How is it that two stellar, decent men like Barack Obama and Joe Biden have such indecent “supporters“?

It’s a mystery.

I am now officially laughing my ass off at those who thought the upcoming blessed event was going to hurt McCain-Palin.

First, New York mag killed with this headline:

We’re Sorry, But Palin Baby Daddy Levi Johnston Is Sex on Skates

Then McCain greeted Bristol Palin’s baby daddy, who just flew in from Alaska for tonight’s big shindig at the RNC, where his future mother-in-law plans to wow the crowd, at the airport:

Eli Lake reports that they’re religious, and they approve this message.***

[The founding executive director of the Christian Coalition, Ralph] Reed said that Bristol Palin’s decision to marry and give birth to her baby was energizing the conservative base of the Republican party. “The fact that she is marrying the father of the child and she is having the baby is only going to endear this candidate further to the grassroots social conservatives,” Mr. Reed said.

Another segment of the religious crowd in America approves of Palin, too, though this crowd also approves of Obama [e.a. and e.a.]:

While the Alaska governor has been kept out of the public eye, she has met with some key interest groups. According to one Republican source familiar with the meeting, Mrs. Palin was introduced to Aipac leaders here by Senator Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut who endorsed Senator McCain last night. …

The Alaska governor with no record on Middle East foreign policy impressed Aipac. “We got a good productive discussion on the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and we were pleased that Governor Palin expressed her deep personal commitment to the safety and well-being of Israel,” a spokesman for Aipac, Joshua Block, said.

He added, “Now that both Democrats and Republicans have determined their respective tickets, Aipac is pleased that both parties have selected four pro-Israel candidates, and in doing so they have reaffirmed the broad bipartisan support that exists in our country for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.”

(via Kaus, who is dead-on about Fred Thompson’s Boris Karloff imitation): [e.a.]

He’s a politician who’s a bad actor and therefore a bad politician. Last night he had a solid speech to deliver. (As blogger Stephen Green told me, it didn’t just throw some red meat. It slaughtered a small cow.) But except for one line (on Iraq, ending in “and now we’re winning”) and a moving bio section on McCain’s aircraft carrier service, Thompson seemed to be a guy reading his lines.

Some might argue that that one line—”and now we’re winning“—made up for all the rest, since Thompson spelled it out in front of a national audence. There was a lot more red meat thrown out there, too, of course:

“If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve,” President Bush said in a brief satellite-linked address to the Republican National Convention here last night, “you can be sure the angry Left never will.”

A friendly reminder to my readers: I report. You decide.

—————–
*** from “Tevye’s Dream“

A blessing on your head
(Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov)
To see a daughter wed
(Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov)
And such a son-in-law
Like no-one ever saw
…
A worthy boy is he
(Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov)
Of pious family
(Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov)

There’s some triumphalism in the land (or at least on the left side of the blogosphere) about this magazine cover:

Palin detractors have concluded that her appearance in a “tabloid” under the headline “SCANDAL” will hurt her (and McCain) [e.a.].

Let’s say, instead, like millions of working-class Americans, you get your “news” on the political race from the supermarket aisle. Let’s say you’re — I don’t know, a “hockey mom” — and you’re intrigued by this Sarah Palin person you’ve been hearing so much about since Friday.

So you’re shopping this week — and what do you see on the cover of US Weekly? That esteemed journalistic institution is taking it right to John McCain’s running mate — with a hard-hitting piece that details the “scandal” involving her daughter’s pregnancy. …

It should be noted that there is no new reporting here that I can discern — just a greatest hits from what’s out there.

But this, to me, is the clearest evidence yet that the McCain-Palin campaign is losing the battle over Palin’s image. US Weekly readers are the voters her selection was designed to attract. There’s not much to like in this early take — and not much to indicate that the next round will be much better.

I say these detractors are dead wrong, because they don’t know their “tabloids.” US Weekly offers its (semi-respectable) readers a weekly (fake) soap opera. Its readers know that they’re being entertained. And they’re waiting for the next installment: Palin’s redemption.

Of course Palin may never get coverage like this from US: