Palin’s a “cocky wacko,” according to an unlikely source. When you think of former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, the first things that likely come to mind are mellow, under-the-radar, diplomatic. That’s why his recent insights regarding Sen. John McCain’s presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, raised an eyebrow or two. She’s a “cocky wacko,” the Republican-turned-Independent told the Washington, D.C.-based New America Foundation Tuesday. “People were coming into my office, phone calls were flooding in, e-mails were coming in, ‘I just sent money to Obama, I couldn’t sleep last night’ - from the left. To see this cocky wacko up there,” said Chafee, who was the only Republican senator to stand against President Bush’s invasion of Iraq. He also told the policy thinktank that Sen. John McCain’s campaign is “lackluster” and that Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, has merely energized Sen. Barack Obama’s supporters. Chafee endorsed Obama earlier this year.

Voter Registration: The decision of who leads the United States for the next four years could very well come down to you. Find out how at BET.com/News.

The Republican nominee focuses on his experience and his vision.
Sen. John McCain casts himself as the agent of change. The Republicans wrapped up their convention with Sen. John McCain stealing a play from the Barack Obama playbook - presenting himself and his party as the true agents of change. Did you buy what McCain was selling? Read more at Pamela On Politics.

An elderly man and a woman head the GOP ticket

Republicans made history Wednesday night when they nominated the oldest first-time nominee in history, 72 year-old Sen. John McCain, and the first woman, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, ever to be the No. 2 on a GOP ticket.  Last night, Palin took the time to beat up on Obama - and to introduce the nation to a new, seemingly formidable candidate for the U.S. presidency. Did you watch the convention? What did you think? Read more about the convention at Pamela On Politics.

Black Republicans are calling African Americans back “home.”

Saying that Sen. John McCain is the better candidate, some high-profile Black Republicans say that if African Americans check their values, they’ll see that they line up precisely with the Grand Old Party. Should Black folks be hooking their collective wagon to an elephant instead of a donkey? Find out more at Pamela On Politics.

Gustav is making waves for Republicans.

Sen. John McCain has called for the Republican Party to scale back its convention in Minneapolis , citing Hurricane Gustav’s potential to inflict “a great national disaster” on the people in the Gulf Coast region.

MoveOn.org targets McCain VP pick. The activist political group, which has an uncanny knack for getting on a Republican politician’s last nerve, has turned its sights on Sen. John McCain and his recently announced running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Saying that the American people “need to see” the facts about the new GOP veep, MoveOn.org has taken the Republican Party’s biggest charge lodged against Sen. Barack Obama and turned it against Palin: an apparent lack of experience. The woman McCain has chosen to be “one heartbeat away from the presidency” is “a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of [ Wasilla , Alaska ] a town of 9,000 people.” The liberal-leaning political group, established in the aftermath of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, notes that Palin, who hopes to rein in some of the former Clinton-supporting women who aren’t too hip on Obama, is a staunch opponent of abortion, even in the case of rape and incest. It also points out that Palin was a strong supporter of Pat Buchanan, who has been publicly flogged on more than one occasion for racially insensitive comments. In other examples of extremism, MoveOn.org notes, Palin does not believe humans are responsible for climate change. “How closely did John McCain vet this choice?” the group asks on its Web site. “He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.” But what MoveOn.org doesn’t acknowledge is that the 44-year-old governor, the first woman ever to get a major-party nomination as vice president, helped create a new sub-cabinet group of advisers to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska . In late-July a state poll showed her with an 80-percent approval rating.

Barack Obama made history in more ways than one.   Besides being the first Black American to win the nomination of a major political party, the Illinois senator accepted the Democratic Party nomination in front of a cheering crowd of about 80, 0000 people. Get the details at BET.com/News.

Two powerful speeches with one message: Elect Barack Obama!

 Sen. Edward Kennedy and Michelle Obama opened the Democratic National Convention Monday night with a message of party unity, calling for the American people to elect Sen. Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Get the latest at Pamela On Politics. Talk about Michelle Obama’s speech here.

In June he said Barack was “talking White.” Now he says the Democrat is not a good Black candidate.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who a couple months ago chided Sen. Barack Obama for “talking White,” said Wednesday that Obama would not make the kind of Black president he was hoping for. “People who have fought the civil rights battle – politically, economically, legally – as we have since the ’50s would often talk about, ‘Look what would happen if we had an African-American president or chairpersons of major congressional committees,’” said Nader. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to be what we all thought it would be. … I lost respect for him when I saw him over a year ago on C-SPAN vigorously opposed to the impeachment of Bush and Cheney – vigorously opposed. He said it would be ‘divisive’. That is a cop-out word. We have the most multiple impeachable presidency in American history.” Nader was speaking to the media during a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. In June, Nader blamed Obama with assuaging “White guilt” by ignoring issues of race and poverty. Nader, who enjoyed a long reign as nation’s most respected consumer advocate – that was until he lost favor among many Democratic voters by drawing just enough votes in the 2000 election to knock Al Gore out of presidential contention – has been outspoken about Obama’s new stance on drilling for offshore oil.

It appears as though the Clinton-Obama rift is all but over in Beantown

Boston ’s big ballers broke out their checkbooks Monday night and turned Sen. Barack Obama’s 47th birthday bash into a big-time fundraiser. There was no sign of the division between the Democratic camps of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Obama, which generated so much intra-party angst during the primaries. In fact, former Clinton supporters accounted for $700,000 all by themselves. The total pot was expected to exceed $5 million, The Boston Globe reported. About 850 people showed up for the event at the posh State Room near Faneuil Hall. Some 250 of them paid $15,000 each – $28,500 per couple – to break bread with the senator following the initial meet and greet. The private birthday-campaign party was Obama’s first appearance in Beantown since clinching the Democratic nomination in June. Although he landed the endorsement of New England’s most popular politician – Sen. Edward Kennedy – Clinton won the most votes in the primary. “We all wanted to make a dramatic statement that we’re with him every step of the way,” said Steven Grossman, a leading Clinton fund-raiser and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Two cops are accused of cruising Harlem with a Black doll head on their antenna.

A prominent New York state Senator is wondering why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn’t spoken out against two White cops who rode around Harlem with the head of a human-sized Black doll impaled on their antenna. New Yorkers “deserve to hear from their mayor,” State Sen. Bill Perkins, a Democrat who represents Harlem, said outside the 25th Precinct station, where the officers were assigned. “The deafening silence speaks volumes.” Witnesses told authorities that they approached the officers and asked why they had the doll’s head on their antenna, but they merely laughed and threw it in the trunk. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says there is an investigation underway. Earlier, he said the officers were unaware that the head was there. Bloomberg has mentioned the investigation but called any conversations about the matter are counterproductive until all the facts are in. “I think we’re doing the right thing and stirring things up doesn’t add a heck of a lot,” Bloomberg said at City Hall. “We take any kind of racial slur very seriously.” Activists are demanding that police release any surveillance footage that may show how the doll head ended up on the car. Clarence Jones, a 27-year-old Black man, was arrested Sunday after trying to take pictures of the doll head with his camera phone. He was with Perkins during the protest. “I called them racist and they pointed at the doll head and laughed,” said Jones. Police alleged that they arrested him for driving away in an illegally parked car while he was being ticketed. His tooth was broken and arm was hurt during his arrest, he said. “This isn’t about a traffic ticket; this is about a baby doll head,” Jones’ attorney, Roger Wareham, said.