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Dishing on Palin
DISHING ON PALIN....Don't lie: you know you want to hear it. The presidential campaign has only been over for 24 hours, but that's all it's taken for two months of accumulated bitterness and rage from McCain staffers toward Sarah Palin to finally explode onto the news pages. For starters, here is John McCain's private opinion of Palin, as reported by the Guardian:
An exasperated McCain has been telling friends in recent weeks that Palin is even more trouble than a pitbull. In one joke doing the rounds, the Republican presidential candidate has been asking friends: what is the difference between Sarah Palin and a pitbull? The friendly canine eventually lets go, is the McCain punchline.
Here is the McCain campaign's take on Palin's clothing extravaganza, as reported by Newsweek:
Newsweek has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy.....An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
And here are some "McCain staffers" explaining that Palin is not just a moron, but a bad-tempered moron, as reported by Fox's Carl Cameron:
There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lacked the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We're told by folks that she didn't know what countries were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being Canada, the US, and Mexico. We're told that she didn't understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself. A whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled, was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn't accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times where she was hard to control emotionally. There's talk of temper tantrums at bad news clippings.
Regarding the last report, Shep Smith asks the obvious question: "How could they end up with a running mate who doesn't know that Africa is a continent?" Cameron explains that the vetting process "was truncated."
Earlier today, I had in mind a post about Palin that would have started out by saying that I didn't think she was stupid, just completely uninterested in national policy issues prior to August 29th. Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't write that post.
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Golly, I'm almost starting to feel sorry for her. She didn't pick herself for this job, after all.
Carl Cameron/Shep Smith reports, Kevin Drum transcribes.
Fair and balanced.
And yet this comedy act got nearly half the votes. How is that remotely possible? What, seriously, is wrong with this country?
And yet this comedy act got nearly half the votes. How is that remotely possible? What, seriously, is wrong with this country?
AND they were outspent almost 7 to 1.
What does this "almost a tie" say about:
a) Country's racism
b) Value of negative commercials
c) "Harm" of two party systems
d) Wastefulness/disgustingness of spending $600M on an election
I really can't tell. Are we so racist as a country that we needed a 7:1 spending advantage?
Are we so loyal to parties that even in this "perfect storm" Democratic year, the result is still close to a tie?
I think the "almost a tie" suggests the best election reform would be to allow greens and libertarians at the debates.
And while I am relieved Obama won, I think the $600M and 7:1 spending was shameful, and I recall the days that campaign election reform was a Democratic value.
Thanks for the note Kevin. I was just telling myself "time to go find myself some Palin schadenfraude. I'll bet Kevin has something up at his blog."
You didn't disappoint me. I still can't believe McCain chose this ignoramus for his running mate.
What, seriously, is wrong with this country?
There are too many people in this country who do not put the interests of the nation or their fellow human beings before their petty partisanship. Some of those people are Democrats. As evidenced by the 45%+ vote last night, most of them are Republicans.
I don't care if it's true or not. It's hilarious just the same.
Also, yes; tribal affiliations > national identity.
Does anyone know if Palin has made any comments to the press post the Obama win?
I would be curious to know if she can dig some grace out of that partisan shell.
Next you will tell me that India is a subcontinent and not a country.
Ah the liberal lies!
Much as I would laugh (or cringe) if this were true, something doesn't quite smell right. She was really clueless enough to believe that Africa was a country and not a continent? Is it possible she momentarily got it confused with Australia (country and continent) and then corrected herself? Or that the McCain aides are trying to make her look as bad as possible so she won't succeed in triumphing over their boss, or so they can blame someone for his defeat other than... McCain?
Regardless of how pathetically unqualified Palin is as a vice-president candidate, not to mention for any public office, McCain selected here at Steven Schmidt's urging.
Now Schmidt, and his slime bucket posse, are dumping all over her.
It says way more about the depravity of McCain, Schmidt, and et al than it says about Palin. She will descend back into obscurity while McCain will try to rehabilitate what little dignity he ever had and Schmidt will seek, probably successfully, another gig. Schmidt looks to me like a post-apocalyptic humanoid predator, and Mad Max should take care of him.
Check out the NYT at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06mccain.html with special attention to William Kristol.
Kevein, thanks for this.
The pig was really contemptible and it is fun to poke fun at profoundly stupid, ignorant people who think they are smart and informed. And who are also racist, lying scum.
Also, hom much does it cost to put lipstick on a pig? $11,000 a week, apparently. (Google Palin makeup.)
I sent the Fox News clip to some friends and family. And my sister - who teaches economics at a 2-year "tech school" college in Wisconsin - wrote back to say that the NAFTA and Africa mistakes are pretty common in her student population.
But she adds that she's pretty sure none of them is going to be a VP candidate, so...
"Does anyone know if Palin has made any comments to the press post the Obama win?"
This morning, she was on camera somewhere being asked about 2012. She said "Oh..Twenty-twelve seems like it is years away..."
"Oh..Twenty-twelve seems like it is years away..."
Well, gotta give the woman some credit. She's right about that.
Sarah Palin, and Joe the Plumber, will now proceed to write their books and become multi-millionaires.
Joe will get to that top tax bracket after all.
That's what McCain meant when he said that he believes in "creating wealth".
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?hp
As for Fox, you have to admit that they are ideed fair balanced.
The are presenting both sides of the Palin story. (One side before, the other after the election).
I'm Shocked! Shocked, that is, that every intial impression I had of Palin turned out to be true - & in some cases, worse than I thought. Contrary to popular belief, a cynic is never happy when he's proved correct.
Additionally, I'm shocked that 'The Media' saw fit to pay attention to Palin's deficiencies in real-time. Didn't see that coming.
I'm not at all shocked to see the current feeding frenzy. The bloom has fallen from Sarah's rose. Is it really appropriate to call this 'schadenfreude'? 'Cuz I'm not feeling a whole lot of shame in my joy...
Who cares if she's not really this stupid -- and I think she is -- what's important is the public fight!
You betcha.
If Palin thinks proximity to Russia counts as foreign policy experience I can believe she thinks Africa is a country.
It's appalling that 46% of our countrymen voted for the travesty that was the McCain/Palin ticket. Wow.
Are we so racist as a country that we needed a 7:1 spending advantage?
Yes.
What's the difference between Sarah Palin's vagina, and Sarah Palin's mouth?
....Only one retarded thing has come out of her vagina.
Ouch! That's what's going around our local biker bar.
"Earlier today, I had in mind a post about Palin that would have started out by saying that I didn't think she was stupid, just completely uninterested in national policy issues prior to August 29th. Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't write that post."
This comes from a reliable toady of the party which chose Joe Biden for VP, for heaven's sake.
"Wasilla hillbillies" is good, as is her memorable line from the debate, "There you go again. Say it ain't so, Joe."
She's just another phony folksy type like Bush or Reagan, a type that remains saleable to the quarter of the country that can't distinguish the product from the brand.
What, indeed? I had intended to vote for Nader/Gonzales but was so worried at the last moment that I voted for Obama in fear that McCain and Palin would win. After 8 years of the Bush/Cheney train wreck, I was afraid there were still enough idiots out there to vote in McCain and Palin. Whew. I was almost right.
And yet this comedy act got nearly half the votes. How is that remotely possible? What, seriously, is wrong with this country?
Has anyone bothered to check the exit polls? Yes, Obama the wunderkind won, but still maybe you should check the exit polls - if they are off by more than a percentage or two, that means the votes were rigged - just not far enough or well enough to win for "the comedy act". I wouldn't trust a computer in ANY phase of the path from voter to final tally. Every election day we need paper ballots, counted by voters (chosen by blind draw, as jurors are chosen) who count the ballots, and double check them, and carry them to the next level, where more citizen vote counters do it all over again. Oh, and the law should state that they must bring a covered dish for the potluck meal, BYOB and guitars and banjos if they got 'em. Might as well be a party if you want anybody to show up.
Wait to be clear, she was on camera talking about 2012. But has she congratulated Obama, commented on the win at all?
When we ask how half the country could vote for these people: in my office, among the well-educated, technical male computer-geek population, there are several single-issue anti-abortion voters. As my officemate said "I would have liked to have been able to vote for Obama in good conscience."
Perhaps we on the left need to be more COULTERLIKE! The need for a spirit of coming together notwithstanding, ENOUGH already of this trying to find a little something nice/good to say about everyone. In the same way that there were oh, so many people able to perceive the obvious stupidity and incompetence of GWB back in 2000 - there were many who didn't need all the "second looks" at Palin when she appeared on the scene. WHEN will we actually get a press corps that does their job (and that now includes bloggers)and uses investigative resources at their disposal to accurately inform us as to the FACTS???????
I find the people who voted for McCain/Palin unfathomable. I'm more and more thinking that big parts of our personalities, including conservative/liberal, depend on how our brains are wired, which depends greatly on our genes. So while I can't understand someone who would vote for Palin, I can't hold it against them personally, any more than I can hold it against them if they're black, gay, or handicapped.
Conservatism is an accident of birth, a birth defect if you will. Liberalism is an accident of birth, too, but a happy one.
Sarah Palin, and Joe the Plumber, will now proceed to write their books and become multi-millionaires.
Joe will get to that top tax bracket after all.
And come January 2010, you will find Joe's book in the remainder bin of your local Borders or Barnes & Noble. It'd be nice to see Palin's book achieve a similar fate, but I doubt Regnery would permit it.
I read the bit about her not knowing who was in NAFTA first over on Political Animal, and I have to admit that my first thought was "Well, based on the name, I thought it was Canada, the US, and Mexico. . . but maybe it's more complicated than that. After all, I don't think that I'm smart enough to be the VP." Turns out I am. . .
It isn't like "North American" is any kind of a clue or anything.....
Please.
There's a difference between stupidity and ignorance.
Governor Palin may very well be ignorant (and perhaps even delusional in some of her beliefs) but I doubt that she's stupid. From all external evidence, it would appear that she's crafty and certainly knows an opportunity when she sees it, even if it's just to grab a few designer dresses from Needless Markup while the grabbing is good.
We dismiss her as "stupid" at our peril. With proper management and handlers, she could very well be the next George W Bush, whom we also dismissed similarly -- and look where that got us.
Steve is right, I think, but it's worth adding that she is clearly poorly educated. Just think, what kind of college education could she have from attendance at five(?) not very well-regarded institutions of higher learning? The sheer lack of continuity would have been a considerable hindrance to accumulating much in the way of knowledge. And that lack seems evidence of a similar lack of interest in attaining knowledge. Or a lack of aptitude for doing so. Result: she doesn't know much. In addition, she doesn't seem to care.
Then there's the arrogance. A vice-presidential candidate bringing her speech to the concession? It's all about her, I guess.
On the other hand, I guess her lack of interest in knowing things is understandable: to channel Tina Fey, neither her college courses nor the newpapers covered the End of Times in any detail.
She could've said no, Cuttle, but her ego wouldn't let her do that, I guess.
"Truncated" = "nonexistent?" Strange how those GOPers trash the English language.
Remember who was most responsible for the Palin pick: McCain originally wanted Joe the Traitor, or maybe Tom Ridge, Mitts, etc. But theocrats and neocons shot that down, threatening to withdraw support from such a ticket. They had been grooming and promoting Palin for months. It's hard to say how "impulsive" McCain's own second choice was, versus being lobbied by them, but that's where he went after the rebuff.
Most atrocious, even after such outsider and insider excoriation, the same folks (see trumpeting by wretched Ann Coulter just now) still consider her "The One" and prod her to more action and continued visibility. What that tells us ...
I think Palin was put on the ticket for the purpose of giving her national exposure. The McCain goose was already cooked. Palin was added to bring the base back into the fold and lay the groundwork for the "new face" of the Republican party.
It worked. Palin has a rock solid following that will support her almost unconditionally, and is willing to disregard any facts contrary to their vision. This is why Palin refused to release her medical records, there is something in them that is extremely damaging with the base, which means it has to do with sex. Btw, stealing and lying are not sins to the base.
I was listening to a news report regarding the ongoing Republican meetings re: the status of the party. The report focused on finding a new message and a new face, nothing about policy or agenda. Your Republican party, all marketing, all the time.
Palin's pitfall is Alaskan politics. If she has ruffled Repub feathers back home and they take it out on her, she may not get re-elected governor. Losing a gubernatorial race would kill her national ambitions, Americans hate the stench of a loser.
Here in MO, our sitting governor, Matt Blunt, chose not to run for re-election, and face a likely defeat.
Actually this makes me wonder what thet said about Joe the bomb umm plumber in private.
cuttle shows empathy: "Golly, I'm almost starting to feel sorry for her. She didn't pick herself for this job, after all."
You know, I expressed the same thing on some boards after my first burst of outrage about her selection. She might have made a decent mayor for a town the size of Wasilla, who knows, but she was just thrust out into primelight of an intensity where she had no business being, and she was naturally tempted by the flame. I still can't believe the number of people who continued supporting her after her "pathetic!" [(c) Jack Cafferty] performance in the Couric interview--which merely served to reinforce the impression that the earlier interview with Gibson hadn't been a one-off flub.
In the end, though, we've got to thank her for her selfless sacrifice for the cause--the Democratic cause, that is, since the election could have been a lot closer had McCain made a reasonable choice for VP. The fact that he chose Palin certainly helped shift the sane undecided vote stronger toward Obama.
My prediction: McCain will actually become a maverick and work with Obama to help the country. As someone said, No politician is as good as his supporters think and no opponent is as bad. (Cheney is the exception.)
I do agree that Palin should not be dismissed. She should be investigated.
I would remind you that stupidity is physiological. Ignorance, at least in a country with passable public schools, is willful.
...And where is the outrage over taking husband and children everywhere on the "public dime"? Or is that SOP in our current excuse for "government"?
Never in my career in the non-profit sector would I have even CONSIDERED such an affront to honesty and integrity.
But, of course, I didn't work or live in Alaska....where they actually re-elect convicted felons.
I think that the McCain camp is in a serious overreach in its criticism of Sarah Palin. (This is the only defense of her I will ever have; she is one of the most disgusting human beings to which I have ever been subject.) HOWEVER - McCain knew what he was getting with Palin: her extreme views, her ignorance, her viciousness and lack of wardrobe lol. There are 300 million potential running mates McCain could have chosen; and he chose Palin. Make me question McCain's judgment. And the excuse, the vetting was truncated is an uranium balloon showing even greater ill-judgment to put someone you would know nothing about a heartbeat away from the Presidency. This DISQUALIFIES McCain from any leadership role for anything. Further, ever since McCain chose Palin, I've been hearing his choice was actually Lieberman (who, by himself, is a case study in overriding dishonesty and self-interest over Country), Romny was Rove's and Palin was Dobson's. This is evidence, among many other things, including the lack of any discipline whatsoever on the part of his staff, that McCain did not even run his own campaign, I wonder who would have run the United States had McCain been elected! The punch line is McCain has no excuses for Sarah Palin, and he had the good sense to take responsibility in his concession speech, kudos for McCain there, but he showed that he is entirely unfit to be the leader of the United States.
Those who speak harshly about Gov. Sarah Palin are evil. You hate her because she represents the values of middle America, our Founding Fathers, the Puritans, and the Holy Bible.
Just her mere presence is a thorn in the flesh of persons who are without conscious and who refuse to bend their knee to Almighty God.
You who read my posting will laugh and make fun of me because you believe people like me are uneducated and stupid. However, you are completely wrong. I hold a masters degree and have a much above average IQ.
From the Bible:
"The fool has said in his heart there is no God."
While some of you may give the nod to believing in a supreme being, your life style shows you are without God, without hope, and/or without natural affections.
Connie Stringer at 11:45--parody or not?
Lucy, are you feeling a stabbing pain -- because you are obviously a person without conscious?
Well, I did hit the bubbly in jubilation over the end times, er...in honor of Obama's victory.