Remember when Republicans used to criticize Democrats for playing “identity” politics? Well the shoe’s on the other foot. VP candidate “Double Standard” Sarah Palin sets the gold standard for “Do as I say, not as I do.” Here’s the very abbreviated list – I’m sure there’s more!

Right to Choose
1) Palin is against a woman’s right to choose, even in cases of rape or incest. Yet she describes her daughter’s decision to keep her child as a “private choice.” Only Double Standard Sarah’s daughter gets to choose – yours won’t if she gets elected.

The Double Standard Family
2) About that “private” bit — Palin has been out there railing at the media for covering her family’s travails. Then at the GOP convention the entire brood is trotted out as a living mosaic of “small-town family values”- including pregnant teen daughter and McCain photo-op participant fiancee Levi. Only Double Standard Sarah gets to exploit her family.

Animal Comparisons
3) Palin can compare an entire made up female demographic to dogs but when Obama dares to call out the McCain Bush policies for what they are – Lipstick on a Pig – her tender feelings are hurt. Could he mean her? Here I thought she was supposed to be a tough pit bull. Double Standard Sarah can Dish it out but she can’t take it.

Wasteful Spending
4) Palin blathers on about how she’s a fiscal conservative. On what planet? She took a small town from a surplus to $60 million in the red as mayor. She continues to lie about the chef she had as governor who continues to draw a paycheck and was never fired. Then there is the recent revelation that she had taxpayers pay her a per diem for staying in her own house at night – more than 300 times. Only Double Standard Sarah deserves earmarks and special payments for staying at home – wasteful spending.

Add your own Double Standard Sarah moment in the Comments!

Let the WGA strike the Oscar’s this year. We already got all the cutaway shots we need at last night’s debate between Democratic Presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. CNN must have shown Rob Reiner five times — so sorry about Bucket List getting snubbed by the Academy, Meathead! There was a loving shot of Remington Steele…er James Bond, and my personal fave was very fetching America Ferrara wearing the very latest in Hillary buttons.

The debate you ask? The candidates mostly stayed away from the rough stuff and at times looked so lovey dovey that I wanted to suggest they get a room. When it came down to the nitty-gritty, Hill was still stronger on substance with a very assured and detailed explanation of her health plan versus Obama’s. He may have been less surefooted when it came to the policy wonkery but he brought the charm and most importantly the vision.

They both got their hits in on the immigrants being allowed to get driver’s licenses issue (a red herring as its a state matter anyhow). Obama referenced Hillary’s shaky answer on this initially and she was good enough to remind him gently but forcefully of his own problems with this topic earlier in the year. He sheepishly nodded his head. It was like watching an old married couple.

This was the kind of healing exchange of ideas the party needed at this juncture. Obama eloquently reached out to Edwards supporters, as did Hillary, and everyone seemed to leave the event with a warm glow — except perhaps for Wolf Blitzer who was roundly booed for trying to bait Obama into an attack. Here’s a clip — check out 4:54 forward for the line of the night, delivered by Clinton, oh and Annie Hall:

A Certain Person said yesterday that they would jump into the Presidential race if they could raise $10 million. My initial reaction was to tap out a furious post about the raging egomania of this Certain Person which led him to seriously proclaim that there was no difference between Bush and Gore in 2000 and who duped enough voters into pulling the lever for him to throw a close election to the Supreme Court. Despite the fact that he was monstruosly wrong, he proceeded to run again, to diminishing returns.

Now, obeying his reflection in the mirror, he apparently feels its time to don the mantle once again. His excuse? Kucinich dropped out. What this Certain Person doesn’t get is that Kucinich has had a fair shot, particularly in the early goings. Yes he eventually got asked to not show up to debates but that is because his numbers were abysmal (not an excuse I agree with). Be that as it may, the system worked — voters aren’t that interested.

I’ve decided not to give this Certain Person what it is that they so desperatly crave — attention. I will not utter their name, nor with any luck will I have to make reference to them again. I do implore all of you out there in Blogsylvania — do not name him, do not give him the publicity he seeks.

Though Edwards is endorsing no-one for the time being, the timing of this move serves as a boost to Obama. To wit:

1) Hillary’s last minute “victory” celebration in Florida last night, a state that was stripped of delegates and in which all of the candidates pledged to refrain from campaigning was meant to capture media time and shift some of the mo’ back her way after Obama’s rout in South Carolina.
Edwards last hurrah is sucking up that oxygen.

2) The ABC (anyone but Clinton) vote now has only one serious conduit, and the states where Edwards might have been strongest in on Tuesday are states that Obama runs well in.

Mussolini-esque Snowbird Republican Rudy Giuliani also has decided to cut short his sojourn in Florida, having bet everything there and lost spectacularly. Oh Rudy, us New Yorkers could have told you: The more time someone spends with you, whether it be the voters, your ex-wives, or police and firefighters, the more they come to realize you are a major league a-hole.

The Clinton camp knew South Carolina was likely to go Obama’s way. What they didn’t count on was his huge margin of victory — 53%. He drew almost as many white males to the table as Hillary while getting the bulk of the black vote.

February 5th now looms in importance and the Kennedy family endorsements that are coming Obama’s way today should serve as a big red warning signal to camp Clinton:

1) The rough campaigning is taking its toll. Black voters are an important base group and if they are turned off in a tight election its bad news for a Democrat. Combine that with the Clinton’s penchant for getting Republicans out to the polls and some party elders are taking a second look at the electability factor.

2) There is a sizable wing of the Democratic party that does not want the circus back in town. While the Clinton years were ones of prosperity, they were also ones of great political division that ultimately saw the return of Republican power in the house and an unprecedented impeachment trial. Let’s not forget the very personal stake the Kennedy family has had as the first family of Democratic politics — do they want to cede that status to the Clintons?

3) This is looking like a “change” election — much like 1992. Hillary’s message of experienced leadership is a hard sell in this environment. Sending Bill out on the trail only reinforces the “back to the future” -ness of her campaign.

4) Hillary is tamping down her own strengths by having Bill be so visible. In all likelihood she will be a better and more disciplined chief executive than he was. But his very presence as an advocate muddies the water. She ought to be able to draw distinctions between herself and Obama, Republicans, and her husband. She’s been very effective when she has done so.

Last night’s Presidential debate among the Democrats (minus a very peeved Dennis Kucinich) was the nastiest yet — the gloves are off. Amidst all the wrestling holds, rope-a-dopes, and tag-team action, what was really going on?

Obama knows he is up in South Carolina, he’ll probably win there. He is trying to defend his record which is under withering assault from both Hillary and Bill Clinton. He did a pretty good job defending himself to someone who is versed in politics but as we’ll see in the clip, the more he has to explain the more it seems like there is something that needs to be explained. When he gets into a somewhat convoluted explanation of why he voted “present” so many times as an Illinois state legislator, it lowers him down from the perch of being a “different” kind of candidate and exposes him as a politician, not that there is anything wrong with that. The Clintons know this and are happy to lead him into this sort of defense of his record. Obama wants to use the momentum of a win in South Carolina to pick up some states on February 5th and hold Clinton’s margins down in the states he can’t win. Last night didn’t hurt him but I don’t know that seeing him on the attack and defending his own record so often helped him either.

Clinton knows South Carolina is gone at this point, though if she could get within 5 points or so of Obama she’ll call it a victory. She’s laying the landmines for February 5th. This was an Obama-friendly audience but her job was to spread doubt about Obama’s record and his ability to defend it. Her sharpness cuts both ways — though the crowd seemed to feel for Obama when he was getting hit by that Clinton uppercut (“slumlord”, “not present”, “Ronald Reagen”) Democrats are eager to see that kind of verbal ju-jitsu employed on a Republican in the general election — Hillary is counting on it. I think the performance helped in that she didn’t come of as detached or icy — far from it. She was fiery and ready to rumble — the subtext being that this is what Dems should want in the fall.

Edwards has the most interesting role here. His own aides have suggest that he won’t win a single primary at this point. Yet far from cruising, he had one of his best nights last night, pivoting away from his earlier habit of ganging up against Clinton to tag team with her against Obama. Why? May I suggest that Edwards is in this for delegates. He wants to hold down whoever the front runner is in the remaining primaries and collect enough delegates to be a king (-or queen) maker. Math is far from my forte but it may be possible for the top two candidates to come out of February’s primaries close enough together in number of delegates for Edward’s delegates to put the number two candidate over the top. This leads to the important question — what does Edwards want? I think we can rule out the VP slot. He may want to see his anti-poverty agenda take center stage. Or there may be something else. Let me know if you think of ideas!

In the meantime here’s a clip that illustrates the new dynamic. Hillary just gave Obama a good shot in the kidneys by pointing out a specific bill he voted “present” on — and got boo-ed for her trouble. Obama’s explaining, calmly and reasonably, the minutia of state legislative action which plays right into her game plan. Then Edwards jumps in and magnifies Hillary’s message.

Tyra Banks — so easy to make fun of. Yet she managed this week to get Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to open up and talk about an area of her personal life that many Americans are curious about. It may be that this is part of the Clinton campaign’s strategy to allow people to see a more personal side of the candidate, something that was very effective in New Hampshire. She talked candidly with Tyra about her reaction to her husband’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and clearly pleased a rapt audience. Here’s the clip:

Of course this is also the 10th anniverssary of the affair. Jon Stewart revisited the coverage at the time, and the styles of the late 90s on his Daily Show this week:

NBC News’ gravitas with a funny bone anchor Brian Williams fessed up Wednesday night that the network had been flooded with complaints over their habitual mispronunciation of “Nevada” during their caucus coverage. This is a story my beautiful and intelligent wife can relate to, having spent many formative years in Nevada and subsequently correcting ignorant Northeasterner’s mangling of the state’s name. Here’s NBC’s report, including the right and wrong ways to say it: