Palin 2012

Well, the concept itself is smart. Get somebody young and energetic out there and get 'em some name recognition and the beginnings of support for the next time around.

Sure it seems odd to not even wait until the current campaign is over, but the McCain campaign has to know where this is one is headed.

Unfortunately for me (as a person who considers himself a Republican, even though I haven't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1992), too, the candidate in question does not represent the direction I would prefer the Party go.

If this retard somehow, thru some miracle, wins the GOP nom in 2012, the dems will be thrilled. She's simply not viable. After proving in fifty ways how not viable she was, she got fooled by people who were not even trying very hard to fool her into thinking she was talking to Sarkozy. Can you imagine this moron in office? Woman's an international incident waiting to happen. So, if that's her plan, fine, but there's no way in hell she gets that nomination. In fact she's going to need the stars to align to even hold on to the governorship.

Did you get the "Mr.Smith" analogy from Patrick Goldstein? He also unfavorably compared Mrs. Palin to Mr.Smith and compared the way Washington is portrayed in the movie to the way John McCain portrays it.

I love the movie and it's always been my favorite Capra film but I found interesting what David Thomson had to say about it. He called Jefferson Smith ""a tyrant, a wicked folksy idiot, who commandeers James Stewart's alarming sweetness" and said that "He is the real threat in the film."

In light of the Sarah Palin phenomenon, I'm inclined to agree. If a know-nothing ignorant yokel was appointed to a position of power and declared that he was out to clean out Washington in REAL life, I'd be really, really scared. In a movie, it's charming and a cute fantasy.

In real life, when just a plain folk character is appointed to power, it's a diaster. Just ask George Bush and Sarah Palin.

I'm not sure if Thomson misread that film, or was simply being sarcastic. The character's only flaw was a belief in the nation's mythology- all things considered, it's not too bad a flaw, and must be judged on its results- which in the film, are all very good.

Now one could perhaps guess at certain things the character would do, or think, faced with certain situations- and indeed this extrapolation would lead to some scary results, ie an inflexible belief in the righteousness of capitalism and the evils of socialism, defense of any war in the name of patriotism, and so on- but it's not fair to infer those things, and anyway they're not in the film. Based on what we see in the film in fact it's fair to think a Jefferson Smith would have opposed the Iraq War, and would now be seriously pushing for prosecution of members of the Bush adminstration, where in reality no one in the Senate is doing that. If that's Thomson's idea of a wicked, idiotic tyrant, it says more about Thomson than about the film. The only thing that character was a threat to was the status quo. But then there are many people whose livelihoods depend on protecting that.

At times I feel a bit sorry for Palin for the Sarkozy prank. Granted, I'd feel much, much sorrier for the United States (and the world) if she got any federal executive power whatsoever. Her bland, almost textbook replies to the pranksters' questions seem to show her way out of her depth in communicating with foreign leaders. The fake Sarkozy incorrectly identifies the prime minister of Canada, and she either a) doesn't know that he's not Stephen Harper, or b) is unwilling to correct Sarkozy, even gently, on the phone when she knows he's wrong about the Canadian leader. Considering that her sole foreign policy experience is geographical proximity to Russia and Canada, neither of those two options are encouraging.

But I do feel sorry for her. I disagree with her politically, and I hate the way she is playing the crowds at the rallies. But it also looks like she's in way, way over her head, and I'm not even sure if she realizes it. Mostly I blame John McCain for putting her in this position in the first place. I'm starting to suspect, with these Eve Harrington moments, that he does too. (Although John McCain has not exactly been Margo Channing either.)

Holy Cow!! I am all for a woman trying to run for President of the US.....but NOT this uneducated, moronic, annoying, gun toting, right WING NUT DIVA. God help the Republican Party if Palin is their only hope to run in 2012. She has proven she does not know the contents of the Constitution, let alone have the expertise to run our government. She may have some "executive" experience, but I believe we will be learning of some more unethical acts she has done while in office. She is just too stupid to cover her tracks! I am HOPING she will disappear quickly and I NEVER have to listen to her ramble on about NOTHING substantial ever again. Palin needs to go back to Alaska and keep an eye on Russia for us.

Does McCain know he's been cast in the Bette Davis role?

Does McCain even know where he is? Does McCain know his own name? Does McCain even know he's the Republican candidate for President?

Seriously. Has anybody told him?

But I do feel sorry for her.

Back during the Cold War any number of post-WWIII stories posited the idea that the West's leader, when the dust and some of the radioactivity settled, would be some Lt. Col. above whom every superior officer had died.

I don't feel sorry for her. Palin knew what she was getting into.

PS As a Yankee who's made any number of trips to Montreal I could tell the Quebec accent right away. Perhaps too many Palin handlers grew up seeing Russia from their houses, rather than Windsor, Vancouver, or Montreal.

LMAO!!! Did you see this video of McCain and Palin actually debating? Et tu, Palin? Palin 2012. IT's hilarious and really well done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrUN8oldj9o

Jim Lehrer tries to provide some last minute campaign counseling. No such luck-- a stiletto heel in the back.

To me, the scary thing isn't Sarah Palin. She is what she is. What is scary is that a rather sizable chunk of this population has fallen under her spell. If we were a nation of educated and wise citizens, the prospects of Palin in 2012 would be a mere laughable thought. But given the size of the crowds at her campaign stops, the far right sheep blindly following her professed ideologies, etc., this prospect isn't as far-fetched as it should be.

And then the day after the election, I see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZHTJsR4Bc

So Carl Cameron's sources in the GOP could theoretically be lying about Palin's lack of knowledge that NAFTA comprises Canada, the US and Mexico, and that Africa is a CONTINENT. Maybe whoever these sources are want to destroy the credibility of McCain, Palin, and every single person who worked on the inside of the McCain campaign for the last few months and SAID NOTHING. Anything's possible, right?

But if this is true, this is a vicious, bitter and screamingly funny satirical end to a long tragicomic ordeal of a GOP campaign. This removes basically any lingering doubt that the Sarah Palin of the Katie Couric interviews and the prank call was some kind of magical fluke brought on by stress and by her handlers feeding her lines that she's actually too scared to move away from. She really is that ignorant. She really knows nothing about the world. And she could have been vice president.

I know that Sarah Palin (and McCain and Kristol) try to pass her off as Jefferson Smith. But he came to Washington humbled by his ignorance, and he sought to learn more and to think for himself. Sarah Palin, from the sounds of this, tried not to learn more (i.e. prep for the Couric interview), repeated talking points without any apparent thought behind them. And what's more is that I don't even know that she realizes she did anything wrong. Carl Cameron says all this about Palin's bizarre behaviour with a matter-of-fact tone, to which Shep Smith (who has been a beacon of hope in actual journalism on Fox News lately, defending Obama to Joe the Plumber, e.g.) replies with shock and confusion. How many people will even this leave unswayed in the strength of their narrative? And how many people will decide that it was John McCain who lost this election and only him--and that Palin would have won it?

My definition of a hardcore "yellow dog" Republican is one who would vote for McCain despite the presense of Palin on the ticket. Or maybe it's the definition of an unrepentent racist--I note the South went solidly for McCain. I hope this doesn't show that while a new party may have taken this region over since 1960, some nasty dark evil things haven't changed a bit. However, my definition for a pie-in-the-sky optimist has become "Palin in 2012." Almost forgot the "l" there. While Palin may have liked her taste of honey and want more, I don't think there's much to worry about. As George H.W. Bush can tell you, the Republican Party doesn't forgive failure easily. And being a big reason for the loss of a campaign (certainly the NE part of it) is almost as bad as becoming the first 1-term Republican prez since Hoover. What WAS he doing during the 2000 and 2004 campaigns of his idiot son? Jeez, maybe I'm the pie-in-the-sky optimist.