McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: “I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more.”
Worse, Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”
No doubt, by this afternoon, there will be a unanimous outcry by all the right-wing bloggers decrying the jack-booted thugs and this incipient fascism. After all, these are the same guys who got their panties in a bunch because… people called a radio show while Stanley Kurtz was on. Surely whipping crowds into a froth will upset them.
Never mind.
*** Update ***
Eugene Robinson asks the real question– will the media play ball and give McCain what he wants, which is to change the debate from the economy to all the nonsense chum McCain and Palin are throwing in the water. Personally, I think the economy is just too big to ignore right now, and there might even be a backlash for McCain attempting this.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Ugly, this is what McAnger and his impaler bring to the table.
They are playing to a fringe hate group. That’s all they have left.
Darkness
Maybe they want the media to turn against them as an excuse for losing. To protect their fragile egos. Absolutely nothing that happens to them can be their fault, so this could just be a pathetic defense mechanism. Funny how slow the press has been to respond in kind. Maybe they like the abuse.
ksmiami
OOH I am first, so here goes:
Basically, Palin is a fascist mean girl with a potty mouth and she and McCain need to be so thoroughly defeated and discredited that their brand of Republicanism never darkens the USA again. Have they even presented any cogent argument for the type of policies they would implement, or is the smokescreen up because how they would govern would be anathema to anyone outside of the 29%ers? I just want them done, gone and destroyed.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
By the way, an interesting comment on a GOS diary by JLFinch:
*******
someone left this as a comment at washingtonpost.com
But what about McCain’s own associations with former 60’s radicals. Indeed, until just a few years ago, McCain openly boasted not only about his passing friendship but also his deep collaboration with one of the most prominent of Vietnam-era student radicals, David Ifshin. The same David Ifshin who denounced America on Radio Hanoi as McCain sat locked up as a POW.
I met Ifshin about the same time he came into McCain’s life. But under very different circumstances. In 1970, as president of the left-leaning National Student Association, Ifshin traveled to North Vietnam with other anti-war radicals and it was then that he went on Radio Hanoi to denounce his own country’s war effort. That broadcast was piped directly into POW McCain’s cell in the Hanoi Hilton and he was understandably enraged by what he thought was a traitorous act by a fellow American.
I crossed paths with the same David Ifshin a few months later when he showed up in Chile with folksinger Phil Ochs and Yippie leader Jerry Rubin. We spent some days together n Santiago and I can personally attest that while Ifshin never went as far as Ayres did in becoming a literal bomb-thrower, he was very much emblematic of a generation of radical dissidents. Ifshin had risen to notoriety by leading the takeover of his Syracuse university campus. He opened up his NSA offices to radicals trying to shut down Washington DC with streets protests in May 1971. Just after their sojourn in Chile, Ifshin and Ochs went on to Uruguay, joined a local university takeover and were arrested and deported.
As the years passed, Ifshin – just like Ayers– eventually moved into the American political mainstream. Ayers came out of the underground, took up education as a profession and staked himself out on the non-violent political left. Ifshin moved more quickly to the center and eventually became General Counsel to the Bill Clinton campaign as well as a prominent leader in pro-Israeli causes. But until the day he died, at age 47 in 1996, Ifshin never renounced nor apologized for his youthful, radical past.
In the meantime, and much to his credit, Senator John McCain forged a close personal friendship with Ifshin, as well as a working political alliance. Together they worked to establish the Institute for Democracy in Vietnam and partnered up on the issue of normalization of relations with Vietnam.
As recently as two years ago, speaking at Columbia College, McCain affectionately and warmly recalled his relationship with Ifshin saying:
"We worked together in an organization dedicated to promoting human rights in the country where he and I had once come for different reasons. I came to admire him for his generosity, his passion for his ideals, for the largeness of his heart, and I realized he had not been my enemy, but my countryman . . . my countryman …and later my friend. His friendship honored me. We disagreed over much. Our politics were often opposed, and we argued those disagreements. But we worked together for our shared ideals."
That John McCain is unrecognizable from the man who today stands behind the scurrilous attacks suggesting that Barack Obama pals around with terrorists because Bill Ayres – when Obama was literally eight years old–stupidly fancied himself an armed revolutionary.
The old John McCain was able to overcome his own repulsion against a young man who went on the radio station of the enemy who was holding and torturing him and built a warm friendship with him. If Obama were to run commercials today criticizing McCain for hanging out with the Tokyo Rose of the Vietnam era, it would be nearly as execrable as the McCain campaign’s current smears around Bill Ayres.
*****
Interesting, huh?
harlana pepper
Attacking reporters. Threats. Nice. As Obama’s numbers with sane individuals continue to rise. Beautiful. God, I loves me some Sarah Palin.
comrade sparky
i get to sound the worry note–oh the joy!
anyway, while i don’t think the FSM is much given to prayer, i hope the Secret Service is up to the job.
please.
Snail
I really enjoyed the latest post from Wolcott. It’s nothing that hasn’t been said here before, but I particularly enjoyed his coup de grace:
Mmm, that’s tangy.
cleek
McCain needs to be censured for this. his behavior is unbecoming of a Senator.
dmsilev
Looks like the true ugliness of the GOP base is becoming hard to miss even for the most blinkered of observers. OK, maybe not the most blinkered; David Broder probably still thinks the GOP base consists of "Real Americans".
It’s a good thing that we only have 4 weeks to go. At this rate, if the election were held in late November, we’d be seeing the default uniform at GOP rallies become white sheets and hoods.
-dms
Comrade Face
Whomever had late October in their "When are they gunna drop a straight "n#gger" reference" pool is probably going to lose.
Those with Oct. 14 or some such date are looking better and better.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Gidget was just down the road from me yesterday. Local teevee was in a total froth and carried her full speech live. She absolutely packed the arena with 9000 of our dimmest bulbs. I wasn’t home so I recorded it, as I have new degrees of self-loathing to explore.
I don’t know how many of you have subjected yourselves to a full Palin speech, but the clips and snippets the nation usually sees are Shakespeare compared to the 25-or-so minutes of chirping idiocy that don’t make the cut. I’m now irrevocably convinced this woman is going on nothing but brain stem and hellacious ambition. There really is just not much cookin’ up there, and in hindsight her thick-headed responses to Gibson and Couric are about as good as she’s going to be extemporaneously. Foirget any ideas of savvy, she just puts it over on pure personal drive.
Also, her makeup looked completely ghastly out in the punishing daylight. She was definitely in McCain-trollop territory.
and Yes, Mike Scott ("Barack Hussein Obama") is my sheriff. He never seemed like a wingut. As there are no elected Democrats around here, he ran as a Republican but never seemed political. He got a great deal of Democratic support (about 5000 switched parties in 2004 to vote for him in the closed primary) because the former sheriff was such a creep and a grifter. He cruised to a 10:1 victory in this year’s primary. He was generally a welcome relief from the high drama that accompanied the last three in that office. I guess his lack of hair has affected his brain, or else he has his sights set on higher office.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Mel, was that Germain Arena? Home of the Everblades?
My old neck of the woods. I once saw Van Halen in that arena, NOT recommended. I didn’t have any hearing for a week.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Indeed it was. I’ve never been there myself.
Biden is coming to town Wednesday and I scammed some tix through being in the town Democratic club. He’s going to be at Ben Hill Griffin wanking monument FGCU, the arena of which has about half the capacity, so no doubt they’ll be much frothing about the comparative size of the crowds.
I could’ve gotten in to see Gidget through a co-worker, but after watching it I’m glad I didn’t as I know I would’ve done something to get 86’d, probably in a violent manner.
Comrade Face
GOS diarists have decided to go All Palin, All the Time. Christ on crack.
I swear, Barry could win this with 400 electoral votes, and 4 different diaries will spring up about how bad it is that he didn’t win OK and UT. These clowns are unhinged.
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
My suggestion is, if you are an Obama supporter who lives near a McCain rally…go down to the rally and pretend your a Palinite. Bring a ‘pretty bad’ sign with you and yell disgusting things when they ask "Who is Barack Obama". No better way to stop people from having these types of rallies than to make them embarrasing to do so.
Punchy
SNL in talks to get the real Palin on their show; I’m assuming pre-election.
Cant decide if this is good or bad. They’ll make her look more likeable, funny, etc. Pretty sure most of the cast are Dems. Interesting to see if they’ll write the scripts in a manner to make her look like a chump.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I read somewhere that she had an unscheduled event at Naples Beach Club Hotel at 10k a plate, and her jokes didn’t go over well there. (I’m a former Collier County resident myself, although I did used to work in Lee County in the past as well).
cleek
AP: McCain tied to guerrilla terrorists with Nazi-collaborator ties!
tee hee.
Comrade Incertus
We’ll get to see just how deep in the bag Brokaw is for McCain tonight, I guess. If the first question is about Ayers, it’s gonna be a long night.
cleek
we still can’t do multi-para blockquotes ?
f.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
The Naples Beach Club event was $1000 a plate. There was a second event at a private home in Port Royal for $10,000 a plate. Both were scheduled. Yeah, real Joe Sixpack territory. I wonder if she’ll be invited back for the Wine Festival (heh)?
I’m not surprised that the Gordon Drive crowd would find her less than appealing. That kind of old money detests arrivistes like Palin. They were probably mostly steamed at how traffic was blocked off for hours. Good thing the First Dude wasn’t there or they would’ve figured him for a foreman on a landscaping crew.
gocart mozart
When fascism comes to America it will have a Palin for president bumper sticker on its ass.
Stuck in the Fun House
Exactly. And tonight should be highly interesting. Can Mccain pull off palatable attacks on Obama’s character without seeming like an out-or-touch caustic old fart. Every indication is that Mccain really does have some serious personal animus toward Obama.
And the above example of Palin thuggery toward the press is already causing a backlash amongst the media. All this wingnut shrieking hysteria, while the people are stone worried about a looming possible economic depression, will hopefully drive the last crooked nail into the Republican coffin.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Oh, I didn’t know they did a Port Royal event, but I should have figured. When Bush came to town they did a Port Royal event at 10k a plate then too (that was the day he went to the Corkscrew Swamp sanctuary). They probably held the event at the same residence (not sure who sponsored it, but my former boss was there). So she doesn’t play well on Gordon Drive, who knew?
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Very Bad Ideas:
1) Anyone taking up the suggestion to infiltrate a Palin rally and act like an asshole. First of all, they’ve got plenty of their own shrieking anuses. Secondly, it gives them an excuse to blame the ugliness on "outside agitators". Hell to the NO.
2) SNL giving that woman any face time at all, but, hey, ratings. And Lorne Michaels is a tool.
Bob In Pacifica
Having been in the anti-war movement in the sixties, I’ve always wondered if Ayers and Dorhn were intelligence plants. There were plants from the FBI, CIA, even military intelligence squeezing their way into anti-war, feminist and black power groups. They were notorious for being the ones who’d be in the front of groups, who’d throw bricks through windows, and who’d disappear when the billy clubs came down.
As I recall, neither Ayers nor Dorhn were ever prosecuted for whatever they’d done, and weren’t they in the bomb factory that took a few lives?
I dunno, just a thought.
Napoleon
That is why I think bringing Keating up in response to the smears in the last 2 days is brilliant (although an amazing amount of the left blogsphere just doesn’t see it).
Bringing Keating up means that if the press does a "balanced" he said -she said on the Ayers thing they will almost certainly use what Obama is slinging on Keating, which happens to be tied directly back into what is going on with the economy, so it forces the press back on to the subject. If the press decides to simply not ignore the economy and treats Ayers as the side show it is, Keating is still relevant.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
There’s only one problem with that Napoleon, the media doesn’t seem to want to make the connection between a huge failed bank scam from the 80’s in which McCain was involved and the current failed bank scam of today, in which McCain’s good friend and economic advisor Phil Gramm played a major part. They mention "The Keating 5" but they don’t explain what the hell it is at all.
ARGH!
Tattoosydney
@ksmiami:
That term needs a rejig!
Yay!
Napoleon
Well I understand in a perfect world that they would run the 13 minute video Obama has, but I think they are doing a good enough job to make it work for 3 reasons, 1)I have seen it tied back on several newscast to "savings and loan crisis" or words to that effect so that the viewer has an idea it’s related, 2) when the S&L and Keating thing happened it was a really really big story so that there is a pretty good chance that a good portion of those that lived through it has a broad idea that it was a banking related crisis and 3) just getting out there he was involved in something will get people asking about it.
Montysano
Last night, Olbermann did a fine job of flinging Rev. Muthee and the Alaska Independence Party back into the public consciousness. For his next project, I hope he’ll report on McCain/Palin’s policy of restricting reporters from interviewing attendees at campaign events.
My question is: WTF is wrong with these reporters? Any self-respecting journalist should demand the freedom to speak to whomever they please. Failing that, they should either disobey and insist on being arrested, or they should exit the Straight Talk Express and fly home.
SamFromUtah
And the above example of Palin thuggery toward the press is already causing a backlash amongst the media.
No doughnuts?
r€nato
When I read the Dana Milbank piece from which you quoted, I was sick to my stomach. Words fail me.
Apparently McCain is not content to simply lose the election; he’s going to throw the remaining shreds of his credibility down the sink as he swirls down the drain, like an addicted gambler who’s already lost the house, the car, the wife and family and figures what the fuck, why not hock the wristwatch and the clothes off his back as well in one last desperate attempt to get that big win.
McCain will probably not run for another Senate term in 2010; but if he does, I guarantee he will not skate through like he has in every previous election. Arizonans are finally seeing him for who he really is.
Dan
They should keep beating up, figuratively and literally, on the media. That’ll work out just fine for them.
The media has already stepped away from their love for McCain. They’ve been trying real hard to be balanced. My guess is they will stop the balancing act and cover (uncover) the McCain campaign for what it is.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Freedom of the press is a privilege that ya shouldn’t abuse. You betcha!
jrg
Something bad is going to happen. These people are going to beat up a black person, a reporter, or an Obama supporter, or Palin is going to come out and say "n*gger".
When it does happen, I suspect we’ll hear the voices on the right clamor about "free speech", the same way they did when O’reilly suggested bombing the Coit Tower in San Fran, or when Coulter suggested that it’s a good idea to beat liberals with a baseball bat.
When it’s all said and done, I think Palin’s hate is a good thing. It shows the public how far gone the GOP is. We’re talking about very sick, very stupid people. I just hope no one gets killed.
The Grand Panjandrum
@r€nato: I am convinced that I was wrong about Johnny Drama all along. After reading Tim Dickinson’s piece in Rolling Stone I have little doubt left that I am correct in saying that the McCain we though we knew never existed. John McCain never had any dignity but he played someone who did for the TV cameras.
ethans mom
Ok, am I the only one who had to look up what thunder sticks were? I never heard of them before. I kept envisioning a rain stick which, given the gentle sounds they generate, just don’t seem very threatening.
RCJenn
To JRG; Looks like it’s already starting to boil to that point if there’s already screams of "Terrorist!" and "Kill Him!" at McCain rallies aimed towards Obama as reported in this blog;
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=10&year=2008&base_name=is_mccain_oblivious
This is really, honestly starting to scare me. Is McCain’s desire to smear Obama so far gone that he’s actually willing to fuel the flames of assassination against his rival?
Scary stuff, really, really scary stuff….
Zifnab
@jrg:
Oh, absolutely. But this isn’t 2002 and playing the "Liberals are terrorists!" card doesn’t work so well anymore. It would be in the left’s best interest if the wingnuts on the right really do go ape shit now. They’ll cement a stereotype of themselves that won’t fade for years to come.
Punchy
@ethans mom: You are CLEARY not an Anehiem/Los Angeles Angels fan.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Well, I’m certainly glad you’re seeing that. That was not the experience I had yesterday.
I recently moved to a place where MSNBC is not available so I’m stuck with CNN, and each time they addressed the Keating Five on CNN yesterday, the meme was "this is just another example of something that happened years ago and is not important when we’re concerned about this economy". It was as if they never knew or even researched what the Keating Five was about at all.
DSB
poor dear, she just wasn’t paying attention until 5 weeks ago. You can’t blame her, reading "Um, all of them" all the way up there in Russiaska, you don’t get all that news and information stuff you would get if you, um, read something.
J.D. Rhoades
It seems that Senator McCain’s "honor" is entirely poll-dependent.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
So are Hockey Moms the same women who were called Soccer Moms in the two previous elections – but they left the Soccer Balls at home and brought the Hockey Sticks instead?
Zifnab
To be fair, the newsmodels that anchor those shows probably weren’t out of elementary school when the S&L crisis broke. And the guys actually running the show on CNN haven’t given a shit about news since the early 90s. So this isn’t a surprise.
cleek
i usually roll my eyes when people use the word "fascism" to describe today’s politics. it’s just too hyperbolic.
after the events of the past week or so, and having seen the racism, xenophobia, and drooling anti-intellectualism become explicit, i’m not so sure i disagree. and even worse, i can’t shake the feeling that assuming Obama wins and puts the wingnuts out of business for a few years, his life will be in constant danger from members of the domestic politicial opposition.
it’s not a feeling i’m comfortable with…
slaney black
If it weren’t clear already from that despicable yahoo convention, Palin’s crowds (mobs) show it beyond a shadow of a doubt: the Republicans are now a rump party.
SGEW
You kind of get used to it after a while. Kind of. Booze helps.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
You know, if there is a failed assassination attempt against Obama after all this incitement, that’s GOOD NEWS FOR JOHN MCCAIN!! He’ll have succeeded in making Obama look like a risky choice because, gosh, America just isn’t ready for this stranger. Who needs a president born in the exotic not-quite-a-real-state of Hawaii who could be killed in office, when you could get a homegrown (well, Panamanian born) hero who’s more likely to die of natural causes in his first term and be replaced by a woman from the you-betcha state of Alaska who associates with traitors and secessionists, but doesn’t really mean it?
jrg
I’ll bet that if Obama wins, within 10 days of the election, we will see a rightwing terrorist attack of some kind. Most likely it will be a lone gunman, similar to what happened in the TN Unitarian church in July.
jcricket
I don’t want anyone killed either, but I am absolutely fine with Palin, McCain and others embracing the hate. C’mon GOP – embrace the anti-choice bombers, the racists, sexists, homophobes. Have coffee with the end-timers, jew-haters and immigrant bashers.
Take a giant swig from the fountain of prejudice and bigotry and feel the red-bull like energy you get.
And then express your emotions and feelings honestly. Getting it out in the open, being a "true believer", that’s the way to electoral success.
There is nothing I would love more than for the GOP to start running with the Texas Republican party platform as their guiding principles and a Palin/Gingrich ticket.
jake
We know getting savaged during a Couric interview = Epic Fail. But we need a new term to describe the level of fail Pailin exhibits when she tries to make Couric into Teh Debbil.
And then we need yet another term to describe the fail of repeatedly mentioning the initial Epic Fail event.
Damn. We’re going to need a whole new dictonary.
ThymeZone
When you consider that this bizarro shift in the McCain campaign is supposedly their last, best shot at getting traction, it is … stupefying … how badly they have fucked it up.
First they billboard it with absurd statements about "turning the page" on the economic disaster. Then they send Palin, whose every uttering drives more voters to Obama than to McCain, out to introduce the attacks, which associates her and her empty head with the attack in the minds of voters.
Then they shove McCain out in New Mexico yesterday to make what has to be the craziest, ugliest speech in the history of politics at this level. They fuck up the crowd control and manhandle the press. They attract ugly behavior and outbursts from the audience that gets picked up and broadcast on cable.
And the vehicle they need to keep the fire going under their new assault, the media, is insulted and mistreated at every turn.
You almost have to think that they are deliberately throwing the election at this point. Just going out with a bang.
Zifnab
Yeah, wasn’t the media supposed to be McCain’s base? He’s really stolen the banner from Democrats on the whole "Massively disappoint your biggest supporters" front.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
I’m telling you, Steve Schmidt is really DougJ. Have you ever seen them in the same room together?
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Well, not that I’m hoping anyone gets hurt, but I’m all for giving these loons 28 days to go entirely nuts if it means we can relegate them to the trashbin for a few decades or more afterwards.
Rick Taylor
You are far more optimistic than me. After watching the right wing turn attention from a failed war launched on false pretenses to a Vietnam veteran supposedly faking his war wounds, I don’t see why a similar tactic won’t work here. Which is why I’m thrilled that the Obama campaign isn’t depending on the media, but has launched a preemptive attack of its own. Rather than wringing their hands over how unfair the game is, their jumping to play it as it is rather than how they’d like it to be.
Ash Can
Punchy: SNL in talks to get the real Palin on their show…
I haven’t been much of a SNL fan since its first few years, and haven’t watched it at all in quite some time. But isn’t it still performed live in front of a studio audience? I’m wondering how that audience would receive Palin, especially if she and her rallies continue to become more and more obviously fascist. Watching her get booed off the set could be more entertaining than anything the show’s writers could ever come up with themselves.
Montysano: My question is: WTF is wrong with these reporters? Any self-respecting journalist should demand the freedom to speak to whomever they please.
Boy howdy. I still can’t get over that. Those reporters should be screaming bloody murder in print and on air today. (Caveat: they might actually be doing that and I haven’t seen it.) I don’t see how anyone graduating out of any American journalism program wouldn’t crap a brick right onto the front page of their paper, with capslock headline, if they ever found themselves in a position like that in their own country.
Zifnab
The Swiftboaters were relatively new to the political scene and they were leveling attacks from behind a POW firewall. This was also back in 2004 when calling a Democrat a commun-fascist loving anti-American hippie pro-muslim extremist fifth column terror agent was acceptable public discourse.
That was four years ago. If this were 2004, John McCain would be getting John Cole’s vote.
You just can’t pull that bullshit anymore. At least not easily and not without blowing through your existing stash of credibility. Just flip on FOX News next time you want to see a new organization no one takes seriously. They’ve been leveling all sorts of accusations against Barry O, and how many are taken seriously by the general public?
Frank Sobotka
What was the old saying, don’t pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel? I think the caveat is, don’t pick fights with people who have 24 hours of airtime to fill either.
I haven’t been alive for more than a few presidential campaigns, but this McCain thing has got to be the most farcical political campaign I have ever seen. By the time the vote actually takes place, the ‘blame the media’ narrative will already be stale. Who will they blame then? The American people?
Punchy
Yes, and it wasn’t pretty.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Frank, the vote is taking place now. People are already casting ballots in droves in early voting. Just saying…
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
YEAH! CNN is actually explaining the Keating Five as I’m writing this. Good, finally!
Comrade Peter J
Is that why they don’t allow reporters to move freely at the rallies? The campaign can no longer guarantee their safety?
Barbara
1: Re:
"Something bad is going to happen. These people are going to beat up a black person, a reporter, or an Obama supporter, or Palin is going to come out and say ‘n*gger’."
I keep waiting for the "macaca" moment, myself, but I doubt we could get so lucky twice in one decade. More likely, a member of the crowd will really go off on someone and cause a melee.
2. Re: Hockey moms
I am really scratching my head on this one. The reason soccer mom has such resonance is because it’s really just shorthand for middle class moms of young kids living in the suburbs — because ALL such little kids, even my athletically challenged ones, play soccer.
Where I live, "hockey mom" brings up an image of the crazed parents who attack each other and each other’s kids over some perceived too hard check on the ice, or maybe failure to get enough ice time. I bet there are more incidents requiring police intervention at amateur hockey games than in any other sport.
Plus, hockey is expensive — what with uniforms, skates, helmets, and ice time — and a lot fewer girls play it, and you have to travel a lot if you get any good at it. Again, where I live, a hockey mom is the ultimate affluent professional parent.
I am a soccer mom. I am definitely NOT a hockey mom, though I work with a couple. It’s weird that they don’t get this difference.
cleek
Corsi detained in Kenya.
golly, i hope he isn’t harshly interrogated.
John PM
@Barbara:
Thank you for the comment about hockey moms. That phrase has been driving me crazy. Hockey is definitely an upper-class sport. It is most popular in the "elitist" northeast boarding schools that turn out our "leaders" each generation, or in the more affluent suburbs of Chicago, where I live. Soccer is inclusive; hockey is exclusive.
BTW, I live across the street from a "hockey mom" and a "Joe Six-pack," and the thought of them running anything makes me scared and angry at the same time.
DragonScholar
Regarding the possibility of violence if Obama is elected (or before), I’d say it’s inevitable. The level of sheer irrational hatred that one sees is pretty appalling. If someone had shouted out ‘Kill him’ in regards to McCain at an Obama event, McCain’s team would be all over it.
After years of stoking the wingnuts for easy votes, by playing to their paranoia, now the Republicans have to cope with a barely-controllable group that’s very irrational. Sure they’re easy as all get-out to manipulate – as we learned a pretty woman spouting nonsense gets them going – but there’s also a chance of backfire. Besides, to keep the beast going you have to keep feeding it.
The Republicans and the wingnuts have portrayed the man as being almost the Antichrist, and that portrayal is going to stick in the minds of some of the wingnuts. I think some minor violence by wingnuts is almost inevitable.
My big concern is that some of the wingnut leaders, media personalities, etc. will act as if they’re some kind of "resistance" and cast themselves in that light, further inflaming the situation after an Obama win. That may seem politically advantageous to them, but it will only means the wingnuts prone to violence will have something more to motivate them and to act on . . .
Barbara
Right, hockey mom seems like it would have more meaning in Canada than the U.S., and, I guess, highlights how different Alaska is from the lower 48, excepting, perhaps, Minnesota and the Dakotas.
Brachiator
@Montysano:
Self-respect was extracted from journalists long ago. The media is a beast which must be fed. Palin is a "hot get," and everybody wants her. When ABC got the first Palin interview, they used it to pimp almost all their news shows, from "20/20" to "Nightline." And I’m not sure whether CBS is still rolling out Palin/Couric interview segments.
I respect NBC news anchor Brian Williams, but he was recently on the David Letterman show making a joke about the fact that Palin will not appear for an NBC "interview," largely because McCain is still in a snit over a perceived snub by MSNBC. But Williams was not in the least concerned about the McCain campaigns efforts to stifle press coverage.
The same is true to a lesser extent with McCain. Fer example, Davide Letterman is blasting McCain nightly for bailing out of an appearance on his show. But Letterman’s people are doing everything they can to get McCain to commit to a future booking.
Journalists fly with the candidates and willingly submit to all the rules imposed by the candidates and their staffs. And in turn, the candidates know that as long as they toss out the occasional soundbite or video clip, most journalists will never bite the hand that is feeding them.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Thanks, this makes sense.
I had not even realized until now that my own mother was a hockey mom, although she didn’t pay any attention to the sport, she and my father did purchase the equipment for my brother (and yes, we were affluent).
jcricket
I think this is a "shoot the moon" strategy. Do everything crazy and hope that the crazification factor = 51% :-)
jcricket
Hockey mom = lacrosse mom = field hockey mom = rich white person.
bedlam UK
Personally I’m just waiting for the ‘Nailin Pailin’ movie that Hustler are making in time for the erec.. eLections.
http://www.tmz.com/2008/10/06/tmz-covers-hard-news/
wonder if that will make Rich Lowry sit up in his chair a little straighter.
Brachiator
@Barbara:
I’m guessing that hockey is not an affluent persons’ sport in Alaska (and certainly not in Canada).
On the other hand, I can’t imagine too many Alaskan kids playing soccer on the frozen tundra.
Bad Horse's Filly
Never mind, they’re all back now ;-)
Zifnab
I mean… I guess. In Texas, we’re lucky to see one snow day a year. "Hockey mom" to us means "Yankee".
Krista
It depends, really. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily an affluent person’s sport, but yeah, it can be pretty damn expensive, between the cost of the gear and the cost of the gas you use driving your kid all over hell and creation for games. A lot of people get their gear second-hand, so that helps a bit. And if you just play it for fun with friends, it’s cheap, ’cause you only need skates, a stick and a helmet. But if you play in an actual league, then you need the full gear, and that can definitely be costly, especially if your kid’s a goalie.
This has been your Canadian Heritage Moment(tm).
Jon H
I bet it wouldn’t take much digging to find links between the Alaska Independence Party and white supremacist groups.
Jon H
"golly, i hope he [Corsi] isn’t harshly interrogated."
I think they should look into his witchcraft-related program activities.
jcricket
I should have said "rich white northern person".
Seriously. It’s where I grew up, and if you asked me about hockey I’d say, "rich white people play that", just like lacrosse and field hockey.
I know that’s not necessarily true in places that are frozen all the time, but seriously, the party that rails against the east coast elites and wealth is (I know, shocker) hypocritical if they’re using "hockey mom" as a synonym for "working class mom".
BTW – Speaking of Palinites. We need to have someone videotaping these events besides the press. That’s how the macaca moment happened, and that’s how it will sink Palin and McCain.
jcricket
I’m sure Dave Neiwert at Orcinus has something… He’s been saying for years that the right is fomenting the worst hate mongers.
And if Abe Foxman at the ADL would actually be objective for once, he’d realize he’s got to stop running cover for the racist jew-haters in the Republican party. They (ADL) has tons of data on hate groups and their links to law enforcement, conservative groups, etc.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Yay! Treason!
TenguPhule
I will happily serve on the execution squads disposing of wingnuts.
Josh Huaco
Um, no you won’t, because we’re not blood-thirsty eliminationists like wingnuts are.
jcricket
I don’t want them dead. But I want them humiliated and wailing. I want them to go further off the deep end and become a useless political party with no more support than the David Duke’s of this world.
Would serve my purposes fine if there was no more Republican coalition. Sorry if that leaves "libertarians" and "conservatives" out in the cold politically.
jcricket
I don’t want them dead. But I want them humiliated and wailing. I want them to go further off the deep end and become a useless political party with no more support than the David Duke’s of this world.
Would serve my purposes fine if there was no more Republican coalition. Sorry if that leaves "libertarians" and "conservatives" out in the cold politically.
Comrade Peter J
Will that be a MILF/Grandfather pairing?
Comrade Peter J
Also, I would like to commend r€nato for his work over at TicketStubGate.
Polish the Guillotines
If McCain doesn’t "win" tonight, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he throws a tantrum, screams "bias" and cancels the last debate.
Chuck Butcher
From the Bend Bulletin, Bend OR quoted by me here. I would quote directly from the article but it is behind a subscription. Ferrioli is regarded as a "moderate" Republican. He is an E OR Sen and has no opponent. Oregon has a part time legislature that meets biannually and pays a pittance, most people’s jobs won’t tolerate such absences and there’s not enough money to live on. It turns our legislature into a hobby of the wealthy and retired.
SamFromUtah
@jake:
But we need a new term to describe the level of fail Pailin exhibits when she tries to make Couric into Teh Debbil.
How about "epoch fail"?
jake
No, no, no, no. They’ll blame illegal immigrants smuggled into the country by DemoNcRats for the election. In 2012 you’ll need to have a DNA sample on file to get anywhere near a voting booth.
Common Sense
re "hockey moms"
It’s a dog whistle. I don’t know many "urban youths" that play hockey, do you? Even in Texas there are hockey moms out in the suburbs. In Sugar Land, where Tom DeLay led with honor for years, there are multiple indoor arenas to accommodate the Yankee immigrants. There are even high school hockey teams here. It is an expensive suburban sport, and totally different than soccer, which is played by immigrants on every patch of grass bigger than 10′ by 10′ in the city.
Cris v.3.1
@ethans mom:
Nope. I completely focused on that line, and thought "what the hell is a thunder stick?" It sounds like what an Indian in a 1950’s western would call a rifle.
But they’re big balloons. Suddenly this doesn’t sound so menacing. "The crowd threatened to bop reporters on the head with big balloons!" Ooooooh.
TenguPhule
It’s not bloodthirst.
It’s pest control.