new Sarah Palin book to enthuse over

America By Heart

every time she says something i hate her a little more for being such a smug creep.

Palin devotes several pages to a discussion of John F. Kennedy's noted speech on religion during the 1960 campaign — a speech many saw as crucial in persuading the country to elect a Catholic president. "I am not the Catholic candidate for president," Kennedy said then. "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic."

Discussing her own faith, Palin writes that JFK's speech "essentially declared religion to be such a private matter that it was irrelevant to the kind of country we are." Kennedy, she says, "seemed to want to run away from religion." She praises Mitt Romney, a Mormon, for not "doing a JFK" during his campaign for the 2008 GOP nomination, but instead speaking forthrightly of how his faith would inform his presidency.

Palin also returns to the subject of Wright, Obama's controversial former pastor. And she revisits Michelle Obama's comment during the presidential race that "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country."

"I guess this shouldn't surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church listening to his rants against America and white people," Palin writes.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/11/tweets-of-the-day.html

she really is so terrible & the book seems essentially pointless

the new york times magazine article on her was such a pos blowjob too

"I guess this shouldn't surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church listening to his rants against America and white people," Palin writes.

^^^^ hate this

what makes it worse is that I can hear her voice when I read that

ugh god she's the worst

i do actually hate her, and ordinarily i never say i hate people.

i wish i didn't call people "the worst" so much, but this time i mean it.

she is the devil. so smug and ignorant and vicious and bullying and entitled.

I look forward to the RIP thread

you kidding me, she'll be like the right wing kenobi, martyr "more powerful than you could possibly imagine"

guys, just let go

pew is a funny word

pepalin pew

i don't wish death upon anyone, even terrible people like palin. though it would be funny if she was eaten by wolves.

if she becomes president i genuinely don't know what i'll do except wish the survivors luck - fortunately she won't become president, right

right

she will never win the presidency

for one thing, the moneyed interests don't see her as THEIR moron, they can't trust her

it's not even the left hating her that would doom her chances but a lot of conservatives think she's a joke and a stain upon their party.

she'll seize the presidency, as it is rightfully hers

good. although whoever it is won't be a darn sight better. good thing the GOP doesn't have a single commanding figure to rally behind!

you haven't come face to face with the animal magnetism of tim pawlenty

Here's what the elite really think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2hhtroS49I&feature=player_embedded

oh man

she will never win the presidency

― you can sub out "bipartisan solutions" for "some of my dick" (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, November 19, 2010 10:05 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for one thing, the moneyed interests don't see her as THEIR moron, they can't trust her

― you can sub out "bipartisan solutions" for "some of my dick" (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, November 19, 2010 10:06 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

Her chances of winning the presidency are certainly greater than zero.

Thanks, M@tt!

Anyone watch her TV show? Turns out she can't hunt or fish properly lolz

Her chances of winning the presidency are certainly greater than zero.

you're right. Schwarzenegger has zero chance of winning the presidency, for ex. Palin is at least of age and a citizen. Otherwise I'd say her chances are like 1 in a 100.

Plutocrats don't want to see their money going to an unpredictable nut.

Markets like security.

As always, gentlemen, follow the money.

Her chances of winning the presidency are certainly greater than zero.

you're right. Schwarzenegger has zero chance of winning the presidency, for ex. Palin is at least of age and a citizen. Otherwise I'd say her chances are like 1 in a 100.

― you can sub out "bipartisan solutions" for "some of my dick" (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, November 19, 2010 10:31 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

1 percent is a terrifyingly huge chance.

She admitted on her TV show that she'd rather be out in the Alaskan wilderness. Yet the silly teabaggers will probably vote for her if she runs for president.

who has the Right got apart from her and Tim Rawrrrlenty

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6-IIXAF5HOE/Sf-uoKjcD9I/AAAAAAAAFhg/NYFtm7g9R0c/s400/mitt+romney+fudge2007.jpg

boxcarrrrr

I'm telling you: it's Rubio. The GOP has such a terrible record with Hispanics that party leaders will forgo their usual habit of anointing an old, tired worthy and go for someone as pretty and eloquent as Obama.

But, to be honest, I'm more concerned about DADT and the START treaty than in 2012.

boxcarrrrr

― acoleuthic, Friday, 19 November 2010 22:40 (7 minutes ago)

?

@!#&!? BOXCAR NO NO NO NO

I'm telling you: it's Rubio. ...pretty and eloquent as Obama.

^^^ this is what I've been telling people, too. GOP wanted to do this with Jindal, but now they think Rubio is their anti-Obama.

that would be a pretty meteoric rise for Rubio, but it would make sense that the GOP's braindead calculus would result in them assuming their best chances against Obama are with a young, ethnic, glamorous guy of their own

problem with Jindal is that he's sub-mental

GOP sees Obama's presidency as meteoric, too, and they want in on something similar.

More proof that when these idiots aren't projecting their shit, they're COPYING.

Would a right-wing Cuban-American have traction with other Hispanic-American subsets (many of whom skew left) or is that an assumption hastily made by LOLstupidanglos?

that's a good question. I'm not really sure.

I don't think the latino community is quite as uniform a voting bloc as the black community tho

Rubio seems like the only non-terrible option at the moment, but does he want 2012 or 2016?

My father is an immigrant from South America, and he used to make terrible racist jokes about Cubans.

Rubio is as much a cipher as Obama was in 2007. He says all the "right" things, but I know his type SO well.

@!#&!? BOXCAR NO NO NO NO

― acoleuthic, Friday, 19 November 2010 22:54 (12 minutes ago)

thought u might be going for some birther lulz [via]

There's lots of inter-Latino racism, in other words (cf. the Chicano vs. Latino debate).

One of my best friends covered the Florida legislature for a local paper from 2004 to 2007, during Rubio's tenure as speaker. Even then he was telling me the guy is intelligent and shrewd. You must remember this about Cubans: despite their purported right wing tendencies, most of them are (a) old (b) depend on Social Security (c) are fairly moderate on "social" issues (my parents are Hannity-loving righties for whom the right to an abortion is sacrosanct).

There's lots of inter-Latino racism, in other words (cf. the Chicano vs. Latino debate).

^^^I do get this sense yes, just judging from my neighbors, but I don't have a clear understanding of how things break down, it seems pretty convoluted

nakhchivan that would have been delightful but I think only you would have gotten it? oblique puns aren't often my stock

Cubans and Argentines hate everyone else, basically.

isn't florida the only swing state where cubans are a significant demographic? and assuming rubio would have that already....

I.e. I think the GOP will have a hard time getting Mexican-Americans to vote for Rubio just because he's Cuban. If he's the GOPs guy in 2012, it's for his political skills, not for his ethnicity.

isn't florida the only swing state where cubans are a significant demographic?

No idea bout New Jersey politics other than their blueness, right? Bob Menendez is a consistent vote for anti-Castro sanctions.

isn't florida the only swing state where cubans are a significant demographic? and assuming rubio would have that already....

yeah there's no significant cuban population in any other state afaik outside of maybe Jersey and NY...? the equivalent would be the GOP elevating some Filipino-American rep from California to run for President under the assumption that that'll guarantee the "Asian" vote

GOP's always been amazingly tin-eared about race stuff.

At any rate, Rubio will not be in the Senate very long -- one of the reasons I didn't worry about our Senate race. Bill Nelson, our other senator, is very much in the pre-1964 Dem tradition at which we excel (e.g. Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles).

rubio's gonna be playing point for the t-wolves next year

Florida politics are so weird. I've written before about my congresswoman and regular on Bill Maher's show.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Census_Bureau_2000,_Cubans_in_the_United_States.png

can def see the first hispanic president being republican somehow, possibly via a hamfisted attempt at creating a 'postracial' antiobama in 12/16

damn...what's not to like about sunny GA/AL?

Look at the tip of North Carolina. Tengo hermanos!

palin is second favourite for r nom in 2012 according to uk bookies :/

lol UK

that says more about her name recognition obv

but i think yr a hostage to fortune if you discount her completely

britain is so laughably underinformed abt us politics tbh

uk very interested in hearing more about senator ben roethlisberger's latest scandal

christ I need to ban myself from visiting the BBC website, it's a poison

uk very interested in hearing more about senator ben roethlisberger's latest scandal

― omar little, Friday, November 19, 2010 5:40 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lolololol

isn't he some sort of quartermaster

pittsburgh's rvp iirc

that's robin van persie, rapiest valuable player in uk soccerball

:D

dude btw are there many good alternative brit news sources to the bbc? rly think we shd start one if not?

guardian?

ok no then (guardian admittedly being quite good for football (ROW versh))

read yr ilx/nyt

ILX is and has long been my #1 undisputed news service!!

To me, it'll be enough that Palin runs. I don't think she can win, other people say she can, whatever--the only thing that's guaranteed is that if she runs, it'll be a spectacle-and-a-half. If she were up against Rubio, I assume there would be ample pushback against her from within her own party. She doesn't respond well to that, and that's when the fun would begin.

every time she says something i hate her a little more for being such a smug creep.

i hate her, too, but -- and i mean this very, very sincerely -- she is still cute, in a naughty-librarian sort-of-way

http://www.coolsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/sarah-palin-america-by-heart-book.jpg

flag pin is a nice touch. shows she's thinkin' next-level.

still . . . me and hon. soto have the same thought for 2012

I'm telling you: it's Rubio. The GOP has such a terrible record with Hispanics that party leaders will forgo their usual habit of anointing an old, tired worthy and go for someone as pretty and eloquent as Obama.

― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

but, unlike alfred, i think rubio (and rick perry) will have major trouble on immigration-issues in the primary.

as pretty and eloquent as Obama

C'mon--Sarah's got half that covered.

i don't think rubio is anywhere as eloquent as obama, actually. but he's good enough to compete.

palin is second favourite for r nom in 2012 according to uk bookies :/

― nakhchivan, Friday, November 19, 2010 11:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol UK

― you can sub out "bipartisan solutions" for "some of my dick" (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, November 19, 2010 11:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

the American/worldwide sports betting sites have her as the second leading candidate as well.

http://www.oddschecker.com/specials/politics-and-election/us-presidential-election/republican-candidate

flag pin

flag bracelet

FLAGS

AMERICA

palin is second favourite for r nom in 2012 according to uk bookies :/

that's based largely on name recognition. hard to know who will emerge, because of all the new faces in the GOP now. but i still stick with what i said.

The same friend who covered Tallahassee said Rubio's speech (his equivalent of Reagan's The Speech) about living in a Land of Opportunity as the son of political exiles was moving exactly once. He now says he's heard it 500 times.

yeah, i think you may be overstating rubio's eloquence and smarts. i still think he's largely an empty suit. but he's a handsome empty suit, who looks like the kind of figure the GOP likes. and being hispanic will help him with the GOP (there you're totally right; that's largely why they dream of him as "their obama").

I didn't overstate it at all! I thought Obama was a pretty empty suit in 2007, but one which said a few things I liked.

In other words, I'll call anyone who claims to genuinely like Sarah Palin a dumb ass, but Marco Rubio's appeal isn't strange to me at all.

My admiration for Barack Obama in 2007 was literary, after reading his first book and noting how crisply and thoughtfully he could discuss his past.

depends on what you mean by "empty suit," i suppose. obama was very bright and articulate (to me, much moreso than rubio; but rubio is slick and telegenic enough).

i have relatives who are "fans" of hers on facebook and i don't really feel like debating anyone about it, b/c man do people ever get rabid in their defense of her. maybe because they see themselves in her, or imagine they do? they never really ask themselves if they would also be legitimate candidates for the presidency, though i'm almost afraid to find out how many of them would answer that question with a "yes."

honestly, i hope she and/or tom tancredo run, and force the tea-party wing to turn on rubio and/or rick perry, both of whom are "soft" on immigration.

Her cultural critique is not limited to "Idol." Palin praises the uplifting "It's a Wonderful Life," starring Jimmy Stewart, which teaches, she says, that "working hard and doing the right thing pays off in the end." But look, she writes, at Kevin Spacey's character in "American Beauty," who comes home and tells his wife he quit his job, blackmailed his boss and asks her to please pass the asparagus. "Message: Hard work is for suckers and brainwashed, brain-dead drones," Palin writes.

Palin praises "Juno," the movie where a pregnant teen chooses to carry her baby. "Most Americans, I think, are a lot like Juno," she writes — they may not be actively religious, "but they still want to do the right thing." She also likes "Knocked Up," in which a baby results from a one-night stand, and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."

would love to read her take on "All About Eve"

Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke.

Sarah is also a fan of "A Face In The Crowd"

Palin praises "Juno," the movie where a pregnant teen chooses to carry her baby. "Most Americans, I think, are a lot like Juno," she writes — they may not be actively religious, "but they still want to do the right thing." She also likes "Knocked Up," in which a baby results from a one-night stand, and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."

rounding out palin's top five movies: ben hur, yankee doodle dandy, pootie tang.

oops. top six.

brainwashed, brain-dead drones

The big question for me about Rubio (to fill in my ignorance of the guy) is how does he play the fundie card? Is he adept at doing the nudge-nudge wink-wink that shows them he's a biblical literalist, rapture-lovin' fellow traveler, without the suburban soccor moms catching on? If so, then, is there evidence that enough fundies would throw Palin over the side in the primaries and move on to Rubio?

If Rubio can't co-opt the grassroots crazies in the primaries, then he's going to have just as much rough sledding as Romney had.

he already did! and now -- as expected -- he's backing away from them, gracefully (a miami herald article just after rubio was elected focused on him aligning with the GOP, not the tea partiers who fueled his campaign).

Rubio has never, to my knowledge, discussed religion other than drop "God" in a few speeches.

rubio and religion

In other words, bupkis.

AFAIK, the deep-dyed fundies would only trust an RC to side with pro-life on the abortion issue. Most would see a Catholic as basically alien and probably forsaken by god.

It's interesting that the link specifically cites that he attends a non-denominational church, which should play fairly well with the Rev. Schuler/Crystal Cathedral drive-in mega-church crowd - which is more a suburban, soft-focus-Christian signifier.

http://imgur.com/N42xc.png

take it back!

loooooooooool

"Message: Hard work is for suckers and brainwashed, brain-dead drones," Palin writes.

hey look, it's her career's thesis statement.

and go for someone as pretty and eloquent as Obama

so, not very eloquent?

Bam is about as eloquent as Mario Cuomo, and just as fucking useless

He's very eloquent for a 21st century American politician. Don't know what scale you're putting him on exactly.

golfclap.gif, to the both of you

I know virtually nothing about Rubio--I saw a bit of his CNN debate with Crist--but before you annoint him, has he ever faced a serious damage-control crisis? Obama managed to withstand Wright because--whatever you think about it in retrospect--his Philadelphia speech was more than enough to reassure his supporters and the media. Rubio will face at least one of those moments; every candidate does. Obama's cool during the campaign (which, as everyone will tell you now, is a key reason he's such an abject failure as a president) navigated him through a mess of trouble more than once. Rubio would need to have comparable skills in that department.

I tend to judge eloquence by results; thus, in November 2010, I give Obama a very mixed grade.

Eloquence is eloquence, and results are results. They're not the same thing at all. Casey Stengel won five World Series in a row...

I didn't say they were, only that I judge Appeals to Our Better Natures retroactively.

Okay...I see what you mean. Be consistent, though; one of Obama's Appeals to Our Better Nature during the campaign was trying to work with the other side. And that's one of the things he gets ripped apart for--weakness, naivete, incompetent strategist--here and elsewhere; I think you've done that too. You and everyone else may well be right. But, as I see it, there's a disconnect there.

Of course I don't fault him for trying to work with the other side. He underestimated the strength of GOP intransigence and the popular rancor from which it fed, and stuck with kumbaya long after he realized the public blamed him. Moreover, it's difficult to believe his version of a city on a hill when Wall Street owns his administration.

But, yeah, this is for another thread.

Fair enough. Before going back to Palin, though, can you give me a sense of how you think Rubio would handle a damage-control moment? I know you've followed him for a couple of years.

You're right: he hasn't yet been tested. When a politician as adept and ambitious as Rubio can straddle several camps at once, the test will come soon enough.

One thing I've always thought about Palin (not sure if anyone else has made this point on one of the political threads). On the one hand, she's clearly going to be a radioactive wild-card for anybody who has to face her for the Republican nomination, but on the other, I see her as the ultimate high-risk/high-payoff opportunity for anyone who steps up and says what anybody with half a brain has known since within days of McCain trotting her out two years ago: that she's a joke, and completely unqualified to hold any elective office beyond mayor of Wasilla. To do so, you'd have to be ready--temperamentally, intellectually, in terms of your own campaign's fundraising strength--for all-out assault from about 30-40% of your own party. But if you could hold fast and come out the other side of that, you'd be in fantastic shape for a general election; you'd have reeled in a large percentage of independents (who by and large recoil from Palin, I believe--and assuming such a thing as "independents" even exist, something someone on The New Republic questioned the other day), and I bet you'd even win over some grateful Democrats.

2012 - first president elected on write-in vote.

Note how criticizing democrats for not embracing organized religion is soon followed by criticizing Obama's old pastor. Sarah certainly lives a post-ironic existence.

i still say immigration is the wedge-issue for 2012, one that could cut against candidates in both parties, to be sure, but the newly-energized tea party wing of the GOP will not be kind toward presidential candidates who are "soft" on immigration. and that could hurt two key contenders: rubio and tex. gov. perry.

this will all end in a sex tape im sure

let's hope!

Rubio or Palin, I'm cool with that either way.

rubio and palin, how about?

Note how criticizing democrats for not embracing organized religion is soon followed by criticizing Obama's old pastor. Sarah certainly lives a post-ironic existence.

in Sarah's tiny brain Wright is a political firebrand and race-baiting charlatan, not a true Man of God.

which makes it extra funny that she takes up for Mormon Romney, because any fundamentalist evangelical worth her pillar of salt will tell you that Mormons aren't truly Christians. They might as well be Muslim.

with hon. thomas' wife dancing around them in a toga.

Has she out and out taken up for Romney?

joe biden, serious bro, u amuse me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhBYGX61zxM

xpost to PP -- not sure about that, but upthread it mentions She praises Mitt Romney, a Mormon, for not "doing a JFK" during his campaign for the 2008 GOP nomination, but instead speaking forthrightly of how his faith would inform his presidency.

i just can't see her doing that for any other non-Christian* candidate who lets their faith "inform" their politics. maybe i'm wrong...

(* i should note that i'm not arguing that Mormons aren't truly Christians. frankly I could not care less. both believe in magical fucking faeries and goblins and so fuck them)

Biden has always been so good in reaction to Palin. He even took up for her in '08 when there was criticism about campaigning while having a new baby with Down's.

I wonder if Palin is nominated and debates the president, if she'll ask him during the handshake, "Can I call ya 'Barack'?"

I hear you, will. I just know their camps hate each other.

may i call u NOBAMA

The brass neck of that woman complaining about anyone's pastor, when there's video of her having The Laying On Of Hands from actual Kenyan batshit insane Assemblies of God 'witch doctor'...

^^exactly

Eh, I admire the GOPs "brass necks".

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Cma4BbnihlY/SK4jOlrYBRI/AAAAAAAAABw/yFoJvFzSr_Q/s400/Alec_Baldwin%27s_Brass_Balls.jpg

Any time you post a clip of Palin, you have to take a moment to appreciate her cadences, word for word and emphasis for emphasis:

"I'm looking at the lay of the land now, and trying to figure that out, if it's a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it's a good thing..."

Obama ums and uhs a lot, I know--I'd say because he's actually thinking about what he wants to say, but leave that aside. Palin needs to learn how to ums and uh, which might spare her elocutions where she puts the emphasis three different places in about seven seconds. I'm also not sure if the discourse has any strong feelings about the prospect of her candidacy one way or the other. (I'll she concede that she's making a valid point there, insofar as her presence always poisons the discourse.)

Hmmmn...better watch the typos if you're going to be taking Palin to task for incomprehension.

i think the most irksome thing about that Palin JKK quote is that she is so pig-ignorant that she likely doesn't understand the political implications of being a Catholic and running for president in USA 1960. she prob thinks he was just being 'progressive'

The JKK took my baby away!

(I'm the god of typos--no insult intended.)

For someome born Catholic as Palin was, a bit rich.

Imho America is a politically stupid enough place to elect Sarah Palin as president.

well what do you know! i did not know she was born Catholic. i r ignorant, too.

Ain't no such animal as "born Catholic." "Born to a Catholic family," yes, but babies don't know from catechism.

/pedant atheist

In fact, some babies die before they become Catholic and have to spend eternity in Baby Purgatory.

Well, no, functionally you ARE born Catholic. As long as you grow up that way, you're generally considered Catholic forever. You don't have to/get to choose.

She seems to be the embodiment of a right-wing mass email ("Ya gotta love Robin Williams!! He gave this speech against Muslims in New York City! "). I'm surprised she hasn't used one of those in a speech.

Barbara Bush Palin zing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TNVB3SgyX8

In her acknowledgments, Palin offers "special thanks" to Jessica Gavora, an Alaskan who served as chief speechwriter for former attorney general John Ashcroft and who is the wife of conservative writer Jonah Goldberg.

conflict of interest is such a liberal conceit. imagine the outraged posts on The Corner if, say, Frank Rich's spouse ghost-wrote a democrat candidate's book

you know i really don't think it matters that palin was born/ raised catholic. i still don't think she has the capacity/empathy/desire to understand what a catholic candidate running for pres in 1960 would have faced.

now if that candidate were an embattled evangelical otoh..

"embattled"

i think it does matter that she was born catholic. it makes her even more dense for not understanding the context of jfk's words.

I'm not sure you can be a hard-line Ayn Randian and also legitimately claim to have any interest in what Christ said at all.

^ thus would seem to be the primary dilemma of contemporary evangelicals (not that they seem to have any problem conflating the two, mind)

legitimacy got nothing to do w/it

Um, you can do Jesus and social Darwinism if you're into Prosperity Gospel BS. Which she very much is.

Does anyone here know why so many Catholics went screwy evangelical in the last half of the '70s? Our terribly crackery Catholic neighbours (the kids were called Travis, Keith, Shane and L0ydene) flipped out and became 'Jesus People' at around the same time as SP's family left the church so I'm guessing there was a larger reason for the phenomenon.

My feeling is that she'll go on running her mouth for ages, and maybe she'll run for office, but I'm pretty sure she'll say something egregiously stupid about her 'love' for Israel (you know, that special love crazed Evangelicals have for Jews). That is the only possible way to GAME OVER that I find plausible right now.

you know, that special love crazed Evangelicals have for Jews

oddly, this "love" is rarely comforting to me.

Funny, that. 'Love 'em to death' doesn't really do it for me, either.

But as an evangelical isn't she also apocalyptic; the RW Israel lobby seems bent on rebuilding the temple, etc right? Or am I tin-foil hatting?

Does anyone here know why so many Catholics went screwy evangelical in the last half of the '70s?

― Exotic Flavors of the Midwest, available in corn, bacon, or beef (suzy), Sunday, November 21, 2010 1:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

just a matter of whos got the juice

Israel reference or no, I would be surprised if she could make it all the way to getting the Repub nom for the GE without being undone by some egregious gaffe (or series of them in all likelihood).

a recent poll showed that only half of republicans even thought she was fit to be president - shes shown no aptitude for cozying up to the gop establishment or building the kind of national organization necessary for a legit presidential run - shes got a rabid fan base and shes a media natural but her negatives as far as electoral politics goes are v v high - id be surprised if she did better than third in the gop primaries

Does anyone here know why so many Catholics went screwy evangelical in the last half of the '70s?

I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with "the portion"

Does anyone here know why so many Catholics went screwy evangelical in the last half of the '70s?

Perhaps they felt that the Vatican was not being politically aggressive enough on the abortion issue & so they jumped on board with the Francis Schaeffer-inspired movement that essentially served to found the Christian right and mobilized evangelicals into politics.

or maybe "Moe verses Glade"

yeah, i don't see her as a legitimate candidate. i'm not sure if her presence in the primaries would help or hurt democrats in terms of the eventual GOP nominee. i can see her either splitting the tea-party vote with someone, thereby helping a candidate who moved toward the center-right (which is where i expect people like rubio to be) or revving up the tea-party in ways that cast a negative light on those more moderate candidates, dooming them with the GOP's core constituents.

(xp)

I thought these people were just a bit impatient about the speed at which their Messiah was returning, but yeah, I can see abortion could also be a factor. However, it was not discussed as a reason; my mom always said they were all sad 700 Club types who thought they were getting a 'do-over' by being born-again, ie. the reasons were not external.

SP is apocalypse-minded and I maintain that believing in the end of world/Second Coming happening in one's own lifetime is a provable case of toxic narcissism in ANYONE. She already said something dodgy about Jews 'moving to Israel in the coming months and years' or similar, she's a Young Earth Dominionist, she 's in Seven Mountains prayer circles with some seriously loopy people, and LOOK, A WITCH DOCTOR.

I can understand the impulse to analyze her words for consistency, etc. like you would any politician, but I wouldn't bother. She's Nixon through and through; she will say anything at any given moment, and if it's egregiously inconsistent with her background or something she said five minutes ago, and you were to point that out, that just makes you part of the "gotcha" wing of the world that's out to get her. Her words are as completely empty of meaning as any politician I've ever encountered--even the Nixon analogy has limitations.

to be clear -- and i'm sure you're not saying otherwise -- nixon was a lot smarter than sarah palin.

nixon couldnt hang w/palin in todays reality - i feel like the really compelling thing abt her is how contemporary she is - she is totally of the moment while most politicians are as always attempting to triangulate the zeitgeist

that and of course how funny she talks

wait, you mean that she isn't worried about crossing-over to more moderate constituencies or appealing beyond her base? that i get.

how she talks isn't the key to her considerable charm. it's that she's hott (-ish).

to be clear -- and i'm sure you're not saying otherwise -- nixon was a lot smarter than sarah palin

Yes, absolutely--by a factor of 10,000. And there was meaning to Nixon's words, you just had to often unlock that meaning through the labyrinth of his grudges, schemes, and obsession with the past (i.e., an offhand remark in 1972 might find its meaning in some slight from a reporter 30 years ago).

the way she talks is so unctuous and fake, when i heard her for the first time in the first VP debate i was stunned that people actually thought she did well, let alone others who thought she won.

i feel like the really compelling thing abt her is how contemporary she is

Yes. Even though there are parallels to Nixon, Perot, and lots of other people from the past, she is, I believe, something completely new.

while i appreciate her high particularly for a politician attractiveness quotient, its her speech patterns what really do it for me

People thought whe did well in the Biden debate because the bar had been set somewhere down where the Chilean miners were.

fwiw, if she runs in 2012 (and i'm not sure she will), i think she'll be much better prepared than she was in 2008, and a more formidable candidate. it's just that she's also decided that she will ride this folksy thing as far as it will take her, which will hurt her chances considerably.

tr: she's (somewhat) less of a dummy than she appears to be.

Possibly...But it's like when someone says "I'm not as dumb as I look," and you have to force yourself not to say "That wouldn't be possible."

Frank Rich sez: The more condescending the attacks on her, the more she thrives.

yeah shes good at playing the victim but even rich has to insert this highly unlikely cavat into his completely media driven narrative Should Michael Bloomberg decide to spend billions on a quixotic run as a third-party spoiler, all bets on Obama are off. i mean being a media star is great but its not going to run yr ground operation or make people think reality tv is a presidential look

Nice piece.

or later Palin’s opponents will instead have to man up--as Palin might say--and actually summon the courage to take her on mano-a-maverick in broad daylight.

That's what I said yesterday upthread; that if Rubio or someone else can do this and survive (it tends to get called a "Sister Souljah" moment on the Democratic side, which is kind of unfair, seeing as Clinton was flexing his muscle on an obscure 18-year-old rapper), I think he or she would be in fantastic shape for a general election.

I find her far more patronizing of the Left than vice-versa.

the general election is like: is unemployment still around 10%, if so a republican wins, if not obama stays

hard to see unemployment falling that much before 2012. i do still think, regardless, obama is a very formidable candidate. but, rightly or wrongly, he owns the economy now, so . . .

btw, this part of rich's article:

It’s anti-elitism that most defines angry populism in this moment, and, as David Frum, another Bush alumnus (and Palin critic), has pointed out, populist rage on the right is aimed at the educated, not the wealthy. The Bushies and Noonans and dwindling retro-moderate Republicans are no less loathed by Palinistas and their Tea Party fellow travelers than is Obama’s Ivy League White House. When Palin mocks her G.O.P. establishment critics as tortured, paranoid, sleazy and a “good-old-boys club,” she pays no penalty for doing so. The more condescending the attacks on her, the more she thrives.

is 100% otm.

unemployment could easily be way down in a couple years, the fact that its not all ready is ~a bit of a mystery~

someone here (maybe on the rolling us economy thread) noted how many jobs have to be created each month, from here until 2012, to make the unemployment rate drop even 2%. it's a huge number. between that and the systemic problems with the economy, i don't feel so optimistic.

as to why it isn't already, i hope/assume that part of the answer is that many of the infrastructure projects weren't really so "shovel-ready" as advertised?

Stupid-and-proud-of-it white folks may seem like a huge demographic but... large enough to elect a President?

yeah shes good at playing the victim but even rich has to insert this highly unlikely cavat into his completely media driven narrative Should Michael Bloomberg decide to spend billions on a quixotic run as a third-party spoiler, all bets on Obama are off.

this is OTM. I don't think she would stand a chance in the GE w/o some extraneous factor, & Bloomberg would likely win over just as many old-guard repubs as middle-of-the-road dems.

Tho I agree w/ Rich that the nom is hers to lose (which she very well could once the spotlight narrows on first round primary candidates & the mudslinging begins).

eh, Frank Rich doesn't amuse me much these days. I wish he didn't devote so much attention to Palin, actually. Guys like Rich are for some reason shocked at the rise of someone like Palin; they're genuinely flummoxed.

I mean, it's almost redundant that Palin should get her own TV show -- she's been a reality show candidate since 2008.

i don't think he's flummoxed by palin's rise.

He definitely is -- check out the archives. So many column inches devoted to her. I'm as guilty as anyone of explicating her appeal, but something about Rich's posture -- a liberal pedantically explaining to other liberals who haven't the faintest intention of ever voting for her, let alone visiting a Red State -- bothers me.

I'm about to remove this much older acquaintance from my Facebook friends because every other post is CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT TODAY'S GOP IS DOING? and during the elections was genuinely appalled by Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle. It's like, "Where WERE you when Nixon and Reagan were in the White House?"

I don't think there's anything wrong with being flummoxed by Palin's rise. Her rise is very...flummoxing. Again, there are lots of historical precedents, but--even against a yardstick as recent as W.--she's something new.

But we tend to overstate her importance because we all read the same lib blogs. She'd be scarier if she commanded more than a fifty percent approval rating.

And that's where the disconnect, and the flummoxification (my very own "refudiation"), is: people like Rich trying to calibrate if it's possible for someone viewed as a joke by 50%+ of the country to make a credible run at the presidency.

sure it is, because the primaries are for the core constituency, unlike the general election (where both parties, each of which have roughly 50% of the country already in their corner, fight like mad over the 5 -- 10% of voters who are undecided/truly independent).

Israel reference or no, I would be surprised if she could make it all the way to getting the Repub nom for the GE without being undone by some egregious gaffe (or series of them in all likelihood).

See, this sort of sounds like common sense when dealing with Palin in the public sphere, yet so far she has shown an amazing ability to control the narrative about her. FAR more than Obama or the Dems or frankly any other politician I can think of. She can pull out the Lamestream Media card, the Sexism card, the Liberal Elites card, whenever she pulls a gaffe. It doesnt matter if it shows her to be a complete phony (for example the hand cheat sheet) objectively because she has the power to say "Oh, well, gosh, I'm just an ordinary folk, wink wink".

Her fanbase believes everything she says, and she provides them constantly with new content. The idea that a gaffe will discredit her, I think, is sort of a pipe dream that belongs in a world of facts and objectivity that simply doesn't exist in the US political climate today.

far she has shown an amazing ability to control the narrative about her. FAR more than Obama or the Dems or frankly any other politician I can think of

not so in the 2008 general election. more recently, she's taken shelter in friendly media environments, where it's easier to "control the narrative."

she provides them constantly with new content

This seems U&K for explaining the 10% or so of USAers who are her diehard fans. They are Palin consumers, and she needs to feed their hunger constantly or she'll be knocked out of their attention by some other media-generated stimulant.

xxp: does that ability really work outside of her base, tho? To get through the primaries (& I'm not necessarily arguing that she can't), she is going to have to convince the more moderate and traditional swaths of the repub base that she is electable. I could even see some of her steadfast apologists getting cold feet about that if she does anything too outlandish or if poll numbers suggest a bloodbath in the GE.

she needs to feed their hunger constantly or she'll be knocked out of their attention by some other media-generated stimulant.

like tickle-me-elmo

She seems more like a Justin Bieber at this point than like a John Boehner.

Just for the hell of it:

http://www.glossynews.com/artman/uploads/palin-barracuda-lipstick.jpg

A conventional gaffe could not, I don't think, affect her in either the nomination process (for the reasons Adam B. points out above) or even a general (because I can't see that someone who would consider voting for her in the first place is suddenly going to go "I have to rethink this"). The only thing that could cause everything to fall apart would be either a meltdown similar to the one Andy Griffith has in A Face in the Crowd (one of many blueprints for Palin), or, courtesy someone in her own party, a "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" Joeseph Welch moment.

Except with her, it would be more a "Once and for all: you really are a moron, aren't you?" moment.

But, like Rich says, it's like if someone had accused Andrew Jackson of having no sense of decency.

And the chances of such a climactic impasse occurring once the gloves come off in the primaries & the candidates get to ripping each other apart? Not altogether unlikely, I would say.

xp

She seems more like a Justin Bieber at this point than like a John Boehner.

i am more dumbfounded by the popularity of justin bieber than i am by the popularity of sarah palin

really? Which aspects of "pre-teen girls go apeshit over young male singer w/ cherubic face & windswept hair" do you find curious?

the part where the object of those pre-teen girls' affections is justin bieber.

One thing about that dream moment where someone finally confronts her on her completely lack of credibility: pretty much everyone who's possibly running on the Republican side, from Romney and Rubio on down, has thus far treated her with deference and respect. Even allowing for the fact that the survival instinct takes over in a primary, some of these people are going to have a hard time suddenly turning on her.

If she found herself going head to head with Gingrich, I could see it happening. Not sure what the chances of that are, tho.

i do: 0.

Yeah, Jesus.. Looking over the list of other likely repubs, I think u guys might be right: just a bunch of wishy-washy softshell dudes for the most part.

Speaking of which: I ate mussels last night.

Looking over the list of other likely repubs

can't go by the list of likely-suspects.

I think our best hope is that she achieves so much media saturation (and really, with the Palin klan bombarding over cable and network TV these days, that could be fast approaching) and the public gets sick of her by the time she tried to run for prez. The success of her media blitz is really disconcerting to me and makes me more cynical than most of you. I believe the same country that voted for W twice would elect a Real Washington Outsider like Palin.

the way she talks is so unctuous and fake, when i heard her for the first time in the first VP debate i was stunned that people actually thought she did well, let alone others who thought she won.

me too. tho I had the exact same reaction to the Reagan Vs Carter debate in 1980 - therrrre you go again [shakes head] - and look what happened...

to be honest i hope she runs, loses in spectacular fashion, and thus disappears from the national stage forever. the worst case scenario is never actually running and milking her audience for all they're worth for the next 20 years a la talk radio types. but in either case since so much of her appeal is based on her being *kinda* hot (i dont see it) the most gratifying thing to see will be the ravages of age leaving nothing but a bitter crone!

frankly, im pretty optimistic that the sarah palin story will end in some gratifying way. at least at some point.

The party won't nominate her because they want to win in 2012.

i'll leave it to shakey to explain to you precisely how that story will end.

I think our best hope is that she achieves so much media saturation (and really, with the Palin klan bombarding over cable and network TV these days, that could be fast approaching) and the public gets sick of her by the time she tried to run for prez. The success of her media blitz is really disconcerting to me and makes me more cynical than most of you. I believe the same country that voted for W twice would elect a Real Washington Outsider like Palin.

really, i think our best hope is that she wins the GOP nomination. i just don't see it happening.

If she does run for President, it'll be mainly to stay in the public spotlight as an extension of the Sarah Palin Show, because she has a minuscule chance of winning the GE (though I'm given pause by the fact that the GOP performed as well as they did in 2010 despite high disapproval ratings), and because she won't want to be tied down by governing the country when she could be hunting wolves from helicopter. I.e. it's going to be hard for her to live down her abbreviated governorship.

Just to clarify a couple of things I said earlier.

When I say she's completely new, I mean the context for her is new. As an archetype, she's been around forever. (You could even apply that famous William Carlos Williams line to her, "the pure products of America go crazy.") But appearing square in the middle of Fox News and reality TV and Facebook/Twitter, that's what new. (Nixon in 2008 would have been done in by a trail of Facebook posts rather than reel-to-reel tape.)

When I said that Romney and the rest have treated her with deference and respect, what I meant was that they've pretended to treat her with deference and respect, for fear of incurring the Tea Party's wrath. Unguarded, I'm quite sure they're every bit as derisive of her as anybody on the other side (something that slips through now and again).

And if anybody does take her on from within her own party, ideally it would be a woman; if not, you know where she'll go with that. When Palin first appeared in 2008, Hillary was in a perfect position to cut her down at the knees. But, still angry at Obama's side, she accorded her the same arm's-length credibility as everybody who doesn't want to open up that door does.

Sullivan makes the connection explicit:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/11/palin-as-lonesome-rhodes.html

lawl http://www.tinadupuy.com/uncategorized/sarahpalinsenemylist

A few more thoughts--thought I'd move them over here rather than post on the Giffords thread.

There's so much money at stake in a presidential campaign, I don't think the Republicans would ever send someone into a general who had zero chance of winning. I'm not a conspiracy person, but I do think party machinery (whatever that might mean) keeps a close watch on who gets the nomination. They do so out of view--i.e., things like the apportioning of delegates. One thing I got from the Halperin book on the 2008 campaign was that, contrary to the accepted view at the time, Obama didn't come out of nowhere and, through the will of the electorate, defeat the party's first choice. Clinton had the support of half the party establishment at best--probably less, as there were people who declared for her publicly but privately wanted Obama. The point: the party no way wants Palin in a general, so there's no way she'll get the nomination.

The question to me is, will she run? I'm on the fence there. A lot of people say no, that she's smart enough to realize she won't win, and therefore won't want to damage her (I hate this word) "brand." I'm not so sure. One myth about Palin that developed along the way is that, no matter how clueless she seems, she has great political instincts. I don't know why people say this; I hear it all the time on CNN. She had great political instincts for exactly one night, the night she gave her speech at the convention. Since then, she's made one suicidal move after another, last week's video being the latest (and resigning the governship being the most damaging to her chances of ever conceivably running again for higher office). She has a fantastic instinct for making news, and making sure she's still a story long past the point where she should be, but that's not the same as political instinct.

The one motivation that I think could cause her to run would be spite--she knows it would gum up her party's chances in the next election, and clearly she's developing a chip on her shoulder to match the one Nixon had. Every time she gets criticized within her own party--they were even questioning her video on Fox's roundtable this past Sunday (even Kristol)--I think she just digs in deeper. So I could easily see her running out of spite--a giant "go fuck yourself" to the party that doesn't want her to, knowing that the 25 or 30% of the Republican voters she controls would create chaos for everyone else.

She's certainly going through the motions of preparing to run, whatever that's worth.

she is a force of nature. the earth will shake, and the nation's battle hymn will be rewritten in her honor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhMepzqJvIw&feature=player_embedded#!

(posted for you, alfred)

The motivation that I think could cause her to run would be threads like the ones on ILE.

c'mon, alfred, don't deny the feelings inside.

my hunch is that what's going on is that the Right is starting to fracture the way the Left has been fractured for a while now, and as such Palin is sort of the Right wing Nader.

The genius of the republican party has been their ability to contain and manipulate the contradictory aspects of their party (white resentment and anti-middle class policies only go together for so long...) so it's amazing it's lasted as long as it has.

the key to palin is her ability to force her competitors to come down to her level (of discourse, of support for the hardest of hard-right policies). if she runs, this will be an interesting dynamic in 2012. suffice it to say, tho, that the parade of establishment conservative pundits urging her not to run or dismissing her chances are only going to embolden palin's supporters, if not palin herself. they underestimate her in their own ranks at their peril. i think what's happening there is that they've opened pandora's box, and now they're struggling to close and lock it

Pandora's box, yes--I even think of her as that hideous creature that escapes from Walter Pidgeon's id in Forbidden Planet. (Dr. Morbius, if I remember correctly. Interesting name.)

Even though I hated a lot of what she was saying the night she accepted the nomination--escpecially the community-organizer derision--she was kind of likeable that night. She was like Hank Kingsley the night he got to guest-host on Larry Sanders; still a bit of an underdog. If you know Larry Sanders at all, you know what Hank was like the very next day.

she wasn't the least bit likeable! she seemed formidable, tho.

i mean, she was likeable to conservatives, i guess.

i bet the two who sang the hymn-to-sarah (above) liked her from the beginning.

Trust me when I say she's fingernails on a blackboard to me now. But that night--even though I hate to admit it--I did find her kind of likeable in an Edith Prickley sort of way.

i liked her in a naughty-librarian-turns-dominatrix sort of way.

That too, of course. And that ship also sailed long ago.

bite your tounge!

ilx-poster-turns-dominatrix

this ^^^^^^^^^ of course is a daily occurrence.

i'm trying to envisage how unbelievably torpid those battle hymn-ers must have been before they became emboldened.

haha. i'm trying to imagine their reaction if they heard you use the word "torpid."

clearly she's developing a chip on her shoulder to match the one Nixon had.

that's a boulder not a chip but yeah OTM. her "blood libel" speech was chillingly Nixonian in its resentment-stoking paranoia

This toolbag's column should excite you guys:

It’s a grim spectacle on both sides, and last week’s pointless controversy was a particularly low point. So let me play the relationship counselor. To the media: Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she’s the most important conservative politician in America. Stop pretending that she has a plausible path to the presidency in 2012. (She doesn’t.) Stop suggesting that she’s the front-runner for the Republican nomination. (She isn’t.) And every time you’re tempted to parse her tweets for some secret code or crucial dog whistle, stop and think, this woman has fewer Twitter followers than Ben Stiller, and then go write about something else instead.

To Palin: You were an actual politician once (remember that?), but you’re becoming the kind of caricature that your enemies have always tried to make of you. So maybe it’s time to turn off your iPad for a while, and take a break from Facebook and Fox News. The world won’t end if you don’t respond to every criticism, and you might even win a few more admirers if you cultivated a lighter touch and a more above-the-fray persona. Oh, and when that reality-TV producer sends you a pitch for “Sarah Plus Five Plus Kate Plus Eight,” just say no.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/opinion/17douthat.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

lol, why toolbag? he seems like a reasonable conservative commentator. but he's wrong that palin has no realistic chance at the GOP nomination (i'd say that's more of the GOP establishment's wishful-thinking). her chance to be the nominee isn't good, but she's the only candidate who can truly shape the primary race, by forcing the others to react to her and her base.

do dig the word "toolbag," tho.

descriptive.

it's douthat. toolbag is an apt descriptor.

I'm going to try to limit myself to posting anything Palin-related to this thread. Some people get upset when other threads drift in her direction, and I can understand that. This way, if you're sick of Palin, you can't complain--you wandered in here yourself.

She gave a big speech today in advance of Reagan's 100th. She got noticed, as she always does, primarily for this assertion:

She said a rush toward green energy was overlooking the nation’s oil and natural gas reserves, a choice that will cost jobs and drive up pump prices. She blamed Washington leaders--an apparent reference to the Obama administration--for doing “everything in their power to stymie responsible domestic drilling. This is dangerous. This is insane,” she said. “This is not the road to national greatness, it is the road to ruin.”

I don't have any protective feelings at all towards Reagan, so my point is not to say that she's not fit to etc. etc. I just like the Ramones allusion.

“It’s a difficult situation,” Sarah Palin told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody in response to a question about how the Obama administration was handling the Egyptian political crisis. “This is that 3 A.M. White House phone call and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House … that that call went right to the answering machine.”

“Nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know,” Palin remarked, “and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and I’m not real enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt.”

The former Alaskan governor also expressed concern that the lack of directness from the White House could impact the entire Middle East region. “Obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings. We know that now more than ever that we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And we do not have all that information yet.”

classic Palintastic syntax: "what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt.” u bet.

it's also remarkably stupid even coming from her, if Obama "knows" who will replace Mubarak he should let the people in Egypt there know too.

We know that now more than ever that we need strength and sound mind there in the White House.

http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2011/02/05/exclusive-sarah-palin-interview-with-the-brody-file.aspx

From the piece above: "She also says that if she ran for President again she, 'would continue on the same course of not really caring what other people say about me or worrying about the things that they make up, but having that thick skin and a steel spine.'"

She has such a strong sense of self-awareness: sound mind, thick skin.

She's never run for President before, FYI.

Though I guess I'd need to tell her/the interviewer that.

Missed that--I really wonder whether the "again" was the interviewer's word or hers. With most anyone else, you'd assume it was the interviewer's. With Palin, I wouldn't make that assumption.

It's the interviewer's (there's video on the page), but like I implied, Palin may have needed the reminder herself.

sarah palin asked bristol to GOOGLE the american economy in preparation for a big speech.

sorry, should be in quotes, i.e., "the american economy."

btw, i like how roger ebert always puts the ® sign next to sarah and bristol palin's name after tweeting it.

Manuscript for book by Ex-Palin aide slamming her, leaked to the press

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/ex-aide-slams-palin-in-leaked.html

i saw some excerpts. it didn't seem like very powerful stuff, iirc (not that it has to be; just saying).

yeah that palin is frivolous and vindictive isnt news to anyone

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Just another hit piece on Sarah Palin by the Liberal Daily Mail. Nothing illegal or unethical here, move on. The Anchorage Daily News is another Liberal paper with a political agenda. The DM has never one had a positive story on Palin, because you hate Conservatives and especially effective Conservative women like Palin.
- Dave, Arlington, VA, USA, 21/2/2011 12:33

o_O at the DM appearing liberal to anyone.

Found this on the political thread, but I'll hold to my promise of only posting about her here:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/02/23/us/politics/AP-US-Palin-India.html?hp

I can't be the only one who's hoping for a photo like this to come back:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_228EvtU1ZYY/TBpkIDiRBUI/AAAAAAAAAO4/SuyYuN_WtwY/s1600/ps7jhgjhgjh.jpg

I envision her in the front row, third from the right. Instead of all those potted plants in the foreground, some kind of animal carcass laid out. Instead of the Maharishi, Glenn Beck; instead of the Beatles--well, I don't know. Whoever's the most visibly right-wing rock band around today.

Avenge Sevenfold?

http://grab.by/9DBK

her lol fans desperately attempting to avoid the embarrassment of a presidential bid

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Margaret Thatcher to Sarah Palin: don't bother dropping by

Allies of former prime minister regard darling of Tea Party movement as a frivolous figure unworthy of an audience

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Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and handbag
Margaret Thatcher will attend the unveiling of a statue to Ronald Reagan but is not planning to meet Sarah Palin. Photograph: Barry Thumma/AP

Sarah Palin wants to show to the Republican right that she is the true keeper of the Ronald Reagan flame by meeting the late president's closest ally on the world stage.

A meeting with Margaret Thatcher in the centenary year of Reagan's birth would be the perfect way of launching her bid for the Republican nomination for the 2012 US presidential election.

This is what Palin told Christina Lamb in the Sunday Times:

I am going to Sudan in July and hope to stop in England on the way. I am just hoping Mrs Thatcher is well enough to see me as I so admire her.

It appears that the former prime minister has no intention of meeting the darling of the Tea Party movement. Andy McSmith reported in the Independent this morning that Palin is likely to be "thwarted" on the grounds that Thatcher, 86, rarely makes public appearances.

It would appear that the reasons go deeper than Thatcher's frail health. Her allies believe that Palin is a frivolous figure who is unworthy of an audience with the Iron Lady. This is what one ally tells me:

Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.

Thatcher will show the level she punches at when she attends the unveiling of a statue of Ronald Reagan outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square on Independence day on 4 July. This is what her ally told me:

Margaret is focusing on Ronald Reagan and will attend the unveiling of the statue. That is her level.

thatcher otm

Can't wait to see her try to shake hands with it.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/253405_10150273380026874_638356873_8863662_4144396_n.jpg

Memo to Sarah Palin: Jews HATE you because you are functionally illiterate.

tbf she's putting air quotes around the necklace

From her Iowa speech: "corporate crony capitalism," "permanent political class," "relentlessly rage until we restore." She's been watching Albert Brooks in Broadcast News ("Pretty peppy party, pal").

McGinniss has Rice confirming the one-night stand. Additionally, the Enquirer says Sarah had a six-month affair with Todd's business partner Brad Hanson, and that that affair led to the dissolution of the men's snowmobile dealership (but not, clearly, the Palin marriage).

Perhaps they were kept together by the drugs, which Sarah and Todd were both, McGinniss writes, fans of: "before Palin became Alaska governor she was seen snorting cocaine off an overturned 55-gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with pals." He also quotes "a Palin family friend as saying that husband Todd Palin also snorted coke, describing him as 'on the end of the straw plenty.'"

snowmobiles, sex, cocaine ... the palins are doing so much to promote alaska as THE party state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPhh7mch5zo

tina wuz robbed

ah! it's so good to laugh after a stressful thing like that. she's totally out of the picture, right...

This is mostly reminding me of her terrible accent on 30 Rock.

her accent was wicked smart!

Sorry, gotta say the real SP is hotter.

I love the use of "American Woman" there so much--I was just about to look for a Guess Who thread where I could post the trailer. (Also used brilliantly in American Beauty.)

its impossible to overstate how psyched i am for this film

cast/character list is lol

Plump Woman
Passionate Palin Fan
NOBAMA Rallygoer
Guy holding NRA sign
Gun Enthusiast
Religious Woman

NOBAMA Rallygoer AKA AMERICAN HERO

Anti-government Nutjob #2

Lamestream Media Rep

tweeter #10

Unusual use of the idiom: "I would've wanted to punch him in the neck."

http://todayonthetrail.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/03/10999224-palin-i-wont-watch-game-change

I hadn't seen her in awhile, but of course she's all about this Duck Dynasty b.s.... But are there rumors about her health? She looks super gaunt

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/good-grief-and-great-tits/Content?oid=18503580

Page 5: Here I learn something I didn't know and, if I were Sarah Palin, something I wouldn't want anyone to know. But Sarah hustles this fact to the front of the book because she sure as hell wants us to know it: Sarah surprised Todd with a "nice, needed, powerful gun" for Christmas in 2012. It was a "small act of civil disobedience," Palin writes, prompted by "the anti-gun chatter coming from Washington."

What was inspiring that anti-gun chatter in Washington in December of 2012? Oh, right: Twenty children and six teachers were shot dead in their classrooms by a deranged asshole with a "powerful gun." And before the grieving mothers and fathers of Newtown, Connecticut, could put their dead children in the ground, Sarah Palin ran out gun shopping. Buying Todd a gun in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary was "fun," Palin writes—and, again, an act of "civil disobedience." Because gun nuts are a persecuted minority.

This paragraph about gun shopping in December of 2012—one first grader at Sandy Hook was shot 11 times—ends with Palin bragging about her tits. I'm not kidding.

haha i love the 'needed' there

Palin's moment has passed. She's got her coterie of ardent fans, but it isn't quite big enough for her antics to register on national politics any more - in spite of her continuing to register on the national media, due to her entertainment value and a certain nostalgia for her heyday on the part of the press.

oops! I forgot to: [\punditry]

reality court show, what a shock blah blah

**cue John Lennon** "The dream is over . . ."

Todd Palin appears to have filed for divorce from former Alaska governor and one-time vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, his wife of 31 years.

In a document filed Friday in Anchorage Superior Court, Todd Palin, 55, asked to dissolve the marriage, citing an “incompatibility of temperament between the parties such that they find it impossible to live together as husband and wife.”

The divorce filing uses initials rather than full names, but identifies the couple’s marriage date and the birth date of their only child who is a minor, Trig Palin. The filing asks for joint legal custody of the child.

Anchorage attorney Kimberlee Colbo is representing Todd Palin in the divorce. In a filing, Colbo said she would ask the court to designate the divorce confidential as it moves forward.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2019/09/09/todd-palin-files-for-divorce-from-former-alaska-governor-sarah-palin/

thoughts and prayers 🙏

he tried to register as independent but gained independence by mistake

lonely guy (riding a snow machine) just thinking baout things

First Dude UNLEASHED

Tired of her buying him guns all the time; just wanted to appreciate the guns he already had.

We laugh now, but just wait until Trump replaces Pence with Todd. Then we can laugh some more, but still.

Stupid-and-proud-of-it white folks may seem like a huge demographic but... large enough to elect a President?
― Exotic Flavors of the Midwest, available in corn, bacon, or beef (suzy), Sunday, November 21, 2010 1:19 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

a more innocent time