This is my personal hell:
We’re going to spend the next four years chronicling this know-nothing hustler, and after that four years is up, we’ll be right back where we started, staring down the same empty road wondering how in the hell she didn’t manage to learn a damned thing in all her travels.
Bubblegum Tate
Oh, Christ. Prepare for a vicious onslaught of “OMG, Teh Palin Derangement Syndrome! Libs HATE Sarah!” for the entirety of the day thanks to the tomato-chucking escapade
Zifnab
It’s the perfect marriage of Anna Nicole Smith / Jon Benne Ramsey media madness and conservative politics. Sarah Palin is now the new gold standard for crap journalism.
GReynoldsCT00
Or how none of her supporters did either
feebog
How long is it going to take the Right Wing Rubes who think she really is going to run in 2012 to realize she is just another grifter after their wallets?
The Grand Panjandrum
She works better than a dose of Viagara on most of these wingnuts. No wonder they want to keep her around.
GReynoldsCT00
and too damn bad the tomato guy missed… how priceless would that have been?
valdivia
funny thing is that Obama Gallup numbers are at 50 today and will probably be up again tomorrow, and then down later. So will anyone let Malcom know his argument collapsed this morning?
drillfork
A tomato?
Given Palin’s aversion to Pacific islanders, dude should have lobbed a pineapple her way.
I mean, slice up the pineapple first. I’m not advocating injuring the woman…
Bubblegum Tate
@feebog:
They won’t figure it out until 2014 at the earliest.
Butch
Some parts of me, though, truly wish I could even begin to understand (and I said “understand,” not “approve of” or “empathize with”) what is motivating these people who will stand in the rain for hours to a signed copy of her “book.” I’ve mentioned before that I think she would need a week’s coaching just to recite the alphabet and I don’t get the source of the approval.
kay
I’m just accepting what must be.
She’s the standard bearer for the conservative movement, and the press are going to hype every Tweet, right up to 2012.
I’m okay with that.
I’m getting a kick out of imagining David Brooks, head in hands, weeping. He’ll come around and back the candidate. Maybe he can write one of those “heartland wisdom” columns like he did for Bush.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
For once, this really is good news for Democrats.
So, why worry? Put her on tv 24 hours a day, AFAIC. The more, the better.
The wingnuts creamed in their drawers over Barry Goldwater, and I think he still holds the record for the worst performance by a presidential candidate in modern times.
In the past two years, we have been asked to get wood over Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Phil Gramm, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee …. How is all that working out for the GOP so far?
Yawn.
( coma sets in )
MattF
I keep trying to come up with a rational explanation, and then I think, “Wait, no, rational is not the way here.” And no regrets either, ever.
Anoniminous
TV media companies love eyeballs, drives their ratings up, they can charge more for their advertising.
Teabaggers love Palin. There’s … what? … 14 million of the dummies wandering around? Huge audience (eyeballs) for a cable “news” (sic) show.
shrug
She’ll be around for a while.
aimai
SteveM suggests “waving the bloody tomato” to describe the scripted response of Palin’s fans to every humiliation and slight she receives on her ceaseless whine fest of a circuit ride.
aimai
erlking
If the polarities were reversed and tomato-chucker was a “conservative” acting like a dick to a Democrat, the wingnuts would fall all over proclaiming the rightness of the action, (see Wilson, Joe, et. al).
As far as I can see though, tomato-chucker is just a dick. Also. Too.
Roger Moore
@feebog:
Given the average wingnut’s grifter recognition skills, I’m going for never. I have yet to see any indication that wingnuts are able to recognize a grifter, even after they’ve been publicly shown to be con men. I don’t expect Palin to be the first.
Killer Tomatoes
I want the IMPORTANT facts. Was it a Beefsteak or an Heirloom? Because I’d use two different dressings depending on which it was.
Scott H
I really didn’t need to see a headline mixing ‘the shocker’ and Sarah Palin.
Kennedy
@GReynoldsCT00: Tomato guy? What about the shoe guy?
Also, it bears mentioning that in 2012, the media will wax poetic and fawn over how Palin has spent the last 4 years “boning up on policy” and truly “burnishing her credentials” for the nation’s highest office. Just fucking watch. I guarantee it will happen.
Comrade Dread
I’m actually guessing that she’ll be elected in 2012 which will finally cause God to decide that He tried to give us the whole free thing and tried to be patient with how we mucked everything up, but this was just going too far.
Hence, the apocalypse.
GReynoldsCT00
@erlking:
I don’t think anyone here is saying it’s right, but it’s still funny
New Yorker
I dunno, throwing tomatoes is so 1910s vaudeville. I’d much rather see her on “Hardball” opposite Christopher Hitchens and see the carnage that follows, but we all know that ain’t ever happening.
kay
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
I don’t see any point in resisting the decision. It’s a done deal. I do think the larger GOP are sort of kidding themselves if they think Sarah’s fans will accept anyone other than Sarah on the top of the ticket.
You thought PUMA’s were bad.
ruemara
I’m hoping she get’s taken down by a polar bar hitman for a pack of orphaned wolves.
ruemara
Bear dammit, not bar! that ‘s only valid in Arkansas. Where’s the bleeding edit button!
Steerpike
Surfin’ Sarah is going to ride this wave all the way to the 2012 primaries; you just watch. But there’s no way on earth she will actually get the nomination. She has backstabbed (and front-stabbed) way too many key party establishment figures. She’ll rouse the rabble, but the real power, the fundraising, is dead set against her.
The fun will be when she heads all the way off the ranch (the definition of “maverick” after all), and runs as a third-party spoiler (on the “Tea Party” ticket, natch). This will split the GOP vote more thoroughly than Ross Perot ever dreamed of, and Obama will have the biggest electoral landslide since FDR.
UNLESS, of course, the dems face a challenger of their own from the left–someone with more charisma and actual vote draw (as opposed to “protest” votes) than a Nader or a McKinney ever could.
If that happens, and no one gets an electoral college majority in a four-way race–brace yourselves for the biggest constitutional crisis since the Civil War.
Bubblegum Tate
@New Yorker:
That’s what I thought, too. All the same, better to have employed the big ol’ cane from offstage.
Warren Terra
The Sarahgeddon story to read today is va’s delightful skewering of Stanley Fish’s apparently terminal case of starbursts, in a post at Whiskey Fire.
r€nato
@feebog:
I’m pretty sure they all know by now that wrestling is staged… but they still go see it.
Makewi
People like her. Not you guys of course, but she’s polling as well as any other politician out there these days, better on some days then Obama. I think you are underestimating her, or the caricature of her that you have bought into.
Seanly
The 2012 GOP presidential circus is going to be the worst bloodbath on American soil since Shiloh. Then the last one standing will be the conservative standard bearer that they’ve always accepted.
And if the economy is making good improvement and is halfway decent, Obama will get another 300+ electoral votes.
Quaker in a Basement
Way to go, you tomato-chucking loser.
If you don’t like her, stay home. Plenty of crazy people will show up and they’ll all be conservatives and they’ll say stupid things on the TeeVee. And that’ll be the story as long as you keep your tomatoes to yourself.
valdivia
@Warren Terra:
I saw that quoted at TNR and almost chocked on the starbursts. WTF Fish? Not that I have a high opinion of him but really WTF!
Demo Woman
@Makewi: I don’t remember a recent poll asking whether or not one likes President Obama. Of course I don’t remember a recent poll on Sarah’s job approval either.
gwangung
@Makewi: People love her, and those people love her fiercely.
However, the problem is that other people loathe her and they loathe her fiercely. And those numbers are probably enough to block any election to national office. I don’t see that changing over the next four to ten years.
aimai
Show some pity, folks–its winter! those tomatoes are hard.
aimai
Mal Carne
Normally, I’d be all for this, but tomatoes are so hard in the wintertime that tossing one at somebody is grounds for assault. Should’a stuck with cream pies.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Beats getting shoes tossed at ya!
I just noticed the typo on Dear Sarah’s book subtitle, they put an “f” where there shouldn’t be one.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Yer edit funktion is borken.
My post was this before WP mangled it:
Demo Woman
A commenter at Fish’s opinion piece wrote
Can one truly love the integrity of idealism?
Zifnab
@Makewi:
Said the man with no links.
bago
Alright. Looking at this link will hurt. I’m “leary” of showing it to you.
arguingwithsignposts
OT, but I’m sure you all received this e-mail from President Obama:
Wha? I’m sorry, but unless they show us what’s going to be in the final bill, they’re not getting a dime of my money.
ETA: I haz edit, ignore the ellipses in the blockquote.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Now on refresh it pulled the HTML space code it inserted on edit.
FYWP.
valdivia
There was a national poll a month or so ago where Obama’s personal approval, his appeal, is at 60 or more. So this malcom bs is even worse than just using cherry picked Gallup numbers on bad days.
Notorious P.A.T.
eY thingck zat willll hapn alryte
Sentient Puddle
Y’know, Palin has teased the idea of a third party run. And honestly, I think that’s where she’s ultimately headed. I think she’s got too big a head and too tenuous a grasp on what a presidential run entails to not run, and the Republican establishment is so going to kneecap her after she burned all those bridges.
funluvn
At the price of tomato’s today, especially any GOOD tomato after August, dude can chuck a couple at me.
A nice slice of fresh mozzerella, some fresh basil and a quick vinagrette of good balsamic vinegar and olive oil and I’d be set.
EdTheRed
Memeorandum is the new Drudge. It’s best left alone, unless you work at the Politico.
JK
Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention set a new world record for the most simultaneous erections at a public gathering.
dmsilev
@valdivia: Malcolm is a political hack. He was a speechwriter or something for Laura Bush before somehow morphing into a supposedly objective commentator. Think a low-credibility version of Karl Rove.
-dms
Notorious P.A.T.
@bago:
Hahaha ) I’m “leary” about her conclusions.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@r€nato: What’s wrong with rasslin’? The Kabuki of our time, it is.
ETA: I haz edit.
Bubblegum Tate
@Sentient Puddle:
I really doubt it. She’s going to keep teasing the idea because it gets teabaggers all hot and bothered, but she’ll never actually follow through on it–it’s way too great of a fundraising tool, you know?
ellaesther
I can’t get past the line “just 56 weeks after they elected him…”.
“Just” 56 weeks? “Just three,” I can see, or “just nine,” or even, say, “just 14.”
But that’s just stupid.
(I know, I know. The stupid does not surprise me! It just slays me).
Notorious P.A.T.
I can’t afford anything. Ask your Wall Street friends to whom you gave billions of dollars no-strings-attached. Or ask your buddy Rick Warren. Or the heroin dealers we’re going to be propping up in Afghanistan.
Karen
Hell, do what I’m doing. Baking cookies & making fun of her silly self on my own site.
I hope the thrower was charged with a misdemeanor. After all, it was a small piece of the tomato.
And he wouldn’t have been caught if it weren’t for the snitches beside him.
Notorious P.A.T.
How about a “grifter” tag for Mrs Palin? I love using that term.
noncarborundum
@Warren Terra: Fish is just made of wank, isn’t he?
ChrisS
We’re going to spend the next four years chronicling this know-nothing hustler
You know damn well why conservative media (as well conspiracy radio) is plastered with ads for get rich quick schemes. Glenn Beck went from a mediocre radio personality to a one-man media conglomerate worth millions because he learned that these dipshits will buy anything that caters to their narrowly defined ignorant worldview as long as he pisses off liberals in the process.
PT Barnum would be hosting a three-hour long show from 6-9 every weeknight on Fox if he were alive today.
Sentient Puddle
@Bubblegum Tate:
See, but that assumes that she understands a thing or two about strategy. Her resignation sort of casts doubt on that thought.
Bender
Notice to Obama-fellators: Please replace the batteries in your ironymeters before writing unintentionally hilarious drivel like this. Your machines are clearly not in working order. Thank you.
tamied
@EdTheRed: Which means I guess that they’ll be up for teh Pulitzer.
arguingwithsignposts
@Bender:
Who exactly won that election again?
Makewi
@gwangung:
Weirder things have happened, but I tend to agree that running against someone you previously lost to is not usually a winning proposition. She could make the argument that it was McCain that lost, but an honest evaluation will show that the Obama campaign targeted her for comparison just as much if not more than McCain.
I think her popularity will grow, which is something considering that the a great attempt is being made to make her a national joke.
Sly
@Makewi
There’s a difference between underestimating the political acumen of Sarah Palin and underestimating the ability of her handlers to peddle the bullshit narrative they’ve built around her to large numbers of people wearing “Who Farted?” t-shirts for $17 a pop. Plus sales tax. And their ability to convince Charles Koch and Richard Scaife to buy fifty thousand copies of her book and grind them up for mulch, just to inflate her sales figures.
Rick Taylor
Thank you, John McCain.
arguingwithsignposts
@Sly:
I don’t think there’s a way to underestimate the caricature of her I’ve bought into.
Kennedy
@Bender: Yeah, a Columbia/Harvard grad and former president of the Harvard Law Review is an apt comparison to someone who could barely finish her undergrad (let alone her first term in office) and struggles to string together a coherent sentence.
Please replace the battery in your retardedargument machine before slinging your weak ass trolling.
GReynoldsCT00
@arguingwithsignposts:
time to update the old pie filter…
Notorious P.A.T.
Country First!
arguingwithsignposts
@GReynoldsCT00:
Yeah, one of the trolls escaped.
ChrisS
@Bender:
Ha!
Surely a former constitutional law professor who, in one year, passed the largest stimulus package (which also included a massive middle class tax cut) in US history to avert a financial crisis of epic proportions and will utlimately be successful in passing some sort of healthcare reform (that has eluded every progressive president since FDR) can’t possibly compare to a former beauty queen that managed to run one of the least populous states in the union for all of two years. A state that relies heavily on federal subsidies and socialized oil revenue. It’s like playing SimCity with cheat codes and quitting halfway through because it’s too hard.
Palin can’t even face Katie Couric for crissakes.
Bender
The day Ball-Juicers pull out the “Obama is probably a little bit more qualified than Palin!” card is the day they must realize that he’s been an unqualified disaster from Day One.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@arguingwithsignposts:
Luckily I read your post before I dontated.
( rolls eyes )
Actually your message inspired me to give $50, my 25 and your 25.
Thanks.
“What did you do in the healthcare war, daddy?”
“I refused to give any money.”
“Groan.”
asiangrrlMN
You know, if I had known ahead of time that she was going to be here and if I weren’t so freaking sick, I would have went just to have a polite chat with her.
ETA: Aaaaand, just because I can (and to see if it works)….
It works! I haz an edit again!
The Populist
It’s sad really. I get that Sarah has resonance with the Jesus wing of the far right. What I do not get is all this adulation for this woman. She’s dumb….don’t confuse the ability to market herself with smarts. One can be shrewd and still be an idiot. She’s a fracking idiot.
If America votes for people like this they truly will get the shaft. But heck, this country isn’t getting any smarter anyway :(
eemom
@Makewi:
you claim that WE are making Palin a “caricature” and a “joke.”
Where is the Serious Real Palin to which we are doing such injustice? What actual substance does this woman possess that you regard as worthy of respect?
Joe Beese
[[ So I need you, the members of Organizing for America, to fight alongside me. … President Barack Obama ]]
You burned me on FISA and lobbyists and individual mandates, Mr. President, but what the hell. In the spirit of the season, I’ll call bygones and fight as you have fought.
That is to say, I’ll stand back and do nothing and then see how things play out. So, no $25 for you.
kay
@Makewi:
I’ve written repeatedly that I hope she’s the nominee, and I’m being completely sincere.
I will absolutely take her seriously when she wins the GOP primary.
For now, the press have been delivering free media to her for weeks. She gets to throw spitballs at anyone who’s actually governing, while smiling and signing books. It isn’t exactly a trial by fire.
I don’t think Sarah Palin’s book tour is comparable to Obama’s Presidency, or even a campaign.
But, absolutely, when conservatives nominate her, I will take her seriously. Until then, it’s a waste of time.
asiangrrlMN
@eemom: Feh. You are asking for something that doesn’t exist, but it doesn’t matter because it’s her persona which is more important than the actual woman. She is Frankenstein’s monster, only, now, she’s killed her creator.
And, lots of people liked W., too. Look what good that did for the fucking country.
kay
@eemom:
I’m treating her like a former governor on a book tour, because that’s what she is.
When she’s the official, nominated face of the conservative movement, I’ll respond accordingly.
Now they want recognition and influence prior to winning an election?
For a book tour?
Comrade Luke
I don’t know why everyone assumes she can’t get elected.
She’s dumber than Bush, but Bush got elected. Twice. And Obama isn’t exactly lighting the house on fire.
Also, the Republican party is built like a pyramid. They put whoever they want at the top and then trot him (or her) out for speeches while they do all the “policy” stuff behind the scenes. Quite frankly, the dumber the person at the top the better as far as they’re concerned, because they’ll get less pushback.
All it will take is really good, hard-working PR and enough Democrats to sit out to hit Peak Wingnut: President Palin in 2012.
Comrade Luke
@kay:
By then it will be too late…
arguingwithsignposts
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
What is that money doing, anyway, angus?
Has it helped us to get a strong public option? Has it helped us to impeach Presidents Snowe, Lieberman, Nelson or Lincoln? Has it shortened the painfully infuriating process of sausage-making by the preening egotistical windbags in the Senate?
This is the President of the United States asking me for money to get his legislative agenda passed.
There’s no mention of what they plan to do with the money. And I get so many damned e-mails from politicians asking for funds anyway. If I donated to everyone, I’d be broke, but they’d still be getting their taxpayer-funded salaries and health benefits.
I’m happy you donated for me, but don’t expect me to feel guilty at this point. I have given several times already. Unlike the health insurance industry, I’m not a bottomless pit of money. Put up or shut up.
ChrisS
the caricature of her that you have bought into
The caricature of Sarh Palin is one that she’s selling to the rubes.
Liberals/Progressives just can’t understand why people think she’s something other than a grifter. She’s about as logically consistent as an 4-year old, and I’m being mean to 4-year olds.
Her Core Beliefs:
– No to taking tax money or federal subsidies unless it involves a bridge in alaska or paying her to sleep in her own home.
– Healthcare reform is evil and Orwellian with death panels, well not literally, but I mean DEATH PANELS, how evil! It rations healthcare unlike the profit-based healthcare system currently inplace that, uh, rations healthcare.
– Global Climate change is likely happening and man might have something to do with it, but I don’t know and we shouldn’t do anything.
– We should more to protect our wonderful natural resources. Especially if that means shooting wolves from planes, strip-mining upstream from a massive natural fishery, delisting endangered species, and drilling for more oil.
– Creationsim shouldn’t be taught in schools, but it certainly should be part of the discussion, whatever that means.
Etc.
The Republic of Stupidity
The problem here is that as long as Sarah keeps getting rewarded so handsomely for being such an astonishing ignoramus, she has absolutely ZERO incentive to change… ya know, to LEARN something… ANYTHING…
As a matter of fact, I’d wager good money that if Sarah DID start studying, and actually it actually showed in her public pronouncements, the very same people who so worship and adore her right now would probably to lose interest, to distrust her, and even resent her for well… ‘learning’…
(means she’s turned into a durty, stinkin’ librul is what it means!)
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’m about 5 grand into political contributions in the last two years. I don’t need any fucking lecture from you, asshole.
And I find your “their not getting any of my money” to be a stupid, reactionary and self-defeating position, which is why I mocked it.
Back to you.
Will
@ruemara:
Polar bar hitman is more interesting anyway…
Midnight Marauder
@Bender:
So really…you have no point.
Edit: OH SNAP, SON! THE MAGIC IS BACK!
woody
Don’t be silly.
Look how she learned how “to work the room.”
She’s got the sheeple bleating and eating from her hand, and the lapdog press are never going to seriously challenge her legitimacy, as long as she’s in the Press, which she will be, from now on…
Sentient Puddle
@Midnight Marauder:
…right up until you upgrade to Firefox 4.6 Beta 5. Mark my words!
arguingwithsignposts
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
Well, I wish I had $5 grand to give. I am sorry, but a contentless e-mail asking for more money is not something that is going to get me to donate.
Check that e-mail again and answer my questions. Did you see any policy position listed there other than “reform” or any actual concrete steps other than “get the message out”?
back atcha, beefy guy.
Sentient Puddle
@Sentient Puddle: Ah, the irony of making a comment about the edit function that needs an edit…
kay
@Comrade Luke:
Well, no it won’t. By then, she’ll have to actually compete.
Are we really going to say that a book tour is like being President, or even running for President?
I accept her as the leader of the conservative movement.
What else am I supposed to do? Insist they follow someone else?
over_educated
Bender, you are getting better but you are still a bit to obvious.
Little Dreamer
@Makewi:
Was it that caricature of her that didn’t have any clue as to the material she read or was that the real thing?
By the way, it only took a year to come up with that list of hers, and at the top of it was NewsMax! This woman is NOT serious candidate material at all.
Quaker in a Basement
“All your unfounded biases and bigotries are actually based on reason and sound common sense.”
Can I have a book tour now?
Comrade Kevin
Why is there a picture of Henry Rollins attached to that first story?
Little Dreamer
@Sentient Puddle:
Thanks for the warning, I’ll skip the beta download.
Progressive Elitist
This Andrew Malcolm character actually puts tcot at the end of most of his twitter postings. He is a complete hack. I had no idea he basically ran the politics blogs on the LA Times website. What a joke.
Makewi
It isn’t exactly a trial by fire.
Sure, if you limit your scope. On the other hand, she’s a punchline in the new Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker movie, and her name was used as a snub on a recent episode of “Gossip Girl”. Which do you think the public pays more attention to?
Tsulagi
You betcha.
That’s not the point. Her travels are not to learn anything. They’re seminal events mixing with real Americans. Months from now with feet firmly planted while rhythmically panting tweets, lubricated with Beck’s tears, MOAM (Mother Of All Morons) will formally give birth to the Teabagger Party baby. Right now we’re just watching the conception.
Cerberus
@arguingwithsignposts:
HOLY SHIT!!!
We live in a dictatorship?!?
When the hell did that happen? Cause, see, here I was deluded into thinking that we lived in a representative democracy (representative of who, we won’t say) or as it’s known, a republic. Meaning that a president can’t really do shit about what congress does especially when several members have decided they don’t give a fuck about anything to do with party or america and are fine only serving their corporate funders.
See, in the America I thought we were living in, active support is needed on congress at all times just to get them to do their jobs and constant phone banking, bribe money, and the like is needed and thus when a president asks for help from the only people that have any real power over their elected officials, that is him “doing something” to pass his signature bill.
But now that you tell me that Obama is our dictator and has sole dominion over what our laws are, shiiiiiit!
Little Dreamer
@Comrade Luke:
I think you are expecting too much if you think Democrats are going to just sit home and watch Sarah Palin become elected POTUS. Even if we aren’t happy with our own prospect, we still have a defense game to play.
arguingwithsignposts
@Cerberus:
“the only people that have any real power over their elected officials” is the part where you departed from reality.
Like I said, put up or shut up.
Cerberus
@Cerberus:
Yeah, that was hyperbolic and yeah, I too wish our democratic leadership would lean much heavier on the fuck-ups and that Obama should be directing the party leaders to flood congress with bills so that our media and obstructionists can’t block them all.
But, it really strikes a nerve when someone expects an elected official to do their job for them and wave a big magic wand to make it better. It’s not that easy. It’s never that easy. We either spend the rest of our lives fighting for inch after bloody inch or we eat a shit sandwich for the rest of our lives.
We’re liberals, not conservatives. We don’t have corporations buying up congressmen and media figures on behalf of our issues. We actually have to work for them and yes, it is thankless and sometimes feels futile.
That’s what you get for fighting on the side of good rather than evil.
Cerberus
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yes, we the people. We vote them into office, we can mobilize against them, we can scare them. They roll in bribes to get re-elected to roll in kickbacks.
Ben Nelson doesn’t give a fuck about Obama or the party, because the only people that can do anything real to him are the citizens of Nebraska.
In evidence? Remember that brief time when the public option was suddenly in and they shifted to new tactics to derail health care? That was when Obama had everyone who voted for him call their congressmen.
That wasn’t supposed to be a one-time thing.
catclub
renato
wrote: “I’m pretty sure they all know by now that wrestling is staged… but they still go see it”
I am not so sure they do know. Scary.
You keep thinking, how could they not know?
So the answer to feebog’s question…
quoth the raven colored moose, “Nevermore.”
Liberty60
Whats the matter with you people!
Can’t you see that Sarah is a MOM? and that she understands other MOMS?
And she wears Carhardtt jackets! and she hunts!
And she’s white!and she loves Jesus! And she loves the USA!and did I mention she’s a MOM?
catclub
Comrade Luke @ 84
The key difference between GW Bush and Palin is that Bush
is a hereditary member of the ruling class.
If you think that makes no difference, you may also think there is no class warfare in the GOP.
As Warren Buffet says, “There sure is class warfare in America, and the upper class won.”*
*(Not necessarily an actual quote, but truthy.)
arguingwithsignposts
@Cerberus:
Wait, I’m not asking them to do *my* job for me, I’m asking them to do *their* job.
Sometimes? It always feels futile these days, despite the few wins we get, because money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure does buy enough Congresspeople to keep giving us the sh*t sandwiches.
Senators are the most thoroughly insulated people in the world, next to Representatives (Congress’s 94 percent incumbent re-election rate comes to mind).
And, like I said, if you’re going to ask for $$$$, at least give some concrete examples of where it’s going (like, say, advertising _this_ ad or paying for mailers to every household in America or something).
bago
I’m “leary” of Bender’s line of reasoning.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@arguingwithsignposts:
Stupid, man, because of this:
You know who gets to see “the final bill?” The president, when the thing comes out of conference.
Nobody else, no legislator, no pundit, no administration official, knows what that will look like until then. It’s a crap shoot, but the point is, that crap shoot doesn’t happen until the Senate passes something so that the conference can happen.
To get to that point, support is necessary. Holding back support now is BONE FUCKING STUPID. The process of getting that “final bill” onto the president’s desk is, as you may have guessed by now, an ugly and demoralizing series of fits and starts and theatrics designed partly to keep the rubes occupied while they do whatever they are going to do up there on the hill.
While you are bravely holding back your $25, the HMOs are pouring millions into tv ads trying to break the public support for any decent measure. Your $25 that you dearly cling to doesn’t buy you the bill you want, it buys you leverage against an evil and well funded enemy that is out to make sure you get nothing.
Like I said, witholding that money for the reason you gave is just fuckdumb.
arguingwithsignposts
@Cerberus:
Both my Sens. already support a public option, and my Rep. is a good-for-nothing GOPer whom I’ve already promised I will never vote for because he voted against SCHIP, so I can call and e-mail all I want but it ain’t budging much.
kay
@Makewi:
I keep telling you this and you keep ignoring me.
Nominate her. If she’s such an organic sensation, it should be a done deal.
I’m not going to engage politically with Palin while she’s sitting behind a table at a bookstore, and Obama is dealing with three simultaneous crises. I recognize that she’s media pick for leader of conservatives. I get that. Call me old-fashioned, but I still stubbornly insist you guys actually compete before I hand you the trophy.
Original Lee
@Mal Carne: Not only are they hard, but also the thrower was throwing them from the second level of the mall, so there was a significant gravity assist. They’re lucky nobody got hit in the head and knocked unconscious.
Makewi
@kay:
I see we are having two different conversations. No problem, keep your trophy.
kay
@catclub:
Bush was a third generation politician. His brother had the entire Florida GOP machine, and he had Texas. He had absolute entrenched institutional support, all the way down the the county chair level.
His father was President. The local and state GOP had done it once before. They changed the initial on the signs.
Imagine senior Bush’s phone list. Just imagine. Now add Jebs.
It’s an insult to anyone who ever had to create a national organization for him to be in the same league.
kay
@Makewi:
You’re insisting I recognize Palin’s effect on the national political scene, based on what you consider some kind of pop culture measure. I don’t think she’s engaging in the national political scene.
I’m not going to “take her seriously” until she tries something serious.
She’s having a debate with herself, and winning. You want me to credit her with competing seriously. I’m not doing that. She’ll have to get there like everyone else.
I’m fine with her as the nominee. I like a race. I’m just not going to pretend she’s in one.
les
Sarah doesn’t have to learn anything; if you’ve looked at any of the videos with her panting fans, they don’t have a clue what, if any, positions, ideals, convictions or thoughts Starburst McTwinkle has, and they don’t care in the least. They’re terminally ignorant and proud of it, and they’ve found their perfect heroine. They think, rightly enough, that only a thoughtless boob can honestly–well, that’s probably not the word–represent them, and by jebus it’s time for real american to run.
arguingwithsignposts
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
Here’s an idea, AGOM, maybe in that e-mail Obama could have told us WHAT THE F**K he’s going to hold the line on. Or what he’s actually going to spend the money for.
“Leverage” doesn’t mean sh*t to me, because I’ve seen precious little of it up to this point. They are *still* wanking around about the PO, abortion poison pills, exchanges, triggers, and what all other crap while people are dying.
If the countless stories of lost lives, uninsured people and personal bankruptcies (not to mention the election of a President who campaigned on health care reform) haven’t convinced Lincoln, Snowe, Landrieu, Lieberman and the obstinate GOP, then I don’t see my $25 doing that much more at this point.
I am about at the point that no amount of money is going to convince any of these soulless subhumans to legislate *for* the people on this.
My cynicism is riding high, today. I’m sorry.
Makewi
@kay:
I think I may have lost my Rosetta stone which is necessary to participate in a discussion with you, as such I suggest you declare yourself the winner and go enjoy some delicious pastry of some kind.
I was merely trying to point out other salient facts regarding Palin, not suggesting you give her one of your prized trophies.
arguingwithsignposts
@arguingwithsignposts:
As if to prove my points:
—-
Wow. One day after announcing our new TV ad pressuring Sen. Joe Lieberman on public option, the momentum is tremendous.
Rachel Maddow played our Lieberman ad on national TV and said, “That’s what it looks like when liberals push back!”
And our message about Joe Lieberman being out-of-step with his constituents was reported on by the New York Times, Washington Post, Hartford Courant, NBC, ABC, CBS, local TV, progressive blogs, and others. (See media links below.)
Click here to see Rachel Maddow play our ad — then, can you chip in $5 to help keep the ad on the air?
In 24 hours, nearly 2,000 people chipped in to help us meet our original goal of $40,000 to air this ad. Now, we’re aiming for $70,000 to expand our buy in DC. Can you help us reach our goal?
News broke yesterday that progressive and conservative senators are meeting to strike a final deal on health care and that Lieberman thinks his obstruction makes him “relevant.” By expanding our ad in DC, we can tell other senators to ignore Lieberman — he’s not even representing his own constituents.
In other big news, Lieberman responded to our TV ad. From the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent:
A spokesman for Joe Lieberman, whose talent for annoying liberals seems to have grown exponentially in the heat of the health care fight, is now responding to a liberal group’s new ad hammering the Senator by dismissing the public option as the “agenda of narrow ideological interest groups.”
Seriously? 68% of Connecticut voters who support the public option are a “narrow ideological interest?” This guy deserves to feel more heat.
Click here to help us expand our ad buy in DC by chipping in $5.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.
——
Note the specific call to a specific action, and note the response from Lieberman. I’d be more inclined to give to that e-mail than the vague magical pony e-mail sent by the President’s staff.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
Why would he do that, you idiot? What lines are going to be held are going to be held behind closed doors in caucuses and conference meetings, where the really important work is done, out of view of the public. That’s the way this kind of thing always gets done, and should get done.
Your cynicism may be “riding high” but you need to step back and consider the realities here.
You don’t get any bill if the HMOs successfully lobby and spend their way to a stonewall situation and prevent any real work from getting done. And neither the president nor any other key player is going to give away his leverage, whatever that might be, by pissing it away in public right now. The closed door is where the power lies, ultimately. We elected this guy to do this job, so let’s give him what he says he needs to do it. Otherwise, what was the point?
arguingwithsignposts
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
Realities:
And calling me an idiot isn’t going to help your case.
PTirebiter
Mr. Cole,
It might be time to take a page from the Marines and embrace the suck.
Maybe start a Meet The Press countdown clock.
A week rarely passes without David Gregory giving voice to her bumper sticker platform; shouldn’t he be publicly inviting Palin to flesh out her ideas?
The Populist
So people like quitters and politicians that have proven time and time again that they could give two craps about them?
Wow. I doubt that. Polling well in likability does not equal winning elections. Just ask Huckabee who polled well in that area.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
Only if I am wrong. What are the chances of that? I think you see my point :)
( pause for laughter )
But seriously, you are falling for the theatrical version of this process that is shown on tv and blathered about on the blogs.
The real process is behind closed doors. Right now, behind those doors, are legislators whose constituents are being flogged by millions in ad money from the enemies of healthcare reform. The best way to counter that is to give some funding breathing room to fight back.
Mike in NC
I liked the story about some yahoo who got to a book signing at 0430 to better his chances to see the princess and get her autograph. He was quoted as saying “she’s hot” and would probably enjoy going fishing with a bunch of regular guys. Mainly, though, the moron felt she’d know how to fight the government. Got that? The best way to run a country of 300+ million people is to find some airhead who’ll make ‘gummint’ even more dysfunctional and mendacious than it was under the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate. So yeah, assholes and sociopaths.
YankeeApologist
@Makewi:
I’m a little behind here, but allow me to retort.
You are aware that being told that we’re “buying into a caricature of her” is hilarious strictly for the unbelievable amount of irony in that statement, right?
She had virtually no credentials to run as a Vice-President, barring that the GOP was awkwardly fumbling after female votes.
She was plagued with scandals during her time as Alaska Governor, including bribery and attempting to get people she didn’t like fired.
How are we being blindsided here, again? I’d love to know.
YankeeApologist
@Makewi:
I have yet to see a “salient” point.
I would like one empirical reason why Sarah Palin’s opinions are politically viable at this point.
What Kay is trying to say is that it’s very easy for the 101st Chairborne (God, I love that) to yell and scream about what everyone from Obama down to Petraeus and McChrystal are doing wrong in Afghanistan, or for a more earthy and relatable example, it’s easy for me to watch the Yankees play and say “I could have hit that!” when Derek Jeter strikes out.
Essentially, that’s what Palin is doing. From the confines of her book tour bus, she can Tweet all day about what a terrible job Obama’s doing, because she has no responsibility of any kind. AT ALL. You are having the same conversation with Kay, you are just running from the responsibility of accurately defending your point.
kay
@Makewi:
You started this whole discussion based a single poll number.
You took that single poll number, and compared it to a different measure for Obama, and declared that I had better wise up and take this person seriously.
You’re pretending that this is a “match up” and Palin is gaining on…something.
She isn’t even in a race. I know that poll number is all the buzz on the Right, and that it is, I guess, a “salient fact” but it’s meaningless in this context.
She’s doing well on a book tour. Is that the admission you want? I’m not going to parrot the idiot pundits, in the “race to 2012”, or whatever.
Comrade Darkness
@kay: I call sexist bullshit on anyone who loved GW Bush but does not want Palin. I mean, really.
Comrade Darkness
@Bubblegum Tate: This I can see. Working the sidelines of a new party, but not actually running for office herself, has all the upside and none of the down. She and RudyInDrag and Dick Armey can helicopter into places and screw over republicans who believe in helping the poor and stupid shit like that. You know, teach them a lesson. That has the same impact as starting a third party without having to create and run a national infrastructure. NY-23 was just a dry run. I can see this playing out more broadly, absolutely.
Will they name it, or just keep with “independent”?
zoe kentucky in pittsburgh
The one thing that truly bugs me about Sarah Palin is that if she were an ordinary looking woman no one would know her name. She embodies the GOP’s version of affirmative action– she’s a pretty woman with a nice smile who can regurgitate muddled talking points and has an ego that far outmeasures her intelligence. She’s proudly shallow, not a scholar by any stretch, and she’s miles away from anything serious or thoughtful. She’s literally a beauty pageant contestant who keeps proving over and over how little she understands, hell, she doesn’t even pretend that she thinks its important to know and understand anything.
Palin is a lot like Ann Coulter in that respect– both of them built their careers on their looks– although I think in a debate between the two that Coulter would win, hands-down.
Common Sense
@zoe kentucky in pittsburgh:
Ann Coulter is Ivy League educated. Not that I am defending her.
Dog is My Copilot
After Dubya was elected (astoundingly) in 2000, and then re-elected for another long, agonizing four years, I don’t underestimate the chance that Palin may get elected to the highest office in the land, if she were to run. If and when she does, I’m leaving the U.S.