Wow. I didn't think Rachel could impress me any more

[toddGA]

than she already has. great analysis of the lack of vetting,and then she absolutely shredded Buchanan's logic...

I hope this country starts deserving folks like her...

[ErinBerin84]

1. Pat is such a doofus.

"WE at the convention know a lot about her! We know what she accomplished!" Uh, sure, Pat. Why does he think that the pregnancy has anything to do with the lack of vetting, when there are tons of other stories about Palin that are rising to the surface. "IF MCCAIN GETS LUCKY, THEN THE DECISION WAS BRILLIANT!!" And then Rachel says that picking a vice president should be more than just "hey, maybe we'll get lucky and get a vice president who's qualified!"

[Awsi Dooger]

2. I didn't see it that way

Incredibly weak argument by Rachel. She said even if Palin is a home run, McCain simply got lucky. That's pathetic. Buchanon followed very aggressively, saying Palin has a great record in two years as governor. That's subjective and Rachel could have attacked it, but she did not.

[toddGA]

3. But her point was that here's a man, McCain

GAMBLING with the second most important post in the country, a post that is appointed based on his judgment. bottom line, that's irresponsible and dangerous. great point rachel.

[Graybeard]

6. Exactly right toddGA. Welcome to DU!

The VP choice is not voted for in primaries or caucuses. Not questioned in Senate hearings. It's the Prez candidate's responsibility.

[toddGA]

7. exactly. nice avatar!

[toddGA]

9. she's gettin' to it now

[MiniMe]

5. She has a terrible record as a mayor and we need to get that out there

She took a small town with zero debt when she took over as mayor, and turned it into a 22 million dollar deficit. That is definitely pertinent and supports "more of the same"

[ErinBerin84]

4. I wish that Rachel would say

"Pat, we have you...and Joe scarborough...on tape saying what a HORRIBLE idea Palin as VP would be, but you changed your tune once you found out that she supported you for president!"

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. Yes, but she let Buchanan bloviate about Palin's success as a small town mayor

She didn't challenge him. No one, I mean no one, not even Rachel appears to have the grasp of the facts in this matter. No one mentions that Palin hired a city manager to execute many of the decisions of the city counsel on a day-to-day basis. No one mentions the fact that Palin took over a town as mayor that had no deficit and she personally ran it into the ground with a $22 million debt when she left due to her pet projects. No one talks about Palin's rampage of arbitrary firings in the town and the near recall from the citizens that she faced over it, or Palin's attempt to cleanse the public library from certain books that had language she didn't care for. No one talks about the boondogle sports center Palin had built that ended up in litigation.

I like Rachel a lot. But I'm disappointed that even Rachel doesn't seem to do enough homework and bring out these crushing facts that would shut up the creeps once and for all.

[toddGA]

10. posted above....

she's doing it now.

[sandnsea]

11. They chose those talking points

and I think they were the wrong ones. They needed facts to explain why McCain's choice was so disastrous, and they didn't get them. Hopefully they'll get it right tomorrow. I've seen the same point on Andrew Sullivan and I think Kos and TPM. They want to make it a referendum on McCain's bad judgment, but they have to argue against Palin for that to work. That's the part they missed.

[toddGA]

12. And Matthews just said she's unscathed?!!?

[sandnsea]

13. Oh good lord

That's why I don't watch those shows. Nothing ever changes. I just don't know what is wrong with our country.

[Awsi Dooger]

14. Matthews on the Palin research: "Feeding frenzy has yielded a minnow so far"

And Rachel says nothing.

I concede I'm just not that impressed with her. Rachel just allowed several minutes to pass allowing the other panel members to dominate without saying a thing. Other than briefly saying the last 8 years have been skipped over -- an effective but totally obvious point -- she has been all but self-muzzled for the past 5 minutes while Buchanon dominates. In fact, it's to the point Matthews is directing questions to Buchanon, allowing him to control the course of discussion. Is there a Rachel sentence in our future?

[ErinBerin84]

15. yeah, I like Rachel, but I think that she dropped the ball on that one.