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How Palin's Resignation Makes Her the True Frontrunner
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UPDATE: Rather than a blow to a career, Sarah Palin's decision to resign underlines her self-awareness, writes The Daily Beast's John Batchelor. She is now unmatched for the 2012 primary.
Plus: Read more of The Daily Beast's coverage of Palin's resignation and the GOP implosion.
The early excuse for the Republican circular firing squad of the holiday weekend is that Weekly Standard editor and party brainiac Bill Kristol claims that pugnacious McCain campaign enforcer Steve Schmidt has been caught gossiping to Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum about Sarah Palin’s rambling and incoherent vice-presidential campaign last September and October. (Now that Palin has announced her resignation from Alaska’s governorship, the late excuse for the fisticuffs will certainly be that the boys smelled a special mom baking an apple pie in the kitchen of the GOP and they got in line early with a plate and appetite.)
Purdum, writing with a polite disdain, does flatter Palin as “the sexiest and riskiest brand in the Republican Party,” before he goes on to mention unnamed McCain campaign sources who tell stories of Palin’s erratic behavior on the trail supposedly caused by her “post-partum depression.” Kristol asserts as evidence that Schmidt was the source of this defamatory rumor that Kristol knows that Schmidt has recently emailed Palin out of the blue. “Perhaps Steve was nervous someone would finger him for the Purdum piece,” Kristol proposes.
What Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade.
Firing back, Schmidt immediately emailed a reference to Bill Kristol’s distant youth when he worked for the perennial GOP chump, Vice President Dan Quayle: “I’m sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign.”
Meanwhile, the sniping continues to deteriorate, with erstwhile McCain campaign advisers like Randy Scheunemann choosing sides with Kristol (Scheunemann hates Schmidt, who tried to force him out of the campaign as a leaker and confiscated his BlackBerry), while Schmidt reveals that he had the permission of McCain and Palin to ferret out who was leaking unkind details on Palin to the media. No comment yet from the senator and the governor on their genius of a Plumbers Unit. Another campaign aide, Nicole Wallace, and her husband, Mark Wallace, are mentioned as founts of poison on Palin. “This is all news to me,” Nicole Wallace proclaims.
Is this normal after a losing presidential campaign? No. Nor is this a normal year for the Republicans. Kristol and Schmidt and their cronies all know that the Republican brand that they depend upon for a job and for money, lots of money, has been wrecked to the point of no return. They are veterans of a lost cause with one wild adventure to try before history moves on—and the adventurer’s name is Sarah Palin.
Palin’s sudden announcement that she will resign the Alaska governorship at the end of July, delivered alongside the fireworks of the 4th of July, underlines her self-awareness that she must respond to the pyrotechnics of her stature in the GOP—and must respond in an explosive fashion. Discarding the demands of an Alaska job that is at best part-time, undemanding, predictable, banal, means that she will now devote full-time to traveling the “lower 48” in order to speak, speak, speak. Wherever she goes, she is Alaska, moose-hunting, and Wasilla. As a candidate, she begins the nomination hunt with a formula that none of her rivals can match, not even Mitt Romney, not only because she gave up something in order to go for the White House but also because she reached this decision by being drafted.
What is going on right now in the Republican Party—even as the professionals scramble to react with grins and snorts to the news of Palin’s Alaska resignation—are the early scenes of the 2012 campaign for the presidency with Sarah Palin as the once and future hero. Like Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth Regina, and, skipping four centuries of quarrelsome princes, Margaret Thatcher, the Republican Party has already decided that the governor of Alaska will rescue the GOP from its ruination. What Sarah Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade—first woman, first mom, and second moose-hunter into the White House.
If you scoff at Palin for president, you are likely insufficiently cynical to work on a national campaign. Eight months after the election, the governor is as natural and gifted a presidential candidate as anyone since Huey Long. The farther she stays away from Washington and the longer she pushes away those sharpies clamoring for her to raise PAC money, to prepare gray-bearded policy positions, network at the barbecues in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina (well, maybe not South Carolina right now), the more box-office irresistible she will be to Republican primary voters. What most recommends the Palin boom is that she is now, 40 months to the election, as celebrated by the GOP right wing as she is reviled by the Democratic left wing.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
What's Joe's Problem?
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
The Unsinkable Sarah Palin
John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Bachmann's Angry Mob
John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
The Last Days of the GOP
John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Finally, a brilliant take on the reality of Sarah Palin.
The next 7 1/2 years will be very interesting indeed.
You can say that again.
Google Sarah Palin Federal Indictment.
Exactly Ritarita, No doubt she has her die hards whitch will choose to support her no matter what,but to the rest of us this is Sarah Palin choosing to step down rather then being forced out.
My prediction John Batchelor is angling to follow Mark Mckinnon in the ridiculous department.
Wow. If the fanatical conservatives truly believe this woman will be embraced by the majority of American voters, it simply reconfirms my belief that they are completely out of touch with reality. Sarah Palin is not fit to be POTUS. Exhibit A: Anyone who quits their elected post 2-1/2 years into a 4-year term should NEVER be considered for our highest office. What if God calls her to a different 'higher purpose' in the midst of, oh, let's just pick any one of the crises the current administration is trying to deal with. What if some comedian insults one of her children again? Will she resign? Of course not, because she'll never get into the office in the first place.
She's all talk, no substance. She's qualified to be the first female Rush Limbaugh, but not the first female president. I would vote for Meghan McCain long before I would vote for Sarah Palin. In fact, I'd campaign for MM. Palin has a journalism degree, and has used it with great flourish to advance herself into the national spotlight, but she has only the barest grasp of the details of our constitutional law, and most of that supplied by Christian Fundamentalists and the Wild West "We ain't gonna apologize to anyone for not learnin' proper English" attitudes of most Alaskans. President? OMG!! We would be the laughingstock of the world. Museums would be required to put saddles on their dinosaurs. Science would revert to alchemy. Every punk with a grudge would own a gun.
You are dead right with the Elmer Gantry analogy. Palin is as self-absorbed and as self-serving as they come, and yet I'm sure she'll never be fully discredited. There will always be a certain element who worship at her temple. The majority of voters will not.
DemsDeBreaks...If i didn't know any better, I could swear your talking about the bozo Obama...The dumbest president you ever had
Well, "we" embraced "W" for President. Anything is possible in this country. I hope we never have her or anyone of her ilk as President, but many people in America buy into the kind of mindset that Miss Sarah has or, at least, projects. She's a common gal from Wasilla after all. "W" couldn't have acted any more common. So--------
This kind of nonsense support of Sarah Palin only reaffirms in Democrats and Independents minds that the GOP has totally lost their minds. They are batshit NUTS. They have no solutions to any of the problems that they created over the last 8 years. They can only criticize and complain about everything Obama and the Democrats try to do. The media needs to start pinnng them down with questions about what their ideas/solutions are when they just say NO and complain. They are totally empty-brained followers with no leader. When Bill Bennett was complaining about how Obama was not doing enough to help Iranian protestors, he was finally asked "what should he be doing?" His answer - send them duplicating machines and phone cards. LOL What an idiot! This writer (and many others) need to start thinking about Palin with the head on their shoulders not in their pants.
the Dems have been in control since 2007. Notice when the economy went into the crapper? I believe it was soon after 2007
Elizabeth, Catherine, Maggie and now... Palin.
That's precisely the problem with GOPers: they think Palin is a political woman of substance, intelligence, vision. Good luck with that thought!
Well said, well said! But what can you expect from a party where it is an advantage to be so ignorant of science as to disbelieve in evolution?
I believe the correct term is "The Theory of Evolution."
Actually it is the democrats that do not believe in science. They can't even figure out when life begins.
Oh, Ms. Palin will cause some problems for some Congressmen and women in 2010. She'll get the GOP base out in force in certain districts and will drive turnout against some Dems in close contests. I can see her swing about 6 -10 seats nationwide. Even more if the economy doesnt bounce back at least moderately by late summer next yr. The GOP has leaders and voices that are pathetic right now. Either ass clowns like the radio hosts or ass hats like Cantor, Bohener, and Mcconnel. Palin can join Romney and Gingrich as the voices of "consersavitism" and all three dont seem to really have a real job. They can spend 24/7 hammering on Obama and the democrats.
Obama better get his base, (me included) back into the fold. Some of his policies and decisions to tack to the center will continue to lose him strong support. If you think that if things dont improve,, some wingnut idiot like Palin could contend for the Presidency, you dont have a long memory. 2000 !!!!!! The country was so sick of Clinton, and Gore was not a good candidate, George W Bush won and then won again. Dont put anything past an uneducated, pissed off, apathetic, electorate.
Definitely, being a MILF is her only positive and this attribute is suppressed by her disgusting narcissism. Substance, intelligence and vision are truely missing.
Hey, vicious libs, please keep this up!
If you want to give Governor Palin a better chance of doing anything bigger than being Governor of our largest and energy-wise, most important state, then just keep piling on.
You are an ugly bunch of sniping little girls.
I think her willingness to immeadiately respond to her attackers is exactly what the Clinton/ Carville team did. Gov. Palin's campaign handlers wanted her to do what Michael Dukakus did. Ignore the attacks, hoping no one would notice them. I kind of like how she hits back.
You kind of like how she hits back?? To compare Palin and her team with Clinton / Carville is truly laughable! Palin lacks the simple intelligence let alone command of the English language and ability to string a sentence together on the fly! Look at her press conference this afternoon - truly incoherent rambling nonsense. The thought of her as president is absolutely dreadful dreadful dreadful.
Lacks the simple intelligence to ... string a sentence together on the fly? This kind of thoughtless hyperbole and hate is what drives the country apart, not Sarah Palin and her political views. But, I will share with you my experience of watching (and painfully listening to) President Obama when he was recently in London. He spoke to a group of us unscripted and, I suppose, on the fly, certainly without aid of speechwriters or teleprompter. He rambled, said the same things over and over, misspoke, and was truly close to incoherent. My impression was that this is the real Obama, the one who had been protected by handlers and a compliant media who had decided early on that he was their man.
You don't have to like Palin or her politics, but you may want to try growing up a little.
Yes, the comparason of Governer Palin's team to Carville/Clinton is correct, the Palin team was rookie-like. They are definately a disapointment.
On the other hand, I am happy that they were not the horrible, nasty, ugly people that Carville employed.
Hmmmm, Carville's team reminds of a certain group of believer's, folks so despicable, that they would attack a woman's special needs child for their preferred politician's gain.
And Please before you throw out the standard, " But she dragged her children out on the campaign trail" Line. Look at how many time's the Obama Family has been in the press. There is NOTHING wrong with showing your families support. NO MATTER HOW MANY ISSUES THEY HAVE.
All families have issues.
Conservatives have to be one of the great wonders of the world. Palin is obviously a mental lightweight plain and simple that was thrust on the national stage and withered under the hot lights. Her speech yesterday with her trade mark Yoda like cadence and baffliing attempt to explain why she is quitting is just another example to any clear thinking person not bound by rigid ideology that what we are witnessing is the last gasp of a "she doofus". She is not setting herself up for 2012 or 2016, she is simply taking the money and running and for that I give her credit for a very smart move for her and her family.
It would have worked better if any of her replies had been halfway intelligent.
The problem for Sarah Palin going forward is that no matter how many articles are written by people like Mr. Batchelor (a republican/libertarian/conservative independent/whatever) most of the American public (THANK GOD) are wise to the fact that she is a total idiot. All of this talk about her being this "natural political talent" is all hype. She has absolutely no substance to her at all. She's all style and looks. Period. She appeals to women who would never vote for liberal any way (unless it was HRC) and she appeals to GOP men who weren't going to vote for a Democrat anyway. Palin will never win over liberals in the same way that Obama was able to excite young people, indies and moderate conservatives. The Republican party's best (and ONLY) hope is former Sen. Chuck Hagel. And they are too dimwitted, close minded, bitter, bigoted and dopey to pick him because he did the right thing (when it was unpopular to do so) in going against many of Bush's insane extremist decisions where foreign policy is concerned. Take it from a mixed race (black and white) 'brotha'...
....Sen. Hagel is the WHITE Barack Obama.
And after a second term of President Obama (who I couldn't be happier with right now - he's doing everything a true indie/centrist like me could want) I'll be pleased to support Chuck Hagel and his campaign 150% if he chooses to run just as proudly as I did for Obama. But Obama will DEFINITELY have my vote in 2012....No question about that. He's doing a fantastic job. He is doing everything he said he would when he ran. Obama is doing such a terrific job in fact that he has even caused me to begin respecting Hillary a little more. That's a feat!
nycwerewolf: good points about how Palin would only get the votes who are solid Republican votes anyway. They just might be a little more eager to vote her, but the same votes nonetheless.
I would be interested to see some polling data on how minorities view her in general--not compared to Obama--just general attitude toward her. I seriously doubt her ratings would be high.
call her good, call her bad. call her smart, call her stupid. doesn't matter, through the public's fascination with her she's been raised to the level of a legit political player and i for one sincerely doubt she has what it takes to get there. we have given it to her. all you have to do is check the posts on anything palin. nothing else comes close.
Being from Nebraska and having observed Chuck Hagel both on a local and national stage, it seems insane to think that he has the qualifications to run for president (although he seems to possess the ego). He didn't run this last election because there was a good chance he would not have won. Hagel is history.
Are you talking about our narcissistic, Elmer Gantry, like president, who bumbles around when he doesn't have a teleprompter? Him? Doing a fantastic job- sending the country into an absolute economic tailspin, listening to far left lunatics on virtually every issue? A neo Marxists, who could care less about the most vulnerable people in society, and worships the very ground of every socialist dictator who says boo to him. This is guy is a leader!? The man who has appointed so many Czars, unelected and answerable to no one, which makes one wonder if this, is still America.
He is an apt social director at best, a convincing preacher without the spiritual convictions, an elitist who is so out of touch with reality. Sarah Plain may have some rough edges, but our present President defines the very concept of delusional.
So Right, and to think, he won by what? 8 points. So the GOP was so weak and pathetic that a first term, black, rookie, antiwar, huesien as a middle name, with a funny name won in a near landslide? What does that say about the republican party? And please dont cry about your nominee, John (juan) Mccain. He beat the field like a drum. Romney, history. Gullieani, Toast. Huckabee, a sideshow at best. Mcain had the nomination by super tuesday. Not even a contest. Remember his campaign was broke in fall of 2007. Hell, he was flying coach. Seriously, John Mcain with 7 houses was flying coach. Now, tell me again how awful Obama has been in 5 months?
You know, anytime some winger uses the teleprompter shtick, you can tell that he gets his talking points from that anally fixated Oxycontin addict in Palm Beach.
Did BHO use a 'prompter when he took apart McCain in the Presidential Debates? Does he use one in his town hall meetings with unscreened audiences and unscreened questions? No.
Are you talking about our narcissistic, Elmer Gantry, like president, who bumbles around when he doesn't have a teleprompter? Him? Doing a fantastic job- sending the country into an absolute economic tailspin, listening to far left lunatics on virtually every issue? A neo Marxists, who could care less about the most vulnerable people in society, and worships the very ground of every socialist dictator who says boo to him. This is guy is a leader!? The man who has appointed so many Czars, unelected and answerable to no one, which makes one wonder if this, is still America.
He is an apt social director at best, a convincing preacher without the spiritual convictions, an elitist who is so out of touch with reality. Sarah Plain may have some rough edges, but our present President defines the very concept of delusional.
So 6 Months after being elected, and after getting EVERYTHING he could possibly want enacted during that period, you feel that things are going great?
We are at the HIGHEST structural unemployment in 50 years.
The Goverment that we hired is NOT working to make us energy independent. I am all for Solar and other add-ons, but we have to find all of the fuels that we use now. This is not happening. ( Doing this would have created a tremendous amount of high paying jobs )
States are crashing, Teachers, firefighters, police are all facing layoff's. And the President came out yesterday to say that they are not.
At what point do you folks stop following zombie-like and start thinking for your selves.
Come on, if Helen Thomas can do it, so can you.
Things are not looking up. And all of this happened AFTER the President got exactly what he wanted. After the Democrats in congress approved the President spending over 700 Billion dollars to stimulate the American Econony we have not seen anything that resembles growth, except in Government.
Even Liberals cannot want the Goverment in charge of every aspect of their lives, can they?
The reason we like Sarah Palin is that she absolutely against the policies described above.
The reason's, stated by liberal spokesmen, for the liberal's vitriolic hated of her are for far more personal reasons.
Hey, if there's a slogan against the BHO policies, then Sarah's against it. That's what she does---spout cheap slogans because she really doesn't have the educational or political background to have her own opinions.
For Batchelor to state that she's the frontrunner is beyond ridiculous. And for anybody to believe him is worse than that.
It never ceases to amaze me how stupid these conservative commentators are. Fame and notoriety are not the path to electoral office, especially the presidency. In 2008 Hillary Clinton, John McCain, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson all ran for president and lost while a little-known first term Senator won.
2012 is light years away in politics. One can only hope, from a Democratic point of view, that Sarah Palin is still the Republican's presumptive nominee at that time, for a number of reasons. First, she is wholely unqualified and has been rejected by the American populace already, and second, she is so inherently negative and thin-skinned that she will cut down and attack any potential primary challenger so relentlessly that if she loses, the survivor will be so damaged that they will be unelectable.
Exactly! I especially like your point about her thin skinned and incredibly petty nature. She can't resist rising to the bait and boy, if she tries to run, she will be baited and dirtied ruthlessly by the Republican field before slamming into the incumbent.
Not just for this reason, I pray that the country has pulled out of the nose dive fundamentally stronger - with a far reaching environmental policy that will keep on being a catalyst for the economy besides reducing/starting to reverse the US reliance on carbon based energy; a health care policy that though not perfect is profoundly fairer, cheaper and more inclusive than the teetering disaster that is heath care today; a sounder financial system with better oversight etc...
I would not be so quick to say that she has been rejected by the populace already. There is a thing called the swing voter. Palin is beloved by those who did not vote for Obama. She is hated by those who did not vote for Bush. Those who voted for both Bush and Obama can still be persuaded. And JB's point here is that she doesn't need much from the GOP or the next 3 years to start with a big advantage over the rest of the field. Elections come down to the persuadable 10% and an enthusiastic base. JB's analysis is not particularly fawning for Palin. It is, as always, a factual one.
I'm actually hoping she will run, just because it will be so fun to watch that trainwreck. But then I shudder to think she might actually whip up enough support for the fanatical conservatives and the men who think she's hot to become an actual threat. I live in Michelle Bachmann's district, and that's EXACTLY how she got elected. Hm. I know....
Palin / Bachmann 2012
It would be funny if it weren't so frightening.
I agree, it will be fun.
Watching Sarah whip the pants off of the man child in office now will be fantastic.
Palin/Bachmann, hmmm, why does it scare you to think that two women who believe that America is supposed to be a free market, capitalist country that follows a constitution, believes in a limited government ran by the people and for the people may become our leaders.
Do you really prefer early 20th century progressive's.
You seriously want to live in a police state. Sorry about your luck, that wont stand in America
Sorry, John. I think the darkest revelation about Palin from the Vanity Fair article was that she does not tell the truth, and has no problem in fudging/exaggerating any story if it is to her advantage. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, were that way, too.
She is fascinating, that's right. The same way a car accident is.
Didn't Stephen Colbert say something once (aside from coining the word "truthiness") that reality has a well known liberal bias?
Is that where you get your facts? Stephen Colbert? Hate on Dimmies, in 2012 you will be wailing and gnashing your teeth.
If you want to talk about lies, look no further than our president. He lied about accepting public financing, lied about BAIPA (I'm pro-CHoice), he never wrote a single bill for the State of Illinois; he supported Todd Stroger and increasing cook county sales tax to the highest percent in the country (10.25); he lied about Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, lied about Ayers. He lied about Lobbyists not working for the white house--he's managed to "exempt" all the ones he wants. He lied about line-item vetos.
Palin's not the most articulate person on the planet. But clearly, that's all we want in a president since regarding Obama: we don't know his college GPA, never saw anything he wrote as "editor" of Harvard Law Review; and spent his 2 years as senator planning on running for President--oh right, in a news conference after getting elected, he also said he had no intention of running for President. Another lie.
As for Palin and lies (see vince-1974 below) her husband was in the alaska separatist party, not her. She never requested to ban books but asked about the procedure; the rape kit payment thing was already on the books when she was mayor of Wasilla, though I agree, it's immoral to enforce it. So what if BP sponsored her inauguration? There were thousands of "BPs" sponsoring Obama's. Palin did NOT endorse Buchannan. SHe wore a button of his at a party, which is a far cry from an official endorsement. (as tenuous of an association as Bill Ayers and Obama's "I was 8 when he did those things...") She's about as anti-Semitic as many evangelicals who think Jewish people are going to Hell for not accepting JC.
ON the other hand, Obama was mentored by anti-Semites like Rashid Khalidi (a former PLO spokesman) and has Samantha Power on BO's security council. These individuals are no friends of the Jews, and have shaped BO's outlook on Israel--more than a glimpse of which we saw in his Cairo speech, pressing Israel, a democracy, on settlements, while supporting the oppressive regimes of muslim countries who FORCE women to cover their hair.
While Palin may have supported windfall profits for oil companies, she also renegotiated the Alaska Trust into which the oil companies have to pay for drilling on public land. This in turn increased the amount of money returned to the residents of Alaska each year.
Of course, you'll never hear that Palin vetoed legislation denying same-sex benefits to state employees. Or that she chaired the Governor's committee on natural gas and oil. No, if there's anything positive, you won't hear about it in the news, just like if there's anything remotely negative about Barak Obama, now siding with an authoritarian in Honduras , you also won't hear that in the press. Seriously, his personality approval rating is higher than his policy ratings.
Bravo! An excellent Post!
You seem to be an intelligent person, so I'll ask you to consider the following. Let's admit for the sake of argument that you have ferreted out some "lies" from Obama's lips. I am much more frightened by a leader possessed of the shallowness, pettiness and vindictive nature of Ms. Palin and by her manifest inability to write down coherent thoughts or to answer simple questions. Her problem is way beyond merely being "inarticulate". Wouldn't you prefer a leader whom you believe to occasionally lie to one who has demonstrated only the most rudimentary knowledge and understanding of our world? I do not understand what is it about her that you are so eager to defend? Is she just a foil to the dreaded Obama?
Yes, yes, Maytenth, we know that Barack Hussein Obama is a card-carrying Commie...er...Muslim terrorist / antiChrist / Hitler who will bring about the End of Days. Sarah Palin is still not the answer.
I really don't like calling statements lies that are not matters of fact. Obama almost certainly was surprised that he didn't need public financing. Breaking a promise, maybe. But then again, whom was the promise to? Not his opponents. This is the same kind of promise that Sen. Wellstone "broke" about running for only two terms (I voted for Colemam). Find me one vote he would have lost because of it.
I'm not saying it isn't fair game, but I do wonder why such marginal arguments keep being made when they are so frequently ineffective. President Obama's problem really is much larger, yet Republicans corrupted themselves so thoroughly during their time in power that their newfound reaffirmation of their official free market ideology and protestations against creeping socialism isn't at all convincing. They merely seem envious that he and Sec'y Geitner are now the kings of the hill for their unofficial ideology of business crony Republicanism.
As for the implication that President Obama has anti-semitic bona fides, I just don't buy it. His top political people are Jews. I have to admit I don't really understand American Jewish politics through the rubric of Democratic Party politics, but I do understand why Jews who have some basis for knowing something about it (David Axelrod, for example) might not think milenarianist evangelicals are all that helpful in reaching realistic solutions. Just a guess. But it does appear to be a question that perplexes Rush and Hannity, and shows how little they really try to understand anything they don't already think they know.
That ultimately is the problem with Gov. Palin. She's nowhere near as articulate an ideolgue as Rush or Hannity, nor does she have a long record of advancing policy that would make them happy. I was at a Republican function today and was definitely in the minority about my attitude, but it's almost as if people like her BECAUSE she's a dummy.
I gave Gov. Palin a chance, even after the Couric and Gibson interview fiascos. It was her SNL appearance that came across as particularly charmless.
Thanks.
The term, by the way, is millenarian.
You can also be pre-millenarian and post-millenarian. Although the post-s, who believe the Kingdom is already here (you didn't get the e-mail?) are probably rarest.
DemsDeBreaks: Please show me where I said "Barack Hussein Obama is a card carrying commie" or muslim terrorist/Hitler? Name calling and exaggeration have been excellent techniques used by those who disagree with what is said but choose not to support their claims with facts. Well done.
As for campaign financing, Obama did sign a statement that he would accept it. I don't think Obama is anti-Semitic per se. He was, however, mentored in Israeli affairs by a former PLO spokesman and throughout the campaign, had Jimmy Carter (peace not apartheid fame), Samantha Power, and some other arabists in his foreign policy circle.
As for broken promises, let's just call them "flip flops." During his campaign, Obama said he wanted to mandate health care coverage for those 25 and under; it was Clinton who ran on Universal Health Care. Is anyone batting an eye now that Obama is pushing for universal health care, even though he repeatedly said that we have to move one step at a time until we can reach Universal health care? Has anyone here heard that question asked in the media?
At the end of the day, Palin was running for Vice President, not president. And, I would rather have her balance my checkbook than Obama. However, I am also happy that, after 8 years of Bush, we have someone articulate in charge.
My only reason for writing earlier was to demonstrate that there was a targeted smear campaign against Palin. We did not have investigators crawling around Hyde Park or Springfield, IL interviewing locals when Obama was running--even though he had no idea where he stored 7 years worth of letters, correspondence, work, etc. from the State Senate, information about his political career that could help carve out an image (independent of his 2 autobiographies) to buttress his work to date in the US Senate. Think about Clinton who was repeatedly pressured to release her diaries and archive material while she served as first lady. And imagine if Palin had said she didn't know where her documentation as Mayor, or governor, was. Yet Obama, who served 7 years as State Senator can "get away with" not knowing where any of his correspondence is. The point isn't that we don't have the documentation, although it would be a fascinating read. The point is that Clinton was hounded, and Obama wasn't, for archival information from their respective careers.
It's the media that did not vet Obama well. This is a separate issue entirely from blogosphere lies suggesting Obama is not really a US citizen, or that he's "secretly" a muslim. This is about journalistic integrity that writes about facts, not values. The portrayal of the GOP and Democratic campaigns (evil v. good) that came out of last year's election made me disappointed in our fourth estate, if not entirely apathetic about politics. Disagreeing is fine. Villifying because of different values is another thing altogether.
For further information about Obama's Illinois career, you can google some decent articles in the Chicago Reader, a local independent paper.
The media being in the tank for Obama was definitely disturbing. Look, I was a conservative Republican because it used to really appeal to me that conservatism was ascendent despite a deeply antogonistic media. The difference then was that conservatives actually debated (or at least seemed to engage) the other side. Now, they just talk to each other. This is the mirror-image of how liberalism - or whatever you want to call pragmatic, government-centered (often incompetent) ameliorism - was so off-putting to me.
Liberals being so dismissive of conservatism seemed unbelievably arrogant. Conservatives subsequently being so dismissive of liberals seems deranged. The Civil Rights movement, in particular, is something conservatism wants to keep in the box of "equal access to justice" or "process, not results," (witness the incessant invocation of a few MLK statements). Truth be told, this is what I think liberalism's equivalent question of "what did you do during the war?" is to conservatism. And regrettably, conservatives generally don't have much to say (and note, I do not attribute bad will).
Anyway, I despise Richard Nixon, but I'm watching an interview with him as VP right now from the 50s. His ability to articulate complicated answers is unbelievable (He leaves the last three Democratic presidents in the dust). How things have changed.
"Eight months after the election, the governor is as natural and gifted a presidential candidate as anyone since Huey Long."
How eerie is this comparison to a populist Democrat who aspired to the presidency, but was stopped at the pass by someone much brighter than he: F.D.R.
Both Long and Palin taxed oil as a source of revenue and the spirit of his "Share the Wealth" program resembles the (socialist?) dividend Alaskans get annually from oil revenues. Unlike, Palin, all of the LA roads Long built went "somewhere."
Sarah will never..... I repeat, never.... live down those Katie Couric interviews. They are wallpaper on the rest of her career.
I saw a Larry King interview with Judge Judy. When asked what she thought of Palin, she hesitated a moment and, apparently trying to polite, said, "Well, she was not very well informed."
I think you are right, Sparklers; those Couric interviews will never go away. I think Palin can be forgiven in some ways (not being able to name a Supreme Court case, for example) but some are just too ridiculous: Palin could not name a single magazine that she reads.
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Yeah, but what's truly horrifying is that she couldn't be bothered to name the Supreme Court decsion about Exxon Valdez that basically said that there was a cap on damages paid. That spill destroyed quite a bit of teh ecosystem up there, the decision had people up in arms over it, and it's vital to the survival of the fishing villages along the coast there. AND SHE COULDN'T NAME THAT ONE?
Her inane ramblings today were a fond throwback to Katie Couric's tough hard hitting interview (lol).
Forgot to add the good news in Batchelor's article, summed up in this quote: "Palin does not need to prove anything at all about wise government, because she appeals directly to the anti-authoritarian crowd that has been with us since Shay's Rebellion in 1787".
Mercifully her base of "anti-authoritarian" "real Americans" is sufficiently small that it cannot place someone in the White House. She may want "Joe Six Pack" represented in a high federal office (http://townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=9c930bbd-2571 -4987-bd47-d1862ba390eb), but mercifully the majority of our society aspires to have the president be higher in the food chain.
Joe Six-pack with a community college degree and a little time working in the real world would be better than what we have in office now. ALL of our government offices.
Liberals screamed that they wanted to "Take back America". Now the question has to be asked, who did we give it to?
I do not think that the average American, Joe Six-Pack, seeing that we wanted to spend 700 Billion dollars on one groups laundry list of pet projects, when we are in a recession, and already in deficit, would have just signed the gargantuan bill without even reading it.
It would take a policy wonk Lawyer with no scruples and no real life experience to do this. And that is who we have for a President.
I'd take Joe Six Pack over this anyday.
"as celebrated by the GOP right wing as she is reviled by the Democratic left wing" doesn't mean anything. What matters is how she plays to independent voters, and the truth of that is that she does not play very well with them. The GOP is probably hoping to fool some people next time around by nominating a woman, but it doesn't change anything. Palin is a stereotypical loose-with-the-truth Republican, and America knows it.
At this point, the argument is no longer about the essential Sarah Palin.
It matters not what she is, or is not.
She is a convenient target/excuse.
Could we talk about something else now?
Please?
Sorry.
For the Democrats, Sarah Palin is an endless source of mirth.
Republicans, it seems, feel the need to defend someone who they so recently tried to get elected as Vice-President.
Please, please, please let it be Palin in 2012!
Palin Vs. Obama could be the biggest Democratic landslide ever.
Even the red states would not put that knucklehead in the White House.
She appeals to the anti-authoritarian crowd? Who are you kidding? Her cult-like followers are as authoritarian as you can get! They want a theocracy, they think we're fighting a religious war in Iraq and at home, all hail Palin, and they regularly warn anyone who dares to speak against her. If they're anti-authoritarian, why do they tolerate no dissent? You are as dishonest as they are.
I find it interesting that those who have no respect for Palin spend so much time trying to discredit her.
Women have a different take in politics and all of them take shots that most men would not. Those who have love for Hillary Clinton should know that by now.
When we're done with the slander and name callilng, lets take a fair look at the records of all politicians, and the results they participate in, good and bad. At the end of the day, results matter.
I'm more concerned with the total disregard for the Constitution in our Congress and the bloated budgets of the Senators and Congressmens personal departments than I am about Alaska. In the big picture, Washington DC is where we have to worry, and big states like New York and California. A closer look at those two states, how they have been run, who is spending the money, and asking the question, why have they gone down the toilet? "Feel good" politics doesn't pay the bills, and if we don't have representation that can make the tough calls on our behalf, then those "employees" should be fired.
Personally, I would fire all 535 elected employees and start over, they have all misused their positions and put us where we are now. Remember, Presidents create budgets, but Congress passes them and spends the money!!!
I agree. And as for those purtian few who profess such worldly knowledge of things to come, and those to diss, time will tell. But I for one think that the good Governor [yes, all you know it alls that haven't been a governor], will get the last laugh.
Absolutely, this is the best solution!
"Personally, I would fire all 535 elected employees and start over, they have all misused their positions and put us where we are now. Remember, Presidents create budgets, but Congress passes them and spends the money!!!"
Actually, we'e not afraid of Sarah Palin. What we're afraid of are the people who can't listen to her demagoguery and see through it.
Sarah Palin has announced she will resign her governoship. WTF?
One thing the author misses is that the part of the country that loves her (the right wing of the repub party) is a tiny 20-30% compared with the part that wonders if she might be retarded and certainly doesn't want her anywhere near the nuclear football. Near the end of the campaign she was around 60% unfavorable and what has she done since then to turn it around?
Now on top of all her other flaws she's a quitter, leaving the gov mansion before even her first term is up. Her family is a train wreck and her policies are non sensical. How anyone could describe Todd Palin as having "rock Star good looks" instead of being more or less "trailer hillbilly" is beyond me. John has clearly never seen any rockstars, or has only seen the kind that play at whole in the wall country western bars in Louisiana.
I have to have confidence that America isn't stupid enough to elect a want to be beauty queen to the presidency, comparing her intellect to Reagan is profoundly unfair to Reagan, who I am no fan of.
Apparently you missed the pole which concluded that 40% of the country considers themselves as conservatives, with liberals a distant third. Perhaps you should do some more reading up on things current.
Sarah was here,
And now she's gone,
She leaves a lot,
to ponder on.
She hates her gig,
She loves her Trig,
Hey, who is Sarah
trying to kid?
She will resign?
There's nothing finer,
(Please take a hint
in South Carolina!)
Something's up,
you'd best believe,
What else does she have
up her sleeve?
A scandal coming?
Indictment soon?
A pundit's job?
What made her fume?
Perhaps the truth will be x-rated?
For sure her exit is belated!
Shockacon, Shockacon,
When will you too be gone?
When will go get a life
Instead of causing childish strife?
Indeed you laugh at those who try,
to make the world a better place for thy.
Oh well I doubt I can persuade an abuser,
For course its tough to convince a loser.
This is great...
she can now go out into the whole of the US and campaign for Republican congressman and help raise money for them and the GOP and build connections and relationships which would give her the choice to run in either 2012 or 2016....
perfect move that doesn't follow all the baloney advice from the so called genius pundits that gave Republicans a stupid candidate like McCain
And she'll be forever tagged
As the half-term Governor.
You're dreaming Phillip.
It was primary voters, not the pundits. In fact, name pundits other than Brooks, Kristol or Rabinowitz.
Nothing in my past years gave me a "What country am I living in" feeling than did the Leftist orgy of lies against her that first weekend after she was announced VP candidate.
Whatever that "leftist orgy of lies" (very very rich coming from the Swift boating right that not only did in a Vietnam vet Kerry but McCain in his run against Bush!) - anyway I digress, whatever that "leftist orgy of lies" was (?) absolutely paled into understated insignificance as Palin proved she had the gift for stupidity, inanity and absurdity throughout the presidential campaign and beyond!
Palin did cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent
She demanded that books be banned from the Wasilla library.
She was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party
Palin endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president
Palin has pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools
Shes anti-semitic.
She believes that the Iraq War was directed by God
That her most recent child was really her daughter's daughter
She tried to fire her brother in law
Cut funding for unwed mothers
She implemented abstinence only sex ed
She had an affair with business partner
She eliminated AK's WIC program
She made rape victims pay for their own rape kits
She institutued windfall profits on oil companies
BP was the sole sponsor of her inaugural
She thinks dinosaurs walked the earth with man
She cut Special Olympics budget
Gosh, my bad, sorry!
WTF, she is resigning! Why? Unless she has done something illegal, this smacks of irresponsiblity. I wonder what is going on.
Wow! Totally prescient, Mr. Batchelor. I salute your political savvy.
A person who quits before her term is up, will probably quit again when the going gets tough.
Blood politics is typical of the whole climate related to successful women in my opinion, and I don't think in this case it was really one sided.
Wishful thinking, agains by the unwashed libs.
This article was brilliant, though much too cynical - B understands Palin's tug on the heart of real libertarians & true believers in American ideals - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - that list does NOT include pacifying the masses with huge social programs.
The limousine-liberal, privileged, decadent leftist "intellectuals" just don't understand her appeal & never will.
At first I thought her announcement was an idiotic idea - but B is right - she doesn't have to be beholden to anyone. And she's doing the right, meaning moral, thing - she doesn't want to sponge off the Alaskan taxpayer while defending herself against frivolous complaints & running for the presidency while collecting a paycheck (which is what our loser John Edwards did - the senate seat was only a stepping stone for him from day one).
She's the real thing - all you liberal hate-ranters, hate all you want. There's a lot of people here in flyover country that will vote for her in a heartbeat.
Just you watch & see - taxpayers will be begging for relief from the Supreme Leader's dictatorship come 2012.
Since we are all speculating, did anyone consider she could be pregnant? It is just a question.
That would be the only good reason for quitting, after taking an oath for office, in my opinion.
She has a family to support - who's going to pay the bills? Somethin's up.
She will raise plenty of money from the right wing side of the Republican party (33-35% of the US population). TIME magazine speculate the reason she quit is because she wants to try out her 1)fund raising capability 2)talk show possibility 3)a book to write. These will all lead to lucrative pay off, much better than the boring Alaska governorship.
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