Let’s be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy. She was incapable of running a town in Alaska competently. The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months – and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish – is a sign of their total loss of nerve. That the Palin absurdity should follow the two-term presidency of another individual utterly out of his depth in national government is particularly troubling. 46 percent of Americans voted for the possibility of this blank slate as president because she somehow echoed their own sense of religious or cultural “identity”. Until we figure out how this happened, we will not be able to prevent it from happening again. And we have to find a way to prevent this from recurring.
It happened because John McCain is an incompetent and a cynic and reckless beyond measure. To have picked someone he’d only met once before, without any serious vetting procedure, revealed McCain as an utterly unserious character, a man whose devotion to the shallowest form of political gamesmanship trumped concern for his country’s or his party’s interest. We need a full accounting of the vetting process: who was responsible for this act of political malpractice? How could a veep not be vetted in any serious way? Why was she not asked to withdraw as soon as the facts of her massive ignorance and delusional psyche were revealed?
Because the GOP likes to pimp its ignorant base to gain power. See Joe The Plumber for example. Seriously, what does Joe The Plumber know about Israel? Does he know how Israel came to creation? Does he understand Palestine? No all he knows is the catch phrase of saying Israel must be protected at all costs and that will be enough for the masses who think facts and science have cooties.
What is the GOP going to be if Palin and Joe are the best they can do?
Sarah Palin, due to the fact that McCain had no platform during his Presidential run, was assigned the task of throwing coded slurs at Obama. Anti-American! Socialism! Terrorist! Redistributor! Muslim! Her screeching on the campaign trail appealed to certain Americans who take comfort in ignorance and fear and shun all original thought. She preyed on their biases. Again and again and again.
(An aside: What the $%$^@$^ BB are these people in the video doing today? How are they coping? Are they doing crystal meth? Having sex with their children? Reading the Bible while watching Fox News and listening to Rush Lardbucket? Committing mass suicides? One can only hope.]
There should be no tears for Sarah Palin. Zero forgiveness. TFB that she is now the victim of slurs and innuendo from unnamed McCain operatives. Did she think she would be immune because she did the bidding of McCain’s version of The Three Stooges, Mark Salter, Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis and they liked her?
So when she comes sleazing her inarticulate, science mocking, delusional, lying ass back to be the face of Rethuglicans for 2012 under the cloak of Christian hypocrisy, Americans who know better should rebuke her because we don’t believe in divisiveness and ugliness as a way of life.
McCain Owes Sarah Some Straight Talk [Wall Street Journal] (I enjoyed this because of the wobbly comparison of Barack’s intellect to Sarah’s. It must be so hard to be a Republican right now because they are reduced to making laughable assertions and I LOVE IT!)
His cri de coeur at The Daily Beast is a doozy. It seems to ignore any reality of the actual campaign that was run and blathers on about how the badge of Republican indicted his mavericky hero, McCain:
By the end of the campaign, our own polling revealed over sixty percent of voters recognized Senator Obama as a political liberal, while only a little over twenty percent of voters identified themselves that way. It didn’t matter. Americans wanted change, and a majority of them were willing to gamble on the young man with a short resume, whose positions on issues were often at odds with theirs, because he offered the most change. Any Republican, even one with a reputation for political courage and a record of challenging his party’s leadership, would have a hard time satisfying the public’s desire for sweeping change. The R after his name indicted him in the public mind’s, and Senator Obama’s campaign, with millions of dollars in advertising and an intense focus on their message, expertly prosecuted the case: McCain equals four more years of Bush.
This is my problem with Mark Salter and anyone else trying to give me Champale instead of Moet. If McCain had a reputation of political courage and challenging his party’s leadership, why did he change up once he got to the Big Time? McCain didn’t lose solely because Obama gives good speech and crafted a campaign strategy that was hard to beat; McCain lost because he didn’t trust his gut to run a campaign that was true to his values.
End of story. Anything else is bullshyt. Another out of this world hedge:
No doubt, we made our share of mistakes. In hindsight, the decision to briefly suspend our campaign to help find support for legislation to address the collapse of the global credit system is probably one of them.
PROBABLY? What is so wrong with saying it was? McCain lost the election because of this gimmicky move while citizens of the country he loves so much were losing their homes and jobs. Country first, my ass.
At this point, McCain should have called me to be his running mate. I would have been an improvement. I’m waiting for the right wing brain trust to defend this. 5, 3, 4, 2, 1…..
AND here’s why I love the Internets. People from every corner can discuss the the brainiac’s latest dosage of constitutional brilliance. Also, it’s not piling on when she makes it so easy!
I will pray that Andrew Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher and Chris Matthews don’t spontaneously combust at the reality of living with a McPalin presidency.
I will wonder how long it will be before Palin kills McCain to assume the presidency.
I will not riot.
I will be fetal and may not leave my bed for a few days.
I will leave my bed for fried chicken and chocolate cheesecake.
I will watch American media make a worthless fuss over the birth of Bristol Palin’s illegitimate crotchfruit and eventual wedding.
I will not pray for America. I’m done. If McPalin wins, I don’t care anymore.
I will watch the fuckwits who whinge about their taxes finally figure out how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are being funded. (That McPalin don’t bother explaining to their zombies on the campaign trail just how much the zombie are funding the two wars with their hard earned money is akin to a person repeatedly having unprotected sex with a retarded person.)
I will watch in horror as Palin galumphs around the world in all her uncouth glory with her lunkhead husband.
I will bemoan the fact that Satan’s butt boy James Dobson will feel empowered to practice more bigotry and sexism because a vote for Palin is a vote for gay discrimination and anti-choice.
Update - I will steal anti-depressants for my friends because some of them will need them.
I will read James Baldwin for sustenance. Especially The Fire Next Time.
I will watch The Colbert Report and The Daily Show religiously because well they will be my Prozac, Lithium and Ambien.
I will weep because a McPalin win means Patrick and Bay Buchanan will NEVER GO AWAY.
Sarah Palin in her first newspaper interview since joining John McCain’s one way bridge to nowhere presidential ticket:
Less than two weeks before Election Day, she will deliver her first major policy speech Friday, calling for full funding of special education, a subject that has suddenly become extremely personal. And that’s not just because of the arrival of Trig, her 6-month-old son with Down syndrome. It’s because families with children who have disabilities have been flocking to her campaign stops, looking to Palin and her family for inspiration.
How can one tout additional funding for something when John McCain has repeatedly told the American public that he doesn’t plan to raise taxes and that he plans to institute a spending freeze if elected President?
SCHIEFFER: The question was, what are you going to cut?
MCCAIN: Energy — well, first — second of all, energy independence. We have to have nuclear power. We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much. It’s wind, tide, solar, natural gas, nuclear, off-shore drilling, which Senator Obama has opposed.
And the point is that we become energy independent and we will create millions of jobs — millions of jobs in America.
OK, what — what would I cut? I would have, first of all, across-the-board spending freeze, OK? Some people say that’s a hatchet. That’s a hatchet, and then I would get out a scalpel, OK?
Because we’ve got — we have presided over the largest increase – we’ve got to have a new direction for this country. We have presided over the largest increase in government since the Great Society.
Government spending has gone completely out of control; $10 trillion dollar debt we’re giving to our kids, a half-a-trillion dollars we owe China.
I know how to save billions of dollars in defense spending. I know how to eliminate programs.
So if McCain supporters who are families with children who have disabilities don’t realize that their candidate is talking about a spending freeze … how do they think this funding will be achieved? The answer:
The federal government originally committed in 1975 to paying 40 percent of the cost of educating children with special needs, with the states paying the rest. But that has never happened; full funding would require approximately $26 billion a year, and the federal government currently shells out $10.9 billion.
The McCain campaign plans to phase in that money with an extra $3 billion a year over five years. McCain has called for a domestic discretionary spending freeze, but programs for disabled people would be exempt.
Good to know. I’m wondering if health insurance for everyone can be included in the funding, too.
It occurred to me after the SNL sketches that Palin and Harriet Miers both suffered from the same flaw: They couldn’t magically prepare themselves in a few short weeks for one of the hardest jobs in the world. In both cases, their sponsors insisted they were “teachable.” But who the heck is “teachable” under this set of facts? A little Pygmalion, anyone?
Picking unqualified women in the hopes they can be transformed (by men) into something flawless in a matter of days is irrational AND sexist. Then the woman is blamed.
When I read that, I realized that Lithwick was so right! Remember Harriet Miers? Bush tossed her out as being perfect for the Supreme Court because she was:
In nominating Miers last week, Bush called her a “trailblazer” who has “devoted her life to the rule of law.” The president’s former personal lawyer and current White House counsel, Miers was offered up as the replacement for retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor. But despite high praise from her boss, critics quickly pounced on the 60-year-old lawyer’s cozy relationship with Bush and her lack of experience trying significant cases.
I believe Miers truly pushed through the nomination process (until she didn’t) because of faithful loyalty to George W. With Palin, we won’t be so lucky. She’s going to have to be put on that plane back to Alaska by the American people.
They have video of Sarah Palin providing a reason for firing Walt Monegan, Alaska’s public safety commissioner that doesn’t make any kind of sense when you listen to her explanation for hiring him for another position.
Is this the end of the world?
No.
But it does provide insight into Governor Palin’s concept of maverick and reformer.
