__
Strange winds are loose upon our once proud nation. John Heilemann at New York magazine tries to gin up his media fellows’ flagging enthusiasm by asking “If Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann decide to run, who will notice the men?“:
… There is, however, precious little extant evidence that Palin thinks about the world this way. Which is to say, as other pols do. Which is to say, rationally. Palin operates instead on the basis of a confounding blend of instinct, caprice, and a defiant belief that she can prevail without paying heed to the stale orthodoxies or hoary customs that govern national politics. It is perfectly possible, I suspect, that she in fact saw her bus tour as a dry run for the kind of anarchocampaign that she would wage if she chooses to run—and I have no doubt that she saw the thing as nothing less than a smashing success.
__
All of which brings us, by way of contrast, back to Bachmann. Unlike Palin’s, her approach to gearing up for a presidential run has been methodical, disciplined, and utterly conventional. She has visited key states, given policy speeches, seen the people you are supposed to see. And she has quietly been staffing up, hiring the sorts of top-flight operatives—most recently, the A-list pollster Ed Goeas, who worked for Rudy Giuliani in 2008 and until recently was lined up to do the same for Haley Barbour—that Washington considers badges of plausibility.
__
It should go without saying that many people, especially those to the left of Jim DeMint, think that Bachmann is batshit crazy…
“Opinions differ”, as the cliche goes. And yet, outside of the circle of professional media jerks, the argument that Palin makes Bachmann look disciplined & professional, which can only be good news for John McCain the GOP’s general electoral prospects, suggests that fumes are being huffed, hopefully only in the metaphorical sense of a campaign engine running very low dry.
Much more entertaining (as long as you can avoid contemplating how many low-information voters he influences) is Gawker‘s John Cook explicating why “Roger Ailes Wants You to Throw A Rock Through His Window“:
Roger Ailes, the totally paranoid chairman of Fox News, called up Newsweek/The Daily Beast‘s Howard Kurtz over the weekend to fight back against some of the bad press he’s seen over the last couple weeks. Kurtz dutifully wrote down the things Ailes said irrespective of their truth value, and then published them online.
__
Ailes seems to be reeling a bit from stories over the last couple weeks in New York magazine and Rolling Stone depicting him as a psychotic and deluded political operator desperately trying to find a suitable GOP presidential candidate to throw the full weight of Fox News Channel behind, so he sought out a friendlier forum in which to announce that he’s doing great!…
__
Ailes also denied Rolling Stone’s report that he had blast-resistant glass installed in his office. His proof to Kurtz? “He invited me to throw a rock at the glass — and promised security would arrest me.” That settles it.
Yes. Yes, it does. Well, it was a good run, while it lasted…
MTiffany
The Log Cabin Republicans?
Mike Kay (Team America)
Heard any good Weiner jokes?
Really, people who were calling Cole names for simply posting about the Weiner’s predicament need to apologize. After all, Weiner publicly apologized to Breitbart during his news conference, so surely you can do the same with Cole.
What I don’t get is how the usual suspects who always say no one and no subject is above reproach were suddenly calling on Cole not to mention any of the issues hovering over Weiner.
kdaug
Iron and Wine? My suspicions about your impeccable musical taste stand confirmed, Anne Laurie.
@Mike Kay (Team America): I didn’t follow all the hullabaloo (no way I was going to wade through 250 posts, then however many on the “told you so” post), so care to summarize the nature of the dust-up?
Was it just basically posters getting pissed at John (SOP, get that) about Weiner? But over what exactly?
stuckinred
@kdaug: The D-Day thread was much better.
The World is a Tweener
@kdaug: The short version: Cole says “don’t climb out too far on that branch, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it”. Everyone freaks out and is all “LEAVE ANTHONY ALOOONE”. Then the branch breaks and everyone blames Cole because he didn’t have enough faith in the stability of the branch and now their asses hurt.
In other words, it was Monday.
JPL
If Sarah runs will it be with bells or whistles? NBC news last night mentioned the gotcha question that Sarah was asked.. What have you seen so far today and what are you going to take away from your visit?
Keep ringing those bells Sarah.
ant
@The World is a Tweener:
mhm.
that sums it up nicely.
I’ll add that Cole call one of his commenters a “clown”. I LMFAO at that one. lol
Arclite
Anne Laurie, you’ve really matured as a blogger. Thanks for all the great posts!
ant
It’s kind of nice that the Republican primarys are getting off to a slower start than we did last go round.
The first primary aint till next year….. right?
Marty
@Mike Kay (Team America): This morning the NYT front page shows the Weiner story, and right underneath is a photo of a man standing on top of huge pile of cucumbers. Ha ha.
boss bitch
New York Daily News Front Page:
YEAH, I’M A SCHMUCK
New York Post: NAKED TRUTH
along with a huge pic of Weiner’s chest.
Bobby Thomson
The United States of America, you mean? Had its ups and downs, but there were good times.
Hal
I still have to wonder if Palin isn’t going to run for Senate or Congress instead of the Presidency.
At first her move to AZ didn’t make much sense to me because I would have thought she would have wanted to remain an authentic Alaskan for her narrative, but then it occurred to me that it’s just far easier to operate from the lower 48, than travelling constantly by what I would assume would be private plane.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
I was listening to this Iron & Wine album last night while playing frisbee with my daughter. I love summer! Now I have “Godless Brother in Love” stuck in my head.
bkny
and ed rollins has signed on to bachmann’s campaign… is he that desperate or there to sabotage — as a well-entrenched gop operative i found it curious that he’d sign up with her.
AAA Bonds
lol @ Michele Bachmann giving “policy speeches”
AAA Bonds
FEMA: IS THE X-FILES REAL??? CLICK HERE FOR POLICY SPEECH
WereBear
@Hal: I believe she has burned out Alaska and is searching for fresh fields of fundamentalist marks.
Bill H.
You cannot be taking seriously the words of John Heileman, author of the most trivial book in the history of political writing, a guy who writes down hundreds of pieces of trivial unattributed gossip and passes it off as “insider” news? The only thing dumber would be to take “Gawker” seriously.
Fred
Can we please stop talking about the never a possibility Palin just like we should have stopped talking about the never a possibility Chump.
I’m sick of reading about that twat. I don’t care what she has to say. She was never going to be a candidate anyways.
JGabriel
John Heilemann (via Anne Laurie @ Top):
I wonder if Bachmann will go through campaign managers the way she goes through chiefs of staff, like a hot knife through butter.
.