Microsoft is turning into the McCain campaign

Less than four hours before Steve Jobs introduces new laptops today, Microsoft is already circulating whiny-baby, anti-Apple Talking Points??

They offer charts comparing the feature lists of similarly priced Windows and Mac notebooks and make numerous accusations of an "Apple Tax." The email is interesting: nothing they say is incorrect, but none of it is new. Most importantly, all of it misses the point completely.

Seriously. Talking points??

Hmm, maybe after this campaign is over, Steve Schmidt can get a job after all...

Wait a second:

(Left to right: Steve Schmidt, Steve Ballmer, artists' renditions)

Noonan Crashes

No one has squandered their credibility boost from this year's primaries more quickly or sharply than Peggy Noonan.

After getting caught speaking her mind when she thought no one was looking, on the same day she espoused the opposite position in her Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan has been in full damage control mode, trying to get back in favor with her conservative puppet-masters.

Today's column is a pretty pathetic continuation of this rehabilitation:

She killed. She had him at "Nice to meet you. Hey, can I call you Joe?" She was the star. He was the second male lead, the good-natured best friend of the leading man. She was not petrified but peppy.

Three months ago, I thought Peggy Noonan could have earned a spot in the American Political Pantheon by crossing party lines and crafting Barack Obama's version of "Morning in America."

Now she is continues to reveal herself to be nothing more than another partisan hack. One who hypocritically attacks Democrats for being elitists through a op-ed column humbly titled "Declarations."

Maybe hold off on that new camera?

Apparently the HD-Video features on the new DSLR's aren't so great yet...



That's from the new Nikon.

Why Palin Laid An Egg

Forget for a moment that the whole evening's outcome was preordained.

Andrew Sullivan predicted Bill Kristol's column three hours before he filed it...and it turns out he was pretty much right.

(For the record, I was wrong. Yesterday, I predicted that Chris Matthews would call her speech a "grand slam." It turned out to be Wolf Blitzer instead.)

And forget even the comedic cognitive dissonance of her delivery: An Amy Poehler SNL character delivered by Tina Fey.

But the real problem with the speech is that she failed to convince anyone out there who McCain wasn't going to appeal to anyway.

This has been the central problem with choosing her to begin with. The gimmick didn't work: it started turning off undecided voters immediately.

Last night, Sarah Palin had a chance to introduce herself to America, and appeal to someone--anyone--other than social conservatives.

She failed.

James Fallows: She brought no one new to the table:

To return to the main theme: both Reagan in 1964 and Obama in 2004 were effective because, apart from their personal skills, they added something to their party's constituency that had not been there before. Reagan began recruiting the "Reagan Democrats," starting with white Southerners. Obama tried to recruit people tired of divisive partisanship.

Sarah Palin, at least tonight, did not seem interested in bringing anyone new into the fold.

Nate Silver: She overreached.

I think some of you are underestimating the percentage of voters for whom Sarah Palin lacks the standing to make this critique of Barack Obama. To many voters, she is either entirely unknown, or is known as an US Weekly caricature of a woman who eats mooseburgers and has a pregnant daughter. To change someone's opinion, you have to do one of two things. Either, you have to be a trusted voice of authority, or you have to persuade them. Palin is not a trusted voice of authority -- she's much too new. But neither was this a persuasive speech. It was staccato, insistent, a little corny. It preached to the proverbial choir.

Even the Associated Press(!?) points out that she fibbed. A lot.

By going on the attack, she did not define herself as someone expanding the tent for the Republicans in an era where their party is shrinking. Instead, she's a fresh new face fighting the angry old culture war from a teleprompter.

That's not going to give anyone undecided about the McCain-Palin ticket much to rally around--but it should give her the inside track to be a defective, right-wing Rachel Maddow to O'Reilly's Olbermann on Fox.

Laura Ingraham, watch out!