Another Sarah Palin Thread

Paul Gottfried makes some great points about Pailn and many of her supporters here.

I honestly don't know why the fuck she matters anymore.

Because she has a lot of support among the large percentage of middle-americans who are going to vote Republican no matter what. And the Republican establishment is backing her.

She's the Democrats worst nightmare: a female Republican who's attractive to independent women voters.

She's also a conservative's worst nightmare. She's be a female Bush.

Another puppet for the military industrial complex swept in by self-loathing under-educated yahoos?

Hey, after 2 terms of Reagan, and Dubyah, I've pretty much resigned myself to it...

In other words, Democrat lite plus an extra heaping of foreign interventionism?

I'm worried that she's already becoming irrelevant. It would be great if the apparatus that foisted Dubya on us could do the same with Palin.

It gets worse when you consider the Obama foisters.

So far what I have heard from her has been too shallow for my tastes. I think she has excellent political instincts and a decent if unimpressive idea of what political philosophies have merit - but I also think she is not yet (and possibly not ever) an ORIGINATOR of ideas so much as one who picks up a good idea she hears elsewhere without actually plumbing the intellectual basis for the position. Which is good when she picks up a good idea and terrible when she picks up an unworthy idea.


All that said, anyone THAT obsessed with tossing about the word "neocon" and trying to make it stick to someone gets my suspicious about anything else they have to say. If I like, or dislike, her positions, I couldn't care less if they happen to line up with a neocon or don't. I also pretty much dismiss out of hand anyone who is up in arms about so called "Christian Zionism"

As usual in these cases, while I have honest reservations about Palin, her critics so broadly overstate their case that it makes me want to scoff at their horseshit more than it makes me reduce my pinion of her.

Fox News and The Supreme Court?

The only thing I find nightmarish about her is her ability to turn otherwise sensible independents into drooling pro-Republican fanboys. Most of you seem to have snapped out of it, but it was really bad there for a while.


You know how righties like to go on about "Obamatons?" It was like that, but real.

Speaking of irrelivent....

I enjoyed the editorial. I am still struggling to understand this anti-intellectualism that seems to be a part of American political culture, and I don't think I ever will get it. Palin really appears to represent that, and to a lesser extent the indignation over Kerry being fluent in French.

I do agree that Palin-mania has died down, and therefore the camp here on WF who said she ain't no thing but a chicken wang is looking correct IMHO.

I'd suggest it's WAY too early to draw that conclusion, let alone gloat over it.

By the way, if you use "wang" you have to lead into it by using "thang"

Governor Palin's greatest audience is comprised of her detractors.

It's actually something of a masterstroke. Republicans manage to portray their candidates (or some of them, like Palin) as being "one of the people", in opposition to the elitist, intellectual Democrats.

The same holds for Glenn Beck and some of the rest of the right-wing crowd, and the left should learn from their technique, if not their message.

While in a vacuum I may have been indifferent to moderately negative about Palin, the collective pissyness amongst all the people for who's thinking I hold contempt makes me a huge fan. Shit, I've actually sent in contributions, twice, to instrumentalities that support Palin (this is separate from any teaparty contributions I made in 2009). In part a gag, but money is money.

The stupid liberal fuckers in the US are their own worst enemies. But I don't pretend to represent any kind of norm.

Besides, forget the Bush comparisons - Obama makes Palin seem capable to genius, so inept has been his administration to date. Failed at everything he's tried save spending and his world apology tour - health care repair, cap and trade, card check, you name it, FAIL has been the Obama formula for "leadership." [hell, Obama inspired my sig.]

The smug elitism is STRONG in that article.

If she runs she's got my vote. She won't be any worse then the shit currently occupying the office right now. In fact she'd be a hell of a lot better then the current shit in office.

There's also a lot of it on the right on this very board.

More like anti-elitism and certainly anti-arrogance. Anti-intellectualism is a buzzword no doubt created by those who believe a stance ideologically opposed to their own must have been concocted by cavemen.

In the United States, there is the widespread belief that intellectuals have a "we know what is good for you attitude".

Something that enrages many Americans as much as Palin's over the top folksyness (which even I loathe).

But a big reason that Palin is popular is simply who her critics are and their vehemence.

When many Americans hear the over the top criticism of Palin they remember the same stuff directed at President Bush and the not so veiled insults they see directed at the people who elected him.

Me.

If it gets the right people's panties in a bunch it's worth a listen, even if it seemed ignorable at first.


We've seen time and time again that smarts alone ain't enough (Obama's arrogance since campaign 2008 is just a prominent example), and that an absence of character can matter a whole lot even when accompanied by brains.

If the left would simply ignore Palin she would fade somewhat but their incessant fear of her and a possible 2012 run for POTUS leads them to constantly go on the warpath against her. As we get closer to 2012 the attacks on her will increase substantially unless she comes out and says she's not running. Personally I think she's already running for the office. (For some of you chowder heads on this board: I'm not saying she's a lock to win. Anything can happen.)

The left is telegraphing in the open who they fear the most in a 2012 election. They don't fear Romney or any other Republican. They only fear one Republican and her name is Sarah Palin. And for those of you on the left on this board: Please spare us your indignant litany of excuses that the left doesn't fear her. You personally might not fear her running in 2012 but the party leaders and big shots on the left do as evidenced by their foaming at the mouth every time her name comes up.

But yeah Americans hate the "we know what is good for you" people whether they are on the right or the left. Though the left pulls that "we know what is good for you" a hell of a lot more often. IMHO of course.

And Americans dislike people who go after others with venom on a constant basis. Especially when the attacks are over the top, stupid, going after family and/or hypocritical.

We even see this in some of the Obama stuff with the constant bitching over his birth certificate. It became quickly obvious that he was born in Hawaii but you had this constant over the top bitching about it that it actually helped him in the polls. Now that the "birthers" have died down to a few hard core retards he no longer has that particular life vest. People aren't being distracted by the whole "birth certificate" drama and are zeroing in on the real Obama. The leftist who wants to lay the groundwork for changing this country in ways that America (including those who voted for Mr.Hope&Change) don't want. Now his poll numbers are dropping.

There are seven states that turned from voting Bush in 2004 and switched to Obama in 2008 are all showing extreme displeasure for him and his policies. If Obama doesn't do something he's going to have a extremely rough election in 2012. He will have a good chance of losing.

I certainly hope he loses.

Correct.

IIRC, the three purely smartest presidents to occupy the White House during the 20th century were Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter.

That kind of says it all right there.

*Looks at network TV*

*Looks at Fox News*

*Looks at footage of kids splattered on a rock by a bunker buster*

Nah, couldn't be...