"This Wickedness and Stupidity"

For his bloodthirsty defense of the Iraq catastrophe, Christopher Hitchens will surely spend eternity as a cockroach. But for a cold-eyed, rational dissection of republican insanity, there's no one better.

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted as They Gave Us A Republic ....

There's more: ""This Wickedness and Stupidity"" >>

Snow 'Em Over Machine

There's more: "Snow 'Em Over Machine" >>

Evidence That Sarah Palin Was Herself An AIP Member?

It's old news that Todd Palin is a former member of the radical right, secessionist Alaska Independence Party. Now some evidence has surfaced that Klondike Hottie herself may have been a member. This video, posted on YouTube today by mtaa11, certainly seems to indicate a cozy relationship between the governor and this subversive group:



One thing the woman certainly has is chutzpah. If she didn't, she wouldn't be on the campaign trail bashing Barack Obama over alleged buddying-up with long-ago Weatherman Billy Ayres.

John McCain's VP choice is clearly a disaster of many dimensions, and this is one more. I won't suggest that she should sign a "loyalty oath," but it would be appropriate for her to either repudiate what the AIP stands for, or resign her vice presidential candidacy. I guess there's no reason she couldn't carry on as governor of Alaska. Some of the kooks up there seem ready to re-elect the likes of Ted Stevens to the U.S. Senate. Palin continuing as governor wouldn't seem too shocking. -- MJ

There's more: "Evidence That Sarah Palin Was Herself An AIP Member?" >>

Fundamental Pettiness Of Palin Doesn't Escape Attention of Panel In Her Home State

The image of a barracuda may sit well with certain voters -- the right-wing fringe, the kind whom John McCain has generally been indulging amid their outbursts of "Kill him!" and "Terrorist" at the rallies, in reference to Barack Obama. But that image apparently didn't sit well with members of an Alaska legislative panel.

The chief investigator of that panel concluded Friday that Sarah Palin, as Alaska's governor, unlawfully abused her power by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.

Here's more from The Associated Press:

Onward.

Investigator Stephen Branchflower, in a report to a bipartisan panel that looked into the matter, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who said he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

Monegan's firing was lawful, the report found, but Palin let the family grudge influence her decision-making — even if it was not the sole reason Monegan was dismissed.

"I feel vindicated," Monegan said. "It sounds like they've validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I'm not totally out in left field."

Here's a link to the complete AP report.

I think we're seeing more that has resulted from the abysmal failure of the McCain campaign to vet his vice presidential choice. The problem here was clearly part of Palin's record in Alaska for many months, yet the McCain campaign had no figurative mine detectors out.

Let's skip thoughts about Sarah Barracuda, as a prospective VP, for just a moment. What does this say about John McCain's fitness to be commander-in-chief? Would he choose his Cabinet, his judicial appointees, more astutely?

Granted, Joe Biden is an old face, all too familiar to viewers of Sunday-morning talking-head TV. But Obama, even with his just-under four years in the Senate, has made a vastly better choice for an understudy. Even if Biden is old news, I would feel a lot safer with him having the nuclear codes than someone like Sarah Barracuda.

I'd say Obama could be trusted to make many more good choices. McCain made a shockingly bad one, and the news gets worse every day. It might be a wise decision for him to urge Palin to step down and try to get, say, Mitt Romney as a late replacement. But it's so late in the game, I don't think he could be persuaded to do anything of the sort.

Bring on Nov. 4. I just hope there isn't some new and ingenious way for the Republican machine to steal this election.

There's more: "Fundamental Pettiness Of Palin Doesn't Escape Attention of Panel In Her Home State" >>

Palin's Appalling Ignorance Keeps Surfacing, This Time On Oil Exports

It matters whom a presidential nominee picks for a running mate. It says quite a bit about their judgment. After all, John McCain is presuming to be the person who will appoint a Cabinet and many federal judges. If he can't pick a good vice presidential running mate ...

Sarah Palin has shown herself to be someone with barely enough of an IQ to do OK with coaching and preparation. (As does McCain.) But when it comes to off-the-cuff knowledge of the issues, she's been losing every round since she was chosen. Today, the subject was oil exports.

Onward.
The Associated Press reported today:

WASHINGTON - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, touted by GOP presidential candidate John McCain as his expert on energy, seemed to have problems Thursday explaining whether the government bans oil exports — especially from her state's North Slope fields.

A questioner at a town hall-style meeting in Wisconsin said he had heard that at least 75 percent of the oil drilled in Alaska was being sold to China and said, if true, he would like to know why.

"No. It's not 75 percent of our oil being exported," Palin said, suggesting some of Alaska's oil, in fact, may be going abroad but not that much.

"In fact," she added, "Congress is pretty strict on, um, export bans of oil and gas especially."

No Alaska oil has been exported since 2004, and little if any since 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration and the Congressional Research Service.

And Congress has never imposed outright bans on oil exports. Congress prohibited exports of Alaska oil in 1973 when the Alaska oil pipeline was built. But that ban was lifted in 1996 when there were large volumes of Alaska oil coming down from the North Slope and U.S. demand was soft.

The Alaska ban has never been reinstated.

So this is Big Mac's expert on energy issues?

This is a person clearly trying to play far out of her league. But here's a scary thought: George W. Bush, Il Doofus himself, has been "president" for nearly eight years. Now, we're in two wars with no foreseeable end, the economy has been wrecked, and the Constitution has been sullied beyond understanding.

Bigger mistakes have been made -- perhaps.

(Here's a link to the whole AP article.)

There's more: "Palin's Appalling Ignorance Keeps Surfacing, This Time On Oil Exports" >>

Behind the Debate

In case McCain's faux-calm debate performance fooled you into thinking he's running an issues campaign, here's Keith Olbermann from Monday night to remind you what McShame/Failin' are really all about.



Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

There's more: "Behind the Debate" >>

Tits, Ass and Money

Warren Street of They Gave Us A Republic goes immediately to the heart of what the VP debate really meant.

We saw something we won't ever see again in our lifetime--a candidate for Vice President who is there solely because of her tits, her ass, and her money. And I don't make that point lightly--we saw what America has become by looking her squarely in her eyes--a country of tits, ass and money. That's all we have now for substance. Starving people in the gutter, problems piled to the ceiling, dying rivers, foul air, bleeding wounds, empty churches, gutters filled with trash, tent cities, empty houses, dead soldiers, broke cities, crumbling bridges, hungry kids, abandoned people, lonely roads, neglected schools--fuck that. No one wants to think about that!

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

There's more: "Tits, Ass and Money" >>

Be Progressive, Help Families and Poke a Stick in Sarah Palin's Eye - in One Easy Step

Yes, this is "Posting Forwarded But Unsourced Emails With Good Ideas Week."

This one is a three-fer.

Want to ruin Sarah Palin's day five weeks before Election Day? And do it in a way that helps families and burnishes your progressive credentials, all at the same time?

Then click here to make a donation in Sarah Palin's honor.

To Planned Parenthood.

It doesn't have to be a lot - $10 is fine. Think about it: Sarah Palin receiving dozens, hundreds, thousands of notices from Planned Parenthood that someone has made a donation in her honor.

Tell me that's not worth ten bucks.

Here's the link again.

Be sure to use the pulldown menu to choose Honorary or Memorial Donations, rather than just Donate Online, to be sure PP sends her the acknowledgement.

Then fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. Have them send it to McCain campaign headquarters:

McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ...

There's more: "Be Progressive, Help Families and Poke a Stick in Sarah Palin's Eye - in One Easy Step" >>

This is Your Country on White Privilege

If you're done laughing yourself sick - or just puking in horror - at excerpts of the second installment of Caribou Barbie's "interview" with Katie Couric, and you're wondering how in the name of Jeebus' Holy Cock we got to this point, here's one explanation.

This came to me through multiple emails ostensibly from someone who saw it on a UK billboard. I don't know anything about the author, Tim Wise.

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

· White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

(More after the jump.)

· White privilege is when you can call yourself a "f---in" redneck," like Bristol Palin"s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their f----n ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot s--t" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

· White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

· White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

· White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn"t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

· White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she"s being disrespectful.

· White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

· White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

· White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

· White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God"s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

· White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O"Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

· White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.

· And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren"t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

There's more: "This is Your Country on White Privilege" >>

Not Only Does Palin Kill Bullwinkle, She Spends Taxpayer Money To Slaughter Wolves And Bears

Stated upfront, I'm not anti-hunting. In my home state of Texas, the November-December ritual of deer hunters coming out to waste Bambi does serve an ecological purpose. The land can't support all the deer here, so annual culling actually helps.

So, it didn't shock or dismay me to hear that Klondike Hottie and her family are moose hunters. But what you are about to see on this video is disturbing. As Alaska governor, Sarah Palin has a record of supporting and bankrolling, with taxpayer money, barbaric aerial hunting of wolves and bears. This was posted on YouTube by defendersactionfund:



I know this isn't going to persuade very many people who were prepared to vote Republican anyway. The modern GOP isn't known for its empathy for wild, feral animals, unless you count Ann Coulter.

But to anyone who might still be fence-sitting, take note: Sarah Palin is a public official who may not even recognize that animals feel pain. And even if she does, she obviously doesn't give a wolf's ass.

To donate to Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, here's a link. They're trying to finance the airing of a TV ad about Palin's record on this issue.

That's all for now.

There's more: "Not Only Does Palin Kill Bullwinkle, She Spends Taxpayer Money To Slaughter Wolves And Bears" >>

Judge: Palin a Child Abuser

Sarah Palin is a child abuser! A judge says so!

What's that you say? The judge actually said that Palin's constant harassment of her ex-brother-in-law "amounted to a form of child abuse?" And that's not the same thing as calling Palin herself a child abuser?

Really? You think calling Palin a child abuser is a distortion of the truth? Kind of like saying Obama wants to teach three-year-olds to have sex when the truth is that he might have supported a bill (which never passed) requiring existing sex-education classes to include how to avoid predators?

Picky, picky! A judge criticized Palin using the term "child abuse" - that's not in dispute. Nor is the fact that an Illinois Senate committee on which Obama served approved a bill that included the term "sex education."

Yet television stations all over the country are running McCain/Palin ads that falsely accuse Obama of wanting to teach three-year-olds how to put on condoms.

So I'm calling Caribou Barbie a child abuser. And I'm going to keep calling Miss Alaska runner-up a child abuser until the Obama campaign starts fighting fire with fire.

(X-rated Rude Pundit excerpts after the jump.)

Unless the Obama campaign starts throwing shit at McCain, it will be over. Yeah, Obama wants to change politics, but ask anyone who has ever tried to subvert a system: you gotta do it from the inside. And if you cringe at the idea of Obama stepping into the muck and mire of post-Atwater poltics, then ask yourself: will he get more done by keeping his shoes clean and losing?

The truly aggravating thing is watching opportunity after opportunity pass by the Obama campaign. Here's some advice to them: you are not living in subtle times. You are living in an era in our nation where people only react if you use a fucking mallet, not a stiletto, to get your point across.

SNIP

So, dear Obama campaign, you have to use the word "lie." You wanna make an ad about the Bridge to Nowhere? Call McCain and Palin's assertions "lies." People don't give a fuck about "exaggerations" or "misleading statements." That's lawyer talk. Don't you get it, you stupid fucks? You call the Bridge to Nowhere statement or the plane-on-E-bay line a lie, you say it everywhere you and your people go, and then the McCain campaign has to prove it's not a fucking lie. That's the way this cocksucking game works. The honorable part is in not being a fucking liar yourself.

Goddamnit. Every fucking election the Rude Pundit can remember the word "lie" has been out there, low fruit, ready to be plucked, but the Democratic candidates are just too pussified to reach for it. John Kerry went down in flames because he didn't call out liars.

And it's not only the issue of lying. Go after their personal weaknesses. You should be making ads that imply McCain is too old to be president. And if you're criticized for it, you gotta say, "I think it's up to Senator McCain to demonstrate he has the necessary energy for this job."

Stay angry. Again: The McCain campaign just said that Barack Obama wants to teach 6 year-olds how to fuck. That deserves a little more of a response than it's "perverse" or whatever shit the Obama campaign just put out.

You want the best route? Here it is: emasculate John McCain. Use Palin to cut his nuts off. Constantly say shit like, "Am I running against John McCain or Sarah Palin?" or "If the Republicans wanted her to be president, they should have nominated her" or "Maybe Republicans are used to a vice president that runs the show" or whatever. Make McCain have to defend himself. Turn him into Palin's bitch. It'll make him insane. And if there's one thing that Republicans hate most about women, it's the perception of the castrating bitch telling men what to do (see all the shit about Hillary Clinton).

In other words, Obama campaign, as so many others have advised, go on offense, and that means you have to offend.

And Sarah Palin is a child abuser.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

There's more: "Judge: Palin a Child Abuser" >>

It's Worse Than I Thought: Inside Sarah Palin's Real Church, And This Is No Joke

In my previous post, I was making sport of Sarah Palin's holy-roller roots with the snake-handling images and such. But as details emerge, the real picture isn't funny at all. It's downright frightening. The Pentecostal church she belonged to, and basically grew up in, is linked to the "Third Wave" movement that has long been condemned by even the main line of Assemblies of God as heretical.

This was posted on YouTube by bruceewilson:



And, here's a link for more on the subject. -- MJ

There's more: "It's Worse Than I Thought: Inside Sarah Palin's Real Church, And This Is No Joke" >>

Inside Sarah Palin's Church: They Believe Prayer Can Convert Gays Into Straights

You read it right. Yahoo! News ran a piece from The Associated Press delving into Sarah Palin's background in organized religion. She used to be a Pentecostal (Assemblies of God).

You know -- it's that highly emotional Protestant denomination that is OK with speaking in unknown tongues and faith healing. Where I come from they are often referred to as "holy rollers" because of their habit of writhing about in the aisles when possessed by the Holy Spirit.

A few years ago she sort of switched to an "independent evangelical" church. (I thought that was basically what Pentecostals are.)

But, her current church embraces -- pardon the choice of words -- the Focus on the Family program that stresses prayer to help homosexuals become heterosexual. (But not practicing hetero until after marriage, of course.)

My question is: After this miracle of conversion, do they still have to handle the snakes?



There are subgroups among Pentecostals, mainly those in the South and Appalachian regions, that are into handling venomous serpents. Members have also been known to drink strychnine as a demonstration of faith.



Crossposted at Manifesto Joe. That's all, folks.

There's more: "Inside Sarah Palin's Church: They Believe Prayer Can Convert Gays Into Straights" >>

The GOP's Own "Castrating Bitch"

In one sense and one sense only is Miss Alaska runner-up Sarah Palin the GOP's Hillary Clinton.

The GOP has been licking its chops for eight years at the prospect of running against Clinton. I strongly suspect a large part of the disarray in McCain's campaign stems from repugs unable to adjust to having their dream opponent snatched away from them.

So, since they couldn't have a "castrating bitch" to run against, they chose a "castrating bitch" to run with.

At The Nation, Patricia Williams explores the real attraction and usefulness of Sarah Palin to the GOP: she's not just the pistol-packin' mama who'd make short work of any man who betrayed her, but the outlaw who breaks the rules any time she doesn't get her way.

(More after the jump.)

In other western countries, there is surely scandal, scandal everywhere, just like in the United States. What's different here, I think, is that our political imbroglios are drenched in subliminal desire that the wife murder the husband. Symbolically speaking, of course.

SNIP

Karl Rove clearly understands this. I'm pretty sure that's the real reason Sarah Palin is the Republican vice presidential nominee. This is a woman whose nickname in high school was "Barracuda," who shoots her own moose meat; and, as governor of Alaska, proposed a $150 bounty for those citizens who bring in the foreleg of a wolf as a way of eliminating them. She is a lifelong member of the NRA and favors shooting grizzlies and polar bears from helicopters, to hell with whether the EPA thinks they're endangered. She is being investigated for a possible breach of ethics when she apparently used her public position to pressure the state law enforcement officials after she felt that they didn't sufficiently punish her brother-in-law, a state trooper, for allegedly battering her sister and tasering her 11-year-old nephew. Her office is decorated wall-to-wall with dead animal skins, heads, carcasses.

SNIP

She is no long-suffering, good-wifely sort. You get the distinct impression that she'd pick up a gun and shoot Bill (Clinton) or Larry (Craig) or Eliot (Spitzer) or John (Edwards) in a heartbeat.

Surely there's something deeply visceral going on in Palin's apparent appeal to women who've "been done wrong." But there's more than mere sentiment: for too many people, this translates into a deep, anti-democratic, ultra-libertarian failure of ethical engagement.

SNIP

With regard to the matter of her allegedly battering brother-in-law, for example, Sarah Palin could have done what Senators Obama, Clinton and Biden did: work to write, pass and enforce laws like the Violence Against Women Act. Instead she did the vigilante thing--she apparently took the law into her own hands, using her role as governor to pressure and ultimately fire the head of her state public safety commission. However sympathetic one may be to her sister's plight, what Palin is alleged to have done is corrupt. Yet in an age when movies extol the lonely righteous outlaw, the line she crossed is so often trampled that we don't see it or appreciate it anymore.

SNIP

Here's my bottom line. John Edwards, Larry Craig and Bristol Palin may have committed excruciatingly painful breaches of "family values," but that's a private matter. It's really none of my business.

What is impermissible, however, is the use of public power either as a personal weapon or a personal reward system--for example, using public funds to pay for one's prostitute, as Governor Eliot Spitzer is alleged to have done. Or promoting one's mistress to a cushy job, as Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is said to have done. Or demoting someone for failure to do your private bidding, which is exactly what Sarah Palin seems to have done. For that is the ideology of banditry. No matter how well-intentioned, such deployment is irresponsible, because responsibility to others is the first rule of representative government. And this, rather than the prurient details of who boinked whom, is what we need be most concerned about. The kind of narcissistic entitlement that hides in, wallows in or takes actual pride in unaccountability is the antithesis of the role demanded of a public servant.

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us a Republic.

There's more: "The GOP's Own "Castrating Bitch"" >>

Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy Voice True Views About Palin On Hot Mike

This has been out for a day, but in case you haven't heard it, WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan and right-wing pundit Mike Murphy talked their way into a hot corner with hot mikes on, expressing candid observations about GOP veep nominee Sarah Palin. Here's the video, courtesy of WMAL News on YouTube:



Sweet drams, and dreams. -- MJ

There's more: "Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy Voice True Views About Palin On Hot Mike" >>

Palin Clinches Election - for Obama

For a minute there, I was afraid that sarie, who is obviously way smarter than Walnuts Depends, might actually use her small-town-on-the-frontier cred to reach out to independents, possibly even put this election back into play. An appeal to heartland values, especially right after Der Rudy's mouth-foamer, might have made an indelible impression.

But she didn't. She went straight for the wingnut freakazoid gut. And made them her willing slaves. They're building shrines to her in their front yards right now, gathering at work to sing her praises, preparing to-do lists for the McCain-Palin administration.

All 14 of them.

The wingnut freakazoid menace remains a clear and present danger to the nation, but while its psychopathic heart beats more insane than ever, the size of its fellow-traveler support is greatly diminished.

(More after the jump.)

Polls show the republican voter base shrinking below its 2004 zenith, below its 2000 strength, below its 1994 early growth, almost back to its 1944 nadir.

For the first time in 16 years, people self-identifying as Democrats outnumber people self-identifying as Republicans.

Now neither voter registration nor self-identification is a guarantee of electoral results - as we Democrats technically in the majority here in Kentucky have learned to our cost.

But if you know for a fact that your base alone is no longer big enough to vote your into office, wouldn't you make at least a token effort at appealing to those beyond your base? Wouldn't you try to avoid sucking up to your most fanatic supporters in a way that blatantly antagonizes the centrists you need to win?

As James Fallows explains, Palin's speech exposes and creates a number of long-term problems for her and the ticket.

... both Reagan in 1964 and Obama in 2004 were effective because, apart from their personal skills, they added something to their party's constituency that had not been there before. Reagan began recruiting the "Reagan Democrats," starting with white Southerners. Obama tried to recruit people tired of divisive partisanship.

Sarah Palin, at least tonight, did not seem interested in bringing anyone new into the fold. A speech that was great in the convention hall. We'll see how it affects the electoral lineup.

In a follow-up post, Fallows explains why mockery is best left to professionals.

First, if this speech energized the Republican base, I bet it did the same -- in opposition -- for the Democratic base. And the Democratic/independent/"had enough!" base is simply larger this year.

Second, I wonder how Palin's mocking, contemptuous tone about Obama will travel and age. It was great inside the hall -- again, think of Al Franken, who would of course have been funnier. But the track record of cocky-sounding newcomer politicians is not so great.

SNIP

Wise guys, male or female, do better on talk shows or as satirists than as candidates. (Obvious reason: for an entertainer, support from 10% of the market means a runaway success. A politician needs a lot broader support to win.)

I've learned through the years that it's very hard to judge political turning points in real time. But my guess is that the last twelve hours will be seen as the moment when McCain pushed all his chips into the pot to bet on a "mobilize the base" strategy. Given the fundamental math in this election year, that would also be the moment when it became very hard for him to win.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic.

There's more: "Palin Clinches Election - for Obama" >>

An Intriguing Postscript: 'The Real Sarah Palin'

Here's a most interesting link regarding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's VP choice. The picture that emerges is that of a ruthless, right-wing, fiscally irresponsible opportunist who abysmally mismanaged her hometown on her way to some sort of national prominence. -- MJ

There's more: "An Intriguing Postscript: 'The Real Sarah Palin'" >>

Palin, In Acceptance, Shows One Republican Qualification: She Knows How To Lie

Listening to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's acceptance of the GOP vice presidential nomination was mildly entertaining. She's no spellbinder, but she delivers a fair speech. So much for form. As for substance, she already shows one great qualification to be a leading Republican candidate: She can lie to millions of people without a blink.

I kept hearing something about Obama planning to raise Americans' taxes. All kinds of taxes, on all sectors. Palin even brought up an example of her sister and brother-in-law (no, not that one) who were starting up a small business, a service station. How would things get better for them if their taxes were to go up?

The problem: Nobody, certainly not Obama, has been talking about that. I clearly recall Obama saying during the primaries that, with perhaps a few variations, he would favor a reversion of the federal tax burden to where it was during the Clinton years.

Onward.
My wife and I have had something pretty close to a median U.S. income for over 20 years now. I clearly remember 1993, and the passage of the Clinton tax plan (by a margin of one vote in the House). I recall the Republicans' dire predictions for the economy, and how it would be wrecked, and how everyone's taxes would go up.

I also remember what happened to our taxes after the Clinton plan really went into effect. Our taxes DIDN'T go up. The rates DID go up on some very high-income taxpayers -- and within a few years, the federal government had not only a balanced budget, but a surplus.

Sounds like a great point of return. Here are Obama's actual positions, as detailed on his Web site.

Now, as for Palin's "executive" record on taxes?

As an example, I'll refer to the condition in which she left her hometown on her way to Juneau:

Palin Left Wasilla $20 Million In Debt. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin cut taxes while simultaneously expanding the town’s operating budget by almost $2 million. She ended her term in 2002 with Wasilla $20 million in debt. [Anchorage Daily News 10/23/06; the Politico, 8/29]

Thanks to fellow bloggers Yellow Dog and Warren Street for leading the way to this tidbit from Think Progress.

It appears, from this, that Sarah Palin has one other prime qualification for the Republican big time. She doesn't think you always need revenue to run a government entity. That puts her squarely in the economic camp of Republicans of the past 30 years. And it puts her, more importantly now, in the camp of the born-again supply-sider John McCain. Reaganomics III, anyone?

There's more: "Palin, In Acceptance, Shows One Republican Qualification: She Knows How To Lie" >>

Corruption and Incompetence Have No Sex

I was going to post a real laptop-exploder on the supposed sexism of the Palin criticism, but Warren Street at They Gave Us A Republic distracted me with some fun facts.

ThinkProgress has put together a document compiling what we know about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) vice presidential running mate. Here are the issues:
* Foreign Policy
* Earmarks
* Environment
* Energy
* Big Oil
* Science
* Women's Rights
* Ethics
* Troopergate
* Radical Right
* Civil Rights
* Health Care
* Economy

As Warren says:

This CUTS THE CRAP. This puts an end to the idea that she is opposed solely because of her out-of-control, puck bunny daughter and her rockpile son-in-law to be.

If I was a dyed-in-the-wool fiscal conservative, I'd be looking for the first flight out of the Twin Cities...

Click here for the sexy truth.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

There's more: "Corruption and Incompetence Have No Sex" >>

Stating the Obvious

I know we folks down in Florida get silly around election time but this is obvious even to us:

If being a mayor and then a governor gives more executive experience than being a Congressman and/or Senator, then not only does Palin have more executive experience than Obama or Biden, de facto she has more experience than McCain.

If being in charge of a state's National Guard or governing next to a foreign country constitutes more foreign policy experience than Senators on the foreign relations committee, Palin really wins. McCain only has armed services committee experience.

By McCain's own arguments, Sarah Palin is more qualified to be a "national security" President than he is.

Now, can we please stop answering to this. Please, make it stop.

There's more: "Stating the Obvious" >>