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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Ashton, meet Palin

Ashton, meet Palin

by DougJ|  July 14, 20093:49 pm| 95 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Jonathan Chait nails the tone of Palin’s WaPo op-ed:

The whole tone of the op-ed is reminiscent of the movie star who wants us to know that he’s more than just a beautiful body, he has serious thought about the issues of the day.

This made me think of Breitbart’s mental deployment on a mission to find hot conservatives:

“The American people need to know that there are thousands of people in Hollywood—people who are liked, admired, people who are hot!—who are also conservative. They’d be surprised to see a group picture of all the conservatives in Hollywood.”

At some level, that’s what get conservatives so excited about Palin: she’s a conservative with real celebrity power, hotter than Hassleback, sexier than Sinise, quite possibly nuttier than Nugent (and that really is her competition within the realm of conservative celebrities).

I don’t know why Breitbart and the Corner crowd think that Ashton Kutcher and Barbara Streisand are the true leaders of the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, but they seem to.

Update. More silliness from Ambinder:

Joking aside: anti-Palin folks should write me a version of the anti-cap-n-trade op-ed they would have submitted…

So now we have to come up with superior versions of our opponents’ arguments before we can criticize our opponents’ arguments? Is that the new standard?

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Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    JenJen

    July 14, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    Some awesomeness from Ezra Klein:
    Sarah Palin: One Of Us

    And Justin Fox:
    Sarah Palin takes on the water-cannon threat

    Of course, thanks to Jon Stewart, she’ll always be just “Dead Quitty Fish” to me. :-)

    Oh, and check out Marc Ambinder’s increasingly annoying tweets from today, starting with one:

    http://twitter.com/marcambinder

    Should MSM actively conspire to ignore Sarah Palin? Should WashPost op-ed team have insisted she write a liberal op-ed or none at all?

    Ummm… huh, wut?

  2. 2.

    neff

    July 14, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    I was surprised that the word “Alaska” appears only three times in the op-ed.

  3. 3.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 14, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    I don’t know why Breitbart and the Corner crowd think that Ashton Kutcher and Barbara Streisand are the true leaders of the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, but they seem to.

    It was a lot better when Ed Asner ran things.

  4. 4.

    Nellcote

    July 14, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    What’s with the knock on Ashton Kutcher? What’s his political offense?

    Does anybody think Palin actually wrote that op-ed?

  5. 5.

    Robertdsc-iphone

    July 14, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    I love looking at her but the ongoing meltdown is painful to watch. I can’t deal with her much longer.

  6. 6.

    Surreal American

    July 14, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    At some level, that’s what get conservatives so excited about Palin: she’s a conservative with real celebrity power, hotter than Hassleback, sexier than Sinise, quite possibly nuttier than Nugent (and that really is her competition within the realm of conservative celebrities).

    Don’t know enough about Sinise’s wingnut credentials. Apart from a generic “Support the Troops” stance (which quite frankly is shared across the ideological spectrum), has Gary S. said anything even remotely Bachmannesque?

  7. 7.

    DougJ

    July 14, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    What’s with the knock on Ashton Kutcher?

    Nothing. He’s just a celebrity who talks about politics. Nothing wrong with that. But WaPo doesn’t let him publish op-eds.

  8. 8.

    DougJ

    July 14, 2009 at 3:59 pm

    Apart from a generic “Support the Troops” stance (which quite frankly is shared across the ideological spectrum), has Gary S. said anything even remotely Bachmannesque?

    I don’t know if he’s a real wingnut, but he Nicole Wallace talked him up as a 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

  9. 9.

    PGE

    July 14, 2009 at 4:00 pm

    I don’t know why Breitbart and the Corner crowd think that Ashton Kutcher and Barbara Streisand are the true leaders of the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, but they seem to.

    They neither know nor care to know anything about the left. In particular, they don’t want to know anything that contradicts the goofy, ignorant parody of the left that they imagine they’re fighting. It’s having an enemy that’s important to these idiots, and they really don’t care if that enemy is imaginary.

    My god, if there were 1/10th the number of marxists on the left as I keep hearing there are, there’d be a viable communist party in this country, contending for local and statewide office in half the states. But if the right started examining the straw-man left they’ve created it might lead to examining other things. And they wouldn’t want that.

  10. 10.

    David

    July 14, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    Sarah Palin = Professional Wrestler in the WWF (Word Wrestling Federation)

  11. 11.

    General Winfield Stuck

    July 14, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    At some level, that’s what get conservatives so excited about Palin: she’s a conservative with real celebrity power, hotter than Hassleback, sexier than Sinise, quite possibly nuttier than Nugent (and that really is her competition within the realm of conservative celebrities).

    There is at least one consistency when it comes to wingnuts. The deeper the envy, generally, the deeper the resentment. It goes with reactionary wiring and can be counted on in a number of different arenas. When the right kind of “celebrity” comes along, one with some degree of charisma, out come the ya ya’s. When that particular wingnut star can also win elections, it’s time to sacrifice some virgins on the alter of worship.

  12. 12.

    jenniebee

    July 14, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    I don’t know why Breitbart and the Corner crowd think that Ashton Kutcher and Barbara Streisand are the true leaders

    That’s the plane on which their political leaders compete. Their idea of Common Sense is to drown government in the bathtub and turn politics into the new RealityTV.

  13. 13.

    inkadu

    July 14, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    “Issues of the day.” Am I the only one that finds that phrase delightfully antiquated?

  14. 14.

    David

    July 14, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    So, is that Tina Fey floating belly-up down the river?

  15. 15.

    blogenfreude

    July 14, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    Think Progress has a flashback:

    But one other point Palin omitted was that she once supported cap-and-trade not more than a year ago. During the Vice Presidential candidates debate with then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), Palin was asked if she supported capping emissions:

    QWEN IFILL: But I just wanted to ask you, do you support capping carbon emissions?

    PALIN: I do. I do.

    She is an endless supply of stupid.

  16. 16.

    Brick Oven Bill

    July 14, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Ashton Kutcher.

  17. 17.

    El Cid

    July 14, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    I’m thinking more about the time that Breitbart saw a protest going by on the street so he rushed to the balcony to give these anti-war, presumably American-troop-hating protesters both middle fingers, but later was informed that it was a protest against foreign armies recruiting child soldiers.

    That seems like a pretty good metaphor for Palin supporters.

  18. 18.

    Crashman06

    July 14, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    At some level, that’s what get conservatives so excited about Palin: she’s a conservative with real celebrity power, hotter than Hassleback, sexier than Sinise, quite possibly nuttier than Nugent (and that really is her competition within the realm of conservative celebrities).

    Sorry, but Hassleback is way hotter than Sarah Palin.

  19. 19.

    Dork

    July 14, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    Palin: she’s a conservative with real celebrity power, hotter than Hassleback,

    Uh……no.

  20. 20.

    SGEW

    July 14, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    One of The Economist‘s anonymous bloggers posits a theory of Palin that lays the blame on John Rawls, of all people:

    Horatio Alger always had to contend with Ecclesiastes, but he’s been utterly superseded by reality television. Hunter Thompson presciently set his own hunt for the American Dream in Las Vegas, ultimate symbol of success as a function of blind chance. Reality television gave us the logical extension of that principle, promising that not just wealth but—better still—fame could be achieved by people of no discernible merit, not despite but because of their lack of distinction.
    . . .
    This seems odd unless you recognise the context of the New American Dream, which is not that any of us might be Bill Gates or Barack Obama—for by the time we reach adulthood, it’s plain most of us won’t be. It is, rather, that any of us might be Joe the Plumber or William Hung or Sarah Palin.
    . . .
    In an odd sense, this is a logical upshot of progressive thought. [John Rawls] pointed out that . . . a fair society would ensure a distribution of material goods meant to maximise the welfare of the worst-off, combined with a principle of equal-opportunity and “openness to talent” in positions of public responsibility or prestige. The next step for the real egalitarian is to dispense with that last requirement and distribute those positions randomly as well. That may make Mrs Palin the ultimate, if accidental, progressive.

    Sneering, but kind of convincing. Damn those unintended consequences of progressive philosophy!

    Also: Leave Gary Sinise alooooooone! He was quite good in Of Mice and Men.

  21. 21.

    Joe

    July 14, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    how about more stupid than Hasselback? (and that’s saying something)

  22. 22.

    Lev

    July 14, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    PGE has it right. Conservatives have some definite preconceptions about what liberals are like–specifically, unattractive poor people mooching off of hardworking conservatives as a base, and cavilling and pathetic prevaricators for the elites. I think that’s really why they hate Obama and, by the way, Al Franken, which is because they’re too strong and won’t be bullied.

    But with respect to the woman factor, I think the proliferation of “hot” woman candidates/candidates on the Republican side has a lot to do with the average talk radio listener being 67. Not all Democratic pundits and politicians are required to look like porn stars because they have a base that isn’t loaded with dirty old white dudes, though I will admit that Amy Klobuchar is darn cute.

  23. 23.

    Will Danz

    July 14, 2009 at 4:20 pm

    So now we have to come up with superior versions of our opponents’ arguments before we can criticize our opponents’ arguments? Is that the new standard?

    Yup, we have to do ALL the work.

    It’s like the Beltway version of “biparitsanship:” liberals are always obligated to respect and meet halfway with people who call them un-American traitors, and who do less than NOTHING to meet them the rest of the way.

    In fact, the more the rightwingers throw feces at us, somehow, the MORE we’re obligated to try to make them happy. That’s the absurd, Broderesque worldview that Ambinder is adopting.

  24. 24.

    Zifnab

    July 14, 2009 at 4:20 pm

    Joking aside: anti-Palin folks should write me a version of the anti-cap-n-trade op-ed they would have submitted…

    “If you’re so smart, why don’t you just argue my own case for me.” Really? Really?!

    @SGEW:

    In an odd sense, this is a logical upshot of progressive thought. [John Rawls] pointed out that . . . a fair society would ensure a distribution of material goods meant to maximise the welfare of the worst-off, combined with a principle of equal-opportunity and “openness to talent” in positions of public responsibility or prestige.

    Lulz. And what more material good is there than network TV coverage? Sometimes, when I can’t afford to put food in my belly or make rent or pay utilities or medical bills, I think to myself, “If only some well-meaning progressive would bring an MTV camera crew to my door and film my pathetic existence, that would make everything better.”

    Reality TV isn’t a product of lowest-common-denominator capitalism. It’s the product of liberal domestic economic policy. Also!

  25. 25.

    Erik Vanderhoff

    July 14, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    I’ll always wonder why, when faced with a Law & Order alum to run for office, why didn’t the Republicans run Angie Harmon? I mean, really. I’d forgo any and all principles to vote for her.

  26. 26.

    Joe Lisboa

    July 14, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    The next step for the real egalitarian is to dispense with that last requirement and distribute those positions randomly as well. That may make Mrs Palin the ultimate, if accidental, progressive.

    This person has clearly never read Rawls unless you count context-warped blockquotes in some Randian screed. What a pompous fool.

  27. 27.

    Quicksand

    July 14, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    Gee, I wonder where Speidi fit on the political continuum.

    Question answered!

  28. 28.

    NonyNony

    July 14, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    Joking aside: anti-Palin folks should write me a version of the anti-cap-n-trade op-ed they would have submitted…

    She didn’t mention global warming once. That’s the elephant that’s not in the editorial – she talks about cap-and-trade but doesn’t talk about the underlying problem that cap-and-trade is supposed to solve nor what her solution is to that underlying problem if cap-and-trade is a bad idea.

    That’s all I want – I don’t expect a conservative op-ed writer to write a liberal op-ed. Hell I would have been “happy” had she put in a paragraph of global warming denialism – at least it would be consistent with conservative “philosophy” such as it is these days. And it would have been one more thing for the WaPo editorial board to be mocked over and for the actual journalists on staff to attempt to correct. As it is her editorial doesn’t make any sense at all.

  29. 29.

    Will Danz

    July 14, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Ashton Kutcher.

    Pathetic standard though that may be, I see no evidence to that effect. He’s a Hollywood dope, but he speaks English roughly 100 x better than the drama queen from Alaska.

  30. 30.

    rock

    July 14, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Ashton Kutcher.

    Well, I wouldn’t be so sure. Ashton Kutcher majored in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa. I know college maybe doesn’t tell you much about how smart a person is, but given the information at hand I don’t think I would say she’s smarter. She is a better actor.

  31. 31.

    ET

    July 14, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    Amber – Just because I don’t know much about cap and trade doesn’t mean I can’t tell a load of crap when I see it. But then I am not holding myself out there are knowledgeable by writing op-eds in the dang WaPo or ran for Vice President of the freakin’ United State of America!!!!

    Palin should have heeded that old advice about being quite and being thought a fool than opening their mouth (or in this case writing an op-ed) and removing all doubt. Though considering she has rather high opinion of herself and likely thinks she knows more than she does, that advice would have been though irrelevant and promptly ignored.

  32. 32.

    SGEW

    July 14, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    By the way, it’s important to keep on reiterating that Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed on climate change legislation that would regulate carbon pollution emissions in order to fight global warming, and did not mention the words “climate,” “global,” “pollution,” “emission,” or “carbon.” Not once.

    Seriously. Do a word search. Ridiculous. Reminds me of nothing but this:

    Bart Simpson: Well, as Mrs. Krabappel already mentioned, the name of the book that I read was “Treasure Island.” It’s about these… [looks at book jacket] pirates. Pirates… with patches over their eyes… and… shiny gold teeth… and green birds on their shoulders… [pause] Did I mention this book was written by a guy named Robert Lewis Stevenson? And published by the good people at McGraw Hill.

    Edna Krabappel: Did you read the book?

    Bart Simpson: Mrs. Krabappel, I am insulted. Is this a book report, or a witch hunt?

    [eta: Also, what NonyNony said]

  33. 33.

    Eric U.

    July 14, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    it would actually be interesting to see an honest argument against cap and trade. There are reasons they are against it, and it’s not what is being argued. It boils down to approximately 3 points: it will cost republican sponsors money; they are willing to take the risk that they will be hurt by global warming; opposition pisses off the DFH. I don’t know why they are willing to bet their future on the fact that they think they can survive global warming when they cower in fear that some guy in a ME slum harbors resentments against the U.S.

  34. 34.

    CT

    July 14, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around Ambinder’s comment, but I may have to consult some Escher prints to do so.

    Candidate A: “Under my administration, I will promote alternative energy by feeding all Hollywood liberals into a wood-chipper and using the resulting goo as biodiesel.”

    Candidate B: “That’s insane!”

    Candidate A: “OK, fine-YOU explain how we’re going eliminate all the liberals AND power my Hummer at the same time!”

  35. 35.

    Lev

    July 14, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    @rock

    But how many universities did Ashton go to? Just one?

    (To be fair, Palin eventually did get a degree while Ashton didn’t. I guess it depends on whether you think going 0 for 1 is better or worse than going 1 for 5.)

  36. 36.

    kth

    July 14, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Ambinder’s challenge would be pretty easy to meet: at least mention global warming in your anti-cap-and-trade op-ed, possibly including chestnuts like “global warming is a fiction created by luddite marxists”, “global warming isn’t man-made”, “the chinese and indians are worse”, etc. Easy stuff for an environmentalist to swat down, but at least it would appear that the writer knew what she was writing about.

    But Palin goes on and on about energy independence, like she thinks that’s what cap and trade is trying to bring about, only “drill, baby, drill” would bring it about better. It’s not clear to me at all that she understands that mitigating or reducing global warming is the object of cap-and-trade.

    on edit: just to clarify, for those who haven’t read it, neither the phrases “global warming” or “climate change”, nor the concepts thereof, appear in any form in the Palin piece.

  37. 37.

    roseyv

    July 14, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    I personally believe that “searching for attractive people who agree with me and taking their picture” is an eminently worthy and reasonable pursuit, and one to which Breitbart (and others of his kind — as many others as possible in fact) should devote as much spare time as they can manage over the next four years.

  38. 38.

    Dave S.

    July 14, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    So now we have to come up with superior versions of our opponents’ arguments before we can criticize our opponents’ arguments? Is that the new standard?

    I seem to remember something like this taking place in the runup to the Iraq invasion, in which pro-war types challenged anti-war types along the lines of “Oh yeah? Well, if my reasons for going to war are so bad, why don’t you come up with some good reasons?”

  39. 39.

    JK

    July 14, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    Marc Ambinder is a toady who never met a Republican talking point he didn’t like. He blasted the DHS report about the threat posed by rt wing extremists and praised those stupid tea parties.

    I still say hall monitor Matt Continetti had a hand in this op-ed. The longer Palin stays in the spotlight, the more it will help sales of his forthcoming book The Persecution of Sarah Palin

  40. 40.

    geg6

    July 14, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Ashton Kutcher.

    You’re gonna have to prove that to me, BOB. I see no evidence that backs you up. I’ve heard both of them interviewed. Kutcher wins that one hands down simply by being able to speak in intelligible sentences which actually relate to the topic at hand and which generally connect with each other to form paragraphs with an actual narrative. I have not yet heard Palin speak in such a way to prove she has mastered that simple Public Speaking 101 task.

    As for their professional lives…well, what has Sarah actually successfully completed in her adult lifetime? Mayor of Wasilla? Well, no, not really. Not with the sports complex deficit bankrupting the town for the next decade or so. Energy commissioner or whatever the hell it was she did for about 6 weeks before finding out it involved actual work? Um, no. She quit that. Vice Presidential candidate? Well, no. She lost. Governor of Alaska? Definitely not. Another job she quit. So, compared to that stellar CV, please tell me all about the FAIL of Ashton Kutcher’s career.

    Seems her best talent is probably quitting. I really think she should stick with that.

  41. 41.

    DougJ

    July 14, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    Well, I wouldn’t be so sure. Ashton Kutcher majored in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.

    I think Kutcher is probably smarter. My point is that neither should be given space in a serious paper’s opinion page.

    And, to my knowledge, neither ever has.

  42. 42.

    gwangung

    July 14, 2009 at 4:42 pm

    (To be fair, Palin eventually did get a degree while Ashton didn’t. I guess it depends on whether you think going 0 for 1 is better or worse than going 1 for 5.)

    If he dropped out to pursue acting, then it proves Ashton’s the smarter one, given that he took the Bill Gates route for his career…

  43. 43.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    July 14, 2009 at 4:42 pm

    @geg6:

    You’re gonna have to prove that to me, BOB.

    Good luck with that. Brick is smarter than Oven Bill.

  44. 44.

    Germane Jackson

    July 14, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    (To be fair, Palin eventually did get a degree while Ashton didn’t. I guess it depends on whether you think going 0 for 1 is better or worse than going 1 for 5.)

    Or, for that matter, if you think going to or graduating from college has anything to do with intelligence at all…

  45. 45.

    jacy

    July 14, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    Look, we all know Palin didn’t write that op-ed…

    It wasn’t in ALL CAPS and didn’t have eleventy-billion exclamation marks.

  46. 46.

    anonevent

    July 14, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    @SGEW:

    The next step for the real egalitarian is to dispense with that last requirement and distribute those positions randomly as well.

    Not in any progressive system I know of. You do the other stuff and make things better by allowing people to do the job they are best at.

  47. 47.

    SGEW

    July 14, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    @CT:

    Candidate A: “Under my administration, I will promote alternative energy independence by lowering taxes on guns and babies. Liberals want to take your guns and babies away! We need to promote progress in energetic freedom, not bow down to slavery and tyranny!”

    Candidate B: “Uh, wasn’t the question about Chilean trade policy?”

    Candidate A: “Just like the mainstream liberal elite media to try and place the blame on God and Ronald Reagan.”

    Candidate B: “Um. What?”

    Candidate A: (Candidate A issues series of loud barking sounds, waves arms over head, winks)

    [Applause]

    Candidate B: “Is there anyone else I can talk to?”

    Media: “Candidate B Stumbles in Debate, Shows Anger, Confusion: Is Candidate A’s Chilean Trade Policy a Step Towards a Better Future?”

  48. 48.

    tammanycall

    July 14, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    Ashton Kutcher is very smart, actually.

  49. 49.

    SGEW

    July 14, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    @anonevent: I’m pretty sure it was intended to be ironic.

  50. 50.

    jenniebee

    July 14, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    @Germane Jackson: I’ll agree with you, generally speaking, but there’s a reason that “Biochemical Engineering for Dummies” isn’t topping the bestsellers lists…

  51. 51.

    Germane Jackson

    July 14, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    @jenniebee:

    And I have no doubt AK is waaaay smarter than Palin. But then, I think she’s very dumb. A case study in how far a very dumb person can go in this world with good looks, ambition, and no scruples.

  52. 52.

    NonyNony

    July 14, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    @Eric U.:

    I don’t know why they are willing to bet their future on the fact that they think they can survive global warming when they cower in fear that some guy in a ME slum harbors resentments against the U.S.

    There are a large group of Republicans who honestly do not believe that global warming is occurring. Seriously – they really believe it. And they make arguments like “how can what humans do effect the whole planet? That’s just a stupid thing to believe.” They also tend to not trust science and in fact think scientists are in a big conspiracy to do … something. The something varies from person to person (I’ve heard everything from “help liberals win elections” to “promote an atheist agenda”).

    There’s ANOTHER group of Republicans who exploit the idiocy of the first group for votes and monetary reasons. These guys are amoral bastards who don’t quite understand the science either but figure that they’ve got a long time until climate change affects them and they’ll be dead before they have to deal with the consequences. In the meantime he who dies with the most toys wins.

    There’s a third group who actively want the end of the world to come as quickly as possible. A large chunk of these folks are Evangelical Christians who assume that the end of the world will mean that Jesus comes to take them up to heaven and prove to their Jewish/Catholic/unbelieving/whatever neighbors that THEY were right and their neighbors were WRONG about the Rapture – so there. (I’d be highly amused if the end came and the Jewish Messiah, the Islamic Mahdi, or the Hindu final incarnation of Vishnu showed up instead, but that’s just me). There’s another chunk of end-of-the-world-wishers who call themselves “libertarians” and fantasize about a post-apocalyptic scenario where they and their guns form the last outpost of civilization and finally women will see them for the big heroes that they actually are. The guys in the second group above also exploit the beliefs of these folks for their own ends. (There’s also overlap between this group and the first group – Evangelical Christians are well known for their distrust of science, but some of the most fervent anti-scientist folks I’ve known have been self-proclaimed “libertarians”. I don’t actually know why this is, but it’s been a recurring phenomenon throughout my life.)

  53. 53.

    Mike G

    July 14, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    I thought actors, musicians, celebrities and such need to “shut up and sing”, and keep their political opinions to themselves. I guess all the rules reversed in January 2009, so of course they aren’t principles, they are rhetorical tactics.

    If you’re a Repig it’s brave and virtuous to express your political views in the horribly persecuting atmosphere of Gomorrah, California. Fuck, Gary Sinise is practically Rosa Parks.

    Though it is beyond me why anyone would want to admit belonging to a party stocked with drooling, barely literate snow machine operators, toe-tapping airport bathroom Johns, torture-porn craving Bible-thumpers, closeted meth-heads frequenting male hookers, pseudo varmint hunters, bizarre paraphilic infantilists and diaper fetishists, fat bigots with erectile dysfunctions, cross-dressers who suffer from debilitating 9-11 obsessions, and an entire army of whats-the-matter-with-Kansas self-hating white trash fucktards eagerly voting themselves deeper into poverty and privation.

  54. 54.

    The Main Gauche of Mild Reason

    July 14, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    @rock:

    Ashton Kutcher majored in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa.

    I’ve seen a huge number of people quote this fact as evidence of his intelligence. Personally, I don’t see how attempting a degree you don’t actually receive is evidence of anything. At most colleges, anyone can sign up for a major.

    I had a number of friends in college who were biochemistry or physics majors and then ended up getting degrees in communications or business or dropping out when the going got tough.

  55. 55.

    Zifnab

    July 14, 2009 at 5:10 pm

    @tammanycall: He’s smart enough to get himself into a number of high-grossing movies and popular television shows. Clearly, he’s doing something right.

    Of course, Palin managed to milk the RNC for six digits in designer clothing while coasting around in the lap of the media-gushy straight talk express just long enough to build up a sizable political following which has, in turn, been leveraged into even more money and fame.

    As celebrities, I don’t know which is “smarter”. How many people are following Palin’s Twitter?

  56. 56.

    JK

    July 14, 2009 at 5:13 pm

    OT

    Ron Fournier, AP Wash bureau chief and tool, about whom Doug blogged yesterday https://balloon-juice.com/?p=24023 will be on Hardball tonight to interpret Sotomayor’s answers and tell us what she really meant to say.

  57. 57.

    anonevent

    July 14, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    @SGEW: OK. I didn’t get that sense, except possibly with the last sentence about Palin.

  58. 58.

    SGEW

    July 14, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    @Zifnab:

    How many people are following Palin’s Twitter?

    Well, Wonkette is, and it is hilarious.

  59. 59.

    RP

    July 14, 2009 at 5:32 pm

    I think the correct response to Ambinder’s request is simply “Why?”

    Or maybe, “F*** off, you f******* d*********.”

  60. 60.

    Rusty Nails

    July 14, 2009 at 5:33 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill: Trig Palin is smarter than Brick Oven Bill.

  61. 61.

    Maus

    July 14, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    So now we have to come up with superior versions of our opponents’ arguments before we can criticize our opponents’ arguments? Is that the new standard?

    even if they’re far superior, they will be reported as “the truth lies somewhere in the middle…”

  62. 62.

    shelley matheis

    July 14, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    eminiscent of the movie star who wants us to know that she’s more than just a

    That’s right. What she really wants to do, is direct.

  63. 63.

    tc125231

    July 14, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    @JenJen:

    Oh, and check out Marc Ambinder’s increasingly annoying tweets from today, starting with one:

    Why? It’s like reading Megan McArdle –apparent verbal fluency combined with the inability to process information in any form, due to a complete inability to follow simple chains of logic.

    It’s just too darn depressing. Must of the “elite” are actually part of an “idiocaracy”.

  64. 64.

    tc125231

    July 14, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    I love looking at her

    Why? You see thirty women in an airport every hour that look better.

    I mean –she is good looking for a Republican politician/pundit, but that’s pretty low bar.

  65. 65.

    tc125231

    July 14, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    I love looking at her

    Why? You see thirty women in an airport every hour that look better.

    I mean –she is good looking for a Republican politician/pundit, but that’s pretty low bar.

  66. 66.

    tc125231

    July 14, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    I love looking at her

    Why? You see thirty women in an airport every hour that look better.

    I mean –she is good looking for a Republican politician/pundit, but that’s pretty low bar.

  67. 67.

    Mel Valentin

    July 14, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Always the comedian. Palin smarter than Kutcher? Seriously? You have to be joking, right? Right? If you’re not, you’re even more pathetic than your usual posts indicate. I mean, c’mon, Kutcher can actually string together three or four coherent sentences in a row. Palin hasn’t shown that she can do that much (or rather, that little).

    Why is it so hard for wingers, like you, to face simple, hard-to-ignore facts? Palin isn’t bright, she’s not competent, she’s accomplished nothing without her halfway decent looks and political muscle.

  68. 68.

    tc125231

    July 14, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Ashton Kutcher.

    How would you know? Or are you just cleverly positioning yourself for the coveted McArdle (“We don’t need no dang facts, or ability to reason!”) award?

  69. 69.

    Mike P

    July 14, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    @Nellcote:
    I think the knock on Ashton, besides his political comments (which have generally been well informed) is the ode to Twitter he penned in Time a few months back. Given its importance during the Iranian election mess, his column doesn’t seem so bad in retrospect (though it was pretty fawning).

  70. 70.

    JK

    July 14, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    How did Palin “write” an op-ed on cap-and-trade that did not include the words: pollution, emissions, carbon, or global warming?

  71. 71.

    anonevent

    July 14, 2009 at 6:16 pm

    So now we have to come up with superior versions of our opponents’ arguments before we can criticize our opponents’ arguments? Is that the new standard?

    In Ambinder’s world, no one agrees with cap-and-trade. This whole argument is about the messenger, not the message.

  72. 72.

    Mike in NC

    July 14, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    Does anybody think Palin actually wrote that op-ed?

    No doubt it was authored by a couple of low-level flunkies working for The Weekly Standard, with some editing work by Joe the Plumber Journalist. Then Greta read an advance copy and phoned her BFF Sarah to explain what it was all supposed to mean. Also!

  73. 73.

    tc125231

    July 14, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    In an odd sense, this is a logical upshot of progressive thought. [John Rawls] pointed out that . . . a fair society would ensure a distribution of material goods meant to maximise the welfare of the worst-off, combined with a principle of equal-opportunity and “openness to talent” in positions of public responsibility or prestige. The next step for the real egalitarian is to dispense with that last requirement and distribute those positions randomly as well. That may make Mrs Palin the ultimate, if accidental, progressive.

    Yawn. Jack Vance handled this years ago in the Alastor noverl “Wyst”.

    http://strangerthansf.blogspot.com/2007/05/wyst-alastor-1716-by-jack-vance.html

    However, the issue is really equality of opportunity, rather than equality of final condition. Only stupid people advocate the latter approach, although it’s amusing to extrapolate such a place.

    Conversely, most reliigious/ethical disciplines postulate that one msut assume a certain basic worth to all people (and some, to all living things.) This does not mean everyone has to be equal. On the other hand, they mostly condemn the idea that decent people who are willing to work should starve, while others live a life out the Gilded Age.

    There’s lots of room for gray area here, as is always the case in matters that involve judgement. The blogacracy seems to put very little value on judgement, primarily due to the GOP/Libertarian/Ayn Rand operating principle that “stupid is good.”

    That corrosive idea has begun to infect everything.

  74. 74.

    SGEW

    July 14, 2009 at 6:26 pm

    Ambinder’s entire oeuvre is being a somewhat reasonable person who is friends with (or, perhaps, rather, wants to be friends with) “important” people who are Republican and/or “Conservative”: officials in government, agency insiders, and political activists. Some of these friends are shriekingly evil; others are simply insane. Ambinder tries to see these friendly people in a reasonable way, and twists himself into knots (filled with a sort of tired pathos) trying to reconcile their deluded, hideous viewpoints and objective reality as he sees it.

    His sources are still pretty good, tho’. And sometimes a sort of wan snarkiness leaks through his writing, showing a tragedy of reason that he tries to hide behind an arched eyebrow. I still read him every day.

  75. 75.

    LD50

    July 14, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    I don’t know why Breitbart and the Corner crowd think that Ashton Kutcher and Barbara Streisand are the true leaders of the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, but they seem to.

    As a bunch of born authoritarians, wingnuts automatically assume there’s someone in charge of the DFH’s. They can’t quite accept that NO ONE is ‘in charge’ of the libs.

    I should think it’d be obvious…

  76. 76.

    Veritas78

    July 14, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    No one in America thinks she wrote it. Conservatives don’t think she wrote it—they probably laughed as much as we did when we saw it and are emailing each other with guesses as to the ghost writer.

    Her base would be disappointed to know that she wrote it: “Our Sarah, wasting time on that eastern elitist newspaper? Nah.”

    It doesn’t sound like her, if only because it has complete sentences and paragraphs.

    And given her schedule of late, when did she have time to find out that Cap’n Trade wasn’t a breakfast cereal?

    Although I love the idea of Sarah, closing herself in the den, shutting off the QVC, curling up with a legal pad, licking her eraser tip, and letting the analysis flow.

  77. 77.

    kay

    July 14, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    I’m waiting for Levi’s rebuttal. He’s the honest Palin.

  78. 78.

    LD50

    July 14, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    @kay: Someone should ask Levi what he thinks of Pat Buchanan.

    I suspect Levi wouldn’t totally put it past SP to think of having him bumped off.

  79. 79.

    ethan salto

    July 14, 2009 at 7:02 pm

    Ambinder is primarily an access journalist who also purports to write a blog that provides non-partisan, objective political analysis.

    These things don’t mix well, and that’s the reason that educated observers, from time to time, experience cognitive dissonance whilst reading him.

    Joe Klein is precisely the same, especially when it comes to intelligence issues.

    Recalling this essential fact about their writing can alleviate a lot of angst about their idiocy. The correct criticism is not that they’re stupid; it’s that their objectivity is blunted by their relationships and ambition, and they can’t see it.

  80. 80.

    Ash Can

    July 14, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    @blogenfreude:

    Think Progress has a flashback:

    Not only that, but whoever did write this op-ed for her got all kinds of shit wrong in it (h/t GOS). Not that she would care, of course; she probably hasn’t read the damned thing herself anyway.

  81. 81.

    Martin

    July 14, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    How would you know?

    Sarah has less armpit hair and more tractors than Ashton. QED.

  82. 82.

    steve s

    July 14, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    Although I love the idea of Sarah, closing herself in the den, shutting off the QVC, curling up with a legal pad, licking her eraser tip, and letting the analysis flow.

    Peggy Hill!

  83. 83.

    Martin

    July 14, 2009 at 7:23 pm

    However, the issue is really equality of opportunity, rather than equality of final condition. Only stupid people advocate the latter approach, although it’s amusing to extrapolate such a place.

    But the only easy proof of equality of opportunity is equality of final condition. Until someone like Sarah Palin becomes President (even by accident), a lot of people can’t see that equality of opportunity exists. And I think that’s the basic point there – that if you have equality of opportunity, every so often a Sarah Palin or a Joe the Plumber will happen.

    Of course, recognizing that it happens is a far cry for cheerleading for the mistake, which is the really perplexing bit. I’m fine saying that it’s a good measure of America that someone like Sarah can at least break into politics (and I think that it is – I’m okay with her being mayor or on the city council or whatever) without insisting that she’s some kind of super-genius because she broke the trend. What should be viewed as a statistical aberration is being held up by the right as some kind of divine miracle, and that’s all kinds of wrong.

  84. 84.

    Brick Oven Bill

    July 14, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    Sarah Palin married Todd. Ashton Kutcher married Demi Moore.

  85. 85.

    Laura W

    July 14, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill: I am SO glad you brought this up, Bill. I was tempted to earlier, but decided to let it go.
    Ashton must be super smart because Demi married him. Demi is not a stoopid woman. She was married to Bruce Willis, you know, and he is not a dumb man. Because he was in Moonlighting with Cybill Shepherd, and she is not dumb, because she was with Peter Bogdonavich, and he is super smart and creative.

    The fact that Demi thinks Ashton is smart enough to marry him, as young and inexperienced as he is compared to her, and that HE had the good taste and self-confidence to marry her, such a smart and accomplished woman, tells me that everyone in this six degrees of smart separation menage a cinq is smart. You can really judge people by the company they keep, Bill. Don’t you think? And by the people they love.

    Ergo, Todd and Sarah. They remain stoopid.
    Are you still drinking Chilean red wine, Bill?

  86. 86.

    Brick Oven Bill

    July 14, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    No Laura; Chilean wine is out. As I am currently operating in the Pacific Time Zone, this Wal Mart Oak Leaf Cabernet is only $2.47/bottle, and I now have a case of it. In keeping with my cheap wine fetishes, it is pretty good.

    There is also a package store that I like that got their hands on a butt-ton of Killian’s Red and are selling it for $10/case, which is pretty good. They probably have 60 cases of this and must be trying to get rid of it.

    Whatever the flavor, the evenings are pretty nice out here. I cannot imagine being married to Demi Moore though. She would probably make me clean.

  87. 87.

    kay

    July 14, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    @LD50:

    I look forward to Levi’s thoughts on cap and trade. I think the debate between Sarah Palin and her teenage daughter’s ex-boyfriend has done more to reveal the character of Sarah Palin than anything else she’s done in public life. I’m wildly grateful to Levi. If he had a PAC, I’d donate. LeviPac. He should consider it.

  88. 88.

    Laura W

    July 14, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    She would probably make me clean.

    Try to keep an open mind about all this, Bill. You never know what your future might hold.
    Few things sexier in life than a man who cleans.
    Unless it’s a man who cooks.
    Word to the wise, Bill. Free, for you.
    Cheers!
    (You should post more sunset/sunrise photos. I enjoy those. I miss the west coast and the southwest sometimes. Especially the colored skies.)

  89. 89.

    Max Peck

    July 14, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    Brick Oven Bill

    Sarah Palin is smarter than Ashton Kutcher.

    Sarah Palin isn’t even smarter than Kelso.

  90. 90.

    Mike in NC

    July 14, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    Wal Mart Oak Leaf Cabernet is only $2.47/bottle, and I now have a case of it. In keeping with my cheap wine fetishes, it is pretty good.

    Can’t beat that price, and it’s actually palatable. All of our neighbors are stocking up to drink through the Great Recession.

  91. 91.

    LD50

    July 14, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    @Mike in NC: Does it come in a box, or in cans?

  92. 92.

    IndieTarheel-mobile

    July 14, 2009 at 10:01 pm

    If they are stoopid enugh to follow her off a cliff, does anyone else see the GOP and Palin losing by, say, 200 electoral votes in 2012? At this point, I believe it to be a real possibility, if only because every time I think the stoopid has bottomed out, they mamage to dig deep and reach the next level. Drill baby drill indeed.

  93. 93.

    Doug H.

    July 14, 2009 at 10:17 pm

    Sarah Palin married a seccesionist, so of course Klanner Bill would call her the smarter one.

  94. 94.

    Crack

    July 15, 2009 at 12:32 am

    I could be wrong, but since it’s a tweet i’ll give Ambinder the benefit of the doubt. I think he means anti-palin folks who agree with her substanitive position. Noonan for instance. I think his point is all anti-cap and trade op eds that are denialist in foundation will be ridiculous. Then again it is Ambinder.

  95. 95.

    Ron

    July 15, 2009 at 8:14 am

    Hah. From Wonkette, Sarah Palin was for Cap and Trade before she was against it! They have an image from the McCain-Palin campaign website where they mention proposing a “cap and trade system”.

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