Via the comments, this video from the Great Orange Satan:
Among the hits in that video, it is announced that Palin did not know the countries involved in NAFTA nor knew that Africa was a continent. I have no idea how much of this is true, but there can be no doubt that this woman was ill-prepared to be Vice-President and really was pretty ill-informed about a wide variety of things. The Gibson and Couric interviews proved that, with additional proof offered in the form of the complete unwillingness of the McCain campaign to allow her to interact with the press. They were afraid for a reason.
And the sad thing is that the stories about Africa and what not will keep trickling out and be fodder for arguments the next few days- the right wing blogs will say they are smears and people out to get her, reasonable people could agree with that, and what will be missed in all the rumors and leaked stories is the very evidence that she was and is, in fact, a dangerous buffoon. Tim mentioned the Afghanistan wedding strike below, but it is worth repeating:
The U.S. military said today it was investigating a report that an American airstrike hit a wedding party, killing dozens of civilians and prompting new pleas from President Hamid Karzai that foreign forces try harder to avoid hurting and killing noncombatants.
Just three weeks ago, we had this story:
An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to two American military officials.
The military investigator’s report found that more than 30 civilians — not 5 to 7 as the military has long insisted — died in the airstrikes against a suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad.
How is this relevant? Because one of Palin’s more obnoxious and disgusting smears of President-elect Obama was the following:
Among other attacks, Sarah Palin is out on the campaign trail this week accusing Obama of dishonoring the troops, in essence calling them babykillers. This stems from an old charge she (her debate coaches) have resurrected about the Democrat, claiming he said “all we’re doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians” some 14 months ago.
Such a statement, she said in last week’s debate, is “a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment, again, hurts our cause.”
No, Sarah, accidentally killing civilians in a country you are supposed to be liberating from the bad guys is “reckless, reckless,” and most definitely, “hurts our cause.”
***Get your head out of the mud and see the situation for what it is. NATO forces are killing civilians. This is not to say that individual soldiers are murderers, that they are rampaging across Afghanistan like bloodthirsty barbarians; it is not to say that the killings are premeditated or purposeful. It is to say that our tactical operations are becoming counterproductive to our mission there. Ignore this, and disregard everything we’ve learned in wars past. Ignore this, and put our troops in greater danger on the ground. Ignore this and further confuse any working moral compass we have left as an enlightened nation.
And ignore it she did. Pig ignorant, reckless, arrogant, immature, and wholly willing to smear the opposition as hating the troops. Who knows if she really didn’t mean to smear Obama falsely, she just was too damned stupid to recognize the truth about the facts on the ground in Afghanistan? It is not a radical leap of logic to assume she simply had no clue. But that doesn’t make it any better. It just highlights what a horrid pick she was and how supremely irresponsible it was for McCain to put the country in this dangerous position.
In this light, it is no wonder why the blogs and the folks at the NRO and the Weekly Standard can’t get enough of good old Sarah. She embodies everything they have loved about the last eight years of free-flowing smears, and they don’t want those heady days to end. Plus, she brings the sparkles and teh sexy:
At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys’ club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. “I’ll be just a minute,” she said.
I can see the sparkles from here.
This nation seriously dodged a bullet.
Comrade Scrutinizer
One thing’s for sure: at least one faction in the Republican Party has sharp knives, and Our Buddy Sarah is about to find out just how cutthroat national politics can be when you lose.
Quinn
You said: "It just highlights what a horrid pick she was and how supremely irresponsible it was for McCain to put the country in this dangerous position."
While I completely agree, I suppose we should be scolding the 56+MILLION people who were willing to take this irresponsible gamble.
4tehlulz
>>This nation seriously dodged annihilation.
Fixed, because Palin with a nuclear arsenal….uh, yeah.
TheHatOnMyCat
We said the day she was picked that she’d seal the election for Obama.
By election time, almost 2/3 of those polled were saying that she is not ready to be VP.
I’m not sure what the controversy is at this point.
Larry Craig nee Crusty Dem
I’m a little surprised, apparently even in the know-nothing party there is such a thing as too ignorant. The only difference between her and George W Bush is that W had a full year to prepare for answering a few questions (and he had Rove preparing him). That, plus the fact that the press core didn’t view the presidency as requiring much intelligence or knowledge in 2000.
In a way, this actually makes the McCain campaign speechwriters look worse, since she obviously didn’t come up with the horrible words that came out of her mouth.
Warren Terra
The towel story is just deeply weird, in a way that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with sex. If she’d been a guy, it would have been just as inappropriate to greet colleagues or subordinates, particularly virtual strangers wearing a towel – especially as (1) she wasn’t doing it as an efficiency measure or a dominance display, as she didn’t actually talk to them while wearing the towel (unlike similar treatment of aides by, say, Churchill or LBJ) and (2) she could have just asked Todd to answer the door, or even yelled "Just a minute" through it. Maybe it was somehow intended as a gesture of cameraderie, as the transcript seems to indicate? Weird, weird, weird.
Comrade Stuck
You’re in a bloogin mood Cole. So am I, and will try to keep up.
Yes, and she has the gift of bullshitter. Uninformed, but still with the potential to fool a lot of people. Though thankfully damaged by an early and ill timed entrance onto the national stage.
The American voter woke up in the nick of time, and for what seems like an eternity we will have intelligent, curious, and pragmatic eyes to see things the way they are and act accordingly. I have to pinch myself every few minutes for that reminder.
Wingnut pheromones and the Wassila Wingnut. Danger Will Robinson.
Rich Lowry
Starbursts, my good man.
Ahh, to have been in the room with a mirror on my shoe …
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
This point can’t be reiterated strongly enough.
Incertus
@Comrade Stuck:
Yeah, but did she go the full Quayle? He was on the stage longer, admittedly, and that helped seal his long-term fate, but he was toast after 1992.
In all seriousness, though, this reads very much to me like the big guns in the party are sending a message–Palin need not bother with 2012.
r€nato
The knives sure are out for Palin. Ha, ha.
The wingnuts who screeched about the terrible sexism we were displaying by criticizing Palin’s obvious utter lack of qualifications, owe us a great big apology.
But, knowing them, they will double down on teh stoopid and refuse to admit that her shallowness was there for all to see.
r€nato
I can’t wait to hear Atanajurat’s take on this… if he dares to show his face.
kommrade jakevich
I don’t know why you’re upset by this Cole, this as excellent news.
She’s not going to shut up and go away.
She’s going to hang around, mugging it up for the cameras. She’ll be a fountain of increasingly stupid and unhinged shit because there won’t be anyone to even hint that she should StFu.
And every time she pops up and fires off another round of idiocy people will remember a) She is a Republican. b) The Republican party tried to put her one heart beat away from the presidency.
We don’t really need to continue to oppose the remains of the GOP, just stay out of the way while they beat themselves over the head.
South of I-10
I realize that this is one of those "all politics are local" statements, but I compare the GOP’s statements on Kathleen Blanco (who I am no fan of) to their treatment of Palin. They shredded Kathleen and blamed every Katrina screw up on her. Kathleen was probably more qualified to be vice president, and that is not saying much. If only she were hot.
Xanthippas
What, you don’t think Obama would walk into a room with Julianna Smoot and Cassandra Boots in just a hotel towel with an unlit cig hanging from his mouth? No?
Martin
BTW, those airstrikes will continue so long as Afghanistan insists on letting the gheys marry. We’ve got civilization and traditional marriage to save here, people!
r€nato
Outrageous sexism from the McCain campaign!
Gotcha question!
another gotcha question!
Attaboy Bill Kristol! "Let Sarah be Sarah" indeed! You’ve brought the same legendary wisdom and judgment to the McCain campaign, that you displayed with regards to the Iraq war!
South of I-10
I hope the comment above reads as cynically as intended. Woman Governor, oil producing state, but had a "D" instead of an "R" behind her name and really, most importantly, not inducing starbursts in anyone.
Comrade Stuck
But who are the big guns of the GOP. If they’re the beltway intellectuals, then yes, she is finished. But out in the hinterlands of wingnuttia there are other big guns of the Evangelical wing of the party they need to win national elections. They think she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and Jesus. Doesn’t matter to them that she’s a dangerous buffoon, cause the end of the world is not exactly a bad thing to them. Then there are GOP women who also love her for her spunk and middle America values, whatever the hell that means. Anyways, she is very damaged and independent voters can’t stand her, and given the overall tattered GOP brand and a likely protracted intra-party civil war, she likely will not amount to much any time soon, if at all.
jcricket
The phrase you’re looking for is "luck favors the prepared". We don’t need to find some brilliant new line of attack, but we shouldn’t just wait for them to trip over the rake to spring into action. Like Obama, if we’re running neck and neck with someone and they go on FoxNews and say "Liberals hates America", we win.
But if we’re not running anyone, it doesn’t matter how idiotic the other person is.
50 state strategy!
Punchy
maybe it was a bunch of terrists marrying each other. then bombs justified, right? hope the US Army goes with that…..
Jeffro
.
TCG
Best Post I’ve read for some time.
We need to get some blog awards for excellence that are the opposite of the golden wingnut awards.
I nominate this post for recognition for excellence
RoonieRoo
I just can’t get the image out of my head of about 6 McCain Straight Talk Express buses running over Palin in a convoy and then all backing up to do it again.
It’s fascinating and I’ve got my popcorn.
jcricket
I will admit I was taken aback by her pick and after her speech thrown off my game. I didn’t assume it was "doom" for Obama and Biden – I just didn’t know what to think.
As soon as I found out she was basically a Cheney-ite (regarding secrecy, misuse of government funds, vindictive) and Bush-like (idiot) I knew it was over for the Republicans.
Incertus
@Comrade Stuck: I’m thinking more along the lines of "people who can raise you a fuckload of money in a short period of time." They’re the real power in the Republican party, and they were in the Democratic party until Obama went and got 3 million people to empty their piggy banks for him.
r€nato
Oh my.
Between the forthcoming disclosures about Palin and the forthcoming disclosures about all the shit that went on in the Bush regime for the last 8 years, the GOP could stay busy settling scores until the next mid-terms!
Comrade Stuck
@Incertus:
This is true and is really the biggest victory for democrats. We can say goodbye to the self serving party movers and shakers. Ordinary folks have spoke loud and clear. Move and shake your fat asses out of our way. Maybe repubs can match this feat in the future, but for now they’re stuck with the bundlers and the T. Boone Pickens of the world.
And a big shoutout to Howard Dean who went against the bigwigs and put in place the 50 state infrastructure, that Obama played like a sweet symphony.
Mark-NC
For me the fun part of this is knowing that finding out that Sarah Palin doesn’t know something as simple as the countries that are part of NAFTA – makes her MORE likable to Republicans. Palin thinking Africa is a country is a PLUS to Republicans.
They like their candidates REALLY DUMB – and Sarah is their new hero!
gbear
@Comrade Stuck:
In what respect, Comrade Struck?
Comrade Darkness
"that Sarah Palin lack the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate"
Knowledge is to knowledgability
as
Truth is to truthiness
Jim
I don’t want to minimize my disdain for Ms. Palin, who I’ve always viewed as utterly unqualified, however, what the McCain staffers who are dissing her don’t seem to realize is how much they are condemning McCain with their criticism of Palin. After all, Johnny Mac was idiot who picked her as his running mate.
Soylent Green
And here’s what Redstate has on the subject today:
Take her down? Hell, I’ll send her campaign donations! Palin in 2012! Sar-ah! Sar-ah! Sar-ah!
Ned R.
Haha, OMG, folks, you REALLY need to see what Erick Erickson has just started in response to that Fox report.
I give to you…
OPERATION LEPER!
And do read Malkin’s link too.
Comrade Stuck
@gbear:
IMO, she has a kind of folksy charisma. We see it as the mindless crap it is, but there are a lot of people out there who don’t much care about whether she’s right or wrong and will be attracted to it. Having said that, she has put off a lot of folks with her lack of knowledge on issues and extreme unreadiness for the national stage. I know a lot of people here think she’s an idiot, but I don’t, at least on a certain level. Being uninformed and stupid are two different things. I don’t think she’s stupid, though shallow as a mud puddle.
Ed Marshall
OMG, redstate thinks Fox is a liberal outfit bent on destroying conservatives. This is just too much fucking fun!
TheHatOnMyCat
Sarah Palin, a threat to Obama?
Are they fucking kidding? Sarah Palin is not a threat to anything, except maybe another Republican trying to win over the voters who don’t have an eighth-grade education.
Dave
Anyone that has ever been to a strip club knows that this was a little girl trying to play a powergame by being a prick tease. It may have worked on Schoonerman and a few other hard up types on the GOP side, but Schmidt and Salter strike me as guys that get better ass than Palin on a regular occasion, so it didn’t work with them.
Note to Palin, this ain’t the frathouse or part of the country where men out number the women 3 to 1.
tripletee
@Soylent Green:
And there RedState goes again, tapping an inexhaustible well of Teh Stoopid. Despite her considerable skills at organizing lynch mobs, Palin poses zero threat to Obama in electoral terms. In fact, I think she was good for a point or two in his column this election. Bring on 2012!
The depressing thing is, I’ve heard a variety of people talking about how "scared" they are now that Obama’s been elected. And yet the thought of an ignorant, vindictive, greedy, dishonest Cheneyette becoming President fills their pants with starbursts. I will never fucking understand these people.
gbear
@Comrade Stuck:
trick question. I was quoting Palin when she was trying to buy a clue as to what the Bush doctrine is about. I was actually agreeing with your statement. ;)
Comrade Stuck
@gbear:
Guess I got Rickrolled. :)
forked tongue
I am completely torn on this. One part of me wants her to crawl back under the tundra she came from and never make me hear her screech again. The other part wants her to be the Republican candidate in every presidential election for the rest of my life. Help!
Ed Marshall
Yeah, and they can’t figure out where to move to get the hell out of the U.S. That’s the best part. Canada? Nope, they’re scary too. Europe? No Way! If they really wanted to move somewhere with a Bush-like president they could go to Colombia I suppose. Maybe Ethiopia.
jcricket
A lot = 25% of population. So yeah, it’s more than one would hope, but nowhere near enough to win an election. And more than enough to do crazy and stupid stuff that alienates everyone else and galvanizing the opposition (see 2008, election, Barack Obama v. John McCain).
TheHatOnMyCat
Think turkeys. Have you ever watched turkeys?
dwightkschrute
So now that the knives are clearly out will one of McCain’s team get pissed enough to disclose anything about the whole Bristol/Trig mystery?
gbear
@Comrade Stuck:
LOL. I just went over to have a little look-see at TPM, and this was at the top of the page. Must be an internet tradition.
Comrade Stuck
Right now the GOP is comprised of thoroughly fractured disparate factions. They were that way before Sarah came along and the electorate was not going to vote the status quo regardless. Sarah might have helped Obama get some votes on the margin. But she also brought out some evangelicals for a likely wash. If we could take a snapshot in time, then you are surely right that she is nothing to worry about. But politics change, sometimes quickly sometimes slowly, and nobody knows what the playing field will be like in 4 or 8 years. My comment said she had the potential to be viable in the future. Nothing more.
Comrade Stuck
@gbear:
Translation- I don’t have a clue, Charlie.
Jeff
Wingnuts in a nutshell:
READY, FIRE, ………. AIM
Andre
@gbear: But surely you are aware of all of them already?
Also, slightly OT but Comrade Darkness did make reference to it earlier: "knowledgeability" is not a real word. Perhaps Carl Cameron will insist Kerry said that, too?
Jeez, these implosions are going to be fun, at least until the nutbags start believing they’ll only ever get reelected by tearing anyone (D) down by any means necessary. Then it’ll be FOX News, Critic of the Powerful all over again.
r€nato
OMG, redstate thinks Fox is a liberal outfit bent on destroying conservatives. This is just too much fucking fun!
This is a lot like how the French revolution ended up devouring itself, isn’t it?
Well, without all the bloody mess and guillotines.
Unfortunately.
r€nato
since they are scared shitless that Obama is going to tax them into poverty, I suggest they move to a tax-free paradise like Afghanistan or Somalia.
jenniebee
I’m with Olberman on this one: I am going to send her money. She’s on the same list for me now as Larry Craig and that diaper guy.
The great thing about having political opponents with self-awareness deficiencies is that you get to realize they’re big public embarrassments to their cause way before they do.
The Moar You Know
There is a place in this world where there are no taxes, no gun control, abortions are forbidden and the government (easily small enough to be drowned in a kitchen sink) is run by religious fundamentalists.
Somalia.
Delia
@Dave:
Well, I haven’t been to any strip clubs, but I’ve known women who play sex games, and there are some things to consider vis a vis Ms Sarah.
1) Just how far are the Family Values patriarchs going to back her up once the full extent of this sort of bullshit gets wide publicity? I mean, it’s one thing to have a pregnant teenager. Lots of evangelicals deal with that one. But to parade around a hotel room in front of men you’ve just met wearing nothing but a towel? Well, tell me, Dr. Dobson, is that recommended chaste behavior?
2) In four years she’s going to be pushing fifty. Now, as a woman, I’m all for accomplished women playing an active role in politics, but damn, she didn’t know Africa’s a continent. She apparently considers accomplishments in a more earthy sense. And as she ages she might have a bit harder time throwing out the starbursts. I’m sure she’ll do just fine throwing out the terror and smears, though. She might have to find someone else to buy her clothes. Maybe Bill Kristol will foot the bill.
r€nato
I hear the preferred method is a shot to the back of the head, and that this occurs weekly.
You owe me a coke, buster ;-)
Ed Marshall
Somalia is a really complicated place right now. They should have moved there pre-2006. Although watching the Palin-McCain civil war break out, does remind me of the pre-2006 tribal war that was going on.
Andre
Maybe they could move to Iraq?
I hear that place has lots of freedom now.
jenniebee
What really struck me about the clip wasn’t that she didn’t know that Africa was a continent, it was that she refused the interview prep. There’s no way to improve your knowledge base if you turn down education, but there she is doing just that.
Palin is a serious case of "I know she can get the job but can she do the job?" She’s perky and pretty and her anti-abortion cred is unassailable and she’s naturally and instinctively nasty and vicious (assuming that nasty and vicious reverts to being a winning political strategy). She has no moral compulsion to be honest, so she’s not going to get into the sort of trouble Biden, for example, is going to suffer through. If she were to spend the next four years really studying up and could come up with a way for people to rationalize her improvement without the difference indicating any kind of personality failing, she might have a chance of sneering her way into the oval office.
Lucky for us, it doesn’t look like she’s going to want to admit to herself that she needs improvement. Can’t go the last 11 steps if you don’t take the first one.
GlennK
Thank GOD we don’t have to hear or see anymore of Sarah friggin Palin and her trailer trash family. Let her go back to the wilds of Alaska where the male voters are so horny from lack of women in that God forsaken frozen wasteland that they put a two bit whore like Palin in so they could whack off every time she showed up on TV. Pathetic! Picking this douche bag will go down as one of the worst political decisions in American Presidential electoral history.
Delia
Yeah, this is right. She had a reputation in Alaska for turning against anyone who had mentored her. What’s happening now is she’s running into an organization (the RNC) that’s better practiced than she in the fine art of the double-cross.
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
The Red State and Malkin links were great fun. I never go there. Can’t find the time for that sort of stuff. The Fox stuff confirms that Palin is as dumb as 6000 year-old dirt. Not much of a chance of her winning in 2012. The Christians would have to convert 30 Million people to their side to make it happen.
nicethugbert
These scumbags have us on the virge of ruin and it’s all Carribou Barbie’s fault, not theirs, not their dumb ideas.
Delia
Then there’s this story of McCain firing Randy Scheunemann for trashing the campaign staff in the last weeks of the campaign.
Last line of the story says
Scheunemann became close with Palin during her debate prep process.
After reading about her parading around in her towel, one can only imagine what this means.
Comrade Kevin
I’m sure some of the press corps did imagine what that display was like.
Soylent Green
If it’s true that Palin didn’t know that Africa is a continent full of countries, it’s because she didn’t follow Coach’s training method.
YellowJournalism
So that’s why McCain seemed so relieved when he lost.
rikyrah
Her husband was there and she did this?
She has no home training.
AnneLaurie
Even better — barring death or incarceration, for the next twenty years or more, Palin will be fighting for the Republican presidential-candidate spot with Newt Gingrich. Neither one will be willing to sacrifice their "vision" of the perfect GOP strategy (read: their perqs as ‘serious’ candidates) for the good of the actual Rethug party, much less something as nebulous and inconsequential as the good of the country. This would be a good time to buy stock in ear-protection products… or possibly eye-bleach manufacturers.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I’m so happy they are doing this. Personally, I hope they totally implode.
Unfortunately, if Fox News loses viewership, they are going to go back to what was their success plan and court these people harder.
I think while these So-Cons are getting their knickers in a twist and deciding to boycott Fox, we should pick up the slack in viewership for a while so Fox doesn’t see the true numbers. If the crazies don’t turn off Fox, this will only raise their numbers (and perhaps they’ll realize they need to start accountability on Repubs – not likely, but, still possible)
I’m going to watch Fox for a while (with the sound down), just to screw the numbers. :) Anyone with me?
Atanarjuat
Governor Sarah Palin is her own woman and no one’s puppet. However, it seems that her independent-minded optimism and zeal for true, down-to-earth conservatism rattled her conservative elitist "handlers," so it’s obvious that she’s been selected as a scapegoat to explain Senator John McCain’s inexplicable loss to Barack Obama. Since most of the conservative elitists who are gladly spreading these smears against Palin are men, the fact that Palin is a woman (and a woman who is unafraid with her own voice) just makes their face-saving job a lot easier.
So on top of having to deal with the shamelessly liberal media and leftist blogosphere who were happy to batter her repeatedly and give her black eyes from a safe distance, it seems that there were also backstabbing misogynists in McCain’s campaign staff who were (and still are) desperate to sweep Palin’s feet from under her. Once they have her down on the ground, kicking her in the ribs until they crack and splinter, metaphorically speaking, so she’ll never be politically viable again, will simply be a bonus for the anti-woman haters on both sides of the political aisle.
Shame on these cowardly campaign handlers and shame on the craven liberal collective who are giddily administering this woman-hating, Rodney King-style beatdown against Sarah Palin.
– A Country in Crisis
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Atan, you’re an idiot. It has nothing to do with misogyny really. I’m female. I am not bashing her because she’s a woman, I’m bashing her because she’s an imbecile who thinks we should create an American theocracy. Fuck off!
If you think your country is in crisis now, just think what it would have been like in a McCain administration where the VP and the President couldn’t even get along. We’d be in bigger trouble there, but of course, you’ll never admit that.
Atanarjuat
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII, do you really think that if Sarah Palin were a man that this wearing-nothing-but-a-towel story would have gotten any traction? I just bet that if her name was Sam rather than Sarah, the conservative elite handlers mentioned in the article would have simply viewed him as just a regular guy who was trying to juggle a lot of things in preparation for the upcoming interview. They probably would have laughed good-naturedly if "Sam" had come out of that same bathroom with toothbrush or shaving razor in hand. You know, Sam would have been just "one of the guys."
Instead, we have the same, old anti-female double standard that has threatened to hobble so many ambitious women in the past and present. In the end, CIRCVS, you have a full-blown example a woman being degradingly objectified, yet your partisan shades blind you to the egregiousness of the anti-female backlash Governor Sarah Palin is experiencing.
Go on, tell me this is not a sexist, hypocritical double standard we’re all witnessing here.
– A Country Under Siege
Josh Hueco
Dear National Review Forum…I never thought this would happen to me.
Dude, Rush Limbaugh called from 1993. He wants his line back.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Wingnut who believes in theocracy and sexual purity meets strange men in towel and that’s not news?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t greet men I don’t intend to sleep with in nothing but a towel.
Perhaps you do?
Rick Taylor
The thing I can’t get over is how bad this all makes McCain and his camp looks after the fact. It’s not just that he chose her, it’s that he loudly insisted she was fully qualified for the office afterward. Now we know his staff we’re saying all of this at the very same time.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Exactly. McCain camp knew this problem existed, but to try to secure the electoral win, they hid it, and sold a bullshit "everything is fine" story to the country and people like Atan bought it hook, line and sinker.
Yeah, I want a new administration where they’re at war before they even take office, NOT!
Atanarjuat
Rick Taylor, I think what you’re really seeing is a lot of ass-covering, face-saving maneuvering on the part of elitist insiders who are trying to distance themselves from their own failure in the campaign.
Put another way, had John McCain triumphed, none of these backstabbing stories would have ever leaked out to a liberal media that’s all too willing to help push in the knife.
As the old saying goes:
Victory has many fathers.
Defeat is an orphan.
– A Country Taking on Water Fast
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Oh, heaven forbid that truth should actually be discussed. Listen to yourself Atan, you’re sitting here telling us that it would be okay that this disagreement existed within the campaign and all would be fine, so long as word of it never made it out onto the street for all the people to see and discuss.
That’s not putting Country First, that’s called Cover Your Ass!
Rick Taylor
In this case, I don’t think Sarah Palin is much different than the Republican party in general. Acknowledging reality when it makes our country look bad has usually been thought of as treason. Remember the attacks on Kerry in 2004, for what he said about what soldiers had done in Vietnam? Broadly speaking, this seems to be a difference between liberals and conservatives.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Yeah, we believe in truth, even if it stings to the point that it bruises American Exceptionalism.
Rick Taylor
The newsweek article also supports the contention that McCain was refusing to use certain tactics that were just of bounds, which is rather stunning considering the results.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
He didn’t want to do it on his own, but notice he didn’t talk down the 527’s and the RNC from pulling these stunts (or his running mate for that matter). I’m sure that Wright ad that ran over and over for the last couple of days of the campaign brought out droves of new voters (NOT!).
charlotte
The Sarkozy phone prank didn’t get the attention it deserved on our tv screens last week. All in all, I was kinda glad for that as I feared a wingnut backlash prior to Election Day but, man oh man, what a stunning expose of Palin’s ignorance and vapidity. Absolutely terrifying. And like instant mashed potatoes, a humiliation that can be brought back to life at any time with just a bit of water and touch of butter. Along with the chance of a lifetime shopping spree.
As for America’s supposed mistreatment of poor, noble W, what can one possibly say to something so weak-kneed and sickeningly sentimental? Not to mention so profoundly, pigheadedly stupid? W’s damn lucky not be sitting in jail right now.
It’s like they worship the stupid.
Georgette Orwell
"…the anti-female backlash Governor Sarah Palin is experiencing. . . .
Go on, tell me this is not a sexist, hypocritical double standard we’re all witnessing here."
All right, this is not a sexist, hypocritical double standard. I’ve been a feminist longer than most of you have been alive, and I believe that this woman has set back the prospects of more women in government by many years. She reinforced and even ramped up every stereotype of the vicious, brainless beauty that has made men–and many women–believe that we of the female persuasion shouldn’t be allowed near the levers of power.
I also believe that you have a typo in the first line quoted, for if there is an anti-female backlash here, it’s been created rather than experienced by Palin.
I’m grateful for her presence on the stage because it made clear how poor McCain’s judgment is (and provided some great satirical comedy), but I’m immensely saddened at what she has done to the hopes of strong, intelligent, capable women who have much to bring to the political arena and our government.
Atanarjuat
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII said:
Had it been Obama and not McCain who had lost the election, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if similar stories had emerged from disgruntled Obama campaign staffers. That’s just human nature, and that’s all we’re seeing here.
However, the media being as corrosively and unapologetically liberal as it is probably would have run a lot more interference for a defeated Obama presidential bid and shown a lot more skepticism. As it is, all these anti-McCain (and especially anti-Palin) backstabbing stories get front page treatment where normally they’d be relegated to Page Six rumor-mongering gossip.
Like I said, victory has many fathers, and failure is an orphan.
– A Country in Distress
HRA
As a woman, who has always wanted to see a more level field for my gender, nothing irritates me more than the tossing in of sexist or misogyny as an excuse when it’s clearly something else.
Sarah Palin was a bad choice. Yet, for some of our voting public she was a good choice. She exemplified their world. She did not exemplify the major part of our 21st century population.
She molded herself in a time long past and not slated to come back. I cannot fully blame her personally for being put out there as an icon for those who cling to the past as well.
The blame sits solely with John McCain. Where is the courage he kept on pounding us with right up to the end? IMHO he is a coward.
Conservatively Liberal
Regarding the "liberal media", in 1995 William Kristol said:
As much as you may wish, there is no monolithic liberal media out there. That red herring is long dead and stinking to high heaven, and as Billy Boy said above, it is just an excuse to cover for conservative failings (of which there are many).
Atanarjuat
HRA said:
Senator John McCain is made to appear a coward by his backstabbing campaign staffers and a complicit liberal media. This explains, in part, the emerging "dumb and short-tempered Sarah Palin" narrative that’s being shaped and conveyed through newspapers, TV, and most blogs.
Governor Sarah Palin is being made into a scapegoat, and as you’ll see, all the failings of the McCain campaign will be pinned squarely on her, right or wrong.
When John Kerry was defeated in 2004, you didn’t see John Edwards get piled on and trashed for the loss (and even now that he’s been revealed to be a wife-cheating fraud, the media doesn’t seem to care at all). But boy, oh boy, that Sarah sure screwed up, didn’t she? She undermined John McCain and scuttled his presidential bid… yeah, that’s exactly it.
The anti-woman double standard against Governor Sarah Palin is breathtaking in its brazeness. I guess she’s lucky that no one has (yet) backhanded her across the face like she deserves, right?
– A Country in Mourning
Surly Duff
Do you think Fox News recognizes the irony of discussing the intelligence of Sarah Palin, while at the same time using the word "knowledgability"?
A know-nothing news station for a know-nothing party.
Blurm
I would love for her to do Playboy. Actually Penthouse would be better, but to have her do a shoot with a towel and then- oopsie! That would have gotten my vote.
Roza Hussein
Anger …that these bastards placed this nut a heart beat away from the Presidency to secure the wingnut vote!
Ed Marshall
You sort of suck ass at predicting things, Atanarjuat.
John PM
@Josh Hueco: #75
Looks like Hustler has a ready-made second film following the further adventures of Serah Paylin: Who’s Nailin Paylin 2 – McCain Staff Gang Bang.
Atanarjuat
Ed Marshall said:
Thanks, Ed, for demonstrating that wonderful liberal characteristic of tolerating and respecting opposing viewpoints.
– A Country in Need of Rescue
Notorious P.A.T.
Please don’t. Please. I’m begging you. This is me, begging.
Conservatively Liberal
Would you like some cheese to go with that whine you are serving?
Get some new material, this shit got stale a long time ago. I do agree that we are a country in need of rescue but that is taken care of already.
Barack will be assuming office in a couple of months, be patient!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
While I will parrot what CL said (liberal bias, bullshit – the media refused to even discuss any true reality for the first 7 of the last eight years at all) – I’ve seen extensive reporting on the goings on inside the Obama campaign. They were organized and they did not break ranks. They ran a tight campaign. McCain’s campaign (and Hillary’s too) were the ones with major problems, NOT Obama’s.
You spout a "every campaign does this" line with no proof. Not every campaign is run by a seasoned community organizer either. People are calling this campaign flawless, it’s only your supposed conservative bias that prevents you from agreeing.
This campaign was more than just a campaign, it was a movement, they believed in what they were doing and they accomplished their goal. Give me proof before spouting off bullshit.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Geez, at the rate you’re going here, the hole in that boat is going to swallow up all the dry space by noon (MST).
I expect that means your exit from this blog is imminent? One can only hope!
bill croghan
I tend to agree that Palin is being scapegoated for McCain’s failure. She was a cause, not the cause. The campaign screwed up so much that her part, though substantial, was not the major cause. She didn’t pick herself. But she did accept, where someone with a self awareness of her obvious limitations might have declined the honor.
And, boy, does she have limitations. And she put those on display with gusto. Even if you ignore the latest revelations as scapegoating, and there is some justification to so believe, her performance showed an abysmal lack of knowledge about pretty much anything to do with national or world affairs or anything else outside Alaska.
Her defenders dismiss all this as media bias and sexism. Apparently it is biased and/or sexist to believe that a candidate for national office should be able to answer coherently questions that were hardly difficult.
Moreover her public persona was consciously sex driven. The perky wink that stiffened more than just the resolve of the true believers, if done by a male candidate, would have been his campaign’s deathknell. It was an action both ill conceived and inappropriate for the occasion.
Perhaps the right wingers will get it through their thick heads that an ever increasing number of Americans are tired of voting for stupid people, don’t believe that only white people are eligible for high office, don’t believe that it is unfair that the wealthy pay a little more in taxes, and don’t believethat those beliefs make them un-American. If the Republicans want to put forth the Ws and Sarah Palins to argue the contrary they will never recover.
And don’t even bring up Joe the Plumber.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Fixt!
She thought she was God’s sex toy.
Atanarjuat
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII said:
How would anyone know that Palin thought of herself that way?
Unless she explicitly made such an assertion with regard to being "God’s sex toy," that’s just another example of misogynistic mind-reading. I guess it’s easier to dismiss her with such gendered, objectifying language than to actually engage the ideas that Palin expressed and agree or disagree accordingly.
– A Country Listing Badly
TenguPhule
Fixed.
sickamore
From short, sharp shock to short drop and sudden stop.
Anyone who followed McCain before and after 2000 knows this is simply more of the same McCain.
The "songbird", his nickname given him by his captors, sold out his country to keep himself from torture. He was a part of the Keating 5 and the "anonymous" reports of the extent of the involvement by "others" were attributed to him.
He will now continue to fight for issues nobody will back and ask Lieberman, a turd nobody will support, for help in "fighting" the windmills. He is not "hated by both sides". He is respected as a wacky mascot and his place is to keep people thinking someone is actually doing something to end the corruption. He will transform his image for the weak minded as a willing participant in the "healing" of the country he loves(to poop on).
But his poor judgement needs to be his legacy, not the acceptable form this shapeshifting opportunist adopted from time to time.
ppcli
Choosing Palin at the last minute without vetting or preparation was a huge gamble that didn’t turn out well. But after the knockout Democratic convention and Obama’s speech, it was pretty clear that McCain needed something drastic to keep his chances alive. Maybe the end result was just what tends to happen when you pull your goalie with three minutes left and a two-goal deficit, or you go for it mid-fourth-quarter on fourth and long in your own end down three scores. It drastically increases the chance that you’ll get blown out. Still, the alternative is a less embarrassing, but more certain loss.
.
But Palin isn’t the main culprit – the handlers are. If they had dug their heels in, and stuck to a "speeches to NASCAR crowds, plus Hannity and Greta infomercials, carefully monitored local news interviews, calls to Rush and Hewitt, stacked townhalls with prescreened questions" strategy, the only dangerous exposure would have been the one debate. Play even harder hardball with the debate rules, and you can cut down the risk of needing anything but canned speech-slices, zingers and winks. Sure, it will lead to some mocking from Andrew Sullivan, and some moderates will be turned off, but it’s the kind of thing that an experienced political team might be able to brazen out.
.
Basically, Schmidt and his people screwed the pooch. Their post-mortem attempts to deflect blame just make them look worse in retrospect. If Palin was as lacking in "knowledgeability" as the leakers are now acknowledging she was recognized to be, then it was sheer political malpractice to put her in a room with real journalists, cameras and a live microphone. Even a soggy pseud like "Charlie", let alone an intelligent woman like Katie Couric, hungry to regain some of her battered-by-low-ratings credibility, was bound to inflict irreparable harm, and that is in fact what happened.
.
Schmidt/Bounds/etc.’s job is to keep things like that from happening, and they failed about as miserably as it is possible to fail. When it became clear that a catastrophe was inevitable, they should have manufactured some urgent temporary health crisis with Trig, or a false early labor scare for Bristol, or whatever, to get Palin out of it and pick up some sympathy cred with the pro-lifers sur la route. Sure, BJ commenters would scoff at the transparent ruse, but unAmerican, French-using types like us should be expected to scoff at a loving mother’s concern for her unaborted young ones. You Betcha.
.
They dealt themselves a bad hand, but they also played it badly. In a just world, they’d be managing Zamboni-operator elections in Wasilla for the rest of their careers.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Atan, I don’t need her to tell me, I saw it with my own eyes. She pushes her religion at the same time she uses sex appeal to hem in voters. If you question this, you’re dense.
I’m female, I live with sexism. I don’t put myself in the mainstream and expect special treatment. Can it.
Ash Can
There. All better now.
Seriously, though, it’s times like this when I’m able to envision Atanarjuat as a spoof, perhaps even a female one, drawing the rest of us out to talk about things that need to be said.
Like Georgette Orwell above, I too have been a feminist for longer than most of the posters here have been alive. Shortly after Palin was named as McCain’s running mate, a poster at GOS summed up the ridiculousness of the situation perfectly when she lamented that Sarah Palin wasn’t the destroyer of the glass ceiling like the dumbfuck Republicans were claiming, she WAS the glass ceiling. She’s the younger bimbo with the pretty
rackface and empty head who was chosen for a plum job over the far more qualified but less glamorous women who have been trying to work their way up and into such positions for many, many more years than the bimbo has.So, to all the "Atanarjuats" of the world, I say: You’re goddamn right I’m going after Sarah Palin because she’s a woman. She should fucking well know better. Over the decades, the Republicans were the ones who thwarted the Equal Rights Amendment and have consistently comprised the lion’s share of "establishment" opposition to gender-equality and women’s issues. And then they go and unveil their 2008 answer to gender discrimination in the form of Sarah Palin. And they crow about how progressive they are. And, Phyllis-Schlafly/Maribel-Morgan-like, Sarah is more than willing to play along with this infuriating farce.
Damn right, I want to attack her for it. Pile on, even. I want to get her one on one, grab her by the lapels, shake her till her goddamn head rattles, and demand just what the flying fuck she thinks she’s doing to me, to herself, to her daughters, and to every woman who’s ever tried to get something more than a pat on the
behindhead back from society in general and the workplace in particular. As Georgette said above, she’s set the women’s movement back who-knows-how-many years. I expect bullshit like that from the male assholes in today’s Republican party. But the women who go along with them in advancing this agenda should be thoroughly goddamned ashamed of themselves.(catches breath)
Yes, I feel better now. A little.
Len
Is knowledgeability a word?
Buck B.
Dodged a bullet indeed. I think Stephen King was right:
"The Dead Zone is a political novel. There’s that scene in The Dead Zone where Johnny Smith sees Greg Stillson in the future starting a nuclear war. Around my house we kinda laugh when Sarah Palin comes on TV, and we say, ‘That’s Greg Stillson as a woman.’"
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2008/10/23/stephen_king/index.html
DonnaInMichigan
Sarah Palin reminds me of Ellie-Mae Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies. The one part of the movie when they were making over Ellie-Mae to become a "lady".
Of course she looked beautiful after her extreme makeover, but she still was the same old hillbilly hack, that didn’t have any education what so ever. Same as Sarah..
So the joke today is….
Whats the difference between Sarah the Hockey Mom, and a pitball?? One is intelligent, the other wears lipstick, from Saks.
Oh by the way on dailykos, they are saying that Sam-Joe T. Plumber had to live on welfare growing up. Twice. Also.
Atanarjuat
Ash Can, while I respect where you’re coming from, I suspect that the real problem that liberal women may have with Governor Sarah Palin is that she’s a woman who has benefited from the incredible struggles and sacrifices of feminists before her, but she’s from the "wrong" side of the political divide.
In other words, "how dare she!" run for higher office and NOT be a Democrat or a liberal. This is the Occam’s Razor explanation of why Palin was demonized from the moment she walked out onto the national stage, and even now as she’s attempting a dignified return to her gubernatorial duties in Alaska. It’s incredibly dismaying to witness such sexist hostility against Governor Sarah Palin, especially in the supposedly more enlightened 21st century.
– A Country Under Attack from Within
HRA
"Senator John McCain is made to appear a coward by his backstabbing campaign staffers and a complicit liberal media. This explains, in part, the emerging "dumb and short-tempered Sarah Palin" narrative that’s being shaped and conveyed through newspapers, TV, and most blogs."
Do we speak of the same John McCain – the war hero, the POW, the one with scars to remind him of his bravery? The last words I heard him utter in the last campaign rally was "stand up!" Just a speech? Just an empty suit?
Are you telling us he did not command his campaign? Phew! We are very lucky!!
boonagain
I thought she was ‘demonized’ because she couldn’t put together a coherent thought, held views abhorrent to most Americans living in the 21st Century, was demonstrably ignorant about almost everything and played the part of Yahoo attack dog, spewing lies and innuendoes about Obama while regurgitating demonstraby untrue things about herself and her record.
I personally am appalled about her record as a Mother. Her eldest was basically sentenced to the Military to avoid a jail sentence for vandalism and her oldest girl is an unmarried , pregnant High School dropout with a shotgun marriage in her future. It seems all her family has had a extensive education in scamming per diems and travel expenses from the state of Alaska with a recent crash course of kiting loot from he RNC.
Scamming first!!
DaveInLA
WTF?!??!?
Quit sniffing glue and come back to the real world. If Hutchinson or Snowe would have been the nominee, these issues would not be eating media cycles.
Atanarjuat, you know ABSOLUTELY nothing more about Palin than we do. She is a celebrity veener that people from the left and right are projecting there vision of who they want her to be onto to her. We know very little about her because she did not subject herself to any independent scrutiny. And don’t give me any of that MSM biased bullshit. Huckabee, Romney, McCain, Barr and Ron Paul all put themselves in front of every media outlet that would take them. Paul and Barr would have killed to get a shot on MTP or Face the Nation, and Palin actively ran from those opportunities.
Palin had every opportunity to talk to every media outlet, but she refused.
Lastly, stupid is not sexist or racist or elitist.
Atanarjuat
With respect, boonagain, if Governor Sarah Palin had a "D" after her name instead of an "R," you’d likely have written your first paragraph like this:
"I thought she was ‘demonized’ because she spoke from the heart, held views that most Americans could relate to, was demonstrably insightful about almost everything, and showed true courage in the face of endless liberal animosity, who collectively had a tendency to spew lies and innuendoes about Palin while praising Obama with demonstraby untrue things to shore up his razor-thin record."
Now that’s truly fixed for clarity.
– A Country in the Darkest Hour
ppcli
Le Spoof-troll vive!
"In other words, "how dare she!" run for higher office and NOT be a Democrat or a liberal. This is the Occam’s Razor explanation of why Palin was demonized"
.
Naw, the Occam’s Razor explanation of why Palin was demonized is that she is demonic. Can’t get much simpler than that.
binzinerator
What really disturbs me is McCain campaign’s cynicism and the willingness by McCain, his campaign people and those reporters that knew the truth to hide the truth even as it put the country in peril. They knew how dangerous to the country such clueless yet determined nitwit would be. And they did it anyway.
Just as disturbing is the sense I get from that vid that what these same people are taking away from this is that this dangerous charade would have worked if only the economy hadn’t tanked. A stupid, incurious, arrogant, vindictive and utterly unqualified candidate for VP wasn’t the problem for these people, just bad timing of a tanking economy.
That is the scariest thing. Fucking ‘country first’. Goddamn, these people are Orwellian liars.
Atanarjuat
ppcli said:
Indeed, that’s how wonderfully egalitarian leftists viewed Governor Sarah Palin — as demonic.
Thanks for admitting what’s already in stark evidence, ppcli.
– A Country on the Precipice
Dennis - SGMM
@binzinerator:
Well put. All of the kiss and tell is just highlighting what a bunch of amoral assholes they are. Had McCain won you wouldn’t be hearing a word of it and Palin would have been the bestest pick evar.
Ash Can
@Atanarjuat:
Thanks for raising this point, because it helps to focus the issue. The problem with Sarah Palin isn’t necessarily that she’s on the "wrong" side of the political divide. There have been great Republican feminists, at least before the wingnuts comandeered the party 30 years ago. Instead, she’s on the wrong side of the moral divide, and this just makes her well-suited to the sheer intellectual dishonesty of today’s neo-/so-con Republican politics. She’s evidently quite comfortable accepting a position anyone with the sense of a houseplant would know she’s unqualified for, not out of any feministic concerns but because she benefits and screw everyone else. She’ll happily sabotage women’s reproductive and workplace rights while accusing her critics of sexism. To use the prevailing witticism, she’ll piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
And, by the way, it’s not up to me or any of the rest of us here whether she makes a dignified return to her gubernatorial duties in Alaska. I believe there are some duly elected state representatives there who have the final say in matters such as that, along with at least one statewide newspaper that’s more familar with her political pecadillos than either you or I are.
This is why the, as you say, "sexist hostility" whining gets me. It’s not that Sarah Palin is a Republican, it’s because she’s one of the know-nothing whackos who’s pushed out the people who used to put the "Grand" in Grand Old Party. Millicent Fenwick, for example, was from the "wrong" side of the political divide too. I remember her. Sarah Palin is no Millicent Fenwick.
Sarah Palin
In what respect, Johnny?
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
If Sarah Palin had a "D" after her name instead of an "R", we wouldn’t be discussing her, because WE, unlike the Republicans, understand the separation of Church and State.
Please fall off the edge of that precipice soon, troll.
binzinerator
Yes!
I was certain that part of her appeal to assholes like Kristol and other gooper party shitheads was due to the negative effect on the feminist movement she would have. In true gooper Orwellian fashion they would hail their biggest attack on women’s rights since ERA as ‘shattering the glass ceiling’.
When she did her speech at the gooper convention I remarked to my wife that by elevating an unqualified nobody with little experience in a minor and weird state and no accomplishments other than being described as a ‘MILF’ we were watching feminism about to be set back by years.
God I hate these fuckers. The election is over but I still want to kick them in the junk for the rest of my life.
Atanarjuat
binzinerator said:
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the very definition of a "sore winner."
Stay classy, lefty.
– A Country on the Brink
satby
Attanidiot:
A seriously unqualified person was nominated, and her complewte unsuitability was obvious to the entire country, and we didn’t even have the whole story because partisan politics trumped the good of the country. The "reporter" honored an "off the record" set of stunning revelations; the campaign staffers leaking knew this was a dangerous pick but were good little soldiers till after the elections. Party first for the group who used "Country First" as their slogan.
Enjoy being a Republican, the rest of us are proud to be Americans, and we really do put our country first.
And, oh yeah, fuck off.
AnneLaurie
In a just world, Steve Schmidt and Bob Shrum would be on late-night public access cable as the Rong Bros, the wacky comedy duo that’s always incapable but never in doubt. In tonight’s episode, Bob & Steve argue over which of three beakers is delicious home-brew, and which is cat piss! The hilarious capper, of course, is that all three beakers are full of feline widdle, but that won’t be exposed until after our hapless ‘heroes’ have busted up the set and beaten each other bloody arguing over the gourmet qualities of their respective choices…
Phoebe
That’s right we dodged a bullet. And who loaded that bullet, and never unloaded it, knowing exactly how dangerous it was? John Traitorshoes McCain, that’s who.
Notice how Carl brings up McCain’s defense – how Palin boosted the ratings! – How is that a defense? What if there were no economic crisis, and the ratings never went down, and she never gave an interview because they knew exactly how determinedly stupid she was, and they had succeeded in FOOLING US? How would that be OKAY?
Look, I’m not going to waste any time hating her. She’s stupid, this was particularly obvious after Couric. That was the tip of an iceberg that – surprise! – is ice all the way down. I don’t blame her any more than I blame Caligula’s horse for not being a qualified senator.
I hate and blame John McCain, who loaded the bullet, and knew better. I hope that bullet backfires on him, but it won’t, because his concession speech was so graaaaaaayyyyyshous!!