After viewing the movie version of “Game Change,” WaPo putz Richard Cohen channels the late David Broder to draw this curious conclusion about “the Palin effect” on US politics:
So far, the Palin effect has been limited to the GOP. Surely, though, there lurks in the Democratic Party potential candidates who have seen Palin and taken note. Experience, knowledge, accomplishment — these no longer may matter. They will come roaring out of the left proclaiming a hatred of all things Washington, including compromise. The movie had it right. Sarah Palin changed the game.
What a steaming load of horseshit. While the left has its share of dunderheads, I’m afraid the Republicans have pretty much cornered the market on prideful ignorance. When was the last time a Democrat on the national stage appealed to the base via anti-intellectualism? William Jennings Bryant maybe? We ceded the Know-Nothing vote for good when the Dixiecrats finally got over Reconstruction and switched party allegiance to the GOP a few generations ago.
As for “a hatred of all things Washington,” all politicians rail against Washington because of its dysfunction, but Democrats aren’t the ones peddling the notion that “government” in the abstract is an evil thing. We have tedious purity ponies who’d rather go hungry than take half a loaf, but they don’t run the party. And Democrats have to compromise because our liberal base is smaller than the GOP’s conservative base; most people in positions of actual power get that.
The Democrats are an exasperating, contentious lot who push me past my patience a hundred times a day. But one of the reasons I stick with them is because the Democratic Party, at least in its current incarnation, is incapable of producing a Sarah Palin.
Former McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt has been making the rounds since “Game Change” debuted, frankly admitting his own complicity in putting forth a “manifestly unprepared” candidate. Schmidt claims the Democrats did something similar when John Edwards became John Kerry’s running mate in 2004.
Edwards certainly was a lightweight and a smarmy, shape-shifting asshole to boot. But if you put aside the sex scandal (and lord knows that’s a bipartisan failing), Edwards belongs in the Romney class of entitled, ambitious jerks rather than in the Palin category of frighteningly ignorant dangers to the republic. Sorry, Republicans: you own Palinism.
[X-Posted at Rumproast]
MattF
I saw the Cohen column and said to myself, “Guess who’s not going to read that.” Cohen is just bad, in the “drag you down through the Gates of Hell and into Satan’s anus” sense.
Phil Perspective
After viewing the movie version of “Game Change,” WaPo putz Richard Cohen channels the late David Broder ….
That’s all I needed to read to know that Cohen was writing some kind of horse shit
Culture of Truth
Sarah Palin changed the game.
She was laughed on the stage is barely in public life right now (though I don’t entirely discount her in 2016). So no, she didn’t change the game, except a lot more vetting will occur in the future.
Culture of Truth
Yes, from now on potential VP candidates will be asked “What is the Fed?” “Who runs the British Government?” Also, “name a newspaper.”
Elizabelle
Do we have any empty suit Democratic governors?
I can’t think of a one.
And I think Edwards was sincere in talking about “the two Americas”. He turned out to be a flawed messenger, but that doesn’t mean he had a bad message.
(Think how many Obamabots began as Edwards supporters.)
Poopyman
@Phil Perspective:
An article with his byline is usually all you really need.
Satanicpanic
I liked Edwards because of his message about two Americas. It turns out Elizabeth was behind a lot of that, but I don’t think anyone supported him because he was good looking. If anything, I think a lot of people found his appearance off-putting.
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, it’s not all things Washington. It’s mostly Villager scum like, um, Richard Cohen, serious shithead.
Schlemizel
Betty – I know Edwards has his failings but you are a bit hard on him. He was hardly unprepared for the Presidency and not even close to Willard levels of obtuse entitlement. He most certainly would have been better than any GOP candidate mentioned in the last 40 years.
Someone really needs to respond to this among the talking heads, but that would be impolite so it will be left as Edwards=Palin.
Xecky Gilchrist
Surely, though, there lurks in the Democratic Party potential candidates who have seen Palin and taken note.
They’ve taken note that she torpedoed a ticket that might have had a chance, I reckon.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Let’s see who the Republicans nominate for VP before we predict if she changed anything. If they go for a “game changer” for VP, then we’ll know they’ve learned nothing.
Poopyman
@Elizabelle:
I can’t think of any either, although I could probably name a few senators.
But the point is that none of these people would make it through the Democratic Primary vetting process to get that close to the nomination. Dems just aren’t fanboi voters.
butler
Ahem?
Schlemizel
@Elizabelle:
I’ll nominate Mark Dayton – became a Senator but couldn’t explain why, is the Governor but is not sure how.
kuvasz
Cohen is an old man who recognizes that the liberalism of his youth has moved far away from him. What he fails to understand is that it happened by himself standing still.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was always in the camp that Palin would never make a serious run at the White House, I thought she might do a Herman Cain/Newt Gingrich ‘boost my speaking fees’ Potemkin campaign (and if she had, given all that’s going on, she might just have taken the party down for real this time). But even given my skepticism, I’m surprised at how little effect she’s had in this cycle. She’s a shiny, noisy object that we like to point to and laugh at.
Also, too, the notion that ignorant, obnoxious, lowest-common-denominator conservative pseudo-populism (cause the late great Miss Ivins hated it when people called LCD rabble-rousing populism) is something new in American politics: Anybody else remember when Morton Downey Jr was going to change the face of American politics as the voice of the angry white male? I suspect 90% of people would say “Who?”
Villago Delenda Est
@Elizabelle:
(raises hand)
Although I don’t fit the classic profile of the Obamabot, as I’ve been screaming at him about executive power and idiotic wars from the getgo.
grove cleave
this takes ‘both sides do it’ to another level- repubs do it and to balance it out, there is the implausible future scenario in which the dems do it too. see??? both sides do it, they’re the same, etc.
Schlemizel
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I have a new guess on VP – Little Ayn Paul. Daddy is too old and Willard wants breathing room for the nomination. Sure, it doesn’t get him the Taliban vote, they might stay home but might not if it means getting than guy out of the WH and it might pull in a lot of the young moran vote.
EconWatcher
I always thought Edwards looked like a game show host for some downmarket cable station.
And I’ve made this comment often: Before Biden, our last two VP nominees were Edwards and Lieberman. Think about that real hard.
Yes, we’d never pick a proud ignoramus like Palin. But apparently, we have our own issues….
ornery_curmudgeon
Why are we letting the right-wing and the corporate media paint us as ‘the left’ ?
We will lose as a mirror image of the Right, communism is their fellow traveler, not liberalism. The left is communism.
I’m a liberal, not a leftist.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
That last one is the most devastating of all gotcha! questions.
Although I think the part where she was asked what she read really put her off her game.
Kathy in St. Louis
But, but, but, if the Dems aren’t exactly the same and are incapable of producing a Palin, how ever will the main stream media be able to adapt the ‘both sides do it’ meme to this situation. That would mean that the Republicans are a more cynical and nasty group of people.
EconWatcher
@Schlemizel:
Good example. Dayton is none too bright, and could compete with Kucinich in the weird olympics.
Brachiator
Sorry, Edwards was from a middle class background, the first in his family to attend college, and dealt with a number of tragedies that appeared to make him honestly sympathetic to the average citizen. He worked hard to be a smarmy jerk, but his ambition did not flow from a Romney like sense of entitlement.
Aside from this, a good post. I agree that so far, the Democrats tend to veer from the worship of stupidity.
Kathy in St. Louis
@Culture of Truth:
She will be a 50 something year old babe by then, and the GOP old geezers who thought she was hot will all be sitting in their Depends at the home. Nope, 10 years oldeer, more wrinkles and 15 pounds heavier by 2016 and you’ll never hear from or about her.
Elizabelle
Miss Betty, I just don’t agree. Edwards was born into modest circumstances, and attained his opportunities through a solid education.
He could have taken his game show looks and gone to Hollywood instead, hosted a television show or been in a movie or two, but when has that ever helped in pursuing presidential ambitions?
Oh snap.
Lawnguylander
Paul in KY
@Culture of Truth: I laughed, but on the Repub side, those are questions they will ask.
Culture of Truth
Cohen: “In my heart as a pundit I know that if the Democrats haven’t sunk to Palin’s level, they will. Then they will be as bad as her, thus vindicating her and proving all Democrats are poopyheaded hypocrites. Also, Dan Quayle was right and Colbert is still not funny. I miss Morton Downey.”
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)
@Schlemizel:
You can go ahead and un-nominate him. He is anything but an empty suit as a Governor. I was out of the country for a good chunk of his term as Senator, but as a Governonr he is very busy and highly visible. Since he has to deal with two GOP leg. houses the amount he can truly accomplish is a bit limited, but he is manifestly NOT sitting on his ass admiring the view out his window.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
The one part of this you get badly wrong is your claim that Edwards was a “lightweight”. An immensely more accurate characterization would be that Edwards was an extremely bright, talented, top-flight heavyweight trial lawyer miscast as a politician because the main talent he transferred over to his Senatorial role was that of show horse rather more than effective work horse. Being a show horse (and sometimes a horse’s ass) is hardly unique in the political and Senatorial ranks, including Democratic Senatorial ranks; see, Schumer, Chuck, but the difference is that Schumer is also an effective work horse much of the time, whereas Edwards was mostly just a pretty show horse and good public speaker.
The rest of your critique about Edwards, particularly the part about being a “smarmy, shape-shifting asshole” is spot-on. These unseemly characteristics were all the more devastating because Edwards had so many good people so totally fooled for so long, especially during his Presidential run. What a colossal asshole you have to be to make a seriously competitive Presidential run using your cancer-stricken wife as an attractive asset, knowing you have a secret double-life with a secret baby and paramour that, if you won the nomination, could easily become disastrously exposed with plenty of people motivated to try to dig it up. John McCain would be President right now had Edwards won the nomination, and Sarah Palin would be Vice-President.
EconWatcher
@Schlemizel:
It is not possible to be too hard on Edwards. Our country was in great peril in 2007-2008, but he ran hard for the presidency against two viable candidates, while concealing a skeleton that he knew would torpedo the party if it came out during the general. All to feed his narcissism.
He is a sociopath. He is worthless. Whatever DOJ does to him, he deserves more, much more.
Paul Gottlieb
Your remarks about John Edwards are remarkably, and uncharacteristically, stupid. The fact that we even have an Affordable Care Act today is almost entirely due to Edwards. National Healthcare was his issue–not Obama’s and not Clinton’s. They were both trying to avoid the issue, and Edwards made it the centerpiece of both his campaign and his debate strategy. He literally forced the other two candidates to commit to pushing through a healthcare bill
jonas
I think your characterization of Edwards is not entirely fair. Edwards was “unvetted” in the sense that he successfully concealed an extramarital affair and love child and was enormously reckless in thinking he could run for president and get away it — all while his wife battled cancer. You have to shake your head. But he wasn’t an idiot or a political neophyte and he brought some important social issues to the table. Although his career as a trial lawyer made him very rich, he had come from a blue-collar family and knew what it meant to be working poor.
As flawed as Edwards was as a politician, the damage he did was primarily to his family. Palin trashed the country and our politics with her spiteful, divisive, mean-spirited hackery. Whatever circle of hell Edwards ends up in, he will still be standing on top of Palin and the pile of stupid and hate she emitted over the course of her career.
Kathy in St. Louis
@grove cleave: I didn’t read yours before writing mine, or I wouldn’t have bothered. I would have just ditto’ed you.
Paul in KY
I did like Edwards & his message. After he got his ass handed to him by Cheney in the debate, I began to dislike him intensely.
Cheney started out the debate by flat out lying (I have never met him) & ‘Breck Boy’ didn’t call him on it. Cheney’s sneer increased 10 fold after he realized what a wussy Edwards was.
Was probably a better debate performance than Liebersuck’s though.
Paul in KY
@ornery_curmudgeon: If they are on the ‘Right’, why wouldn’t you want to be counted on the ‘Left’?
artem1s
I wanted to believe Edwards was the guy because he had a great back story. turns out the guy/gal I really fell in love with was his speech writers who put together the two Americas message. perhaps that was all Elizabeth. perhaps there were others in his circle. but he did pretty much prove how clueless and privileged minded he was when it came to how he handled the affair and the kid. As if he never lived through John Hart or Lewinsky. I’m not sure how stupid you have to be to think that you are going to keep that sort of thing quiet while running for President AND with a cancer stricken wife. Not as dumb as the Snowbilly Grifter but certainly operating on the same level when it comes to acting with callous indifference on a personal level.
the main difference is JE will never be able to show his face in the same room with serious candidates again. He may be able to redeem himself if he spends the rest of his existence living a Mother Therese-esque life of sacrifice. But even then no candidate would ever consider letting him appear on stage with them or try to win his endorsement.
the GOP wallows in winning the approval of charlatans and foul mouthed fools. No ‘serious’ GOP candidate thinks he can win the nomination without the endorsement of the Sarah Palins, Donald Trumps, Rush Limbaughs and Fred Thompsons.
Schlemizel
@Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E):
He allowed the State to shut down and then waited a few weeks before excepting the same deal the GOP had offered him before the shut down. No idea where he was going on that issue. I’ll give him points for having to face down a useless pack of wingtards that are in control of both houses here but the DFL had a much better candidate & he still often seems to just be wandering around looking for something to do.
Hillary Rettig
agree that you’re off base a bit about Edwards.
re GOP prideful ignorance, the apex of that might have been when the dumbass GOP congressman tweeted how he schooled Energy Secretary Chu (a Nobel laureate) about climate change.
I have a relative who is a tea partier/Paulite, and sad to say “prideful ignorance” applies to him, too. Given all the ways he’s screwed up in his life, and all the ways he’s needed help from others, well into adulthood, you’d think he’d be humble and refrain from criticizing others’ choices. But no…
Which brings us to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
“The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which the unskilled suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.”
Rafer Janders
@Paul in KY:
When did Edwards and Cheney ever debate? And why?
Wee Bey
@Paul Gottlieb:
Really? Really?
Hillary Clinton would be interested to hear that, I am sure — and I was an Obama guy from the start.
Edwards is scum. Always has been. Go look at his fucking voting record, for fuck’s sake.
Fake liberal who fooled idiots.
Paul in KY
@Rafer Janders: 2004 Presidential Election. He was Sen. Kerry’s running mate.
samara morgan
BC, no one is talking about the real consequence of Game Change. Palin is so done.
stick a fork in her done.
Next year Game Change will be on Lifetime and Oxygen. The version it presents will BECOME reality. Every schoolkid will grow up knowing that Palin was ignorant and unprepared.
The scenes of her watching SNL will be immortalized for history, set in concrete.
perception is reality.
New Yorker
You forgot the “both sides do it!” tag.
Seriously, when was the last time the Democrats had someone as ignorant and bug-fuck insane as Palin? Cynthia McKinney? Last I checked she had been tossed out of her Congressional seat and ran for President as a Green and got about 6 votes. She isn’t Obama’s running mate.
No, the Democratic equivalent of Palin would be to get some 65-year-old Berkeley resident who did way too much acid in 1968 and now promotes homeopathy as an “alternative” to the fascist-corporate plot that is vaccination. I don’t see too many of that type on the “D” side of the aisle in Congress.
Betty Cracker
Regarding Edwards, I stand by my characterization. I was attracted to some of what he SAID in the 2008 campaign, but it was at odds with his voting record as a senator (for the PATRIOT Act, for the China trade deal, for the Iraq War –though I give him credit for at least admitting he was wrong on that one).
He was a phony with no true convictions. He took up the “Two Americas” shtick because it was a political convenience. He would have cast himself as a DLC-style, 3rd way, “end of welfare as we know it” Dem if that happened to be selling that week.
guy
This is a first – a “both sides do it” article that doesn’t even pretend that the Democrats have done anything wrong. Instead it just simply asserts that they will, at some point, at an undetermined time in the future, do a bad thing, and are therefore equally awful.
Cohen’s not even trying anymore, is he? He just opens Word, clicks on the “both sides do it” macro, deposits his WaPo check, and spends the rest of the day relaxing in his tub with a nice red wine.
samara morgan
And Cohen is just wrong.
It was Game Change to game over in two hours.
the Palin effect is that the GOP will supervet their VP candidates from now on.
Joey Maloney
@Kathy in St. Louis:
When does Bristol turn 35?
EconWatcher
@Wee Bey:
Agreed.
Wee Bey
@Betty Cracker:
Just. So.
Martin
Indeed. If only we’d learned our lesson from that Cynthia McKinney/Dennis Kucinich Presidential ticket.
JPL
Was there a time in history when another VP candidate was as ill-prepared, misinformed, uninformed and as bat shit crazy as Palin?
Elizabelle
@guy:
And, and it’s one of them fancy ci*alis tubs.
And, and Mark Halperin is in the one next to him!
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Palin is actually the quintessential GOP candidate as we free fall face first into the new century. She is a walking library of jingoistic flag waving patriotism. And is incapable of introspection or anything remotely resembling a capacity to feel pity, remorse, guilt, and absolutely will not stop, ever, until your sanity is terminated.
Fortunately, she thinks North Korea is our ally, and once said.
Or else we’d be up the shit river.
To be fair, she did coin the terms ‘refudiate’ and ‘wee-wee’d up.’ She should have got a medal for that last one, imho.
Egg Berry
@Paul Gottlieb:
Certainly, no Clinton had ever tried to push through health care reform ever before in the history of the 1990s.
Ben Cisco
Isn’t that cute…BUT IT’S WRONG!
samara morgan
@Joey Maloney: nevah happen.
i can already envision the hilarious SNL skit of Bristol showing off her thunder-thighs on DwtS.
by the time Bristol is 35 she is going to weigh 200 pounds.
Culture of Truth
I said all along she wouldn’t run 2012, and probably won’t next time. And I don’t think she can be elected, but if she so chose, in 2016 she would get a lot of support in a GOP primary. No really, a GOP primary! That bastion of rationality and intellect.
Tim F.
Glenn Beck should sue Cohen for stealing his fallacy.
Schlemizel
@Schlemizel:
\that should be accepting not excepting
Schlemizel
@samara morgan:
It will help that reality is also reality. She really is that stupid
Lojasmo
@Schlemizel:
Bullshit. Mark enjoys one of the highest approval ratings among governors.
@econwatcher
redshirt
MILLS (drink!)
In my towering wisdom I saw through Edwards from the start and never liked him. I’ve been an Obot since the DNC convention in 2004.
Omnes Omnibus
Palin and the Tea Party are Poujadisme American-style.
redshirt
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Spot on. “How’s that Hopey Changey thing workin’ for ya?”
Great Sarah, thanks for asking!
handy
@Elizabelle:
Eauuwwwwww…..
Anyway, it’s real simple. Why is Cohen (again) so spectacularly, horribly wrong? It’s because Palin was embraced, Edwards (and Cynthia McKinney and others) was disgraced.
Sure, her star has faded. You can find her books in the discount bins. But she also didn’t throw her hat in the ring. The woman’s too lazy otherwise she’d probably be as popular with the right as ever.
And that’s the point Richard Cohen misses. Palin was/could be again a phenomenon with the Repub base, because she represents who and where they are. There’s no analog to that among Democrats.
amk
tundra twit did change the game. Now, open and vile racism & bigotry have become acceptable in the american politics and presidential and congressional elections
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)
@Schlemizel:
Who is this “better candidate” you speak of? I wanted somebody to tax the rich (or, honestly to at least start with that as a bargaining position and then go from there) instead of the typical pre-emptive surrender followed by further concessions that are standard Democratic fare.
Sadly we ran into a particularly ill-timed blast of “Vote the Bums Out” and the MN’s gridlock continues with only the parties switching chairs.
scav
Even if one accepts the characterization as scum (left to individual decisions and nuances) Edwards (and team) was useful as being the ones that pushed the economy and, apparently, medical stuff more to the forefront during the primary. That bled over into the other campaigns and I’d say strengthened them both for the general (Full disclosure: I was serious what about the economy geek then. Lots of time at CR. Wasn’t entirely thrilled about any of the candidates, just wanted to hear about the economy because I was convinced it was going to matter). That set of candidates learned from the long primary (and each other), I don’t exactly see this lot managing the feat.
Lojasmo
@EconWatcher:
You can GFY. Dayton graduated cum laude from Yale. Yes, he suffers from depression, and probably anxiety, but he is one of very few senators who voted against the gulf war, and he is handling a completely batshit MN assembly with aplomb. Stick to what you know (whatever that is.)
JPL
This is from Politico
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Ash Can
And how, Sarah Palin changed the game. She sunk the GOP ticket like the Titanic’s iceberg, and made herself the poster child for a group of political strategists who, instead of running a top-level campaign for the highest office in the land, sat around picking their noses and thinking with their dicks.
But that’s in the past. The 2008 campaign is long over, so there isn’t much game-changing Palin is doing now — unless the Obama campaign’s ad featuring her manages to persuade a significant number of independents to vote Dem instead of GOP.
As for John Edwards, count me among those who think it’s impossible to be too hard on him. His message was great — whoever authored it — but he could have been a one-man catastrophe not just for the Democratic Party but for the entire nation. And he had to have known it; there’s no way he’s that stupid. His lack of ethics and sheer judgment should disqualify him from holding any office of consequence.
danielx
Palin certainly did change the game. This time around the game included Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum. All manifestly unqualified to be president, but all taken seriously because of their ‘conservative credentials’ or some such. (Okay, Newt is too, but he can at least get out a coherent sentence occasionally.) And again, all running for Preznit, not VP.
It’s almost like they Republican Party has completely forgotten about actual competence in favor of ‘conservative credentials’, and yes, it was a struggle to write that line while keeping a straight face. (Almost?) Never mind what happened the last time a manifestly unqualified conservative dumb fuck occupied the Oval Office – as long as the wingnut base is satisfied, it doesn’t matter if a Republican candidate can actually say who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb. So yes, I’d have to say that Palin certainly did change the game. She made ignorance attractive and popular instead of semi-tolerated.
Chris
@Omnes Omnibus:
In French history terms, I always thought it was like the Fronde. A short civil war between the Louis XIII and Louis XIV reigns: the basic story is that the monarchy needed to raise taxes in order to pay for the expenses of recent wars. The nobles were well entrenched enough to deflect the tax burden off of themselves and onto the little people, and they then used that tax burden to stir up the little people into revolt against the monarchy, a revolt they used to take back the privileges they’d lost under Richelieu.
If any of this sounds familiar, you know…
New Yorker
@JPL:
The internet makes people think they’re tougher than they actually are. Palin debating Obama would turn out about as well for Palin as a street battle between Anonymous and Los Zetas would have turned out for Anonymous.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker: Regarding
Unfortunate, since the facts in some ways are against you.
Of course, we have no way of knowing what he would have done. And there are aspects of his voting record that contradict any facile judgment of him as a phony with no true convictions.
But either way, comparisons with Romney, who actively disavows his actual record and accomplishments, are plain wide of the mark.
kvenlander
@Paul Gottlieb: Oh man, now I’ve seen everything, an Edwards PUMA. What, pray tell, did Edwards do to advance healthcare reform *after* the election, when the real work was being done?
I never could understand how people fell for his smarmy used car salesman schtick. I remember seeing him on teevee prancing in New Orleans in his crinkly new jeans trying to act casual and he looked even less believable than Bush on his ‘ranch’. I think he was going for the blue collar / union base, but it just didn’t ring true – it looked like his advisors tried to cast him as a 1950’s kind of guy. Well, guess what, it wasn’t the 50’s any more. Regardless of his “Two Americas” blather, he was always in it for himself only.
And for all his success in the courtroom, he totally folded debating against Cheney. He expected to be treated like his public persona was real, but Cheney’s sneer just deflated him.
I’m glad Obama saw through his campaign for veep too. He could never have turned his back on the guy in the WH.
Catsy
@Schlemizel: And the more clever/curious kids who look up actual footage of Palin to see how it compares to the movie will be even more horrified.
“I asked for footage of Sarah Palin from the 2008 presidential campaign.”
“And that’s what I gave you.”
“No, this is the SNL skit.”
“I assure you, it’s really not. Though your confusion is understandable.”
scav
And a not-to-be-repressed OT huzzah! for the arrest of She with the red hair and her husband (among other) in the UK. Rebekah Brooks among six arrested in phone-hacking investigation. Too early to know exactly how the game is changed here, but changing? One can still hope.
ppcli
@butler: Understandable puzzlement. You probably thought he was meaning to refer to William Jennings Bryan. But actually, William Jennings Bryant was a different guy. Less famous, because his “Cross of Lead” speech never really caught on.
Elizabelle
@danielx:
Sarah Palin’s legacy.
Making Clown Car Calvacades possible.
Since 2008.
You’re welcome, America.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
When Cynthia McKinney came “roaring out of the left proclaiming a hatred of all things Washington”, she ended up in the Green Party for a moment then no where.
Surly Duff
@Culture of Truth:
You mean potatoe is spelled with an “e”?
Omnes Omnibus
@ Chris: I can’t really disagree with that assessment. I still see echoes of Poujade as well. Specifically, the anti-elite, anti-intellectual, lower middle class aspect of it.
Brachiator
@scav:
It’s persecution of the Gingers.
I’m sure that Rupert still has her back, though.
ETA: Julianne Moore is on a role and could play Rebekah in an upcoming TV movie.
MCA1
@Kathy in St. Louis: No, it’s a simple and well-established branch on the both sides do it tree, really. Even though they haven’t and won’t produce such a challenged candidate ever, the fact that the Democrats delighted in pointing and laughing at the Palin sideshow, and stressed for people that the election was partly a decision about whether or not they wanted that craven, shrill, proudly ignorant trainwreck one heartbeat from the Oval Office, means they’re just as bad as the Republicans. [Unwritten but occasionally alluded to corollary: Hell, they practically forced the GOP to pluck her out of obscurity during the course of one panicked, unvetted weekend, when they made their primaries a battle between a chick and a fucking minority! The Democrats knew that would make Republicans go mad.] They should have just taken the high road, and said “We don’t think she’s all that, and disagree with a number of her erudite positions” and focused solely on Grandpa McCain, so as to save the Republicans the ignominy of hanging her around their necks for years. That’s what a polite, not hyper-partisan party would have done. Oh, the horrors of our polarized system! A pox on both their houses.
Satanicpanic
@kvenlander:
oh jeez
different-church-lady
Preemptive “both sides do it?” WTF? “Only one side does it by the other side is going to have to do it eventually to fit my model of the world.” I used to think Cohen got more abuse than he deserved. Until now.
Suffern ACE
@EconWatcher: OK. But 2008 Edwards was not 2004 Edwards and that is the issue. 2004 Edwards could be portrayed as a fine VP candidate. He didn’t have all that “scandal” about him then. It’s o.k. to pile on him for 2008. But was there a long history of affairs? History of self-dealing? Not that I recall.
Now, I’m not certain why he was chosen to be VP, but I think it was the mundane “we need a scandal free southerner to balance the ticket because I’m from Massachusetts”.
scav
@Brachiator: Poor Rupe’s possibly gotta choose between James or the poor Ginger. How do you feel about a Catherine Tate version first (in the UK) and then a Julianne Moore remake? Maybe we can get one of those War Horse puppets to play in both versions.
JPL
@New Yorker: Snooki would be better in a debate than Sarah. imo
MrCheesyPuff
Thought Experiment: Dem Gov bursts on the scene, talkin all populist like and progressive to boot. Gets a little excited and whoops loudly at the podium. Does he or she take the country by storm?
Erm, no That would be the Dean Scream and the MSM would automatically discount and belittle such a character….and Joe Six-Pack/Plumber would call him/her a soshulist and probably a Communist.
Steve
Edwards played a helpful role in the 2008 primary. When Hillary tried to suggest that health care would be an agenda item for her second term, he committed to doing it in the first term and made her match him. He sparked a somewhat unseemly bidding war regarding who could have the troops out of Iraq fastest. (“I can do it in 9 months.” “Oh yeah, well I can do it in 8 months!”) At the end of the day, all of this was helpful from a liberal perspective, but I really wouldn’t make too much out of it.
Steve
@MrCheesyPuff: I think you just described Brian Schweitzer. I’d actually like to see him go national!
Susanna K.
If the “Palin Effect” worked for Democrats, the party would have rallied behind Alvin Greene. Instead, Democrats came out of the woodwork to run against him as independents.
MrCheesyPuff
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Obama is the populizer of Wee Wee’d Up, Sarah used it sarcastically to belittle POTUS.
Paul in KY
@Suffern ACE: He was supposed to be the ‘everyman’ type candidate to balance out Sen. Kerry’s dolorous personality. He was also supposed to win us N. Carolina.
jl
As per comments above, ‘Bryan’ not ‘Bryant’.
I agree that the parallels between Edwards and Palin are unfair to Democrats. Edwards turned out to be crumbum in his personal life, but he did not appeal to ignorance and resentment publicly, and he was competent for the position.
Kathy in St. Louis
@Joey Maloney: One could try asking Bristol that question, but from the little I’ve seen of her, that could be a stumper.
g
Palin exhibits her total inability as both a potential candidate and a leader by getting into an argument with a negative ad that exists solely because she flapped her jaws. Princess Numbskull of the North
The Obama campaign exploited the opportunity Palin offered with her insane and ignorant rant; now she’s doubling down by arguing about it.
As a potential candidate, it’s stupid to draw attention to a negative ad that makes you look like a fool; as any kind of political leader, it’s frightening to show how thin-skinned you are.
Brachiator
@scav:
Yes! Tate would be a great choice. Then, Moore in the US remake (kinda like the two Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movies).
Tate would also probably do nicely in a movie on Australia PM Julia Gillard.
Wee Bey
Edwards voted twice for POS bankruptcy bills that absolutely crushed the poor in favor of credit card companies. The first time, Clinton vetoed.
The second time, Edwards lined up with the GOP and Bush signed the bill.
There’s your fucking progressive hero, you fucking rubes.
shortstop
Steve Schmidt also claimed this week that McCain lost only because of the economy and Obama’s larger war chest, omitting the fact that Palin was far from the only problem with McCain’s lousy campaign and unpalatable candidacy. Steve Schmidt is full of shit and knows that “admitting his own complicity” — in a very circumscribed way — is essential to his new career as token Republican for Schultz, Maddow and O’Donnell.
I have strictly limited regard for people (this includes Nicolle Wallace) who admit they knew they were doing something terrible for the country by propping up McCain-Palin, but continued doing it…only changing directions as the political wind did.
g
@Kathy in St. Louis: although you’re right, I’m uncomfortable thinking of her only in terms of her physical attractiveness – yes, I know that SHE emphasizes it as her stock in trade, but even so.
I think the biggest liability she’ll face in 2016 is her total lack of any kind of accomplishment between now and then. She’ll have accomplished nothing other than Fox TV punditry. Her resume will be so thin even Callista Gingrich will look accomplished next to her.
EconWatcher
@Lojasmo:
I admit I have not lived in MN for some years. I thought Dayton was a train wreck and a flake as a Senator. He seemed to be a sign that the DFL’s talent pool had run dry. To his credit, he apparently decided not to run for reelection because he knew he wasn’t doing very well. That does show some rare self-awareness, especially for a politician.
If he has improved as governor, I’ll stand corrected.
Steve
@Wee Bey: Pretty sure every Edwards supporter knew he had a conservative voting record, but thanks for dropping by to share your wisdom.
Scott
I knew Edwards couldn’t be trusted when he kowtowed so quickly to William Donohue.
ThresherK
John Edwards and Danny Glover at a “rebuilding New Orleans” photo op in 2007
If Edwards were a Republican, paeans to his Realmanliness would be flooding us from every Beltway Inbred. (For better or worse.)
Wee Bey
@Steve:
Your admission of complete and total stupidity is, then, noted.
Kathy in St. Louis
@g: And she’s as dumb as a sack of hammers. You really can’t hide that forever with a wink and a nicely turned ankle.
Steve
@Wee Bey: Better trolls, please.
artem1s
@Suffern ACE:
there were signals. the baby to replace the eldest son who died in a car accident. His shameless way of trotting out the memory of that incident as a life changing moment. I read his autobiography. it’s a defense strategy play book to justify his life’s work as an ambulance chasing litigator (his competitor’s views not necessarily mine). He got rich suing big companies and it’s pretty obvious he knew it might become an issue in his campaigns. He understood political strategy and clearly was branding himself for high office early on. He just never had a chance of living up to the avatar he built for himself.
Schlemizel
@Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Anderson_Kelliher
She was the DFL nominated candidate.
Schlemizel
@Lojasmo:
Yes, 10 billion flies love shit so that means we all should.
If Boy Blunder taught us nothing else it should have taught us that popularity does not equal good leadership.
Redshift
@amk:
They were headed in that direction already, and I don’t see her having had a huge effect on the trajectory. She was one of many who made it worse, but “changing the game” requires more than stepping on the accelerator a bit in the direction one side of the “game” is already headed.
Frankly, the one way she could have been a game changer is if Republicans had reacted to how unsuccessful that was for her and actually made a significant change, but they’ve never been much for self-reflection.
Alex S.
Sarah Palin was a singular mistake made possible because the GOP is very much a top-down organization. It’s much easier for a single mistake to spread throughout this organization this way, because the base obeys whatever the top says. The Democratic Party consists of too many factions to make such outliers like Palin rise to the top. But well, now the GOP is without leadership because of all the disgraced Bush veterans, that’s why we had so many Palinites in 2010 and ’12
eyelessgame
This gives me a chance to make the rant I’ve made often in the last several years.
Sarah Palin was no different than the candidates the Republicans have been running for thirty years. It’s just that Tina Fey was so marvelous that she made you see it, in a way that even Chevy Chase couldn’t. (Well, okay, and she aggressively failed to do basic prep.)
But go down the list. Gerald Ford. Ronald Reagan. Dan Quayle. Dubya. (Note that Jack Kemp, the former professional football player, stands out by being the one who is not aggressively simple.) Think about all the phenomenally stupid, uninformed – not just politically unwelcome, but factually wrong – things that each of those people said. These are not bright people.
My entire life the Republicans have been putting Chauncey Gardener on their ticket, at the top or second. They keep showing me Being There and keep trying to tell me the movie I’m watching is actually Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
What Palin did was show us the rules. They’ve been playing the same game for a long time.
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)
@Schlemizel:
She was right there to surrender first and ask questions later. My union endorsed her, but I found her canddacy to be pretty lacking. And I doubt her time in the state legislature would’ve helped her much. Heck, with the state shutdown I think Dayton and the GOP leadership had agreed amongst themselves only to have it quahed by the wave of in-bred newcomers.
I’ll take Dayton.
Wee Bey
@Steve:
Not a troll in the least.
If you admit voting for the most conservative candidate in the primary based on his word he was really a liberal, now, you’re an idiot.
What did John Edwards’ word turn out to be worth, BTW?
Betty Cracker
@Redshift: That’s an excellent point. From what I’ve read, Palin was comparatively moderate as AK governor before she got the VP nod. She went full-bore so-con wingnut because that’s what the party required. In her slippery opportunism, she resembles Romney and Edwards. But then she’s a booger-eating moron into the bargain, which was kind of a deal-breaker for the country.
Schlemizel
@Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E):
Thats all a maybe. The state was shut down for weeks & then the governor accepted the original GOP deal. I’d also say he looks to just be wandering around on the Vikings stadium deal too, which is the other ‘big news story’ (as opposed to actual work the government should be doing).
It is entirely possible MAK would have been as bad or worse but the question wasn’t who could have been potentially over their head. Gov. Dayton has maintained a clueless air so far.
ThresherK
@Betty Cracker: In Connecticut we still remember the day that Gov. John Rowland officially surpassed Providence Mayor Buddy (“I’m Speaking from Prison”) Cianci as crooked, vile and incompetent. It seems that any two of these three we could live with, but not all three!
That said, as governor, was Palin particularly “attention getting” in-a-bad-way for money-grubbing, pal-appointing and other sins of the powerful? It’s not like Alaska was pretending to be Vermont, wss it?
Uncle Cosmo
@handy:
I frequent a discount outlet just outside of Baltimore whose book racks are about the size of a mall shop. Most of it’s kid stuff, or “inspirational”, or cookbooks, but there’s a section for other types, which are all kind of tossed randomly onto the racks.
A few weeks back I was wandering through & saw a stack of copies of Going Rogue going cheap…& right beside them, equally prominently displayed, copies of Kim & Reed’s Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare. My first reaction was that some shelf-stocker had a sense of humor–but upon further review, it’s more likely that s/he was dyslexic or just not paying attention. Still droll.
Uncle Cosmo
FTR, anyone that claims the Edwards campaign (whatever his true motives) did nothing to push the other candidates leftward is cordially invited to revisit the history of the 2008 race for the Democratic nomination. If you’re halfway honest about it you’ll note that very soon after Edwards’ withdrawal, Obama and Clinton had essentially abandoned any substantive debate on the issues of the day & turned the process into mud wrestling.
Schlemizel
@Uncle Cosmo:
Thats pretty much my recollection also. In retrospect he may have been a phoney but he was the only one carrying the liberal message out front. Both Clinton & Obama appeared much more centrist. You could argue (since his issues were unknown at the time) that he was too left to get elected but that also is unknowable & against the backdrop of 8 years of Boy Blunder and His Super Friends it is likely that was the best chance to sneak a real liberal in. Hindsight says thank pasta he failed for sure but lets look at this from the 07-08 standpoint. Honestly I’m still amazed that the US elected a black man President.
WeeBey
I was there, and you’re both nuts.
rikyrah
I have no sympathy for this clown. I remember 2008, and I can name you.
LITERALLY NAME YOU
the people in the MSM who called out Caribou Barbie for the farce that she is.
they can fit on ONE HAND.
AND guess what…COHEN was not among them.
NO, he was to busy pretending that this woman was qualified to do ANYTHING , let alone possibly be a heartbeat away from the nuclear codes.
and, since he was part of the pretending crowd
I don’t wanna hear it.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@MrCheesyPuff:
Right you are.
Schlemizel
@rikyrah:
Yeah, this never gets mentioned. Those people knew pastadamned well that the cow was unfit for public office but they played along. Had things broken differently and Grandpa Walnuts won they would all pretend to be stunned by her performance. And Pasta forefend his ticker gave out & she moved her pasture to the oval orifice. We’d all be screwed & clowns like that would pretend it was not their fault – OH NO, it was you voters who did this to us.
asiangrrlMN
@rikyrah: Preach. This. All of this and so much more. If anyone is to blame besides the GOP for Palin, it’s the fucking traditional media. Wankers. The lot of them.
Nathanael
“The Democrats are an exasperating, contentious lot who push me past my patience a hundred times a day. But one of the reasons I stick with them is because the Democratic Party, at least in its current incarnation, is incapable of producing a Sarah Palin.”
Thank you for this. You’ve been able to articulate my “Why I Register As a Democrat” very very well.
brantl
John Edwards was a hell of a lot better intended than Willard will ever be. Who the hell else is/was talking about the poor in America. Anyone? Bueller?
Scott P.
Um, “DLC-style, 3rd way” was selling that week. It’s been selling since 1992 at least. It’s hilarious that you slam Edwards for catering to public opinion when his stands got him 2nd place and 3rd place in his two campaigns, while Mr. “3rd way” John Kerry and Mrs. “3rd way” Hillary Clinton did significantly better.