Newscoma

This is a behind the scenes look at the Democratic Convention this year. Regardless of your politics, it shows what happens when candidates aren’t on stage. One of my favorite movies is The War Room, and this isn’t like that at all, but it is refreshing seeing the candidates just be normal and Joe Biden and Barack Obama even make their own blooper reel at the end.

H/T Jeffraham Prestonian

No gaffes from Biden and he didn’t go ballistic.

Lots of folksy moments from Palin.

Guys, I lean left. I own it. I am not going to hammer Palin here but I have to say, she likes some adjectives. And I think Biden gave some good answers. If you have already decided, you are going to lean the way you like anyway.

I’ll write it about it more tomorrow.

It’s politics. Wash your brain out with either bleach or tequila. It’s about the same.

Sarah Palin is not made of china. Joe Biden, and yes he’s the gaffe king, is not made of china either for that matter.

I’m going to get a bit feminist on you right now. Treat Palin and Biden the same. If softballs are lobbed tonight, then I’m going to be one peed-off woman.  The debate about this alone is infuriating because I keep reading how Biden shouldn’t “bully” Palin.

Biden and Palin just need to debate. The end.

She’s a growed up woman, as my sister Homer would say. Treat her as a vice-presidential pick and move on with it. She deserves to be treated as a candidate. To say that Biden doesn’t need to go on the offensive is absolutely ridiculous. Biden has as much, if not more, to lose as well.

I have no idea why I watch the news as my blood pressure just rises and rises.

Why am I writing this? I run a business with several employees. I have to put on my big-girl panties everyday and deal with the realities that people depend on me to make good, solid decisions. It has nothing to do with the fact that I’m a woman. I manage a business which has no gender involved when it comes to day-to-day operations. My bi-monthly check doesn’t say “WOMAN” on it.

So that ticks me off that this is being talked about. I wonder what time tomorrow the media will tell us which designer’s clothes she wore. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin both, and I say both, have done a lot for women in having to deal with so much mainstream media crap.

On the other hand, the die is cast. Democrats will claim Biden the winner. Republicans will claim Palin the winner and the debate isn’t for another 11 hours.

I’m watching the newsers this morning and they are talking about how both candidates have “lowered expectations” regarding this debate.

Guys, don’t buy it. This is an old political trick that needs to be retired effective now. What kind of BS is this?

The American people deserve a debate and not a public relations stunt.

Just call me Cranky McComa.

I’m going to take a moment and pontificate about Barack Obama choosing Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate.

In any political race, there are those buzzwords that become meaningless because the reality is that there is always maneuvering and trying to stay a couple of steps ahead. Obama tapping Biden on the shoulder as his running mate is actually somewhat surprising to me, which may shock you. Three weeks ago, I hadn’t really thought Biden up on this.

But in some ways, it makes sense. Biden has experience, he’s bawdy in some ways, he’s good entertainment. I honestly thought Clinton might be on the ticket after she conceded earlier this summer. But her husband continued to be loud and annoying (I always dug Bill Clinton but he’s been one cranky old man this past year.)

Every state has different needs. Would Clinton or Bayr or Kaine or Richardson been as powerful as Biden overall?

Maybe. Maybe not.

I’ve really been thinking that with the Biden announcement at 3:00 a.m. was brilliant from a media perspective. Was there “change” involved with this? Yes. No other political announcement has been done this way. We had a media frenzy all week over who Obama would choose and then by sending the text out (although John King of CNN was pretty insistent last night with his reporting) at the same time that a Clinton ad made that time such an issue seems to me to be pretty much intended to make a point.

Sure, the Obama camp will deny that but what is done is done.

Biden only brings three electoral votes with him from Delaware. He’s Roman Catholic which is a huge swing vote in this country. It’s one not spoken about as much as votes on gender and race but it’s still important.

Biden brings 30+ years of experience to the ticket, something that Obama has been criticized for. He is a beltway player. His foreign relations efforts are well-documented.

He spouts off a lot and suffers huge foot-in-mouth disease, which is risky and the plagiarism issues of 1987 are still in some of our minds.

And, as I do sometimes try to let you know what I hear from the locals, he’s well liked by many of the people here in the rural area I live in.

Do I like Biden? Well, I’m not in love with him but I have seen him stand up on some issues I care about. He buried his first wife and a child when he was first elected to the Senate after a terrible car accident in Delaware. I have empathy for that.

So, let’s just throw it out there. Obama picked a guy who’s either liked or disliked equally. He’s added a bit of gray hair to the ticket and there is the issue of experience but not a ton of electoral votes.

It wasn’t what I expected but I have, as you can tell by the amount of Bigfoot posts I’ve had up recently, I haven’t exactly been pouring over the tubes trying to find a clue either.

But to say there wasn’t any “change” I think is buying into the buzzwords of the campaign, a word that got Obama the nation’s attention and also has created some nightmares for him as well. Well, there was some change to a degree.

This election cycle, due to a large part to the growing online community who educates themselves, is a change. For every blogger that passionately follows Washington, there are four or five people that watch ten minutes of news a day and could give two hoots about details.

So, I think Obama made a good choice in that regard. Biden is a brand. People know who Biden is.

And that’s for everyone out there who is watching NASCAR or The Food Network or any other niche station that aren’t news junkies, because you see, they know who Biden is.

It might help. It might hurt.

We will see.