Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.
Ouch. True, but ouch. And it gets even worse.
See also: The Double-Talk Express. John McCain – Not Ready to Lead.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Killer story. Must read.
(Edited to say:
FRIST!
)
Comrade DownValleyTrash
Hunter? Is that you?
Svensker
I just KNEW that was Matt Taibbi. He’s so cute when he’s angry.
Shinobi
That second article looks… not ready to be published. I found at least 2 typos and the publish date is Oct. 16, 2008. Is this Rolling Stone -China perhaps??
Comrade Incertus
and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way.
Apparently not, given the way her popularity numbers have plummeted in the last month. I know it’s hip to be overly cynical and all, but occasionally we see a bullshitter for what she is.
Comrade SnarkyShark
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I dont know dude, after a while that shit can start to hurt.
I would say we have all been rubbed raw by this point.
It might be time to slap the hell out of the crack whore.
Metaphorically speaking of course, I had no intent to slander crack whores.
Captain Goto
Shinobi–
IIRC, Rolling Stone is a biweekly (or twice-monthly?) publication, so the Oct. 16 date is appropriate for the current issue.
And–what svensker said. No one flings the spittle like Taibbi.
But the second article is **way** more sobering. As they put it,
Captain Goto
Of *course*, I screwed up the blockquote. Those last two sentences were also from RS.
reid
Who are you and what have you done with Michael D!
Unabogie
The question remains, why do so many Americans hate smart people? Why do we want politicians to be dumb, but don’t feel the same way about our doctors, lawyers, or teachers?
ETA: I can edit!
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Just this afternoon, a co-worker of mine was joking about tonight’s debate being a ‘cartoon show’. He didn’t sound like any big fan of Obama, but to say he was unimpressed by Palin would be an understatement. The bloom’s come off, she’s a national punchline now.
Polish the Guillotines
I think that’s right. I sure hope it’s right. Because it’s just not funny anymore. Stupid is not a good idea right now.
Michael Demmons
What? A guy can’t use his full name here?
Davis X. Machina
As soon as I peruse Liddell-Scott-Jones I’ll be able to tell you the right Greek-based term for ‘government by bright shiny things’.
And then we’ll have a name for what we’ve got.
Ash Can
John McCain, being a whining douchebag.
You can’t make this shit up.
Oh, and his campaign apparently is bailing on Michigan too. (Cue the lone bugler playing taps in the background.)
w vincentz
I’m hopin’ she brings a big dead moose to tonight’s debate and skillfully demonstrates proper field dressing technique.
Save me the inner loins, Sarah.
My wolf friends (those of us that dodged the bullets from your airplane) will be ever so greatful.
Let there be blood.
Jay B.
Comrades Incertus and Doug H. have it right.
Taibbi is certainly correct about how a vacuous moron can get into power here — and has — but he’s wrong about the glory Palin will receive. It’s going down in flames.
Further, I have ZERO doubt that if there was a functioning alternative media in 2000, if the netroots were as big and loud as they are now, Bush wouldn’t have gotten close enough to steal it.
I mean look at John McCain — the media literally loved that fraud for decades. But we’ve pounded on them to take another look. McCain has been unmasked. Bush is polling at 22%. Palin lasted all of two weeks. And it wasn’t the "media" that did this. It was the presence of an alternative voice and message — THESE PEOPLE ARE CORRUPT IDIOTS. It seems to have permeated the public consciousness.
I’m not being a blog triumphalist or anything. Events had a lot to do with it. But not everything. It’s a start, but this isn’t an insignificant fact.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
For many of us on the liberal/progressive/has-a-brain side of things, changing our mind is a daily occurrence. We like Obama, we liked Bill Clinton, but we have issues with them. But when you are rooting for someone, then we’re talking team, talking tribe, and no such nuance is tolerated.
Remind me to hide the sharp knives before I read another Taibbi piece
comrade scott
How would we know? I didn’t think he was around the unit long enough to solo….in the cockpit. I’m sure he was dandy soloing in the local bars and coke dens.
Xanthippas
Oh but you missed the best quote from the article:
I love it. And here’s a better take on McCain from Rolling Stone:
That’s near the beginning, and it only gets better (worse) from there.
Trinity
Read both of these stories yesterday on the train home. The McCain story is BRUTAL….but deliciously so.
Cristopher Max Jones Linden, spammer of cleek's 'name that tune' post
No!
Fledermaus
I love Matt Tabbi.
passerby
Michael, thanks for the link it was a great read.
You could’ve excerpted any paragraph from that article and have the same amount of Trans-galactic Scathe.
For Example:
Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies. But it was hard not to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of the suburban-American supermom. It’s the perfect cover, for there is almost nothing in the world meaner than this species of provincial tyrant.
Raw.
I’m sick and tired of stupid… enough to feel like he expressed my sentiments exactly.
Michael Demmons
@passerby: I could have excerpted it all. I agree. Great article.
Comrade Grand Panjandrum
Taibbi once again channeling his inner Doc Thompson. I love that vicious bastard. Now pass the bottle of tequila!
Michael Demmons
I can’t believe how Librul I’ve become.
Michael Demmons
And I can’t believe that my partner is a McCain supporter. FYI: He can’t vote. Like me, he is an alien.
SGEW
Welcome to Balloon-Juice, Michael Demmons, whoever you are (if that is your real name . . . (examines Michael suspiciously)).
Yeah, Taibbi is the bomb. As I’ve said before, he’s Hunter w/out the random violence, petty crime, or crippling chemical addiction (which may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your p.o.v.).
Also:
Don’t blame me, I voted for Kang.
libarbarian
The incessant grousing about the media was likewise par for the course, red meat for those tens of millions of patriotic flag-waving Americans whose first instinct when things get rough is to whine like bitches and blame other people — reporters, the French, those ungrateful blacks soaking up tax money eating big prison meals, whomever — for their failures.
A-FUCKING-MEN BROTHER.
I’m sorry for the sexist overtones but the best phrase to describe the GOP really is "bitches"
Pooh
Ah, Matt Taibi, which of course gives me all the excuse I need to link to his review of "The World is Flat" for the umpteenth time…
ethan salto
Since Taibbi is probably the best political writer of his generation, it would be more appropriate to name-check him, not the magazine he happens to be writing for.
D-Chance.
Did they airbrush a package onto her picture?
Xanthippas
Wow, I think I miss the buttons in the old format. I seriously don’t know how I blockquoted only part of that.
JR
Damn, I really miss Hunter S. Thompson at times like this. Imagine what that mutant would have done with Governor Stumbly McGafferton.
Shade Tail
I’ve seen Matt Taibbi on Bill Maher’s ‘Real Time’, and I gotta say, he usually came across as a bit more insightful than that. I mean, the broad strokes of his article raise a lot of good points, but that was published *today*, October 2nd, after close to a month of steady dropping of Palin’s favorability ratings. It seems like even those clueless consumer-voters Taibbi was (rightfully) lambasting are waking up to the reality that’s staring us in the face.
Perhaps that was written a month ago and is only just now being published?
Mike
Matt Taibi looks like the love child of a good-looking Southern fraternity boy and Chunk from The Goonies.