memeorandum: Bush: McCain won't yield to ‘angry Left’ (Mark Silva/The Swamp)

11:20 AM ET, September 3, 2008

Top Items:

Aides Say Team Interviewed Palin Late in the Process — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate …

Discussion: MSNBC, The Moderate Voice, The Politico, Crooks and Liars, Patterico's Pontifications, Firedoglake, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, NY Daily News, The Other McCain, Daily Kos, Alas, a blog, Legalities, The Daily Dish, Jack & Jill Politics and TIME.com

Mike Allen / The Politico:

McCain: Palin more qualified than Obama — Mounting a ferocious defense of his embattled running mate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he is buying a TV ad arguing that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has more experience than the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Discussion: Associated Press, Wizbang, Hot Air, Spin Cycle, TIME.com, PoliticalBase.com Blog, Yahoo! News and Commentary

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

McCain Strategist Blasts Media — Top Aide Says News Organizations Are ‘on a Mission to Destroy’ Palin — Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being “on a mission to destroy” Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying “a level of viciousness and scurrilousness” …

Discussion: Think Progress, TVNewser, NewsBusters.org, Commentary, ProPublica and The Huffington Post

William Yardley / New York Times:

Palin's Start in Alaska: Not Politics as Usual — WASILLA, Alaska — The world arrived here more than a century ago with the gold rush and later the railroad. Yet one aspect of American life did not come to town until 1996, the year Sarah Palin ran for mayor and Wasilla got its first local lesson in wedge politics.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Welcome To The PalinDrome, No Blood for Hubris, Real Clear Politics, Christian Science Monitor, Don Surber, AMERICAblog News and RADAMISTO

Washington Post:

Before Speech, Running Mate Gets Some Coaching — Since Sunday night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been holed up in her suite in the Hilton Minneapolis while a parade of Sen. John McCain's top advisers have briefed her on the nuances of his policy positions, national politics and, above all …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Donklephant, Newsweek Blogs, PoliticalBase.com Blog, TRAIL BLAZERS, MSNBC, Argghhh!, Time and TIME.com

Wall Street Journal:

The Beltway Boys — Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain's veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose …

Discussion: Hot Air and Commentary

Rachel D'Oro / Associated Press:

Bristol Palin's boyfriend heads to convention — WASILLA - The boyfriend of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's unwed, pregnant daughter will join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn. — Levi Johnston's mother said her 18-year-old son left Alaska …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com, The Australian, Associated Press, TalkLeft, Reuters and TBogg

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

Palin Slashed Funding for Teen Moms — ST. PAUL — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.

Discussion: Salon, Simply Left Behind, TPM Election Central, The Reaction, JammieWearingFool, Brilliant at Breakfast, National Enquirer, michellemalkin.com, Daily Kos, News Hounds, Buck Naked Politics and Democratic Strategist

Lindsey Ellerson / Live Blogging:

How Palin is Playing in the Supermarket Aisles — Rick Klein, from ABC's The Note, reports: Let's say you don't read The New York Times or The Washington Post (or The Note, for that matter). Let's say you don't follow the big political blogs and you're not obsessed with every turn of the screw of this fascinating presidential race.

Discussion: Macsmind, Political Radar, Blue Gal, PoliticalBase.com Blog and The Poor Man Institute

Wall Street Journal:

GOP Tightens Image Control As Palin Prepares for Debut — ST. PAUL, Minn. — The McCain campaign scrambled to take control of the public debate over vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin, canceling her public appearances and teaming her with high-powered Republican operatives as she prepared …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Post, USA Today and Real Clear Politics

Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:

The Media Descend to a New Low — The smearing of Sarah Palin gets uglier. — Time's Mark Halperin has posted an advance copy of the cover of US Weekly magazine, the tabloid published by Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner. That cover shows a smiling Sarah Palin, holding her youngest son Trig.

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog and The Foundry

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Well, I Did Something Right — Thanks to Stephen Hayes: … My italics. I'm not sure if this is the first time a neoconservative has raised the question of Palin's views on Iraq. Even if it's part of an argument that the press should stop checking on the obvious, glaring weirdnesses staring us …

Discussion: Sonny Bunch

Victor Davis Hanson / The Corner:
Why Do We Like Palin?

Discussion: Betsy's Page, Flopping Aces and Dr. Sanity

The New / The Caucus:
Alaska Party Official Says Palin Was Not a Member

Discussion: Commentary, News Hounds, Democratic Strategist, Wizbang, AlterNet.org, DBKP, The GOPNation Blog, Democracy in America, Mad Kane's Political Madness and Spectator

Los Angeles Times:
Sarah Palin is being prepped for prime time

Discussion: The Caucus and American Power

The Politico:
Palin reignites culture wars

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, Associated Press, RADAMISTO, Political Radar, The Strata-Sphere and Network of enlightened Women

Rachel Paula Abrahamson / Us Weekly:
Sarah Palin: Political Opponent Recalls Being Ridiculed

Discussion: Tennessee Guerilla Women, NewsBusters.org, NPR and Political Punch

Matt Welch / Reason:
The View on Palin from an Alaskan Anti-Real ID Activist and Democrat

Discussion: The Washington Independent and The Agitator

Michelle Malkin:
P.D.S. alert: Us magazine's partisan hit job

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, Bob McCarty Writes, The Other McCain, NewsBusters.org and The Jawa Report

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
As the GOP turns: Sarah Palin's daughter's baby's father to attend convention

Discussion: www.redstate.com

New York Times: A Low-Key Outdoorsman Faces a National Role

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

The Angry Left — I don't have the credentials necessary to go to the actual convention, but according to folks I've talked to it's been low energy in the Xcel Energy Center and a not-exactly-packed house. Indeed, President George W. Bush didn't even bother to show up in person to deliver …

Michael Moore:
Michael Moore Responds to Joe Lieberman

Discussion: Think Progress and TPM Election Central

Joe Klein / Swampland:
The Republicans Tonight

Discussion: Jezebel, New York Times, Spin Cycle and Washington Post

Mark Silva / The Swamp: Bush: McCain won't yield to ‘angry Left’

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Obama Met With Fox News Executives — At a secret meeting with Barack Obama three months ago, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes says, he tried to clear the air with the Democratic senator by saying that his organization was determined to be fair but would not be “in the tank” for Obama's campaign.

Discussion: Don Surber, NewsBusters.org, TIME.com and Romenesko

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Obama to Appear on Fox on Thursday Night — CHICAGO — Before Senator John McCain delivers his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Senator Barack Obama will make a marquee appearance of his own. — Call it counter-intuitive. He will appear on “The O'Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel.

Discussion: The Politico, Outside The Beltway, Don Surber and Los Angeles Times

Garry Wills / New York Times:

McCain's McGovern Moment — ONE of the most bizarre political events I ever attended was the second Democratic nominating convention of 1972. It was held in August at a Washington hotel ballroom, not in a big arena like the Miami Beach Convention Center, where the party had nominated George McGovern for president four weeks earlier.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Althouse and TigerHawk

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Jewish voters may be wary of Palin — ST. PAUL, Minn. — Barack Obama has struggled for 18 months to lock down the support of a traditionally Democratic group, Jewish voters. — In the past week, John McCain may have helped Obama with his Jewish problem by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, Ben Smith's Blogs, The Daily Dish, Buck Naked Politics, The Volokh Conspiracy, Pharyngula, Wolf Howling, Comments from Left Field, American Street and JTA Election Central

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:

Gingrich Slams MSNBC's Allen Concerning Palin's Qualifications — Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich did what conservatives have been waiting for someone to do since Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain's running mate: take on someone in the media claiming that she lacks the qualifications to be vice president.

Discussion: Macsmind

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Obama ad slams McCain on abortion rights — ST. PAUL, Minn. — Barack Obama has launched a broadside against John McCain's opposition to abortion rights and moved one of the most divisive issues in modern American politics to the airwaves on a large scale for the first time in this presidential campaign.