chants. I have to finish this in prime time, before I get cut off for the local news.

I know it's tough to be unemployed. If we didn't have a government, you'd all still have jobs. Sarah Palin will help me do away with government.

Sarah Palin has a lot of kids, just like me. We could start our own little town in Alaska.

Change is coming. We'll fix stuff. We're maverick repairmen.

John McCain is about to make his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for President of these United States.

If you're watching, live blog along with me in the comments.

Update: The video. Did you know John McCain was a POW?

Update: No podium. He waves to the crowd. Sure looked like he raised his arm above his chest to me.

Camera pans to a woman teary-eyed with reverence and he hasn't said anything but "Thank You." [More...]