Politics

City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson is continuing his assault on Michael Bloomberg. At a press conference yesterday, Thompson presented a study on crowding in city schools and said the administration would get a failing grade on the issue.

As the former head of the Board of Education, it's an issue on which Thompson can speak with authority.

Marc Ambinder reports that Sarah Palin will not speak to the press until she's ready, which could take awhile.

Although she may eventually appear on soft news shows before the election, Oprah won't be one of them.

The Alaska Legislature is trying to speed up its investigation into Palin's Troopergate, which was originally scheduled to end on October 31, just days before the general election.

John McCain is now just outright wrong about what Palin did with the gubernatorial plane.

Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton supporters are not being drawn to McCain by Palin.

The Financial Times calls  read more »

Here’s former Governor George Pataki, fielding questions from reporters after speaking to the New York delegation at the Republican National Convention this week. He defended Sarah Palin’s preparedness to be vice president, citing the fact that as governor, she was in charge of her state’s national guard.

Later, I asked Pataki to name some decisions she’s made with respect to the national guard that demonstrates her preparedness (a question that's been posed to more than one person, so far without a clear answer). Pataki did not give me a specific example.

ST. PAUL—Here's Sean Hannity, Fox newscaster and conservative hero, signing autographs on the floor of the convention as though he'd just won the nomination.

"Where in Alabama, darlin? What's your name darlin? Destiny? Your destiny is in politics."

"Where you from? I'm from Santa Barbara. High five."

Guards told the crowd to "back up. Back up. Ma'am don't push."

He was interviewed by a woman from KGMB Channel 9 Hawaii.

"If I have one word for Sarah Palin, it is 'authentic.' I love Hawaii. I can't wait to get back. Aloha," he said.

"Sean, you are a great American," said one man.

"No, you are a great American," said Hannity.  read more »

Last night, Al D’Amato had something to say the New Jersey and Wisconsin delegations. So he stood up on a chair and started yelling.

Hours before John McCain gave his convention speech, some actual non-presidential news broke: Democratic City Councilman Oliver Koppell of the Bronx said he’ll introduce a bill to extend term limits.

Term limits was a major topic of conversation in the last couple of weeks, but so far no there's been no action.

I was on the floor of the Xcel Center when I heard about Koppell's bill, and asked Bronx Republican County Leader Jay Savino for his thoughts.

He called it a “slap in the face” for voters, because they twice approved the current law, which allows city lawmakers two terms, in referendums in the 1990s. He also said any lawmaker that supports extending the limit is "self-interested.”

When another delegate asked if Savino wanted to soften his remarks, since it's totally possible that Michael Bloomberg will support Koppell's bill, Savino waved off the suggestion and turned away.

Posting will be light today as the Observer team heads back to New York.

In the meantime, I've got some convention photos here, and videos here.

For fancier camera work, Irene Liu’s photos are here.

We'll still be doing our best to keep up with the post-convention news!

One more thing: anybody know who took the New York sign last night?

John McCain delivered a speech last night that sounded as if he did not belong to the party in power.

Joe Klein writes that the speech sounded "more the end of a career than the beginning of a presidency."

Michael Crowley called it "underwhelming."

The speech lacked specifics, Taegan Goddard writes.

The New York Times editorial board thinks McCain implicitly questioned Barack Obama’s patriotism with the slogan “country first.”

Obama told Bill O’Reilly the troop surge in Iraq worked “beyond our wildest dreams.”

Here's a visual representation of key words used at each convention. It's "change," "McCain" and "Bush" versus "taxes," "God," "business" and..."change."

The Obama campaign had nothing to say about Joe Bruno equating Obama with Eliot Spitzer.  read more »

Eight years ago, when he first sought the presidency, John McCain presented himself to the country much the way he is presenting himself now—as a battle-scarred American hero who had endured unspeakable physical and mental abuse for his country and who had emerged from it to pursue a life of courageous and principled public service.

Only back then, the Republican establishment, which just spent the last three nights in St. Paul feting him as living shrine to all that is righteous and noble about this country, didn't see him in such glowing terms. They called him a Democratic plant, challenged his heroism narrative, and rallied around—like their lives depended on it—a well-connected son of privilege who had shown exactly zero interest in serving his country in Vietnam, preferring the comparative light-lift of the Texas National Guard.  read more »

The Obama campaign is using the Republican attacks against community organizers to raise money.

Here is a letter that just went out from Barack Obama to his supporters.

 

Dear ----

Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention attacking ordinary people?

With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing.

Our convention was different. We gave the stage to everyday Americans who hunger for change and stepped up to make phone calls, knock on doors, and raise money in small amounts in their communities.

 read more »

ST. PAUL—A huge crowd is gathered around a flat-screen TV on the Xcel center right now watching Obama's O'Reilly Factor interview.

Barack Obama, Joe Biden and John McCain will appear on Sunday talk shows, but not Sarah Palin. [via The Plank]

Tonight in his speech McCain will talk about bipartisanship and his P.O.W. experience.

Police blockaded a bridge to keep hundreds of protesters from marching to the R.N.C. earlier today.

Leon Neyfakh describes the awkward scene during Mike Huckabee's speech, when he blasted the press as they sat nearby.

Pro-Palin writer Ross Douthat thinks the best strategy for Democrats to deal with Palin is to stop paying attention.

A woman from Palin's home town who observered her in many rolls, has  read more »

One constituency in particular has proven especially fruitful for the Republican Party through the years: Prominent football coaches. For whatever reason - a natural sympathy for autocratic leadership, perhaps? - the G.O.P. has had no shortage of sideline generals to showcase through the years, a tradition that the party will renew tonight when former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs addresses the convention just before 9:00.

Other well-known coaches who have assumed prominent roles in Republican Party politics through the years include:

* Bud Wilkinson - Led the Oklahoma Sooners to three national titles and 145 victories - including a 47-game winning streak between 1953 and 1957 - before seeking to parlay his in-state popularity into a 1964 U.  read more »

Governor David Paterson is set to appear on the Colbert Report tomorrow, according to his official schedule.

Paterson's predecessor Eliot Spitzer appeared on the show, and tried to out-funny the faux-conservative anchor, leading to a profoundly unamusing segment.

In practical terms, it should be a chance for Paterson to grab some of the national exposure he sort of missed out on at the Democratic convention last week, at which a) Chuck Schumer forgot to introduce him at a breakfast in front of the New York delegation, b) he was reportedly asked to focus his 4 p.m. convention remarks on people with disabilities rather than the economy, his hot issue back home, and c) he got edged out of CNN's camera shot during Hillary Clinton's big moment on the floor during roll call.

At an event today at the Museum of Russian Art, the McCain campaign did not allow questions for Governor Sarah Palin, except for one asked by a reporter from Alaska who wanted to know if she'd still have time for her home state. They've got two months to go in keeping her away from real questions. But so far so good!

Here's the pool report from Maeve Reston of the L.A. Times:

Pool Report #1a

9/4/08

Minneapolis - The Museum of Russian Art Governor Sarah Palin

NO NEWS

In the midst of a private luncheon of the Republican Governor's Association (in another room), the press was ushered into an small, dimly lit adjoining art gallery.

 read more »