I made the mistake of turning on CNN the day before the election, and the Wasilla wingnut is in all her glory, telling us wonderful things like:
“It is not negative campaigning to talk about your opponent’s record.”
Well, actually, it is. And, attacking your opponent’s record is a perfectly legitimate line of attack, completely within ethical bounds, and to be expected.
The problem is that what you are getting tagged for are your bs smears, which are, by definition, also negative campaigning, but not deemed legitimate. For example- your “palling around with terrorists” crap. Or, as another example, Joe the plumber you touted just a second ago as the model of America, stated the following yesterday:
“McCain has fought and bled for our country, loves our country,” said Joe Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber,” who has campaigned throughout Ohio with and on behalf of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “There’s too many questions with Barack Obama and his loyalty to our country. And I question that greatly.”
Fox News’ Neil Cavuto tried to clarify: “You’re not doubting that he’s a good American. Or you are?”
“His ideology is completely different from what democracy stands for,” said Wurzelbacher.
Got it, Sarah? No one would complain if you were just looking at Obama’s plan or record and saying he is too liberal or has the wrong ideas. But when you and your buddies run around smearing him as a traitor, a friend of terrorists, or not sufficiently loyal, then you cross the line. This woman is either incredibly stupid, incredibly dishonest, or a toxic combination of both. John McCain’s career should be forever marred for his having elevated her to the national platform.
mellowjohn
my choice is "a toxic combination of both."
Dan
Blah, blah. She’ll be gone by Wednesday.
Dennis - SGMM
McCain’s choices of Joe the Plumber as a surrogate and Sarah the Ignoramus as VP means the he will be John the Loser.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
John Legend’s singing will make you feel better.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Cat Blogging?
cleek
she’ll be on cable news chat shows non-stop for the next 6 months. without McCain there to stop her, she’ll be yapping it up as often as she can.
Comrade Jake
The fact of the matter is this "spread the wealth" nonsense is as close as McCain/Palin have come to criticizing Obama’s policies, rather than Obama’s character.
In my morning subway paper the headline is that both campaigns have lied, both have mislead. OK, to a degree, sure. But it’s one thing to take liberties with interpretations of McCain’s health care plan. It’s quite another to suggest someone’s a terrorist. There’s really no comparison here.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Well, she just made PUMA’s happy by stating Obama wants to bankrupt the coal industry. LIES! But, of course, these idiots are too ignorant to know that.
Incredibly stupid and evil.
the lies to nowhere
Beauty and poison, all mixed together.
Shibby
I honestly despise Sarah Palin as much as I loathe Bush. Shocking considering she hasn’t actually even done anything yet.
NickM
"This woman is either incredibly stupid, incredibly dishonest, or a toxic combination of both."
I vote toxic cocktail, with a major twist of "thinks God’s anointed her for greater things."
Comrade Jake
@cleek:
I think it would be teh awesome if Fox News Sunday replaced Bill Kristol with Sarah Palin. There would be some sort of comic justice to that.
Punchy
She’s a non-entity in 6 months. Those that think she’ll be 2012 are on crack. She’s going the way of Wham!, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Big Johnson t-shirts.
One. Hit. Wonder.
Phoenix Woman
That’s not a certainly, or even a likelihood.
Much will hinge on the Fundies, whose fair-haired girl she is. If they stick by her, count on her being on the ticket in 2012.
Tom
I agree. It won’t be long before the Republican party will wake, turn over and say "I went home with THAT last campaign?"
Laura W
c.
I’ve been worried ("sickened" is better) about this issue since SNL. I fear that he has already begun the Rehabilitation of Reputation Tour of 2009. Obama will pretend like he forgives him (or maybe he really can. He might just be that Christian.) Who is going to hold him accountable for any of the toxicity…the lethal toxicity…that he has enabled?
No matter today. It is GORGEOUS in NC and 36 hours from now it will be a far different world. Tomorrow noon I get to GOTV for the first time in my life. Better to think happy, uplifted, hopeful and grateful thoughts. Surely I can do that for 33 hours?
Dave
If she has the backing of the fundies and the conservative welfare organs like National Review, she’ll be around for a while yet.
Phoenix Woman
So what would Sarah Palin’s Stupid-to-Evil Ratio be? (Bearing in mind, of course, that indulging in evil tends to enhance existing stupidity.)
Punchy
I disagree totally. Nobody gives a fuck what she says unless she says it ignorantly. IOW, she’s only entertaining in the way a car wreck is. She has no great insights, nothing profound to proffer, has no knowledge of politcal history, and can offer no substance to policy discussions.
She can parrot shit. That’s it. Read cue-cards. Thus, who the fuck wants to see her do this? I believe nobody.
Joe Beese
She’ll definitely make a run at the GOP nomination in 2012 – despite her complete unviability on the national level. But what kind of campaign organization could she run? Mittens will clean her clock.
Comrade Jake
@Laura W:
Obama will forgive McCain. I’m not sure he’ll forgive Lieberman.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Check out the WHOIS for Palin2012.com. The owner is someone named Jay Griffin in Anchorage, Alaska. There also happens to be a Jay Griffin in the Alaska Republican party. Hmmmm.
She’s so stupid she plans to run for president before she is sure she won’t be a VP that year.
fliegr
Unless she nudes up, she’s in the "where are they now?" file in a few months. I think she’ll even get bounced from Alaska politics, all this visibility tends to expose the high school level dirty tricks she’s been engaging in up there.
Far Left American Hater Incertus
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: That was the song I chose yesterday for my countdown to election day, only I pulled the version from the Convention. Yeah, that’s some good shit.
Comrade Jake
@Punchy:
I trust that you don’t watch much of Fox News. Good for you, but trust me, the bar is nowhere near as high as you think.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I predict Lieberman is going to have an ugly future in the Senate.
gex
@Phoenix Woman: I don’t know if infinity/infinity can be calculated. Depends on whether we’re talking the "countable" infinity or the really big, infinite kind for either of those values. The stupid to evil ratio is either infinity, 1, or 0 depending.
Far Left American Hater Incertus
@Punchy: She’s got the possibility of staying power, if only because she still holds an office and will likely be re-elected in 2010. But Joe the Plumber better enjoy the next two days, because no one will return his calls after that, no matter how this election turns out.
Comrade Jake
OT, but you can now buy stock in John McCain’s Presidency for the low price of 10.9 over at Intrade. I’m sure some of our resident trolls are heavily invested over there.
eyeball
Palin has no self-awareness, much like the rest of the Republican Far Right, of which she is the natural incarnation. She will never "get it" because she is wired to believe in GOP-victimology — "the media" "the left" "the ethics panel" — they are all just biased, hateful, out to get her, etc … because they force her to own her words and account for herself. There is no objective reality in her world view. She is the inevitable Frankenstein creature born of Rove-Bush political engineering. She will always dwell at the margins. Always lie. Always whine. It is her nature.
She’ll also be very useful to the progressives because she will embody bullshit memes from the right and give us a lot of info on where they are going, what they are trying to peddle and so forth. For them to all collapse at the feet of such a weird, fatuous person is a rich gift for us all.
troy
I just saw that Joe the Plumber’s at least having a good time. He was seen at the MCain SNL afterparty getting some action and being talked about as the next star of the Bachelor. Funny, but true, from Riehl’s world:
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2008/11/did-joe-the-plumber-service-an-snl-cast-member.html
jcricket
Oh no, she’ll be around. She’ll be mired in ethics scandals and maybe even a recall or impeachment campaign in Alaska after the depths of her corruption, vindictiveness and cronyism are revealed :-)
Gift that keeps on giving.
Svensker
@Comrade Jake:
You beat me to the punch(y). Fox News will have many a Palin love fest between now and 2012.
RoonieRoo
I’m waiting to see what Alaska does with her when this is all over. I’m curious to see if a recall will be floated related to all the ethics violations coming out.
BTW, cat blogging tag for this post?
jcricket
You pointed this out on the other thread, but this isn’t the first time a wingnut has misconstrued what the first amendment means (i.e. freedom to make spurious accusations without condemnation). It’s not an accident.
In California the "Yes on 8" people are seriously arguing that its discriminatory to not allow them to foist discriminate on all of the rest of us. That is, if we do not allow intolerant people free reign and pass laws that enforce their intolerance, we are discriminating against their "right" to be intolerant without consequence.
It’s amazing, in a really sad way. But you want to talk about people who’s "ideology is completely different from what democracy stands for" – it would be Palin, the Yes on Prop 8 folks, etc.
Rock
People that dismiss Palin are underestimating her charisma. And they also underestimate how effective the the conservative message that liberal economics are bad for the US and the liberals are unpatriotic will be after a very tough next 4 years. I fully expect, should he win, that Obama will be a one term president. I don’t expect him to be incompetent, but circumstances are not on his side.
JGabriel
When Palin appeared on SNL, they got their highest ratings since 1994. Who was the famous, must-see, SNL host who generated even higher ratings than Palin, all the way back in 1994?
Nancy Kerrigan.
I look forward to the day when Palin’s name provokes the same combined reactions of "Really?" and "Who?"
.
The Other Steve
A group called GOPTrust.com is running ads with Rev. Wright against Obama here in Minnesota. That just showed up today.
I can’t wait until tomorrow. Just get it over with already.
Michael
Remember the "Man with a Plan, Fred Tuttle" tactic we used here in our VT primary to get rid of a candidate we did not like. It will come in handy when Palin runs again. We can cross over and vote her off the ticket in the next election primary.
As far as the Wright ad is concerned we can negate the effect by screaming " God Damn America- Wake Up and Vote".
TheFountainHead
Not really shocking at all. They both stand for exactly the same brand of ignorance-as-virtue and others-are-the-enemy politiking. To hate Palin as much as you hate Bush is actually quite easy to do if you’ve already identified what it is about Bush the person–as opposed to his policies–that you can’t stand.
David Hunt
Well, if he doesn’t win tomorrow, he’s not going to rise any higher in politics than he is now. If he doesn’t win this time, there’s no way he’s coming back to run for the Whitehouse again. The only questions are
a. Will his association with her significantly mar his ability to be re-elected to his Senate Seat in Arizona?
b. Will his association with her cost him more social capital in the Senate than he’s willing to lose?
And those consideration pre-suppose than he’s going to even try to stay in the Senate after his term expires. If he doesn’t win tomorrow, he might not even run for re-election.
garyb50
Lucky you weren’t watching ‘Mornin Joe’ & guests go orgasmic after her Ohio screech.
South of I-10
I am going with toxic cocktail of stupid and dishonest. On a more positive note, I cannot remember the last time I was excited to vote. I think it was the first time I was able to vote, longer ago than I would care to admit.
John S.
Which apparently will further endear her with a lot of Alaskans just like their good ol’ Uncle Ted.
I don’t think the rest of us in the ‘lower 48’ will be all that impressed.
bedlam UK
She is surely an evil genius.
She gets so many ‘professionals’ bending over backwards to defend her. I’m sure she has a secret lair somewhere in Alaska.
Come on, she said that she is comfortable that her ticket will win and they’ll spend the first 100 days sorting a stratagy for winning the warS in Iraq and Iran.
Yup, I was wondering how your WAR with Iran was doing .
Really they should get these ‘experts’ on and just say stuff like:
Obama has said he will win the wars in Iraq & Iran. What do you think of his statement about being at war with Iran?
When they yell about how stupid it is, and how it shows the inexperience, the reporter should just finish with
"Thank you, oh my mistake, it was Sarah Palin making that statement.. and after the break…..
greynoldsct00
Speaking of Cat Blogging, we’re overdue for some pets John.
Re Palin, I think toxic combo of both; I think she’ll make a lot of noise blaming John McCain if they lose to save herself. I also think that the wingnuts that really believe they need to save the party will think she’s wonderful. As much as I’d love to see her circling the drain, I’m not so sure that’s going to be the case.
The Grand Panjandrum
If the Keating Five wasn’t enough to do that then I am not sure putting the Wasila Wanker (aka Bible Spice) in the limelight will do it either. But he is near the end of his career so it might just stick this time.
John Cole
@Rock: It would not surprise me at all if he is a one term President. The Republicans will spend the next four years blaming every single current mess we are in on Obama.
And the press will let them.
D. Mason
My favorite thing about this campaign is how it completely lays bare the Bush tactic of smearing your opponent with your own faults. Not that it was well hidden under Bush but you did have to be kind of paying attention. It also sheds a whole new light on the tried and true Bush smears of traitor and un-patriotic. At this point I wish the election had 2 or 3 more days so I could hear her slam Obama for his fake folksy accent.
Charity
When is Gov. Palin due to run again for governor?
PS. Krugman had a column about what will the Repubs do if Obama wins. Short version: he hopes that the Repubs will take this as a time to reflect, but he doubts that’s gonna happen.
Punchy
Me wants what Danny is freebasing.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Laura W:
Laura—
Not only is it gorgeous in NC, I’m sitting in our lab in the Grigg building at UNCC, watching them set up the stage for Obama in the rec field right in our side yard. I plan to just go out on the steps and listen. Stoked, I am!
greynoldsct00
I certainly hope so, since he wanted it so badly he thumbed his nose at the Dems of CT, I hope the remainder of his term is miserable and that he becomes totally irrelevant. Yes, I’m a pissed off CT resident who supported Lamont.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@John Cole:
Word up. Scarborough is already running with the "Socialist" tag.
Comrade Jake
@The Other Steve:
The Wright ad is a national buy. It’s all over the place. It ran on NBC last night during Sunday Night Football, for Chrissakes.
Here’s the thing: it’s a waste of money. The ad is meant to suggest that Obama’s a scary black man who hates America. The problem for them is that people have already decided otherwise, because the bulk of the evidence suggests just the opposite. They might as well revisit the attack about him being an empty suit.
JGabriel
Punchy:
I see a forthcoming career on: Naked News.
(Do they still do that webcast? I haven’t seen any mention of it in a few years…)
.
Dennis - SGMM
Palin and her supporters will all do their damndest to make sure that she remains visible. I doubt that she’ll be influential. She’s still mired in fighting the culture war at a time when there are way bigger issues. Granted, the culture war was good for Republicans for a long time but now it’s like watching a rerun of My Mother the Car: predictable, stale and slightly embarrassing.
john b
if they don’t play this at the victory speech/inaugural ball, i will be sad.
rachel
She did plenty of damage to Wasilla through her carelessness, and would have done more if the townspeople and state government hadn’t prevented it. Lets take that as a warning.
Comrade Jake
@Punchy:
Yeah that article is piles of stupid. Obama campaigns today in Florida, NC, and Virginia. That’s "prevent defense"? Danny would appear to be fucking clueless or just blatantly lying, take your pick.
Face
@John Cole: Nah. The press finally showed some freakin self-awareness this election cycle, and demonstrated they would accurately call bullshit on bullshit. Never thought I’d see that day. If Obama can engineer a recession reversal (and no recession lasts 4 years, so that opportunity is 100%), get some health care for Americans, roll back some toxic Patriot Act shit, AND stop the Iraq quagmire, he’ll be lauded.
IOW, things are so bad now, they cant possibly go anywhere but up. And O will get a shitload of credit for it (see Clinton, Bill, circa 1996).
Laura W
@garyb50: I was just doing dishes thinking that one of the top 5 things I most look forward to post Nov 5 is not flipping on Morning Blow "just to see who is on". (I will have to tune in Nov 5 just to watch Joe and Pat regurgitate blather.) I’ve mocked Mika (Mocking Joe is assumed) for so long now I’m embarrassed to even do so because it points to my horrendous lack of willpower in staying the F away from that show. She was especially grating this morning with her one syllable exhalations after every other panelist said a sentence. Does no one play these tapes back so they can critique themselves? Talk about lack of self-awareness.
Joe is impressive as always: "McCain could win."
Deep, cleansing exhale…
JGabriel
John Cole:
That remains to be seen. Obama may have a bit more teflon than Clinton did.
And the press might not wish to be seen as enabling the racist wing of the Republican Party during Obama’s first term. That could buy him some pushback against R whinging from the press; e.g., Shepard’s correction of Joe the Unlicensed’s "Death to Israel" smear.
.
Marshall
My guess is that Sarah the Palin and Joe the Plumber have tasted national fame and found that they quite like the experience.
Look for them to try and make careers out of blasting the Obama administration at every opportunity. And, of course, Sarah the Palin will try every opportunity to become Sarah the Senator. Let’s hope Stevens looses, or she will appoint herself once he resigns.
Now, as to whether this will actually work, I think that their future will be more like Joe the Lieberman’s, except without the power and the influence.
Laura W
@Comrade Scrutinizer: I am horribly envious of you, yet horribly happy for you. Details later!
Comrade Stuck
And these Jackasses are genuinely perplexed as to why the left is pissed. They just can’t grasp the effect of calling your opponent un or anti-American, or marxist or terror sympathizing. When confronted, they hem and haw about why liberals are so mean by attacking them for their bullshit, for after all the wingnut gods of Rush and Hannity have decreed the worst of democrats, so it must be true, so why all the fuss. These are the cocksuckers who have lied us into a costly and unnecessary war in Iraq, have promoted state sanctioned torture and warrantless wiretapping, and bankrupted the country. They have turned the federal government into a wingnut welfare agency and now stamp their feet in righteous indignation at the prospect of trying something different to correct their massive FAIL. Fuck them and their arrogant stupidity. Don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but if there is a God, their delegation in government will be shrunk to the size we can then drown it in a bucket of their own toxic venom.
Laura W
@Dennis – SGMM:
Oh noze. I get this reference. (But I am NOT 60, as I think you said you were?)(I am not even 51!)
Tymannosourus
@The Other Steve:
Really, I haven’t seen them yet… are they just on cable?
SFAW
The Republicans will spend the next four years blaming every single current mess we are in on Obama.
And the press will let them.
Why are you so cynical? It’s not as if the Republicans have been blaming Clinton or Carter for everything they (i.e. Rethugs) screwed up in the last 30 years.
My favorite thing about this campaign is how it completely lays bare the Bush tactic of smearing your opponent with your own faults. Not that it was well hidden under Bush but you did have to be kind of paying attention. It also sheds a whole new light on the tried and true Bush smears of traitor and un-patriotic.
Actually, once it became clear (back in 2000), you kind of watch for it all the time. And as far as the "traitor" thing goes, I’m a little disappointed that no one (in the MSM) has made more of Hanoi Johnny’s giving aid and comfort to the enemy. With Obama, the Rethugs can just keep saying he’s a traitor, but with Hanoi Johnny, we have evidence.
Given what was done to Kerry in ’04, I think "poetic justice" might be an applicable term.
Of course, that would require a non-compliant MSM. That’s as likely as the Mets winning the 2008 World Series.
TheHatOnMyCat
Welp, so much for the general policy direction of the entire Twentieth Century.
I guess we have Teddy Roosevelt to blame for the failure of the American Experiment, since he is the first president credited with advocating progressive taxation.
Who knew that Teddy was a marxist?
Comrade Jake
@Laura W:
In the very few times I’ve watched that show, I’ve found Mika to be thoroughly unimpressive.
Brian J
As I said very late last night, or rather earlier this morning, I can’t speak for other Democrats, especially elected ones, but while I can forgive what he has done to some extent, I will never forget. I don’t have a problem with negative campaigning at all, but the line between the personal and pathetic and the legitimate attack is pretty clear. McCain crossed it a long time ago.
Comrade Jake
I guess McCain drew a record crowd of about 1500 people at his rally this AM, in Tampa.
Tsulagi
You betcha, with two winks.
And Joe? I’m thinking come tomorrow night he’ll definitely find time has run out on his extended 15 minutes. Phone calls not answered or returned. Tito the Builder too.
Speaking of phones calls and stupid, would you really want Winky to have the really big red buttons if she got that 3am phone call? Someone should tell the obvious frenchie-loving fangirl an accent, even a French one, doesn’t necessarily ensure credibility. Hearing “I can see Belgium from my ass” should be a clue.
Tymannosourus
deleted
oh really
I seriously doubt that a diva like Sarah will want to be one of 100 senators.
Also, she can’t appoint herself, since Alaskan law requires a special election.
I understand your belief in Sarah’s overweening ego, but she will have to conform to the law occasionally, so the Senate appointment is out.
I really can’t see her going to the Senate, where she might have to struggle to get attention. I look for her to grandstand in Alaska (maybe she can start a war with Russia). In time she may really piss off Alaskans, because while her body may be in Alaska her ego will be in Washington and it will probably be obvious that Alaska has become little more than a launching pad for Palin.
Like most BJers I hope she disappears or, possibly better, is constantly in the media for ethical difficulties culminating in some jail time. That would be sweet.
gbear
@Laura W:
The voters. Tomorrow.
The 23%ers will declare Palin their saint, but they’re never going to have enough of a following to get her onto the ticket in 2012. But they are also going to be the bees at the republican picnic for a long long time.
Agreed. The ‘mission from god’ aspect of Palin cranks all her other negatives up by about 4 notches.
Comrade Ed Drone
You misspelled "flop" up there. We’ll use the music analogy here. A "one hit wonder" has at least a hit, eh? Sarah hasn’t even had that!
Ed
SFAW
@Comrade Stuck –
This latter-day version (i.e. post-Nelson-Rockefeller) of the Rethugs have always been a combination of:
A) An unfailing belief in their own infallibility;
B) A blissful obliviousness to the consequences of their actions;
C) A proud ignorance of reality
D) A singular unconcern for anyone not "well off"
E) A constant cheerleading for (and benefactor of) corporate executives
F) A bottomless well of incompetence
Despite all these factors – which in a rational world would lead to the the results wished for in your last line – they have thrived for nigh-on 30 years. It is highly unlikely that an Obama win (plus big Dem wins in Congress) will have a significant effect on their viability. Their disastrous policies may get reversed (about that I am pessimistic), but their idolators will keep the flame burning for a long time.
To reverse the trend, it would take a massive effort to get get the "non-connected" wingnuts (here I mean the average person, as contrasted with the Rushbos, Jonahs, K-Los, and O’Reillys of the world) to stop distrusting the MSM, and then the MSM would need to make a concerted effort to put the lie to the Rethugs "philosophy". It took about 10 (maybe 20?) years for the Rethugs to get America to distrust the MSM; I think it would take at least twice that time to rebuild trust. (It’s always easier to tear it down than build it up).
Grumpy Code Monkey
La Palin will certainly show up for the 2012 primaries, where she’ll get maybe 2% of the vote in IA before burning through all her money (primarily small donations from the Cheeto brigade) and having to suspend her campaign. Since even the worst of the remaining Republican candidates won’t be total fucking morons, none of them will pick her as a running mate. So she and Joe the Plumber (who will get 0.8% of the IA vote as a write-in) will start touring the country together as a duet supporting the official GOP ticket, leading to a Nashville recording contract and the single "Mittens Keeps My Hands Warm (For Jesus)", which is in constant rotation on country radio and CMT.
This will later be blamed for both the humiliating GOP loss and the demise of a major music label.
Comrade Rick Massimo
@Phoenix Woman:
Her concession speech tomorrow night will be a humdinger. Either she goes all "our opponent rana good campaign and I congratulate him," which will alienate her wingnut base, or she’ll go all "WAAAH! Teh media and ACORN took our country from us!" which will eliminate everyone else.
demimondian
@John Cole: Well, you know I disagree with you about the press.
No, the press hasn’t grown a spine, and still remains cephalopod at heart. But with the emergence of a left-of-center blogosphere to work the refs in the other direction, the press is being forced to acknowledge right-wing distortions. I think that greatly weakens the republican noise machine.
cain
@troy:
Hahaha.. yes, a special version of Bachelor called.. Wingnut Bachelor. Bring out the wingnut gals, the PUMAs, and the fundies as they try to hook up with the guy. It’ll be startlingly boring as they talk about Jesus, and how he’s not going to get any until marriage.
cain
Mayken
Charity asked
If I missed someone answering, my apologies. Her term expires in Dec of 2010. Don’t know how early campaigning would normally start but something tells me it will be earlier than usual for this one.
Comrade Stuck
@SFAW:
If Obama wins and the dems get at least 58 seats in the Senate (60 would be better), then dems will have a governing majority with no more than 2 years to at least make significant progress in repairing the damage done by 30 years of wingnut governence. I believe that dems will maintain control of both houses of congress for at least 8 to 10 years regardless, however, the POTUS is always a crapshoot between two candidates and their parties.
The GOP conservative movement as it has been is very dead though. We are approaching politically, a realignment that is similar to that just before the Civil War. North and South parties so to speak, with the intermountain west up for grabs and likely to switch back and forth with the political winds of the moment. There are 5 GOP Senate seats in the NE that will go dem over the next few cycles, so dems are in pretty good shape for the long term in congress. And republicans are in the midst of a fatal political schism with no apparent resolution for the near future.
As for the winger gasbags, they will have their choir but little else, unless and until dems royally fuck things up. All that being said, Obama needs to win tomorrow, and I still think Mccain has a shot at winning and that it will be close, though I hope American voters prove me very very wrong.
Josh Hueco
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Win!
bedlam UK
@ Comrade Jake,
Is that the rally where he bussed in an entire school to fill up the seats?
Oh no, that was THIS one:
A local school district official confirmed after the event that of the 6,000 people estimated by the fire marshal to be in attendance this morning, more than 4,000 were bused in from schools in the area. The entire 2,500-student Defiance School District was in attendance, the official said, in addition to at least three other schools from neighboring districts, one of which sent 14 buses.
Ouch.
The Moar You Know
@Punchy: I disagree as well. She’s the Britney Spears of politics. And at least Britney had Chris Crocker to stick up for her.
J.D. Rhoades
Good. Maybe that will put a final stake through the heart of her political career. Every time she opens her mouth. McCain’s numbers among independents and undecideds crash.
lies everywhere
For sure. Give them ice skates, great costumes and lessons and they would make a dashing pair in some nationally televised ice show. But in a lot of ways Sarah already has jumped the shark and sooner or later she will be back in Wasilla writing that best selling autobiography. What would be a good title?
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
I suspect that, even as we speak, the Old Boys who run the GOP are plotting a way to disappear Palin. You can dislike Newt and the boyz as much as you want, but they’re not stupid. Palin has cost them the race, or at least cost the chance for it to be close enough to steal.
As to her future on Fox: half-bright incurious Mean Girls are a dime a dozen. Her 15 minutes is about up.
Where would the race stand today if McCain had chosen Kay Baily Hutchinson, or Olympia Snow?
Charity
@Mayken:
I reckon it’ll start Wednesday morning, Gods willing. Thanks Mayken!
Face
@Comrade Jake: That’s the number of peeps in line for the bathroom at an Obama rally.
jake 4 that 1
@Comrade Rick Massimo: Door Number 2.
If they win, prepare for the scariest victory speech evar. Think Pat Pukecannon’s Culture War speech, only Pat is on meth and his voice is like a rusty nail right across your nerves. (With a lot of alsos, thoughs and buts! strewn around for extra incoherence.)
Ash Can
While she doesn’t appear to be bright enough to sustain an effective political campaign on a national level, I’m sure she has some intelligence, albeit used for nefarious purposes. I’d call her more foolish (as in, the opposite of wise) than stupid. Intelligence is largely innate, but wisdom can be learned. Her record, on both the state and national levels, shows no desire on her part to learn it.
As for dishonest, yes, she is that, whenever it serves her purposes.
As for whether she’ll continue to factor into national politics beyond the election, I don’t doubt that she wants to. She’s shown that everything she does is all about Sarah, 24/7. Her ambition stops at nothing.
That leaves it up to whether or not something else will stop her, and I see two main possibilities. One is that, back in Alaska, she’ll eventually get the book thrown at her and end up recalled and/or even incarcerated. Granted, mobsters and gang leaders manage to run their syndicates from the big house, but even in this cracked-out political climate criminal convictions, especially recent ones, don’t play well with mainstream voters in general elections.
The other, even more important possibility is that she could lose the power struggle that’s already taking place within the Republican party. This struggle is amply illustrated by the numerous established party figures who have made public statements against her. Especially in the context of the Republican party having become ever more authoritarian over recent decades, this public breaking of ranks is no insignificant phenomenon. The fracturing of the Republican base that appeared during the primaries is pitting the so-con/fundie wackos — of whom Palin is obviously the standard bearer — against the established corporate heavies, and there’s no guarantee that the wackos can win this battle. If the corporate-con faction prevails, neither Palin nor McCain can expect any mercy from them, in light of the extent to which they’ve fouled the Republican brand. I can see the loonies forming their own party in this case, with Palin of course at the helm, but I don’t see it making much headway in an election campaign against a two-fisted onslaught from both the Democrats and (real) Republicans. If the loonies prevail, on the other hand, I don’t see the corporates/moderates surrendering the Republican brand and joining the Democratic party. I do see them sitting back and watching the wackos blow themselves up, helping them in this effort whenever possible, then stepping back in to reclaim their brand amid the rubble.
In short, I’m sure that Palin would want to campaign for the presidency in 2012. Whether or not she has a legitimate shot at it, due both to her personal limitations and to external hurdles, is another matter entirely.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Uhhh…. NO!
Lieberman’s caucusing with the Democrats is something he mouths, he doesn’t mean it.
Pete
My feelings exactly. I was leaning Democrat in this election because of the Bush years, but I always liked John McCain and he certainly had a chance to convince me. But her interview with Katie Couric appalled me and it only got worse from there. I can’t imagine that I’m the only one who feels this way. I understand that he picked her just to energize the base but I honestly think McCain lost any chance of winning as soon as that decision was made.
Ash Can
P.S.: In a far lighter vein, I just thought of something. Tomorrow, being the first Tuesday of the month, civil defense sirens will be tested around the entire Chicago area at around 10 AM. If there are any out-of-towners reading this who plan to be in Chicago tomorrow morning and aren’t aware of this, as Douglas Adams would say, DON’T PANIC. :D The AIP isn’t on its way in squadrons of pontooned Piper Cubs to drop Molotov cocktails and fresh moose turds on our polling places.
necros
Just saw McCain on TV trying to portray Bernie Sanders as a former socialist in order to paint Obama as the most liberal/socialist senator in congress. McCain said Sanders used to call himself a socialist. Uh, no, McMaverick, Bernie Sanders IS a socialist. Present tense.
No one should ever refer to McCain as an honorable man ever again. He’s as slippery and dishonest as they come.
Jeff
If Jill Long Thompson beats Indiana Republican governor, Mitch Daniels and Obama asks Lugar to be in his cabinet, there could be one more Senate seat.
A lot of ifs in there, but I could easily see Obama asking Lugar considering he called him out as a foreign policy or National Security adviser during the debates.
Comrade Jake
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
I suspect it would be a heckofa lot closer, but not just because they’re orders of magnitude better than Palin. I think with a closer race, McCain would not have pulled the stunt to suspend his campaign during the economic crisis. I think that decision was as damaging as the Palin pick in a lot of ways.
Dennis - SGMM
@Laura W:
Yep, I’m sixty and I’m still amazed to be seeing a black man with a good shot at being elected president. Never thought that would happen in my lifetime.
And My Mother the Car was one of the best arguments for brain bleach that I ever saw.
Indylib
The McIdiot campaign is running web ads on 538, Nate Silver’s poll porn site. Including one with Obama’s campaign logo that looks just like the ads for Obama running on Huffpo and Pandora that I see every day, except that all of those have pics of the MUP.
How the hell do they get away with that? Isn’t that logo trademarked or something?
Indylib
Well, hell! Now the ad is gone. The space where it was is blank.
SFAW
@Comrade Stuck –
You’re more optimistic than I about the policy-reversal prospects, especially considering Holy Joe.
But as for the "As for the winger gasbags, they will have their choir but little else, unless and until dems royally fuck things up." – I think you’re being naive.
With all the fuckups that Bush has overseen, he still has a 25% approval rate (give or take). With all of McCain’s/Palin’s lying, Bush-fellating, smears, and generally repugnant campaign tactics, he still has a favorability rating of 56% (compared to Obama’s 61%, according to the numbers I saw yesterday). And he could still win the election. In a rational world, there’s no way he would even be close – it’s like Sedaris’s recent distillation of the choice.
Eppur si muove.
So, to paraphrase Mencken: no one ever went broke underestimating the irrationality of the American electorate.
(I was going to write about the compliant Press enabling the insanity, but it’s late and I’m tired. Plus, I think you get the idea.)
Laura W
@Dennis – SGMM:
When I went to early vote last week there was a young father voting in front of me with his newborn son on his chest. Maybe 6 mos. old? He was in one of those papoose things, facing outward, away from his dad. As the father was making his selections, the kid was giggling and laughing. Happy Baby. It was very moving. That boy will one day say: "I was there when my dad voted for the first black president of the US."* One of those timeless scenes I’ll probably never forget, making the memory of my own vote this year all the more significant.
*Odd how on the edit I realize what an assumption I’ve made about how the father voted, huh? Oh well, I’m sticking to my belief. It makes me feel good and the story needs it.
charlotte
Sarah Palin is the new Anita Bryant. Or the old Anita Bryant. Todd, the Husband — how ever does he manage to do it?
Joe, the UnJoe Non-Plumber? He’s like Patrick on Spongebob except packed with venom and tons of even more stupid for stupid brains stupidity. I can just see him now in his new ABC-bought tux, "Courtney, will you accept this American Beauty rose?"
comrade rawshark
Is the Reagan Compromise shattering? How awful.
bago
I believe the word you’re looking for is douchenozzle.
Phoebe
I blame McCain for Palin and I blame McCain for Joe the motherf*cking stupid ass Plumber, who is a spewing fountain of sewage that makes Palin look like John Stuart Mill. It’s beyond crazy.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
Assuming that the only difference is in the VP pick (overall campaign strategy is still the same — attack Obama’s associations, equate progressive taxation with Marxism, desperately pretend that you’re not the very establishment you claim to be running against), then I think the race would be a lot closer in EV. However, I think Obama would still have the edge in overall numbers. While Hutchison and Snow have infinitely more credibility than Palin, they don’t inspire "the base" in quite the same way she does (thank God). They would be pulling in a lot of moderates and "undecideds", but you wouldn’t see the same, uh, "enthusiasm" at the rallies.
But picking Snow or Hutchison in the first place would have required an entirely different mindset from what the McCain campaign has been doing since coming out of hibernation in the summer. It would have required an ability to think past the next news cycle, to craft a coherent message beyond "BOOGA BOOGA," and to own up to the party’s failures. In other words, it’s like asking "what if they had done everything completely different?"
Phoebe
Oh sweet, Ash Can @98, I’m forwarding that to my Chicago peeps!
Dennis - SGMM
Oh crap. That means years of seeing her spray-tanned face doing commercials for Florida orange juice.
demimondian
@Indylib: The Obama camp has been so generous with its trademark usage that the sunrise may well be unprotected. Either way, though, speaking as someone who knows something of web advertising, I will tell you that if a client came to me with that plan, I’d run screaming in the opposite direction at this point — more people will see the ad and merely absorb the logo than will read the text, and, as a result, the net effect will be to spend your own money advertising the other guy. I mean, Winky-wink Palindrone would be smart enough to see the problem with that…
demimondian
If Long wins, Lugar would turn Obama down.
boonagain
As much as I wish otherwise, Jill Thompson is not gonna win Indiana. It’s not even gonna be close.
Mayken
Yeah, can’t recall if I read it here or on one of the other 10,000 blogs I have been frequenting this election season (gods help me when this election is over – I think I may die from withdrawals!) but there were already names being floated for Dems to run against her.
Comrade Darkness
CNN just now: "How the horror of the taxation trifecta of a democratic landslide would play out. After this message."
If they didn’t have the maturity of children, they might point out that someone has to pay the 5.5 Trillion in bills the republicans left unpaid after their 8 year uncontrolled party of corruption.
DaveInLA
A couple of thoughts –
1) If anyone thinks that the GOP establishment is going to roll out the red carpet for Palin, they are delusional. The GOP (Romney and Huck specifically) will destroy her chances for 2012.
2) Joe Scarborough is an idiot. He and the rest of the Contract for America Newt-fluffers are very afraid that the next administration will continue to shine a light on the bullshit they unleased on this country in 1994.
3) Does anyone really think that Obama et al are going to disband their organizational structure? I expect that November 5th, there will be a mass of e-mails getting volunteers setup for the 2010 races. Even if the GOP starts today to build a structure for 2010, they are running 24 months behind. Plus, Obama and his Community Organizing background will continue to kick the shit out of anything that the GOP tries to build that isn’t Fundie-based.
4) Finally, will someone in the media have the backbone to call Palin a celebritiy?!?!?
DaveInLA
Question for the peanut gallery?
If McCain would have gone Maverick and selected Leiberman as VP, would it have made a difference? The GOP "base" was going to vote against Obama regardless, so would Leiberman have helped with the middle?
Dennis - SGMM
Shows what you know. There is no actual need for taxation. If we just prayed hard enough, roads would simply appear, bridges would repair themselves, teachers, police and firemen would volunteer to do their jobs. Of course we would have to allow the military to pay itself through plunder but, you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs – eh?
Common Sense
What’s the difference between Sarah Palin’s mouth and her c**t?
Only one retarded thing has come out of her c**t.
Please don’t let me be the one to make Malkin’s front page and blow the election. I just like to post dirty jokes. And no, I’m not a teenager.
jrg
Five plus years of secret prisons, detention without trial, and manufactured wars to justify executive over-reach, now we’ve got "Joe the Plumber" giving us his deep thoughts on Democracy.
What a joke. Why on earth should I care what this idiot thinks? Furthermore, If I were going to vote against progressive taxation (I would not), why would I vote for McCain? It’s not like he’s proposing a flat tax.
The Republicans are elevating idiots to the national stage simply because they are idiots. I cannot wait until Wednesday.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
@SFAW:
You’re forgetting one thing:
Democrats hold the president’s feet to the fire no matter what party he belongs to; wingers only do it when it’s not their guy.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
HAHAHA! Rick Sanchez on CNN is begging viewers to write to him and tell him what McCain needs to do to win the election. I guess the GOP is all out of ideas and is begging the electorate to tell them what they want. (Not much time to pull off any new tricks though LOL).
Blue Raven
@Common Sense:
What is wrong with using "vagina" or "uterus" here? I mean, please. I saw this joke on FARK over a month ago and the poster had the politesse to use "vagina."
@Ash Can:
The same thing happens in San Francisco every Tuesday at noon.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Fixt!
jake 4 that 1
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII: Bet – 71% of responses advocate flipping the ticket; 23% will add to the Secret Service’s workload and the rest will be ignored because they involve addressing the issues.
Punchy
Anyone want to guess a number for the over/under on number of:
1) Kos diaries tomorrow (of any sort)
2) Kos diaries with "BREAKING!" in their title tomorrow
3) Kos diaries apoplectic b/c someone’s grandmother somewhere in Walla Walla was unable to vote b/c her machine broke, and therefore it’s evidence that the GOP has sabotaged the ENTIRE FUCKING ELECTION! ?
I’ll say, in order listed: 500, 150, at least 100.
SFAW
Democrats hold the president’s feet to the fire no matter what party he belongs to; wingers only do it when it’s not their guy.
WRONG!
Dems only hold a Dem President’s feet to the fire. A Rethug preznit? Not so much.
kwAwk
Palin seems to be confusing negative campaigning with mudslinging and still getting things all wrong to boot.
Mudslinging is when you toss out anything you can to dirty your opponent up in the minds of the voters and it doesn’t have much of basis in reality.
Negative campaigning is running a campaign based upon the faults of your opponent instead of your own positive traints.
Palin is correct that there is nothing wrong with negative campaigning, but simple negative campaigning is not what she has done. She has been a mudslinger extraordinare.
That is what the media should be calling her on.
Tsulagi
@Punchy:
Don’t forget Diebold switching Obama votes to McCain!
And on the patriot wingwanker side, how many posts about entire prison populations undoubtedly voting Obama? And Dem SecStates refusing to count military votes which everyone knows would all go McCain?
Tomorrow will be glorious.
Comrade Stuck
I really didn’t make a statement of optimism on what dems would or would not do. I said they will have the numbers to do good things and no more than 2 years to show they can without forming circlular firing squads. As far as why Obama is not further ahead, though he’s pretty far according to polls, is due to just one thing and that’s skin pigment. People are through with wingnut ideas for the time being, except the 25 percenters. And the long term demographics is very good for dems, regardless of press or stupidity of blocks of white voters. It all depends on how well the economy does under dems governance and whether Obama handles other kinds of crisis, where I am optimistic that he will.
I am saying also that there likely a sizable and historic (similar to the 1980 shift from dem rule)) shift away from primary GOP rule, it’s been tried and has failed. People won’t soon forget the economic fear and anxiety they are currently experiencing. Couple that with younger and younger voters being much more socially liberal than their elders and the oncoming train of baby boomer entitlement woes that only dems are trusted with fixing, and the future is bleak for wingers. But nothing is set in stone and dem performance will have to be competent .
kilo
@Ash Can:
"pontooned Piper Cubs" is made entirely of win!
Nevermind that they’d only lift about 3 good-sized moose muffins each, it’s still a great visual.
Chuck Butcher
This is what really pisses me off. It is one of the things I just cannot stand to watch – a Party or candidate use bigotry as a political tool.
Sarah Palin will have to "run" Alaska for another 2 years and that is not a national platform. You have to remember just how far away from the national scene Alaska is. The corporate and "intellectual" wing of Republicans is not going to go Democratic and they’re not going to go Palin fundie and they sure the hell are not going to just go away. Since I’m not from Alaska I have no idea how Palin’s problems are going to play with them, but they’ll surely be a distraction at the least. I would guess that it will depend on just exactly how much they think she’s mislead them about the "reformer" tag and to a degree how big the oil checks are.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Obama’s grandmother just died.
:(
Obama does NOT need this added stress right now. DAMN!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Well, granted congress over the last eight years didn’t do much on that front… but we out here in reality sure knew what the deal was and protested. I wasn’t talking just about congress-wise.
TenguPhule
Yes.
It would allow us to get rid of that traitor and shit all over him in Congress after McCain lost.
Strip him of his chairs and make him sit in the corner with the lights turned off.
SFAW
… but we out here in reality sure knew what the deal was and protested.
Yeah, Bush (or should that be Preznit Cheney?) really toed the line once non-Congressional Dems protested.
David Hunt
$#!+ That’s terrible news and he and his family have my best thoughts.
It is, however, a bad sign that I immediately wondered if
1) Whether she had voted early/absentee.
2) Whether that vote would challenged and used as a sign of "Voter Fraud."
Wednesday can’t come fast enough.
tripletee
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII:
Have wingers started speculating about the timing being suspicious yet?
Wait, what am I saying? Of course they have.
quicklime
John’s right. The best thing we can do is when one of them starts to piss and moan about ‘the unfairness’ just turn around and walk off. I doubt it would hurt their feelings. I would prefer loud mocking laughter. Hit um a lick and keep hitting until they’re gone.
jcricket
This is part of it – in that the country is not inherently "liberal" or "conservative", but likes to see stuff that works and impacts them.
The other part is what the GOP does. If they run with the Palin wing as their overriding approach, they are totally doomed (outside of the hardcore red states/areas). If they somehow find a new set of groups to cobble together a "conservative" majority, they can win again. Not sure what the road to that is, but it’s not impossible.
But otherwise I agree with your general observation. Demographics are in the Democrats favor. If we hold the House and Senate through 2010, we get the redistricting bonus during the census (advantage us). Snowe, Shay, Collins (and a few others) are the last of their kind – moderate Republican Senator and House folks in otherwise liberal/moderate areas. You add all that up and it’s a big structural advantage for Dems, even without Democratic competence and Republican wingnut-itude.
But seriously, I want Fox News to go all crazy all the time. I want Palin to become the national mouth piece for the GOP. Talk Radio was easy to "ignore" but when America watches the freepers 24×7, they’re gonna bolt to the Dems no matter how good we are (and I’m not all that hopeful).