Here’s the Vanity Fair Palin profile of Sarah Palin. There’s really nothing new here, but it is all in one place. It’s just more evidence she’s a financial, personal and political trainwreck who couldn’t withstand the kind of scrutiny the press routinely gives to other candidates, but can’t or won’t give her.
Reader Interactions
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El Cid
Okay, but she may, if we’re lucky, be powerful and ambitious enough to elect a Democratic Senator in Alaska, and maybe elsewhere.
EconWatcher
El Cid, I admire your optimistic spirit. But nothing good is coming our way in November. Nothing good at all.
Morbo
@EconWatcher: What makes you say that?
Oh.
John S.
This country will get exactly what it asks for and what it deserves. It always does.
kth
Of course Vanity Fair is doing the Republican Party a huge favor by highlighting Palin’s shortcomings. The GOP is much likelier to win in 2012 with anyone but Palin. Moreover, even in the 5% likelihood that Palin did win, the ensuing catastrophe that her presidency would enact (along with the rising demographic tide, assuming President Palin didn’t attempt some kind of “final solution” to the illegal alien problem) would be the death of the Republican Party.
Chyron HR
Really, Vanity Fair? Really?
“But my parents remassured me that it wasn’t that hard raisin’ one, you betcha,” she added.
kommrade reproductive vigor
And with that, it’s time to close the comments on this one.
Where would you like your Internons delivered?
El Cid
@EconWatcher: Okay, but I’m not being so much optimistic as seeing what polls appear to offer. Shit can certainly change. I know the last few elections the Republicans managed to take clear advantages and potential victories and continuously engage in just enough foot-shooting, so I don’t doubt their abilities in this matter. Whether it will be enough to counter the threats to sane gubmit, I dunno.
WereBear
@EconWatcher: Mr WereBear is with you. But I say the old rules no longer apply.
Did you see the approval ratings in the Nevada race. On Rachel last night, they made a big X; Angle dipping, Reid lifting.
The Tea Party is a game changer. But not in the way they think. I say, let their Freak Flag fly!
Comrade Javamanphil
@kth: I may be a liberal America hater but I don’t hate it enough to ever imagine a Palin presidency. The Republican party isn’t the only thing it would destroy.
Phoenix Woman
It’s grifting, pure and simple. She’s working her former-beauty-pageant-contestant face and figure for all it’s worth, before she hits the dreaded Five-Oh and 90% of her fan base detumesces. (What, you think they like her for her opinions?)
El Cid
@Comrade Javamanphil: I don’t see a Palin Presidency, but I could see a TeaTardist / Palinite Presidency, maybe by a more typical R candidate who turned that way b/c of the New 5 Year Party Purge Plan.
stuckinred
@Comrade Javamanphil: It’s the veterans that are destroying the country:
Especially those crybaby Vietnam Vets and all that phony agent orange bullshit.
Phoenix Woman
@EconWatcher: Actually, we have a shot at taking out Joe Miller. Seriously.
Remember, two years ago nobody thought Mark Begich had a chance. In January, he’s going to be Alaska’s senior Senator.
cleek
i thin Palin could have the nomination if she wants it – if the election was this year. but 2012 is a long way away, and that’s plenty of time for her to get caught up in something that sinks her brand, or for the media to get bored with her, or for a more mainstream GOP challenger to appear. and, if the wingnutty wing of the wingnut GOP wins this year, the country will get to spend the next two years watching wild-eyed wingnuttery in action – and they’re not going to like it one bit.
asdf
Phoenix Woman wrote, “before she hits the dreaded Five-Oh and 90% of her fan base detumesces” and I cracked up laughing. Thanks. Nice to have a good laugh to start the day.
roshan
OMG!! Obamacare seems to be working for people.
Example 1:
Example 2:
jwb
@WereBear: This is the way things usually shake out in elections. Nutcases, even strongly ideological candidates, don’t normally win. But the very shitty economic conditions has really put that up in the air, because parties that are in power during times with very shitty economic conditions also normally don’t win. So basically we have a situation where voters will be having to make a very unusual choice between the shitty status quo and batshit crazy. And I’m really not sure which way voters will go.
eemom
@Phoenix Woman:
exactly. If there’s one thing for which we should praise the Lord, it’s that Palin ain’t got many Starbursts left in the pack. In a coupla years, the Grand Old Dicks are gonna toss her on the heap of “MILF” has-beens like an old Barbie doll, right on top of Ann Coulter.
Phoenix Woman
@stuckinred:
Remember, Simpson is the second generation of a three-generation (and counting) political dynasty in Wyoming. His dad was both governor and a US Senator, and Simpson’s son is currently the Speaker of the Wyoming House. Oh, and did I mention that they were rich?
So yeah, this privileged creep got lucky and served his politically-useful Army hitch in the late 1950s — after our involvement in Korea, before our involvement in ‘Nam — and so will be flashing his credentials on this to guys who are still seeing dead bodies in their nightmares — and sometimes in their waking hours as well.
He is arrogant, entitled, and hasn’t really had to worry about the consequences of his own actions his entire life. Like most Republican authoritarians, he cannot empathize with someone or something unless he has shared a similar situation; one of the few decent stances he’s ever taken — his opposition to life sentences for juvenile offenders — comes from his own brushes with the law as a teen.
I’m waiting to see if he really drops the mask and starts spouting Ragnar Redbeard.
aimai
Cheer me up, people. I was so depressed by the dems and our chances that I actually preferred to read a high end tchochke catalog this morning over my coffee to the blogs. It was that ghost of J. Peterman’s absurdities (be the first on your block to own this authentic bedouin bride’s tent, with bride included!) the Restoration Hardware mini international junk contest (the catologue is mini, not the junk). Did you know that the french post office is selling off their old cubbies and stools for only 4000 dollars a pop. I can’t wait for the first overweight american to buy one of these and discover that the “swing out padded stool” for the postal worker is small enough to serve as a proctological tool for the average american bottom.
OK, its not an open thread but I think I’ve cheered myself up now.
aimai
stuckinred
@Phoenix Woman: and those are his good points
roshan
This is for you, Aimai, enjoy.
How 2010 could be more like 1934!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
OT: Someone pepper sprayed the Westboro Baptist Church while they were protesting. While they have a right to protest, I hope to find a way to contribute to this man’s defense fund.
Chad N Freude
@stuckinred: Context, please. I read the article you linked to. The fiscal problem exists, the quote is merely Simpson’s sensitive, delicate way of framing it.
Punchy
OT:
Pretty amazin that ONE passenger “voicing concerns” can get a whole group of passengers/dignitaries removed from a plane.
Holy fucking shit are we fucked as a country if this precedent is allowed to stand. Pretty much forget about ever Flying Brown again.
roshan
Burnsby, eemom, Chase and Sooner are gonna luv this:
Hang him, NOW!
Chad N Freude
@aimai: I have suggested several times that John adopt the tagline “Most depressing blog on the Internet”. I check it first thing every morning to make sure my hypomania stays under control.
stuckinred
@Chad N Freude: So are you providing the context or asking me to do so? Fuck his candy ass. They DOD has confirmed they sprayed that shit on us in Korea 67-70 as well as in the Nam but will not honor any claims. I don’t want to hear any whining about what we DO get. How’s that?
jwb
@Chad N Freude: And yet the blog’s numbers are up.
The humanity
@kth:
Let us not forget that the process of colonizing the USA included wiping out the civilization of its prior owners, with their remnants relocated into scattered “reservations”. This country is built on a final solution – it’s in the nation’s DNA.
Chad N Freude
@stuckinred: Don’t be offended. The country can never compensate the vets who were damaged in those wars, and Simpson is a mean-spirited asshole. But according to the article, there has been a broadening of assumptions of illnesses related to Agent Orange exposure with questionable causal relationships. I think this is worth noting in a discussion of how to deal with a burgeoning national fiscal problem/crisis.
stuckinred
@Chad N Freude: You ever deal with the VA?
Svensker
@stuckinred:
Because the problem with our fiscal mess is not that the government got involved in stupid wars that cost trillions of dollars. No, the problem is those dumb soldiers who had the gall to put their bodies in the way of chemicals and munitions during those wars and then didn’t have the grace to die before they cost us any more money.
Fuck you, Mr. Simpson.
Pancake
“…… couldn’t withstand the kind of scrutiny the press routinely gives to other candidates, but can’t or won’t give….”
LOL Give me a break! Candidate Urkel, er, Obama, received almost NO scrutiny from the national press, notwithstanding a very strange assortment of close associates over the years ranging from convicted mobsters (Tony Resko), convicted bombers (William Ayers and spouse), an anti-Semitic and anti-American minister of nearly 20 years standing (Rev Wright) and countless dozens of others of equal or worse.
morzer
@Phoenix Woman:
Be fair, Simpson hasn’t quite advocated shooting the poor to reduce the unemployment problem – yet!
Chad N Freude
@stuckinred: No. I should have added that we would not have to consider this as a problem if not for the Bush/Cheney eagerness to create a whole lot more war veterans.
Have you been reading about the Fort Bliss brain injury treatment (rather non-treatment) scandal? Very good series of damning reports on NPR recently. I think this is worse than mishandling of Agent Orange claims.
General Stuck
This country is insane. That is all.
Fuckin” A!!
jwb
@morzer: Give him time.
stuckinred
@Chad N Freude: Thanks for the tip on that, I’ll check it out. Actually what I would like to see is a denial of claims of any vets attending TeaParty rallies, that’d save billions!
stuckinred
@Pancake: Get lost motherfucker.
cleek
@Pancake:
the MSM spent weeks and weeks discussing Wright and Ayers and Resko. Obama even gave a speech in response to the attention.
JC, if i donate some cash, could you upgrade your trolls ?
General Stuck
Tea Bag This
Wolverines Motherfuckers!!
Deaton said he has Tea Party backing. His website lists endorsements from Liberty Candidates, Mansfield Tea Party and Akron Tea Party, along with a national group called Vote Family Values.
“Family Values”
Oh Hell yea!
Chad N Freude
@cleek: Why does anyone bother to respond to the troll whose intellect is even thinner than his screen name?
mslarry
i was worried about a Palin run until monday when the new cast of DTWS was revealed and Bristol was named as a participant. I just can’t believe this country would vote for someone whose kid was on a reality show. Moreover, I was once really concerned about Huckabee, but now, though I think he’ll throw his hat in the ring, he’s a non-starter. You want to know why and I’m ashamed to admit this — I recently saw a family photo and his ENTIRE FAMILY IS MORBIDLY OBESE. I’m not talking Bill Clinton… “big macs are the new cocaine” chubby. A super fat candidate obviously can work on a state/local level, but I can see the headlines now — are the huckabees the white klumps and that’s the most mild nonsense I can come up with. There’s no way America can get over its weight prejudice enough to allow an entire family of overweight folks to be the face we put forth to the world. Sadly, too many people would be turned off…. But what do I know, I’m a writer and half the shit that’s gone on since Obama received the Dem nomination would seem insane if I pitched it to a room full of cynical writers.
All of this is just to say that I think Romney will get the nomination, despite his being a Mormon. By 2012 after his fellow Mormon, MC “G Beck” in da’ house, will have laid the groundwork to legitimize Romney amongst the evangelicals/teatards. I’m thinking the nom is his to lose, but I guess we’ll see.
As you were, everyone have great day. BTW can you believe it’s already September 1st? Shit where did the summer go?
mslarry
i was worried about a Palin run until monday when the new cast of DTWS was revealed and Bristol was named as a participant. I just can’t believe this country would vote for someone whose kid was on a reality show. Moreover, I was once really concerned about Huckabee, but now, though I think he’ll throw his hat in the ring, he’s a non-starter. You want to know why and I’m ashamed to admit this — I recently saw a family photo and his ENTIRE FAMILY IS MORBIDLY OBESE. I’m not talking Bill Clinton… “big macs are the new cocaine” chubby. A super fat candidate obviously can work on a state/local level, but I can see the headlines now — are the huckabees the white klumps and that’s the most mild nonsense I can come up with. There’s no way America can get over its weight prejudice enough to allow an entire family of overweight folks to be the face we put forth to the world. Sadly, too many people would be turned off…. But what do I know, I’m a writer and half the shit that’s gone on since Obama received the Dem nomination would seem insane if I pitched it to a room full of cynical writers.
All of this is just to say that I think Romney will get the nomination, despite his being a Mormon. By 2012 after his fellow Mormon, MC “G Beck” in da’ house, will have laid the groundwork to legitimize Romney amongst the evangelicals/teatards. I’m thinking the nom is his to lose, but I guess we’ll see.
As you were, everyone have great day. BTW can you believe it’s already September 1st? Shit where did the summer go?
jwb
@cleek: “JC, if i donate some cash, could you upgrade your trolls ?”
Seriously! The current crop makes me nostalgic for the old Brick Oven Bill. I can’t believe I said that.
jimBOB
@General Stuck:
Assuming that is accurate, I’d expect at some point a cell phone video will surface of Sarah exploding into profanity and revealing her inner psychotic. If I were involved in her life such that I witnessed anything of that nature, I’d want to make a recording of it just for insurance.
morzer
@Chad N Freude:
Is Pancake uttering its usual gibberations? All I can see is a very humble request for boysenberry pie.
jwb
@mslarry: “BTW can you believe it’s already September 1st? Shit where did the summer go?” Think on the bright side: no more August silliness.
That’s an interesting thought: Beck is actually working or being used to prepare the way for Romney. My sense is that it won’t fly—the base will never warm to Romney because they’ve already spent too much time demonizing him. But who knows. These are odd times.
stuckinred
@jimBOB: And her followers will get woodies hearing her talk dirty.
JD Rhoades
@roshan:
But what kind of counter tops do they have?
jwb
@morzer: Dumb, even by its usual low standards. But what do you expect from a piece of flat bread?
Bulworth
@roshan: Yeah but Obamacare stabs me in the heart of my freedom.
Cacti
@jwb:
The Evangelicals may like a Mormon well enough to have one be their favorite talk radio blowhard. But there’s quite a chasm between talk radio blowhard and POTUS.
Frank
@Pancake:
I take it you were out of the country when FoxNews and the rest of the media went after Obama for Jeremy Wright 24/7 for months. The Alaska idiot’s pastor, er Palin’s pastor (or whatever you want to call him) should have been a much bigger of an issue, yet FoxNews didn’t spend 1 second on it.
Xenocrates
@ Pancake: Congratulations for posting the most vacuous comment in this thread. Now go back downstairs to Mommy’s basement, open a new bag of Cheetos, and resume your regular routine; reading RedState, Fox News and regular masturbation. The grownups are trying to have an intelligent discussion here. Run along, and if you’re quiet, you’ll get cookies and milk before nap time.
maya
@mslarry: You’d be surprised how just draping the family in stripes, or is it plaid? will take pounds off a photo-op.
2th&nayle
@jwb:
No, no, I understand. The shitty level of trollology we’ve been force to endure lately, makes the memory of that racist prick BoB, sort of pleasant by comparison. Kind of like a tooth ache.
AxelFoley
@John S.:
Bingo.
Crashman
@2th&nayle: Whatever happened to BoB anyway? Was he finally banned, or did he just get bored?
martha
@aimai: I read that catalog last night and I have to tell you, there wasn’t anything in it that I wanted, at any price. I was sure I’d find something, but their attempt at resurrecting J Peterman was pitiful. Everything was so bland (the colors, anyway) and big. I thought we were all downsizing these days…
mslarry
@jwb:
under normal circumstances I’d agree with you, but based on g. beck’s ability to speak w/and connect w/his aggrieved white base… i’m not so sure.
martha
@Svensker: This. If his buddy W and his henchmen hadn’t waltzed into Bagdad, we wouldn’t have a new generation of Vets who need, and deserve, our help.
mslarry
@maya:
normally, i’d agree but seriously have you seen the family? no lie… they are fat to the 3rd power. they make Kirtsie Alley look small… but maybe you’re right, the correct amount of fabric may help.
Pasquinade
Hands Off Sarah Palin’s Soiled Panties
http://wonkette.com/418397/dont-touch-sarah-palins-soiled-panties
cleek
@Chad N Freude:
my only excuse is that i haven’t Pie’d him yet… lazy
demo woman
I’m still waiting for Sullivan to comment on the Vanity Fair article. Sarah seems to have an underwear fetish. Maybe she’s concerned that Putin can smell them from his house.
maya
@mslarry: I’m thinking: what Maria Trapp did with the drapes.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@mslarry:
Romney is toast. It has nothing to do with him being a Mormon, and everything to do that he actively pushed, and then signed into law, basically the same program as Obama care while he was governor of Massachusetts. Get him out on the campaign trail, and his GOP opposition is going to be hammering that every minute of every day.
I look at the Republican field now and think exactly the same thing I thought four years ago: none of these clowns can possibly win the nomination, and yet one of them has to. Handicapping this thing is a nightmare.
cmorenc
OK, so this is sort of like those absurd Hobson’s choice dilemma games many of us posed for each other as kids, e.g. “would you rather slide down a banister made of razor blades or dive in a swimming pool filled with snot?”
BUT: If forced to choose among the following three Republicans to be our next President, whom would you prefer?
a) Newt Gingrich;
b) Sarah Palin;
c) Mike Huckabee
…I wouldn’t hesitate to choose Huckabee as my vastly preferred choice.
This is just a game, isn’t it? It couldn’t really happen, could it? Um…could it?
maya
Actually, I’m looking forward to a Palin presidency, if, for no other reason than this country is so far down the road we could use the humor on our way to hell. Think of her Trailer Park Cabinet composed of all her high school friends from Wasilla: Her press conferences: All the out-of-wedlock&load pregnacies that will ensue: Palin family vacation spots we’ll be treated to: and, the priceless reaction from the faces of rest of the world – WTF?
daveNYC
Damn that is one scary lady. Between the lockstep nature of the Republicans and the spinelessness of the Democrats, if she ever got into power, there’d be nothing to stop her from doing the most batshit thing in a fit of rage.
Alaska is lucky she quit.
WereBear
I believe Huckabee got gastric bypass surgery; Star Jones redux.
She has ‘fessed up, anyway; fulfilling my hunch.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@roshan:
Can I just point out that this is why I tried to tell people that prosecutors closing the rape investigation contained zero information as to what had actually happened? As much grief as I took from the folks you listed, in saying that we had a lot less to go on than we did in the Roethlisberger case, I took nan equal amount from idiots who insisted that the prosecutors statements meant that we could definitely eliminate the possibility of a rape.
I will simply say one more time: none of us on this blog (unless we have a Swedish prosecutor masquerading under an alias) has enough information to make ANY definitive statement. I don’t know, and you don’t know, either.
ChrisS
Wow, what a vicious hit piece.
Palin must be doing something right to anger all the liberals.
/wingnut
It was a pretty vicious piece, but I can’t say that a lot of the backstory doesn’t fit with what we’ve seen of Sarah to this point. Her ideology doesn’t have much depth, she quit being governor to cash in on her celebrity (I don’t blame her one bit either. If the rubes are going to shower her with love and money, so be it), and there’s a lot of goofy family shit that seems to always be happening.
Fuck, I though Limbaugh had the rube market locked up, but apparently there’s plenty of room. Off to start my website!
morzer
The sad thing is, she really gets it… and then the moment passes and the frantic search for self-aggrandizement continues.
El Cid
@ChrisS: It’s not like they asked her what newspapers she reads.
2th&nayle
@Crashman: Not exactly sure what happened with ole BoB. I suspect he finally found the limit of Cole’s patience. Probably said something so asinine, John had to invoke the “13 Strikes Rule” or something.
Chad N Freude
@cmorenc: Well, Huckabee can certainly pass the religious test to hold office mandated by the Constitution.
Allan
@Pancake: Wow, those people sound really scary! I can’t believe that I’ve never heard of a single one of them because of a vast media conspiracy never to talk about any of them.
Allan
@mslarry:
Meet Ayla Brown.
Johnny B
Your last line explains why she could be President. That, and 10% unemployment or worse in 2012.
Tax Analyst
@eemom:
Hmmm…disturbing imagery, but somewhat kinky nonetheless.
Alwhite
@cmorenc:
In some ways Mike Huckleberry is the scariest of the 3. He comes off as a nice guy, pleasant and mostly harmless but he believes some of the worst stuff & actually proposes more draconian rules than Newtzilla.
Palin will never actually run and neither will Newt because ti would curtail their long con. The big money is in milking the suckers and the FEC rules and the requirements of actually running for office cut into the take and require greater outlay. No, just like Gingrich has done for the last few cycles he will continue to “think about” and “be encouraged to” and “look into” running but they won’t because the con dies if they do.
AxelFoley
@Pancake:
Muthafucka, are you for real? LOL, STFU, dude.
Brachiator
@jwb:
by the by, the Vanity Fair piece interestingly points out some of the people behind Palin’s speeches and media strategy.
The $64,000 Question is why neocons and their masters see Palin as such a great asset.
Part of the answer has to be that she has been excellent at keeping a growing wedge of voters who might otherwise become disillusioned at having been exploited by the GOP firmly seated on the conservative side of the aisle. The beginning of the Vanity Fair piece nails it. Palin is all about fear and anger. So are the tea baggers and many conservatives. She can speak for them so well because she is one of them. And the neocons are going to milk this for all it’s worth.
cmm
I predict a “mommy dearest” memoir by Bristol or Willow within the next decade. And I can’t wait!
PurpleGirl
@aimai: LOL. I spent some time looking at yarn sites and lusting after merino wool. I have done some political blog reading. But I keep going back to yarn sites and JigZone for jigsaw puzzles.
KSinMA
@Brachiator: And, just for the record, the Thomas More Law Center isn’t the Christian answer to the ACLU, it’s the fundamentalist/creationist answer to the ACLU. (They played a major part in the Dover School Board case a few years ago, and were righteously smacked down by the judge.) I wouldn’t expect Vanity Fair to notice the difference, but there is one.
Midnight Marauder
@ChrisS:
You can never have enough supplemental information about charlatans and frauds floating around this day and age.
roshan
__
I will answer this once for everyone here.
Have you ever heard of rabble rousing? Do you know why the current gallup poll is showing an unprecedented lead for the GOP on generic ballot? Have you ever heard of the term “wedge issue” and what happens when a certain party’s entire strategy is based on them?
Also, if there is a certain candidate who is unelectable but has the potential of all the above things, what do you think you are going to use that candidate for? In other words, have this candidate gin up the base to vote for a more electable candidate.
Are you getting it or is there more explanation needed?
Bubblegum Tate
@Phoenix Woman:
Palin must be scared of Nikki Haley–a younger, prettier model coming onto her turf? Uh-oh!
Also: Am I the only one who didn’t realize Palin was hiring staffers directly from her fansites? I mean, I’m not surprised by this, but I didn’t know all this stuff about Rebecca Monsour.
JGabriel
@mslarry:
Nowhere. It’s still over 95 fucking degrees in New York.
.
David Brooks (not that one)
She has a ghostwriter for her facetweets? She’s even too lazy to key in her own vacuities? Hoocoodanode?
YellowJournalism
@Chyron HR:
First of all, that was win-for-the-day funny. Second, though, is that it leaves out the rest of the quote where the writer points out that Palin gives an entirely different story in her book, citing that she made the connection with her nephew, who is autistic, as an example of a special needs child. That she would lie about the feelings she had when she was faced with her son’s condition should prove right then and there that she is using her children, especially him, to advance herself as some kind of supermom figurehead. She has every right to be a successful working mother, but that doesn’t mean she can parade them out and change their story to gain sympathy or fit the needs of the crowd that day.
Later in the article it talks about her using her kids for personal comfort over their own best interests and it sickens me, too.
shortstop
@aimai:
And in giving to yourself, you gave to others. Good stuff.
Nellcote
I didn’t like the way the article was snippy about liberal Alaska bloggers like Mudflats. Most of what we know about LaPalin comes from them. Imagine if we had to rely on the “lamestream media” for info!
mslarry
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN):
oooh… obamacare, whoops hadn’t thought of that. though romney is not afraid of a flip flop. suppose the health care bill is popular by then and he can use his bill to win over independents?
you’re right handicapping this thing is give me a headache and i’m also stabby… ugh
mslarry
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN):
oooh… obamacare, whoops hadn’t thought of that. though romney is not afraid of a flip flop. suppose the health care bill is popular by then and he can use his bill to win over independents?
you’re right handicapping this thing is give me a headache and i’m also stabby… ugh
Nellcote
via PPP:
If Sarah Palin runs for President in 2012 she can’t count on a whole lot of support back home. 62% of Alaska Republicans are opposed to her making a White House bid and she gets only 17% in a hypothetical 2012 primary in the state tying for her second with Mike Huckabee behind Mitt Romney.
cmorenc
@Alwhite:
Well, I did say the exercise in choosing your druthers among Newt, Palin, and Huckabee was like the kid’s game of being forced to hypothetically choose between sliding down a banister made of razor blades or diving headfirst into a swimming pool filled with snot (add your third unpalatable possibility here). The task is to choose the least repulsively terrifying possibility among alternatives which are all to a considerable extent, repulsively terrifying.
Ruckus
@Svensker:
Standing ovation.
Judas Escargot
@jwb:
That’s an interesting thought: Beck is actually working or being used to prepare the way for Romney.
So Beck plays “John the Baptist” to Romney’s “Saviour”!
(…scary thought, actually… best not to give them any ideas.)
catclub
@cmorenc:
I keep saying John Thune.
Tall, handsome, no ideas, no controversy.
Huckabee was highly hated by the big money part of the GOP.
So is Palin. Newt is just Newt.
Bender
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, Big Media elected a novice congressman and failed community organizer to the PRESIDENCY by trying to keep his whole life before 2000 — academic records, birth certificate, drug use, religion, Frank Marshall Davis, Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, hardcore-leftist conferences, etc. — a secret (damn those nosy bloggers!), except for the color of his skin, of course. It was the least scrutiny an American candidate has ever faced, or will ever face in the rest of history.
By contrast, when Palin was announced as the VICE-Presidential candidate, the media were suddenly super-curious about what high qualifications the VICE-President should have (just being a Governor isn’t enough!), sending gaggles of reporters to Alaska to rummage through her garbage and talk to everyone she knew, concluding (wrongly) that she was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, pretended to have her daughter’s baby and that her husband is gay and whatever else Andrew Sullivan could dream up in his six remaining brain-cells. Meanwhile, they never reported what was obvious — that she had a better resume than Obama did.
But hey, that only happened on planet Earth. I can understand how you missed it out.
Svensker
@Bender:
So what you’re saying is Obambi is a Marxist Sokalist Mooslin, amirite?
Svensker
Oh crap, moderation. I forgot the pen-us medicine thing.
Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“Her ideology doesn’t have much depth, she quit being governor to cash in on her celebrity ”
No, it was actually a shrewd move politically as well as financially.
The last two years have been shit to be a governor – lower revenues, and you have to balance a budget, and you have to cut a bunch of programs or raise taxes and everybody is pissed off with you.
In CA, Schwarznegger’s more unpopular than Gray Davis was when he got recalled. Arhnold deserves this (his decision on car licensing fees starved the state of revenue: not enough to make up the structural shortfall, but enough to make a difference.) But if someone with Arhnold’s charisma is as unpopular as Davis was, then how well do you think Palin would have done? Instead of remaining a cipher, there’d be a record of hard choices that could be used against her. Especially with low oil prices cutting into Alaska’s revenue.
She’s probably still unelectable, but she’d have been even more unelectable if she’d stayed.
Ravi J
“I’ve never been around special needs child” sez sarah – before her last child with Down syndrome. Which is untrue, as she ignores her first few children who seem to have special needs and special names to accompany those.
Bill
Fist of the North’s Tar is a possible ‘best’ selection from a list of “fictional captions for screen”.