Governor Etch-a-Sketch changed his mind… Again.
Last week, Mitt Romney mocked President Obama, claiming that Obama misunderstood the Wisconsin recall election results, and that that those results clearly indicated that the American people were tired of hiring all those doggone, good-for-nothing firefighters, police officers, and teachers.
Democrats screamed about Romney’s gaffe (which, as our newest blogger, Leo Soderman points out was not a “gaffe” at all), and sensible folk generally agreed that Mitt Romney was a big stupidhead. So stupid was Romney’s head, that Governor Scott Walker — who handily beat Mayor Tom Barrett last week in the Wisconsin recall election — felt no compunction as he undermined Romney’s message regarding “what the Wisconsin recall election was about.”
On Sunday’s episode of Face the Nation, Walker pointed out that Wisconsin, firefighters and police officers were protected from Walker’s reforms union-busting, and further noted that Romney needed to step up his game, kid:
SCHIEFFER: Governor, thank you for being with us. You heard in the opening of the program that the president said that the private sector is fine.
Mitt Romney of course fired back immediately and used what happened out there in Wisconsin as part of his answer. I want to you listen to what he said here.
ROMNEY: Instead he(Obama) wants to add more to government. He wants another stimulus. He wants to hire more government workers. He (Obama) says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin, the American people did, it’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.
SCHIEFFER: Well, do you think Governor Romney is talking about getting rid of more teachers and firemen?
WALKER: I know in my state our reforms allowed us to protect firefighters, police officers, and teachers. That’s not what I think of when I think of big government.
SCHIEFFER: A lot of people — or some people at least in the Republican Party even are saying that he (Romney) needs to stand up more for things and not sort of try to be all things to all people.
WALKER: I just hope he takes a page out of President Reagan’s playbook in 1980 where it was not only a referendum on the failed policies of President Carter at the time, it was also something where President Reagan laid out a clear plan.
SCHIEFFER: But you think he can do more along that line?
WALKER: Well, I think people like Paul Ryan and others and I hope that he goes big and he goes bold. I think he has got the capacity to do that. I don’t think we win if it’s just about a referendum on Barack Obama. I think it has got to be more.
SCHIEFFER: Is Wisconsin Romney country now?
WALKER: Well, I think it’s up in the air. I think it’s definitely in play. You know, six months ago I think the White House had it firmly in their column. I think it is up in the air.
But I think it’s really very much left up not just to Republican or conservative voters, but to those swing voters who again elected me by a larger margin than they did two years ago to say, if Governor Romney can show that he has got clear plan, a plan to take on the kind of reforms we need to make America great again, particularly for our kids, I think that can win in Wisconsin and I think it can win in other swing states.
Rather than heed Walker’s advice and articulate his own vision for the country, Romney simply changed his position (as he is wont to do), and hoped that nobody would notice: What? Who? Me? I want to cut firefighters and teachers? The hell you say! How positively droll!
From Think Progress:
KILMEADE: He says you’re out of touch. He says you want to cut firefighters and teachers, that you don’t understand what’s going on in these communities. What do you say to that, governor?
ROMNEY: That’s a very strange accusation. Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn’t pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So obviously that’s completely absurd. He’s got a new idea, though, and that is to have another stimulus and to have the federal government send money to try and bail out cities and states. It didn’t work the first time. It certainly wouldn’t work the second time.
First, no. No, no, no — it is not a “very strange accusation,” nor is it “completely absurd,” you nitwit. It’s obvious that you are out of touch and don’t understand what is going on these communities. If you did understand what is going on in these communities, then Governor Walker wouldn’t have had to correct your statement about the Wisconsin recall election being a referendum on the hiring of firefighters, police officers, and teachers.
Similarly, if you did understand what is going on in these communities, you would have known that the Wisconsin reforms did not affect firefighters and police officers. (The reason that Walker steered clear of firefighters and police officers, is that the Teabilly-infected Republicans are trying to divide and conquer union workers: they want to protect firefighters and police officers (because everybody loves firefighters and police officers!1) while they sell teachers down the river and ensure that our childrens isn’t learning and will never learning.)
Second, what?! I’m fairly certain President Obama is aware that firefighters, police officers, and teachers are not hired by the federal government. That’s why part of his Jobs Act — the Teachers and First Responders Act — would have sent $35 billion in stimulus to the states for the hiring of firefighters, police officers, and teachers.
Of course, Republicans blocked the Teachers and First Responders Act because Republicans block everything. Hell, if President Obama came out in favor of the sun, Republicans would find a way to block it, resigning white tanning enthusiasts to a life of orange Trump-toned skin.
And finally, just stop it. Stop lying. The stimulus did too work. Yes-huh. It just did. Stop saying it didn’t. You keep saying that, and, frankly, it’s driving some of us a little bit nuts. People who are a lot smarter than you (like P.Krugz and Better than Ezra Kleine Nachtmusik2) agree that the stimulus worked, but that it was too small. Got it? The stimulus worked! It just wasn’t enough. MOAR STIMULUS IS WHAT THE ECONOMY NEEDS. Stop saying otherwise. Please. You’re making my brain itch.
Sigh.
Mittens? Will you please pick a political position and stick with it for more than three days? I’m starting to get whiplash. And, you’re going to drive Steve Benen right over the cliffs of insanity soon.
Stop lying. Just stop it.
1 Everybody loves police officers and firefighters — everybody but Eric Cantor, of course.
2 I know, it’s a bit much for a nickname. I’m just testing it out.
[cross-posted at ABLC]
MattF
“Romney Changes His Mind” is four words containing at least six errors.
Ruckus
Changing it’s mind is the program default.
jl
Sorry, I have a hard time following this.
You mean Romney does not remember his position, whatever it was, and does NOT stand by it?
That is not the Mitt Romney I know and love, and to whom I have dedicated my very respectful and competent followership.
Brachiator
I heard about 30 seconds of Limbaugh mocking shiftless teachers, cops and firefighters. The GOP will eat their own. The sad thing is that some conservative goobers would gladly take flaming pitchforks to schools, fire stations and police stations, asserting that all they need is a water hose and their 2nd Amendment rights to defend themselves, and the Bible to keep them from being stupid.
Davis X. Machina
@Brachiator: 40% of the country believes that teachers, cops and firefighters are shiftless, because that’s what playing for Team Red requires.
My father used to sing a little song from his younger days, the chorus of which was “Better than his brother Joe / Dominic Dimaggio”. Not true of course — though Dom was no slouch — but that’s what being a Red Sox fan in the ’40’s required of you — to believe, or at least sing, that The Little Professor was better than his brother.
jl
@Brachiator:
Look dude, its just an adjustment the lesser parasites have to make for shared sacrifice to make the hard choices necessary to survive in these difficult times of increased creative destruction competition.
Just expand your 3 day emergency self sufficiency plan to 365.
And you can’t do that? Yeesh. Is it just narcissistic ME ME ME all the time now?
J. Michael Neal
I learned yesterday that a friend on the faculty at UW-Madison is thinking about leaving to take a position at Marquette. It would mean a lot more pay, but it would also mean getting away from the neverending low level harassment that being a public employee in Wisconsin now entails. Every time you get a raise, you become a target of vitriol. You now have to worry that anything you say by email will become public knowledge through a freedom of information request.
In all, it means that it’s not worth it to work for the state of Wisconsin. A once fabulous public university is about to become a hollow shell with an athletics program, because there’s no way they’re going to be able to attract quality faculty in this environment.
I hope like hell that the state of Minnesota is paying attention enough to see what kind of disaster this is going to turn into.
J. Michael Neal
@Ruckus: Just because the RomneyTron has a programming glitch that prevents its positions from being saved on the hard drive when it reboots at night is no reason to mock it.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Peace will come to the Middle East before that happens.
We need to get used to the fact that Rmoney and the Repups in general are going to flat out lie like the lying sacks of shit they are from here on out and depend on us to do the fact checking because lordy knows the Villagers won’t do it.
And they’re counting on us devoting that kind of energy to fact checking since it presumably keeps us from focusing on other things. They also know full well we don’t have the kind of media megaphone(s) they do to refute the lies.
Darth Cheney once said “deficits don’t matter”. Well, this is a combo of that and the old “we make our own reality” of the Bushies: “Facts Don’t Matter.”
quannlace
Can this suit get any emptier?
eric
Headless man found in topless party. that is our boy mitt
japa21
@J. Michael Neal: My sister works for UW-LaCrosse in a non-faculty position. She states several of the faculty have already left for other positions in other states. Of course, to some degree this is the desired result of Walker and his backers. The UW system, specially Madison, is known for being a hot-bed of liberalism. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went through and found the most conservative professors and gave them special benefits to stay. All 3 of them.
gbear
@J. Michael Neal: Minnesota really dodged a bullet when Dayton squeaked into the governorship. We’ve got a teatard house and senate right now but the worst of what they’ve tried to do has been vetoed by Dayton. They still managed to get ammendments for voter ID and a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot this fall, but I’m thinking that the conservative experiment may have lost it’s luster by November of 2012 (and I think we may be the first state to vote down marriage discrimination ).
If Emmer would have won, we’d be in worse shape than WI right now.
Jennifer
It must just be a character defect on my part, but the one thing I’ve always hated the most is lying.* Lying, because no matter whether you get caught or not, it destroys respect. If you lie and are caught out in it, it destroys people’s trust in you and your word and their respect for you. If you don’t get caught, it causes you to lose respect for the people you lied to, because they didn’t catch you at it. It’s a lose-lose propostion, and I’ve never been able to wrap my head around the wingnuts being ok with their leaders just blatantly lying to them; I’ve finally put it down to the fact that they don’t respect themselves enough to demand someone else show them respect by being honest.
*I have, and still do, lie myself. But I’m not talking about the white “no your ass does not look fat in that” lie or the get off my back “I put it in the mail this morning” lie. I’m talking about the kind of lies that mislead people into acting against their own interests for your personal benefit. As far as I’m concerned, they’re about the worst sin you can commit.
Kane
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/12/12188451-gingrich-romney-admin-will-lead-to-fewer-teachers?lite
RossInDetroit
But we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
I appreciate ABL cataloging the instances of Mitt’s position changes. It’s an arduous and neverending task. But is there still anyone out there who believes Mitt has principled positions, rather than expedient talking points of the moment?
David Koch
9/11!
Remember the heroes of 9/11 when handing them their pink slips.
Kane
Romney’s solution to “help the American people” is to layoff more firefighters, police officers, and teachers.
Romney’s answer to the housing and foreclosure crisis is to “let it run its course and hit the bottom.”
Romney’s answer to the American auto industry collapse was to “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”
This is all part of the Creative Destruction that Romney praises in his book. It’s the economic theory of no pain, no gain. To reap the rewards of Creative Destruction, many lives, jobs, industries, and communities will first need to be dismantled and destroyed. And according to the theory, any attempt by government to prevent the harsher aspects of Creative Destruction by trying to preserve jobs, protect industries or maintaining a social safety net will lead to stagnation and decline. In the midst of this undetermined length of Creative Destruction, the public is required to have a grand “leap of faith” that eventually multinational corporations will come to the rescue and save the day by creating new industries, new jobs, new communities, and new lives for all to enjoy.
This is the Creative Destruction that Romney has embraced. This is Romneyomics.
Davis X. Machina
@Kane: More reverse-Leninism. ‘The worse, the better‘ no longer the tactic of the revolutionary Left, but the revolutionary Right.
There are more people thinking of ways to heighten the contradictions in Lower Manhattan today then there ever were in the Smolny Institute, or the cafés of Zurich, or Alcove #2 of the CCNY cafeteria.
jl
@Kane:
‘ Gingrich said Americans have to “come to grips” with the policies a Romney administration would pursue: “Does that mean there will be fewer teachers? The honest answer is yes.” ‘
Newt may yet do more good service to the country in this election, despite himself.
Thank you, little Newtie.
JGabriel
OT but just read this and was flabbergasted by the rhetorical obliviousness, Jeff Greenfield:
Jeff, I don’t think you know what the word “radical” means.
Let me clue you in: if most of the industrialized world is doing it, it’s not radical — it’s common-place. If the US were to adopt single-payer, it would not be “radical”, it would be joining the civilized world.
.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Kane:
__
I wouldn’t be so down on Creative Destruction as a concept if it weren’t so bleeding obvious that the 1% get to enjoy all of the Creative part of it while the rest of us get nothing but Destruction. Funny how it works that way.
Stuck in the Funhouse
You know, we are at the starting gate for the general election right now, that won’t really begin in earnest until after the conventions, and I am reading all kinds of naval gazing articles and stuff, that at least sounds sensible. Sensible, assuming the two candidates meet the basic requirements to be president. Prez Obama does have some serious headwinds with a sputtering economy, sputtering from abject miserable when he took office, to sputtering a little better than was.
But when I think about who the republicans are running, a guy with some serious credibility issues, like say a fundamental ability to not lie with every waking breath, it brings the surreality of the times that smacks me upside the head.
With the question, would American voters actually put this shifty clown in the WH? And I know, stupid voters, lurves them some republicans, and all that. But not in my lifetime, has their been a candidate like Romney, from either side, put up for a POTUS election.
It’s like some kind of getting caught up in a vortex of the absurd, with CU, a well liked first black president seeking reelection, with a country struggling in the wake of the worst economic downturn since the GD. In probably the most impatient, short sighted voting democracy in the world. It’s like the 1940’s all over again, and the republicans give us WC Fields for an opponent with the taunt ‘never give a sucker an honest break’. Sometimes it seems funny, other times, not so much. Lard, hep us.
Kane
For all of Mitt Romney’s lies and etch-a-sketch moments, and for all of the evidence showing that Republicans are sabotaging the economy, what political price are Romney and Republicans paying? If anything, it appears that they are being rewarded.
JGabriel
Jennifer:
See, I always say, “No, your ass does not look fat, it looks: PHAT!”
For some reason, this is never interpreted as the intended compliment, and I always end up getting beaten over the head with a hardcover copy of Roget’s Thesaurus, which, it turns out, is a very painful instrument of blunt trauma.
.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
__
Yes, absolutely. It could happen. One good stumble by Obama, and the GOP will be back in full control of the WH and both branches of Congress, along with SCOTUS and the news media.
__
__
The GOP leadership will continue to devolve until the voters revolt and throw them out on their asses in a way that nobody will ever forget. Until then, it will get worse every year. By 2016 we will be missing Romney. Bank on it.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@JGabriel: I understand what you are saying, but adopting a European-Socialist-whatever-buzzwords-mean-not-American style health care system would be radical for this country.
burnspbesq
@JGabriel:
What your reaction to Greenfield’s comment actually shows is that your snarkometer is broken.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
nah, no point in future reading, before this campaign gets going. Too much to assume right now, since we haven’t had anything like a recent POTUS nom, anywhere near the mendacity level of a Mitt Romney. So we shall see. I got a lot of confidence in the O campaign staff and the prez his self. But I don’t discount the possibility, as stated all along, a backsliding economy makes it not a lock for Obama. in the least.
Raven
@Stuck in the Funhouse: And the middle-fucking-east.
SatanicPanic
@JGabriel: Joining the civilized world would be a radical step for some of us
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
FTFY.
The current GOP leadership is essentially treasonous. I see no reason not to assume that the apparent end state of their policies isn’t intentional.
jayackroyd
I suppose it’s kinda sad, but Ezra Klein’s nickname is Ezra. You know, like LaBron. Or Madonna.
meander
About the Romneybot’s popular line that the stimulus was a big “waste”: Wasn’t the bulk of the stimulus tax cuts? Does that mean that tax cuts are a waste? I thought that the GOP playbook said that tax cuts are manna from heaven, not waste, so I’m not really understanding WTF he is talking about. Too many crossed wires and Romneybot is going to seriously malfunction.
Snarki, child of Loki
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
In our lifetimes, there was never a candidate like Dubya put up for election, nor elected, nor RE-elected.
The naive optimistic faith in the judgement of the American voter, after 2000-8, is so very very cute that you just want to beat it with a shovel.
Raven
College cost data release by da feds.
jayackroyd
LeBron. sheesh.
Mnemosyne
@Jennifer:
I have actually managed to train my husband to tell me if something makes me look fat when I specifically ask for an opinion, though he usually uses the diplomatic euphemism, “It’s not very flattering.”
It helps that I never use it to fish for compliments — I only ask if I genuinely want to know if the thing I’m wearing makes me look fat or if I’m just being paranoid.
JGabriel
@burnspbesq:
Perhaps. I did consider the possibility that Greenfield was being ironic, but I take the adjective Greenfield applied, “genuinely radical”, to indicate he wasn’t being snarky but “genuinely” meant it.
.
Raven
@Mnemosyne: That’s some “fraught with peril” shit right there.
grandpa john
@RossInDetroit: Hell, if Mitt had any principles or integrity he never would have been employed as chief thief at Bain
Mnemosyne
@Snarki, child of Loki:
To be fair, Bush was only elected once. Having the Supreme Court step in to stop the recount that your opponent is on his way to winning is not the same thing as being elected.
Liberty60
The takeaway here is that being aggressive works for us.
Aggressively attacking Team Red, constantly confronting, engaging, and arguing is our best course right now.
Running from confrontation, curling up in the fetal position of compromise and bipartisanship is what they need to win.
Mnemosyne
@Raven:
Not with me. I am very, very bad at playing the social games that most women do (probably because of the ADHD). If, say, I offer to do something for somebody and they say, “No, don’t bother,” I don’t bother. It’s caused tension with friends sometimes because I don’t get the whole “refuse three times and then accept” or whatever the hell the rule is supposed to be. If you tell me something, I assume you mean it, so tell me what you want the first time instead of dancing around it.
So if I want something from G, I’ll tell him exactly what it is that I want, and he knows to do the same with me because I suck at picking up hints. Makes everyone’s life easier.
Raven
@Mnemosyne:Let me ask you, do you really not know when something you wear does or does not look “flattering”?
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Raven:
What about the middle east?
Raven
@Mnemosyne: Cool. Years ago my bride asked me what I thought of a handbag she has made for an art show. I really love her work but I didn’t especially like it. I told her so and she went off like a mofo. I said “never ever ask me for my opinion again.” I, too, have had the ADHD diagnoses and I don’t be fuckin around.
SatanicPanic
@Snarki, child of Loki: There’s a difference though- Bush was a likeable guy. Maybe in a Charlie Sheen is likeable way, but there was something about the dude that people liked. There’s almost nothing to like about Romney- he’s awkward, unfunny, unrelatable.
YMMV but the “who would you rather have a beer with” test has proven pretty useful in the last 30 years. The only candidate that was as awkward as Romney to get elected was Bush I, and that was because Dukakis was pretty awkward in his own right. I’m very confident about my prediction because it’s based on Americans doing the stupid and obvious thing- voting for the cool guy.
Raven
@Stuck in the Funhouse: Who knows? That’s the point. Some shit could blow up there and impact the election big time.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Snarki, child of Loki:
George Bush was a dumbass. That is different from clinical grade pathologic lying on everything, and I mean everything that is said by Romney. Romney isn’t a stupid person, he is coreless person, other than the insatiable ambition that drives him.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Raven:
okay, I see what you meant.
Barry
@J. Michael Neal: “Every time you get a raise, you become a target of vitriol. You now have to worry that anything you say by email will become public knowledge through a freedom of information request.”
Please note that this is also true in Michigan, for public university/college employees.
Svensker
@Raven:
You’re a man, right?
David Koch
@jayackroyd:
it’s easier to say “Ezra”, then “short, nerdy, bespectacled, corporate ass-kisser”. YMMV
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
And I would add, with a sizable sadistic streak behind the ‘awe shucks’ demeanor.
jayackroyd
And, of course, as the mountain west goes through this year’s burn cycle as we in the opening millennium of the Anthropocene, we’re reminded that there are fuck of a lot federal firefighters.
As we ponder Federalism in our time, we’re reminded there are a fuck of a lot of federal narks who want to lock up people baking brownies in California.
Ruckus
@J. Michael Neal:
I thought that was one of the major reasons.
Silly me, I actually like my politicians to have some scruples. Maybe old timers disease will attack me and I’ll get over it.
eemom
@David Koch:
Ezra is actually a lovely, if rarely used, Biblical name and that sellout little shit doesn’t deserve it. He should be known as “little David.”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@jayackroyd:
__
pace Dylan, you don’t need a firefighter to know which way the firestorm blows.
Raven
@Svensker: Yea, help me out here.
bemused
@gbear:
gbear, you may enjoy a snarky post by Dave Mindeman at mnpact.org. (Sorry, I don’t link) He was reacting to and linked to MPR piece, WI recall outcome emboldens MNGOP on union issues and a PP Poll showing MNGOP approval rating at 21%, 61% disapproval with a 12/66 spread with independents.
Republicans don’t care about really bad approval ratings. Senator Dave Thompson believes they should have done what Walker did and they would have withstood the clamoring at the Capitol, passed the bill and been rewarded for it.
Mustang Bobby
“ROMNEY: The federal government doesn’t pay for teachers…”
Title II, a federal grant, paid Miami-Dade County Public Schools $20 million for teachers and reading coaches in the current fiscal year. It has for years, and Dog willing, it will continue to do so.
Just sayin’.
Egg Berry
@Barry: I believe there was an article a few years back about how Michigan was losing college faculty because the lege had taken away domestic partners from the employee benefits.
Patricia Kayden
Romneybot 2.0 is just etching and sketching, folks. Nothing to see. Move along.
dlnelson
@Brachiator: Rush was doing back bends today trying to clarify. Rush knows a ton of police and fire men are registered R’s. It is hard for him to keep track of the folks to hate. Now he has to contend with unions that listen to him 24/7. I still do not know why the democratic party has these unions tied around our necks. They do not vote for D’s, are gun nuts, and Rush listeners. It is a fallacy that they are democrats. I live in Sac Cty, and I can guarantee Scott Walker’s police and fire, are R’s.
danimal
Blatant lies sometimes work, but the blatant lies that the Romneytron is trying to tell are so insulting that they will quickly turn off all but the 27%. He clearly called for fewer teachers, policemen and firefighters, then said it’s an absurd attack to say that Romney called for fewer teachers, policemen and firefighters.
The American people liked to be lied to with a knowing wink. They don’t like to be lied to in a way that says, “I think you are morons and I can get away with it.” Remember, folks, most Americans aren’t politically engaged yet. They won’t like this version of the Romneytron at all once it’s out for general release.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@danimal:
I call those ‘institutional lies’ of an administration, or a campaign. They are premeditated, usually, and released for specific political effect. All presidents do it, some more than others, and others are better at it than some.
Sometimes a candidate or politician lies off the cuff and off the script, like when surprised from a question asked, maybe made in a way that was not gamed out beforehand. But these are rare at the presidential level.
Some of Romney’s lies are calculated beforehand, but anyone who is following politics closely, right now, knows that there is a personal element, for whatever reason, that makes Romney different, and out of control at times. The goopers saw this in their primary, and tried out all the other candidates, that likely were the cream of the crop of right wing whackjobs, and settled on Romney, from being the least terrible candidate and person. Otherwise, I agree will all your comment.
harlana
Chris
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
You mean, “have been lying like the sacks of shit they are” and “since 1966 at least,” or whenever the first time was that Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon started their shenanigans about welfare queens and T-bone steaks.
Hoover and that whole generation I’ll concede were simply blind (“a fool, but an honest fool he remains”). Goldwater was honest, too honest, which is a large chunk of what cost him the election. After him, though, lying all the time (it’s to a large extent the reason why the alternative world of right-wing think tanks and right-wing media were conjured into existence starting around 1970).
Chris
@danimal:
I think that’s part of what sank Palin, actually. The fact that she was so blatantly fucking lazy about everything, including her attempts to capture the public’s attention, spoke to someone who thought she was entitled to the position just because, and was annoyed she had to put it even a minimal amount of effort. IOW, exactly like Romney.
The subtext to Nixon’s populism was “I don’t think you’re stupid; the liberals think you’re stupid, and I’m here to help you stick it to them.” The subtext to Palin’s “populism” is “I do think you’re stupid, so drooling stupid that all I have to do is keep throwing half-remembered buzzwords together and winking like a drunk come-on and you’ll vote for me like the good little sheep you are.”
Her base actually IS that stupid, hence the the number of people who liked it, but most people aren’t, which is why her approval rating never went very high.
Oldmtnbkr
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor: too many negatives in that one, I think.