I had been thinking the other day that, with Michele Bachmann retiring from Congress and Sarah Palin out of the spotlight, we’d reached the end of a funny era in Republican outreach to women. It’s easy to forget that Palin was initially seen as a way for Republicans to appeal to women, particularly disaffected Hillary voters. Yes, Palmentum quickly descended into starbursts and happy reproductive vigor, but remember….starbursts were, initially at least, good news for Republicans.
A lot of serious people got in on it too. Here’s the dean of the Washington press corps digging Palin’s debate performance, here’s a former SCOTUS reporter comparing her to Sandra Day O’Connor.
If I’m honest with myself I’ll admit that there were exactly two weeks out of the last six years when I was genuinely fearful for the political future of the country: those were the week of the 2008 Republican convention and the week after it, when McCain appeared to be surging in the polls.
Now, I hope that she’ll become the next Senator from Alaska (EDIT: just realized she’d flip the seat so I hope she runs but loses), though I suspect she just has a book to sell.
BGinCHI
Wake me up when she resigns from Fox News.
Or did they let her go last year?
Oh hell, who gives a rat’s ass about that lazy idiot….
Zifnab
Alaska already has one Democrat in the Senate. I’d be much happier to see it go for two. But if Sarah Palin wants to lose a race for Senate, I’d support that.
KmCO
I suspect that the GOP is in the process of returning to an explicit, where formerly at least glibly implicit, He-Man Wimmen Haterz Klub platform. Especially since the Repubs and allies have already posted signs on their doors in recent weeks basically stating, “Whites only–browns keep out!”
NR
There was a poll recently that said that if Sarah Palin ran for Senate in Alaska, she’d lose by something like 20 points.
Not happening anyway. She’s just in it for the $$$.
Redshirt
Palin ain’t winnin’ no Senate race. She’d gift wrap it for the Dems. So, you go girl!
Also, there’s still griftin’ to be got.
Jebediah
I’m sure she will campaign quite vigorously. We have all seen how much she loves hard work, and how she welcomes challenging questions and intellectual debate. Laying the groundwork for the Palin/Palin ’16 presidential run.
EconWatcher
When McCain got himself photograhed in Syria with kidnappers and terrorists, it reminded me a whole lot of the Palin pick: Not real big on the due diligence, is he?
Redshirt
More likely she’s running for another reality TV show.
“Runnin’ for the Senate with Sarah Palin!”
KG
I thought she moved to Arizona, hard to be a Senator for a State you don’t live in anymore.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know everybody makes mistakes speaking off the cuff, but this is such uniquely Palinesque crouton of word salad
I wonder if that woman who writes her facebook posts, and I’m sure her books and speeches*, had to request that she considering it whenthe speaking requests, or at least the confirmations once fees were mentioned, started to taper off. And I wonder what cut that aide gets as the word salad chef.
*that boobie joke from CPAC, that I’m sure Sarah wrote herself. Maybe with Todd’s help on Christmas morning “Hey Sarah, they call this a rack…./Beavis laugh.”
Trollhattan
Why do you hate us, DougJ?
While a certain portion of supposedly Freedom-loving Alaskans can actually be led by their collective noses, they’re certainly not all gullible. What value does Brand Palin still hold there?
schrodinger's cat
I have never met a single woman who was a Hillary supporter who switched her allegiance to McCain-Palin ticket because of Palin. Among her many contributions, making word salad a second language for the right wing political types. Now even Brooks writes his columns in a high brow version of it.
PeakVT
Maybe there’s something about growing up in a challenging, male-dominated physical environment (desert, tundra), in a family where everyone’s expected to get his or her job done (and there’s no time for drama, fuss or introspection), that turns certain girls into very confident women — women who love to play against the big boys, and love to win.
Or maybe reality isn’t as simple as the mind of a pundit.
Bobby Thomson
@Zifnab: She’d be running against Begich in 2014. Her winning would flip the seat. Good thing she’s not running and won’t win.
schrodinger's cat
@PeakVT: Which MSM idiot wrote that?
Villago Delenda Est
Palin has no chance of unseating Mark Begich, and she knows it. Her name is political poison in Alaska after her mid term resignation as Governor because the job was boring and didn’t pay enough.
This talk of running for office is just another way to fleece her cretinous fan base.
PeakVT
@schrodinger’s cat: Chuckles Lane. Second link in OP.
Yatsuno
@Bobby Thomson: I wonder how many Republican bean counters are trying to figure out her price for not running. From what I understand there is still quite a bit of bad blood between her and the state party, plus they’re just as likely to put up that Joe Miller character again.
Emma
God doesn’t love me enough.
schrodinger's cat
@PeakVT: He make Brooks look like Einstein.
BGinCHI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I noticed that right away too.
She’s obviously not a native English speaker. What’s her first language?
Redshirt
@KG: Actually, people get away with that shit all the time. Doesn’t the other senator from Alaska basically live in California? And don’t most long serving Senators essentially live in DC/MD/VA?
Shrillhouse
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, her speaking patterns are so genuinely odd.
She’s obviously not intelligent and not very articulate, but what human, other than Sarah Palin, actually talks this way?
A normal person might have said: “I’m considering it, because people have asked me to…”
But Palin’s response to the question started with “I’ve considered it because people have requested me considering it…” and then became even more rambling and disjointed from there. It’s just bizarre, frankly.
Patricia Kayden
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sad to say that I can actually hear her speaking as I read that. Her squeaky annoying voice has been etched in my brain. Thanks again, McCain.
kindness
‘Palmentum’ – is that a euphamism for Republican males (and females I guess) giving themselves a ‘happy ending’?
EconWatcher
@Bobby Thomson:
Being almost entirely ignorant of Alaska politics, other than its deep red hue, I’ve always assumed that Begich’s election was a fluke and he is toast in 2014 unless the GOP runs someone truly repulsive against him–like maybe Palin. Am I wrong? Does Begich have a prayer?
Villago Delenda Est
@BGinCHI:
Moranish.
piratedan
@KG: that was for her reality show progeny Bristol, u know the abstinence advocate who got in the “family way without the making it an official family” daughter
NickT
Why would you want Palin to beat Begich? As I understand it, that’s the race she’s got in mind.
Redshirt
@Yatsuno: Sounds like it’s time for Sarah to lead the TRUE AND REAL Americans into an actual Conservative Party, rather than the RINO fest which is today’s Republican Party.
3rd Party Sarah! You go!
MomSense
I was too busy campaigning to get nervous! I remember turning on the news one night and hearing the pundit freak out on the left and all of the armchair quarterbacking about “what Obama should do/must do” etc and thinking that they really needed to get out more. On the ground in all the little campaign offices, things felt much different. Fortunately we were all too busy to pay much attention to the chatter on the teevee.
Marc
@Shrillhouse:
A very stupid one who’s trying to imitate their idea of a smart person. See also Bush, George W.
Roger Moore
Why do you hate us? I can imagine wanting her to be the next Republican Senatorial candidate from Alaska to help ensure a Democratic victory, but unless you value comedy more than your country, it’s hard to imagine why it would be good for her to win.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
The Freedom Party. That’s the ticket!
It’s interesting that Harry Turtledove chose to call his stand-in party for the Nazis in the Confederacy of the 20’s and 30’s the “Freedom Party”.
Yatsuno
@Redshirt: I suppose it’s possible. It certainly worked out for Murkowski. I’m thinking there will be a huge bloody primary battle and Begich waltzes into a second term easily. And we can focus on defeating Yertle as well.
Zifnab
@Bobby Thomson: Ah, my mistake. I thought Begich was class of ’06.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: MSM Punditubbies in the DC-MD_Nova bubble, like the courtiers at Versailles are pretty insulated from what goes on in the countryside.
NotMax
@BGinCHI
The dialect is unadorned Bimbonics.
Roger Moore
@BGinCHI:
Gibberish. Isn’t it obvious?
Villago Delenda Est
@Marc:
Not to mention one Leroy N. Gingrich, the “stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like”.
rikyrah
she does not want to be a Senator ….Senators have to do SOME work.
she is a GRIFTER.
it’s all about the GRIFT
gelfling545
@schrodinger’s cat: I know a great many Hilary supporters who, in fact, became Obama supporters after Palin was nominated. They were initially unenthusiastic but the response to Palin was “well, hell no!” They were invariably insulted that McCain & his team thought that Palin was in any way a substitute for Sec. Clinton.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Pageantrunneruppian?
I think Palin is less relevant to politics than Limbaugh or even O’Reilly and whoever tells Hannity what to say (Ailes, I guess?). Every time I see McCain on my TeeVee calling for more war I mean Leadership, I wish she were a bit more relevant to our political discourse, but it’s like there’s no connection between her and Senator McPalin.
@Redshirt: I don’t think she could/would lead a third party, but if she talks about enough she could plant the seeds in the minds of someone with more of a work ethic, he typed hopefully.
JCT
@Villago Delenda Est:
This. And it made me laugh.
schrodinger's cat
@gelfling545: That was my experience as well. As usual the male punditocracy is clueless about what motivates women. Remember when they were touting Fred Thompson as irresistible to women.
LanceThruster
“Don’t Let the Quitter Put AK in the Sh!tter”
Also, too.
Roger Moore
@Shrillhouse:
I’ve met people who sound kind of like that. They’re trying to sound smart by using big words and fancy sentence structure, which they know is how smart people talk. Unfortunately, they don’t have the vocabulary to get the big words right or the short term memory to complete their complex grammatical constructions correctly. They wind up sounding much worse than they would if they stuck to words they know well and sentences that express their thoughts clearly.
Violet
She’ll never run. This is her grifter act. Get people to top up her PAC money so she doesn’t ever have to do a real job again.
Trollhattan
@NotMax:
I think this thread’s done been won.
nemesis
Oh, Mrs Paylin, you’re a meth.
Amir Khalid
@BGinCHI:
You’re assuming she has a first language. That’s quite a big assumption.
NotMax
On the other hand, tracking McCain’s apoplexy at being in the same chamber as she would be an amusing diversion.
Redshirt
Believe it cuz it’s true, at least for the moment, that Palin and Ted Cruz are the only remaining Republicans the members of Freerepublic.com vociferously support. All the rest are RINO’s.
So, if Sarah were to lead a 3rd party (for grifting, mind you), she might be able to make some dent in the crazy vote/support, which would only help the forces of sanity and logic.
scav
Any “No Girls!” and “Browns Kepe OUT!” signs on the treehouse will be ignored when convenient. If there’s a chance for visibility (more important than viability) and funding in certain races, she could be helicoptered in. Makes continuing presence on da teevee more palatable, provides some easy banter and questions on the usual, hospitable channels and wedges a foot in the rest. Coherency isn’t a concern in a small-govt party that’s trying to pull federal funds from schools that prohibit play with imaginary guns, while having a history of shrieking over the nefarious violence engines of Rap music, video games, et al.
Violet
@NotMax: I’d rather she run for his seat in AZ. She pretty much lives there these days. Edit–to be clear, it would be for the entertainment value. McCain having to pretend to like her again would be excellent fun.
Tomolitics
Man, isn’t it great that Broder is still dead.
BTW, can it really be coincidence that the clickthru ad that I got below his lede was “3 Early Signs of Dementia”?
The Other Chuck
@NotMax: She’d quit halfway through, so it’s not like he’d have to stay mad long.
Mike E
Take it E-Z, baby.
NickT
@Violet:
She played this particular game for months before deciding not to enter the lunatic primary in 2012. I am guessing that the family meth lab recently exploded and she needs a new source of income double quick.
Comrade Jake
I really hope Palin runs, because realistically what’s the worst that could happen? We get a disfunctional Senate?
But the far more entertaining prospect for me would be a John Bolton presidential run.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wherever two or more Villagers are gathered, Broder lives.
Regnad Kcin
@BGinCHI: Runyonese
Shakezula
I am sure the GOP will come up with someone funnier. They need an official owner of ladybits to push mandatory kitchen duties and transvaginal probes for all girls over the age of 9.
Tom_B
My wife nailed Palin right off: “I wouldn’t let her babysit my kids, with her dysfunctional family. And she wants to be VP?”
As for Bachman, with DOMA gone, she might need to keep a closer eye on Marcus.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The undead must be destroyed!
NickT
@Villago Delenda Est:
You take out McConnell and I’ll handle McCain.
catclub
@Comrade Jake: He is 65 and, compared to Romney, who is 68(?) he looks 75. Humorous Yosemite Sam lookalike.
Roger Moore
@Tom_B:
And with Minnesota having legalized same sex marriage; he won’t even have to move out of state.
Dave
@scav:
I have no idea if this was a typo or intentional, but I spit my iced coffee out when I read it, because I totally pictured the sign on the treehouse written this way… on an old scrap of weathered plywood, with white paint letters, ‘e’s reversed like kid-scrawl.
Villago Delenda Est
BTW, do you think that Todd has Sarah under his thumb? Or does he know better than to let it show?
Anoniminous
@BGinCHI:
Authentic Frontier Gibberish
eemom
AFAICT Jane Hamsher, not unlike Palin herself, has these days vanished back into the well deserved obscurity from whence she came — or else, just for old times sake, I’d link to her spectacularly moronic “It’s Palin” post circa that time frame about what a fucking brilliant move it was to nominate her and how “intuitively appealing” the selection was to her “as a woman”…..whereupon TBogg would swoop in squawking and pecking like an enraged mother hen.
Good times.
Violet
@NickT: I think her income has dropped. She’s had to renegotiate her Fox contract–best guess is it’s for less money. Given her starbursts-tease about running in 2012, even many of her more ardent supporters have somewhat given up on her. She needs their money to keep the show on the road and only a hint of running for an office will bring in the cash. So that’s what’s happening.
What else does she have? An occasional Fox appearance dressed like a washed up street walker? An even more occasional paid speaking engagement? Even those will dry up unless she somehow appears relevant. So she pimps her book–first it was a health and fitness book; now it’s a Christmas book.
She can send her kids out on the low budget reality shows (“Wife Swap” was Bristol’s and Willow’s latest), but if she does too much of that she’ll weaken her political brand and her ability to grift money down the road. At some level she knows that. So the Klondike Kardashian reality show, much as she probably wants to do it, has to wait.
quannlace
No worries. She’s got a ‘War On Christmas’-type book to promote. A little closer to Yuletide will no doubt find her on the morning Curvy Couch.
Trollhattan
@Tom_B:
Brain Bleach, stat, aisle me.
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est: They have an agreement. He’ll stay married to her in return for an income of sorts. Then they live mostly separate lives. That’s my take, anyway.
GxB
@Roger Moore: Too bad it’s not the authentic frontier type, as hearing her say “cracker-croaker” would probably cause bodily injury to some pundits.
ETA: Yeah, what Anoniminous said. (why am I always so slow to these threads?..)
ranchandsyrup
This is good news for palin’s coke dealer.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
I think her income has dropped as well, because she’s spent every penny of the bonanza she got after she quit the governorship, pretty much the way lottery winners go bankrupt. The Palins are not people who think things through, and frankly rely on the kindness of dumbass strangers.
She COULD have properly invested her initial millions and insured a fairly comfortable middle-class existence in perpetuity, but no, she had to be a big shot, to steal a line from Billy Joel.
Beatnik Bob
@schrodinger’s cat: I have, and I’ve lost friendships over it. Long, serious political friendships. It was the strangest thing I ever saw–the same sane woman who HATED Bush for all the right reasons, simply unable to see Palin for who she was.
And still hasn’t changed her mind about her…
Jebediah
@Marc:
I think this nails it.
ranchandsyrup
Also, DougJ, I refudiate your Shawn trende bromance. Trende is the unskew the polls guy with a better presenting style. So civil.
g
@Violet: Exactly. She can’t keep the boobs writing checks without giving them a tease.
schrodinger's cat
@ranchandsyrup: Budding Brooks?
StringOnAStick
I wanna see how many forehead veins O’Lielly pops when La Palin sells her coming Xmas book using his “war on Christmas” schtick.
Trollhattan
@StringOnAStick:
You mean the “Wowah of Atheist Aggression”?
Villago Delenda Est
@ranchandsyrup:
Fixd!
Forum Transmitted Disease
@ranchandsyrup: Meth seems more her style but yeah, there are stimulants involved, no question.
GxB
@Violet:
Heh, those pics in that link – she really is a cartoon of a human being isn’t she? Snakeskin pumps, over the top boob-job, and overall trashy aura right out of Idiocracy, ffs… what an ultra-maroon.
Ted & Hellen
Come on now…didn’t the president also have a book to sell? And didn’t the proceeds serve him rather well?
I mean, she’s a complete douche, but the entire D.C. Beltocracy are douches and selling books is standard procedure.
So I guess I’m wondering what’s your point with the book thing?
beliebert
Hey Ball Juice Doug. Are you that devoid of ideas about things to write that you have to dust off the Palin might run for this or that or the other fucking thing troll play?
Samuel Knight
Funny biggest thing to me was not the pathetic latest attempt by Palin to try to get back into the spotlight – it was the unbelievably stupid assessments by DC establishment journalists. When faced with a Republican nominee who clearly was stunningly ignorant – after 8 years of stunningly ignorant – they just went right to – heh she’s great.
Puerile and pathetic behaviour by Lane, Broder and the rest of them…
Yatsuno
@beliebert: Oh Durf ya old knucklehead. Still licking Harper’s boots I see.
muddy
@schrodinger’s cat: And Dick Cheney as “silver fox”.
Davo
@Marc: Thats a bullseye. That’s exactly where her diction and syntax comes from, IMO.
muddy
@Davo: See also criminals inappropriate usage of legal terms.
schrodinger's cat
@muddy: Thankfully that had been wiped out of my memory.
Bubblegum Tate
I never forgot that, because was the first in an very long series of jokes that was Sarah Palin. That’s what you think independent women want, GOP? A conspicuously unintelligent mean girl?
gelfling545
@schrodinger’s cat: They really are very peculiar people.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
I believe the technical term is protective amnesia.
Trollhattan
@beliebert:
Huh, that’s zero for two in the attempt to construct sentences.
Your meds, did you take them?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BGinCHI: I think Dick Cavett put it best when he noted that she sounds like “one who seems to have no first language.”
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BGinCHI: Forgot to say Happy Belated – hope it was wonderful. Twin pics in Tom’s thread.
Davo
@beliebert: Are you Palin, herself? Because that sentence (using the term quite liberally..) sounds right outta her toolbox, my friend.
TriassicSands
For a little walk down memory lane, I strolled over to the Broder link and read his ridiculous debate review. The best part, however, was the ad that appeared in the midst of Broder’s column — “3 Early Signs of Dementia.” How perfectly placed, I thought, since, clearly, Broder’s column had to be the first sign.
dommyluc
The biggest reason she can never run for any public office: Tina Fey would make it her civic duty to destroy her, because Tina Fey is a true patriot. Also. Sparkles.
Suzanne
Yanno what’s weird about the Sarah-Sparkles-in-Scottsdale thing is that I haven’t heard of anyone running into her. Scottsdale is the snootier side of the PHX metro, and in fact my husband teaches in that district. I haven’t heard of anyone in my circle running into any of them anywhere. Cindy and Meghan McCain are often seen in popular restaurants, Jeff Flake’s kids and extended family all go to public schools and churches where they are always visible. But I haven’t heard of any of the Palins being spotted anywhere in town. My guess is that they bought the Scottsdale place as an investment property and don’t live here, or that they plan to retire out here.
Suzanne
I never really put two-and-two together, but matoko_chan kinda reminds me of the way Sarah Palin talks. Random words strung together, with a pale halo of spittle flying out of the corners of their mouths.
The Other Chuck
@Suzanne: m_c is kind of the inverse though, with elliptical phrasing sprinkled with random insults, whereas palin likes to stretch and streeetch and streeeeeeeeetch her sentences out with cumbersome verbose filler.
Besides, meth dries out your mouth, so no spittle from sarah.
James E. Powell
@Tomolitics:
Man, isn’t it great that Broder is still dead.
Yes, but unfortunately Broderism is very much alive.
West of the Rockies
@Bubblegum Tate: It’s dismaying and astonishing, but her supporters really don’t see her as mean or unintelligent. She’s just real people. They see her as a smart, honest girl tryin’ to fit into a man’s world and cut through the bullshit. There is no convincing them otherwise.
drkrick
You left out “and every minute since the 2010 midterms.”
Juju
@Ted & Hellen: Her book is written in crayon?
Suzanne
@West of the Rockies: That’s because most of her supporters are in the 50% of Americans who are below average, intellectually speaking.
Less Popular Tim
@The Other Chuck: It’s not
really “random” insults if you just call everyone a “cudlip” or whatever that was