Our favorite source of comedy reacts to the debate:
First, I would like to see all the Sarah doubters and detractors in the Beltway/Manhattan corridor eat their words.
Eat them.
Sarah Palin is the real deal. Five weeks on the campaign trail, thrust onto the national stage, she rocked tonight’s debate.
She was warm, fresh, funny, confident, energetic, personable, relentless, and on message. She roasted Obama’s flip-flops on the surge and tea-with-dictators declarations, dinged Biden’s bash-Bush rhetoric, challenged the blame-America defeatism of the Left, and exuded the sunny optimism that energized the base in the first place.
She also confused our current commander in Afghanistan with a civil war general while being completely wrong about what he said, flat out refused to answer the question put forth by the moderator on several occasions, and at several points entered into what some might call a dream state in which she deviated completely from the topic at hand in order to spew talking points.
Other than her consistent lying about Obama’s votes to fund the troops, the highlight of the night for me was this little hunk of red meat for the Red State fanbois and the 101st Chairborne:
PALIN: Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that’s for sure. And it’s not what our nation needs to be able to count on.
I can not tell you how much it pisses me off to have asshats who never even spent a day in Basic Training pull the surrender/treason nonsense, but beside even that, have we ever had a candidate in a debate during wartime so clearly enunciate the tinkerbell strategy? Clap louder! That is what our boys need! Clap louder, damnit!
I would call Sarah Palin a vapid moron, but I don’t want to be accused of being nasty, so I will just say that she is a perfect fit for the unhinged right.
r€nato
I’m not at all surprised the wingnut Qaeda loved her. They probably mean it too, I don’t think they are posing just because they are supposed to love her.
For the 80+% of the rest of the country not drunk on the GOP kool-aid, she was woefully inadequate and did not measure up in any way to Biden, who proved that putting Palin in the VP office would be 4 years of amateur hour.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
I don’t know if these showed up in one of the earlier threads that I couldn’t read because of the BWOD, but what the hell, I laughed.
Joe Biden’s debate prep
Sarah Palin’s debate prep
zzyzx
I still want to know how she didn’t have a zinger or two prepared to attack Biden. The pitbull had no teeth at all.
TheFountainHead
Heh. John, you gotta stop linking to the Malkinator, I’m seriously running out of ways to compare her to WordPress. How about this:
Malkin is more anger-inducing than a WordPress site over a dial-up connection.
rufustfyrfly
She also kept lying about Sen. McCain’s positions in order to sound more agreeable. The most egregious example was on foreclosure, where Gov. Palin completely reversed McCain’s record and policies on the role of bankruptcy courts.
Zifnab
Absolutely no shock here. I’ve heard folks down at Riehl World quoting polls from Drudge Report showing how Sarah Palin was an overwhelming success. :-p Which makes sense because all other polls have a notorious liberal bias.
Regardless, it doesn’t matter. If Sarah Palin had knocked it out of the park, she would have nudged McCain’s numbers upward. But it doesn’t change the fact that she was chanting wingnut mantras to an audience that has grown rather sick of hearing them. No matter how "warm, fresh, funny, confident, energetic, personable, relentless, and on message" Sarah Palin came across – and she wasn’t that bad, even if she couldn’t give a straight answer to save her life – she was still running hard right on the GOP platform.
That won’t win her any votes.
r€nato
Did anybody catch that Palin thought the most unfortunate part of Cheney’s hunting incident, was the ‘cariacature’ it made of him?
Of course, the fact that his hunting buddy caught a face full of buckshot and could have died, didn’t matter to her. Dear Vice Leader Cheney was mocked! The horror!
Loviatar
John,
I no longer stop by very often, however I happen to pass by this morning and as a fellow veteran I want to give a full voiced OORAH to your comment on the faux support of some of the rightwing assholes out there.
Think about it John McCain a fellow veteran lobbied and voted against the most recent GI Bill. I shake my head everytime I think about that, but then I remember that his vote was pretty consistent with his previous actions in non-support of veterans.
Keith
I think it was supposed to be the "there you go again, Joe" comment. But that one was so out-of-place (and I think I had that count for 3 sips) that it had Biden laughing.
jibeaux
My Republican co-worker just said she seemed just like Bush. It was not meant as a compliment. It amuses me that wingnuts seem to confuse what they like to hear with what the country wants to hear, but I think we should encourage that. You don’t need more voters, guys, you just need happier voters!
Juan del Llano
The woman is even more unbelievably stupid than I had assumed. She has no depth at all. There isn’t any brain there, much less a conscious soul. John McCain should be hounded to the gates of hell and then kicked into the flaming pit for taking such a risk with his own country. I have no doubt he would be the first post WWII president to use nuclear weapons if he somehow got elected, and BTW, he’ll probably have a stroke any minute now.
Serious bad boojum here, but considering how useful it is to actually SEE this, I conclude there is a Goddess.
jake
If Palin had crawled on stage on all fours, pissed on Ifill’s leg and barked at the moon those jackasses would declare it a fresh, funny, engaging sign of a true maverick.
Though. Also. But!
Patrick
When she says McClellan I wonder if she isn’t thinking Scottie.
Seitz
You know why she said that? Because caricature was the word she was trying to use in that Katie Couric interview, but couldn’t remember it, and Katie had to help her out with "mock". She wanted to prove to her handlers that she could pronounce caricature.
As if Cheney needed to shoot someone to be caricatured as a sneering, angry old man.
My favorite part was when she deviated from an answer and asked if she could talk about Afghanistan. She may as well have held up a big blinking sign saying "I have a talking point stuck in my head about Afghanistan, and if I don’t spit it out now, I’m gonna forget it, so can I please talk about Afghanistan?"
By the way, I dig the edit feature.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
If you had been watching CNN you would have noticed Palin’s approval from the focus group go down significantly when she made that statement. Palin came of as wholly unqualified to be making such a statement to a man of Biden’s experience and stature.
It’s also a loser argument with women. Women don’t care as much about some superficial designation of honor – they care about bringing their husbands, sons, sisters and daughters home in one piece. They’ll worry about that "honor" stuff later.
Lab2112
In a time of economic uncertainty, sunny optimism mixed with a firm resolve to stand fast against those who hate freedom and democracy (i.e., Islamic terrorists and most Balloon Juice commenters) is precisely what’s needed.
Little wonder the Republican base is energized and ready to flood the polls in overwhelming numbers.
Just remember, you surrender-worshiping defeatists, when President John McCain and Vice President Sarah Palin rightfully assume the mantle of leadership on Inauguration Day, the rest of patriotic America will remember those of you who eagerly backed those Country Last traitors, Nobama and Lyin’ Biden. You just better hope that crow is the only pie you’ll be eating in your richly deserved humiliation.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Is this a spoof?
rumpole
2 things:
1. The iphone/mobile version of the new site rocks.
2. It took me awhile to put my finger on it, but she didn’t debate Joe Biden. The entire "spunky", "aw shucks" demeanor and delivery, combined with the talking points is exactly what one would expect from a beauty pageant contestant. That’s what her performance was (and by that standard, it was a good one–except for the "be all and end all" of answers.)
One follow-up question by Ifill and it would have been a complete train wreck.
comrade chopper
no, she didn’t debate biden. she basically debated herself while biden actually answered the questions that were asked.
Cromagnon
The Chairborne Rangers don’t need Basic Training. They’ve all watched Red Dawn, so that is more than sufficient
John S.
Indubitably.
ThymeZone
What Zifnab said.
Biden did well and held his team’s position, which is what is supposed to happen in a VP debate.
Palin … was Palin. Nobody will remember anything she said by Monday.
Including her.
Krista
Hm, I’ve heard of eating humble pie, and I’ve heard of eating crow. But I’ve never heard of eating crow pie. I’ll just have to defer to your pie-related expertise, I guess.
Cassidy
I’m hoping this is snark, but in the event it is not, I would imagine that most of the chickenshit conservatives wouldn’t have the balls to do anything. We already know they don’t have the nuts to go to war.
We’re only supported when we make good props.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Patrick:
I miss Scottie. Our very own Baghdad Bob.
Comrade Grand Panjandrum
C’mon John why the hell would you diss all the vapid morons of the world that way? Lighten up, bro.
Yea, I read both of them last night. It was much more entertaining that the other sideshows. The rest of them (Left and Right) were what I expected so why not entertain myself a little?
Biden’s performance, I thought, proved once again that the Obama/Biden team is well prepared and not going to make any major mistakes. They are cool, calm and prepared for this final push to November 4th. No reason to get excited. Just keep on keeping on. McCain and his gang are doing a very good job of making sure the Johnny Drama and Bible Spice meme live on. Obama’s political jiu-jitsu skills are quite impressive and have served him well.
BTW your praise for Larison is well placed. I appreciate a rational, coherent argument from a Realist. He can be ironic, if not downright snarky at times, but doesn’t that just make him more readable? I love reading opposing views when they come from a rational person willing to engage in a real discussion of ideas. A conservative with no political axe to grind is quite interesting and worthwhile reading. Not that I see a problem with defending ones own political party, but when it has fallen into the decadence and depravity of this GOP I have little sympathy for them. I felt much the same way about the Democrats in 94. We lost some good ones but people like Barack Obama are the direct beneficiaries of that cleansing.
Axe Diesel Palin
There has been a lot of talk today about Palin out-doing Cheney and seeking more power. She said something like:
I think we was just faking an answer. She didn’t really have a good answer for the question, so she just started rambling. I seriously doubt she has a plan to grab more power than Cheney. I don’t think she meant what she was saying. The words just rambled out as she was trying to fill time.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Seitz:
Cheney is a sneering, angry old man. It’s no caricature.
ThymeZone
Four and twenty blackbirds …..
etc
Roonieroo
Nailed it!
Brachiator
Acutally, it was more like Palin was channeling a female version of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, with a Capra-esque fantasy — Mrs. Palin Goes to Washington. You should not underestimate the degree to which this appeals to the GOP base and some Democrats (many Independents seem to be more immune to this ploy).
Grumpy Code Monkey
MyiqAgent Flowbee, is that you?Comrade Grand Panjandrum
@Lab2112: Damn you had me at "In a time of …". Is that you The Other Steve?
Comrade The Moar You Know
Relax, the guy refers to a Rush album in his screenname. It’s a spoof. Rush fans are basement-dwelling, D&D playing unfuckable libertarians, not wingtards.
AkaDad
They won’t be serving pie at the Liberal internment camps. Duh.
The Bag of Health and Politics
Let’s be fair to Governor Palin. General McClellan certainly would’ve agreed with the Bush surge principals, as General McClellan would never act unless he was convinced he has a far-superior force. It made him a doddering fool and it led to lots of defeats. But General McClellan would certainly advocate the failed Bush/McCain/Palin strategies in Afghanistan.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@ThymeZone:
Blackbird =/= Crow
ThymeZone
Oh, well, okay then. Sometimes a president just has the words ramble out, and then ya know, there’s somathat new energy in the Cabinet Room there!
Г-жа demimondian
@Patrick: You need to work on your punctuation, man. You meant
And the answer is "Of course she isn’t; SATSQ."
And stop calling me Scottie.
Josh Huaco
No thanks, I prefer apple, berry, hair or creem.
theturtlemoves
I would like to thank all of you who managed to sit through that whole thing for giving the rest of us the rundown. Having grown up in the upper Midwest, I’ve heard that horrible, horrible accent of hers on a few occasions previously, but I just couldn’t take it. Every time I turned to it, she was talking and I wanted to, as Lewis Black put it in regard to Britney Spears, stick a spoon up my own ass to distract from the pain in my head. The whole schtick was just grating. "Say it ain’t so, Joe…" Might as well have then rhymed it with "don’tcha know" and finished out with a "ya, sure, you betcha". She’s like a cross between Lake Wobegon and Hell.
Comrade Grand Panjandrum
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Gotta be a spoof. Its much too articulate to be a real troll.
Krista
I was thinking she’s like the love child of Gomer Pyle and Karen Walker (from Will and Grace).
Comrade The Moar You Know
I loved Scottie! The stammering, the flop sweat, the naked terror. He was awesome. You could tell that somewhere inside that poor guy there was a soul, a soul that screamed in naked horror at what he was perpetrating every day. I doubt he slept very much. Sometimes he would literally writhe when dishing out one of the administration’s whoppers. Hard not to feel bad for a guy who obviously hated what his ambition had led him to.
He did us all a big favor; he let us know that it was all bullshit.
Tsulagi
Well, plants and vegetables turn toward the sun for energy too. Coincidence? But yeah, I’ll give her the faint praise she exceeded expectations. She firmly established herself. Now we have the cranky, senior moments Maverick and Winky campaign.
For me the highlight was Biden unequivocally shredding Cheney and his contention he’s in both the legislative and executive branches. Biden’s answer came right after Palin again showed she was Bush Doctrine level clueless in her breezy non-answer to the question.
Also liked Biden’s “enough with The Maverick bullshit” rant. Don’t recall Palin dropping “he’s the maverick!” again after that.
Fulcanelli
Moving on from the Queen of the faux outrage miners to the absolute, undisputed King: More comedy for your Friday morning courtesy of Felafel Bill O’Reilly and Congressman Barney Frank (from HuffPo).
Win x5
gopher2b
I don’t know why I’m commenting because I really don’t care anymore but…I think its a touch hyperbolic to call her "stupid," "a moron," knock, knock, no brain in there.
She’s way out of her league. Agreed. You spend 45 years in Alaska and get thrust into the national spotlight and come across well on every (okay, any) issue. Does that make her unqualified to be VP? Absolutely. Does that make her stupid? Doubtful. Look, she’s gone from the mayor of a small town to a force in the only other major political party in the country in less than 10 years. She’s done it without any familial connections. Say what you want, but that’s not the work of a moron, vapid or otherwise.
ThymeZone
I think you’ll find that the bird pie reference that the song was probably based on was not species-bound.
Bird pie is a pretty old idea. And of course, "eat crow" refers literally to eating crows.
Of course, none of this may be true in Canada.
Brian J
I will say what I said last night: I don’t think Palin’s performance changed the race in any way. She didn’t do particularly well in the sense that she made substantive, intelligent points, but she came across as sharp for the group that she was meant to attract: the Michelle Malkins of the world, and maybe my mom, who said she "likes Joe Biden, but doesn’t like Barack Obama." She didn’t change the fact that the country looks like it’s on fire and that her running mate’s idea of a solution is to grandstand and change positions within days of his last position. In other words, they got nothing, and nothing she did last night changed it.
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
@r€nato:
Fixed.
Maximus
Someone at GOS made a great observation; Palin seems to be the offspring of Gidget and Mussolini…
JGabriel
Lab2112:
So they’re still giving away McCain Troll Points at Johnny Drama’s web site?
What are you saving for, Lab? The faux fleece jacket? The golf kit? Or the two hundred dollar pin of JSM rendered in semaphore flags?
.
The Ornithologist
FYI, Thymezone, Krista, lab2112
Blackbirds are not crows.
Crows are black birds, so are Red Winged Blackbirds, Tricolored Blackbirds, Brewer’s Blackbirds,Rusty Blackbirds, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds to name our North American species.
gex
Didn’t you hear? They’ve outsourced that to frat boys being paid in pizza and beer.
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
@r€nato:
Fixed. Oops, my bad. Cheney is many things, but not an amateur."more" was supposed to be underlined; guess that doesn’t work.
Brian J
She may indeed be stupid, but I’ve always said it looks more like her being out of her league. To instantly call her stupid is tempting, but it probably creates sympathy for her and turns off any people who might be willing to listen to critical comments.
Teak111
Shorter Michele:
we cheerleaders have to stick together.
Fern
I’m thinking that competing in beauty pageants is excellent training for smiling while undergoing public humiliation.
Comrade Napoleon
Palin was a wreck last night. I don’t think it has sunk in with most people how bad she was since everyone was half expecting her to come out with her panties around her head or something, but in reality her performance was a joke.
The MUP/Biden ticket is on a glide path to victory at this point.
In real life she speaks nothing like that. I was surprised to find out it was an act.
Comrade The Moar You Know
Wow, I thought this was a joke. I stand corrected.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
I hate it. No way to read/post comments, and no access to the full site.
The iWPhone plugin is a lot better, and it could run alongside the original mobile plugin that Annette installed after the server move.
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
My expectations were driven so low by the Couric interviews that I was seeing the debate as a draw just because Palin didn’t face-plant, so I’m really encouraged by the polls — it may, after all, be possible to underestimate the intelligence of the voters.
/ elitist
SamFromUtah
I can not tell you how much it pisses me off to have asshats who never even spent a day in Basic Training pull the surrender/treason nonsense…
I find it pretty goddam infuriating when anybody pulls that crap, veteran or not.
Cris v.3.1
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Indubitably.
Jess
Here’s the perfect encapsulation of Palin’s performance (if I can get the link to work).
Andrew
The Palin Debate Flow-Chart, via Andrew Sullivan. Funny funny.
cyntax
I can has pie?
cleek
i’ve updated the BJ Pie Filter – for those of us who hateses the trollses.
(FYI, Greasemonkey works on IE, too!)
Martin
Um, the only way she could confuse him with a Civil War general is if she ever heard of the Civil War general, which I’ll bet money she hasn’t.
My guess is she mixed up the name with Scott McClellan – former press secretary, whose book I’d bet she’s read recently.
And for the record, I don’t think she’s dumb. My 10 year old son isn’t dumb and he would have fared about the same.
Greg D
I guess we won’t have to suffer through the idiotic American bullshit about how anyone can grow up to be President…for a little while!!!
strawmanmunny
Not to mention, that would have exceeded expectations too and she would have been declared winner.
This election has shown me something, the media is absolutely ignorant. I mean, I knew they were before, but just not as widespread.
Give me Jack Cafferty or give me death. lol
Joshua
Isn’t the "clap louder" strategy the same one they tried using on the economy? The economy sucked because, you know, people were saying it sucked.
r€nato
Yes indeed, Comrade Nixon, Cheney is many things but he is not an amateur; he’s professional evil.
eyeball
The only white flag of surrender i noticed yesterday was the one John McCain hoisted in Michigan.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
I don’t think she’s dumb either. Shallow, ignorant, incurious and parochial, but not dumb.
I’d like to have a beer with her.
r€nato
yep, pretty much, I’ve heard that repeatedly from wingnut acquaintances – ‘if people would just shut up about the economy, everything would be fine!’
And they say this with a straight face. I guess sticking your head in the sand has worked so well for them so far, why wouldn’t they prescribe that to everybody else?
I don’t hear that excuse much lately, I think reality has finally pierced their reality distortion sphere.
cleek
"VPILTHABW" just doesn’t swing like that other funny acronym does.
ThymeZone
Gotta run, and not meaning to be contrary, just for information: The thing works great on my Blackberry. YMMV because the Blackberry is not typical in the mobile universe.
Jeff
New meme being tried on Digg is Biden was wrong on Article 1 of the constitution referred to the Vice President. To bad none of the asshats bothered to read it.
Zifnab
No, the argument there was DOWacracy. If the DOW is up, everything is peachy keen. If the DOW is down, the Democrats and their taxes and their regulations are ruining everything.
People who disagree that the economy is doing great when Wall Street is up simply don’t understand economics and are whining because THEY aren’t working hard enough to get those sweet, sweet eight figure golden parachute deals.
Anyone who claimed the rich were getting richer at the poor’s expense were certainly perpetrators of "class warfare" on the hard working billionaires of America’s upper-crust. But, generally speaking, the economy was strong because Paulson said it was strong and only became weak after a few major investment banks went belly up. Wages in relation to inflation… home mortgage rates… the price of basic consumer goods… entirely trivial.
Josh Huaco
There’s a flower shop in the small Texas town where my girlfriend works. Inside there’s for sale a batch of faux-wooden porch signs with all sorts of faux-folksy sayings. One of them says, "Stop doubting and just believe. -God." I sh*t you not.
It perfectly encapsulates the combination of know-nothingism and authoritarianism the Quonservative Quaeda loves.
JGabriel
tripletee:
Not me. Palin reminds me of the kind of person you avoid sleeping with because you don’t want to have to talk to them afterwards.
.
Peter von Nostrand
From the debate:
Yes, Michelle, we understand that it’s easy to win an imaginary debate. You have to answer the questions that you have, not the ones that you wish you have or might have at a later date.
SGEW
Precisely. She is their Chosen One. Every wink she gave was to them, as were almost* all of her buzz words ("blessed," "East Coast," "redistribution of wealth," "white flag," "U.S. Embassy in Jeuruselm," "2nd Holocaust," "reward is in heaven," "surrender," "exceptionalism," etc. etc.).
The V.P. answer was the real give-away. She basically doubled down** on Cheney’s laughable (literally: constitutional scholars literally scoff at Cheney’s jurisprudential "theories") idea of making the V.P. supra-constitutional and unaccountable. She’s trying to be CheneyPlusExtra. Only true wingnuts eat that shit up.
And, as a BTW, as much as I admire Mr. Larison and have long read his writing with great appreciation, I am appalled at his endorsement of Chuck Baldwin, that theocratic wingnut extraordinaire. Very disappointing.
*I have no idea what secret message she’s broadcasting when she says "also." She says it so often, I’m sure it must be some kind of code word.
**A la Mitt "Double Guantanamo" Romney.
Brian J
I’m surprised Biden didn’t go after her for raising sales taxes while cutting property taxes, which shifted the burden onto the less wealthy.
SGEW
Also, In order, now:
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for those 23/6 links (esp. the Biden one). I have to remember that that site has more than just GYWO.
Snerf. In their defense*, many are not libertarians anymore, some live in attics and fifth floor walkups, and quite a few fuck each other. Just sayin’
Who cares? The whole point is that they are both Abominations before God, as are owls and comorants, c.f. Leviticus. Unclean! Unclean!
Ahem. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." – Proverbs, 3:5. And people ask me why I don’t like religion. Hmpf.
*In my defense, even though I am not a Rush fan, I still hold that Neil Peart is one of the better rock drummers of my lifetime. So there.
Jeff
Actually, I’d rather have one with Biden. The conversation would be much more interesting. Damn Ivy League education.
Zifnab
The liberal wing of the D&D movement is strong and growing. Fear not.
D. Mason
Test post made from phone browser… If this works I really like the mobile version.
JGabriel
SGEW:
Damn, that denigration of the East Coast from so-called "Real" Americans always pisses me off.
If it weren’t for the East Coast, which constitutes the original 13 colonies, there wouldn’t be an America, you fucking Tories.
A bunch of Johnny-Come-Fucking-Latelies who think they know what "real" American values are. They should all be put in jail and re-educated until they can pass a test on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, and 18th Century American History in general.
.
Scot
I saw her lips movin’, but this was all I could hear last night….
"Well, I never thought I would make it here today. I would be a great class president because… I promise to put two new pop machines in the cafeteria, and… I’m also gonna get a glitter Bonnebell dispenser for all the girls’ bathrooms. Oh, we’re gonna get new cheerleading uniforms. Anyway, I think I’d be a great class president, so, uh…who wants to eat ‘chimini-changas’ next year? Not me. See, with me, it will be summer all year long."
Comrade The Moar You Know
I knew there was something really familiar about her, that’s what it is.
Jeff
Is the mobile version using a different web address?
DonnaInMichigan
Ummmm, like I’ve only been at this for 5 weeks.
Wink Wink
It shows…
Comrade The Moar You Know
I’m just trolling the idiot. I was a professional bassist for many years. Geddy Lee is God.
I’m now also a pretty good drummer, I’ve been working on that for about the last 10 years – but I’m no Neil Peart. He is not "one of the better rock drummers", he is easily the best rock drummer out there. He is also a rather atrocious jazz drummer and probably the world’s worst lyricist (really), but I don’t hold that against him.
SGEW
Additionally, speaking of GYWO, the latest is marvelous (as always). Took a shit, made the news.
SGEW
Oi, you! His jazz-ish riffs in his solos are gold. Gold, Jerry, gold! And he’s not the worst lyricist . . . I mean, my god, must I mention John Ashcroft?
Cols714
Actual title of a post from the freaking frontpage of Redstate. Do these guys not live on the same planet as the rest of us?
Palin Won. Ifill Showed Her Bias. Biden Embarrassed Obama While Palin Did Not Embarrass McCain. Paging Kathleen Parker et al
TheFountainHead
The mobile version would be FANFUCKINGTASTIC on the iPhone if I could only read/write comments.
Echoes without Bunnies or Men
All those qualities that Malkin and the rest have been praising her for…warm, fresh, funny, confident, energetic, personable, relentless, and on message…is it just me, or do these sound like hallmarks of a good talk show host, and not a vice president?
SGEW
Sarah Palin thinks she’s auditioning for a spot on the View.
smiley
Awfully late to this thread but I thought her Cheney duck hunting comment proves that she know much less about hunting and guns than she and her handlers like to let on. If they had been duck hunting, that lawyer’s head would have been blown off.
liberal
Tsulagi wrote,
Agreed.
I really, really loved it when he called Cheney the most dangerous VP we’ve ever had. That was a rare bit of 100% brutal honesty from a politician.
liberal
Brian J wrote,
No way the Democrats are going to go after the parasitic ([1], [2]) class of landowners. Too powerful.
cleek
@Cols714:
the RedStaters are shills, not analysts. RS exists to reassure the faithful, not to convert the non-believers, and not to objectively chronicle events for posterity.
Laura W
Did Palin ever call Joe "Joe" again, aside from her adorable canned line?
Seems to me the ah-shucks-let’s-be-friends "May I call you Joe?" quip at the start with mic on was just to give her cover for that one line. Would’ve bordered on bitchy snark if she suddenly called him Joe without permission.
I am emotionally hung over today. Buchannan and Noonan make me sick. Even if they don’t believe a word they have said about her clear victory (and I’m sure they do), the fact that shit like that is even said, and that a huge % of this country will vigorously agree, makes me ill. I hate that I’m living in a country with such a huge moron/conscious person ratio. Lemmings. Simpletons.
Obama’s win will take away some of the despair, but the fact remains that the idiots still thrive. And breed, most horrifyingly.
Bleh. I need to get outside and take a pretty drive. Even my cats are pissing me off today. It’s gorgeous in NC. Obama in Asheville tomorrow.
I’m getting the sense that photos are not so popular here, since no one is posting any (I’m perceptive that way), but I’m gonna post one now. I made this jewelry mosaic mirror a few months ago, building it around a Women for Obama, Rosie the Riveter campaign button. Western North Carolina Women Magazine has just used it on their Oct. cover, which is an issue about the election. They got cold feet and photoshopped in "Change" for "Obama" on the button. (I have an essay inside as well about my Obama Centric Disorder: "From Apolitical to Apoplectic".) Maybe Obama will see the cover up in Asheville??????? Apologies for the shameless self promotion, but it makes me happy today. I’m off to fetch 300 or so copies to distribute down in my small town.
!http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z147/lauraw217/WNCcoverweb.jpg!
Laura W
I just tried to post and it isn’t showing so tried again and was told I was repeating myself. If it does eventually post, apologies again for the SSP. And the duplicate, if appropriate.
gex
Yes, but she can’t afford to mention quail, as it may bring up a comparison to a former VP in which she comes out unfavorably…
ksmiami
And the Rude pundit comes (no sexual innuendo meant) through again!
"10/03/2008
Joe Biden Beats Up a Woman With Glasses:
Christ Almighty, could Republicans just stop pretending here? Regarding the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, David "Where’s the Salad Bar, Applebee’s?" Brooks, with his deep understanding of "real" people, actually said in the New York Times that Palin was "vibrant and tactically clever." In the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan proclaimed, "She killed…She is the political equivalent of cardiac paddles" to the McCain campaign. All over, conservatives were tripping on each others’ tongues trying to proclaim Palin triumphant. Except they leave out one crucial factor. She lost the debate.
No, no. Let’s take this further. Joe Biden kicked Sarah Palin’s perky ass from one end of that stage to another. It was humiliating, watching the bizarro display of Palin, this talking points automaton set on "spunk," absolutely failing to impart any cogent thoughts or cohesive answers or even string together the surprisingly full sentences she spoke into anything like a policy. Here’s just a few observations:
1. Joe Biden never, not once in the whole debate, referred to Palin as just "Sarah." It was the perfect rhetorical strategy, to show respect to her office and also not allowing her to keep claiming how she’s just an ordinary person. Nope, she’s a "governor" and therefore a politician. Also, his smile at Palin could have been interpreted as almost fatherly. But it seemed like he realized that she really was just a dipshit in lipstick and he could put himself on cruise control.
2. She called herself or McCain "mavericks" at least half a dozen times. You know how to prove you’re not a "maverick"? By saying you’re a maverick. (And Biden had the definitive answer to the whole line with his "He has not been a maverick" rant.)
3. The debate was more or less over when Palin declared to Biden when the Republican hadn’t given a response to a question about deregulation, "I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear." That meant that, for Palin, it wasn’t a debate. It was a stump speech. It’s one thing for a candidate to repeat lines from campaign appearances. It’s quite another to declare you’re just not gonna engage. Noonan saw this as a positive: "As far as Mrs. Palin was concerned, Gwen Ifill was not there, and Joe Biden was not there. Sarah and the camera were there."
It’s like going to a Chinese restaurant and demanding Argentinean food. It’s absurd. Go to the right fucking restaurant. It’s like paying a hot hooker to give you a blow job at your place, but she just wants to drink your liquor and steal your iPhone. Well, you can surmise, lesson learned.
4. In fact, let’s take a couple of examples here. When she was asked what her "Achilles’ heel" was as a candidate (a stupid fucking question, by the way), she didn’t even make a pass at it, only rambling through her qualifications. And she went off on a strange education-related tangent when she and Biden were talking about general middle class-related issues. She wanted to cram in what she had memorized about McCain’s education policies and, goddamnit, no one’s gonna stop her. How many times did she say, "I wanna talk about" shit?
5. Several times, Palin scolded Biden for daring to blame the Bush administration for their fuck-ups, saying, "[T]here’s just too much finger-pointing backwards." Yet she claimed about McCain, "He knows to learn from the mistakes and blunders we have seen in the war in Iraq." Now, the Rude Pundit’s no genius of linguistic parsing, but, well, fuck, isn’t that the same fucking thing? And what kind of fucking idiot doesn’t think it’s important to acknowledge what causes climate changes in order to solve climate changes? "Hey, you’ve got HIV, but we’re not gonna study anything to see how the virus works, we’re just gonna inject you with a bunch of shit and hope for the best."
You know what? Forget it. The Rude Pundit’s disgusted talking about this nothing, this nobody, this perfect amalgamation of Machiavelli and Chauncey Gardiner. She’s sound and fury, motherfuckers, sound and fury with a funny accent. If she’s the future of American politics, then we are goddamned. Biden wiped the floor with her. Facts trump bullshit folksiness. Don’t let anyone tell you different."
// posted by Rude One @ 11:22 AM| DiggIt!| Del.icio.us|
Dennis - SGMM
In another sign that the fundamentals of our economy are sound:
California may need $7 billion federal loan
California has the eighth largest economy in the world and it can’t borrow from the credit markets. Part of the money that California is attempting to borrow is the money that it needs to make payroll until the next round of tax revenues come in, another part is a scheduled $3bn payment to our school system. If the schools are forced to shut down and state employees aren’t paid the ripple effect will be huge. I doubt that California is the only state facing this problem.
Bootlegger
Beltway/Manhattan corridor? You should’ve seen all the people on the I-25 Kentucky corridor laughing at that person impersonating a vice-presidential candidate on stage and simultaneously crying that there is a non-zero probability she may actually BE vice-president.
Brachiator
And of course, the blackbird is a little turd, or more accurately Turdus Merula.
This may be more significant than people credit. On the one hand, the McCain/Palin team is trying hard to mark itself as separate from Bush, but then ties itself to Cheney’s renegade re-interpretation of the role of a VP. Obviously, McCain’s people have been thinking about Cheney’s role, so for them to come down on the side of Cheney authoritarianism is truly frightening.
Martin
Ah, but once the RedStaters, Greatest American Heros™, got through with the analysis, they’d totally own your ass by pointing out that it’s entirely reasonable to assume that due to Cheney’s hunting prowess and killer instincts that he would have emptied his gun and instead picked up a Russian weapon off of a dead insurgent in the area. Given that 48.291538271% of those weapons are actually Indonesian knock-offs with 63.9% lower muzzle velocity and the ammo that the Iranian government is smuggling in is 17.435% lighter than Russian spec, it’s entirely reasonable that Cheney, with his hawk-like reflexes would have instinctively twiched so that the maximum amount of the shot would have struck the lawyer in the glasses, which, given the lighter ammo and lower muzzle velocity would have absorbed much of the blast and prevented the lawyers head from being completely blown off.
So, clearly you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about and only want to take guns away from hard-working americans that are trying to protect us from the terrorist menace. Fucking traitor.
SpotWeld
Malkin should be worried.
Palin, once this is all over, will be positioned perfectly to become the most beloved of all right-wing bloggers.
She’s folksy, religious, gun-toting, hot, and certainly more internet competent than McCain. A little more camera training and she’ll be able to do Fox News segements as well.
All she needs is a web site with her name in the title. The hordes of slavering fan-boys are already waiting.
SGEW
Harry Whittington is no moose, I’ll tell ya that.
eyeball
She can dress a moose, but she can’t tell a duck from a quail. Imagine if Biden had said that — the rightists would be crying … er … fowl.
Comrade Jake
It would seem to me that the best way to counter this pile of nonsense is to ask when we can expect her to hold a press conference.
She’ll rock that too Michele. AMIRITE?
Zifnab
I always thought she played a better Ferraro to McCain’s Mondale than she played Quayle to McCain’s Bush. One thing is for sure, John McCain is no George Bush Senior.
TenguPhule
Palin, because only alcohol makes her tolerable.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Rich Lowry today at The Corner:
The only thing richocheting around my living room was Mrs. Monty and I when Palin referred to Team Maverick®.
As to Lowry: I’m too tired and hung over to snark on it. I’m sure someone here will pick up the ball and run with it.
Laura W
Oh I needed this right now today in my in-box:
Congratulations!!
Just a few months ago, we came together as animal lovers and told America how rewarding adoption can be. 50,000 of you signed a petition in just a couple of weeks (a record for Best Friends!) to ask the Obamas to ADOPT their dog after the election was over.
We are thrilled to share this wonderful news: Michelle Obama announced on Entertainment Tonight that the family will indeed, “adopt a rescue dog.”
Dennis - SGMM
"My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention."
tripletee (formerly tBone)
Blackberry/Windows Mobile/Symbian/etc get served a different version than the iPhone.
Talk to them afterwards? Haven’t any of you ever heard of coyote arm?
(or snark? Who in their right mind would want to have a beer with Palin? If I wanted to talk to a semi-coherent Talking Points Delivery Mechanism over a beer, I guarantee there are at least a dozen down at the local bar right now. No need to recruit one from Alaska, doncha know.)
Comrade Jake
I think Lowry might be gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
mantis
Slipped under the radar just before the debate:
Palin ‘Troopergate’ Firing Probe Can Go Forward, Judge Says
Considering Palin seems to have committed herself to hiding from the press for the rest of the campaign, I don’t think the chances were good she would help the ticket any more than she has, and could still hurt it more, without the Troopergate investigation happening. But I do like icing on my cake.
Joshua
I think it was a trap. If Joe started calling her Sarah, and went on the attack, it’d look condescending and/or perverted, and the Republicans would have enough ammo for the entire month.
Joe didn’t fall for it, though, because he knew they were looking for it. He was professional all night, and referred to her as "governor" every time except once or twice.
I just want to say here! I think Biden did a brilliant job. BRILLIANT. Professional, knowledgeable, amazingly pithy considering the source ("past is prologue"), he earned his keep and then some. The best thing Cokie Roberts could sling against him was his use of the word "Bosniak", which Cokie thought was fake, but actually is not, says it all. That Cokie’s a retard and Biden did a brilliant job.
Comrade Kevin
I think I know what really "sat up a little straighter" for Lowry, and it wasn’t his back.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
House just passed the bill: 263 to 171, I think.
DougJ
Jonathan Martin posted the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time today, something that really gives you insight into the twisted minds of Sarah Palin supporters:
An honest to god email I got this morning:
There is a song called "The Mighty Quinn" by Manfred Mann that you should adapt for Sara Palin’s Campaign. It worked great for Clinton & democrats to relate to the people & get the message across America.
The song talks about the Mighty Eskimo and says "You’ll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn" ; but you could adapt the song to say "You’ll not see nothing Like Sara Palin"!! It would work great….& would/could really catch on at Rally’s and at College campuses. Listen to the song…it is "The Mighty Quinn" by Manfred Mann on the Album Chapter 2. You could discuss Country First in the song. DO IT!!!!!
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
KILL!! KILL!! KILL!!
1) It’s a Bob Dylan song, you fuckwit.
2) You’re killing the scansion AND the rhyme. Or, in terms you’d understand, yur doin it rong.
EDIT: Of course, I’m directing my opprobrium at the anonymous correspondent, not the talented and lovely DougJ.
comrade chopper
sounds like the dumbass at the strip club who ends up dropping 300 bucks because he could’ve sworn that hot stripper was totally hitting on him.
what an idiot.
SGEW
Wow. And John McCain didn’t even suspend his campaign today*!
It must be because of Sarah Palin’s unbelievably AWESOME SUPER WIN in the debate last night WHERE SHE MADE "JOE" BLOVIATOR LITERALLY SHIT ALL OVER HIMSELF AND GWEN "BLACK" EIFILL BEGGED PALIN TO FORGIVE HER FOR ALL HER MEANNESS AND BLACKNESS.
YAY!11!
*Or did he? I can’t tell anymore. I’m starting to suspect that John McCain’s afternoon naps are now considered "suspensions" of his campaign.
SGEW
(Hmmm. I think I’m reading too much Wonkette)
Comrade Scrutinizer
@ThymeZone:
That, I did not know.
But as far as the birds go, bird pies were usually made with pigeons, starlings, or thrushes. Sometimes live birds were used, so that when the crust was cut, a bevy of birds would fly into the air.
No doubt crapping all over everyone in the process.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Huh. The Black Screen of Censorship came early this time. Reducing font size does help, but damn.
ksmiami
comrade chopper:
Win. I got nothing.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Other blackbirds and other crows?
Comrade Kevin
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
It’s weird, the black only appears for me in Firefox on Windows. Neither Safari nor Firefox on the Mac seem to have the problem.
Comrade Dreggas
Sorry but listening to that woman for an hour and a half didn’t make me or any part of me sit up straighter.
uila
I’m late to the party, but I need to get this off my chest… Those who say Palin exceeded expectations have it completely ass-backwards. If you’re not expected to win (and she wasn’t) then you’re expected to fail. And in her case, the expectation was crash-and-burn-in-a-fiery-train-wreck-on-live-television fail. So in the absence of EPIC FAIL (which was the only reason to tune in and would in fact have been WIN) what are you left with? Just your basic amateur fail, which is a waste of my goddamn evening.
"Sarah Palin is the real deal", give me a fuckin break… It’s an utter disgrace that the people who run this country could try to pawn that event off as a legitimate exercise in national discourse instead of the mockery of a sham of a travesty that it really was. I hope Biden took a shower after it was all over. Having him debate a homemade sock puppet would have been more honest and more entertaining.
Goodbye, Sarah, see you at the concession party…
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Comrade Kevin: Yeah, it seems to be FF. Both FF 2 and 3 give it to me. IE7 an Opera are happy. I hear that Chrome is okay, too.
Cain
With hungry mind and open eyes.
cain
Comrade Scrutinizer
Bush is looking like a whipped dog these days.
JGabriel
Rich Lowry (as quoted by Montysano above):
And thus a new stalker is born.
Made?
Are stalkers born or made?
Whatevs.
.
Comrade Face
Where’s the "and slathered on more hand lotion" mea culpa that clearly has to follow this?
JGabriel
Comrade Jake:
Well, he’s clearly dedicated to: Sparklemotion(tm)
.
SGEW
She won’t be invited to the concession party. She’ll hear about it on Fox news the next day.
"Aw shucks, we lost. Darn it. No wonder John didn’t call me."
JGabriel
Face:
Really? Lowry strikes me more as a spitter.
.
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
So Obama/Biden are wavin’ the ol’ white flag of surrender, eh? Don’t know what the troops need to hear, eh?
Must be why the active duty military is giving more to them than to McPalin. And the ones deployed overseas are giving more to them at a 6 to 1 ratio.
USA Today
Polish the Guillotines
Uh-oh. Just a few more comments until it’s "None. None more black."
Zuzu Hussein's Petals
That’s why I’m hoping and praying that Couric’s not done interviewing her. Or that somebody will find a way to ask her some pertinent follow-up questions. Like:
What authority were you referring to when you said "I’m thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president" ?
What exactly is the "mainstream media"?
Please elaborate on …. (oh, just about anything she said).
Soylent Green
It’s a good thing Bush is a lazy dumbass who wants nothing more than for his job to end so he can go ride his mountain bike. That keeps him from doing anything more harmful to the nation just because he can.
terry chay
I, for one, am glad that flag won’t fly.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/03/iraq/index.html
eric
John,
I, like you, am a Sarah Palin fan.
I came across your site through Michelle Malkin’s site.
My blog is the Tygrrrr Express.
http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com
If you feel it is of a high quality, please consider a link or blogroll exchange.
Also, I get a decent amount (not Malkin-sized!) of traffic, in case you have anything
you would like to promote.
Respectfully,
eric aka the Tygrrrr Express
P.S. I am also a pajamas media guy. i joined the team recently.