gathering steam

Or, at least, hot air. I highlight this article from Media Matters because it's a great example of the Washington media focusing on the "popular fascination" with personalities that only the media themselves give a damn about.

Sarah Palin is the John and Kate Gosselin of politics. The Octomom of politics. Sarah Palin has a vanishingly small following at the end of the day, yet people watch her on TV and read about her in the papers because:

1. she's a train wreck. It's fun to hear what stupidity she has uttered and what bizarre, hypocritical position she's suddenly championing. What new and interesting way has she figured out to make herself look like an ass today?

2. the reporters themselves won't shut up about her because they think she represents some Nixonian silent majority that holds the key to the next decade of politics. You want to watch political news? You'll be hearing about Sarah Palin, whether you want to or not.

William Shatner recites Sarah Palin's farewell speech

This is why Conan > Leno.

Sarahmentum

This sounds like a person who has no idea how to govern. She's fixated on rebutting every single charge that anyone makes, but can't even set up an office efficient enough to return phone calls. And this person almost became Vice President.

not the sharpest, but a tool nonetheless

What was I saying about Sarah Palin not having sufficient intellectual heft to contend seriously for high office? From ABC News:

But as for whether another pursuit of national office, as she did less than a year ago when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska....

"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

The Department of Law. Thank you, John McCain.

Does that make Eric Holder the Secretary of Law? Or would it be John Roberts?

is it still trite if it's wrong?

A quote from Sarah Palin's July 4th email to supporters:

...it always feels good to do what is right.

I come from academia. In the setting I'm used to, every thing you say is reflected upon and poked at and second-guessed well before you put it in writing, so much so that scholars and professors can sometimes seem pathologically unwilling to stake out a hard claim without qualifiers and addenda.

Perhaps for that reason, I find Palin's thought processes and quotes interesting sometimes in how, well, unexamined they are. This quote would be just another saccharine Saturday morning bromide were it not for one amusing complication: it isn't true. And it's not just that it's not true, but that it goes against the grain of the very same pop moralism it plays upon, where the lesson is that the "right" thing to do is usually the harder of two options, and that the difficulty of the decision is actually an indication that it's right, rather than "the easy way out." Every eight-year-old knows that it often sucks to do the right thing, whether it's apologizing to your sister for hitting her or returning that toy your friend left at your house or admitting to the teacher that you're the one who was talking during the quiz.

Similarly, a couple of days ago, during her resignation speech, Palin quipped: "Only dead fish go with the flow." It's cute, it's seemingly witty, but it isn't anywhere in the ballpark of true. Actually, perfectly healthy fish regularly swim downstream, along with anything from kayakers to jellyfish, just as on the other side of the analogy, good leaders go with the flow all the time. They show that they can play well with others, and that the entire legislative body doesn't have to be hijacked for their agenda. Good politicians also take the occasional principled stand, sure, but that's very different than the knee-jerk contrarianism her analogy advocates.

I think there's fertile ground here for a comedy about a politician touted as a sort of super-moral country type who spouts folksy sayings that are wildly false. "Why am I running for president, you ask? It's simple, John: like the mighty buffalo, I'm always on the lookout for a new mountain to climb."

"The two parties are always bickering and fighting. In Congress, they have to sit on separate sides of the aisle just like different animals are fenced off on my farm; after all, you don't want your strongest bull eating all the chickens."

"I'll tell you why I'm against marijuana legalization: you shouldn't put anything in your body that's mined rather than grown."

This is why I just don't see a political future for Sarah Palin. She whines about being victimized by the "liberal media" (if she has learned anything, it's the political utility of victimhood), and wankers like Ross Douthat wish that she'd taken more time to bone up on politics, but none of that really sank her. It was her lack of self awareness, particularly in terms of her intelligence. If you can't hold your own in an interview and can't match wits with elite journalists, the media doesn't have to crucify you: the voters will gladly do it. All the boning up in the world doesn't help if the politician at the other podium has 20 or 30 IQ points on you. You will suffer for it. John McCain had 30 years to prepare for Barack Obama and he got smoked in every debate. And frankly, if you're really this poor of a decision maker, you're doomed to repeated onslaughts of negative press.

The Party of Beavis and Butthead

Krugman:

And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.

The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

You have to wonder how Jindal could have honestly believed that people would've reacted to his poking fun at "volcano monitoring" with a "yeah, how wasteful is THAT?!"

Shockingly, his choice of project to poke fun at is even sillier than that "fruit flies in Paris, France!" turd Sarah Palin flung in the last election. At least in her defense, most Americans are probably not immediately aware that a huge proportion of genetic and biological research is done on fruit flies because of, for instance, their extraordinarily rapid reproductive pace, and that French scientists are major players in the scientific community. Thus, if you're a redneck, millenarian wackadoo trying to hoodwink 200 million voters into giving you the keys to General George's digs, and you want to pick on scientists who do important work by obscuring and mutilating their research in such a way that it sounds wasteful, "fruit flies from Paris, France" is not a bad way to go. I would wager, however, that most people who hear "volcano monitoring" know exactly what you're talking about, and why funding it is probably a good idea.

it's never Thanksgiving for animals near Sarah Palin

Alaska Governor Sarah "li'l bit country" Palin gives a press conference where she pardons the Thanksgiving turkey and calls herself a "friend to creatures great and small (!)," but doesn't think about what might be going on right over her shoulder, in full view of the camera, when you stand in front of a hatchery a week before Thanksgiving. Let's just say it wasn't a blanket pardon.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Doggonit

Hysterical.

"Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast"

Newsweek lets loose with all the dirt now that the election is over. This part is positively choice:

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. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. 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.

now it's official

The biggest drag on the McCain campaign: not Bush, not Iraq, not taxes. From TPM, on the new NBC/Wall St. Journal poll:

Respondents were read a list of things and were asked to pick the two that most concern them about McCain. Thirty-four percent named Palin, versus only 23% for the runner-up, which was that it seems likely he'd continue Bush's policies.

That would seem to suggest that Palin may have become a greater liability for McCain than Bush.

Separately, the poll's toplines show Obama with an expanded lead of 10 points over McCain among registered voters, 52%-42%.

I believe this is the part where the media starts referring to her as "polarizing."

I've been saying it for a while now: by the time this thing is over, John McCain will seriously regret this decision.

McCain's endgame strategy

In the third debate, John McCain peppered his answers with old bromides like "redistribution of wealth" and "socialism" and, in a turn that most people considered damaging to his chances with the women vote, went on a brief tirade about abortion, gesturing scare quotes as he sarcastically intoned "health of the mother." When asked about the racist and eliminationist comments being spouted by his supporters in recent rallies, he defended his supporters vigorously, calling them patriotic Americans, not making even the slightest concession that things have gotten a little out of hand.

Sarah Palin commits another apparent gaffe a couple of days later, referring to North Carolina as one of "the pro-America areas of this great nation."

Then, two days after that, McCain himself makes the same mistake in Virginia, saying that, even though he's behind in the state as a whole, he's winning in "real Virginia."

And then today, McCain takes a racially charge turn for the worst, deriding Obama's tax plan as "welfare."

Yet despite all these supposed "gaffes," McCain has actually gained ground in the last 5 days, gaining from -12 to -4 in the indy vote and gaining 6 points among Republicans in the Research 2000/Daily Kos poll.

Can you see what's going on here?

It looks to me like the Hate Talk Express has decided to try to win the way Bush did it in '04: focus like a laser on conservatives. Return to the hard right rhetoric of the primary, rile them up, scare the hell out of them, and send them to the polls in the highest numbers you can. Use fear and hate to close the enthusiasm gap, rely on the high turnout rate of key conservative demographics and hope that once again blacks, young people, and women-- Obama's strongest demographics-- don't show up in high enough numbers to make up the difference. A judicious sprinkling of voter suppression efforts should be just enough to tip the scales.

There is obviously a case to be made that this tactic won't be enough. For one, Democrats have registered millions more new voters than the Republicans, so there may be too few conservatives put him over the top. Also, at the moment the enthusiasm gap is still much wider than it was in '04. Then there's the issue of Obama's wicked ground game and huge money advantage. McCain's tactic could backfire in a way that Bush's didn't; for instance, there's a chance that his "real VA" remark could boost turnout among Obama voters and leaners in Virginia incensed at the slight (say what you will about W, but he would never have made that mistake). There's the economy. There's Sarah Palin, whose potentially proximity to the presidency scares the bejeesus out of a lot of people.

And, of course, there's Barack's superior strategizing. Powell's endorsement was rolled out at the best possible moment to blunt McCain's case to conservatives, and he's been far more effective than any Democrat I've ever seen at working the media. McCain, on the other hand, can't even keep his own operatives from hyping a Powell endorsement before people leave work for the weekend.

the consequences of Sarah Palin's rhetoric

You had to figure it would happen eventually. From Philadelphia's local FOX affiliate:

PHILADELPHIA -- There was a scare Tuesday at the South Philadelphia campaign headquarters of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

The office at 15th and Christian streets was filled with volunteers around 5 p.m. when one of them brought in the mail and opened a letter that had a note and a powdery substance on it that immediately set off alarms.
...
Fortunately, the substance found in the letter was harmless and nobody was hurt. But the incident is still under investigation as a threat, Fox 29's Sharon Crowley reported.

This is the kind of thing we have all been afraid of ever since Barack became a viable candidate in January, and that we've been especially dreading since the McCain campaign started doing the full hatemonger a couple of weeks ago. McCain may have finally started telling his supporters to cool down (though only after being thorough rebuked by the media for fanning the flames), but his VP candidate is still at it, as are the supporters at her rallies, with nary a peep from ol' Grandaddy Warbucks. Today's and yesterday's Palin gigs came complete with shouts of "Obama bin Laden" and "kill him!," while we also learned yesterday that Sarah Palin quoted a man who openly advocated the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in her convention speech. The Hate Talk Express has now inspired what we can only call "nonlethal terrorism." How long 'til the next step?

Manichean

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, on Sarah Palin's foreign policy as gleaned from her talking points:

"It is absolutist and Manichean. There is good ("us") and evil ("them"). "We" stand for democracy and the "spirit of freedom that is found in every human heart". Since the clash between good and evil is both desirable and inevitable, "our" role is to bring "our values" to a waiting world and defeat evil. And in this conflict, "our" victory is preordained. Compromise with evil is unthinkable and so traditional forms of diplomacy are to be rejected as a sign of weakness and surrender. (In this worldview, diplomacy means working with those who agree with us, not finding ways to bridge differences with those with whom we disagree.)

Is there anyone on the planet more dangerous than the person who believes their military victory is preordained? Is there any force more destructive than the worldview described above?

Sarah Palin quoted man who called for Bobby Kennedy's assassination

And she did so in her big RNC speech. No kidding. From Frank Rich's NYT column today:

No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin’s convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess. After an assassin tried to kill F.D.R. at a Florida rally and murdered Chicago’s mayor instead in 1933, Pegler wrote that it was “regrettable that Giuseppe Zangara shot the wrong man.” In the ’60s, Pegler had a wish for Bobby Kennedy: “Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.”

And thus the McCain campaign's use of projection as a rhetorical tactic descends into farce as Sarah Palin favorably quotes an advocate of domestic terrorism.

Sarah Palin: still exploiting her children for political gain

She is so disgusting. Sarah Palin got invited to the Flyers' season opener against the Rangers, and came up with a great idea to keep from getting booed to death: she could hide behind her 7-year-old daughter, Piper! From ugh, FOX News:

Sarah Palin has become known as “The Most Famous Hockey Mom in America” for her constant referral to herself on the stump as “just a hockey mom.” This evening, she met that title head on by dropping the first puck of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey season in their opener with the New York Rangers.

A carpet was laid down and Palin, dressed in a beige trench, walked on to the ice joined by her daughters Willow and Piper. The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee said at an earlier fundraiser that she would stop some of the booing from the rowdy Philadelphia fans by putting her seven year old daughter, Piper in a Flyers jersey. She said, “How dare they boo Piper!”

Here's the reaction she got:


FOX News calls that "mixed."

a dream deferred, and thank God for it

One Obama supporter's sign outside last night's debate:

the results of the debate: pretty simple, actually

Pundits seem to be having trouble understanding a pretty simple reason for how Sarah Palin could beat expectations and still lose: the expectation was that she would lose so badly that she would humiliate herself. She simply lost convincingly, rather than embarrassingly.

An example from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

In this debate, Biden clearly had a better grasp of the issues. Palin skillfully sidestepped questions she didn’t want to answer from moderator Gwen Ifill and, in so doing, did manage to sidestep that media filter she talked about.

As a voter, I don't care how well she sidesteps questions she can't answer. What concerns me is that she can't answer them, but Biden can.

Advice for all future debate moderators

Why even bother coming up with questions? From now now, just turn to each candidate and say: "Governor, 2 minutes. Go."

On a more serious note, did anyone else find Palin's brazen assertion that she would pay little attention to Gwen Ifill's questions at the beginning of the debate, and her consistent follow-through on that assertion, surprisingly disrespectful? I mean, I realize that one of the McCain campaign's tactics (and a baffling one, at that) is to demonize and sneer at "the media," but don't we still expect Republicans to, I dunno, at least pay lip service to the rules?

the Couric interview: yes, there's more. And then, no more.

I have to agree with Josh: it's pretty clear that she has no idea what the right to privacy is as it relates to Roe v. Wade and abortion rights. Not being able to name any Supreme Court she disagrees with is the best part of this clip, of course (really? couldn't even pull out the ol' tried and true Dred Scott decision?), but both of those botches reveal the same ignorance. She just doesn't know anything about American judicial history other than "Roe v. Wade granted a constitutional right to abortion." Once she muffed the second question, there was no point in Couric asking her what she thinks of the decisions that would tell us more about Palin's ideology, like Griswold v. Connecticut or, for that matter, the Hamdi or Hamdan decisions. Palin is so helpless on this topic that it would've looked like Couric was bullying her.

Looking back on the historically awful decision to let Palin go to bat in the majors, the Crazy Train is, ahem, shifting its strategy. From CNN:

SEDONA, Arizona (CNN) – Sarah Palin's interview Tuesday with conservative talker Hugh Hewitt gave the vice presidential candidate a chance to showcase elements of her life story and demonstrate some of the folksiness that's been central to her political success.

It's exactly the kind of interview that voters can expect to see from the governor in the coming weeks, according to a Palin adviser, who recognized that there is hunger in Republican circles and among the public at large to see a less-scripted, more authentic candidate. That means more comfortable settings like conservative talk radio, and fewer opportunities for Palin to stumble, as was the case with a pair of high-profile network interviews with ABC and CBS.

As an email I got today joked, she's a turtle on a fencepost: "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, and she doesn't know what to do while she's up there, and you just wonder what kind of dummy put her up there to begin with".

Conservatives have finally gotten their wish: a candidate who really is just an average Joe, someone they can have a beer with. Be careful what you wish for.

Sarah Palin reads EVERY NEWS SOURCE IN THE WORLD

This Couric interview is like a goldmine of epic fail. A bottomless abyss of stupid. I keep plumbing the depths, digging down further than I'm comfortable with, only to find... more fail.

If it were a movie, I'm pretty sure it would be Plan 9 from Outer Space: so jaw-droppingly terrible, such a spectacular failure, that watching it first evokes surprise, then derisive laughter, then a feeling of pity and embarrassment for all those involved (Katie herself aside, of course, who will benefit immeasurably from this trainwreck).